Monday, April 30, 2012

Enable Schedule for SCSM 2012 ETL

By default, the schedules for the extract, transform, and load (ETL) jobs are not enabled. If ETL is now enabled, you will get no data from SCSM console when generating any report.

In this release of Service Manager (System Center 2012 – Service Manager), you can enable the schedules only by using Windows PowerShell.


Enable-SCDWJobSchedule –JobName Extract_<data warehouse management group name>
Enable-SCDWJobSchedule –JobName Extract_<Service Manager management group name>
Enable-SCDWJobSchedule –JobName Transform.Common
Enable-SCDWJobSchedule –JobName Load.Common




Sunday, April 22, 2012

Hyper-V Live Migration of Windows Server 8 Beta


Hyper-V Live Migration of Yesterday
When Hyper-V 2.0 introduced together with Windows Server 2008 R2, it was indeed has brought Microsoft into the leader quadrant as one of the Virtualization player in the market. One of the feature which brought Hyper-V close (if not at par) with other rivals is the introduce of Cluster Shared Volume (CSV) which has brought Live Migration (a.k.a VMotion in VMWare) a reality. With Hyper-V 2.0 and CSV, Microsoft introduce the High Availability (HA) to their Virtualization solutions.

Live migration allows you to transparently move running virtual machines from one Hyper-V node of the failover cluster to another Hyper-V node in the same cluster without a dropped network connection or perceived downtime. All virtual machines are stored in the shared storage area which can be an iSCSI or Fiber-Channel Storage Area Network (SAN) , and the running virtual machine state is managed by one of the nodes. A technical write up in detail of Using Live Migration with Cluster Shared Volumes in Windows Server 2008 R2 is made available for some of us who want to dig further how stuffs works.



Hyper-V Live Migration of Today
Windows Server 8 Beta is available now and among all interesting new features, Hyper-V 3.0 is in bundled a lot more new features. In this blog, we will look at Live Migration in compare to Hyper-V 2.0 which introduced with Windows Server 2008 R2.

In Hyper-V 3.0, Live Migration are now refer to Hyper-V Virtual Machine Mobility which consists of:

  • Live Migration Without Shared Storage
  • Live Migration with SMB Shared Storage
  • Live Migration with Failover Cluster
  • Storage Migration (YES, you can now live migrate VM's storage)
The Key benefits of Live Migration in Windows Server 8 Beta is delivers improved performance and flexibility. It is also now available inside and outside of clustered environments—both with and without shared storage.

Live Migration Without Shared Storage
Also know as 'Shared Nothing Live Migration' is the most jaw dropping feature in Hyper-V 3.0. As its name suggest, you do not require any shared storage for Live Migration to kick off. AWESOME !!
Be aware that this option of Live Migration does not provide any High Availability (HA) capability. In my very own opinion, you may consider this option in a small scale deployment/environment.


Live Migration with SMB Shared Storage (SMB)
Hyper-V 3.0 Live Migration could now leverage on SMB 2.2 in WIndows Server 8 Beta. With SMB 2.2, file sharing performance is greatly enhanced and the most significant enhancement direct affect the capabilities of Hyper-V 3.0 is the support of multichannel.

And as i am writing this blog, SMB 3.0 is there for Windows Server 2012. Read more at Windows Server Blog. Our friends, Beh Chor How, has an experience on this and he had this blog at V-Enfra.

If you are not ready to deploy a clustered Hyper-V environment and wanting to enjoy the live migration almost similar with Hyper-V Cluster, then this will be one of the options for you. Sweet and simple ! :-)



Live Migration with Failover Clusters
The similar feature (if not the same) Hyper-V cluster with Failover Cluster introduced in Windows Server 2008 R2. To mention a few significant improvement, these are:-

  • Simultaneous Live Migration
  • VM Liive Migration Queue
  • Clustered Share Volume (CSV 2.0)  

This will be the most ideal deployment for enterprise level organisation for highly virtualized infrastructure and HA capabilities.


Live Storage Migration
Oh yes, 'LIVE STORAGE MIGRATION', is a new thing in Hyper-V 3.0 Clustered. You may get more details at Windows Server 8- Truly Live Storage Migration.


Sunday, April 15, 2012

System Center 2012 CTP for Windows Server "8" Beta

Have done some preliminary readings about CTP and its material.

