Thomas Maurer (tm) » Microsoft

TechNet Wiki: Hyper-V Tool Collection

Thomas Maurer — Mon, 06 Feb 2012 19:10:45 +0000

Microsoft and the community are really starting to work with the TechNet Wiki platform. Now thanks to James van den Berg I found a great wiki page with a collection of Hyper-V tools.

The collection includes a list of the following content:

Supported Microsoft Tools (Solution Accelerators, Product Downloads, etc.)
Microsoft Products and Solutions that are Built upon Hyper-V Technology
Remote Management from Client Versions of Windows
Unsupported Microsoft Tools (Sysinternals, MSDN/ScriptCenter Code Galleries, TechNet/MSDN Blogs)
Community Tools (CodePlex and blogs)
Third-party Free Tools
Hardware-Specific Tools from OEMs and Vendors
Partner Solutions (Commercially Available)
Application-specific Performance Planning/Testing/Analysis tools

You can find also a lot of other interessting content on the TechNet Wiki. For example for Exchange, PowerShell and SQL.

Hyper-V.nu Event 2012 Videos

Thomas Maurer — Wed, 01 Feb 2012 15:15:07 +0000

A few weeks ago was the Hyper-V.nu Community Event in Amsterdam. Carsten Rachfahl recorded the sessions.

Hyper-V.NU – Keynote – Jaap Wesselius and Peter Noorderijk

Hyper-V.NU – Windows Server 8 Hyper-V Networking – Aidan Finn

listen carefully at 59:00

Hyper-V.NU – SCVMM 2012 – Maarten Wijsman

Hyper-V.NU – Windows Server 8 Hyper-V Storage — Hans Vredevoort

Hyper-V.NU – Windows 8 DDDD – Ronald Beekelaar

ThinkPad X1 and Windows 8

Thomas Maurer — Tue, 31 Jan 2012 18:35:44 +0000

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.

My new Nokia Lumia 800 – Windows Phone

Thomas Maurer — Mon, 23 Jan 2012 16:26:40 +0000

Last week I got my Nokia Lumia 800 and even I already have read a lot of articles and reviews about it, I am impressed about the beautiful design and the build quality.

The first problem noticed was the battery life. My HTC Titan had something like two days of battery life and the battery of my Lumia 800 was empty after just one day. At the same day I also got the Windows Phone update (7.10.8107.79) and I deactivated the Exchange Push for my work mail account. Now the battery life seems to be the same or better than on my HTC Titan.

Now the Lumia 800 (3.7-inch screen) cloud be a bit bigger for me (the Lumia 900 with a 4.3-inch Screen could be perfect). I also miss the Internet Sharing feature, but there should be an update soon to activate this feature.
Overall I really like the Nokia Lumia 800 and it will be my main phone for the next months.

Microsoft Cloud for SMB

Thomas Maurer — Tue, 17 Jan 2012 18:29:51 +0000

Last year I did a little research project about Microsoft’s public cloud and how it cloud affect Small and Medium sized businesses. So I created a paper which should help Microsoft partners to decide how they can improve their services and solutions by using the Microsoft public cloud. I the paper I focused on Microsoft Office 365 and Windows Intune. This should be for the partner which do infrastructure solutions like Active Directory, Exchange and PC Management.

You can download this paper from my Windows Live SkyDrive.
The paper includes a lot of text copied from Microsoft documents and websites, and research I did by myself. All the sources should be marked, but if you find anything which is not marked please feel free to contact me.

Starting something new

Thomas Maurer — Thu, 12 Jan 2012 17:03:14 +0000

Today is my first day at itnetx gmbh, a consulting and engineering company located in Bern/Switzerland. itnetx is focussed on Microsoft Technologies, especially Microsoft Private Cloud Solutions, Microsoft System Center and Microsoft Virtualization. In 2011 itnetx has been awarded by Microsoft Switzerland as “Microsoft Partner of the year – Datacenter”

Since this are my preferred Microsoft technologies, it seems like a perfect match.

