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vSphere 4.1 features list!

BassQ — Wed, 14 Jul 2010 09:35:03 +0000

Source; http://virtualization.info/en/news/2010/07/release-vmware-vsphere-4-1.html

As expected, VMware releases today a significant update for its vSphere virtual infrastructure.

vSphere 4.1 introduces an impressive number of new features that virtualization.info partially unveiled in May:

Scripted Install for ESXi. Scripted installation of ESXi to local and remote disks allows rapid deployment of ESXi to many machines. You can start the scripted installation with a CD-ROM drive or over the network by using PXE booting.
vSphere Client Removal from ESX/ESXi Builds. For ESX and ESXi, the vSphere Client is available for download from the VMware Web site. It is no longer packaged with builds of ESX and ESXi.
Boot from SAN. vSphere 4.1 enables ESXi boot from SAN (BFN). iSCSI, FCoE, and Fibre Channel boot are supported.

Hardware Acceleration with vStorage APIs for Array Integration (VAAI). ESX can offload specific storage operations to compliant storage hardware. With storage hardware assistance, ESX performs these operations faster and consumes less CPU, memory, and storage fabric bandwidth.
Storage Performance Statistics. vSphere 4.1 offers enhanced visibility into storage throughput and latency of hosts and virtual machines, and aids in troubleshooting storage performance issues. NFS statistics are now available in vCenter Server performance charts, as well as esxtop. New VMDK and datastore statistics are included. All statistics are available through the vSphere SDK.
Storage I/O Control. This feature provides quality-of-service capabilities for storage I/O in the form of I/O shares and limits that are enforced across all virtual machines accessing a datastore, regardless of which host they are running on. Using Storage I/O Control, vSphere administrators can ensure that the most important virtual machines get adequate I/O resources even in times of congestion.
iSCSI Hardware Offloads. vSphere 4.1 enables 10Gb iSCSI hardware offloads (Broadcom 57711) and 1Gb iSCSI hardware offloads (Broadcom 5709).
Network I/O Control. Traffic-management controls allow flexible partitioning of physical NIC bandwidth between different traffic types, including virtual machine, vMotion, FT, and IP storage traffic (vNetwork Distributed Switch only).
IPv6 Enhancements. IPv6 in ESX supports Internet Protocol Security (IPsec) with manual keying.
Load-Based Teaming. vSphere 4.1 allows dynamic adjustment of the teaming algorithm so that the load is always balanced across a team of physical adapters on a vNetwork Distributed Switch.
E1000 vNIC Enhancements. E1000 vNIC supports jumbo frames in vSphere 4.1.
Windows Failover Clustering with VMware HA. Clustered Virtual Machines that utilize Windows Failover Clustering/Microsoft Cluster Service are now fully supported in conjunction with VMware HA.
VMware HA Scalability Improvements. VMware HA has the same limits for virtual machines per host, hosts per cluster, and virtual machines per cluster as vSphere.
VMware HA Healthcheck and Operational Status. The VMware HA dashboard in the vSphere Client provides a new detailed window called Cluster Operational Status. This window displays more information about the current VMware HA operational status, including the specific status and errors for each host in the VMware HA cluster.
VMware Fault Tolerance (FT) Enhancements. vSphere 4.1 introduces an FT-specific versioning-control mechanism that allows the Primary and Secondary VMs to run on FT-compatible hosts at different but compatible patch levels. vSphere 4.1 differentiates between events that are logged for a Primary VM and those that are logged for its Secondary VM, and reports why a host might not support FT. In addition, you can disable VMware HA when FT-enabled virtual machines are deployed in a cluster, allowing for cluster maintenance operations without turning off FT.
DRS Interoperability for VMware HA and Fault Tolerance (FT). FT-enabled virtual machines can take advantage of DRS functionality for load balancing and initial placement. In addition, VMware HA and DRS are tightly integrated, which allows VMware HA to restart virtual machines in more situations.
Enhanced Network Logging Performance. Fault Tolerance (FT) network logging performance allows improved throughput and reduced CPU usage. In addition, you can use vmxnet3 vNICs in FT-enabled virtual machines.
Concurrent VMware Data Recovery Sessions. vSphere 4.1 provides the ability to concurrently manage multiple VMware Data Recovery appliances.
vStorage APIs for Data Protection (VADP) Enhancements. VADP now offers VSS quiescing support for Windows Server 2008 and Windows Server 2008 R2 servers. This enables application-consistent backup and restore operations for Windows Server 2008 and Windows Server 2008 R2 applications.
vCLI Enhancements. vCLI adds options for SCSI, VAAI, network, and virtual machine control, including the ability to terminate an unresponsive virtual machine. In addition, vSphere 4.1 provides controls that allow you to log vCLI activity.
Lockdown Mode Enhancements. VMware ESXi 4.1 lockdown mode allows the administrator to tightly restrict access to the ESXi Direct Console User Interface (DCUI) and Tech Support Mode (TSM). When lockdown mode is enabled, DCUI access is restricted to the root user, while access to Tech Support Mode is completely disabled for all users. With lockdown mode enabled, access to the host for management or monitoring using CIM is possible only through vCenter Server. Direct access to the host using the vSphere Client is not permitted.
Access Virtual Machine Serial Ports Over the Network. You can redirect virtual machine serial ports over a standard network link in vSphere 4.1. This enables solutions such as third-party virtual serial port concentrators for virtual machine serial console management or monitoring.
