Microsoft System Center Boot Camp

Are you a Microsoft Partner and want to dig into the great new contents that ships with System Center 2012?

Then you should sign up for the System Center Boot Camp in Tønsberg (Norway) at http://blogs.technet.com/b/partnerbloggen/archive/2012/03/01/er-du-klar-for-fremtiden-bli-med-p-229-lanseringsbootcamp-p-229-system-center-2012.aspx

I`ll have quite a few sessions during the boot camp where I`ll be touching Data Protection Manager, App Controller and...behold... Virtual Machine Manager.
At least, that`s my agenda, but I`ll also show the components in the context of a private cloud that also includes Orchestrator, Operations Manager and Service Manager - it`s all a part of my demo environment, so I can give the audience the demos they need and expect, and a true understanding of how to increase the value they`re already giving to their customers and clients.

By the way, I`m also counting the days for next week where I`ll talk about Windows Server 2012 and Hyper-V 3.0 for hosters as well as SC 2012 during the "Hosting Day" at Microsoft HQ at Lysaker.

Alright, I have some slides to polish.

Cluster-Aware updating in Windows Server 2012 ("8)

It`s not new that Microsoft have made some significant improvements in the private cloud fabric recently, where you can integrate WSUS with System Center 2012 – Virtual Machine Manager, so you can on-demand update your Hyper-V hosts and Hyper-V Clusters, in an automated fashion.

VMM will place the hosts (one at a time) in maintenance mode, live migrate the VMs to the other nodes, patch the node, eventually reboot the node and take it out of maintenance mode before it goes on with the next host.

So, this is brilliant. I can`t tell how many times I`ve done this manually prior to VMM 2012, when I rather should be home watching some random Barcelona match on TV.

So with Windows Server 2012 (yes- Windows Server “8” will be named Windows Server 2012), you have an inbuilt role for patching your failover cluster, that will work in a similar fashion.

Let`s take a look at the easy configuration for Cluster-Aware updates.

1.       Connect to your cluster that you want to enable for Cluster-aware updating. In my case, I have a cluster that hosts my highly available VMs, connected to a Windows Server 2012 iSCSI target.

2.       Click ‘Configure cluster self-updating options’ to configure this role

3.       You`ll be able to add the CAU clustered role if this is not already added on the server. Click next

4.       Configure the frequency of self-updating. I`m leaving it with the defaults in this case

5.       During the page for advanced options, you can use the settings based on a configuration you have created elsewhere (xml file) if you want the same options to be applied across your clusters, or specify new parameters in this view. I have enabled the ‘RequireAllNodesOnline’ and ‘MaxFailedNodes’ in this example

6.       Additional options lets you get recommended updates the same way that you receive important updates through Windows Update

7.       Confirm your choices, and if you scroll down you`ll see the PowerShell code workflow that will take place during completion.

8.       The Clustered Role is completed

Now, let`s wait for some new updates for Windows Server 2012 J

What I`m going to do next week with Windows Server "8"

I have just received a HP Proliant Microserver for my lab.

This tiny little sexy thing is about to leverage some cool features in Windows Server “8”.

Current setup:

HP Proliant Microserver – installed with 4 x 1 TB SATA disks with RAID 0 and RAID

I have installed Windows Server “8” Beta and played around with storage pools and storage spaces.I have also tested the built-in iSCSI target in Windows Server “8”, which is currently hosting my Hyper-V 2008 R2 clustered VMs.

The Microserver has currently only 1 NIC, which should give you a hint that it`s possible to simulate the foundation of a private cloud using budget hardware.

As I stated in my previously post, I will have 2 clusters. One 2008 R2 running System Center 2012 workloads for POC, and one Windows Server “8” cluster with the new and improved version of Hyper-V.

So while it`s currently running the SC 2012 workloads (which works pretty good, and I was able to deliver 4 hours of presentations/demos today, using this environment), I am looking forward to build the next generation of Hyper-V clusters next week with Windows Server “8”.

