Mouse Integration for SuSE on Hyper-V

If you have ever run SLES 10 on Hyper-V you will know that after installing Integration Services (which were developed by Citrix as part of Project Satori) there was a lack of mouse intgration. Now you can download the mouse driver here from http://www.xen.org/download/satori.html

So how do the Integration Services compare between a supported Windows and non Windows Guest (see table below):

* - To be able to snapshot non VSS aware guest operating systems you must first hibernate the operating system to dump the memory and CPU. Snapshot the Guest and then resume the operating system.

Patrick Lownds

Best Practices for Deploying Virtual Machines by Using Hyper-V Virtualization Technology

Around 80% of server deployments in the Microsoft IT data centers are deployed as virtual machines via Windows Server 2008 Hyper-V. To ensure optimal performance, Microsoft IT has developed configuration best practices, based on the application workloads or services that the virtual servers provide.
Recently Microsoft IT delivered a webcast and published a whitepaper on their best practices. Check out the following link http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/dd578346.aspx for both the whitepaper and the on demand webcast.

Patrick Lownds

Hyper-V Security Guide – Now Available

The Hyper-V Security Guide is available by visiting the Hyper-V Security Guide page on TechNet. If you want to keep up to date with what the Solution Accelerator Security Team is doing then check out their blog at http://blogs.technet.com/secguide/default.aspx 

Patrick Lownds

Chapter Summaries

This release of the Hyper-V Security Guide consists of this Overview and three chapters that discuss methods and best practices that will help you secure your Hyper-V environment. Brief descriptions follow for each chapter.

Overview

The overview states the purpose and scope of the guide, defines the guide audience, and describes the guide's structure to help you locate the information that is relevant to you. It also describes the user prerequisites for the guidance.

Chapter 1: Hardening Hyper-V

This chapter provides prescriptive guidance for hardening the Hyper-V role. It discusses several best practices for installing and configuring Hyper-V on Windows Server 2008 server with a focus on security. These best practices include measures for reducing the attack surface of a server running Hyper-V and recommendations for properly configuring secure network and storage devices on a server running Hyper-V.

Chapter 2: Delegating Virtual Machine Management

This chapter discusses several available methods for delegating virtual machine management so that virtual machine administrators only have the minimum permissions they require. It describes common delegation scenarios, and includes detailed steps to guide you through using Authorization Manager (AzMan) and System Center VMM 2008 to separate virtual machine administrators from virtualization host administrators.

Chapter 3: Protecting Virtual Machines

This chapter provides prescriptive guidance for securing virtual machine resources. It discusses best practices and includes detailed steps for protecting virtual machines by using a combination of file system permissions, encryption, and auditing. Also included are resources for hardening and updating the operating system instances running within your virtual machines.

MDOP 2009 - Now Available.

MDOP 2009 is available for MDOP subscribers at Microsoft Volume Licensing Site (MVLS). MDOP 2009 includes the first release of Microsoft Enterprise Desktop Virtualization (MED-V 1.0), a Cumulative Update to Microsoft Application Virtualization  (App-V 4.5 CU1) and an update to the Asset Inventory Service (AIS). Alongside these updated releases, MDOP 2009 also includes the other standard MDOP tools, Microsoft Diagnostics and Recovery Toolset, Microsoft Advanced Group Policy Management, and Microsoft System Center Desktop Error Monitoring

Patrick Lownds

The Robot

A number of people have asked recently what that robot is all about on our front page www.mvug.co.uk and so I thought I would put you all out of your misery and let you know it is from a Microsoft marketing campaign about Hyper-V called "Server Unleashed":

Take a look at http://www.microsoft.com/windowsserver2008/en/us/serverunleashed/default.html or watch the video at http://download.microsoft.com/download/4/6/E/46EBD337-59AB-49E6-9385-4398E11C3D67/Rodeo.wmv

Patrick Lownds

First Sizing and Configuration Tool for Hyper-V

HP has released its HP Sizing and Configuration Tool for Microsoft Hyper-V is a downloadable, automated tool that provides a quick and consistent methodology to determine a “best-fit” server configuration for your virtualized Hyper-V environment. This tool enables you to quickly compare different solution configurations and obtain a highly detailed, customizable server and storage solution complete with a detailed bill of materials.

This sizer allows users to create new Hyper-V solutions, open already saved solutions, and use data compiled from other tools like Microsoft’s Assessment and Planning (MAP) toolkit to build rich Hyper-V configurations built on HP ProLiant server and storage technologies.

The sizer allows rapid comparisons of various Hyper-V characterizations and server platform choices.. You can select and customize configurations for your particular environment by adding or substituting server types, number of servers, and server components.

You can download it at http://h71019.www7.hp.com/ActiveAnswers/us/en/sizers/microsoft-hyperv.html

Patrick Lownds