vCenter Converter Hyper-V Import. vCenter Converter allows users to point to a Hyper-V machine. Converter displays the virtual machines running on the Hyper-V system, and users can select a powered-off virtual machine to import to a VMware destination.
Enhancements to Host Profiles. You can use Host Profiles to roll out administrator password changes in vSphere 4.1. Enhancements also include improved Cisco Nexus 1000V support and PCI device ordering configuration.
Unattended Authentication in vSphere Management Assistant (vMA). vMA 4.1 offers improved authentication capability, including integration with Active Directory and commands to configure the connection.
Updated Deployment Environment in vSphere Management Assistant (vMA). The updated deployment environment in vMA 4.1 is fully compatible with vMA 4.0. A significant change is the transition from RHEL to CentOS.
vCenter Orchestrator 64-bit Support. vCenter Orchestrator 4.1 provides a client and server for 64-bit installations, with an optional 32-bit client. The performance of the Orchestrator server on 64-bit installations is greatly enhanced, as compared to running the server on a 32-bit machine.
Improved Support for Handling Recalled Patches in vCenter Update Manager. Update Manager 4.1 immediately sends critical notifications about recalled ESX and related patches. In addition, Update Manager prevents you from installing a recalled patch that you might have already downloaded. This feature also helps you identify hosts where recalled patches might already be installed.
License Reporting Manager. The License Reporting Manager provides a centralized interface for all license keys for vSphere 4.1 products in a virtual IT infrastructure and their respective usage. You can view and generate reports on license keys and usage for different time periods with the License Reporting Manager. A historical record of the utilization per license key is maintained in the vCenter Server database.
Power Management Improvements. ESX 4.1 takes advantage of deep sleep states to further reduce power consumption during idle periods. The vSphere Client has a simple user interface that allows you to choose one of four host power management policies. In addition, you can view the history of host power consumption and power cap information on the vSphere Client Performance tab on newer platforms with integrated power meters.
Reduced Overhead Memory. vSphere 4.1 reduces the amount of overhead memory required, especially when running large virtual machines on systems with CPUs that provide hardware MMU support (AMD RVI or Intel EPT).
DRS Virtual Machine Host Affinity Rules. DRS provides the ability to set constraints that restrict placement of a virtual machine to a subset of hosts in a cluster. This feature is useful for enforcing host-based ISV licensing models, as well as keeping sets of virtual machines on different racks or blade systems for availability reasons.
Memory Compression. Compressed memory is a new level of the memory hierarchy, between RAM and disk. Slower than memory, but much faster than disk, compressed memory improves the performance of virtual machines when memory is under contention, because less virtual memory is swapped to disk.
vMotion Enhancements. In vSphere 4.1, vMotion enhancements significantly reduce the overall time for host evacuations, with support for more simultaneous virtual machine migrations and faster individual virtual machine migrations. The result is a performance improvement of up to 8x for an individual virtual machine migration, and support for four to eight simultaneous vMotion migrations per host, depending on the vMotion network adapter (1GbE or 10GbE respectively).
ESX/ESXi Active Directory Integration. Integration with Microsoft Active Directory allows seamless user authentication for ESX/ESXi. You can maintain users and groups in Active Directory for centralized user management and you can assign privileges to users or groups on ESX/ESXi hosts. In vSphere 4.1, integration with Active Directory allows you to roll out permission rules to hosts by using Host Profiles.
Configuring USB Device Passthrough from an ESX/ESXi Host to a Virtual Machine. You can configure a virtual machine to use USB devices that are connected to an ESX/ESXi host where the virtual machine is running. The connection is maintained even if you migrate the virtual machine using vMotion.
Improvements in Enhanced vMotion Compatibility. vSphere 4.1 includes an AMD Opteron Gen. 3 (no 3DNow!) EVC mode that prepares clusters for vMotion compatibility with future AMD processors. EVC also provides numerous usability improvements, including the display of EVC modes for virtual machines, more timely error detection, better error messages, and the reduced need to restart virtual machines.
vCenter Update Manager Support for Provisioning, Patching, and Upgrading EMC’s ESX PowerPath Module. vCenter Update Manager can provision, patch, and upgrade third-party modules that you can install on ESX, such as EMC’s PowerPath multipathing software. Using the capability of Update Manager to set policies using the Baseline construct and the comprehensive Compliance Dashboard, you can simplify provisioning, patching, and upgrade of the PowerPath module at scale.
User-configurable Number of Virtual CPUs per Virtual Socket. You can configure virtual machines to have multiple virtual CPUs reside in a single virtual socket, with each virtual CPU appearing to the guest operating system as a single core. Previously, virtual machines were restricted to having only one virtual CPU per virtual socket.
Expanded List of Supported Processors. The list of supported processors has been expanded for ESX 4.1. Among the supported processors is the Intel Xeon 7500 Series processor, code-named Nehalem-EX (up to 8 sockets).

More than that, with vSphere 4.1 VMware is enriching its offering for the SMB market, adding VMotion to the Essential Plus license:

Available for download: Windows 7 SP1 Beta!

