Dutch Partner Technology Advisors blog : Advanced Infrastructure Solutions

Introducing Windows Server 2008 R2 eBook Available as Free Download

Edievdb — Sun, 25 Oct 2009 19:21:31 GMT

From the Windows Server Devision Weblog.

Download the “Introducing Windows Server 2008 R2” e-book here.

Free E-book: Deploying Windows&#174; 7 Essential Guidance from the Windows 7 Resource Kit and TechNet Magazine

Edievdb — Sat, 17 Oct 2009 07:48:36 GMT

Brief Description

Deploying Windows® 7 Essential Guidance from the Windows 7 Resource Kit and TechNet Magazine
Download the New eBook: Deploying Windows® 7 Essential Guidance from the Windows 7 Resource Kit and Microsoft® TechNet Magazine. Looking for guidance specific to Windows 7 deployment? Check out what the industry's leading experts have to say in this free Microsoft Press eBook with selected chapters from the Windows 7 Resource Kit on Deployment Platforms, Planning, Testing Application Compatibility.

Get it here!

Microsoft and Red Hat Complete Cooperative Technical Support

Edievdb — Wed, 07 Oct 2009 21:28:33 GMT

Finally we have a formal announcement!

http://blogs.technet.com/virtualization/archive/2009/10/07/microsoft-and-red-hat-complete-cooperative-technical-support.aspx

Hyper-V Performance Comparison of Windows Server 2008 SP2 and Windows Server 2008 R2 on Intel Platforms

Edievdb — Tue, 18 Aug 2009 10:03:12 GMT

Interesting performance comparison report!

Principled Technologies tested Harpertown and Nehalem servers running various Windows Server operating systems to show the benefits of processer and of operating system improvements on simulated customer workloads. Windows Server 2008 R2 delivers over 37% more capacity on these tests on the same Nehalem-based servers.

http://www.principledtechnologies.com/clients/reports/Microsoft/HyperVR2_0709.pdf

Changes to System Center Management Suite Enterprise licensing

Edievdb — Tue, 21 Jul 2009 13:07:41 GMT

Since the 1st of July the Server Management Suite Licensing has changes.

The biggest changes are that we have added a Server Management Suite Datacenter (SMSD).

The Server Management Suite Datacenter provides rights to manage an unlimited number of operating system environments (OSEs) on a single physical server.

The Server Management Suite Enterprise provides rights to manage four operating system environments (OSEs) on a single physical server.

For more information on what’s included, pricing etc. see:

http://www.microsoft.com/systemcenter/en/us/management-suites.aspx

Microsoft Contributes Linux Drivers to Linux Community

matthts — Mon, 20 Jul 2009 20:58:34 GMT

REDMOND, Wash., July 20, 2009 — Today, in a break from the ordinary, Microsoft released 20,000 lines of device driver code to the Linux community. The code, which includes three Linux device drivers, has been submitted to the Linux kernel community for inclusion in the Linux tree. The drivers will be available to the Linux community and customers alike, and will enhance the performance of the Linux operating system when virtualized on Windows Server 2008 Hyper-V or Windows Server 2008 R2 Hyper-V.

…….

For the remainder use link below.

http://www.microsoft.com/presspass/features/2009/Jul09/07-20LinuxQA.mspx

MAP 4.0 Released

matthts — Thu, 16 Jul 2009 09:29:51 GMT

The Microsoft Assessment and Planning Toolkit 4.0 is Now Available!

With Windows 7 and Windows Server 2008 R2 becoming available in the near future, the Solution Accelerators Team is offering customers and partners a head start on deployment planning with the Microsoft Assessment and Planning Toolkit 4.0. Over 690,000 Microsoft customers and partners including Costco Wholesale Corporation, Continental Airlines, and Banque de Luxembourg have already downloaded and used this toolkit to help plan for their Windows Server 2008 and Hyper-V virtualization deployment.

The Microsoft Assessment and Planning Toolkit 4.0 is an integrated planning toolkit that makes it easier for Microsoft customers and partners to quickly identify what clients, servers, and network devices are in their IT environment. This agentless and scalable toolkit has the ability to discover all computers within Active Directory and workgroup environments. It performs key functions that include hardware, device, and software inventory, hardware compatibility analysis, virtualization readiness planning, and generation of actionable, environment-specific IT proposals for migration to most major Microsoft technologies.

