- Promotion of Brad Anderson to Corporate Vice President, Management and Services Division
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It comes as no surprise to the regular readers of this blog, that a key tenant of Microsoft’s virtualization strategy is that customers should be able to manage their physical and virtual IT resources from the same set of easy to use tools. It seems that customers agree, as demonstrated through the growth of the Microsoft Management and Services Division (30% growth year over year) offerings during some challenging economic times.
Today we’ve announced that Brad Anderson, one of the key drivers behind Microsoft’s management offerings, including the System Center suite and products such as VMM, has been promoted to corporate vice president. We wanted to share the news with those of you that have worked with or met him over the years through events such as the annual Microsoft Management Summit conference. Congratulations Brad!
- R2 Veeam Too
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Hello, I’m Doug Hazelman and I’m the director of the Global Systems Engineers Group at Veeam Software. I’ve been with Veeam for almost two years, and prior to that I was with Aelita Software (which was acquired by Quest Software) where I worked with the same management team now behind Veeam Software. I’d like to thank Microsoft for this opportunity to guest blog on Veeam’s direction around Hyper-V.
Veeam’s tagline is “listening to you, building the tools you need.†We’ve heard your requests and we’d like to announce now that Veeam is committed to fully supporting Microsoft Windows Server 2008 R2 Hyper-V and Microsoft Hyper-V Server 2008 R2. While Veeam has continued to build some of the best software for data protection and management of VMware infrastructures, we realize that customers are now faced with more virtualization choices. By fully supporting Microsoft Hyper-V and VMware vSphere, Veeam can help you manage heterogeneous hypervisor deployments and clouds with the innovative solutions you’ve come to expect from Veeam. The management and R&D teams at Veeam have a long history of working with Microsoft going back to the Aelita days, and we’re all excited to be working with Microsoft again.
The Veeam engineers are currently focusing a lot of time and energy on how we can provide the best support for Hyper-V. Look for more information in the coming weeks as we disclose more about Veeam’s plans for Hyper-V. And congratulations to Microsoft for releasing R2.
Thanks,
-doug
Blog: http://www.VeeamMeUp.com
Twitter: @VMDoug or @Veeam
- Windows Server 2008 R2 & Hyper-V Server 2008 R2 RTM!!!!
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Virtualization Nation,
Today is a really big day at Microsoft and more importantly for our customers. Both Windows Server 2008 R2 and Microsoft Hyper-V Server 2008 R2 (our FREE standalone Hyper-V Server) have both been Released To Manufacturing (RTM)!! If you haven't seen the announcement on the main Windows Server blog, be sure to check it out. In this blog, I'm going to focus on the Windows Server 2008 R2 Hyper-V release, I will follow-up with a blog on the standalone Microsoft Hyper-V Server 2008 R2 soon.
These R2 releases continue to highlight one of our core goals for Hyper-V. Simply:
We believe everyone should have access to high performance hypervisor based virtualization. Period.
Virtualization shouldn't only be available to the largest enterprises with the largest budgets and we're delivering on that goal. We're pleased and humbled to announce that in the first 12 months of Hyper-V R1 availability with Windows Server 2008, there have been over 1+ million downloads of Hyper-V R1 Gold (RTM) software, making Hyper-V the fastest growing bare metal hypervisor in x86 history.
To our customers: Our deepest and sincerest thanks. We appreciate your support and are pleased to present Hyper-V R2 based on your input.
Hyper-V R2: Customer Focus
After the initial Hyper-V R1 release, we went back to our valued customers and asked them quite simply, "We have a very long list of potential features, help us prioritize. What are the features you want most?" Here's what our customers told us.
"Keep Reducing Costs"
Server consolidation continues to be the driving force behind virtualization and the fundamental reason is to reduce costs. In this economy, customers need to maximize their investments. Green IT has been important the past few years, but we've seen an even greater focus in the last year. In addition, it doesn't matter how small or how large your business is, everyone pays a power bill, it's a constant cost, so anything we can do to reduce power use has an impact on everyone's bottom line.
With Hyper-V R1, we already help customers reduce their cost for power, here are a few examples:
"With virtualization, we will save about 50 percent of our annual energy budget for cooling and electricity." -Lukoil CEEB
"The work that Microsoft has done in these areas-particularly the ability to shift workloads across CPUs-is doing wonders for reducing our energy consumption." Secure Endpoints
"89% Energy Savings with Microsoft Virtualization" -Kroll Factual Data
With Hyper-V R2, we continue to drive down power usage when servers are idle (usually nights and weekends) AND now we drive down server power usage even under load throughout the day through new enhancements like Core Parking, Timer Coalescing and more.
Bottom Line: Windows Server 2008 R2 continues to drive down power usage and lower power costs.
"Protect Our Investments"
Today, the majority of servers ship with up to 16 logical processors. However, our customers watch the industry closely and point out that AMD and Intel are continuing to increase core counts quickly. In addition, Intel has reintroduced Symmetric Multi-Threading (SMT) with their Nehalem processors which doubles the thread count. As our customers plan their capital investments over the next 12-24 months, they want to make sure to invest in a virtualization platform today that will take advantage of the latest hardware capabilities tomorrow. Hyper-V R2 is that platform.
CPU. From a compute standpoint, Hyper-V R2 scales to run on systems with up 64 logical processors (up to 384 running virtual machines) and takes advantage of the latest processor enhancements such as AMD's Rapid Virtualization Indexing (RVI) and Intel's Extended Page Tables (EPT). This provides performance improvements across the board when these processor capabilities are present. It also means that when folks decide to move up to larger servers with more counts Hyper-V R2 is ready out of the box. No core tax here. (BTW: Let me point out that Hyper-V R2 works with RVI and EPT, but does not require it. If you have older hardware without those capabilities, Hyper-V R2 will run just fine on those too.)
Networking. From a networking standpoint, Hyper-V includes significant networking improvements. For 1 Gb/E networks, Hyper-V R2 now includes Jumbo Frame Support. For 10 Gb/E networks, Hyper-V R2 adds support for Chimney support and Virtual Machine Queue (VMQ). These two technologies allows Hyper-V R2 to take advantage of network offload technologies so instead of a core on the CPU processing network packets, these packets can be shunted to the offload engine on the 10 Gb NIC which helps free up processor usage and improves performance. Support for these technologies ensures the most efficient use of your server resources. For our customers who haven't made the investment in 10 Gb/E quite yet, no worries. Hyper-V R2 is ready when you are.
Storage. In Hyper-V R1, we focused most of our performance efforts for storage on fixed virtual hard disks (VHDs). We did this primarily because fixed disks pre-allocate their storage upfront when you create the disk and help prevent a situation where you could run out of storage at a later time. Because we focused our performance efforts on fixed virtual hard disks, Hyper-V R1 performance for VMs with fixed VHDs was stellar and we recommended using fixed virtual hard disks in production environments. In fact, Hyper-V R1 can achieve as high as ~94% throughput of native.
Because we focused on fixed VHDs in R1 and knew that would be our recommendation for production environments, we didn't spend as much time focusing on dynamically expanding virtual hard disks in R1. While customers understand our recommendation for using fixed virtual hard disks, many of them told us that they'd like to use dynamically expanding virtual hard disks because they are more efficient in terms of storage, only growing as needed.
You got it.
In Hyper-V R2, we spent time analyzing and optimizing the code path for dynamically expanding VHDs and found areas where we could significantly improve performance. In some cases we achieved a 15x improvement for dynamically expanding virtual hard disks. No, that's not a typo. With dynamically expanding VHDs we can achieve up to about ~87% performance of native throughput. While we were at it, we took another look at the fixed VHD code path and improved it further so that fixed VHD performance is now on par with native performance.
