Archive
TechNet Live! Meetings: Private Cloud Focused
All the details are below along with how you can register for these events. look forward to seeing many of you there!
Title: Delivering the Private Cloud with Microsoft Technologies
Date: Friday. 28th of October 2011 11:00am – 12:15PM (AEDT)
Speaker – Jeff Alexander
Registration: Click Here
Event Overview
Let’s face it. Everyone is talking about Cloud Computing and how it’s bringing a fundamental shift in the way that IT services are delivered. This is certainly true and there are many spins on what cloud is and how it can help your business. In this session, Jeff Alexander from Microsoft Australia will discuss what a “Private Cloud” is and how you can use it to deliver IT as a service. In fact you may already have many of the building blocks in place that make up a private cloud and not even realise. This session will cover the Microsoft technologies that deliver the private cloud as well as the components that make up the infrastructure.
Title: System Center Virtual Machine Manager 2012: What’s in it, and how it enables building the Private Cloud
Date: Friday, 11th of November 2011 11:00am – 12:15PM (AEDT)
Speaker – Jeff Alexander
Registration: Click Here
Event Overview
SCVMM 2012 is designed to deliver industry leading virtual machine management, deployment, and configuration for services in private cloud environments. It features deep investments in server application virtualization, service design, and service modelling all of which can be used to build an on-premises private cloud. This session will include an overview of key SCVMM 2012 key new features that include SCVMM Fabric Creation and Management, Network and Storage support, Private Cloud Creation and Delegation, and Service Creation. Attendees will gain an understanding of VMM 2012 supported scenarios, along with an understanding of how to use these capabilities to build an on-premise private cloud.
Title: Cloud Management with System Center App Controller 2012
Date: Friday, 25th of November 2011 11:00am – 12:15PM (AEDT)
Speaker – Jeff Alexander
Registration: Click Here
Event Overview
As organizations move to deploying services and applications in the cloud, it is important that they have a common management experience for deployment, visibility and control in a manner that is abstracted from the underlying cloud. This session provides an overview of System Center App Controller 2012 and how it enables self-service of both public and private cloud infrastructures.
Title: System Center Operations Manager 2012: Technical Overview
Date: Friday, 9th of December 2011 11:00am – 12:15PM (AEDT)
Speaker – Jeff Alexander
Registration: Click Here
Event Overview
The next release of Operations Manager will introduce many exciting new and enhanced features sets to help organizations efficiently and effectively monitor their environments across their compute, network, storage infrastructure, while assuring attainment of service levels across their applications. In this session we’ll discuss how Operations Manager 2012 helps to monitor your existing infrastructures as well as cloud resources to deliver infrastructure as a service.
I hope to see you at these events and look forward to sharing this information with you
SCOM 2007 R2 : Monitoring Pack for Windows Azure
The Windows Azure Monitoring Management Pack enables you to monitor the availability and performance of applications that are running on Windows Azure.
After configuration, the Windows Azure Monitoring Management Pack offers the following functionality:
- Discovers Windows Azure applications.
- Provides status of each role instance.
- Collects and monitors performance information.
- Collects and monitors Windows events.
- Collects and monitors the .NET Framework trace messages from each role
instance. - Grooms performance, event, and the .NET Framework trace data from Windows
Azure storage account. - Changes the number of role instances via a task
System Center Monitor version : System Center Operations Manager 2007 R2 CU3 or newer
More detalis : http://www.microsoft.com/download/en/details.aspx?displaylang=en&id=11324
Hyper-v: Detailed step by step installing RedHat 6.1 VM in expert mode with the new Linux Integration Services 3.1
Microsoft released the a new Linux Integration Services, fully tested against RHEL 6.0, RHEL 6.1, and CentOS 6.0
http://www.microsoft.com/download/en/details.aspx?id=26837
To Create a RedHat 6 VM
1. Open Hyper-V Manager: Click Start, point to Administrative Tools, and then click
Hyper-V Manager.
2. Create a new virtual machine where you will install Linux: In the Actions menu, click New, and then click Virtual Machine.
