Cheng's Random Thoughts on System Management : SCVMM

SCVMM 2008 R2 downloadable docs are available now!

Cheng Wei — Thu, 01 Oct 2009 03:24:00 GMT

Greetings, folks!

I'm pleased to let you all know that our documentation team has just published the doanloadable version of SCVMM 2008 R2 documents at here: http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkId=162764

Available documents for download are:

· Deployment Guide

· Guide to Operations Manager Integration

· Security Guide

· Operations Guide

· Scripting Guide

· Cmdlet Reference

· Building PRO-Enabled Management Packs

Go check them out today, download them onto your favorite device, print them out or just read them wherever / however you want.

Feedback on these? Please send it to: scvmfdbk@microsoft.com.

Cheers!

Cheng

It's here - SCVMM 2008 R2 RTM'ed.

Cheng Wei — Mon, 24 Aug 2009 20:28:00 GMT

Greetings folks!

This is one of the very exciting mements that I have to drop whatever I'm doing and tell you about this. :-)

I've been busy on a few things. So sorry for not able to post much information lately. And I'll tell you about what I was working on in a few months. We're baking something big. :-)

Unlike last time when we released VMM 2008 (which was a few months after Hyper-V RTM), we're tying our VMM 2008 R2 release schedule right together with Windows Server 2008 R2. And it comes with a big load of goodies (Live Migration support, CSV support;Storage Migration; Rapid Provisioning; Host Compatibility Check; Support for 3rd party CSF; Support for Veritas Volume Manager; Integration with Visual Studio Lab Manager; etc.).

Go download a trial and give it a try, go get it now, and unleash the virtualization power that Microsoft brings to you.

Here are more information on this exciting RTM announcement:

http://blogs.technet.com/systemcenter/archive/2009/08/24/system-center-virtual-machine-manager-vmm-2008-r2-rtms.aspx

Cheers!

Cheng

VMM Network Location and Network Tag

Cheng Wei — Fri, 08 May 2009 23:14:00 GMT

Hello there!

Today I got a guest poster, my colleague, David Armour. David is a senior program manager responsible for SCVMM 2008's Networking feature. Based on the questions he has seen on the Technet SCVMM forum, he wanted to post this information out to help clarify the concepts and usage of Network Location and Network Tag in SCVMM.

Here is the post in David's words:
=============================================

When you specify a template or VM’s network connection requirements, you can supply a Network Location and a Network Tag. You have undoubtedly seen this screen:

What do these things mean and how are they used?

Network Location and Network Tag are used when placing a VM on the host - the VM's connection requirements are checked against the networking capabilities provided by the host. This helps you place the VM onto a host that can provide the network connection requirements of the VM. When you set the requirements in the VM, you select from a list network locations and tags which the hosts provide. So for example if your VM should be in your DMZ, you can select the DMZ network as the network location.

In most cases, the Network Location is determined on the host using the Windows Network Location Awareness (NLA) feature. Windows determines a name for the network based on the DNS settings for the network. You can learn more about how the Windows Network Location Awareness (NLA) feature works here: http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ms740558(VS.85).aspx.

Sometimes VMM cannot determine the Network Location from NLA. This happens with loopback adapters since they are not participating in a network and on ESX servers since OS on these hosts does not have the NLA feature. In these cases you can manually add the network location. You can do this by going to the host properties. On the Hardware tab, find the loopback adapter. Check the "Override discovered network location" checkbox and type a name for the network location.

We just covered Network Location, now let’s look at the Network Tag.

The Network Tag provides you with another property to set up applicability when placing a VM on a host. You can use the network tag on the Hosts’ virtual networks to differentiate networks on some other criteria than just network location, such as on the VLAN or network throughput or security (IPSec for example). This is a custom tag that you create. The network tag is set on the host’s Virtual Network and the VM/Template can then select this tag in its network connection requirements. To set the Network Tag on a Host’s Virtual Network, go to the host properties. On the networking tab, find your Virtual Network. You will find the Network Tag under the Virtual Network name.

Once you have set up the Network Location and Network Tags on your hosts, each unique Network Tag and Network Location will show up in the combo boxes under the VM/Template's connection requirements.

Thanks,

David

=============================================

Hope this helps and thanks for reading!

Cheng

Got a "Bad Gateway"?

Cheng Wei — Tue, 14 Apr 2009 19:41:00 GMT

Greetings, folks!

