BetterTogether

Is AD integration or manual SCOM agents required to allow Automatic Windows Agent Failover between multiple SCOM 2012 Management Servers?

Meged Ezzat — Tue, 21 May 2013 12:54:58 GMT

Introduction:

I observed that some IT professionals confused about System Center Operations Manager (SCOM) 2012 windows agents failover requirements, and the raised question was do I need to configure SCOM Active Directory Integration or do manual agents implementation or use PowerShell to allow windows agents to do automatic failover between multiple SCOM management servers? or should I wait and delay SCOM agents deployment until deploying System Center Configuration Manager to deploy SCOM agents? and the simple answer is “No” need, and below you can find more details about from where confusion come and why you do not have to wait until AD integration or Configuration Manager be implemented to push SCOM windows agents, and how to verify that SCOM windows agents failover working properly.

Detailed Description:

First, confusion come because some documentation and blog posts shows how to distribute windows agents through SCOM management servers using AD integration or PowerShell Scripts to automate agents assignment through different SCOM management servers which is very good, however this is not mandatory specially for small environment that includes less than 100 windows agents, and the reason behind is that you can distribute the windows SCOM agents though the SCOM management servers while pushing the agents from SCOM management console, so simply you can select which management server will be the primary management server for agents that you are going to push right now as shown in below diagram that you can scroll down and select which management server will be the primary management server for agents that will be implemented within this wizard:

So the simplest way for small to medium windows servers environment is to push SCOM agents between the available management servers in the same management servers pool, so for example if you have two management servers automatically will be member in the same management servers pool then you can push 50% of agents to have SCOM management server-1 as their primary management server and then push the other 50% of agents to have SCOM management server-2 as their primary management server.

To verify windows agents failover between the different management servers simply you need to stop one of the management servers (disconnect from network or shutdown the management server) and check the Operations Manager event viewer in one of the managed computers by the stopped SCOM management server so you will see event ID 21006 as shown below telling you that there is a problem to connect to his management server.

If heart beat configuration kept with default value which is 60 seconds then another event ID 21015 will be generated as shown below telling you that OpsMgr was unable to set up a communications channel to the agent primary management server.

3 Seconds later you will see a new event ID 21017 will be generated as shown below telling you that OpsMgr has successfully failed over to the secondary management server

The good point here is that when the windows agent primary server come back running agent will fail back automatically to its primary management server.

Conclusion:

As a conclusion, SCOM windows agents automatic failover does not require AD integration or PowerShell scripting or Configuration Manager or manual agents installation specially for small to medium environment and agents distribution between different SCOM management servers can be accomplished through push agents wizard, and windows agents failover can be simply verified from event viewer.

Downsizing HMC Environment to Prepare for Exchange 2010 SP2 Hosted Solution – Part3

Meged Ezzat — Tue, 20 Nov 2012 15:09:21 GMT

As most of Hosted Messaging and Collaboration (HMC) companies start planning to migrate to Exchange 2010 SP2 hosted environment due to the change in strategy that was announced about the future of /hosting mode here, so most HMC customer have to move directly to Exchange 2010 SP2 in hosted mode as discussed here, and one of the activities come up to migrate from HMC to Exchange 2010 SP2 is Downsizing activity in the running HMC environment to utilize part of hardware to be reused in the new Exchange 2010 SP2 environment, and although it looks like a simple activity for some IT people but there are a lot of challenges that can be in some cases for some specific HMC components show stopper to continue the downsizing activity, in this post series I will share all my experience with HMC downsizing activity and explain how I deal with different challenges in this activity, in Part1 I covered the first step of HMC downsizing activity to select server roles that will be decommissioned, then covered most of preparations tasks in each of the selected roles, and in Part2 I went through the most critical step of preparing Mailboxes for decommissioning that include the bulk mailbox move script that move mailboxes by calling MPS, one of the important resource while working in this activity is Microsoft Provisioning System SDK that can be downloaded from here.

In this post I will finalize this post series by finalizing 2nd Step of preparations and both 3rd Step for decommissioning activity itself and 4th Step which is post decommissioning activity.

So let me start with final preparations steps as follow:

If you run <QueryAllStore.xml> and still find some organizations assigned to any mailstore, then you should troubleshoot and find if there is any object (OU, User, Mailbox) that was removed in Active Directory and still existing in MPS and this object still allocated to one of mailstore in MBX server that you target for decommission, to solve this issue which is not easy to resolve there are different scenarios as follows:
- Scenario1: If object was deleted by accident, then perform Active Directory Authoritative Restore as described here, and this option used only if the object deleted accidently.
- Scneario2: deleted object not needed any more, then perform Database cleanup and then recreate the user if needed, to clean up the database you will need to know the GUID of the deleted object and this data can be retrieve from MPS SQL “PlanManager” with select statement like <Use PlanManager SELECT * from Customers>, once you get the GUID then you will need to run “DeleteCustomerByGUID” xml request (using provtest.exe) to clean the MPS database from this object using the GUID you got using the SQL query..
Then you need to move the recovered mailbox from MBX server that is target for restore, and then to run <QueryAllStore.xml> again.

3rd Step: Now the environment should be ready for 3rd step which is the decommissioning or uninstall the selected server roles as listed in 1st step and it is recommended to do one more verification step before doing uninstall which is shutdown the target server role for certain amount of time and validate the the whole HMC solution still functional and provisioning still working without problems, then to uninstall role by role and give time between each one for testing and verify HMC environment functionality.

4th Step: which is the post decommissioning activities, and in this step you should use all available tools to verify the HMC functionality and solve any discovered issues (you need to confirm that there is an active Microsoft Support for the HMC environment that can be used in case you face any issue while decommissioning), as sample of these tools you can use the following:

Exchange Best Practices Analyzer
Exchange Connectivity Analyzer
OCS Connectivity Analyzer
Do some provisioning activities through the available control panel
Event Viewer
…

Hope that this post series can reducing the risk of downsizing activity and make it easier for consultant who will do the activity.

As a conclusion HMC downsizing activity need some planning and should be done carefully to avoid any risk that can affect the HMC production environment.

Part1: http://blogs.technet.com/b/meamcs/archive/2012/11/11/downsizing-hmc-environment-to-prepare-for-exchange-2010-sp2-hosted-solution-part1.aspx

Part2: http://blogs.technet.com/b/meamcs/archive/2012/11/12/downsizing-hmc-environment-to-prepare-for-exchange-2010-sp2-hosted-solution-part2.aspx

Part3: http://blogs.technet.com/b/meamcs/archive/2012/11/19/downsizing-hmc-environment-to-prepare-for-exchange-2010-sp2-hosted-solution-part3.aspx

Downsizing HMC Environment to Prepare for Exchange 2010 SP2 Hosted Solution – Part2

Meged Ezzat — Tue, 20 Nov 2012 15:08:00 GMT

In this post series I will share all my experience with HMC downsizing activity and explain how I deal with different challenges in this activity, in Part1 I covered the first step of HMC downsizing activity to select server roles that will be decommissioned, then covered most of preparations tasks in each of the selected roles.

