virtualboy.

This would be it:

WNS37AAL:  Understanding Microsoft’s Licensing in Virtualised Environments

Presented by Gordon Gazaway and Michael Cooper

Tuesday, July 31, 2008

8:00 – 9:00 AM Pacific Time or 15:00 – 16:00 GMT

Level 100

PLC Registration Link – Register using this link (You’ll need to be signed in)

Microsoft offers numerous virtualisation solutions, and proactive licensing policies, that provide a flexible framework for cost-effective virtualisation.  This session is intended to share the Microsoft licensing strategy for Virtualised environments, and provide best practices around engaging and working with customers in each area.

In this session we will cover:

• A Virtualisation overview, understanding the different areas of Virtualisation.
• An overview of Server Virtualisation, VMotion/Live Migration, Disaster Recovery and Clustering and the Licensing Ramification of each.
• A look at emerging areas of Virtualisation like (VDI, VECD, ACE and Kidaro) and concerns and questions you should be asking.
• How to talk licensing to a VMware customer, and using Microsoft’s proactive licensing story as an asset in those conversations.
• And overview of the significant licensing changes Microsoft will be announcing come the 1st August.

I’ve been browsing the Windows Server Team blog this morning, (trying to keep up with the flow of information – think drinking from a fire hose) and noticed a great post around IIS7 (Internet Information Services 7 – the web server bit built into Window Server 2008).  More recently, my focus has been on talking about Virtualisation with our Partners, however from time to time, I get the chance to discuss Windows Server 2008, and, included within that IIS.  Not having talked about IIS for a while however, means I’ve actually forgotten how very good IIS7 is, and how much of a huge leap it is over IIS6, which was part of Window Server 2003.

The key improvements for me, around IIS7 are around modularisation (not sure that’s a word), security, and interoperability.  Being modular, means that developers and hosters’ now have a web server that is designed for them.  By that, I mean that if they don’t want certain modules turned on – don’t turn them on.  Thus don’t manage those modules, and also, don’t patch them.  Being modular also brings the benefit of having a smaller, more generic pipeline, that all these default modules bolt into.  If it’s a generic pipeline, with open APIs (which it is!), it means that the developer community can really go to town with IIS, and write modules, in Native or Managed code, that simply bolt into the pipeline, just like our modules.  Being secure, ensures, well, that it’s secure!  How secure?  Well, if it’s as secure as IIS6, which had 0 critical updates, it’s going to be a good thing.

What about this interoperability malarkey?  Well, think of it like this.  If you want to write pages in PHP, your chain of thought typically goes something like this:

1. PHP for my web sites.
2. I’ll run my web sites on Apache web server.
3. I need a database, and I know MySQL works great with PHP and Apache
4. I need an OS, and thinking about 1, 2 and 3, it’s going to have to be Linux.

This is a Microsoft disaster!  The LAMP stack is a well used, performant stack of technologies.  Well, things, with IIS7, are changing.  Keep your PHP sites, but try them on IIS7 – trust me, they will fly.  If you want to keep MySQL, fine – it’ll interoperate just fine with IIS7 and Windows Server 2008.  You want an OS – how about Windows Web Server 2008 – a SKU that’s designed, and licensed, specifically for external facing web sites.  So, what have you got?  Potentially, a WISP stack – not a great name, but will it zip along – you bet!  You can read more about what I think around IIS7 here.

So, the point of the post – I found this beauty on the Windows Server blog.

To pinch a bit of the post:

“If you are not familiar with this company - they are a Web hosting company that owns and operates its own datacenters and networks and provides support for dedicated server environments.  HostMySite hosts more than 85,000 web sites on 3,100 Servers (and growing).

One of the initial goals of their WS08 deployment was to offer the highest levels of application stability to their customers.  In addition HostMySite wanted to increase the site capacity on their web servers and minimize the amount of time spent troubleshooting.

Prior to Windows Server 2008 HostMySite was getting roughly 500 application pools on each of their servers. IIS 7.0 new application pool management features has allowed HMS to scale up to 3000 application pools per server.  In addition to increased application pool capacity, HMS was also able to reduce the numbers of servers.....what normally took 10 servers now takes 4.  (Although I wish WS08 was solely responsible for that metric - they moved to Dual Core Dell PowerEdge Servers)  Both of these are very impressive to step back and take a look at: 6x the application capacity on 60% less servers.”

