Virtual Machine Collection - Configuration Manager 2007 SP1

Vikas Madan — Thu, 30 Jul 2009 13:40:57 GMT

Its been a while since I’ve blogged, after a long break I’m trying to catch up with blogging. Here is a configuration post in system center configuration manager 2007 sp1.

I spent sometime discovering the right query to be used for creating this collection, its helpful for the IT Pros who use SCCM and do a lot of Virtualization.

In this post we'll walkthrough creation of collection in configuration manager 2007 SP1 that would discover all Hyper-V based VM's:

Open Configuration Manager 2007 Management Console
Collapse Computer Management
Collapse Collections
Right Click Collection, hit New Collection, now follow the instruction in the screenshot below
At the first screen in the wizard specify the name of the collection. (in my case 'All Virtual Machines'). Hit Next.

Click 'Query Rule Properties'

Click "Edit Query Statement' tab

Click on 'Select' and select 'System Devices - Hardware IDs' from the drop down menu > Drop the' operator' menu and select 'is equal to' > Drop the 'Value' menu and select 'APCI\VMBus, *VMBus' as the string value

Click 'OK' all through. You should now see a new collection created under collections.

Right Click on the new collection (All Virtual Machines in my case) and update collection membership. Wait for few minutes, it'll fill the collection with all discovered VM's.

Hope this was helpful!!!

Server System Certified for Hyper-V

Vikas Madan — Fri, 20 Jun 2008 19:20:29 GMT

Microsoft now announces more server systems certified for Hyper-V

For details visit: Windows Server Catalog - Servers

System Center Virtual Machine 2008 Beta: Update For Hyper-V

Vikas Madan — Wed, 11 Jun 2008 20:32:00 GMT

SCVMM 2008 update to work with Hyper-V RC1 is now available at https://connect.microsoft.com

The VMM server and all of the hosts in your environment must be running Hyper-V RC1. After you install the update, you will not be able to add hosts running Hyper-V RC0 to your VMM environment. For information about the Hyper-V RC1 download, see

Update for Windows Server 2008 x64 Edition (KB950049)

Hyper-V Host cluster (Tested on RC1)

Vikas Madan — Wed, 04 Jun 2008 23:16:35 GMT

The Hyper-V role enables you to create a virtualized server computing environment using a technology that is part of the Windows Server 2008 operating system. This solution is provided through Hyper-V. You can use a virtualized computing environment to improve the efficiency of your computing resources by utilizing more of your hardware resources.

The Failover Clustering feature enables you to create and manage failover clusters. A failover cluster is a group of independent computers that work together to increase the availability of applications and services. The clustered servers (called nodes) are connected by physical cables and by software. If one of the cluster nodes fails, another node begins to provide service (a process known as failover). Users experience a minimum of disruptions in service.

Topological view of Hyper-V host cluster.

Steps you have to go through to build a 2 node Hyper-V cluster using iSCSI shared storage:

STEP:1

Install Windows Server 2008 Enterprise Edition or Data center Edition on the nodes with 3 NIC's. Ensure that each network card has a valid IP address and communication after OS is installed.

NIC 1 used for Public LAN
NIC 2 used for Heartbeat Network
NIC 3 used for iSCSI Network

STEP:2

Install the Hyper-V role from server manager and reboot.

STEP:3

Once you reboot Hyper-V installation completes, you need to launch the Hyper-V Manager Start > All Programs > Administrative Tools > Hyper-V Manager.

On the action pane, click the Virtual Network Manager, and create a new virtual network switch. Make it a private network and call it Private.

Perform the above on the second node as well.

STEP:4

From iSCSI traget create two disks for shared access. One disk needs to be 500 MB or larger to hold the cluster configuration info (Quorum), second disk could of any size as log as it can hold the virtual drive.

STEP:5

On NODE1 launch the iSCSI initiator software. Discover the iSCSI target via name or IP address and then establish a connection to the Data and Quorum disks that were established in step4.

Once the disks are connected to Node1, use Disk Management to initialize and format them as NTFS volumes. Assign driver letter Q: to the disk that would store the cluster information and any drive letter to the disk that will store data.

On Node2 use the iSCSI initator to connect the target disks. Stop there.

STEP:6

Install Failover Cluster Role from server manager on both the nodes. Once installed launch the Cluster Management. Start > All Programs > Failover Cluster Management

STEP:7

Verify the node that has ownership if the disk resources. Launch the validate configuration from there.

Click Validate a Configuration

Add the cluster notes in this windows, ensure they are resolved.

At the end validation wizard will display the identified issues in a report. Successful report should have all greens.

STEP:8

Once cluster configuration has bee validated, you can create a cluster. It is a four step process

Select Create Cluster from the Failover Cluster Management console action pane

Specify the nodes of the cluster and hit next

In this windows Specify the name and IP address of the cluster and hit next
In this windows hit finish to create the cluster.

STEP:9

Launch the Hyper-V Manager, create a virtual machine on Node1 (this should be active). Install Windows Server 2008.

Once the OS has been installed on the virtual machine, shutdown. It must be powered off state to make it highly available.

STEP:10

We'll now make the virtual machine create as highly available. Click Configure a service or Application from Failover Cluster Management.

Select virtual machine from the list of service or Application

Select the virtual machine from the list to be made highly available and hit next

At this point you virtual machine has been made highly available successfully.

Right click the virtual machine in the list and select "Bring this service or application online"

We're not yet ready to test the failover!

Wait for the virtual machine to come online then test the failover. This would be planned where we manually move the resources to the second node.

In this blog I'm using a virtual machine that is already online. WS2008-EXCH

Virtual Machine WS2008-EXCH is being moved from SIGR15-5

At this time you might want to monitor the process on the virtual machine:

It goes into save state
Resources are moved to Node2 (SIGR15-2 in my case)

Virtual Machine WS2008-EXCH has been moved to SIGR15-2 and resumed from save state

SUCCESS!!!! We have successfully tested the planned failover. Note the downtime, for me it was little over a minutes. Isn't it amazing!

Infrastructure Blog : Windows Server 2008 Hyper-V

Virtual Machine Collection - Configuration Manager 2007 SP1

Server System Certified for Hyper-V

System Center Virtual Machine 2008 Beta: Update For Hyper-V

Hyper-V Host cluster (Tested on RC1)