In this post I will cover the preparations specific for Mailbox Role which is the most critical role of downsizing activity, and different preparations steps for Exchange MBX role can be divided as follows:

Validate that no Public folders in the selected MBX servers that are target for decommission or you will need to move public folder to another MBX server.
Verify which MBX server configured as Offline Address Book Server, OAB MBX server better to be excluded from MBX server list that are target for decommission or you have to move OAB from the target MBX server to another MBX server, to do this you can use “QueryAllServers.xml” that can be found under “Exchange 2007 OAB Resource Manager” folder, this query allow you to find which MBX Server configured as OAB Server
Verify which Business Organization (customers) allocated (in MPS Resource Manager) for which Exchange Mail Store, to do this verification you need to run “QueryOrganizationByMailstore.xml” that can be found under “Exchange 2007 Resource Manager” folder, new simple table can be created as below to list all Mailbox Servers, mailstores, and the allocated Organization per each mailstore, this table will be used in coming step after move mailboxes to verify that MBX servers that are target for decommission are not allocated for any organization any more (The good point is that you may find that some mailstores are empty and not allocated for any organization so you can easily delete these mailstores as per coming steps), you may need to stop provisioning new organization or new mailboxes at this stage to avoid creating new mailboxes on the mailstores that are target for decommission.

Mail Server

Mailstore

Organizations before Mailbox Move

After Mailbox Move

MBX01

MBX01-DB01

Org1.com
Org2.com
Org3.Net
…

…

MBX01-DB02

…

…

MBX02

MBX02-DB01

…

…

MBX02-DB02

…

…

…

…

…

…

Move Mailboxes from any mailstore in any of MBX server that is target for decommissioning, this mailboxes move should be done through MPS using PowerShell script, I used script described here as a base for the script I used as below after doing some tuning, and simply the script is read from CSV file the list of mailboxes that will be moved and call MPS to de-allocate resources for the moved mailboxes from original MBX mailstore and allocate it to the new MBX mailstore, and I remember here my college <Kip Ng> who help me fixing and tuning the script, the script I used is as below (You should note that there are some steps listed in the begging of the script and should be followed as a preparation steps before running the script), as a sample of generated CSV that script use is as follow:

PrimarySMTPAddress,TargetDB
Maged@Org1.net,MBXV01\MBXV01SG01\MBXV01SG01DB01
Kip@Org2.com,MBXV01\MBXV01SG01\MBXV01SG01DB01

And the used script is below:

# 1. Use the Exchange Management Shell to get the source server name with Get-ExchangeServer | Select Name
# 2. Use the Exchange Management Shell to populate the input CSV file with Get-MailboxDatabase | where {$_.ServerName.Contains("sourceservername") -eq "true"} | Get-Mailbox | Select PrimarySMTPAddress,Database | Export-Csv C:\Temp\MbxsToBeMoved.csv –NoTypeInformation
# 3. Change ‘Database’ field header to ‘TargetDB’
# 4. Modify database/targetdb field entries as required in the CSV
# 5. Change preferredDomainController in mailbox move script
# 6. Run mailbox move script:
# CSV Example:
# PrimarySMTPAddress,TargetDB
# bloggsj,mytargetservername
$path = "C:\MailboxMove\MbxsToBeMoved.csv";
Write-Host;
Write-Host "*******************";
Write-Host "Move Mailbox Script" -Foregroundcolor Blue -Backgroundcolor White;
Write-Host "*******************";
Write-Host;
Write-Host "A CSV is required (i.e. $path)"
$Ver1 = Read-Host "CONTINUE script execution? [Y] to continue or [ANY OTHER KEY] to exit"
if ($Ver1 -ne "Y")
{exit;
}
Write-Host;
Write-Host "Valid entries in CSV:" -Foregroundcolor Blue -Backgroundcolor White;
Write-Host;
Write-Host "PrimarySMTPAddress,TargetDB";
Import-csv -path $path |
foreach `
{
               $TDBs = Get-MailboxDatabase $_.TargetDB -ErrorVariable MyError -ErrorAction SilentlyContinue;
    $A = $_.PrimarySMTPAddress
               Write-Host "$A,$TDBS";
}
If ($MyError -ne $null)`
{
               Write-Host;
    Write-Host "*******";
               Write-Host "Error" -Foregroundcolor Red -Backgroundcolor White;
    Write-Host "*******";
    Write-Host "Invalid TargetDB in CSV. Script terminating..." -Foregroundcolor Blue -Backgroundcolor White;
    Write-Host "Error Description:" -Foregroundcolor Blue -Backgroundcolor White;
    $MyError;
    Write-Host;
               exit;
}
$Ver2 = Read-Host "CONTINUE moving ALL mailboxes in CSV? [Y] to continue or [ANY OTHER KEY] to exit"
if ($Ver2 -ne "Y")
{exit;
}
Function SendMPSRequest([string]$xmlRequestStr)
{
$oMpf = new-object -comobject "Provisioning.ProvEngineClient"
$xmlResponseStr = $oMPF.SubmitTrustedRequest($xmlRequest.get_InnerXml());
$xmlResponse = new-object "System.Xml.XmlDocument";
$xmlResponse.LoadXml($xmlResponseStr);
$xmlResponse;
}
[string]$xmlRequestStr = @"
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<request>
<data>
    <preferredDomainController>ad01.HMC.Local</preferredDomainController>
    <user>CSVPopulated</user>
    <targetDatabase>CSVPopulated</targetDatabase>
</data>
<procedure>
    <execute namespace="Hosted Email 2007" procedure="MoveMailbox" impersonate="1">
      <before source="data" destination="executeData" mode="merge" />
      <after source="executeData" destination="data" mode="merge" />
    </execute>
</procedure>
</request>
"@
[string]$excXmlStr = @"
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
"@
Write-Host
Write-Host "Starting procedure..." -Foregroundcolor Blue -Backgroundcolor White;
Write-Host
$CSV = Import-csv -path $path
Foreach ($line in $CSV)`
{
    $mailbox = Get-Mailbox $line.PrimarySMTPAddress | Select PrimarySMTPAddress, DistinguishedName;
Write-Host $line.PrimarySMTPAddress
Write-Host $mailbox
    $userName = $mailbox.SameAccountName;
    $userDN = $mailbox.DistinguishedName;
    $TDB = $line.TargetDB
    Write-Host "Moving $userName to $TDB..." -ForegroundColor White
    Write-Host
    $xmlRequest = new-object "System.Xml.XmlDocument";
    $xmlRequest.LoadXml($xmlRequestStr);
    $xmlRequest.request.data.user = "LDAP://" + $userDN;