BassQ — Mon, 12 Jul 2010 19:09:32 +0000

Microsoft announced on Monday that the first Windows 7 Service Pack 1 public beta is now available.

Speaking at Microsoft’s Worldwide Partner Conference in Washington, Corporate Vice President of Windows & Windows Live – Tami Reller announced the public beta. Microsoft revealed its plans for Windows 7 SP1 and Windows Server 2008 R2 SP1 last month at its annual Tech-Ed conference. Windows 7 SP1 will include the usual hotfix patches and new virtualization tools in SP1 will help Windows Server 2008 R2 users prepare for cloud computing. SP1 will include RemoteFX which provides rich 3-D graphical experience for remote users. The service pack also will include a series of incremental updates, previously released on Windows Update for both Windows 7 SP1 and Windows Server 2008 R2 SP1.

RemoteFX is a new enhancement to RDP’s graphical remoting capabilities. The idea behind RemoteFX is to allow for a full remote experiences including multiple displays, Aero and multimedia streaming to all types of client devices including low cost thin clients. RemoteFX achieves this by using a technique known as host-based rendering. This technique allows for the final screen image to be rendered locally on the remote PC after being compressed and sent down to that remote host. The enhancements are expected to greatly improve video streaming across remote sessions which is currently one of the major drawbacks of virtualized computing.

In April this year an early copy of Windows 7 SP1 surfaced on the Internet. The build leaked to file sharing sites. SP1 is also rumoured to include USB 3.0 support and enhanced Bluetooth/Wi-Fi stacks but Microsoft has not yet confirmed this.

Microsoft released a beta build of Windows 7 to testers earlier this month. Weighing in at 1.22GB the build was compiled on June 3 with the number 7601.16562.100603-1800. Microsoft released the public beta on its TechNet Evaluation Center page.

Patch support for Windows XP SP2 ends tomorrow….

BassQ — Mon, 12 Jul 2010 19:02:45 +0000

Windows XP, the stalwart OS that kept Microsoft chugging through the rollercoaster days of Windows Vista, will be officially taking versions of XP running SP2 off the patch schedule tomorrow. This comes as no surprise, as Microsoft has already laid out a clear timetable for gradually removing support from XP. The schedule has Microsoft completely pulling support from all XP products in 2014. While upgrading to SP3 is free and not too difficult, users running 64-bit versions of XP will be stuck with SP2, and their important security updates for programs like Internet Explorer, Outlook Express, and Windows Media Player, are going to stop coming tomorrow.

According to Computerworld, however, you can still run XP SP2 while staying safe and secure, if you’re so inclined. First, they suggest getting rid of Internet Explorer altogether. While that browser won’t be getting any more security updates, other browsers, like Firefox and Chrome, will. They also suggest actively upgrading all your third party applications and plugins to their latest versions. Don’t depend on your software’s auto updating capabilities for this task. Many vulnerable and oft exploited programs, like Adobe Flash Player plugins, aren’t automatically updated, and constantly upgrading that software will require some diligence on the part of the user.

Microsoft may not be releasing any more patches, but that doesn’t mean they’re going to ignore XP altogether. In fact, many security bulletins posted before or on Microsoft’s patch Tuesday include information that’s applicable to many, if not all, versions of Windows, and can be fixed with manual workarounds in the absence of an official patch.

Available for Download: Windows Server 2008 R2 SP1 Beta!

BassQ — Mon, 12 Jul 2010 18:04:00 +0000

source; http://blogs.technet.com/b/windowsserver/archive/2010/07/12/available-for-download-windows-server-2008-r2-sp1-beta.aspx

We’re at the sold out Microsoft Worldwide Partner Conference in Washington D.C. talking to our partners about the public beta release today of Service Pack 1 for Windows Server 2008 R2 and Windows 7. We managed to get this puppy out the door a few weeks early, so take advantage and download the code to evaluate the new features and benefits that SP1 can provide for server and desktop installations. The final version of SP1 is due out in the first half of next year.

For partners, we think there is great opportunity here to continue evangelizing the benefits that Windows Server 2008 R2 and Windows 7 already deliver while noting for customers that it only gets better when final code for SP1 is released. For example, if you’re a distributor, there’s a great opportunity to grow your business by selling more server and desktop licenses with virtualization solutions based on Windows Server 2008 R2 and Windows 7. If you’re a VAR, you can improve software and solutions sales built on Microsoft software, including Windows Server 2008 R2, with offerings that utilize virtualization and integration with Windows 7. If you’re an ISV, you can increase your sales and reduce development time by building apps and solutions for the virtualized environment on Windows Server 2008 R2. And if you are a hardware partner, you can increase sales by creating solutions for customers, in particular in the area of desktop virtualization with solutions that take advantage of Microsoft RemoteFX. For partner-related news around RemoteFX, please check out Max’s blog.

The two most important developments in SP1 for Windows Server 2008 R2 are:

Dynamic memory lets Hyper-V administrators pool available memory on a physical host and dynamically distribute it to any virtual machine(s) running on that host. So as the workloads on that physical workload change, requiring more or less memory, Dynamic Memory will let administrators change the memory allocation to their VMs without service interruption. For a deeper look at Dynamic Memory check here.