In the end, we still recommend fixed disks for production use with Hyper-V R2 because it pre-allocates disk usage upfront, but if you want to use dynamically expanding virtual hard disks and are willing to take a small performance hit, Hyper-V R2 is a must.
"Help Me Find The Right Hyper-V Hardware." Customers told us that they wanted to make sure that they were investing in "the right hardware" to use with Hyper-V. We made that easy with Hyper-V R1, but it's worth pointing out again. There's no special certification for Hyper-V. Just make sure that the hardware you're investing in (servers, storage, etc) have the Windows Server 2008 Logo and now, the new Windows Server 2008 R2 Logo and you're set. You can find certified hardware online at the Windows Server Catalog and the logos look like this:
"Help Us Obtain Broader Support For Our Applications in Virtual Machines"
One customer pain point we hear in the virtualization world is that "ISV X" doesn't support their application in a virtual machine. This impedes adoption and frustrates customers who see the tremendous benefits virtualization provides. We've heard this repeatedly from our valued customers who are trying to convince our ISV partners that virtualization adoption is only rising. As a company, we've been consistently messaging how important virtualization is to our customers and demonstrating that through our significant investments in all areas of virtualization whether it's Hyper-V, App-V, MED-V, Virtualized Desktops, Remote Desktop Services etc.
In response to rapid customer adoption of Hyper-V and the customer requirement that virtualization be treated as the standard way to deploy workloads, not the exception, the Windows Server 2008 R2 Logo program now reflects that customer requirement.
Specifically, for applications to receive the Windows Server 2008 R2 Logo, all applications must be tested and pass the Logo tests when running within virtual machine running on Microsoft Hyper-V.
(Note: If an application cannot be tested in this configuration ISVs must work with a Microsoft approved testing vendor to learn about alternate test paths. For example, an application needs access to a specific hardware device not present in a virtual machine.)
"Continue to Improve Interoperability"
Today, we currently distribute Linux Integration Components (ICs) for SUSE Linux Enterprise Server (SLES) 10 SP2 x86 & x64 which improves performance when run within a Hyper-V VM. While our customers appreciate SLES support, they have also requested support for Red Hat as a guest OS. So, with the Windows Server 2008 R2 release of the ICs, we're adding support for both SLES 11 and Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL) 5.2 and 5.3 for both x86 and x64.
While SLES and RHEL are the two most requested Linux distros supported within Hyper-V by far, we get requests now and then for other community supported distributions.
We wanted to do more.
Thus, the big Monday announcement. In case you missed it, on Monday, we released 20,000 lines of device driver code to the Linux community under GPLv2. The code, which includes three Linux device drivers, has been submitted to the Linux kernel community for inclusion in the Linux tree. The drivers will be available to the Linux community and customers alike, and will enhance the performance of the Linux operating system when virtualized on Hyper-V R1/Hyper-V R2.
I've read numerous articles and blogs on the Linux IC GPL announcement (most using phrases like "pigs with wings" or "hell experiencing snow flurries") and while there has been some interesting conjecture out there, let me be clear: Microsoft is committed to interoperability and providing our customers the solutions that meet their needs. Releasing these device drivers for Linux is another example of that commitment.
"Increase Flexibility"
Live Migration. Customers appreciate the flexibility that virtualization provides (deploy virtualized workloads in a fraction of the time versus physical) and wanted us to continue to improve in this area. To that end, the number #1 customer requested feature was Live Migration.
Done. Included. Live Migration Built-In.
We weren't done there. One thing that customers would always follow-up with is, "Do the processors have to be exactly the same? Can you ease that restriction a little?"
You got it.
Processor Compatibility Mode. With Hyper-V R2's new processor compatibility mode, we're able to easily LIVE MIGRATE between four different generations of Intel hardware. From an Intel Pentium 4 VT circa 2005 to an Intel Core i7 circa 2009.
Just by checking a checkbox:
That's flexibility. You can also move virtual machines between different generations of AMD processors as well. Just so we're clear: Processor Compatibility still means AMD<->AMD and Intel<->Intel. It does not mean you can Live Migrate between different processor vendors AMD<->Intel or vice versa. For more info about processor compatibility mode, check out my earlier blog post here.
Dynamic Storage. Another request to increase flexibility from our customers was to be able to hot add/remove virtual storage. Think about it, you're running a virtualized SQL server or file server and you need additional storage, but don't want to bring down the VM. No problem, with Hyper-V R2 you can hot add/remove storage while the VM is running without downtime.
"Virtualized Desktops"
One area of interest that's been percolating the last few years is the concept of Virtualized Desktops. At a high level, virtualized desktops is the concept of using a virtualization server to serve virtual machines running client operating systems like Windows XP or Vista. There are a few reasons customers are interested in this model such as to centralize management operations or to securely manage IP for remote developers. This model is very much like using Remote Desktop Services (formerly Terminal Services), except instead of Remote Desktop sessions, users are provisioned virtual machines.
From a Hyper-V standpoint, we've supported Windows XP and Vista as Hyper-V guests since the R1 release and with Hyper-V R2 we've added support for Windows 7 (x86 & x64 with up to 4 virtual processors per VM). However, Hyper-V support for client operating systems is only one piece of the puzzle. To improve this experience for our customers, the Remote Desktop Services team made significant enhancements in Windows Server 2008 R2 such as.
Connection Broker. Windows Server 2008 R2 includes a Connection Broker so that when a user logs in they can be brokered to their appropriate Virtual Machine OR Remote Desktop session on the back end. Yes, that's right. The Windows Server 2008 R2 broker actually brokers both Virtual Machines and Remote Desktops! This provides customers the flexibility to choose the solution based on their business requirements as opposed to being shoehorned into one technology.
RDP Protocol Enhancements. Windows Server 2008 R2 includes major enhancements for the Remote Desktop Protocol (RDP) that greatly improve the user experience such as:
- Multi-monitor support
- Bi-directional audio support (VoIP anyone?)
- Aero Glass Support
- Enhanced Bitmap Acceleration
Read that again. That's huge.
One big reason is that in the past, RDP was more focused on lower bandwidth connections. Customers have since told us they're willing to use more network bandwidth to provide a richer, greater fidelity user experience.
How good is the remoting? I recently tested the new RDP enhancements by doing the following. I used my three year old laptop running Windows 7 RTM and the built-in Remote Desktop Connection client. I went to the Experience tab and set Performance for WAN settings.
I then remoted into a virtual machine running Windows 7 (the VM was allocated 1 GB of memory) and then fired up three videos running within the VM simultaneously. Specifically,
- a TV show streaming over the Internet using the Hulu desktop application (the show was “The Greatest Generation†by Tom Brokaw. Highly recommended.)
- a large resolution QuickTime movie preview also streaming
- an online Silverlight demo
Here's a screenshot from my laptop running the Window 7 inbox RDP client and this all just worked using my little old 1 Gb/E switch.
These RDP enhancements are big folks. Really big.
Windows Server 2008 R2 Hyper-V
With our customers input first and foremost, we developed Hyper-V R2 to meet their requirements.