You can read the full case study here: http://www.microsoft.com/casestudies/casestudy.aspx?casestudyid=4000001285

You can read why IIS7 is a great solution for hosters here: http://blogs.iis.net/thomad/archive/2008/05/06/in-a-nut-shell-shared-hosting-improvements-on-iis7.aspx

Good news – an update has been released for Data Protection Manager 2007 (I don’t just mean the new logo) that enables you to successfully (and in a supported fashion :)) backup Windows Server 2008 machines.  I’ll be honest, I was a little worried that this functionality wasn’t going to be available until the SP1 shipped for DPM, but fortunately, that’s not the case.

They’ve discussed the new capabilities in the Rollup Update on the Windows Server blog.

Specific new capabilities for Windows Server 2008 include:

• Protect Windows Server 2008 systems, including those running Core.
• Protect Windows Server 2008 System State.
• Ability to run the DPM2007 Server on a Windows Server 2008 platform.

Some of the other enhancements in the rollup update include:

• Protection for SQL Server 2008.
• Protection of Virtual Server 2005 R2 clustered hosts.
• Tape Library Sharing - so that multiple DPM servers can share a single enterprise tape library silo.

Important – this still doesn’t support the backing-up of Hyper-V machines.  This is coming with SP1, later this Summer:

• Protection for Hyper-V
• More capabilities around SQL Server databases
• New features for protecting SharePoint farms
• And some other features that we are keeping a surprise for now. 

There’s lots more info on the DPM blog.

You can pull the updates down from:

• Data Protection Manager 2007 - Rollup Update - x86
• Data Protection Manager 2007 - Rollup Update - x64

Do you know some of the key IT Migration Challenges?  Heard these?

• Can my existing client machines run Windows Vista and 2007 Microsoft Office?
• Can my existing servers migrate to Windows Server 2008?
• What is the portion of physical servers that can be consolidated with Hyper-V? Managed by SCVMM?
• What about Application Virtualisation?

These are just some of the key challenges around migrations, but by no means all!  How can you start to address these challenges easily?  The Microsoft Assessment and Planning Solution Accelerator can help, and the newest version has just launched.

So what is it?

Well, I’ve already talked about it before, way back when it was the Windows Vista Hardware Assessment 2.1.  As the name suggested, it focused pretty much on Vista, and that was it.  MAP is much more than that.

“Microsoft Assessment and Planning is an integrated portal with a suite of automated tools and guidance to help your migration needs, from desktops to servers and now also include virtualisation.  Its unique agent-less inventory technologies allow remote assessment of clients, servers, applications, devices and roles – all without deploying any software agents to the machines on your network.  The auto-generation of readiness assessments and proposals makes it easier for you to prepare for your IT project planning process with more specific information about your existing environment than before.  You can now take advantage of this multi-product assessment tool to help you get a quick assessment done in just an hour or so”

So, is it a tool just for technical people?  No.  It doesn’t just generate technical information, but it actually generates professional reports for the Business Decision Makers among you.  See below as an example:

This particular report highlights the machines in your organisation that could run Windows Server 2008, with and without hardware upgrades.  The same kind of reports are produced for Vista and Office too.

What other reports are generated?

• Identification of currently installed Windows Client operating systems, their hardware, and recommendations for migration to Windows Vista.
• Identification of currently installed Windows Server operating systems, their hardware, and recommendations for migration to Windows Server 2008 (including a report detailing currently installed server roles).
• Identification of currently installed Microsoft Office software and recommendations for migration to Microsoft Office 2007.
• Detailed assessment and reporting of server utilization gathered using the Performance Metrics Wizard.
• Recommendations for server consolidation and virtual machine placement using Hyper-V or Virtual Server 2005 R2.
• Assessment of client machines, servers, and the technology environment for the implementation of Microsoft Application Virtualisation (formerly SoftGrid).  
• Reporting of SNMP-enabled devices found in the environment during inventory.

