I am being asked this more frequently.  How can you manage VMware environments in System Centre Virtual Machine Manager (SCVMM)? 

Check out this wiki on the subject : http://social.technet.microsoft.com/wiki/contents/articles/how-to-manage-a-vmware-infrastructure-or-vmware-vsphere-in-system-center-virtual-machine-manager-sc-vmm.aspx

The key points from this wiki are:

• SCVMM 2008 R2 can manage vSphere 2.x and vSphere 3.x with comparable functionality.
• SCVMM 2008 R2 can manage vSphere 4.x but with vSphere 3.x funtionality.
• SCVMM 2008 R2 uses the vSphere API's to manage VMware environments.  You cannot manage VMware without vSphere.
• Depending on how you have your vSphere environment configuired, you have to make some security decisions.  Full explaination here : http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/dd548299.aspx

Virtual Machine Manager is due for an upgrade later this year.  SCVMM 2012 extends the functionality further.  Check out the beta overview : http://blogs.technet.com/b/scvmm/archive/2011/03/28/scvmm-2012-beta-overview.aspx

Id also suggest checking out the Technet landing site : http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/gg610610.aspx

Check out the Best Practises for Virtualising Exchange Server 2010 on Windows Server 2008 R Hyper-v : http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/en/details.aspx?FamilyID=8647c69d-6c2c-40ca-977e-18c2379b07ad

One of the most common questions I get on this topic is : Are Database Availability Groups (DAG's) supported in a virtual environment?

The answer is YES but with conditions.  To quote the guidance:

"Exchange server virtual machines, including Exchange Mailbox virtual machines that are part of a Database Availability Group (DAG), can be
combined with host-based fail-over clustering and migration technology as long as the virtual machines are configured such that they will not
save and restore state on disk when moved or taken offline."

This means the LIVE migration is supported but QUICK migration is not.  Why? QUICK migration suspends the VM during migration which is could cause data loss as DAG's use log shipping to replicate the data.  So how do you move a VM that is part of a DAG?  Shutdown the VM OS and then move the VM.  This allows the Exchange instance to gracefully stop participating in the DAG ensuring no data loss.

Check out the official post from the Exchange Team : http://blogs.technet.com/b/exchange/archive/2011/05/16/announcing-enhanced-hardware-virtualization-support-for-exchange-2010.aspx

From a design perspective, the DAG layout could be as follows:

Paul Venezia over at Infoworld wrote an article called "Virtualization shoot-out: Citrix, Microsoft, Red Hat, and VMware".  He obviously put a lot of thought and effort into the shoot-out.  To be fair to the guy, he tries to be honest and fair in his assessments.  What is nice to see is that Hyper-v stands up well against the rivals.  VMware finish just ahead, but thats not entirely unexpected.  Have a read of the articile http://www.infoworld.com/d/virtualization/virtualization-shoot-out-citrix-microsoft-red-hat-and-vmware-666?page=0,0

The thing I would like to point out is that there is space in the datacentre for more than one virtualisation platform.  Think about it, its not uncommon to have multiple server hardware vendors.  So why would the virtual platform be different?

The other point Id like to make is that virtualising is only the first part of the journey towards Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS).  Have a look at the slide below.

 True IaaS (or Private Cloud) will have Automation, Management Orchestration and a defined user interface for the various tenants.  Check out http://www.microsoft.com/virtualization/en/us/private-cloud.aspx for more info.

Sometimes you can run into problems mounting VHD's.  I see it when people start testing/developing scripts.  The most common error is :

Error (13226)
Virtual hard disk <path to VHD> cannot be mounted on host myhost.mydomain.local because it conflicts with other disks.

All this means is that anothe process as already mounted your VHD.  To unmount, all you have to do is run a simple script.

#Specify the VHD that is mounted

$VHDName = "<full path to file>" 



#Get the MSVM_ImageManagementService

$VHDService = get-wmiobject -class "Msvm_ImageManagementService" -namespace "root\virtualization" -computername "." 



