Microsoft Virtualisation User Group UK

Citrix XenDesktop on Microsoft Windows Server 2008 R2 Hyper-V Reference Architecture

Patrick — Tue, 03 Aug 2010 14:01:00 GMT

The above white paper describes a HP developed Converged Infrastructure enterprise reference architecture for client virtualization featuring Citrix XenDesktop on Microsoft Windows Server 2008 R2 Hyper-V.

Featuring HP ProLiant BL460c server blades, HP StorageWorks P4800 SAN storage, utilizing Flex-10 coupled with HP Virtual Connect, and managed end-to-end by HP Insight Control, this reference architecture delivers an enterprise class virtual desktop solution capable of supporting approximately 800 Microsoft Office 2007 users on Microsoft Windows XP.

You can download the above whitepaper from http://h20195.www2.hp.com/V2/GetPDF.aspx/4AA2-7731ENW.pdf

Patrick Lownds

Microsoft System Center Virtual Machine Manager Self-Service Portal 2.0 Release Candidate

Patrick — Tue, 13 Jul 2010 17:44:00 GMT

The Virtual Machine Manager Self-Service Portal 2.0 (VMMSSP) is a fully supported, partner extensible solution that can be used by customers to pool, allocate, and manage their compute, network and storage resources to deliver the foundation for a private cloud platform in their datacenter.

Built on top of Windows Server 2008 R2, Hyper-V, and System Center VMM. You can use it to pool, allocate, and manage resources to offer infrastructure as a service and to deliver the foundation for a private cloud platform inside your datacenter. VMMSSP includes a pre-built web-based user interface that has sections for both the datacenter managers and the business unit IT consumers, with role-based access control.

VMMSSP also includes a dynamic provisioning engine. VMMSSP reduces the time needed to provision infrastructures and their components by offering business unit “on-boarding,” infrastructure request and change management. The VMMSSP package also includes detailed guidance on how to implement VMMSSP inside your environment.

To download a release candidate build go to http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyID=fef38539-ae5a-462b-b1c9-9a02238bb8a7&displaylang=en

Patrick Lownds

Dynamic Memory Technical Overview Whitepaper.

Patrick — Tue, 13 Jul 2010 10:06:00 GMT

Microsoft has published a technical whitepaper on Dynamic Memory and this paper can be downloaded from http://download.microsoft.com/download/E/0/5/E05DF049-8220-4AEE-818B-786ADD9B434E/Implementing_and_Configuring_Dynamic_Memory.docx

Patrick Lownds

Public Beta Now Available for Windows 7 and Windows Server 2008 R2 Service Pack 1

Patrick — Tue, 13 Jul 2010 08:50:00 GMT

On July 12, 2010, at the Worldwide Partner Conference (WPC) in Washington, D.C., Microsoft announced the public availability of the beta for Windows 7 Service Pack 1 (SP1). In addition to SP1 beta availability, Microsoft is also provided important updates regarding estimated SP1 timing, end user downgrade rights and general Windows product lifecycle policy. You can download the beta of SP1 from http://technet.microsoft.com/en-gb/evalcenter/ff183870.aspx?ITPID=wtcfeed

Patrick Lownds

Insight Control for Microsoft System Center 6.1 now available

Patrick — Thu, 08 Jul 2010 07:42:00 GMT

New Features
• Support for new ProLiant G7 servers and iLO 3
• Support for ProLiant Support Pack 8.40
• Support for user configurable non-local accounts for Server Discovery and Server Monitoring
• Additional HP Inventory Tool attributes
• New Setup and Installation Guide for HP Catalog for ProLiant Server Updates

Software Download location:
The location in Software Depot is www.hp.com/go/HPICE (HP Passport ID required)

Instructions:

To download the ISO image, click the Receive for Free button. Download the ISO image “Insight Control for System Center 6.1 CD ISO - Jul 2010 (594131-002.iso)”

Patrick Lownds

New Windows Azure Training Kit Now Available

Patrick — Mon, 05 Jul 2010 08:02:00 GMT

Microsoft have released the Windows Azure Platform training kit whcih is now available and ready for download at http://blogs.msdn.com/b/windowsazure/archive/2010/06/11/new-windows-azure-training-kit-now-available.aspx. This training kit has everything you need to get started and then dig deep into the Windows Azure platform.