Note - The Microsoft Assessment and Planning Solution Accelerator will generate localised reports for Windows Vista migration, Office 2007 migration, and non-Windows devices if the Display Language, configured on the computer generating the reports is set to German, French, Japanese, Korean, Spanish, and Portuguese.

New features specifically in MAP 3.1 include:

• Hyper-V virtualisation candidates assessment (+ improved virtual machines inventory)
• SQL server discovery and assessment
• 64-bit installation support
• Desktop Windows Security Center assessment

So, where can you get it?

Here.

How much does it cost?

Nothing.  Get it here.

Where can I read more info?

Baldwin’s MAP blog, specifically, this post all about MAP 3.1.

I had an email drop into my inbox a few days back, detailing a couple of new additions to the Infrastructure Planning and Design Guides that have been available for a while.  Before I introduce the new additions, it’s worth understanding what the Infrastructure Planning and Design Guides are all about.

“The Infrastructure Planning and Design (IPD) guides are the next version of Windows Server System Reference Architecture. The guides in this series help clarify and streamline design processes for Microsoft infrastructure technologies, with each guide addressing a unique infrastructure technology or scenario”

Basically, they are there to provide background information, design ideas, key decision areas etc, that are important prior to rolling out the technologies.

“Each guide leads the reader through critical infrastructure design decisions, in the appropriate order, evaluating the available options for each decision against its impact on critical characteristics of the infrastructure. The IPD Series highlights when service and infrastructure goals should be validated with the organization and provides additional questions that should be asked of service stakeholders and decision makers”

You can download the individual guides, or you can download them in one big lump.  Either way, you have the option of getting:

• New! System Center Operations Manager 2007
• New! System Center Virtual Machine Manager 2008
• New! Internet Information Services 7.0
• New! Selecting the Right NAP Architecture
• Infrastructure Planning and Design Series Introduction
• Microsoft SoftGrid Application Virtualisation
• Selecting the Right Virtualisation Technology
• Windows Deployment Services
• Windows Server 2008 Active Directory Domain Services
• Windows Server 2008 Terminal Services
• Windows Server Virtualisation (for Windows Server 2008 Hyper-V and Virtual Server 2005 R2 SP1)

I’ve taken an example diagram from the Internet Information Services IPD, and it shows the steps that the IPD will take you through to plan a deployment of IIS.

Each of these steps are well documented, and provide a good level of background information around the topic.

Best of all, the guides are all free, so download them here.

Mark has been to 2 of our briefings this week (he’ll be sick of my voice!) and has a great write-up: Microsoft releases Hyper-V to manufacturing

I’ll be following up with my views when I get a chance, hopefully tomorrow afternoon, and trust me, I’ve got a lot to say :-)

It’s been a while coming, but it’s here.  It’s shipped months early.  It’s performance figures are blowing competitive technologies out of the water.  It’s accessible, cost-effective, performant, powerful, and it’s here.  It’s Hyper-V.  Get it, here.

Microsoft Licensing is complex.  I think most people accept that!

Since September, the licensing and response management teams have been working together to publish the answers to your top licensing queries. Every month, these FAQs are put together based on calls and emails to our customer service team, so we know they will address topical questions and help you to understand Microsoft licensing.  Think about it, if you have a question, chances are someone else has that very same question too, and they may have even asked it on this site already!.

We have recently re-designed the FAQ pages to deliver a significantly improved user experience. And we’ve also introduced an RSS feed that you can sign up to so you know when the content is updated. You can now see the “hot FAQs” at a glance and browse the rest by product or agreement type.

There are 2 separate websites; one for licensing queries where there are less than 250 PCs, and one for where there are more than 250 PCs!  I guess if you have bang on 250, you'd go to the first one :-)

• For customers with less than 250 PCs
• For customers with more than 250 PCs

If you can’t find an answer to your licensing query here, please call our helpline on 0870 60 10 100 and select the business option, then option 3 for licensing. Alternatively, email licensing@microsoft-contact.co.uk - someone will respond to your email within 48 hours!

