Category: Windows Server

Adding A Disk To A SOFS Clustered Storage Pool

Say you need to add a disk to a Scale-Out File Server where you are using Storage Spaces on a JBOD.  You add some disks to the JBOD … and then what?  You browse into Failover Clustering and there’s no way to add a disk there.

Instead, open up Server Manager, connected to on of the SOFS nodes:

  1. Browse to File And Storage Services > Volumes > Storage Pools.
  2. You should see the new disks here as Primordial devices.  Right-click on the storage pool you want to expand, not the primordial devices.  Select Add Physical Disk.
  3. Select the disks and choose the allocation (hot spare, etc). 

image

That’s that.  There’s no painful expansion process as in RAID.  You now have new raw space that the storage pool will use as required.

What Is The Default Password For WS2012 R2 Preview VHD?

I just deployed a downloaded pre-installed VHD with Windows Server 2012 R2 Preview with the intention of using it for WDS in the lab – and deploy the rest of the WSSC 2012 R2 Preview lab.  I tried to log in and … what is the password?

It’s not:

  • <Blank>
  • Password
  • Password00
  • P@ssword
  • P@ssword1
  • Or any other variation

I checked the extracted folder and all I found was that by extracting the EXE I’d agreed to donate body parts to MSFT executives, etc.  Web searches were fruitless.  I reached out to the Twitterverse and was told by Ed Baker (who spent a morning searching) that the password is actually:

R2Preview!

The password includes the exclamation mark.  Make sure you change it afterwards Smile

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Remote Server Administration Tools (RSAT) for Windows 8.1 Preview

Want to manage your WS2012 R2 Preview servers from the comfort of your PC?  The end solution is, of course, System Center 2012 R2 Smile  But to get you there you need RSAT.  A preview release is available now. 

As always the new version of RSAT will only support the newest desktop OS … and that is Windows 8.1 Preview (allegedly out on Wednesday 26th June).  64-bit and 32-bit versions of RSAT are available.

Remote Server Administration Tools for Windows 8.1 Preview includes Server Manager, Microsoft Management Console (MMC) snap-ins, consoles, Windows PowerShell cmdlets and providers, and command-line tools for managing roles and features that run on Windows Server 2012 and Windows Server 2012 R2 Preview. In limited cases, the tools can be used to manage roles and features that are running on Windows Server 2008 R2 or Windows Server 2008. Some of the tools work for managing roles and features on Windows Server 2003.
The following tools can be used to manage roles and features that are running on Windows Server 2012 R2 Preview, but are not supported for managing roles and features on Windows Server 2012.

  • IP Address Management console
  • Hyper-V tools: Although you are not blocked from using Hyper-V cmdlets for Windows PowerShell in this release of Remote Server Administration Tools to manage Hyper-V running on Windows Server 2012, this scenario is not officially supported. Managing Hyper-V on Windows Server 2012 by using GUI-based tools in this download is supported.

You also need to remember that you can only run one version of RSAT on a PC:

Only one copy at a time of Remote Server Administration Tools can be installed on a computer.

The new version of Hyper-V Manager does work with Hyper-V on WS2012 – it’s still WMI v2.

What’s The Big “Story” With WSSC 2012 R2?

Last time around, Windows Server 2012 R2, the big story was enabling the cloud using Windows Server 2012.  We techies boiled that down to … Hyper-V.  It was a big Hyper-V release, that happened to have lots of new networking and storage stuff, and loads of other things in AD, remote access, etc, but we focused on Hyper-V. 

System Center 2012 SP1’s story was simple: try to catch up with Windows Server 2012 and Windows 8.  They didn’t quite get all the way there.  The OSs were supported, but numerous features were missing.  The schedules of the then 2 product groups were misaligned, System Center was just done releasing the 2012 products and then out comes a new version of Windows.  Doh!

Then less than a year later, the preview of Windows Server & System Center tells us something important.  This is a unified development and release.  From a business perspective, that might actually be the big story of WSSC 2012 R2.  I don’t remember seeing this level of timing from Microsoft before. 

