virtualboy

This landed in my inbox this morning courtesy of the TechNet Flash Newsletter so I thought I’d share it, as there’s a bit of virtualisation in there!

As we move closer to the launch of Windows 7, a number of organisations are starting to think about their next desktop.  What hardware will I use, Fat or Thin?  Will I have a physical, or virtual desktop?  Where does Terminal Services or Remote Desktop Services fit in?  What about my applications, installed or streamed?  All these questions, and more, aim to be answered in the latest Infrastructure Planning and Design Guide, focused on the Windows Optimised Desktop Scenario Selection Tool v1.1.

“Organisations today face the challenge of maintaining rigorous controls over their computing environments while providing the power and flexibility users need to be productive. User and IT goals can sometimes appear to be in conflict. Optimising the corporate desktop environment resolves this conflict by providing IT the manageability it requires while giving users the varying levels of power and flexibility they need.

The Windows Optimised Desktop Scenarios relate the business requirements (IT and user) for a flexible, efficient, and managed desktop environment to sets of complementary Microsoft technologies by defining and using five standard user scenarios that map business requirements to technology solutions. These core scenarios are: Office Worker, Mobile Worker, Task Worker, Contract/Offshore Worker, and workers who need to Access from Home”

So, ask yourself, inside your organisations, what categories do your workers fit into?  Some organisations will have a complete workforce who fit into 1 category, whereas other organisations will have a wide mix.  Either way, there are technologies out there, that when implemented, can give you the right fit for the right worker.  Some of this may involve virtualisation, whilst some of it won’t.  Microsoft aren’t a virtualisation company, they’re a software company, and hence, we don’t push you to ‘virtualise everything’ when it actually might not be the right solution for every worker.

The Windows Optimized Desktop Scenario Assessment Guide describes the five user scenarios defined for the Windows Optimised Desktop and further describes the Microsoft products and technologies that underpin each scenario solution. These include: Windows 7, Windows Server 2008 R2, App-V, MED-V, Hyper-V, and Remote Desktop Services. This document guides you through an assessment of user groups in your organization to identify the scenario or scenarios that best fit your environment.

You can get all the information, and more, from here.

For those of you not familiar, the SVVP, or Server Virtualisation Validation Program, enables end Customers, and Partners to understand what is, and isn’t, from a Microsoft perspective, supported in virtual environments.  These virtual environments could be Microsoft, VMware, Citrix, or another.  The current, complete list of SVVP certified virtualisation solutions are as follows:

• Cisco WAAS Virtual Blades 4.1
• Citrix XenServer 5 Embedded Edition
• Citrix XenServer 5
• Citrix XenServer 5.5
• SUSE Linux Enterprise Server 10 SP2
• VMware ESX 3.5 Update 2
• VMware ESX 3.5 Update 3
• VMware ESX 3.5 Update 4
• VMware ESXi 3.5 Update 3
• VMware ESXi 3.5 Update 4
• VMware vSphere - ESX 4.0
• VMware vSphere - ESXi 4.0

Hyper-V isn’t on the list, as this program is to certify non-Microsoft platforms only.

So, my hypervisor of choice is on the list (or is Hyper-V :-)).  What does that mean?

Well, it means that this KB article: 957006 becomes very important, as it shows all the Microsoft Server applications, like SQL, or SharePoint, that are supported in a virtual environment, providing the virtual environment is on that list above…

You could quite easily use this list to check your support status, however, an SVVP Wizard has been released to ease the process.  It’s a simple 3-part process:

Select the Microsoft product you are interested in virtualising…

Choose your platform and guest OS…

then receive your support statement! :-)

It even gives you information, related to that product as to what is, and isn’t supported – very useful indeed me thinks!

You can access the SVVP Wizard for yourselves, here!