Patrick Lownds

How Microsoft does IT - Part 3 How microsoft.com Moved to a Virtualized Infrastructure

Patrick — Mon, 05 Jul 2010 07:59:00 GMT

Microsoft virtualization technologies and SAN-based clustered storage solved numerous ongoing challenges. Implementing a dynamic compute infrastructure enabled Microsoft.com Operations to increase architectural flexibility and optimize use of resources. To read the technical case study and watch the video go to http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ff728013.aspx

Patrick Lownds

How Microsoft does IT - Part 2 Reducing Costs and Improving Systems Management with Hyper-V and System Center Operations Manager

Patrick — Mon, 05 Jul 2010 07:56:00 GMT

Microsoft E&D IT leverages System Center Operations Manager and Hyper-V to Manage over 170 different applications and a 600+ Server Environment to streamline application and server Infrastructure management. To read the technical case study and watch the video go to http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ff772001.aspx

Patrick Lownds

How Microsoft does IT - Part 1 Project Carnation

Patrick — Mon, 05 Jul 2010 07:52:00 GMT

Project Carnation (a major storage consolidation project) involved migrating 211 storage frames at the end of their lifespan to 11 high-density SAN devices resulting in improving both redundancy and scalability of the storage platform while dramatically lowering power consumption and operating costs. To read the entire case study go to http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ff795580.aspx

Patrick Lownds

Performance characterization report for Microsoft Hyper-V R2 on HP StorageWorks P4500 SAN storage

Patrick — Wed, 30 Jun 2010 21:04:00 GMT

HP StorageWorks P4500 21.6TB SAS Multi-site SAN Solutions deliver enterprise functionality that enhances virtual environments, simplifies management, and reduces costs. Easy to deploy, scale and maintain, the HP P4500 SANs ensure that crucial business data remains available. Its innovative approach to storage provides unique double fault protection across the entire SAN, reducing vulnerability without driving up costs the way traditional SANs did.

The HP P4500 SAN Solutions are optimized for database and e-mail applications, as well as virtualized servers. For high availability and disaster recovery, the HP P4500 SAN eliminates single points of failure across the SAN with an innovative approach to data availability. Built on a storage clustering architecture, the HP P4500 SAN allows you to scale capacity and performance linearly without incurring downtime or performance bottlenecks, or forcing expensive upgrades.

The following paper describes the testing methodology, test execution, test tools used, hardware/software configuration details, test results and recommendations. It provides detailed information on how HP hardware was configured for the testing, how Microsoft Hyper-V R2 and the virtual machines were configured, and how the testing tool was configured to test the performance capabilities of Hyper-V R2 VMs with the HP P4500 SAN in various test scenarios.

To download this paper go to http://h20195.www2.hp.com/V2/GetPDF.aspx/4AA1-9557ENW.pdf

Patrick Lownds

Building a Microsoft Windows Server 2008 R2 Hyper-V failover cluster with HP Virtual Connect FlexFabric

Patrick — Wed, 30 Jun 2010 20:54:00 GMT

This white paper provides an illustration of how to build a two node Microsoft Windows Server 2008 R2 Hyper-V Failover Cluster with HP ProLiant server blades and HP Virtual Connect (VC) FlexFabric.

The focus of the paper is on the steps necessary to configure the VC FlexFabric modules based on an example environment. This includes more complex details such as setting up NIC teaming and VLAN configurations correctly for the Hyper-V configuration. The purpose of this example scenario is to test and validate that live migration support for a test virtual machine (VM) is functioning correctly in this configuration. Using the steps detailed in this paper, a VM was created and both planned (live migration) and unplanned failover tests were successfully completed.

To download this paper go to http://h20195.www2.hp.com/V2/GetPDF.aspx/4AA1-9257ENW.pdf

Patrick Lownds

Scalability of bare-metal and virtualized HP ProLiant servers in x64 and x86 HP Server Based Computing environments

Patrick — Thu, 24 Jun 2010 16:49:00 GMT

This updated white paper contains a historical summary of performance characterizations for HP ProLiant servers recommended for the HP Server Based Computing (HP SBC) environment, and includes the results for the recently announced ProLiant G7 Servers. The information in this document is ideally suited to IT professionals planning HP SBC deployments, and the performance metrics provided can help estimate the number of HP ProLiant servers required for Citrix XenApp in both “bare metal” and XenServer environments.

