Windows Server 2008 (R2) blog by Kurt Roggen [BE]

Understanding Microsoft Virtualization Solutions – R2 update

2010-03-02T07:53:19Z

This is a free ebook for IT professionals who want to learn more about the latest Microsoft virtualization technologies, including Hyper-V and Remote Desktop Services in Windows Server 2008 R2, Microsoft Virtual Desktop Infrastructure, Microsoft Application Virtualization 4.5, Microsoft Enterprise Desktop Virtualization, Windows Virtual PC and Windows XP Mode, System Center Virtual Machine Manager 2008, and Microsoft’s private and public cloud computing platforms including Windows Azure.

Chapters covered:

Why Virtualization?
Server Virtualization
Local Desktop Virtualization
Remote Desktop Virtualization
Virtualization Management
Cloud Computing

Download here

Windows Server 2008 R2 Licensing Overview

2010-02-25T23:41:00Z

“The Windows Server 2008 R2 licensing guide provides an in-depth overview of the Windows Server 2008 R2 core product offerings, including product names, available sales channels, licensing models, and number of running instances allowed per license in physical and virtual operating system environments (POSEs and VOSEs)”.

Download here

Licensing Microsoft Server Products in Virtual Environments white paper – December 2009 Update

“This white paper describes Microsoft licensing models for the server operating systems and server applications under virtual environments. It can help you understand how to use Microsoft server products with virtualization technologies, such as Microsoft Hyper-V technology, Microsoft Virtual Server 2005 R2, or third-party virtualization solutions that are provided by VMWare and Parallels.“

Download here

Hyper-V Technical Information and Resources

2010-02-24T19:44:00Z

If you need assistance in any of these areas below, have a look at the Technet Hyper-V Library.

Planning
Installation
Deployment
Management
Virtual workloads
Security
Performance
High-Availability

Hyper-V Monitor Gadget and Hyper-V Manager tray icon

2010-02-18T21:42:00Z

Just wanted to share with you same nice Hyper-V “gadgets” that make life more fun…

Tore Lervik created a sidebar gadget to see what the Hyper-V servers are doing from your workstation.
The gadget can list multiple servers at once and also support VMconnect when double clicking on a VM.

Some features:

Host

Title
Control (Shut Down, Start, WakeOnLAN)
RAM

Title
Status
CPU graph
Control (Start, Turn Off, Shut Down and Save)
Connect (RDP, VMConnect)

Multilanguage support.

Download version 5.0 here at www.mindre.net

Jerry Orman created a Hyper-V Manager that sits in the system tray and allows you to Start, Stop, Save State, and Pause the VMs running on that box.
So when you right-click the tray icon, you get a list of the virtual machines on that host with the current state of the machine.

Download here

For more information: Jerry Orman’s blog

Virtual Machine Manager 2008 R2 Documentation

2010-02-12T19:45:00Z

Find documentation that you can download to help you deploy, operate and maintain System Center Virtual Machine Manager VMM 2008 R2.
You can also browse the product documentation online in the Technical Library

System Center Virtual Machine Manager 2008 R2 hotfix rollup package: February 9, 2010 (KB978560)

2010-02-10T23:15:49Z

A VMM 2008 R2 rollup package that was released on February 9, 2010 resolving following issues:

Issue #1: Self Service Portal
Issue #2: Quick Migration/Live Migration after Quick Storage Migration
Issue #3: VMware duplicate custom named tags on VMs
Issue #4: Self-Service User role management

After installation a restart is required if the Virtual Machine Manager service or the Virtual Machine Manager Agent service is running when the rollup is installed on the Virtual Machine Manager server.

This update requires updating the VMM agent on the Hyper-V and Virtual Server hosts. The hosts will have a status of Needs Attention if the agent has not been updated.

To update the VMM agent on multiple hosts, follow these steps:

Open the Virtual Machine Manager console.
Click Administration, and then click Managed Computers.
Select the hosts, and then click Update Agent.
Enter your credentials, and then click OK.

