Clive Watson's Weblog

I'm sure you've seen many post on Hyper-V in the past few days...I've also noticed a few posts related to technology that supports (or will support Hyper-V):

Virtual Server to Hyper-V tool

MAP3.1

DPM 2007

Anyone spotted others?

Mark also pulled together a list of Hyper-V videos.

http://blogs.technet.com/stbnewsbytes/archive/2008/06/26/it-s-here-windows-server-2008-hyper-v-is-available-for-download.aspx 

NeedI say more, but of course you know this already :-)

 Also: http://blogs.technet.com/virtualization/archive/2008/06/26/wu-hoo-only-12-days-to-wu.aspx or

http://blogs.technet.com/windowsserver/archive/2008/06/25/microsoft-com-powered-by-hyper-v.aspx

This web site has recently gone live http://www.microsoft.com/environment/ - there is lots of great content - basically a one stop shop for all things environmental.

BitLocker allows as you know Operating System boot and disk drive encryption. How you can use this for Hyper-V and virtual machines is documented in this white paper here

If you want to and who wouldn't...take a look at the new Windows Server 2008 Tuning guide.  Head down to page 58 for the Hyper-V section. This is been available for a few days but as a couple of people have asked me for this guidance recently - here you go (again for some of you - sorry!)

I'm sure you've already subscribed, if not....

System Center Virtual Machine Manager 2008; System Center Operations Manager 2007; Microsoft Internet Information Services 7.0

We are pleased to announce that the Infrastructure Planning and Design (IPD) Beta has been updated! We have added the System Center Virtual Machine Manager 2008, System Center Operations Manager 2007, and Microsoft Internet Information Services 7.0 guides to our beta. Beta members can download the content now.
If you aren't currently an IPD beta member, follow the instructions below or visit the Infrastructure Planning and Design Website.
Infrastructure Planning and Design streamlines the planning process by:

• Defining the technical decision flow through the planning process.
• Listing the decisions to be made and the commonly available options and considerations.
• Relating the decisions and options to the business in terms of cost, complexity, and other characteristics.
• Framing decisions in terms of additional questions to the business to ensure a comprehensive alignment with the appropriate business landscape.

Join the Beta
Additional Infrastructure Planning and Design series guides are available as beta releases on the Connect Web site. They are open beta downloads. See below for instructions on how to access the beta guides.
To join the Infrastructure Planning and Design Beta, follow these steps:

Visit the Infrastructure Planning and Design Beta on the Microsoft Connect Web site.
Sign in using a valid Windows Live ID to continue to the Invitations page.
Scroll down to Infrastructure Planning and Design.

If you have not previously registered with Microsoft Connect, you might be required to register before continuing with the invitation process.

TechNet Webcast: Managing Hyper-V Virtual Machines with WMI and Windows PowerShell (Level 300)

Event ID: 1032381324

Wednesday, July 02, 2008 8:00 AM Pacific Time (US & Canada)

Event Overview

Before the beta release of Microsoft System Center Virtual Machine Manager 2008, there was only one option for automating management of Hyper-V virtual machines—Windows Management Instrumentation (WMI). In this webcast, you learn how to automate the most common management tasks, how to create a delegation model using Windows Authorization Manager, and where the power of WMI can pick up where Virtual Machine Manager leaves off. In addition, the Hewlett-Packard Windows Server 2008 Academy team shares their experience automating the deployment of 600 virtual machines in less than three hours using WMI and Windows PowerShell. 

