Month: June 2009

I’ve upgraded the first of our hosts in our Windows Server 2008 Hyper-V cluster to Service Pack 2.  I wanted to move VM’s to this host so I could upgrade the next host to SP2.  I opened VMM 2008 and attempted a migration of the first VM.  I was offered a “zero star” score on the migration, i.e. VMM refused to do it.  The reason given was:

 

So, VMM 2008 refuses to migrate a VM from a W2008 SP1 Hyper-V host to a W2008 SP2 Hyper-V host.  That’s not good for upgrade scenarios.  These are production VM’s so I can’t go about doing stops and restarts.

My workaround was simple.  Bypass VMM and go straight into the Failover Clustering MMC.  I connected to the cluster and migrated the resource for the VM’s in question.  That worked perfectly.

So here’s my planned (at the moment) Hyper-V cluster Service Pack upgrade strategy:

1. Apply the VMM 2008 rollup (see my recent posts) to the VMM server
2. Migrate VM’s to leave a single host (host 1) with no VM’s.
3. Upgrade host 1 to SP2
4. Wait a day or two
5. Use the Failover Cluster MMC to migrate VM’s from host 2 to host 1
6. Upgrade host 2 to SP2
7. Repeat steps 4 to 6 as required for additional hosts

It’s worked for me on two non-critical VM’s.  I’m checking with MS if they’d be 100% happy with this.  Until I hear back, I’m pausing things.

I’ve copied the listing of Hyper-V hot fixes that are included in Windows Server 2008 Service Pack 2.

• KB953585 – Error message when you try to start a Hyper-V virtual machine on a Windows Server 2008-based or Windows Vista-based computer that uses the NUMA architecture: "An error occurred while attempting to change the state of virtual machine VMNAME"
• KB959403 – Windows Server 2008 may restart unexpectedly when you open the Hyper-V manager console to manage virtual machines
• KB961730 – A memory leak occurs in the Vmwp.exe and Vmms.exe processes on a Windows Server 2008-based computer that has the Hyper-V role enabled
• KB967124 – Hyper-V performance counters in Windows Server 2008 are displayed incorrectly or report incorrect data when you remotely query the counters from a Windows Server 2003-based computer
• KB956589 – Description of the Hyper-V update for issues that may occur when you manage the Hyper-V role on the 64-bit editions of Windows Server 2008 by using SCVMM
• KB956697 – Windows Server 2008 Hyper-V VSS writer is not used during a backup job because of corrupted or invalid virtual machine configuration files
• KB956710 – A Hyper-V update is available to increase the number of logical processors and virtual machines on a Windows Server 2008 x64-based computer
• KB957967 – Stop error message on a Windows Server 2008-based computer that has the Hyper-V role installed: "STOP 0x0000001A"
• KB958184 – Virtual machine backup operations fail in Windows Server 2008 when Hyper-V virtual machine files are saved on a volume that is mounted on a failover cluster by using a volume GUID
• KB959962 – An update is available for Windows Server 2008-based computers to address issues with backing up and restoring Hyper-V virtual machines
• KB960578 – The IRET and IRETD instructions do not support the Nested Task (NT) flag in protected mode in a Windows Server 2008 Hyper-V environment
• KB963709 – The AltGr key does not work on  a Linux virtual machine on a Windows Server 2008-based server that has the Hyper-V role enabled
• KB967902 – You cannot connect to a virtual machine when the Windows Server 2008 Hyper-V VMMS certificate has expired
• KB950612 – The classic Start menu is not displayed correctly in Windows Server 2008 without Hyper-V   
• KB951308 – Increased functionality and virtual machine control in the Windows Server 2008 Failover Cluster Management console for the Hyper-V role
• KB953828    Windows Server 2008 Hyper-V virtual machines generate a Stop error when NLB is configured or when the NLB cluster does not converge as expected
• KB958065 – You cannot configure a Hyper-V virtual machine by using Windows Server 2008 Failover Clustering when the virtual machine uses a storage device that is managed by a third-party clustered file system or a third-party replication solution  
• KB959766 – Windows Server 2008 Hyper-V systems restart unexpectedly, and you receive a 0x1000007E Stop error code when you mount a VHD file
• KB959978 – Error message when you back up a Windows Server 2003-based virtual machine on a Windows Server 2008 Hyper-V-based computer: "GetWriterStatus FAILED for Selected writer [Microsoft Hyper-V VSS Writer], writer is in state [9] [VSS_WS_FAILED_AT_FREEZE]"
• KB960038 – You receive a "0x0000007E" Stop error on Windows Server 2008-based computers that host Hyper-V virtual machines when you use the Hyper-V writer to back up virtual machines