The installation of the hotfix rollup package KB978560 brings VMM up to version 2.0.4273.0

Download here

Microsoft Assessment and Planning (MAP) Toolkit 5.0 Community Technical Preview (CTP)

2010-02-09T12:57:00Z

Microsoft released the Microsoft Assessment and Planning Toolkit 5.0 Community Technical Preview (CTP), designed to simplify and streamline IT infrastructure planning process across multiple scenarios through network-wide automated discovery and assessments, this tool provides a quick and complete inventory of current IT environment of any organization, hardware and device compatibility assessment, and actionable reporting of recommended hardware upgrades for migration.

MAP Toolkit 5.0 CTP includes:

Inventory of heterogeneous server environments including Windows Server, Linux, UNIX and VMware technologies
Ability to determine usage of deployed System Center Configuration Manager, a member of the Core Client Access License (Core CAL) Suite
Readiness assessment for migration or upgrade to Microsoft Office 2010.

Additional Features:

Windows 7 Hardware and Device Compatibility Assessment
Windows Server 2008 R2 Hardware and Device Compatibility Assessment
Virtualization Candidates Assessment for Hyper-V Server Consolidation
Inventory of VMware Server Hosts and Guests
User Interface and Proposal Customization for Partner co-branding
Enhanced Usability and Improved Inventory Performance
SQL Server Instance Discovery
Desktop Security Assessment for Anti-virus and Anti-malware Programs Installation
Forefront Client Security/NAP Readiness Assessment

Download here (registration required)

PowerShell Management Library for Hyper-V R2

2010-02-08T06:41:00Z

The new PowerShell cmdlets for Hyper-V (by James O’Neill) are implemented in the form of a PowerShell version 2 module which is distributed as a single zip file from http://PShyperV.codeplex.com.

A previous version was implemented for version 1 of PowerShell and remains available on CodePlex. The previous version will also work on PowerShell V2, but the new version will not work on PowerShell V1.
Both versions work with the original release of Hyper-V and the R2 release.

The library uses 31 different verbs and 69 different nouns (2139 possible combinations)

To install the Hyper-V module, copy the contents of the “HyperV_Install” folder (inside the zip file) to a new folder “%systemdrive%\Windows\System32\WindowsPowerShell\v1.0\Modules\HyperV”

To find the Hyper-V module, from PowerShell, type

Get-Module -List

Notice the HyperV module is picked up automatically by PowerShell.

To import the Hyper-V module, from PowerShell, type

import-module HyperV

To find out which commands are available through the module, from PowerShell, type

get-command -module HyperV

To get help or more detailed information about a specific cmdlet, from PowerShell, type

get-help <cmdlets>

Some more examples:

Connecting to a VM
New-VMConnectSession

Discovering and manipulating Machine states
Get-VMState , Set-VMState , Convert-VmState, Ping-VM , Test-VMHeartBeat, Shutdown-VM , Start-VM, Stop-VM, Suspend-VM, Get-VMKVP, Add-KVP, Remove-KVP, Get-VMJPEG

Backing up, exporting and snapshotting VMs
Export-VM , Import-VM, Get-VMSnapshot, Choose-VMSnapshot , Apply-VMSnapshot , New-VMSnapshot ,Remove-VMSnapshot, Rename-VMSnapShot, Update-VMSnapshot, Get-VMSnapshotTree, Get-VmBackupScript

Adding and removing VMs, configuring motherboard settings.
New-VM , Remove-VM , Set-VM , Get-VMCPUCount, Set-VMCPUCount, Get-VMMemory, Set-VMMemory, Set-VMSerialPort

Manipulating Disk controllers, drives and disk images
Get-VMDiskController
Add-VMSCSIController , Remove-VMSCSIcontroller
Get-VMDriveByController , Add-VMDRIVE , Remove-VMdrive
Get-VMDiskByDrive, Add-VMDisk , Set-VMDisk, Get-VMDisk
Get-VMFloppyDisk , Add-VMFloppyDisk
Add-VMNewHardDisk

Manipluating Network Interface Cards
Get-VMNic , List-VMNic , Choose-VMNIC, Add-VMNIC, Remove-VMNIC , Set-VMNICAddress , Set-VMNICConnection , Get-VMNicport,
Get-VMNicSwitch, Choose-VMSwitch, New-VMSwitchPort, Get-VMByMACaddress, Choose-VMExternalEthernet,
New-VMExternalSwitch, New-VMInternalSwitch, New-VmPrivateSwitch

Working with VHD files
Get-VHDDefaultPath, Get-VHDInfo, New-VHD, Compact-VHD, Test-VHD,Convert-VHD,Merge-VHD,Mount-VHD, Unmount-VHD

Download Hyper-V R2 PS Library documentation here

Download Hyper-V R2 PS Library here

VMM Powershell Jobs History Garbage Collection

2010-02-03T14:07:00Z

VMM provides PowerShell cmdlets that allow you to perform simple administrative tasks in an automated way or that you can use together with other cmdlets or command-line elements, to perform more complex tasks (eg: rapid provisioning).