Hope you had a great Easter on last Sunday, if you celebrate that holiday! My kids certainly enjoyed hunting eggs in a typical Seattle drizzling Saturday morning. J

This blog entry is for folks who use or plan to use VMM to manage VMware ESX hosts.

If this is your first time adding your ESX host to VMM, and your ESX hosts are added into VMM by using DNS name (instead of IP address), and your network environment with Internet proxy is not made aware of VMware host DNS names, you may see error similar to below:

Error (2891)

VMM cannot complete the …. action on the vmm-esx1.scvmm.contoso.com server because of the error: The remote server returned an error: (502) Bad Gateway.

(Unknown error (0x194))

This issue may occur when:

· To turn your ESX host from “OK(Limited)” state to “OK” state (to get your ESX host in full management mode), you are providing root user credentials and attempting to retrieve the certificate and SSH key from the ESX host to approve.

· You may also run into the same error when attempting to perform a live migration (VMotion) for a VM hosted by an ESX host from VMM admin console.

The cause of this issue is due to the DNS resolution (or proxy configuration) on your VMM server:

· VMM uses web services to communicate to VMware Virtual Center and ESX hosts.

· Proxies are generally configured to permit pass-through of local DNS names.

· In some cases, when the proxy is not configured for a DNS name, the web service connection may fail.

Following are some simple options to resolve this issue:

· SOLUTION 1: Include VMWare host DNS names in the internet proxy configuration.

· SOLUTION 2: Add dns hosts to the proxy configuration of Internet Explorer

· SOLUTION 3: Create a file "vmmservice.exe.config" in the same location as vmmservice.exe (by default, it’s installed under this directory: %ProgramFiles%\Program Files\Microsoft System Center Virtual Machine Manager 2008\bin\) with contents similar to the following. Note: you will need to bounce the VMM server service (restart “Virtual Machine Manager” service from services.mcs) for it to pick up the new proxy configuration).

<system.net>

</bypasslist>

</defaultProxy>

</system.net>

</configuration>

On the extreme side, you could also completely turn off the proxy on your VMM server by applying the following config file:

<system.net>

</defaultProxy>

</system.net>

</configuration>

Hope this helps and thanks for reading!

Cheers,

Cheng

What you need to know about Maintenance Mode

Cheng Wei — Wed, 18 Mar 2009 21:45:00 GMT

Hello folks,

As you can see from the news, we’ve released our beta for SCVMM 2008 R2, which offers support to Windows Server 2008 R2 (live migration, etc.) and a bunch of exciting new features.

Today, I wanted to introduce to you our new VMM Maintenance Mode feature in VMM R2.

What is maintenance mode?

· In Virtual Machine Manager (VMM) 2008 R2, you can start maintenance mode for a virtual machine host anytime that you need to perform maintenance tasks on the physical host, such as applying security updates or replacing hardware on the physical host computer.

· We support start / stop maintenance mode for Hyper-V hosts, Virtual Server hosts, as well as VMWare ESX hosts.

How does it work “under the hood”?

· To start or stop maintenance mode on a host,

o In the VMM Administrator Console, in Hosts view, click a host, and then in the Actions pane, click either Start maintenance mode or Stop maintenance mode.

o Or from a PowerShell window, use cmdlet “disable-VMHost” to put a host into maintenance mode, and use cmdlet “enable-VMHost” to take the host out of maintenance mode.

· Entering maintenance mode

o This action can be applied to all host and host clusters.

o For Windows-based virtualization hosts

§ If they are Win7 clusters (capable of live migration), two options would be presented on the UI:

· The default option is to live migrate all running HA VMs, save-state all non-HA running VMs and put the host in maintenance mode.

· The other option is to simply save-state all running VMs (no migration), and put the host in maintenance mode.

§ If they are standalone VM hosts or Win6 clusters (incapable of live migration), you would only see one option on the UI

· Save-state of all running VMs and put the host in maintenance mode.

o What about VMWare ESX hosts?

§ When you start maintenance mode on an ESX Server host, VMM sends an “Enter maintenance mode” request to the VMware VirtualCenter Server.

§ The system behavior of the virtual machines on the selected ESX Server host is determined by the configuration of the VMware VirtualCenter Server.

· If the VMware Distributed Resources Scheduler is not configured, all virtual machines on the host must be either manually shut down or moved to another host to successfully start maintenance mode on an ESX Server host.

o What about those stopped VMs?

