VIRTUALBOY BLOG
That’s an acronym-filled title!
Just a quick one – If you’re currently planning, or are underway with a deployment of Data Protection Manager 2010 (RC), and you plan to protect Hyper-V R2 VMs, on Cluster Shared Volumes, DPM will tell you to install a couple of patches on the Hyper-V R2 hosts in the cluster.
The first one, is KB975921, and is specifically aimed at solving the following: “You may be unable to perform certain disk-related operations after an exception when a hardware provider tries to create a snapshot in Windows Server 2008 R2 or in Windows 7”
The second (set) is KB975354, and has the more general title of “A Hyper-V update rollup package is available for a computer that is running Windows Server 2008 R2”, but when you drill into the details, you can see that many of the fixes are aimed at VSS, backup and the like. Now, when you request, download, and extract KB975354, you’ll notice there are actually 2 patches to install. One is Windows6.1-KB975354-x64, and the other is Windows6.1-KB975354-v2-x64. It’s important that you install Windows6.1-KB975354-x64 first, and Windows6.1-KB975354-v2-x64 second. If you don’t, you’ll find that when you come to install Windows6.1-KB975354-x64 (assuming you’ve already installed the v2 patch), you’ll get a pop up message stating that ‘the update is not applicable to your system’. If you’ve got that already, uninstall the v2 patch, and install the first one, first. All being well, you should have no problems from this point forward.
One key point to note though, After you install this hotfix on the Hyper-V server, you must update the Integration Components in the virtual machines. To do this, open the Virtual Machine Connection for the virtual machine in Hyper-V Manager, and then select the Insert Integration Services Setup Disk option on the Action menu.
Hope it doesn’t catch you out!
Sticking with the case study theme, one of Microsoft’s largest IT Consultancy Partners, Avanade, have suffered from an issue which businesses across the globe, big and small, can easily suffer from; server sprawl. Their datacenter was full, causing energy and management costs to go through to roof but bring in Hyper-V R2 and System Center and they were able to reduce the physical footprint by 85%, reduce datacenter costs by 40%, and improve their database performance by 50%. And yes, they’re virtualising SQL 2008, on Hyper-V.
In fact, they’re running a 16-node, virtualised SQL Cluster across 2 Hyper-V clusters, running on the stonkingly-fast Intel E5500 and the also-very-fast Intel E5440 respectively. One of these Hyper-V clusters (5500) is the High Performance one, and the other, is the ‘Standard’ performance cluster, but with Live Migration, they can move VMs within a cluster, yet with SCVMM, they can still shift the VM, and it’s backend storage, between the clusters, with the Quick Storage Migration capability. Their total consolidation has taken them from 136 to 20 physical hosts, which doesn’t, on the surface, seem a massive ratio, but when you bear in mind the workloads they’re running, it’s still a significant achievement. On the same Hyper-V Clusters, they also run Microsoft Dynamics CRM, Microsoft Office SharePoint Server 2007, Microsoft SharePoint Server 2010, Office Communications Server 2007, Microsoft BizTalk Server 2007, Microsoft Visual Studio Team Foundation Server, Microsoft System Center Operations Manager, and multiple Avanade-authored applications. The Avanade-authored applications include a time-entry system; a contact management system; an extract, transform, and load (ETL) system that processes data going into a data warehouse; a learning management system; and a knowledge management repository.
“Unexpected quote of the case study” has to be:
“For example, it takes an hour to run SQL Server Integration Services on a physical server, but it takes 30 minutes to run it on a virtual machine—that’s on top of supporting many other applications on the server. The performance of key applications, such as Microsoft Dynamics CRM, has also improved dramatically. This benefit of improved database performance is that our users can get their hands on reports in half the time required before.”
Sure, that will be down to the fact that it’s running virtualised on something like the 5500 under the covers, but still, it’s a massive leap from the ‘what hit am I going to take by virtualising’ perception that can still plague the industry, no matter how hard we, VMware or Citrix try to convince people otherwise!
You can read the Microsoft Case Study for this deployment, here.
