Lab setup using Windows Server 2008 R2 server core w/Hyper-V and Openfiler SAN – Part 1

This is a step by step guide on how to build a test environment using OpenFiler SAN and Hyper-V. I am basically documenting everything I do so I can go back through and see what I did. There will be numerous parts to this setup.

Part 1 –

OpenFiler Install:

1. Download OpenFiler from http://www.openfiler.com/community/download/
2. Create a bootable CD from the image that you just downloaded
3. Boot to the CD
4. Click Next through the opening page
5. Click Next through the Keyboard Configuration
6. Click the radio button next to “Manually partition with Disk Druid”
7. On this screen you will need to create 3 partitions for Openfiler to be able to boot
8. Select your first physical disk
9. Click on New
10. Partition 1:

Mount Point: /boot
File System Type: ext3
Allowable Drives: Select the first HD
Size: 100MB
Additional Size Options: Fixed size
Check “Force to be a primary partition

11. Click Ok
12. Partition 2:

Mount Point: /
File System Type: ext3
Allowable Drives: Select the first HD
Size: 2048MB or 1024MB minimum
Additional Size Options: Fill to maximum allowable size
Check “Force to be a primary partition

13. Click Ok
14. Partition 3:

Mount Point: This will be blank
File System Type: Swap
Allowable Drives: Select the first HD
Size: 2048MB or 1024MB minimum
Additional Size Options: Fixed size
Check “Force to be a primary partition

15. Click Ok
16. Click Edit under “Network Devices”
17. Uncheck “Configure using DHCP”
18. Give the interface an IP Address and Subnet Mask
19. Click Ok
20. Fill in the Gateway and DNS information
21. Click Next
22. Select your timezone and click Next
23. Set a root password
24. Click Next
25. Click Next to install
26. It will prompt you to remove the media and reboot
27. Once it reboots you will come to a login, you can leave that machine and move on to installing Windows Server 2008 R2 server core

You can also just follow this (Graphical Installation) guide.

Windows Server 2008 R2 server core:

1. Boot to the dvd
2. Click Next through the opening screen
3. Click Install now
4. Select Windows Server 208 R2 Enterprise (Server Core Installation). You can select standard or datacenter if you would like
5. Check the accept license terms box and click Next
6. Select Custom (advanced)
7. Select the Disk you would like to install on and click Next
8. After installation is complete, the computer will reboot
9. Click Ok on the screen telling you to change the password
10. Type in your password and then type in again to confirm
11. You will then see the command prompt, this is all you see for server core
12. You will now move on to configuring Hyper-V and remote access

You can also follow this (Graphical Installation) guide.

Stay tuned for part 2, I will be posting part 2 sometime later today.

More questions about Hyper-V and Equallogics

Now that we are starting to slowly dive into fully understanding virtualization using Hyper-V and an Equallogic PS6000E array, we are starting to come up with more and more questions. After reading a couple of the comments from my post yesterday it appears that the Auto Snapshot Manager is the way to go for snapshots. Here is a small list of questions that we are looking into right now:

What do you do about the paging file? When building an Exchange server before, it was recommened to put the paging file on a seperate physical hard disk as it increased performance. Now that we have a SAN array (Raid 50), do you just the leave the default path for the paging file?

Backup structure? Do we use snapshots as part of our backup plan? I understand that snapshots would come in handy before you do, lets say, a service pack install but as far as part of your backup plan. Disk level, file level, what do you use? If you use System Center, did you get SCDPM?

Do you use thin provisioning? When do you use it? From what I am reading it sounds like you don’t want to use thin provisioning when there is a massive workload.

For testing purposes I have setup a small little lab consisting of 3 PC’s. First off I installed OpenFiler on a Dell Optiplex 745 which will act as our SAN array for the time being, then I installed Windows Server 2008 R2 server core on a Poweredge T100 server which acts as our Host. I also have a laptop in the mix that has Windows 7 installed with the Hyper-V Manager. This gives me the opportunity to test out some of the features in Hyper-V before we start building our production environment.