§ We do not touch stopped VMs.

§ Even for saved-state VMs, we’re not migrating them either. They will remain on the host.

· In maintenance mode

o When host is in maintenance mode, here are the changes to the system behaviors on hosts:

§ Host state is not updated (the state will remain as “In Maintenance Mode” regardless of the agent status or virtualization service status);

§ No VM creation is allowed on the host;

§ No VM can be moved into this host;

§ Host is excluded from any placement (hence, self-service portal users or PRO auto-implementation won’t be able to pick this host).

o What can users do?

§ Users actually are not blocked from most actions (except New-VM and Move-VM into this host).

§ However, please be aware that the results of the requests are all depending on the state of the host and its agent. And because the host state is no longer updated once the host is in maintenance mode, you may have a “in maintenance mode” host that is completely down but you just may not see the state change on our UI.

· Request to remove (or force remove) the host;

· Request to start or stop VMs on the host;

· Request to change properties of the host;

· Request to move VM out of the host; etc.

· Exit maintenance mode

o When host is taken out of maintenance mode, here is the system behavior:

§ The next host refresher will update the host state to its current state;

§ The host is now available for placement;

§ Blocks for VM creation or migration are removed from the host.

o What about the VMs that were migrated out?

§ They are remain at their current hosts.

§ VMM does not auto-migrate-back the VMs that were migrated out.

§ Users need to evaluate and decide if there is a need to rebalance the workloads again with the resources on this host becoming available again.

Got any comments / feedbacks?

· Give it a try by downloading our beta from here.

· Send me your feedback.

Hope this is helpful and thanks for reading!

Cheng

SCVMM 2008 R2 Beta is released!

Cheng Wei — Sat, 14 Mar 2009 01:02:00 GMT

Greetings folks!

I’m pleased to announce that the public Beta of SCVMM 2008 R2 is now available for download at our connect site. Since shipping SCVMM 2008 in last October, our team has been busy working on an update that supports Windows 2008 R2, takes advantage of the new features in the platform, and addresses key customers asks. This release coming within a few months of the SCVMM 2008 RTM (including the holiday season!) delivers several exciting new features and enables a few important functionalities requested by our customers.

Here are the highlights of the new features in this Beta release:

· Live Migration support

o Windows 2008 R2 supports Live migration, and now so does SCVMM 2008 R2.

· Clustered Shared Volumes (CSV) support

o Ability to place multiple VMs on a single LUN is a key customer request.

· SAN enhancements:

o SAN migration in and out of clusters (taking advantages of your SAN infrastructure to achieve a faster migration experience)

o Multiple LUNs per single iSCSI target which provides support for iSCSI products from Network Appliance and EMC.

· Networking enhancements:

o Support for VMQ & Chimney

o Support for MAC spoofing

o Support for reusable port groups in VMWare VirtualCenter.

· Maintenance mode support

o Maintenance mode is supported across all platforms: Hyper-V, VS and VMWare ESX hosts

o Putting a host in maintenance mode, triggers evacuation of all VMs on the host via live migration on Windows 2008 R2 and VMWare.

o PRO migrations to the host are disabled.

· Disjoint domains support

o With proper permission configuration, now with VMM 2008 R2, you can easily add hosts in a disjoint domain into VMM.

For more complete description of the R2 Beta release, check out the blog post from Rakesh.

Join our connect site and download our VMM R2 Beta now!

Cheers,

Cheng

When should I consider running my VMM Service by using a domain account?

Cheng Wei — Fri, 20 Feb 2009 05:19:00 GMT

Greetings folks!

Hope you all had a good Valentine weekend last week!

If you noticed, during your VMM Server installation, there is an option of allowing you to select a different account to run VMM Server service (VMMService) from the default computer account.

“When should I consider using this non-default option?”, you may ask.

You may have other reasons / policies to run VMMService by using a domain account. However, based on some of our recent CSS reports, choosing your own domain account to run VMMService should be a preferred option for customers who are running a more restrictive AD environment. Here is why:

· With default install option, VMMService is run under the VMM Server local system / computer account.

· When adding trusted domain-joined VM hosts (whose domain has two-way trusts with the domain VMM Server is in), VMM Server adds its computer account (the account it uses to run VMMService) into the local administrator group of the target VM hosts, as part of the Add-VMHost process.

· In a more restrictive AD environment, we find it common for customers to have a “Restricted Groups” group policy that disallows machine accounts to be part of the local administrators group. Hence, when the GP is in effect, the machine account will be removed by this GP.

