Today during Elite event, i have shared about System Center Virtual Machine Manager 2012 architecture and 4 different pillar of management
Here is the slide presentation for those who cannot attend the session, click on Zoom to view on FULL screen.
Recording
Enjoy !
To download Linux Integration Services 3.1 , click here
Other linux distribution such as including SUSE Linux Enterprise Server 10, Red Hat Enterprise Linux 5, Centos 5) should use the version of Linux Integration Services available at
http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/en/details.aspx?FamilyID=eee39325-898b-4522-9b4cf4b5b9b64551
Here is my configuration on Centos 6.0 (easy to get, since it is free).
Configuration:-
The configuration is straight forward. No pre-requisite component need to install and this time it is included with rpm package. (similar like .exe in Microsoft application).
All you need to do is execute four (4) commands as listed below:-
| # mount /dev/cdrom /media # rpm –ivh /media/x86_64/kmod-microsoft-hyper-v-rhel6-60.1.x86_64.rpm # rpm –ivh /media/x86_64/microsoft-hyper-v-rhel6-60.1.x86_64.rpm # reboot |
To verify if the IC is working, i just select Shutdown from Hyper-V Manager.
Great Job- Virtualization Product Team !
I’ve just had an opportunities to test bare metal installation using VMM 2012 on new Dell R710 which just arrived @ office. The concept of having Bare Metal installation is similar as Boot from VHD. We know that VHD can be boot up as an operating system and we often we use on laptop, especially to engineer. Well, on VMM 2012, you can achieve bare metal installation by integrate with WDS. But you may think that using WDS is similar like push operating system to a Hyper-V by using wim file. However it is not true when using VMM 2012. Rather than using wim file, VMM will use VHD from VMM Library and VHD is deploy to Hyper-V host. By doing this, you will have a VHD boot up on the host. Another cool stuff about this is, Hyper-V roles is automatically install with join to domain, etc.
The specification of DELL R710:-
Without wasting time, let walkthrough on the configuration @ Dell R710.
Pre-requisite:-
1. Enable Virtualization Technology and Execute Disable on BIOS.
a) Boot up the server
b) When the server boot up, Press F2 to enter System Setup
c) Once you enter to the BIOS, select Processor Setting and enable
a. Virtualization Technology
b. Execute Disable.
Press <spacebar> to make selection
d) Go to Boot Setting, select Boot Sequence and go to Embedded NIC 1.
d) Press “-“ to move it up. Make sure Embedded NIC is listed on the above.
e) Go to Integrated Devices. Make sure Embedded Gb NIC 1 is set to Enabled with PXE
f) Press ESC and save the changes.
2. Configure BMC Board
a) Boot up the system wait until you see the BMC Board IP Configuration
b) Press Ctrl + E to enter BMC Board.
c) On the IDRAC 6 Configuration Utility, Enable IPMI Over LAN
d) Go to LAN User Configuration- configure
IPMI LAN Privileges : Admin
Account user name: root
Password : password
e) Go to System Services, make sure System Services is Enabled.
f) Go to LAN Parameters
a. NIC Selection: Dedicated
b. Domain name: contoso.com
c. Host name setting:- PR-HYP05
d. Ipv4 : Enabled
e. Ipv4 Address: 192.168.168.98
f. Subnet mask: 255.255.255.0
g. Default gateway: 192.168.168.4
g) Press Esc and save the changes.
3. Configure Host Profile
a) Click on Library | Profiles | Host Profiles | Right click and select Create Host profile
b) enter Profile name
c) On OS Image, select a VHD from the VMM Library
d) On hardware configuration, go to Drive filter and select the tag for your driver.
e) on OS Configuration page, enter all the information
f) On Host setting, leave it default and click Next to the end.
4. Provisioning Host
a) Click on Fabric | Home | Add Resources | Hyper-V Hosts and Clusters
b) On Resource location, select “Physical computer to be provisioned into Hyper-V” and click Next
c) Enter BMC account authentication that you have configure on BMC Board.
Specify protocol “IPMI”
d) On Discovery scope, enter the IP address that you configure on BMC Board.
e) On Target resources, VMM will detect the server. Tick the server and click Next
f) On Deployment customization, enter the name that you have configure on BMC Board and click Next.
g) Review the summary and click Finish to start deploy.
Wait until the installation complete. Once complete, you can verify the VHD has put into D:\ and C:\ Drive is the files inside the VHD.
Even, Hyper-V roles has installed into the server as well.
