Search This Blog

Sunday, December 30, 2012

Backup SQL Database to Windows Azure Online Backup

 

Well, almost last day of the year 2012 and probably this is the last article in 2012. As SC 2012 SP1 RTM has just released in MSDN/Technet website, i have took the opportunity to upgrade the entire System Center RC version to RTM. One of the product which i just tested is DPM 2012 SP1. In my previous post during RC version testing, we only manage to backup files/folder and virtual machine.

Here is my previous post link, if you would like to check out:-

Backup to Windows Azure Online Backup Services
Restore From DPM Using Windows Azure Online Backup Services

This time around, we was able to backup SQL database to Windows Azure Online Backup Services and below figure shown the database which i can add as the online protection. Just as a precaution so we are protected before we step into year 2013. Smile

a) On RTM version, online protection has put under short term –Disk. Therefore, you need to backup the data to disk first before select backup to Windows Azure Online Backup

image

b) Select your database that you want to backup to cloud. It is not necessary that you select entire database to cloud. So choose the most important DB.

image

c) Select your retention range and schedule

image

Well, let skip some of the screenshot and look into restore db.

When restore, you can click on Recovery | Select the database and choose the time (online) that you would like to restore.

image

That’s all for today. Give it a try and experience it yourself. See you all next year.

“Happy New Year 2013” – from the author www.ms4u.info

Wednesday, December 26, 2012

Configure Ethernet Resource Pool in Windows Server 2012 Hyper-V

 

Merry X’mas reader. Hope everyone is enjoing their holiday. If you read my previous post, I've talked about Storage Resource Pool. This round I'm going to look into Ethernet Resource Pool. Before that, below is my scenario:-

Virtual switch created in Host A

image

Virtual switch created in Host B

image

Since both of the host is using different virtual switch name, i will probably having difficulties of perform live migration to both Hyper-V Host. To avoid this issue, we’re going to leverage on Ethernet Resource Pool.

1. To Enable Ethernet Resource Pool called “EthResourcePool1” by typing the following command on both Hyper-V Host

New-VMResoucePool –Name EthResoucePool1 –ResourcePoolType Ethernet

image

Now let view the resource pool that you have configured. Notice that you can view EthResourcePool1 and StoragePool1 (in my previous article)

image

Our Hyper-V Host virtual switch is named “vSwitch-Production” and “Production”. Here we are going to add virtual switch to Ethernet Resource Pool by using Add-VMSwitch.

Host A

Add-VMSwitch –Name vSwitch-Production –ResourcePoolName EthResourcePool1

Host B

Add-VMSwitch –Name Production –ResourcePoolName EthResourcePool1

Lastly, without worry too much on different virtual switch name, you need to change the  VM to use EthResourcePool1

image

Now you can live migrate the vm without worry about different virtual switch name. It as great stuff and i’ve converted almost every of my Hyper-V host to use ethernet resource pool. do give it a try and enjoy!

Monday, December 24, 2012

Configure Storage Resource Pool in Windows Server 2012 Hyper-V

 

There are eight ( 8 ) resource pool that you can create for resource metering. In order to configure resource pool, you need to use Powershell. NO GUI ! and Hyper-V resource pool is NOT the same as Vmware Resource Pool. To view resource pool that you can create, type the following command:

Get-VMResourcePool

image

Let start to enable Storage Resource Pool. First create few virtual hard using Hyper-V Manager snap-in and put into a folder. Example:- C:\ClusterStorage\Volume3\BackupStoragePool1. Let assume that customer A has several virtual hard disk and we group them into BackupStoragePool1 folder for ease of resource metering. For customer B, create another folder and use another Resource Pool name. Now let back to our scenario for customer A.

Then type the following command:-

New-VMResourcePool –Name StoragePool1 –ResourceType VHD –Paths C:\ClusterStorage\Volume3\BackupStoragePool1

image

What’s Next?

Time to assign Storage Resource Pool to VM. Edit the VM Settings and Add New Hard Disk. Now you should be able to view the Resource Pool, select and and relevant hard disk.

image

Enable Resource Metering for entire VMs :

Enable-VMResourceMetering –VMName *
Get-VMResourcePool

image

To measure storage resource pool used based on customer A (StoragePool1) :

Measure-VMResourcePool –Name StoragePool1 –ResourcePoolType VHD

image

Sunday, December 23, 2012

Get An Additional Service Templates in VMM 2012 SP1

 

Service templates are designed to automate server role deployments from Windows Server 2012 and Windows Server 2008 R2 SP1 in a private cloud environment. Use the service templates to automate tasks, and reduce deployment time and cost by dynamically provisioning services that require server roles from either Windows Server 2012 or Windows Server 2008 R2 SP1 for customer services.

