Month: November 2011

Microsoft BitLocker Administration and Monitoring (MBAM)

To be honest, I hadn’t heard of this MBAM toolset until this morning; it’s tucked away in MDOP (Microsoft Desktop Optimization Pack).  In Microsoft’s words:

“Microsoft BitLocker Administration and Monitoring (MBAM) provides a simplified administrative interface to BitLocker drive encryption (a feature included in Windows 7 Enterprise/Ultimate). MBAM lets you select BitLocker encryption policy options appropriate to your enterprise so that you can monitor client compliance with those policies and report on the encryption status of the enterprise in addition to individual computers. Also, you can access recovery key information when a user forgets their PIN or password, or when their BIOS or boot record changes”.

It includes:

  • Administration & monitoring server: here you have the admin console and a portal, apparently with self-service support for recovery.
  • Compliance and audit database: stores compliance data for managed clients.
  • Recovery & hardware database: stores recovery data for managed clients.
  • Compliance & audit reports: Use SQL Reporting Services to generate reports from the databases.
  • Group policy template: Configure managed clients using AD GPO.
  • Microsoft BitLocker Administration and Monitoring client agent: Used to manage and configure machines for BitLocker, and return data to the above administration components.

Documentation for MBAM can be downloaded from here.

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Some Interesting KB Articles on Failover Clustering

More catch up:

Supported and tested Microsoft iSCSI Software Target 3.3 limits

This topic provides the supported and tested Microsoft iSCSI Software Target 3.3 limits.

"0x0000009E" Stop error when you add an extra storage disk to a failover cluster in Windows Server 2008 R2

Consider the following scenario:

  • You have a failover cluster on some computers that are running Windows Server 2008 R2.
  • The cluster has many disks.
  • You click Add a disk in the Failover Cluster Manager console to add an extra storage disk on one cluster node.

In this scenario, you receive a Stop error message that resembles the following after a while:

0x0000009E ( parameter1 , parameter2 , parameter3 , parameter4 )
USER_MODE_HEALTH_MONITOR

Notes

  • The parameters in this Stop error message may vary, depending on the configuration of the computer.
  • Not all "0x0000009E" Stop errors are caused by this issue.

Additionally, you may experience the following issues if a cluster has many disks. For example, the cluster has more than 200 hard disks.

  • The Cluster service takes a long time to start.
  • The failover or shutdown operation of cluster resources takes a long time to complete.
  • The operation that adds a new storage disk into the cluster takes a long time to complete.

Timeout Error While Trying To Join Node To Windows Server 2008 R2 Failover Cluster

When attempting to join a new node to an existing Failover Cluster, you receive a time out error at the end of the Add Node Wizard.

Some Interesting KB Articles, Including Hyper-V KB Articles

It’s been a while since I last looked at my various sources outside of Twitter so I’m doing a bit of catch up:

On the Hyper-V front I’ve found:

Hyper-V settings hang after installing RemoteFX on Windows 2008 R2 Service pack 1

On a Windows Server 2008 R2-based computer that has Service Pack 1 (SP1) installed and has RemoteFX, Hyper-V VM settings will hang if following conditions are true:

  • When Domain Controller is installed on the same physical server as the RemoteFX server.
  • When the following Group Policy setting is enabled:
    Computer Configuration/Windows Settings/Security Settings/Local Policies/Security Options/Interactive Logon: Message text for users who are trying to log on.

You may also receive following error when you refresh the host on SCVMM console:

Error (2927)
A Hardware Management error has occurred trying to contact server <FQDN Server Name>.
(Unknown error (0x80338029))
The Hyper-V host status in SCVMM may show as "Not Responding".

An update that enables the Windows Developer Preview or Windows Server Developer Preview to be hosted in a Hyper-V virtual machine on Windows Server 2008 R2

Consider the following scenario:

  • You install the Hyper-V server role on a computer that is running Windows Server 2008 R2.
  • You create a virtual machine on the Windows Server 2008 R2-based computer that is running the Windows Developer Preview or Windows Server Developer Preview, codenamed "Windows 8."

In this scenario, you may experience one or more of the following issues:

  • The Windows Developer Preview or Windows Server Developer Preview virtual machine stops responding.
  • The Windows Server 2008 R2 host computer displays a stop error message and restarts automatically. This behavior brings down all other running virtual machines together with the host computer.

