Please check out these two exciting virtualization & infrastructure career training opportunities: http://mctreadiness.com/MicrosoftCareerConferenceRegistration.aspx?pid=270.
On Tuesday, October 4th Technical Evangelists Symon Perriman and Rick Claus are hosting an online conference on Virtualization Career Training with Microsoft Learning. This half day virtual event (8am – 11am PST) will offer a Level 100 to 200 introduction for anyone who wants to learn more about Microsoft Virtualization and how it can help their career. It is free and public so sign up for this warm-up for the Jump Start event on October 6th.
· Module 1 – Technology: Learn about Microsoft’s virtualization technologies, how they work, and the future roadmap to the Cloud!
· Module 2 – Career: Understand the importance of virtualization and Private Cloud, and how it can make or break an IT Professional’s career!
· Module 3 – Certification: Get prepared for your next steps towards a virtualization career by understanding and preparing for the Microsoft 70-659 Technical Specialist exam, Windows Server 2008 R2, Server Virtualization.
Learn More: http://mctreadiness.com/MicrosoftCareerConferenceRegistration.aspx?pid=270 Register: http://mctreadiness.com/MicrosoftCareerConferenceRegistration.aspx?pid=288
Instructor Bios: http://mctreadiness.com/MicrosoftCareerConferenceRegistration.aspx?pid=287
On Thursday October 6th Technical Evangelist Symon Perriman and Technical Instructor Philip Helsel will host an online 8-hour deep dive training event for the Microsoft 70-659 Technical Specialist exam, Windows Server 2008 R2, Server Virtualization. This virtual event runs from 8am to 5pm PST and will include presentations, demos and live Q&A with the attendees. It costs $99 to attend, but includes a free exam voucher worth $150! It is public so sign up for some great training to help improve your career here: http://mctreadiness.com/MicrosoftCareerConferenceRegistration.aspx?pid=272. Register early to make the most of a weekly virtualization coaching newsletter!
The training will cover virtualization, high-availability and private cloud infrastructure to help you plan your virtualized datacenter.
· Module 1 – Installing and Configuring Host and Parent Settings
· Module 2 – Configuring Child Settings
· Module 3 – Managing and Monitoring Virtual Environments
· Module 4 – Ensuring High Availability and Recoverability
· Module 5 – Performing Migration
· Module 6 – Configuring Remote Desktop (RD) Role Services Infrastructure
Technologies that we will cover include: Windows Server 2008 R2, Hyper-V, System Center Virtual Machine Manager (VMM), System Center Operations Manager (OpsMgr), System Center Data Protection Manager (DPM), Windows Server Backup, Failover Clustering, Remote Desktop Services, Active Directory, Microsoft Assessment & Planning Toolkit (MAP), Virtual Machine Servicing Tool (VMST), Windows Server Update Services (WSUS) & more!
Learn More: http://mctreadiness.com/MicrosoftCareerConferenceRegistration.aspx?pid=274
Register: http://mctreadiness.com/MicrosoftCareerConferenceRegistration.aspx?pid=272
Exam Information: http://www.microsoft.com/learning/en/us/Exam.aspx?ID=70-659
Building hardware-based security with a Trusted Platform Module (TPM) (http://channel9.msdn.com/Events/BUILD/BUILD2011/HW-462T) – This session describes the changes related to the TPM support, including the ability of BitLocker to validate device drivers and an early-launch antivirus before unlocking the volume, network unlock of BitLocker (no PIN required while in a trusted network) , support for a virtual smartcard, and (finally) the use of TPM for DirectAccess client authentication like we have internally today.
Using claims-based access control for compliance and information governance (http://channel9.msdn.com/Events/BUILD/BUILD2011/SAC-422T) – Detailed overview of the new Dynamic Access Control model that introduces users and device (!) claims into our authentication and authorization model. This allows you to do things like define an ACL that says “only MEA employees connecting from MSIT-managed machines can access this file share”. The session also describes how W8 incorporates claims into the auditing model. Very impressive session.
Building security auditing solutions for compliance and forensic analysis (http://channel9.msdn.com/Events/BUILD/BUILD2011/SAC-425T) – Expands the SAC422 session above to cover the new claims-based auditing framework, called “Flexible Audit”. Nice demo of the integration of Windows 8 with HP ArcSight,a leading security information and event management solution.
Enabling the hybrid cloud using remote access appliances (http://channel9.msdn.com/Events/BUILD/BUILD2011/SAC-668T) – Demonstrates the new DirectAccess, now with the ability to connect to multiple independent sites. E.g. a client could connect to its corporate network, to a private cloud and to a public cloud at a single click. Not many details as it was a L200 session, but this flexibility hints at major changes in the DirectAccess architecture. Strong emphasis also on how easy it is now to deploy DA and the focus on appliances.
Microsoft’s Trustworthy Computing team just launched their new blog site, where you can find an on-going discussion on trustworthy cloud computing at Microsoft and throughout the industry.
