In this last part of three Aaron Denton shares his experiences after ther upgrade from Hyper-V 1.0 to Hyper-V 2.0.

In the previous posts for this series, I discussed why we decided to upgrade our virtual machine host servers from Windows Server 2008 to revision 2. I also outlined the implementation plan.

Now that I’ve gone through the actual upgrade, I want to share how it went.

Cluster Shared Volumes

While there may not be any performance or high availability gains from this feature, I consider it a great one from an administrative standpoint.

To illustrate my point, consider the number of disks needed to have clustered Exchange 2007 servers running as VMs in revision 1. For each server one disk for Windows, a disk for each database, and a disk for each set of transaction logs is needed. With just one mailbox store, six iSCSI disks are needed. When you add in the disks you need to run Hub Transport and Client Access servers you easily need 8-10 disks just for email.

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This article describes the Hyper-V upgrade process in a clustered environment.

In my previous post I described why we decided to upgrade our highly available Hyper-V environment from version 1 to version 2. We wanted to take advantage of the Cluster Shared Volumes, Dynamic Memory, and Live Migration. Next I’ll describe the process I went through to test the scenario in my test lab for the new features.

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This is part 1 of a multi-part series sharing my experience upgrading my Hyper-V servers from Windows Server 2008 R1 to R2.

While there are several new features available in R2 already outlined in some other posts on this blog, there are a few specific Hyper-V features that drove me to want to upgrade.

Hyper-V 2.0

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In this final part we cover how Self-Service users can use SCVMM 2012 to deploy VMs to private clouds, how the new Services construct allows deployment and management of a group of VMs as a unit and we conclude with a few final thoughts.

Whilst the concept of self-service users existed in SCVMM 2008 it’s been expanded in this new version. Self-service users can now use either the web based self-service interface (for backward compatibility) or a locked down version of the SCVMM console.

Self-service empowerment in SCVMM 2012

They can create VMs across all three hypervisors through SCVMM and they deploy their VMs to private clouds. Administrators create self-service user roles and assign these to clouds with each user role having specific quotas for their resources. There’s a simple network diagram that self-service users see when they deploy their VM(s) to a cloud. Unlike SCVMM 2008 self-service users can create their own templates and profiles if given permission to do so and they can now also create VMs from building blocks such as VHDs, rather than being limited to administrator provided templates.

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In this part we take a look at how SCVMM 2012 integrates with VMware’s and Citrix’s platforms as well as the new features for patching cluster nodes in a safe way.

There are some key differences in how SCVMM 2012 integrates with VMware’s infrastructure compared to SCVMM 2008. It no longer imports, merges or synchronizes the tree structure from vCenter to SCVMM, instead you manually add ESX servers to any VMM host group.

Integrating SCVMM 2012 with VMware’s platform

When you import a VMware template to the library the .vmdk file is left in the ESX data store and only the metadata is copied to the library. HTTPS is used for all data transfers between ESX hosts and the VMM library which means there’s no longer the need to enable root Secure Shell (SSH) access to ESX hosts to support the Secure File Transfer Protocol (SFTP).

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This part looks at Bare Metal Configuration of new hardware, cluster creation from within SCVMM 2012 and the new Dynamic Optimization feature for balancing the load in a cluster as well as Power Optimization for automatic shutdown of nodes during low load times.

One really cool feature in System Center Virtual Manager 2012that will be popular in large environments is the concept of provisioning new host hardware without visiting each new server.

Bare Metal Configuration in System Center Virtual Manager 2012

Through integration with Base Board Management (BMC) controllers, Windows Deployment Services (WDS) and the new boot from VHD feature in Windows Server 2008 R2 this magic can happen.

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In this part we see how System Center Virtual Machine Manager 2012 will make it a LOT easier to manage networks with new automation features, how it integrates with hardware load balancers and SAN storage.

One hassle in System Center Virtual Machine Manager 2008 and Hyper-V today is the restriction of having to manage networks on a per NIC basis; SCVMM comes to the rescue with new networking features.