Virtual machines stop responding (hang) during startup and the Vmms.exe process crashes on a Windows Server 2008 R2 computer that has the Hyper-V role installed

Consider the following scenario:

  • You are running some virtual machines on a Windows Server 2008 R2 computer that has the Hyper-V role installed.
  • These virtual machines are configured to start automatically when the management operating system (host operating system) starts.

In this scenario, some of the virtual machines stop responding (hang) when the management operating system (host operating system) is starting. These virtual machines remain in the "Starting" state and never complete starting. Additionally, the Vmms.exe process crashes, and the following event is logged in the Application log:

Log Name: Application
Source: Application Error
Date: Date_Time
Event ID: 1000
Task Category: (100)
Level: Error
Keywords: Classic
User: N/A
Computer: ComputerName
Description:
Faulting application name: vmms.exe, version: 6.1.7600.16385, time stamp: 0x4a5bc7c6
Faulting module name: ntdll.dll, version: 6.1.7600.16385, time stamp: 0x4a5be02b
Exception code: 0xc000000d
Fault offset: 0x00000000000d2d83
Faulting process id: 0x670
Faulting application start time: 0x01ca16803aef0602
Faulting application path: C:Windowssystem32vmms.exe
Faulting module path: C:WindowsSYSTEM32ntdll.dll

Note Date_Time is a placeholder for the date and time of the event occurrence, and ComputerName is a placeholder for the name of the computer.

You receive a "Stop 0x0000007E" error on the first restart after you enable Hyper-V on a Windows Server 2008 R2-based computer

Assume that you enable the Hyper-V role on a computer that is running Windows Server 2008 R2. You restart the computer after you enable the Hyper-V role. However, you receive the following Stop error message during the restart operation:

Stop 0x0000007E (ffffffffc0000096, parameter2, parameter3, parameter4)
SYSTEM_THREAD_EXCEPTION_NOT_HANDLED

Notes

  • The parameters in these Stop error messages may vary, depending on the actual configuration.
  • The symptoms of a Stop error may vary, depending on your computer’s system failure options. For example, the computer may restart when a Stop error occurs.

The network connection of a running Hyper-V virtual machine is lost under heavy outgoing network traffic on a Windows Server 2008 R2-based computer

Consider the following scenario:

  • You install the Hyper-V role on a computer that is running Windows Server 2008 R2.
  • You run a virtual machine on the computer.
  • You use a network adapter on the virtual machine to access a network.
  • You establish many concurrent network connections, or there is heavy outgoing network traffic.

In this scenario, the network connection on the virtual machine may be lost sporadically. Additionally, the network adapter is disabled.
Note You have to restart the virtual machine to recover from this issue.
This issue can also occur on a computer that is running Windows Server 2008 R2 Service Pack 1. To resolve the issue, apply the hotfix that is described in one of the following Microsoft Knowledge Base articles:

2263829 (http://support.microsoft.com/kb/2263829/ ) The network connection of a running Hyper-V virtual machine may be lost under heavy outgoing network traffic on a computer that is running Windows Server 2008 R2 SP1

Hyper-V Host Reports a Virtual Storage Device Error With Pass-through Disk

Consider the following scenario:
You are hosting a Virtual Machine configured with a SCSI attached Pass-through disk from a Windows Server 2008 R2 Hyper-V Host.
You attempt to monitor the performance of the Pass-through disk from the host OS using the following Performance Monitor Counter:
Hyper-V Virtual Storage DeviceError Count
You observe that the Error Count increases when the guest is booted or the guest is running.

MS10-010: Vulnerability in Windows Server 2008 Hyper-V could allow denial of service

Microsoft has released security bulletin MS10-010.

Hyper-V Time Synchronization Doesn’t Correct the System Clock in the Virtual Machine if it is more than 5 Seconds ahead of the Host Clock

The Hyper-V Time Synchronization Service will not correct the system clock in the virtual machine (VM), if the system clock in the VM is running more than 5 seconds ahead of the system clock on the host machine

You cannot import a virtual machine by using Hyper-v Manager or System Center Virtual Machine Manager (SCVMM) on a Hyper-V server

When you try to import a virtual machine that has been exported by using Hyper-V Manager, you cannot import the virtual machine by using Hyper-V Manager on a different Hyper-V server. Additionally, you receive an error message that resembles the following:

A Server error occurred while attempting to import the virtual machine. Failed to import the virtual machine from import directory <Directory Path>. Error: One or more arguments are invalid (0x80070057).

