John Howard - Senior Program Manager in the Hyper-V team at Microsoft : Virtual Server, Virtual PC

Windows Server virtualization

jhoward — Tue, 23 May 2006 16:27:00 GMT

...is here (nearly). I'll provide more details over the coming days, but with WinHEC now upon us, the covers are lifted on both Windows Server virtualization and System Center Virtual Machine Manager (aka Carmine). For now, the best place to find info is on presspass. I've also now setup the Virtual Machine team blog empty right now but there will be further information going up there later today.

Cheers,
John.

Does Hardware Assistance make a difference?

jhoward — Thu, 04 May 2006 17:35:00 GMT

The simple answer is a definite yes. However, it's sometimes useful to have a "finger in the air" gauge of how much. I therefore did some very unscientific measurements using my watch to compare timings for some basic functions. Of course, before reading any further, please read and understand the blog disclaimer. This is purely to give you some sort of idea, using beta code.

The experiment involved creating two blank Virtual Machines with 256MB and installing a slipstreamed Windows Server 2003 SP1 from an ISO image using Virtual Server 2005 R2 SP1 Beta 1 64-bit - not production code, hence warning again about the disclaimer. The VMs were default for everything except memory - 127GB Dynamically expanding disk (note the default in VS2005 R2 was 16GB), IDE connected drives, 1 Network adapter, disconnected.

On to physical hardware. Dual core single socket CPU with 2GB RAM and a single SATA disk. The host operating system is Windows Server 2003 x64.

The only difference between the two VMs was that one had hardware assistance disabled, the other had hardware assistance enabled.

I took four measurements for the installation time:

From VM Start to Text Mode installation complete (BIOS screen showing for reboot). During this time, I chose default installation options such as choosing a partition and performing a quick format.
From initial boot GUI following text mode installation to the point at which the "Installing Devices" bar had completed.

[At this point, you're asked to enter product keys, admin passwords. This is manual hence, removed from any timings.]
From the point at which you choose default options for networking during installation to the first full reboot of operating system and logon screen showing.
Full reboot timing once VM Additions have been installed in each guest (excluding BIOS wait time - from point at which GUI appears)

The results were as follows:

Step	With Hardware Assistance (Seconds)	Without Hardware Assistance (Seconds)	Improvement (Seconds/%)
1: Text Mode Install	236	334	98s=29%
2: Initial GUI Install	167	287	120s=42%
3: GUI Install Completion	733	985	252=26%
4: Boot with additions	10	14	4=29%

Similar results to Ben's findings - under 19 minutes for a full OS install. Now I appreciate much of this isn't a typical workload for a VM, but it gives you an idea how much time you can save during an operating system installation alone by enabling hardware virtualization.

I also did some screen-shots which demonstrate the differences in overall CPU utilization within the guest at a couple of points during the installation. The graphs generally speak for themselves, even though the exact point at which the snapshot is taken is guaranteed to be slightly different between the two scenarios.

The first is at the point where Windows is "Registering Components"

No Hardware Assistance

With Hardware Assistance

The second is at an estimated 6 mins remaining for the installation while Windows is "Saving Settings"

No Hardware Assistance

With Hardware Assistance

Hopefully useful information! Remember, your mileage may (and will!) vary.
Cheers,
John.

Virtual Server 2005 R2 SP1 FAQ#1: Hardware requirements

jhoward — Wed, 03 May 2006 21:46:00 GMT

I've had numerous direct emails asking what are the requirements for hardware when running Virtual Server 2005 R2 SP1 Beta 1. Just to make this clear - even on hardware which does not have virtualization assistance from the processor, it runs just fine. It just means that you won't see the performance improvements I spoke about last week.

If you do have hardware virtualization assistance, by default, hardware assistance is turned on (setting is on a per-VM basis). If you wish to turn that off, you can under the general properties page for VM configuration.

Cheers,
John.