The story that MSFT is marketing this time around is based, again, on the Cloud OS and this time it is Hybrid Networking.  This uses Hyper-V Network Virtualization and System Center to create 1 consistent and integrated platform from private cloud, hosted (public or private) cloud, and Windows Azure IaaS.  However, we nerds are looking at WSSC 2012 R2 as …

… a storage release.  Yup, this is the turning point.  All the bits in Storage Spaces that people wanted to see to consider Windows Server SMB 3.0 as a block storage alternative are there.  You should expect to hear lots and lots about Storage Spaces, virtual disks, SMB 3.0 (Direct and Multichannel), tiered storage, Write-Back Cache, System Center integration & management, etc.

Yes, of course, I am excited by the cool Hyper-V stuff in this release.  I’m also looking forward to deploying it on SMB 3.0 Smile  And don’t forget DAL.

Carsten Rachfahl (Hyper-V MVP) Interviews Mark Minasi About PowerShell

Carsten Rachfahl (@hypervserver) is at it again; he’s just published a video interview with Mark Minasi (@mminasi), the famed journalist, author, speaker, trainer, consultant and Directory Services MVP.  This time, the topic is the importance of PowerShell to the admin and why they should learn this scripting language.

Videointerview mit Mark Minasi über PowerShell-thumb1

Don’t worry; the page with the video link is auf Deutch but the video is in English.

Storage Spaces Inside a Virtual Machine Is Not Supported

I’m hooked on Storage Spaces, the mechanism in Windows Server 2012 where we can aggregate non-RAID disks and create thinly provisioned (optional), fault tolerant volumes, just like you’ve been doing on a modern SAN (but Storage Spaces is more flexible, if not as feature rich).

It appears that some like this feature so much that they’ve started to implement it inside of virtual machines:

THIS IS NOT A SUPPORTED CONFIGURATION

Sure, you might see presenters like myself do this in demos.  I make it clear: I only do this because I don’t have the hardware to do Storage Spaces at the physical layer.  Storage Spaces was designed to be created using physical disks … and then you can store your virtual machines on a Storage Space virtual disk.

Why are people implementing Storage Spaces in a production VM?  My primary guess is that they want to aggregate virtual hard disks to create a larger volume.  VHD format files can only expand up to 2040 GB.  OK … that’s the wrong way to go about it!  The correct solution would be one of the following:

  • Deploy Windows Server 2012 Hyper-V and use VHDX files.  They scale out to 64 TB – the maximum size of a VSS snapshot BTW.
  • If you’re stuck on vSphere (2 TB VMDK) or pre-WS2012 Hyper-V (2040 GB VHD) then (I hate saying this …) use a physical disk of some kind until you can upgrade to a scalable hypervisor like WS2012 Hyper-V and convert to the more flexible VHDX.

A second possible excuse is: “I want to create volumes inside a VM”.  Anyone who has spent any time owning a virtualised platform will laugh at this person.  There is a simple rule in our business: 1 volume = 1 virtual hard disk.  It gives us complete flexibility over volume management both at the physical (placement) and virtual (resizing) layer.  If you need an E: volume, hot-add a VHDX to the SCSI controller.  If you need an F: volume, hot-add a VHDX to the SCSI controller.  If you need to expand the G: volume, expand the G: VHDX and then expand the G: volume.

The other reason I expect to hear via comments is “we’re scared of virtual hard disk corruption so we want to RAID the disks in some way using Storage Spaces”.  Where to start?

  • I have never personally witnessed a corrupt virtual hard disk.  When I have heard of such things it’s because people do stupid things with snapshots or differential disks and they deserve what follows.
  • The VHDX format has built-in protection for corruption that can be caused by power loss.
  • DOING STORAGE SPACES INSIDE A VM IS NOT SUPPORTED!  It’s no one’s fault, other than yours, when it misbehaves or breaks.

Please, just start using VHDX format virtual hard disks ASAP.

Hey Look–Your Business Is Running On A 10-Year Old Server Operating System (W2003)

April 2003 was such a fine month.  SARS caused every person with a sniffle to think they’d die.  The war in Iraq was coming to an end (!?).  BA and Air France announced the end of supersonic flight.  We suspected that North Korea might be playing with nukes.  Something called iTunes was launched.  I think that was a fad and disappeared quickly (I’m really hoping a digital Indiana Jones reads this in 10,000 years and thinks it’s the truth).  And on April 24th 2003, Microsoft released Windows Server 2003.

Happy 10th birthday Windows Server 2003!  You were a wonderful operating system.  In my first job where I designed/ran a global infrastructure for a corporate, I chose you just 1 month after GA as the basis for the business.  Sure, it was a bit bleeding edge.  Yes, people did question my decision.  But it worked out fantastically.