 #UnMount the VHD

$Result = $VHDService.UnMount($VHDName)

The SP1 version of SCVMM 2008 R2 has shipped.  http://www.microsoft.com/systemcenter/en/us/virtual-machine-manager.aspx

There are some great reasons to go with SP1 for SCVMM 2008 R2 (detailed below).  Its not a standalone service pack though so dont get put off by the full installation wizard.  It will detect and upgrade your SCVMM instance.  As with all upgrades, back-up your SCVMM database before the upgrade.

You can get the free trial from here : http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/evalcenter/cc793138.aspx  

Support for new features of Windows Server 2008 R2 SP1

• Dynamic Memory: Windows Server 2008 R2 SP1 Hyper-V supports Dynamic Memory enabling customers to better utilize the memory resources of a Hyper-V host. VMM 2008 R2 SP1 allows administrators to create and deploy Virtual Machines onto Windows Server 2008 R2 SP1 Hyper-V hosts and will report on the memory currently in use for these VMs where Dynamic Memory is enabled. Using Dynamic Memory for supported VMs allows for more efficient utilization of memory, with consistent performance, and higher consolidation ratios.

• Microsoft RemoteFX: Windows Server 2008 R2 SP1 introduces a new set of end user experience enhancements with Microsoft RemoteFX. VMM 2008 R2 SP1 allows administrators to create and deploy Virtual Machines with RemoteFX enabled to qualified Windows Server 2008 R2 SP1 Hyper-V hosts. This enables a rich, local-like desktop environment over the network.

Support for new features of Windows Server 2008 R2

• Live Migration: Seen through the VMM console, this enables administrators to move a virtual machine between clustered hosts in a way that is completely transparent to the users connected to the virtual machine. This allows administrators greater flexibility in responding to planned downtime and provides higher machine availability. The basic requirements for Live Migration are that all hosts must be part of a Windows Server 2008 R2 failover cluster and host processors must be from the same manufacturer. Additionally all hosts in the cluster must have access to shared storage. No changes are required to existing virtual machines, network, or storage devices in moving from Quick Migration to Live Migration other than upgrading to Windows Server 2008 R2 and VMM 2008 R2.

• Hot addition/removal of Storage: Allows the addition and removal of storage to virtualized infrastructure without interruption. Additionally, "live” management of virtual hard disk (VHDs) or iSCSI pass through disks, allows administrators to take advantage of additional backup scenarios and readily use mission critical and storage-intensive applications.

• New optimized networking technologies: VMM 2008 R2 supports two new networking technologies – Virtual Machine Queue (VMQ) and TCP Chimney – providing increased network performance while creating less of a CPU burden. NICs that support VMQ, create a unique virtual network queue for each virtual machine on a host that can pass network packets directly from the hypervisor to the virtual machine. This increases throughput as it bypasses much of the processing normally required by the virtualization stack. With TCP Chimney, TCP/IP traffic can be offloaded to a physical NIC on the host computer reducing CPU load and improving network performance.

Enhanced storage and cluster support

• Clustered Shared Volumes (CSV): Provides a single, consistent storage space that allows hosts in a cluster to concurrently access virtual machine files on a single shared logical unit number (LUN). CSV eliminates the previous one virtual machine per LUN restriction and coordinates the use of storage with much greater efficiency and higher performance. CSV enables the Live Migration of virtual machines without impacting other virtual machines sharing the same LUN. Enabling CSV on failover clusters is straightforward; many storage configuration complexities prior to CSV have now been eliminated.

• SAN migration into and out of clustered hosts: This allows virtual machines to migrate into and out of clusters using a SAN transfer, which saves the time required for copying the virtual machine file over the network.

• Expanded Support for iSCSI SANs: Previously, only one LUN could be bound to a single iSCSI target whereas now – with support now built into VMM 2008 R2 – multiple LUNS can be mapped to a single iSCSI target. This provides broader industry support for iSCSI SANs allowing customers more flexibility in choosing storage providers and iSCSI SAN options.

• Storage Migration: Quick Storage Migration enables migration of a VM’s storage both within the same host and across hosts while the VM is running with a minimum of downtime, typically less than 2 minutes. VMM 2008 R2 also supports VMware storage vMotion which allows the storage of a VMware VM to be transferred while the VM remains on the same host with no downtime.