How to Enable Hardware Assisted Virtualization in VS2005R2 SP1 Beta

jhoward — Fri, 28 Apr 2006 20:35:00 GMT

Once you install Virtual Server 2005 R2 SP1 Beta 1, you'll notice a check box on the properties page for a virtual machine as shown below - it's as simple as checking the box (on by default).

Have fun - and remember, this is Beta code - only install it on your test machines.

Cheers,
John.

Virtual Server 2005 R2 SP1 Beta 1 download link and availability details

jhoward — Fri, 28 Apr 2006 19:59:00 GMT

Although on the Windows virtualization team here, it's heads down working on the next generation of virtual machine support to be built into Windows Longhorn server with a "hypervisor" architecture, we're absolutely not sitting still on the Virtual Server 2005 R2 product which became free a couple of weeks back.

There will be a couple of beta releases of Virtual Server 2005 R2 SP1 - today we are announcing the availabilty of beta 1. You can download it by applying through Microsoft Connect. You'll need a passport account to log on to that site. Scroll down to the bottom and click Apply. It could take up to 24 hours to get an email back with the link for download.

So what's in Beta 1? Functionally, the main change is the support for Intels VT processors which provides hardware assistance for virtualization support. What does that mean? If you're running on a VT enhanced processor, NON-Windows guests will run much faster as we're no longer performing ring compression as part of the emulated environment (note you can choose to turn VT support off). However, Windows guests will run at parity in terms of performance as we already performing optimal tuning through the use of VM Additions. Windows guests will get a significant boost during the install process though, the time before you have an opportunity to install the VM Additions. The host clustering white paper and the associated VB Script I blogged about back in November last year, this is now included in the box.

Moving forward to what's going to be included in Beta 2, we'll add support for hardware assistance in the AMD chipset (aka Pacifica), integration with Active Directory to allow you to identify VM Host machines in a consistent manner, plus one killer feature (IMHO) - VSS support. This will allow you to take a snapshot of a running VM for backup - something I've had so much feedback from people to put into the product. More details to follow on that closer to the time.

Timewise, current schedule dates for Beta2 and released product are last quarter 2006 and first quarter of 2007 respectively.

Once again - the registration link is here.

Any questions, let me know.
Cheers,
John.

Installing or Accessing VSMT help on a Windows XP machine.

jhoward — Wed, 26 Apr 2006 23:53:00 GMT

I thought this was worth mentioning after I received an email today with a question about VSMT. I answered the email (hopefully with the correct answer!), but would have been able to give a more complete answer if I had had the VSMT help file to hand. With ADS 1.1, VSMT is bundled in the installer, but you can't install VSMT on XP regardless of which options you choose as it bombs out saying it can only be installed on Windows Server. Lets not go the Orca route on that one though... ;) Unfortunately (apart from a VM which I could have fired up, but was being lazy), I don't have a Windows Server 2003 machine to hand to install VSMT onto itself.

I realised there is a simple solution. Assume the ADS 1.1 installer is in c:\ads, the VSMT_Setup.msi which the ADS installer launches by default will be c:\ads\VSMT. If you perform an administrative install of VSMT by running msiexec /a VSMT_Setup.msi, you get a choice of where to put the network files (eg c:\ads\VSMT\Network).

Once the administrative install completes, if you navigate to c:\ads\VSMT\Network\VM, you can directly launch the VSMT.chm help file. Not rocket science, but hopefully it'll help someone :)

Cheers,
John.

Virtual Server Cluster - Move workload on CPU spike

jhoward — Wed, 19 Apr 2006 22:37:00 GMT

Here's a good question emailed to me yesterday. If you seen the Virtual Server 2005 R2 Host Clustering demos during events such as IT Forum last year, in addition to the planned & unplanned failover as per my blogcasts a few months ago, we include MOM 2005 in the mix to monitor if the utilisation of a CPU goes over a certain threshold, a script is fired off to force one or more workloads to be moved to another machine. The question was how do we do that. Answer is very simple - using a one line script similar to below. Nothing more complex that the code already in the host clustering script itself.

cluster.exe /cluster:<cluster name> group <group name> /move

Cheers,
John.

