Dugie’s Pensieve

Hi Folks, I just wanted to take a moment to wish everyone a Happy New Year and hope all sorts of exciting things await you! 

I also wanted to say thankyou to everyone who has supported the Brisbane Infrastructure Group — and all the wonderful, talented blog readers who took the time to stop by and leave comments.  In case you forgot who you are:

Aaron, Alan, AP, Ben, BG, Brad, Brendon, Brett, Chas, Christian, Clive, Daniel, Dave, David, Davo, Eileen, James, Jeff, Jim, Ken, Laurent, Leon, Lucas, Massimo, Mike, Mike, Mitch, Murray, Nick, Nigel, Ozzie, Peter, Phil, Rob, Sean and Tobi.

Thanks guys, this next drink is for you! =)

It’s now the week of Christmas, and the year is nearly at an end.  With that it’s time to post my final update for the year.

I won’t recap the full story for the year, instead you can read those occasional updates at your leisure.  =)

So in short, I’m well pleased with the changes I’ve made and everything I’ve accomplished this year.  At times it was a struggle.  …but I managed to read more books, get out more on weekends, meet lots of exciting and interesting people, as well as get a deeper understanding of all things virtualization in and out of the data center.

So what’s planned for next year?  Well I have some ideas, but I’m not sure yet.  That’s why I’m in the middle of packing my gearsack for one last bike ride for the year.  Personally, I find all the best ideas come to me when I’m on the bike, enjoying a twitsy backroad on a mountain in the middle of nowhere.

See you all in a couple of days when I get back.

Bahhh!!!  Robert Larson has beet me to it, and in a stellar effort posted the instructions on how to build a Host Cluster with Hyper-V.  (Nice work Rob!)

You can check out his post "Building a Host Cluster with Hyper-V Beta 1" for all the details, and a snippet is below:

1) Build nodes with Hyper-V
2) Build Virtual Network Switches in Hyper-V
3) Establish iSCSI Target Quorum and Data drives
4) Use iSCSI initiator on each node to connect to targets
5) Install Failover Clustering on each node
6) Run Validate on the cluster nodes
7) Create Cluster
8) Build a VM to make highly available
9) Make the VM highly available
10) Test it by moving the VM to another node

Oh, and don’t forget the to check out the Hyper-V Release Notes, the list of hardware has been updated!

Yup, The beta of Hyper-V is out, and it works with Server Core!  Now just remember, Hyper-V is in now in beta, and Windows 2008 is in Release Candidate.  This means no more MSU’s — It’s a native role!!

Head on over to Microsoft Downloads and download the ISO.

What more can be said?!  Oh wait there is something:  start /w ocsetup "Microsoft -Hyper-V"

Wait, you still want more - well head on over to: Ben Armstrong for more "Hyper-V Tech Stuff!";  Jeff Woolsey for more "Viridian Video action".

A:  You bet it does, and it works very well — ideal for those servers that don’t or won’t have a DVD Drive.

You’ll need a 4Gb USB Key, a high speed USB key is preferred.  Plug it into your workstation and format it using diskpart:

When the format is finished, robocopy your Windows 2008 CD across (robocopy E:/s F:), and then TADA that’s it.  Plug in your USB key and boot from it - most server boards support it these days.

You can even get excited and use WAIK for the unattended installation  - read Waik.chm for more info.

The TLA Wars have started.  TLA is the dreaded Three Letter Acronym such as ROI, TCO, FUD and so on.  Anyway, sooner or later it was inevitable  that someone would post some sort of a matrix comparing Hyper-V with VI3.

Daniel Oxley (MSFT Infrastructure Consultant from Madrid) has shared some "interesting information" in his blog post "Virtualisation - Why would you not choose Microsoft Virtualization".  I’ll let you read and digest the original post, but a snippet is below:

Personally I can’t see how Windows 2008 Hyper-V can be put forward [just yet], especially when the management solution (SCVMM vNext) hasn’t been released.  Sure SCVMM can/will/does do some seriously funky stuff with Virtualization management.  I’m just saying it’s not out there yet for 2008.

So it’s very interesting times ahead.

For those who came in late, here is the story so far:  I have built a Microsoft Home Server, in an arcade machine. 

Since second-hand arcade machines are both rare and reasonably expensive in Australia, I have built this arcade machine completely from “the ground up“.  Just for kicks, I did it with a self imposed  budget of $500 AUD just like this:

• Google the different types of cabinet and find dimensions
• Sketch the outline onto timber, and armed with only my trusty jigsaw cut out the panels
• Install a reinforced timber shelf to hold the 21″ monitor
• Fix the side panels together
• Attach the first lot of panels and then the last lot of panels
• Put in the false floor, power board
• Paint it, and plug in all the cables
• stick on all the decals, perspex monitor cover
• Mount the hardware (essentially just left over drives and a spare motherboard I had lying around)
• …and install Home Server

The whole project took a couple of weekends, cost just under the $500, and as you can see came up nicely.   …and plays old arcade games too!  See Virtualization has a use in the home as well :)

Tomorrow, I will post the breakdown of all the costs, tools, and equipment that I used.  And next week, I’ll post the complete picture gallery and commentary. (as a ppt slide)

All previous updates#: 0, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, photos.   

Tony Voellm (Principle Development Lead) is after feedback on Hyper-V performance:

Check his post "Windows Hyper-V Beta" for more details and a snippet is below

As the person responsible for performance inside the Hyper-V product team I’m confident is saying you’ll see the hypervisor investment is really paying off.  As you use the product I’d love to get your feedback on Hyper-V performance. 

If you’ve got feedback, get in touch with Tony =)

It was a tough call, but I am defiantly, Indy geek:

For all the 56 different geeks, see the "56 complete geeks poster".  These were the other geek contenders for me:

PDC is one of the big premier events where all the cool stuff happens.  If you’ve been following Virtualization for the past couple of years, there is always a big ticket feature/item announced at this time.

…and PDC has lots of excellent content.

The next PDC will be in 2008 from October 27–30.  Check out the MSDN Events and Webcasts PDC08 page.