Month: April 2011

Microsoft Virtualization for VMware Professionals Jump Start

The “Microsoft Virtualization for VMware Professionals” Jump Start is specially tailored for VMware and Microsoft virtualization technology pros. This cutting-edge course features expert instruction and real-world demonstrations of Hyper-V, many components of the System Center Suite, including VMM 2012, and a myriad of VDI solutions. This course is designed for Data Center Managers, IT Professionals, IT Decision Makers, Network Administrators, Storage/Infrastructure Administrators & Architects. Expert IT infrastructure consultant, Corey Hynes, and Microsoft Technical Evangelist, Symon Perriman, leveraged an engaging "team teaching" approach which makes the class as entertaining as it is educational Smile

Virtualization Jump Start (01): Virtualization Overview
Virtualization Jump Start (02): Differentiating Microsoft & VMware
Virtualization Jump Start (03a): Hyper-V Deployment Options & Architecture | Part 1
Virtualization Jump Start (03b): Hyper-V Deployment Options & Architecture | Part 2
Virtualization Jump Start (04): High-Availability & Clustering
Virtualization Jump Start (05): System Center Suite Overview with focus on DPM
Virtualization Jump Start (06): Automation with Opalis, Service Manager & PowerShell
Virtualization Jump Start (07): System Center Virtual Machine Manager 2012
Virtualization Jump Start (08): Private Cloud Solutions, Architecture & VMM Self-Service Portal 2.0
Virtualization Jump Start (09): Virtual Desktop Infrastructure (VDI) Architecture | Part 1
Virtualization Jump Start (10): Virtual Desktop Infrastructure (VDI) Architecture | Part 2
Virtualization Jump Start (11): v-Alliance Solution Overview
Virtualization Jump Start (12): Application Delivery for VDI

Download all the Video’s:
Video: WMV | WMV (ZIP) | PSP
Audio: WMA | MP3

Now only finding some spare time to watch’s these video’s Winking smile

Hotfix Rollup 3 for Forefront Protection for Exchange Server

Microsoft released Hotfix Rollup 3 for Forefront Protection for Exchange Server (KB2538719).

Forefront-Protection-2010

 

Here’s the list of fixes included in this rollup:

  1. Mail queues and sluggish Exchange/Outlook performance
  2. Increased “Available Disk Space” Health Point threshold to 250MB
  3. Error: The DNS Blocklist lookup domain blocklist.messaging.microsoft.com could not be contacted
  4. The Exchange Information store crashes with Forefront Protection for Exchange installed
  5. An attempted upgrade of Forefront Protection for Exchange fails with a “Registration Service Failed” error
  6. You receive Forefront Protection Health Notifications indicating a status of “Green to Green”
  7. Forefront generates a MaxDisabledWait error within 15 minutes after starting
  8. A MaxDisabledWait error occurs and Forefront Protection does not recover
  9. Forefront Protection doesn’t apply keyword filtering within hyperlink strings
  10. Forefront Protection for Exchange crashes while scanning a TAR file
  11. An engine update fails in Forefront Protection for Exchange
  12. Emails that are 90 MB or larger are being sent to the Forefront archive folder
  13. The Microsoft Forefront Server Protection Eventing Service will not start following an upgrade from a beta version of Forefront Protection for Exchange
  14. Forefront Protection for Exchange detects files as “Engine Error” when no engines have been enabled for scanning
  15. Messages quarantined due to engine error can now be delivered as complete email
  16. High CPU conditions in EdgeTransort.exe process result in crash
  17. You receive Forefront generated email notification that the Cloudmark engine or Worm list could not update
  18. Exchange email queues at startup following an abnormal shutdown

For more details on the fixes consult the related knowledge base article. You can request the hotfix rollup through the support center here.

DPM 2010 Enabling/Disabling co-location of data on Tape

With this feature, you can achieve better tape utilization by co-locating data from multiple protection groups with similar retention range. This feature is disabled by default. You can use following PowerShell commands to enable and disable tape co-location.

Enable Tape co-location:

Set-DPMGlobalProperty -DpmServer <DPM Server Name> -OptimizeTapeUsage $true

After data co-location has been enabled, DPM will check for the following conditions before allocating a tape:

  1. The expiry date of the current dataset should fall in between the following dates:
    Upper bound: furthest expiry date among all the datasets on the tape – (furthest expiry date among all the datasets on the tape – current date) * TapeExpiryTolerance
    Lower Bound: furthest expiry date among all the datasets on the tape + (furthest expiry date among all the datasets on the tape – current date) * TapeExpiryTolerance.
  2. Current time should be less than first backup time of the dataset on the media + TapeWritePeriodRatio * RetentionRangeOfFirstDataset.

