Entries tagged with virtualization - TechNet Edge

Tech Ed 2008 Interview with Joe Schurman (MVP)

HaroldWongMS — Tue, 26 Aug 2008 21:33:00 GMT

In this short interview, Joe talks about some of the testing he has been doing with Office Communications Server 2007 in a Virtualized environment.

Microsoft's Investments in Virtualization and Cross-Platform Management

DaveMorehouse — Tue, 26 Aug 2008 05:06:00 GMT

Brad Anderson, GM of the Management Services Division, talks with us about his perspective on Microsoft's developments and directions in the virtualization and x-plat spaces, and where System Center fits in. He also talks a bit about what's coming in the months ahead. If you want a quick overview from the top, this is it, folks.

How MSIT does server Virtualization and Hyper-V Part 2

extreme — Wed, 02 Jul 2008 00:14:00 GMT

In this interview we met up with Devin Murray (Group Manager) and David Lef (Technology Architect) who are in charge of implementing virtualization within Microsoft. They've been running Hyper-V since it was in Beta in 2007 and have been running Hyper-V in production since January 2008. Watch Part 1 first.

In Part 2 of this interview, we cover the following topics:

Challenges they've faced in deploying and recommendations

[2:23] - What their thinking is around a future datacenter to address those challenges

[4:43] - Technical details on the future datacenter

[9:29] - What workloads would this infrastructure support

[13:15] - Branch office efforts around virtualization

[16:05] - How long we've been running Hyper-V, will we be able to have 100% of our servers virtualized in the future, and what is the net impact of running virtual server 2005 R2 vs Hyper-V.

How Microsoft IT does server Virtualization and Hyper-V

extreme — Tue, 01 Jul 2008 15:00:00 GMT

History behind why and when we started implementing virtualization in the environment and what challenges we had.
[6:22] - Number of servers virtualized in Microsoft's environment and goals of what percentage desired to be virtualized
[8:07] - Net business impact and how the team manages this area of the business
[9:54] - Current high availability stats (how many 9's) and how to make this higher
[12:45] - Configuration of virtualization environment
- High availability with Hyper-V
- Why they determined the sweet spot was an 8 node cluster
- [18:18] - Decision points between using VHDs versus Pass-through disks
- [19:45] - What workloads he wouldn't recommend using one disk type versus another in regards to performance
- Downtime they're seeing with quick migration

Watch Part 2 here.
Read more information about MSIT's virtualization strategy.

Hyper-V Part 5 - High Availability - Interview with PMs

extreme — Mon, 30 Jun 2008 07:01:00 GMT

John Howard, Ben Armstrong, Bryon Surace are program managers in the server virtualization team and give us the technical details on various components of Hyper-V. In part 5 we cover:

Guest operating system clustering
Virtualization platform clustering
- Planned failover i.e. "quick migration"
- Unplanned failover
- Clustering VMs
- Disc options and their benefits/costs problems/workarounds
  - iSCSI, Pass-through, disks using GUIDs

Hyper-V Part 3 - TAP and VSS Snapshots - Interview with PMs

extreme — Fri, 27 Jun 2008 07:01:00 GMT

John Howard, Ben Armstrong, Bryon Surace are program managers in the server virtualization team and give us the technical details on various components of the Hyper-V architecture. In part 3, we dive into the following components:

Hyper-V TAP program results
(02:28) Virtual machine snapshots and Volume Shadow copy Service snapshots (VSS)
- Difference between the two
- How VSS snapshots function
- What happens with a backup for VSS and a non-VS aware operating system (i.e. Linux or Windows 2000 Server)

Hyper-V Part 4 - Disks and iSCSI - Interview with PMs

extreme — Fri, 27 Jun 2008 07:01:00 GMT

Determine when you would want to use a pass-through disk
How iSCSI works and how you can use it with Hyper-V
Learn some best practices in using iSCSI

To learn more about iSCSI, view our other iSCSI posts on Edge.

Download Hyper-V RTM

Hyper-V Part 1 - Architecture - Interview with PMs

extreme — Thu, 26 Jun 2008 16:31:00 GMT

Overview of the architecture
- Where the virtual service provider (VSP) and virtual service client (VSC) fit in
- What the VMBUS does
- How a disk operation occurs through this architecture
[08:35] Comparison of fixed, dynamic, and differencing VHD disks

For more on architecture and the advantages Hyper-V has over 3rd party virtualization solutions, check out another Edge video with other program managers.