• Rapid Provisioning: Allows administrators to take advantage of SAN provider technologies to clone a LUN containing a VHD and present it to the host while still utilizing the VMM template so the OS customization and IC installation can be applied.

• Support for third party CFS: For users requiring a true clustered file system, VMM 2008 R2 supports third party file systems by detecting CFS disks and allows for deploying multiple VMs per LUN.

• Support for Veritas Volume Manager: VMM 2008 R2 recognizes Veritas Volume Manager disks as a cluster disk resource.

Streamlined process for managing host upgrades

• Maintenance Mode: Allows administrators to apply updates or perform maintenance on a host server by safely evacuating all virtual machines to other hosts on a cluster. Maintenance mode can be configured to use Live Migration to move the virtual machines or can put the workloads into a saved state to be safely reactivated when maintenance or upgrades are complete. Maintenance mode is enabled for all supported hypervisor platforms on Windows Server 2008 R2.

Other VMM 2008 R2 enhancements

• Support of disjoint domains: Reduces the complexity of reconciling host servers with differing domain names in Active Directory and DNS. In these situations, VMM 2008 R2 automatically creates a custom service principal name (SPN) configured in both AD and DNS allowing for successful authentication.

• Use of defined port groups with VMware Virtual Center: On installation, VMM 2008 R2 will present available port groups for VMM’s use with VMware vCenter thus allowing administrators to maintain control over which port groups are used.

• Queuing of Live migrations: This feature enables users to do multiple Live Migrations without needing to keep track of other Live Migrations that are happening within the cluster. Detects when a Live Migration will fail due to another Live Migration already in progress and queues the request for later.

• Host compatibility checks: VM migration requires host hardware to be compatible; this feature provides a deep check for compatibility using Hyper-V and VMware compatibility check APIs. Administrators can check if the source host is compatible with the destination host before performing a migration and finding out the VM cannot start on the new host. A related feature makes a VM compatible by turning off certain CPU features which makes the VM compatible with the hosts in the cluster.

Taken from : http://www.microsoft.com/systemcenter/en/us/virtual-machine-manager/vmm-whats-new-r2.aspx 

As you know the System Centre Virtual Machine Manager 2012 is in beta and available right now.  We have a .NET Pet Shop application that you can deploy that shows what SCVMM 2012 can offer.  Check out Michael Michael's blog on how to spin the whole thing up.

The .NET Pet Shop : http://blogs.technet.com/b/m2/archive/2011/03/29/how-to-deploy-the-pet-shop-application-as-a-service-in-vmm.aspx

The Microsoft Management summit 2011 was held in March of this year.  Putting aside all of the product news, the event provided a practical example of how Hyper-V can help optimise IT environments.  Not only that, the process has been refined to further reduce the overall footprint.  At the MMS event there are hundreds of demos and labs.  Traditionally this required a lot of infrastructure (about 1200 VM's!).  Have a look at the initial savings below.

Between the 2009 and 2010 event the savings were as follows:

Power reduction of 13.9x on the servers:

• MMS 2009: 570 servers * 200 watts per server = 114,000 watts
• MMS 2010: 41 servers * 200 watts per server = 8,200 watts

Power reduction of 6.3x on the clients:

• MMS 2009: Rich clients: 650 clients * 120 watts per client = 78,000 watts
• MMS 2010: Thin clients: 650 clients * 19 watts per client = 12,350 watts

This is a great example of the initial savings when you go from physical to virtual/Rich client to thin client.  However, virtualisation is not a one step process.  Like any service, you should strive to improve upon it.  And thats exactly what the MMS 2011 team did.  Using the dynamic memory capability from Windows Server 2008 R2 SP1, they were able to reduce the total memory requirement by 1TB!  Yes, thats 1TB of memory reducation with a cost saving of about €80,000.

Check out the full article at the Windows Virtualisation Team blog : http://blogs.technet.com/b/virtualization/archive/2011/03/29/mms-2011-labs-powered-by-hyper-v-system-center-amp-hp.aspx 

HP produced an awesome video on the MMS 2011 Labs power by Hyper-V, System Center and HP.   It is located here: http://www.mms-2011.com/p/mms2011/resources/Microsoft-HP-MMS-Flex.wmv

Remote Desktop Load Simulation Tools

The Remote Desktop Load Simulation toolset is used for 32-bit and 64-bit (x86 and x64) server capacity planning and performance/scalability analysis.