Patrick, from the MVUG Blog, pinged this through this morning, so I thought I’d share:

Microsoft is offering some free Hyper-V training. You will need to enter a specific access code 9350-Y2W6-3676 and sign in with your Live ID.  The course “Collection 6319 - Configuring Hyper-V in Windows Server 2008” includes the following modules:

1. An overview of the Hyper-V technology
2. Creating a virtual environment
3. Deploying systems in a virtual environment
4. Configuring high availability in a virtual environment
5. Administering a virtual environment with SCVMM

To sign up go to https://www.microsoftelearning.com/eLearning/enterCode.aspx

Hat tip to Mr Overton for forwarding this article over.  If you’re thinking about Virtual Desktops, and the business justifications for, and against, then you may find this Network World article useful.

http://www.networkworld.com/news/2009/061809-desktop-virtualization.html

While server virtualization virtually guarantees a speedy ROI, desktop virtualization can be cost-prohibitive to start and deliver a somewhat less immediate and difficult-to-quantify return on the substantial investment.  Analysts estimate choosing virtual desktops can cost 150% to 250% more than traditional PCs — and that's just for the direct cost of acquiring the technology. Savvy IT managers realize when pricing out a project they need to also calculate indirect costs.

Definitely a worthwhile read if you have a spare few minutes.  As with any technology, there are pros, and cons.  Not everyone is aware of the amount of storage space, potentially. required by VDI, let alone the networking infrastructure too…

Windows 7 and Windows Server 2008 R2 will be available in the near future. Are you thinking about deploying these new operating systems? Get a head start with Microsoft Assessment and Planning Toolkit 4.0 Beta. Over 680,000 Microsoft customers and partners including Costco Wholesale Corporation, Continental Airlines, and Banque de Luxembourg have already downloaded and used this toolkit to date.

Introducing Microsoft Assessment and Planning Toolkit

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 servers, workstations, 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 and device inventory, hardware compatibility analysis, and generation of actionable, environment-specific IT proposals for migration to most major Microsoft technologies.

What’s New with v4.0?

Version 4.0 of this toolkit has the following new features:

• Windows 7 Hardware and Device Compatibility Assessment
• Windows Server 2008 R2 Hardware and Device Compatibility Assessment
• Virtualisation Candidates Assessment for Hyper-V R2 Server Consolidation
• Integration with the Microsoft Integrated Virtualisation ROI Calculator
• Inventory of VMware Server Hosts and Guests
• User Interface and Proposal Customisation for Partner co-branding
• Enhanced Usability and Improved Inventory Performance

Additional Features

Other features from version 3.2 have also been carried over to version 4.0:

• Virtualisation Candidates Assessment for Hyper-V Server Consolidation
• Windows Vista Hardware and Device Compatibility Assessment
• Windows Server 2008 Hardware and Device Compatibility Assessment
• 2007 Microsoft Office Readiness Assessment
• SQL Server Instance Discovery
• Desktop Security Assessment for Anti-virus and Anti-malware Programs Installation
• Forefront Client Security/NAP Readiness Assessment
• Online Services (Exchange Online) Assessment
• App-V Infrastructure Readiness Assessment
• Power Savings “Green IT” Calculator

Benefits to Customers and Partners

Saves Planning or Pre-Sales Time. For most IT consultants and Microsoft Partners, a detailed network inventory and assessment of servers and desktops often takes days of manual labour. With Microsoft Assessment and Planning Toolkit, you can now conduct an environment inventory of up to 100,000 computers in a matter of hours instead of days, giving you extra time to focus on critical planning or pre-sales tasks. 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 virtualisation projects.

Provides Actionable Recommendations and Reporting. This toolkit provides valuable inventory and readiness assessment reports with environment-specific upgrade recommendations and virtualisation 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, Hyper-V R2, Windows Vista, Windows Server 2008, Hyper-V, Virtual Server 2005 R2, 2007 Microsoft Office, SQL Server 2008, Forefront Client Security, Network Access Protection, Microsoft Online Services, Microsoft Application Virtualisation (or App-V), and more.

Next Steps--How can I get Microsoft Assessment and Planning Toolkit 4.0 Beta?