So, that’s the server backend, and the virtualisation platform, but that doesn’t run itself, without decent storage, and when I think decent storage, I lean towards NetApp. Avanade tend to agree…
If you read the Microsoft case study, linked to above, you’ll see that the virtual infrastructure shares one NetApp FAS 3040 SAN, with 50TB of storage, however, they decided to upgrade this to a FAS3170HA for even greater scalability. Our case study doesn’t go into any further detail than that, however if you head on over to the NetApp case study, for the same deployment, you’ll satisfy your hunger for storage-related-goodness!
Also in the NetApp case study, you’ll see that the number of VM’s have increased, now up to 350 on Hyper-V R2, which is actually more inline with what Patrick Cimprich, from Avanade details in his article – there are also some slight differences in the hardware detailed for the hosts between the 2 case studies:
(Click image to enlarge)
Either way, it’s a powerful infrastructure, and is letting them consolidate significantly, whilst boosting performance. One of the big features that I frequently talk about as a winner with Partners/Customers, is the DeDuplication, and it’s something that Patrick has also called out:
Combine CSVs with NetApp deduplication. Since re-architecting our NetApp aggregates and volumes for cluster shared volumes, we’ve noticed a big improvement in capacity savings by using NetApp deduplication. We are seeing an average deduplication ratio of 50% across our entire virtualization storage infrastructure. Given the size of our VM environment before deduplication (around 7 to 8TB), that’s been a significant savings of 3 to 4TB, which supports our plans for adding many more VMs. Our use of the NetApp system with CSVs provided the right combination to really let deduplication shine.
From the image above, you’ll also see the use of System Center. From Virtual Machine Manager, to Operations Manager, and on to Data Protection Manager (where’s SCCM! Must be just off the edge of the slide ;-)), the System Center technologies are providing Avanade with a centrally-well-managed infrastructure. The integration with NetApp, from a management perspective, is a fantastic value add to the infrastructure, whether it’s through SnapManager for Hyper-V, or, more specifically, the integration between NetApp storage, and System Center Operations Manager, with ApplianceWatch PRO 2.0.
If you’re not familiar with ApplianceWatch PRO 2.0, and what it gives you, read on…
Firstly, it’s free (we like). Secondly, you download it, import it into System Center Operations Manager, and you will start to see these benefits:
Is that it? Nope! If you’ve read my post the other day, around IBM, Brocade and System Center, you should have a handle on what PRO is all about, and those eagle-eyed among you, will have noticed that the ApplianceWatch MP, is a PRO MP, so brings about the following benefits in a virtual environment:
Cool stuff hey? You can read more about some of the specific PRO Tips that can be generated in SCVMM, over on the NetApp MSEnviro blog. Add to that, the specific guidance that NetApp have produced around Storage Best Practices for Microsoft Virtualisation, and you’ve got plenty of weekend reading ahead of you!
Energy Company Speeds Provisioning, Easily Scales Environment with Virtualization
Endeavour International Corporation is an oil and gas company with operations in the United Kingdom and the United States. When the company’s Aberdeen, Scotland, office tripled its employee base in 2009, Endeavour needed to scale its IT infrastructure to accommodate the growth. However, it was challenged by limited space and IT resources: just one IT staff member, who was based in London, England, supported the environment. Using Windows Server 2008 Enterprise with Hyper-V virtualization technology and Microsoft System Center Virtual Machine Manager, Endeavour reduced the time needed to provision servers from one month to hours and enabled simple, remote management of the Aberdeen computers. The company created a reliable, highly available environment that can scale within its existing data center, without requiring additional hardware or space.
Microsoft virtualization provided everything we needed: high availability, live migration, centralized management, comprehensive and reliable product support, and a compelling price point. - Tom Dinnis, United Kingdom IT Manager, Endeavour International Corporation
You can read all about the Endeavour Energy case study, here.
Managed Services Company Virtualizes to Improve Availability and Ease Administration
Claranet, a managed services provider, wanted to help customers improve availability while controlling costs. To meet those needs, Claranet deployed Windows Server® 2008 R2 including Hyper-V™ technology. As a result, customers can increase uptime and expand more affordably. They can also simplify administration by virtualizing their desktop and server infrastructure
We can provide a high level of resilience more easily with Hyper-V because we don’t need to build a physical cluster to add capacity. - Martin Saunders, Marketing Director, Claranet UK
Get all the info on the Claranet case study, here.
