Windows 2008 R2 SP1 new feature : ARPSpoofing

August 26, 2010 Alessandro Cardoso Leave a comment

Microsoft will realease another feature in Windows 2008 R2 SP1 : Arpspoofing

Those who will be benefit from this new feature will be the Hosts with multi-tenant.

Resuming, if you host multiple virtual machines for different clients in the same host you do want one VM from one client to ping the other client VM? I don’t think so. So today it will happens, but with the SP1 applied and the aspspoofing feature enabled, you can not ping it anymore. So far, so good.

Also, Attackers can use address resolution protocol (ARP) running on your network to make their systems appear to be either your system or another authorized host on your network. An excessive number of ARP requests can be a sign of an ARP spoofing attack (also called ARP poisoning) on your network.

This feature is not in the beta version as was release after the beta become public.

Categories: Virtualization

Teched Australia 2010. What happens here

August 24, 2010 Alessandro Cardoso 2 comments

The Teched Australia, occurring in Gold Coast, already started yesterday, August 23 and will be running until August, 27.

This year, as last year I will be in the TLG and also on August 26, presenting the MGT30-ILL : Technical Introduction to Microsoft System Center Data Protection Manager 2010 ( from 1:45pm til 3pm ) : if you are here, I invite you to come.

There are some really good sessions, to nominate a few : SVR302-Hyper-V and Dynamic Memory, UNC302 : Exchange High Availability, DAT318 : Sql Server Hyper Cloud, SVR307:RemoteFX drilldown, and much more.

Don’t lose the sessions!

Categories: Microsoft

Requirements for the VMMSSP Dashboard

August 20, 2010 Alessandro Cardoso Leave a comment

The VMMSSP Dashboard integrates with an already functioning deployment of the self-service portal and has no additional infrastructure requirements.

It is assumed that the self-service portal and the VMMSSP database are configured in accordance with Microsoft installation guidance.

The following table lists the software requirements for the VMMSSP Dashboard.

VMMSSP Dashboard Software Requirements

Infrastructure	Resource

Software	· Virtual Machine Manager Self-Service Portal · Windows SharePoint Services 3.0 SP2 Note Microsoft Office SharePoint Server 2007 SP2 is supported as an alternative to Windows SharePoint Services 3.0. · Microsoft SQL Server® 2008 · Microsoft .NET Framework 3.5
Browser	· Microsoft Internet Explorer® 7.0 /8.0

Click here to download the VMSSP 2.0

In order to install the VMMSSP Dashboard, a user needs to be a member of the following security groups:

· On the computer where you are installing the Dashboard: local Administrators group (in highly-secured environments, the user may need to be a member of the domain Administrators group).

· Group with administrative permissions to the VMMSSP database.

· Group with administrative permissions to the Windows SharePoint Services server farm.

Categories: Virtualization

How to use SHAREPOINT to show information about your virtualized environment

August 20, 2010 Alessandro Cardoso Leave a comment

Thanks for the SCVMM Team, now it is possible to display information from our Virtual environment in a SharePoint Portal, making easy to document.

You need to install the VMMSSP Dashboard

The VMMSSP Dashboard is designed to work with an existing self-service portal installation. The Dashboard queries the VMMSSP database and uses the resulting data set to present key infrastructure, resource, virtual machine, and charge-back metrics in a graphical format.

The VMMSSP Dashboard uses SharePoint Web Parts to manage and display data sets:

· Microsoft Dashboard Configuration Web Part. Use this Web Part to create and modify the SQL queries that produce the data sets and the other properties that govern how the Dashboard displays the data sets.

· Microsoft Dashboard Viewer Web Part. Use this Web Part to display the data sets. A Dashboard Viewer Web Part displays one data set at a time. The VMMSSP Dashboard can contain multiple copies of the Dashboard Viewer Web Part at once, each copy displaying a different data set. Be aware that as you add more copies of the Web Part to the site, and as you increase the amount of data displayed, the performance of the site may degrade.

The following figure shows how users can interact with the Web Parts to retrieve and display data.

Click here to download the VMSSP 2.0

Categories: Virtualization

Virtual Machine Manager Self-Service Portal 2.0 FREE DOWNLOAD

August 20, 2010 Alessandro Cardoso Leave a comment

VMMSSP (also referred to as the self-service portal) is a fully supported, partner-extensible solution built on top of Windows Server 2008 R2, Hyper-V, and System Center VMM.

VMMSSP is not an upgrade to the existing VMM 2008 R2 self-service portal. You can choose to deploy and use one or both self-service portals depending on your requirements.

You can use it to pool, allocate, and manage resources to offer infrastructure as a service and to deliver the foundation for a private cloud platform inside your datacenter.

VMMSSP includes a pre-built web-based user interface that has sections for both the datacenter managers and the business unit IT consumers, with role-based access control.

VMMSSP also includes a dynamic provisioning engine.

VMMSSP reduces the time needed to provision infrastructures and their components by offering business unit “on-boarding,” infrastructure request and change management.

The VMMSSP package also includes detailed guidance on how to implement VMMSSP inside your environment.

The self-service portal provides the following features that are exposed through a web-based user interface:

Configuration and allocation of datacenter resources: Store management and configuration information related to compute, network and storage resources as assets in the VMMSSP database.
Customization of virtual machine actions: Provide a simple web-based interface to extend the default virtual machine actions; for example, you can add scripts that interact with Storage Area Networks for rapid deployment of virtual machines.
Business unit on-boarding: Standardized forms and a simple workflow for registering and approving or rejecting business units to enroll in the portal.
Infrastructure request and change management: Standardized forms and human-driven workflow that results in reducing the time needed to provision infrastructures in your environment.
Self-Service provisioning: Supports bulk creation of virtual machines on provisioned infrastructure through the web-based interface.Helps business units to manage their virtual machines based on delegated roles.

Download here

Categories: Virtualization

Hyper-V Security Guide : Solution accelerator

August 10, 2010 Alessandro Cardoso Leave a comment

Looking for guidance, instructions, and recommendations to address key security concerns about server virtualization ? You should look at the Hyper-V Security Guide.

The Hyper-V Security Guide provides prescriptive guidance for hardening the Hyper-V role, including several best practices for installing and configuring Hyper-V with a focus on security. These best practices include measures for reducing the attack surface of Hyper-V as well as recommendations for properly configuring secure virtual networks and storage devices.

It also provides :

Methods for delegating virtual machine management so that virtual machine administrators only have the minimum permissions they require. It describes common delegation scenarios, and includes detailed steps to guide you through using Authorization Manager (AzMan) and System Center Virtual Machine Manager 2008 (VMM 2008) to separate virtual machine administrators from virtualization host administrators.
Prescriptive guidance for securing virtual machine resources. It includes best practices and detailed steps for protecting virtual machines by using a combination of file system permissions, encryption, and auditing.

Download of the Hyper-V Security Guide.

Categories: Virtualization

SCDPM 2010 : How to add support for Hyper-V Item Level Recorevey

August 3, 2010 Alessandro Cardoso Leave a comment

You must have the Hyper-V role enabled on the DPM 2010 server to perform item-level recoveries. During item-level recovery, DPM has to mount the VHDs of the protected virtual machines.

DPM 2010 supports item-level recovery (ILR), which allows you to do granular recovery of files, folders, volumes, and virtual hard disks (VHDs) from a host-level backup of Hyper-V virtual machines to a network share or a volume on a DPM protected server.