I have currently all my W8 workloads running on my lap top (yeah, Windows Server “8” directly on my lap top, forcing me to deal with powershell and other stuff that I wanna be able to manage), and I will use/test/play with the different migration options to move my workloads over to the Hyper-V 3.0 Cluster, with no downtime, using my WiFi.

I`ll post the examples and demos next week.

Windows Server "8" with Hyper-V and Powershell

I`m just about to get my hands on my SAN to be able to do some cool things covering both the SC 2012 suite (Private Cloud scenarios) and Windows Server “8” with Hyper-V.

I need access to both environments since I`ll deal a lot with both of them in different scenarios, like proof of concept, demos and researching. Sounds fun? – it is!

Below is a very simple overview of my environment, showing you that I have 2 clusters in a single domain. 1 Windows Server “8” Hyper-V cluster and 1 Windows Server 2008 R2 Sp1 Hyper-V Cluster with the current SC 2012 components installed and orchestrating the magic.

To run a SAN, I`ll use Windows Server “8” with the inbuilt iSCSI target, and i`m looking forward to test and play with Storage Pools and Storage Spaces.

So what have I done to this point, with no SAN for my VMs? People who know me also know that I`m addicted to clusters. I need them in my life. But the life has treated me good because I`ve been running Windows Server “8” directly on my laptop.

There are several reasons for this. Here`s a couple of them.

1.       Kristian, you better start learning Powershell. No discussion. Do it.

2.       Do all the possible research related to Hyper-V, and especially by using Powershell.

3.       Remember to learn well, since this will be your bread and butter.

So, let`s talk a bit about Powershell in this blog post.

Several top dogs at Microsoft have stressed that it is extremely important for the technologist to be able to manage things through Powershell. And if you see this in the cloud context where as much as possible should be considered for automation, powershell is the key since the robust API towards SC 2012 and Windows Server “8” would be …. Powershell!

So here`s some handy Powershell cmdlets that I have been using the last days.

(Note, this is not rocket science but it`s very handy)

Start all your VMs

Get-VM * | start-VM

Shut down all your VMs

Get-VM * | stop-VM

Move storage

Move-VMStorage “VM name” “Destination” (Example: Move-VMStorage “SCOM2012” “E:\VHDs\SCOM2012”

Enable Dyanmic Memory on every VM

Get-VM * | set-VMMemory –Dynamicmemoryenabled $true –startupbytes 512MB –minimumbytes 100MB –maximumbytes 6GB

(Thanks to Aidan Finn)

Clean up your environment after some heavy Storage Migration demos

Get-VM | % { Move-VMStorage $_.Name “E:\VMs\$($_.Name)” }

(Thanks to Benjamin Armstrong)

And of course, there`s a lot of new cmdlets related to the Hyper-V Role.

To get an overview, type:

Get-commands –module Hyper-V

This will list all the cmdlets for you. You can also play around and use Powershell ISE tool to help you to build, test, and evaluate scripts that you create by using Powershell.

Oh, I have created some scripts as well, but I`ll save them for later in another blog post.

So my next step would be to move all my VMs with SC 2012 installed from my laptop over to the newly created lab. I will show the examples of how this was done in another blog post later.

Cheers,

System Center 2012 SP1 CTP

Currently available, VMM and DPM.
To quick verify what`s new in the VMM build, read the rest of this blog post.
This setup will only work on Windows Server "8" Beta, so you have do install the server prior to this setup, along with SQL Server 2008 R2.

From the official document available on TechNet:

What's New in System Center 2012 SP1 - Virtual Machine Manager

Virtual Machine Manager (VMM) in the community technology preview (CTP) of System Center 2012 SP1 provides the following new features:

·      Network virtualization

·      VHDX support

·      Support for file shares that use the Server Message Block (SMB) 2.2 protocol

·      Live migration enhancements

Network Virtualization

VMM in the CTP release of System Center 2012 SP1 provides support for the network virtualization capabilities available in Windows Server "8" Beta.

