Dugie’s Pensieve

Windows 7 (build 7000) is about to be unleashed on us.  It could be via CES today, other’s have stumbled upon it over at Pirate Bay, but regardless it’s due to be released into the masses some time in the next week — The good news is, it works great in and around Virtual Machines. 

With Win7.7000 on the physical host, VMware Workstation Bridged and NAT networking [now] works. 

Now the version of VMware workstation [initially used] was 118166 – installed on both Win7 build 6801 and 7000.  didn’t work on 6801, but worked on 7000.  So whatever that lads at Microsoft changed between Win7 builds, I’m very grateful =)

PS:  I’m expecting to do a lot of Win7 virtualization testing, so I’ve also added the #Windows7 tag to the blog.

The title says it all really :)

Intelligent Application Gateway 2007 — VHD Trial Version

Microsoft Whale Communications Intelligent Application Gateway (IAG) 2007 Service Pack 2 (SP2) with Application Optimizers provides secure socket layer (SSL) virtual private network (VPN), a Web application firewall, and endpoint security management that enable access control, authorization, and content inspection for a wide variety of line-of-business applications…  <snip>

I’ve also updated my ad-hoc downloads list to include the new release. I noticed that this download is in the new “Hyper-V format”, when I get back to a landline, I’m go to try and convert it to Workstation, just to see what happens.

This post if for my own reference, because it always takes me too long to google this information when I need it.  So I thought I’d post it here so others can benefit from it as well.

Assorted notes and references:

• *Bundled - means you first have to purchase Windows Server 2008, or buy new hardware with Windows 2008 preinstalled.  so "free" in this regards, means an initial outlay in $$$
• Initially with SCVMM the P2V candidate had to be domain joined.  I’m not sure if this changes with newer version ^  SCVMM P2V candidates do not need to be domain memebers.
• Offline P2V with SCVMM require WAIK to be downloaded also (980 Mb)

UPDATE:  Many thanks to everyone who has emailed and phoned with info, this is a work in progress, and I’ll read and repost all the content sent through.

I love my Home Server, and I love my Media  Center.  Perhaps I love them more than any warm blooded male should. 

But regardless, I firmly believe that these two "appliances" should be able to co-exist easily on the same box.  (and although two motherboards in a single case is cool - it’s like imitation alcohol, it’s not the same)  So until there is a Home Media Center Server, the closest I’ll get is with Virtual Machine technology.  =)

Paul (my partner in crime) has done the research and testing, and published his findings.  You can read all about it in his post "Combining Vista Media Centre & a Virtual Windows Home Server" and a heavily edited snippet of his article is below:

I realised how much power the Home Server was chewing; 44c in the daytime and my green power rate at 21c at night. This was costing me about $400/yr in power bills - it had to go.  The most obvious was using the other 24/7 machine, a Vista Media Centre.

I used VMware Workstation 6.5 as I had it.  The first results were awful, woefully slow, rendering the machine unable to even record TV shows. Turns out the extra SATA slot is for RAID, and due to firmware / drivers, IRQ’s went through the roof consuming 60% CPU time. A two channel PCI SATA card fixed this problem.

Virtual machine config was easy… <snip> …Once the install is finished, install the VMware tools, run Windows Update, and activate your Home Server.

TCP Offload also caused issues. The registry keys for XP didn’t fix it, but the advanced settings for the network adapter did. TCP Offload disabled on the host and now I get the same network performance anywhere. This is not a fault with VMware, but does seem to be a common compatibility issue with many network adapters, my onboard nic being one of them.

There are some other tricks that can help… <snip> …Now I have access to all my data, a large file store, regular backups, a quiet media centre and a single box that only chew’s 85w. Performance is acceptable, but not amazingly snappy. I think it’s an acceptable compromise.

This is light a snippet, so head over to Paul’s Blog for all the info and technical goodness.  I have new hardware and some downtime over the Christmas Holidays, and I’ll be doing the same with my Media Center as well.  I’ll keep you posted.

Hmmm, looks like Client-Side Hypervisors have been re-defined as ultra cool

• Vista SP2 includes Hyper-V™ technology - from the Springboard Blog 
• VMware View - from the VMware VDI site 

Virtualization is sooo much more than server consolidation [as if we had any doubts], it’s tired of hiding in the server room, it’s coming baby.  So Santa — if you’re out there, and listening.  Can I please have some more lab gear for Christmas?  I promise to be good.

UPDATE:  Don’t get too excited folks; I’ve just had a lovely email saying the Hyper-V on Vista is a typo.  So if Vista and 2008 are from the same codebase, I wonder how long before some talented person figures out how to switch it on…

They say a picture is worth a thousand words:

‘nuff said - *rolls up sleeves and presses the power button*

Here’s a something from my VM toolkit.  It’s a homebake tool I wrote in VB6, and I’ve been using for quite a few years now. 

Quite simply, the tool reads a list of configurational changes [registry changes/ scripts/ software/ installables], then you choose which ones to apply, and it goes ahead and does it.  It’s run locally on the target machine, and doesn’t require or care anything about domain membership [although you can use PSexec to invoke it remotely]. 

I’ve used this little baby to automate the build of SQL, Exchange, Web servers, Terminal Servers and more desktops than I care to remember.

These days I find I use it mostly when authoring new VMs, and rebuilding physical hosts.  It’s been a faithful way to reproduce, automate and reduce the time it takes to do all sorts of tasks — oh and it writes basic doco too!

Anyway, I’m not sure how much life is left in a tool like this, so I’ve been thinking of releasing into sourceforge/web/something.

Thoughts or comments?  Ping me directly.

Recently I’ve been having a lot of interesting (but strong) discussions around a day in the life of a Windows Server.

Anyway, I have the [personal] opinion that your production Windows Servers should end their life as virtual machines.  Yes, even if you [for what ever crazy reason] build a Windows Server on a physical box, there will be an inevitable moment, where it is time for the physical hardware to go away.

My belief behind this is, most windows servers (and the server app that they run) will typically have a life of “about 5-8 years”, and most go through a couple of software upgrades during that time.  A lot can happen in the hardware world in that 5-8 years.  But all of that is a discussion for another time.  For the moment let’s just agree, that we have decided it is time for the physical hardware to go away.   …and it’s time to convert the Physical Server into a Virtual Machine.

Now, when it comes to P2V, every man and his dog have a P2V tool – some are free, some are not.  (Yes, VMware Converter is free).  This isn’t a “my P2V is free-er than your P2V” post – but rather a question of:  if you commit to releasing a hypervisor for free, are you obliged include P2V [and maybe framework] as part of that commitment as well?

Now I don’t have all the answers, or even the right questions – but it makes a very interesting discussion.  So I thought I’d throw the idea out there for discussion.  Thoughts anyone?

I’ve been experimenting with Virtual Machines and replication – and having a fair degree of fun (and success).

I’m replicating a VM between two locations.  Actually I’m only replicating a portion of a VM, because replicating an entire VM just isn’t possible with the bandwidth available to me here in Australia =)

So what I’ve done is created a linked clone of an OS+APPS, writing most of the temp files of to a Scratch disk.  …and it’s working pretty well.  The “replication” chunk is usually about 50 meg (I should be able to get it leaner), and the changes are about 7 meg.  Given that I’m replicating just the delta’s it’s quite manageable at the moment.

Here’s a quick sketch of how it’s working:

Now if there was I could access a copy “whilst it is in the cloud” that would be cool.  I’ll post more updates as I tinker a little more.

Well it’s been a big few weeks, and in the words of Wayne’s World, “I’ve laughed, I’ve cried, I’ve hurled”.   …ok, maybe not the last bit, but there has been of lot of blood, sweat and tears, as well as a trip to tokyo, lots of yummy food, and incident involving a motorbike, some stairs and an elevator.

But moving on, the web site is in the process of moving again.  So whilst I sort that out, check out this totally hilarious video from www.thewebsiteisdown.com:

Oh yeah, virtualization makes an appearance too =)