Download Here.

Remote Desktop Session Host Capacity Planning in Windows Server 2008 R2

Use the RD session Host role service to allow multiple concurrent users to run Windows-based applications on a remote computer running Windows Server 2008 R2. This capacity planning guide describes the most relevant factors that influence the capacity of a given deployment along with methodologies to evaluate capacity for specific deployments.

Download here.

Useful info.

[If you are viewing this from the main page the second table appears to be missing text.  Just view the post on its own by clicking the title]

[Edit 19/04/2011 - Include more info on Live Migration NIC]

[Edit 19/06/2011 - More info on NICs for cluster communications]

This is a topic that comes up all of the time.  Especially when dealing with Hyper-V clusters.  The short answer to the question is - it depends.

For this post I will talk about networking requirements for a SAME SITE CLUSTER.  Multisite clusters, or stretch clusters, have different networking requirements.  I will cover this topic in a different post.

Network requirements for same site Cluster

There are some great TechNet articles and blog posts on this topic.  However, I believe that most of these posts focus on the logical networking and don't take the physical and risk profiles into account.  What do I mean?  I've seen people get really hooked on the "avoid the single point of failure" when designing.  The problem I find is that the design stops at the logical level and doesn't take the physical hardware into account.  Having fault tolerant NIC's for the parent partition isn't much good if both ports are on the same multiport card or backplane.  Sometimes you want the cluster to failover its workload.  Keeping the workload on node at all costs could just be a case of over engineering.  Enterprise Architecture 101 - keep it simple!

First things first, let's just look at the logical minimum requirements for network cards in a Hyper-V cluster. 

Comments:

• When I say public for the recommended connetion type I mean that it's ok to have other traffic on the same subnet network.  Or in other words, that network congestion should not impair performance or cause a failover.
• When I say private for the recommended connection type I mean that ideally you should have a dedicated subet/network for this type of cluster communication.  Congestion could cause performance issues or even trigger failover.
• The Cluster Heartbeat/Communication can be configured to use any NIC presented to the OS.  So in theory, you dont need to dedicate a NIC to cluster communications anymore.  You could let it use pretty much any interface except the iSCSI.  Old habbits have not died away for me so I prefer to go with a dedicated.  The more NICs you have in the server the better ... its more flexible.

The table above just deals with the logical requirements for a Hyper-V cluster.  I'll deal with single points of failure, combing usage and teaming shortly.  So, based on the above, that's 6 different logical networks.  Your solution may require one or more NICs per logical network.  There are options for combining logical networks as well as options for teaming.  But before we get into that ...  Do you have the network hardware required to warrant NIC teaming or multipath connections?  When you have the answer to this question you can then start to define your networking design in earnest. 

I have a couple of observations/comments I'd like to make:

• What is the point of having multipath iSCSI connections if both are patched into a single switch or if your SAN only has ports on a single card?
• What's the point in NIC teaming (fail on fault) if your physical machine has a single point of failure in a multiport network card? The same also holds through for blade enclosures. If there is going to be a hardware failure it's very unlikely to be limited to a single port. The whole card/unit is going to fail.

The whole reason behind clustering your Hyper-v solution is to take into account serious component failure.  With this in mind, don't over engineer things.  Don't get too hooked up on single points of failure in the logical world.  Just make sure you have enough capacity in your cluster for your workloads (the N+1 rule applies).

This is how I would setup network cards in a typical Hyper-V cluster.

Notes on the above:

• The settings Ive outlined for the NICs assigned to VM networks will be overwritten as soon as you select them for use in a Hyper-v network. All protocol settings will be replaced with a Hyper-V virtual network protocol.  Its still best practise to configure the NICs regardless though.
• Make sure you check DNS to make sure there is only ONE entry for the hostname in both the Forward and Reverse DNS zones once you have the NICs are configured.