Logical networks in System Center Virtual Machine Manager 2012

A logical network with one or more logical network definitions groups together IP subnets and VLANs to simplify network management in SCVMM 2012. Typical networks would be backend, frontend, management or backup. When you provision a host or VM you associate it with a logical network and it automatically receives a fixed IP address and mac address. Logical networks can span geographies with one or more logical network definitions for each location. You can also use DHCP instead of controlling IP address allocation through SCVMM if you so desire. Each NIC on a host needs to be associated with a logical network in either trunk or access mode. In the latter only a single VLAN ID is allowed whereas in trunk mode multiple VLAN IDs can be used in different VMs that share the NIC.

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In this part we look at how a private cloud works in SCVMM 2012, how the fabric makes up the underlying components of a cloud and how the library has been improved as well as the new Run As account and Run As profile features.

Maybe it’s just me but when there’s been SO much talk about the cloud in IT over the last year or two and when there’s a button called “Create Cloud” inside a new product it tickles my interest.

Private Cloud in System Center Virtual Machine Manager 2012

In SCVMMs terms a cloud provide the following characteristics; self-service to allow administrators to delegate provisioning of VMs in the cloud, resource pooling and opacity because users need no knowledge of the underlying physical hardware. It’s also elastic as it’s easy to add resources to increase capacity and private clouds can contain hosts from all three supported hypervisors, you can even create a SCVMM cloud from a VMware resource pool.

Creating a private cloud in SCVMM is a matter of a simple wizard (and some planning!)

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In this part we’ll do the 10 000 foot view of what’s new in System Center Virtual Machine Manager 2012 as well as what’s required for installation and some tips around creating a highly available SCVMM environment.

I love when Microsoft takes an already good product and adds a whole lot of new features to make the next version not just better but excellent. This is what’s happening with System Center Virtual Machine Manager (SCVMM) in its new version: 2012, currently in beta, to be released in the second half of 2011.

The Office Ribbon interface makes its mark in SCVMM 20212

In this article series we’ll take a look at what’s new, what’s improved and introduce the new concepts and capabilities of SCVMM 2012.

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This article gives some tips about Hyper-V performance monitoring. Among other things you learn how to use Hyper-V spefic counters, how to monitor comitted memory and memory buffers.

Seasoned sys admins have a good idea of how to use Task Manager and Performance Monitor to understand what’s going on when there’s a server performance issue. Those skills transfer well to the virtual world but there are some gotchas that we’ll cover in this article.

Task Manager in VMs lies

The first rule is don’t ever measure performance of a VM from within a VM. Most sys admins first reaction to performance complaints will be to have a look in Task Manager. Unfortunately that doesn’t work in a VM because it can only see its little keyhole view of the world. Here’s a simple test to understand this; run one VM on a host, run an application (such as Prime95) that maxes out the virtual CPU(s). Task Manager will report 100% CPU but if you now start another VM and run the same application in that VM, Task Manager will still report 100% but it’s actually running at half the speed compared to earlier. This example disregards additional processors in the host but clearly demonstrates: Task Manager in VMs lies.

Create baselines

The second rule for performance monitoring, whether physical or virtual is to create baselines when things are humming along. Unless you’ve got a baseline when performance was good and users happy you have nothing to compare with when issues arise. Learn how to create Data Collector Sets; log for a few days and archive the results.

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Here are listed some well-known and some less well known tips and gotchas that will improve your experience with and performance of Hyper-V.

In the last post of this Hyper-V performance tuning series I discussed memory, storage and networking. Today I will list some well-known and some less well known tips and gotchas that will improve your experience with and performance of Hyper-V.

Integration components

Loading the (latest) integration components (IC) is the single most important step in optimizing performance. Check in Device Manager in the VM that Virtual Machine Bus shows up under System Devices, if it does the IC are loaded.

Guest OS

Use newer operating systems as guest OSs. In the physical world a rule of thumb is “if you’re going to run it on older hardware, run an older OS” which would tend to favour spinning up a Windows Server 2003 box rather than 2008 on a less powerful box. In the VM world the opposite applies, if you’re resource constrained on a host but you need a new VM go for the latest OS; it will work better in the virtual world.

