My IT Blog

I always wonder how many throughput does a Virtual Machine consume when running in Hyper-V Host. Not always we dedicate a NIC for a Virtual Machine. For better consolidation, we always share several Virtual machine within a 1 Gbps NIC. Let say, you have 4 Virtual Machines running and share on 1 Gbps NIC. Will each Virtual Machine consume and limited to 250 Mbps? Well not really. Some VM will consume more throughput than 250 Mbps and will eventually impact the performance for the rest of the VM. This is what i found out when testing Hyper-V Vnext which seem like solving this case. On Virtual Network, you can configure to set minimum and maximum throughput per Mbps on each virtual machine. Great right…I’m excited to wait this feature available on next release of Hyper-V.

Well, dynamic memory is one of the features available in Windows Server 2008 r2 SP1. I do hope that you have tested dynamic memory. Let have a look on Dynamic memory Enhancement which available in Hyper-V Vnext (Code name that I give for new version of Hyper-V in Windows Developer Preview). Note:- Subject to change and feature is available during my testing using Windows Developer Preview Edition. Enhancement #1:- Dynamic memory options is available when create a new Virtual Machine. Previously, you can only configure static memory when provision Virtual machine. Enhancement #2:- Dynamic Changing of Memory when Run Time. That's mean you no longer need to shutdown the Virtual Machine when you want to configure Min and Maximum Memory. You can change the amount of memory when VM is up and running. Find it quite useful especially the Vm has hit to Maximum memory and i can easily increase the amount of memory. Enhancement #3:- Ability to configure Minimum Memory. Initia

a) I’m just got Citrix Certified Administrator (CCA): XenDesktop 5 . (Hooray !) . I took this exam is because of my work related on VDI. However, my VDI deployment is only using Citrix XenDesktop 5 with Hyper V (hypervisor platform) . So no major conflict . Anyway,Citrix and Microsoft is an alliance partner in term of VDI delivery as well. b) Good to know since SCVMM 2012 has support on additional hypervisor : Citrix XenServer. It will become advantages for me to understand the technologies as well. c) Pursuing to high level of Citrix certification. One of pre-requisite is i must take the CCA: XenServer. For the benefit of people who’re interest on Citrix hypervisor, the new version included with a) Feature Pack 1 + b) Support for IntelliCache enabling you to use a combination of shared storage and local storage. c) Local Storage Spans All Physical Volumes. d) Reset-on-boot VM behaviour. d) Block SCSI Generic Support added, enabling full compatibility with Emulex and

@@@@@  Backup original VHD first @@@@ a) Perform defragmention of the guest VM b) First, shrink partition size c) Then ,shrink VHD size by using VHDResizer. You can use VHDResizer tool . To get this tool, goto http://vmtoolkit.com/files/folders/converters/entry87.aspx but on Windows Server 2003, there is no option to shrink volume. The VHDResizer cannot shrink the VHD if the partition is still intact with original size. 1. Attach Win2k3 VHD by using Parent host (Hyper V), go to Start > Administrative Tool > Computer Management > Storage > Disk Management > Right click Attach VHD 2. Right click the partition (Disk 4) and select Shrink Volume. 3. Enter the amount of space to shrink. 4. Once you have shrink the partition, right click the VHD Disk and select Detach VHD. 5. Open VHDResizer, enter destination VHD and specify the new size. Original size is 50GB Resize to : 31 GB 6. Wait until the process complete. Below is the snapshot of re

One of the key improvement on the high availability Virtual Machine is you can configure start-up priority. This option allow you to configure which VM has the high, medium, low priority and even No Auto Start. The VM with high priority start-up will boot up first compare to Medium or Low. Here is the end result which i’ve configured. (Refer to Priority column) Move on in term of live migration enhancement, you can now perform multiple Live Migration rather than 1 times. The limit of the multiple live migration is depend on your configuration at the Hyper-V Host and NIC bandwidth throughput. Setting:- refer to Virtual Machine Move Configuration. Here is the screenshot of of the live migration. I have initiated 2 Live Migration and the 3rd VM is put into Queue. Once 1st or 2nd VM complete, the 3rd VM will start to perform Live Migration without giving any error message.

Ever encounter a problem whereby your existing Hyper-V hardware has a problem and would like to move the VMs to another Hyper-V host. I’m not talking about Export/Import features on Hyper-V. In normal hard way which everyone will do, you will probably 1. Export / Import – not a good options if hard disk size is limited and you need to present the VM to another Hyper-V Host in a quick way. 2. Copy and Paste VHD. Recreate VM configuration and assign back existing VHD. – not a good options as i need to key in the ip address on the VM and longer duration of copying/paste process. 3. Restore from DPM – good if total VM faulty but it will took very long process to restore. So far based on my experience is 1GB per minute. If you have 100GB fixed disk VM, will most likely took you 100 minute (just estimation). 4. Use Quick Storage Migration – not applicable as i need additional storage. 5. Use Live Migration – i’m not using Cluster Hyper V. 6. Use Migrate to move VM from 1 hos

Previously Citrix has a tool called “Project Kensho ver 1.3” which is under experimental to convert Vmware or XenServer to Hyper V VHD. More information about this tool:- http://community.citrix.com/display/xs/Kensho. However it no longer available to download from MyCitrix website. Citrix has included this tool into Citrix XenServer 5.6 and you can use XenCenter to perform import and export appliance. Bear in mind, it is not a conversion tool and may not be 100% working. Test scenario:- a) Hyper V Host running Windows Server 2008 R2 with SP1 b) Citrix XenServer 5.6 SP2 c) XenCenter d) In my simulation lab, i have converted Citrix Virtual Appliance (running Windows Server 2008 R2) & one virtual machine running in Citrix XenServer 5.6 SP2 (Windows Server 2008). Here is how  perform this tasks:- 1. To use it, go to XenCenter console. Select Tools | Virtual Appliance Tools | Export Appliance 2. Give a name of the export appliance and set the destination 3.

A private cloud is a cloud that is provisioned and managed on-premise by an organization. The private cloud is deployed using an organization’s own hardware to leverage the advantages of the private cloud model. Through VMM, an organization can manage the private cloud definition, access to the private cloud, and the underlying physical resources. In VMM, a private cloud provides the following benefits: Self service. Administrators can delegate management and usage of the private cloud while retaining the opaque usage model. Self-service users do not need to ask the private cloud provider for administrative changes beyond increasing capacity and quotas as their needs change. Resource pooling. Through the private cloud, administrators can collect and present an aggregate set of resources, such as storage and networking resources. Resource usage is limited by the capacity of the private cloud and by user role quotas. Opacity. Self-service users have no knowledge of the underl