Microsoft Virtualisation User Group UK

XenDesktop 5 Overview Video Series

Patrick — Thu, 06 Jan 2011 18:46:00 GMT

The XenDesktop 5 Overview Video Series can be found at the following URL: http://community.citrix.com/display/ocb/2011/01/06/XenDesktop+5+Overview+Video+Series

Windows Server 2008 R2 Remote Desktop Services Resource Kit Now Available

Patrick — Tue, 04 Jan 2011 18:38:00 GMT

The definitive resource for deploying, administering, and managing Remote Desktop Services in Windows Server 2008 R2 direct from experts at Microsoft

Patrick Lownds

MAP Toolkit v5.5 Beta will help migrate your organization to the cloud

Patrick — Sun, 05 Dec 2010 09:24:00 GMT

The MAP Toolkit v5.5 Beta can help you determine what assets in your environment can be migrated to the cloud and how much it will cost you to do so. Using the new Azure Platform Readiness and Capacity Estimate features you can identify web applications, databases and IIS instances in your environment that are suitable for migration to the cloud and determine what features you’d need to support them. If you haven’t already, please take a minute to download the MAP Toolkit v5.5 Beta and find out about the new features for Azure Platform Migration, Discovery of Oracle, SyBase and MySQL database deployments, Internet Explorer Migration, and Server Consolidation.

The Beta of the MAP Toolkit v5.5 is now available for download at the link below:

https://connect.microsoft.com/Downloads/DownloadDetails.aspx?DownloadID=23188&SiteID=297

Patrick Lownds

Native VHD Boot - A Walkthrough of Common Scenarios

Patrick — Fri, 03 Dec 2010 20:50:00 GMT

The above document describes the functionality and usability of native VHD boot, which is a feature in Windows 7 and Windows Server 2008 R2 and can be downloaded from http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/en/confirmation.aspx?FamilyID=7062fc66-90f9-47f0-8cb7-1c1652767081. The key scenarios are:

Scenario 1 - Configuring Native VHD Boot on a Single Computer

Scenario 2 - Deploying Native Boot VHDs Using Windows Deployment Services

Scenario 3 - Performing an Advanced Deployment of Native Boot VHDs

Patrick Lownds

System Center Virtual Machine Manager (SCVMM) 2008 R2 SP1 RC Available on Microsoft Connect

Patrick — Fri, 03 Dec 2010 20:24:00 GMT

Microsoft have announced SCVMM 2008 R2 Service Pack 1 Release Candidate, which can be download from https://connect.microsoft.com/site799. This release adds support for Windows Server 2008 R2 SP1 RC to SCVMM. Microsoft has added the necessary properties and controls to allow you to create and manage Dynamic Memory and RemoteFX enabled virtual machines on Windows Server 2008 R2 SP1 Hyper-V hosts. Since this is a pre-release version, usage of this is limited to test environments.

Patrick Lownds

DPM2010 Storage Calculator for Hyper-V

Patrick — Fri, 03 Dec 2010 18:14:00 GMT

Microsoft has published an updated set of XLSX storage calculators to aid DPM 2010 administrators in sizing the DPM storage pool and one of these updated storage calculators provides support for Hyper-V. You can download the NEW calculator from http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/en/details.aspx?FamilyID=c136c66c-bd4a-4fb1-8088-f610cd02dc51

The only downside about this new series of storage calculators is that they have limited tape support and so I have uploaded a copy of the older calculator, which offers better support for tape backup at http://www.mvug.co.uk/media/p/22321.aspx

Patrick Lownds

Microsoft System Center Virtual Machine Manager Self-Service Portal 2.0

Patrick — Fri, 03 Dec 2010 16:59:00 GMT

VMMSSP (also know as the self-service portal) is a fully supported, extensible solution built on top of Windows Server 2008 R2, Hyper-V, and System Center VMM 2008.

You can use it to pool, allocate, and manage resources to offer infrastructure as a service (IaaS) 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 and can be downloaded from http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/en/details.aspx?FamilyID=fef38539-ae5a-462b-b1c9-9a02238bb8a7

Patrick Lownds

RemoteFX Thin Client Prototype

Patrick — Fri, 26 Nov 2010 14:09:00 GMT

At Microsoft TechEd Berlin earlier in the month, HP had the first public demonstration of its HP thin client prototype, a hardware based Microsoft RemoteFX implementation.

Microsoft RemoteFX is a feature of Microsoft Windows Server 2008 R2 Service Pack 1 that optimizes and accelerates the RDC (formerly known as RDP) protocol to drastically reduce network bandwidth requirements, enabling a rich, local-like user experience for Microsoft virtual desktop customers. HP partnered with Texas Instruments (TI) to develop the RemoteFX hardware-based thin client prototype.

