January 2009 - Posts
Management of Virtual Machines is not just about managing the VM’s themselves but also the workloads that run in them. The key to managing the entire IT infrastructure is the integration of both physical and virtual machine management into a single set of tools.
I’ll be giving a presentation on managing a virtual datacenter with SCOM, SCCM, DPM and VMM at a Microsoft Open House that will be held on February 3rd at Microsoft Israel.
The main point in my presentation is that when looking at the data center (or IT environment) as a whole, tools like Systems Center Operations Manger and Systems Center Virtual Machine Manager (that has integration built into them from the grounds up) really stand out in the crowd in comparison to tools that are built for a specific environment (like managing only virtual machines).
One of the demonstrations will involve Performance Resource Optimization (PRO) which is one of VMM’s top features, as it allows administrators to automate practically any type of response to a given condition, including responding to application, virtualization, system, storage, or network events.
I’ll love to get your comments and suggestions regarding the planned presentation and of course to see you at the event :)
Following is the link with all the info about the Open House, including registration to the event:
https://msevents.microsoft.com/CUI/EventDetail.aspx?EventID=1032401717&culture=he-IL
New Hotfix pack had been released for App-V 4.5
read more about it: http://www.dario.co.il/blog/?p=379
Check out this nice list I found wondering on Technet.
Mandatory reference in all Hyper-V implementation.
| Knowledge Base Article | Name | Date | Required? | Availability | Link |
| KB950050 | ”Hyper-V Update for Windows Server 2008 x64 Edition” (This is the RTM version of Hyper-V.) | 6/26/2008 | Yes. | Windows Update, Download Center | http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkId=139066 |
| KB950182 | “A computer that is running an x86-based version of Windows Server 2008 or an x86-based version of Windows Vista may use fewer processors than expected if the number of cores on a socket is not a power of 2” | 04/11/2008 | Yes, if you want to start an x86-based virtual machine running Windows Server 2008 on a computer that uses a 6-core processor. | Hotfix | http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkId=139067 |
| KB951308 | “Increased functionality and virtual machine control in the Windows Server 2008 Failover Cluster Management console for the Hyper-V role” | 09/11/2008 | Yes, for Failover Clustering. | Download Center | http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkID=125397 |
| KB951636 | “Hyper-V Language Pack Update for Windows Server 2008” | 6/26/2008 | Yes, if you are using the additional languages offered. | Download Center | http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkId=139069 |
| KB952627 | “Description of the Windows Vista Service Pack 1 Management Tools update for the release version of Hyper-V” (Install this to enable remote management of a computer running Windows Server 2008 with the Hyper-V role installed.) | 6/26/2008 | Yes, to enable remote management using the Hyper-V Manager Microsoft Management Console (MMC) snap-in. | Download Center | http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkID=122189 |
| KB953585 | “Error message when you try to start a Hyper-V virtual machine on a Windows Server 2008-based or Windows Vista-based computer that uses the NUMA architecture: "An error occurred while attempting to change the state of virtual machine VMNAME"” | 09/04/2008 | Yes, if you are using a computer running Windows Server 2008 with Non-Uniform Memory Access (NUMA) architecture. | Hotfix | http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkId=139068 |
| KB953828 | “The NLB host does not converge as expected on Windows Server 2008 Hyper-V virtual machines” | 6/25/2008 | Yes, if you are using Network Load Balancing (NLB). | Hotfix | http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkId=139070 |
| KB956386 | “Microsoft Hyper-V Server 2008” | 10/03/2008 | No. | Download Center | http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkId=139610 |
| KB956589 | “Hyper-V Update for Windows Server 2008 x64 Edition” (Install this to resolve potential issues when you manage Hyper-V with System Center Virtual Machine Manager (VMM) 2008.) | 9/23/2008 | Yes, if you are using System Center VMM 2008 to manage your environment. | Download Center | http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkId=139611 |
| KB956697 | “Update for Windows Server 2008 x64 Edition” (Install this to resolve an issue in which the Hyper-V Volume Shadow Copy Service (VSS) does not back up virtual machines properly.) | 09/08/2008 | Yes, if the Volume Shadow Copy Service (VSS) is utilized for backups. | Windows Update, Download Center | http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkId=139612 |
| KB956710 | “Update for Windows Server 2008 x64 Edition” (Install this to enable the Hyper-V role to support up to 24 logical processors and 192 virtual machines.) | 9/23/08 | Yes, if the management operating system has more than 16 logical processors. | Download Center | http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkId=139613 |