Live Migration
New Processor Support
- Improved Performance
- Lower Power Costs
Enhanced Scalability (4x Improvement)
Networking Enhancements
- Improved Network Performance
- 10 Gb/E Ready
Dynamic Virtual Machine Capabilities
- Live Migration
- Hot Add/Remove Virtual Storage
Usability Enhancements
In short, Windows Server 2008 R2 Hyper-V delivers more of everything:
- Capabilities
- Efficiency
- Performance
- Scalability
- Flexibility
- Ease of use
Windows Server 2008 R2: Customers Win
Ultimately, Windows Server 2008 R2 delivers the richest overall platform by offering:
- Hyper-V
- Remote Desktop Services
- Rich RDP enhancements
- Powerful Hardware and Scaling Capabilities
- Reduced Power Consumption
- Connection Broker for a Virtual Desktop Infrastructure (VDI)
- Ubiquitous Remote Access
- Improved Branch Office Performance and Management
- Simplified Management for SMBs
- Remote Application and Desktop Access
and its numerous roles such as:
- Active Directory
- Application Server
- DHCP
- DNS
- Fax
- File
- Network Policy & Access Services
- Print
- and many more
In the end, Windows Server 2008 R2 delivers in spades and ultimately, our customers win.
Cheers,
Jeff Woolsey
Principal Group Program Manager
Windows Server, Hyper-V
Correction: I had a comment stating that VMware View only brokered VMs which was not correct and have since removed it. VMware View does, in fact, broker both VMs and Remote Desktop sessions. -JW
- Linux ICs for Hyper-V and GPLv2
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A funny thing happened on the way to work this morning ... the Hyper-V Linux integration components (ICs) appeared in Greg Kroah-Hartman's tree (aka, the Linux Driver Project) of the Linux community. This is the first time Microsoft is contributing code to the Linux kernel; see the Q&A announcement here. The Hyper-V Linux device drivers will be licensed under GPLv2. That's 20,000 lines of code that provide the synthetic device drivers and VM bus implementation needed for a Linux guest OS to run "enlightened" on either Windows Server 2008 Hyper-V or Microsoft Hyper-V Server 2008.
Greg's tree is for all Linux device drivers being contributed to the community. I'm told that within 24-48 hours it will begin to be picked up by other developers in the community, and that it won't land in the mainline tree (Torvald's tree) until it has been generally accepted in other trees along the way.
So what does this mean? Here are a few thoughts:
- I'll be waiting to see the reaction from the Linux community and commercial Linux companies. There should be some positive comments in there along with the expected conspiracy theories ;-)
- there's a mutual benefit for Linux distis who want to broaden their work with Windows Server, and for customers to broaden the opportunity for Linux as a guest OS running on Hyper-V
- Customers will have another cost-cutting tool because Linux OS will run as a first-class citizen on Hyper-V, and they be able to manage Windows and non-Windows applications and hypervisors using System Center. IT system consolidation, reduce heat in the data center, optimize power draw.
- Two Microsoft employees are listed as the maintainers of the Linux ICs, and will continue to enhance the ICs and contribute to the code. I'm sure SMP support will be high on the list.
- Microsoft currently distirbutes ICs for SLES 10 sp2. With the release of WS08 R2 version of the ICs, we'll also add support for SLES 11 and RHEL 5.2 and 5.3. A list of suppoted products (via SVVP) can be seen here.
You can watch/listen to Sam and Tom discuss today's news on Channel 9 here.
Patrick
- Too many Virtual Iron customers in the fire?
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With the recent announcement by Oracle to stop Virtual Iron development and sales, the past few weeks have certainly been eventful for Virtual Iron customers. A related announcement came out from VMware about a program to offer Virtual Iron customers discounts to move over. But a closer look at the VMware offer shows some serious limitations. These include:
· Only Virtual Iron 4.0 or newer customers are eligible
· Only those with active support subscriptions with Virtual Iron are eligible
· Customers must buy a VMware license for every socket on their Virtual Iron contract. This effectively locks in the customer to VMware for size of their Virtual Iron contract.
· The discount is 40% off the list price of the product but only 10% on one-year of support and subscription, 0% for more than one year of support subscription.
· The offer isn’t valid on all SKUs. This means for Virtual Iron customers who want to keep their Live Migration and CPU balancing capability, they need to buy vSphere Enterprise Plus, the most expensive SKU.
Even with the discounts, VMware is still very expensive. For vSphere Advanced, the cost after discount is still $1,347 per processor without support, which has a very small discount. For vSphere Enterprise Plus, which is required for DRS and other features, the cost is still $2,097 per processor without support. With two years of support, it’s $3,722.64 per processor.
As noted above, Virtual Iron customers must convert all their sockets to VMware and this can only be done once.
As an alternative, I would recommend Virtual Iron customers try Microsoft solutions. Our Hyper-V solutions are low cost, easy to use, and work well with Xen-based solutions like Virtual Iron. In fact, many Virtual Iron users are already running their VMs in the VHD format that’s used with Hyper-V.
If Virtual Iron customers are running Windows Server 2008 in their VMs, they can leverage Windows Server 2008 Hyper-V and Windows Server 2008 R2 Hyper-V. For those customers running non-Windows VMs or do not own Windows Server 2008, you can use the new Microsoft Hyper-V Server 2008 R2 hypervisor. This is our free, standalone hypervisor, which now includes both high availability cluster and live migration at no cost. Both are available for download, a trial for Windows Server 2008 Hyper-V and a full download for Microsoft Hyper-V Server 2008 R2.
Best of all, Virtual Iron customers can just try out the Microsoft solutions, see if it fits their needs, and migrate on their own schedule, all at a much lower cost than the VMware solution.
Edwin Yuen
- Microsoft’s new VDI licensing: VDI Suites
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Hi, my name is Manlio Vecchiet, and I am a director of product management on the Windows Server marketing team. I'm in New Orleans right now attending the Microsoft Worldwide Partner Conference (WPC), and wanted to update you on new licenses we’ll offer for hosted virtual desktops, or virtual desktop infrastructure (VDI).
When deciding whether to implement or even pilot VDI, most customers look for technical integration of the key VDI building blocks:
· the hypervisor,
· management of the virtual machines and the (physical) VDI host,
· a brokering and remoting infrastructure, and
· an application delivery technology for dynamic provisioning of applications to virtual desktops.
But customers also look for a simple and cost-effective way to license this scenario, as they will compare the technical and business benefits of VDI with more traditional desktop deployment options, such as session-based desktops and rich clients. Today we introduced two new licenses for VDI – the Microsoft Virtual Desktop Infrastructure Standard Suite and the Microsoft Virtual Desktop Infrastructure Premium Suite. These licenses make it simple for customers to purchase the comprehensive Microsoft VDI technologies while providing excellent value compared with competing VDI offerings. The new VDI suite licenses will be available via Microsoft volume licensing in calendar Q4.
This is a pretty big deal, so let me explain what we mean by comprehensive, simple and excellent value. First, both new offerings include licenses for all the key technology components mentioned above when used in a VDI scenario: Hyper-V Server, System Center Virtual Machine Manager, System Center Configuration Manager, System Center Operations Manager, Remote Desktop Services (CAL) and MDOP. The Premium VDI Suite even includes additional use rights for Remote Desktop Services (RDS) as well as App-V for RDS, to enable mixed environments with not only VM-based remote desktops, but also session-based desktops and applications. With these two new offerings, the only additional license you will need to correctly license a VDI environment from Microsoft is Virtual Enterprise Centralized Desktop or VECD (you will need VECD even to deploy VDI on a non-Microsoft platform)
By now, you are probably wondering how the licensing of these new VDI Suites will work given their standalone components have very different license schemes. The two new VDI Suites are designed to match the VECD license (which is a device subscription), so the math has become very simple now: As with VECD, the number of VDI Suite licenses equals the total number of client devices that accesses the VDI environment. The subscription-based license will ensure that customers always have access to the latest versions of the software.
