MVUG Blog

Microsoft Application Virtualization 4.6 IPD Guide

Patrick — Thu, 04 Mar 2010 15:12:00 GMT

The IPD team at Microsoft has released an updated guide for App-V 4.6. This guide provides actionable guidance for planning your application virtualization infrastructure. Updates now include support for Windows 7 and Windows Server 2008 R2, including such features as BranchCache, support for 64-bit clients and server-sizing data. Download the IPD Guide for App-V 4.6 at http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkId=182824

Patrick Lownds

It is an App-V Fest

Patrick — Mon, 01 Mar 2010 21:15:00 GMT

Considering implementing App-V, well here are some useful URLs on App-V, now that version 4.6 is available:

App-V Application Listing Tool
You can use this tool to display a list of virtualized applications that are currently running.
http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?displaylang=en&FamilyID=5da48313-cf6d-445d-af97-594f194ac759

Application Virtualization SFT Parser Tool
You can use the Application Virtualization SFT Parser Tool (SFTInfo) to extract information from SFT files.
http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?displaylang=en&FamilyID=e5a7db27-304b-4cd1-9c80-7ba5fdaea97f

Application Virtualization Dynamic Suite Composition Tool
You can use the App-V Dynamic Suite Composition tool to edit the Open Software Descriptor (.osd) file associated with a virtual application package to create the inter-package dependencies.
http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?displaylang=en&FamilyID=daa898df-455f-438a-aa2a-421f05894098

App-V MSI Compat Transform
You can use the Microsoft Application Virtualization (App-V) MSI Compat transform to make 4.5 Sequencer generated MSIs compatible for 4.6 Client.
http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?displaylang=en&FamilyID=c704efef-06f0-4b76-97a9-67df1d161ffb

Application Virtualization Cache Configuration Tool
You can use the Microsoft Application Virtualization (App-V) cache configuration utility to configure settings associated with App-V client cache.
http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?displaylang=en&FamilyID=5e7089fa-c6ab-4150-8562-3b5bc14cd881

App-V ADM Template
The Microsoft Application Virtualization ADM template allows you to administer App-V client settings via Preferences.
http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?displaylang=en&FamilyID=67cdf9d2-7e8e-4d76-a552-fd82dbbff9bc

Application Virtualization Client Log Parser Utility
Use the Application Virtualization Log Parser utility to extract log entries from one or more application virtualization client logs.
http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?displaylang=en&FamilyID=72876c60-3a87-4705-b722-f73eb56219bf

MS App-V SFT View
Use Microsoft Application Virtualization (App-V) SFT View to provide scanners and automated tools with read-only access to .SFT files. You can find both 32-bit and 64-bit versions to download.
http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?displaylang=en&FamilyID=26d8bfe3-02dd-4073-95f8-594bbb12933a

Microsoft App-V for RDS 4.6
Microsoft Application Virtualization (App-V) for RDS helps solve application compatibility on Remote Desktop Session Hosts/Terminal Servers. App-V for RDS 4.6 now supports 64-bit operating systems.
http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?displaylang=en&FamilyID=e633164f-9729-43a8-9149-de651944a7fe

Patrick Lownds

Microsoft App-V 4.6 and MED-V 1.0 SP1 Released

Patrick — Mon, 01 Mar 2010 21:06:00 GMT

As Windows 7 continues to gain momentum across the industry, enterprise customers are evaluating their desktop Strategy and considering the move to Windows 7. To support that move Microsoft Application Virtualization 4.6, including App-V for RDS, is now publicly available, as part of MDOP 2010. In addition, MED-V 1.0 SP1 RC which provides support for Windows 7 is now available also. Read the full story at http://blogs.technet.com/virtualworld/archive/2010/02/22/app-v-4-6-rtm-and-med-v-1-0-sp1-rc-are-here.aspx

Patrick Lownds

Windows Server 2008 R2 Migration Utilities x64 Edition (KB977336)

Patrick — Mon, 01 Mar 2010 12:49:00 GMT

The Windows Server 2008 R2 Migration Utilities package (http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyID=5c1ec14a-e9d7-46ea-9c6e-73d6bc4219b4&displaylang=en) works with Windows Server Migration Tools to let you migrate Hyper-V virtual machines (either Windows 2008 or Windows 2008 R2) including the associated metadata from one host to another.

