This one snuck past my radar :)  Hyper-V Server 2008 R2 Beta is the downloadable Hypervisor that offers virtualization.  Why this is especially interesting is when you look at the features this supports. Microsoft® Hyper-V™ Server 2008 R2 is a stand-alone product that provides a reliable and...

Over the last few weeks I’ve been testing some scenarios and generally looking at System Center Virtual Machine Manager.  Yesterday however I came across this error “ Virtualization Service needs attention ”.  Even though I had all of the services running??  Anyway after some digging I...

Recently Sun announced a virtualized EBS SKU that resides on a single server.  What’s even more interesting is that they’ve provided three options to enable you to get the right level of HW to support the scale in your organization. Check out the Sun EBS product website here

Last week Hyper-V Server 2008 R2 Beta went online for download.  You can download it from here .  Also you should download the beta overview doc and configuration guide .  Hyper-V Server makes a great virtualization host, especially in Branch Office, as a Host for SBS or EBS and potentially...

Last week there was an important change in licensing for Windows Server 2008 related to CALs and Virtualization.   The announcement is below; <snip> A number of trends, including consolidation and high availability, are driving more deployments and evaluations of Hyper-V. Based on feedback...

Now for the last piece of setup unique to vitualizing EBS.  Adding the Planning Data.  Remember the .iso file we created here , well next you need to attach this iso to your VM.  You wont need to reconnect the Management Server installation disk, as the files have all been copied locally...

Now we can finally start running the VMs.  You have two options to attaching the media.  Either by DVD and changing the DVD each machine or by using .iso’s.  I prefer iso for a couple reasons.  It allows you to take the only shortcut there is when virtualizing, and it saves on having...

So far we’ve covered, the basics, how to test your HW performance, and how to run the Planning and Preparation Wizard, and create the .iso to attach to your Management Server during setup.  Today, I’m going to cover how to configure your VMs to support an EBS install. First up we need to create...

The next step is to run the Planning and Preparation Wizard on your network and   enter your configuration settings.  I have a post planned later on going into more detail with this wizard later on, but there are some tricks here you need to be aware of. If you’re building Greenfield (like...

Here’s where the majority of the virtualization issues I’ve seen to date occur.  To repeat that just to be clear.  If you under-spec the HW for your virtualized environment you will pay the price in performance and stability.  That goes for any application/OS, not just Windows Essential...

OK, so this is the number one question I get “Nick, how do I set up EBS in production for an EBS site with less than 30  users using Hyper-V on a single server?” Now there is already a ton of documentation already on TechNet , but I have to agree, that you need to know where to look to piece it...

Last week I posted about how to do a bare metal restore and David from down-under asked if I could explain how I had SBS backup setup in my virtual environment.  It’s worth pointing out that in my current backup configuration I’m *not* protecting against fire, theft and flood by running an offsite...

Over the last few weeks I’ve been experimenting with my SBS deployment at home.  Unfortunately I’ve done some irreparable damage and need to revert back to a known good quantity.  To do that I’ve decided to do a bare metal restore.  Now in my configuration I am running SBS in a virtual...

Earlier this week I was talking to some of the SBS MVPs about Hyper-V server.  I just noticed Bryon talking to the guys on Technet EDGE about this.  For those of you want a sneak peak at Hyper-V server, check out the interview on the Technet EDGE site. http://edge.technet.com/Media/First-Look...

There are many reasons why I love this product, but I want to share a real world example with you of how SBS really is a powerful solution. Last week I was moving house.  I use a Comcast cable connection and use the Internet Address Management wizard to manage my domain.  This means that I...

Today and Yesterday we posted respective blogs on the support scenarios for SBS and EBS.  As you can imagine we’ve done a lot of thinking in this space.  We talked to many customers and partners about why they’d virtualize and what scenarios might play out.  Having said all of that physical...

As you know we recommend setting the VHD for your SBS deployment to be a fixed disk.  By default Hyper-V will create a Dynamically expanding disk.  Which does have its advantages like being faster to create, and not taking up white space on your hard disk drive.  However they do have some...