Network virtualization provides the ability to run multiple virtual network infrastructures, potentially with overlapping IP addresses, on the same physical network. With network virtualization, each virtual network infrastructure operates as if it is the only one running on the shared network infrastructure. This will allow two different business groups using VMM to use the same IP addressing scheme without conflict. In addition, network virtualization provides isolation, so that only those virtual machines on a specific virtual network infrastructure can communicate with each other.

Network virtualization in Windows Server "8" Beta is designed to remove the constraints of VLAN and hierarchical IP address assignment for virtual machine provisioning. This enables flexibility in virtual machine placement, because the virtual machine can keep its IP address regardless of which host it is placed on. Placement is not necessarily limited by physical IP subnet hierarchies or VLAN configurations.

To virtualize the network in Windows Server "8" Beta, each virtual machine is assigned two IP addresses:

·      A customer address, which is visible to the virtual machine and is used by customers to communicate with the virtual machine.

·      A provider address, which is used by the Hyper-V computer that is hosting the virtual machine, but is not visible to the virtual machine.

VMM in the CTP release of System Center 2012 SP1 creates the necessary IP address mappings for virtual machines to take advantage of the network virtualization capabilities in Windows Server "8" Beta. VMM uses an IP address pool associated with a logical network to assign provider addresses and uses an IP address pool associated with a VM network to assign customer addresses. VM networks are a new addition to VMM in the CTP release of System Center 2012 SP1.

For more information about network virtualization in Windows Server "8" Beta, including an explanatory diagram, see Hyper-V Network Virtualization Technical Preview.

Important

Not all the capabilities of network virtualization in Windows Server "8" Beta are supported in this CTP.

VHDX Support

VMM in the CTP release of System Center 2012 SP1 supports the new version of the virtual hard disk (VHD) format that is introduced in Windows Server "8" Beta. This new format is referred to as VHDX. VHDX has a much larger storage capacity (up to 64 TB) than the older VHD format. It also provides data corruption protection during power failures. Additionally, it offers improved alignment of the virtual hard disk format to work well on large-sector physical disks.

By default, VMM in the CTP release of System Center 2012 SP1 uses the VHDX format when you create a new virtual machine with a blank virtual hard disk. The VMM library automatically indexes .vhdx files. In addition to the small and large blank .vhd files that were available in previous versions of VMM, the VMM library in System Center 2012 SP1 also contains both a small (16 GB) and large (60 GB) blank .vhdx file.

Note

For the CTP release, the library server must be a Hyper-V host to automatically index .vhdx files.

For more information about the benefits of the VHDX format in Windows Server "8" Beta, see Hyper-V Virtual Hard Disk Format Technical Preview.

SMB 2.2 File Shares

VMM in the CTP release of System Center 2012 SP1 adds support for designating network file shares on Windows Server "8" Beta computers as the storage location for virtual machine files, such as configuration, virtual hard disk (.vhd/.vhdx) files and checkpoints. This functionality leverages the new 2.2 version of the Server Message Block (SMB) protocol that is introduced in Windows Server "8" Beta.

SMB 2.2 file shares provide the following benefits when used with VMM in the CTP release of System Center 2012 SP1:

·      Hyper-V over SMB supports file servers and storage at a reduced cost compared to traditional storage area networks (SANs).

·      If you use SMB 2.2 file shares as the storage location for virtual machine files, you can live migrate running virtual machines between two stand-alone Hyper-V hosts or between two stand-alone Hyper-V host clusters. Because the storage location is a shared location that is available from both source and destination hosts, only the virtual machine state must transfer between hosts. For more information, see the “Live Migration Enhancements” section of this topic.

You can create SMB 2.2 file shares on both stand-alone Windows Server "8" Beta file servers and on clustered Windows Server "8" Beta file servers. In this step-by-step guide, only SMB 2.2 file shares on a stand-alone file server are used to demonstrate the concepts. If you use a stand-alone file server, you can designate an SMB 2.2 file share as the virtual machine storage location on a Windows Server "8" Beta Hyper-V host cluster. However, this is not a highly-available solution.

