Windows Server 2012 Hyper-V Component Architecture Poster and Companion References

Posted on August 29, 2012 by Thomas Maurer

Microsoft released a updated version of the Windows Server 2012 Hyper-V Component Architecture Poster.

Windows Server 2012 Hyper-V Component Architecture Poster provides a visual reference for understanding key Hyper-V technologies in Windows Server 2012 and focuses on Hyper-V Replica, networking, virtual machine mobility (live migration), storage, failover clustering, and scalability.

You can download it from the Microsoft Download Center: Windows Server 2012 Hyper-V Component Architecture Poster and Companion References

via Maarten Wijsman from Hyper-V.nu.

Customize System Center App Controller Portal

Posted on August 29, 2012 by Thomas Maurer

System Center App Controller offers you a web based Self-Service portal for managing Virtual Machines and Services in the Private Cloud and Public Cloud. Now if you want to work with System Center App Controller in your company you may also want to customize the self-service portal by changing the logos. Now what you can do is replace the logos by your self created logos.

Now on the System Center App Controller server you can find the two files in the following folder:

C:\Program Files\Microsoft System Center 2012\App Controller\wwwroot

SC2012_WebHeaderLeft_AC.png (213×38)
SC2012_WebHeaderRight_AC.png (108×16)

Before I replace this two pictures I would create a backup of the existing logos. You can simply replace the pictures with a picture with the same size and a transparent background.

Windows Server 2012 Hyper-V: Cluster-Aware Updating (CAU)

Posted on August 27, 2012 by Thomas Maurer

Windows Server 2012 RC Logo

In Windows Server 2012 Microsoft introduced Cluster-Aware Updating or short CAU. Cluster-Aware Updating allows you to update your cluster nodes via automated workflow. Maybe you are familiar with the Remediation process in System Center Virtual Machine which allows you to automatically set a Hyper-V node in maintenance mode, move Virtual Machines to another node, install patches on your Hyper-V Cluster node and bring the node back online. CAU can do the same and even more.

Cluster-Aware Updating (CAU) is an automated feature that allows you to update clustered servers with little or no loss in availability during the update process. During an Updating Run, CAU transparently performs the following tasks:

Puts each node of the cluster into node maintenance mode
Moves the clustered roles off the node
Installs the updates and any dependent updates
Performs a restart if necessary
Brings the node out of maintenance mode
Restores the clustered roles on the node
Moves to update the next node

Microsoft TechNet: Cluster-Aware Updating overview

CAU does not only move Virtual Machines, like SCVMM, it does also know about other Cluster Roles like Hyper-V Replica Broker or File shares.

To use or configure Cluster-Aware Updating you have to install the RSAT for Clustering via GUI or via Windows PowerShell:

 Add-WindowsFeature RSAT-Clustering

After this you can run the Cluster-Aware Updating tool via GUI or the new Windows PowerShell module.

Using Cluster-Aware Updating

In the Cluster-Aware Updating console you have different options.

Apply updates to this cluster – Manually start updating process for a specific cluster
Preview updates for this cluster – Check which updates will be installed
Create or modify Updating Run Profile – Lets you configure the default settings for the Updating Run Profile
Generate report on past Updating Runs
Configure cluster self-updating options – Lets you configure and schedule the updating process for a specific cluster.
Analyze cluster updating readiness – Analyzes your cluster and roles so the cluster can be patched without downtime.

Configure cluster self-updating options

CAU can be scheduled to updates clusters without any manual action.

First choose the cluster and enable the self-updating feature on the cluster

Specify the self-updating schedule

Specify the updating options

Save the scheduled self-updating process

After you have configured the self-updating process you can still modify it.

I hope this gives you a small insight into Cluster-Aware Updating and self-updating for Clusters. If you run some Clusters with 16 nodes you know how much time was needed for manually updating the cluster nodes. With Windows Server 2012 the new maximum number of nodes in a cluster is 64, so CAU will save administrators a lot of time and will keep your clusters up to date.

For more information about Cluster-Aware Updating (CAU) check out Microsoft TechNet.

Virtual Machine Servicing Tool 2012 released

Posted on August 22, 2012 by Thomas Maurer

VHDX

In July Microsoft released the beta of the Virtual Machine Servicing Tool 2012 and two weeks ago Microsoft released the final of the Virtual Machine Servicing Tool 2012 (VMST 2012). I already did a post how you can update offline VHDs via Virtual machine Servicing Tool.

Virtual Machine Servicing Tool 2012 streamlines the process of keeping your offline virtual machines, templates and VHDs up-to-date with the latest operating system and application updates, without introducing vulnerabilities into your IT infrastructure. VMST 2012 helps you effectively manage the workflow of updating your offline virtual machines according to their individual needs.

Using features in VMST 2012, customers can service:

Offline virtual machines in a SCVMM library.
Stopped and saved state virtual machines on a host.
Virtual machine templates.
Offline virtual hard disks in a SCVMM library by injecting update packages.

VMST 2012 works seamlessly with other Microsoft technologies.

VMST 2012 is designed to work with Microsoft® System Center 2012 – Virtual Machine Manager (VMM) and with the following technologies:

Windows Server Update Services (WSUS) WSUS 3.0 SP2.
System Center 2012 Configuration Manager.

You can find the Virtual Machine Servicing Tool 2012 in the Microsoft Download Center.

Mention by SearchWindowsServer

Posted on August 21, 2012 by Thomas Maurer

This Swiss consultant Thomas Maurer (@thomasmaurer) isn’t quite as neutral as his country — he’s a Microsoft guy — but his feed is as equal opportunity as it gets, with topics ranging from Hyper-V to System Center to Windows Phone. If there’s a good blog post out there on a server-related topic, he’ll share it.

Check out the full article on SearchWindowsServer.techtarget.com

SCVMM 2012 Hyper-V Bare-Metal Deployment on Cisco UCS C200

Posted on August 20, 2012 by Thomas Maurer

System Center Logo

System Center Virtual Machine Manager brings a cool new feature called Bare Metal Deployment. This feature allows deploying new Hyper-V hosts via Out-of-Band Management (IPMI or SMASH) with the Virtual Machine Manager. In my lab environment I use Cisco UCS C200 M2 servers as my Hyper-V servers but this guide will also work with servers from other vendors such as HP, IBM or Dell.

Deployment Process

SCVMM boots up Bare-Metal Server via OBM
Send PXE Boot requests
WDS asks SCVMM for authorize PXE boot
SCVMM approves
Boot Windows PE
Run pre GCE scripts to configure Raid and other settings
Copy the VHD from VMM Library
Get drivers
Run post GCE scripts to do additional configurations
Doing post configuration
Domain join
Adding server to the resource pool

Continue reading →

Microsoft Virtual Machine Converter Plug-in for VMware vSphere Client Beta

Posted on August 17, 2012 by Thomas Maurer

Hyper-V R2 SP1

Microsoft justed released the Microsoft Virtual Machine Converter Plug-in for VMware vSphere Client Beta on Microsoft Connect.

The beta of the Microsoft Virtual Machine Converter Plug-in for VMware vSphere Client v1.0 is now available for download.

The MVMC Plug-in for VMware vSphere Client Beta:

Extends the vSphere Client context menu to make it easier to convert the VMware-based virtual machine to a Hyper-V-based virtual machine.
Is built upon the Microsoft Virtual Machine Converter release candidate.

This plug-in extends vSphere Client to facilitate conversions from a virtual machine context menu and without changing configurations on the source VMware host. For more details about which guest operating systems are supported, see the Microsoft Virtual Machine Converter documentation.