I would classify myself as a technical chap, yet when I’m out and about with Partners and Customers, I regularly engage in licensing discussions, usually around Windows Server, Virtualisation, and more increasingly, VDI. I’m by no means a licensing expert, but I can hold my own, and can articulate the information correctly, however one aspect I always come unstuck with, is the different licensing models.
Should I go for Open? What about Select? Do I need an Enterprise Agreement? What’s the difference? Aaaarhhh!
Well, firstly, I’d always recommend speaking to your licensing specialist, whether it’s in house, or at a dedicated licensing Partner. A number of our System Integrators have forged fantastic, mutually beneficial relationships with resellers and licensing specialist, and it’s working well for them. However, if you need a quick update, and if, like me, you’re on the technical side of things, but want an appreciation of the licensing models, this document may be able to help you. This document talks about all of the main licensing models, offering a fair amount of useful info around each one, and where one is perhaps more suited than another.
Typically, if you are a company of less than 250 seats, or you’re a Partner working with a Customer of less than 250 seats, then an Open Program is more than likely going to be the best option for you, however Open can still apply to organisations up to 750 seats, at which point, Select or EA could have also been relevant! Again, the document would help you with deciding.
If you do decide on Open, is that the end of the decision process? Nope! There’s Open Licence, Open Value, and Open Value Subscription to choose from! Within Open Value, there’s also company-wide and non-company-wide considerations to make! As you can see, it’s easy to start getting lost in the intricacies of it all, so again, the document will help, as will speaking to a dedicated licensing specialist/reseller, but, there is a third way to gain a little bit of clarification, and it comes in the form of this short video:
(Click image to Play)
I hope you find it as useful as I did!
This has been sat in my inbox, looking at me, for ages now, and I’ve been keen to get it on here, so people can start to see the ecosystem that’s really starting to build up around Microsoft Virtualisation and System Center.
As you know, IBM make, among other things, pretty darn good hardware. Now, I know they make management solutions, and technologies that you would say would compete with a number of Microsoft technologies, but, that aside, IBM are still a big Partner, and recognise that customers are going to run a mix of Microsoft, and IBM technologies in some of their estates, hence, developing capabilities that helps the two work together more effectively, can only be a good thing.
So, what have they done exactly?
Well, first up, we have the IBM Hardware Management Pack for Microsoft System Center Operations Manager 2007, version 2.2, which integrates IBM hardware alerting and monitoring, from System-X to the BladeCenter Chassis, to the Blades themselves, into SCOM, and presents the alerts side by side with your other alerts from other technologies you’re monitoring. What does it look like? Well, thanks to Alexander over at the German Virtualisation Blog, who provided me with these screenshots:
(Click image to enlarge) – This shot, above, shows the IBM Hardware Pack that’s been imported, and shows we can drill down to see the health of the rack-mounts, the BladeCenters, Blades and so on.
We can also drill down a bit further, into Hardware Components:
We can also start to display this information diagrammatically…
Very pretty, right? ;-)
Is that all? No chance! All I’ve shown you so far, is the Hardware Management Pack, but does it go any further? It absolutely does!
We’ve looked at a regular Management Pack, with a focus on IBM Hardware, but the next step up from a regular Management Pack, is a PRO enabled Management Pack. PRO stands for Performance and Resource Optimisation, and is like a regular Management Pack, but brings about specific Virtual Machine related changes or actions, based on the alerts that are being surfaced via the pack. Note, you’ll still need the IBM Director Agents on the H/W for any of this to work.
The IBM Hardware PRO Pack for Microsoft System Center Virtual Machine Manager 2008, Version 1.1, isn’t technically for SCVMM, as SCVMM doesn’t have a Management Pack concept as such, so you still import it into SCOM, but it’s to integrate into VMM indirectly. Not only does it monitor the hardware hosting the virtual environment, but it also, more importantly, provides advisory PRO tips in the event of existing or predictive hardware problems that warrant VMM administrative operations. What does this look like?