Patrick Lownds

Private Cloud Reference Architectures with Hyper-V and System Center Part 3

Patrick — Wed, 24 Nov 2010 22:35:00 GMT

Using multiple network adapters or multi port network adapters on each host are a required component of the Hyper-V Private Cloud Reference Architecture. For converged infrastructure designs, network technologies that provide NIC teaming or virtual NICs (e.g. HP Virtual Connect and FlexNICs) can be used to provide multiple adapters, which can then be teamed for redundancy. Then multiple virtual NICs or vLANs can be presented to the host for traffic segmentation and bandwidth control.

If you are using a 10 GbE backbone, each host must have two or more 10 GbE NICs, with the ability to present multiple teamed or virtual NICs to the Parent Partition.

If you are using a 1 GbE backbone, then each host most have a minimum of five 1GbE NICs (1 for Management, 1 for Cluster/CSV, 1 for Live Migration, 2 for production virtual machine traffic).

In the event that you are using a 1 GbE backbone and iSCSI storage, each host most have two additional 1GbE NICs giving a minimum total of seven NICs.

Patrick Lownds

Make way for the DL980

Patrick — Tue, 23 Nov 2010 14:34:00 GMT

HP has just released a whitepaper "Best Practices When Deploying Microsoft Windows Server 2008 R2 or Microsoft Windows Server 2008 SP2 on HP ProLiant DL980 G7 Servers"

The HP ProLiant DL980 G7 server is HP’s latest 8 socket, x86-based, 64-bit scale up platform. Available in 4, 6 and 8 core configurations, it can support up to 128 logical processors (with 8 Intel Xeon 7500/6500 series processors x 8 cores x 2 threads per core, with Intel’s Hyper-threading enabled), 2 TB of physical memory (RAM), and up to 16 PCIe/PCI-X I/O cards. In addition, the DL980 utilizes Non-Uniform Memory Architecture (NUMA) and Intel QuickPath Interconnect (QPI) technology.

To download the whitepaper go to http://bizsupport2.austin.hp.com/bc/docs/support/SupportManual/c02577023/c02577023.pdf

Patrick Lownds

Private Cloud Reference Architectures with Hyper-V and System Center Part 2

Patrick — Wed, 17 Nov 2010 16:25:00 GMT

The host architecture is a critical component of the Private Cloud Reference Architecture. Whether you choose to implement rack mounted servers or blade servers, the key goal is to select a host architecture that will support the right level of virtual machine density.

The four main food groups are CPU, Memory, Storage I/O, and Network I/O. In choosing your host architecture it is important to ensure that the server itself is able to provide the required capacity in each of these categories.

The server, be it a rack or blade mounted, must provide redundant power connectivity (multiple PDUs for racks based servers or multiple hot swappable power supplies for a blade chassis). The server should have between 2 to 8 CPU sockets, with a maximum of 64 logical processors enabled. It goes without saying that the CPUs themselves must be x64 CPU with either AMD Virtualization or Intel Virtualization Technology support.

Each host must have a minimum of 64 GB RAM (typically industry average I see today is around 72 GB) and have a minimum or a 40 GB local hard drive using either RAID 1 or RAID 10 for the OS partition (again most servers ship with disks that are larger than this requirement) and should be connected to either SATA or SAS controllers.

Note that boot from SAN is also supported. If using an iSCSI storage array then two or more 10 GbE NICs or HBAs should be used. If using a FC storage array then two or more 4/8 Gb FC HBAs should be used.

Finally, the following minimum networks are required:

One network dedicated to the host for management
One network dedicated to the CSV/Cluster communication
One network dedicated to the Live Migration
One or more networks dedicated to the guest virtual machines (use of a 10 Gbps network adapter is recommended)
One or more networks dedicated to iSCSI with Multipath I/O (MPIO)

Sample Host Design

Component	Description
Server	HP ProLiant BL490 G6
Processor	2 x Quad Core Intel Xeon 5650 series, 2.66 GHz processors
Memory	72 GB RAM PC3-10600
Network Card	8 FlexNICs in total provided by the Embedded NC532i Dual Port Flex-10 10GbE Multifunction 2 port Adapter
Power	6 x Redundant Hot Plug Power Supply
Fan	10 x Redundant Hot Plug Fans
Remote Management	Integrated Lights Out 2 (iLO2)
RAID Controller	HP Smart Array P712M/ZM Controller
System Drive	2 x 64GB 1.5G SATA SFF (2.5-inch) Non-hot Plug Entry Solid State Drive, configured as RAID1 on the Smart Array.