But now comes actually the best part. At only $21 per year per device, the VDI Standard Suite is about one-third the cost of a corresponding VMware View edition (the comparison is based on the cost of licenses and software maintenance over a five-year period, which many customers tell me that’s what they base their desktop infrastructure investments on). Similarly, our VDI Premium Suite is about half the price of the premier VMware VDI offering, and it also offers the capability to deploy session-based desktops and applications, in addition to VM-based desktops. And for those customers who are still missing a feature or need an enterprise-ready solution, you can add a 3rd party connection broker for Hyper-V such as Citrix XenDesktop - and most likely still pay less than if you chose to deploy VMware. In fact, Citrix today announced continued alliance in the area of desktop virtualization.
If you would like to see a demo of Microsoft VDI solution running on Windows Server 2008 R2, please come to the Microsoft booth at WPC if you’re attending the conference. For all others, please post your comments in the section below.
Manlio
UPDATE: to answer morriswj's question. I'm excited, too, about this new single licensing for VDI’s server infrastructure, which will complement VECD for a VDI deployment. Regarding High Availability, it is included in MS Hyper-V Server 2008 R2 (the no-cost, standalone hypervisor) and will therefore be available as part of the VDI Suite offering. No other license other than VDI Suite (Standard or Premium) and VECD will be required for a highly available VDI deployment.
UPDATE 2: I'm responding to the question from cstalhood, and the similar question in Brian Madden's post today. For session virtualization using WS08 R2 Remote Desktop Services (RDS), you don’t need the VECD license. The Premium VDI Suite license includes full rights of the RDS CAL, in addition to the other components for a VDI solution. The Premium VDI Suite license, when available in Q4, will be available as a device subscription, while RDS CAL (the new name for TS CAL) is available as a perpetual user or device license. After all, some customers don’t want to buy on a subscription basis.
- Windows Server 2008 R2 Core: Introducing SCONFIG.
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Virtualization Nation,
It's been very busy in the world of Windows Server. With the launch of Windows Server 2008 R2 Release Candidate, Tech Ed and the announcement of several new Hyper-V R2 capabilities such as 64 logical processor support and processor compatibility, it's been pretty non-stop. In fact, it's been so busy, that we haven't even had a chance to introduce one more really cool new feature in Windows Server 2008 R2, but first, some background.
Windows Server 2008 R1: Core Deployment
In Windows Server 2008, we introduced the ability to deploy Windows Server in a core deployment. Server Core is a minimal server installation option which provides a low-maintenance server environment with limited functionality. Just to be clear, Server Core isn't a SKU. You don't buy "Server Core" it's simply a deployment option presented during Windows Server Setup. For example, here's a screen shot during Windows Server Setup, notice that there are options for Full Installations and Server Core Installations.
The benefits are smaller attack surface, a reduction in patches and reduction of server reboots. If you compare the number of reboots between running a server running Windows Server 2008 core deployment versus Windows Server 2008 a full installation, there's a substantial reduction in the number of reboots which, in turn, helps reduce management costs.
While customers like the idea of core installations, the fact that a server core deployment is a command-line interface (CLI) only (no GUI, no Start Menu, etc) with a very differently deployment mechanism introduces a challenging learning curve for those considering core deployments. For those of you who've never seen a Windows Server 2008 server core deployment it looks like this:
Pretty spartan.
As you can see, there's no Start Menu. It's all command-line all the time. For enterprise customers, this isn't a big deal because very often they deploy Windows Server in an automated fashion. However, for small and mid-sized customers a command-line only interface can make some of the most rudimentary tasks a challenge. For example, here are the commands to rename your computer and then join a domain via a Windows Server 2008 core deployment.
- Rename your computer: netdom renamecomputer %computername% /newname:<new_computername>
- Domain join: netdom join %computername% /domain:<domain> /userd:<username> /passwordd:*
Not the easiest thing to remember. We knew we could do better.
Improving Usability
While Windows Server 2008 R1 was in development, a few of us were quietly working on the Hyper-V Server 2008 standalone SKU which also uses a CLI. We spent time working on improving the server configuration experience with an easy to use CLI called HVCONFIG. Within hours of our first private releases of Hyper-V Server 2008 to testers, we received email asking/begging/pleading/cajoling/offering bribes for a similar tool for Windows Server as well.
Happy to oblige.
Introducing SCONFIG for Windows Server 2008 R2 Core Deployments
We are pleased to announce that in Windows Server 2008 R2, there's an easy to use CLI, SCONFIG. SCONFIG dramatically eases server configuration for Windows Server 2008 R2 core deployments. With SCONFIG, you can easily set your system up, get it on the network so you can easily manage the server remotely.
- Rename your computer? Press 2 and you will be prompted to type in the computer name.
- Domain join? Press 1 and you'll be prompted for name & password.
Simple and fast.
With SCONFIG you can easily have a Windows Server 2008 R2 Server Core deployment setup in minutes. I should also mention that SCONFIG is also localized in almost 20 languages.
Tasks include:
- Domain join
- Rename Computer
- Configure Remote (Enable management via Server Manager, & PowerShell including properly configuring the firewall.)
- Configuring Windows Update
- Enabling Remote Desktop (in case you want to login remotely.)
- Configuring Networking (static vs. DHCP and for multiple NICs)
All you have to do is type sconfig at the command line.
Great! Now What?
Remember, the goal with a server core deployment is to get the server on the network so you can manage it remotely. With SCONFIG this is a snap. Now from another system you can enable roles, run PowerShell scripts, manage it using System Center, manage it using Server Manager from another server running Windows Server 2008 R2, or manage it using the free Remote System Administration Tools (RSAT) for Windows 7.
In short, our goal is to provide customers multiple solutions based on their business needs.
Cheers,
Jeff Woolsey
Principal Group Program Manager
Windows Server, Hyper-V
- Beware The VMware Core Tax & More
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Virtualization Nation,
We'd like to again offer congratulations to AMD on the release of their new 6-core Opteron ("Istanbul") processors. As Bryon mentioned, Hyper-V R2 goes hand in hand with these new processors with support for AMD's Rapid Virtualization Indexing, advanced power savings with Core Parking and, of course, more cores means compute resources to run more virtual machines. In fact, two factors that have fueled virtualization have been the rise of 64-bit (x64) computing and the rapid growth of multi-core processors.
Bring On The Cores
Even an entry level laptop these days is dual-core. On desktops, the news is even better. I saw an ad in the paper a few days ago for a very powerful HP desktop system with an AMD quad-core processor and 8 GB of memory that runs Hyper-V like a champ for $600. Well, the news is only getting better. Our partners at AMD and Intel are continuing to ratchet up the core counts and if you've been reading any of the popular tech sites around the web you may have read that we'll soon be seeing processors with 8+ cores per processor. That's a tremendous amount of compute power. In fact, with all this compute power, you're going to be more inclined to virtualize than ever. This is great news for our customers who are trying to lower cost.
However, one question that has hit our inboxes recently has been, "Does Hyper-V have a core tax?"
Huh?
Core Tax? What's that?
At Microsoft, we don't license per core, generally, we license per server or per processor. In this case of Windows Server:
- Windows Server 2008 Standard is licensed per physical server and supports up to 4 physical processors whether there are 1, 2, 4, 6 or 8+ cores per processor
- Windows Server 2008 Enterprise Edition is licensed per physical server up to 8 physical processors whether there are 1, 2, 4, 6 or 8+ cores per processor
- Windows Server 2008 Datacenter Edition is licensed per processor whether there are 1, 2, 4, 6 or 8+ cores per processor
This is great for our customers. As they invest in newer hardware with greater capabilities, performance, scalability there's no penalty for moving to the latest cutting edge systems with ever increasing core counts. After being questioned about a "core tax," I looked into why this was being asked.
Now I know.
VMware & The Core Tax
With VSphere, VMware only supports 6 cores per processor for most of their versions. If you want support for more than 6 cores per processor you have to upgrade from:
- Standard ($795 per processor) to Advanced ($2245 per processor) a 282% increase (no, that's not a typo) OR
- Enterprise ($2875 per processor) to Enterprise Plus ($3495 per processor) a 22% increase
Ouch.
From their website:
What do Analysts Think?
In a recent blog, Scott Lowe (virtualization analyst) wrote:
What's up with Advanced having a 12-core limit, but Enterprise having a 6-core limit? Because existing VI3 Enterprise customers will be grandfathered into vSphere 4 Enterprise if they have an active SnS [VMware Support and Subscription], this strikes me as nothing more than an attempt to extort more licensing fees.
Extort? Ouch.
How The Enterprise Plus SKU Affects Enterprise Customers
With vSphere, VMware created a new, higher end tier, Enterprise Plus, so that Enterprise customers, who used to be the top tier customers and paid for a VMware Support and Subscription (SnS) contract to be eligible for free major and minor version upgrades, are finding that they will have to pay for an upgrade to Enterprise Plus when they decide to move to newer more powerful hardware with more cores. Thus, the Core Tax for VMware users.
What Do VMware Customers Think?
From HERE.
The enforced SnS renewal is particularly galling for companies that just recently renewed their contracts, said Andrew Storrs, and independent consultant in Vancouver, Canada. "It's not so bad if you only have six months left [on SnS], but what if you have 2.5 years left?" To take advantage of the upgrade promotion, IT managers are in the awkward position of having to ask to for more money for their SnS, "just for the privilege of using a normal [VMware] edition next year."
"A lot of people are pretty p@#$%d about it," he added.
What about VMware "Standard" Customers?
In addition, VMware has very quietly removed some features (such hot add virtual disks) that used to be in VMware Standard and pushed those up to Advanced. So, VMware Standard customers are LOSING FUNCTIONALITY "upgrading" to VSphere. If you want those hot add capabilities back, VMware Standard Customers will need to pay for an upgrade from VSphere Standard ($795 per processor) to Advanced ($2245 per processor).
A 282% increase.
Think that's bad? VMware didn't stop there.
The News Gets Worse (Hope You're Sitting Down)
Two things that are interesting:
- It's odd that Enterprise Edition supports fewer cores per processor than Advanced. Paying more and getting less isn't exactly customer friendly. To add insult to injury, VMware is dropping the Enterprise SKU altogether this year to force customers to purchase an upgrade to Enterprise Plus. (HERE & HERE) Double ouch.
- It's also interesting that VMware caps the number of cores per processor at 12. What happens when a processor comes out that includes more than 12 cores? 16? 24? 32? More? Will that require an upgrade to Enterprise Super Plus?
I'll let you draw your own conclusions, but VMware's track record speaks for itself.
CUSTOMERS: FIRST & FOREMOST
No Core Tax. At Microsoft, we don't license per core, generally, we license per server or per processor. When we do license per processor, it's per processor regardless of how many cores are present. I should also point out that the FREE standalone Microsoft Hyper-V Server 2008 R2 supports up 8 physical processors whether there are 1, 2, 4, 6 or 8+ cores per processor as well.
Read that last sentence again.
Microsoft Enterprise Customers with Software Assurance: For our valued customers that purchased Windows Server 2008 with their Microsoft Enterprise Agreement & Software Assurance, here's just a fraction of the new Hyper-V R2 capabilities you'll be receiving with your upgrade to Windows Server 2008 R2 included as part of your agreement:
- Live Migration
- Major Scalability Boosts
- Green IT Enhancements
- 10 Gb/E Ready
- Cluster Shared Volumes
- Hot Add Virtual Disks
- and this is just for starters
In addition, I haven't even started discussing the new capabilities in Windows Server 2008 R2 outside of Hyper-V such as:
- Powerful Hardware and Scaling Capabilities
- Reduced Power Consumption
- Connection Broker for a Virtual Desktop Infrastructure (VDI)
- Ubiquitous Remote Access
- Improved Branch Office Performance and Management
- Simplified Management for SMBs
- Remote Application and Desktop Access
- and much, much more
included as part of your agreement. That's taking care of your customers.
Cheers,
Jeff Woolsey
Principal Group Program Manager
Windows Server, Hyper-V
- System Center Virtual Machine Manager 2008 R2 - Quick Storage Migration
-
Hi, I'm Edwin Yuen, a Senior Technical Product Manager at Microsoft's Integrated Virtualization team. In today's blog, I'd like to discuss another type of migration being added to System Center Virtual Machine Manager 2008 R2, Quick Storage Migration.
Quick Storage Migration (QSM) In Brief
As you may have seen, we recently released the Release Candidate for System Center Virtual Machine Manager 2008 R2. One of the most anticipated features of SCVMM 2008 R2 is Quick Storage Migration (QSM) which enables the migration of the storage of VM from one location to another. For example, suppose you have virtual machines on a leased SAN (SAN 1). The lease runs out and you decide to upgrade to a new SAN (SAN 2) with more capacity, better performance and additional capabilities. Quick Storage Migration allows you to move the virtual machine which resides on SAN 1 to SAN 2. I have had a number of request for more details on how this works so we've written this brief guide to QSM. (In addition, we wanted to make this technology broadly available, not just the biggest enterprises. More on that below.)
QSM relies on Windows Server 2008 R2 Hyper-V and Background Intelligent Transfer Service (BITS). QSM can move the virtual disks of a running virtual machine independent of storage protocols (iSCSI, FC) or storage type (local, DAS, SAN), with minimal downtime.
QSM Is One of Many Migration Technologies Supported in Virtual Machine Manager's Portfolio
| VM Migration Type | Platforms available on | Technology used for transfer | Expected downtime for VM |
| Live Migration | - Hyper-V
(2008 R2) - ESX 3.0, 3.5
| - Windows Server 2008 Failover Cluster
- Hyper-V
- vMotion for ESX
| None - No service interruption while virtual machine is moved
|
| Quick Migration | | - Windows Server 2008 Failover Cluster
- Hyper-V
| Under 1 minute in most cases - VM is put into save-state while it is moved from one cluster node to another using the cluster failover mechanism
|
| SAN Migration | | - Windows Server 2008 Hyper-V and Virtual Disk Service (VDS) Hardware Providers
- N-Port Identification Virtualization (NPIV) on Emulex and QLogic Fibre Channel HBAs
- iSCSI on EMC, HP, Hitachi, NetApp, EquiLogic arrays
| Under 1 minute in most cases - VM is put into save-state while it is moved from one virtual machine host to another using unmasking and masking operations at the SAN level
|
| Network based migration (aka LAN migration)
| - Virtual Server
- Hyper-V
- ESX
| - BITS for Virtual Server and Hyper-V
- sFTP for ESX
| Minutes to hours (W2K8, W2K3 hosts) - VM needs to be stopped or in saved state for the entire duration of transfer
Under 1 minute in most cases (W2K8 R2) - VM can remain running for the almost entire duration of the transfer of its virtual disks from once storage location to another
- VM is put into save-state for a brief interval to migrate its memory state and associated differencing disks.
|
| Storage Migration Type | Platforms available on | Technology used for transfer | Expected downtime |
| Storage vMotion | | | None - No perceived service interruption while the virtual disks associated with a virtual machine are moved from storage location to another
|
| Quick Storage Migration | | | Under 1 minute in most cases (W2K8 R2) - VM can remain running for the almost the entire duration of the transfer of its virtual disks from once storage location to another
- VM is put into save-state for a brief interval to migrate its memory state and associated differencing disks.
|
Note on Processor Compatibility Mode:
To increase the mobility of a running virtual machine across hosts with different processor versions (with in the same processor family), Windows Server 2008 R2 Hyper-V offers Processor Compatibility Mode. This feature masks processor feature differences between the source and destination hosts. With this enabled, you can migrate a virtual machine from a host with Pentium 4 VT processors to a host with Nehalem processors. Processor Compatibility Mode does not require advanced processor features like Intel VT Flex Migration or AMD-V Extended Migration. For more on Processor Compatibility Mode, check out Jeff's Blog a few weeks ago where he goes into detail here.
How QSM Works
QSM uses native Windows platform technologies: Hyper-V and BITS. There are 2 scenarios of interest:
Scenario 1: VM Storage Migration: VM Compute Stays on the Same Server and the VM Storage Migrates from One Storage to Another
1. In the SCVMM console, a new action labeled Storage Migration is now available.
2. When the user right-clicks on a running virtual machine and selects the Migrate Storage action, a wizard is presented. The user provides the path to the new location to be used by the VM. If all the VMs files (configuration and VHD files) are to be placed in a single location the user has only to provide the "Virtual Machine Path". If one or more VHD files for the VM need to be placed at a separate location, the user can explicitly change the location of each VHD by selecting it from the list under "Disks" and clicking the "Browse" button next to it to specify the path for the VHD.
3. SCVMM takes a Hyper-V snapshot of the running virtual machine. This will create a differencing disk for each VHD connected to the VM. All disk write operations from that point forward go into the differencing disk. The original base VHD is no longer changing since it is in a read-only state.
4. With the base VHD in a read-only state, SCVMM starts to transfer the file from the source location to the target location using BITS. This represents the bulk of the data that needs to be transferred and the VM remains running during this transfer. In addition, QSM does not depend on storage types, and the user is free to select any storage destination that is accessible to the Hyper-V host.
5. Once the base VHD is transferred, the virtual machine is put into "Saved State".
6. In "Saved State", SCVMM can transfer the differencing disk created by the snapshot and memory associated with the "Saved State" to the destination location for the VM.
7. Once all the files are transferred, SCVMM exports and then re-imports the virtual machine on the same Hyper-V host with any necessary modifications to the configuration.
8. The snapshot created on step 3 is merged back into the base VHDs
9. Virtual machine is re-started from saved state
10. Job completes
11. The diagram below illustrates the steps performed by QSM on a Hyper-V R2 host.
Scenario 2: VM Migration (Relocation): VM Compute Moves to a News Server AND VM Storage Moves from One Storage to Another
1. In the SCVMM console, the user right-clicks on a running virtual machine and selects the Migrate action, a wizard is presented to help with the migration. The Migrate action initiates the migration of a VM from one host to another host. As part of the VM migration, all of the VMs files are moved to storage that is attached to the destination host. Storage Migration technology enhances the experience by allowing the move for a running virtual machine and limiting the down time of the VM to just the window required to move the save state files (as explained below).
2. The user first selects the destination host based on the desired star rating presented by Intelligent Placement. The user then provides a destination folder for the configuration file and the associated virtual disks. By default, the wizard will put all disks in the same location as the configuration file. After completing the wizard, the migration job is submitted.
3. SCVMM creates a placeholder virtual machine on the destination host. The virtual machine is not powered on so there is no need to reserve CPU or memory resources at this time. Intelligent placement has already accounted for the impact on the destination host of the VM being migrated.
4. SCVMM takes a Hyper-V snapshot of the running virtual machine. This will create a differencing disk for each VHD connected to the VM. All disk write operations from that point forward go into the differencing disk. The original base VHD is no longer changing since it is in a read-only state.
5. With the base VHD in a read-only state, SCVMM starts to transfer the file from the storage location on the source host to a storage location on the target host using BITS. Since QSM does not depend on storage protocols or storage types, the user is free to select any storage destination as long as the Hyper-V can access it.
6. Once the base VHDs are transferred, the virtual machine is put into Saved State.
In Saved State, SCVMM can transfer the differencing disks created by the snapshot and associated memory state.
7. Once all the files are transferred, SCVMM exports the virtual machine and transfers the exported virtual machine configuration to the target host and then imports the virtual machine to Hyper-V host with any necessary modifications to the configuration.
8. The snapshots are merged back into the base VHDs as part of the import process.
9. Virtual machine is started from saved state
10. Job completes
How QSM Compares To VMware Storage VMotion
| | VMM 2008 R2 + Windows Server 2008 R2 Hyper-V | VMware (vCenter 2.5 + ESX 3.5) |
| Migration of virtual machines across two hosts with independent storage | Supported | Not Supported |
| Migration of virtual machines with snapshots | Supported | Not Supported |
| Migration of Virtual machine with Virtual Disks | Supported | Supported (persistent mode) |
| Requires sufficient resources to support two instances of the virtual machines running concurrently | Not Required | Required |
| Additional Licensed Required | None | VMotion License |
| Number of concurrent storage Migrations allowed | 10 | 4 |
| Storage Migrations supported in the Administrator Console | Yes (QSM and Storage vMotion) | No |
| Storage Migrations supported in the CLI | Yes (QSM and Storage vMotion) | Yes |
| Protocol agnostic | Yes | Yes |
| Support for migrations of VMs and storage between hosts with different processors versions (same manufacturer) | Yes (use Hyper-V R2 Processor Compatibility Mode to increase the number of compatible hosts ) | Not Applicable |
Microsoft: Driving Down Costs
One thing our customers have been telling us loud and clear is that they are very, very happy we are offering Live Migration for FREE with Hyper-V R2. With Quick Storage Migration, we knew we had another opportunity to drive down the costs for storage migration capability that has been largely priced out of the reach of most customers. Specifically, VMware Storage VMotion is only available in their Enterprise/Enterprise Plus SKUs ($2875 & $3495 per processor respectively). Contrast this with the fact that Quick Storage Migration is included with System Center Virtual Machine Manager 2008 R2 both the Enterprise Edition and the Workgroup Edition which will be available for starting at about $500.
For a small five node cluster consisting of two and four processors servers, that would cost at a minimum:
| | Virtual Machine R2 QSM | VMware |
Three Nodes;
Two Processor Servers | ~$500 | $11,500 |
Five Nodes;
Two Processor Servers | ~$500 | $28,750 |
Five Nodes
Four Processor Servers | ~$500 | $57,500 |
That's customer focus.
Cheers,
Edwin Yuen
Sr. Technical Product Manager
- Guest Blog: The Role of IT in an Economic Downturn: Spend Smarter, Not Smaller
-
Hello everyone, Richard Campbell here from Campbell & Associates based in Vancouver, BC. I am not only the host of RunAs Radio (www.runasradio.com) but also a Microsoft Regional Director and MVP.
It’s fun being an IT consultant during boom times – my clients are only focused on getting more customers, expanding territories and getting new products to market. There’s no time to worry about costs, it’s time to spend and grow. Speed to market is key and building in lots of capacity so that you can keep serving your new markets is essential.
Looks like that fun is over for the moment, and I’m back in a role I’m comfortable with also: Focusing on return on investment. When the boom times end, it’s time to get back to efficiency and profitability. And there’s lots to do. Whether my clients are technology centric (a company with a retail web site) or technology supported, IT can play a huge role in making the business more profitable and more efficient. Apparently I’m not alone, according to a survey commissioned by Microsoft’s Server & Tools Business (www.microsoft.com/infrastructure) the majority of IT professionals recognize that improving end-user productivity is a key reason for innovation in IT.