Write-Host $userDN;

    $xmlRequest.request.data.targetDatabase = $TDB;
    $xmlResponse = $null;
    $xmlResponse = SendMPSRequest($xmlRequestStr.ToString());
        if ($xmlResponse.Response.Data.User -ne $null)`
        {
            $MPSUser = New-Object System.Object;
            $MPSUser | Add-Member -Type NoteProperty -Name "DistinguishedName" -Value $userDN;
            $MPSUser | Add-Member -Type NoteProperty -Name "User" -Value $xmlResponse.Response.Data.user;
            $MPSUser | Add-Member -Type NoteProperty -Name "TargetDB" -Value $xmlResponse.Response.Data.targetDatabase;
            $MPSUser | FL;
        }
}
Write-Host;
Write-Host "********************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************";
Write-Host "Script execution complete. In pre-HMC4.0 Hosted Exchange Update Rollup 5 environments, please remember to run the Managed Email 2007::RepairExchangeObject procedure on all mailboxes moved." -Foregroundcolor Blue -Backgroundcolor White;
Write-Host "********************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************";
Write-Host;

After successfully move all Mailboxes from target MBX Server/s to different MBX Server/s then you need to run step 3 again and complete the last column to be sure that mailstores in target MBX Servers are empty and not assigned for any organization.
Now you can remove the empty mailstores (after moving mailboxes and verifying that these mailstores are not allocated for any organization), this by running “RemoveExchangeResource.xml” under “Exchange Resource Manager” folder in MPS Engine Server.
Then you can run “QueryAllStore.xml” to verify that all mailstores in target MBX server/s were removed from MPS Resource Manager.

In the next post I will cover 3rd and 4th steps for downsizing activity, this will be coming soon, so be tuned.

As a conclusion HMC downsizing activity need some planning and should be done carefully to avoid any risk that can affect the HMC production environment.

Part1: http://blogs.technet.com/b/meamcs/archive/2012/11/11/downsizing-hmc-environment-to-prepare-for-exchange-2010-sp2-hosted-solution-part1.aspx

Part2: http://blogs.technet.com/b/meamcs/archive/2012/11/12/downsizing-hmc-environment-to-prepare-for-exchange-2010-sp2-hosted-solution-part2.aspx

Part3: http://blogs.technet.com/b/meamcs/archive/2012/11/19/downsizing-hmc-environment-to-prepare-for-exchange-2010-sp2-hosted-solution-part3.aspx

Downsizing HMC Environment to Prepare for Exchange 2010 SP2 Hosted Solution – Part1

Meged Ezzat — Tue, 13 Nov 2012 19:48:00 GMT

In this post series I will share all my experience with HMC downsizing activity and explain how I deal with different challenges I found in downsizing HMC.

First step of this activity is to carefully plan for the whole downsizing activity and to chose which HMC components that will be decommissioned from the running HMC solution without affect the whole HMC solution functionality, considering the current load and utilization of each role, below is different selected roles and the reason behind the selection:
- Exchange Edge Servers – consider keeping minimum 2 Exchange Edge Servers for load balancing and keep Exchange Edge high available
- OCS Edge Servers - consider keeping minimum 2 Edge Servers for load balancing and keep OCS Edge high available
- TMG Servers - consider keeping minimum 2 TMG Servers for load balancing and keep TMG high available
- Exchange Hub Servers - consider keeping minimum 2 Exchange Hub Servers for load balancing and keep Exchange Hub high available
- Exchange CAS Servers - consider keeping minimum 2 Exchange CAS Servers for load balancing and keep Exchange CAS high available
- OCS Archive and Monitoring Server – consider that you are going to lost OCS Archiving feature which is optional in HMC environment, if not then you should keep it.
- OCS Front End Servers - consider keeping minimum 2 OCS Front End Servers for load balancing and keep OCS Front End high available
- OCS Web Access Servers - consider keeping minimum 2 OCS Web Access Servers for load balancing and keep OCS Web Access high available
- Provisioning Front End Servers - consider keeping minimum 2 Provisioning Front End Servers for load balancing and keep Provisioning Front End high available
- Active Directory Domain Controllers - consider keeping minimum 2 Domain Controllers for load balancing and keep Directory Service high available
- Exchange Mailbox Servers – Considering keeping minimum 2 Exchange MBX Servers for in Cluster (2 CCR nodes or 2 Active/Passive SCC nodes) and keep Exchange MBX high available, and this is the most critical components in downsizing activity because of Microsoft Provisioning System (MPS) Resource Manager dependencies on Exchange MBX resources.
Second step is the preparation for decommission of each server role, and preparations is something that should be done for each role target for decommission as following:
- Exchange Edge Servers – for Exchange Edge decommissioning you will need to remove edge servers that are target for decommission from Edge Subscription from Exchange Hub as described here, then to delete Edge subscription form each Edge Server that will be decommissioned as described here, this beside the important step to remove the decommissioned Exchange Edge Server from the list of Edge Servers in Load Balancer (Load Balancer may need to be refreshed and disconnect all current sessions) or in External DNS.
- OCS Edge Servers – for OCS Edge decommissioning simply you will need to remove OCS Edge from Load Balancer (Load Balancer may need to be refreshed and disconnect all current sessions), and update OCS configuration from OCS front end by removing the decommissioned OCS Edge Server.
- TMG Servers – for TMG you should take care about removing TMG Servers that are target for decommission from the existing TMG array and to remove the decommissioned TMG Servers from any computers sets and/or access rules.
- Exchange Hub Servers – for Exchange Hub you should consider removing Exchange Hub Server that are target for decommission from Load Balancer (if any Load Balancing configuration done for internal application SMTP relay), and to update all Send and Receive Connectors to not include these Exchange Hub Servers.
- Exchange CAS Servers– for Exchange CAS you should consider removing Exchange CAS Servers that are target for decommission from computer sets in TMG configuration, then to remove it from Load Balancer (Load Balancer may need to be refreshed and disconnect all current sessions), then you need to remove CAS Servers that are target for decommission from Offline Address Book Servers list that were added by “AddOABCAS.xml” [<installdir>:\Program Files\Microsoft Hosting\Provisioning\Samples\Managed Email 2007] from MPS using the following procedure:
  1. Use GetOABCASPoolDefault.xml to get the CAS Pool Name
  
