Activating Windows Azure–Platform as A Service (Paas)

 

In today post, let look into how do you activating Windows Azure using MSDN subscription. For MSDN subscriber, you are entitled for FREE Windows Azure usage based on your subscription. Below is updated offering which updated on April 2011.

So why waiting? Get the FREE offering from MSDN subscription. All you need to is

1. Go to My Account & Click on Windows Azure Platform

2. Register your account and Credit Card. If you exceeding the usage as listed above, then you will be charged on the extra usage. Do remember to always check your usage from this site:- https://mocp.microsoftonline.com/site/default.aspx. Once activated, you’re entitled to use 7 month of Windows Azure for FREE. Do remember to opt-out auto renew. This option will prevent auto renew of the Windows Azure subscription after expire date. You can change to auto-opt in as well if you decide to auto renew the service.

3. Creating of platform will took around 5 minute. To access Windows Azure, go to http://windows.azure.com/

 

4. To get started, do check out the “Getting started with Windows Azure”

4. Next, click on Hosted Services, Storage Account & CDN pane. You need to know Subscription ID when managing Public Cloud & Private Cloud using System Center App Controller (Code name: Concero).

Lastly, let’s recap.

This post provided a way to activating FREE Windows Azure using your MSDN subscription. Do play around with it and enjoy 7 months of  FREE subscription of Windows Azure.

No harm of trying deploying .Net application and SQL database into Windows Azure.

Contest Winner:- Robarros

 

Congratulation to Robarros !. You have won the contest which took place from 18 – 27 August 2011. More detail about the contest, click here.

Prize won:- Altaro Hyper-V Backup Unlimited Edition (worth $445).

Note:- license key has sent to your email account. The license key can be used on a single Hyper-V host only, supported cluster Hyper-V and unlimited virtual machine.

Prize Sponsor by Altaro. More detail, click here.

Once again, Congratulation ! from Lai (Founder of www.ms4u.info)

Microsoft Tech-Ed New Zealand 2011 Presentation:- SIM307: Managing IT as A Service with System Center

In order to be able to successfully in running IT As a Service, we need to have a complete solution that resolves around monitoring of health state of service, tracking and remediation of issues & pain points in the services and how we can automate these process to make to address this issue consistently. In this session, we will demonstrate how SCOM, Service Manager and Opalis work together to deliver an integrated monitoring and response solution across the System Center Suite.

Today is the last session for Raymond Chou (MVP SCOM) and I presented on a session: Managing IT as A Service with System Center. Hope you enjoy the slide and the session recording.

Slide:-

Managing IT as A Service with System Center

View more presentations from Lai Yoong Seng.

Session Recording:-

SIM307-Managing IT as A Service with System Center from Yoong Seng Lai on Vimeo.

Microsoft Tech-Ed New Zealand 2011 Presentation:-SIM204-What's Coming in Virtual Machine Manager 2012?

In this session, we (Raymond Chou (SCOM MVP) & Lai Yoong Seng (VM MVP) provided an overview of the new features in System Center Virtual Machine Manager 2012 which included new architecture of VMM 2012 and 4 pillar of management:- deployment, fabric, cloud and services management at Microsoft Tech-Ed New Zealand 2011 (Auckland).
Date:- Thursday: 25 August 2011

Slide Presentation:-

SIM204-What's Coming in Virtual Machine Manager 2012?

View more presentations from Lai Yoong Seng.

Session Recording:-

SIM204-What's Coming in Virtual Machine Manager 2012? from Yoong Seng Lai on Vimeo.

Kelly Tarlton's-New Zealand

Day 3-morning @ Aukland. I've visited Kelly Tarlton's before our session start in the afternoon.

Penguin:-

Shark:-

Stingray:-

Hut:-

Fish:-

Before i forget, you still have 2 days to participate on Altaro Unlimited Edition Contest Giveaway. To join, please go to http://www.ms4u.info/2011/08/contest-open-to-blog-visitors-and.html

Miniacture- New Zealand

Hi, i managed to visit Skytower Souvenier shop (Auckland). Guess what do i found?
A lot of miniacture from the famous movie: Lord of the Rings and Avatar. Both movies are filmed at New Zealand.