Microsoft UK Partners - If you have an interest in Virtualisation, regardless of whether it's Microsoft Virtualisation or not, I'd strongly advise you to take the opportunity to come along to our Virtualisation Partner day that we're running at TVP in Reading:

"We all know Virtualisation is the hot IT topic, yet 93% of organisations are still not taking advantage of its many benefits. With 64% of businesses citing ‘improving IT by consolidating their infrastructure’ as a high priority, there is a real opportunity to both improve your customers’ businesses and grow your sales."

This Partner-Focused day will discuss the impact Hyper-V will have in the market, and will give you the opportunity to see some of the Microsoft Virtualisation technologies in action, working together, to provide a Dynamic IT environment.  Join this half day meeting to understand how you can capitalise on this great opportunity.  You'll also be able to hear from partners who are already benefiting from this approach.  This event will also provide a valuable opportunity to network with other partners as well as members of the Microsoft team.

Agenda

• 09.00 – Registration
• 09.30 – Presentation begins
• 11.00 – Break
• 11.30 – Presentation Continues
• 13:00 - Lunch
• 14:00 - Close

Registration Options

Event ID:
1032379580

Register by Phone:
0870 166 6680 ref 9580

Register Online:
http://msevents.microsoft.com/cui/EventDetail.aspx?culture=en-GB&EventID=1032379580

Register soon to avoid disappointment!

The acquisition of Israel-based Kidaro was announced a couple of weeks back, and has just gone through.  The technology will be introduced in the near future, and will form part of the ever-expanding Microsoft Desktop Optimisation Pack (MDOP) to provide even more value to customers with, or considering MDOP.  As per usual, we lose the cool naming, and it will be known as the Microsoft Enterprise Virtual Desktop, so that means MEVD will be in MDOP, for which you'll need SA (Software Assurance) on top of WC (Windows Client).  Acronym lovers rejoice :-)

So, what do we know about Kidaro?

• It's a virtualisation technology
• It's well integrated with Active Directory, which means it will slot nicely into your AD environment
• It has multiple deployment methods
• It can provide a controlled, managed Virtual Machine environment on a USB stick for example.
• It can provide an invisible-to-the-end-user virtualisation layer inside their own OS, on which a virtual OS runs, with applications running on both platforms.  Legacy apps running on the virtual OS, local apps running on the local OS.  All icons on one desktop.  Seamless experience for the user :-)
• You could even have a 'Virtual Workstation' running as the main OS (to the end user anyway!) which is completely controlled by you.

You can read all about the MEDV technology here: http://www.kidaro.com/technology/ and here: http://www.kidaro.com/technology/advantage.php

Trust me, when you see it in action, it is very cool indeed.

Sounds impressive, right?

If High Performance Computing (Built on Windows Server 2008) is your bag, you'd be wise to have a read of this: http://www.eweek.com/c/a/Infrastructure/Microsoft-Tests-Speedy-New-HPC-Server/

I'm running a series of events in conjunction with Andreas from IBM (of YouTube fame) where we discuss and demonstrate the Microsoft (and Partners) Virtualisation technologies.

The idea for the day is all around Dynamic IT, and how Virtualisation, in particular, Microsoft Virtualisation, really can span from the Desktop, to the Datacenter to drive this Dynamic IT.

"Where you can update servers, desktops and applications on a moments notice and where infrastructure costs decrease as system capabilities increase. This is the world of virtualisation and Microsoft are happy to report that in conjunction with IBM, we’re bringing it all to a venue near you."

So, what will be covered?

• Introduction into pain points – presented by John Scarborough, IBM Systems and Technology Group, System Architect.
• Overview of virtualisation and Hyper-V – presented by Andreas Groth, IBM System X, Lead Engineer.
• Desktop to the Datacenter Demo – presented by Matt McSpirit, Microsoft Partner Technology Specialist and will explore the different aspects of virtualisation.
• Implications for Hardware – presented by Andreas Groth, IBM System X, Lead Engineer.
• Implications for Licensing – presented by Matt McSpirit, Microsoft Partner Technology Specialist.

The key part will be, for me, the Desktop to the Datacenter demo.  What I'll be trying to achieve, is showing all the technologies, working happily together, around Servers, Desktops and Applications, all virtualised, and centrally managed.