Presenters: Dung Hoang Khac, Principal Consultant, HP, and Aric Bernard, Senior Technology Consultant, HP
Dung K Hoang is a principal consultant in the Hewlett-Packard Consulting and Integration organization, and he works as architect and technical lead on Windows infrastructure projects for HP customers, delivering Microsoft Exchange, Active Directory, and Windows security technologies since 1999. Dung is focused on Windows management, Windows Server 2008, and virtualization. He is also a tutor on the HP Windows Server 2008 Academy team.
Aric Bernard is a senior technology consultant working for Hewlett-Packard Technology Solutions Group. As a Microsoft Certified Infrastructure Architect, Aric focuses on Microsoft technologies when applied to global enterprises with complex and distributed infrastructures. Aric has been architecting Microsoft-based solutions since 1995 for local, state, and federal government agencies as well as private corporations in the United States and abroad. He is also a member of the HP Windows Server 2008 Academy team, which has traveled the globe training Microsoft professionals on technical details of Windows Server 2008 and Hyper-V.

The Microsoft Assessment and Planning Toolkit (or MAP) is the next-generation version of the agent-less assessment platform from Microsoft. In this new version, MAP has expanded its capabilities into assessment areas of Hyper-V server virtualization, desktop security, and SQL 2008 migration.  In summary, MAP 3.1 assessment areas now include:

•            Server Migration Reports and Proposals (Windows Server 2008)

•            Server Consolidation Reports and Proposals (Virtual Server 2005 R2 and Hyper-V) (NEW!)

•            Desktop Security Assessment to determine if desktops have anti-virus and anti-malware programs installed or if the Windows Firewall is turned on (NEW!)

•            Application Virtualization Assessment Reports (Microsoft Application Virtualization, formerly SoftGrid)

•            SQL 2008 Migration Assessment Reports (NEW!)

•            Windows Vista and Microsoft Office 2007 Hardware Assessment Reports and Proposals

If you go to https://connect.microsoft.com the update that allows SCVMM to work with Hyper-V RC1 is now available

Update for SCVMM 2008 Beta - (You can access this from the downloads page).

Install this update to enable Virtual Machine Manager 2008 Beta (VMM) to function with Release Candidate 1 (RC1) to the Hyper-V role. After you install this update, you may have to restart your computer. Once you have installed this update, it cannot be removed.

Before You Install the Update

The VMM server and all of the hosts in your environment must be running Hyper-V RC1. After you install the update, you will not be able to add hosts running Hyper-V RC0 to your VMM environment. For information about the Hyper-V RC1 download, see Update for Windows Server 2008 x64 Edition (KB950049).

System Center Virtual Machine Manager 2008 has been announced at MMS:

http://www.microsoft.com/presspass/press/2008/apr08/04-29MMS08PR.mspx

Also announced was this (I believe) previously undisclosed feature:

System Center Virtual Machine Manager 2008 tightly integrates with Operations Manager 2007 to deliver a new feature called Performance and Resource Optimization (PRO). Using deep knowledge of the IT environment including operating systems, applications and hardware, Operations Manager identifies opportunities for more efficient physical and virtual resource allocation and generates “PRO tips” within the Virtual Machine Manager console. Administrators can implement these PRO tips and dynamically optimize their datacenter based upon pre-defined policies and the real-time, changing demands of users. When used in conjunction with the broad System Center management suite, System Center Virtual Machine Manager 2008 enables customers effectively to manage both their virtualized and physical servers and applications across their desktops and datacenters with a single set of consistent, compatible tools.

Sign-up here

https://connect.microsoft.com/directory/

or

More announcements and links can be found at the System Center home page (the link to the beta doesn't seem to be working yet)

http://www.microsoft.com/systemcenter/en/us/default.aspx

and more details

http://blogs.technet.com/windowsserver/archive/2008/04/29/virtualization-news-from-the-microsoft-management-summit.aspx

Keith has a TOP 10 features list on his blog

Microsoft Virtualization Team blog - more features are listed including a screen shot or two and VMware management comparison.

http://www.microsoft.com/uk/heroeshappenhere/default.mspx

On 19 March, the ICC in Birmingham (UK) will come alive as we launch three ground-breaking products: Windows Server 2008, Visual Studio 2008 and SQL Server 2008.

The day will start with a keynote by Jonathan Perera, General Manager of Application Platform and Developer Marketing, followed by a full day of sessions across five main rooms – some led by Microsoft experts, some by specialist Partners and some by external subject experts.