| KB956774 | “Update for Windows Server 2008 x64 Edition” (Install this to resolve the scenario where a Background Intelligent Transfer Service (BITS) client cannot handle files that have paths that contain the volume GUID in Windows Server 2008.) | 9/23/08 | Yes, if GUIDs are used instead of a drive letter or mount point. | Hotfix | http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkId=139614 |
| KB957967 | “Stop error message on a Windows Server 2008-based computer that has the Hyper-V role installed: "STOP 0x0000001A"” | 10/08/2008 | Yes. | Hotfix | http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkId=139615 |
| KB958065 | “You cannot configure a Hyper-V virtual machine by using Windows Server 2008 Failover Clustering when the virtual machine uses a storage device that is managed by a third-party clustered file system or a third-party replication solution” | 11/03/2008 | Yes, if you are using a non-Microsoft clustered file system or non-Microsoft replication solutions. | Hotfix | http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkId=139616 |
| KB958184 | “Virtual machine backup operations fail in Windows Server 2008 when Hyper-V virtual machine files are saved on a volume that is mounted on a failover cluster by using a volume GUID” | 11/05/2008 | Yes, when backing up a volume that is mounted using a volume GUID. | Hotfix | http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkID=133348 |
Continue reading at our new blog - http://www.dario.co.il/blog/?p=370
Windows 2008 R2 will feature some major DFS improvements, following is an explanation of them:
1. Support for Windows Failover Clusters
In Windows Server 2008 R2, Windows Failover clusters can be configured to be part of a replication group. Windows Failover clustering technology enables administrators to configure services and applications to be highly available.
Busy hub servers located in the datacenter that replicate with many branch office servers are perfect candidates for clustered DFS Replication. These servers are critical to the replication infrastructure and administrators expect high availability from these servers. A failure (hardware/software) on such crucial servers has the potential to bring all replication activity to a standstill.
2. Read-only Replicated Folders
Often, customers use the DFS Replication service to publish data from a central server out to many branch office servers. A typical characteristic of this data is that it is created/modified at one location (typically the hub/datacenter server) and changes aren’t expected to occur on any of the other member servers. Usually, administrators configure strict ACLs for the replicated data to ensure that changes aren’t made by end-users in branch offices.
Configuring and maintaining strict ACLs to block accidental modifications or recovering data that has been accidentally deleted entail high administrative overheads. A new feature in Windows Server 2008 R2 called ‘Read-only replicated folders’, offers an easy to manage…
Continue reading at our new blog - http://www.dario.co.il/blog/?p=369
No matter how careful you are. No matter how many times you’ve checked your parameters and state conditions. No matter how many times you tested it out of production.
It happens.
Some misconfigured rule - or even an event that happens much differently in a production environment then in test - begins firing off alerts. Maybe you don’t notice it right away - perhaps you haven’t setup notifications for this particular rule...
Continue reading at our new blog - http://www.dario.co.il/blog/?p=350
A little warning first..
When dealing with the registry you should always work smart-> Backup you registry and write down the changes you make. Lets get to business...
If you tried running an agent task on more than 10 computers at once you've probably got this error message:
Value cannot be null.
Parameter name: target
To get around this somewhat weird limitation you can use the following registry key to control the number of objects to fetch Tasks/Reports...
Continue reading at our new blog - http://www.dario.co.il/blog/?p=356
A very cool tool I came across with is the SCCM Client Center.
As it's name applies it is used for SMS/SCCM client management, it has many functions and a very cool GUI...
Continue reading at our new blog - http://www.dario.co.il/blog/?p=365
Microsoft has released a new document to help you create custom reports.
You can download it here.
Overview
Microsoft System Center Configuration Manager 2007 queries SQL Server views in the Configuration Manager site database when retrieving the information displayed in reports. The Configuration Manager site SQL database contains a large collection of information about the network, computers, users, user groups, and many other components of the computing environment. The database also contains objects that represent Configuration Manager 2007 items such as advertisements, software update deployments, configuration baselines, reports, and status messages. Configuration Manager administrators need to understand the different categories of the SQL views, what information is stored in each view, and how the SQL views can be joined to one another to create reports that return the desired information.