By using the test results and recommendations in this document, you can develop a plan to migrate your existing x86 servers to the ProLiant G7’s, and realize the benefits of the major advances in energy efficiency, virtualization, and best-in-class management. Compared to older x86 servers, HP ProLiant G7 servers enable significant consolidation ratios and corresponding reductions of power and cooling expenses, as well as reduced software licenses, which can make an investment in ProLiant G7 technology pay for itself in a matter of months.

To download this technical paper go to http://h20195.www2.hp.com/V2/GetPDF.aspx/4AA0-2414ENW.pdf

Patrick

Performance of HP ProLiant BL465c G7 with AMD Opteron 6100 Series processors in 32- and 64-bit HP SBC environments

Patrick — Thu, 24 Jun 2010 16:47:00 GMT

Performance of HP ProLiant BL465c G7 with AMD Opteron 6100 Series processors in 32- and 64-bit HP SBC environments
This document characterizes the HP ProLiant BL465c G7 server blade featuring a range of AMD Opteron Model 6100 processors, and determines the optimal number of supported users for each of the following processors:

• Model 6174 (2.2 GHz, 2 Processors/24 Cores)
• Model 6164 HE (1.7 GHz, 2 Processors/24 Cores, Low-Power)
• Model 6136 (2.4 GHz, 2 Processors/16 Cores)
• Model 6128 HE (2.0 GHz, 2 Processors/16 Cores, Low-Power)

Also included are a set of test-proven recommendations for optimizing overall performance.
By using the test results and recommendations in this document, you can confidently select the ProLiant G7 server blade configuration that is best suited to your Citrix XenApp environment, and quickly begin to realize both improved performance and reduced power consumption.

To download this technical paper go to http://h20195.www2.hp.com/V2/GetPDF.aspx/4AA1-7363ENW.pdf

Patrick

Performance of HP ProLiant BL465c G7 with AMD Opteron processor Model 6174 (2.2 GHz) in a 32-bit virtualized HP SBC environment

Patrick — Thu, 24 Jun 2010 16:44:00 GMT

The above document characterizes the scalability of the HP ProLiant BL465c G7 in a virtualized 32-bit HP SBC environment configured with the AMD Opteron processor Model 6174 (2.2 GHz). Also included are guidelines for expected consolidation factors, techniques for memory allocation, and a set of test-proven recommendations for optimizing overall performance.

By using the test results and recommendations in this document, you can quickly and confidently migrate and consolidate your Citrix XenApp 32-bit workloads utilizing Citrix XenServer on the new ProLiant G7 server blades, and realize the benefits of supporting even the most demanding virtualization environments, while reducing the costs associated with data center footprint, complexity and power consumption.

To download the technical paper go to http://h20195.www2.hp.com/V2/GetPDF.aspx/4AA2-0763ENW.pdf

Patrick Lownds

Carmine error was: InstallFailed (205); WindowsAPI

Patrick — Thu, 17 Jun 2010 16:45:00 GMT

I have never really had any issues with installing SCVMM. Done it many times before and it just works! Well I am running a Microsoft Virtualization Workshop and when trying to install the VMM Server component, I get the following error - Carmine error was: InstallFailed (205); WindowsAPI....

I checked the problems listed about this error on the TechNet Forum but these are either not applicable or don’t solve my instance of this problem.

I am installing SCVMM 2008 R2 into a virtual machine, which is running an instance of Windows 2008 R2, nothing exciting there, but the virtual machine itself was not built from scratch. It was a pre-build (newly pre-built) generalized virtual machine.

Anyway seems something must have gone awry when I ran SYSPREP on the original virtual machine. After building a new virtual machine from scratch and joining it to the domain setup worked like a charm.

Patrick Lownds

Free updated ebook: Understanding Microsoft Virtualization Solutions (Second Edition)

Patrick — Sat, 12 Jun 2010 09:32:00 GMT

Mitch Tulloch has updated his free ebook and it now covers Windows Server 2008 R2.