Even wonder where to get new Service Template for VMM 2012 SP1. Well, you can build your own service template as what i normally do. But with VMM 2012 SP1, i can now extend VMM 2012 SP1 to get Service Template by import an additional Console Add-on called Service Template Explorer. At this moment, the add-in is still under beta and you can download from :- MS Connect Website (must register)

1. Once extracted the msi, open VMM Console and select Setting | Console-Add In | Click Import Console Add-In on the VMM ribbon.

2. Select the Service Template.zip and add the Console Add-In.

image

3. Click VM & Setting workspace and select Service Template Explorer on the VMM ribbon

image

4. You can use the Service Template Explorer to search for and download service template packages published by Microsoft. When you open the Service Template Explorer, it runs a query to find the available service templates on the Microsoft Download Center. The query results appear in a list in the VMM console. You can then use the console to download individual service templates to a folder location that you specify.

image

5. After downloading a service template package, you can import it into VMM using the service template import feature.( Library | Templates | Service Templates | Click Import Template). Below is the few templates which i have imported.

image

Useful Command When Managing Server Core and Hyper-V Server 2012

 

[Updated: 23 Dec 2012]

Getting old and cannot remember some command. Time to compile and updated into here as the place to refer when configure server core or Hyper-V Server 2012.

1. To perform basis server configuration on Server Core and Hyper-V Server 2012

Type “sconfig”

image

2. Compare to previous version, you no longer can enable Failover clustering from sconfig for Hyper-V Server 2012. However, you can Install Failover Clustering feature by using Powershell

Install-WindowsFeature Failover-Clustering

image

3. To disable Windows Firewall by using Powershell. This come handy when you want to temporary disable windows firewall.

netsh advfirewall set allprofiles state off

image

Do remember to enable back Windows Firewall after configuration.

4. To view features that has enable/disable

dism /online /get-features

image

5. To install features (in case you require). Example:- .Net Framework 2 and Windows Powershell

dism /online /enable-feature:NetFx2-ServerCore
dism /online /enable-feature:MicrosoftWindowsPowerShell
dism /online /enable-feature:NetFx2-ServerCore-WOW64

More command will update later. Stay Tuned


Related post:-


Conversion Between Windows Server 2012 Installation Options
Export Event Viewer Log from Server Core
Changing NIC Order On Server Core
Formatting Disk using DiskPart
Install Hyper V roles in virtual image. (few more command)
Should I do Teaming or MPIO on iSCSI NIC?

CoreConfig Tool for Windows Server 2012 Server Core

 

It is about time that CoreConfig tool been refresh to support Windows Server 2012. Besides than convert to Min Shell interface, this is one of tool that i always keep close to me when deploy and configure Hyper-V Server 2012/ Server Core.

For those who do not know , Corefig is a PowerShell-based GUI tool to configure the 2012 releases of Server Core and Hyper-V Server.

To download, click here

Command to execute in Windows Powershell

set-executionpolicy remotesigned
.\Start_Corefig.wsf

image

Wednesday, December 19, 2012

Prevent Rogue DHCP By Enable DHCP Guard in Hyper-V

 

You have created a virtual machine and this virtual machine has passed to another user for application deployment. Sometimes, your user tend to be smart and start to enable DHCP roles in the virtual machine which is not suppose to in your production environment. This scenario has created another rogue DHCP in your virtualization environment and you would like to prevent this from happening.

With Windows Server 2012 Hyper-V, you can prevent this by enable DHCP Guard. All you need to do is on the particular Virtual Machine Settings, Network switch tick “Enable DHCP Guard” .

image

Even users enable DHCP roles and it is function as unauthorised DHCP in the VM, the DHCP message will be dropped and none of the other VM will get the IP address.

image

In my test environment, i have tested it with DHCP roles enabled on VM1. None of the IP is been release out to other VM when i have turn ON DHCP Guard.

To further test, i just “uncheck DHCP Guard” and it start to act as rogue DHCP and release IP to my other VMs.

Therefore, start to protect your virtualization infrastructure by configure DHCP Guard.

My recommendation on the configuration:-

1. Turn ON DHCP Guard for other VMs which is potential unauthorized DHCP server to prevent accidently become rogue DHCP.
2. Turn OFF DHCP Guard for an authorized DHCP server.