RemoteFX enhances Microsoft desktop virtualization. RemoteFX lets Windows Server 2008 R2 administrators provide an even richer and user-transparent desktop virtualization experience. RemoteFX delivers rich content, independent of any graphics stack, to server-hosted virtual and session-based desktops, allowing them to support any screen content, including full-motion video, portable graphics stacks such as Silverlight, and 3D applications. Because it can use virtualized graphics on the server and advanced codecs , RemoteFX can deliver those experiences to a much wider array of target devices, including standard desktops and laptops but also an emerging slew of thin clients. You’ll also be able to forward the USB ports of the local client to the virtual machine being accessed on the device – just like you can forward the local printer over RDP today.

Make sure you check out the new SP1 Beta Resource page on Microsoft.com as well as the TechNet SP1 page — and don’t forget to grab the download here.

Citrix Connector for System Center Configuration Manager 2007

BassQ — Tue, 06 Jul 2010 13:48:58 +0000

Source; http://blogs.technet.com/b/systemcenter/archive/2010/07/01/citrix-connector-for-system-center-configuration-manager-2007.aspx

Microsoft have recently jointly released the Citrix connector for ConfigMgr 2007. Through this release, the ConfigMgr SDK has been used to extend and support the management of application services through XenApp. Very cool indeed.

Here is the announcement. Links are below.

Citrix® XenApp™ 6 introduces integration with Microsoft System Center Configuration Manager 2007 R2 giving organizations a single, integrated view and management of all applications across the enterprise including on-demand apps by XenApp. The Citrix XenApp Connector leverages the Configuration Manager console to deploy and publish applications and updates to XenApp servers with zero disruption to users and extends the reach of Configuration Manager applications to a broader set of users, devices and access scenarios

Some resources for you:

Jointly authored whitepaper is available here
A Video Demo can be viewed here

Dress up your office wall with the Hyper-V component architecture poster!

BassQ — Tue, 06 Jul 2010 13:43:03 +0000

The poster is a great visual tool to help in the understanding of the key features and components of the Hyper-V in Windows Server 2008 R2. It highlights key Hyper-V components including:

Architecture
Virtual Networking
Virtual Machine Snapshots
Live Migration
Storage Interfaces
Storage Types
Storage Location and Paths
Import and Export

This large-format poster provides practical visual depictions of the Windows Hypervisor, live migration process, cluster shared volumes architecture, VMQ data paths, disk storage I/O path, and much more.

Download here ; http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?displaylang=en&FamilyID=5567b22a-8c47-4840-a88d-23146fd93151

Print, and Enjoy!

All the great MDT video’s! (Windows 2008 R2, Hyper V2, Exchange 2010)

BassQ — Tue, 22 Jun 2010 08:49:28 +0000

On Edge.technet.com of the Microsoft Technet site are a lot of great video’s made by Microsoft themself.

Because you probebly don’t hevae the time to see and find them all i made a great collection! Have fun!

Windows Server 2008 R2: Remote Desktop Services – The Series (P1)
Windows Server 2008 R2: Remote Desktop Services – The Series (P2)
Windows Server 2008 R2- Remote Desktop Services – The Series (P3)
Windows Server 2008 R2- Remote Desktop Services – The Series (P4)
Windows Server 2008 R2- Remote Desktop Services – The Series (P5)

Part 1 Master Your Environment with System Center Configuration Manager 2007
Part 2 Master Your Environment with System Center Configuration Manager 2007
Part 3 Master Your Environment with System Center Configuration Manager 2007
Part 4 Master Your Environment with System Center Configuration Manager 2007

Hyper-V R2- Failover & Live Migration
Hyper-V R2- Making Highly Available VMs
Hyper-V R2- Making Highly Available VMs
Hyper-V R2- Dynamic Storage
Hyper-V R2- USB over Network with Fabulatech
Hyper-V R2- Introducing Cluster Shared Volumes
Hyper-V R2- Building a Hyper-V R2 Cluster
Hyper-V R2- Initial Installation & Configuration

Demo 1 – Hyper-V Live Migration
Demo 2 – Boot From VHD
Demo 3 – Windows PowerShell 2.0 Remoting
Demo 4 – Active Directory Enhancements

Microsoft Deployment Toolkit – building install media for Windows 7
Windows XP Migration to Windows 7 RC using MDT Beta 1 – Part 1- The OS Install
Windows XP Migration to Windows 7 RC using MDT 2010 Beta 1 – Part 2- How To Build It…

Open Source Software (OSS) on Windows Server 2008

Exchange 2010 Demo: Read and Reply State
Exchange 2010 Demo: Conversation View
Exchange 2010 Demo: Move Conversation
Exchange 2010 Demo: Nickname Cache
Exchange 2010 Demo: UM Card

Interview with Kristian Andaker on Transitions to Exchange Server 2010
Interview with Kristian Andaker on Exchange 2010 OWA
Interview with Matt Gossage on Exchange Server 2010 and Storage
Interview with Scott Schnoll on Exchange 2010 High Availability
Interview with Scott Schnoll on Backup Strategy in Exchange 2010
Interview with Becky Benfield on Exchange 2010 Site Resiliency at Tech Ed 2009