Hyper-V Part 2 - VM Snapshots - Interviews with PMs

extreme — Thu, 26 Jun 2008 16:28:00 GMT

John Howard, Ben Armstrong, Bryon Surace are program managers in the server virtualization team and give us the technical details on various components of Hyper-V. In part 2 we cover:

How virtual machine snapshots work under the covers
How to properly export a specific VHD/snapshot in your chain
Limitations with multiple branches of snapshots

Hyper-V hits RTM interview with Mike Neil

extreme — Thu, 26 Jun 2008 15:13:00 GMT

Hyper-V finally hits RTM! In this interview, we ask a number of questions to the guy who's in charge of server virtualization such as:
Why we decided to get into the server virtualization environment?
What changes have happened since previous RCs?
What challenges we've had along the way?
Where do you see things headed moving forward?
What challenges would an ITPro face with deploying hyper-v?
Fun Features IT Pros can use right now with Hyper-V

Download the RTM of Hyper-V starting at NOON PST. Existing customers who have deployed WS 2008 can recieve Hyper-V from Windows update beginning July 8.

Loke Kit Kai on Hyper-V

AdamBomb — Fri, 23 May 2008 07:01:00 GMT

I met Loke Kit Kai when he was visiting Redmond for the MVP summit last month. He'd been looking at several virtualization solutions that he could use to build a lab environment. Kit Kai has a good story to share about how Hyper-V has helped him build an environment that he and his colleagues could use to learn new technologies, so I got him to sit down with me for a few minutes to talk about his experience with the product.

MAP tool virtualization demo with Baldwin

extreme — Mon, 12 May 2008 13:36:00 GMT

In this Part 3 interview with Baldwin Ng, we cover the virtualization components of the Microsoft Assessment and Planning (MAP) tool. In the first 5 minutes, he tells us the basics of how the tool works and how it can assist in your plan to virtualize your server and application environment using virtual server 2005 R2, Hyper-V, or Soft Grid. The tool is a compliment to the IPD virtualization guide. After this, Baldwin gives us a demo of the tool and gives us a peek at what's in store for the upcoming version 3.1 and 4.0.

See parts 1 and 2 of the interview with Baldwin.

An Analyst's Perspective on System Center and Virtualization

DaveMorehouse — Wed, 30 Apr 2008 16:40:00 GMT

Robb Mapp of Microsoft Integrated Virtualization analyst relations speaks to ESG Analyst Mark Bowker about his role as an IT analyst, his recent research and what customers are looking for relative to virtualization.

TechNet Radio: Heroes Happen Here Launch in Seattle Part Two

erickingfrog — Tue, 08 Apr 2008 18:08:00 GMT

On this episode of TechNet Radio, we talk with customers at the April 1 Heroes Happen Here launch event in Seattle, WA. Tune in and hear what attendees are excited about and what you can expect at a launch event in your area. We also have our April 2008 Security Bulletin.

Jeff Woolsey on Hyper-V RC

AdamBomb — Fri, 04 Apr 2008 07:01:00 GMT

With the recent release of Hyper-V RC1, Giovanni sat down with Jeff Woolsey, Senior Program Manager in virtualization, to talk about what's new in the Release Candidate.

TechNet Radio: Heroes Happen Here Launch in Seattle

erickingfrog — Tue, 01 Apr 2008 22:17:00 GMT

On this episode of TechNet Radio, We come to you from the April 1^st Heroes Happen Here Launch event in Seattle, WA.

Hyper-V & Server 2008 RTM

gmarchetti — Thu, 21 Feb 2008 08:01:00 GMT

With general availability of Windows Server 2008 Microsoft ships the beta 1 release of Windows Virtualization or Hyper-V (aka. Viridian).

Customers, partners, developers, IT Professionals, everyone buying a copy of Windows Server 2008 will have the opportunity to test drive the Microsoft hypervisor Hyper-V.

The version of Hyper-V included in the RTM build of Windows Server 2008 is identical to the build made available as part of the RC1 release of the server OS. The final release of Hyper-V will be available with 180 days from now. Microsoft’s hypervisor will only be available for x64 hardware platforms supporting hardware virtualization (Intel VT or AMD-V technologies). It will not be available for IA64 (Itanium) platforms. See resources for more information or here for general information about virtualization.

Hyper-V is still in beta. Support for Hyper-V is only available via online forums and newsgroups. See resources section.

The beta release of Hyper-V has limited guest operating support:

Windows Server 2008 32-bit and 64-bit (x64)

Windows Server 2003 32-bit and 64-bit (x64)

SUSE LINUX Enterprise Server 10 with SP1

Other OS installations might run as well but are not “supported” in the beta. The full list of supported operating systems in will be announced prior to RTM.

Virtualization solutions from Microsoft are:

Presentation Virtualization via Terminal Services

Application Virtualization via SoftGrid

Virtual PC

Virtual Server

Hyper-V Server Virtualization

Note:

The Virtual Server product will continue to be available. Hyper-V is only supported on 64-bit platforms, Virtual Server is the Microsoft offering for 32-bit platforms and other systems not providing the necessary hardware infrastructure for Hyper-V.