• Download Microsoft Assessment and Planning Toolkit 4.0 Beta and give us your feedback (Live ID login and registration required)
• View the Webcast on MAP Toolkit 4.0 Beta (use Recording Key: fqX`%3t.X)
• Learn more about this toolkit and read case studies on TechNet
• To provide technical feedback on this Beta, please email MAPSBETA@microsoft.com
• Get the latest news from the Microsoft Assessment and Planning Toolkit Team Blog

Sticking with the case study theme, here’s another one for you, but this time, it’s a video, rather than a document based case study.  For those of you who don’t know, John West is brand leader in the United Kingdom, Holland and Ireland, and they also trade in 38 markets throughout Europe, the Middle East, Northern Africa, North and South America.  In the retail industry, customers are pivotal to success, so optimising their customer management, with technologies like Microsoft Dynamics, is incredibly important.  At the same time however, John West also decided that Virtualisation, with Hyper-V would enable them to make significant savings around Power, Cooling and so on.

The video case study, found here: http://www.microsoftmovies.co.uk/si/general/ is only 4 minutes long, but gives you a great insight into how they are making the technology work for them, combining both Dynamics, and Hyper-V.

The number of case studies around Microsoft Virtualisation in the UK has been ramping up considerably as of late, and is only set to grow further as we progress into FY10 and edge closer to Hyper-V R2.  I’ve highlighted some of the most recent additions to the catalog below.

Britannia Building Society - UK Building Society Cuts Power Consumption by 75 Per Cent with Virtualised Servers

“Microsoft virtualisation technology now plays a key role in our sustainability strategy by helping to reduce power consumption by 75 per cent.” Tim Tharratt, Solutions Developer, IS Services Support

http://www.microsoft.com/casestudies/Case_Study_Detail.aspx?casestudyid=4000004359

Wakefield Council (SMSE) - Licensing Model Saves Council 25 Per Cent on Infrastructure Deployment and Monitoring

“By using SMSE, we’ve already achieved savings of 25 per cent against the cost of buying four products separately. We’ll achieve an even better return on investment when we go ahead with virtualisation” Lee Whitehouse, Technical Support Manager, Wakefield Council.

http://www.microsoft.com/casestudies/Case_Study_Detail.aspx?CaseStudyID=4000004422

Tenon Group - Accountants and Business Advisers Use Virtualisation to Save Nearly £100,000

“With Hyper-V, we can rapidly adapt to the needs of our business. By reducing power consumption and increasing the efficiency of our servers, we can support future expansion” Richard Dallimore, Group IT Systems Manager, Tenon Group

http://www.microsoft.com/casestudies/Case_Study_Detail.aspx?casestudyid=4000004360

Freelance World - Accountancy Service Provider Set to Accelerate Business with Virtualisation Solution

“We have ambitious growth plans and intend to become a leading company in our sector. We firmly believe that with the Microsoft virtualised solution behind us, we can do just that”  Alasdair McGill, Managing Director, Freelance World

http://www.microsoft.com/casestudies/casestudy.aspx?casestudyid=4000004230

It’s the final part, and this is where the fun starts!

In the final part of this 4-part series, we take a look at some of the key capabilities of the NetApp storage backend, with which our Hyper-V cluster is integrated.  We look at the space savings achieved when using Thin Provisioning, DeDuplication and we also take a look at Snapshots.

Duration: 19m 38s

Part 3 of 4, here we come!

In the 3rd video, of this 4 part series, we validate, and build our Hyper-V R2 cluster, using the NetApp storage backend.  We also create a few highly available Virtual Machines to run on our cluster.

Duration: 14m 16s

Download this video, and more, on the Virtualboy TV site.

Straight into the 2nd video of this 4 part series:

In the second of this 4 part series, we set up and configure a NetApp storage backend, to be used with a Hyper-V R2 Cluster.  We install and configure the system using NetApp System Manager, and walk through Volume and LUN creation, and more...

Duration: 16m 19s

After a barrage (21) of blog posts last month, this month has been pretty dry in comparison.  Main reason for that is, I’ve been busy building up the content repository for another wave of video loveliness and useful information.  Hopefully we’ll break double figures for the blog posts for this month!  Here comes the first one, live from Citrix iForum in Edinburgh!