Ultimately, information technology can benefit a business two ways: It can improve the performance of the business by making it possible for more revenue to be generated for the same cost or the same revenue for less cost. A new order entry system might allow sales clerks to process two hundred orders in a day where they used to only process one hundred – that’s a great boost in efficiency and profitability. The other benefit technology can bring to a company is better instrumentation: Allowing the management of the business to see more clearly where revenue is made and expenses are incurred. This information then is turned into changes of behavior that increase the profitability of the business.
In an economic downturn, the challenge for the IT Pro is getting back to the concepts of return on investment for technology. This involves studying in detail how the business makes money and where the expenses are incurred. Once those facts are known, then the next step is to find opportunities to improve. It’s really as simple as that. However, the challenge is gathering those core facts – perhaps a better instrumentation system is needed to be able to find opportunities to improve. Maybe that means you need a consultant to help guide the way, or you have the skills in-house, either way the job is clear: spend smarter, not smaller. Don’t focus only on reducing your spend, but on spending on the things that makes your company more profitable and more efficient.
-Richard
- Guest post: Hyper-V gives every Windows shop a free pass into “innovationâ€
-
Hi, my name is Matt Lavallee and I am the Director of Technology at MLS Property Information Network, Inc., based in Massachusetts. Although you may not recognize the company name, we are one of the 700+ multiple listing service (MLS) companies that provide data warehousing for the Real Estate industry in the U.S. As my company took the early step to virtualizing our environment on Hyper-V last year, Microsoft asked me to share my opinion on the results of its recent survey on the state of IT infrastructure investments, conducted by Harris Interactive.
One point that stands out on the survey — and should surprise no one — is the shift to belt-tightening in IT: 84% of US respondents cited improving business efficiency (51%) and reducing IT costs (33%) as their priorities in light of the economic downturn. However, I personally disagree that this new mindset is a direct reaction to the economy or that the decreased allocation of IT budget to innovation (29% in the US) are necessarily bad things.
First, let us consider that the IT budget is a relatively fixed value year over year — while it may respond to inflation and some cyclical purchases, the vast majority of budget is spent on payroll, annualized licensing, backups, ISP costs, and the regular refresh of equipment. To me, this eliminates a significant stratum of budget from consideration for “innovation†unless you just built your environment last year on five-year-old technology.
Second, the actual varying allocation of budget goes to “special projectsâ€, which, for lack of a better term, includes “innovationâ€. Here is where the survey findings drew too many conclusions and where I feel the indication is astray from real trends.
Consider my environment: We recently made the switch to virtualization and the broad deployment of Hyper-V. This included a change in direction for our hardware refresh (bigger servers), incremental SAN purchases, and some new investment in networking (10GbE)… perhaps enough to reflect the 25% investment in “innovationâ€, per the survey. A balance sheet, however, would not reflect that we redesigned the entire infrastructure and now run up to 60% more efficiently: all you will see is a marked decrease in operational overhead at the end of the year (i.e., improved business efficiency and reduced IT costs, as the survey reflected).
So why is there no correlation between advancing the infrastructure and innovation spending? I believe that the technology ecosystem has afforded smarter IT spending, particularly with the (dramatic) rise in computing density, the problems it has solved and challenges it introduced, and the tools that were created (or improved) to meet those challenges. PUE (Power Usage Effectiveness) and “green†concepts were alien just five years ago, but now dominate most datacenter conversations. Virtualization via Hyper-V gives every Windows shop a free pass into “innovation†and grants us many new opportunities that were previously out of budgetary reach.
Some question whether this change indicates that IT is no longer aligned with business goals and driving success… I offer that our current focus clearly demonstrates that we are doing exactly what the business needs us to do.
Matt
- Server & Tools Business Exec to discuss state of IT, answer your questions on June 23
-
Do you have questions about Microsoft’s efforts to deliver new server infra (Windows Server, virt, System Center, Forefront security) to customers and partners?
What is Microsoft doing about enterprise security?
Are you interested in hearing how other IT pros are reacting to economic conditions and where they’re investing?
On Tuesday, June 23rd from 10:30am – 11:00am (PDT), you're invited to join a teleconference with Bob Kelly, corporate VP of Infrastructure Server Marketing. Bob will talk about the state of IT within the context of results from a new Harris Interactive study. The study, of 1,200 IT professionals from the U.S., United Kingdom, Japan and Germany, was commissioned by Microsoft’s Server & Tools Business.
There will be time for your questions following the brief presentation. Submit questions over the phone or you can submit them at any time leading up to, or during, the teleconference by tweeting with the Twitter hashtag, #qs4ms. If you are interested in attending, please REGISTER NOW. Once you open the invite box, you can save and close to your calendar.
Patrick
- Re: Windows Server 2008 SP2 Hyper-V
-
Hi Isaac Roybal here. I’m a technical product manager on the Windows Server team covering Hyper-V.
It’s been 3 weeks since the release of Windows Server 2008 Service Pack 2 (SP2) and we’re seeing great adoption. From a Hyper-V point of view, we’re excited because the final Hyper-V release is an integrated feature in SP2 making it easier and faster to deploy Hyper-V. If you recall, when Windows Server 2008 was released, Hyper-V Beta was included. This meant to get the final Hyper-V release, you needed to go to Windows Update, download and go through the update process.
With Windows Server 2008 SP2, Hyper-V final bits are included so there’s no need to pull down individual downloads which speeds up deployments. There are also some notable updates in SP2, including scalability enhancements for running on systems with up to 24 logical processors which enables support for up to 192 running virtual machines, update for Hyper-V when managed with System Center Virtual Machine Manager 2008 and updates for backup/restore of virtual machines with the Volume Shadow Copy Service (VSS).
For those of you who have already deployed Hyper-V, SP2 is a simple upgrade. Here are a couple of top-of-mind things to think about when you’re planning your upgrade or fresh install of SP2:
· In-place upgrades of Windows Server 2008 to Windows Server 2008 SP2 is supported for both the parent partition and child VMs.
o If the Hyper-V role was enabled on the parent partition prior to the upgrade to SP2, it will be automatically enabled once the upgrade is completed.
o Uninstall any prerelease versions of SP2 that might be installed.
· If a fresh SP2 install is being done and you’d like to move VMs to it, export the VMs from the originating Windows Server 2008 host and import them on the SP2 host.
· Integration Components (ICs) for the child virtual machines must be updated to the SP2 version.
o If you’re doing a fresh install or an upgrade of SP2 on the parent partition, it does not update the integration components inside the virtual machine. Be sure to update the VM ICs after SP2 is installed.
o If you have virtual machines created on the Beta version of the Windows Server 2008 Hyper-V role, and you installed the Beta version of the integration components on those machines, you must uninstall the integration components and reinstall the latest SP2 integration components.
o When upgrading to SP2 inside a Windows Server 2008 child VM the ICs are automatically upgraded.
o If you are running a supported Windows operating system other than Windows Server 2008 as a VM, you need to use vmguest.iso to upgrade the integration components
Isaac
UPDATE. Responding to question by Ed051042
Yes, your assertion is correct. Follow these steps when upgrading a cluster to SP2:
1. Evacuate the cluster node of VMs via quick migration (assuming you’ve extra capacity) to other nodes in the cluster.
2. Upgrade the node to SP2 while it is still part of the cluster
3. Once the SP2 install is complete, quick migrate those VMs back to node and update VMs’ ICs. The last bit is important.