What’s New with Version 4.0?

The Microsoft Assessment and Planning Toolkit 4.0 has the following new features:

· Windows 7 Hardware and Device Compatibility Assessment

· Windows Server 2008 R2 Hardware and Device Compatibility Assessment

· Virtualization Candidates Assessment for Hyper-V R2 Server Consolidation

· Integration with the Microsoft Integrated Virtualization ROI Calculator

· Inventory of VMware Server Hosts and Guests

· User Interface and Proposal Customization for Partner co-branding

· Enhanced SQL Server Instance Discovery

· Enhanced Usability and Improved Inventory Performance

Additional Features

· Windows Vista Hardware and Device Compatibility Assessment

· Windows Server 2008 Hardware and Device Compatibility Assessment

· 2007 Microsoft Office Readiness Assessment

· Desktop Security Assessment for Anti-virus and Anti-malware Programs Installation

· Forefront Client Security/NAP Readiness Assessment

· App-V Infrastructure Readiness Assessment

· Power Savings Analysis

Saves Pre-Sales and Planning Time. For most IT consultants and Microsoft Partners, a detailed network inventory and assessment of servers and desktops often takes days of manual labor. With the Microsoft Assessment and Planning Toolkit, they can conduct an environment inventory of up to 100,000 computers in a matter of hours instead of days, giving customers and partners extra time to focus on critical planning or presales tasks. In addition, for IT professionals, this toolkit can significantly reduce the time it takes to gather the information necessary to make the business case for client, server, and virtualization projects.

Provides Actionable Recommendations and Reporting. This toolkit provides valuable inventory and readiness assessment reports with environment-specific upgrade recommendations and virtualization candidate reports, making it easier for IT migration and deployment projects to get off the ground and running.

Covers Wide Range of Scenarios—from Desktops to Servers. This toolkit offers technology assessments and planning recommendations for many Microsoft desktop and server products including Windows 7, Windows Server 2008 R2, Windows Server 2008 R2 Hyper-V, Windows Vista, Windows Server 2008, Windows Server 2008 Hyper-V, 2007 Microsoft Office, SQL Server 2008, Forefront Client Security, Network Access Protection, Microsoft Application Virtualization, and more.

Try the Microsoft Assessment and Planning Toolkit 4.0 now and spread the word to your customers and partners today!

· Download the Microsoft Assessment and Planning Toolkit 4.0

· Learn more about this toolkit and read case studies on TechNet or Microsoft Partner Program portal

· Use this toolkit together with the Microsoft Integrated Virtualization ROI Calculator to get more virtualization POC wins

· Read the MAP Team Blog

· Check out other members of the Solution Accelerators family—Server, Desktop, Security, and Virtualization Solution Accelerators

DPM 2007 Configuration Analyzer (BPA) available

Edievdb — Thu, 09 Jul 2009 10:37:30 GMT

We have released the DPM Configuration Analyzer.

Brief Description

DPM Configuration Analyzer is a diagnostic tool that verifies configuration settings on your Microsoft System Center Data Protection Manager 2007.

Overview

The DPM Configuration Analyzer (DPMCA) is a diagnostic tool you can use to evaluate important configuration settings on DPM 2007 servers. The tool scans hardware and software configurations of the DPM servers you specify, evaluates them against a set of predefined rules, and provides you with best practice suggestions that can make your DPM experience more optimal.
You can install the DPMCA on any computer, and remotely scan a set of DPM Servers specified, with a specific user credential.
Note: The DPMCA does not duplicate or replace the prerequisite checks performed during the setup of DPM 2007 Server or its components.

Download it here!

Server Virtualization Validation Program: Support policy wizard

Edievdb — Sat, 04 Jul 2009 12:11:33 GMT

Our colleague Matt McSpirit wrote an article about the SVVP support policy wizard.
http://blogs.technet.com/mattmcspirit/archive/2009/07/03/the-svvp-wizard.aspx

The SVV Support policy wizard can be found here.

