Dugie’s Pensieve

Following up on assorted e-mails and comments from my blog.  Rather than keep the responses hidden in the comments I thought I’d repost them:

Q: Can I use VHDMount.exe with Windows XP SP2?
A: Yes you can, there is a workaround and Ben Armstrong has all the nifty details.

Q: Can I download just the VHDMount.exe?
A: No, but but you can choose to only install the VHDmount components via command line

• Extract the installation msi (setup.exe /c /t .)
• use the command line msiexec /i “Virtual Server 2005 Install.msi” /qn ADDLOCAL=VHDMount

Q: How would you use vssadmin.exe to create a shadow copy of a VHD?
A: Well I’m not entirely sure.  I saw a blog post somewhere detailing how to extract a file from an existing shadow.  It’s one of those things on my “I wonder if its possible” list to do. 

Q: Where is the latest build number of VM additions documented?
A: Um, I don’t know anywhere where the build numbers are “officially recorded“, but I maintain a list here: History of the Virtual Machine Additions

Anyway that’s all I’ve got time for at the moment, but before I go both KB 897614 and KB 867572 have been updated in the last 30 days:

• KB 897614 Windows Server System software not supported within a Microsoft Virtual Server environment is now version 2.2, dated August 16 2006.
• KB 867572 Supported operating systems in Virtual Server 2005 R2 is now version 4.0, dated August 21 2006.

Looks like there are new Beta VM Additions (from 13.709 to 13.715) available over at connect.microsoft.com. 

Thanks to Tony who has more info in his post ‘VM Additions Update‘.  A snippet is below:

It is not clear from the download location (the date on the page didn’t change) but the latest VM Additions at connect include support for Vista Beta 2.
…
The VM Additions for Windows Server 2003 SP1 are on Microsoft Download
 

Ok, you have to wonder who is encouraging who here. 

it all started with MSDN Flasher Dave got an e-mail from Frank for with corporate clipart for Office 2007:

In an effort to keep it real, Dave took the above image and came up with this fine effort:

Shortly after Long perfected it with this shot:

So in keeping the tradition, Dave has turn this over marketechtured piece of stock art:

Into something wonderfully worldy:

So what’s next I wonder?  perhaps product shots for the “Non Developer” editions of Express:

Hmmmm with the upcoming release of Vista and Exchange, I look forward to some very localised Australian stock art in the next MSDN and TechNet Flash :)

This post has no (discernable) tech value, but I’m sure some people out there like to know what I’ve been up to.

• I was in Melbourne for a week; the land of good great coffee and where motor bikes can park legally on the pavement.  Queensland is a little backward in their motorbike laws
• I got the flu in Melbourne - big time!
• I’m 8 weeks into fatherhood and everything is going well.  My little boy has got the flu from me.  He blows bubbles of snot out his nose when he giggles - It was one of the cutest and yet most disgusting things I have ever seen.
• More poor bike has been neglected over the past few months.  Some good friends of mine Bruce and Mez have both got new bikes, so I’m hoping to get out on the bike more often.
• Actually been thinking about an IT ride day.  The weather in Brisbane is very nice at the moment.  Cool enough to be comfortable in a jacket, but not cold enough to be unpleasant.  Hmmmm this one has potential, I wonder how may guys in the info-tech/systems/dev field ride bikes in Brisbane? 
• My Media Centre is out of space, Huh!?  700Gb and only 60 Gb free, time for a new drive I guess
• This brings me to Vista, I lurrrrve build 5600, I can’t wait till it RTMs and I’m allowed to upgrade my Media Centre to Vista
• Speaking of upgrade, where is the Office Beta Technical Refresh?!!!   (:

I think that’s it.  Hope everyone is well, and I’ll blog more tech stuff soon.

WMI and Virtual Server 2005

I was helping a friend earlier today with some “VM Stuff” and querying Virtual Server with WMI, when we came across this little gem:  WMI and Virtual Server 2005:

WMI Explorer, a free tool from KS-Soft, that can show you the available classes and methods in a WMI namespace. When you first start up the application, you’ll see a class explorer that shows you all the classes available in the default namespace, root\cimv2 (CIM stands for Common Information Model, the data model of the WBEM standard). To connect to a different namespace, you need to select Action->Connect to Remote Host… , and then enter Virtual Server’s namespace:

Cool.  Thanks for the great tip Jose!

Just noticed a new KB article released today;

Error messages when you try to open the Virtual Server 2005 Administration Web page: “LsaRegisterLogonProcess() failed! Access is denied” or “CAccessToken::GetProcessToken() failed! Access is denied” 

Happens when you are using the Network Services Account - the work aroung is use the Local System account.  Check KB 923833 for more info.

Microsoft blogger John Howard got me thinking with his post “Small Virtual Machine Backups“.

In his post, John refers to better compression with that nifty little defrag tools from Dave Whitney (I’ve mentioned in passing with my notes from the field on Compacting VHD)

Anyway John got me thinking, how would I go about semi-automating a simple backup and compress of a VHD?

So I thought about this for a little while, and came up with the command lines from the physical host: 

• diskmount.exe /m diskfile.vhd F:
• defrag.exe -d F:
• precompact.exe -setdisks:F
• diskmount /u ALL
• wzzip.exe -a backup.zip diskfile.vhd

Now it’s only proof of concept, needs some work, has a couple of pre-requites; you’ll need to extract precompact.exe from the ISO and have the winzip command lines installed.

…but it does take a 1540 Mb VHD and leave you with a 700 Mb Zip file. No messy reboots, no fussing with stopping services, just kind of works.

Kind of cool huh?! 

PS: I used a copy of a VHD that was not in use.  Perhaps I should look at taking a copy with vssadmin.exe?

PPS:  Yes, you can mount a VHD and defrag it offline - cool huh :)

I’ve just noticed that that the Australian TechNet User groups site has been upgraded! 

You can now browse for User Groups neat you using Live Maps.  Check it out at Technet User Group Map Directory

PS:  You can zoom right into the street level

I’m away from “regular” internet and reduced to dial-up for the week.  Whilst I’m away there are a few snippets I found interesting:

• Virtualization.info launches 1st Industry Survey - 10 questions 3 minutes
• Ben Armstrong answers the burning question:  Can I use VHDMount under Windows XP
• My mate William makes Scott Hanselman’s Top tools list (well done!)

Now the last bullet point isn’t related to Virtualization, but William deserves a plug - but not another blog entry over dial up :)

Commentary Warning:  the VirtualMachine Blog is updated, if  you don’t want to know why, you should move along now.

Some of you have commented that my other blog, “VirtualMachine“, has only been updated a couple of times in the past few months — Well this is kind of true, and kind of not:

• Kind of true; because I haven’t added any new resources
• Kind of not; because I’ve been updating existing resources as new information is available, eg “Can I read a .VHD file?“, now includes a reference to the VHDmount.

So I guess this brings me to now.  I’ve always stuck by the guideline of “The VirtualMachine blog will be a factual reference for resources currently available for Microsoft Virtualization“, and everything else can go in my personal blog.  And this has pretty much worked well until now.

Now both Virtual Server and Virtual PC are free, SP1 is in beta, and SCVMM is on it’s way.  So I’ve widened the scope a little bit and going to include these.  I know they are currently beta products, but they won’t stay in beta for ever.

So there we have it.  In short, expect more posts over at the VirtualMachine.  :)