The goal of this new blog is to give readers a look into how Microsoft works to build and maintain security, privacy and reliability in everything the company does.
The blog will often touch on these subjects with a focus on Microsoft’s cloud operations.
It’s an open dialogue community site, so please feel free to suggest posts or ask questions.
I would HIGHLY RECOMMEND you read this Michael Otey’s blog on Windows Server 8.
http://www.windowsitpro.com/content1/tabid/57/catpath/virtualization/topic/windows-server-8-hyperv-30-evens-odds-vsphere-140573
At the recent Windows Server Workshop at the Microsoft campus in Redmond Washington Jeff Woolsey, Principle Program Manager Lead for Windows Virtualization in the Windows Server and Cloud division presented the new features in the next version of their Hyper-V virtualization platform. In the introduction to the workshop Jeffery Snover, Distinguished Engineer and the Lead Architect for the Windows Server Division made the bold statement that with Microsoft it’s the third release is where Microsoft really gets it right and with regard to what Microsoft demonstrated in the next version of Hyper-V this is definitely true. The upcoming Hyper-V 3.0 release that’s included in the next version of Windows Server has closed the technology gap with VMware’s vSphere.
Hyper-V 3.0 Scalability
The days when Hyper-V lagged behind VMware in terms of scalability are a thing of the past. The new Hyper-V 3.0 meets or exceeds all of the scalability marks that were previously VMware-only territory. Hyper-V 3.0 hosts support up to 160 logical processors (where a logical processor is either a core or a hyperthread) and up to 2 TB RAM. On the VM guest side, Hyper-V 3.0 guests will support up to 32 virtual CPUs with up to 512 GB RAM per VM. More subtle changes include support for guest NUMA where the guest VM has processor and memory affinity with the Hyper-V host resources. NUMA support is important for ensuring scalability increases as the number of available host processors increase.
Multiple Concurrent Live Migration and Storage Live Migration
Perhaps more important than the sheer scalability enhancements are the changes in Live Migration and the introduction of Storage Live Migration. Live Migration was introduced in Hyper-V 2.0 which came out with Windows Server 2008 R2. While it filled an important hole in the Hyper-V feature set it wasn’t up to par with the VMotion capability provided in vSphere. Live Migration was limited to a single Live Migration at a time while ESX Server was capable of performing multiple simultaneous VMotions. In addition, vSphere supported a similar feature called Storage VMotion which allowed a VM’s storage to be moved to new locations without incurring any downtime. Hyper-V 3.0 erases both of these advantages. Hyper-V 3.0 supports multiple concurrent Live Migrations. There are no limits to the number of concurrent Live Migrations that can take place with Hyper-V 3.0. In addition, Hyper-V 3.0 also provides full support for Storage Live Migration where a virtual machine’s files ( the configuration, virtual disk and snapshot files) can be moved to different storage locations without any interruption of end user connectivity to the guest VM.
Microsoft also threw in one additional twist that vSphere has never had. Hyper-V 3.0 has the ability to perform Live Migration and Storage Live Migration without the requirement of a shared storage on the backend. The removal of this requirement really helps bring the availability advantages of Live Migration to small and medium sized businesses that came afford a SAN or don’t want to deal with the complexities of a SAN. The ability to perform Live Migration without requiring shared storage really sets Hyper-V apart from vSphere and will definitely be a big draw – especially for SMBs that haven’t implemented virtualization yet.
VHDX, ODX, Virtual Fiber Channel & Boot from SAN
Another important enhancement with Hyper-V 3.0 was the introduction of a new virtual disk format called VHDX. The new VHDX format breaks the 2TB limit that was present in the older VHD format and pushes the maximum size of the virtual disk up to 16 TB per VHDX. The new format also provides improved performance, support for larger block sizes and is more resilient to corruption.
Hyper-V 3.0 also supports a feature called Offloaded Date Transfer (ODX). ODX enables Hyper-V to take advantage of the storage features of a backend shared storage subsystem. When performing file copies on an ODX enabled SAN the OS hands off all of the data transfer tasks to the SAN providing much high file copy performance with zero to minimal CPU utilization. There is no special ODX button. Instead ODX works in the backend. ODX requires the storage subsystem to support ODX.
Companies that use fiber channel SANs will appreciate the addition of the virtual Fiber Channel support in the Hyper-V guests. Hyper-V 3.0 guests can have up to four virtual fiber channel host bus adapters. The virtual HBAs appear in the VMs as devices very like virtual NICs and other virtual devices. Hyper-V VMs will also be able to boot from both fiber channel and iSCSI SANs.
Extensible Virtual Switch & NIC Teaming
In keeping par with the sweeping changes in Hyper-V’s compute capabilities and storage Microsoft also made a some of significant enhancements to Hyper-V’s networking capabilities. First, they updated the virtual switch that’s built into the Hyper-V hypervisor. The new virtual switch has a number of new capabilities multi-tenant capability as well as the ability to provide minimum and maximum bandwidth guarantees. In addition to these features the new virtual switch is also extensible. Microsoft provides a API that allows capture, filter and forwarding extensions. To ensure the high quality of these virtual switch extensions Microsoft will be initiating a Hyper-V virtual switch logo program.