A dataset will be collocated only if both the above conditions are true.

When you add the value to the registry, set the DWORD to be the actual percentage in decimal. The Default is 17 percent if that value is not present. Most likely you need to increase that value to a higher percentage and in some cases you need to set it to 100 in order for tape co-location to work as desired.

TapeWritePeriodRatio – Indicates the number of days for which data can be written on to a tape as a fraction between 0 and 1. The default value is 0.15 – meaning by default, we will write to the same tape for 15% of the retension range period specified for each PG.

TapeWritePeriodRatio is not a registry. It is a global property for the DPM which needs to be set using DPM CLI command. Here is the command to set it:

Set-DPMGlobalProperty –DPMServerName <dpm server name> -TapeWritePeriodRatio <fraction>

EXAMPLE, to set the write period ratio to 50%, use the following command.

Set-DPMGlobalProperty –DPMServerName MY-DPMSEREVR -TapeWritePeriodRatio .50

http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ff399230.aspx

Issue with MDT 2010 Update 1 and Windows AIK for Windows 7 SP1

With the release of the Windows AIK for Windows 7 SP1 supplement (see Windows AIK for Windows 7 SP1 Released for details), there is a new version 3.1 version of Windows PE available. If you plan to install this update, you need to be aware of an issue when using this with MDT 2010 Update 1.

With MDT 2010, Deployment Workbench will look for a “boot.wim” file from one of the imported operating systems that has the same build number as Windows AIK (e.g. “boot.wim” from a Windows 7 RC, build 7100, operating system to go with the Windows AIK for Windows 7 RC). If it finds a match, it will use that WIM instead. Why do we do this? Because the “boot.wim” contains the Windows Recovery Environment (Windows RE), a component that isn’t available in Windows AIK.

So let’s get a little more specific. First, some background details:

  • The build number for the RTM version of Windows 7 is 6.1.7600.16385.
  • The build number for Windows AIK for Windows 7, released with Windows 7 RTM, is also 6.1.7600.16385. This is stored in the registry.
  • The build number for Windows 7 SP1 is 6.1.7601.17514.
  • The build number for the files included in the Windows 7 AIK for Windows 7 SP1 supplement, including Windows PE 3.1 and all the Windows PE feature packs, is also 6.1.7601.17514. But since this supplement is installed by replacing files in the Windows AIK installation directory using XCOPY, the registry isn’t updated so MDT still thinks the Windows 7 RTM version (6.1.7600.16385) of Windows AIK is installed.

Now, let’s assume that you have Windows 7 RTM x86 installation files present in your deployment share, and you haven’t installed the Windows 7 AIK for Windows 7 SP1 supplement. MDT’s processing when creating a boot image will look like this:

  • Is there a boot.wim available with the same version number as Windows AIK (6.1.7600.16385 = 6.1.7600.13685)? Yes, copy it to a temporary folder and mount it.
  • Inject the required Windows PE optional components from the Windows AIK installation directory into this mounted boot image.
  • Inject the needed MDT scripts.
  • Commit the changes to the WIM file and copy it to the deployment share.

Now, install the Windows 7 AIK for Windows 7 SP1 supplement and update the deployment share:

  • Is there a boot.wim available with the same version number as Windows AIK (6.1.7600.16385 = 6.1.7600.13685)? Yes (because MDT doesn’t know that Windows AIK has been updated, the registry still says it is version 6.1.7600.16385), copy it to a temporary folder and mount it.
  • Try to Inject the required Windows PE feature packs from the Windows AIK installation directory into this mounted boot image. All fail, because they are for Windows PE 3.1 and won’t work with the Windows PE 3.0 boot image copied from the Windows 7 RTM files.
  • Stop.

The actual error will look something like this (repeated for each Windows PE feature pack):

Deployment Image Servicing and Management tool
Version: 6.1.7600.16385
Image Version: 6.1.7600.16385
Processing 1 of 1 – Adding package WinPE-HTA-Package~31bf3856ad364e35~x86~~6.1.7601.17514
Error: 0x800f081e
The specified package is not applicable to this image.
The DISM log file can be found at C:\Windows\Logs\DISM\dism.log
Exit code = –2146498530
DISM /Add-Package failed for component C:\Program Files\Windows AIK\Tools\PETools\amd64\WinPE_FPs\winpe-hta.cab, rc = -2146498530.

