The Soul of a Virtual Machine

Article: “PCI Express Spec Updated” (06/07)

2005-06-11T01:20:00Z

Here's a tidbit I learned about from Dave Kowalsky. Thanks Dave!

http://www.informationweek.com/story/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=164300985

Summary:

At its annual conference in SanJose, the PCI Special Interest Group detailed updates and extensions to the PCI Express specification that could drive annual silicon updates through 2007. The SIG outlined six new directions for Express, taking the serial technology into areas such as security and virtualization.

The SIG announced plans to extend the Express spec for virtualized I/O. The extension will allow multiple operating systems to access the same physical I/O resources either simultaneously or in serial fashion. The spec will define supersets for accessing I/O in a single or in a multihost environment.

Software virtualization is seen as a key technique for making best use of the multicore, multithreaded processors beginning to proliferate in the PC market. Advanced Micro Devices and Intel are rolling out separate techniques for virtualizing their multicore processors. With the new spec, the SIG will extend those capabilities to Express-based I/O devices. Designers think virtualization ultimately will be applied to all PC systems — even multitasking home computers. But its first target is server blades that are evolving towards stateless collections of compute boards in a single chassis linked on an Express mezzanine bus. The virtual I/O spec will allow those compute cards to share Express, Ethernet and storage I/O resources in and outside their chassis.

The spec is still in an early stage, with the 19-company working group about to put a requirements document out for review. A completed spec is not expected until late in 2006 or early in 2007. It will also require hardware changes for chip makers who want to support its features.

Branch Office Infrastructure Solution -- with automation tools

2005-06-10T03:56:00Z

The Branch Office Infrastructure Solution has been published on TechEd. It uses virtualization technologies and includes tools for automating the creation of virtual machines, among lots of other good stuff. Go take a look! http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyID=5624f3a5-b379-41c1-80f6-df3228cb2622&displaylang=en

From the download page: "The Branch Office Infrastructure Solution (BOIS) deliverables provide conceptual information to facilitate the definition and deployment of a streamlined branch office infrastructure solution that provides a comprehensive set of core IT infrastructure services based on the Microsoft® Windows Server™ 2003 operating system. The BOIS deliverables also include prescriptive guidance and best practices for implementing a complete, lab-validated single-server solution for the branch office using automated deployment tools. The automation tools are part of this download and are configurable for individual branch office deployments."

Recent articles on Microsoft's virtualization roadmap

2005-06-09T22:41:00Z

From ComputerWorld, "Q&A: Microsoft's Bob Muglia discusses virtualization plans" - http://www.computerworld.com/softwaretopics/software/story/0,10801,102332,00.html

Also from ComputerWorld, "Sidebar: Under the Hood: The Soul of a Virtual Machine" (they say imitation is the sincerest form of flattery!) - http://www.computerworld.com/hardwaretopics/storage/story/0,10801,101243,00.html

From The Register, "Microsoft's Virtual Server to become a 'feature' in 2009" - http://www.theregister.co.uk/2005/06/08/ms_hypervisor_2009/

New article: Virtual Server Performance Tips

2005-06-09T21:58:00Z

Jeff Woolsey has written this article to help you optimize the performance of your virtual machines - http://blogs.technet.com/megand/articles/406145.aspx. Thanks Jeff!

PS: I'm back from my vacation (which was grand!).

Virtual Machine Additions for Windows Server 2003 SP1

2005-05-26T00:00:00Z

The virtual machine team is "pedal to the metal" developing and testing an update for Virtual Machine Additions. This update will make Windows Server 2003 SP1 run better in virtual machines running under the release version of Virtual Server 2005. As soon as the new VM Additions are available, I'll let you know.

Displaying a virtual machine in a PowerPoint presentation

2005-05-25T23:32:00Z

Did you know that you can display your virtual machine from within a Microsoft Powerpoint presentation? Here's how:

On a computer with Virtual Server installed, open Microsoft Powerpoint.
On a PowerPoint slide, click "Insert," and then click "Object."
Select "Create new" (the default), in the list click "Microsoft Virtual Server VMRC Control," and then click "OK."
Double-click the object on the slide. This opens Microsoft Visual Basic.
On the left side of the screen, configure properties, so your target virtual machine displays. A list of what you have to configure is below.
When finished configuring properties, save the changes in Visual Basic and go back to the PowerPoint slide.
Click the slideshow icon and click "Yes" until the virtual machine displays. If the display shows "No connection," click "Remote Control," click "Connect To Server," and then specify the virtual machine.

Properties to configure in Visual Basic:

Height: Height of the virtual machine display space. I started with 400, and it looks OK on my screen.