The support policy wizard can be used to check which version of Microsoft server software (e.g. Exchange, SQL etc) is supported on specific server virtualization technologies. Limited to Hyper-V and the server virtualization technologies that have gone through the SVVP program.

The great thing about the wizard is that it will show whether it’s supported, what restrictions apply and provides links to the support policies for that specific Microsoft server software.

Hyper-V: Multi processor virtual machines and physical processor utilization/over subscription

Edievdb — Tue, 23 Jun 2009 14:47:09 GMT

Lately we’ve had quite a few questions regarding virtual processor assignment, processor over subscription and host processor utilization.

And since systems with 8 physical cores or more are starting to become more common I thought I’d provide some additional information.

I found a very good post by Robert Larson (MS) describing how to control processor resources in child partitions and processor over subscription:
http://www.virtualizationadmin.com/articles-tutorials/microsoft-hyper-v-articles/general/controlling-processor-resources-hyper-v-guests.html

A bit from the article around processor over subscription:
Virtualization allows you to over subscribe the processing limits of the physical hardware. I could only have 4 cores on the physical server, but create and have more than 4 virtual machines running. Each virtual machine would be sharing a virtual processor in the parent partition, but with no limits imposed a virtual machine could consume an entire core in the machine. For example, if I allocate a virtual machine 1 processor on a machine that has a single quad core processor, that virtual machine will have one thread that can consume the equivalent of an entire core or processing time. If it has 2 processors configured it can consume two cores. If you configure the virtual machine to have 4 cores, it could attempt to consume all the processing power of the server and starve the other virtual machines.

More information on measuring processor performance on Hyper-V:
http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/cc768535.aspx

An interesting scenario is when e.g. a small number of servers are virtualized and consolidated to a single physical host with more physical cores than the number of virtual processors that can be assigned to virtual machines.

Example:

Two Windows Server 2003 servers
One physical server with 8 cores

Windows Server 2003 is supported with two virtual processors when running in a child partition on Hyper-V. So you can only utilize half of the physical processors of this physical server. In this specific example you will not be able to utilize all the physical processors/cores as every virtual processor runs as a thread on a physical processor/core.

So for scenario’s like this you either need less physical processors/cores or add more virtual machines.

For more information on which operating systems and the number of virtual processors that are supported in Hyper-V guests see:
Guest operating systems that are supported on a Hyper-V virtual machine
http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx/kb/954958

Dynamics AX 2009 Management Pack sneak release

Freek — Wed, 17 Jun 2009 17:24:00 GMT

Met ruime vertraging staat sinds 11 juni het Microsoft Dynamics AX 2009 Managmeent Pack voor Microsoft System Center Operations Manager 2007 op de SCOM site als download. YES!

http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/opsmgr/cc539535.aspx

Microsoft Dynamics AX 2009 Management Pack for Systems Center Operations Manager 2007
The Microsoft Dynamics AX 2009 Management Pack for Systems Center Operations Manager 2007 provides the capability for Systems Center Operations Manager 2007 to discover Microsoft Dynamics AX 2009 Application Object Servers. It allows you to monitor availability and view information about batch jobs and tasks, user activity, and AOS events. The Management Pack also allows you to start and stop AOS instances through the Operations Console.

Microsoft Dynamics AX 2009 Management Pack for Systems Center Operations Manager (SCOM) 2007

Freek — Tue, 09 Jun 2009 14:02:00 GMT

De hot topic webcast voor nader uitleg over de functionaliteit van het Dynamics AX 2009 SCOM management pack is hier te vinden:

https://training.partner.microsoft.com/plc/details.aspx?publisher=12&delivery=268190

En wellicht een extra note: op de demo VPC 03 server zit een pre-release ervan. Dat image is weer te downloaden van partnersource.

Announcing: Virtualization Solutions Competency

Edievdb — Sat, 06 Jun 2009 00:40:40 GMT

Great news!

In the next coming months the new Virtualization Solutions Competency will be added to the competencies available under the Microsoft Partner Program.