IIS Media Services 4.0

BassQ — Fri, 18 Jun 2010 08:54:14 +0000

IIS Media Services 4.0 is an integrated HTTP-based media delivery platform

IIS Media Services 4.0 is a set of media-related extensions for Microsoft Internet Information Services (IIS) 7 and higher. IIS Media Services provides an integrated HTTP-based media delivery platform, and includes:

Smooth Streaming. Enables adaptive streaming of on-demand media files for Smooth Streaming-compatible clients, including Microsoft® Silverlight™.
Live Smooth Streaming. Enables adaptive streaming of live media broadcasts for Smooth Streaming-compatible clients. A new Live Smooth Streaming feature in IIS Media Services 4.0 Beta 1 enables delivery of live media broadcasts to Apple® mobile digital devices.
Transform Manager. Enables conversion of on-demand media files to Smooth Streaming presentations for Smooth Streaming-compatible clients and enables conversion of Smooth Streaming presentations to MPEG-2 TS segments that can be played by Apple devices.
Advanced Logging. Provides rich, real-time client- and server-side logging.
Bit Rate Throttling. Meters the speed at which media is delivered to a player.
Web Playlists. Enables secure sequencing and server-side control of media content.

You can also download two additional IIS extensions related to IIS Media Services 4.0:

Advanced Logging, with real-time client- and server-side logging
Application Request Routing (ARR), providing HTTP proxying and caching
Transform Manager, runs encoding tasks to convert media files to on-demand Smooth Streams for Silverlight clients and Apple mobile digital devices.

Download details IIS Media Services 4.0 – 32-bit

Download details IIS Media Services 4.0 – 64-bit

Three Steps to a PXE-Free XenDesktop on Hyper-V

BassQ — Fri, 16 Apr 2010 12:33:21 +0000

http://community.citrix.com/display/ocb/2010/04/13/Three+Steps+to+a+PXE-Free+XenDesktop+on+Hyper-V

I ran into an interesting situation last week while working with Tony Sanchez from our Global Microsoft Team. He was setting up XenDesktop 4 on Hyper-V 2008 R2. However, the lab he was at used a Windows Deployment Server (WDS) for image management and it relies extensively on PXE. Rather than modify the WDS to support the Provisioning Services PXE boot file, we decided the best solution was to make a boot ISO that will load the OS directly from the Provisioning Services host and then boot the guests from that ISO.

Background

Since not all my readers are familiar with using the Boot Device Manager, I will set the stage. When configuring a virtual machine to boot off of a CD-ROM image for PVS, you need to do three things:

Add a Legacy network card on the host since the Synthetic network adapter is not created until the Operating System loads.
Configure the BIOS boot order so that CD-ROM is first in the list.
Assign a bootable ISO image to the CD-ROM/DVD drive.

Take Note
The PXE boot option is required in order for the NIC Option ROM to stay resident in memory during the pre-boot process. This way, UNDI will be available to the boot device to properly initialize the NIC. Otherwise, the “API not found” message would be displayed by the boot device.

In deployments of XenDesktop where you have more than about 15 machines, the XenDesktop Setup Wizard (XDSW) is normally used to create and link the XenDesktops with Hyper-V. Unfortunately, the XDSW does not support all the possible VM configuration options when duplicating the source virtual machine. One of the properties that is not transferred to the new virtual machine is the ISO in the DVD drive. Normally, this behavior is the preferred because Hyper-V needs a special configuration to support sharing an ISO across multiple guests simultaneously (See this Technet article), which if not configured correctly can cause startup issues.

If you do not want to configure ISO sharing, you can use the VMM server and VMM library to copy the boot ISO to each virtual machine’s folder. If the ISO was large, I would say spend time setting up the sharing configuration; however, in this case the file itself is only 300K and copying it will eliminate the possibility of file sharing/locking issues.

Now you understand some of the challenges, I can tell you the three steps to a PXE-free Hyper-V deployment.:

Create a PVS Boot ISO using the Boot Device Manager
Import that PVS Boot ISO into the VMM Library
Execute a PowerShell script

Step 1: Create a PVS Boot ISO

The Provisioning Services Boot Device Manager is a three-dialog wizard that lets you pre-configure the boot environment just like a PXE server would, except you can then write that to a drive or CD-ROM media. The Boot Device Manager is found on the Start menu of any provisioning server at All Programs >> Citrix >> Provisioning Services >> Provisioning Services Boot Device Manager.

I do not want to spend a lot of time discussing the various options or provide a tutorial on this utility; however, I will provide a few pointers. First, be sure to enable the “Citrix PVS Two-Stage Boot Service” and set it to start automatically on any servers you will use as the targets for the ISO image. Second, if you are using Windows 7, be sure to enable the PAE Mode on the second page of the wizard, like this:

Third, be sure to select Citrix ISO Recorder as the boot device (shown below) before burning the ISO image, lest you accidentally wipe out your local hard disk. For a complete guide on using the Boot Disk Manager, see this Citrix Support Article CTX121331.