Left: Space between the virtual machine display and the left side of the slide. I set it at 50.

ServerAddress: Name of the computer running Virtual Server. I tried connecting to a remote instance of Virtual Server and wasn't able to get it to work. If you can figure this out, please post a comment, so we'll all know.

ServerDisplayName: Name of the virtual machine.

ServerPort: VMRC port, 5900 by default.

Top: Distance from the top of the slide for the virtual machine display. I set it at 50.

UserDomain: Domain, if you're in one.

UserName: Your user name.

Width: Width of the virtual machine display. I set mine at 600.

Note: I'm doing this on a machine that has every possible Microsoft product on it. I assume this will also work for you. If it doesn't please let me know and I'll figure out what's up.

Virtual PC vs. Virtual Server whitepaper now available for download

2005-05-25T19:51:00Z

This whitepaper is now available on Microsoft.com at http://download.microsoft.com/download/1/4/d/14d17804-1659-435d-bc11-657a6da308c0/VSvsVPC.doc. Thanks to those of you who gave me comments on the draft.

Abstract: Microsoft® Virtual PC 2004 is a virtual machine solution for desktop operating systems. Microsoft Virtual Server 2005, on the other hand, is a solution for server operating systems. Although Virtual PC and Virtual Server share many features in common, they are designed for different purposes. As a result, some of their features are also quite different. This white paper explains the differences between Virtual PC and Virtual Server and discusses the scenarios in which it is appropriate to use one or the other.

SSL and Virtual Server

2005-05-19T02:29:00Z

Q: Rod has this question: "I recently made the switch over to Virtual Server 2005 from VMware. I love the web based interface but am having troubles with enabling SSL. Can I use SelfSSL from the IIS6 Reskit? Could I set up a CA in a virtual machine to create the website and VMRC SSL certificates? Any tips on securing the Admin website and VMRC?

A: Here's a response from Ed Reed, a developer on the Virtual Machine team, and our resident VM security expert:

For the Administration Website, there are no special requirements for an SSL certificate. As long as the certificate supports Server Authentication, it really doesn't matter where the certificate comes from. The choice of certificate, however, determines the level of security that SSL encryption can provide. Here are some links to relevant information:

Designing a Public Key Infrastructure:
http://www.microsoft.com/technet/prodtechnol/windowsserver2003/library/DepKit/b1ee9920-d7ef-4ce5-b63c-3661c72e0f0b.mspx
Best Practices for Implementing a Microsoft Windows Server 2003 Public Key Infrastructure: http://www.microsoft.com/technet/prodtechnol/windowsserver2003/technologies/security/ws3pkibp.mspx
Windows Server 2003 PKI Operations Guide: http://www.microsoft.com/technet/prodtechnol/windowsserver2003/technologies/security/ws03pkog.mspx
How to implement SSL with a stand-alone certificate server in Virtual Server 2005: http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;887490

The requirements are different, however, for VMRC. Because Virtual Server runs as NetworkService, you need to create the VMRC SSL certificate using the IVMVirtualServer::VMRCCreateEncryptionCertificateRequest COM interface. You can also create this certificate from the Administration Website on the Virtual Machine Remote Control (VMRC) Server Properties page. This request makes a temporary certificate that can be used to perform SSL encryption, however, it doesn't have the full security of a certificate signed by a third-party CA. If you use MAKECERT or some other tool, the private key is stored such that it is inaccessible to NetworkService. Such a certificate will not work for VMRC.

Migrating Windows Server 2003 SP1 to a virtual machine

2005-05-18T23:51:00Z

If you want to use Virtual Server 2005 Migration Toolkit (VSMT) to migrate a computer running Windows Server 2003 SP1 to a virtual machine, you'll need to copy some system files from your installation of Windows Server 2003 SP1 to the computer running VSMT. Normally VSMT automatically swaps out certain system files in your installation for others that are compatible with virtual machine emulated hardware, but VSMT doesn't have the necessary files for Windows Server 2003 SP1. This is because VSMT was released before Windows Server 2003 SP1.

1. Copy the following files from your installation of Windows Server 2003 SP1 to %ProgramFiles%\Microsoft VSMT\Patches\Source\5.2.3790\sp1\.

a. From %SystemDrive%\WINNT\system32\drivers, copy the following files:

atapi.sys
intelide.sys
pciide.sys
pciidex.sys

b. From %SystemDrive%\WINNT\Driver Cache\i386\driver.cab, copy the following file:

aic78xx.sys

c. From %SystemDrive%\WINNT\Driver Cache\i386\sp1.cab, copy the following files:

hal.dll
halacpi.dll
ntkrnlpa.exe
ntoskrnl.exe

2. Copy the following XML files from %ProgramFiles%\Microsoft VSMT\Patches\Source\5.2.3790\ to %ProgramFiles%\Microsoft VSMT\Patches\Source\5.2.3790\sp1\:

finish.xml
hal.xml
hal_nacpi.xml
start.xml
storage.xml
storageSCSI.xml
UNIPROC.xml

For more information how VSMT swaps out system files and the reasons why it's important, see the "Step 6: Load system files" topic in the VSMT User's Guide (%ProgramFiles%\Microsoft VSMT\Help\vsmt.chm). To download VSMT, go to http://www.microsoft.com/windowsserversystem/virtualserver/evaluation/vsmt.mspx.

