Install HP Support Pack on Hyper-V R2 Core Server

Posted on December 20, 2010 by Thomas Maurer

If you are using Microsoft Hyper-V R2 Core Server, installing the HP Support Pack is a little different. This post should show you how this is done.

Download the latest HP Support Pack for Windows Server 2008 R2 and extract that on your Management Server or PC.
Now copy the extracted folder to the Hyper-V Core Server. In my case i copied in the C:\ root of the Core Server via the administrative network share. If you have easy physical access to the server, you could also use a USB stick or something like that.
Now connect to the Core Server and use the cmd.exe to navigate to the folder with the HP Support Pack
Run the “hpsum.exe” to start the HP Smart Update Manager
When the HP Smart Update Manager is started you can use it like on a Full Server installation of Windows Server 2008

You could also try to run the HP Smart Update Manager on another machine and use the remote connection feature.

Remote Disk Management with “RPC server is unavailable” Error

Posted on December 10, 2010 by Thomas Maurer

If you have a Windows Server 2008 R2 Core Server or a Hyper-V R2 Server, which is also managed like a Core Server, you are really happy if you can use the Server Manager for this Remote Machine. Basiclly I had the the Remote Setup done. I could connect to the remote Machine with the Server Manager but when I tried to use the Disk Management on a remote Server and I got the following error “RPC server is unavailable”. After checking it I found the solution. The Problem is that the Firewall blocks the remote communication to virtual disk service. So you have to open the Firewall on the Management Machine

First make sure you activated all the Remote Management options on the Remote Machine. I had all done this but its good to check that.
Now you can run the following Command in cmd on the Management Machine to add the a new firewall rule
```
netsh advfirewall firewall set rule group="Remote Volume Management" new enable=yes
```

Cisco UCS and Microsoft Hyper-V R2

Posted on October 24, 2010 by Thomas Maurer

Last week we run our first tests with the Cisco UCS Bladecenter, VMware ESXi and Microsoft Hyper-V R2.

I am really excited about the performance and the easy management of the Cisco Bladecenter. Maybe I get some more information about Hyper-V and the UCS out there for next week.

There is also a Microsoft TechNet event next Tuesday:

Cisco Unified Computing System + Microsoft Hyper-V/System Center = die Komplettlösung für Virtual IT und Private Cloud

Cheatsheet: How to install HP Support Pack on a Server Core installation #3

Posted on February 17, 2010 by Thomas Maurer

This is a HowTo step-by-step guide to install the HP Support Pack on a Windows Server 2008 R2 Core installation or Hyper-v Core installation.

Download the latest HP ProLiant Support Pack for Windows Server 2008 R2

Eable SNMP on Windows Server 2008 R2 Core by typing start /w ocsetup SNMP-SC

Extract the HP ProLiant Support Pack on a Management Machine to C:\Supportpack

Connect to the Remote Windows Server Core for example \\hyperv01\c$

Create the folder C:\hp on the Remote Core Server

Copy the files from C:\supportpack to \\hyperv01\c$\hp

On the Core Server execute C:\hp\hpsum.exe

Install the HP Supportpack as usual

Reboot the Server

P2V Hyper-v Migration

Posted on January 8, 2010 by Thomas Maurer

Tonight I did a bigger P2V (physical 2 virtual) migration. I virtualized an older Windows Server 2003 SP1 with MS SQL Server 2005 and WSS 3.0. This can be used as a step by step how-to guide.

First I created a Image of the old server with Symantec Backup Exec System Recovery 2010, this could be done online. I just stopped all the Sharepoint, SQL and Web Services so that no new data could be written in the time I created this Image.

After I moved this Image to the Microsoft Hyper-V Host Server, I started to convert the v2i Image with Symantec Backup Exec System Recovery 2010 to a Microsoft VHD.

I created a new Virtual Machine on the Hyper-V Server and added this existing VHD. (Important here: I tried to create the same Hardware environment for the VM which I had as physical Hardware before. (Dual Core with 2048MB memory) So I had basically no problem to start the Virtual Machine.

Now its time to install the Hyper-v integration components (the VM Drivers) which can only be installed on Windows Server 2003 with SP2 or later. I turned off the Virtual Machine again and attached the VHD File offline on my Hyper-v Server, so I had file access to the Virtual Hard Disk. I simply added the Servicepack 2 file to the root of the VHD.

After unmounting the VHD, I started my Virtual Machine again and installed the Servicepack 2 and the Hyper-v Integration components.

Now I added more Hardware to the Virtual Machine (Quad-Core and 4GB memory). I also change the Legacy Network Adapters to normal Network Adapters (higher Network performance)

The performance of the new Hyper-v is just pretty impressive.