Dugie’s Pensieve

WinHec is  two weeks away, and (as always) there looks to be some awesome virtualization sessions planned.  You can check out the full session summary for all the details. 

Although I won’t be at WinHec, a snippet of sessions that interest me is below:

• Future of Memory and Storage - Virtualization uses a lot of both, so this interests me
• Intel’s Vision for Virtualization and Benchmarking -  their vendor-agnostic standard virtualization benchmark currently being developed by SPEC.
• Next-Generation AMD Virtualization Technology - because they compete with Intel
• PCI I/O Virtualization Standards: Implementation - Architecture interest me, what more can I say?
• Virtualization Technology Directions - Direction is good
• Tuning Processor Power Management - I have a dream, Virtual machines and power management
• Flash on the System - I’m expecting big things in this area for servers, [hypervisor] boot from flash?
• PCI IOV Usage Models and Implementations - more on PCI I/O virtualization and the ability to share an I/O device
• Dynamic Partition: Windows Server - I want to see the demonstration of a dynamically partitionable Windows Server Longhorn!
• Enterprise Storage Advances in Windows - one word, iSCSI; ok and maybe the 10-GbE offloading technologies
• Live Migration of Virtual Machines - ’nuff said :)
• NPIV SAN Integration and Microsoft Virtualization - Virtualization is pushing the envelope with SANs, so it would be great to see what’s coming
• Power Management: Windows Server - see my point above; I have a dream
• Virtualization in Windows Server - roadmaps are good
• Windows Memory Management Advances - memory management is also good
• iSCSI Fabric and the Enterprise - iSCSI is also good
• VHD: Breaking New Ground with Virtualization - VHD is also good :)

….oh yeah, lots of Virtualization goodness.

Ok, I can’t claim creative rights to that title.  But if you are interested in the Windows Server Virtualization TAP, check out James O’Neill’s blog post by the same name:  :)

On Friday the Windows Server virtualization (WSv) team opened nominations for the Technology Adoption Programme (TAP) for Windows Server virtualization  aka Viridian. The nomination process closes on May 16th

I should explain that a TAP is designed to be an opportunity for collaboration between customers and Microsoft to validate a new product.  This is achieved through product feedback as a result of deployment of pre-release builds in non-production and production environments.  Customers have an opportunity to validate the design and direction of the technology, through discovery of bugs and by submitting Design Change Requests (DCR’s) for the product development team to consider.

The WSv TAP is distinct from any other Microsoft TAP - although it has links with the longhorn server TAP. The WSv TAP is not a marketing or relationship programme: it is strictly an engineering validation programme focused on scenario testing and bug discovery/submission.  There are a limited number of places and it is expected to be over-subscribed - nomination does not guarantee acceptance. Participants will be selected to get the mix of characteristics (planned deployments, LHS experience, location, technology, scenario coverage, etc.) needed by the product team. 

Participating in any TAP requires a significant level of commitment.  The nomination questionnaire, will ask for likely deployment scenarios.  If accepted, it is expected that the customer commit to these deployment scenarios.  In addition, Microsoft asks that participants test, deploy, and provide timely product feedback for each of the major milestone releases; TAP Participants get 24×7 production support for these releases. Other builds may be  be provided for non-production use only and support will not be provided. 

If you would like to be involved please contact me (or your Microsoft Account Manager, if you have one) for the next step.

Well, System Centre Virtual Machine Manager (SCVMM) aka Carmine hit Beta 2 this week, so here are a couple of posts definitely worth checking out

• Windows Server Blog - Download SCVMM Beta 2 and you could win an Xbox 360 ?!  As always US only I’m afraid.
• DABCC Über Console - MVP Douglas Brown does a great writeup of SCVMM features and screenies
• VMM Beta 2 V2V - Tony Soper gives a run down on VMware to Microsoft VM conversion with the command line
• VMM Beta 2 What Are You Talking About - and again with a comprehensive glossary of all the SCVMM buzzwords
• VMM Beta 2 Reporting - and again with the A - Z of Ops Manager reporting (this rocks!)
• MM Beta 2 Built on Windows PowerShell - and again with Powershell.  Face it Powershell rocks, and SCVMM console is just a front end to powershell, why not cut out the middle man :)
• VMM Beta 2 How to P2V - and again with the command line P2V, very useful if you want to multi-batch many conversions

…on a side note there is over 11,000 registered users for SCVMM beta 2!  Lastly on almost relevant links, Hitachi have the 1Tb desktop drives to store all those VMs you are about to work with.  Ok so it’s only 930 Gb usuable by Windows, but what’s a few gig between friends. 

