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Archive for July, 2011

Simplify your cloud migration planning with MAP 6.0

July 19, 2011 Leave a comment

 

The latest release from the Microsoft Assessment and Planning (MAP) team provides organizations with tools to simplify public and private cloud migration planning.

Download the MAP Toolkit 6.0:http://www.microsoft.com/map

New features and benefits from MAP 6.0 release help you:

·        Analyze your portfolio of applications for a move to the Windows Azure Platform

·        Accelerate private cloud planning with Hyper-V Cloud Fast Track onboarding

·        Identify migration opportunities with enhanced  heterogeneous server environment inventory

·        Assess your client environment for Office 365 readiness

·        Determine readiness for migration to Windows Internet Explorer 9

·        Discover Oracle database  schemas for migration to SQL Server

Categories: Microsoft, Virtualization Tags: , , , , , , ,

SCOM 2012 Beta released

July 18, 2011 1 comment

Here’s what’s new

·        Rich application performance monitoring and diagnostics for .NET applications plus JEE application health monitoring

·        Support for monitoring heterogeneous environments

·        Integrated network device monitoring and alerts

·        Simplified management infrastructure

·        Common  console across datacenter and clouds with customizable dashboards

Download from Connect : https://connect.microsoft.com/site799/Downloads/DownloadDetails.aspx?DownloadID=37329

Feedback:

https://connect.microsoft.com/site799/Feedback

 

Support Forums:

http://social.technet.microsoft.com/Forums/en-US/category/systemcenteroperationsmanager

Categories: Microsoft Tags:

Windows Server 8 Hyper-V: first public glimpse

July 14, 2011 1 comment

What is comming in the new version?

16+virtual processors within a Hyper-V VM, to support large scale up workloads.

Hyper-V Replica. Today, replication is complex to configure and often requires expensive proprietary hardware. Hyper-V Replica is asynchronous, application consistent, virtual machine replication built-in to Windows Server 8. With Hyper-V Replica, you can replicate a virtual machine from one location to another with Hyper-V and a network connection. Hyper-V Replica works with any server vendor, any network vendor and any storage vendor. In addition, we will provide unlimited replication in the box.

Microsoft also is going to allow Windows Server 8 users to replicate unlimitedly without charging additional fees per virtual machine. On the other hand, VMware with their upcoming version of Site Recovery Manager (SRM) is going to charge customers a per VM replication to replicate. This is going to be interesting….

Several others new features coming in the next version of Windows Server. Stay Tuned…

Categories: Microsoft, Virtualization Tags: ,

Hyper-V : Network Configuration and Prioritization

July 14, 2011 Leave a comment

Every since I came along with questions regarding Hyper-V and Network

In fact there are good articles talking about, but let’s summarize here:

1. Network Configuration

In Production, use multiple networks in your cluster. For a complete HA environment, I recommend at least 8 :

  • 1 for Management. Microsoft recommends a dedicated network adapter for Hyper-V server management.
  • 2 (teamed ) for Virtual machines.Virtual network configurations of the external type require a minimum of one network adapter.
  • 2 (MPIO ) for SCSI.Microsoft recommends that IP storage communication have a dedicated network, so one adapter is required and two or more are necessary to support multipathing.
  • 1 for Failover cluster.Windows failover cluster requires a private network.
  • 1 for Live migration.This new Hyper-V R2 feature supports the migration of running virtual machines between Hyper-V servers. Microsoft recommends configuring a dedicated physical network adapter for live migration traffic. This network should be separate from the network for private communication between the cluster nodes, from the network for the virtual machine, and from the network for storage
  • 1 for CSV. Microsoft recommends a dedicated network to support the communications traffic created by this new Hyper-V R2 feature. In the network adapter properties, Client for Microsoft Networks and File and Printer Sharing for Microsoft Networks must be enabled to support SMB

Note: If your Hardware vendor supports NPAR ( Broadcom, Qlogic ), you can create “Virtual logical NIC’s” . The NPAR technology allows you to create up to 4 logical Nic’s, which means for example that a Blade with 4 10Gb NIC’s with NPAR that support the technology  it’s a good start.