Hyper-v and Equallogic Snapshots

Starting to come up with more and more questions as we continue to slowly gain knowledge of Hyper-v and Equallogic SAN’s. One question we had today is how do the snapshots in Equallogic differ from the Hyper-v snapshots? We still haven’t figured it out totally but I found a couple links that explain the Hyper-v snapshots:

http://www.gary-martin.co.uk/ – Once at the site go to the January archive and select the article “Hyper-v snapshots”. This arcticle explains what happens in the background when a snapshot is taken. With snapshots you want to be very careful, it basically creates a new file called a .avhd file which then progress’s to grow as the new .vhd file. When you do delete these snapshots you have taken, once you shut down the VM it will merge the .avhd and .vhd file. Interesting little article.

Hyper-V Virtual Machine Snapshots – FAQ – This one is from Microsoft technet and shows basically the same information.

My question is why would you use the Equallogic snapshots over the Hyper-v snapshots or vice versa? It appears that the Hyper-v snapshots include State, Data and Hardware configuration which Equallogic would be unaware of as it would be taking a snapshot of just the disk and not the data that the VM has stored on the Host. Once I have the answer to that I will add it in here but for now that is my question.

SAN Installation videos

We are not planning on hiring a company to come help with our SAN installation so after speaking with Dell for a while we were given these links to a couple of YouTube videos that explain the process of installation.

This first one is called “Zero to SAN in less than 6 minutes“:

The second one is called “PS6000 Addition to an existing PS Series SAN using the Host Integration Toolkit“

Hope you enjoy!

Virtualization Equipment

Not to much going on at work, as far as virtualization goes, for the past few weeks so I haven’t posted at all.

We finally made our purchase though, here are the details of what we got:

SAN – Equallogic PS6000E, we decided to go with the 16x 500GB HD’s instead of the 8x 1TB drives. We did this for the increased disk IOPS.

Host – 2x PowerEdge R710′s each with the following: 2x X5550 Xeon Procs 2.66GHz Quad Core, 24GB’s RAM, 4 GB Ethernet NICS, 2x 146GB 15k RPM HD’s

Switch – 2x PowerConnect 6224, 24GbE Ports

All said and done looking at around $42,000. This price does not include System Center either. We are pretty excited to get this equipment in so we can start getting everything ready. We are looking at implementation in early January 2010. I will keep this updated a lot more once we start the process.

Top 10 Reasons to Upgrade to Windows Server 2008 R2

I am not to sure where my boss found this but it’s another great article on reason’s to upgrade. This will be a long post but will be worth it to put on here.

Windows Server® 2008 R2 is the newest Windows Server operating system from Microsoft. Designed to help organizations reduce operating costs and increase efficiencies, Windows Server 2008 R2 provides enhanced management control over resources across the enterprise. It is designed to provide better energy efficiency and performance by reducing power consumption and lowering overhead costs. It also helps provide improved branch office capabilities, exciting new remote access experiences, streamlined server management, and expands the Microsoft virtualization strategy for both client and server computers.

#1. Powerful Hardware and Scaling Features

Windows Server 2008 R2 was designed to perform as well or better for the same hardware base as Windows Server 2008. In addition, R2 is the first Windows Server operating system to move solely to a 64-bit architecture.
Windows Server 2008 R2 also has several CPU-specific enhancements. First, this version expands CPU support to enable customers to run with up to 256 logical processors. R2 also supports Second Level Translation (SLAT), which enables R2 to take advantage of the Enhanced Page Tables feature found in the latest AMD CPUs as well as the similar Nested Page Tables feature found in Intel’s latest processors. The combination enables R2 servers to run with much improved memory management.
Components of Windows Server 2008 R2 have received hardware boosts as well. Hyper-V in Windows Server 2008 R2 can now access up to 64 logical CPUs on host computers. This capability not only takes advantage of new multicore systems, it also means greater virtual machine consolidation ratios per physical host.

