Month: November 2010

Block Windows 7 and Windows Server 2008 R2 Service Pack 1

As usual, Microsoft is providing a way to prevent the download and install for a new service pack, this time it’s SP1 for Windows 7 and W2008 R2.

You can prevent the download/install if you use WSUS or ConfigMgr.  For example, you can choose if you want to download serivce packs (or not) and you can choose to approve (or not) the service pack for all machines or groups of machines.

But maybe you use Windows Update directly or maybe you have a one-size fits all policy and you want to blog the install for a few machines?  If so, you can use the blocker.

“A blocking tool is available for organizations that would like to temporarily prevent installation of Service Pack updates through Windows Update.
This tool can be used with:

  • Windows 7 Service Pack 1 (valid for 12 months following general availability of the service pack)
  • Windows Server 2008 R2 Service Pack 1 (valid for 12 months following general availability of the service pack)

This toolkit contains three components. All of them function primarily to set or clear a specific registry key that is used to detect and block download of Service Packs from Windows Update. You only need to use the component which best serves your organization’s computer management infrastructure.

  • A Microsoft-signed executable
  • A script
  • An ADM template
  1. The executable creates a registry key on the computer on which it is run that blocks or unblocks (depending on the command-line option used) the delivery of a Service Pack to that computer through Windows Update. The key used is HKLMSoftwarePoliciesMicrosoftWindowsWindowsUpdate.
    When the ‘/B’ command line option is used, the key value name ‘DoNotAllowSP’ is created and its value set to 1. This value blocks delivery of a Service Pack to the computer through Automatic Update or Windows Update.
    When the ‘/U’ command line option is used, the previously created registry value that temporarily blocked the delivery of a Service Pack to the computer through Automatic Update or Windows Update is removed. If the value does not exist on the computer on which it is run, no action is taken.
  2. The script does the same thing as the executable, but allows you to specify the remote machine name on which to block or unblock delivery of Service Packs.
    Note that the executable and script have been tested only as a command-line tool and not in conjunction with other systems management tools or remote execution mechanisms.
  3. The ADM template allows administrators to import group policy settings to block or unblock delivery of Service Packs into their Group Policy environment. Administrators can then use Group Policy to centrally execute the action across systems in their environment.

Please note that this toolkit will not prevent the installation of the service pack from CD/DVD, or from the stand-alone download package. This simply prevents the service pack from being delivered over Windows Update.”

Native VHD Boot: A Walkthrough of Common Scenarios

Native VHD is a feature of Windows 7 and Windows Server 2008 R2 where you can configure a machine to boot up from a VHD (virtual hard disk) file instead of a physical file system.  Many people choose to do this for test or demo environments.  It could be handy to know about this feature if you want to quickly use one of Microsoft’s demo VHD’s and you don’t have dedicated hardware to run it on …. just download the VHD, configure Native VHD, and away you go.  But honestly, I’d probably just use my laptop which I would boot up with Hyper-V on my eSATA drive.

Microsoft has released a document on the subject: “Describes the functionality and usability of native VHD boot, which is a feature in Windows 7 and Windows Server 2008 R2”.

Office 2010 Deployment Guide

Microsoft released this guide for deploying Office 2010 a little while ago.

“This book provides information about how to plan a deployment Microsoft Office 2010, including how to plan for virtualization and Remote Desktop Services”.

Some other documents were also released:

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RemoteFX Deployment Guides

Microsoft has published guides for deploying RemoteFX.  RemoteFX is a new Windows Server 2008 R2 feature that is added with Service Pack 1 (currently a pre-RTM RC release).  It allows a Windows Server 2008 R2 server to virtualise a graphics card (GPU).  That means that Remote Desktop Services (VDI and Session Hosts aka Terminal Servers) can use a host server’s GPU to process high quality graphics, and stream them down to a “dumb” terminal.  Citrix is also including support for this in their Dazzle.

The Novel Acquisition May Be More Relevant To Microsoft Customers Than You Originally Thought

News broke yesterday that Attachmate was buying up Novell.  “Who cares?” was my original thought.  Linux admins are very wary of Novell so SLES does not have the usage of RHEL (corporate) or CentOS (hosting).  As for XenWorks … hmm.

But, Virtualization.Info posted an article that made me pay attention.  Here’s the highlights: Novell own Platespin and they make a really good virtualisation assessment tool.  Microsoft’s MAP is OK (currently 5.5 release) but the data it produces is a bit basic and hidden away for my liking.  Averages are misleading.  Standard deviations are more useful.  I’ve found the Platespin reports to be quite useful for host sizing.

And it appears that Novell has done quite a lot of work on cloud and workflow automation across multiple hypervisors.  I didn’t know that.  The original article mentions trouble with Opalis.  I’m yet to see a good MS explanation on it. 

But here’s the really interesting bit … Microsoft might be able to get its hands on some of the assets.  Check the original article for more details.  This could really add some clout to the MS offering.

Backup VMM 2008 R2 Using PowerShell

I just found a handy page with a Microsoft-written PowerShell script for backing up a System Center Virtual Machine Manager 2008 R2 database.

