Posts Tagged ‘Hyper-V’
TechEd 2010 Australia – Hyper-V 2008 R2 SP1 Dynamic Memory Allocation
Wednesday, August 25th, 2010
The second session for today is the Hyper-V 2006 R2 SP1 Dynamic Memory Allocation session by Ben Armstrong. This is actually really cool technology that will allow Hyper-V to allocate RAM dynamically to virtual machines as it’s needed. What this means to us is that we can configure a VM to use say 2GB of RAM, but it will only use that 2GB of RAM when it really needs it. Similar to the CPU allocation that we have now, this feature really gives us the chance to add more virtualisation instances to a given host than ever before. Very cool technology indeed. Most of the time, this technology is only available in the Enterprise versions of Windows Server, the good news is that this will be available on ALL versions of Windows Server 2008 R2 and HyperV Server 2008 R2 once Service Pack 1 is released and applied to those systems.
Tags: Hyper-V, Sessions, TechEd 2010 Australia, Virtualisation
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SBS 2008 and Hyper-V Supported Scenarios
Wednesday, July 7th, 2010
Today I heard a new one – someone had configured SBS 2008 on a server, and enabled the Hyper-V role on that server. They had then put some Hyper-V guests on top of it. They installed ShadowProtect on the SBS 2008 server and were experiencing issues with the guest operating systems having their disks disconnected during the ShadowProtect backups.
The long and the short of it is this. Microsoft do not support the Hyper-V role being enabled on SBS 2008 itself. They have documented it here .
Tags: Hyper-V, SBS 2008
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Hyper-V Webinar recording available for free
Monday, May 31st, 2010
In April, I did a Hyper-V Webinar with my fellow MVPs at ThirdTier. The recording from this event is now up and you can download it for free from the ThirdTier site here
Check out the other recordings from previous webinars and also check out the ThirdTier blog for other cool tips n tricks
Tags: Hyper-V, Third Tier, Training, Virtualisation
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Hyper-V Best Practice Analyser Released
Friday, April 30th, 2010
Microsoft has released a Hyper-V BPA this week, but unfortunately it’s only for Windows Server 2008 R2 which is a shame for us SBS focused types. The Hyper-V BPA is available as an update via Windows Update or here.
I’ve run it on my test Hyper-V R2 server this morning and it gave these results. If you go into each of the options you can see what is compliant and what needs to be changed. My server suggests 3 changes below – all of which I’m aware of so this is a great way to double check where things are at with your Hyper-V deployments.
Tags: Hyper-V
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Hyper-V for SMB Case Studies
Friday, April 16th, 2010
During today’s webcast with ThirdTier, I used the example of a client scenario that we (Correct Solutions) used technology to solve real world business problems. The client was real, the scenario was real, and the solution was real. That is what makes it more exciting. It was not just some hypothetical solution, but something we deployed for this client (and similar to many we’ve done for other clients).
Microsoft did a video case study of it where Ryan Spillane (my business partner in Correct Solutions) got to be on camera and the client was able to clearly describe what this solution meant for them. Here’s the link to it on Microsoft.com
HP were also pretty impressed with it as well and likewise did a case study – this one focused on the hardware side of things a little more, but still it helped to quantify the benefits and reasons why virtualisation was right for this customer. Here’s the link to the HP Case Study.
We’ll post the recording of today’s webcast shortly and I’ll blog about it when it’s done. Thanks for everyone who came along to the event and for the great feedback on it.
Tags: Business Focus, HP, Hyper-V, Microsoft, Training, Virtualisation
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Want to know more about Hyper-V in SMB?
Wednesday, April 7th, 2010
In conjunction with Third Tier, I’m presenting a webinar next Friday morning (Sydney time that is) or Thursday afternoon USA time 
The webinar is based on my own experiences spec’ing, quoting, selling and installing Hyper-V environments for our SMB clients. We’ll talk about the reasons Hyper-V is good and bad and walk through some of the specs I’ve used in real world scenarios. Check out the details here
Tags: Hyper-V, Third Tier, Training, Virtualisation
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Fabulatech USB over Ethernet Problems
Tuesday, February 16th, 2010
Many of you will know that I’ve been a big proponent of the Fabulatech USB over Ethernet software specifically for use with the Microsoft Hyper-V environments. I’ve spoken very highly of their product and how we use it in our client environments. Well I’m sorry to say that has changed. We are now testing an alternate product to suit this requirement called KernelPro. So far our tests have shown this product and vendor to be superior in all the ways that the Fabulatech product has failed us.
So how has the Fabulatech product failed us? Where do I start.
How about BSOD on the Hyper-V host? Install the product, and reboot. The Hyper-V host BSODs and you can’t get out of it. Your only choice is to go into Last Known Good Configuration and try to remove the product… whats’ that the product says it’s removed but now is still there? Ok – let’s ask Fabulatech support… yes – we did that… over 2 weeks ago, provided the memory.dmp file. That was on the 4th Feb – their response was “we don’t have anyone that can analyse that until 8th Feb.” Ok – not ideal but we wait. We’ve sent a number of followup emails from them since then and are as at today – 12 days after sending them the memory.dmp still waiting on a response.
How about random lockups of the Hyper-V host? Again something we’ve seen. Fabulatech’s response “we’ll fix it eventually…” They are not taking into account that we’ve purchased their product to solve business problems and those business problems need to be solved now, not “eventually”.
