Cheng's Random Thoughts on System Management : VMM 2008 R2

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 2008 R2 Upgrade Guide

Cheng Wei — Mon, 24 Aug 2009 17:43:00 GMT

As part of the VMM 2008 R2 launch, I'm inviting my colleague, Kerim, to provide you some information on how you can upgrade your existing VMM 2008 / VMM 2008 R2 RC versions to the VMM 2008 R2 RTM version. Here comes Kerim:

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

Hi everyone,

My name is Kerim Hanif. I am a program manager here at VMM product team, today I want to explain the paths you can upgrade to VMM 2008 R2 RTM. The purpose of this blog is to give you a general idea on how the upgrade works, for more detailed information please see the VMM 2008 R2 Deployment Guide in VMM TechNet http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkID=139191

Upgrading from VMM 2008 RTM to VMM 2008 R2 RTM

This is an in-place upgrade, you don’t need any extra tools, it is build right in the product.

One caveat for this upgrade - You can’t restart any of the prior jobs after the upgrade, after upgrading all jobs that were run prior to the upgrade will appear in the job history; however, those jobs cannot be restarted. It is recommended that you allow all jobs to complete before upgrading the VMM server. Jobs that are canceled during the upgrade cannot be restarted after the upgrade is completed.

Pre-upgrade tasks;

1. Perform a full backup your VMM 2008 RTM database, this way in an unlikely case that something goes wrong you can always reinstall VMM 2008 RTM using this database.

Upgrade tasks;

1. Start the VMM 2008 R2 RTM setup (with elevated privileges) on a machine that contains a VMM 2008 RTM component and select any one of the components from the splash screen that comes up.

2. Setup will detect that you have a VMM 2008 RTM bits installed and will automatically start the “upgrade wizard”

3. In the wizard we will show you which components are installed on the box the setup is currently running and ask you to confirm that we will go ahead and upgrade all of these components. Note: You may ask what happens if I select a component from splash screen that is not installed on the box. Let’s say you have admin console and server installed on this box and you have selected Self-Service Portal. In this case the behavior is that we will first upgrade all the components (admin console and server for this example) and then start the installation of Self-Service portal.

Post upgrade tasks;

1. You will need to perform this procedure above on all computers that has a VMM 2008 RTM component installed (admin console or SSP)

2. Refresh all hosts and library servers from the admin console.

1. Go to hosts view (also Library view), select machines and select refresh from the actions pane. We are doing this manually so that we don’t have to wait for the host refresher to run. By doing this all the agents on these machines will find out that the db version has changes and they will go to “needs attention” state.

3. Now you will need to go to the “managed computers view” in admin console and right click all the agents (both on hosts and library servers) that are in “needs attention” state and select “update agent”. Note: You can multi select here but do these in batches of 10-25.

Upgrading from VMM 2008 R2 RC to VMM 2008 R2 RTM

This upgrade will require the “UpgradeVMMR2RC.exe” tool (this tool is available on the Microsoft Connect site under VMM 2008 R2 connection - http://connect.microsoft.com/Downloads/Downloads.aspx?SiteID=960 );

Pre-upgrade tasks;

1. Perform a full back up your VMM 2008 R2 RC database, this way in an unlikely case that something goes wrong you can always reinstall VMM 2008 R2 RC using this database.

Upgrade tasks;

1. Uninstall VMM 2008 R2 RC with “retain db” option

2. Open a command prompt with elevated privileges and run “UpgradeVMMR2RC.exe” tool against the “retained” db in the previous process.

a. Command usage: UpgradeVMMR2RC.exe –server <computername[\instancename]> -database <database>

i. E.g. UpgradeVMMR2RC.exe –server VMMDB01\MICROSOFT$VMM$ -database VirtualManagerDB

3. Install VMM 2008 R2 RTM using this upgraded db above.

Post upgrade tasks;

1. You will need to uninstall all components with RC code and install new components with RTM code (admin console, SSP)

2. Refresh all hosts and library servers from the admin console.

a. Go to hosts view (also Library view), select machines and select refresh from the actions pane. We are doing this manually so that we don’t have to wait for the host refresher to run. By doing this all the agents on these machines will find out that the db version has changes and they will go to “needs attention” state.

a. If you have machines that are in ‘access denied’ state, you will need to ‘reassociate’ these first before upgrading the agents; so right click those machines, select reaccociate then when it is complete right click again and select “update agent”

You may also have clustered hosts, you may still be on VMM 2007, created PRO configuration (OM integration) with VMM 2008 RTM and wondering how to migrate, for these topics please see VMM 2008 R2 Deployment Guide in VMM TechNet http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkID=139191 there are great step-by-step guidance provided in that document.

Thank you and I hope this information helps you in your migration.

Kerim Hanif

What’s new in VMM 2008 R2 RC?

Cheng Wei — Mon, 11 May 2009 21:15:00 GMT

Greetings, folks!

Hope you had a good Mother's Day weekend (if you celebrate that holiday)!

Since VMM R2 Beta was released, the team has been working hard in incorporating feedback from customers. Here is a nice blog from Vishwa that explains the new set of features we’ve added in the upcoming VMM R2 RC release:

· Storage Migration

· Queuing of Live Migration

· Rapid Provisioning

· Host Compatibility Checks

· Support for 3^rd Party CFS

· Support for Veritas Volume Manager

Enjoy your reading,

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