4. Follow the same process starting step #1 until entire cluster had been updated to SP2
For more info see KB 174799 which outlines how to install SPs on a cluster and Microsoft's Failover and Network Load Balancing Clustering Team Blog which explains a rolling upgrade of a cluster.
- VMware FUD Fiasco Final
-
Virtualization Nation,
For those of you who have been following the "VMware FUD Fiasco" blog thread (Part 1, Part 2, Part 3 & Part 4), it's been an unfortunate incident that has gone on far too long. However, I'm pleased to report that we've finally reached resolution and it's time to close this chapter. What resolution am I talking about? Specifically,
VMware has admitted their mistake, apologized and removed the video.
Let's start with VMware's apology and then I'll discuss our testing and results.
VMware Apology From Scott Drummonds
http://blogs.vmware.com/vmtn/2009/06/an-apology-from-scott-drummonds.html
"I made a bad call.
About a month and a half ago, I anonymously posted a YouTube video depicting a controversial test of Microsoft's Hyper-V. The video was a bit hyperbolic in its dramatization of Hyper-V's reliability.
Unfortunately, my intention to stir the pot with eye-poking banter has put my credibility and by association VMware's credibility in question among some of you. For this I apologize.
I've removed the video from YouTube. I've also sent a note of apology to Jeff Woosley at Microsoft.
My focus, and clearly VMware's focus, is to help our 140,000 plus customers get the most from their technology investments. This is our commitment. We will absolutely work our best to live up to the high standard you've come to expect from us. And when we mess up, we'll be the first to address the mistake head on.
Scott"
Scott: Looking forward to your email. Please send it to Jeff Woolsey, not Woosley. Tx.
IT 101: System Requirements
Before we dive into our testing and results, now's a good time to mention that whenever you deploy any software you should always ensure that you meet the minimum system requirements for any software. I know this sounds like IT 101, but whether it's Windows, ESX, Exchange, SQL, Oracle, <insert application/operating system here>, those minimum requirements are there for a reason. Ensuring you meet system requirements should be Step 1 in any deployment. If you don't meet minimum requirements, you're running in an unsupported and likely untested configuration.
For example:
- Windows Server 2008 has a minimum requirement of 512 MB of memory. However, the VMware test was configured with 256 MB. (BTW, Windows Server 2008 Setup includes a block to prevent you from installing on a systems that don't meet the minimum memory requirement. However, once you've installed Windows Server 2008, you can subsequently reduce the memory size. Thus, you have to go out of your way to get into this state.)
- Windows Server 2008 (x64) requires a minimum of 32 GB of disk space. The VMware test was configured with 12 GB.
- Windows Server 2008 (x86) requires a minimum of 20 GB of disk space. The VMware test was configured with 12 GB.
In short, VMware's performance benchmark team didn't even get Step 1 correct. I'm going to leave it at that.
Despite these tests not meeting the minimum system requirements, we configured our tests to match these settings.
Guest Crash
After setting up and configuring the test, we let it run. For days the test ran without issue. We let it run over the weekend.
When we came back in the office Monday morning, lo and behold, we encountered a guest crash.
We immediately performed a root cause analysis and traced this back to an issue that was found and fixed (KB article and fix posted) in Windows (specifically PatchGuard) over a year ago in April 2008. Let's dig in.
Further Analysis
The issue (and details) I'm referring to is here. I reviewed our support logs to see how common this issue is. It's quite rare in fact. We've had less than two dozen reports since Windows Server 2008 went gold and there are millions of Windows Server 2008 deployments and thus, the fix was not made available via Windows Update. However, a public solution has been in place since April 2008 so if a customer searched our public Knowledge Base or contacted our Customer Service & Support (CSS) they'd easily find a resolution. In addition, the fix has already been included with both Windows Server 2008 Service Pack 2 and Windows Server 2008 R2.
To be crystal clear, here's how this relates to Windows Server 2008 Gold, Windows Server 2008 SP2, and Windows Server 2008 R2 with links.
- Windows Server 2008 Gold: In the rare occurrence that someone ran into this issue, we posted a Knowledge Base Article which includes a fix. That link is here: http://support.microsoft.com/kb/950772/
- Windows Server 2008 Service Pack 2: The fix has already been incorporated into Windows Server 2008 Service Pack 2 which is publicly available here: http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/dd262148.aspx.
- Windows Server 2008 R2 (and future): The fix has already been incorporated into Windows Server 2008 R2 (and future releases). Windows Server 2008 R2 is currently at the Release Candidate milestone and will ship for the holidays.
Finally, I'd like to point out that this issue could occur within any virtual machine environment such as Hyper-V, Xen or VMware ESX/vSphere. In fact, we know it occurs on ESX because, in researching this issue, I found that VMware reported this issue on ESX.
No Parent Crash Here
With the guest issue identified, we started up the test again so we could look for any parent crashes.
- Days pass. No issues/no crash.
- We setup additional, larger systems from multiple vendors and run the same tests with even higher consolidation ratios. 64+ VMs running for days.
- Many days pass. No issues/no crash.
- We decide to add some of our own private stress tests into the mix that stress every part of the system. No issues/no crash.
To sum it up, we haven't been able to reproduce any host crash at all.
I'd also like to reiterate that of the 750,000+ downloads of Hyper-V RTM, we've had 3 reports of crashes under extreme stress and with the same error code as seen in the video bugcheck (0x00020001). The solution in all three cases was to upgrade the server BIOS which solved the problem. This can happen as hypervisors interact very closely with the hardware and BIOS updates generally include updated microcode for processors oftentimes to address errata.
At this point without the physical system we're unable to repro and if Scott/VMware would like to send the crashdump, we'd be interested in reviewing it, but at this point we're out of avenues to explore.
Virtualization & High Availability
This seems like an opportune time to remind folks about the importance of virtualization and high availability (HA). Since day one, Windows Server 2008 Hyper-V integrates with Failover Clustering to provide high availability. This means in the case of something very bad occurring, like someone yanking out the power cable or hardware failure, Hyper-V virtual machines will automatically restart on another server without user intervention. If you're running virtual machines in a production environment, high availability is a must. If you're running virtual machines without HA, I strongly urge you to rethink that decision.
Our customers understand the importance of virtualization and High Availability. In fact, the top feature request from our customers for our free Hyper-V offering, Microsoft Hyper-V Server, was to provide High Availability.
We thought we'd do better and provide both High Availability and Live Migration with Microsoft Hyper-V Server 2008 R2.
That's customer focus.
To Our Customers
We are pleased and humbled by the incredible response you've given Hyper-V.
Thank you.
Specifically, I mean:
- In the first 7 months of Hyper-V RTM availability, we've had over 750,000 downloads of Hyper-V gold bits.
- Hyper-V is the fastest growing x86/x64 hypervisor in history. We are laser focused on our customers and providing high performance, high quality virtualization for everyone from small business to Fortune 500 customers.
- We have hundreds of Hyper-V case studies from customers worldwide and we're winning new customers daily.
We thank you for your support and look forward to helping you reduce your costs, optimize your infrastructure and provide the best solutions that span your desktops to the datacenter to the cloud.
Cheers,
Jeff Woolsey
Principal Group Program Manager
Windows Server, Hyper-V
- Check out the Visual Studio Team System blog
-
Many of you will be interested to learn more about forthcoming lab management capabilities in Visual Studio Team System 2010. Or you may have lunch or meetings with a dev who you want to know more about VSTS 2010 Lab Management. That last part is a nod to "that darn reality" post at SharkTank.
So check the VSTS Lab Management team blog.
Recent posts include:
Patrick