Important notes:

You should either run Windows Server 2003 SP1 under Virtual Server 2005 SP1 (now in beta), or at least install the Virtual Machine Additions that ship with Virtual Server 2005 SP1. Otherwise, you may be unhappy with your virtual machine's performance. For more information about the beta, see http://blogs.technet.com/megand/archive/2005/04/20/403950.aspx.
ADS 1.0 doesn't work with Windows Server 2003 SP1. If you installed ADS 1.0 and pointed it to Server2003-SP1 SlipStream binaries, you'll get an error (Error Code: 81070303). To fix the problem, you'll need to uninstall ADS, then reinstall it. During setup when it asks for location of windows files, point it to Server2003 RTM binaries.

Dealing with a VHD that grew too large

2005-05-13T22:29:00Z

Q: Lach writes with this question: "I have 2 virtual machines installed, and had them set up as dynamic hard drives [dynamically expanding VHDs]. One has gotten to 16 gb, and has all but filled up my hard drive. I would like to make it smaller, as the hard drive is only 1/2 used. Any advice?"

A: Lach, you need to compact your VHD. First, delete as much unneeded data as possible from the VHD and defragment the hard disk. Then follow the instructions in "Compacting a dynamically expanding virtual hard disk" in the Virtual Server 2005 Administrator's Guide. As mentioned in this topic, you must precompact the VHD before you can compact it. A Microsoft tool, the Virtual Disk Precompactor, is now available for this purpose. For more information, see http://blogs.technet.com/megand/archive/2004/12/10/279808.aspx.

Another thing you can do when a VHD outgrows a physical disk is to move the VHD to a different physical disk that has more space. When you do this, you must first remove the VHD from your virtual machine, move it, and then add back to the virtual machine from the new location. In addition, if the physical disk is not located on the same physical computer as the virtual machine, you'll need to do some additional configuration. For more information, see http://blogs.technet.com/megand/archive/1005/05/11/404846.aspx.

For future reference, remember to specify the maximum size to which you want your dynamically expanding VHDs to grow when you create them. The default size is 16 GB.

Note: I just read a blog post by Guoqiang Wu that recommends using a defragmenting tool created by Dave Whitney rather than the one included with Windows. For more info on the tool, go to http://blogs.msdn.com/guowu/archive/2005/05/17/418457.aspx.

Increasing the size of a VHD

2005-05-12T21:41:00Z

Q: Haileyesus asks, "How do you increase the size of a virtual hard disk?"

A: Unfortunately, Haileyesus, there's no way to increase the size of a virtual hard disk (VHD) once it's been created. VHDs are just like physical disks in this respect (and in most others, as well). If you need more space on your VHD, you'll need to create a new, larger .vhd file and then transfer your data to it. There are a couple of approaches you can take to transfer data, depending on whether the VHD contains a system partition. (Alternatively, you can attach an additional VHD to your virtual machine to add data storage capacity.)

1. If the VHD contains data with no operating system or installed applications, then you only need to copy the data to the new .vhd, as follows.

Method A

Shut down any services that are using the data on the .vhd.
Create a .vhd that is the the size you want.
Add the .vhd to a virtual machine that is running a bootable operating system, so that you have file access to the .vhd.
From within the guest operating system, format the .vhd using the same format as the original .vhd.
Use a file copy tool like XCOPY or ROBOCOPY to copy the data to the .vhd with ACLs attached.
Remove both the original and the new .vhds from their respective virtual machines.
Add the new .vhd to the original virtual machine.

Method B

Shut down any services that are using the data on the .vhd.
Create a .vhd that is the size you want and in the same format.
Add the .vhd to a virtual machine that is running a bootable operating system, so that you have file access to the .vhd.
Use an imaging tool to image the original .vhd to a network location.
Use the imaging tool to restore the image to the new .vhd.
Remove both the original and the new .vhds from their respective virtual machines.
Add the new .vhd to the original virtual machine.

