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Free eBook:Understanding Microsoft Virtualization Solutions — From the Desktop to the Datacenter
Learn about the benefits of the latest virtualization technologies and how to plan, implement, and manage virtual infrastructure solutions based on these technologies.
Free eBook:Understanding Microsoft Virtualization Solutions — From the Desktop to the Datacenter
Virtualization: Top 10 Virtualization Best Practices
Source:TechNet Magazine , by Wes Miller *
Virtualization has gone from being a test lab technology to a mainstream component in datacenters and virtual desktop infrastructures. Along the way, virtualization has occasionally received a “get out of jail free” card, and has not had the same degree of efficient IT practices applied to virtual deployments as would be expected of actual physical machines. This is a mistake.
If you had an unlimited budget, would you let everyone in your organization order a new system or two and hook it up to the network? Probably not. When virtualization first appeared on the scene, unlimited and unmanaged proliferation was kept in check by the fact that there was actually a cost associated with hypervisor applications. This provided some line of defense against rogue virtual machines in your infrastructure. That is no longer the case.
There are several free hypervisor technologies available, for both Type 1 and Type 2 hypervisors. Anyone in your organization with Windows installation media and a little free time can put up a new system on your network. When virtual machines are deployed without the right team members knowing about it, that means a new system can become an unwelcome honeypot for new zero-day vulnerabilities, ready to take down other systems on your network that are business critical.
Virtual systems should never be underappreciated or taken for granted. Virtual infrastructures need to have the same best practices applied as actual physical systems. Here, we will discuss 10 key best practices that should always be on your mind when working with virtual systems.
To read to full article go to http://technet.microsoft.com/en-au/magazine/gg131921.aspx
*Wes Miller is the director of Product Management at CoreTrace (CoreTrace.com) in Austin, Texas. Previously, he worked at Winternals Software and as a program manager at Microsoft. Miller can be reached at wm@getwired.com.
New version of the Linux Integration Services for Hyper-V
A new version (2.1) of the Linux Integration Services for Hyper-V have just been made available.
This new version has some significant improvements:
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Driver support for synthetic devices: Linux Integration Services supports the synthetic network controller and the synthetic storage controller that were developed specifically for Hyper-V.
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Fastpath Boot Support for Hyper-V: Boot devices take advantage of the block Virtualization Service Client (VSC) to provide enhanced performance.
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Timesync: The clock inside the virtual machine will remain synchronized with the clock on the host.
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Integrated Shutdown: Virtual machines running Linux can be gracefully shut down from either Hyper-V Manager or System Center Virtual Machine Manager.
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Symmetric Multi-Processing (SMP) Support: Supported Linux distributions can use up to 4 virtual processors (VP) per virtual machine.
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Heartbeat: Allows the host to detect whether the guest is running and responsive.
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Pluggable Time Source: A pluggable clock source module is included to provide a more accurate time source to the guest.
This version of the integration services for Hyper-V supports Novell SUSE Linux Enterprise Server 10 SP3, SUSE Linux Enterprise Server 11, and Red Hat Enterprise Linux 5.2 / 5.3 / 5.4 / 5.5.
Windows 7 XP Mode : hotfix if your computer does not have hardware-assisted virtualization
If you receive the message “This computer is configured with hardware-assisted virtualization,” download and install Windows Virtual PC and Windows XP Mode.
Does my DELL support hardware virtualization, and is the BIOS setting turned on?
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Press the F12 key when boot menu text appears at startup
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Select BIOS setup and press the Enter key
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Using the mouse, expand the Virtualization Support menu item by clicking on the plus to the left of Virtualisation Support and
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Select Virtualisation
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Check the Enable Intel Virtualisation Technology checkbox
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Click Apply
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Click Exit
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Fully shut down (power off), wait a few seconds, and restart your computer ( IMPORTANT!!!!)
How To register the Hyper-V VSS writer with Windows Server Backup
- Click Start, click Run, type regedit, and then click OK.
- Locate the following registry key:
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINESOFTWAREMicrosoftWindows NTCurrentVersion
- Right-click CurrentVersion, point to New, and then click Key.
- Type WindowsServerBackup, and then press ENTER.
- Right-click WindowsServerBackup, point to New, and then click Key.
- Type Application Support, and then press ENTER.
- Right-click Application Support, point to New, and then click Key.
- Type {66841CD4-6DED-4F4B-8F17-FD23F8DDC3DE}, and then press ENTER.
- Right-click {66841CD4-6DED-4F4B-8F17-FD23F8DDC3DE}, point to New, and then click String Value.
- Type Application Identifier, and then press ENTER.
- Right-click Application Identifier, and then click Modify.
- In the Value data box, type Hyper-V, and then click OK
This will enable back up Hyper-V virtual machines from the parent partition on a Windows Server 2008-based computer by using Windows Server Backup.
Hyper-V : How to Handle Dynamic Memory using script
With the availability of dynamic memory in Windows Server 2008 R2 SP1 there are some changes to how you need to handle memory as a scripter / developer.
The WMI API changes are now documented here http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/cc136856(VS.85).aspx
Duplicate virtual machines (VMs) may appear in the SCVMM Administrator Console window after a Hyper-V VM in a cluster fails over to another cluster node. HotFix KB2308590
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Click Start, and then select Control Panel.
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In Control Panel, double-click Windows Update.
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In the Windows Update window, click Check Online for updates from Microsoft Update.
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Click important updates are available.
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Select Update for System Center Virtual Machine Manager 2008 R2 (KB2308590), and then click OK.
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Click Install updates.
To update the SCVMM agent on multiple hosts, follow these steps:
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Open the SCVMM Administrator Console window.
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Click Administration, and then click Managed Computers.
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Select the hosts, and then click Update Agent.
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Enter your user account credentials, and then click OK.
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Extract the VmmServer64Update-RETAIL.cab file to a temporary directory.
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Open an elevated command prompt, type the following command, and then press ENTER to install the update:
msiexec /update vmmServer64Update-RETAIL.msp BOOTSTRAPPED=1Note The name of the package varies, depending on the version that was downloaded. -
After the hotfix rollup package is installed on the SCVMM server, update the SCVMM agent on the Hyper-V and Virtual Server hosts.
You must have SCVMM 2008 R2 installed.
P2V Migration for Software Assurance : Beta released
Recommended Books
System Center 2012 R2 Virtual Machine
System Center Virtual Machine Manager 2012 Cookbook
Cloudtidings.com 