Patrick Lownds

Private Cloud Reference Architectures with Hyper-V and System Center Part 1

Patrick — Tue, 16 Nov 2010 18:01:00 GMT

Microsoft announced last week at TechEd - Berlin that they were teaming up with a handful of server manufacturers to provide validated Hyper-V Cloud Fast Track Configurations. These Fast Track Configurations consist of a predefined hardware setup, as well as Microsoft virtualization and management software.

So what is included in the Hyper-V Cloud Fast Track configuration?

Within the “Management Cluster” there is a two node Windows Server 2008 R2 Hyper-V Cluster, which hosts a number of virtual machines running SQL, Virtual Machine Manager, Operations Manager, Data Protection Manager, Forefront Endpoint Protection and System Center Virtual Machine Manager Self-Service Portal v2. The Self-Service Portal was the formerly known as the Dynamic Datacenter Toolkit (DDTK-E).

Within the “Compute Cluster” there are four or more nodes running Windows Server 2008 R2 Hyper-V in a dedicated Cluster. Here is where you will find computing power/resources that are pooled to serve multiple subscribers, with potentially different physical and virtual resources dynamically assigned and reassigned according to demand.

Patrick Lownds

Deploying RemoteFX on a Remote Desktop Session Host Server Step-by-Step Guide

Patrick — Wed, 03 Nov 2010 13:08:00 GMT

This step-by-step guide walks you through the process of setting up a working Remote Desktop Session Host (RD Session Host) that uses RemoteFX and is accessible by using Remote Desktop Connection (RDC) in a test Windows Server 2008 R2 environment. Upon completion of this step-by-step guide, you will have an RD Session Host server with RemoteFX that can be connected to by using Remote Desktop Connection.

To download this walkthrough go to http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/en/details.aspx?FamilyID=d90e841f-d84c-4746-b0f3-3c16e71d1ed1

Want more on RemoteFX? Then check out these links:

What Is New in Remote Desktop Services in Windows Server 2008 R2 http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/en/details.aspx?FamilyID=821fa300-edb0-4396-a443-64890cc0fcbd

Configuring USB Redirection with Microsoft RemoteFX Step-by-Step Guide http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/en/details.aspx?FamilyID=4b290885-2da1-4432-baab-87346c96b63c

Deploying Microsoft RemoteFX for Virtual Desktop Pools Step-by-Step Guide http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/en/details.aspx?FamilyID=c031b617-1c9b-4ccf-bc13-df6199003e9e

Deploying Microsoft RemoteFX for Personal Virtual Desktops Step-by-Step Guide http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/en/details.aspx?FamilyID=36dfd539-fa39-47de-af89-24f07bd67a7d

Deploying Microsoft RemoteFX on a Single Remote Desktop Virtualization Host Server Step-by-Step Guide http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/en/details.aspx?FamilyID=dab3196b-97ec-4fbf-86b4-cc8023d8c111

Patrick Lownds

Windows CLI Reference Guide

Patrick — Wed, 03 Nov 2010 13:04:00 GMT

Working with Server Core? Well this Windows CLI Reference Guide will be invaluable to you! Download it from http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/en/details.aspx?FamilyID=5fb255ff-72da-4b08-a504-1b10266cf72a

Patrick Lownds

Virtualization Overview, Methods and Models

Patrick — Wed, 03 Nov 2010 12:48:00 GMT

Virtualization Overview, Methods and Models, describes and illustrates how to plan virtualization for your organization. These cool files (see below for an example) can be downloaded from http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/en/details.aspx?FamilyID=884e2e2a-e4d5-43c5-aaaf-5c1e6d793d9c

Patrick Lownds

XenClient Masterclass

Patrick — Wed, 03 Nov 2010 08:29:00 GMT

Attend this technical webcast to take a deeper dive into Citrix XenClient, hear what's new and interact with XenClient product experts. During this webcast XenClient product experts will present a detailed overview of Citrix Receiver for XenClient and provide you with the tips and tricks you need. To register go to https://www1.gotomeeting.com/register/266500576

Topics include:

Under the hood of XenClient
Dynamic Image mode
Secure application sharing
Tips and tricks

Patrick Lownds

New Microsoft Desktop Virtualization zone on the Springboard Series on TechNet

Patrick — Tue, 02 Nov 2010 21:43:00 GMT

The new Desktop Virtualization Zone on Springboard Series on TechNet provides dynamic information and structured resources to help explore, test, pilot, and deploy the latest Windows OS. There is technical guidance on the following:

Plus much more. Take a look for yourself at http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/gg276319.aspx

Patrick Lownds

Windows 2008 R2 Service Pack 1 Release Candidate Now Available

Patrick — Tue, 02 Nov 2010 21:13:00 GMT

Microsoft has made available a Release Candidate for Service Pack 1 for Windows Server 2008 R2 and Windows 7. SP1 includes both a roll up of operating system updates and several new capabilities for Windows Server 2008 R2. The notable Windows 2008 R2 SP1 changes are, Dynamic Memory, which lets Hyper-V administrators pool available memory on a physical host and dynamically distribute it to any virtual machine(s) running on that host and RemoteFX, which lets Windows Server 2008 R2 administrators provide a rich end user desktop virtualization experience by delivering vivid content, independent of any graphics stack, to server-hosted virtual and session-based desktops.

