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Posts Tagged ‘VMM 2012 SP1’

Dell EqualLogic and VMM 2012 support

July 25, 2012 Leave a comment

With the release of VMM 2012 SP1 CTP2, Microsoft added support to the SMP storage provider.

Now VMM 2012 with SP1, supports the following types of storage providers:

  • SMI-S CIM–XML
  • SMP

Besides the new SMP provider type, the VMM 2012 SP1 release adds the following new functionality:

  • Supports auto (dynamic) iSCSI target systems, such as the Dell EqualLogic PS Series. System Center 2012 – Virtual Machine Manager supported only static iSCSI target systems.
  • Supports the thin provisioning of logical units through VMM. Your storage array must support thin provisioning, and thin provisioning must be enabled for a storage pool by your storage administrator

For a detailed step by step, look at my blog post https://virtualisationandmanagement.wordpress.com/2012/06/28/vmm-2012-sp1-installing-dell-equallogic-ps-series-smp-provider-new/

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VMM 2012 SP1: Installing and Configuring Dell EqualLogic PS Series SMP provider : NEW

June 28, 2012 6 comments

VMM 2012 SP1 supports the same storage arrays that were supported in VMM 2012, plus the SMP provider. For more info : (http://social.technet.microsoft.com/wiki/contents/articles/4583.scvmm-2012-storage-and-load-balancer-provider-downloads-en-us.aspx)

Below are the steps to install and connect your Dell EqualLogic PS Storage to VMM 2012 SP1 using the new SMP Provider

1. Install the Dell EqualLogic Host Integration Tools 4.5 on the VMM management server, and then restart the server.

Note: Dell EqualLogic Host Integration Tools compatible with SCVMM 2012 SP1 is planned for availability late this year. The new release is the next step in integrating Microsoft applications with EqualLogic storage arrays.
Contact Dell to obtain the Dell EqualLogic Host Integration Tools.

2. Start the VMM command shell as an administrator. Import the EqualLogic PowerShell Tools module and then add the storage provider by using the New-EqlGroupAccess cmdlet. Then, import the storage provider into VMM by using the Import-SCStorageProvider cmdlet. For example:

PS C:\> Import-Module -Name “C:\Program Files\EqualLogic\bin\EQLPSTools.dll”

PS C:\> New-EqlGroupAccess -GroupName “EqlGroup” -GroupWKAddress 10.0.0.0 -GroupMKAddress 10.0.0.1 -UserName Administrator -Password “AcctPassword”

PS C:\> Import-SCStorageProvider

It may take a while depending on the number of storage pools and logical units that already exist on the array.

To verify whether the provider was imported, in the Fabric workspace of the VMM console, in the Fabric pane, expand Storage, and then click Providers.

In the Providers pane, verify that the provider appears, with a status of Responding.

4. To bring the storage pools under management and to assign classifications, follow these steps:

a. In the Arrays pane, right-click the array, and then click Properties.

b. In the Array Name Properties dialog box, click the Storage Pools tab.

c. Under Storage Pools, select the check box next to each storage pool that you want VMM to manage.

d. Under Classification, select an existing classification or create a new one. To create a new one, click Create classification, enter a classification, click Add, and then in the Classification list, select the new classification.

e. When you are finished, click OK.

f. Open the Jobs workspace, and verify that the Sets Storage Array job completes.

5. Verify that you can create and delete logical units. To do this, follow these steps:

a. In the Fabric pane, under Storage, click Classifications and Pools.

b. In the Classifications, StoragePools, and Logical Units pane, click the desired storage pool.

c. On the Home tab, click Create Logical Unit.

d. In the Create Logical Unit dialog box, enter a name, optional description, and size.

e. If the storage pool is configured to support thin provisioning, optionally click Create thin storage logical unit with capacity committed on demand, and then click OK.

When the job completes, in the Classifications, StoragePools, and Logical Units pane, verify that the new logical unit is listed under the pool.

f. To remove the logical unit, click the logical unit. Then, on the Home tab, in the Remove group, click Remove. Review the warning message, and then click OK to continue. Verify that the logical unit is removed from the list.

To configure storage on a Hyper-V host, follow the procedures in in the System Center 2012 – Virtual Machine Manager topic How to Configure Storage on a Hyper-V Host. Try assigning a logical unit to a host, with an assigned drive letter.

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

VMM 2012 SP1 storage providers supports : new SMP storage provider

June 25, 2012 Leave a comment

With the release of VMM 2012 SP1 CTP2, Microsoft added support to the SMP storage provider.

Now VMM 2012 with SP1, supports the following types of storage providers:

  • SMI-S CIM–XML
  • SMP

Besides the new SMP provider type, the VMM 2012 SP1 release adds the following new functionality:

  • Supports auto (dynamic) iSCSI target systems, such as the Dell EqualLogic PS Series. System Center 2012 – Virtual Machine Manager supported only static iSCSI target systems.
  • Supports the thin provisioning of logical units through VMM. Your storage array must support thin provisioning, and thin provisioning must be enabled for a storage pool by your storage administrator

To evaluate the storage enhancements in this CTP, you must use the following storage arrays.

Provider Type Supported Arrays
SMI-S CIM-XML See the “Supported Storage Arrays” section of Configuring Storage Overview for the supported storage arrays.

http://social.technet.microsoft.com/wiki/contents/articles/4583.scvmm-2012-storage-and-load-balancer-provider-downloads.aspx
SMP Dell EqualLogic PS Series using iSCSI
Categories: Dell, Microsoft, Virtualization Tags: , , , , , ,

System Center VMM 2012 SP1 CTP2: What’s new

June 16, 2012 1 comment

Microsoft announced the availability of CTP2 of System Center 2012 SP1.

With support for Windows 2012 and SQL 2012 introduced in CTP1, here are what’s more :

. Network Virtualization: Introduced in CTP1, this release adds support for using DHCP to assign customer addresses and for using either the IP rewrite or IP encapsulation mechanism to virtualize the IP address of a virtual machine.

· VHDX support: Introduced in CTP1, you can now convert from .vhd to .vhdx. In addition, placement determines the format of a VHD based on the OS of the destination host (when you create a virtual machine with a blank virtual hard disk), and the provisioning of a physical computer as a Hyper-V host supports the use of a .vhdx file as the base operating system image.

· Storage Enhancements: Support for the new Windows Standards-Based Storage Management service, which enables you to discover storage by using multiple provider types. In addition, this release adds support for the thin provisioning of logical units, and for the discovery of Serial Attached SCSI (SAS) storage.

· Provisioning a Hyper-V Host Enhancements: Support for performing deep discovery to retrieve detailed information about physical network adapters.

· Support for VMM Console Add-Ins: You can now create Add-Ins and extend the VMM console. Add-Ins allow you to enable new actions or additional configuration for VMM objects by writing an application that uses context passed about the selected VMM objects. You can also embed custom WPF UI or web portals directly into the console’s main views to provide a more fully-integrated experience.

In App Controller, you can deploy and manage in a single console, applications running in Windows Azure PaaS, IaaS, on premises VMM clouds, and clouds provided by hosting providers. In addition, there are the following new features:

· Windows Azure Virtual Machine support: In addition to supporting Windows Azure PaaS workloads, App Controller adds support to the newly announced IaaS virtual machines in CTP2. You can easily deploy, manage, and operate Windows Azure Virtual Machines.

· Copy VMs from private cloud to public cloud: In CTP2, you can select a VMM private cloud VM and copy it to Windows Azure. App Controller makes upload disk, convert settings, and deploying a new virtual machine into an easy migrate flow!

· Hosting Provider support: In addition to on premises VMM private cloud and Windows Azure public cloud, App Controller supports connecting to VMM clouds at a hosting provider. You can connect to a hosting provider and manage user access to these clouds. You can also deploy, manage, and operate virtual machines at the hosting provider.

Also, check the the Project code-named “Service Provider Foundation” for System Center 2012 Service Pack 1 (SP1) provides a rich set of web services that manages Virtual Machine Manager (VMM) for System Center 2012 SP1. The infrastructure of Virtual Machine Manager is exposed through “Service Provider Foundation” as a web service. Because of this, you can manage this System Center component through the web services; for example, you can create or delete virtual machines.

“Service Provider Foundation” provides a web service that acts as an intermediary between web-based administration client and server applications. The web service supports REST-based requests using the OData protocol. The web service handles these requests through Windows PowerShell scripts to communicate and manage server applications.

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