2. Network Prioritization

To rank a network, it is given a unique integer from 1 to 268,000,000+, which is called a “metric”.    To view the networks, their metric values, and if they were automatically or manually configured, run the clustering PowerShell cmdlet:
PS > Get-ClusterNetwork | ft Name, Metric, AutoMetric

By default, all internal cluster network will have a metric value starting at 1000 and incrementing by 100.  The first internal network which the cluster sees when it first comes online has a metric of 1000, the second has a metric of 1100, …

To change the value of a network metric, run:
PS > $n = Get-ClusterNetwork “Live Migration”
PS > $n.Metric = 1050

Overriding network prioritization behavior:

–  Right-click on the network in Failover Cluster Manager
–  Select Properties
–  Change the radio buttons or checkboxes.  If you select “Do not allow cluster network communication on this network”, then it will not be possible to send any “Cluster & CSV Traffic” or “Live Migration Traffic” through this network, even if the network has the lowest metric values.  The cluster will honor this override and find the network with the next lowest value to send this type of traffic.

Overriding network prioritization behavior “Live Migration Traffic”   , by changing the network’s properties:

The networks for live migration can be configured more granularly :

– Right-click on any Virtual Machine resource
– Select Properties
– Click the Network for live migration tab and then specify which networks can and cannot be used for “Live Migration Traffic” and in which order they should be used.

Note: Even though it appears that this setting may be unique to that specific VM, it is actually a global setting for live migration.

Categories: Microsoft, Virtualization

Hyper-V : Network Design, Configuration and Prioritization : Guidance

July 8, 2011 9 comments

There is a lot of posts regarding Hyper-V and network, but I found a lot people still don’t get it.

1. Network Design. How many nic’s we need for production environment for High Availiability:

  • 1 for Management. Microsoft recommends a dedicated network adapter for Hyper-V server management.
  • 2 ( Teamed )  for Virtual machines.Virtual network configurations of the external type require a minimum of one network adapter.
  • 2 ( MPIO ) for SCSI.Microsoft recommends that IP storage communication have a dedicated network, so one adapter is required and two or more are necessary to support multipathing.
  • 1 for Failover cluster.Windows® failover cluster requires a private network.
  • 1 for Live migration.This new Hyper-V R2 feature supports the migration of running virtual machines between Hyper-V servers. Microsoft recommends configuring a dedicated physical network adapter for live migration traffic. This network should be separate from the network for private communication between the cluster nodes, from the network for the virtual machine, and from the network for storage
  • 1 for CSV. Microsoft recommends a dedicated network to support the communications traffic created by this new Hyper-V R2 feature. In the network adapter properties, Client for Microsoft Networks and File and Printer Sharing for Microsoft Networks must be enabled to support SMB

But how about production environments when the blades have only 4 Physical NIC’s?

Option 1. If your vendor does support NPAR technology(Broadcom, QLogic), you will be able to create up to 4 “Virtual Logical NIC’s” per physical NIC ( VLAN/QoS ). Although this solution is not supported by MS, it’s the best solution in terms of performance and it is supported by the vendors. This solution will provide you 100% HA as you can have up to 16 Logical NIC’s.

Option 2. Supported by MS. Allocate 2(two) NIC’sfor the iSCSI using MPIO and then :

Host configuration Virtual machine access Management Cluster and Cluster Shared Volumes Live migration Comments
2 network adapters with 10 Gbps Virtual network adapter 1 Virtual network adapter 1 with bandwidth capped at 1% Network adapter 2 Network adapter 2 with bandwidth capped at 50% Supported

Note that the QoS configuration is based on “per port”  and Windows only allows you to cap specify caps – not reserves. This solution, although supported by MS, dos not give you 100% HA.

2. Network Configuration. What need to be enabled/disabled?

Usage Number of Network Cards Comments
Management Network(Parent Partition) 1 Network Card
  • Make sure this card is listed first in the Adapter and Bindings connection order.
  • In Failover Cluster Manager make sure that the NIC is configured to allow cluster network communication on this network. This will act as a secondary connection for the Heartbeat.
Storage ISCSI 2 Network Cards – Not Teamed
  • Enable MPIO.
  • Disable NetBIOS on these interfaces
  • Do not configure a Gateway
  • Do not configure a DNS server
  • Make sure that each NIC is NOT set to register its connection in DNS
  • Remove File and Printer sharing
  • Do not remove Client from Microsoft networks if using Netapp Snapdrive with RPC authentication
  • In Failover Cluster Manager select- Do not allow cluster network communication on this network
VM Network
(Parent Partition)		 2 Network cards :
1 for Dynamic IP’s
1 for Reserved IP’s
  • Disable NetBIOS on these interfaces
  • Do not configure a Gateway
  • Do not configure a DNS server
  • Make sure that each NIC is NOT set to register its connection in DNS
  • Remove File and Printer sharing and Client from Microsoft networks
  • In Failover Cluster Manager select – Do not allow cluster network communication on this network.
Cluster Heartbeat 1 Network Card
  • Disable NetBIOS on this interface
  • Do not configure a Gateway
  • Do not configure a DNS server
  • Make sure that this NIC is NOT set to register its connection in DNS
  • Make sure that Client for Microsoft Networks and File and Printer Sharing for Microsoft Networks are enabled to support Server Message Block (SMB), which is required for CSV.
  • In Failover Cluster Manager make sure that the NIC is configured to allow cluster network communication on this network.
  • In Failover Cluster Manager remove the tick box for Allow Clients Connect through this network. This setting has nothing to do with the host/parent partition. This setting is used to control over what NICs the Cluster Resources can be accessed.
Cluster Shared Volume (CSV) 1 Network Card
  • Disable NetBIOS on this interface
  • Make sure that this NIC is NOT set to register its connection in DNS
  • Make sure that Client for Microsoft Networks and File and Printer Sharing for Microsoft Networks are enabled to support Server Message Block (SMB), which is required for CSV.
  • In Failover Cluster Manager remove the tick box for Allow Clients Connect through this network. This setting has nothing to do with the host/parent partition. This setting is used to control over what NICs the Cluster Resources can be accessed. This is more relevant for other workloads e.g. File Cluster. It has no impact on the communication with the host partition or for the VM’s themselves.
  • By default the cluster will automatically choose the NIC to be used for CSV communication. We will change this later.
  • This traffic is not routable and has to be on the same subnet for all nodes.
Live Migration 1 Network Card
  • Disable NetBIOS on this interface
  • Make sure that this NIC is NOT set to register its connection in DNS.
  • In Failover Cluster Manager remove the tick box for Allow Clients Connect through this network. This setting has nothing to do with the host/parent partition. This setting is used to control over what NICs the Cluster Resources can be accessed. This is more relevant for other workloads e.g. File Cluster. It has no impact on the communication with the host partition or for the VM’s themselves.
  • By default the cluster will automatically choose the NIC to be used for Live-Migration. You can select multiple networks for LM and give them a preference.

 

2. Network Prioritization. What need to be enabled/disabled?

By default, all internal cluster network have a metric value starting at 1000 and incrementing by 100.  The first internal network which the cluster sees when it first comes online has a metric of 1000, the second has a metric of 1100, etc.

When you create CSV’s,  the failover cluster automatically chooses the network that appears to be the best for CSV communication. The lowest Metric value designates the network for Cluster and CSV traffic. The second lowest value designates the network for live migration. Additional networks with a metric below 10000 will be used as backup networks if the “Cluster & CSV Traffic” or “Live Migration Traffic” networks fail.  The lowest network with a value of at least 10000 will be used for “Public Traffic”. Consider giving the highest possible values to the networks which you do not want any cluster or public traffic to go through, such as for “ISCSI Traffic”, so that they are never used, or only used when no other networks at all are available.