The Virtualization Solutions competency is launching later in 2009. Attaining this competency assures that you have the skills to build your virtualization practice based on solutions like Windows Server 2008 Hyper-V technology, Microsoft System Center Virtual Machine Manager 2008, Microsoft application virtualization, Microsoft enterprise desktop virtualization, or Microsoft virtual desktop infrastructure.

Virtualization Solutions competency partners can qualify for the competency through the server virtualization path or the desktop virtualization path.

For more details please see https://partner.microsoft.com/global/40103468

Personally I’m happy to see that Virtualization Solutions will be a separate competency in stead of a single or multiple specializations under the Advanced Infrastructure competency.

This new Virtualization Solutions Competency will help our partners differentiate themselves!

Restore virtual machine to alternate Hyper-V host using System Center Data Protection Manager 2007 with Service Pack 1

Edievdb — Sat, 06 Jun 2009 00:19:15 GMT

Ruud Baars, one of our colleagues and System Center Data Protection Manager subject matter experts at Microsoft Services wrote several scripts to overcome a current limitation of System Center Data Protection Manager 2007 with Service Pack 1.

An abstract from the provided help (Recovering a Hyper to alternative.mht):

-------------------------------

Recovering a Hyper-V virtual machine to an alternative Hyper-V host

DPM2007 Sp1 does not offer seamless recovery of a protected Hyper-V virtual machine to another Hyper-V host and will be implemented in a future version of DPM. Until such time this blog offers an alternative based on the DPM capability to recover virtual machine files to an alternative location and the standard Hyper-V export/import feature.

Abstract

This alternative uses 3 scripts that ease the tasks to perform and are described below. The concept is to export information ahead of time using the Hyper-V export feature and modify that to suite the Hyper-V import feature. Reorganize the DPM restored directory structure with virtual machine files into a more familiar structure and finally import the virtual machines.

-------------------------------

Important notes:

These scripts are provided as-is without support
These scripts have not yet been tested for Hyper-V host-clustered scenarios or virtual machines using ‘passthrough’ disks
These scripts are intended as examples and need to be tested/adjusted/completed according to your needs

The scripts can be downloaded here.

Microsoft Dynamics AX2009 (AIF) BizTalk Adapter Configuration for Data Exchange, Part II

Freek — Tue, 14 Apr 2009 16:01:00 GMT

This white paper provides hands-on instructions for reading, updating, and deleting a sales order from BizTalk. This white paper is an extension of the Microsoft Dynamics AX 2009 AIF BizTalk Adapter Configuration white paper. This white paper is designed for BizTalk developers and Microsoft Dynamics AX system administrators who are responsible for installing, configuring, and troubleshooting integration with external systems using AIF and BizTalk Server.
http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyID=c06033bb-ba3a-4237-9ab8-d7b77c0439be&displaylang=en

Dutch Partner Technology Advisors blog : Advanced Infrastructure Solutions

Introducing Windows Server 2008 R2 eBook Available as Free Download

Free E-book: Deploying Windows&amp;#174; 7 Essential Guidance from the Windows 7 Resource Kit and TechNet Magazine

Brief Description

Microsoft and Red Hat Complete Cooperative Technical Support

Hyper-V Performance Comparison of Windows Server 2008 SP2 and Windows Server 2008 R2 on Intel Platforms

Changes to System Center Management Suite Enterprise licensing

Microsoft Contributes Linux Drivers to Linux Community

MAP 4.0 Released

DPM 2007 Configuration Analyzer (BPA) available

Brief Description

Overview

Server Virtualization Validation Program: Support policy wizard

Hyper-V: Multi processor virtual machines and physical processor utilization/over subscription

Dynamics AX 2009 Management Pack sneak release

Microsoft Dynamics AX 2009 Management Pack for Systems Center Operations Manager (SCOM) 2007

Announcing: Virtualization Solutions Competency

Restore virtual machine to alternate Hyper-V host using System Center Data Protection Manager 2007 with Service Pack 1

Recovering a Hyper-V virtual machine to an alternative Hyper-V host

Abstract

Microsoft Dynamics AX2009 (AIF) BizTalk Adapter Configuration for Data Exchange, Part II

Free E-book: Deploying Windows® 7 Essential Guidance from the Windows 7 Resource Kit and TechNet Magazine