MVUG Blog

XenDesktop 5 Overview Video Series

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Patrick Lownds

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

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

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

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

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