Kiwis Land-New Zealand

Day 1 @ Microsoft Tech-Ed New Zealand 2011. No session schedule for today, therefore just attend some session, try some Hand-on-Lab and walk around Auckland.

Microsoft Tech-Ed New Zealand 2011

 

I and Raymond Chou (MVP SCOM) will be speaking at Microsoft Tech-Ed New Zealand 2011. Our session are

• SIM204 What’s Coming in Virtual Machine Manager 2012 – more detail.
• SIM307 Managing IT as A Service with System Center – more detail

See you there NZ people…

Running Android on Hyper-V

 

Note:- Not supported in production environment and no support from Microsoft. Test it on you own risk. In this video, i’m showing the process of installing Android on Hyper-V Virtual Machine.

It is meant for playing around and not suppose to be use in production environment.

You can download the iso from http://www.android-x86.org/download. The iso size is around 70MB+. I’m using the stable version. Feel free to view the 10 minute of Android installation process. (No harm trying, Enjoy!)

Running Android on Hyper-V from Yoong Seng Lai on Vimeo.

For network connectivity, make sure you use legacy network adapter before the installation. * No support on this test if your environment cannot detect network. If supported, it will detect Ethernet Configuration and you can use static and dhcp to get the ip address*

Navigation:-

• Use [ESC] to back
• Use mouse to select
• Use Mouse scroll button, to move up and down.

Contest Open To Blog Visitors and Members of MVUG

 

Alright, as Altaro has provided an Unlimited Edition license key to give away to the blog readers/MVUG members. Therefore, i plan to give it away as a contest

Contest Duration:- 18 August 2011 – 27 August 2011

Prize : Altaro Hyper-V Backup Unlimited Edition License Key. (worth $445).  The license can be used on a single Hyper-V host only.

How it’s works?

Since the prize is related to Altaro, i have decided to use it as the topic of the contest.

1. Go to here to download an Edition which can support Cluster Shared Volume (Just 13MB).

2. Install the product on your Hyper-V Machine and provide an image snapshot of successful backup. Example:-

 

(This is a must to prove that you have tested the product before giving comments-1 image will do). Your test environment can in either standalone or cluster Hyper-V.

3. Provide your best comments (good or bad) about the product. (Not more than 100 words)

Submission

Sent an email to my email account:- [email protected] with the following info:-

Subject: Altaro Contest

• Nickname : (to publish as a winner)
• Email address:- (to receive the winning license key)
• Q1:- Product Edition name to backup CSV:-
• Required:-Image Snapshot of the successful backup
• Q2:- Comments (less than 100 words)

Term and Condition

1. Only 1 entry is accepted per reader. (Pls don’t spam my mailbox). Multiple entry per reader will be rejected

2. Your comments will be forwarded to Altaro as a feedback of the product to improve the product. (probably, depend on me)

3. Winner will be announced on 31 August 2011 (GMT+8)

Easy right. Good luck !

Microsoft Hyper-V Backup for SMB/Branch: Altaro Hyper-V Has RTM

 

In my previous blog, i have commented about Altaro Hyper-V Backup which at that time the product is still under development. Just received a good news from David (CEO of Altaro) that the product has released to public. Altaro Hyper-V Backup is now one of the third party product in the market which support as Microsoft Hyper-V Backup for SMB.

Let have a look on what’s the new changes compare from my previous post.

1. Small size. Just 13 MB and you can install on Hyper-V Host. The product came with 3 Edition:-

• Free Edition – protect up to 2 VM
• Standard Edition –protect up to 5 VM
• Unlimited Edition – protect unlimited VM and most important is support CSV (cluster Hyper-V host)

I have been given an Unlimited Edition License key to test the product. My first try is install on Hyper-V Cluster and VM is running on CSV.

Backup is still extremely fast and support on external USB hard disk which really impressed me a lot, Both nodes should install with Altaro Hyper-V Unlimited Edition. Configure backup plan on each server to protect individual VM which located on the server.

Meanwhile on 2nd Node Server, configure backup drive to use UNC Path which is pointing to Node1 (External USB HDD located).

2. File Level Restore. You can recover a file inside the VM.

Selec the backup VM and point to temporary restore location.

Temporary it will recover to a folder.

Once successful, you need to mount the VHD to recover your Item level recovery by select the Restore VM and select Mount VHD/AVHD..