You start off by writing a script with two lines:

$VMMServer = Get-VMMServer -ComputerName "<<insert the FQDN of your VMM server here>>"

Backup-VMMServer –Path "D:VMMBackups" -VMMServer $VMMServer

In the MS example, you save that as C:MyScriptsBackupVMMDatabase.ps1. I’ve tweaked it so it backs up the database to the D: drive which is probably the library drive and (hopefully) has plenty of free space.

You can create a scheduled task to run the following command (one line) for VMM 2008 R2:

PowerShell.exe -PSConsoleFile "C:Program FilesMicrosoft System Center Virtual Machine Manager 2008 R2bincli.psc1" -Command ".’C:MyScriptsBackupVMMDatabase.ps1’"

Otherwise, you can do this by hand in the Administration view –> General, and clicking the Back Up Virtual Machine Manager task in the Actions pane.  You can also use a traditional SQL backup of the database.  And don’t forget to backup the library file share!

EDIT #1:

You will need to change the PowerShell script execution policy.  You can sign the script and se the policy to AllSigned.  Or you can set it to Unrestricted.

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What to Expect From the Private Cloud Academy Event This Friday

Virtualisation Academy is a series of events that System Dynamics (my employers) and Microsoft Ireland will be running in the coming months.  The first session is called “Private Cloud Academy”, focusing on cloud computing on your premises using Microsoft’s Hyper-V and System Center.

As it’s the first event, I’ll warm things up by talking about Hyper-V and what makes it different.  In other words: management of an IT infrastructure using System Centre.  Most people see Hyper-V as virtualisation.  I see it as an enabler for a more dynamic computing environment, so I will explain that vision.

We’ll move closer to the cloud by discussing System Center Virtual Machine Manager 2008 R2.  My focus will be on the library, delegation of roles, and the Self-Service Portal.  That was the first real move towards the compute cluster/cloud approach using System Center.

Then we’ll move to System Center Virtual Machine Manager Self Service Portal 2.0 (SCVMM SSP 2.0) or Microsoft’s private cloud.  I’ll be getting deep on this puppy.  I’ll talk requirements, architecture, and so on.  The demo will be an A-Z configuration and demonstration of a new business unit self provisioning VM’s in the private cloud.  Hopefully I’ll also have the dashboard running tonight (everything else is ready).

I’ll be wrapping up with some futures.  What’s coming in SCVMM 2012?  What’s coming in Azure VM Role?  And what can we expect (not confirmed but discussed previously by MS) with the cross-premises cloud.

It’s going to be a very full 3 hours.  If I get time I’ll try to bring in more stuff like the new Dynamic Datacenter offering from MS.

This event is filling up fast (we had HUGE interest in the first 24 hours; more than any other user group event launch that I’ve done) and there will be no webcast so make sure you register AND come along; We (System Dynamics) do want to meet you after all Smile

HP P4000 LeftHand SAN/iQ 9.0 Adds CSV Hardware VSS Provider Support

You may know that HP and Microsoft have formed a virtualisation alliance around Hyper-V.  One of HP’s key pieces in the puzzle the the iSCSI SAN formerly known as LeftHand, the P4000 series.

Cluster Shared Volume (CSV) can be backed up using a software VSS provider (i.e. Windows VSS) but this is slow.  When using DPM 2010, it’s recommended to use serialised backups.  If your hardware vendor support it, you can use their hardware VSS provider to take a snapshot in the SAN and then DPM (or whatever backup product) will use that feature for the backup.

Now back to the P4000.  Up until recently, the HP supplied DSM for MPIO was version 8.5.  The SAN/iQ software on the P4000 was also at 8.5.  Lots of people were using the 8.5 hardware VSS provider in the SAN to backup CSVs.  It seems that this was unsupported. by HP (nothing to do with MS).  In fact, it can even cause disk deadlock in a Hyper-V cluster, and lead to 0x0000009E blue screens of death (BSOD) on cluster hosts.  And that’s just the start of it!

HP did release DSM 9.0 and SAN/iQ 9.0 recently for the P4000.  These add support for using the hardware VSS provider for backing up a CSV.

EDIT #1

So the SAN/iQ 9.0 release docs say that previous versions of SAN/iQ supported CSVs.  However, the Application Snashot Feature (hardware VSS provider/backup application) of the 8.5 release could not support quiecsed snapshots of CSVs.  In other words, it wasn’t supported to use DPM (or anything else) to perform a storage/host level backup of LeftHand with SAN/iQ 8.5 using the HP hardware VSS provider.  It is supported with v9.0.

With So Many Pieces, There’s Lots of Options

Today I was working with a member of Microsoft Consulting Services.  The consultant was here to provide input into a design I was working on for a common client.  It was interesting because we work in different countries and have had different experiences, not to mention that I have the freedom to stray away from corporate doctrine (I would almost never install Server Core,for example).  One thing is clear: there is no one way to deploy a Hyper-V cluster.

Think about it.  There’s storage, backup (which is tied to storage because of CSV redirected I/O), failover clustering, and Hyper-V networking.  Then add on System Center.  There’s a lot of parts in there that can be deployed in lots of ways.  Some configurations are just best practice.  Some are because of support statements.  Some are because Microsoft would prefer you did it that way but we folks who have to live with the cluster can’t live with that configuration.  Some are to suit the client.  And some are just personal preferences.

It was an interesting day because … well … I’m a nerd Smile  It was interesting to explore the difference in opinions and figure out where to go with this thing.

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