Let’s try their Serial over Ethernet with Serial Fax Modems then… only to find out that it’s not working. The product has gone past the 30 day eval, so we’ve had to pay for it. Fabulatech has again been involved in investigating the problem… I believe for 3 months now. So we’ve decided to ask for a refund so that we can at least install another product. Fabulatech’s response is “We don’t provide refunds, we provide the evaluation period for you to try the product which you have then purchased. We will fix the product eventually”
So the problem for us here, is not just a failure of the product, but a failure of the organisation to understand the business requirements of our customers and respond in an appropriate time. We have gone through all the correct channels to obtain support and help, but to no avail. I can therefore only decide to no longer use their product and also to advise others of my decision to change so that they too might not have the same problems. I’m keen to hear more about your experiences with this product too.
Tags: Business Focus, Hyper-V, Rants
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HP Proliant ML330 G6
Tuesday, September 29th, 2009
Recently HP released the 6th generation of their product line. As part of that they released the ML330 G6. This server is focused on the mid level SMB client and includes features that are designed to answer their business requirements. I’ve been fortunate to have one of these servers for quite a few months now as I was beta testing it for HP. During the beta I found that the server was 100% stable with no unexpected crashes – something I’ve come to expect from HP.
The ML330 G6 servers come with a range of CPUs all based on the Nehalem CPUs. The Nehalem CPUs are designed to cater specifically for higher workloads than previous generations CPUs. They have some impressive performance optimisations around Virtualisation that I tested out myself with various configurations. I loaded up the ML330 G6 with Windows Server 2008 R2 and the Hyper-V role. I then installed SBS 2008 as a virtual machine in just over an hour. Wow that’s fast. Whilst the system I had was in beta, I was certainly impressed with the performance and stability of the server. OK down to the tech specs.
The ML 330 G6 supports up to 2 physical CPUs and is currently sold in speeds of 2.0Ghz up to 2.53Ghz. There are factory configurations feature Quad Core CPUs across all models with either single or dual CPU standard which means loads of grunt for the workloads we’re likely to throw at them. What is particularly interesting here is that when you push the CPU hard for some tasks, it is designed to overclock itself a little in order to get that task done faster than before. It does this by shutting down one or two of the other cores of the CPU to ensure that it does not go over the thermal limits of the system.
Memory expansion is not something you’ll need to worry to much about. With up to 18 memory slots, you can take this system up to 144GB of DDR3 Registered RAM if you really need to. One thing to note is that the Nehalm architecture requires that the memory configurations be balanced across the CPUs. This means that you need to have equal amounts of RAM dedicated to each CPU. This is one of the ways that Nehalm achieves it’s massive performance improvements over previous generations of process architecture. You also need to keep in mind that there are two type of memory you can install into your HP G6 servers, DDR3 Registered and DDR3 Unbuffered. The two types of memory are actually incompatible memory types and you can’t mix the two. It would seem strange then for HP to offer such configurations until you understand the logic behind it. You can use the DDR3 Unbuffered RAM for configurations up to 24GB and it’s designed this way as a low cost method for small system configurations. However if you are designing larger configurations with higher memory requirements then you need to consider using DDR3 Registered from the start to give you better overall growth paths.
In terms of the disk subsystem, the model I had came with an Smart Array 410 controller which is expandable to up to 512MB of Battery Backed Write Cache. The standard server allows for up to 4 Internal Hot Pluggable or Non Hot Pluggable 3.5” SATA or SAS hard drives. There is an optional expansion chassis that will allow for a further 4 x 3.5” drives of either type if you need it. This gives this low end system some serious potential in terms of disk capacity. The very entry level model comes with a low end Smart Array B110i controller which I’d recommend upgrading to the 410 with BBWC as soon as possible. Whilst I’ve not tested this low end controller, I really think you will need the better disk throughput to keep up with the processing grunt this server has to offer.
Externally the server has 3 drive bays of which one is already filled with a DVD ROM as standard (about time too). It has 8 USB Ports in total 2 on Front, 4 on Rear and 2 internal (1 for tape but I didn’t use this). The system has 4 x PCI-Express slots internally of various configurations (x8 Gen 1, x16 Gen2 and x8 Gen 2). The standard power supply is a 460w non hot pluggable/non redundant power supply. You can replace it with a hot pluggable unit and add a second for redundancy. This is another area that needs consideration as you have the option to “right-size” your power supply configuration therefore ensuring optimum efficiency in terms of power management. Check out their guidance here. There’s also the option for redundant fans in the system too if needed.
The server runs pretty quietly in my office and it will be a shame to have to give it back to them as I’ve grown somewhat attached to it. Overall I am impressed with the ML330 G6 server. It seems to have a fair degree of expandability without the high cost normally associated with it. My one down side (and this is common across most name brand servers right now) is that I’d like to see them have a couple of ESata ports on the rear for things like external disk backup devices. Given the world is moving this way I can only hope that the G7 series will accommodate this request as a standard feature.
You can find out more about the ML330 G6 here or buy one from my company here if you so desire.
Tags: Hardware I use, HP, Hyper-V, SBS 2008, Virtualisation
Posted in Reviews | 2 Comments »
Microsoft embraces Linux
Tuesday, July 21st, 2009
No the world has not come to an end, but in a sign of just how serious Microsoft is about getting to number 1 in the virtualisation stakes, they have released source code to the open source community for inclusion into the core of the Linux operating system. The source code will ensure that Linux can integrate well with the Microsoft Hyper-V Virtualisation platform. Many claim that Microsoft are not interested in the open source community but I suspect this latest surprise should rock the boat enough for them to say nothing is for certain. More details on this here on Computerworld
Tags: Hyper-V, Linux, Virtualisation
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