Month: October 2006

I’ve just completed the backup setup for my lab network.  My lab network used to consist of a bunch of PC’s of various ages and processors.  I’d gone the traditional route of one physical machine per role.  So I had a domain controller, mail server, web server and a PC, 3 of which were running all of the time for internet services.

I decided to do my bit for the environment.  I also wanted to reduce my electricity bills and stop my lab room from being the warmest place in the county.  So I decided to eat some of my own medicine and consolidate my network via virtualistion.  I had a choice of which platform to take but I settled on VMware’s free VMware Server product.  I really like the snapshot feature of the VMware products for lab work and the machines are pretty portable, e.g  they are portable between Server, Workstation and Player.

I built an AMD 2800 with 2GB of RAM.  It would be a domain controller (with all FSMO’s) and my file server.  I installed VMware Server onto it.  The disk was getting pretty full so I installed a 180GB USB 2.0 external hard drive which physically hosts my 3 VM’s:

• Another DC: it will give my virtual network the ability to be mobile.  If I lose the physical host, I can recover the VM’s elsewhere and sieze the FSMO roles.  Instant DR site on a shoestring 🙂
• EMail
• Web (doubles as WSUS)

I wanted to backup these machines.  I am using the Windows Server NTBACKUP on the host machine so I’ve got no fancy VMware agents.  My solution was to script a way of backing up my machines with minimal downtime.  The script pauses/suspends my VM’s, backs them up, and then restarts them.  The backups are to a file on a USB 2.0 300GB external disk.  I also backup the shares on teh host server.  Here is what the VM backup script looks like:

REM SUSPEND ———————

REM WEB
call "C:Program FilesVMwareVMware Servervmware-cmd.bat" "<path to VM VMX file>" suspend

REM DC
call "C:Program FilesVMwareVMware Servervmware-cmd.bat" "<path to VM VMX file>" suspend

REM MAIL
call "C:Program FilesVMwareVMware Servervmware-cmd.bat" "<path to VM VMX file>" suspend

REM BACKUP ———————

<BACKUP COMMAND>

REM START ———————

REM WEB
call "C:Program FilesVMwareVMware Servervmware-cmd.bat" "<path to VM VMX file>" start

REM DC
call "C:Program FilesVMwareVMware Servervmware-cmd.bat" "<path to VM VMX file>" start

REM MAIL
call "C:Program FilesVMwareVMware Servervmware-cmd.bat" "<path to VM VMX file>" start

REM EXIT ———————

:EXIT

• Window Vista WIC (Windows Integrity Controls).
• Kerberos Token Bloat: how your Token can fill up with SIDs and break Kerberos authentication.
• DNS testing with DCDIAG.

This consise and easy to understand newletter is well worth subscribing to.  And you don’t have to worry about appearing on a spam list either.  You can subscribe for here: http://www.minasi.com/nwsreg.htm.

VMware announced on their 64bit blog that VMware ESX 3.0.1 will offer full support for a range of 64 bit gues operating systems.  64 bit computing is set to gain wider acceptance and in some cases become a requirement.  The following operating systems will have 64 bit support:

• Microsoft Windows Server 2003 (Standard and Enterprise Server R2)
• Red Hat Enterprise Linux 3 64-bit (UP7, UP8)
• Red Hat Enterprise Linux 4 64-bit (UP2, UP3)
• SuSE Linux Server (SLES) 10 64-bit
• Sun Solaris 10 (U2)

Hardware requirements will be as follows:

• AMD: Athlon64 or Opteron Rev E or later
• Intel: must include support for Intel’s Virtualization Technology (needs to be enabled in the BIOS)

64 bit computing will be especially important in the Microsoft world.  Microsoft has decided to only release a 64bit edition of Exchange 2007.

WMware ESX is the market leader in enterprise level virtualisation.  ESX offers the ability to deploy many virtual machines across a farm of servers with load balancing and disaster recovery while providing a near physical machine level of performance.  ESX is a key technology for consolidating servers and making full use of the processing power that otherwise would be underutilised by many of the business applications that are typically deployed.

Microsoft has recently claimed that businesses will adopt Windows Vista like nothing else before it.  Well, Houston, there may be a problem.

Anyone who sets out a clear mass deployment plan for XP desktops will be familiar with the difficulties of deploying and troubleshooting PC’s.  The growing trend in the market is to treat the PC as a dumb appliance that you rebuild when it breaks with a major problem that you can’t fix in a few minutes.  Applications are psuhed to the PC as required by Group Policy, Terminal Services, SMS or even Softgrid for Desktops.  This rebuilding process can’t be easily done with OEM licensing because you only get 2 builds activations for an OEM key without having to speak to someone in Lord knows what country to clear your license key.  Because of this, large business who want to save administration costs have ponied up for Volume Licenses, often in the form of a desktop core CAL.  This OEM upgrade provides a Volume License Key that does not require activation.  Microsoft had to resort to using the honour code with their VLK customers.

But change is on the way.  Microsoft is planning to change the way VLK customers have been able to deploy and rebuild without having to bother with activations.  The process of just rebuilding as required will be taking a serious administrative effort hit.

Microsoft plans to include Volume Activation in WIndows Vista volume license editions (Windows Vista Enteprise, Windows Vista Business and Longhorn Server).  The short story is that you will have to activate your installation within 30 days or it shuts down like an OEM installation of XP.

ZDNet has some more details.

Some detailed information is here.

If you don’t like this then I would suggest you pass your feedback to your Microsoft partner solution providers and presales representatives.