· And when this happens, the affected VM Hosts will show up in VMM console as “Needs Attention” (and the agent status will be “Not Responding”), since the VMM Server will no longer be able to authenticate with the hosts. Here is error message that you will see from the failed host refresher job (BTW, we’ll be updating this error message in our vNext):

Error (2927)

A Hardware Management error has occurred trying to contact server servername.domainname.com.

(Unknown error (0x80338104))

Recommended Action

Check that WinRM is installed and running on server servername.domainname.com. For more information use the command "winrm helpmsg hresult".

When users get into this situation, there are a few options they can do to fix this issue:

1. Check with your IT security group and see if it’s possible to disable the “Restricted Groups” group policy in your Active Directory environment; or

2. Check with your IT security group and see if it’s possible to modify the group policy to allow the VMM machine account in the Local Administrators group; or

3. Check to see if it’s possible to move the VMM Server machine account to its own organizational unit (OU) and block the group policy from being applied to that OU; or

4. If making changes to your group policy (or negotiating with your IT security group J) is next-to-impossible, the only option left is to reinstall the VMM server and choose the option to run the VMM service by using a domain account with admin privilege on your VMM Server computer (in this case, you will need to remove and re-add all your VM hosts, or choose to reinstall your VMM Server without retaining data).

Hence, I highly recommend users to evaluate your IT security (AD) policies before deploying your VMM server into production environment, as those factors do directly affect how VMM performs operations within that environment. And, if you do have a more restrictive AD environment, I suggest you to use a domain account to run VMM Server service. Also, if you have a disjoint namespace environment, it's also recommended to use a domain account to run your VMM Server service.

Before I close on this subject, there is one restriction that I think folks should be aware when using a domain account to run your VMM Server service:

· Users cannot use the same domain user account to add or remove hosts.

o Say, you configured VMM Server to use account “foo\bar” to run VMM Server service.

o And it also happens to be part of the local admin group for a host “MyNewHost” that you want to add to VMM.

o When we go through AddHost wizard (or through our cmdlet), you will be asked about a credential with admin privilege for us to install agent.

o At this point, it’s disallowed to use the same user account “foo\bar” to add the host. And yes, we actually block you from doing such operation.

o The same is true for host removal, it’s disallowed to use the same account “foo\bar” to remove the host.

· Why do we not allow this?

o During host addition, we add the service account to the local admin group on the host. When removing the host, we need to remove the account from the local admin group.

§ If we remove the account first, we won't be able to talk to the agent.

§ If we remove the agent first, we leave the account behind.

§ Thus, users need to use a different account for host removal.

o During host addition, we add the service account to the local admin group on the host.

§ In case of failure during the agent install process as part of the AddHost task, we need to be able to roll back and successfully remove the agent.

§ To do that, we need the same requirement.

· So, the proper process is that if you use “foo\bar” to run your VMM Server service, you will need to use a different account with admin privilege to add or remove your host.

Hope this helps and thanks for reading!

Thanks,

Cheng

Hyper-V Security Guide – beta now available

Cheng Wei — Fri, 13 Feb 2009 22:15:00 GMT

The Hyper-V Security Guide can help you elevate the security of virtualized Windows Server environments to meet your business-critical needs. This accelerator provides IT professionals like you with recommendations to address your key security concerns around server virtualization. The guide provides authoritative guidance that relates to the following strategies for securing virtualized environments:

· Hardening Hyper-V. The guide provides prescriptive guidance for hardening the Hyper-V server role, including several best practices for installing and configuring Hyper-V with a focus on security. These best practices include measures for reducing the attack surface of Hyper-V as well as recommendations for properly configuring secure virtual networks and storage devices on a Hyper-V host server.

· Delegating Virtual machine management . The ability to safely and securely delegate administrative access to virtual machine resources within an organization is essential. The guide highlights several available methods to administer different aspects of a virtual machine infrastructure and ways to control administrative access to different servers and at different levels.

· Protecting virtual machines. The guide also provides prescriptive guidance for securing virtual machine resources, including best practices and detailed steps for protecting virtual machines by using a combination of file system permissions, encryption, and auditing.

The Beta release is available now for your review through March 4, 2009. After joining the Beta review program [live ID required], bookmark this link to the program site to get the latest information about project details.

Thanks for reading!