Solution:

Modify the Settings.xml file in the deployment share’s “Control” folder to tell MDT to never use the boot.wim. The settings look like this:

<Boot.x86.UseBootWim>True</Boot.x86.UseBootWim>
<Boot.x64.UseBootWim>True</Boot.x64.UseBootWim>

They should be changed to instead say:

<Boot.x86.UseBootWim>False</Boot.x86.UseBootWim>
<Boot.x64.UseBootWim>False</Boot.x64.UseBootWim>

As a result of this change, MDT will no longer use the boot.wim from the Windows 7 RTM installation files. Instead, it will always use the winpe.wim from Windows AIK. And since the Windows PE feature packs in Windows AIK should always match the winpe.wim in Windows AIK, this will always work.

Note that this will never be an issue with MDT-generated boot images used with ConfigMgr 2007, as MDT will always use the winpe.wim from Windows AIK when generating these. (ConfigMgr 2007 doesn’t yet support Windows PE 3.1, so don’t install the Windows AIK for Windows 7 SP1 supplement yet if you are using ConfigMgr.)

More info check: Issue with MDT 2010 Update 1 and Windows AIK for Windows 7 SP1 Supplement

Windows Server 2008 R2 Hyper-V SP1 Component Architecture Poster

This poster provides a visual reference for understanding key Hyper-V technologies in Windows Server 2008 R2 Service Pack 1. It focuses on architecture, snapshots, live migration, virtual networking, storage, RemoteFX and Dynamic Memory.

To download the poster click on the picture
image

System Center Virtual Machine Manager 2012 Beta Evaluation

System Center Virtual Machine Manager 2012 delivers industry leading fabric managment, virtual machine management and services deployment in private cloud environments. Virtual Machine Manager 2012 offers key new features that include hypervisor creation and management, network management, storage management, private cloud creation, self-service usage and service creation. It features deep investments in server application virtualization, service design and service modeling all of which can be used to efficiently offer an on-premises private cloud.

Feature Summary

  • Fabric Management
    • Hyper-V and Cluster Lifecycle Management – Deploy Hyper-V to bare metal server, create Hyper-V clusters, orchestrate patching of a Hyper-V Cluster
    • Third Party Virtualization Platforms – Add and Manage Citrix XenServer and VMware ESX Hosts and Clusters
    • Network Management – Manage IP Address Pools, MAC Address Pools and Load Balancers
    • Storage Management – Classify storage, Manage Storage Pools and LUNs
  • Resource Optimization
    • Dynamic Optimization – proactively balance the load of VMs across a cluster
    • Power Optimization – schedule power savings to use the right number of hosts to run your workloads – power the rest off until they are needed
    • PRO – integrate with System Center Operations Manager to respond to application-level performance monitors
  • Cloud Management
    • Abstract server, network and storage resources into private clouds
    • Delegate access to private clouds with control of capacity, capabilities and user quotas
    • Enable self-service usage for application administrator to author, deploy, manage and decommission applications in the private cloud
  • Service Lifecycle Management
    • Define service templates to create sets of connected virtual machines, os images and applica tion packages
    • Compose operating system images and applications during service deployment
    • Scale out the number of virtual machines in a service
    • Service performance and health monitoring integrated with System Center Operations Manager
    • Decouple OS image and application updates through image-based servicing
    • Leverage powerful application virtualization technologies such as Server App-V

System Requirements

  • Supported Operating Systems:Windows 7 Enterprise;Windows 7 Professional;Windows 7 Ultimate;Windows Server 2008 R2;Windows Server 2008 R2 Datacenter;Windows Server 2008 R2 Enterprise
    • Windows Server 2008 R2 (full installation) Standard, Enterprise, Datacenter x64
    • Windows 7 Professional, Enterprise, Ultimate x32, x64
    • Windows Remote Management (WinRM) 2.0
    • Windows PowerShell 2.0
    • Microsoft .NET Framework 3.5 Service Pack 1 (SP1)
    • Windows Automated Installation Kit (AIK) for Windows 7
    • SQL Server 2008 or SQL Server 2008 R2 Standard, Enterprise, and Datacenter
    • Windows Deployment Services (WDS) – (Version on Windows Server 2008 R2)
    • Windows Software Update Services (WSUS) 3.0 SP2 64bit

Download System Center Virtual Machine Manager 2012 Beta Evaluation HERE

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