Detailed, step-by-step information about how to use the Windows Server 2008 R2 Migration Utilities package to complete these migrations is available at http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ee849855(WS.10).aspx

Patrick Lownds

Best Practices for deploying the HP StorageWorks Enterprise Virtual Array with Hyper-V R2

Patrick — Mon, 01 Mar 2010 12:42:00 GMT

This whitepaper provides detailed best practices to architect and deploy the HP StorageWorks Enterprise Virtual Array (EVA) in a highly available virtualized infrastructure using Microsoft’s Windows Server 2008 Hyper-V R2. These test-proven best practices were developed in an environment featuring the EVA array deployed with HP BladeSystem Servers, SAN and Networking.

Included are EVA-specific configuration considerations for Hyper-V environments, including LUN sizes and VRAID levels, as well as details describing the various Hyper-V disk types, along with recommendations for their deployment in conjunction with the EVA.

There is also a detailed description of some of the new Hyper-V R2 features such as Live Migration and Cluster Shared Volumes, and information describing how to plan for and deploy these with the EVA.

This whitepaper is ideally suited to IT professionals responsible for implementing a virtualized environment with Microsoft’s Windows Server 2008 Hyper-V R2, and are looking for test-proven recommendations showing how HP’s EVA Array, BladeSystem Servers, SAN and Networking can be used to deploy a complete, cost-effective and easy to manage virtualized infrastructure and can be downloaded from http://h20195.www2.hp.com/V2/GetDocument.aspx?docname=4AA0-1907ENW&cc=us&lc=en

Patrick Lownds

Microsoft UK Tech Days April 12th-16th Registration Now Open

Patrick — Thu, 18 Feb 2010 17:38:00 GMT

A week of free technology events for IT developers and IT professionals. Get more from Microsoft Technology this April, Microsoft are celebrating a number of product launches and innovations during an exciting week of technology and social events. Join Microsoft to find out how you can get the most from our latest technology releases and explore how Microsoft's platform and tools bring together the clients, servers and services needed to build rich engaging applications. To register go to http://www.microsoft.com/uk/techdays/

Patrick Lownds

Geo-Clustering and Cluster Shared Volumes

Patrick — Thu, 11 Feb 2010 18:11:00 GMT

At TechEd Berlin, back in November 2009, the subject of stretched Cluster Shared Volumes, or Geo-Clustering and Cluster Shared Volumes came up. The feedback I personally got was that this was not supported by Microsoft. However, after some discussion I found out that there are storage vendors that have solutions in this space e.g. HP LeftHand.

Firstly, if your organisation is going to consider Geo-Clustering and CSV, then I would urge them to definitely work with the storage vendor and make sure that they purchase some form of support agreement, specifically to cover this kind of solution.

While this article doesn’t concentrate on setting up Geo-Clustering or even CSV for that matter, since these aspects aren’t really that new. I wanted to share an architectural diagram of what the storage would look like and what steps you would need to be followed at a high level to set up the storage aspect:

Create one or more Management Group(s)

Create a Cluster (or Clusters), define the Disk RAID level and Virtual IP Address (or IP Addresses if multi site)

Create a Volume (or Volumes) and define the Network RAID level

Patrick Lownds

Hyper-V security fix

Patrick — Wed, 10 Feb 2010 16:59:00 GMT

See Microsoft Security Bulletin MS10-010 — Vulnerability in Windows Server 2008 Hyper-V Could Allow Denial of Service (977894) and KB977894 — MS10-010: Vulnerability in Windows Server 2008 Hyper-V could allow denial of service for more details on this security fix.

Patrick Lownds

Data Protection Manager 2010 hits Release Candidate – Download Available!

