Dugie’s Pensieve

There has been assorted posts now that SCVMM R2 (aka SCVMM vNext) will be able to manage multiple installations of Viridian/Windows Server virtualization. 

Chris Stirrat (from the SCVMM team) also made the announcement back in September that SCVMM R2 (or ‘next set of releases‘) will manage VMware and XEN as well.

Anyway, in Jeff Wooley’s presentation today, the roadmap slide shows SCVMM vNext will beta within 45 days of the Windows Server Virtualization Beta.

So if the WSv beta will be released with the RTM of Windows 2008 in ~February, I’m going to guess we should see a beta mid April 2008?

Jeff Woolsey has just finished speaking at the Windows 2008 Workshop here in Seattle.  I’ll type up the notes tonight, but there was one slide, I thought was particularly interesting and worth sharing now.

Microsoft Internal IT currently uses Microsoft Virtual Server to host production roles, and are saving HUGE amounts of power and space in their dataceter. 

I previously blogged about Microsoft IT and Virtual Server in my older posts Virtualization Podcast and 7% of Microsoft’s production servers are virtualized.  (On a side note I finally got to meet Devin in person yesterday).

So let’s get to the super gossip.  As I mentioned Microsoft are saving huge amounts of power and space, check out the picture above or the table below:

No, that’s not a typo - Microsoft are saving 517 amps of power using Virtualization!

UPDATE:  I’m going to track down some updated power information in watts.  Keep you posted.

Chris Wolf has come through with the goods again!  He’s written a script to back up running VMs via VSS.  That’s right, back up your VMs whilst they are running, and without needing DPM.

…You guys will remember his nifty script to V2V from VHD to VMDK.

I haven’t had a chance to road test it yet, but you know you want too!  So whilst you’re downloading the script and firing up your VMs, read a snippet from his post is below:

The script will back up all files in the VM folders to the designated backup target folder. You could restore a VM to the time of the previous backup by copying the files in the VM’s associated backup folder to their original source folder. Alternatively, you could mount a VM’s virtual hard disk (VHD) file using VHD Mount in order to recover a single file.

Data Protection Manager is a great tool for backing up Virtual Server VMs and provides an excellent alternative to my scripted solution. However, if you’re looking to integrate a scripted backup with your existing backup software or do not require the complete functionality of Data Protection Manager, then this script should provide just what you need.

We’ll I’m here in (not so) Sunny Seattle.  The flight over went smoothly, and even the change at LAX went well.  I only got the bag search, and a pat down. Lucky me!

Anyway, now I’m currently sitting in the Microsoft Conference Center with about ~70 others.  All the cool kids are here Paul Thurott is sitting a couple of seats down.  I saw Steven Bink around here too - Still trying to find Alessandro Perilli.  UPDATE:  He’s sitting right behind me =)

We’re all here at the Windows Server 2008 Technical Workshop.  It’s a 3 day workshop covering the 2008 wave of products.  Each day has about 8 technical sessions, delivered by a healthy mix of customers, product teams and vendors. 

Rather than blog each session, I’ll post assorted tidbits in a rollup at the end of each day.  Tomorrow is Hypervisor and all thing Virtualization.

Wednesday I’m off to the EEC (Enterprise Engineering Centre).  The EEC has $40 million USD of hardware and networking equipment - so it’s gotta be cool.  Expect that post to be a long one :)

Better go, Quest is about to demo their new sexy 2008 suite of software.

UPDATE:  The sun is out, and althought a little brisk, its very nice outside.

Ok Firstly, I sooo wish Microsoft had released “Microsoft Virtual Server 2005 R2 SP1″ as “Virtual Server 2007″.  It would have saved so much confusion — and personally I believe free products should never have service packs;  just newer versions.  But I digress!

Ok, now that I have that off my chest, I’ve got a whole bunch of stats and perf data from testing VMs.  Yes it’s a comparison on both VMware Server and Microsoft Virtual Server.  I’ve also been inspired to clean it up and publish it.

The data is nothing special, just scripted installs of the operating systems and applications; and a couple of tests with SQLIOSim and the Exchange 2003 Stress Test tools.  The theme here is Microsoft.  Microsoft OSes on the host, Microsoft OSes in the VMs, running Microsoft Server Apps, tested with [mostly] Microsoft test tools.

But before I do, I’m going to do two things:

1. Re run the tests (which will take about 2 days), I haven’t done the tests since VMware Server 1.0.4  was released.
2. shoot off a quick email to VMware to comply with the EULA:

3.3 Restrictions. You may not (i) sell, lease, license, sublicense, distribute or otherwise transfer in whole or in part the Software or the Software License Key to another party; (ii) provide, disclose, divulge or make available to, or permit use of the Software in whole or in part by, any third party (except Designated Administrative Access) without VMware’s prior written consent; or (iii) modify or create derivative works based upon the Software. Except to the extent expressly permitted by applicable law, and to the extent that VMware is not permitted by that applicable law to exclude or limit the following rights, you may not decompile, disassemble, reverse engineer, or otherwise attempt to derive source code from the Software, in whole or in part. You may use the Software to conduct internal performance testing and benchmarking studies, the results of which you (and not unauthorized third parties) may publish or publicly disseminate; provided that VMware has reviewed and approved of the methodology, assumptions and other parameters of the study. Please contact VMware at benchmark@vmware.com to request such review.

…and before anybody asks:  I’m not using Exchange 2007, because there is no 64bit VM support yet and I don’t want to taint the results with the “non-supported” or beta builds of software. 

Keep you posted.

My trusty KJam is dead.  For a couple of years now it’s been my faithful companion through both the good and the bad.  Perfect for “for sifting out my thoughts Saturday morning over coffee“, as I used to say.  (Some of you may even get the in-house joke of “Dugie’s Pensieve“)

But now it’s dead, and it hurts.  I kinda knew it was coming though.  For a little while now the bluetooth light has been ’stuck on’.  The phone wouldn’t ring, , but I’d get the SMS saying I’d missed a call (WTF?!)  …and some other bizarre stuff. 

Now she don’t boot no more.  If I take the battery out, and speak nicely, I’ll sometimes get a spark of life.

So now I’m looking for a new phone.  I’m also on the hunt for a new voicemail service too.  One that can email me the voicemail as a WAV.  I’ll keep you guys posted with how I go.

Quick post.  Michal Strehovsky has posted the answer to the question everybody asks.  Which is faster VMware Server or Virtual PC?

This is one of those posts I’ve always wanted to do, but never cleaned up my data nice enough to present.  So hats off to Michal, and check out his post "Virtual machines performance comparison" and a snippet is below:

 The results seen here are the results of synthetic benchmarks. Real-world results may be completely different