  2. Use Get OABCAS.xml to know which CAS servers are member in CAS Pool for OAB
  
  3. Use DeleteOABCAS.xml to delete CAS that will be decommissioned
  
  And one of the best practices for CAS decommissioning in HMC environment is to shutdown CAS Servers that will be decommissioned for a certain time and check that everything in the HMC environment is working good
- OCS Archive and Monitoring Server – for OCS Archive and/or Monitoring Server all you should take care about is to uncheck the option to Enable Archive and/or Enable monitoring from OCS Front End Server
- OCS Front End Servers – for OCS Front End Servers you need to remove all Front End Servers that are target for decommission from Load Balancer, and update OCS configuration to not include the decommissioned OCS Front End Servers in list of Front End Servers from OCS Front End and from OCS Edge Servers
- OCS Web Access Servers - for OCS Web Access Servers you need to remove all Web Access Servers that are target for decommission from Load Balancer, and to deactivate Web Access Server follow Microsoft Documentation here
- Provisioning Front End Servers – for provisioning front end servers decommissioning, you should consider removing front end servers that are target for decommission from load balancer
- Active Directory Domain Controllers – for Active Directory Domain Controllers it is very important to move FSMO roles from all Domain Controllers that are target for decommission, also to remove these Domain Controllers from list or preferred Domain Controllers in Control Panel (If this was configured in Control Panel)
- Exchange Mailbox Servers - for Exchange Mailbox Servers decommissioning a lot of preparations should be done carefully, this will include steps to update the MPS resource manager before moving or deleting any objects considering Moving Mailboxes using script that should de-allocate Organization assignment from each Mailbox Store then allocate the Organization assignment to the target Mailbox Store then to move the Mailbox to different Mailbox Store I will share the correct script to be used for this critical step, and this will be discussed later in different post of this post series.
Third step is the decommissioning activities itself specially, and this will be discussed later in different post of this post series.
Fourth and last step is the post decommissioning activities, and this will be discussed later in different post of this post series.

In the next post I will continue with the decommissioning preparation activities related to MBX server role and MPS activity related to it, followed by 3rd and 4th steps for downsizing activity, this will be coming soon be tuned.

As a conclusion HMC downsizing activity need some planning and should be done carefully to avoid any risk that can affect the HMC production environment.

Part1: http://blogs.technet.com/b/meamcs/archive/2012/11/11/downsizing-hmc-environment-to-prepare-for-exchange-2010-sp2-hosted-solution-part1.aspx

Part2: http://blogs.technet.com/b/meamcs/archive/2012/11/12/downsizing-hmc-environment-to-prepare-for-exchange-2010-sp2-hosted-solution-part2.aspx

Part3: http://blogs.technet.com/b/meamcs/archive/2012/11/19/downsizing-hmc-environment-to-prepare-for-exchange-2010-sp2-hosted-solution-part3.aspx

Windows Server 2012 – Part3: Virtualization Enhancements “Mobility”– Hyper-V Replica

Meged Ezzat — Tue, 07 Aug 2012 12:30:57 GMT

In this post series I started here with a release date announced in Windows Server Blog (by the way it was announced yesterday (1st of August) that Windows Server 2012 is RTM today), then I start highlighting the main areas of enhancements that I will focus on in this series starting from Virtualization Enhancements started from scalability & flexibility and shown how to host Virtual Machine on Windows Server 2010 file server here.

Today I am going to move to different area which is Hyper-V Mobility, and will cover one of my favorite features in Windows Server 2012 which is Hyper-V Replica, Hyper-V Replica is new functionality added to the Hyper-V Role in Windows Server 2012 that allow virtual machines running on a host or cluster in a primary site to be replicated to a server or cluster in secondary site using available network bandwidth. Hyper-V Replica replication is efficient, periodic, and asynchronous over IP-based networks and allows a system administrator, in the event of a failure at a primary site (e.g. disaster, server failure, etc.), to execute a failover of production workloads to replica servers at a secondary location within a very short time, let me show you how to configure Hyper-V Replica.

Consider that you have a very simple Hyper-V environment consists of consists of one Domain Controller “DC” and two Hyper-V Hosts “HV1” & “HV2” in the same Active Directory Domain “contoso.com”, and the high level steps to configure and test Hyper-V Replica are as follows:

Configure the Firewall to allow Hyper-V Replication.
Create Virtual Network and a Virtual Machine to Replicate.
Configure Hyper-V Replication Settings on the two Hosts HV1 & HV2.
Configure Guest IP Injection.
Test Failover (Planned and Unplanned).
View Replication Status Health.

Let us start showing you how it is easy to configure and test this amazing feature .

Configure the Firewall to Allow Hyper-V Replication

On HV1 login as Domain Administrator and click Server Manager.
From Tools menu click Windows Firewall with Advanced Security.

In the Console Tree pane, click Inbound Rules.
Right-click the Hyper-V replica HTTP listener (TCP-In) rule, and the click Enable Rule, and close the Windows Firewall with Advanced Security console.

Switch to HV2, and repeat the same above steps.

Create Virtual Network and a Virtual Machine to Replicate

On DC login as Domain Administrator and click Server Manager.
On the Tools menu, click Hyper-V Manager.
In the Console Tree pane, right-click Hyper-V Manager, and then click Connect to Server, and in Another computer, type HV1, and then click Virtual Switch Manager.
Ensure External is selected, and then click Create Virtual Switch.
In Name, Type TestNet, and then click Ok, and in Apply Networking Changes dialog box, click Yes.

Repeat steps above using HV2 as target server to create a virtual network on HV2.
Then from Hyper-V Manager create new virtual machine and name it TestVM.

Configure Hyper-V Replication Settings on the two Hosts HV1 & HV2:

On DC, in the Hyper-V Management console, in the console tree pane, click HV1.
Right-click TestVM, and click Enable Replication, and click Next.

On the Specify Replica page, type HV2.contoso.com, and then click Next, and you should expect error stating that the specified Replica server is not configured to receive replication from this server.

Click Configure Server to configure HV2 as replica server.
On the Hyper-V Settings for HV2 page, check the Enable this computer as a Replica server check box.
In the Authentication and Ports section, check the Use Kerberos (HTTP) check box, and then ensure the port is 80.
In the Authentication and storage section, click Allow replication from any authenticated server, and click Ok.

On the Specify Server page, ensure hv2.contoso.com is in the Replica server field, and click Next.
On the Connection Parameters page, ensure the replica server is hv2.contoso.com, the Replica server port is 80, and Use Kerberos authentication (HTTP) is selected, and also ensure that the Compress the data that is transmitted over the network check box is checked, and click Next.