#2. Reduced Power Consumption

Windows Server 2008 introduced a ‘balanced’ power policy, which monitors the utilization level of the processors on the server and dynamically adjusts the processor performance states to limit power to the needs of the workload. Windows Server 2008 R2 enhances this power saving feature by adding more granular abilities to manage and monitor server and server CPU power consumption, as well as extending this ability to the desktop via new power-oriented Group Policy settings.
Active Directory® Domain Services Group Policy in Windows Server 2008 already gave administrators a certain amount of control over power management on client PCs. These capabilities are enhanced in Windows Server 2008 R2 and Windows® 7 to provide even more precise control in more deployment scenarios for even greater potential savings.

#3. Hyper-V™ in Windows Server 2008 R2

Windows Server 2008 R2 also holds the much-anticipated update to Microsoft’s virtualization technology, Hyper-V™. The new Hyper-V™ was designed to augment both existing virtual machine management as well as to address specific IT challenges, especially around server migration.
Hyper-V™ is an enabling technology for one of Windows Server 2008 R2’s marquee features, Live Migration. With Hyper-V version 1.0, Windows Server 2008 was capable of Quick Migration, which could move VMs between physical hosts with only a few seconds of down-time. Still, those few seconds were enough to cause difficulties in certain scenarios, especially those includling client connections to VM-hosted servers. With Live Migration, moves between physical targets happen in milliseconds, which means migration operations become invisible to connected users. Making this even easier is a new feature called processor compatibility mode, which allows administrators to migrate machines between different generations of same-brand CPUs.
Customers employing System Center Virtual Machine Manager for Hyper-V will also enjoy additional management and orchestration scenarios, including a new VM-oriented Performance and Resource Optimization feature and updated support for managing failover clusters.
The new Hyper-V™ also has core performance enhancements, including the previously mentioned ability to take advantage of up to 64 logical processors and to beef up that CPU performance with host support for Second Level Translation (SLAT). Finally, VMs can also add and remove storage without requiring a reboot and also boot from VHD as well.

#4. Reduced Desktop Costs with VDI

Much of the interest in virtualization solutions is in the server world. However, equally exciting advances are being made in presentation virtualization, where processing happens on a server optimized for capacity and availability while graphics, keyboard, mouse, and other user I/O functions are handled at the user’s desktop.
Windows Server 2008 R2 contains enhanced Virtual Desktop Integration (VDI) technology, which extends the functionality of Terminal Services to deliver certain business programs to their employee’s remote desktops. With VDI, programs that Remote Desktop Services sends to a computer are now available on the Start menu right alongside programs that are locally installed. This approach provides improved desktop virtualization and better application virtualization.
Desktop virtualization will benefit from features including improved personalization management, a near-invisible integration of virtualized desktops and applications in Windows 7, better audio and graphics performance, a seriously cool Web access update and more. VDI provides more efficient use of virtualized resources and better integration with local peripheral hardware as well as powerful new virtual management features.

#5. Easier and More Efficient Server Management

Although increasing the capabilities of your server operating system is always a good thing, the perceived downside has always been additional complexity and workload for day-to-day server managers. Windows Server 2008 R2 specifically addresses this problem with lots of work evident across all of its management-oriented consoles. Features in these tools include:
• Improved data center power consumption and management, as evidenced earlier
• Improved remote administration, including a remotely-installable Server Manager
• Improved identity management features via the updated and simplified Active Directory Domain Services and Active Directory Federated Services
Windows Server 2008 R2 also improves on the popular PowerShell feature introduced in Windows Server 2008. PowerShell 2.0 significantly enhances the earlier version with the inclusion of more than 240 new pre-built cmdlets as well as a new graphical user interface (GUI) that adds professional-level development features for creating new cmdlets. The new GUI includes colored syntaxing, new production script debugging capabilities, and new testing tools.