To view the networks, their metric values, and if they were automatically or manually configured, run the clustering PowerShell cmdlet:
PS > Get-ClusterNetwork | ft Name, Metric, AutoMetric

To change the value of a network metric, run:
PS >Get-ClusterNetwork “Live Migration” ).Metric =800

If you want the cluster to start automatically assigning the Metric setting again for the network named “Live Migration”:
PS > Get-ClusterNetwork “Live Migration” ).AutoMetric = $true

How to override Network Prioritization Behavior?

Option 1. Change the network’s properties. If you select “Do not allow cluster network communication on this network”, then it will not be possible to send any “Cluster & CSV Traffic” or “Live Migration Traffic” through this network, even if the network has the lowest metric values.  The cluster will honor this override and find the network with the next lowest value to send this type of traffic :

  1. In the Failover Cluster Manager snap-in, if the cluster that you want to configure is not displayed, in the console tree, right-click Failover Cluster Manager, click Manage a Cluster, and then select or specify the cluster that you want.
  2.  Select Properties
  3. Change the radio buttons or checkboxes.

Option 2 (exclusively for “Live Migration Traffic”) :

To configure a cluster network for live migration:

  1. In the Failover Cluster Manager snap-in, if the cluster that you want to configure is not displayed, in the console tree, right-click Failover Cluster Manager, click Manage a Cluster, and then select or specify the cluster that you want.
  2. Expand Services and applications.
  3. In the console tree (on the left), select the clustered virtual machine for which you want to configure the network for live migration.
  4. Right-click the virtual machine resource displayed in the center pane (not on the left), and then click Properties.
  5. Click the Network for live migration tab, and select one or more cluster networks to use for live migration. Use the buttons on the right to move the cluster networks up or down to ensure that a private cluster network is the most preferred. The default preference order is as follows: networks that have no default gateway should be located first; networks that are used by cluster shared volumes and cluster traffic should be located last.Live migration will be attempted in the order of the networks specified in the list of cluster networks. If the connection to the destination node using the first network is not successful, the next network in the list is used until the complete list is exhausted, or there is a successful connection to the destination node using one of the networks.

Note : You don’t need to perform this action as per VM basis. When you configure a network for live migration for a specific virtual machine, the setting is global and therefore applies to all virtual machines.

Some other interesting articles:

http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/dd446679(WS.10).aspx

http://www.hyper-v.nu/archives/hvredevoort/2011/03/windows-server-2008-r2-sp1-and-hp-network-teaming-testing-results/

http://blogs.technet.com/b/vishwa/archive/2011/02/01/tuning-scvmm-for-vdi-deployments.aspx

http://blogs.msdn.com/b/clustering/archive/2011/06/17/10176338.aspx

http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/dd446679.aspx

Categories: Microsoft, Virtualization Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , ,

End of support for Windows Vista SP1.

July 5, 2011 Leave a comment

Upcoming end of support announcement

Windows Vista Service Pack 1 (SP1) will reach the end of support on July 12, 2011. From that date onward, Microsoft will no longer provide support or free security updates for Windows Vista Service Pack 1 (SP1). In order to stay secure and continue support you must upgrade to Service Pack 2 (SP2).

Products no longer supported

  • As announced in 2008, support for Windows XP Service Pack 2 (SP2) ended on July 13, 2010.
  • Also announced in 2008, support for Windows 2000 ended on July 13, 2010.
  • Support for Windows Vista Release to Manufacturing (RTM) ended April 13, 2010.

Important: There is no Service Pack 3 for a 64-bit version of Windows XP. If you are running a 64-bit version of Windows XP with Service Pack 2, you are on the latest service pack and will continue to be eligible for support and receive updates until April 8, 2014.

To find out if you are running a 64-bit version of Windows XP :

  •  Right-click My Computer, then click Properties.
  • If you do not see “64-bit” listed, then you are running a 32-bit version and you need to install Service
    Pack 3    .
  • If “64-bit” is listed under System, then you are running a 64-bit version.)
Categories: Microsoft, Windows 7 Tags: ,