Cheng

Shrink your VHD size

Cheng Wei — Wed, 07 Jan 2009 20:24:00 GMT

Hello there,

Happy New Year!

We had a pretty big snow storm during the past Christmas in Seattle area. Wherever you are, I hope you had a safe and relaxing Christmas and / or New Year holiday!

If you are still new to VMM, today I'm going to show you a tip on how to "shrink" your VHD size - one of the challenges to virtualization beginners. As you may know, one of the major benefits of using VM is that it allows users to change the virtual hardware without having to tear down a system and rebuild from scratch. I’ve got a few inquiries from customers about how to shrink their VHD size.

Here is how you can shrink a dynamic disk type VHD by using SCVMM 2008. What you need to do is:

First delete snapshots if you have and wait till merge to complete.
Once merge is complete, issue compact vhd from the VM Properties (see screenshot below):
You can also do this from the PowerShell layer by using Compress-VirtualDiskDrive cmdlet. For the actual syntax, use command “get-help Compress-VirtualDiskDrive –detailed”.
If your VHD is fixed type instead of “dynamic” type, you can convert it to dynamic type first, and then compress it. The conversion of the disk type can be done in the same UI or by using cmdlet “Convert-VirtualDiskDrive”.

Thanks for reading and hope this helps.

Cheers,
Cheng

VMM Configuration Analyzer 2008 is now available for download!

Cheng Wei — Fri, 05 Dec 2008 05:06:00 GMT

Greetings folks,

Today, I've got a guest poster, Carmen Asher, one of my colleagues in VMM team. Carmen is the program manager responsible for SCVMM Configuration Analyzer 2008. Her post below provides you with all the information you need to know on: what VMMCA is all about, where to download it, how to use it, and she is nice enough to even prepare a section of frequently asked questions. J

Take advantage and enjoy this free and powerful tool for VMM 2008!

Cheng

------

Hi, I am Carmen Asher, Program Manager on System Center Virtual Machine Manager. I am using a spot on Cheng’s blog to announce the Public Release to Web of the Virtual Machine Manager Configuration Analyzer 2008.

Overview

Customers have come to rely upon, and appreciate, the added value that VMMCA tool provides, so getting it out within weeks of RTM is critical for customers to assist in helping plan implementation and then also provide value-add during the ongoing operational phase of SCVMM 2008.

Description

The VMMCA is a diagnostic tool you can use to evaluate important configuration settings for computers that either are serving or might serve VMM roles or other VMM functions. The VMMCA scans the hardware and software configurations of the computers you specify, evaluates them against a set of predefined rules, and then provides you with error messages and warnings for any configurations that are not optimal for the VMM role or other VMM function that you have specified for the computer.

You can use VMMCA before installing VMM, to help you evaluate the configuration of computers that you might use for the following VMM roles:

· VMM server

· VMM Administrator Console

· VMM Self-Service Portal

You can also use VMMCA after installing VMM, to evaluate the configurations of computers that you are now using or might use for the VMM roles listed above, as well as computers that you are using or might use for any of the following VMM functions:

· Windows Server–based host

· VMware Virtual Center Server

· P2V source computer

· Operations Manager agent

System Requirements:

Before you install the VMMCA, you must download and install the 64-bit version of Microsoft Baseline Configuration Analyzer (MBCA). To download the MBCASetup64.msi file, go to http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkID=97952.

Note

The system requirements for the MBCA indicate that only Windows Server 2003 is supported. However, the VMMCA and the MBCA have been tested and are supported on Windows Server 2008 64-bit.

You must install and run the VMMCA on the computer that either currently is or will become your VMM 2008 server. To review the system requirements for the VMM 2008 server, go to http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkId=133516.

Download VMMCA Now

Common Usage Scenarios

The list of scenarios are not comprehensive, but will provide you with some common usage scenarios to provide you with an understanding of when to use VMMCA 2008.

Scenario 1 – I have a Windows Host that is in a not responding state. Use VMMCA 2008 to check the host for commonly known issues.

Scenario 2 – A Windows host shows a status of “Needs Attention”. Use VMMCA 2008 to check the this host for commonly known issues.

Scenario 3 – I am using SCVMM 2008 to manage a VMware environment, but I am unable to create new virtual machines on the VMware environment. Use VMMCA 2008 to evaluate the Virtual Center environment for commonly known issues.

