Weblog.BassQ.nl » Hyper-V

Windows 7 and Windows Server 2008 R2 Service Pack 1 (KB976932) and download

BassQ — Fri, 18 Feb 2011 08:48:56 +0000

Service Pack 1 is now available on Technet for subscribers.

Consumer end-users can find general information about Windows 7 SP1 at the following Microsoft website:

http://windows.microsoft.com/windows7sp1

Public downloads will be here

Windows 7 Service Pack 1

To obtain Windows 7 SP1, visit the following Microsoft website:

http://windows.microsoft.com/installwindows7sp1 (http://windows.microsoft.com/installwindows7sp1)

Windows 2008 R2 Service Pack 1

To obtain Windows 2008 R2 SP1, visit the following Microsoft website:

http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkID=199583

The following documentation for Windows 7 and Windows Server 2008 R2 Service Pack 1 is provided here.

Deployment Guide for Windows Server 2008 R2 with SP1 and Windows 7 with SP1.doc 213KB Download

Hotfixes and Security Updates included in Windows 7 and Windows Server 2008 R2 Service Pack 1.xls 465KB Download

Installing Windows Server 2008 R2 with SP1.doc 94KB Download

Release Notes for Windows 7 with Service Pack 1.doc 87KB Download

Release Notes for Windows Server 2008 R2 with Service Pack 1.doc 87KB Download

MS KB Information about Service Pack 1 for Windows 7 and for Windows Server 2008 R2

W2K8R2 & Windows 7 SP1 Release Candidate Now Available

BassQ — Wed, 27 Oct 2010 15:38:37 +0000

Today, Microsoft has made available a Release Candidate (RC) for Service Pack 1 for Windows Server 2008 R2 and Windows 7. SP1 includes both a roll-up of operating system updates and several new capabilities for Windows Server.

Microsoft RemoteFX introduces a new set of remote user experience capabilities that enable a media-rich user environment for virtual and session-based desktops. RemoteFX can be deployed to a range of thick and thin client devices, enabling cost-effective, local-like access to graphics-intensive applications. RemoteFX also supports a broad array of USB peripherals to improve the productivity of users of virtual desktops.

SP1 also includes Dynamic Memory, which enables servers running Hyper-V for server virtualization, to be more efficient in the use of memory. Dynamic Memory pools and distributes memory among the virtual machines running on a physical host, enabling higher consolidation ratios, increasing server utilization rates, and providing more flexible workload management. Furthermore, memory is dynamically added based on the demands of the current workloads and without service interruption.

Expect to see Service Pack 1 released in its final form during first quarter 2011 and whether you’re virtualizing servers or desktops, take a few minutes to learn more about Service Pack 1 here. You needn’t wait for SP1, however – you can join those already enjoying the benefits of Windows Server 2008 R2 by deploying today.

Improve the efficiency and availability of IT resources and applications with the new virtualization innovations provided in Windows 7 and Windows Server 2008 R2 SP1 RC. Dynamic Memory and Microsoft RemoteFX^TM, to help businesses further optimize their datacenter and desktops.

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.
RemoteFX lets Windows Server 2008 R2 administrators provide a rich end user desktop virtualization experience by delivering vivid content, independent of any graphics stack, to server-hosted virtual and session-based desktops.

Businesses can take advantage of these innovations to help deliver new capabilities such as private cloud and VDI. To learn more about Windows Server 2008 R2 SP1 RC and the benefits it provides, read the documents, feature overview and FAQs below.

Read the Windows Server 2008 R2 Technical Whitepaper for a technical overview of Windows Server 2008 R2 SP1 RC release features and benefits.
Download the Windows Server 2008 R2 SP1 RC Reviewer’s Guide to evaluate the core features of Windows Server 2008 R2 SP1 RC release in your environment.

Dynamic Memory Overview

Windows Server 2008 R2 Hyper-V introduces a new feature, called Dynamic Memory, in the Windows 7 SP1 and Windows Server 2008 R2 SP1 RC releases. It allows customers to achieve increased density when they’re consolidating physical servers into a virtual realm, providing them with predictable performance and linear scalability.

With Dynamic Memory, IT administrators are able to pool available memory on a physical host and then dynamically dole that memory out to virtual machines running on the host, based on current workload needs.

For a technical overview of the new Dynamic Memory feature, download the Dynamic Memory Technical Overview whitepaper.
View the Dynamic Memory video

RemoteFX Overview

RemoteFX, a key feature of Remote Desktop Services (RDS) lets IT administrators deliver a rich graphics experience to end-users through virtualized desktops. Using new protocol enhancements between Windows Server 2008 R2 and Windows 7, end users can now access virtual machines on a wide variety of target devices and still get a rich graphics experience with server-side graphics processing.

