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

Lenovo ThinkPad T430u

Posted on January 8, 2012 by Thomas Maurer

In the last days Lenovo showed pictures of the Lenovo ThinkPad T430u for the first time. The ThinkPad T430u is a 14-inch ultrabook which will be release in 2012. There is not a lot of information about the specs of the T430u but it will use one of the new Intel Ive Bridge CPUs and should also be available with Nvidia discrete graphics options.

This could be a very interessting notebook option for business users. My hope for the T430u is that it will bring a great high-resolution display option. But we will see it later this year or maybe at CES 2012.

More Information about the T430u on theverge.com.

Happy New Year

Posted on December 31, 2011 by Thomas Maurer

Another great year ends and 2012 is just around the corner. 2011 was a successful year but I think 2012 will be even better. The private cloud products we all have talked about in the past months like System Center 2012 and Windows Server 8 will finally be released. And I am sure a lot of other stuff is coming in 2012.
I hope you all had fun reading my blog posts and tweets. I have learned a lot in the past year and had the chance to talk to a lot of interesting people.

Some predictions for 2012:

2012 will be the year of Hyper-V (by Aidan Finn)
Windows 8 will be released
I will buy my first Windows Tablet
My blog will hit the magic line of 2000 unique visitors a day
A lot of interesting project
System Center 2012 change the datacenter
Windows Phone will get some market share
I will do my private cloud proof of concept for my diploma thesis

Thank you all and happy new year.

Building a new Hyper-V Private Cloud Lab

Posted on November 28, 2011 by Thomas Maurer

Two years ago I created my first real IT Lab with some HP ProLiant ML110 G5. I used this in the past years to test new products and projects. The Lab at this time was very limited, no storage, no cluster, not much RAM and weak CPU performance. Not much help if you work a lot with Hyper-V Clusters and System Center products.

I was looking around for some time now to find a cheap offer for new servers. In the last week I found a offer from Cisco with c200 M2 servers and I couldn’t resist to buy two of the for my Hyper-V Cluster nodes. The offer was a special deal which was even cheaper than building the servers by my own, at this point thanks to my former employer Atlantis Informatik AG.

Now what I will do is creating a new Hyper-V Cluster friendly environment with two Cisco C200 M2 Hyper-V nodes, one HP ML110 G5 as Storage Server and one of my old HP ML110 G5 servers as Hyper-V Server which all my Management servers and Active Directory will run on.

If you want to know more about Hardware you can use for a Hyper-V Lab I recommend the posts of Carsten Rachfahl on hyper-v-server.de (german).

Hardware Configuration

Hyper-V nodes:

2x Cisco C200 M2 - Intel Xeon 5620 2.4GHz Quad Core, 16GB RAM, Remote Management, IPMI, 6 Networkports

Storage Server:

1x HP ProLiant ML110 G5 – Intel Xeon E3110 3.0 GHz Dual Core, 8GB RAM, 4x 500GB Raid 10, 3 Networkports

Management Hyper-V node:

1x HP ProLiant ML110 G5 – Intel Xeon E3110 3.0 GHz Dual Core, 8GB RAM

My first year with Windows Phone

Posted on November 26, 2011 by Thomas Maurer

WinodwsPhoneMangoLogo

Exactly one year ago I got my first Windows Phone. Since then a lot has change and Windows Phone has really improved.

After the first update, called NoDo, I could leave my iPhone 4 behind and change to the HTC 7 Trophy. Of course the hardware was nowhere near the iPhone 4 but the Windows Phone OS was just great. Now one year later there is a lot of good Windows Phone hardware out there and the Windows Phone OS has improved with Mango.

I am sure there will be a lot more great Windows Phone stuff in the future.

First Update for the HTC TITAN

Posted on November 16, 2011 by Thomas Maurer

Only 2 days after my small HTC TITAN review HTC released the first update for the TITAN. I could not find any information about this update, but there is no visible change at the moment.