Step 2: Import the ISO into the SCVMM Library

Take the ISO you created in Step 1 and save it to the folder where the SCVMM library stores are located. I created a new folder called ISOs at the same level as VHDs and placed the ISO in that folder. Next start the SCVMM Administrative Console and go to the Library tab. Select the MSSCVMMLibrary node and click Refresh on the context-menu to add the ISOs to the library as shown here:

Step 3: Execute the PowerShell Script

Next, you can copy the contents of the PowerShell script below and save it to a file called AttachISO.PS1. I realize that I am not yet a PowerShell guru, so I am aware that several optimizations and error checks could be made to this script. Feel free to modify it for your own use. My goal was provide a working example to help with this issue. The PowerShell script below does the following:

Sets the boot order to CD, PXE (Legacy NIC), IDE, Floppy
Copies the ISO image from the library to the VM’s folder
Creates a DVD drive object at the IDE bus 1:0 if no DVD drive is found
Removes any existing ISO and sets the ISO image to the one specified on the command-line
For larger environments, it lets you know how many VMs it has left to process

AttachISO PowerShell Script

# Purpose:      Attach ISO image from VMM Server Library to Guest Virtual Machine
# Date Written: 12 April 2010
# Author:       Paul Wilson (no implied or expressed warranties)
# Usage:        AttachISO [UNC Path to ISO in Library] [VM Name to Match Criteria]

# Check for the two required arguments and offer command-line assistance if not found

if ($args -eq $null -or $args.Count -lt 2)
{
   write-output "Usage: AttachISO.ps1 UNC_fileName_ISO_File VMNameMatches"
   write-output "Example: .\AttachISO.ps1 ""\\SCVMM\MSSCVMMLibrary\ISOs\pvbt.iso"" ""Desktop"" "
   exit 1
}

# Grab the arguments and store them for later use

$ISOPath = $args[0]
$VMNameMatches = $args[1]

# Get the name of the SCVMM server we are running this on.
# The VMM server could be passed as a parameter as well.

$VMMServer = Get-VMMServer -Computername "localhost"

# Get the ISO image reference object using the ISO path provided earlier.
# Using the full path guarantees the right object is found. 

$ISOImage = Get-ISO -VMMServer $VMMServer | where { $_.SharePath -eq "$ISOPath" }

if ($ISOImage -eq $null)
{
   write-output "Unable to find ISO: $ISOPath"
   exit 1
}

# Get the collection of VMs that match the name parameters supplied and output that information

$VMs = Get-VM | where { $_.Name -match "$VMNameMatches" }
if ($VMs -eq $null)
{
   write-output "No VMs match the pattern: $VMNameMatches"
   exit 1
}
else
{
   $LeftToGo = $VMs.Count
   if ($LeftToGo -eq $null)
   {
      $matchString = "Only one VM matched the pattern: {0}" -f $VMNameMatches
      $LeftToGo = 1
    }
    else
    {
      $matchString = "{0} VMs match the pattern: {1}" -f $VMs.Count, $VMNameMatches
    }
    write-output $matchString
}

# This loop goes through each VM found and does the following:
#   1. Sets the boot order to CD, PXE Nic, IDE, Floppy.
#   2. Gets the DVD/CD drive object.
#   3. The script will copy the ISO image from the library to the VM's folder.
#      The copy is part of the Set-VirtualDVDDrive and New-VirtualDVDDrive cmdlets.
#   4. Creates the DVD drive object if none found and sets it to the ISO.
#   5. Removes any existing ISO and sets the ISO image to the one specified.
#   6. Outputs the number of VMs remaining to process. Added for large deployments. 

foreach ($VM in $VMS)
{
   $LeftToGo = $LeftToGo - 1
   Set-VM -VM $VM -BootOrder CD,PXEBoot,IDEHardDrive,Floppy
   $current_dvd = get-VirtualDVDDrive -VM $VM

   if ($current_dvd -eq $null -or $current_dvd.count -eq 0)
   {
      $newDVD = New-VirtualDVDDrive -VM $VM -Bus 1 -LUN 0 -ISO $ISOImage
      $DVDResultMessage = "Created DVD Drive on {0}. {1} VMs left to go." -f $VM.Name, $LeftToGo
   }
   else
   {
      if ($current_dvd.Connection -ne "None")
      {
         set-VirtualDVDDrive -VirtualDVDDrive $current_dvd -noMedia
         set-VirtualDVDDrive -VirtualDVDDrive $current_dvd -ISO $ISOImage
         $DVDResultMessage = "Replaced existing media in DVD Drive on {0}. {1} VMs left to go." -f $VM.Name, $LeftToGo
       }
       else
       {
         set-VirtualDVDDrive -VirtualDVDDrive $current_dvd -ISO $ISOImage
         $DVDResultMessage = "Successfully attached ISO to the DVD Drive of {0}. {1} VMs left to go." -f $VM.Name, $LeftToGo
       }
    }
    write-output $DVDResultMessage
}

Failover Clustering for Hyper-V with File Server Storage

BassQ — Wed, 14 Apr 2010 21:02:00 +0000

Overview
In a previous blog post, I described 5 different ways to implement Windows Server Failover Clustering with Hyper-V. Those options included: Parent-based Failover Clustering with two physical servers, Child-based Failover Clustering with two physical servers, Mixed Physical/Virtual Failover Clustering, Failover Clustering with two child partitions on one physical server and Standalone demo laptop with Virtual iSCSI SAN.