Scenario 4 – I am using the integration between SCVMM 2008 and Operations Manager, but I am unable to see a particular VM or Host in the integrated mapping view. Use VMMCA 2008 to check the host or virtual machine for an operations manager agent.

Scenario 5 – I am using SCVMM 2008 to do P2V conversions and the job is failing. Use VMMCA 2008 to check the P2V source for commonly known issues.

Scenario 6 - I tried to create a Virtual Machine and it failed during customization and installation of virtual guest services. Use VMMCA 2008 on the Windows Host to find commonly known issues.

Frequently Asked Questions

Question: Do I have to install MBCA 1.0 and VMMCA 2008?

Answer: Yes, VMMCA 2008 uses the MBCA 1.0 64 bit engine that enables the rule checks for VMMCA 2008.

Question: Where can I install VMMCA 2008?

Answer: VMMCA 2008 is installed on a Windows 2008 64 bit server that is or will become the VMM Server.

Question: MBCA 1.0 64 bit system requirements state that it is only installable on Windows 2003 platform. Can I install it on Windows 2008 64 bit.

Answer: The SCVMM 2008 has tested the MBCA 1.0 on the Windows 2008 64 bit platform for all of the rule sets defined in VMMCA 2008.

Question: Does VMMCA 2008 perform all pre-requisite checks for SCVMM 2008?

Answer: No, the VMMCA does not duplicate or replace the prerequisite checks performed during the setup of VMM 2008 components.

Question: Can I run a check against a individual ESX hosts?

Answer: No, VMware checks are run by selecting the “other computers” check box and then from the drop menu selecting VMware VirtualCenter. Add the VirtualCenter name and run the scan. VMMCA 2008 will access the managed ESX hosts by using information in VMM 2008.

Running SQL server 2008 on Hyper-V

Cheng Wei — Mon, 27 Oct 2008 20:20:00 GMT

Now the world of IT is turning its focus on consolidating the physical computers into virtual machines. More and more people started to ask questions like, “will my app run the same in those virtual machines?”, “will there be any performance changes for my app running them in VMs versus standalone physical machines?”. Many of those questions are discussed in our Hyper-V TechNet center and various Hyper-V team blogs.

The one in particular I heard the most is the question “if I should run my SQL Server in a VM?” or “will there be performance degradation on my SQL if I run it in a VM?”. And the answer to that question is “it depends on the workload and SLA”, according to Lindsey Allen, Principle Program Manager Lead, in SQL Customers Program team.

If you are one of the folks who are seeking best practices recommendation on running SQL Server 2008 in a Hyper-V environment, here is a perfect white paper for you:

http://sqlcat.com/whitepapers/archive/2008/10/03/running-sql-server-2008-in-a-hyper-v-environment-best-practices-and-performance-recommendations.aspx

Thanks to Lindsey, Mike, Prem and others in the SQL Server Customer Program team, who have worked tirelessly and published this whitepaper just in time with Microsoft global virtualization launch efforts.

Like me, I hope you will find this paper offering great insights into how you should evaluate and assess your applications on SQL and the hardware where SQL Server is running on, and what to expect when you move your SQL server environment onto Hyper-V.

Hope this helps and thanks for reading,

Cheng

SCVMM 2008 RTM!

Cheng Wei — Tue, 21 Oct 2008 23:37:00 GMT

Finally, the wait is over! Today, we have released System Center Virtual Machine Manager 2008.

For more information about the product, you can check out Rakesh's blog here, or the Window Virtualization team blog, or go to our technet home to download a trial version.

To echo what Rakesh has said, a big THANK YOU to all the people who have helped testing and provided us feedback throughout the development of this product. We couldn't have done it without your support and those candid & thoughtful feedbacks. And, we'll always keep our ears open to you ("customers are the center of everthing we do"), as we start turning pages to our next stage of innovation in system management history.

Cheers!

Cheng

All about refreshers ...

Cheng Wei — Thu, 02 Oct 2008 02:19:00 GMT

If you have been using VMM for a while, you’ve probably figured out that we use various “refreshers” to pull data from the hosts and VMs that we manage. When deploying VMM in various sized environments, depending on the perf/scale requirements, you might need to tweak the refresher schedule to achieve the best performance.

So, to help you understand what’s happening “under the hood”, here are the refreshers we use in SCVMM 2008 product. Please note, that not all refreshers are customizable.