So whats the answer:

Based on the above table and assuming 2 network cards for your VM's external network, this means I recommend EIGHT (8) logical network connections/NICs are required at a minimum for a PRODUCTION Hyper-V cluster.  Yes, you could double up on some of the NICs like combining the heartbeat with the CSV NIC but I feel this is the best balance.

I referenced a few TechNet articles when putting this together.  Here they are:

Hyper-V: Live Migration Network Configuration Guide

Requirements for Using Cluster Shared Volumes in a Failover Cluster in Windows Server 2008 R2

 Hyper-V: Using Live Migration with Cluster Shared Volumes in Windows Server 2008 R2

 Designating a Preferred Network for Cluster Shared Volumes Communication

So you have followed the SCOM 2007 R2 installation guides to the letter.  You've installed SQL reporting services and installed the SCOM reporting feature.  However, you just dont have any reports in SCOM. 

Check your event logs for the following error:

Date: date
Source: OpsMgr SDK Service
Time: time
Category: None
Type: Error
Event ID: 26319
User: N/A
Computer: Computername
Description: An exception was thrown while processing GetUserRolesForOperationAndUser for session id uuid:UUID.
Exception Message: Access is denied. (Exception from HRESULT: 0x80070005 (E_ACCESSDENIED)) Full Exception: System.UnauthorizedAccessException: Access is denied. (Exception fro HRESULT: 0x80070005 (E_ACCESSDENIED))
Exception Message: Access is denied. (Exception from HRESULT: 0x80070005 (E_ACCESSDENIED)) Full Exception: System.UnauthorizedAccessException: Access is denied. (Exception from HRESULT: 0x80070005 (E_ACCESSDENIED)) at Microsoft.Interop.Security.AzRoles.IAzApplication2.InitializeClientContextFr omStringSid(String SidString, Int32 lOptions, Object varReserved) at Microsoft.EnterpriseManagement.Mom.Sdk.Authorization.AzManHelper.GetScopedRoleAssignmentsForUser(IList`1 roleNames, String userName) at Microsoft.EnterpriseManagement.Mom.Sdk.Authorization.AuthManager.GetUserRole sForOperationAndUser(Guid operationId, String userName) at Microsoft.EnterpriseManagement.Mom.ServiceDataLayer.SdkDataAccess.GetUserRol esForOperationAndUser(Guid operationId, String userName) at Microsoft.EnterpriseManagement.Mom.ServiceDataLayer.SdkDataAccessTieringWrap per.GetUserRolesForOperationAndUser(Guid operationId, String userName) at Microsoft.EnterpriseManagement.Mom.ServiceDataLayer.SdkDataAccessExceptionTr acingWrapper.GetUserRolesForOperationAndUser(Guid operationId, String userName)

The solution is actually quite simple.  This problem occurs if one of the following conditions is true:

To resolve this problem, add the SDK service account to the Windows Authorization Access group. To do this, follow these steps:

Reference : http://support.microsoft.com/kb/938627/en-us

However, even if your domain is running Windows Server 2008 R2, you can still have the problem though.  So add the SDK to the Windows Authorization Access Group and the problem should rectify itself pretty quickly.  Just give the reports some time to pull in data though.

Side note : If you are going to use SQL 2008 R2 for SCOM 2007 R2 then make sure you follow http://support.microsoft.com/kb/2425714. 

Announcing Next Jump Start: Microsoft Virtualization for VMWare Professionals (March 29-31)

Just one week after Microsoft Management Summit 2011 (MMS), Microsoft Learning will be hosting an exclusive three-day Jump Start class specially tailored for VMWare and Microsoft virtualization technology pros. In support of the “VMWare Compete” initiative, registration for “Microsoft Virtualization for VMWare Professionals” is open now and will be delivered as a FREE online class on March 29-31, 2010 from 10:00am-4:00pm PDT. Our last two events — Windows Phone 7 Jump Start (over 1,400 live students and more than 418,000 views of the videos) and Developing Cloud Applications with the Windows Azure Platform" — were very popular and we’re excited to see registrations start to come in for this three-day course.

Who is the target audience for this training?

Suggested prerequisite skills include real-world experience with Windows Server 2008 R2, virtualization and datacenter management. The course is tailored to these types of roles:

· IT Professional

· IT Decision Maker

· Network Administrators

· Storage/Infrastructure Administrators & Architects.