Some PowerShell command to play around:-

Scenario:-

  • VM1 – Rogue DHCP
  • RED-DC01 – Authorized DHCP Server
Set-VMNetworkAdapter –VMName VM1 –DHCPGuard On
Set-VMNetworkAdapter –VMName RED-DC01–DHCPGuard Off

Convert VHD to VHDX

 

If you have set up Windows Server 2012 Hyper-V and would like to perform virtual hard disk conversion from VHD to VHDX , then this is the article that you should refer to. VHDX is a new format and provides the following features:-

  • 64TB against 2TB of VHD
  • Support larger logical sector sizes up to 4K
  • Larger block size up to 256MB
  • Resilient against corruption that can occur in power failures

VHDX format only can work in Windows Server 2012 Hyper-V , Hyper-V Server 2012 or later version.

You cannot use VHDX file format in older version. If you wish to use, make sure you convert it back to VHD and the size of the VHD should not more than 2TB.

There are few way to achieve this:-

Note:- Make sure the virtual machine is offline before perform conversion

Option 1:

1. Use Hyper-V Manager snap-in and select Edit Disk

image

2. Follow the wizard and select Convert options.

SNAGHTMLa97f6f

Option 2 :-

1. Use System Center Virtual Machine Manager 2012 SP1 Console to convert.

2. Select the offline VM, go to Properties and select Hardware Configuration

image

Option 3:-

For large scale migration or convert multiple vhd at the same time, then you can leverage on using Powershell

Cmdlet:- Convert-VHD
Format:-
Convert-VHD –Path (source) –DestinationPath (destination)

Example:-

Convert-VHD -Path M:\Base\VM1.vhd -DestinationPath M:\Converted\VM1.vhdx
Convert-VHD -Path M:\Base\VM2.vhd -DestinationPath M:\Converted\VM2.vhdx
Convert-VHD -Path M:\Base\VM3.vhd -DestinationPath M:\Converted\VM3.vhdx

Note:-

You can use the same method as listed above to convert VHDX back to VHD.

Convert-VHD -Path M:\Base\VM1.vhdx -DestinationPath M:\Converted\VM1.vhd
Convert-VHD -Path M:\Base\VM2.vhdx -DestinationPath M:\Converted\VM2.vhd
Convert-VHD -Path M:\Base\VM3.vhdx -DestinationPath M:\Converted\VM3.vhd

Tuesday, December 18, 2012

Create An Answer File For Windows Server 2012 Virtual Machine Deployment

 

Wow!.. it is quite a long time that i start to pick up my pen and start to write. Well, after a long period of busy working, it is time to sit down and share more about Virtualization and System Center. Hmmm…let see what I'm going to talk today?

In today post, I'm going to talk about creating an answer file for Windows Server 2012 which you are going to use to perform unattended installation for VM provisioning.

1.First thing to do is download Windows Assessment and Deployment Kit and install the following components:- Deployment Tools and Windows PE.

image

2. Copy the install.wim to your local disk. This is a must step as you need to has write access to local disk when create catalog. Start Windows System Image Manager, select Install.wim on your local disk.

3. Select the OS version that you want to create an answer file:-

image

4. Click Yes to create the catalog file .

5. From the sample xml located in C:\Program Files (x86)\Windows Kits\8.0\Assessment and Deployment Kit\Deployment Tools\Samples\Unattend folder, make a copy of the xml. These sample files include all of the settings needed to automate Windows installation.

image

Different sample files can be used depending on the hardware type you are deploying Windows to (32-bit ad 64-bit installations, as well as EFI or BIOS-based firmware

6. Open the sample xml file that you have created in step 5.

7. Select to associate the answer file with Windows Server 2012 Image File and customize the answer file according to your environment.

To customize an answer file, you can refer to here:- http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ff699038.aspx

8. Once complete configure the unattend.xml, put it into VMM Library and use it during VM provisioning.

Well, with answer file you can save a lot of time on the VM configuration. Hope this give you a rough idea on where to start to create an answer file. Good luck.

Thursday, December 6, 2012

Presentation:- Setting up Storage Features in Windows Server 2012

 

Another session of the day in Windows Server 2012 Roadshow, Malaysia. During this session, i have presented on how to configure high availability storage spaces and Scale out file server in Windows Server 2012.

Presentation: Configuring and Using the New Virtualization Features in Windows Server 2012

 

Wow! I was tired after presenting two days in the row for  Windows Server 2012 Road show in Malaysia and Singapore. The turn out was great and it was pleasure to share the content to the audience.

Picture taken from Microsoft Innovation Center, Singapore:-

Recently Updated

During this session, i have talked about

  • Setup Hyper-V High Availability
  • Setup Hyper-V Replica

Below is the presentation slide which i have use during the events.