Host Refresher: Runs every 30mins on every host (with time lags) and updates host properties. It also updates disk/SAN and host network (NIC / virtual switch) information. It does not check any VM related properties or perf counters on hosts. Can be manually triggered on the UI or through cmdlet.

VM Refreshers: Two types

VM Heavy Refresher: Runs every 30mins on every Host and also runs whenever a VM is clicked on (or when you call refresh-vm cmdlet). It updates all VM properties, resource pools, clustering information for this VM and snapshots. But it does not update VM performance counter info.

VM Light Refresher: Runs every 2mins on every Host that is currently in the VMM database. This refresher does the following:

- Checks the host state (to see if the agent is running or the agent is down) and virtualization software status

- Syncs the state of a VM

- Marks VMs as missing

- Imports new VMs created outside of VMM (When VMM detects a new VM created on the virtualization platform, we import it into VMM and kick off the heavy refresher for the new VMs)

Cluster Refresher: Runs every 30mins and refreshes all cluster properties (including bringing in newly added nodes or taking our removed nodes). Can be manually triggered on the UI or through cmdlet.

Library Refresher: Runs on user configurable schedule (increment by 1 hour interval and can be turned off completely) and updates the library shares info and library objects. Can be manually triggered on the UI or through cmdlet.

Perf Refresher: Runs every 9 minutes on a host or whenever there is any state changing operation on the VM (i.e. start/stop/save/etc.). It collects perf counter information of both the host and all the VM’s on a given host.

VirtualCenter Refresher: Runs every 30mins and refreshes VC properties, ESX hosts and resource pools that are managed by this VC. Can be manually triggered on the UI or through cmdlet.

User Role Refresher: Runs every 30mins and updates user role properties.

PRO Tip Refresher: Runs every 30secs. It looks for PRO specific alerts in OpsMgr and reconciles the PRO tips in our DB against the data that is brought back from OpsMgr. This refresher cannot be manually triggered.

Thanks for reading and hope this is useful,

Cheng

Two important updates for SCVMM

Cheng Wei — Wed, 24 Sep 2008 20:52:00 GMT

Working with SCVMM team, Hyper-V team and BITS (Background Intelligent Transfer Service) team have just released two important updates to support SCVMM scenarios. We highly recommend our customers to install these updates to your Hyper-V host environments. In fact, if your Hyper-V hosts do not have these two updates installed, SCVMM server will report your hosts as "Needs Attention" (and the substatus for Virtualization Service Version will show as "Upgrade available").

Here are the brief discriptions (copied from the KB) and links to the updates:

Hyper-V Update:

Install this update to resolve potential issues when you manage Hyper-V with System Center Virtual Machine Manager (SCVMM). After you install this item, you may have to restart your computer. This update is provided to you and licensed under the Windows Server 2008 License Terms.

http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyID=FD44B4E3-2DCC-4299-B345-BC09A9A37B60&displaylang=en

BITS Update:

Install this update to resolve the scenario where a Background Intelligent Transfer Service (BITS) client cannot handle files that have paths that contain the volume GUID in Windows Server 2008. After you install this item, you may have to restart your computer. This update is provided to you and licensed under the Windows Server 2008 License Terms.

http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyId=9EC9DBB9-82AD-4D34-9267-76A0126A8F18&displaylang=en

Thanks for reading and hope this is helpful,

Cheng

Get Virtual Now

Cheng Wei — Tue, 09 Sep 2008 01:10:00 GMT

Yes, today is a big day for Microsoft and a big day for the IT industry. We launched our full virtualization solution stack today at Meydenbauer Convention Center, Bellevue, WA. For the complete PR coverage, please check out this official MS news release.

Now, customers who want a full end-to-end virtualization solution stack can finally get what they really need, from physical to virtual, from datacenter to desktop, from infrastructure to applications.

There are a few things I’d like to highlight:

· FREE hypervisor – Hyper-V Server SKU will be released in 30 days via web.

· SCVMM 2008 to be released in 30 days. Without a question, VMM is a buzz word of the event. The self-paced lab for VMM has attracted tons of folks who want to try out this highly expected upcoming release.

· MSFT Live Migration will be available in Windows Server 2008 R2 release. BobMu demo’ed this feature live on stage today.

· App-V 4.5 was released last week, and will be included as part of the MDOP 2008 R2.

· There are also numerous partner solutions that build on top of or extend MSFT virtualization technologies to provide more values to our customers.

This is an exciting time for our customers and the virtualization industry.

Get Virtual Now! J

Cheng