To download the RC build and to get a , go to http://www.microsoft.com/windowsserver2008/en/us/sp1.aspx

Patrick Lownds

What is Office 365?

Patrick — Tue, 02 Nov 2010 20:36:00 GMT

Microsoft Office 365 delivers the power of cloud productivity to businesses of all sizes, helping to save time, money and free up valued resources. Office 365 combines the familiar Office desktop suite with cloud based versions of the next generation communications and collaboration services. For more information on Office 365 go to http://office365.microsoft.com/en-US/what-is-office365.aspx and for a follow up related article go to http://www.brettblog.com/Office365_and_BPOS/ctl/ArticleView/mid/408/articleId/498/What-is-Office-365.aspx

Patrick Lownds

App-V Security Guide

Patrick — Thu, 14 Oct 2010 20:39:00 GMT

The above guide introduces you to important information about deployment decisions that can affect the security of your App-V system. It also provides you with the necessary steps to configure App-V security settings to enhance the security of your App-V environment. If the security settings are specific to Windows but not to App-V, then this online document also includes the appropriate links to the additional information.

To read the App-V Security Guide go to http://technet.microsoft.com/en-gb/library/ee662334.aspx

Patrick Lownds

Working with a P4500 G2 - 14.4TB SAS Virtualization SAN

Patrick — Thu, 14 Oct 2010 10:36:00 GMT

As part of a Microsoft Virtualization datacenter consolidation project that I am currently working on, this particular customer is planning to implement a P4500 G2 - 14.4TB SAS Virtualization SAN. By default this SAN solution comes with two enclosures and the intention is to implement the following storage configuration:

The partner that the customer is working with has specified that this particular SAN comes by default with 10 GbE and this is a common misconception. By default, the P4500 comes with 2 x 1 GbE ports onboard.

To upgrade to 10GbE you need to purchase a 10G BASE-SFP+ Upgrade Kit, which is an interconnect card that is installed in the expansion slot at the rear of the SAN.

The 10G BASE-SFP+ Upgrade Kit itself does not come with SFP connectors or cables. Again, this is a common misconception and so you need to decide how you are going to connect the SAN to a network switch. For shorter distances (up to 7 meters) a DAC (Direct Attach Cable) can be used (see below). Else fiber optic modules (GBICs) and cables must be purchased.

Patrick Lownds

What happened to August and September

Patrick — Sat, 02 Oct 2010 12:40:00 GMT

For the last three months I have been particularly quite on the blog front. It’s not that I haven’t had much to write about, it is mostly because I was busy since mid July with extra curricula activities.

It wasn’t me making my big Karate comeback (still planning that) but more an opportunity to contribute to a book on deploying Hyper-V. It has been a great experience, was always a life goal of mine and I have Aidan Finn to thank for this opportunity.

Hope you enjoy the book!

Patrick Lownds

Windows Server on HP ProLiant MicroServer

Patrick — Sat, 02 Oct 2010 12:32:00 GMT

Designed for businesses with less than 10 clients, the HP ProLiant MicroServer is a cost effective starter server that can help small businesses achieve a level of productivity and efficiency.

The HP ProLiant MicroServer has been certified to support Windows Server 2008 R2 Foundation and Standard Editions, as well as Microsoft Small Business Server 2008. To learn more about the MicroServer go to www.hp.com/go/microserver

Patrick Lownds

Installing DPM 2010 Agents to a Cluster

Patrick — Sun, 05 Sep 2010 17:23:00 GMT

When installing DPM 2010 agents to a server you intent to protect, you use the Protection Agent Installation Wizard to push out that agent. Installing the agent requires a reboot! This reboot is necessary to ensure that the protection agent is installed correctly.

So what happens when that server you intent to protect is a member of a cluster (MSCS)?

Firstly, it is important to point out that if you do selected a server in a cluster, then DPM 2010 will detect the additional servers in that cluster and you must install the agents on all nodes within the cluster to successfully protect the clustered data.

However, when it comes to a cluster, DPM will not restart a server that belongs to cluster. You have to manually restart the server in the cluster.

Patrick Lownds

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