I'm co presenting the virtualization hour in the afternoon (13:00-14:00), and also will be on the virtualization stand at various times, please drop by to ask questions or just to say hi.

Cheers

Clive

I recently cam across a sequence of events that confused me with the SCVMM Administrators console and Self Service Portal installed on my Vista x64 laptop.

On one laptop the SCVMM Self Service Portal was working fine, on the other I was getting a gray (see below) window rather than a view of the virtual machines desktop as is normally expected.  However if I ran IE in 64-bit mode then it all worked - strange!

I went through all the usual settings in IE but couldn't see a difference between the two laptops, on one I could remove the ActiveX control but on the other with the problem, there was no control and it wouldn't prompt me to install it.    

Lloyd for the SCVMM team resolved this for me (thanks again Lloyd!), I don't think this will catch many people out but I think it's worth sharing the problem and resolution with you:

Is the VMM Administrator console also installed on this machine?  When the 64 bit version of the admin console is installed, it installs and registers the 64 bit version of the VMRC ActiveX control.  This control is also used in the browser.  Since the 64 bit version is installed, the 32 bit browser can’t load it.

If you need a workaround, you can uninstall the administrator console, load the web page in a 32 bit browser, and reinstall the admin console.

So it appears that on my other laptop, I must have accessed the portal before installing the console and therefore got the 32bit ActiveX control.  So I need to change my build process:

1. Install OS and tools

2. Access Self Service Portal (to get 32bit ActiveX control)

3. Install SCVMM administrators console

Then I can use either IE in 32 or 64bit modes.

The answer is yes! More details here

The Microsoft Solution Accelerators Team has just released the third-generation of the agent-less infrastructure assessment platform called Microsoft Assessment and Planning Solution Accelerator 3.0 (or simply MAP).  Through the use of remote WMI calls and secure inventory engines, the MAP tool enables you to quickly inventory a wide variety of networks (AD-managed, IP ranges, and workgroups), securely assess IT environments of servers, desktops, applications and devices, and auto-generate specific and actionable reports and proposal documents in a matter of hours.

Expanding from the Windows Vista Hardware Assessment code base, this new tool now enables users to generate the following assessment reports and proposals for server and desktop OS migration as well as virtualization projects.

• Windows Vista SP1 OS migration - hardware and device compatibility, applications inventory, BIOS compatibility, and upgrade recommendations
• Microsoft Office 2007 assessment on existing desktops to check for hardware and device compatibility
• Windows Server 2008 migration - hardware and device compatibility, applications inventory, roles inventory, and upgrade recommendations
• Server Virtualization candidacy report for consolidation of the datacenter (currently covers Virtual Server 2005 R2 - will support Hyper-V in the near future)
• Microsoft Application Virtualization - desktop and server readiness for Microsoft Application Virtualization (formerly SoftGrid)

DPM 2007 and  Virtual Server 2005 R2 SP1 backups explained here:

http://www.microsoft.com/systemcenter/dpm/flash/virtualization/index.html

Good news this morning....

The virtualization team is pleased to announce the public beta release of the Hyper-V WMI interfaces.

Hyper-V WMI APIs. Hyper-V uses WMI APIs (similar to the Virtual Server COM API) to create, manage, monitor, configure virtual resources. We expect the Hyper-V WMI APIs to be used widely in a variety of ways such as:

· By third party management vendors who want to write tools to manage WSV (examples, HP Openview & IBM Director)

· By enterprises who want to integrate with an existing management solution

· Developers who want to automate virtualization in a test/dev environments through scripts

The Hyper-V WMI APIs are publicly available here:

http://msdn2.microsoft.com/en-us/library/cc136992(VS.85).aspx

Important: This documentation is preliminary and is subject to change. This same warning is provided online (see the screenshot below). While we’re trying to avoid any changes, modifications are still possible up to the final release. We encourage user feedback by clicking on the link below to “Send comments about this topic to Microsoft.”