Jobs are displayed for each action performed in VMM and can be viewed directly in the VMM administrator console. VMM provides a central place for monitoring actions taken in VMM with Jobs.
You have the ability to sort, filter and group jobs to easily find jobs that meet specific criteria.
Each failed job has troubleshooting tips to help you resolve failures. By integrating jobs with the VMM console, you have a single place to monitor your virtual environment.

VMM provides three ways to get information about jobs:

Jobs view
Jobs window (VMM toolbar)
Latest Job tab (on a host or VM)

By default, VMM maintains the job history for the past 90 days in its SQL database (TaskTrail table) and cleans up using its internal Garbage Collection process.
The size of the VMM database is impacted by the number of jobs (daily) run and the number of days these jobs are kept.

To change the interval of the garbage collection process and to (automatically) purge the Job History in VMM 2008, add the “TaskGC” registry key to HKLM\Software\Microsoft\Microsoft System Center Virtual Machine Manager Server\Settings\SQL. The REG_DWORD value controls the number of days that events are stored in the SQL database.

Once you restart the VMM service jobs will be automatically be purged from the database.

By default, the garbage collection job runs every 20 hours and will read the TaskGC value to start the removal process of jobs above this limit.

NOTE: Microsoft recommends for VMM implementations over 150 hosts, that you enable server-optimized garbage collector (GC) on the VMM server instead of the default workstation garbage collector.
This can significantly reduce the CPU utilization on the VMM server and improve your performance for parallel VMM operations.

To enable the server-optimized garbage collector on the VMM server, create a file that is named vmmservice.exe.config - using the content below - and then for VMM 2008, place it into the %SYSTEMDRIVE%\Program Files\Microsoft System Center Virtual Machine Manager 2008\Bin directory on the VMM server, or for VMM 2008 R2, place it into the %SYSTEMDRIVE%\Program Files\Microsoft System Center Virtual Machine Manager 2008 R2\Bin directory on the VMM server.

Content of the vmmservice.config file
<configuration>
     <runtime>
           <gcServer enabled="true"/>
     </runtime>
</configuration>

Virtual Machine Manager 2008 (R2) listening ports

2010-02-01T22:45:00Z

The other day, I got asked which ports VMM 2008 (R2) uses/needs.
Well, here‘s a list of TCP/IP ports SCVMM needs to talk to various system components:

VMM Server
- 80 (HTTP, WinRM) - Mgmt
- 443 (HTTPS, BITS) - Data
- 8100 (WCF Connections to PowerShell or VMM Administrator Console)
Library Server
- 80 (HTTP, WS-MAN)
- 443 (HTTPS, BITS)
VMM SQL Server
- 1433 (Remote SQL instance connection)
- 1434 (SQL browser service) - only needed for initial setup
VMM Self-Service Web Portal

80 (HTTP) or 443 (HTTPS)

VM Host: Hyper-V or Virtual Server

80 (HTTP, WS-MAN)
443 (HTTPS, BITS)
2179 (VMConnect on Hyper-V hosts for single-class console view)
3389 (RDP)
5900 (VMRC on Virtual Server hosts)

VM Host: VMware ESX hosts

22 (SSH for SFTP files to/from ESX hosts) - this is only used for ESX host version 3.0 and 3.5 (not needed for 3.5i)
443 (HTTPS for calling VI Web Services APIs)

P2V Source

80 (HTTP, WinRM) - Mgmt
135 (DCOM)
443 (HTTPS, BITS) - Data

VMware VirtualCenter server

443 (HTTPS for calling VI Web Services APIs)

For more information: VMM Ports and Protocols

Virtual Machine Manager Refresh jobs & intervals

2010-01-28T21:53:00Z

The VMM server initiates a series of specific refresh jobs at specific intervals. Here’s an overview of what happens when…

Host Refresher
Runs every 30 minutes on every host (with time lags) and updates host properties. It also updates disk/SAN and host network (NIC / virtual switch) information. It does not check any VM related properties or performance counters on hosts. It can be manually triggered on the UI or through PS cmdlet Refresh-VMHost.

VM Heavy Refresher
Runs every 30 minutes on every host and also runs whenever a VM is clicked on (or when you call Refresh-VM PS cmdlet). It updates all VM properties, resource pools, clustering information for this VM and snapshots, but it does not update VM performance counter info. It can be manually triggered on the UI or through the PS cmdlet Refresh-VM.

VM Light Refresher
Runs every 2 minutes on every host that is currently in the VMM database.
This refresher does the following:

    - Checks the host state (to see if the agent is running or the agent is down) and virtualization software status
    - Syncs the state of a VM
    - Marks VMs as missing
    - Imports new VMs created outside of VMM (when VMM detects a new VM created, it is imported into VMM and launch the heavy refresher for this new VMs)

Cluster Refresher
Runs every 30 minutes and refreshes all cluster properties (including bringing in newly added nodes or taking our removed nodes). It can be manually triggered on the UI or through PS cmdlet Refresh-VMHostCluster.

Library Refresher
Runs on user configurable schedule (By default: every 1 hour, increments by 1 hour intervals and can be turned off completely) and updates the library shares info and metadata about library objects. It can be manually triggered on the UI or through PS cmdlet Refresh-LibraryShare.

Performance Refresher
Runs every 9 minutes on a host or whenever there is any state changing operation on the VM (start/stop/save/etc.). It collects performance counter information of both the host and all the VM’s on a given host. The performance data is used for intelligent placement and the star rating calculation.

VirtualCenter Refresher
Runs every 30 minutes and refreshes VC properties, ESX hosts and resource pools that are managed by this VC. It can be manually triggered on the UI or through PS cmdlet Refresh-VirtualizationManager.

User Role Refresher
Runs every 30 minutes and updates user role properties.

PRO Tip Refresher
Runs every 30 seconds. It looks for PRO specific alerts in Operations Manager and reconciles the PRO tips in our DB against the data that is brought back from OpsMgr. This refresher cannot be manually triggered.

More information: VMM Blog All about refreshers

MAC Address Pools in Hyper-V and VMM

2010-01-25T08:10:00Z

Hyper-V provides virtual machines with a pool of Media Access Control (MAC) addresses when Hyper-V is installed. Hyper-V has an algorithm to avoid duplicate MAC addresses on a single host, but not across multiple hosts. A crucial element in this algorithm is the Hyper-V host IPv4 address (last 2 octets).

This article describes how MAC address pools work in Hyper-V, how it is possible to accidentally deploy hosts with duplicate MAC address pools, how to modify the default MAC pool and how using SCVMM 2008 to manage your Hyper-V hosts can prevent duplicate MAC addresses.

The table below shows how to identify VM created with Hyper-V or VMM based in the MAC Address identifier.

VMs created with Hyper-V	00-15-5D
VMs crated with VMM	00-1D-D8

NOTE: Since Windows Server 2008 R2 Hyper-V, you can change this MAC address pool from the Hyper-V Manager console instead of going through registry keys (MinimumMacAddress/MaximumMacAddress).

Learn more on how Hyper-V uses a MAC pool per Hyper-V host and how VMM uses a MAC address pool for all VMHosts (Hyper-V, Virtual Server, VMware ESX).
For more information: VirtualizationAdmin.com: Dealing with MAC addresses in Hyper-V and VMM

Active Directory Web Services (ADWS) and Active Directory Management Gateway Service (ADMGS)

2010-01-14T10:47:09Z

Active Directory Web Services (ADWS) is a (new) windows service that enables remote management of any local directory service instance using WS-* (Web Services) protocols and is only present on domain controllers running Windows Server 2008 R2.

In a non-Windows Server 2008 R2 domain controller environment, the Active Directory Management Gateway Service enables administrators to use the Active Directory module for PowerShell and/or the “Active Directory Administrative Center” (ADAC) snapin - built on-top of PS and only available and running on Windows Server 2008 R2 or Windows 7 - to access or manage directory service instances that are running on Windows Server 2008 or Windows Server 2003 operating systems in the list below.