IT PROs

How does the general availability Hyper-V beta impact IT PROs? For some of the partners this is the first time they will be exposed to Hyper-V. They may be experienced with Virtual Server and/or Virtual PC. Hyper-V is a novel concept: a layer between the hardware and a variety of operating systems handling scheduling and memory allocation (amongst other things). It is the foundation of a dynamic infrastructure, making resource optimization and re-configuration far simpler than before and simplifying operations. Depending on the type of application there might be areas where its performance might be impacted. Heavily I/O bound and graphics-intensive applications are among those. Deciding where, what and how to virtualize infrastructure requires careful thought. Our Infrastructure Planning and Design series of documents will help guide that process.

Resources

Some resources you might find useful:

Forums

Microsoft SoftGrid Application Virtualization
System Center Virtual Machine Manager

Server Virtualization

Documentation

Technet Center for Virtualization

API

WMI

Hyper-V WMI API

HyperCall API

Products

Hyper-V
Virtual Server
Virtual PC
Terminal Services
SoftGrid

Programs

VHD Test Drive

Blogs

Virtualization team blog

Virtual PC Guy

John Howard

Hardware

Intel VT (aka. Vanderpool)

AMD-V (aka. Pacifica)

Miscellaneous

Virtualization Homepage

Clustering Hyper-V Screencast

Solution Accelerators Beta release PM interview - Part 2

extreme — Mon, 31 Dec 2007 16:00:00 GMT

In this second and final part of the interview with Baldwin Ng, we dive straight into a demo of the new Beta version of the Microsoft Assessment and Planning (MAP) solution accelerator. Check out what the console looks like as we walk through a sample discovery and see what some of the reports look like. After this, we talk to Baldwin about what some of the biggest challenges there are with the MAP tool and tips for using or deploying MAP in your environment.

The 1st part to this series can be found here.

Also, don’t miss out on the “Over the Edge” section at the end where Baldwin tells us about his most embarrassing moment and gives his personal book tip.

What would you like to see in the next version of the solution accelerators?

Solution Accelerators Beta release PM interview - Part 1

extreme — Mon, 17 Dec 2007 17:30:00 GMT

With the public Beta release of the "Microsoft Assessment and Planning solution accelerator" (MAP) I decided to sit down with Baldwin Ng, product manager. In this part 1 of 2, we start off light technically doing a brief intro into solution accelerators, where they're applicable, improvements over WVHA, and how they fit into other Microsoft product offerings. Then we dig in deeper with a whiteboard session to give you an idea of how this accelerator works, where the MAP fits into your architecture, and how to implement and scale your deployment.

If you've used or are thinking about using the Windows Vista Hardware Assessment (WVHA) solution accelerator, upgrading to Windows Server 2008, consolidating physical machines into virtual, then this video is definitely for you.

The second part to the series can be found here.

Installazione di Hyper-V: il video

pgmalusardi — Fri, 30 Nov 2007 01:14:00 GMT

Ultimamente sto parlando molto di virtualizzazione ed in particolare di Hyper-V: l'ho fatto nell'ultimo webcast che ho tenuto questa settimana, l'ho fatto a Milano e Roma durante il Virtualization Tour (e lo farò ancora il prossimo martedì 27/11 a Padova), l'ho fatto anche presso molti clienti e partner Microsoft.

Questo testimonia un grande interesse per il tema della virtualizzazione in generale e per la nuova tecnologia Microsoft in particolare.

In tutte queste occasioni non ho potuto per evidenti motivi dimostrare come sia semplice e privo di problemi installare Hyper-V.

Windows Server 2008 Virtualization PM Bryon Surace in the Fish Bowl

extreme — Thu, 15 Nov 2007 18:00:00 GMT

After checking out Bryon's cool virtualization suite of demos with Hyper-V for the keynote speech at IT Forum, I decided to setup an interview with him at the Fish Bowl during the event. I thought it'd be relevant to post this up with the other virtualization video consdering he is on the same team as Mike Sterling and Arno Mihm. We only had about 10 minutes, so we asked him about what he likes the best with the product, challeges we currently have with virtualization, and a little bit of where we're headed.

Interview with Windows Server 2008 Virtualization program managers

extreme — Wed, 14 Nov 2007 08:01:00 GMT

We sat down with couple program managers who are responsible for the development of Windows Server 2008 Virtualization – Mike Sterling and Arno Mihm. We asked them things like why you’d care to run Microsoft’s solution versus the competition, what hypervisor is, how hypervisor works, and plans for the future of Virtualization. If you care to listen over the edge, you’ll find a Darth Vader Potato head and insight into how some Microsoft employees spur creativity. As a side note, I need to say it’s truly not cool to be overheated in a single office with three people.