You can download "Understanding Microsoft Virtualization Solutions, From the Desktop to the Datacenter" from http://download.microsoft.com/download/5/B/4/5B46A838-67BB-4F7C-92CB-EABCA285DFDD/693821ebook.pdf

Patrick Lownds

TechEd Online - North America 2010

Patrick — Fri, 11 Jun 2010 11:19:00 GMT

If like me you couldn't make TechEd - North America 2010, then why not watch some of the sessions online at http://www.msteched.com/2010/NorthAmerica/

Happy viewing

Patrick Lownds

Citrix TechTalk: Designing a Virtual Desktop Solution for 20,000 Concurrent Users

Patrick — Thu, 10 Jun 2010 14:56:00 GMT

Does this sound familiar? Current desktops are unable to support the latest operating systems and applications. Many desktop devices are greater than 5 years old. Due to the distributed nature of the organization, desktop management is handled on a site-by-site basis resulting in hundreds of standard images. This organization, after funding approval, is planning a move to desktop virtualization.

In order to achieve this goal, the organization had their environment assessed.  Based on the assessment, a desktop virtualization design was created that includes the following plan of attack:
•  All users will utilize Windows 7 as the standard operating system
•  Microsoft Hyper-V will be the foundation of the virtualization layer
•  Two different FlexCast modules will be used: Hosted VM-Based VDI and Blade PCs
• Provisioning services  will deliver one of five different standard images across the entire organization

Patrick Lownds

Citrix TechTalk: Providing High Availability for Virtual Desktops

Patrick — Thu, 10 Jun 2010 14:51:00 GMT

This Techtalk will guide the participant through various options to consider when implementing Virtual Desktops in a High Availability environment. Discover various load balancing options that will ensure that user traffic is distributed to redundant XenDesktop components within the datacenter using the Citrix NetScaler and its health monitoring processes.

In this session you will learn about:
• How High Availability can be implemented in a fashion that performs load balancing across multiple datacenters
• Issues and considerations involved in spreading user loads across datacenters and application/data proximity requirements
• Considerations specific to configuring virtual desktop access in a pure disaster recovery environment

Patrick Lownds

Citrix TechTalk: Hyper-V Planning for XenDesktop

Patrick — Thu, 10 Jun 2010 14:44:00 GMT

Considering deploying XenDesktop on Microsoft Hyper-V? If you are, don’t miss this opportunity to learn the secrets, best practices, and tricks of deploying XenDesktop on Hyper-V. This TechTalk will provide architectural and design guidance in the following areas:

• Hardware considerations
• Storage requirements
• System Center Virtual Machine Manager integration
• Desktop operating system selection and configuration
• Scaling beyond a pilot farm

Register at https://www1.gotomeeting.com/register/897996584

Patrick Lownds

SQL Server Migration Framework

Patrick — Wed, 02 Jun 2010 20:30:00 GMT

Fairly recently I was asked if I would support a SQL Server re-platforming exercise (consolidating physical hardware to a virtual environment, which in this case was Microsoft Hyper-V R2). While I have been involved in re-platforming infrastructure server e.g. Domain Controllers, Web Servers and more complex products, like Exchange, I have never been involved in re-platforming SQL Server.

This challenge got me thinking about the kind of approach I would take, the steps involved, the tools I would use, and the approach I would consider.

The SQL Server re-platforming exercise would need to start with some form of discovery/assessment of the existing environment. For this stage of the project I would use the SQL Server Upgrade Advisor (this assumes that the project would take the opportunity to upgrade their existing SQL servers to SQL Server 2008 or potentially SQL Server 2008 R2). For more information on the SQL Server Upgrade Advisor see the links at the end of this article.

To perform the actually analysis I would use Microsoft Assessment and Planning (MAP) Toolkit for SQL Server 2008. For more information on the MAP Toolkit for SQL Server 2008 see the links at the end of this article.

For the purposes of the analysis, the following reports to help identify the opportunities for re-platforming:

· SQL Server Assessment Report

· Performance Metrics Report

· Server Virtualization Proposal

When the reports have completed generating, the analysis work can begin. The first report will provide insight into the SQL Server servers / instances that were analyzed. This report is named “Server Assessment Report” and can be found in the report repository. This document provides a summary level of information regarding the versions and editions of SQL Server that were found during the scan. In addition, it provides insight into the different features of SQL Server that are installed.