Learn more about Remote Desktop Services and RemoteFX and download the Remote Desktop Services Business White Paper.
View the RemoteFX video

Download SP1 here; http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/en/details.aspx?familyId=C3202CE6-4056-4059-8A1B-3A9B77CDFDDA&hash=wrw75DeobQ1hLeOrOvthYUYCv7PJpk89RMXhKQ3RVng1XsUOVWqxDvThIkaoGa34DtzYCHZTKY4Evdlqyp7X4Q%3d%3d

Sources;
http://blogs.technet.com/b/windowsserver/
http://bink.nu/news/windows-7-and-windows-server-2008-r2-service-pack-1-release-candidate.aspx

Free eBooks from Microsoft Press

BassQ — Mon, 25 Oct 2010 18:02:57 +0000

Of course everybody reads the e-books posted on E-Books.BassQ.nl !? Right?
Well ii found some new books in a post off the blog of steven bink witch i haven’t read yet,

Free ebook: Moving to Microsoft Visual Studio 2010 (10 chapters by by Patrice Pelland, Pascal Paré, and Ken Haines)
Free ebook: Introducing Microsoft SQL Server 2008 R2 (10 chapters by Ross Mistry and Stacia Misner)
Free ebook: Programming Windows Phone 7 Series (DRAFT Preview) (6 chapters by Charles Petzold)
Free ebook: Petzold’s Programming Windows Phone 7 (Special Excerpt 2) (newer than the ebook above; 11 chapters by Charles Petzold)
Free ebook: Own Your Future: Update Your Skills with Resources and Career Ideas from Microsoft (8 chapters by Katherine Murray)
Free ebook: Understanding Microsoft Virtualization Solutions (Second Edition) (6 chapters by Mitch Tulloch)
Free ebook: First Look Microsoft Office 2010 (14 chapters by Katherine Murray)
Free ebook: Windows 7 troubleshooting tips (short ebook by Mitch Tulloch)
Free ebook: Introducing Windows Server 2008 R2 (9 chapters by Charlie Russel and Craig Zacker)
Free ebook: Deploying Windows 7, Essential Guidance (10 chapters from the Windows 7 Resource Kit and 6 TechNet articles)

Source ; http://bink.nu/news/free-ebooks-from-microsoft-press.aspx

Hyper-V Monitor Gadget for Windows Sidebar

BassQ — Thu, 14 Oct 2010 18:41:57 +0000

Created by Tore Lervik (mindre.net), The gadget can list multiple servers at once and also support vmconnect when double clicking on a VM. The gadget uses WMI to connect to the server so the user might need to follow John Howard’s guide remote WMI access (Step 5) on both the client and the Hyper-V server.

He has created a sidebar gadget so you can see what the Hyper-V server is doing from a workstation. The gadget can list multiple servers at once and also support vmconnect when double clicking on a VM.

PS: The gadget uses WMI to connect to the server so the user might need to follow John Howard’s guide remote WMI access on both the client and the Hyper-V server.

Some of the features are:

VM CPU graph
Wake on Lan support
VM RDP (If the host is running 2008 R2)
Multilanguage support.
Optimized performance releated to VM-RDP addresses.
Added ability to only display a number of VM at the time. (Good for people having more VM than fits on the screen)
If a VM not in the screen is off the host’s name will be red, if it’s paused or starting it will be orange.
Added ability to minimize a server in the monitor view. Holding mouse cursor over the Host will display information about the VM’s
Added option to choose what type of RDP setting to the host on a pr. host basis.
Added VM information when holding the mouse cursor over a VM (The gadget needs focus for this to work..)
Added Orange background to a VM that is running with the Health-status not beeing OK. (Happens when a VM is booting up by bluescreen)
Added Pause button to the VM controls.
Wibout Bootsma is now part of the gadget development.

Download here;
Hyper-V Monitor.gadget (50 kb)

Gadget

Host title
Double click on the host title to launch a new Remote Desktop connection to the host.
Host Control
Hover over the host title to get a set of buttons for the host if you have Wake on Lan enabled. (Shut Down or Start)
Host title RAM amount
Displays the RAM amount the host has left.
VM title
- If the VM supports RDP and you got vmconnect installed: Double click to launch VMConnect* to the VM and a RDP icon appears when you hold the cursor over the VM.
- If the VM supports RDP: Double click to launch RDP to the VM.
- If you got vmconnect installed: Double click to launch VMConnect* to the VM.
VM Status
Displaying the status of the VM in both color and text.
If the VM is running a cpu graph will be displayed.
VM Control
Hover over the status to get a set of buttons for the current VM. (Start, Turn Off, Shut Down and Save)
Large Size (Undocked)
You can make the gadget bigger by using the Large Size (Windows 7) or Undock it from the sidebar (Vista).

* Hyper-V Manager and VMConnect are included in Hyper-V Tools that comes with Microsoft RSAT.

Settings

Servers (Server manager)
This is the list of servers that the gadget will try to connect to.
Each server can have custom credentials or just blank user\password for default credentials.
- Wake on lan
  Wake on Lan is now supported through the freeware wolcom.dll that can be downloaded from http://www.depicus.com/wake-on-lan/wake-on-lan-com.aspx
- Remote desktop
  - Terminal means Remote Desktop session will be a terminal session
  - Console means Remote Desktop session will be a console (admin) session
  - Both means an additional RDP Icon will show for the Console session.
  - None means Remote Desktop is not allowed/supported by the server.
Refresh time (Seconds)
How often the gadget should refresh the server information.
Virtual Machines
Define the maximum number of VM’s per server visible in the gadget. When more VM’s are available, scroll buttons will be displayed.
Click type
How the gadget takes mouse input. (Double or single click)
Server Control
Enable\disable the Control buttons.

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.

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

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: