I hesitate to believe what I am told when there is no supporting data.  I have experimented a fair bit with dynamic and differencing disks in Virtual PC, Virtual Server and Hyper-V (Server 2008). 

Thanks to my Virtual Machine MVP colleagues for putting me on to this whitepaper which was only written a few weeks ago.

The data found in this white paper is extremely useful.  It also has links to MSDN to clarify some concepts and in certain cases, show scoped code to reinforce the points.  Very impressive!

http://download.microsoft.com/download/0/7/7/0778C0BB-5281-4390-92CD-EC138A18F2F9/WS08_R2_VHD_Performance_WhitePaper.docx

I submitted a post to Tech republic earlier in the month to detail what I am doing and what makes up my Home Office test lab.  See Below:

http://blogs.techrepublic.com.com/networking/?p=2747&tag=content;leftCol

This event was incredibly popular last time and many could not make it either because the registration filled up or the storm so Pierre Roman has offered to run the event one more time!

Topic: Deployment Deep Dive on Windows 7 Community Tour-Ottawa Take 2

Description:

Are you running Windows XP?  Are you feeling the pressure of creating a deployment plan? Have no fear!  Leveraging learning’s from two Windows 7 early adopters this session will give you the skills you need to proceed with your own deployment.  The session will focus on free Windows 7 deployment planning and deployment tools that customize operating system packages and automate deployment planning and network deployments seamlessly. We will dive right into:        

• How to use the Microsoft Assessment and Planning (MAP) tool to identify your current hardware and application inventory.
• How to use the Windows Automated Install Kit (WAIK) to build a customized image for your organization.
• How to use the Microsoft Deployment Toolkit (MDT) to build, deploy and maintain Windows installation images.
• How to migrate the end users profile from their current installation to the Windows 7 installation using the User State Migration Toolkit (USMT).
• How to integrate MDT and Windows Deployment Services (WDS) to perform Lite Touch installations of Windows 7.

Finally we will look at how we can leverage the various tools to solve any application compatibility issues you might encounter.  We will look at how you can overcome common obstacles using the Application Compatibility Toolkit (ACT), or larger obstacles using Windows XP Mode and Microsoft Enterprise Desktop Virtualization (MED-V) and even how you can leverage Application Virtualization (App-V) to streamline application deployment and ensure all your applications work!

Please note: there is no cost to attend this event.

Location:
Microsoft Canada Co.
100 Queen Street Suite 500
Ottawa, Ontario
K1P 1J9

Agenda:

5:00 p.m.  Event registration
7:30 p.m.  Q & A
8:00 p.m.  Door Prizes

Notes:

· Pizza and Pop will be served, Please RSVP to help us order enough of both.

· Please note that no one will be admitted after 5:55 p.m.!

Registration site: http://www.clicktoattend.com/?id=146761

Event Code: 146761

Links

OWSUG.ca Web Site          http://owsug.ca/

OWSUG.ca Mailing list     http://lists.owsug.ca

OWSUG.ca Blog                  http://owsug.ca/blogs/MainFeed.aspx

OWSUG.ca Forums            http://owsug.ca/forums/default.aspx

I was asked earlier this week about differences between managing VMs using Hyper-V and managing them with SCVMM.

For the record, even if you import the Hyper-V host into SCVMM to be managed centrally you can continue to manage said host from Hyper-V manager.  This is not the recommended way of doing business for a couple of reasons.  1 reason is since you purchased SCVMM, managing your hosts and VMs centrally is a key benefit. 

If you have configured things like intelligent placement settings based on key system resources and you indirectly alter your setup by managing your VMs with a separate tool, you may be unknowingly causing your VMs to move needlessly whereas if you were managing these VMs centrally, you would see what you’re doing because you are in the same tool where this was all configured.

Also, in Hyper-V “imaging” or stateful image backup is done using snapshots.  In SCVMM these are called checkpoints, the techniques may also differ slightly between Hyper-V and SCVMM and you are doubling up on the files which may be configured to be stored in different locations.  These are not small files either…

One area in particular that I actually prefer sometimes to use Hyper-V manager is in mapping an ISO file to the optical drive on the VM.  In SCVMM the ISO file must be in the library to do this.  There are situations where you would not specifically want to have the ISO file in the library but simply to browse to the file location and mount it. 

My wish would be to see there be 2 options in the VM properties for the optical drive when using an ISO image.  1 option would use the SCVMM library and the other option would allow you to map to the ISO image from a file system location.

There’s my 2 cents.

I determined that the enclosure’s controller board is indeed “partly” fried.  I used the enclosure with another system and it caused the system to freeze but no POST issues.  This would have been a PAIN to discover.

The drive survived though despite some slight data corruption.  I lost my Virtual Server 2005 R2 install from the backup as there were too many corrupted files.  I simply restored it as is and uninstalled it and then reinstalled it, I did not lose any virtual machines is what was important.

The blitzed drive needed to undergo a 3.5hr long nail biting chkdsk though…

Overall, my 4GB system has been happily recovered and I only lost an external drive enclosure as casualty.

Theoretically, I could take the controller board to an electronics repair shop nearby and it would likely be a relatively inexpensive repair.  I may yet go that route…

Lesson learned, check the devices for power requirements and check the adapters for power output!

So I was thrilled yesterday to get everything setup the way I needed so that I could connect my eSATA drive to my 4GB DC/SQL 2008 server so that I could back up my data and finally grow my system partition…

I had everything perfect, then I made a noob mistake.  I grabbed the first loose adapter I could find that fit, plugged it in and powered everything on…

The drive light went on for a second and then off…  strange…

I checked the drive, all was well.  I checked the adapter…  AC/AC current!  damn! 

Being the stubborn sort, I figured this was barely powered for 3 seconds I could get away with connecting it correctly and what do you know, the drive powered up correctly.  Thing is, it causes my system to hang at the POST when it is connected… 

I am sorry to say that I am aware of what the problem is, only because I have been down this road before…

The trick when this happens, is to cause the POST to complete and connect the drive immediately after so the OS can use it.

I did and as planned that worked…  like many IT folks, I got busy doing something else and forgot the state I left everything in and let the system power up with the drive connected.

I came back many hours later, completely forgetting the drive connected to my system is unreliable at best and absent mindedly back up my entire data partition to it, move the swap file and reboot.

Because I am a cursed man, this one time when I would have needed it to, my system did not freeze at POST (thus serving as a reminder that I have a bad external drive connected) and booted successfully into windows further NOT reminding me of my external drive’s plight…

OK, so now I stopped all important services which have running code on my data partition and delete the data partition since it is backed up…  right???

The system prompted me to boot which I did and once again, the system sneakily booted into windows…

Excellent, now I grew my system partition as planned and put the data partition back slightly smaller and busily started restoring my files…

My system slowed to an unbelievable crawl…  then froze!

I force restarted it and guess what?  It froze at POST….

Memories of my jogging pants being pulled down in gym class came flooding back, oh yeah and the fact all my data was now backed up on a partly cooked piece of hardware!

Thank god for the Best Buy’s and Future Shops of the world and their awesome exchange/return policies…

I normally buy small hardware items there despite higher prices explicitly for the exchange/return policy :).

So until Best Buy opens, I’ll busy myself restoring chunks of data until my system freezes and then reboot and try again!  Fun times… 

More to come!

I have 2 major systems which I use for my home Virtual lab.  1 system is a 4GB dual core 64-bit small form factor PC which hosts my DC, SQL 2008 server, and VMM 2008 R2.  The other is my quad core 16GB system which hosts most of my VMs on Hyper-V R2.

I recently ran into an issue where I need to grow my system partition on my DC so I went out and purchased some much needed storage to replace an existing 500GB SATA drive which my 4GB system will inherit.

Well, I ran into a couple of issues…  First, the small form factor bit me in the behind.  See below:

There is no room for a second hard disk, unless I pull the DVDRW drive which I don’t want to do, any additional storage must either be stuffed in the case, connected via external USB, or eSATA.  Since this system is essentially a server, eSATA is both performing enough, and budget savvy :).

OK, not so bad…  I purchased an external hard disk enclosure some time ago which until now has been being used for external USB storage but it came with an eSATA header to connect to a system internally, great!

Next issue, the bracket may be ok for a standard desktop PC, but it is just a little too high to fit in my small form factor system.  See below:

Hmm, ok so I tried to remove the header port from its’ bracket and fit it to the existing cover plates which came with the case.  See below:

As seen, the cover plate has slots in it which are just a little too big to secure the port…  Last week, when hanging some wall mounted DVD racks, I had a similar issue with the mounting screws so I purchased some washers to seal the deal and happened to have some left.

Perfect!  A perfectly stable and aesthetically pleasing solution.

The price was right too!

I finally have more than 5 days at home to get some work done which was on the back burner.  1 major task I will complete is to make my home office lab accessible remotely.  I’ll do this with either Direct Access (if I can get the consecutive IP addresses), TS Gateway, or Live Mesh failing the previous 2.

I had been using both dedicated lab systems previously for other labs and have installed SQL 2005 which had since been completely uninstalled (or so i thought).

I dedicated 1 physical 64-bit system which supports 4GB of RAM and does not support hardware virtualization to be my DC, SQL server and SCVMM server.

I decided to install SQL 2008 SP1 as the DB host.

The install for SQL 2008 is fairly straightforward and I have done it before on several occasions.  I was plagued with several issues…  All in all, this fight took 3 days of off and on time.

Firstly, I was not able to change the default path for the Shared Features, I kept running into what I found was a known issue with the RTM installer, see blow:

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/955458

Thing is, this is not consistent.  I have used the same install media on this same system with no issue… weirdness…

That was one issue. 

Next, the issue was getting Reporting Services installed in SQL 2008.  The setup wizard would fail to install RS correctly (it would list the failure).  It would still install the SQL Reporting Services windows service and would list it as an installed component in the instance for a repair.  Yet, I was unable to get it to work…

After numerous sanity checks and idea bouncing with my colleagues and fellow MVPs Wes MacDonald and Edwin Sarmiento, I figured it was time to remove SQL entirely using whatever ‘manual’ procedures are out there and try again.

The manual uninstall procedure can consist of actually using the uninstaller from Add/Remove programs or Programs and Features but often does not and is not a clean process as this can involve registering/unregistering DLL files, deleting registry keys, etc…

After removing all components of SQL 2008, I scoured the system for any possible remnants of SQL 2005 using this procedure:

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/909967

Interesting, I found a surprise at this step:

Step 2: Run the command to uninstall the SQL Server components

At a command prompt, run the following command:

"%ProgramFiles%\Microsoft SQL Server\90\Setup Bootstrap\ARPWrapper.exe /Remove"

Somehow, there was an instance of SQL 2005 reporting services hiding in the woodwork!  So I removed it…

I diligently made sure that I rebooted my system after every uninstall/reinstall…

Now, when I attempted to reinstall SQL, I still could not get reporting services to install but discovered that when I attempted to run a modify install to add/remove features, I would receive an error stating that although I was asking to modify the default instance of MSSQLSERVER, my instance of MSSQLSERVER had an instance ID of 1.

Wow, somehow the SQL installer was interpreting that there was still a SQL instance in my system somehow.  OK, because I am not a SQL guy, I pinged fellow MVP Edwin Sarmiento for another sanity check to determine if simply deleting all SQL files from my system and uninstalling SQL 2008 again should purge my system from any SQL instances.  Edwin confirmed yes…  and suggested I backup any databases and logs if I wanted to restore the data later which was very diligent of him but I did not need the existing data anyways and so did not mind losing it.

Edwin also informed me that in his experience the RTM installer was ‘buggy’ and I should patch the install by slipstreaming my install media as this has solved many problems for him in the past.  Since this seemed reasonable and in line with some of the issues I had been seeing, I went for it.

The procedure to slipstream the SQL 2008 install media is here:

http://blogs.msdn.com/petersad/archive/2009/02/25/sql-server-2008-creating-a-merged-slisptream-drop.aspx

This process took several hours with all of the data copying I needed to do and the media creating in the end needed a dual layer DVD since the slipstreamed media is larger than 4.7GB.

OK, next I made sure after uninstalling all SQL 2008 elements from Programs and Features that I deleted all SQL folders and files from all drives on my system to eliminate the possibility of the system detecting any SQL instances.

Now, I tried again installing this time with the slipstreamed media.  I selected database services, reporting services, and management components.  The system also did not complain when I changed the default install path for the features and databases.  This was a good sign…

I followed through and successfully completed the install with Reporting Services as well this time!

Since I slipstreamed my install media, I also did not need to go back and service pack my install.  Hopefully this experience will help someone not lose 3 days like I did!

The never ending pit of despair…

I am using Hyper-V and SCVMM to their fullest across all of my machines.  I am keeping the systems running optimally as far as performance.

Now what do I need?

MORE!  I need MORE!

I think like most ITPROs I was content with less before when hardware was a limitation.  Now that virtualization has exploded I am still finding I need more hardware.  Sort of…

Now, like the customers I deal with, I am finding that I need better quality scalable hardware and can no longer run a lab with a couple of clone PCs…

Virtualization is great but like all things in life, it has its’ price.

February 25 2010 User Group Meeting

Topic: Deployment Deep Dive on Windows 7 Community Tour-Ottawa

Description:

Are you running Windows XP?  Are you feeling the pressure of creating a deployment plan? Have no fear!  Leveraging learning’s from two Windows 7 early adopters this session will give you the skills you need to proceed with your own deployment.  The session will focus on free Windows 7 deployment planning and deployment tools that customize operating system packages and automate deployment planning and network deployments seamlessly. We will dive right into:        

• How to use the Microsoft Assessment and Planning (MAP) tool to identify your current hardware and application inventory.
• How to use the Windows Automated Install Kit (WAIK) to build a customized image for your organization.
• How to use the Microsoft Deployment Toolkit (MDT) to build, deploy and maintain Windows installation images.
• How to migrate the end users profile from their current installation to the Windows 7 installation using the User State Migration Toolkit (USMT).
• How to integrate MDT and Windows Deployment Services (WDS) to perform Lite Touch installations of Windows 7.

Finally we will look at how we can leverage the various tools to solve any application compatibility issues you might encounter.  We will look at how you can overcome common obstacles using the Application Compatibility Toolkit (ACT), or larger obstacles using Windows XP Mode and Microsoft Enterprise Desktop Virtualization (MED-V) and even how you can leverage Application Virtualization (App-V) to streamline application deployment and ensure all your applications work!

Please note: there is no cost to attend this event.

Location:
Microsoft Canada Co.
100 Queen Street Suite 500
Ottawa, Ontario
K1P 1J9

Agenda:

5:00 p.m.  Event registration
7:30 p.m.  Q & A
8:00 p.m.  Door Prizes

Notes:

· Pizza and Pop will be served, Please RSVP to help us order enough of both.

· Please note that no one will be admitted after 5:55 p.m.!

RSVP:http://msevents.microsoft.com/CUI/EventDetail.aspx?EventID=1032436875&culture=en-CA

Event Code: 1032436875

Links

OWSUG.ca Web Site          http://owsug.ca/

OWSUG.ca Mailing list     http://lists.owsug.ca

OWSUG.ca Blog                  http://owsug.ca/blogs/MainFeed.aspx

OWSUG.ca Forums            http://owsug.ca/forums/default.aspx

Interesting.  I was searching for my MVP Profile today to find it under Virtual Machine and NOT under Management Infrastructure ;).

It turns out that my classification was changed when I was re-awarded the MVP award.

So, now I am a Virtual Machine MVP!

Works for me :)

Topic: Double Header

Description:

SQL Server for the Accidental DBA
So your SQL Server DBA just left and your manager instantly promoted you to be the new DBA. You do not have any clue at all about SQL Server and where to start. This session will give you a high-level overview of what SQL Server is and what you need to know to get yourself started in your new, forced career

Discovering the Azure Platform for Web Server and Database Administrators

Do you manage IIS/Apache web servers or SQL Server/MySQL databases?  Do you need an infrastructure and skill-set to meet the needs of a small business with a small budget and/or the needs of a multi-millionaire dollar web property requiring high availability, load balancing, clustering and geographic redundancy?  Microsoft is about to go live with its highly scalable and affordable cloud-based platform for Windows computing, storage, data access and application services.  From its preview release in 2008, this platform has shown lots of promise, but how much does it cost, can you run Apache or MySQL on it, what can you use it for and how do you manage it?  Come and discover the answer to these and other questions…

alt="edwin_sarmiento_headshot" title="edwin_sarmiento_headshot">

Mr.  Edwin  Sarmiento , MCP MCDBA MCAD MCSD MCT MCTS MCITP:DBA MCSA

Edwin Sarmiento works as a SQL Server DBA for The Pythian Group in Ottawa, ON in Canada. Prior to joining Pythian, he was a senior systems engineer/DBA for Fujitsu Asia Pte Ltd in Singapore and is responsible for maintaining 200+ servers and databases for a global client in 10 countries.  He is very passionate about technology but has interests in music, professional and organizational development, leadership and management matters when not working with databases.  He lives up to his primary mission statement - "To help people grow and develop their full potential as God has planned for them”

Colin Melia is the Principal Architect for DreamDigital and the CTO of Imparta.

He has been a hands-on Architect and entrepreneur for 17 years having led the creation of award-winning desktop-based immersive business simulation technology, cloud-hosted web/S+S solutions and workflow-driven BI systems as well as creating the first streaming video community site with Windows Media.  He has worked in the finance, telecoms, e-learning, Internet communications and gaming industries, with his business solutions recently in use world-wide at companies like HP, O2, Cisco, IBM, Microsoft & Reuters.  He has done conference speaking for Microsoft and makes frequent presentations at IT community groups as well as serving on various committees. Being British, he’d like you to know that it’s you that has the accent :P

Announcing the Ottawa PowerShell Script Club (OPSC)!

Kirk Munro, a PowerShell MVP and well known Poshoholic is starting a PowerShell Script Club here in Ottawa in partnership with the Ottawa Windows Server User Group!

What is a Script Club?  It's like a hands-on-lab with no set topic or teacher.  You bring your PowerShell questions, ideas for a PowerShell script, or PowerShell script problems that you haven't worked out, and maybe your laptop if you have one, and other people interested in PowerShell who are at the Script Club try and help you work out the script you want.

No experience required!

Whether you are just getting started with PowerShell and want to learn more about it, or you are a more seasoned PowerShell scripter who wants to talk to peers about scripting challenges, all are welcome.

OPSC events will be held at the end of OWSUG events, and will range anywhere from 15 to 30 minutes in length depending on the interest and the number of attendees.

Location:
Microsoft Canada Co.
100 Queen Street Suite 500
Ottawa, Ontario
K1P 1J9

Agenda:

5:00 p.m.  Event registration
7:30 p.m.  Q & A
8:00 p.m.  Door Prizes

Notes:

• Pizza and Pop will be served, Please RSVP to help us order enough of both.
• Please note that no one will be admitted after 5:55 p.m.!

RSVP: http://www.clicktoattend.com/?id=144435
Event Code: 144435

In May 2009, I worked with Infinite Group Inc. and conducted a virtualization assessment for all state community colleges in the State of Mississippi.  In particular, I was asked to create a set of best practices as guidance to use for virtualizing Active Directory.

Since most Windows based network services rely on Microsoft Active Directory, virtualizing this role requires careful consideration. In particular, the following elements must be carefully planned:

• Time Synchronization
• Fault Tolerance
• High Availability
• FSMO Role Positioning

Time Synchronization

All Active Directory services are dependent on the time in some way. For services such as authentication and eventing, and licensing, the relationship is obvious. For other services such as updating, the relationship may not be so obvious.

In virtualizing servers, most if not all elements are virtualized and not physical. This includes the processor. The way that the time is maintained is in accordance with processor ticks. Most physical clocks or time keeping devices are imprecise to some degree. It is very difficult to maintain precise and accurate time without there being some degree of a time skew which requires periodic adjustments to correct for accuracy in time keeping.

In the case of virtualization, virtual machines require a mechanism to adjust or translate the virtual processor ticks and synchronize them with some time source. This skew is more apparent in virtual machines than in their physical counterparts and therefore these adjustments occur more often.

Time Synchronization is one reason that it is not recommended to have Active Directory services deployed in an entirely virtualized environment.

Fault Tolerance

In any Active Directory deployment, more than one server with the Active Directory Domain Services role deployed is recommended for fault tolerance. In fact, at least 2 Domain Controllers are recommended as a best practice for every Domain deployed in an Active Directory forest. The reason for this is to ensure that more than 1 server exists at any given time with a copy of the Active Directory database.

Since Active Directory technology is designed such that every domain controller installed is as authoritative as their neighbors. This phenomenon is called multi-master. The term multi-master itself is normally used when referring to Active Directory replication which is the process of copying changes within the Active Directory database from one domain controller to another.

In the case of virtualization, typically one domain controller in every domain should be configured as a physical server to ensure fault tolerance in the event of a failure.

High Availability

Virtualizing of Active Directory does have the distinct advantage of indirectly enabling an Active Directory domain controller to be configured as highly available.

If only physical servers would be used, there is no practical way to make an Active Directory domain controller highly available. To achieve this functionality, the Active Directory database and log files would require careful placement within highly available file share resources which vastly increase the complexity of an environment.

Active Directory domain controllers which have been installed on a virtual server may be installed on a cluster with the virtual machine itself being the highly available workload. This effectively allows Active Directory domain controllers to become highly available quite easily.

FSMO Role Positioning

At a basic level, Active Directory domain services make use of a multi-master model. There are however several Active Directory functions or roles which must be tied to a particular server and cannot be shared amongst all domain controllers. These are referred to as flexible single master operations (FSMO) roles.

In addition to the database and log files, Active Directory requires that these roles be in service and available for communication. If some of these roles are configured on a virtual server, it is recommended that the server not contain any critical workloads other than Active Directory domain services.

The reason for this is because if the virtual server were to fail and not be quickly recoverable, the FSMO roles contained on it would need to be seized by some other Active Directory domain controller server. This process is not clean and if the failed server were to ever be recovered, there would be meta data remaining that pertains to Active Directory which is no longer valid. The recommended course of action to re-establish the server into service would be to reinstall the operating system, rejoin the domain, and then add the Active Directory domain services role and allow it to replicate with other Active Directory domain controller partners. Only once this is done, should any FSMO roles be transferred back to the server.

In the case of a virtual machine, the process of rebuilding or provisioning a new server can be only a few minutes which is a significant improvement over the time needed to bring a physical server back into service.

The recommended course of action for the failed virtual server would be to decommission it as this is no longer useful to rejoin the domain and the repercussions of deleting a file are significantly less than maintaining an expensive physical server asset while not in use.

Dear Bradley Bird,
Congratulations! We are pleased to present you with the 2010 Microsoft® MVP Award! This award is given to exceptional technical community leaders who actively share their high quality, real world expertise with others. We appreciate your outstanding contributions in Management Infrastructure technical communities during the past year.

Glad to be back!