The second report that is generated is the "Performance Metric report". This report details the Processor, Network and Disk utilization recorded over the duration of the analysis. These key pieces of information will enable you to ensure that when the workload is virtualized, it is placed on a host that supports the demands of the application.

The final report that is generated as a part of the analysis is the "Server Virtualization Proposal". The proposal document first details the targeted host information. After that the proposal details each proposed virtualization candidate and aggregates each of the performance characteristics. This shows how each virtual guest will consume the resources of the host.

The next step would be to check to see if a supported configuration could be achieved through virtualization and for this step you simple compare the Server Virtualization Proposal against Microsoft's support policy for SQL. For more information on Microsoft’s support policy for SQL see the links at the end of this article.

Once you have obtained a supported configuration the next step would be to evaluate the virtualized SQL Server architecture to determine how the new features of SQL Server 2008 or SQL Server 2008 R2 would impact your environment. Often a new architecture generally means a different configuration that usually offers new features and capability that improve performance, scaling and capacity.

After the virtualized SQL Server architecture has been determined the work to start sizing the host Hypervisor can begin. For more information on best practices and performance considerations when running SQL Server in a Hyper-V environment, see the links at end of this article.

Finally the last aspect to look at before you start considering the upgrade/migration is placement and planning. Here you will look at various aspects like High Availability, Security, DR and Management.

Patrick Lownds

SQL Server Upgrade Advisor can be downloaded from the following URL below http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?familyid=1470e86b-7e05-4322-a677-95ab44f12d75&displaylang=en

For background information on the SQL Server Upgrade Advisor, see the following URL http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ms144256.aspx

The MAP Toolkit can be downloaded from the following URL below http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?displaylang=en&FamilyID=67240b76-3148-4e49-943d-4d9ea7f77730

For background information on the MAP Toolkit for SQL Server 2008, see the following URL http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/solutionaccelerators/dd537572.aspx

For background on Microsoft support policy for Microsoft SQL Server products that are running in a hardware virtualization environment, see the following URL http://support.microsoft.com/kb/956893

For background information on Running SQL Server 2008 in a Hyper-V Environment, se the following URL http://download.microsoft.com/download/d/9/4/d948f981-926e-40fa-a026-5bfcf076d9b9/SQL2008inHyperV2008.docx

Hyper-V Update List for Windows Server 2008 R2 updated

Patrick — Thu, 27 May 2010 16:51:00 GMT

Microsoft has published a new update list for Hyper-V (Windows Server 2008 R2) at http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ff394763(WS.10).aspx.

Patrick Lownds

Microsoft VDI TCO Whitepaper

Patrick — Sat, 15 May 2010 08:36:00 GMT

The above whitepaper (which can be downloaded from http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?displaylang=en&FamilyID=1171d468-e95e-4091-90df-fdf6548f6564) examines the Total Cost of Ownership (TCO) of deploying VDI to a 2500 Office Worker environment, and compares that to the cost of a similar envirnment using PCs.

Patrick Lownds

Windows Embedded Standard 7 Overview

Patrick — Sat, 15 May 2010 08:29:00 GMT

The following article from Microsoft provides some background on Windows Embedded Standard 7 at http://www.microsoft.com/windowsembedded/en-us/products/westandard/default.mspx

Patrick Lownds

Microsoft Office 2010 Deployment Kit for App-V

Patrick — Sat, 15 May 2010 08:26:00 GMT

The Microsoft Office 2010 Deployment Kit for App-V is required for sequencing and deploying Office 2010 client products with Microsoft Application Virtualization (App-V). This product must be installed on the App-V sequencing station prior to monitoring the Office 2010 client installation.

This product must also be installed on the client machines to which virtualized Office 2010 client packages will be deployed. It can be configured to enable certain system components to interact with virtualized Office 2010, including:

Fast search in virtualized Outlook 2010 using Windows Desktop Search
Ability for virtualized Office 2010 applications to open, edit, and save Office files hosted with Windows SharePoint
Search indexing support for Office file types
URL protocol redirection to virtualized Outlook 2010
Print to virtualized OneNote 2010
Mail control panel applet for virtualized Outlook 2010

You can donwload the Microsoft Office 2010 Deployment Kit for App-V from http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyID=479f12f2-5678-493e-bce1-682b3ece5431&displaylang=en

Patrick Lownds