I don’t drive a 10-year old car.  I wouldn’t want to use a van in a courier business that I can’t get spare parts for.  In business I want to look forward and be competitive & flexible, instead of clinging to what was right 10 years ago.  Makes you wonder why 57% of servers are still running W2003.

End of support is coming on 14/July/2015.  I really don’t want to hear excuses.  The fact is that the end of extended support is coming.  It is time to start planning your migration from the decade-old operating system.  It’s time to move to an OS that is built for the way we work now.  It is time to pressure vendors and suppliers to support an OS that will actually have some level of support.

Microsoft will not change the date that extended support ends.  Stop fooling yourself, and stop listening to people who eat from their own rear-ends.  Security patches stop, and Microsoft Support will stop taking your calls.  You now have approximately 2 years and 3 months to get moving.  And trust me, that time will fly by so don’t procrastinate.

Event – Two Day Deep Dive On Windows Server 2012

Microsoft Ireland are running a free 2-day technical deep dive event on Windows Server 2012 on April 22-23 in Dublin.  The agenda is below.

Monday22nd April

9:00 – 9:30         

Registration
   

9:30 – 10:00       

6 month update (L 100)

10:00 – 11:00     

Fundamentals – storage & networking) (L 200)

11:00 – 11:15     

Coffee

11:15 – 13:00     

Storage – iSCSI, Storage Pools, DeDupe (L 300/400)

13:00 – 13:45     

Lunch

13:45 – 15:00     

Networking – DHCP, SMB 3.0 NIC Teams, DA (L 300/400)

15:00 – 15:15     

Coffee

15:15 – 16:60     

Active Directory, inc. DAC (L 300/400)

16:30                   

End

Tuesday23rd

9:30 – 11:00       

Hyper-V (L 300/400)

11:00 – 11:15     

Coffee

11:15 – 13:00     

Virtual Networks (L 300/400)

13:00 – 13:45     

Lunch

13:45 – 15:00     

Mini-MMS

15:00 – 15:15     

Coffee

15:15 – 16:30    

Mini-MMS

16:30                   

End

A large collection of Microsoft speakers appears to be presenting the content.  I’m presenting the 2 highlighted sessions on Hyper-V and storage.

Remember, there are also some regional events that will be discussing the reasons to upgrade to Windows Server 2012 that are starting next week.

The Death Of The Windows Service Pack … Or Is It?

Don’t bother waiting for SP1 before deploying Windows Server 2012.  It’s not coming (to be clear: I haven’t been officially told that or anything else).  It’s looks like Microsoft is switching release cycles from every 3 years to annually.  That makes service packs an impossibility without Microsoft hiring an a lot more developers, testers, and PMs.

What was a service pack?  It was a collection of security and bug fixes.  Security fixes came from the Windows catalog via Windows Update, WSUS, etc.  Bug fixes were normally downloaded manually from the Support site.  A service pack would normally group all these together, maybe add some minor features to avail of recent device enhancements, and be tested by Microsoft as a unit.  This would be a big point release, seen by some as a mark of maturity.

Windows Server 2008 R2 SP1 actually included some significant new features for virtualization: Dynamic Memory for Hyper-V and RemoteFX for Remote Desktop Services.

Since the release of Windows Server 2012 (and Windows 8) we’ve seen update rollups being released pretty regularly via the Windows Catalog (therefore via Windows Update).  These consist of bug fixes, not security fixes.  The security fixes are still coming down as usual.

To be honest, the earlier update rollups irked a few of us because they listed the KB numbers of the bugs they fixed, but those KB articles weren’t publicly available so we didn’t know what bug fixes we were getting.  But it seems like Microsoft listened to our feedback with the release of the April 2013 Update Rollup and listed/linked/summarised the contained bug fixes.

I’ve lost track of how many of these URs have been deployed since RTM.  It could be 3, maybe 4, possibly 5.  They come via Windows Update so I’m pushing them out with the security updates via WSUS in the lab.

So, if you are waiting for “Service Pack 1” for Windows Server 2012, I’m happy to tell you that we’re at least at Windows Server 2012 “SP3” and maybe even at Windows Server 2012 “SP5”.  Stop delaying and join the rest of us in this decade which we’re already 3 years into.

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