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Tuesday, November 29, 2011

Article featured in MVP Friday Five November 25, 2011

 

Just heard that my article:- Inventory Hyper-V Machine and Virtual Machine using PowerShell has featured in MVP Friday Five November 25,2011. You can refer to http://blogs.msdn.com/b/mvpawardprogram/archive/2011/11/25/mvp-friday-five-november-25-2011.aspx

Smile

Thursday, November 24, 2011

TechNet Forum Assistant Gadget

 

The TechNet Forum Assistant is a free Windows gadget, available in the Microsoft Download Center. This gadget will help you better utilize the great information in  TechNet Forums and community. By downloading, you have the support and expertise of Microsoft TechNet Forum Support Engineers directly right on your desktop. Receive support on your terms by downloading the TechNet Forum Assistant.

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Wednesday, November 23, 2011

Inventory Hyper-V Machine and Virtual Machine Using PowerShell

 

In this article, we will look into using PowerShell in order to get some information about Hyper-V Host and VM. I’m using this to simplify on my documentation at the end of the project.

Before we begin, you need to download Powershell Management Library for Hyper-V. To download, go to http://pshyperv.codeplex.com/releases . Current latest version is R2 SP1. Well, most people don't like coding and prefer to use GUI. However, in certain way in order to get the end result faster then PowerShell is the answer.

Let look into some PowerShell command that you can use especially want to document your final result.

Pre-requisite:-

a) .Net Framework

b) Windows Powershell

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Installation

a) Extract the zip file and execute install.cmd from command line.

To use the PowerShell, you need to import the Hyper-V Module.

Type:-

Import-Module .\HyperV.psd1

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Let get started:-

To know which command available, you can export the command to a text file.

Just type

Get-command > C:\command.txt

Some sample that might be useful:-

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1. Get memory information such as dynamic memory on the entire VM

Get-VmMemory

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2. Get virtual cpu information that assign to the VM

Get-VmCpuCount

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3. Get network information such as network type, virtual switch and mac address assign to vm. I often use this command to identify duplicate mac address assign to the VM.

get-VMNic

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4. Get information about virtual cpu on the running vm or per vm basis.

Get-VMProcessor

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5. Get information such as snapshot apply to the vm.

Get-VmSnapshot

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6. Get virtual switch information created on the host

Get-VMSwitch

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That’s all for now, a simple cmdlet. Do explore on other PowerShell cmdlet that get you to another end result that you want.

Saturday, November 19, 2011

Veeam Backup and Replication 6

 

veeam Veeam Backup & Replication v6 is a major release of Veeam’s industry-leading data protection and disaster recovery solution for virtual environments, which combines agentless image-based backup and replication in a single product. And with v6, Veeam is taking data protection to the next level for both VMware vSphere and Microsoft Hyper-V.

5 new features will be available in V6:-

a) Enterprise scalability

b) Advanced Replication

c) Multiple Hyper-visor support. v6 adds support for Windows Server Hyper-V and Microsoft Hyper-V Server.

d) 1-Click File Restore

and more, click here to read more detail.

Don’t miss the chances to be notified when v6 release to public, click here to register.

HyperV_728x90

Thursday, November 17, 2011

TechInsight 2011 Presentation: Virtualization Best Practise-Tip and Trick From Expert

 

Today at Monash University (Malaysia), i have delivered my last session for TechInsight 2011 event. The topic covered are

  • Virtualization Best Practice on Planning, Deployment and Management
  • 10 Tips and Trick
  • Useful tools

Slide

Recording

Wednesday, November 16, 2011

TechInsight 2011 Presentation: What’s Coming in Hyper-V VNext on Windows 8

 

In today session, I've discussed about the new features which available in Hyper-V Vnext on Windows 8 to TechInsight members.

Venue: Monash University, Malaysia

Slide

Recording

No recording on this session

Monday, November 14, 2011

Running Hyper-V Monitor Gadget in Windows Server 2008 R2

 

In windows Server 2008 R2, you cannot add gadget into Windows Server 2008 R2 as similar as Windows Vista or Windows 7. By default, Windows Sidebar is not a feature on Windows Server 2008 R2. Therefore, Hyper-V Monitor Gadget only can use on Windows 7 or Vista. To download  Hyper-V Monitor Gadget, please go to http://hypervmonitor.codeplex.com/

However there is a way to add Windows Sidebar into Windows Server 2008 R2

1. Download Windows Sidebar from here.

2. Extract it into C:\Windows Sidebar

3. Open Command prompt and execute install.cmd

4. Press a key to start the installation

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5. Install Hyper-V Monitor Gadget by open it and select Install Gadget

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6. Open Control panel and double click Desktop Gadget

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7. Click on Hyper-V Monitor Gadget and click Add

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8. On your desktop, click Options at the Hyper-V monitor to start the configuration.

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9. Enter Hyper-V Host details.

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10. Here is the end result. You can console/remote desktop to Hyper-V Host or Virtual Machine.

Gadget

Additional tool tip able to provide additional information.

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Note:- Limitation. So far it did not work when connect to local Hyper-V Host. However, you can use to monitor Remote Hyper-V Host.