What’s the high-level overview?

· This cutting edge course will feature expert instruction and real-world demonstrations of Hyper-V and brand new releases from System Center 2012 (many of which will be announced just one week earlier at MMS).

· Day 1 will focus on “Platform” (Hyper-V, differentiating VMWare terminology/features, high availability & clustering)

· Day 2 will focus on “Management” (System Center Suite, SCVMM 2012, Opalis, Private Cloud solutions)

· Day 3 will focus on “VDI” (VDI Infrastructure/architecture, v-Alliance, application delivery via VDI)

· Full outline available on the registration page

· Every section will be team-taught by two of the most respected authorities on virtualization technologies: Microsoft Technical Evangelist Symon Perriman and leading Hyper-V, VMWare, and XEN infrastructure consultant, Corey Hynes

What is a “Jump Start” course?
A “Jump Start” course is “team-taught” by two expert instructors in an engaging radio talk show style format. The idea is to deliver readiness training on strategic and emerging technologies that drive awareness at scale before Microsoft Learning develops mainstream Microsoft Official Courses (MOC) that map to certifications. The success of the Jump Starts have been the result of the tight collaboration between DPE, BG’s and MSL – this course is no exception. All sessions are professionally recorded and distributed through MS Showcase, Channel 9, Zune Marketplace and iTunes for broader reach.

I was asked during the week about the support statements for SQL 2008 R2 and System Centre products.  At the time of writing, SQL 2008 R2 is supported for most, if not all, of the System Centre products.  There are certain caveats of course. 

Always refer to http://technet.microsoft.com/en-ie/systemcenter and the support configurations for each product.  Here is some more specific info:

• SCVMM 2008 R2(only)  : http://technet.microsoft.com/en-ie/library/cc764220(en-us).aspx
• SCCM : See SQL Server Site Database Configurations at http://technet.microsoft.com/en-ie/library/ee344146(en-us).aspx
• SCOM : Use of SQL Server 2008 R2 is currently only supported for new installations of Operations Manager 2007 R2.  Check out http://support.microsoft.com/kb/2425714 for information on how to create the databases

I've been building out a number of different test environments over the last few weeks and came across a problem when creating a VM in Hyper-V. The create VM wizard would hang just before prompting for the VM name etc. Turns out I had missed something essential in the FAQ’s. The environment I was building was for a VDI demo. I had made my Hyper-V host a Domain Controller to save on the VM count (and to save memory). I then enabled RemoteFX in SP1 for Windows Server 2008 R2. RemoteFX should not be enabled on a Domain Controller. (oops)

In fact, this is a known issue that’s documented on TechNet: http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ff817615(WS.10).aspx

Hyper-V Manager stops responding when I attempt to create a new virtual machine or edit an existing virtual machine’s settings

If the Hyper-V Manager console, svchost.exe process, or RDVGSM service consistently stops responding when you attempt to create a new virtual machine or edit an existing virtual machine’s settings, verify that the following Group Policy settings are not configured on the RemoteFX server:

• Computer Configuration/Windows Settings/Security Settings/Local Policies/Security Options/Interactive Logon: Message text for users attempting to log on
• Computer Configuration/Windows Settings/Security Settings/Local Policies/Security Options/Interactive Logon: Message title for users attempting to log on

Also, verify that the RemoteFX for RD Virtualisation Host server is not a domain controller. You cannot install the RD Virtualisation Host role service on a domain controller.

I guess I’ll read the instructions to before opening the box next time. Now all I have to do is move my Domain Controller role to a VM (create a second DC as a VM, decommission the first). Which as a side note, is possible without giving the VM a load of memory. If you install Server Core a Domain Controller will run happily (for demo purposes) with 256mb RAM. Give the machine the required 512mb for installation and when configured, drop the memory to 256mb. Don't bother with using the Dynamic memory settings as the VM will just consume the 512mb.

It's always nice to see great virtualisation projects kick off in Ireland.  Check it out : http://www.siliconrepublic.com/strategy/item/20959-schrader-chooses-bt-ireland/