Dugie’s Pensieve

My good mate Dave, just sent me an email saying that the System Center Essentials 2007 VHD is now available from Microsoft Downloads.  A snippet from the page is below:

System Center Essentials 2007 is a new management solution specifically designed for IT professionals working in midsize businesses who often face IT challenges similar to those of larger enterprises—troubleshooting user problems, automating management tasks, managing multiple systems, and diagnosing and resolving IT problems. And when you download the 90-day trial software, you’re automatically registered to receive valuable resources delivered at strategic intervals throughout the software evaluation period.

This VHD is pre-configured to use 10GB of hard disk space and 512MB of memory.  It is a 5 part SFX download totalling 3.2 Gb MB

I’m just downloading it now, so when I find out what the password is I’ll let you know :)

Oh dear, this is a most unfortunate bombshell, and I imagine was a really tough call to make.  Mike Neil has just posted that Viridian (aka:  Windows Server Virtualization) won’t ship with Live Migration and Hot Add Hardware.  You can read more in his post Viridian features update; beta planned for Longhorn RTM, and a snippet is below:

…with all this progress comes the occasional tradeoff. Earlier this week we had to come to grips with some universal truths about product development:

• Shipping is a feature, too.
• The quality bar, the time you have, and the feature set are directly correlated.
• The mythical man-month - resources are not infinite and even if you could add more it does not help get more done faster.

So we had some really tough decisions to make. We adjusted the feature set of Windows Server virtualization so that we can deliver a compelling solution for core virtualization scenarios while holding true to desired timelines. Windows Server virtualization is a core OS technology for the future, and we chose to focus on virtualization scenarios that meet the demands of the broad market – enterprise, large organizations, and mid-market customers. We continue to offer great technology and successful strategies for enterprise customers by broadly investing in the several areas.

So we are making the following changes, and postponing these features to a future release of Windows Server virtualization:

• No Live migration
• No hot-add resources (storage, networking, memory, processor)
• Support limit of 16 cores/logical processors (e.g., 2 processor, quad-core systems is 8 cores; or 4 processor, quad-core system is 16 cores)

I wanted to share this information this week with partners and customers so that no one is surprised at WinHEC when we demo all the other innovations in Windows Server virtualization.
 

Hmmm.  Well, this announcement of this leaves me in a head spinning quandary.  …and it’s nothing to do with coffee I’ve just finished drinking.  So I thought I’d take a few moments to jot down my thoughts.

Mike Neil, is right, “shipping is a feature“.  The (now reduced) feature set of Viridian is [still] such a huge leap forward compared to the current offering on Virtual Server.  …and the most fantastic feature set means absolutely bugger all if the product doesn’t ship. 

However, with an announcement such as this, and I help but find myself thinking about “features” and “value”.  Just because a product is free doesn’t immediately make it the best value.  If you’ve ever used or architected a solution around VMware’s VMotion you’ll know exactly what I mean.  When you’re in a tight spot, and VMotion saves the day, you know it was worth every last penny, and then some. :)    Rrosenkoetter nails it beautifully in his discussion forum post (second one down) — if your environment is architected accordingly, the value is in the solution.

As I write this post I find myself thinking “Where will Viridian deliver the most value?“  I guess it’s more than a question of “When will we see the missing features?“, but rather “How will we see the features?”.  How/will Viridian look to compete in the same enterprise space as Vmware VI3?   …or will it be more focused on the end-to-end management of the platform and server lifecycle?  Will the extra features eventually come in a service pack, or SCVMM, an R2 release, WSV version 2.0 or something else?  After all it does say “postponed” not “dropped completely”

The announcement certainly raises many good questions?!  I’ve had so many emails this morning, from assorted people I know (and didn’t) all asking some very good questions.  I don’t know the answers, and I’m as surprised as everyone else.  So I’m not going to think too much about it just yet.  Unfortunately I’ll just have to wait and see what announcements and guidance WinHec will bring next week.

Giorgio Malusardi from over at Technet Blogs has blogged on the basics of the Windows Server Virtualization Architecture.

The article is in Italian (I presume) but with the aid of babelfish you can read more in his post “Windows Server Virtualization: Architettura - parte 2“, and a heavily edited snippet is below:

An other aspect to notice in the overhanging diagram is the presence of Windows hypervisor. This is a completely new element. In Virtual Server the Virtual Machine Monitor turns in Windows (this comes called virtualization hosted). With Windows Server Virtualization the Virtual Machine Monitor (hypervisor) turns “on the metal”: this is called virtualization hypervisor-based. The hypervisor she is a member who comes only installed when she is decided to install the Server role of Windows Server Virtualization, is not present for default in the installations of Windows Server “Longhorn”.

The Parent partition acts like owner of default of all the resources hardware. Between its typical tasks there are the management of the power management, plug and play and the events the legacies to the errors hardware. The partition is also responsible of the creation and the management of the other partitions and the allocation of the resources hardware. We enter in greater detail in the functions of the Parent partition.

A frequent question that is placed to me when it is spoken about Windows Server Virtualization is “Where I must install the driver of my card fibre channel, of my card video, of my adapter of net, etc”

Driver of the members the hardware of the system they are installs to you in the Parent partition (are indicates to you in the diagram overhanging like “IHV Drivers”). These driver are normal driver standards for Windows drivers, not driver special for the virtualization. The fact that Windows Server Virtualization does not demand driver special is fundamental if we consider the migliaia of driver available for Windows.  No driver for the hardware of the physical system host is executed in the Child partitions.

Windows Server Virtualization uses BEES WMI in order to create, to manage, to control, to shape virtual resources (”WMI Provider” in the overhanging diagram). To the state they of development puts into effect (is in phase pre-beta to the date of writing of this article) the BEES is not still complete and therefore still they have not been published. When the first beta of Windows Server Virtualization is rilasciata to the public the team of rilascerà development also one first version beta of the relative documentation to these BEES. When the product will be complete and rilasciato in definitive way to the public the WMI BEES of Windows Server Virtualization they are made available, with the relative documentation via MSDN.  Expect that BEES WMI will be used other vendors for the WSV management (example HP Openview and IBM Director)

I can’t wait for more technical posts on the upcoming release of Viridian.  Some nice meaty resources that you can really sink your teeth into — actually I’m also quite fond of the “so technical it makes your ears bleed” articles as well.  So a couple of those would be nice too :)

I got an [mass] email from Ben Rudolph over at Parallels this morning.  Looks like certain Macs are coming preloaded with XP and Parallels Desktop.  Hmmm, personally I think this is a bold and sexy move.  You can make up you own mind and read the announcement, and a snippet is below:

…a selection of 13 pre-configured packages that include an Apple Mac Mini, iMac, MacBook, MacBook Pro or Mac Pro, pre-loaded with Parallels Desktop for Mac, with Windows XP Pro pre-installed in a Parallels virtual machine.

“We’ve found that each pre-loaded, pre-configured Mac that we sell saves us upwards of 1.5 hours of internal setup time, which means that we can substantially reduce the turn-around time it takes to get our solutions into our customers’ hands. Now when a customer places an order, they know that they’ll spend less time waiting for a shipment to arrive - and less time configuring it upon its arrival - and more time being productive with their new Mac.”

It was a long weekend here in Brisbane, so I took the opportunity to get out on the bike.  It was the perfect day for a ride.  here in Australia we are in late Autumn — which makes it cool enough to appreciate leathers, but not cold enough to make it unpleasant.

I’d promised a couple of guys I would take photos for them on my next trip.  So I this time took particular care to pack a camera! 

Anyway, these pictures are dedicated to those who are crazy enough to write drag-n-drop code on a dare (Mike that would be you) — or anyone who wishes they got out more on the weekends :)

 
ABOVE:  Cedar Creek; Heading up Mt Glorious

 
ABOVE: Stop for Coffee and Email Mitch, Paul &  Kleefy; The trip down Mt Glorious

 
ABOVE: Follow an old bush track and creek for a bit

 
ABOVE:  The old abandoned Dayborough dance hall; An unusual sign on the way to Petrie

If you’ve wondered where your version of the Virtual Machine Additions came from, you should check out my post “What are the latest builds / history of the Virtual Machine Additions?” and a snippet is below:

A history of builds:
10.21 with Virtual PC 5.2 — (Called Virtual PC Additions)
13.40 with Virtual PC 2004
13.187 (download) –Supports Win XP SP2
13.206 with VS2005
13.306 with Virtual PC 2004 SP1
13.518 with VS2005 R2 Beta
13.531 (download) — Supports Win2003 SP1
13.552 with VS2005 R2 — Supports Win2003 R2 and Vista (-build 5270)
13.709 (beta) supports Vista 5472.5
13.715 (beta) supports Vista 5600
13.724 (beta) with Virtual PC 2007 Beta 1
13.803 with Virtual PC 2007 RTM
13.809 with Virtual Server 2005 R2 SP1 RC (32- bit)

Hmm, some of my old VHD/VPC bookmarks appear to be out of date, here is a quick and dirty refresh of the VPCs that I know of on Microsoft Downloads:

1. SQL Server 2005 TD VHD 2.4Gb
2. Windows Server 2003 R2 TD VHD 1.4 Gb
3. ISA Server 2006 TD VHD 1.5 Gb
4. Exchange Server 2007 TD VHD 1.4 Gb
5. Internet Explorer 6 Application Compatibility VPC Image, 495Mb
6. Internet Explorer 7 Application Compatibility VPC Image, 491 Mb
7. Visual Studio Code Orcas Beta 1 Team Suite (VPC), 5.4 Gb
8. Visual Studio Orcas Beta 1 Team Foundation Server (VPC), 6.0 Gb
9. Visual Studio 2005 Team System Basics Training, 5.2Gb
10. Microsoft Dynamics CRM 3.0 VPC, 3.2Gb
11. SCVMM Beta 2 VHD, 1.8 Gb - passport required
12. System Centre Essentials VHD. 3.2 Gb
13. SQL Server 2005/Exchange 2007, 3.3 Gb - passport required

I know there are a couple more that I have missed email me URL and I’ll repost it.

I know I’m a little behind the 8 ball with this one, but the preconfigured SCVMM VHD is available for download from connect.microsoft.com/vmm.

The download is in a self extracting RAR file in three parts and is 1,832.68 MB in size.

If you are so inclined you can also read the 4 page “Deploying SCVMM Using a VHD” whitepaper. which includes important information like the password:  Evaluation1   :)

I’ve already posted my first impressions of SCVMM P2V with parts one and two, but won’t get a chance [immediately] to come back and finish part three, which is a V2V from VMware VMDK to Microsoft VHD.

SCVMM includes a command-line-only facility for V2V conversions.  So I’ve written a very crude GUI called V2Vconsole, similar to my VSMTconsole, that wraps a simple GUI around the following syntax:

$vmxmc = $c | new-VMXMachineConfig -VMXPath \\server1\vmx\My_Virtual_Machine.vmx
$c | copy-VMDK -VMDKPath \\server1\vmx\My_Virtual_Machine.vmdk -VmHost $vmhost -Path F:\VMX\
$c | new-V2V -Name vmx1 -VMXPath \\server1\vmx\My_Virtual_Machine.vmx -VmHost $vmhost -Path F:\VMX

It works quite nicely, a screenshot doesn’t really do it justice, so when I’m happy with it, I’ll come back and revisit this post again.