Another overdue feature that will be a part of Windows Server 8 is the built-in ability to provide NIC teaming natively in the operating system. VMware’s ESX Server has provided NIC teaming for some time. Prior to Windows Server 8 you could only get NIC teaming for Windows via specialized NICs from Broadcom and Intel. The new NIC teaming works across heterogonous vendor NICs and can provide support for load balancing as well as failover.
Cisco publicly announced today that the Nexus 1000 and other Cisco technologies are coming to Windows Server 8 Hyper-V.
Here:
http://www.cisco.com/en/US/netsol/ns1154/index.html
and here:
http://www.cisco.com/en/US/solutions/collateral/ns340/ns517/ns224/ns955/ns963/solution_overview_c22-687087.html
This session will introduce the next release of Windows Server, code-named Windows Server “8”. Microsoft will talk about the engineering investments we have done in this release along with their benefits. This session will include lots of demos illustrating how Windows Server 8 lets our customers and partners move beyond virtualization and embrace a truly cloud optimized OS.
http://channel9.msdn.com/Events/BUILD/BUILD2011/SAC-973F
I would HIGHLY RECOMMEND you read this Jason Perlow’s blog on Windows Server 8.
http://www.zdnet.com/blog/perlow/windows-server-8-the-ultimate-cloud-os/18594
Just one quote out of the article
“As to be expected of a Cloud-optimized Windows Server release, many enhancements are going to come in the form of improvements to Hyper-V. And boy are they big ones.
For starters, Hyper-V will now support up to 32 processors and 512GB of RAM per VM. In order to accomodate larger virtual disks, a new virtual file format, .VHDX, will be introduced and will allow for virtual disk files greater than 2 terabytes.
Not impressed? How about 63-node Hyper-V clusters that can run up to 4000 concurrent VMs simultaneously? No, I’m not joking. They actually showed it to us, for real, and it was working flawlessly.
Live Migration in Hyper-V has also been greatly enhanced — to the point where clustered storage isn’t even required to do a VM migration anymore.
Microsoft demonstrated the ability to literally “beam” — a la Star Trek — a virtual machine between two Hyper-V hosts with only an IP connection.”
The list of Hyper-V features goes on and on. A new Open Extensible Virtual Switch will allow 3rd-parties to plug into Hyper-V’s switch architecture. SR-IOV for privileged access to PCI devices has now been implemented as well as CPU metering and resource pools, which should be a welcome addition to anyone currently using them in existing VMWare environments to portion out virtual infrastructure.
This includes Port ACLs that can block by source and destination VM, implementations of Private VLANs (PVLAN), network resource pools and open network QoS as well as packet-level IP re-write with GRE encapsulation and consistent device naming.
Multi-Path I/O (MPIO) drivers (such as EMC’s PowerPath and IBM’s SDDPCM) when combined with Microsoft’s virtual HBA provider can also now be installed as virtualized fiber channel host bus adapters (HBA) within virtual machines, in order to take better advantage of the performance of enterprise SAN hardware and for VMs to have direct access to SAN LUNs.
Windows Server 8 will also include improved Offloaded Data Transfer, so that when you drag and drop files between two server windows, the server OS knows to transfer data directly from one system to another, rather than passing it through your workstation or through another server.
This White Paper is already one year old, but still valid!
The Microsoft War on Cost team conducted research to determine the on-going operations and management costs for Hyper-V in comparison with VMware’s ESX and vSphere products. The research intended to answer two questions: which platform is less expensive in IT labor to operate on an on-going basis, and do the systems management products used to manage the environment impact the cost of managing either or both platforms. The War on Cost team used HANSA/GCR, a market research firm, to deliver a web-based survey to enterprises with 500 PCs or greater and collect the results. The research results show that customers running Hyper-V spend 24% less on IT labor, on an ongoing basis, than customers using either ESX or vSphere.
http://download.microsoft.com/download/1/F/8/1F8BD4EF-31CC-4059-9A65-4A51B3B4BC98/Hyper-V-vs-VMware-ESX-and-vShpere-WP.pdf
At Microsoft our approach to private cloud delivers business value through a focus on the application, not the infrastructure. We believe economics is a fundamental benefit of cloud.
VMware’s private cloud solution reflects that infrastructure/virtualization heart, and that heart beats pretty loudly in their licensing – which is per-vm and per product. So, as your cloud grows, and density increases, your costs grow - right along with it. That doesn’t seem very cloud friendly - especially when a VMware private cloud solution can cost 4 to nearly 10 times more than a comparable Microsoft private cloud solution.
Take a look at the research behind these numbers take a look at the new whitepaper Microsoft Virtualization just published.
Your cloud, on your terms, built for the future, ready now – take a look
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