ThinkPad X1 and Windows 8

Posted on January 31, 2012 by Thomas Maurer

In the last days I got my new machine for work, a Lenovo ThinkPad X1. As usual I always want to work with the latest and greates technology, that’s why I have chosen to set up the ThinkPad X1 with Windows 8.

Even in Developer Preview state Windows 8 runs very stable and brings a lot of cool new features which I can use for my daily work. I love the new PowerShell versions and Internet Explorer 10. But the best and the biggest feature for me, is the integration of Hyper-V 3 in Windows 8. So I don’t have to use VMware Workstation or VirtualBox to run virtual machines on my notebook for testing or presentations. I also can simply use the VHD (or VHDX) format to play with virtual machines or even boot them via boot from VHD.

The downside of the Windows 8 Developer Preview is missing .NET framework 3.5, but I think the Windows 8 beta, which should be released by the end of February, should fix this.

Maybe some people have realized that I am a big fan of business style notebooks. And what would be better business design than the ThinkPad series. Lenovo tried to combine good old ThinkPad values with new design features, and in my opinion succeeded. I really like the ThinkPad design in this very slim chassis. It looks elegant and business “high-class”.

The build quality of the Lenovo ThinkPad X1 is like you would expect it from a ThinkPad. It feels great and very robust. Keith Combs describes it in his review ”The ThinkPad X1 is build like a tank. It’s probably the most solid notebook I’ve ever had in my hands.” and I have to agree with him.

More information on the Lenovo ThinkPad X1 here.

Install CentOS on Windows 8 Hyper-V

Posted on January 9, 2012 by Thomas Maurer

For some courses at KTSI we need a CentOS to test some Linux spesific things like Apache and other stuff. The good thing, Windows 8 got Hyper-V and Hyper-V supports CentOS.

With Version 3.2 oft the Linux Integration Services Microsoft fixed also a bug which occurred in Windows 8.

First download CentOS
Download the Linux Integration Services Version 3.2 for Hyper-V
Start Hyper-V Manager and create a new Virtual Machine
Install CentOS 6.x
Reboot the virtual machine
Login as root
Mount the Linux Integration Services ISO from step 2

Now run the following commands in the virtual machine

sudo mount /dev/cdrom /media
sudo /media/install.sh

After you the Installation is completed you have to reboot the virtual machine again
done

Hyper-V 3: Import and Export VMs with PowerShell

Posted on December 19, 2011 by Thomas Maurer

Aidan Finn (Virtual Machine MVP) just made a blog post about Hyper-V & PowerShell in Windows Server 8 and how you can enable Hyper-V via PowerShell in Windows Server 8. So this gave me the idea about doing a little more with PowerShell and Hyper-V 3.

I already did a blog post about how you can attach multiple VHDs to a SCSI Controller with PowerShell in Windows Server 8. In this post I will show how easy you can export and import a lot of Virtual Machines.

First you can run a Get-VM Test*, to check which VMs you will export.


Get-VM Test*

Now you can export the Virtual Machines


Get-VM Test* | Export-VM -Path "C:\VMs"

Now I removed the Virtual Machines in Hyper-V with Powershell (You could also add the -confirm parameter so you don’t have to press “y” for each VM.


Get-VM Test* | Remove-VM

And now you can import the Virtual Machines again


Get-Childitem "C:\VMs" -Recurse *.xml | Import-VM

I will post more about PowerShell in Windows 8 and Windows Server 8 (Hyper-V 3) in the next upcommig weeks. If you want know more about what new Hyper-V features and improvments are coming in Windows Server 8, you can read the following blog post: “Hyper-V: Version 3 kills them all”

PowerShell 3.0: Show-Command

Posted on November 18, 2011 by Thomas Maurer

Just a simple note about a new cmdlet in PowerShell 3.0. Show-Command is something very useful if you try out a new PowerShell Command. It shows all the options and possible parameters you have with the cmdlet.

Show-Command Get-Childitem

TechDays 11 Bern

Posted on October 19, 2011 by Thomas Maurer

techdays11

In the next two days the biggest Microsoft event in Switzerland will be held at Bern.

Microsoft will bring the latest news about Windows 8, Windows Server 8 and the System Center 2012 Suite from the BUILD conference to the Swiss IT Pro audience. On the IT Pro track, private cloud will be the key topic.

More About the two days:

IT Professionals: 20. Oktober 2011

In der Keynote stellen Ihnen unsere Technikexperten die wesentlichen Neuerungen unserer anstehenden Servertechnologien Windows Server 8, SQL Server „Denali“ und System Center 2012 vor. Anschliessend werden technische Informationen und Demos für Produkte wie SQL Server „Denali“, System Center 2012, PowerShell, IPv6, Virtualisierung und Private Cloud, Windows und SQL Azure sowie Office 365 und Endpoint-Managementangeboten.

Developer: 21. Oktober 2011

Der Tag beginnt mit der Keynote des Branchenexperten Neno Loje über das neue Visual Studio 11, das kürzlich auf der BUILD-Konferenz vorgestellt wurde. Softwareentwickler und –architekten erhalten anschliessend die aktuellsten Informationen und Demos über Produkte wie Windows Azure, ASP.NET MVC 4, Windows Phone „Mango“, Silverlight 5, SQL Server 2008 R2 / SQL Azure / SQL Server „Denali“ sowie Visual Studio Lightswitch und HTML5.

More information and the agenda can you find on the techdays homepage.

See you there…

Windows Server 8 Hyper-V VHDX improvements

Posted on October 11, 2011 by Thomas Maurer

VHDX

With Windows 8 and Windows Server 8 Microsoft released a new file format for Virtual Hard Disk called VHDX.

The VHD format, which was availible since 2005 (Microsoft Virtual PC) and is now used by Microsoft Hyper-V and other Hypervisor, had some limitations.

The latest version of the VHD format was limited to 2TB of size and a block file size of 512bytes.

Now with VHDX Microsoft kills this limitations and brings some other improvements:

Supports up to 16TB size
Supports larger block file size
improved performance
improved corruption resistance

At this time you can use the VHDX format only with Windows 8 and Windows Server 8. But you can convert VHDs the VHDX format and VHDX disks back to VHDs.

Thomas Maurer ™

Just another private cloud weblog

Category Archives: Windows 8