Archive
Monitoring Hyper-V and VMware workloads. Integrating SCVMM with SCOM. Veeam MP
The System Center 2012 VMM cookbook has a Chapter 10 (as a plus for the readers), which is not on the paperback/Kindle version. It is mentioned in the “What This Book Covers” section of the book and if you brought the book you will be able to download the chapter for free.
Chapter 10, Integration with System Center Operations Manager 2012 SP1, provides tips and techniques to allow administrators to integrate SCOM 2012 with SCVMM when monitoring the private cloud infrastructure.
In a hybrid hypervisor environment (for example, Hyper-V, VMware), using Operations Manager management packs (MPs) (for example, Veeam MP), you can monitor the Hyper-V hosts and the VMware hosts, which allow you to use only the System Center Console to manage and monitor the hybrid hypervisor environment
What we cover in chapter 10 :
- In this chapter, we will cover:
- Installing System Center Operations Manager 2012 SP1
- Installing management packs
- Managing Discovery and Agents
- Configuring the integration between Operations Manager 2012 and VMM 2012
- Enabling reporting in VMM
- Monitoring VMware vSphere infrastructure from the Operations Manager using management packs
With management packs, you can extend Operations Manager (OpsMgr) and its possibilities. On a hybrid hypervisor environment, where there is a mix of Hyper-V and VMware ESXi servers, the Veeam MP extends the OpsMgr for monitoring, alerting, and for undertaking remedial actions on VMware vSphere. Veeam MP uses vSphere API to gather information to allow monitoring and reporting against all layers of the VMware stack, which include layers from the underlying hardware though network, storage, hosts, clusters, datacenters, up to vCenter. Examples of the key metrics for the VMware admins include latency, CPU ready, disk and memory pressure against a host.
For the Chapter 10, Veeam Management Pack for VMware (SCOM) s required. There is a new version 6.5 which can download from here: http://www.veeam.com/vmware-microsoft-esx-monitoring-resources.html
Enjoy reading !
To buy the book
http://www.packtpub.com/microsoft-system-center-virtual-machine-manager-2012-cookbook/book
Windows Azure now in Japan. Australia next?
Toda Microsoft announced the general availability of Windows Azure Japan Geo, including Japan East and Japan West region:
“Today we are announcing the general availability of two new Windows Azure regions: Japan in the Tokyo metropolitan area (Saitama Prefecture) and Japan West (Osaka Prefecture). These regions were brought online to meet growing demand for Windows Azure services and help our customers satisfy performance needs. ”
It is expected that Microsoft will release the Australia region this year as well. I’ve heard rumours for the release on Q3, but there is no official communication yet.
Do you expect the cloud adoption to increase once it comes to your region?
Virtualizing your Data Center with HyperV and System Center
Hyper-V and Jumbo Frames in 3 steps
As we start working with 10GB nic’s and Hyper-V There are 3 required steps necessary to ensure JUMBO FRAMES proper configuration:
Important to understand: Jumbo Frames needs to be enable from end to end to work properly.
– Enable JUMBO FRAMES in all physical hardware that are interconnected : switches, storage and servers. They must support jumbo packets and this feature must be enabled. Note: Almost all switches requires a reboot after jumbo frames have been configured.
– Enable JUMBO FRAMES in the Hyper-V’s virtual switch. Hyper-V’s virtual switches are no different than any other TCP/IP implementation.
-Enable JUMBO FRAMES inside the VM (Guest OS). You can use PowerShell or use the GUI in Windows 2012 R2:
After the reboot you can test jumbo frames.
Use the ping command to test it, pinging from the VM to the switch for example.
eg. ping -f -l 8000 10.1.1.200
Notes:
The -f parameter does not allow packets to be fragmented.
The -l parameter specifies the size of the packet.
Also remember to enable VMQ to improve performance But it DOES help to reduce CPU cycles in that case
System Center 2012 Operations Manager. How to quickly become more efficient
Recently when working on a System Center 2012 R2 project I found some very useful videos that will help you speed your learning curve on Operations Manager and will help you become more efficient.
System Center 2012 Operations Manager Dashboards: Visualizing Alert Data. Richard Pesenko, Microsoft Senior Support Escalation Engineer who works on Operations Manager support team, published a video out that walks you all through visualizing alert data in OpsMgr 2012.
Video URL: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lKVvjeQAGm0&feature=player_embedded
Private Cloud Demo Extravaganza : Deep Application Diagnostics & Insight with System Center 2012. how to analyze and isolate a problem impacting an application using System Center 2012. Adam Hall and Symon Perriman show you System Center 2012 Operations Manager along with some of its features:
- Application advisor web component
- Understand the problem distribution analysis
- Navigate problem reports to see the line of code that caused the problem
- View detailed events and alerts from a component of the application
- See which transactions happened when the problem occurred
- Understand related events to a particular issue
- View the application diagnostics at the developer level
Video URL: WMV | MP4 | WMV (ZIP) | PSP
Private Cloud Demo Extravaganza 12: Enabling Application Performance Monitoring with System Center 2012 : How to enable Application Performance Monitoring (APM) with System Center 2012. Adam Hall and Symon Perriman show you System Center 2012 Operations Manager along with some of its features:
- Discover an application
- Configuration an application for APM
- Use a template to add a monitoring Management Pack (MP)
- Enable a .NET APM configuration
- Create a new MP
- Search and filter to discover applications across servers
- Set custom thresholds
- Review exception options
MVP renewed : 6 consecutive years!
What a way to start 2014!. For 6 consecutive years I have been awarded Microsoft MVP in virtualisation.
Below is the email I just got from Microsoft:
“Congratulations! We are pleased to present you with the 2014 Microsoft® MVP Award! This award is given to exceptional technical community leaders who actively share their high quality, real world expertise with others. We appreciate your outstanding contributions in Virtual Machine technical communities during the past year.
The Microsoft MVP Award provides us the unique opportunity to celebrate and honor your significant contributions and say “Thank you for your technical leadership.”
Mike Hickman
Director
Community Engagement
Microsoft”
“As a Microsoft MVP, you are part of a highly select group of experts that represent technology’s best and brightest who share a deep commitment to community and a willingness to help others.
On behalf of everyone at Microsoft, thank you for your contributions to technical communities.
Sincerely,
Soyoung Lee, your Community Program Manager”
Removing the ghost Hyper-V vNic adapter when using Converged Networks after in-place upgrade to W2012R2
Scenario:
You have a Windows 2012 with NIC Team configured, Hyper-V Virtual Switch and vNIC’s and you have done an in-place upgrade to Windows 2012 R2
What will happen:
You will find out that the Hyper-V Virtual Nic Adapter (vNIC) is disconnected (as shown below). As you can see, the Management and Migration vNIC’s are showing as network cable unplugged.
You can also use wmi to query for the vNIC’s (pictured below):
gwmi -nnamespace root\virtualization\v2 -Class MSVM_InternalEthernetPort | select elementname
What should you do to avoid this situation:
Recommendation: Before upgrading from Windows 2012 to Windows 2012 R2, make sure you remove the Hyper-V Virtual Switches and the Network Team (in this order).
What you could do if you did not follow the recommended approach:
Below I describe the step by step that you need to take in order to get the ghost vNIC’s removed.
Note: The following process was certified by Ben Armstrong (aka Virtual PC Guy), Microsoft PM for Hyper-V and it is supported by Microsoft, as a valid similar approach that fix the Physical Networking by using the registry, as per MS KB : http://support.microsoft.com/kb/146333 ( don’t follow the method described in that article, to fix the VNIC issue.)
Steps:
1. in the Network Connections, take note of the vNIC name (e.g. Hyper-V Virtual Ethernet Adapter #2) in the properties: Select the vNIC (e.g. Management), right click properties ( as per below):
2. Open the registry: Windows Key + R, then type regedit
3. Locate the following Key: HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Enum\ROOT\VMS_MP
4. Go though the folders until you find the folder that contains the FriendlyName with the SAME name of the ghost vNIC
5. Select the Folder, right click and select Permissions, click on Advanced and replace the owner of the folder to Local Server Administrators (currently: System), by clicking on Change, typing Administrators (make sure the From this location show your server name) and click OK.
6. Disable the inheritance by clicking on Disable inheritance and then clicking on Convert inherited permissions into explicit permissions on this object and then add the local server Administrators group with Full Control
7. Select all the objects INSIDE the folder, right click and click on Delete
8. Repeat the steps 5-7 for all ghosts vNIC’s and close the registry
9. Open the Device Manager: Windows Key, type Device Manager and click on Scan for Hardware Changes. ( Select the Server Name, Click on Action and then Scan for Hardware Changes)
…and you are done! All fixed. Go back to Network Connections and refresh and you will noticed that the ghosts vNIC’s are all gone.
Thanks to Ben Armstrong, who actually found this solution and Taylor Brown.
System Center 2012R2 enables at-scale management of major Windows Server 2012 R2 capabilities.
Utilizing the Windows Server 2012 R2 and System Center 2012 R2, which powers the Cloud OS vision, organizations can quickly and flexibly build and manage modern applications across platforms, locations, and devices, unlock insights from volumes of existing and new data, and support end-user productivity wherever and on whatever device they choose.
System Center 2012 R2 delivers unified management across on-premises, service provider and Windows Azure environments, in a manner that’s simple and cost-effective, application focused, and enterprise-class. System Center 2012 R2 offers exciting new features and enhancements across infrastructure provisioning, infrastructure monitoring, application performance monitoring, automation & self-service, and IT service management.
Clique here to download the full 180 day trial
Need more information about System Center 2012 R2? See the product details page.
- System Center 2012 R2 effectively manages the scale and performance that Windows Server 2012 R2 offers. Building on System Center 2012, this release enables at-scale management of major Windows Server 2012 R2 capabilities, including running VM snapshots, dynamic VHDX resize, and Storage Spaces.
- System Center 2012 R2 also extends software-defined networking in Windows Server 2012 R2 with provisioning and management support for a multitenant VPN gateway to enable seamless extension of datacenter capacity. System Center 2012 R2 will continue to help you provision and manage a flexible hybrid IT environment that adapts dynamically to changing business needs, including migrating workloads to Windows Azure Virtual Machines and managing them consistently.
Windows Server 2012 R2 key capabilities
Microsoft announced on October 18th that the final release of Windows Server 2012 R2, Hyper-V 2012 R2 and System Center 2012 R2 are now generally available.
Windows Server 2012 R2 delivers significant value around seven key capabilities:
- Server virtualization. Whether you are looking to expand virtual machine mobility, increase virtual machine availability, handle multi-tenant environments, gain bigger scale, or gain more flexibility, Windows Server 2012 R2 with Hyper-V gives you the platform and tools you need to increase business agility with confidence. Plus, you can also benefit from workload portability as you extend your on-premises datacenter into a service provider cloud or Windows Azure.
- Storage.Microsoft designed Windows Server 2012 R2 with a strong focus on storage capabilities, including improvements in the provisioning, accessing, and managing of storage and the transfer of data across the network that resides on that storage. The end result is a storage solution that delivers the efficiency, performance, resiliency, availability, and versatility you need at every level.
- Networking.Windows Server 2012 R2 makes it as straightforward to manage an entire network as a single server, giving you the reliability and scalability of multiple servers at a lower cost. Automatic rerouting around storage, server, and network failures enables file services to remain online with minimal noticeable downtime. In addition, Windows Server 2012 R2 provides the foundation for software-defined networking, out-of-the box, enabling seamless connectivity across public, private, and hybrid cloud implementations.
- Server management and automation. Datacenter infrastructure has become more and more complex. Multiple industry standards are confusing hardware vendors. Customers are looking for guidance on how to best automate their datacenter while adopting a standards-based management approach supporting their multi-vendor investments. Windows Server 2012 R2 enables IT professionals to offer an integrated platform to automate and manage the increasing datacenter ecosystem. Features within Windows Server 2012 R2 enable you to manage many servers and the devices connecting them, whether they are physical or virtual, on-premises or in the cloud.
- Web and application platform. Even greater application flexibility, helping you build and deploy applications either on-premises, in the cloud, or both at once, with hybrid solutions that can work in both environments. Windows Server 2012 R2 provides the tools you need to build, provision, and manage multi-tenant environments while still supporting your large enterprise or the many customers hosted within your service provider infrastructure.
- Access and information protection. Users need to be able to access this information from anywhere, share it where appropriate, and achieve maximum productivity with the assets they have. Windows Server 2012 R2 helps you accommodate these changes through exciting new remote access options, significant improvements to Active Directory and Active Directory Federation Services, and the introduction of policy-based information access and audits with Dynamic Access Control, and new scenarios to help customers provide access to corporate resources for users from their own devices. With these new capabilities, you can better manage and protect data access, simplify deployment and management of your identity infrastructure, and provide more secure access to data from virtually anywhere across both on-premises well managed devices and new consumer orientated form factors.
- Virtual Desktop Infrastructure. VDI technologies in Windows Server 2012 R2 offer easy access to a rich, full-fidelity Windows environment running in the datacenter, from virtually any device. Through Hyper-V and Remote Desktop Services (RDS), Microsoft offers three flexible VDI deployment options in a single solution: Pooled Desktops, Personal Desktops, and Remote Desktop Sessions (formerly Terminal Services). With Windows Server 2012 R2, you get a complete VDI toolset for delivering flexible access to data and applications from virtually anywhere on popular devices, while also helping to maintain security and compliance.
You can find more info here: http://blogs.technet.com/b/windowsserver/archive/2013/10/18/announcing-the-general-availability-of-windows-server-2012-r2-the-heart-of-cloud-os.aspx
Oracle running on Azure
Yes, your heard right
Oracle virtual machines on Windows Azure are now in preview, Multi-Factor Authentication is generally available and we have an announcement regarding SQL Database.
Microsoft and Oracle provide end-to-end support for customers running business-critical Oracle software on Windows Azure
Oracle, Oracle WebLogic Server, and the Java development environment are now available, in preview, in the Windows Azure Virtual Machines Image Gallery. These images include licenses for the Oracle software that they contain.
During the preview period, there is no charge for the included Oracle licenses. You will pay only for the Windows Azure compute and storage resources that your Virtual Machine consumes. If you would prefer to use an Oracle software license that you already own, you can do that too. Just choose a Windows Server image from the Image Gallery and install the Oracle software yourself.
Whether you bring your own Oracle license or use one of the license-included images, you now have increased flexibility and choice in where to deploy your applications and the peace of mind that comes from knowing you will be fully supported by Oracle.
To get started, sign in to the Windows Azure Management Portal and add a new Virtual Machine from the Image Gallery.
For more information, visit the Oracle information page on the Windows Azure website.
Recommended Books
System Center 2012 R2 Virtual Machine
System Center Virtual Machine Manager 2012 Cookbook
Cloudtidings.com 