On the Choose Replication VHDs page, ensure that C:\Users\Public\Documents\Hyper-V\Virtual Hard Disks\TestVM.vhdx check box is checked, and click Next, and then click Next on the Configure Recovery History page.
On the Choose Initial Replication Method page, select to Send initial copy over the network and Start replication immediately, then click Finish.
Now from Hyper-V console right-click HV1, and then click Hyper-V Settings.
In the Hyper-V Settings for HV1 windows, click Replication Configuration.
Check the Enable this computer as a Replica server check box.
In Authentication and Ports section, check the User Kerberos (HTTP) check box, and ensure that the port is 80.
In the Authentication and storage section, click Allow replication from any authenticated server, and then click Ok.

Configure Guest IP Injection:

Let me explain more why we need guest IP Injection, when a virtual machine is replicated from a primary server to a replica server, all the machine properties, including its IP address, are replicated. Hyper-V allows an administrator to place a new IP address on the replica of the virtual machine so that when it starts, it is configured with an IP address suitable to the network where the replica server is located.

On DC login as Domain Administrator, and in the Hyper-V Manager console, in the Console Tree pane, click HV2.
In the Details pane, right-click TestVM, and then click Settings.
Click Network Adapter, and the expand it.
Click Failover TCP/IP, and in IPV4 settings area, check the User the following IPv4 address schema for the virtual machine check box.
Configure the address from IP range same as Replica Server HV2 range, and click Apply.

Under the Network Adapter, click Test Failover.
In the Virtual Switch drop-down menu, click TestNet, and click Ok.

Test Failover (Planned and Unplanned):

Hyper-V allows an administrator to test whether or not a virtual machine is successfully replicating by starting it on the replica server. The test is done by starting the virtual machine on a replica server and ensuring a successful start. In the test, the virtual machine does not connect to the network; therefore it will not interfere with the original virtual machine running on the primary server. In addition, replication from the primary server to the replica server is not interrupted.

On DC login as Domain Administrator.
In the Hyper-V Manager console, in the Console Tree pane, click HV2.
In the details pane, right-click TestVM, click Replication, and then click Test Failover.

In the Test Failover dialog box, click Test Failover.

Notice that in the Hyper-V details window, a new virtual machine named TestVM-Test is displayed.

In the Hyper-V Manager console, right-click TestVM, click Replication, click Stop Test Failover, and then in the Stop Test Failover dialog box, click Stop Test Failover.

And to execute a planned failover such as during hardware upgrades or during a planned disaster recover test follow the below steps:

On DC, in Hyper-V Manager console, in the Console Tree pane, click HV1.
In the Details pane, right-click TestVM, click Replication, and then click Planned Failover, and click Failover.

Wait for the Planned Failover dialog box to appear indicating a failover.

In the Planned Failover dialog box, click Close.
In Hyper-V Manager console, in the Console Tree pane, click HV2, and note that HV2 is now the primary server and HV1 is now the replica server for the TestVM.

And now let us simulate unplanned failover, something that can happened if primary datacenter failed.

On DC, in the Hyper-V Manager console, in the Console Tree pane, click HV2.
In the details pane, right-click TestVM, and click Shut Down., and wait until the virtual machine completely shuts down.
In the Hyper-V Manager console, in the Console Tree pane, click HV1.
In the Details pane, right-click TestVM, click Replication, and then click Failover.

In the Failover dialog box, click Fail Over, and you should note that HV2.contoso.com become the current Primary Server for TestVM.

In the Hyper-V Manager console, right-click TestVM, click Replication, and then click Reverse Replication.

In the Reverse Replication Wizard for TestVM, click Next.
On the Specify Replica page, ensure that the replica server failed contains HV2.contoso.com.
Click Next four times, accepting the default values on each page in the wizard, and then click Finish.
In the Reverse Replication Wizard for TestVM, click Close, and note that now HV1 is the primary server and HV2 is replica server for the TestVM.

View Status Replication Health:

Hyper-V Replication provides information as to the status and health of the replicated virtual machines, in this step we will determine the replication health of a virtual machine, and then we will determine the primary and replica servers for a virtual machine.

Determine the replication health of a virtual machine:

In Hyper-V Manager console, in the Console Tree pane, click HV1.
In the Details pane, in the Virtual Machine pane, right-click any of the column headers, for example, Name, State, CPU Usage, etc., and then click Add/Remove Column.
In the Available Columns list, click Replication Health, and then click Add, and click Ok.
Adjust the column sizes so as to view the Replication Health column in the window.
In the Details pane, right-click TestVM, click Replication, and then click View Replication Health.

Review the information found in the Replication Health window, and then click Close.

I did not decide yet about what I am going to cover in the next post, but almost I will keep digging into Virtualization Enhancements specially Mobility area that has a lot of new good features and capabilities that put Microsoft Hyper-V Virtualization Platform on top of Virtualization technologies, stay tuned, get ready, get excited.

Related Posts:

Windows Server 2012 – Part1: Release Date can be found here http://blogs.technet.com/b/meamcs/archive/2012/07/10/windows-server-2012-part1-release-date.aspx
Windows Server 2012 – Part2: Virtualization Enhancements “Scalability & Flexibility” shows how to host Virtual Machine on Windows Server 2010 file server can be found here http://blogs.technet.com/b/meamcs/archive/2012/07/19/windows-server-2012-part2-virtualization-enhancements-scalability-amp-flexibility.aspx

Windows Server 2012 – Part2: Virtualization Enhancements “Scalability & Flexibility”

Meged Ezzat — Sat, 21 Jul 2012 20:40:34 GMT

In this post series I started here http://blogs.technet.com/b/meamcs/archive/2012/07/10/windows-server-2012-part1-release-date.aspx with a release date announced in Windows Server Blog and highlighted the main areas of enhancements that I will focus on in this series starting from Virtualization Enhancements that will take more than one post to cover it, so let me start directly with Windows Server 2012 Virtualization Scalability Enhancements, table below shows how scalability improved in Windows Server 2012:

Note that these numbers have changed with every public preview of Windows Server so they may change again for RTM.

As you can see above that is a very major change in virtualization scalability compared to Windows 2008 R2 that put Microsoft Virtualization on top of all virtualization platform in the market, one of the main scalability point is number of virtual CPUs per Virtual Machine than can be up to 64 CPUs per Virtual Machine in Windows Server 2012.

Then if we move to Windows Server 2012 Virtualization Flexibility Enhancements I will start with different choices to select where virtual machine can be hosted on one of the following options:

iSCSI storage, including the iSCSI target software now bundled as part of Windows Server 2012.
Fiber Channel SAN connectivity.
SMB 3.0, You can now host your VMs on a Windows Server 2012 file server running SMB 3.0 protocol.