Well, first we see the issue…
then we see the PRO Tip pop up in SCVMM…
Where we can implement or dismiss the recommendation, that would be exposed by dropping down the ‘Cause and Resolution’ button on the left. Example actions may be to Live Migrate the VM’s off this host and put the box in Maintenance Mode.
That’s IBM, but what about Brocade? Well, Brocade have also seen the opportunity to provide extra capabilities to their customers, by integrating their solutions with System Center. Similar kind of concept to that described above, but this time, going a little bit deeper, and a little bit more specific, into the HBA’s themselves…
There’s the list of HBA’s (seems to have picked up Emulex HBA’s too!) and all is healthy there, but a nicer view is the diagrammatical view:
But then the issues start…
Yet the PRO Tip has useful and relevant suggestions – not sure what ‘Implement’ would do in this instance – not sure it would ‘replace the cable between HBA and switch’ ;-) The solution brief may offer some guidance on this one! In terms of what else it will do:
There’s also a demo document available if you’re interested.
Are these the only PRO-aware vendors?
Absolutely not, in fact, there’s a list here if you’re interested in PRO for your environment. Vendors like NetApp, HP, VKernel, F5, Tripwire and Dell (to name but a few) are supporting the PRO push, and hopefully, it’s only set to get stronger as awareness grows, understanding grows, and the process gets easier.
If you’re interested in building your own PRO-enabled Management Packs, you can get all the info for that, here.
You’ve heard Steve Ballmer talking about developers, developers, developers, but I’m seeing an increasing trend within Microsoft applications around the use of dashboards, dashboards, dashboards.
This isn’t a new concept, and for me, it’s an impressive way of relating business intelligence and useful information from what would ordinarily be quite tabular, and let’s face it, boring, data. A few months back, I blogged about the Service Level Dashboard, which is a free bolt-on to System Center Operations Manager / System Center Essentials, which presents the information in a much nicer, and richer way.
More recently, the System Center Configuration Manager team popped out a cheeky dashboard too!
“The Microsoft System Center Configuration Manager 2007 Dashboard lets customers track application and operating system deployments, security updates, the health status of computers, and IT compliance with key regulations—with an easy to use, customizable Web interface. Because the Dashboard is built on Windows® SharePoint® Services, IT staff can access information without using the Configuration Manager console. The Dashboard is a free Solution Accelerator, and fully supported by Microsoft”
I saw a couple of keywords in that paragraph. Free (we like this), fully supported (we also like this), and easy to use (very important!). If you’ve used SCCM before, this will come as a welcome addition to the platform, which, in all honesty, is lagging a little behind, interface-wise, some of the other System Center technologies, like SCOM and SCVMM. Not a major gripe, and I’m sure it’s one that will be addressed in v.Next. More info about the SCCM Dashboard here.
So, that’s 2 dashboards down, but what makes up the 3rd in the dashboards, dashboards, dashboards trio? How about an App-V dashboard?
Justin’s got all the info on this one, and to be honest, it’s looking pretty nifty, just like the SCCM one.
“The Application Virtualization (App-V) Dashboard helps customers monitor virtualized software applications with a graphical display that makes it easy to stay on top of application usage, health, and compliance. Using the Dashboard’s built-in charts, gauges, and tables, customers can track any APP-V dataset in near-real time”
Nice hey? You can get all the info on the App-V Dashboard here.
What do you think? Are dashboards a good thing? Do they help? Everyone loves colours, right? :-) I guess there’s argument for the fact they should be part of the product to begin with, and maybe we’ll see that going forward, but right now, they’re a free, integrated bolt on, that can provide some excellent insight into otherwise un-interesting data.
I’m off now to think of the next word I can combine three times and make a relevant post out of. Xbox, Xbox, Xbox? ;-)
Are you a Microsoft Certified Professional? If so, not only do you have access to the same great Hyper-V and virtualisation goodness that everyone else has access to, but you can also go one step further, and virtualise your business card! Before you say, ‘what is he talking about (again)’, this came to me in the latest MCP newsletter – maybe it was a slow-news month!