Install CentOS on Windows 8 Hyper-V

Thomas Maurer — Mon, 09 Jan 2012 17:24:25 +0000

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

Thomas Maurer — Mon, 19 Dec 2011 21:01:29 +0000

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”

Enable RSAT on Windows Server 2008 R2 for Hyper-V

Thomas Maurer — Mon, 19 Dec 2011 15:32:38 +0000

With the Remote Server Administration Tools (RSAT) you can administrate the Server with remote consoles. Now you can download the Remote Server Administration Tools for Windows 7, but if you are on Windows Server 2008 R2 you can just enable the tools per ServerManagerCmd.exe.


ServerManagerCmd -install RSAT-Hyper-V
ServerManagerCmd -install RSAT-Clustering

Automated Active Directory Deployment with PowerShell

Thomas Maurer — Mon, 12 Dec 2011 19:06:08 +0000

For a small presentation at KTSI I created a PowerShell script will automatically will deploys Active Directory Servers, adds other member servers, creates Organization Units and adds users via Powershell Remoting. As source there is a XML configuration file and CSV files for User Data.

This script is just for Lab deployments not for production, and it is not perfect, but I think maybe some people will enhance this script with their own code.

I do not support this script. it is just something I need to deploy my test environments and nothing more. More it shows diffrent

You can find more information about it works in this document.

XML Config file:

The PowerShell Script:


 

# ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- #

# Powershell AD Creator $Rev: 748 $

# (c) 2011 Thomas Maurer. All rights reserved.

# created by Thomas Maurer

# last Update by $Author: tmaurer $ on $Date: 2010-11-22 14:07:36 +0100 (Mo, 04 Nov 2011) $

# ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- #

 

 

# Set Debug Mode (true/false)

$DebugOn = $false

 

 

 

#region [INFO BLOCK]

# INFO

Write-Host " " -BackgroundColor Black -ForegroundColor White

Write-Host "PowerShell AD Deplyoment" -BackgroundColor Black -ForegroundColor White

Write-Host " " -BackgroundColor Black -ForegroundColor White

Write-Host "Enter Credentials for Remote System:" -BackgroundColor Black -ForegroundColor White

#endregion

 

 

#region [VERBOSE BLOCK]

# Verbose Loop

 

if ($DebugOn -eq $true){

#Debug

Clear-Host

Write-Host "Debug mode on" -BackgroundColor Red -ForegroundColor White

$VerbosePreference = "Continue"

}

else {

#NoDebug

Clear-Host

$VerbosePreference = "SilentlyContinue"

}

#endregion

 

#region [CONFIG BLOCK]

# Get XML Information and create some funny objects...

[Xml]$global:xmlData = get-content ".\config.xml"

 

# Get Credentials for Remotesystems

$cred = Get-Credential

 

$global:xmlServer01 = $xmlData.lab.config.servers.server | Where-Object { $_.id -eq "1"}

$global:xmlServer02 = $xmlData.lab.config.servers.server | Where-Object { $_.id -eq "2"}

$global:xmlDomain = $xmlData.lab.config.ad.domain

$global:xmlOUS = $xmlData.lab.config.ous

 

#endregion

 

#region [FUNCTION BLOCK]

 

function ConvertTo-Scriptblock {

<#

Function to Convert a String into a Script Block

#>

Param(

[Parameter(

Mandatory = $true,

ParameterSetName = '',

ValueFromPipeline = $true)]

[string]$string

)

Begin {

Write-Verbose "Starting Begin Section"

}

Process {

Write-Verbose "Starting Process Section"

try {

Write-Verbose "Convert String to Scriptblock"

$sb = [scriptblock]::Create($string)

return $sb

}

catch {

Write-Host "Could not convert String to Scriptblock" $Error[0]

 

}

}

End {

Write-Verbose "Starting End Section"

}

}

 

 

function Enable-ICMP {

<#

Function to enable ICMP

 

Enable-ICMP -hostip $xmlServer01.ip

#>

Param(

[Parameter(

Mandatory = $true,

ParameterSetName = '',

ValueFromPipeline = $true)]

[string]$hostip

)

begin {

# Write Command

$step001 = @"

netsh firewall set icmpsetting 8

"@

}

process {

try {

# Run Scriptblock

Write-Host "Enable ICMP on " $hostip "..." -BackgroundColor Black -ForegroundColor White

 