2. If the VHD includes an operating system and/or installed applications, you'll need to to this:

Create an image of the .vhd using a disk imaging tool (such as Ghost).
Turn off the virtual machine and remove the .vhd that you just imaged. (Note that you will not be able to run a virtual machine with this .vhd attached at the same time as you run a virtual machine with the new .vhd attached. If you want to be able to do this, then you should SysPrep the .vhd before you image it. See my Sysprep article at http://blogs.technet.com/megand/articles/357570.aspx for more information.)
Create a new .vhd file of the size you want and attach it to your virtual machine.
Use the imaging tool to image the new .vhd.

Tip: Accessing remote resources via UNC

2005-05-12T01:14:00Z

If you have a virtual machine configured on one computer and want to access a resource (such as an ISO or a VHD) on a different physical computer via a UNC path, you have three choices, listed below. The first two are covered in the documentation. The third is not, so consider it your tip for today.

Enable Basic authentication on the Virtual Server Administration Website.
Configure constrained delegation.
Create a local account on the computer that hosts the resource you want to access, and then configure the virtual machine to run under that user account (for instructions, see "Modifying general virtual machine properties" in the Virtual Server 2005 Administrator's Guide).

STC presentation slides (off topic)

2005-05-11T22:02:00Z

This is not related to Virtual Server, so skip this unless you're looking for my STC slides.

Below is a link to the presentation slides for my STC talk on using newsgroups to improve the customer experience. At the bottom of each slide are my detailed notes. To view them more easily, you can drag the divider bar upwards. Happy posting!

Megan

http://megandavis.members.winisp.net/Resources/Newsgroups_MD.mht

How Microsoft is using Virtual Server

2005-04-29T23:03:00Z

Many of you would like to know how Virtual Server is being used at Microsoft. Here's a response from Jeff Woolsey, Lead Program Manager for virtualization. Thanks Jeff!

Virtual Server is being used in a variety of ways at Microsoft, including for test and development and online training, such as Microsoft Learning.

Test and Development

Virtual Server is used by test teams throughout Microsoft, including Exchange, SQL, SBS, MOM, and many others. This is because Virtual Server allows you to rapidly deploy test servers within virtual machines while minimizing hardware requirements. Also, Virtual Server makes debugging easier. Debugging typically requires that a test computer is attached to a developer’s computer via a serial cable. With Virtual Server there's no need for this. The process is as follows:

Testers reproduce the issue in a virtual machine.
The virtual machine is saved at the point the issue occurs.
The virtual machine is copied to the developer’s computer.
The developer connects the virtual machine to a debugger though a named pipe (a virtual serial port) and debugs the issue in the development environment.

Production Use by Microsoft Learning

In the past year, Microsoft Learning has converted the majority of their online training from scripted Flash-type demos to live interactive training using Virtual Server. They started off slowly and have been ramping up with the increase in demand. Users log in and perform step-by-step interactive training with Virtual Server. On the back end, this is all done using virtual machines and Undo disks. When the customer logs in, an Undo disk is created for the session. When the user finished and logs out, the Undo disk is discarded and immediately the virtual machine is ready for the next user.

Benefits

Microsoft Learning is servicing more customers than ever. This is a production environment in use everyday: 30,143 attendees in January (972 attendees daily) alone with a 206,390 YTD. Because of the huge success of this program, Microsoft Learning is adding more hardware to increase the number of available labs.

Here are a few of the positive results they’ve seen…

The 90-minute lab sessions are the most popular.
Lab session use has gone up.
Time spent in the lab has gone up (averaging 75 minutes per lab now).
Customer satisfaction is up (way up!).

Customer Comments

I think this is the way IT was meant to be all along. Thank You Bill and company.
The implementation is entirely innovative and gives administrators like me a chance to experiment away from production systems.
Awesome. This is the type of thing IT training has needed for ages.
Excellent. Very useful hands on training. This module needs to be longer.
EXCELLENT! This is extremely useful hands on training.
Great! This is what admins who need to implement your products need. What about providing other training on SMS site design configurations, clusters etc.? A virtual lab setup like that will again help admins who are looking to implement this product.

Tip: Opening the Administration Website over a remote connection

2005-04-29T20:46:00Z

If you're connected to Virtual Server over a Terminal Services or Remote Desktop connection, you'll get a "Page cannot be displayed" error if you try to launch the Administration Website from the shortcut on the Start menu. Instead, you can provide this URL in Internet Explorer: http://server_IP_address:VS_port, where server_IP_address is the IP address of the computer running Virtual Server and VS_port is the port number assigned to Virtual Server, 1024 by default.

Alternatively, you can remote into the computer running Virtual Server and access the Administration Website in one step. To do this, click Start > Run, and then type: mstsc /v:server_IP_address /console.