Updated MOM Management Pack for Virtual Server 2005 R2 Released

jhoward — Tue, 18 Apr 2006 20:28:00 GMT

A revised version of the MOM management pack for Virtual Server 2005 R2 was released late last week. It can be used against hosts running Virtual Server 2005 RTM and R2.

Overview
This Management Pack provides monitoring and reporting for the following scenarios:

Virtual Server

• Monitors Virtual Server service availability
• Detects configuration errors
• Detects critical error conditions
• Provides a graphical mapping of virtual machines to their virtual machine hosts

Virtual Machines

• Monitors virtual machines’ health state based on status in Virtual Server, percentage of expected heartbeats, and unresolved errors
• Detects start and restoration failures
• Detects save failures
• Detects critical error conditions
• Monitors processor, memory, and disk utilization

Reports

• Identify good candidates for conversion to virtual machines based on specified memory and CPU requirements
• View performance history for a computer over a specified time period
• View a summary of virtual machine hosts and virtual machines
• View details for a virtual machine
• View CPU, memory, or disk usage for a virtual machine

Download link: http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyId=BF21F798-9B10-40DC-BCDD-4A8358CCE94D&displaylang=en

Cheers
John.

NVRAM settings in Virtual Server 2005 R2

jhoward — Thu, 13 Apr 2006 00:59:00 GMT

....so I have to thank my bosses boss for pointing this one out (and I guess this means I've also found out who the third reader of this blog is :) ), but there's also a little known method, SetConfigurationValue, in the Virtual Server 2005 R2 COM API. This is another way of solving yesterday's problem of changing the BIOS setting in a Virtual Server Machine Configuration (VMC) file without rolling something using your own XML parsing. Of course, you can use the same API to change lots of other settings apart from the BIOS, and the same warning about lack-of-support in changing the BIOS settings this way applies.

Here's the link Mike pointed me to: http://msdn.microsoft.com/library/default.asp?url=/library/en-us/msvs/msvs/ivmvirtualmachine_setconfigurationvalue.asp

Cheers
John.

PXE boot in Virtual Server 2005 R2 after an OS is installed in a VM

jhoward — Wed, 12 Apr 2006 00:57:00 GMT

I had an email from Kari this afternoon asking what key should be used to trigger PXE-booting of a VM under Virtual Server 2005 R2 after an OS is already present on the hard disk. Kari pointed out it worked if there was no OS previously installed (as there's no boot device on a floppy, CD/DVD or hard disk, so it tries the network).

The answer to the question is to have nimble fingers. You need to change the BIOS boot order in the VM to ensure that the network device is higher in precedence that the boot hard disk with the operating system installed. Why be quick - depending on how fast your host machine is, you need to press DEL during the boot. Simply update the boot order to look something like below.

To be quick enough, on the host I was testing this on, it meant needing to have the VMRC window pointed at the VM and hit reset in the Virtual Server admin interface to start the machine (re-) booting. That gives you enough time to see the BIOS and hit DEL.

There's no scriptable way I know of to do this (ie through the Virtual Server COM API), however you can, and I stress is absolutely and totally unsupported, script a change to the VMC file to update the BIOS string under Preferences/hardware/bios/cmos. A windiff of a before and after will tell you what bytes to changes, but don't rely on this working in the future.

Cheers
John.

WinHEC 2006 and Windows Virtualization

jhoward — Thu, 06 Apr 2006 17:23:00 GMT

The Windows Hardware Engineering Conference 2006 being held in at the Washington State Convention and Trade Centre in Seattle on 23rd to 25th May this year will provide a lot of further information on Windows Virtualization.

There is a whole (sub-)track devoted to 'System Fundamentals - Virtualization' which includes in-depth information about the Windows virtualization platform architecture. You’ll learn about how your current and future products fit in and are extended by this technology, the future platform requirements, and best practices for implementing virtualized solutions.