Invoke-Command -ComputerName $hostip -ScriptBlock (ConvertTo-Scriptblock -String $step001) -Credential $cred

Write-Host "ICMP successfully enabled..." -BackgroundColor Green -ForegroundColor Black

 

 

}

catch {

# Sending status to CP and EventLog

throw "ERROR: Could not enable ICMP"

}

}

end {

# Cleanup

$step001 = $null

}

}

 

 

 

function Create-ADServer {

<#

Function to Create AD on the first Server

#>

begin {

# Prepair for First AD Server

Write-Host "Preparing Script Block for " + $xmlServer01.name + "..." -BackgroundColor Black -ForegroundColor White

$domainName = $xmldomain.name

$domainNetBiosName = $xmldomain.netbiosname

$domainForestLevel = $xmldomain.forestlevel

$domainDomainLevel = $xmldomain.domainlevel

$domainSafemodePW = $xmldomain.safemodepw

$adTempFolder = "temp4"

$adTempPath = "C:\" + $adTempFolder

$adFilePath = $adTempPath + "\adinstall.txt"

}

process {

try {

# Script Block for First AD Server

$step001 = @"

New-Item -ItemType directory $adTempPath

New-Item -ItemType file $adFilePath

Add-Content $adFilePath "[DCINSTALL]"

Add-Content $adFilePath "InstallDNS=yes"

Add-Content $adFilePath "NewDomain=forest"

Add-Content $adFilePath "NewDomainDNSName=$domainName"

Add-Content $adFilePath "DomainNetBiosName=$domainNetBiosName"

Add-Content $adFilePath "ReplicaOrNewDomain=domain"

Add-Content $adFilePath "ForestLevel=$domainForestLevel"

Add-Content $adFilePath "DomainLevel=$domainDomainLevel"

Add-Content $adFilePath "RebootOnCompletion=yes"

Add-Content $adFilePath "SafeModeAdminPassword=$domainSafemodePW"

Write-Host "Unattend File created successfully..." - -BackgroundColor Green

dcpromo /unattend:$adFilePath

"@

# Run Scriptblock

Write-Host "Configure " $xmlServer01 "..." -BackgroundColor Black -ForegroundColor White

Invoke-Command -ComputerName $xmlServer01.ip -ScriptBlock (ConvertTo-Scriptblock -String $step001) -Credential $cred

Write-Host "Configuration for " $xmlServer01.name " successfully..." -BackgroundColor Green -ForegroundColor Black

}

catch {

# Sending status to CP and EventLog

throw "ERROR: Could not Create AD"

}

}

end {

# Cleanup

$step001 = $null

}

}

 

function Join-AD {

<#

Function to add second AD Server

 

Join-AD -hostname $xmlServer02.name -hostip $xmlServer02.ip -dnsip $xmlServer01.ip -domainName $xmldomain.name -adminpw $xmlServer01.adminpw

 

#>

Param(

[Parameter(

Mandatory = $true,

ParameterSetName = '',

ValueFromPipeline = $true)]

[string]$hostname,

[Parameter(

Mandatory = $true,

ParameterSetName = '',

ValueFromPipeline = $true)]

[string]$hostip,

[Parameter(

Mandatory = $true,

ParameterSetName = '',

ValueFromPipeline = $true)]

[string]$dnsip,

[Parameter(

Mandatory = $true,

ParameterSetName = '',

ValueFromPipeline = $true)]

[string]$domainName,

[Parameter(

Mandatory = $true,

ParameterSetName = '',

ValueFromPipeline = $true)]

[string]$adminpw

)

begin {

# Prepair for Second AD Server

}

process {

try {

# Script Block join AD

$step001 = @"

netsh interface ipv4 add dnsserver name="Local Area Connection" address=$dnsip index=1

netdom join $hostname /domain:"$domainName" /userd:administrator /passwordd:$adminpw /REBoot

"@

 

# Run Scriptblock

Write-Host "Adding " $hostname " to domain..." -BackgroundColor Black -ForegroundColor White

 

Invoke-Command -ComputerName $hostip -ScriptBlock (ConvertTo-Scriptblock -String $step001) -Credential $cred

Write-Host "Domainjoin for " $hostname " successfully..." -BackgroundColor Green -ForegroundColor Black

 

 

}

catch {

# Sending status to CP and EventLog

throw "ERROR: Could not add System to AD"

}

}

end {

# Cleanup

$step001 = $null

}

}

 

function Add-ADServer {

<#

Function to add a second AD to the Domain

#>

begin {

# Prepair for First AD Server

Write-Host "Preparing Script Block for DCPROMO " $xmlServer02.name "..." -BackgroundColor Black -ForegroundColor White

$server01ip = $xmlServer01.ip

$domainName = $xmldomain.name

$server01pw = $xmlServer01.adminpw

$domainSafemodePW = $xmldomain.safemodepw

}

process {

try {

# Script Block for First AD Server

$step001 = @"

Dcpromo /unattend /replicaOrnewDomain:replica /replicaDomainDNSName:$domainName /ConfirmGC:yes /username:administrator /Password:$server01pw /safeModeAdminPassword:$domainSafemodePW

"@

# Run Scriptblock

Write-Host "Running DCPROMO " $xmlServer02.name "..." -BackgroundColor Black -ForegroundColor White

Invoke-Command -ComputerName $xmlServer02.ip -ScriptBlock (ConvertTo-Scriptblock -String $step001) -Credential $cred

Write-Host "DCPROMO " $xmlServer02.name " successfully..." -BackgroundColor Green -ForegroundColor Black

}

catch {

throw "ERROR: Could not add Second Server to AD"

}

}

end {

# Cleanup

$step001 = $null

}

}

 

function Add-ADOU {

<#

Function to add OU to AD

 

Add-ADOU -hostip $xmlServer01.ip -name $namedings -path $pathdings

 

#>

Param(

[Parameter(

Mandatory = $true,

ParameterSetName = '',

ValueFromPipeline = $true)]

[string]$hostip,

[Parameter(

Mandatory = $true,

ParameterSetName = '',

ValueFromPipeline = $true)]

[string]$name,

[Parameter(

Mandatory = $true,

ParameterSetName = '',

ValueFromPipeline = $true)]

[string]$path

)

begin {

# Prepair for Second AD Server

}

process {

try {

# Script Block join AD

$step001 = @"

Import-Module ActiveDirectory

New-ADOrganizationalUnit -name "$name" -Path "$path"

"@

 

# Run Scriptblock

Write-Host "Adding OU " $name " to " $path "..." -BackgroundColor Black -ForegroundColor White

 

Invoke-Command -ComputerName $hostip -ScriptBlock (ConvertTo-Scriptblock -String $step001) -Credential $cred

Write-Host "OU added " $name " successfully..." -BackgroundColor Green -ForegroundColor Black

}

catch {

# Sending status to CP and EventLog

throw "ERROR: Could not add OU to AD"

}

}

end {

# Cleanup

$step001 = $null

}

}

 

function Add-UsersfromFile {

<#

Function to add OU to AD

 

Add-UsersfromFile -hostip $xmlServer01.ip -filename $xmlData.lab.config.users.file.name -path $xmlData.lab.config.users.file.path

 

#>

Param(

[Parameter(

Mandatory = $true,

ParameterSetName = '',

ValueFromPipeline = $true)]

[string]$hostip,

[Parameter(

Mandatory = $true,

ParameterSetName = '',

ValueFromPipeline = $true)]

[string]$SamAccountName,

[Parameter(

Mandatory = $true,

ParameterSetName = '',

ValueFromPipeline = $true)]

[string]$UserPrincipalName,

[Parameter(

Mandatory = $true,

ParameterSetName = '',

ValueFromPipeline = $true)]

[string]$name,

[Parameter(

Mandatory = $true,

ParameterSetName = '',

ValueFromPipeline = $true)]

[string]$DisplayName,

[Parameter(

Mandatory = $true,

ParameterSetName = '',

ValueFromPipeline = $true)]

[string]$GivenName,

[Parameter(

Mandatory = $true,

ParameterSetName = '',

ValueFromPipeline = $true)]

[string]$SurName,

[Parameter(

Mandatory = $false,

ParameterSetName = '',

ValueFromPipeline = $true)]

[string]$Manager,

[Parameter(

Mandatory = $false,

ParameterSetName = '',

ValueFromPipeline = $true)]

[string]$Department,

[Parameter(

Mandatory = $true,

ParameterSetName = '',

ValueFromPipeline = $true)]

[string]$path

)

begin {

 

}

process {

try {

# Script Block join AD

$step001 = @"

Import-Module ActiveDirectory

New-ADUser -SamAccountName $SamAccountName -UserPrincipalName $userprinicpalname -DisplayName $displayname -GivenName $GivenName -SurName $SurName -Path "$path" -AccountPassword (ConvertTo-SecureString "test41;" -AsPlainText -force)

"@

 

# Run Scriptblock

Write-Host "Adding Users " $userprinicpalname " to " $path "..." -BackgroundColor Black -ForegroundColor White

 

Invoke-Command -ComputerName $hostip -ScriptBlock (ConvertTo-Scriptblock -String $step001) -Credential $cred

Write-Host "Users " $userprinicpalname " added successfully..." -BackgroundColor Green -ForegroundColor Black

}

catch {

# Sending status to CP and EventLog

throw "ERROR: Could not add Users to AD"

}

}

end {

# Cleanup

$step001 = $null

}

}

 

 

function WaitFor-Host {

<#

Function to wait for Host after Reboot

 

WaitFor-Host -hostip $xmlServer01.ip -service servicename

 

#>

Param(

[Parameter(

Mandatory = $true,

ParameterSetName = '',

ValueFromPipeline = $true)]

[string]$hostip,

[Parameter(

Mandatory = $false,

ParameterSetName = '',

ValueFromPipeline = $true)]

[string]$service

)

begin {

#

}

process {

try {

# Wait until Server is offline

Write-Host "Waiting for Reboot " $hostip "..." -BackgroundColor Black -ForegroundColor White

Start-Sleep -Seconds 10

 

# Wait for Server Reboot

Write-Host "Waiting for Host " $hostip "..." -BackgroundColor Black -ForegroundColor White

while (!(Test-Connection $hostip -quiet)) {

Write-Host 'Unreachable!'

}

Write-Host "Server up..." -BackgroundColor Green -ForegroundColor Black

Start-Sleep -Seconds 30

}

catch {

# Sending status to CP and EventLog

throw "ERROR: Waiting for reboot failed"

}

}

end {

}

}

 

 

 

 

#endregion

 

 

 

 

#region [MAIN BLOCK]

 

# Enable ICMP

Enable-ICMP -hostip $xmlServer01.ip

Enable-ICMP -hostip $xmlServer02.ip

 

# Create first AD Server

Create-ADServer

Start-Sleep -Seconds 30

WaitFor-Host -hostip $xmlServer01.ip

 

# Add Second AD Server to Domain

Join-AD -hostname $xmlServer02.name -hostip $xmlServer02.ip -dnsip $xmlServer01.ip -domainName $xmldomain.name -adminpw $xmlServer01.adminpw

Start-Sleep -Seconds 30

WaitFor-Host -hostip $xmlServer02.ip

 

# Run DCPROMO on Second AD Server

Add-ADServer

 

# Add OUs to Domain

foreach ($ou in $xmlOUS.ou){

Add-ADOU -hostip $xmlServer01.ip -name $ou.name -path $ou.path

}

 

 

# Add Users to Domain

foreach ($file in $xmlData.lab.config.users.file){

$tempfile = ".\" + $file.name

Import-Csv $tempfile | Foreach-Object {

$userprinicpalname = $_.SamAccountName + "@" + $xmlDomain.name

Add-UsersfromFile -hostip $xmlServer01.ip -SamAccountName $_.SamAccountName -UserPrincipalName $userprinicpalname -Name $_.name -DisplayName $_.name -GivenName $_.GivenName -SurName $_.SurName -Manager $_.Manager -Department $_.Department -Path $file.path

}

}

 

 

 

# Add Members to Domain

foreach ($member in $xmlData.lab.config.members.member){

Join-AD -hostname $member.name -hostip $member.ip -dnsip $xmlServer01.ip -domainName $xmldomain.name -adminpw $xmlServer01.adminpw

}

 

#endregion