Note

For more information about how to create a highly-available SMB 2.2 file share, see the Windows Server "8" Beta topic File Server for scale-out application data overview, and steps 1 and 2 of the “Deploy Scale-Out File Server” scenario that is linked to from that topic.

For more information about SMB 2.2 in Windows Server "8" Beta, see Server Message Block overview.

Live Migration Enhancements

VMM in the CTP release of System Center 2012 SP1 includes several live migration enhancements that enable the migration of a running virtual machine with no downtime. The following table summarizes the live migration options that are available.

Transfer Type	Description
Live	During live migration, only the virtual machine state is transferred to the destination server. VMM in System Center 2012 SP1 supports the following new live migration options: ·    Live migration between two stand-alone Windows Server "8" Beta Hyper-V hosts. ·    Live migration between two Windows Server "8" Beta Hyper-V host clusters. Note This includes both highly available virtual machines and non-highly available virtual machines that are running on a cluster node. To live migrate a virtual machine between two stand-alone hosts or two separate host clusters, the virtual machine (including virtual hard disks, checkpoints, and configuration files) must reside on an SMB 2.2 file share that is accessible from both the source and destination stand-alone hosts or host clusters. Note VMM in System Center 2012 SP1 also supports the live migration of a highly available virtual machine between two nodes in the same host cluster. Support for this exists in System Center 2012 – Virtual Machine Manager, when the virtual machine resides on available storage or on a cluster shared volume (CSV). In System Center 2012 SP1, the virtual machine can also reside on an SMB 2.2 file share.
Live (VSM)	Live virtual machine and storage migration (live VSM) is new in System Center 2012 SP1. During live VSM, both the virtual machine state and the virtual machine storage are transferred. For the live VSM option to be available, the virtual machine must reside on storage that is not visible to the destination host. VMM in the CTP release of System Center 2012 SP1 supports the following: ·    Live VSM between two stand-alone Windows Server "8" Beta Hyper-V hosts. This transfer can occur between local disks or SMB 2.2 file shares. ·    Live VSM between two Windows Server "8" Beta Hyper-V host clusters. The virtual machine can be transferred to either a CSV or an SMB 2.2 file share on the destination host cluster.
Live Storage	Live storage migration is new in VMM in System Center 2012 SP1. During live storage migration, only the virtual machine storage is transferred. VMM in the CTP release of System Center 2012 SP1 supports the following: ·    Live storage migration within the same Windows Server "8" Beta stand-alone host. Storage can be transferred between two SMB 2.2 file share, between an SMB 2.2 file share and a local disk, or between two local disk locations. ·    Live storage migration on a cluster node from a CSV or SMB 2.2 file share to a different CSV or SMB 2.2 file share that is accessible from the cluster node.

In addition, VMM can perform simultaneous live migrations (live, live VSM or live storage). This is especially useful when you want to evacuate a host for maintenance.
For more information about live migration in Windows Server "8" Beta, see the following topics:

·      Virtual Machine Live Migration Technical Preview

·      Moving Virtual Machine Storage Technical Preview

Start exploring some of the new features in Hyper-V in Windows Server “8” by using the premium management tool – Virtual Machine Manager.

Hyper-V Replica by example (part one)

Hyper-V Replica by example

One of the major game changer of a feature in Hyper-V 3.0 is called «Hyper-V Replica».

To get a jump start on this feature, read Aidan`s blog post here.
Since this unique individual has already documented the fun bits (the technical stuff), I won`t do it again (as other people seems to do, copy him:-) ), but rather focus on the setup.

In my lab I have a Hyper-V Cluster running Windows Server “8” Beta in my datacenter site.

I also have a stand-alone Windows Server “8” running Hyper-V. Every server has running VMs on them, and should be ideal for a proof of concept.