However, I failed to mention in that post the option to use CIFS/SMB file server share as your option for Failover Clustering storage. This scenario is so unique (with differences in flexibility, cost and performance), that I would argue it constitutes a sixth method. Here’s how you can do it.

Before and After Diagrams
As I did with the previous blog post, let me describe the scenario using two diagrams. First, here is a diagram describing the scenario before a failure:

Now, here’s a diagram describing the scenario after a failure in SPTNODE1:

As you can see, we use a file server (called SPTSERVER1) for storing the Hyper-V files. The idea is to store the configuration files, the VHD itself and the VHD snapshots in the \\SPTSERVER1\VMSHARE\VM1 folder. As we do when using a SAN for shared storage, the surviving node will take over and start the VM in case of a failure. We can also use the very same scenario for Quick Migration, making the VM move orderly from one node to another by saving the state to the file share and instructing to other node to take over and restore the VM.

Pre-requisites
Before you move forward, you want to make sure you have at least two physical computers running Hyper-V. In our scenario, STPNODE1 and STPNODE2 are running Windows Server 2008 Enterprise (Full or Core installs work fine).

Add the Hyper-V role to STPNODE1 and STPNODE2.

Add the Failover Clustering feature to STPNODE1 and STPNODE2.

You will need to use a general purpose server to act as a file server or a NAS box compatible with CIFS/SMB. You probably want to run Windows Server 2008 for improved performance (new TCP/IP stack and SMBv2 protocol). In our scenario, STPSERVER1 is the file server running Windows Server 2008 Enterprise Edition (Full or Core installs work fine).

Grant the required permissions for \\SPTSERVER1\VMSHARE\ to the computer accounts for STPNODE1 and STPNODE2, as described at http://blogs.technet.com/josebda/archive/2008/06/24/storing-windows-server-2008-hyper-v-files-on-an-cifs-smb-file-share.aspx.

You might also want to have a management client which could be your desktop (running Windows Vista SP1) or another server (running a Full install of Windows Server 2008). In our scenario, SPTCLIENT1 is the management client.

Install the Windows Server RTM patch described at http://blogs.technet.com/josebda/archive/2008/06/26/windows-server-2008-hyper-v-released-today-includes-a-list-of-main-hyper-v-related-links.aspx in both nodes and also in the management client.

You will need to have a domain infrastructure (Windows Server Failover Clustering requires a domain). The domain controller is not shown in the diagrams.

Steps
You start the process by creating a cluster with the two Hyper-V nodes. To do this, you will use the Failover Cluster Management MMC from either node. In that tool, you will:

Validate the configuration
Create the cluster
Adjust the quorum configuration
Create the virtual machine in one of the nodes
Make the VM highly available

Running Validation
Here’s the initial screen of the Failover Cluster Management MMC, when first loaded.

Before you create the cluster, you must Validate your Configuration. Be sure to run *all* Validation tests, since solutions are only supported if you do so.

Since we are not using shared storage, the storage tests will generate a warning. Completing validation with a warning is acceptable.

If you run into any errors during Validation, you must fix those before you proceed.

Creating the Cluster
After you run validation, click the option to “Create a Cluster”. First, you must specify the nodes. In this case we’re using SPTNODE1 and SPTNODE2.

Second, you specify the name of the cluster.

After confirming the data entered, the cluster is created, as shown below:

Note that we end up with a warning (yellow triangle). If you click the “View Report” button, you find what the issue is:
No appropriate disk could be found for the quorum disk.

This is expected. With only two nodes with no shared storage, you don’t have a valid quorum configuration and a single node failure will cause the cluster to fail.

You can see that in the cluster information below:

Typically, in a shared storage configuration, you would get that third vote from a shared witness disk (also know as a quorum disk).

We will overcome that in the next step.

Configuring the Cluster Quorum Settings
To get our third vote for the cluster without using shared storage, we will use the new option in Windows Server 2008 Failover Clustering to use a file server witness.

First, you need to add permission for the cluster computer account to the file share. The cluster computer account was created when we created the cluster.

As you did when granting permissions to SPTNODE1 and SPTNODE2, add full control permissions for the SPTDEMO\SPTCLUSTER$ account in the share and in the file system at SPTSERVER1.

Next, use the Failover Cluster Management tool to change the Quorum Configuration.

You will find this option by right-clicking the cluster name, then selecting “More Actions”, as shown below:

The wizard will guide you through the process. You will select the option for “Node and File Share Majority”, as shown below:

In the next screen, you will specify the actual shared folder path for the file share witness resource. We will use \\SPTSERVER1\VMSHARE\WITNESS. See below:

After you confirm the operation, you will see the update in the quorum configuration, now showing no warning signs.

I would recommend that you also check the status of the storage in the cluster.

You do this by clicking on the “Storage” node under the cluster name in the Failover Cluster Management tool. Here’s what you should see at this point:

As you can see, this is one of the cases where you have a healthy cluster with no shared storage. Exchange Server 2007 CCR clusters also do that.