To describe more how to host Virtual Machine on Windows Server 2010 file server, simply all you will need is to create a shared folder on Windows Server 2012 file server cluster and give the Hyper-V Server computer name a full control on the shared folder, then while creating a new virtual machine select to host the virtual machine and its virtual hard disk on the file server shared folder, in the below example file server SMB based virtual machine is hosted on high available file server cluster then we can transfer the cluster file share containing virtual machines to another cluster node and this should not affect the running virtual machine which mean virtual machine should not experience any downtime or services interruption, for more details about how to simulate this scenario follow the below steps:

Create File Server Cluster:
- Assume that Windows Server 2012 two nodes cluster is already installed and cluster name is “Cluster.contoso.com”, then the next step is to add “File Server” role from Failover Cluster Manager.

Select “Scale-Out File Server for Application Data” File Server Type, click next and give a name for file cluster “e.g. ClusterFS”, and then finish the file server cluster creation.

Then in Failover Cluster Manager, you can expand “Storage” and click “Disks” and select one of the available disks and click to “Add to Cluster Shared Volumes” note that CSV technology has been extended to include other cluster roles such as file servers.

Creating the shared folder:
- This step to be done from Failover Cluster Manager after click on Roles, then right click on “ClusterFS” and select to “Add File Share”, (you may need to wait or to run IPConfig /Flushdns from PowerShell).
- Select “SMB Share – Application” as a profile for the share, and click Next.
- Click “C:\ClusterStorage\Volume1” as a shared location, and click Next.
- In Shared Name, type VMStore, and Click Next twice.
- Click “Customize Permissions”, and “Add”, then “Select a principal”.
- Click “Object Types”, and select “Computers”, and then click Ok.
- Type HV1 (which is Hyper-V Server Name), and then click Ok, and in Permissions, click Full Control., and click Ok.
- Click Share tab, and Allow Everyone, and then verify the access is Full Control, and click Ok, then Next.
- Click Create, and then click Close.
Configure Delegation:
- From “Server Manager” open “Active Directory Users and Computers”, and navigate to “Computers”.
- Click HV1, and open properties, then from Delegation tab, click “Trust this computer for delegation to any service (Kerberos only)”.
- Click Ok, and the Restart HV1 Hyper-V Server (This can be done using PowerShell: “Restart-Computer HV1 –Force”), then wait for server restart.
Create an SMB-based Virtual Machine:
- From “Hyper-V Manager”, select HV1, and click “New”, then “Virtual Machine”, and click Next.
- In Name, type SMB-VM01, and check “Store the virtual machine in a different location”, and the in location, type “\\clusterfs\vmstore”, and click Next.
- Type the desired startup memory, and check “User Dynamic memory for this virtual machine”, and then click Next triple times, and the click Finish.
Validate Failover of clustered SMB-Based Virtual Machine:
- From “Server Manager”, on Tools menu click “Failover Cluster Manager”, and then click “Cluster.contoso.com”.
- Click “Roles”, and then click “ClusterFS”.
- In the Action pane, click “Move”, and then click “Select Node”, note the selected node, and then click Ok.
- Note that the running virtual machine will keep running while storage have been transferred without the virtual machine being interrupted.

Note: Hosting Virtual Machine on Cluster File Server is not mean that virtual machine itself is become highly available, and you still need to have Hyper-V cluster to provide high availability for virtual machines.

In the coming post I will continue in Windows Server 2012 Virtualization enhancement and will cover a very good feature which is Hyper-V Replication which is considered a new virtualization feature and high availability feature in Windows Server 2012 on level of virtualization, So be tuned.

Related Posts:

Windows Server 2012 – Part1: Release Date can be found here http://blogs.technet.com/b/meamcs/archive/2012/07/10/windows-server-2012-part1-release-date.aspx

Windows Server 2012 – Part1: Release Date

Meged Ezzat — Tue, 17 Jul 2012 04:34:29 GMT

I was so excited when I read today that Windows Server 2012 Release Date (RTM version) is the first week of August 2012 and the product will be generally available to customers worldwide in September 2012 as clearly announced in Windows Server Blog here http://blogs.technet.com/b/windowsserver/archive/2012/07/09/windows-server-2012-final-release-timing.aspx and for sure you still able to download Release Candidate (RC) version from here http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/evalcenter/hh670538.aspx?ocid&wt.mc_id=TEC_108_1_33 , so I decided to start a series of blog posts to in details the new powerful features in Windows 2012 that will continue putting Microsoft on the top of Servers Operating Systems, mainly I will focus in specific areas like:

Virtualization – With Windows Server 2012 Hyper-V virtualization role, Windows Server 2012 can help increase any IT environment server scalability and performance and provide better connectivity to cloud services.
Storage – Windows Server 2012 has a strong focus on storage from the foundation of the storage stack up with improvements in how storage is stored and provisioned.
Clustering and Availability – Windows Server 2012 has a strong focus on availability in how data is clustered and transferred across the network, and how that data is accessed and managed. With capabilities flexible enough to combine in different ways.

You will enjoy enhancements done in these areas in Windows Server 2012.

So be tuned for coming posts that will cover in details the above areas as part of this post series.

Complete Post series can be found here http://blogs.technet.com/b/meamcs/archive/2012/07/10/windows-server-2012-part1-release-date.aspx.

Microsoft Private Cloud Videos

Meged Ezzat — Tue, 24 Jan 2012 21:10:22 GMT

These are a group of new Microsoft Private Cloud Videos:

Video: Thought Leadership Series – Enabling Private Cloud

Garth Fort talks about why you should consider converting your current datacenter infrastructure into a private cloud fabric.

Video: Thought Leadership Series – All about the App

Garth Fort talks about Microsoft’s unique philosophy around managing apps and highlights some of the compelling app management capabilities in System Center 2012.

Video: System Center 2012 Application Management Overview
Anant Sundaram, a Senior Product Manager, talks about the importance of application management in the private cloud and virtualized datacenter.

Video: System Center 2012 Infrastructure Management Overview
David Mills, a Senior Product Manager, talks about the importance of infrastructure management in the private cloud and virtualized datacenter.

Video: Deploying the Fabric with Virtual Machine Manager 2012
Kenon Owens, a Product Manager, talks about some of the new deployment and configuration features in VMM 2012.

Official Press Release

Microsoft Brings the Cloud Down to Earth for Enterprises

Use MVA

MVA: Configuring and deploying Microsoft’s private cloud

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Free Microsoft Private Cloud Training: http://blogs.technet.com/b/meamcs/archive/2012/01/23/free-microsoft-private-cloud-training.aspx

Free Microsoft Private Cloud Training

Meged Ezzat — Tue, 24 Jan 2012 21:08:00 GMT

On February 21 & 22 Microsoft Learning is running a 2-day virtual training event to help the world learn about the upcoming enhancements with the Creating & Managing a Private Cloud with System Center 2012 Jump Start. It is 100% free and open to the public, so register now! Sign up today.