I’ve also copied out the included hotfixes for failover clustering that I thought would be relevant in a fault tolerant Hyper-V Cluster:

• KB948720 – You cannot install device drivers in a Windows Server 2008 cluster environment if the drivers contain LZ-compressed files   
• KB950811 – The Windows Server 2008 failover cluster cannot start because of a deadlock condition in the Cluster service
• KB955733 – Incorrect status codes that are returned in failover clusters may cause operations to fail on a Windows Server 2008-based computer
• KB950181 – When you stop a node in a Windows Server 2008 failover cluster, the groups that are hosted on that node may fail over to a random node instead of to the next available node
• KB950267 – The Cluster service may stop responding on a Windows Server 2008 cluster node when an application performs VSS backup of files from a volume
• KB952247 – The Cluster network name resource and the File Share Witness resource may not come online on a Windows Server 2008 failover cluster node if a disjointed namespace is configured
• KB953652 – A physical disk resource may unexpectedly fail or go offline when the IsAlive function is executed on a Windows Server 2008 cluster node
• KB956891 – Error message when you create a cluster on a Windows Server 2008-based computer that uses a third-party DNS server: "The network name {0} is already used in the network"
• KB958983 – Error message when you use the Windows Server 2008 Failover Cluster Management console together with a Windows Server 2008 SP2-based failover cluster: "This feature is only supported with Windows Server 2008 Enterprise and Datacenter servers"
• KB960334 – The Windows Server 2008 and Windows Vista Failover Cluster Validation process fails, and you receive an error message when the "System cryptography: Use FIPS compliant algorithms for encryption, hashing and signing" policy is enabled   
• KB963702 – A Windows Server 2008 Failover Cluster that has a MPIO solution may encounter stop code 0x0000007E or 0x000000D5 during a path failover
• KB949961 – Scheduled shadow copy creatio
  n tasks do not run on a clustered Windows Server 2008 file server after a failover occurs
• KB954475 – After you restore a clustered disk from a VSS transportable hardware snapshot in a Windows Server 2008 cluster, the clustered disk cannot come online
• KB955656 – You cannot restore a VSS transportable snapshot to some LUNs different from the original LUNs in a Windows Server 2008 cluster
• KB967560 – A backup operation fails on a two-node failover cluster that is running Windows Server 2008 after one of the disk resources is moved

I just read a comment about how Microsoft ripped people off to get virtualisation with clustering.  That’s a great bit of VMware marketing FUD so let’s look at the real costs.

For a moment, we’ll ignore the fact that the soon-to-be-released and FREE Hyper-V Server 2008 R2 includes failover clustering and Live Migration.  That’ 100% kills the argument.

Let’s just look at the current release of Hyper-V.  To get failover clustering you need either Windows Server Enterprise 2008 or Windows Server Datacenter 2008.

• If you run a virtual machine with Windows Server then you must license that virtual machine for the edition of Windows Server.
• If you assign one Enterprise Edition license to a host server you are entitled to run 4 free licenses for Enterprise or Standard on virtual machines running on that host.
• If you assign two Enterprise Edition license to a host server you are entitled to run 8 free licenses for Enterprise or Standard on virtual machines running on that host.
• If you assign Datacenter (per CPU) licenses to a host then you are entitled to run unlimited (depending on hardware and support) free Windows Server licenses on your virtual machines, Datacenter, Enterprise or Standard.

OK.  Now lets do some comparisons:

I’m using rounded prices.  VMware ESX is actually over €5000 per host.  I sourced MS pricing from Elara.ie.  Windows Standard = €1,000 and Windows Enterprise = €4,200.

