Nirmal's Blog

System Center Virtual Machine Manager Self-Service Portal 2.0 SP1 Beta

System Center Team has release a new beta service pack for System Center Virtual Machine Manager Self Service Manager Portal 2.0. This is now available via connect as a Public Beta. You can use below mentioned link to download this beta version of the service pack

https://connect.microsoft.com/site1044/InvitationUse.aspx?ProgramID=5055&InvitationID=DIT-DKPH-BWTH

there are few notable changes which gets added with this services pack. Before evaluating this service pack in my test lab, I thought of providing a general overview of new features which gets added

1) Set Expiry of Virtual Machine -> this is a new capability which gets added after applying SP1 Beta. This feature will allow administrators to set expiry on a virtual machine, and the virtual machine will automatically get deleted after a specified time period.

2) Notifications for Administrators -> it’s now possible to notify Business Unit Administrator or Datacenter Administrators regarding various events

3) Move Infrastructure between different business units -> this features provides capability to move infrastructure from one business unit to another

4) Import Virtual Machines -> Datacenter Administrators can import machines which were created using VMM and also re-import machines which were removed from self-service portal

I will be evaluating this beta and hoping to provide more details in my future blog posts.

References:

http://blogs.technet.com/b/systemcenter/archive/2011/03/05/system-center-virtual-machine-manager-2-0-sp1-beta-is-now-available.aspx

Step by Step Guide to Implementing a TWO NODE Failover Cluster – Part 02

As I have demonstrated how we prepare Cluster nodes for a two node failover cluster, in this post let’s have a look at how we can use Cluster Validation Tool to generate a report. I will be using Windows Server 2008 for this demonstration and before moving any further let’s have a look at what tests are performed using Cluster Validation Tool.

Cluster Validation tool is a wizard found on Failover Cluster Management Console. Following tests are carried out when you perform cluster Validation Tool

· Inventory Validation

· Network Validation

· Storage Validation

· System Configuration

We will look at what are exact components or sub-tests that takes place during validation testing in another post.

First we need to go to administrative tools and then open Failover Cluster Management Console

After selecting Failover Cluster Management option, it will open Failover Cluster Management Console

We can right click on Failover Cluster Management and then select “Validate a configuration” option to initiate Cluster validation wizard

As you can see below, first screen provides us with a description relating to Cluster validation wizard.

Next we need to add what are the NODEs which we need to validate.

I will add my Cluster NODE01 and Cluster NODE02

After I select both NODEs, it gets added to my Cluster validation wizard

Next, we need to decide, whether are running all tests, or whether we are going to run a selective test. For this demonstration, I will be running all tests to validate NODE01 and NODE02

Next we have a confirmation summary screen. We can review what are the tests which will be performed against NODE01 and NODE02

After I select next, validation wizard will start validation my cluster configuration

once this is completed, it’s possible for us to view a report

We can open this report as a web page and we can see results.

In my next post, we will create a cluster and let’s see how we can configure it

Step by Step Guide to Implementing a TWO NODE Failover Cluster – Part 01

In this blog post I will be demonstrating how we can create a TWO NODE failover cluster using Windows Server 2008 Failover cluster capabilities. First part of my blog post will contain information on how we can prepare both nodes before creating a cluster.

First we need to look at basic requirements which need to prepare a Failover Cluster.

• Make storage available to all nodes
• Configure Network adapters on all nodes
• Cluster components to be “Certified for Windows Server 2008”

I have configured two networks for Public network and also Private Network.

Let’s look at Public and Private network configuration

Public Adapter -> we configure with IP Address, Subnet Mask ,Default Gateway and DNS

Public Adapter -> I will only provide IP Address and Subnet Mask

Next let’s proceed and configure Storage Connectivity. I will be connecting to my storage using the build-in iSCSI initiator

After selecting iSCSI Initiator, first it will prompt you to start iSCSI service, which is set to start manually by default on Windows Server 2008 / Windows Server 2008 R2.

After that we need to allow iSCSI to communicate through Windows Firewall. This will be automatically configured for you when you select Yes

After this step, you will find iSCSI initiator properties.

Navigate to discovery tab and select “Add Portal” option for us to connect with our shared storage

We need to provide with an IP Address or DNS name for iSCSI target

Once we enter required information, we can proceed

Next we need to navigate to Targets TAB which will allow us to connect with the storage. Select Log on option

We need to allow following options when connecting with the storage

- Automatically restore this connection the computer starts

After completing this step, we have now successfully configured our storage connectivity.

Let’s go ahead and prepare disks using DISK Management utility

After accessing DISK management console, we can notice that there’s a new DISK added .

We need to right click on the DISK and bring it ONLINE

After we bring this DISK online, we can then go ahead and initialize this disk

We need to select which disk, we need to initialize so that it can be access by Logical Disk Manager. We will configure this disk as a MBR style partition disk

Now that we can access this disk, we will go ahead and create a volume

In this window, we will be specifying the size of the disk

Next we need to select a drive letter

Next, we need to change the volume label, and also select “Perform a quick format” option

Now that we have already configured, it’s possible for us to view this disk from Disk Management console

Now let’s move to NODE 02, on NODE 02 we need to bring DISK 1 online, which we have already configured on NODE 01

After refreshing disk management console, we can see that it’s no more in unallocated state, so we only need to bring it online now

Since we have completed configuring both disks, Next we will proceed and run validation using Failover Cluster Management console. Before proceeding, we need to go to Server Manager on both servers and install Failover Clustering which is located under features section.

In my next blog post I will publish how we can run Failover Cluster Validation Tool and validate configuration.