Note: if you do not Add a legacy network adapter a this point, the virtual machine will not have network support, until you install the Linux Integration Services.
3. Specify the Linux installation media: Right-click the virtual machine that you created, and then click Settings. In IDE Controller, specify one of the following:
a. An image file in ISO format that contains the files required for installation
b. A physical CD/DVD drive that contains the installation media
4. Turn on the virtual machine: Right-click the virtual machine that you created, and then click Connect.
To Install Redhat Linux 6.1
1. After a short delay, the Welcome to Red Hat Linux 6.1! screen appears. Press <Tab>
2.At the prompt, add the text: append expert and then press <Enter>
3. Press <OK> to check the installation media or <SKIP> to not test check in the next screen
4. Click Next to continue
5. The Choose a Language screen appears. This screen asks you to select the language to be used during the installation process. Use the up-or down-arrow key to select alanguage (the system highlights your choice). Click Next
6.The Keyboard Type screen appears asking you to select a keyboard type. Use the up- or down-arrow key to select a keyboard type (the system highlights your choice). Click Next
7. At the “Devices” screen select Basic Storage Devices to install Red Hat Enterprise Linux on the following storage devices: hard drives or solid-state drives connected directly to the local system
8. As you selected Basic Storage Devices, anaconda automatically detects the local storage attached to the system and does not require further input.Click Next.
9. Enter the Hostname for your server, select OK
10 If you added the Legacy Network at the creation of the VM, then click Configure Network . At the “Network Configuration” window, Specify an IP address/gateway. Otherwise, skip this task. You can setup the network later, after installing the Linux Integration Services
Use the IPv4 Settings tab to configure the IPv4 parameters for the previously selected network connection. Select Start automatically to start the connection automatically when the system boots.
11.Click Next
12. At the “Time Zone Selection” window, highlight the correct time zone. Click Next
13.For Root Password, type and confirm the password. Click Next
14. If no readable partition tables are found on existing hard disks, the installation program asks to initialize the hard disk. This operation makes any existing data on the hard disk unreadable. If your system has a brand new hard disk with no operating system installed, or you have removed all partitions on the hard disk, click Re-initialize drive
15. Select the type of installation would you like and then click Next.
Note: If you chose one of the automatic partitioning options (first 4 options) and selected Review, you can either accept the current partition settings (click Next), or modify the setup manually in the partitioning screen. To review and make any necessary changes to the partitions created by automatic partitioning, select the Review option. After selecting Review and clicking Next to move forward, the partitions created for you by anaconda appear. You can make modifications to these partitions if they do not meet your needs.
If you chose to create a custom layout, you must tell the installation program where to install Red Hat Enterprise Linux. This is done by defining mount points for one or more disk partitions in which Red Hat Enterprise Linux is installed. You may also need to create and/or delete partitions at this time
Unless you have a reason for doing otherwise, I recommend that you create the following partitions for x86, AMD64, and Intel
64 systems:
• swap partition
• /boot partition
• / partition
Advice on Partitions:
- A swap partition (at least 256 MB) — swap partitions are used to support virtual memory. In other words, data is written to a swap partition when there is not enough RAM to store the data your system is processing. In years past, the recommended amount of swap space increased linearly with the amount of RAM in the system. But because the amount of memory in modern systems has increased into the hundreds of gigabytes, it is now recognized that the amount of swap space that a system needs is a function of the memory workload running on that system. However, given that swap space is usually designated at install time, and that it can be difficult to determine beforehand the memory workload of a system, use the recommended:
| Amount of RAM in the System | Recommended Amount of Swap Space |
| 4GB of RAM or less | a minimum of 2GB of swap space |
| 4GB to 16GB of RAM | a minimum of 4GB of swap space |
| 16GB to 64GB of RAM | a minimum of 8GB of swap space |
| 64GB to 256GB of RAM | a minimum of 16GB of swap space |
- The /var directory holds content for a number of applications. It also is used to store downloaded update packages on a temporary basis. Ensure that the partition containing the /var directory has enough space to download pending updates and hold your other content.
- The /usr directory holds the majority of software content on a Red Hat Enterprise Linux system. For an installation of the default set of software, allocate at least 4 GB of space.
If you are a software developer or plan to use your Red Hat Enterprise Linux system to learn software development skills, you may want to at least double this allocation. - Consider leaving a portion of the space in an LVM volume group unallocated. This unallocated space gives you flexibility if your space requirements change but you do not wish to remove data from other partitions to reallocate storage
16. After finishing creating the partitions, Click Next. The installer prompts you to confirm the partitioning options that you selected. Click Write changes to disk to allow the installer to partition your hard drive and install Red Hat Enterprise Linux
17.Allow the installation process to complete. The Package Installation Defaults screen appears and details the default package set for the Red Hat Enterprise Linux installation
If you select Basic Server, this option will provide a basic installation of Red Hat Enterprise Linux for use on a server.
18. Select Customize now to specify the software packages for your final system in more detail. This option causes the installation process to display an additional customization screen when you select Next. The following screens shows the customized packages selected
Note : The packages that you select are not permanent. After you boot your system, use the Add/Remove Software tool to either install new
software or remove installed packages. To run this tool, from the main menu, select System -> Administration -> Add/Remove Software
19. Click Next to continue the installation. The installer checks your selection, and automatically adds any extra packages required to use the software you selected. The installation process will start. At this point there is nothing left for you to do until all the packages have been installed.
20. Installation Complete: Red Hat Enterprise Linux installation is now complete. select Reboot to restart your Virtual Machine
Now it’s time for the first-boot configuration.
21. First Boot lets you configure your environment at the beginning. Click Forward to proceed
22. Accept the License and Click Forward to proceed
23. Setting up software updates. Select whether to register the system immediately with Red Hat Network. To register the system, select Yes, I’d like to register now, and click Forward.
Note : it can be registered with the RedHat Entitlement Service later using the Red Hat Subscription Manager tools
24. Create User to use as a regular non-administrative use. Enter a user name and your full name, and then enter your chosen password. Type your password once more in the Confirm Password box to ensure that it is correct.
Note: If you do not create at least one user account in this step, you will not be able to log in to the RedHat Enterprise Linux graphical environment
25. Click Forward to proceed
26. Date and Time. Use this screen to adjust the date and time of the system clock.
27. Click Forward to proceed
28. Kdump. Use this screen to select whether or not to use the Kdump kernel crash dumping mechanism on this system. Note that if you
select this option, you will need to reserve memory for Kdump and that this memory will not be available for any other purpose.
29 Click Finish to proceed.
Done installation and configuration of RedHat Linux 6.1 completed. Not let’s configure the Linux Integration Services.
To install Linux Integration Services Version 3.1
Important Note: There is an issue where the SCVMM 2008 Service can crash with VMs running Linux Integration Components v3.1 for Hyper-V.
Resolution: Disabling the KVP daemon on the Linux virtual machine will prevent the SCVMM service crash. The command to make this change must be run as root.#/sbin/chkconfig –level 35 hv_kvp_daemon off
This will prevent the KVP service from auto starting while retaining all other functionality of hv_utils. hv_utils provides integrated shutdown, key value pair data exchange, and heartbeat features. More info : http://blogs.technet.com/b/scvmm/archive/2011/07/28/new-kb-the-scvmm-2008-virtual-machine-manager-service-crashes-with-vms-running-linux-integration-components-v3-1-for-hyper-v.aspx
1. Log on to the virtual machine.
2. In Hyper-V Manager, configure LinuxIC v30.ISO (located in the directory where you extracted the downloaded files) as a physical CD/DVD drive on the virtual machine.
3. Open a Terminal Console ( command line )
4. As the root user, mount the CD in the virtual machine by issuing the following command at a shell prompt:
#mount /dev/cdrom /media
4. As the root user, run the following command to install the synthetic drivers. A reboot is required after installation.
For 64-bit versions:
# yum install /media/x86_64/kmod-microsoft-hyper-v-rhel6-60.1.x86_64
# yum install /media/x86_64/microsoft-hyper-v-rhel6-60.1.x86_64
# reboot
or if you prefer to use rpm:
# rpm –ivh /media/x86_64/kmod-microsoft-hyper-v-rhel6-60.1.x86_64.rpm
# rpm –ivh /media/x86_64/microsoft-hyper-v-rhel6-60.1.x86_64.rpm
# reboot
For 32-bit versions:
# yum install /media/x86/kmod-microsoft-hyper-v-rhel6-60.1.i686
#yum install /media/x86/microsoft-hyper-v-rhel6-60.1.i686
# reboot
or
# rpm –ivh /media/x86/kmod-microsoft-hyper-v-rhel6-60.1.i686.rpm
# rpm –ivh /media/x86/microsoft-hyper-v-rhel6-60.1.i686.rpm
# reboot
DONE! You should now have RedHat 6.1 running as VM on Hyper-V.
Note:
After Linux Integration Services are installed on the virtual machine, Key Value Pair exchange functionality is activated. This allows the virtual machine to provide the following information to the virtualization server:
-
Fully Qualified Domain Name of the virtual machine
-
Version of the Linux Integration Services that are installed
-
IP Addresses (both IPv4 and IPv6) for all Ethernet adapters in the virtual machine
-
OS Build information, including the distribution and kernel version
-
Processor architecture (x86 or x86-64)
The data can be viewed using the Hyper-V WMI provider, and accessed via Windows PowerShell. Instructions for viewing Key Value Pair exchange data are available at these websites:
http://social.technet.microsoft.com/wiki/contents/articles/hyper-v-script-to-check-icversion.aspx
http://blogs.msdn.com/b/virtual_pc_guy/archive/2008/11/18/hyper-v-script-looking-at-kvpguestintrinsicexchangeitems.aspx
Simplify your cloud migration planning with MAP 6.0
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
I am Speaking at Teched Australia 2011
I am absolutely thrilled to announce I will be presenting the following two sessions at Tech.Ed Australia 2011 :
| SCVMM 2012: Deployment, Planning, Upgrade
This session provides a scenario rich detailed walk through of VMM 2012 deployment, planning, and upgrade scenarios. Come and learn how to best plan your next VMM rollout |
| SCVMM 2012 Fabric Lifecycle: Networking and Storage
This session provides a scenario rich detailed walk through of new and more robust networking and storage features in VMM 2012. In this session you will learn how to discover, configure, and provision networking |
Came along! It will be an excellent session.
Tech.Ed Australia 2011 is on the Gold Coast between the 30th August and the 2nd September, registrations are now open. Find out more at http://australia.msteched.com/
Plan your organization’s migration to a private cloud with the Hyper-V Cloud Fast Track Assessment!
Use the MAP Toolkit to plan your organization’s migration to a private cloud with the Hyper-V Cloud Fast Track Assessment!
New MAP features to:
- Build portfolios of web applications and databases to migrate to Windows Azure and SQL Azure.
- Assess your environment’s readiness for Office 365 or Internet Explorer 9
- Identify and migrate databases from competing platforms like Oracle and MySQL to Microsoft SQL Server.
- Consolidate your servers on to Hyper-V Cloud Fast Track Infrastructures
The beta of the MAP Toolkit v6.0 is now available. To get involved in the beta program
https://connect.microsoft.com/
Window 7 as Guest OS for VDI : Max Virtual Processors Supported
Looking to implement a VDI scenario with Windows 7 as the guest with a 12:1 (VP:LP) ratio ? With the launch of the SP1 for W2008R2, Microsof increased the maximum number of running virtual processors (VP) per logical processor (LP) from 8:1 to 12:1 when running Windows 7 as the guest operating system for VDI deployments
Formula : (Number of processors) * (Number of cores) * (Number of threads per core) * 12
Virtual Processor to Logical Processor2 Ratio & Totals
|
Physical |
Cores per |
Threads per |
Max Virtual Processors |
|
2 |
2 |
2 |
96 |
|
2 |
4 |
2 |
192 |
|
2 |
6 |
2 |
288 |
|
2 |
8 |
2 |
384 |
|
4 |
2 |
2 |
192 |
|
4 |
4 |
2 |
384 |
|
4 |
6 |
2 |
512 |
|
4 |
8 |
2 |
512 |
1Remember that Hyper-V R2 supports up to a maximum of up to 512 virtual processors per server so while the math exceeds 512, they hit the maximum of 512 running virtual processors per server.
2A logical processor can be a core or thread depending on the physical processor.
- If a core provides a single thread (a 1:1 relationship), then a logical processor = core.
- If a core provides two threads per core (a 2:1 relationship), then each thread is a logical
processor.
More info :
http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ee405267%28WS.10%29.aspx
http://blogs.technet.com/b/virtualization/archive/2011/04/25/hyper-v-vm-density-vp-lp-ratio-cores-and-threads.aspx
SCVMM 2012 Management ports and protocols. Detailed
Here are the list of ports/protocols for the new SCVMM 2012.
| From | To | Protocol | Default port |
Where to change port setting |
| VMM management server | P2V source agent (control channel) |
DCOM | 135 | |
| Load Balancer | HTTP/HTTPS | 80/443 | Load balancer configuration provider | |
| WSUS server (data channel) | HTTP/HTTPS | 80/8530 (non-SSL), 443/8531 (with SSL) |
These ports are the IIS port binding with WSUS. They cannot be changed from VMM. | |
| WSUS server (control channel) | HTTP/HTTPS | 80/8530 (non-SSL), 443/8531 (with SSL) |
These ports are the IIS port binding with WSUS. They cannot be changed from VMM. | |
| VMM agent on Windows Server–based host (data channel for file transfers) |
HTTPS (using BITS) |
443 (Maximum value: 32768) |
||
| Citrix XenServer host (customization data channel) |
iSCSI | 3260 | On XenServer in transfer VM | |
| XenServer host (control channel) | HTTPS | 5989 | On XenServer host in: /opt/cimserver/cimserver_planned.conf | |
| remote Microsoft SQL Server database | TDS | 1433 | ||
| VMM agent on Windows Server–based host (control channel) |
WS-Management | 5985 | VMM setup | |
| VMM agent on Windows Server–based host (control channel – SSL) |
WS-Management | 5986 | ||
| in-guest agent (VMM to virtual machine control channel) |
WS-Management | 5985 | ||
| Storage Management Service | WMI | Local call |
||
| Cluster PowerShell interface | PowerShell | n/a | ||
| P2V source agent (data channel) | BITS | User-Defined | P2V cmdlet option | |
| VMM library server | hosts file transfer |
BITS | 443 (Maximum value: 32768) |
VMM setup |
| VMM host-to-host file transfer | BITS | 443 (Maximum value: 32768) |
||
| VMM Self-Service Portal | VMM Self-Service Portal web server |
HTTPS | 443 | VMM setup |
| VMM Self-Service Portal web server | VMM management server |
WCF | 8100 | VMM setup |
| Console connections (RDP) | virtual machines through Hyper-V hosts (VMConnect) |
RDP | 2179 | VMM console |
| Remote Desktop | virtual machines |
RDP | 3389 | On the virtual machine |
| VMM console | VMM management server |
WCF | 8100 | VMM setup |
| VMM management server (HTTPS) | WCF | 8101 | VMM setup | |
| VMM management server (NET.TCP) | WCF | 8102 | VMM setup | |
| VMM management server (HTTP) | WCF | 8103 | VMM setup | |
| Windows PE agent | VMM management server (control channel) |
WCF | 8101 | VMM setup |
| VMM management server (time sync) | WCF | 8103 | VMM setup | |
| WDS provider | VMM management server |
WCF | 8102 | VMM setup |
| Storage Management Service | SMI-S Provider | CIM-XML | Provider-specific port |
|
| VMM management server | VMware ESX Server 3i hosts |
HTTPS | 443 | |
Others
| Connection Type | Protocol | Default port | Where to change port setting |
| OOB Connection – SMASH over WS-Man | HTTPS | 443 | On BMC |
| OOB Connection IPMI | IPMI | 623 | On BMC |
|
BITS port for VMM transfers (data channel)
|
BITS | 443 | VMM setup |
| VMware ESX Server 3.0 and VMware ESX Server 3.5 hosts | SFTP | 22 | |
| VMware Web Services communication |
HTTPS | 443 | VMM console |
Note: When you install the VMM management server you can assign some of the ports that it will use for communications and file transfers between the VMM components.