Presentation

Hardware Support Matrix For Windows Server 2012

 

Hi folks,

Just completed a session on Windows Server 2012 Road Show at Microsoft Innovation Canter @Singapore and gathered a lot of feedback . One of them is “What is the supported hardware that certified for Windows Server 2012?” Well, here is what i have gathered just to save your time from looking around.

DELL

Here is the rack type:-

image

For tower and blade type, you can refer to

HP

Starting from G7 version

image

SNAGHTML1bd26b

Information taken from:-

IBM

image

Information taken from :-

Cisco

For B Series:-

image

Information taken from:-

For C Series:-

image

Information taken from:-

Monday, December 3, 2012

Veeam Backup Management Suite 6.5 for Hyper-V

 

[Update on Veeam product]

Introduce NEW Veeam Backup Management Suite—for even more proficient data protection and virtualization management!

Admins can now get advanced monitoring for Veeam backup infrastructure, including:

  • Monitoring the age and size of snapshots
  • Alerting you when guest disks used for backup repositories are getting full
  • Keeping track of the VM power state of your backup proxies and repositories
  • Collecting and analyzing datastore I/O metrics to detect and resolve performance problems

Check out the product page here! Watch two videos for an even better understanding of the product:

Veeam Backup Management Suite 6.5 – Advanced monitoring for backup
Veeam Backup Management Suite 6.5 – Advanced reporting and capacity planning for backup

Wednesday, November 21, 2012

Demo VDI and RDS in Windows Server 2012

 

Follow up on my previous post after talking about App-V 5 and my yesterday session about Windows 8 Virtualization. Therefore, in today article, i will post a video about my demo during Microsoft Techday 2012 (Malaysia). When i recorded this video, there is no audio recording enable therefore here is a short description about each video. Some guidelines:-

  • Click Full Screen
  • Click Change Quality and set to 480p
  • View nicely in tablet Nexus 7.

Video 1:-

Centralized Management using Server Manager to manage Remote Desktop Services. In the past we got 4 different console to manage RDS, but with Windows Server 2012, you only have 1 console which is Server Manager. I have deployed RD Web Access, RD Connection Broker, RD Virtualization Host and RD Session Host. 4 collection has created :- 1 for Application in the VM Pool, 1 for Remote Desktop Session Host, 2 for VM Pool running Windows 7 and Windows 8. Besides, i also show on how to publish an application which is running in VM into RD Web Access.

Video 2

Access to RD Web Access and able to view group of application and console published in RD Session Host and Application from VM Pool. With Windows Server 2012, now you can group multiple application into Folder and display in RD Web Access.

Video 3

Showing access to Pool VM which is running Windows 8 Enterprise. Walkthrough on Start screen, make the tile smaller/larger, arrange the tile, group the tile and open facebook photo using Win 8 Photo App which is showing Legoland Malaysia.

Video 4

Access to pool VM and try to play video USB thumb drive which i just plug from my laptop. I was able to video the USB thumb drive and access to content. Try to play one of video using Win 8 Video App but failed. It is because the app cannot play *.3gp format. Therefore, i access to App-V 5 new management console using web browser and publish 3 application:- winrar, VLC player and Firefox browser. After publish, i use the modern UI App-V 5 client to get the updated virtual application. Now i was able to play the *.3gp format by using VLC Virtual Application.

Related post:

Tuesday, November 20, 2012

Presentation:- Windows 8 Virtualization

 

Today during Microsoft Techday 2012 (Malaysia), we have presented about Windows 8 Virtualization to 300+ audience at Sunway Pyramid Convention Center.

Our session has covered about

  • Operating system virtualization - Client Hyper-V
  • Presentation virtualization – VDI using Windows Server 2012
  • Application virtualization – App-V 5

Slide

Sunday, November 18, 2012

Quick Walkthrough on App-V 5 Deployment

 

In the mid of preparing on my next presentation session, i have play around with App-V 5 together with Windows Server 2012 VDI. Let have a quick look on how do i set up and preparing my demo environment

Introduction

What's App-V 5? It is a application virtualization and streaming solution from Microsoft and mainly use in desktop environment.