Subject to change, these are the planned sessions and levels

How to Use the VMBus Interfaces (300)
This session discusses the configuration and communication application programming interfaces (APIs) for the Microsoft VMBus. Windows virtualization uses the VMBus to provide virtual device support for child partitions. The objective of this session is to provide independent software vendors (ISVs) and independent hardware vendors (IHVs) an understanding of how to write their own virtual service provider/virtual service client (VSP/VSC) virtual device drivers.

How to Use the WMI Interfaces with Windows Virtualization (200)
This session provides attendees all of the information that they need to take advantage of the Windows Management Infrastructure (WMI) interfaces that allow remote and local management of a server that is running with Windows virtualization enabled. This knowledge will enable attendees to build software management solutions on top of the Windows virtualization architecture.

HyperCall APIs Explained (300)
This session provides attendees a robust understanding of Windows hypervisor application programming interfaces (APIs) that are used to configure and communicate with the Windows hypervisor. Makers of third-party operating systems can use this knowledge to build solutions on the Windows virtualization infrastructure.

Hypervisor, Virtualization Stack, and Device Virtualization Architectures (200)
The powerful new Windows virtualization infrastructure will be a core capability in Windows Server Longhorn and in subsequent client releases. This session provides an architectural overview of the three pillars of Windows virtualization: the hypervisor, the virtualization stack, and device virtualization. Other Windows virtualization sessions build on the groundwork that will be laid during this session.

I/O Memory Management Hardware goes Mainstream (300)
I/O memory management hardware has been an essential component of mainframe and high-end server platforms for decades. Just as other technology components that were once confined to the high end of the computing space have moved into the mainstream PC, I/O memory management hardware is now poised to make its mainstream debut. This presentation introduces the AMD I/O memory management architecture, including details of the software interface, page table formats, and table walking algorithms. The potential usage and benefits of the AMD I/O memory management architecture are also discussed.

Inside Microsoft's Network and Storage VSP/VSC (300)
This session provides independent software vendors (ISVs) and independent hardware vendors (IHVs) an in-depth understanding of the architecture that is used in Microsoft's network and storage virtual device drivers and familiarity with the built-in capabilities of these drivers. IHVs can use the information from this session to build virtual service provider/virtual service client (VSP/VSC) pairs.

Intel Virtualization Technology: Strategy and Evolution (200)
This session presents the vision and strategy for virtualization in enterprise computing, for both client and server usage models. It then discusses how system virtualization is implemented today and describes the role and value of the first-generation Intel Virtualization Technology (VT). Finally, the session provides a deep discussion of future VT architecture directions and ends with a description of the Intel virtualization roadmap.

Microsoft Operating System Virtualization Strategy and Virtual Hard Disk Directions (100)
This session provides attendees with insight into the direction that Microsoft is taking with its operating system virtualization technologies. It covers virtual server, virtual PC, Windows virtualization, and Microsoft's virtual hard disk (VHD) direction. The session include a brief history of product releases to date, the current work, and the future direction for each of the these products.
Prereading about VHD is available at http://www.microsoft.com/windowsserversystem/virtualserver/techinfo/vhdspec.mspx.

PCIe Address Translation Services and I/O Virtualization (200)
This session presents some of the evolutions from the PCI I/O Virtualization working group in the two key areas of PCIe Address Translation Service (ATS) and protocols to support multiple operating system instances. The PCIe ATS specification defines a new protocol to enable I/O endpoints to efficiently work with chipsets that implement address translation and protection table technology. This session provides a functional overview of the address translation and protection table, ATS terminology, ATS wire protocol operation, critical areas of attention, and what lies ahead.

The PCIe I/O Virtualization specifications define new protocols to enable I/O endpoints to be efficiently shared by multiple operating system instances and to break through the performance barriers that are currently gating virtualization solutions within the industry. This session covers the I/O virtualization terminology, a functional overview, I/O virtualization usage models, single-root and multi-root topologies, configuration, management, error handling, quality of service (QoS), and what lies ahead.