Continue reading at our new blog - http://www.dario.co.il/blog/?p=366
Issue: After upgrading from SMS 2003 SP2 or SP3 to the Select version of Configuration Manager 2007 SP1, you may see the following status message:
SMS_SQL_MONITOR_SiteServer - 2407 SMS SQL Monitor failed to install trigger "SQLTaskStatus_upd" in the SMS site database.
Possible cause: Either table "SQLTaskStatus" or column "TaskName,TaskType" of table "SQLTaskStatus" does not exist in the SMS site database.
Solution: If you modified table "SQLTaskStatus", restore it to its original, unmodified state.
Possible cause: SQL Server problem.
Solution...
Continue reading at our new blog - http://www.dario.co.il/blog/?p=367
Under certain circumstances it may be necessary to install the OpsMgr 32-bit agent on a 64-bit operating system to monitor a 32-bit application. This is a supported configuration but the 32-bit agent must be installed manually and both the 32-bit and 64-bit OpsMgr agent cannot be installed simultaneously...
Continue reading at our new blog - http://www.dario.co.il/blog/?p=368
Microsoft’s Virtualization UA team has put together some great Hyper-V clustering guidance on TechNet.
Content includes:
- Design for a Failover Cluster in Which…
Continue reading at our new blog - http://www.dario.co.il/blog/?p=349
OpsMgr 2007 has class/object based modeling of any application, and monitoring the various states changes of these objects around the four pillars - Availability, Configuration, Security and Performance.
One can remotely look at various aspects of multiple DPM servers in a centralized fashion, as in the case of the DPM MP – by giving glimpse of all the admin managed objects and its various properties - like what is the number of recovery points in a datasource, or how much size does it occupy, or what tape libraries are working fine etc. In fact, it also build a visual picture (Diagram view) which…
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Symptom
Virtual Machine in Hyper-V automatically restarts after shutting down the guest OS.
The Integration components are installed and functioning properly. There are no relevant errors in the event log of the hyper-v.
Cause
The Virtual Machine is defined as a cluster resource.
Control the VM through the Failover Cluster Management console.
Using the Failover Cluster Management console, control the state of the VM resource and define what happens to the VM when taking the resource offline :
Virtual Machine Resource > Properties > Offline Actions :
Turn Off / Save / Shutdown / Shutdown (force)
More Info
At first, I thought it was a bug in hyper-V, and after changing the "Automatic Start Action" in the VM's settings, the machine didn't restart automatically after the shutdown. Several minutes later, the machine was started and the automatic restart after shutdown happened again.
A simple solution came from a simple article :
Troubleshooting Hyper-V
http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/cc742454.aspx
In order to create a certificate that is valid for longer than the default
validity period defined in the Windows Server CA templates, there are
three things which determine the validity period:
- The remaining lifetime of the issuing CA server
- The value specified in the certificate template
- The value specified in the CA server registry
The validity period of the certificate will be determined by the shortest
value of the three … :)
Determining the lifetime for a CA server
The default Validity period of a CA server is 5 years, however if your stability
is more important to you than security – set it to a longer period such as
ten or twenty years. Whatever value you choose, re-issue the CA certificate
about a year before it expires.
Certificate Template
You can edit the templates available for your CA only if you have
Windows Server 2003 Enterprise Edition !!!
Always try to install your CA on this edition, just in case you’ll need to edit
the certificate templates at any later date …
To manage the certificate template, open your CA server mmc and select
“Certificate Templates” –> “Manage”
You can then copy an existing template and edit its attributes.
CA registry values
In order to view your current registry settings use the following commands
in a CMD prompt:
certutil –getreg ca\validityperiod
certutil –getreg ca\validityperiodunits
These commands will show that your CA is using YEARS as its validity period
and 2 as its validity period units.
in order to change the validity period units use the following command:
certutil –setreg ca\validityperiodunits n
(n represents value of the number of years you wish to set)
In order for the new setting to apply you must stop and start the CA service,
you can do so by the following commands:
net stop certsvc
net start certsvc