What is a Virtual Business Card? (VBC – there had to be an acronym!)
Well, in a nutshell, Virtual Business Cards can be used to show off your expertise, knowledge, and achievements, creatively, securely, and interactively. You can brand yourself and let everyone know what credentials you hold by using them on the Web or in your email signature.
Erwin’s got all the details about how you go through the process, but why would you want to?
If you’re up for it, you can head over here, and make your own VBC, and before you know it, you’ll have something like this, in HTML:
Or, an even more interactive one in JavaScript, with details of your transcript on mouse over and everything! (I need to get out more.)
I can almost hear the oooooh’s and ahhhh’s when you mouse over the JavaScript one :-)
Forget Web 2.0. This is Business Card 2.0.
Hat tip to Susan Bradley, over at the SMB Virtualization Group, on Yahoo Groups for this useful tidbit of information!
If you’re interested in checking out the latest updates for Hyper-V specifically, including a couple of hotfixes relating to the Intel 5500 CPU, you can get the information you need from here.
Currently, there are only a few Hyper-V specific updates:
One to add to the favourites, especially if you’re using technologies to deploy patches, such as SCCM, as these could be simple additions to your Hyper-V collections.
Just a quick heads up – last week I blogged about the upcoming Microsoft Management Summit UK 2010, which is being held in London, on the 18th May 2010.
If you’re interested in signing up, and places will be limited I reckon, I would register early to avoid disappointment.
It’s free, and you can register here.
Hot on the heels of the Virtualisation Summit, comes the all-important Management Summit. Now, before you get too excited and start booking your flights, this isn’t the MMS that’s held annually in Las Vegas, so put those chips away. This is the UK’s very own MMS, taking the best bits of MMS in Las Vegas (which is held a few weeks before), and providing it for you, in London.
So, what’s the deal?
MMS UK 2010 will provide the best possible opportunity to learn about the latest IT Management products, solutions and technologies from Microsoft and how to apply them in your organization. With a number of significant management product releases and announcements planned from Microsoft in the coming year, including some early Beta releases, this is an opportunity you won't want to miss! This 1-day event will provide you with an understanding of the latest technical updates on Desktop, Datacenter, Device and Cloud management features and solutions from Microsoft. The event will share more expert knowledge and information than ever, covering current System Center products as well as Windows platform management solutions for Virtualisation of servers and desktops and applications. Please mark your calendar for Microsoft Management Summit (MMS) UK 2010 on Tuesday 18 May 2010 in London. Join us and interact live with Microsoft, key Partners and early adopter Customers in this informative event near you. (Twitter – #mmsuk2010)
MMS UK 2010 will provide the best possible opportunity to learn about the latest IT Management products, solutions and technologies from Microsoft and how to apply them in your organization. With a number of significant management product releases and announcements planned from Microsoft in the coming year, including some early Beta releases, this is an opportunity you won't want to miss!
This 1-day event will provide you with an understanding of the latest technical updates on Desktop, Datacenter, Device and Cloud management features and solutions from Microsoft. The event will share more expert knowledge and information than ever, covering current System Center products as well as Windows platform management solutions for Virtualisation of servers and desktops and applications.
Please mark your calendar for Microsoft Management Summit (MMS) UK 2010 on Tuesday 18 May 2010 in London. Join us and interact live with Microsoft, key Partners and early adopter Customers in this informative event near you. (Twitter – #mmsuk2010)
What’s on the agenda? Well, I’d say some very cool stuff (but you knew I’d say that, right?) The sessions range from Management as Part of a Virtualisation Strategy, through to System Center Configuration Manager v.Next, and from what’s new in System Center Operations Manager (since 2007 R2), through to detailed overviews of Opalis, System Center Essentials 2010, Data Protection Manager 2010 and the upcoming Service Manager 2010. A full day’s work, but very worthwhile if you need a refresher on Microsoft management technologies.
Registrations aren’t available just yet (should be soon, and I’ll blog it when they are) but save the date in your diary for now – 18th May 2010.