A month or so back, I got together with Pete Mason and Steve Winfield from NetApp, to produce a series of videos highlighting the NetApp value-add to Hyper-V.  I’ve split the videos into 4 parts, with the first, being a 40 minute overview of what makes up the technologies, and why they’re important.  Before anyone says, “isn’t that favouritism – what about all the other storage vendors?”  For me, the moral is, if you don’t ask, you don’t get.  NetApp have been very proactive, at a local level, and a global level, around suggesting new ways we can work together, and a set of Virtualboy TV video was the next logical step.  This is just one reason why they are becoming more and more of a prominent Partner with Microsoft.  Hopefully that will be reflected at the next NetApp Insight event, ey’ Steve!  So, if any other vendors are reading, don’t be shy (obviously loan demo kit helps too – thanks chaps!), get in touch.  Same applies to software vendors too.  Expect videos in the near future with Citrix and Quest to name but two.

Anyway, here’s the video and info:

In this video, I'm joined by Steve Winfield and Pete Mason from NetApp, to discuss the value add that some of the NetApp storage technologies can bring to a Microsoft Hyper-V infrastructure. We explore the basics, but also look at some of the more advanced features like DeDupe and Thin Provisioning.  The volume seems like it hasn't come out too loud on this one, so you may need to turn your speakers or headphones up a bit!

Duration: 41m 54s

As always, you can grab the downloads from the Virtualboy TV site.

I knew it was due round about now, but didn’t have a firm date, but now it’s here, and ready for you to download from the Microsoft Connect site.

What’s new in the Release Candidate?

I blogged about the key features a few weeks back, but one feature that’s been mentioned on a few blogs around the web is the Storage Migration capability that SCVMM 2008 R2 RC provides, in comparison to say, Storage VMotion (within the Enterprise SKU) of VMware’s vSphere platform.  Needless to say, it’s the same voices that piped up when Quick Migration was in 2008 Hyper-V, and not Live…

Anyway, what are the key differences between SCVMM Storage Migration, and Storage VMotion?

Well, Storage VMotion allows transferring of the VM's storage with no downtime, and it's a great technology, whereas Quick Storage Migration does introduce a little downtime to that VM, however SCVMM's Storage Migration capability is built into all versions of SCVMM, including the $500 workgroup edition, so it's a feature that's available to a vast majority.  Will QSM become Live Storage Migration in the future?  I can only assume, but who knows.  Now that we have the Live Migration capability in Hyper-V, translating that across to Storage shouldn’t be beyond comprehension.  As I've said, currently, on the QSM side however, the caveat to be aware of is the introduction of a short period of downtime (saved state) of a VM as it’s storage is migrated.

(Thanks to Bjorn for the correction!)

Download it from Connect.

Anyone who’s been reading this blog for a while, will know about Virtualboy TV, and will also know that whenever you play a video from the site, it’s actually playing a video that’s hosted on Blip.tv.  Blip.tv has been a great host for my videos – it’s given me high resolution, multiple distribution options, and no adverts, however, I’ve always had a drive to utilise as many Microsoft technologies as I can with Virtualboy TV, hence from this point forward, videos are going to be hosted in Silverlight on TechNet Edge.

Why change?

Firstly, I believe that Silverlight has the potential to provide a more optimised streaming experience than the flash-based blip service I had previously.  Take this example – I start watching a video on Blip, and I want to skip on by 10 minutes.  I click further down the timeline, but the video doesn’t advance.  You can only advance the video if the content has actually been already streamed to your machine (i.e. fully buffered up to the point you’ve clicked on the timeline).  With the Edge service on Silverlight, I can click anywhere on the timeline, and off I go.  It’s the simple things like this that streamline the experience.

Aside from Silverlight, Edge also converts to multiple formats, automatically, whereas with Blip, I would have had to pay to go ‘Pro’.  Edge gives me loads of formats, automatically:

All of which you can download!  I’ve taken 3 of the more popular formats, (WMV High, Zune and iPod) and placed them on each video page on my Virtualboy TV site, so you’ll see this at the bottom of each video page:

Back to Edge, if you want to see all of my videos in one place, you can go here: http://edge.technet.com/Tags/Virtualboy/ and what you’ll also notice is, that you can subscribe, RSS style, to either:

• Regular RSS
• iPod mp4 RSS
• Zune RSS

Do you need to change anything?

Well, you can update your RSS feeds if you prefer, but to be honest, whenever I add a new video to Edge, I’ll be embedding it into a blog post on here, so if you’re a current RSS / Email subscriber, don’t worry, you’ll get the info you need.

Stay tuned to Virtualboy TV for a plethora of Windows Server 2008 R2 Remote Desktop Services videos, coming soon!

Today is a very big day for Microsoft.  Unfortunately, it’s not virtualisation related, but Search & Online related.  The online advertising and search space is, in many ways, similar to virtualisation.  It’s dominated by a very big player, Google, just like the Virtualisation space has it’s market leader, VMware, however Google, like VMware, aren’t the industry Angels they once were, and both need to continually innovate to stay ahead of the game.  VMware, with their vSphere release, have clearly innovated, with some cool new features, however what do the majority of Google users still use Google for?  Search, plain and simple.  Google has a line up of products now, that are starting to rival Microsoft (OK, not quite), but a quick look here and you’ll see there is a page of products that the vast majority of people won’t touch, and like I said, they aren’t the industry Angel they once were – believe it or not, not everyone finds what they are looking for at the first attempt, and privacy concerns are greater now than ever.

Before someone says ‘Well Live Search is no better” – I’d tend to agree, although most of the time, for search, it suits my needs, however, with bing, it’s no longer about being a ‘Search Engine’.  Now it’s time for a ‘Decision Engine’.

To quote SteveB “Today, search engines do a decent job of helping people navigate the Web and find information, but they don’t do a very good job of enabling people to use the information they find,” said Steve Ballmer, Microsoft CEO. “When we set out to build Bing, we grounded ourselves in a deep understanding of how people really want to use the Web. Bing is an important first step forward in our long-term effort to deliver innovations in search that enable people to find information quickly and use the information they’ve found to accomplish tasks and make smart decisions.”

It’s a long term effort, and Google is a formidable competitor, make no bones about it, but that level of competition generates excitement, challenge, and drives innovation, just like it does in the Virtualisation space.

I’ll be honest, I’m looking forward to using bing, just to see if it can change the way I search for, and subsequently use information.  Will it be a Google beater?  Who knows – with a brand as strong as Google, synonymous with Search and the Internet, it’s sure going to be hard!

Check out a great video demo of bing in action and see for yourself.

We’re pleased to announce the launch of the very first TechNet Virtual Conference taking place on 19 June 2009.

You told us that time and budget pressures make attending in person events difficult – so to help both you and the environment we decided to take the TechNet Conference virtual. Now you and your colleagues can join us to get a flavour of some key Microsoft technologies from the comfort of your own desks.
The Technology sessions, selected by the readers of the UK TechNet Flash, feature key products including:

• Windows 7 Deployment & Management
• Windows Server 2008 R2 – 10 things to make life easier for IT Pros
• An overview of Office Communications Server R2 and Voice Capabilities
• Trials and Tribulations of SharePoint Implementation

There are also session on PowerShell 2.0, Licensing in a Virtual Environment, Microsoft Desktop Optimisation Pack and more.  You can get the agenda, speaker information, and more, over at the Virtual Conference Homepage.

We are also really pleased to announce an exclusive Keynote featuring Mark Russinovich, Microsoft Technical Fellow specialising in the Windows platform.
And that’s not the only difference this year. In addition to Microsoft technology news and product overviews from the experts, the TechNet Virtual Conference will also feature a second auditorium focused on IT Management, including:

• How IT will change over the next 10 years and why you should care - an exclusive session delivered at TechEd EMEA
• Growing the Business and Managing Costs at Microsoft – An Insider’s View, presented by Asif Jinnah, IT Manager, Microsoft UK

Be sure to get the most out of your day by getting involved and asking our speakers questions via live chat. But if you can’t make it on the day, all the content will be available after June 19th for you to watch on demand.

Sign up here!