Creating a regular Virtual Machine on a cluster node
At this point, if you check the Hyper-V Manager tool, you will see no virtual machines:

Now we will use the Hyper-V Manager to create a new VM in SPTNODE1 using only a file share for storage. If you’re doing this from SPTNODE1, you should have no isses. If you’re doing this from any other computer (like the management client SPTCLIENT1), be sure to check this post on how to configure Constrained Delegation to allow remote management of Hyper-V when using file shares: http://blogs.technet.com/josebda/archive/2008/06/27/using-constrained-delegation-to-remotely-manage-a-server-running-hyper-v-that-uses-cifs-smb-file-shares.aspx

Again, this is done through a wizard. This is a regular VM creation, except for the fact that we’re using UNC paths (file share paths) for the storage, instead of regular folders on a local disk. In my specific case, we’re storing this new VM at \\SPTSERVER1\VMSHARE\VM1.

Here you see the virtual machine configuration folder:

Then the location of the new VHD file for the VM:

And even the ISO file we’re mounting will also come from that file server:

Once all is confirmed, we have a new VM, which you should keep in an “off” state for now:

Making the Virtual Machine Highly Available
Now we go back to the Failover Cluster Management tool to make the newly created VM highly available.

Click on the “Services and Applications” node under the cluster name and select the option to “Configure a Service or Application”. Again, it’s a wizard:

After selecting “Virtual Machine” as the type of service, you will select from a list of existing VMs. In our case, there’s only VM1:

After confirming your settings, the VM is made highly available, with a warning:

Again, if you click on the “View Report” button, you find the issues
The path ‘\\SPTSERVER1\VMSHARE\VM1′ where the virtual machine configuration is stored is not on a failover cluster and might not be highly available. To achieve the highest availability, store the virtual machine configuration on a clustered file server (configured within a failover cluster).

The path ‘\\SPTSERVER1\VMSHARE\VM1′ where the virtual machine snapshots are stored is not on a failover cluster and might not be highly available. To achieve the highest availability, store the virtual machine snapshots on a clustered file server (configured within a failover cluster).

The path ‘\\SPTSERVER1\VMSHARE\VM1\VM1.vhd’ where the virtual hard disk is stored is not on a failover cluster and might not be highly available. To achieve the highest availability, store the virtual hard disk on a clustered file server (configured within a failover cluster).

The path ‘\\SPTSERVER1\VMSHARE\ISO\WindowsServer2008-amd64.iso’ where the virtual hard disk is stored is not on a failover cluster and might not be highly available. To achieve the highest availability, store the virtual hard disk on a clustered file server (configured within a failover cluster).

As it usually does, the Failover Cluster Management tool is being very careful, pointing out that the file server share you are using is a potential single point of failure.

In order to have true high availability, you need to make sure that file share is also highly available. To achieve that, you need to place that file share in Failover Cluster as well.

The wizard has no way to detect if the file share is also clustered, so you will always get these warnings.

Now, you can go back and check the properties of the new highly available VM and bring it online.

One interesting thing you will notice is that you will not have any storage associated with that service, as you can see below:

In the summary page, you also confirm that, since you do not have the typical clustered disk listed in the summary for the virtual machine:

Moving the VM to another node
The last step is to prove that you can fail or move the VM to another node.

To do this, I use the option to “Move this service or application to another node”, which you can find when you right-click the virtual machine. See below:

When you do this, you will see that the VM will be taken offline in the source node (the state is saved first), as you can see below:

Then the VM will be brought online on the destination node (by restoring the state). Check below:

This process takes only a moment, and will depend only on how much memory you VM has and how long it takes to save the state to the file server share (from SPTNODE1) and then to restore the state from that same file share (from SPTNODE2).

You can see the final state, after the move to SPTNODE2 is completed, below:

Conclusion
I hope these steps will give you enough to recreate this scenario in your environment and validate that you can create a Failover Cluster for Hyper-V using only a CIFS/SMB file share for storage.

Keep in mind that, if your configuration can pass the Failover Cluster Validation with only a warning due to the missing shared storage, you solution is supported.

Also remember that this solution will only be truly highly available if you file share is also highly available. I’m sure you will find plenty of documentation out there on how to make file servers highly available.

Last, there is the question of performance. As I mentioned in the previous blog post using Hyper-V with file shares, I was impressed with the increased performance of a Windows Server 2008 file server, specially for this type of workload. However, I will leave it to you to test this configuration for yourself and draw your own conclusions about performance. With faster IP networks (including 10Gb Ethernet) and the improvements in the SMB v2 protocol, you might be tempted to trade performance for the added flexibility and reduced cost this could bring to your Hyper-V storage management.

Hyper-V Failover Clustering Options

BassQ — Wed, 14 Apr 2010 20:44:10 +0000

There are many ways to implement Windows Server Failover Clustering with Hyper-V. I could actually find five unique methods to do it. Some of them will actually not give you a fully fault-tolerant solution, but most of them actually make sense in specific scenarios (even if only for demonstrations). In any case, just trying to understand and differentiate them will probably be a good exercise.

1 – Parent-based Failover Clustering with two physical servers
In this first scenario, probably the most common one, you implement Windows Server 2008 Failover Clustering at the Hyper-V Parent (Host) level. You will need some shared storage, like a Fibre-Channel or iSCSI SAN.

Here is a diagram describing the scenario before a failure: