virtualboy

One thing that you can’t take away from VMware, is their ecosystem of Virtual Appliances that people can download.  Not quite up to the level of the iPhone/iPod just yet, where ‘there’s an app for that’, but still, a quick scout around on the Virtual Appliance Marketplace, and you’ll find lots of different appliances, many of which are free, that can provide solutions to different problems within an infrastructure, but can also allow organisations to quickly test a certain piece of technology without having to build the solution themselves.

So, what are Microsoft doing in this space?  Well, the VHD Test Drive has actually been around for ages, and has allowed users to download pre-built, time-bombed VHDs of technologies like Windows Server, Windows Client, Exchange, OCS and more.  Great for testing, great for quick deployment, demos, and training.  What many people didn’t know, is that the VHD format is royalty free, which enables increased innovation by partners and Customers and further enhances interoperability, security, and operational efficiency for Customers.  On top of this, we opened the program up to Partners to build in their own software, along with ours, into these VHDs, and provide them, time-bombed for their Customers, in the form of pre-packaged, solution VHDs.

I think for me, the awareness is still too low, and ultimately, this has been a slightly under-utilised service.  Now, I could be wrong, but whenever I say to Partners ‘have you heard of the VHD test drive program?’, the response is usually, an intrigued, ‘no’.

Step up, Appliance Test Drive.  A rebranding always helps, as long as we get the message out there to raise awareness.  Still in it’s infancy from a Partner-VHD side of things, the Appliance Test Drive could be something very relevant in the next 12-18 months, as more and more people start to evaluate, and run, Microsoft virtualisation solutions, and in particular, Hyper-V.  Sure, we’re way off the sheer numbers of appliances that VMware have, but let’s face it, those of you reading this have probably not heard of the Test Drive program before, so we have to start somewhere!  Fortunately, we have some pretty good offerings to begin with:

• Citrix EVA for XenApp - The Citrix EVA for XenApp enables Customers and partners to evaluate both online and offline application virtualization with XenApp 5 for Windows Server 2008.
• DataCore™ Virtual SAN Appliance - Free, Ready to Run, DataCore™ Virtual SAN Appliance. This Virtual SAN Appliance software places shared storage for virtual machines and physical servers at your fingertips.
• Athena for System Center Configuration Manager 2007 - Athena-enabled device management functions extend and complement the native capabilities of Configuration Manager 2007 for Windows Mobile and Windows CE Embedded devices.
• EventTracker VHD - The VHD is a pre-configured, fully functional trial of EventTracker. This image comes with EventTracker including change monitoring and the EventTracker Event Portal, Event Log Central.
• ThinPrint .print Server Engine 7.6 - ThinPrint .print Server Engine 7.6 is installed on Windows 2003 R2 and allows for evaluation of V-Layer, universal printer driver, bandwidth control and compression.

You’re going to say, wow, 5 appliances, and to that I say, it’s early days, and don’t shoot the messenger!  Plus, don’t be afraid of putting your solutions on the table, whether you’d class yourselves as a big, or a small Partner, by enclosing your IP, along with ours, inside a VHD, it makes it easy for a Customer to test your solutions, over a fixed period of time, with a much simplified setup process.  By signing up as a VHD Partner, we give you all the tools you need to make it happen.  Don’t say I didn’t tell you!

Following on from yesterday’s post on App-V, I thought I’d take the chance to provide you with some quick overview videos on some of the other technologies that make up the Microsoft Desktop Optimisation Pack, or for the acronym-fans, MDOP.

For those of you not familiar, MDOP is a suite of technologies available as a Software Assurance benefit for Windows Client, and it’s sole aim is to help optimise the desktop estate, through 6 key tools, one of which being App-V.  So, what’s in there?

• Microsoft Application Virtualization (App-V) turns applications into centrally managed services that are never installed, never conflict, and are streamed on demand to end users.

• Microsoft Enterprise Desktop Virtualization (MED-V) provides deployment and management of virtual PC images to enable key enterprise scenarios, primarily resolving application compatibility with a new version of Windows.

• Microsoft Advanced Group Policy Management (AGPM) enhances governance and control over Group Policy through robust change management, versioning, and role-based administration.

• Microsoft Asset Inventory Service (AIS) is a hosted service that collects software inventory data and translates it into actionable business intelligence.

• Microsoft Diagnostics and Recovery Toolset (DaRT) reduces downtime by accelerating troubleshooting, repair, and data recovery of unbootable Windows-based desktops.

• Microsoft System Center Desktop Error Monitoring (DEM) provides insights into application and operating system failures, allowing helpdesk to be more proactive in managing PC problems, without installing an agent to the endpoint.

In terms of demos and tutorials:

Replaceable PC

This demo shows how the Windows Optimized Desktop can enable the easy and quick replacement of a lost or stolen PC by dynamically separating the users' applications and data files/settings from the PC itself.

MED-V Overview

Discover how Microsoft Enterprise Desktop Virtualization (MED-V) provides deployment and management of virtual Windows desktops to enable key enterprise scenarios.

Asset Inventory Service: Helping You Track Your Company’s Inventory

This demo will show how Asset Inventory Service can help reduce Total Cost of Ownership (TCO) and improve licensing compliance through advanced software inventory scanning and translating inventory data into actionable information.

App-V with AppLocker Windows Installer Rules

AppLocker is a new feature of Windows7 that allows administrators to define policies that can allow or deny a user’s ability to run or install executable, MSI, or script files. Microsoft Application Virtualization (App-V) separates the application from the operating system preventing application conflicts and enabling the ability to run multiple versions of an application of the same desktop. Virtual applications can be delivered in many ways – streaming by assigning applications to user, delivering to machines via Configuration Manager or by using file streaming from removable media. Using App-V and Applocker together ensures that no matter how the application is delivered or what format is takes, physical or virtual, it will respect the policies defined by IT. In this screen cast I’ll demonstrate how IT can create an AppLocker Windows Installer policy for virtual applications.

App-V with AppLocker Executable Rules

AppLocker is a new feature of Windows7 that allows administrators to define policies that can allow or deny a user's ability to run or install executable, MSI, or script files. Microsoft Application Virtualization (App-V) separates the application from the operating system preventing application conflicts and enabling the ability to run multiple versions of an application of the same desktop. Virtual applications can be delivered in many ways - streaming by assigning applications to user, delivering to machines via Configuration Manager or by using file streaming from removable media. Using App-V and Applocker together ensures that no matter how the application is delivered or what format is takes, physical or virtual, it will respect the policies defined by IT. In this screen cast I'll demonstrate how IT can create AppLocker Executable policies for virtual applications.

App-V Configuration Options

App-V strives to create a seamless user experience to ensure that the user is not confused by launching a physical or virtual application. In Win7 App-V is fully compatible with the Win7 Taskbar and Jumplists, recognizes and respects Applocker Rules, is secured when using BitLockerToGo, and integrates with BranchCache for faster application delivery. Today we are going to take a look at the user experience when launching an App-V virtual application on Windows 7 and show some of the client configuration options that are available to help IT more effectively manage the App-V client.

A Tour of Advanced Group Policy Management

This demo will show you how Advanced Group Policy Management (AGPM) can help your organization to keep enterprise-wide desktop configurations up to date, enabling greater control, and less downtime.

A Tour of Desktop Error Monitoring

This demo will show you how to gain insights into application and operating system failures that cause PCs to hang or crash with Desktop Error Monitor (DEM).

A Tour of the Diagnostics and Recovery Toolset

This demo will show how the Diagnostics and Recovery Toolset helps your make PCs safer and enables desktops that are much easier and less expensive to manage.

There are even more videos here, so if you get chance, take a look!

I blogged about App-V 4.6 a while back, around the beta release timeframe, and also recorded (but didn’t get round to editing!) a screencast using App-V 4.6 beta.  Obviously that’s now obsolete, so I’ll have to record it again, but, nonetheless, 4.6 Release Candidate is available, and over on the App-V blog, there’s some specific information on the integration between App-V 4.6 and the brand new Office 2010 beta.

Office has always been one of those workloads where some people will say ‘sure, sequence Office, it’s great!’ whereas others will say ‘whoa there, Office should be part of the base OS build, sequence the add-ins and other apps instead!’.  Whichever side of the fence you fall on, the fact that recipes (yes, you read that correctly) exist for sequencing suites of applications like Office, should help to put your mind at ease, and with the latest 4.6 RC release, there’s a specific Office 2010 Beta Deployment Kit for App-V.  Very useful indeed.

From the App-V blog, “Our engineering teams have collaborated to address the top customer issues that people were running into when virtualizing past versions of Office.   As a result, Office 2010 has a much more integrated user experience”.  What does the Office 2010 and App-V integration deliver?

• Microsoft SharePoint Integration - You can open, edit, and save Microsoft Office documents using Microsoft SharePoint.
• Microsoft Outlook Fast Search - You can use Microsoft Windows Desktop Search to find specific messages in your inbox.
• MAPI Proxy - You can connect to your inbox using Microsoft Outlook Send To functionality.
• Microsoft Office Document Indexing - You can index your documents so that you can use Microsoft Windows Search to locate files.
• Virtual Mail Control Panel icon - You can use the Email icon in Control Panel to perform advance mail configuration.
• URL protocol handler - You can configure links in the browser and specify the appropriate associated Microsoft Office application.
• Send to Microsoft OneNote Printer driver - You can print documents to Microsoft OneNote.

Ready to rock?

Here’s what you need to get going:

1. Download Office 2010 Beta here

2. Download the Microsoft Office 2010 Deployment Kit for App-V (Beta)

3. Download App-V 4.6 RC on Microsoft Connect

4. Read the App-V recipe for sequencing Office 2010 Beta on Microsoft Connect.

For detailed information on whether your environment meets the requirements of Office 2010 and App-V 4.6 RC, please refer to the App-V recipe.

Happy cooking sequencing! :-)

Patrick, from the MVUG blog, has fired across a couple of other useful titbits of information that the guys at HP have been working on around both Hyper-V, and Exchange 2010, from both a server, and storage perspective.

From blog post #1:

HP has released "HP recommended configuration for Microsoft Exchange Server 2010 - StorageWorks EVA8400 using CA-EVA and CLX-EVA". With the release of Microsoft Exchange Server 2010 (Exchange 2010) there are many new design features and configuration options to consider. To better understand how to deploy theses new features with HP servers and storage, HP has developed a series of recommended configurations. The recommended configurations provide sizing guidance and deployment options to support the new Exchange 2010 solutions. The configurations described in this guide are meant to assist you in designing solutions that address your email business requirements.

The recommended configurations provide server and storage sizing details for deploying Microsoft Exchange 2010. In this reference configuration the Exchange server roles have been placed on virtual servers using Microsoft Windows Server 2008 R2 Hyper-V (Hyper-V). The advantage of this solution is that it allows the use of Hyper-V Live Migration for the mailbox servers. The solution has been sized to support 20,000 users with 512MB mailboxes. The hardware featured in this configuration is the HP ProLiant BL460c G6 (BL460c G6) server blade used to host the virtualized Exchange server roles and the HP StorageWorks 8400 Enterprise Virtual Array (EVA8400) to manage the storage needs.

You can download the above document from here

This will be a really useful document, particularly around the storage side, based on the changes brought about in Exchange 2010.

From blog post #2:

HP has released "Implementing Microsoft Windows Server 2008 R2 Hyper-V and Microsoft Hyper-V Server 2008 R2". The purpose of this document is to help customers install the following Microsoft hypervisor (Hyper-V) enabled products:

• Microsoft Windows Server 2008 R2 Hyper-VTM (The Hyper-V server role within Windows Server 2008 R2)
• Microsoft Hyper-V Server 2008 R2

This document describes the level of support available for these Hyper-V enabled products running multiple guest operating systems on a single server and addresses the following key topics:

• Introduction to Microsoft products that provide Hyper-V functionality
• Recommended system configurations
• Hardware prerequisites
• Supported configurations of HP ProLiant servers
• Procedures for new installations
• Known issues and workarounds

You can download the above document from here

Key thing to note here, and it’s something Patrick explicitly called out to me, is the support around Hyper-V Server 2008 R2.  This document details both the free Hyper-V Server 2008 R2, and the Hyper-V role of Windows Server 2008 R2.  Important to note, not all vendors support Hyper-V Server 2008 R2, so if you’re thinking of deploying this one, make sure you check first!

Upgrading a desktop OS isn’t always easy(!).  Typically, users have the OS, intertwined with lots of applications, favourites, files, folders and other profile-related goodness.  With all this interlinked deeply, it makes replacing one part of it that bit more difficult.  With that in mind, separation is a good thing!  Separating the OS from the apps, which technologies like App-V, or XenApp can help with one part of it, and by combining this with capabilities like Roaming Profiles, and Folder Redirection, things improve still further.

For things like VDI (Virtual Desktop Infrastructure), and specifically, Pooled Virtual Desktops (where users can get a random virtual desktop each day of the week!), the use of separation becomes near-essential.  This post is by no means, a war-and-peace overview of my thoughts on VDI (more on that in the future!), but I’d like to point you at this video on Citrix TV, which for me, really highlights the power that VDI can bring in areas such as desktop refresh.

By separating the apps, the OS, and the ‘user’, it increases manageability, yet streamlines IT Operations from a desktop management perspective.  If you’re on the fence when it comes to VDI, you can’t deny that it has the potential to be extremely dynamic and flexible, providing the work is put in at the backend first.  When it comes to the backend infrastructure, something I was always told at University (but rarely followed it!) was ‘fail to plan, plan to fail’.  Put the work in on the infrastructure, Active Directory, networking and so on, and these will have a dramatic improvement on the way you deploy and manage desktops.

For me, blogging on a Sunday is unheard of – the other/better half ensures it doesn’t happen, however, today is a travelling day (and she’s not here!) – I’m off to Athens to attend NetApp Insight 2009 (More on Microsoft and NetApp in another post) so it seems almost ironic that this post is about Microsoft and HP.

Patrick, over on the MVUG blog, pointed me at some very valuable information for those of you building solutions on HP and Hyper-V R2 technologies.  From Patrick’s blog:

HP has just released "HP BladeSystem reference architecture for Microsoft Windows Server 2008 R2 virtualization (Hyper-V)". This document describes reference architectures validated by HP for the deployment of Microsoft Windows Server 2008 R2 Hyper-V (Hyper-V R2) on an HP BladeSystem infrastructure.

The specification provides an outline of Hyper-V R2 and explains how an entire IT infrastructure can be created from HP BladeSystem c-Class components, HP LeftHand or StorageWorks SAN storage, and HP ProCurve switches.

Also oo help you plan your own Hyper-V R2 deployment on HP BladeSystem, the reference architecture provides a bill of materials (BOM) for Small, Medium, and Large configurations.

The document can be downloaded from here.

For me, the nice thing about this document, is that it’s not just about configuring the server hardware.  Instead, this document details information around both iSCSI and Fiber SAN configurations, along with integration from a networking perspective with ProCurve.  Definitely worth a read if you’re working with both of these vendors around virtualisation.

A couple of useful upcoming Academy Live sessions, specifically aimed at Microsoft Partners, and particularly of use to those Partners in the SMB space:

WES27PAL: Virtualization:  Defined.  Building your Virtualization Practice and Solution Offerings

Presented by: Dave Sobel

18th November 2009 – 5pm GMT (Click here to calculate your local time)

Virtualization is becoming mainstream; are you ready with your practice? Learn from Dave Sobel, author of “Virtualization: Defined.  A Primer for the SMB Consultant”, how to build your consulting practice, get trained and offering solutions, and solutions you can start delivering right away.     Learn about server consolidation assessments, Virtual Desktop Infrastructures, and how to deliver high value solutions to your customers.

Register Here

WES33PAL: Virtualizing Windows Essential Business Server 2008 with Hyper-V

Presented by: David Fabritius (Digital One Corporation); Brent Reeser (Star Technical)

23rd November 2009 – 5pm GMT (Click here to calculate your local time)

Virtualization continues to be one of the hottest opportunities in the industry today for businesses of all sizes.  Join us to learn how you can virtualize Windows Essential Business Server 2008 using Hyper-V.  In this session, we will discuss several virtualization scenarios, demonstrate how to deploy and manage EBS 2008, and share some best practices for configuration

Register Here

Picked this little beauty up via the Virtualization Planet blog, and it leads on nicely from the introductory post I wrote a month or so ago around SCE2010.  For those not familiar with System Center Essentials 2010, it’s Microsoft’s IT management solution specifically designed for midsized businesses. From one console, SCE allows you to monitor and manage your servers, clients, hardware, software, and IT services.  With the 2010 release, SCE now includes virtualisation management.  Think of it as the best bits of System Center Operations Manager, Configuration Manager and Virtual Machine Manager, all rolled into one.

I’ve still not had chance to play with it just yet, but it’s definitely on my list of things to do, however, in the meantime, if you want a brief look into what it’s all about, and how it operates, you’d be hard pressed to beat this short video:

All being well, I should get chance to install and configure this over the next few weeks, but time will tell on that one!

Earlier today, I wrote the first in a series of posts about the different options for Site Recovery around Hyper-V.  One thing I completely forgot to include was information about an upcoming webcast!  Doh!  You should know this bit already but…

“Citrix Essentials for Microsoft Hyper-V adds new disaster recovery capabilities to Hyper-V with StorageLink Site Recovery technology.  Attend this session to get an up-close view of the new solution.  Product experts from Citrix will demonstrate how StorageLink Site Recovery brings simple disaster recovery controls to Hyper-V administrators while tapping powerful array-based replication services to protect Hyper-V workloads from site-to-site.  This session will also explore how you can use Site Recovery together with Microsoft Clustering and Citrix Essentials workflow orchestration tools to build an automated DR solution for your Hyper-V customers.”

WNS160PAL: Site Recovery for Hyper-V with Citrix Essentials

Presented by Jim Schwartz, Gordon Mangione and Barry Flanagan

Demo and discussion topics include:

• Setting up replication services
• Staging remote VMs for DR testing
• Performing fail-over of VMs

When?

Register Here.

I’m going to try to make this a feature that rolls on and on in the future, as it’s an area I’m getting more and more questions about, and there are a number of options out there for Partners and Customers, so trying to centralise the info into one place should make things easier.  I’ll try my best anyway!

Firstly, a bit of background.  Why do we need Site Recovery?  Well, think about it – lots of organisations are virtualising, which means they’re placing more eggs, in fewer baskets, however, at the same time, they are benefiting from features like Live Migration and High Availability to ensure uptime is as high as possible.  What would happen though, if their site lost power?  Well, for a short time, the UPS will keep you going, but before long…the SAN – gone.  Servers – gone.  Switches – gone.  The site is down – even High Availability won’t save you there.  Well, local High Availability won’t.

Multi-site Clustering

A feature of Windows Server Enterprise, since, well, 2003, has been Multi-site Clustering, or, as it has been known, Stretch Clustering, where you’re effectively stretching a cluster over WAN distances.  Problem with 2003 Multi-site clusters, was the requirement, among other things, for a single-subnet environment across the WAN.  In 2008, and subsequently in R2, this requirement no longer exists, but can be used if required.

From here

“The concept behind failover clustering across multiple sites is very simple. Why have separate islands of management for HA and DR? Why not take your HA setup and extend it to another site, thereby obtaining the added protection of geographic distance? Having a single management interface with failover automation provides an easy-to-use solution that gives you the best of both worlds.  Multi-site failover clustering does exactly this. Multiple local nodes provide traditional HA functionality in the event of local server failure. Local application migration (from physical server to physical server) is also available for zero-downtime server maintenance. The cluster is then extended to another site. The process is as easy as adding another node to the cluster. It even works across different subnets, thus eliminating the need for stretched subnets. Multi-site failover clustering can be used to protect key Microsoft Windows workloads such as Microsoft SQL, Microsoft Exchange, DHCP and WINS services, file sharing, print sharing, etc”.

And now Hyper-V.

The key element that the in-box feature does not orchestrate, is the failover of the storage.  Think about it for a second – Site 1 is your active site, and has a SAN in Read/Write, along with nodes actively hosting VMs.  The SAN is being replicated to Site 2, where the SAN is in Read mode.  Site 1 goes BOOM.  What orchestrates the SAN switchover?  What orchestrates the connection of replicated LUNS to standby nodes in Site 2?  These are just 2 of the factors that need to be considered, and factored in, when planning a Multi-site configuration.

No Second SAN?

What about smaller environments, that don’t have the infrastructure, nor the budget, to house a second SAN and associated cluster nodes in another site?  Can they not achieve site resiliency?  Of course they can – there are a number of options available to them, from vendors like FalconStor, DoubleTake, and Steeleye to name but a few.  I’ll focus on a few of these in later parts of this feature series.

For more information on Multi-site clustering, you may find the following resources useful:

• Example, Clustered Service or Application in a Multi-Site Failover Cluster
• TechNet Webcast: Multi-Site Clustering with Windows Server 2008 Enterprise (Level 300)
• Checklist: Setting Up a Clustered Service or Application in a Multi-Site Failover Cluster

Essentials for Hyper-V

Before we go into the specifics around Site Recovery, it’s important to expand on what Essentials for Hyper-V actually is, as it’s more than just Site Recovery.  From the Citrix Essential for Hyper-V website:

• Seamless storage integration - Citrix StorageLink™ technology exposes the advanced data and storage management features in today’s storage systems directly to a Hyper-V environment.
• StorageLink Site Recovery - Allows organizations to easily implement and manage site-to-site disaster recovery for Hyper-V virtual machines.
• Automated Lab Management - Enables self service set-up and tear down of non-production Hyper-V virtual environments typically used in development, support and training organizations reducing management complexity, time and cost.
• Stage Management - Streamlines the process of building, testing, sharing and delivering applications, using Hyper-V virtual machines, on-demand into production environments.
• Dynamic Provisioning Services provides simple deployment of workloads to any combination of Hyper-V virtual machines or physical Windows servers from a single golden image.
• Workflow Orchestration enables customized automation of key management processes for Hyper-V virtual infrastructure.

So, 6 technologies in there, each with significant benefits of their own (of which the links above will provide you with more information, but what about pricing and versions?

As you can see, the Express Edition provides the StorageLink technology, which provides Windows administrators running Hyper-V virtual machines the ability to dramatically simplify their storage management processes with quick and easy storage configuration and provisioning for their Windows Server 2008 Hyper-V and System Center virtual infrastructures.  Citrix Essentials helps Hyper-V administrators take full advantage of powerful storage-based features like deduplication, thin provisioning, cloning, snapshots and replication.  You can get more info on Express here, but remember, the Express Edition of Citrix Essentials for Hyper-V supports up to two Hyper-V servers and one storage array.  If you need more, you’ll have to look at the Enterprise of Platinum Editions, which are priced at $1500 and $3000 per host respectively. At $3000 per Server, it compares pretty favourably with VMware SRM from a pricing perspective, with SRM coming in at $2118 per CPU (inc 1 year Gold S&S), up to $2867 per CPU (inc 3 year Platinum S&S), which, for a typical 2 CPU box, would mean $4216 and $5734 respectively, but remember, for your $3000 per server, you’re also getting 5 other technologies thrown in too…

StorageLink Site Recovery

Now, I’m going to take a large amount of the following information from the Citrix Essentials for Hyper-V website – the point here is, I’m not trying to reinvent the wheel here – I just want to try to centralise the Site Recovery related information into one place.

Citrix StorageLink Site Recovery dramatically simplifies the setup and configuration of disaster recovery protection of Hyper-V workloads through direct integration with storage array-based controls for data replication and copy services.  Together, Microsoft Hyper-V and Citrix StorageLink Site Recovery reduce the cost and complexity of implementing disaster recovery for critical server workloads

What about other benefits?

• Easy setup – Use StorageLink Site Recovery wizards to initiate remote replication between arrays, and designate Hyper-V virtual machines for protection in minutes.
• Reliable configuration – Automate disaster recovery configuration validation with built-in configuration checks to eliminate complex, error prone operations that can otherwise hinder recovery of critical infrastructure.
• Non-disruptive testing – StorageLink Site Recovery includes the ability to stage replicated virtual machines in isolated environments for testing and validation of disaster recovery plans without disrupting ongoing replication.
• Fast recovery – Single-click controls for failover of protected Hyper-V workloads helps ensure fast recovery at remote disaster recovery locations

What about requirements?

The following are the basic requirements:

• At least one Microsoft Hyper-V host at both the primary and secondary locations.
• Replication-enabled storage arrays (See the Citrix StorageLink Gateway HCL for a list of supported arrays).
• A StorageLink Site Recovery-enabled version of Citrix Essentials for Microsoft Hyper-V for each Hyper-V host involved in the Site Recovery configuration.
• Network connectivity between the primary and secondary locations with sufficient bandwidth to handle ongoing replication of protected virtual machines.

Once organizations have the basic Citrix and Microsoft components in place, the implementation of disaster recovery protection is very easy:

1. Configure StorageLink Storage Repositories at both primary and secondary locations.
2. Designate a primary storage array and secondary storage array using the StorageLink interface.
3. Map StorageLink Storage Repositories for replication.
4. Use the StorageLink interface to select the virtual machines to be protected.
5. Export the disaster recovery configuration from the primary StorageLink instance.  Then import the configuration to the secondary instance of StorageLink.
6. Once initial synchronization of primary and secondary storage resources completes, Hyper-V workloads are ready for testing and fail-over operations.

Summary & Resources

One key thing to remember, is that the Site Recovery elements described above, apply to a Windows Server 2008 Hyper-V environment, not R2.  There is an updated version on the way, for the whole of the Essentials for Hyper-V suite, with more information available here.  The release, known as Citrix Essentials 5.5 for Hyper-V, takes advantage of the new R2 capabilities of both Hyper-V R2, and System Center Virtual Machine Manager 2008 R2, and you can download the beta here.  I’ve not seen Site Recovery listed in the beta release, so at this time, I can’t confirm it’s in there, although the download page indicates it’s present.

In terms of resources available:

• Citrix Essentials for Microsoft Hyper-V Beta Download
• Documentation
• Essentials for Hyper-V – How it works
• Essentials for Hyper-V – Product information
• View a Demo

After a short holiday break, here’s a quick post to ease back into the blogging :-)

A couple of months back, I chatted about the beta release of the Infrastructure Planning and Design Guide for DirectAccess and gave a brief explanation of the user experience that I have, at Microsoft, using DA.

Fast forward to October, and in the UK, at Wembley Stadium, we held the Microsoft Partner Network Event 2009, and I was on the Windows Server 2008 R2 pod, showing some of the technology, and answering any questions and queries (hello if you were there!).  Now, if I had a pound ($1.64 by today’s exchange rate) for every question I received about DA, I’d have been significantly better off by the end of the day!  The first thing you’ll think is, surely all of those questions were about ‘how does it work?’ – to that I answer, no, most of them were concerned with requirements, and integration, and, ‘are there any resources available?’.

Fast forward again to present day, and the finalised resources are starting to flow:

This IPD guide provides actionable guidance for designing a DirectAccess infrastructure. The guide’s easy-to-follow, four-step process gives a straightforward explanation of the infrastructure required for clients to be connected from the Internet to resources on the corporate network, whether or not the organization has begun deploying IPv6.

The guide covers four key steps in the design process for DirectAccess:

• Aligning the project scope with the business requirements.
• Determining whether IPv6, Teredo, 6to4, and IP-HTTPS connectivity will be supported for Internet-based clients.
• Assessing the need for IPv6/IPv4 network address translation service and ISATAP for internal communication.
• Determining the number and placement of servers, the certificate services requirements, and location of CRL distribution points.

If you’re a Microsoft Partner, and you want to get on board with (potentially) the most requested ‘better together (7/R2)’ feature in the new wave of technology, then I would strongly recommend downloading the IPD Guide – it’s free, and all it will cost you is a bit of your time.

Get it here.

Remember a couple of years back, just before Windows Server 2008 launched? Well, for me, I knew this was going to be one of my focuses for that particular financial year, however, I also knew very little about 2008 as a technology!  I was a Windows-Client boy!  At that time, I was looking for a definitive resource that would provide me with some solid foundational knowledge about Windows Server 2008, without going into the deep technical side straight away.  I found that resource, in the form of the ‘Introducing Windows Server 2008’ book, which I purchased when over at our internal technical conference in the US.

Fast forward (or should that be, FlashForward?) to present day, and R2 is here.  Wouldn’t it be great if that same type or resource was available, for all those of you wanting to get up to speed on 2008 R2?  Yeah it would!  What about if it was free, as an eBook? Even better! :-)

In terms of the contents:

Chapter 1    What’s New in Windows Server R2    1
Chapter 2    Installation and Configuration: Adding R2 to Your World    9
Chapter 3    Hyper-V: Scaling and Migrating Virtual Machines    25
Chapter 4    Remote Desktop Services and VDI: Centralizing Desktop and Application Management    47
Chapter 5    Active Directory: Improving and Automating Identity and Access    65
Chapter 6    The File Services Role    91
Chapter 7    IIS 7.5: Improving the Web Application Platform    109
Chapter 8    DirectAccess and Network Policy Server    129
Chapter 9    Other Features and Enhancements    147

Introduction

Windows Server 2008 R2, or simply R2 for short, is the second release of Windows Server 2008. It isn’t a completely new release, but rather adds additional features and refinements to the existing release. In this book, we focus on the new features and refinements in R2. We assume you have at least a general knowledge of Windows Server, and that you have some familiarity with Windows Server 2008, although we don’t assume you’re actively running Windows Server 2008. Where an R2 feature is a refinement of a feature that was new in Windows Server 2008, we provide background on the Windows Server 2008 feature to provide context.

Who This Book Is For

This book is targeted primarily at Windows server administrators who are responsible for hands-on deployment and day-to-day management of Windows-based servers for large organizations. Windows server administrators manage file and print servers, network infrastructure servers, Web servers, and IT application servers.

They use graphical administration tools as their primary interface but also use Windows PowerShell commandlets and occasionally write Windows PowerShell scripts for routine tasks and bulk operations. They conduct most server management tasks remotely by using Terminal Server or administration tools installed on their local workstation.

What This Book Is About

Covering every aspect of Windows Server 2008 R2 in nine chapters and approximately 200 pages is clearly an impossible task. Rather than try to cover everything, we’ve focused on what is new and important, while giving you the context from Windows Server 2008.

Chapter 1 - “What’s New in Windows Server R2” Provides a brief overview of all the new features and capabilities of Windows Server 2008 R2.

Chapter 2 - “Installation and Configuration: Adding R2 to Your World” Covers minimum system requirements, basic installation and configuration of R2, and what is involved in adding an R2 server to an existing Windows Server network. Configuration of the Windows Server Core installation option, added in Windows Server 2008, is covered, along with the steps required to add a Windows Server 2008 R2 domain controller to an existing Windows Server network.

Chapter 3 - “Hyper-V: Scaling and Migrating Virtual Machines” Covers the new Hyper-V features of Windows Server 2008 R2, including dynamic storage management and Quick Migration of clustered virtual machines (VMs). Covers creation and management of virtual machines using the Hyper-V Manager console, Windows PowerShell, and the Failover Cluster Manager console and discusses the features of System Center Virtual Machine Manager 2008 R2.

Chapter 4 - “Remote Desktop Services and VDI: Centralizing Desktop and Application Management” Covers Remote Desktop Services (the new name for Terminal Services) and the enhancements of Windows Server 2008 R2, including Virtual Desktop Infrastructure (VDI), which uses the new RD Virtualization Host capability of R2 to provide desktop virtualization. R2 also includes an all-new Remote Desktop Services provider for Windows PowerShell.

Chapter 5 - “Active Directory: Improving and Automating Identity and Access” Covers the new features of Active Directory (AD), including an AD Recycle Bin, a new set of Active Directory Windows PowerShell cmdlets, and improvements in daily AD administration.

Chapter 6 - “The File Services Role” Covers the new File Services features, including BranchCache, Distributed File System–ReadOnly (DFS-R), and the File Classification Infrastructure (FCI).

Chapter 7 - “IIS 7.5: Improving the Web Application Platform” Covers the features of the new version of Internet Information Services (IIS), including the new Windows PowerShell management features.

Chapter 8 - “DirectAccess and Network Policy Server” Covers the Network Policy Server (NPS) and the new DirectAccess feature that allows Windows 7 computers to be transparently connected to internal network resources from anywhere without requiring a virtual private network (VPN) connection.

Chapter 9 - “Other Features and Enhancements” Covers the enhanced version of Windows Server Backup included in R2, including the Windows PowerShell commands for backing up. Also covered is the new BitLocker To Go capability, which provides an important new protection for removable volumes such as backup disks.

Download the PDF here (11mb)!

22nd October was a pretty significant day for Microsoft.  As most of you will be aware, it was the day Windows 7 and Windows Server 2008 R2 were launched, and both are monumental releases for a number of different reasons.  Windows 7 is a fantastic opportunity for Microsoft to drive the love back into the client OS after Vista, and in Server 2008 R2, there are enough Enterprise-class features and capabilities, for this to be classed as a major release, not the minor release suggested by the R2 naming…

Anyway, for you management fans, another product had a significant release on the 22nd; System Center Configuration Manager 2007, hit SP2.  Why’s that significant?  Well, how about this:

• Full Windows 7 and Windows Server 2008 R2 support that enables customers to deploy and manage their Windows 7 client and server based systems.
• Version 2 of the Intel AMT integration that includes the addition of updated firmware support along with support for key new features such as wireless profile management and 802.1x.
• BranchCache support that enables customers to significantly reduce WAN utilization in branch office scenarios by leveraging new technology in Windows Server 2008 R2.
• Greater 64-bit support that includes Remote Control, App-V, and the 2007 System Center Operations Manager agent

You can grab SP2 here.

Combine SCCM, with the free Microsoft Deployment Toolkit 2010, and you’ve got a very powerful platform for deployment within your infrastructure.

A couple of weeks back (seems like ages now, but I’ve been moving house so I have an excuse!!) I blogged about Service Manager, and how it could be the next big thing in automating IT processes, workflows, and more, within an IT environment.  At the time, All I provided was a video and a link to an online virtual lab.

Now however, you can start to get your hands dirty with it, as the public beta 2 is available for download.  Firstly however, let’s expand on what Service Manager actually is.  I’m going to take this directly from the Microsoft site:

Microsoft System Center Service Manager is an integrated platform for automating and adapting your organization’s IT service management best practices, such as those found in Microsoft Operations Framework (MOF) and Information Technology Infrastructure Library (ITIL). It provides built-in processes for incident and problem resolution, change control, and asset lifecycle management. Through its configuration management database (CMDB) and process integration, Service Manager automatically connects knowledge and information from System Center Operations Manager, System Center Configuration Manager and Active Directory. Service Manager delivers integration, efficiency, and business alignment of the datacenter IT services by:

• Optimizing processes and ensuring their use through templates that effectively guide IT analysts through best practices for change and incident management.

• Reducing resolution times by cutting across organizational silos, ensuring that the right information from incident, problem, change, or asset records is accessible through a single pane.

• Extending the value of the Microsoft platform through automated generation of incidents from alerts and the coordination of activities among System Center products.

• Enabling informed and cost-effective decision making through its data warehouse, which integrates knowledge from disparate IT management systems, delivering out-of-the-box reporting and flexible data analysis through SQL reporting services.

Resources:

• Take a test drive: Service Manager virtual lab
• White Paper [PDF]: Orchestrating People, Process, and Technology
• White Paper [PDF]: Efficient and Responsive Support for End Users
• White Paper [DOC]: Driving Efficiency and Reliability in the Data Center
• Visit the SMSM forum
• Service Manager blog
• Demo: Managing Applications with Service Maps in System Center Service Manager 2010
• Demo: Service Manager 2010 - Self Service Portal Feature
• Demo: Managing Compliance with Service Manager 2010

So, where can you get it?

Right Here.  Make sure you check out the Service Manager 2010 Beta 2 System Requirements – they’re quite hefty – you’ve been warned!

For those of you who have been baffled by my title acronyms, WDS is Windows Deployment Services, which is a role of Windows Server, that enables network based deployment scenrios, and acts as a platform for the Microsoft Deployment Toolkit, and System Center Configuration Manager.  SCOM on the other hand, is System Center Operations Manager, which is focused on monitoring a number of different aspects of an infrastructure, such as hardware, software, storage, and applications to name but a few.

These IPD guides, (of which I’ve blogged about previously) now include the features and functionalities of Windows Server 2008 R2 around WDS, and also, in a separate guide, System Center Operations Manager 2007 R2.  The guides outline the critical infrastructure design elements that are crucial to a successful implementation of these deployment and operations products.

The Infrastructure Planning and Design Guide for Windows® Deployment Services guides the reader through the process of designing a Windows Deployment Services infrastructure in a logical, sequential order. Following the six steps in this guide will result in a design that is sized, configured, and appropriately placed to enable rapid deployment of Windows operating systems, while also considering the performance, capacity, and fault tolerance of the system.

The Infrastructure Planning and Design Guide for Microsoft® System Center Operations Manager outlines the critical infrastructure design elements that are crucial to a successful implementation of Microsoft System Center Operations Manager. The guide takes the reader step-by-step through the process of designing components, layout, and connectivity in a logical, sequential order. Identification and design of the required management groups is presented in simple, easy-to-follow steps, helping the reader to design and optimize management infrastructure.

Download the IPD Guides for Windows Deployment Services and System Center Operations Manager at http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/solutionaccelerators/ee382254.aspx.

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.

Useful reading I’d say!