#6. Ubiquitous Remote Access

Today’s mobile workforce is increasing the demand on IT to provide remote access to corporate resources. However, managing remote computers is an ongoing challenge, with low wide are network (WAN) bandwidth and sporadic connection and re-connection processes interfering with lengthier desktop management tasks such as Group Policy changes and up-to-date patching.
Windows Server 2008 R2 introduces a new type of connectivity called DirectAccess—a powerful way for remote users to seamlessly access corporate resources without requiring a traditional VPN connection and client software. Using technologies that shipped in Windows Server 2008, Microsoft has added simple management wizards that enable administrators to configure SSTP and IPv6 across both R2 and Windows 7 clients to enable the basic DirectAccess connection, and then augment that connection with additional R2 management and security tools, including management policies and NAP.
With DirectAccess, every user is considered remote all of the time. Users are no longer required to distinguish between local and remote connections. DirectAccess handles all of these distinctions in the background. IT professionals retain precise access control and full perimeter security, helping to ease both desktop security and management headaches on both sides of the connection.

#7. Improved Branch Office Performance and Management

Many branch office IT architectures have relatively low bandwidth. Slow WAN links impact the productivity of branch office employees waiting to access content from the main office, and costs for branch office bandwidth allocation can amount to as much as 33 % of overall corporate IT spending. To address this challenge, Windows Server 2008 R2 introduces a feature called BranchCache™, which reduces WAN utilization and improves the responsiveness of network applications.
With BranchCache™, clients who request access to data on the organization’s network are sent directions to the file on the local (branch office) network if the file has ever been requested there before. If the file is stored locally, those clients get immediate high-speed access. Such files can be stored either on a local BranchCache™ server for larger branch offices or simply on local Windows 7 PCs.

#8. Simplified Management for SMBs

With Windows Server 2008 R2, Microsoft is focusing more attention at the SMB and mid-market customer. This new focus provides these customers with a rich landscape of Microsoft product offerings, from Small Business Server up to Windows Essential Business Server and now Windows Server 2008 Standard. All SKUs are being outfitted with new management tools to make SMB IT Pro life easier.
Active Directory’s new Active Directory Administration Center is one example—all those disparate management GUIs now hosted ina single interface and all based on PowerShell. Additionally, there are the Best Practice Analyzers, which Microsoft has extended to every server role to keep all your server configs in sync with the latest know-how.
And last but not least, there’s the new Windows Server Backup utility. Long a second-class citizen, this updated, in-the-box backup app has been significantly upgraded to include more granular support for designing backup jobs, including support for system state operations; and, it’s been optimized to run both faster and to use less disk space.

#9. The Strongest Web and Application Server To Date

Windows Server 2008 R2 includes many updates that make it the best Windows Server application platform yet, but one of the most important is the new Internet Information Services 7.5 (IIS 7.5).
The updated Web server includes features that streamline management by extending IIS Manager, implementing the IIS PowerShell Provider and taking advantage of .NET on Server Core. IIS 7.5 also integrates new support and troubleshooting features, including configuration logging and a dedicated Best Practice Analyzer. Last, we’ve integrated several popular optional extensions associated with Windows Server 2008, including URLScan 3.0 (now known as the Request Filter Module).

#10. Managing Data Not just Managing Storage

Managing storage isn’t just about managing disks. Storage volume is increasing at a 51% compounded annual growth rate between 2008 and 2012 according to IDC*. To keep pace and stay competitive, organizations must begin managing data, not just disks. Windows Server 2008 R2 gives IT administrators the tools for precisely this kind of initiative with the new File Classification Infrastructure (FCI). This new features builds an extensible and automated classification mechanism on top of existing shared file architetures; this enables IT administrators to direct specific actions for specific files based on entirely customizable classification. FCI is also extensible to partners, which means Windows Server 2008 R2 users can expect to see additional capabilities around FCI being delivered by ISVs in the near future.

Finding the right role in IT

I found this great article off of TechRepublic website:

“When I was young, I played soccer, although I didn’t play that well. I never really understood why some players would stay away from the ball instead of chasing after it. I could see the goalie stayed in his place, but I thought everyone else should chase the ball. I found, with experience, that the players who stayed in place were often more effective at what they were doing than those who spent their time running after the ball.

We have the same situation in IT. We need people to stay in roles and positions that leverage their strengths and allow them to be good at what they do. While occasionally the goalies have to get out of the box, their primary focus is guarding the goal. The same is true of your IT staff. They need to stay focused on what they do best and allow others to do what they do best.”

For the rest of this article, click Here