What is CTP
Community Technology Preview (“CTP”) enables System Center customers to jointly evaluate System Center 2012 and Windows Server “8” Beta. Customers should use this CTP for their evaluations of Windows Server “8” beta, and to provide Microsoft with feedback on both products. The CTP includes updates to the Virtual Machine Manager and Data Protection Manager components of System Center 2012.


What are the technology available now in CTP
As of now, there are only 2 products available in CTP program, these are:-
  • Virtual Machine Manager 2012
  • Data Protection Manager 2012

What do I get out of SC2012 CTP

Virtual Machine Manager
The CTP enables the Virtual Machine Manager component's management server to run on Windows Server “8” as well as managing virtual machines (VMs) hosted on Windows Server “8”. The CTP also enables management of new Windows Server “8” features in Virtual Machine Manager:

  • Creation of Hyper-V Virtual Networks using Hyper-V Network Virtualization
  • Creation of virtual machines using the VHDx format
  • SMB 2.2 file servers as storage for virtual machines in a clustered and non-clustered environment
  • Live migration and live storage migration
Data Protection Manager The CTP enables the Data Protection Manager component's repository and agents to run on Windows Server ‘8” as well as providing protection in Windows Server “8” environments. The CTP also adds protection for new features in Windows Server “8”:

  • Hyper-V Virtual Machines on Cluster Shared Volumes 2.0 (CSV2.0)
  • Hyper-V Virtual Machines on remote SMB share
  • Files on De-Duplicated Volumes

What are the system requirements


Supported operating systems: Windows Server 2008, Windows Server 2008 R2, Windows Server 8 Beta

Data Protection Manager:
Windows 2008
Windows 2008 R2
Windows "8" Beta

Virtual Machine Manager:
 
Windows “8” Beta (Management Server, Console, Library Server, VM Hosts)
Windows “8” Beta or Windows Server 2008 R2 (Database Server)
Windows Server “8” is the only supported guest operating system

Other Software: SQL Server 2008 R2 with SP1, Standard, Enterprise or Datacenter Edition, 64-bit edition only

Pre-requisite Software: .NET 3.5

Hypervisor:  Data Protection Manager: Not applicable
Virtual Machine Manager: Hyper-V on Windows Server "8" only

Where can I get CTP
http://www.microsoft.com/download/en/details.aspx?id=29099


Saturday, April 7, 2012

Hyper-V Replica of Windows Server 8 Beta

I have blogged about Hyper-V replica a while ago when Windows Server 8 release as Developer Preview. And here comes the Windows Server 8 Beta released not long ago, Hyper-V Replica is everywhere on the net most exciting part of it, more and more detailed technical documentation make available by Microsoft to the public particular to this piece of Hyper-V components.
My first look is on the Windows Server 8 Hyper-V Component Architecture Poster and my first expression was…………<speechless>………..and WOW !!!! IMPRESSIVE!

Windows Server "8" Beta Hyper-V Component Architecture Poster

"Hyper-V Replica is an asynchronous virtual machine replication technology that is included in Windows Server "8" Beta. It is designed for business continuity and disaster recovery. It works with any server, network, or storage vendor. It does not require any shared storage. It enables you to replicate individual or multiple virtual machines. Hyper-V Replica is tightly integrated with Hyper-V and Failover Clustering. You can replicate virtual machines from one computer running Hyper-V at a primary site (the primary server) to another computer running Hyper-V at a Replica site (the Replica server). The Replica server accepts incoming replication traffic from one or more primary servers." - Windows Server "8" Beta Hyper-V Component Architecture Poster

Figure 1: Windows Server "8" Beta Hyper-V Component Architecture Poster

Technical Write Up
A document on Understand and Troubleshoot Hyper-V Replica in Windows Server "8" Beta is available for you if you are looking for the detailed bits of Hyper-V Replica in Windows Server 8. I personally find that this document is very useful for someone like me who involves in proposing Hyper-V design.

Hyper-V Replica with Powershell
For some of you would like to deploy Hyper-V with Server Core installation, you may be looking into managing Hyper-V Replica using Powershell. The below 2 blogs you may be interested in :

Technical Diagram of Hyper-V Replica



My previous testing and blog of Hyper-V Replica
You may refer to :-
How-To: Enable Hyper-V 3.0 Replica (Part 1)

More testing on the way when I secured hardware for testing :-)