Patrick — Wed, 10 Feb 2010 15:57:00 GMT

Data Protection Manager 2010 Release Candidate is now available for download at https://connect.microsoft.com/site840/Downloads/DownloadDetails.aspx?DownloadID=26452&wa=wsignin1.0

Patrick Lownds

Remote Desktop Session Host Capacity Planning in Windows Server 2008 R2

Patrick — Wed, 10 Feb 2010 15:53:00 GMT

The above white paper is intended to provide some guidance for capacity planning of RD Session Host on Windows Server 2008 R2. It describes the most relevant factors that influence the capacity of a given deployment, methodologies to evaluate capacity for specific deployments, and a set of experimental results for different combinations of usage scenarios and hardware configurations. To download this white paper go to http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?displaylang=en&FamilyID=ca837962-4128-4680-b1c0-ad0985939063

Patrick Lownds

Failover Cluster Configuration Program (FCCP) has come to an end

Patrick — Wed, 10 Feb 2010 08:11:00 GMT

The Failover Cluster Configuration Program (FCCP) was designed to help identify tested and validated hardware configurations for Failover Clustering and this program was introduced during the Windows Server 2008 timeframe.

However when you check the FAQ you will see that there is no ongoing program for Windows 2008 R2 and that the program was deprecated as of 31/12/2009.

For details on FCCP go to http://www.microsoft.com/windowsserver2008/en/us/failover-clustering-program-overview.aspx

Patrick Lownds

Increase VMBus buffer sizes to increase network throughput to guest VMs

Patrick — Tue, 09 Feb 2010 12:09:00 GMT

VERY interesting article around increasing network performance for virtual machines by increasing the VM bus receive buffer from 1Mb to 2Mb. Read the full article at http://blogs.technet.com/winserverperformance/archive/2010/02/02/increase-vmbus-buffer-sizes-to-increase-network-throughput-to-guest-vms.aspx

Patrick Lownds

Microsoft Hyper-V VM State to Memory Dump Converter

Patrick — Tue, 09 Feb 2010 11:40:00 GMT

The Hyper-V team recently released a tool which can convert a VM saved state to a full memory dump file. This tool enables easier debugging of issues in the VMs and provides the fastest way to generate a memory dump file from a VM. You can download the tool from http://code.msdn.microsoft.com/vm2dmp

Patrick Lownds

Comparing Scalability Between MOM 2005 and SCOM 2007 R2

Patrick — Tue, 09 Feb 2010 10:39:00 GMT

I am currently working on a project where the customer has MOM 2005 and is looking to implement SCOM 2007 R2. As part of the design we have been looking at scalability differences between the older version, MOM 2005 and the newer version, SCOM 2007 R2.

There are some scalability differences but in a number of cases the recommended limits are very similar.

The following table compares scalability limits between MOM 2005 and SCOM 2007 R2 (however this table is not exhaustive, for instance it does not include details on non Windows client, which was an addition to SCOM 2007 R2). For further information on this see http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/bb735402.aspx

Monitored Item	MOM 2005	SCOM 2007 R2
Simultaneous Operations Consoles	15	50
Agent monitored computers reporting to a Management Server	2,000	2,500
Agent monitored computers reporting to a Gateway Server	N/A	1,500
Agentless Exception Monitored computers per Management Server	15,000	25,000
Agentless Exception Monitored computers per Management Group	50,000	100,000
Collective Client Monitored computers per Management Server	2,500	2,500
Collective Client Monitored computers per Management Group	10,000	10,000
Management Servers per agent for multihoming	4	4
Agentless managed computers per Management Server	10	10
Agentless managed computers per management group	60	60
Agent-managed computers per management group	4,000	6,000

Patrick Lownds

Desktop Virtualization - What To Expect in 2010

Patrick — Tue, 09 Feb 2010 09:14:00 GMT

Interesting article from Citrix desktop virtualization and what to expect in 2010. To read the full article at http://community.citrix.com/display/ocb/2010/02/08/Desktop+Virtualization+-+What+To+Expect+in+2010

Patrick Lownds