The system will assign a drive letter and you can browse the file that you want to copy/recover. To recover a file, just use copy and paste method.

Once complete, you can unmounts and it will remove from the temporary folder.

3. Next features:-Fire Drill features. Altaro Hyper-V Backup will perform test recovery based on your schedule to a temporary folder. Identify a temporary folder and configure scheduling for a test.

According to scheduling that you have defined, it will perform fire drill action.

Not only test restoration of the VM but also attach a CLONE VM to your Hyper-V Host . The VM setting is following the original VM configuration except the vNIC is not connected. User can power on the VM to test.

Figure:- on Hyper-V Manager snap-in:

Once complete the test, you can remove it from the Altaro Hyper-V console.

That’s concluded my test. For more features, please go to http://www.altaro.com/hyper-v-backup/

Give it a try and you will love the product as i am. :)

Recover Domain Controller Virtual Machine Inside CSV When Hyper-V Failover Cluster Failed

Well, first of all. I would like to apologies on posting wrong information about “Caution When Remove CSV”. The previous blog post has deleted and i would like to take this opportunities to Thanks “Vincent Hu” which highlighted that he had tested this scenario on Hyper-V Failover Cluster without destroying the data on the LUN. Yup, he is right.

No data is loss after remove the CSV. Here is the re-post of blog to recover a Virtual Machine especially when we have deploy domain controller into CSV.

Note:- It is still not recommended to put DC into CSV unless we have another DC running on physical/ not in CSV.

Workaround to take back DC VM from CSV.

1. At this moment , your cluster has offline and failed due to cannot connect to Domain Controller.


2. Go to Cluster Shared Volume, select the Cluster volume which contained the VHD. (Previously i took the Volume 1(which is empty, that has caused a false alarm, sorry)


3.Offline the resources, right click and select Remove from Cluster Shared Volumes.


4. Once remove, go to Storage and you will see the disk located in Available Storage. Assign a Drive Letter and copy the VHD out.



This is the simple trick to recover the DC VM which is inside the CSV. Hope now you can create the VM Configuration and start the Domain Controller. Once the DC is up, then you will be able to start the Hyper-V Failover Cluster.

Just to remind again, you should have at least 1 DC not in CSV or run in physical server.

Good luck…

Creating Distributed Key Management (DKM) for VMM 2012

 

During installation of VMM 2012, you will come across to one option about DKM.

So what’s DKM and when do you use it?

DKM allow you to store encryption key in Active Directory and most of the time is use when setup high available VMM Server. It is not feasible to store the encryption key on only one of the VMM Server.

To create DKM, you need to

1. Use ADSIEdit.msc

2.Create a container called VMMDKM anywhere in AD DS hierarchy.

Below is sample of VMMDKM that i have created:-

During VMM 2012 installation, enter the following distinguished name:-

CN=VMMDKM, DC=contoso, DC=com

Resolved Vmware ESX Host Status “OK(Limited)”

 

When you’ve added Vmware ESX into VMM 2012 via Vmware Vcenter Integration, the Host Status is listed as “OK (Limited)”. You will not be able to deploy Virtual Machine with this status.

Problem:-

In order to get the status “OK”, you need to perform below resolution

Resolution:-

1. Import the certificate and public key

Right click the ESX server , select Properties and click on Management. Click on “Retrieve button and tick “Accept both the certificate and public key for the host”

Sample:-

Final result:-

Faster Creation of Fixed VHD

How fast can you create
a) 30 GB Fixed Disk – 10- 15 min?
b) 100 GB – not sure…

By using Hyper-V Manager, you can start to create Fixed Disk or Convert Dynamic Disk to Fixed VHD. Now, how about you plan to create an empty 1TB fixed VHD. By using the Hyper-V Console, it will roughly took you around 1 hours+.
Now to create 1TB of fixed disk within less than 1 minute, here is the trick.
a) Go to Codeplex and download VHDTool. This is the final release which released on Jan 2011.

To download, click here

Example:- 1 TB fixed VHD in C:\ClusterStorage\Volume 2.
Format vhdtool.exe /create “path & filename” size

vhdtool.exe /create "c:\clusterstorage\volume2\Disk1.vhd" 1099511627776

Thanks to ChrisEck to produce this VHDtool.