24 Hours in the Cloud : Live on June 1st
The GITCA “24 Hours in the Cloud” round-the-world virtual event focusing on Cloud Computing is scheduled for June 1st. The speakers will be available via twitter to answer questions . Please visit http://sp.GITCA.org/sites/24Hours to find out more.
This is a very important community project and GITCA, supported by Microsoft, is acting as the enabler. So this is the community helping the community which is the way it should be. We have a great selection of presentations from experienced speakers from around the world. Please go to http://sp.gitca.org/sites/24hours/ugpages/FinalSpeakers.aspx to
view the list of speakers and http://sp.gitca.org/sites/24hours/ugpages/FinalSessions.aspx to view the list of sessions.
The first session, keynote by Doug Terry of Microsoft Research, will start at 9am Pacific Daylight
Time [UTC -7]. Please note the start time was incorrectly shown as UTC-8 in previous messages. The event can be accessed via http://vepexp.microsoft.com/24hitc which will go live on June 1st.
CentOS now have official support as guest VM in Hyper-V
Effective immediately, Microsoft will support Windows Server2008 R2 Hyper-V to run CentOS.
CentOS is a popular Linux distribution for Hosters, and this was the number one requirement for interoperability that we heard from that community.
This development will enable MS Hosting partners to consolidate their mixed Windows + Linux infrastructure on Windows Server Hyper-V; reducing cost and complexity, while betting on an enterprise class virtualization platform. .
How will support work?
Call Microsoft CSS. Support will cover installation issues as well as configuration issues.
What version of the Linux Integration Services support CentOS?
The existing Hyper-V Linux Integration Services for Linux Version 2.1 support CentOS. The following features are included in the Hyper-V Linux Integration Services 2.1 release:
· Symmetric Multi-Processing (SMP) Support: Supported Linux distributions can use up to 4 virtual processors (VP) per virtual machine.
· 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.
· Fastpath Boot Support for Hyper-V: Boot devices take advantage of the block Virtualization Service Client (VSC) to provide enhanced performance.
· Timesync: The clock inside the virtual machine will remain synchronized with the clock on the host.
· Integrated Shutdown: Virtual machines running Linux can be gracefully shut down from either Hyper-V Manager or System Center Virtual Machine Manager.
· Heartbeat: Allows the host to detect whether the guest is running and responsive.
· Pluggable Time Source: A pluggable clock source module is included to provide a more accurate time source to the guest.
The Linux Integration Services are available via the Microsoft Download Center here: http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?displaylang=en&FamilyID=eee39325-898b-4522-9b4c-f4b5b9b64551
From Wikipedia:
CentOS is a community-supported, mainly free software operating system based on Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL). It exists to provide a free enterprise class computing platform and strives to maintain 100% binary compatibility with its upstream distribution. CentOS stands for Community ENTerprise Operating System.
Red Hat Enterprise Linux is available only through a paid subscription service that provides access to software updates and varying levels of technical support. The product is largely composed of software packages distributed under either an open source or a free software license and the source code for these packages is made public by Red Hat.
CentOS developers use Red Hat’s source code to create a final product very similar to Red Hat Enterprise Linux. Red Hat’s branding and logos are changed because Red Hat does not allow them to be redistributed.
CentOS is available free of charge. Technical support is primarily provided by the community via official mailing lists, web forums, and chat rooms. The project is not affiliated with Red Hat and thus receives no financial or logistical support from the company; instead, the CentOS Project relies on donations from users and organizational sponsors.
Altaro
Recommended Books
System Center 2012 R2 Virtual Machine
System Center Virtual Machine Manager 2012 Cookbook
Cloudtidings.com 