Look cool and i’ve repeat the same process on other physical DELL R710 in my environment.
I’ve managed to get a copy of Vmware VSphere 4.1 and Vcenter as part of “Virtual Data Center” in managing a heterogeneous environment . Below is the snapshot of Vcenter which i’ve managed to setup with 60 days evaluation period on a virtual machine. The Vcenter is running on Windows Server 2008 R2 SP1 Virtual Machine.
Meanwhile, Vmware ESXi 4.1.0 is install on a physical server.
Next step, is to managed Vmware hypervisor, In order to manage Vmware hypervisor, VMM 2012 need to integrate with Vmware VCenter.
Let start by integrate VMM 2012 with Vmware Vcenter.
1. On SCVMM 2012 Console, click on Fabric | Right click Vcenter and select Add Vmware Vcenter Server.
2. Enter Vmware Vcenter details. Here you need to specify vCenter computer name and credential use.
3. Once complete, click OK and system will prompt to import Vmware Vcenter certificate.
4. Click Import to proceed.
5. Now, you’ve added Vmware Vcenter into VMM 2012. If you refer to Managed Host, the result is display as “0”. By default, adding Vcenter will not automatically add Vmware ESXi Host to VMM.
6. Therefore, you should click Home on the ribbon | select Add Resources and select Vmware ESX Hosts and Clusters
7. Add Resource Wizard page open. On Credential, select Browse and specify the RunAs Account which has administrative privileges on the ESX Server. If this is your first time, create a RunAs Account and click Next.
8. On Target resources, tick the ESX Server. Here you can see the Vmware Vcenter which you’ve previously added. Click Next
9. On Host Settings, specify the location of the Host Group that you would like to locate. In my scenario, i have created “Vmware Host Group”. Click Next.
9. Lastly, review the summary before click Finish.
To verify, click on Fabric and you will be able to see Vmware ESX has added into VMM 2012. From below snapshot, i have added the following platform as part of my heterogeneous environment.
ESX Server Properties:-
After successful added Vmware Vcenter and ESX, the next step is to import the VM Template to VMM. VMM 2012, did not import the VMDX from Vmware Vcenter. The VMDX is still remain at Vmware Vcenter.
The new changes is VMM 2012, only metadata copy is available and store on VMM Library. When create a VM, VMM will liaise with Vmware Vcenter in order to provisioning a virtual machine.
Now let walkthrough on how to import the template to VMM.
1. On Fabric, click Vcenter and right click vCenter and select Import Template.
2. Select the ESX Template which is available and Click OK
3. You’ve successful import the vmware template into VMM Library. To verify, go to VM Templates which located in the Library.
This error message occured when you try to create protection group to protect Sharepoint Server. You have prepare the environment on Sharepoint Front End by entering the command
| ConfigureSharepoint.exe –enableSharepointProtection ConfigureSharepoint.exe EnableSPSearchProtection |
but receive below error message and cannot proceed further
This is related to improper configuration on the SQL Alias that you use on Sharepoint. To resolve this issue, you need to enter below command on each Sharepoint Front End Server.
| ConfigureSharepoint.exe –ResolveAllSqlAliases |
Then, open cliconfg,exe and go to the Alias tab
1. Click Add
2. Select TCP/IP
3. Enter SQL Server name under connection parameters
4. Enter the the name of the alias in the Server Alias
5. Click OK.
6. Return back to DPM Administrator Console and try create protection group for sharepoint farm. Just check the farm without Search and click Next.
A lot of people did not realise about VM Heartbeat and did not configure Hyper-V Cluster to up to their potential. If configure properly, you will realise it’s potential to provide high availability solution for Virtual Machine.
a) When planned downtime, we execute live migration.
b) When unplanned downtime, Hyper-V Host will perform restart of Virtual Machine.
c) When VM offline/save state, we can perform quick migration.
How about VM system hang , unresponsive, blue screen, etc?
This is the trick. In order to allow Hyper-V host automatically restart the cluster virtual machine or fail it over, you must enable Heartbeat monitoring for the Virtual Machine. To achieve this result, you need to select the VM | right click Properties | Setting | Tick Enable heartbeat monitoring for the virtual machine.
When this option is selected, heartbeats are sent from the operating system running in the virtual machine to the operating system running the Hyper-V role. If the heartbeats stop, indicating that virtual machine has become unresponsive, the cluster is notified, and can attempt to restart the clustered virtual machine or fail it over.
By default- It is uncheck.
So start the heartbeat monitoring on your Cluster Virtual Machine.
“Virtual Lai”
During Microsoft Malaysia Cloud Events, we have shown a sneak preview of how VMM 2008 R2 SSP 2.0 in action. This system allow you to group your organization resources such as “Compute, Network & Storage” into a logical pool of resource which you can pool, allocate and manage resources to turn as Infrastructure as A Service (Iaas).
Guess what? Just a few days, SSP 2.0 has just released SP1 with additional cool features and enhancement.
Let compare with my previous post (beta review) on the new changes.
a) Installation – remain the same. refer to my previous post.
b) Dashboard –remain the same. Integrate with WSS or Sharepoint Server.
c) Beta features is still available on SP1 RTM. refer to my previous post.
Additional Features
a) Configure automatic email notification. The system will use SQL Server Database Mail to send notification on approval, rejection , notification of expire VM, etc. To configure SQL Database Email, please refer to nice article:- http://blog.sqlauthority.com/2008/08/23/sql-server-2008-configure-database-mail-send-email-from-sql-database/
Verify and make sure you have properly configure SQL Database Mail
Sample (Test email from Database Mail):-
Sample (submit/approval request notification and many more):-
With notification in-place, the user do not need to consistently check SSP system.
The flow of email will be
SSP –> SQL Database Mail –> Exchange Server
b) Allow user to specify backup and patching during VM provisioning.
c) Opalis integration . Something new. Opalis is a product to provide, automation, orchestrator and integration. In SSP 2.0 SP1, a datacenter administrator can customize tasks in virtual machine actions to trigger Opalis policies instead of run scripts.
d) 5 custom action for datacenter administrator to add custom action on Virtual Machine tab.
e) Request Additional Network and explanation of the request. Come in very handy. Previously, you do not need to specify a reason to create additional network. Now a textbox is added for explanation on additional request to create a new network.
f) Expiration of VM. Allow the system to send notification when near to expire date. When expire, the VM is no longer available to use in VMMSSP. The user is allow to extend the VM expire date.
g) Allow to mount ISO to the VM. After the VM has provision to the environment, user can select ISO from the VMM Library.
To download VMM SSP 2.0 SP1:- Click here.
Enjoy your testing on VMM SSP 2.0 SP1 on your environment.
In today Microsoft Cloud Computing event, i and Kwan (MVP SCOM) has presented a session on an “Overview of Microsoft Private Cloud”.
Note:
Left :- Lai
Right: Kwan
Slide
Recording
Bad news! I forget to turn on audio recording. Well, even without audio. You can still view the demo in the recording and slide animation.
Full report can be obtained from this link:-
http://www.gartner.com/technology/media-products/reprints/microsoft/vol2/article8a/article8a.html
On my previous blog, i’ve mentioned about built-in performance host without SCOM. Do you really can abandon SCOM? Well, not really. You are still require to integrate with SCOM and VMM 2012 in order to achieve PRO TIPS (Performance and Resource Optimization).
The current version of VMM 2008 R2, require a lot of configuration in order to do integration. I’ve blog about this on my previous blog:- Click here.
The product group has change the integration with SCOM and VMM 2012 with more simplifying experience. Here is the step that you should configure:-
Pre-requisite:-
a) Install IIS Management Pack in SCOM
b) Install SQL Management Pack in SCOM
c) Install SCOM Console in VMM 2012
d) Enable PowerShell 2.0 on all SCOM management server
Do you need to install VMM 2012 Administrator Console on RMS or Management Server? Well, you can skip this process as it no longer require.
Configuration:-
1. Click on Settings | System Center Settings | Operation Manager Server
2. Right click | Modify. VMM will detect that there is no current integration and will walk you through a simple wizard to setup the connection
3. Enter SCOM Server name and administrative credential for the management group.
3. Specify VMM Administrator role user account to configure connection from SCOM to VMM.
4. Tick Enable PRO
5. Review the setting and click Finish
6. During the connection, VMM will transfer the relevant management pack to SCOM. Go to SCOM server and verify the management pack has imported to the system.
7. Return to VMM and verify the connection status is OK. Compare to VMM 2008 R2, you do not have connection status which is impossible for us to verify the connection.
You can disable the integration and PRO from Operation Manager Settings.
8. Click on Management Pack, you can see the same MP as SCOM along with the version. Both reported the same version.
You’ve completed the configuration. We will explore more soon..