Event Overview

Adopting this exciting new computing paradigm provides a whole new landscape of technology and career direction for IT professionals. Microsoft Learning and the Microsoft System Center 2012 team have partnered to bring you an exciting opportunity to learn what you need to know to deploy, manage and maintain Microsoft’s private cloud solution. Leveraging the popular Jump Start virtual classroom approach, the industry’s most gifted cloud experts will show attendees why this new private cloud solution, based on System Center 2012 and Windows Server, has garnered so much attention. Presenters include Symon Perriman, Sean Christensen, Adam Hall, Kenon Owens, Prabu Rambadran & Chris Van Wesep and there will be a live Q&A during the event.

Event Agenda

Day 1: Deployment & Configuration (Feb. 21)

Part 1: Understanding the Microsoft Private Cloud
Part 2: Deploying the Infrastructure Components
Part 3: Deploying the Private Cloud Infrastructure
Part 4: Deploying the Service Layer
Part 5: Deploying the Applications & VMs

Day 2: Management & Operations (Feb. 22)

Part 6: Managing the Infrastructure Components
Part 7: Managing the Private Cloud Infrastructure
Part 8: Managing the Service Layer
Part 9: Managing the Applications & VMs

Jump Start Overview

This accelerated Jump Start sponsored by Microsoft Learning is tailored for IT professionals familiar with Windows Server technologies, Hyper-V virtualization, and the System Center management solutions. The course is designed to provide a fast-paced and technical understanding of how and why Microsoft’s approach to the private cloud delivers scalability, security, flexibility and control.

Here are few unique benefits of this course:

Students have the opportunity to learn from and interact with the industry’s best cloud technologists!
This high-energy, demo-rich learning experience will help IT Professionals understand why Microsoft private cloud solutions are making a splash in the industry.
Students will see with their own eyes how Windows Server 2008 R2 and System Center 2012 work together to provide the best combination of security and scale.
Information-packed agenda! Day one of this two-day online course will focus on designing and deploying the right solutions for your organization, while day two will provide an in-depth look at the tools available to help monitor, secure and control the operational aspects of a private cloud.

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Microsoft Private Cloud Videos: http://blogs.technet.com/b/meamcs/archive/2012/01/23/microsoft-private-cloud-videos.aspx

Orchestrator 2012 Deployment & Configuration Step by Step – Part 5 “Integration Pack”

Meged Ezzat — Sun, 20 Nov 2011 22:12:02 GMT

In this post series I will go through Microsoft System Center Orchestrator 2012 Deployment and Configuration in Step by Step format with screenshots, and will go into details of the product to help you better understand how you can get benefits from this powerful product.

In this post I will go through Integration Pack to better understand the concept and know how to Download, Import and use Integration Packs in Orchestrator 2012, again we still working with RC version which is subject to change in the next release.

What is Integration Pack (IP):

System Center 2012 - Orchestrator includes over 41 built-in workflow standard activities that perform a wide variety of functions. You can expand Orchestrator’s functionality and ability to integrate with other Microsoft and third-party platforms and products by installing integration packs. Integration packs for Orchestrator contain additional activities that extend the functionality of Orchestrator.

You can download integration packs from the Microsoft Download Center. Each integration pack has a guide that provides installation instructions, describes any known issues, and includes reference information for all of the activities supported by the integration pack.

Microsoft provides integration packs for all of the System Center products, as well as other Microsoft and third party products and technologies.

The following integration packs are available:

IBM Tivoli Netcool/OMNIbus Integration Pack for System Center 2012 - Orchestrator Release Candidate

VMware vSphere Integration Pack for System Center 2012 - Orchestrator Release Candidate

Integration Pack for System Center Configuration Manager

Integration Pack for System Center Data Protection Manager

Integration Pack for System Center Operations Manager

Integration Pack for System Center Service Manager

Integration Pack for System Center Virtual Machine Manager

Important Note:

Integration Packs for Orchestrator 2012 still not ready and will be released when Orchestrator 2012 RTM release very soon, expected to release before end of this year, however you you can download prerelease IPs from here http://www.microsoft.com/download/en/details.aspx?id=27842, and each Integration Pack has it’s own required configuration and in the below example I will focus in Virtual Machine Manager 2008 R2 Integration Pack as an example.

Register and Deploy Integration Pack:

Step	Description	Screenshot
1	Copy the Virtual_Machine_Manager_2008_R2_Integration Pack.oip integration pack file to the location of your choice on the runbook server that the Orchestrator is running..
2	Click Start, point to All Programs, point to Microsoft System Center 2012, and then click Orchestrator. Right-click Deployment Manager, and then click Run as Administrator
3	In the left pane of the Deployment Manager, expand Management Server. Right-click Integration Packs, and then select Register IP with the Management Server. The Integration Pack Registration Wizard opens. Click Next.
4	In the Integration Pack or Hotfix Selection window, click Add. Locate and select the IP_SystemCenterVirtualMachineManager_1.0.oip file that you copied in step 1. Click Open, then click Next.
5	In the Completing the Integration Pack Wizard dialog box, click Finish. The End User Agreement dialog box appears. Click Accept. The Log Entries pane displays a confirmation message when the integration pack is successfully registered.
6	In the left pane of Deployment Manager, right-click Integration Packs, and then select Deploy IP to Action Server or Client. Click Next for the welcome page and then select Virtual Machine Manager 2008R2 Integration Pack, and then click Next.
7	Enter the name of a runbook server or a computer with Runbook Designer installed, on which you want to deploy the integration pack, click Add, and then click Next.
8	In the Installation Options dialog box, select the options that apply to this deployment, and then click Next.
9	To choose a time to deploy the integration pack, select Schedule installation check box, and then select the time and date from the Perform installation list box.
10	Select one of the following: a. Stop all running runbooks before installing the integration pack to stop all running runbooks before deploying the integration pack. b. Install the Integration Packs without stopping the running Runbooks to install the integration pack without stopping any running runbooks, then click Next.
11	In the Completing Integration Pack Deployment Wizard dialog box, click Finish.
12	When the integration pack is deployed, the Log Entries dialog displays a confirmation message. Note: because we configured a deployment schedule for the integration pack, so to verify that the deployment occurred check the event logs after the schedule time has passed.

Common Issues to consider when use VMM R2 Integration Pack:

Ensure that WinRM quickconfig is running on VMM Server to allow remote management.
Set PowerShell ExecutionPolicy Settings on the VMM sever to RemoteSigned.
Install the VMM Admin console on Orchestrator server, so the VMM PowerShell snap-in be available.