Windows Virtualization Best Practices and Future Hardware Directions (200)
This future-looking session gives attendees an understanding of the directions that Microsoft is taking with Windows virtualization and what independent hardware vendors (IHVs) can do to ensure interoperability between their hardware and Windows virtualization. Example topics include IOMMUs and direct memory access (DMA) remapping.

Here's the links:

WinHEC 2006 Home: http://www.microsoft.com/whdc/winhec/default.mspx
Registration: http://www.microsoft.com/whdc/winhec/reg06.mspx
Full Agenda: http://www.microsoft.com/whdc/winhec/sched06.mspx

Now being based in Redmond, there's a very good chance I'll be around helping out on the Ask The Experts booth for Virtual Server & Windows Virtualization, so be sure to drop by to say hello if you're attending.

Cheers,
John.

Linux Support in VS2005 R2 KB Article

jhoward — Tue, 04 Apr 2006 21:39:00 GMT

Here's the link to the KB article I referred to yesterday for third party operating system (read Linux today) under Virtual Server 2005 R2.

Cheers
John.

MMS (Microsoft Management Summit) San Diego - April 24th-28th

jhoward — Tue, 04 Apr 2006 18:30:00 GMT

Previously having been UK based, I haven't been directing people to US based conference information. However, given some of the announcments yesterday about Virtual Server, the fact that Steve B was the person who kicked off the Linux support under Virtual Server at MMS last year, and ClustrMap showing plenty of readership from the west-coast USA, it's worth mentioning this years MMS conference running from 24th to 28th April. Late to book, I know, but there are a few spaces left. In fact, I believe the cut-off for registration is today.

You can find the entire conference details at www.mms2006.com

Cheers,
John.

VHD Licensing

jhoward — Tue, 04 Apr 2006 02:15:00 GMT

Quick blog to respond to several queries which have been directed at me today which needs a little clarification - this is with respect to the number of companies who have licensed the VHD (Virtual Hard Disk) file format now increased to more than 45.

Many people implied that this was a "new" announcment today (ie we hadn't been licensing the VHD format previously). The royalty free licensing of the VHD format actually went live last year. Today's inclusion of comments regarding VHD licensing as part of the press release was to give a better understanding of the level and examples of who was using the specification since we last provided public details.

To sign up for the VHD licensing programme, see this page on microsoft.com

Cheers
John.

Linux Support in Virtual Server 2005 R2

jhoward — Mon, 03 Apr 2006 19:28:00 GMT

Co-inciding with the announcment of Virtual Server 2005 R2 Enterprise Edition being free, it was also announced that Virtual Machine Additions for Linux additions are available for download along with the list of varients which will be supported:

-Red Hat Enterprise Linux 2.1 (update 6)
-Red Hat Enterprise Linux 3 (update 6)
-Red Hat Enterprise Linux 4
-SuSE Linux Enterprise Server 9
-Red Hat Linux 7.3
-Red Hat Linux 9.0
-SuSE Linux 9.2
-SuSE Linux 9.3
-SuSE Linux 10

To sign-up for these additions, visit http://connect.microsoft.com and logon with a passport account. Click on Available Programs and apply for "Virtual Machine Additions for Linux". The status will be marked as Pending for now. - soon after you will be granted access rights and have the ability to download them.

There will shortly be a KB article available documenting the list of Linux OS's available (I'll post the link up as soon as I have it), and similarly the information will be maintained under http://www.microsoft.com/virtualserver

It's also worth pointing out what capabilities the Virtual Machine Additions for Linux provide:
- Improved Mouse & Video interaction
- Guest Heartbeat detection
- Time Syncronisation
- Host co-ordinated shutdown
- Improved SCSI disk emulation

There will be further releases of the Virtual Machine Additions for Linux which will co-incide with the release of Virtual Server 2005 R2 SP1 - more details on this to follow shortly.

More details on all of this can be found on the Microsoft Presspass site

Cheers,
John.