HP has published 2 whitepapers that talk about NIC teaming support in Hyper-V running on HP hardware.

1. Using HP ProLiant Network Teaming Software with Microsoft Windows Server 2008 Hyper-V – How to

2. HP ProLiant Network Adapter Teaming

 
Here is a sample script where a new virtual machine is created by utilizing the local VHD d:file.vhd without copying any VHDs over the network.

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#specify the file location
$VHDName = "d:file.vhd"

#specify other variables for new-vm
$vmname = "vm1"
$hostname = "host.contoso.com"
$vmhost = get-vmhost $hostname

#create jobgroup ID for new-vm from template
$VMGuid = [System.Guid]::NewGuid().ToString()

#specify the local location for the VHD

#VMM expects that $VHDName already exists on the host computer when the new-vm cmdlet is called.
Move-VirtualHardDisk -Bus 0 -LUN 0 -IDE -Path $VHDName -JobGroup $VMGuid

#get the template name
$template = Get-Template | where {$_.Name -eq "template_2"}

#Get the current username to be passed as the VM owner
$callerUsername = whoami

#create the new-vm from template and specify the Rapid Provisioning flag (-uselocalvirtualharddisks)
New-VM -Template $template -Name $vmname -Description "" -Owner $callerUsername  -VMHost $vmhost -UseLocalVirtualHardDisks -Path $vmhost.VMPaths[0] -RunAsynchronously -JobGroup $VMGuid | Out-Null
 >>

Thanks to Michael Michael from http://blogs.technet.com/m2/

Windows Server 2008 R2 isn’t just about performance, and it certainly isn’t a fine-tuning of the Windows 2008, as its name implies.

The new Windows 2008 Server R2 increases the capabilities and features of the Windows Server line-up.

The RC version includes a number of new features and changes since the Beta.

Hyper-V improvements

Hyper-V 2.0 will include a long-awaited Live Migration feature. But there are some changes coming in:

–          VM Chimney provides TCP offload support to virtual machines. That is, it allows you to map a VM to a physical network interface card (NIC) on the host computer, and bypass the virtual interface, improving performance. This feature is actually disabled by default because certain non-standard workloads actually experience a performance decrease. But in certain scenarios, like SQL backup and restore and Live Migration, VM Chimney will provide dramatic improvements.

–          Virtual Machine Queue (VMQ).  Like VM Chimney, it’s disabled by default. The reason this time is that only one vendor, Intel, currently makes VMQ-enabled hardware, and Microsoft didn’t want a feature enabled that wasn’t doing anything. If you do get a VMQ-enabled NIC (Qualcomm has also announced they’re entering this market), you can enable it and see a performance bump.

Performance and scalability improvements

Windows Server 2008 R2 bumps up the number of logical processors supported by the OS from 64 to 256.

Windows Server 2008 R2 provides power consumption reductions compared with Server 2008 and, more dramatically, with Server 2003.

R2 also offers some improvements around the size of the working memory footprint. Using its internal engineering memory metric (i.e. not Task Manager), Windows Server 2003 Enterprise occupies about 250 MB of RAM at idle. This compares to a bit over 150 MB for Windows Server 2008 and about 105 MB for R2. Server Core sees similar improvements: It’s down from about 130 MB in Server 2008 to under 100 MB for R2.

Finally, WAN file copies see significant improvements, though you will need compatible systems (i.e. Windows Server 2008 R2 and/or Windows 7) on both ends of the transfers (hub and branch) to see them. Microsoft says that small and medium file uploads are up to 20 percent improved over Windows Server 2008/Vista, small and medium file downloads are improved up to 47 percent, and large file uploads are improved by up to 100 percent. Microsoft is also seeing up to 8 times improvements copying files across WANs with RoboCopy using its new multithreading capability.

Note :  Windows Server 2008 R2 is a 64-bit only release. Microsoft projects that the next Windows Server release will occur in 2012.

The Hyper-V Security Guide is now available online or for download as a Word document. It covers hardening, delegation (including using SCVMM), and protection mechanisms for virtual machines.

You can read it online here, or download the Word document(s) here.

Hyper-V and in-place upgrade to Windows Server 2008 R2 Release Candidate

A cautionary note for those of you performing an in-place upgrade of a machine running Windows Server 2008 with the Hyper-V role enabled, to Windows Server 2008 R2 Release Candidate.

During the installation, you will see the following compatibility report message stating that you should turn off the Hyper-V role:

This warning is incorrect, and you should not do this as the virtual machines will not be present, and virtual network configuration will be lost once the role is re-enabled.

You will see a similar message if you have virtual machines running at the time of upgrade, but it is a “hard block” (in other words, you cannot proceed further). In the case where you hit the hard block, running VMs should be cleanly shut down prior to upgrade. However, I re-iterate, you should not remove the role itself.

One other point to note is if you have online snapshots or virtual machines in a saved state. Saved states are not compatible between Hyper-V in Windows Server 2008 and Windows Server 2008 R2 RC build, so you should ensure you cleanly shut down VMs and delete online snapshots prior to upgrading to avoid the following message after the upgrade is complete:

Published on http://blogs.technet.com/jhoward/archive/2009/05/05/hyper-v-and-in-place-upgrade-to-windows-server-2008-r2-release-candidate.aspx

 Turn a Microsoft Windows machine into iSCSI Target appliance!

If you dont have a proper SAN and you want to use the benefit of the new Live Migration feature of Windows 2008 Hyper-V R2 you could use StarWind. (see presentation) .

Starwind is full-featured software-only iSCSI Target for Microsoft Windows (both commercial and free versions). StarWind enables anyone to quickly install and configure an IP SAN solution.

StarWind does not require any additional hardware, it utilizes the existing Ethernet and IP network infrastructure and leverages existing storage hardware.

StarWind’s volume snapshot feature allows simple scheduled or on-demand snapshots of critical data for backup. If necessary all backed up data can be retrieved at once, or individual files can be retrieved as needed. StarWind’s unique ability to virtualize and share physical storage hardware also eliminates the need to have an expensive DLT, AIT or LTO tape or high-capacity Blu-Ray or HD-DVD burner.

Click here to download the FREE version : http://www.starwindsoftware.com/download-free-version

Hi Folks

If you would like to know what are the major changes in the new Hyper-V R2 and how to backup your Hyper-V environment, join us in this FREE STEP Community event that will run on Tuesday 26 May in Theatre 2 at Microsoft, 1 Epping Road, Sydney

What we will cover :

1. What are the major changes in the new Hyper-V R2

   • Live Migration

   • Virtual storage (VHD) hot plug/remove

   • Support for shareable LUNs (CSV)

   • Support for AMD RVI and Intel EPT nested page tables technologies

   • Support for up to 32 physical cores

   • Support for I/O Virtualization technologies

2. How to Backup the Virtual machines using DPM

• Prerequisites

• How To

• Known Issues

Where : 1 Epping Road North Ryde NSW 2113

When : 26 May, 2009

Speaker :

Edvaldo Alessandro Cardoso
Microsoft MVP : Virtual Machine | MCT | Microsoft Heroes

RSVP to alessandro.cardoso@live.com