VMware ESX

• Host OS license: €5,000
• 4 Virtual Machines running Windows Standard: €4400

Total Cost? €9,400

Citrix Xen

• Host OS license: Free
• 4 Virtual Machines running Windows Standard: €4400

Total Cost? €4,400

Microsoft Hyper-V with Failover Clustering

• Host OS license: €4,200
• 4 Virtual Machines running Windows Standard or Enterprise: Free

Total Cost? €4,200

How exactly has Microsoft ripped anyone off here?  Yes, currently Hyper-V doesn’t have Live Migration or Cluster Shared Volume but the RTM of R2 includes those.  Expect the RTM in July and GA in October.

Let’s push this up some.  Few of us run 4 VM’s on a host.  Let’s run 28 VM’s.

VMware ESX

• Host OS license: €5,000
• 28 Virtual Machines running Windows Standard: €30,800

Total Cost? €35,800

Citrix Xen

• Host OS license: Free
• 28 Virtual Machines running Windows Standard: €30,800

Total Cost? €30,800

Microsoft Hyper-V with Failover Clustering

• Host OS license (over licensed): €4,200 * 7 = €29,400
• 28 Virtual Machines running Windows Standard or Enterprise: Free

Total Cost? €29,400

Whoops, why don’t we just use Datacenter edition?  This host server might only have 2 CPU’s but let’s assume it has 4 6-core CPU’s.  Using HP pricing at €2,820 per CPU, we’ll see how pricey MS is.

Microsoft Hyper-V with Failover Clustering

• Host OS license (over licensed): €2,820 * 4 = €11,280
• Unlimited Virtual Machines running Windows Standard, Enterprise or Datacenter: Free

Total Cost? €11,280

I guess I’m still struggling to see how Microsoft is ripping people off here.  And I think that’s totally crushed the argument that MS virtualisation is too expensive.

Oh but I’m not finished!

• System Center Enterprise CAL: Normally we buy a license per machine for things like DPM, ConfigMgr and OpsMgr.  You can assign one enterprise CAL for System Center to the host and it’ll cover all the System Center products for all VM’s on the host.
• SQL Enterprise: Yes this is a pricey product.  But if you assign a SQL Enterprise license to the host then you can install it as many times as you like for free on the VM’s on that host.

I think I’ve said enough on that one.  It’s pretty clear that MS virtualisation is economic.  My experience is that it performs superbly, it’s stable and the management provided by OpsMgr and VMM 2008 is superior to what I experienced with Virtual Center for ESX.

I should also note, these are MS off-the-shelf prices for Ireland.  Local prices will probably be cheaper (this is an expensive place to shop) and volume licenses will definitely be cheaper.

EDIT #1:

Anthony Crotty contact me with this link.  System Center CAL’s will be changing on July 1st.  The Enterprise CAL will only cover 4 VM’s and a new Datacenter per processor CAL will cover unlimited VM’s.

Microsoft has released two documents on Hyper-V:

Hyper-V Networking Guidance

“This guide will step you through Hyper-V’s networking concepts, best practices and deployment steps including: *Current Landscape and Challenges of Virtual Networking *Live Migration Networking Scenario Recommendations *Hyper-V MAC Address Management *Dynamic MAC Address *Virtual Network Setup *Networking with iSCSI Shared Storage *Hyper-V Networking Best Practices *Updates in Windows Server 2008 R2”.

Hyper-V Live Migration Overview & Architecture

"With Hyper-V™ live migration, you can move running VMs from one Hyper-V™ physical host to another without any disruption of service or perceived downtime. Live migration is integrated with Windows Server 2008® R2 Hyper-V™ and Microsoft® Hyper-V™ Server 2008 R2. Since Hyper-V™ live migration can move running virtual machines without downtime, it will facilitate greater flexibility and value:

• Provides better agility: Datacenters with multiple Hyper-V™ physical hosts will be able to move running VMs to the best physical computer for performance, scaling, or optimal consolidation without impacting users.
• Reduces costs and increase productivity: Datacenters with multiple Hyper-V™ physical hosts will be able to service those systems in a more controlled fashion, scheduling maintenance during regular business hours. Live migration makes it possible to keep VMs online, even during maintenance, increasing productivity for both users and server administrators. Datacenters will be also able to reduce power consumption by dynamically increasing consolidation ratios and powering off un-used physical hosts during times of lower demand".

I’ve updated a previous post on KB961983 where I discuss how to download and manually install the update.  Thanks to Michelle in VMM Support for her help so far.