Thursday, November 10, 2011

Reverse Replication on Hyper-V Replica

 

Product:- Windows Server Developer Preview

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In this post, we will look into how to switch primary to recovery VM or via versa.

1. On the Recover VM, right click to select Replication and Reverse Replication

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2. The remainder of the screenshot will display in thumbnail. Pls click to view on larger view. The configuration is similar as configure Hyper-V replica.

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3. Once you have set Reverse Replica, both VM will transfer the role.

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Related post:-

Wednesday, November 9, 2011

Perform Planned or Unplanned Failover Hyper-V Replica

 

In this post, we are going to test perform planned or unplanned failover Hyper-V Replica.

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Product: Windows Server Developer Preview

Planned Failover

Planned failover mean the existing primary VM is intact but you would like to use the replica VM. In order to achieve this scenario, you must turn off the primary VM before initiate Planned Failover. If you did not turn off the primary VM and initiate the boot up the system will provide an error message at the pre-requisite check.

How about manual start the replica VM? You will receive an error message as display below

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Therefore, you are require to use failover option to start the VM.

Now let see how we can achieve this scenario:-

Scenario:-

Primary VM is offline

1. Right click the primary VM, select Replication and select Planned Failover.

PlanOriginalOff-1

2. Select Failover. The system will perform pre-requisite check. If passed then it will start to perform action as displayed on the below screenshot.

Plan3

Unplanned Failover

Unplanned Failover occur when the primary VM has corrupted/unavailable. Therefore, from replica server, you will initiate failover.

Scenario:-

Primary VM- Make sure is offline.

1. Select the Replica VM, select Replication and select Failover

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2. Select the Replica that you would like to recover

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3. The system will perform the pre-requisite check and action as listed below for the Failover to happen.

Plan3

Related Post:-

Tuesday, November 8, 2011

Monitor Hyper-V Replica

 

In this post, we will look into Hyper-V replication status.

Product test: Windows Server Developer Preview

To view the replication status:-

1. On the VM, right click to select Replication and select View Replication Health.

Here you can view

  • Total replication cycle
  • Total replication cycle missed
  • Total replication errors. To view why replication fail, you can check at Event Viewer.
  • Average replication latency
  • Average replication size

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You also can export the result in csv format

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You can select Pause Replication and Resume Replication from the Hyper-V Manager snap-in as well.

Related post:-

Monday, November 7, 2011

Test Hyper-V Replica

 

In the last post, we have configure Hyper-V Replica. Now is the time to test the replica before disaster strike. Today we are going to test the replica.

Scenario:-

Original VM (Hyper-V Host 1@ Data Centre A) – Still up and running

Replica VM (Hyper-V Host 2@ Data Centre B) – offline.

In order to test the replica, Hyper-V Host will create a clone of the Replica VM without network card attached. This allow us to boot up the Virtual machine and make sure the VM is working.

Configuration:-

1. Using Replica VM, right click , select Replication and select Test Failover.

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2. Select the recovery point. Here the system will create a clone of Virtual Machine.

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3. A clone VM created with a name “VMName – Test”. When view the NIC setting, it is NOT connected. You can safely boot up the VM

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4. Once finish testing, you can stop the test by right click on the replica VM, select replication and select Stop Test Failover.

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Then the clone VM will be removed from the Hyper-V Host.

Stay Tuned for more Hyper-V Replica article on my next post.

Related Post:-

Sunday, November 6, 2011

Configure Hyper-V Replica

 

In this post, let have a look on configuring Hyper-V Replica. Hyper-V Replica is new features which available on Windows Server Developer Preview Edition. Configuration listed here may change when the product RTM.

What’s Hyper-V Replica?

Hyper-V Replica allow you to setup asynchronous replication from one data centre to another data centre This feature is built-in to Windows Server Developer Preview Edition .

Hyper-VReplica

How to achieve Hyper-V Replica?

You need to have

Data Center A- Hyper-V Vnext on Windows 8

Data Center B – Hyper-V Vnext on Windows 8

In my test scenario, i’m just using 2 Hyper-V Vnext servers to simulate this scenario

Configuration

1. At Replica and original server, enable Replica Server on Hyper-V Setting.

2. Click on Replication Configuration.

3. Tick Enable this computer as a replica

4. Choose authentication either kerberos or certificate.

5. Select which server for replication

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Once you have enable replication on the Hyper-V host. Next is enable replication on the VM.

1. Right click the VM and select Enable Replication

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2. Select Replica server, authentication and compression.

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3. Choose VHD that you would like to replicate

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4. Select how many recovery point and incremental VSS copy frequency

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5.Next, select Initial replication method. You can select

a) perform replication now or later.

b) replication using network or external media.

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6. Review the summary before click Finish.

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7. Once you click Finish, the system will start to create initial replica (if you select to perform immediately).

Modify Replication Setting

You can only modify from primary server. The setting will indicate “primary” or “recover” VM.

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On replica server, you can ONLY view the setting.

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Therefore make sure you use original/primary server to modify the replication settings.

That’s all for now. Stay tuned on my next post about more information on Hyper-V Replica.

Related post:-