To setup App-V, there are 3 component that you need to setup

a) App-V Management Server

I just installed the entire component App-V into a single VM. With App-V 5, .RTSP is gone. Now use SMB and HTTP streaming. To manage it, you now have new management console. No longer use MMC snap-in. Now purely web based and using Silverlight

image

b) App-V Sequencer

Use Hyper-V Server and create a clean guest operating system, disable Windows Defender, disable Windows Search and create a snapshot. You need to create a snapshot so you can revert to clean operating system before sequence an app. After sequence an app, remember to revert the snapshot

Now with App-V 5, you no longer have Q Drive, package format SFT is gone and so are OSD and ICO files. Now everything stored in a new .AppV file format. In order the view the content, you can rename .appv to .zip.

If you’ve previous App-V format, it would not work in App-V 5. You need to convert to new format.

Some guidelines on what type application that you cannot sequence

  • Office plug-in
  • Device driver
  • Middleware
  • Path hard coding application
  • Auto update application
  • COM+
  • COM DLL
  • Licensing policies. App which tie to MAC address, dongles, etc

c) App-V Client

The supported client operating system is Windows 7 and Windows 8. Now, how about older version of client operating system? Well, App-V cannot support the above OS. If you would like to support older operating system, you need to use App-V 4.6.

During preparation of my client base template (Windows 7 and 8), i need to install App-V client into the base template and configure some setting before sysprep the VM for VDI Collection creation

a) Point App-V client to communicate to App-V Publishing server to get the app-v package

Set-ExecutionPolicy remotesigned
Import-Module appvclient
Add-AppvPublishingServer -Name Server -URL
http://red-appvmgmt01.ms4u.info:82

Note:- App-V Publishing server is Red-AppVMGMT01 and is using port 82. Please take note on the port number that you configure during the installation or you can refer the port from IIS.

b) Configure Shared Content Store Mode using Powershell. With Shared Content Store Mode enabled, allowing you to make the best use of expensive disk resources without changing the way you get your job done.

set-appvclientconfiguration -sharedcontentstoremode 1

or using registry. Set

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\AppV\Client\Streaming\SharedContentStoreMode=1

App-V 5 client has completely revamped client (Modern UI), programmable using Powershell. Here is how App-V 5 Client new interface look like:-

image

Some virtual app that i’ve prepared for my session:

image

Alright, this is how simple to use App-V 5 and the demo set has ready for next week, Microsoft Techday 2012, Malaysia event. 

Thursday, November 15, 2012

Microsoft Server Posterpedia App

 

Do you want to understand Microsoft technology in a simple way ? All you need to do is visit “Store” on Windows 8,search for “Server Posterpedia” app and install it.

image

Once installed, select the poster. To zoom in/out, press “Ctrl + Scroll Mouse”.

Server Posterpedia app included with the following posters:-

a) Windows Server & Exchange

image

b) Sharepoint Server

image

c) Windows Azure, Office and Lync Server

image

If you want to download and print the poster, please click here

StarWind Native SAN for Hyper-V V6 Released

 

Few words from “Starwind Software”:-

Today we released StarWind Native SAN for Hyper-V V6 with enhanced Hyper-V Backup Plug-in.

Also, we present our Free editions of StarWind iSCSI SAN and StarWind Native San for Hyper-V with High Availability without any hidden costs.

And finally, our StarWind VMware Backup is available!

The links to our Press Releases are below:

    p/s:- It is time for me to get a copy and evaluate the product as well.

Wednesday, November 14, 2012

Giveaway NFR License File on Veeam Backup and Replication 6.5 Which Support Windows Server 2012

 

Dear IT Pros and MVPs!

Our blog sponsor: Veeam offers you a FREE 2-socket NFR license for Veeam Backup & Replication 6.5 which can support Windows Server 2012.

If you are a VMware vExpert, VMware Certified Professional (VCP) or VMware Certified Instructor (VCI), get your NFR easily by clicking here.

If you are an MVP, MCP or MCTS, click here to get your free license.

Enjoy!

Related post:-

Wednesday, November 7, 2012

Backup Hyper-V Over SMB

 

In my previous post, i have talked about how to configure Hyper-V Over SMB. To move on, we are going to look into how to backup Hyper-V Over SMB using DPM 2012 SP1. There are few pre-requisites that you need to configure before proceed to use DPM to perform backup.

Before that, if you dont follow the pre-requisite, you will probably receive following error messages

1. When select VM in SMB for backup:

image

Note:- FSCluster01 is the Scale Out File Server Name

2. When try to install agent on FSCluster01

image

Pre-requisite that need to configure first:-

a) Install DPM Agent on Hyper-V Host

b) Install DPM Agent on File Server Host

c) Install File Server VSS Agent Service on File Server Host

image

d) Configure DPM backup protection group and select the VM reside in SMB

image

That should do the trick and DPM will not successful backup Hyper-V Over SMB.