Confirm the Windows Management Framework prerequisites

Confirm that you have Windows PowerShell 2.0 installed on the Orchestrator server, and on the Virtual Machine Manager server. One way to do this is to open Registry Editor. Expand the HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\PowerShell\1\PowerShellEngine subkey. Confirm that the value of the Runtime Version entry begins with v2.0. If this value begins with 1.0, or the subkey is not present, install Windows PowerShell 2.0 using the instructions in article 96829 in the Microsoft Knowledge Base (http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?linkID=193574).
Confirm that you have Windows Remote Management 2.0 (WinRM 2.0) installed and configured on the Orchestrator server, and on the Virtual Machine Manager server. One way to confirm your configuration is in the Local Group Policy Editor.
For more information about how to install and configure WinRM 2.0, see Installation and Configuration for Windows Remote Management (http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?linkID=171111).

Enable Windows Remote Management Trusted Hosts:

Step	Description	Screenshot
1	On the Orchestrator server, open the Local Group Policy Editor. To do this click Start, click Run, type gpedit.msc, and then click OK.
2	In the Local Group Policy Editor, under Local Computer Policy, expand Administrative Templates, expand Windows Components, expand Windows Remote Management, expand WinRM Client, and then double-click Trusted Hosts
3	On the Setting tab, click Enabled. Add the name or IP address of the Virtual Machine Manager Server to the Trusted Hosts list. Click OK.

Set the execution policy in Windows PowerShell:

The execution policy in Windows PowerShell determines which scripts must be digitally signed before they will run. By default, the execution policy is set to Restricted. This prohibits loading any configuration files or running any scripts.

To run the scripts in this integration pack, you must set the execution policy to RemoteSigned. Use the following command: <System Drive>:\PS>set-executionpolicy remotesigned. For more information abouthow to configure the Windows PowerShell execution policy, see Set-ExecutionPolicy in the Microsoft TechNet Library (http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?linkID=113394) .

Confirm the remote connection quota settings in Windows PowerShell:

You can use WS-Management quotas in Windows PowerShell remoting to protect the Orchestrator server and VMM computers from excessive resource use, both accidental and malicious. The MaxConcurrentOperationsPerUser quota setting in the WSMan:\<ComputerName>\Service node provides this protection by imposing a limit on the number of VMM objects that can run concurrently.

By default, MaxConcurrentOperationsPerUser is set to 5. This means that you can run a maximum of five VMM objects (shells) concurrently across all VMM policies.

If this default setting does not meet the needs of your organization, see About_Remote_Troubleshooting in the Microsoft TechNet Library (http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?linkID=135188) for information about how to configure remote operations in Windows PowerShell.

Configure the System Center Virtual Machine Manager Connections:

Step	Description	Screenshot
1	In the Runbook Designer, click the Options menu, and then select System Center Virtual Machine Manager. The System Center Virtual Machine Manager dialog box appears.
2	On the Configurations tab, click Add to begin the connection setup.
3	In the Name box, type the name or IP address of the computer on which Virtual Machine Manager is running.
4	In the Type box, click the ellipsis button (...), select Microsoft SCVMM Connection, and then click OK
5	In the Properties box, enter values for each of the properties as they apply to your organization. Ensure the values that you enter for the remote connection and authentication properties are compatible with the WinRM settings that you entered or confirmed in the previous procedure
6	Click OK, then click Finish.

Till this stage we able to deploy and configure the integration pack, and we can see and use all SCVMM activities from Orchestrator 2012 Runbook Designer in any new Runbook as show in screenshot below:

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Orchestrator 2012 Deployment & Configuration Step by Step – Part 1 “Overview and Architecture” can be found here: http://blogs.technet.com/b/meamcs/archive/2011/11/02/orchestrator-2012-deployment-amp-configuration-step-by-step-part-1-overview-and-architecture.aspx
Orchestrator 2012 Deployment & Configuration Step by Step – Part 2 “System Requirements” can be found here: http://blogs.technet.com/b/meamcs/archive/2011/11/02/orchestrator-2012-deployment-amp-configuration-step-by-step-part-2-system-requirements.aspx
Orchestrator 2012 Deployment & Configuration Step by Step – Part 3 “Installation” can be found here: http://blogs.technet.com/b/meamcs/archive/2011/11/05/orchestrator-2012-deployment-amp-configuration-step-by-step-part-3-installation.aspx
Orchestrator 2012 Deployment & Configuration Step by Step – Part 4 “Build, Testing and Monitoring a Runbook” can be found here: http://blogs.technet.com/b/meamcs/archive/2011/11/06/orchestrator-2012-deployment-amp-configuration-step-by-step-part-4-build-testing-and-monitoring-a-runbook.aspx
Orchestrator 2012 Deployment & Configuration Step by Step – Part 5 “Integration Pack” can be found here http://blogs.technet.com/b/meamcs/archive/2011/11/19/orchestrator-2012-deployment-amp-configuration-step-by-step-part-5-integration-pack.aspx?wa=wsignin1.0

Mail Server	Mailstore	Organizations before Mailbox Move	After Mailbox Move
MBX01	MBX01-DB01	Org1.com Org2.com Org3.Net …	…
	MBX01-DB02	…	…
MBX02	MBX02-DB01	…	…
	MBX02-DB02	…	…
…	…	…	…

BetterTogether

Is AD integration or manual SCOM agents required to allow Automatic Windows Agent Failover between multiple SCOM 2012 Management Servers?

Downsizing HMC Environment to Prepare for Exchange 2010 SP2 Hosted Solution – Part3

Downsizing HMC Environment to Prepare for Exchange 2010 SP2 Hosted Solution – Part2

Downsizing HMC Environment to Prepare for Exchange 2010 SP2 Hosted Solution – Part1

Windows Server 2012 – Part3: Virtualization Enhancements “Mobility”– Hyper-V Replica

Windows Server 2012 – Part2: Virtualization Enhancements “Scalability & Flexibility”

Windows Server 2012 – Part1: Release Date

Microsoft Private Cloud Videos

Related Posts:

Free Microsoft Private Cloud Training

Related Posts:

Orchestrator 2012 Deployment & Configuration Step by Step – Part 5 “Integration Pack”

What is Integration Pack (IP):

Important Note:

Register and Deploy Integration Pack:

Common Issues to consider when use VMM R2 Integration Pack:

Confirm the Windows Management Framework prerequisites

Confirm that you have Windows Remote Management 2.0 (WinRM 2.0) installed and configured on the Orchestrator server, and on the Virtual Machine Manager server. One way to confirm your configuration is in the Local Group Policy Editor.

For more information about how to install and configure WinRM 2.0, see Installation and Configuration for Windows Remote Management (http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?linkID=171111).

Enable Windows Remote Management Trusted Hosts:

Set the execution policy in Windows PowerShell:

Confirm the remote connection quota settings in Windows PowerShell:

Configure the System Center Virtual Machine Manager Connections:

Related Posts: