Enable Internet Connection Sharing in Windows 8 or Windows Server 2012

 

Hi guy, have you try enabled Internet Connection Sharing (ICS) for above operating system? Well, i just did today and if you get around with Windows 7 or older operating system probably it will be easy to configure. My guess is wrong. The normal way of configure ICS is no longer available and i can’t find a way to configure in GUI. Before we move further let look into which scenario that you use ICS

Scenario:-

• Laptop running Windows 8 or Windows Server 2012
• Mobile broadband (I’m using Yes Mobile – 4G mobile broadband which came with own dialer program and cannot get the dial up number to dial except using their own program. You can probably use other mobile broadband provider.
• Share multiple devices such as Mobile phone (without data plan) or
• Tablet (just order – Google Nexus 7 and hopefully to arrive in a month. This model did not came with 3G data plan and you only can use Wifi. So i really need ICS to be enabled to stay mobile, use Internet and blog more post.

Thanks to additivetips post (click here), i can finally enable ICS.

This post is to remind me in future on how to configure ICS and hopefully will be useful to those of you who are looking into this solution.

To get started:-

1. Open command prompt

2. Type the following command:

netsh wlan show drivers

Make sure “Hosted network supported” is listed as Yes.

3. Create a hosted network

netsh wlan set hostednetwork mode=allow ssid=nexus key=nexus123

My new Ad-hoc SSID is “nexus”

passkey is “nexus123”. Must be 8 character

4. Start the mode to create

netsh wlan start hostednetwork

5. A new connection has created in Network Connection.

6. Now, right click your mobile broadband connection, select Properties and click Sharing tab. Tick Allow other network users to connect through this computer Internet connection and select the new connection. For my scenario is “Local Area Connection 11”

The “Local Area Connection 11” will be assigned an ip address “192.168.137.1” (ICS default IP address). Then just dial your mobile broadband and on other devices connect via ad-hoc SSID. (mine is called “nexus”).

Alright, that all for now and now my machine is ready to enable ICS for my new tablet:- “Google Nexus 7” which is currently in progress of shipping from USA to Malaysia.

Stay tune…

Windows Server 2012 Licensing

Hi! Windows Server 2012 is going to launch soon and it is just around the corner. Mark your calendar on 4th Sept 2012. You can save the calendar by clicking here. Since Windows Server 2012 is going to launch soon, i have gathered the information from Internet which talk about Windows Server 2012 Licensing and we as consultant/ consumer would probably like to understand about the new licensing. Here is the summary of my finding:-

Windows Server 2012 Edition:-
The edition has simplify to only 4 versions

Information taken from here. Our focus is on Standard Edition and Data Center Edition. There is no more Enterprise Edition and basically you will get the entire features even on Standard/Data Center Edition. So the question is “What is different between both and how should you choose?” .
License
A single license covered for two (2) physical processor. (unlimited cores)
Edition different between Standard & Data Center
Just virtualization right. (for 2 physical processor)

Edition	Virtualization Right
Standard	2 VM
Data Center	Unlimited

Now let look into scenario
Scenario 1:- Purchase 1 processor per server. Which license should i buy?

• A: 1 Standard Edition License

Scenario 2:- Plan to setup 4 VM, how many license that i should buy

• A: 2 Standard Edition for every 2 physical processor.
• If 4 physical processor, then you need 4 Standard Edition license.
• If 3 VM on a 2 physical processor, then you need 2 Standard Edition license
• If 12 VM on a 2 Physical processor, then you need 6 Standard Edition license

Scenario 3:- When should i choose Data Center Edition?

• A:- When you want to setup more VM. Based on my calculation according to Open NL price, if you have more than 8 VM, then it is cheaper to use Data Center Edition. So check your entitle pricing from Microsoft/Reseller and do proper calculation.

Scenario:- What is the criteria that i should use in order to calculate the number of license?

• A:
• 1st:- Determine the number of your processor
• Formula:- Number of processor / 2 .
• If 1 physical processor, then you need to buy at least 1 Standard Edition. If you use for virtualization, then refer to 2nd criteria
• 2nd :- Determine the number of virtual instance running
• Formula:- Number of virtual instance / 2

Scenario 4: You want to setup Failover Cluster. Which edition should you choose?

• A:- Either standard or datacenter edition can use to configure failover cluster.

Scenario 5: Downgrade right to earlier version when purchase Windows Server 2012
A:-

Purchased	Downgrade right
Windows Server 2012 Data Center Edition	Datacenter 2008
Windows Server 2012 Standard Edition	Enterprise 2008 R2 or Standard 2008 R2

Scenario 6:- Software Assurance entitlement

Existing Edition	New Edition
2 Data Center	1 Windows Server 2012 Data Center Edition
1 Enterprise	2 Windows Server 2012 Standard Edition
1 Standard	1 Windows Server 2012 Standard Edition
2 Web Edition	1 Windows Server 2012 Standard Edition

Scenario 7:- Can i use Windows Server 2008 CAL to access Windows Server 2012

• A:- No. You need to buy Windows Server 2012 CAL. Windows CAL is require for every user or device accessing a server.

Best practise on choosing Standard or Data Center Edition:-

• Datacenter edition for highly-virtualized private clouds.
• Standard edition for lightly or non-virtualized environments.

Veeam Backup and Replication 6.1 for Hyper-V and VMware Hypervisor

 

I just had a request from a customer which would like to backup and replication solution in a heterogeneous environment: Hyper-V and VMware hypervisor.  Immediate in my mind is Veeam Backup and Replication 6.1 , which has released few month ago and this give me opportunity to use my NFR license file to test the product in my lab environment.

My scenario:-

• Hyper-V Cluster
• Hyper-V Stand-alone Server
• System Center Virtual Machine Manager 2012
• VMware VCenter and ESX 4.1
• Installed Veeam in a virtual machine hosted in Hyper-V Server and installed with a license file which support both hypervisors.

Features tested:

Agentless

Without install any agent into Hyper-V and VMware server. I would be able to view the entire virtual machine running in both hypervisor. Just add SCVMM and ESX server into Veeam console

2 Solution in 1 & bundle with Compression and Deduplication

A solution from Veeam which provide backup and replication in 1 product and came with compression and deduplication which reduce backup time and data size

VMware backup:-

Hyper-V Replication:-

VeeamZip

Export running virtual machine without shutdown the VM. VeeamZIP encapsulates all virtual hard disk and configuration files into a single, compressed backup that can be recovered to another host.

Then, you can extract entire VM, VM files and Item Level Recovery

Application Item Level Recovery (for VMware only)

If you are using Vmware hypervisor, you can perform application item level recovery for Active Directory, Exchange Server , SQL database and files.

Faster Recovery- vPower

Wow!… Without restore an entire VM, you can runs a virtual machine (VM) directly from a compressed and deduplicated backup file, on regular backup storage. With vPower you can restart a failed VM in as little as 2 minutes, and it significantly reduces the duration and impact of outages. Check out below result on the VM which i’ve tested boot up on another host, just within few second and the VM has up and running.

That’s concluded my test scenario. If you would like to test the product in your environment, click here for FREE!

Related post:-

• Replication using Veeam Backup and Replication 6 For Hyper-V
• Replication using Veeam Backup and Replication 6 for Hyper-V Part 2
• Free NFR License for Veeam Backup and Replication 

Force An Object Discovery After Add DPM Server in SCOM

 

Well, if you have perform DPM Centralize console using SCOM and you have just installed SCOM agent into DPM Server. Next is you would like to manage and monitor DPM Server but when view on the monitoring workspace, no object is discover under “System Center 2012 Data Protection Manager”.

By default, it has a predefined schedule but i can’t remember when and you do not want to wait for another 24 hours. Here is a way to force an object discovery.

Just go to SCOM services snap-in and restart “System Center Management”. Just wait for a while then the object will appear under “System Center 2012 Data Protection Manager”. Below is a sample of Protected Server just detected after restart the service. (result: Not monitor)

and after a while…

StarWind iSCSi SAN 6.0 Beta is Available For Testing

 

Few words from our sponsor: Starwind Software. StarWind iSCSi SAN 6.0 (beta version), enhanced by three-nodes High Availability (HA) architecture -  is available now.

New Features and Improvements

High Availability:
-Management functions for HA device nodes. You can add new node to HA device, remove or switch existing nodes without recreating the whole HA device.
- High availbility device can use other types of StarWind devices for storing data. It can be deduplicated device, thin-provisioned IBV device, or DiskBridge device.

Deduplicated disk:
- Asynchronous replication of deduplicated storage. Any iSCSI target can be used as a destination storage for replication.

Backup:
- Backup and management for VMWare ESX virtual machines.

StarWind 6.0 beta is ready for download from the following link:
http://starwindsoftware.com/tmplink/StarWindBeta.exe

Do check it out and test the beta for free!

Teaming in A Virtual Machine using Windows Server 2012 Hyper-V

 

Hey! We have heard about new feature called “NIC Teaming in Windows Server 2012”. In my previous post, i have talked about physical NIC Teaming using Windows Server 2012 as well, you can always refer to here.

Now, won’t it be an interesting to have a teaming in a virtual machine as well?. In this article, we will look on how to configure teaming in the guest virtual machine.

Configuration:-

1. Shutdown the virtual machine

2. Add 2 Network Adapter or 2 Legacy Network Adapter to the virtual machine. If you select Network Adapter, please remember to install the Integration Service Component.

3. On the network adapter:-

• Point 1st Network Adapter to Virtual Switch 1
• Point 2nd Network Adapter to Virtual Switch 2

4. On the Advanced features of the network adapter, remember to Tick “Enable this network adapter to be part of a team in the guest operating system”.

5. Connect to Virtual machine and select NIC Teaming using Server Manager snap-in.

6. Then, on the Adapter and Interfaces, select both Ethernet , click Tasks and select Add New Team.

7. For the virtual machine, create a NIC Teaming with only the following configuration

• Teaming mode: Switch Independent
• Load Balancing : Address Hashing

8. Now you have successful created a NIC teaming in a virtual machine which will provide failover and load balancing features.

Related post:-

• What To Set on NIC Teaming in Windows Server 2012?

Total Capacity “0” Size When Adding Starwind SMI-S Provider in VMM 2012

 

Have you try use Starwind iSCSI SAN, Starwind SMI-S Provider and VMM 2012 to provision storage? If yes, and you may experience my similar issue as listed below. Read the below issue and the resolution on how I've solved the issue.

Issue:-

1. Added Starwind SMI-S Provider into VMM 2012 but total capacity size is in 0 size.

Resolution:-

1. On the Starwind iSCSI SAN , create “pool” directory on your E Drive

2. Then specify “My Computer\\E\\pool” in the SMI-S Configurator. Refer to below screenshot on my configuration

At the end, when adding SMI-S Provider into VMM 2012, you should see “total capacity” is the same size of E Drive on StarWind iSCSI SAN.

Related post:-

• Starwind SMI-S provider for VMM 2012:- http://www.ms4u.info/2012/05/smi-s-provider-available-in-starwind.html
• Starwind Hyper-V Backup – Click here.