Hyper-V Manager

Close Hyper-V Manager when you’re not using it; the monitoring of statistics cause unnecessary WMI activity in the parent partition and the thumbnails of the screens waste resources in both host and guest. Don’t use Virtual Machine Connection to manage VMs, use remote desktop sessions instead, the resource usage in the VMs will be lower.

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In this second part of the Hyper-V Performance Tuning series we’ll look at memory, storage and networking for your virtualization platform.

In part 2 of this series about Hyper-V performance tuning we continue the look at designing your Hyper-V farm and the need to balance budget against resource needs; you’ll want to design with a good mix of memory, disk and networking resources to maximize performance.

Memory

Optimizing memory for VMs is a challenge in Hyper-V of today as the memory you assign to each VM is fixed whether the VM actually uses it or not. The good news it’s going to become a whole lot easier when Microsoft releases SP1 for Windows Server 2008 R2 and Dynamic Memory comes into play. There’s a registry key that you can use to tweak the memory reserve for the host but normally you shouldn’t have to touch it, (it’s located at HKLM:\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\Virtualization\MemoryReserve). This key is a REG_DWORD and you have to create it, default decimal value is 32 for 32 MB, maximum is 1024. If you follow best practises and run minimal services in the host the default should work fine.

Microsoft recommends setting start-up RAM for 2008 R2, 2008 , Windows 7 and Vista to 512 MB whereas Windows 2003 and XP should start with 128 MB.

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When it comes to Hyper-V performance tuning the assigned virtual processors to virtual machines is essential.

Hyper – V, Microsoft’s answer to VMWare ESXi / VSphere has now been around for a few years and is (arguably) catching up on the feature front. Whether the lower price point and familiar management tools will win businesses over remains to be seen but one thing is certain; when you’ve shelled out for that (or more likely “those”) beefy host servers you want the best performance you can get.

In this article series we’ll first look at design ideas for a Hyper-V environment, then some performance tips and gotchas and finally recommendations for how to measure performance.

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This article compares Microsoft Hyper-V Dynamic Memory and VMware Memory Overcommit.

In an attempt to provide higher levels of server consolidation, both Microsoft and VMware have developed their own solution for higher utilization of Random Access Memory (RAM). VMware’s Memory Overcommit has been available for quite some time, while Dynamic Memory is a new player. How do they compare?

It is always hard to make comparisons like this one. I don’t want to start a fight between VMware’s and Microsoft’s fan-boys. In my view, it is too early to say which memory management technology is better. In this article, I will just compare both approaches.

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In my last post about Exchange migration, I wrote about the preparation of the Active Directory. Before I give a rough guide through the migration process I want to talk about the possibilities of virtualizing Exchange Server 2010. There are two reasons why I think it is necessary to bring this point up: First, there are still quite a few administrators that have a deep aversion to virtualization. Second, although virtualization is widely used today, there are a few things you have to consider before you should deploy Exchange 2010 on a virtualized machine. Exchange 2010 is ready for virtualization, so you can install every role on virtualized guests. Only the Unified Messaging Server Role needs to be installed directly on the hardware.

For those who are still skeptical about running a business-critical application like Exchange in a virtualized environment, I just have to say that it works; indeed, it works very well. Besides that, there is no difference between running Exchange Server 2010 on a hardware machine or a virtualized machine, as long as you follow some guidelines. It even has some advantages: If you want use the DAG feature of Exchange 2010 you need two Server and two Windows Server 2008 R2 Enterprise licenses. If you only have a midsized company, the chances are big that the resources of the two Servers are not close to being utilized properly. The Windows Enterprise license allows you to run up to four software instances at a time in a virtualized environment under one license. So you could have up to eight virtualized machines running Windows Server 2008 R2 Enterprise with the two licenses you need for a DAG. Isn’t that alone reason enough to virtualize Exchange 2010?

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