The Active Directory Management Gateway Service provides a web service interface to Active Directory domains and instances of Active Directory Lightweight Directory Services (AD LDS) or Active Directory Application Mode (ADAM) that are running on the same server as the Active Directory Management Gateway Service.

You can download and install the Active Directory Management Gateway Service on servers and domain controllers running the following operating systems:

Windows Server 2003 R2 with Service Pack 2 (SP2)
Windows Server 2003 SP2
Windows Server 2008
Windows Server 2008 SP2

The ADGMS provides the same ADWS functionality in a non-Windows Server 2008 R2 domain controller environment, hence its name “Management Gateway” service.

Here’s how the architecture looks like.

ADWS manages all directory service instances running on the server, including Domain Controller, Global Catalog and ADLDS instances.
The AD Web Service is implemented using WCF (Windows Communication Foundations) and listens on the registered TCP port 9389.

So in this way, you could start using the PowerShell modules for Active Directory from your Windows 7 workstation to automate some directory operations.

To get a list of available PS modules, use the cmdlet Get-Module.

PS:\> Get-Module –ListAvailable

To use a module, use the cmdlet Import-Module

PS:\> Import-Module ActiveDirectory

To get the cmdlets imported from a module, use the Get-Command cmdlet with the –Module parameter

PS:\> Get-Command –Module ActiveDirectory

To get a better understanding about the Active Directory PowerShell model, have a look below:

NOTE: You can install the Active Directory Management Gateway Service on writable domain controllers as well as read-only domain controllers that are running Windows Server 2008 or Windows Server 2008 SP2.
After it is installed on any of these operating systems, the Active Directory Management Gateway Service runs as the Windows Server 2008 R2 Active Directory Web Services (ADWS) service and provides the same functionality.

For more information about ADWS, see What's New in AD DS: Active Directory Web Services

NOTE: Installing the Active Directory Management Gateway Service on your Windows Server 2008–based or Windows Server 2003–based servers does not make it possible for you to install the Active Directory module or the Active Directory Administrative Center (which is available only on Windows Server 2008 R2 or Windows 7 operating systems) on these servers.

If the Active Directory Management Gateway Service on your Windows Server 2008 or Windows Server 2003 server is stopped or disabled, client applications, such as the Active Directory module or the Active Directory Administrative Center will not be able to access or manage any directory service instances that are running on this server.

Download ADMGS here

For more information:

Changes in Functionality from Windows Server 2008 to Windows Server 2008 R2

2010-01-08T14:02:46Z

This 211-pages document describes the new and changed functionality and features available in Windows Server 2008 R2. The Windows Server 2008 R2 operating system includes changes to Windows Server 2008 features and technologies that help improve the security of computers running Windows Server 2008 R2, increase productivity, and reduce administrative overhead.

Download here

Configuring Server Roles and Features in Windows Server 2008 R2

2009-12-06T23:05:52Z

Windows Server 2008 includes a command-line utility called ServerManagerCmd.exe that allows administrators to configure roles, role services and features from the command line. Beginning with Windows Server 2008 R2, ServerManagerCmd.exe has been deprecated. When you attempt to run servermanagercmd.exe you will receive the following message:

“Servermanagercmd.exe is deprecated, and is not guaranteed to be supported in future releases of Windows. We recommend that you use the Windows PowerShell cmdlets that are available for Server Manager.”

Servermanagercmd.exe has been replaced with new PowerShell Server Manager cmdlets (pronounced ‘command-lets’). Before we can use these new cmdlets we must first import them as a PowerShell module. There is a Powershell module called “ServerManager”.

Open an elevated PowerShell command prompt and enter the following command:

import-module ServerManager

There are 3 new PowerShell cmdlets:

get-command -module ServerManager

CommandType     Name
-----------     ----
Cmdlet          Add-WindowsFeature
Cmdlet          Get-WindowsFeature
Cmdlet          Remove-WindowsFeature

Their corresponding ServerManagerCmd.exe equivalents [in brackets]:

Add-WindowsFeature [servermanagercmd.exe –install]

Get-WindowsFeature [servermanagercmd.exe –query]

Remove-WindowsFeature [servermanagercmd.exe –remove]

For more information: Microsoft Technet: Overview of Server Manager Commands