Well its now the end of April, and 33% of the year has passed us by.  Now seems as good a time as any for an update to my Challenges, Goals and Resolutions for 2007.:

• Personal, Family and Lifestyle
  • I’ve been reading at least 1 novel a month, at the moment I am reading The Northern Lights trilogy (know as the Dark Materials trilogy) and really quite engrossed in it, and can;t put them down
  • I’ve been forcing myself to read the newspapers at least twice a week.  Some days I catch the train instead of riding just to make sure I do.  This one is going to be tough
  • Lots of Bike trips, it’s the only way I can unwind and clear my head.  I’m planning a trip to Ballina as soon as my annual leave gets approved
  • Listen to more music and more podcasts - failing dismally
  • I’m spending more time at Picnics, BBQs and ‘walks in parks’, and taking lots more photos
  • The ban on Live TV has been easy, no problems there at all
• Community and Blogging
  • I think my blogging is going well?  I know I’m enjoying it, even if you lot aren’t    :)
  • Meet more people; this has been going better than planned.  I’ve been invited to a couple of “round table breakfasts” in the past few months and really enjoyed them.
  • Attend the MVP Summit this year - done and dusted.
  • Listen to Bill Gates speak in person - very interesting, especially his work within the Gates Foundation
  • Again, failed to attend at least one ‘Wardy Community Dinner’ in Brisbane so far!
• Virtualization
  • Spending also a lot of time talking and listening to others about Virtualization.  Seeing some reoccurring patterns and some understanding on peoples perceptions.  I may not necessarily agree with their perceptions - but I do understand them
  • The Brisbane Infrastructure Group is kicking along nicely - we just turned 2 years old, and reached over 350 members.
  • The wiki on WindowsVirtualization.com is coming along slowly.  I have some content, but still looking for hosting providers and bandwidth.  Paul has offered to help and it should be sorted next month
• Career Goals
  • Well this is a challenge, I haven’t been in the office this year to automate any sort of business process.  I’ll revisit this in a few weeks when I return to the Office
  • I’ve had a chat to my Manager earlier in the year and we’ve agreed on a new direction for me.  If all goes to plan, I should start moving over to my new role of “Technial Readiness” in a few weeks.  Although it will be a lot of hard work, and some aggressive deadlines, it should be very exciting.

So I think I’m doing ok?!  These are only baby ”starting steps” and there is still 66% of the year and many challenges address.  So I’d better keep going, and another update in a few months    :)

Ok, here’s the good bit you’ve been waiting for:  Part II.   I have my SCVMM server set up, and I want to P2V a physical server into a Virtual Machine.

Getting Jiggy with It, and kicking of the P2V

• Open up the SCVMM Admin Console
• Add in my Virtual Server Host
• Go to: Actions | Virtual Machine Manager | Convert Physical Server
• Run through the Convert Physical Server Wizard - type in the Computer name, credentials, etc.
• Notice in Process Explorer on the physical candidate a process called “vmmAgent.exe” - must come back and check this out
• It’s asking for driver.cab and sp1.cab; So glad that I always keep the i386 folder from the build media with the server!
• The P2V has started and files are be copied to the SCVMM serer from the physical box whilst it is still running
• Notice the physical candidate isn’t under much load at all.  CPU is at about 23%, Network is really busy, still working fine, not at all worried
• Notice that the transfer of the physical candidate up to the virtual machine is happening via BITS
• Feeling stupid so I copy a couple of extra files up to the physical candidate whilst the P2V is in process - lets see what happens
• The copy finishes
• I notice that SCVMM mounts the VHD and copies over some files over - I really must come back with process monitor and do some snooping
• P2V Process finishes
• I turn off the physical candidate
• I power on the Virtual Machine
• Looks like it worked
• Reboot the Virtual Machine because it detected new hardware
• Install the Virtual Machine Additions 13.715
• Reboot
• Look around in the event log, notice “Product: Microsoft System Centre Virtual Machine Manager 2007 P2V Agent — Installation complete successfully.“
• Everything else looks ok, Virtual Machine runs quite well and does as expected

Final Thoughts on the SCVMM Install and P2V process

• It’s really nice that you don’t have to leave the installer to do pre-requisites
• It would lovely if I could copy (and paste) the Summary Page text as raw text into my change logs - might jam off an email to the beta team.
• I like the Job Status Tracking window, separate windows might work very well on dual monitor systems.
• The Convert Physical Server wizard, especially the page “Conversion Information” needs a copy to clipboard, or something
• The new interface is nice and polished, a welcomed change from Beta 1
• I have soooo many questions about what goes on “under the hood” with the P2V, but these are for another time and another post

Now this post is really rough around the edges, I might come back and clean it up, but then again I might not just yet.  I wanted to share my experiences with everyone so far. 

Anyway there is lots and lots of more testing to do, so I’d better keep going.  Until my next post, here is some screen shots of the P2V in action:

Ok, so here is a quick and dirty, blow by blow account of today’s experience of a P2V using SCVMM.  I’ve started with nothing, installed SCVMM and run a P2V of a physical machine (and then a VMware Virtual Machine) into a Virtual Machine.  Yes the post is a bit rough, but that is why it’s a first impressions post :)

What I started with

• A Domain Controller somewhere in the test lab
• A Windows 2003 Server with Service Pack 1 (Standard Edition) with a few hundred Gig of space and 2 Gb Ram
• A copy of the 562 Mb VMMBeta2.EXE

Installing the SCVMM Server

• ..if .NET framework 2.0 isn’t installed, it will be
• if “Windows Remote Management” isn’t installed, you should: winrmoob-en-US-32.exe
• if PowerShell isn’t installed, you should probably do this too:  WindowsServer2003-KB926139-x86-ENU.exe
• if MS XML 6 isn’t installed then you’ll need to to do this as well:  msxml6-KB927977-enu-x86.exe
• if you don’t have a SQL server or SQL express installed, it will be installed for you
• Pick a directory to use for your library share, choose somewhere with heaps of storage (It is “C:\Documents and Settings” by default)
• Select ok for the usual ports 443 and 80 — and the newish port 8100
• Pretty much next, next, finish

Installing the SCVMM console

• I just installed it on the SCVMM server
• If you don’t you’ll need .NET Framework 3.0
• Next, next, finish

Installing the SCVMM Self Service Portal

• Again, I just installed it on the SCVMM server
• Type in the hostname of your SCVMM server
• Choose a port number for web access - I chose port 8080
• Next, next, finish

Installing Virtual Server 2005 R2 With Service Pack 1

• Again, I just installed it on the SCVMM server

…and stay tuned for Part II, the P2V!

KB 897613 Microsoft Virtual Server support policy, was refreshed to version 6.2 last week (April 18).

You can view the Microsoft Virtual Server support policy or a snippet is below:

• Microsoft Certificate Services
• Microsoft Exchange Server
• Microsoft Systems Management Server
• Microsoft Internet Security and Acceleration (ISA) Server
• Consolidating SQL Server
• Consolidating Domain Controllers
• Consolidating File and Print Servers
• Consolidating Web-based applications
• Capacity Planning for Commerce Server
• Live Communications Server 2005 Planning Guide

I haven’t been able to figure out what has changed since version 6.1 back in February.  I’ve also noticed KB 897614 Software not supported within a Virtual Environment has also been updated to 5.1 on April 13.

Well I just got my public email saying SCVMM is available for download on connect.microsoft.com.  So you can go and download:

• WinRM (32 bit) for SCVMM Beta2, 1 Mb
• SCVMM Beta 2 , 562 Mb
• Virtual Server 2005 R2 SP1 RC (32- bit), 40 Mb
• Windows PowerShell for Virtual Machine Manager Cmdlet Reference, 3 Mb
• and some other Assorted whitepapers ~ 2 Mb

So you can expect some more SCVMM posts from me.     …but in the mean time I’m off to check out more on the new P2V/V2V coolness - So until you can get more SCVMM goodnes from Ben and Tony.

…oh happy days, Oh yeah, sing it, sing it, sing it, yeah, yeah, Oh happy day…..   Ummm never mind.

This one caught me by surprise, but it makes perfect sense I guess.  Virtual Server is to to be added into WSUS.

I’m not sure if this will be in readiness for the upcoming service pack, or include the updated additions.  Both would be great, but we will have to wait a day or two and find out.

Nate (Program Manager for Microsoft Update) has more details in the post ”New Product Family, Virtual Server“, a snippet is below:

“Virtual Server” will be added in the next one or two days. This new product family allows updates to be offered to Virtual Server components. Different categories offered under “Virtual Server” may have a different range of supported platforms. Security updates can be released through this category periodically. Due to the variety of applications/components that can reside under this product family, subscribing to this product family is recommended. To find out more about the Virtual Server product check out the Virtual Server site.

The 14 page,  Windows Vista™ Centralized Desktop and Virtual Server Whitepaper has been posted on Microsoft Downloads.

It is an overview of the centralised desktop, comparing terminal services to VDI type inititaves.  The paper focuses onthe technologies: Virtual Server 2005 R2 with Service Pack 1,  RDP, the upcoming  Virtual Machine Manager (SCVMM) and end to end management of the infrastruccture.

I found it a good primer, and assorted snippets that interested me are below:

• Windows Vista Enterprise Centralized Desktop is another option for the delivery of remote desktops…
• …the RDP client has been enhanced to optimize network usage and deliver an enhanced user experience through features such as printing to local printers, 32-bit color and sound, support for console mode connections, session directory, and local resource mapping….
• RDP 6.0, introduced with Vista and “Longhorn,” [adds support and] makes it possible to deliver the Windows Aero experience to remote desktop client devices running Windows Vista.
• The desktop client device can be a “thin client” device running the Windows XP Embedded or Windows CE Embedded operating system, or it can be a “rich client” device such as a traditional PC running Windows Vista or Windows Fundamentals for Legacy PCs.
• Microsoft System Center Virtual Machine Manager [in] a Windows Vista Enterprise Centralized Desktop setting, is used to provide a single, console-based view of all VMs, manage the deployment and provisioning of VMs using templates or standard SYSPREP images, and facilitate the intelligent placement of VMs among multiple physical Virtual Server host systems.
• Licensing of Windows Vista Enterprise Centralized Desktop is subscription based, nonperpetual, and instance based (rather than installation based). It is available to all volume licensing (VL) customers in Microsoft Enterprise Agreement (EA) and Select VL programs.

The above points were edited heavily, and probably loose context, so you should download the whitepaper and check it out for yourself.