MVUG Blog

Free Hyper-V Training

Microsoft is offering some free Hyper-V training. You will need to enter a specific access code 9350-Y2W6-3676 and sign in with your Live ID.  The course “Collection 6319 - Configuring Hyper-V in Windows Server 2008” includes the following modules:

1. An overview of the Hyper-V technology
2. Creating a virtual environment
3. Deploying systems in a virtual environment
4. Configuring high availability in a virtual environment
5. Administering a virtual environment with SCVMM

To sign up go to https://www.microsoftelearning.com/eLearning/enterCode.aspx

Patrick Lownds

Microsoft Assessment and Planning Toolkit 4.0 Beta

The next release of the Microsoft Assessment and Planning Toolkit is in beta and you can Download Microsoft Assessment and Planning Toolkit 4.0 Beta Bits here by using the link (note this requires a Live ID). You can read more about MAP Toolkit by reading the team blog http://blogs.technet.com/MAPBLOG/

So what is new in MAP Toolkit 4? Microsoft Assessment and Planning Toolkit 4.0 has the following new and some VERY cool features:

·         Windows 7 Hardware and Device Compatibility Assessment

·         Windows Server 2008 R2 Hardware and Device Compatibility Assessment

·         Virtualization Candidates Assessment for Hyper-V R2 Server Consolidation

·         Integration with the Microsoft Integrated Virtualization ROI Calculator

·         Inventory of VMware Server Hosts and Guests

·         User Interface and Proposal Customization for Partner co-branding

·         Enhanced Usability and Improved Inventory Performance

Other features that have been carried over from version 3.2 of the MAP Toolkit are as follows:

·         Virtualization Candidates Assessment for Hyper-V Server Consolidation

·         Windows Vista Hardware and Device Compatibility Assessment

·         Windows Server 2008 Hardware and Device Compatibility Assessment

·         2007 Microsoft Office Readiness Assessment

·         SQL Server Instance Discovery

·         Desktop Security Assessment for Anti-virus and Anti-malware Programs Installation

·         Forefront Client Security/NAP Readiness Assessment

·         Online Services (Exchange Online) Assessment

·         App-V Infrastructure Readiness Assessment

Patrick Lownds

Comparing Hyper-V R1 and R2

Now that Hyper-V R2 is on the horizon people are starting to ask about the differences between Hyper-V R1 and R2. Below is a summary table that shows some of the differences:

Patrick Lownds

Microsoft VDI

Into Microsoft VDI? Here is a collection of useful links on Microsoft VDI:

Windows Server 2008 R2 Documentation & Resources http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?familyid=079EB880-6E15-4381-9EDF-53CFAFF3AB02&displaylang=en

“Virtualization Planet blog”

Microsoft has fairly recently launched a new virtualisation blog at http://blogs.technet.com/virtplanet/ which according to Edwin Yuen and his opening blog will “post some of the latest Virtualization news, Microsoft and non-Microsoft, in one location you can follow.  In the coming days, weeks, and months, we'll be posting key Microsoft news but also industry news and musings.  I look forward to keeping everyone up to date!”

Patrick Lownds

P2V Migration Timings

Based on my personal experience, and on a couple of surveys I carried out a few months back, most customers physical machines (Windows 2003 or below) fall into three categories, i.e. machines that are typically 10 GB in size, machines that are 20 GB – 40GB in size, and machines that are 110 GB in size.

Based on that data here are the actually approximate timings (albeit estimated):

Note that the data above is not based on SCVMM 2008 (since I have never had to time the process) but on PlateSpin Migrate.

Patrick Lownds