You can get all the details here: http://asp.april-six.com/microsoft/074748/index.html

In terms of registration:

Warwick - 18th June 2008, 9.30am – 3.00pm (IBM Offices) - Register here

London Victoria - 27th June 2008, 9.30am – 3.00pm (Microsoft Offices) - Register here

Manchester - 2nd July 2008, 9.30am – 3.00pm (Malmaison Hotel) - Register here

Register soon to avoid disappointment!

Well, SCVMM 2008 Beta & Hyper-V RC0 had a great time together, however, some of the major interface changes that have gone into Hyper-V RC1 mean that RC1 and SCVMM 2008 Beta are on a bit of a break.

Fear not, as Rakesh details on his blog, the relationship will be back on fairly soon :-)  In the mean time, I'd choose one or the other, and wait until the patch is available.

If you are doing anything with Server Core in Windows Server 2008, you'll know that there are always certain tasks you need to do upon installation to enable things like remote connection, pinging etc etc.  Now, doing this from the Command Line is all well and good, if a) you understand it and b) you want to dedicate a little more time to doing the job.

Now, for those 'Wizard-lovers' among you (cue Harry Potter jokes), there's a great tool that's been developed to give you a small GUI within Server Core, to enable you to do those "little jobs" such as:

• Product Activation
• Configuration of display resolution
• Clock and time zone configuration
• Remote Desktop configuration
• Management of local user accounts (creation, deletion, group membership, passwords)
• Firewall configuration
• WinRM configuration
• IP configuration
• Computer name and domain/workgroup membership
• Installation of Server Core features/roles

The Core Configurator enables you to do all those 'little jobs', quickly and easily!  You can read all about it, see screenshots and download it, from here: http://blogs.microsoft.co.il/blogs/guyt/archive/2008/03/22/windows-server-core-coreconfigurator-to-the-rescue.aspx

Core just got a whole lot easier! :-)

I blogged about the Partner TV - System Center Videos a week or so back, where James and Andrew chatted about System Center Configuration Manager and Operations Manager respectively.  This time round, they're chatting about another 2 of the System Center technologies; namely, Data Protection Manager and Virtual Machine Manager.

So, their first video discusses System Center Data Protection Manager:

Their second video, discusses System Center Virtual Machine Manager:

You can find even more great videos over on the Partner-TV website.

It's getting closer....!

Get all the information from the Virtualisation Team Blog!

http://blogs.technet.com/virtualization/archive/2008/05/20/hyper-v-rc1-release-available-on-microsoft-download-center.aspx

Important caveats to remember:

• Saved-state files are not supported between RC0 and RC1 releases of Hyper-V.  All virtual machine saved states should be discarded before upgrading to RC1, or prior to resuming virtual machines after upgrading to Hyper-V RC1.
• Online snapshots contain virtual machine save-states and thus online snapshots taken with Hyper-V RC0 are not supported after updating to Hyper-V to RC1.  Either apply any online snapshots and shut down the VM or discard the virtual machine save state associated with the snapshot before or after the update to Hyper-V RC1.
• System Center Virtual Machine Manager 2008 Beta does not support Hyper-V RC1.
• New Integration Components (ICs) must be installed for your supported guest operating systems.  Integration Components are specific to the build of Hyper-V.  RC1 Integration Components for all supported Windows Operating Systems are provided using the ‘Action’ -> ‘Insert Integration Services Setup Disk’ action.
• RC1 Integration Components for all supported Windows Operating Systems are now part of the IC Setup Disk.  This now includes Windows Server 2008!  Simply install the Hyper-V RC1 Integration Components for Windows Server 2008 the same way you do all other Windows ICs (‘Action’ -> ‘Insert Integration Services Setup Disk’). 
  Note You need to close the found new hardware wizard before setup will begin on all Windows Operating Systems.

I'm sure that the VMM 2008 technology will be updated as soon as possible to allow interaction with RC1, as it was released when RC0 was around, and RC1 brings some quite significant changes, hence VMM 2008 will need an update.  If you still need to test Hyper-V and VMM 2008,  I'd stick with RC0 for now.