Let`s start with our datacenter.

1.       In Failover Cluster Manager, right click Roles and configure roles

2.       Select Hyper-V Replica Broker

3.       Complete the wizard and type the required information like IP address and name for this object.

4.       Once this is done, you can see the Hyper-V Replica Broker alive and kicking in this particular cluster

5.       After the creation, right click the Hyper-V Replica Broker in Failover Cluster Manager and configure replication.

6.       For the sake of demonstration, I have selected Kerberos, port 80 and allow replication from every authenticated server (AD authentication via Kerberos), and specified the location on one of my Clustered Shared Volumes.

7.       Once this is done, you`d probably like to configure the firewall to allow communication on the dedicated port. I selected port 80 since this port is free and available in my environment for these cluster nodes, and allows communication using this simple line of command: netsh advfirewall firewall add rule name=”HVReplica” dir=in action=allow protocol=TCP localport=80

Remember to run this cmd on every node that is a part of this cluster. What? Of course you could use PowerShell as well, yes.

Next, we have to configure replication on the VMs we want to replicate to this Hyper-V cluster, on our stand-alone Hyper-V server. (Note: you can also configure the stand-alone Hyper-V server to receive replication too, but you do this in Hyper-V Manager on Hyper-V settings, and configure the same settings as in step 6 above.

1.       Right click the VM and click Enable Replication.

2.       Type the name of the Hyper-V Replica Broker you`ve created earlier

3.       Specify the connection parameters and if you want to compress the data that is transmitted over the network. The connection parameters should represent the initial configuration you entered during the setup of the replica broker.

4.       Select which virtual hard disks you want to replicate. In this example, this particular VM has only one virtual hard disk associated with it.

5.       Configure recovery history. If you have needs to have additional recovery points available (for example on your LOB applications that’s runs in a VM) you can configure it here. In addition, you can replicate incremental snapshot using the known VSS service and define the frequency these snapshots are taken.

6.       How would you start the initial replication? Either over the network or using external media. Since I`m several hundred miles from the actual datacenter and the branch office for instance, I will replicate this over the network. But it`s a good idea to use external media so you`re not overloading your network if this is a big VM or several VMs. You can also use existing VM on the replicate server as the initial copy if  you have restored a copy of this VM.

7.       Check the overview of the configuration and finish.

8.       If the communication is allowed and the configuration is completed in a sufficient manner, you`re good to go.

Follow this blog for part two.
Cheers.

Live Storage Migration in Windows Server "8" Hyper-V

Demonstrating one of the migration options in Hyper-V in Windows Server «8» Beta What a bunch of awesome new features that is available in this build.
This blog post will cover the Live Storage Migration.
Live storage migration allows you to migrate the storage of a VM (VHD and also the new VHDX) and the configuration files to be moved to new locations. And this will be performed live, while the VM is still running!

So basically, you can move it between SANs, SMB shares, DAS  and so on with no downtime.

The migration will copy every file (virtual hard disks, snapshots and configurations) and the VM will write and read to its destination during this process, and after the copy is completed, the VM will write to both locations (source and destination) while its copying the blocks that has been changed during the copy process. At last there is a clean-up process where the data is synced and the source is finally deleted.

1.       Right click on the VM in Hyper-V Manager (if your Hyper-V host is a node in a Hyper-V Cluster, you`ll get a message indicating that you have to use Failover Cluster Manager to perform this action. It`s a hard block by design, which is good!)

2.       Select Move the virtual machine`s storage and click next

3.       In this example, I`ll move every related file for this particular VM. But also notice you`re able to select files individually if you have special needs for not placing the files on same share/disk/LUN. This is a cheap lab environment and I have nothing to lose.

4.       Enter the location. In this example, I`ll move it to a network share, running on a Windows Server 2008 R2. Click next

5.       See the summary of the options you have specified and hit the finish button once you are ready

6.       The process has started

7.       And it`s done!