When you try to use System Center Virtual Machine Manager (SCVMM) to import a virtual machine that was exported by using Hyper-V Manager, you receive the following error message:

Error (12700) VMM cannot complete the Hyper-V operation on the <server FQDN> server because of the error: Failed to import the virtual machine from import directory <Directory Path>. Error: One or more arguments are invalid (0x80070057) (Unknown error (0x8005))

Adding the Hyper-V role in Windows Server 2008 R2 may cause a Stop 0x5C on reboot if x2APIC is enabled

Consider the following scenario:

  • You are running Windows Server 2008 R2.
  • You have Intel’s® x2APIC mode enabled in the BIOS or the operating system.
  • In Windows you enable the Hyper-V role and reboot the machine.

In this scenario, you may encounter a Stop error during boot that resembles the following:

STOP: 0x0000005C (0x0000000000007002, 0x0000000000000001, 0x0000000000000001, 0x0000000000000000)

CD-ROM device is no longer accessible after installing the Hyper-V Linux Integration Services in a Red Hat or CentOS virtual machine

Consider the following scenario:
· Red Hat or CentOS is installed in a Hyper-V virtual machine.
· The Linux Integration Services are installed in the virtual machine.
· After the Linux Integration Services are installed, the CD-ROM (/dev/cdrom) is no longer accessible in the virtual machine.
· If the Linux Integration Services are uninstalled, the CD-ROM is accessible in the virtual machine.

Hyper-V Export function consumes all available memory in Windows Server 2008 or in Windows Server 2008 R2

Consider the following scenario:

  • You install the Hyper-V role on a computer that is running Windows Server 2008 or Windows Server 2008 R2.
  • You use the Export function to export some virtual machines (VMs) to a destination location.
  • The disk I/O transfer rate of the source disk is faster than the disk I/O transfer rate of the destination disk.

In this scenario, the available memory on the computer keeps decreasing. Additionally, the computer stops responding when the available memory is exhausted.

Hyper-V Integration Components on Windows Server 2003 Guests Do Not Function Properly

After performing a Physical to Virtual machine migration on Windows 2003, you may experience the following problem when attempting to install the Hyper-V Integration Components:

  • The Integration Component installer reports that everything installed correctly
  • In Device Manager, the Hyper-V devices ‘Data Exchange’, ‘Guest Shutdown’, ‘Heartbeat’, ‘Time Synchronization’, and ‘Volume Shadow Copy’ do not appear under System Devices
  • In Device Manager, the ‘Virtual Machine Bus’ and/or ‘Microsoft Emulated S3 Device Cap’ devices appear with a yellow exclamation point, and their properties show error code 37.
  • Integration services like the mouse, NIC, and graphics do not function properly
  • When the guest boots, you see a warning that one or more services did not start correctly

Hyper-V Live Migration fails on Windows Server 2008 R2 with Event ID 12080

When you perform a live migration of a Hyper-V virtual machine on Windows Server 2008 R2, the live migration may fail and the virtual machine will have a status of Migration attempt failed.
On the destination node, the following events will be logged in the Microsoft-Windows-Hyper-V-Worker/Admin event log:
Log Name: Microsoft-Windows-Hyper-V-Worker-Admin
Source: Microsoft-Windows-Hyper-V-Worker
Event ID: 12080
Level: Error
Description: ‘VMName’ Microsoft Synthetic Ethernet Port (Instance ID {BA8A5B0D-5A37-467B-8A5E-DD9262F52C9A}): Failed to restore with Error ‘The system cannot find the path specified.’ (0x80070003). (Virtual machine ID 6A205AEF-D566-4AC2-92E0-08431A711034)

Hyper-V virtual machines may not start, and you receive an error: “‘General access denied error’ (0x80070005)”

A Hyper-V virtual machine may fail to start and you receive an error that resembles the following:

An error occurred while attempting to start the selected virtual machine(s).
‘VMName’ failed to start.
Microsoft Emulated IDE Controller (Instance ID
{83F8638B-8DCA-4152-9EDA-2CA8B33039B4}): Failed to Power on with Error ‘General
access denied error’
IDE/ATAPI Account does not have sufficient privilege to open attachment
‘E:VMsVMNameDisk0.vhd. Error: ‘General access denied error’
Account does not have sufficient privilege to open attachment
‘E:VMsVMNameDisk0.vhd. Error: ‘General access denied error’

If you click See details, the following error is listed:

‘VMName’ failed to start. (Virtual machine ID
5FC5C385-BD98-451F-B3F3-1E50E06EE663)
‘VMName’ Microsoft Emulated IDE Controller (Instance ID
{83F8638B-8DCA-4152-9EDA-2CA8B33039B4}): Failed to Power on with Error ‘General
access denied error’ (0x80070005). (Virtual machine ID
5FC5C385-BD98-451F-B3F3-1E50E06EE663)
‘VMName’: IDE/ATAPI Account does not have sufficient privilege to open attachment
‘E:VMsVMNameDisk0.vhd. Error: ‘General access denied error’ (0x80070005). (Virtual
Machine ID 5FC5C385-BD98-451F-B3F3-1E50E06EE663)
‘VMName’: Account does not have sufficient privilege to open attachment
‘E:VMsVMNameDisk0.vhd. Error: ‘General access denied error’ (0x80070005). (Virtual
Machine ID 5FC5C385-BD98-451F-B3F3-1E50E06EE663)

Notes

  • This error message references either the Microsoft Emulated IDE Controller or the Microsoft Synthetic SCSI Controller.
  • This error message references either a virtual hard disk (.vhd) file or a snapshot file (.avhd).
  • The Virtual Machine ID is unique to each virtual machine.

And there are lots more like this on MS Support, but I’m tired now and I want to sleep Smile

VMware Can’t See They Got It Wrong With vTax Increases

I’ll keep this one short because the facts speak for themselves.  Earlier this year, VMware announced (and then slightly backtracked) their new v5 licensing model.  VMware introduced a limit on how much RAM each vSphere license would cover.

The impact has been huge.  Locally, I’ve seen hardcore VMware partners (the people who drove demand for vSphere) start to sell Hyper-V.  It seems like free with unlimited feature usage beats vTax with limited license features/capacity every time.

This morning, I read this quote on CRN (VMware to jump on social media bandwagon):

“… if you’re going to move to the cloud the license model has to be cloud-based and not physical-based.” Doug Smith, Global Vice President for Sales, VMware

Huh!  So the license shouldn’t be physical based.  How does that match up with the new RAM limited licensing?

A Very Dangerous Blog Post About Windows 8 On XP Hardware

I was out of the office for most of the last 2 weeks.  When I came into the office this morning, I caught up with my boss and he raised an InformationWeek article he’d read.  As he read it, people with old XP PCs would be able to run Windows 8 on them.  Huh!?!?!?

Let’s flash back to when Vista was first released.  Microsoft wanted people to upgrade.  Hardware vendors wanted to clear stocks of older hardware.  So a lot of low end stock was sold with Vista on it.  The result?  Lots of people who had a crappy Vista experience.  The problem was that there was a race to the bottom.  Minimum required hardware should not be what one is aiming for.  That’s the h/w that’ll allow the OS to install and boot, but will struggle when you start watching movies, browsing the web, or using LOB apps.  Instead, look at the recommended spec, and increase it some.  For example, I’d not recommend any business PC these days with less than 4 GB RAM.

Along came Windows 7.  It would run on Vista hardware.  In fact, it would run better on it.  But things had changed by now in terms of hardware.  What was once high spec had become the norm: dual core CPUs, 2GB+ RAM, 7200+ RPM disks, and decent video cards.

Then I read the InformationWeek article.  It references a Microsoft Build blog post (which is innocent enough).  But the offending article starts talking about 1 GhZ CPUs, 16 GB disk,  and how “older computers” will be able to run Windows 8.  There was a time when I considered a 3 year old PC to be old.  But that’s probably a dual core CPU, with 2+ GB RAM.  Upgrade the RAM and it’s still a decent biz machine (still with no h/w support because of the age).  But I’ve been in many a place (and so probably have you) where 5+ year old PCs running XP are the norm.  Loose language articles like this offending one are going to lead people down the garden path.

Yes, you can install Windows 8 on something with 512MB RAM.  But do you really want to?

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Windows Server 2008 R2 and 10 GbE

If you’re taking full advantage of some of the great new hardware that is out there, then you’ll need to invest in 10 Gigabit networking.  192+ GB of RAM is a lot of VMs to live migrate, backup, etc.  In fact, 1 GbE is not enough to Live Migrate (or VMotion for that matter) that much RAM from one host to another in a realistic time frame.

I wish I could say that I’ve got a lot of material for you on this topic – but I haven’t the equipment.  But Didier van Hoye has done the work and shared his findings on his blog.  Out of the box, he found he couldn’t use the full capacity of the network.  With some tuning, he got much more throughput.  With the tweaks that Didier has documented, you can get the same results on Windows Server 2008 R2.

Me Being Interviewed About CSV & Backup Design by Carsten Rachfahl

I was at the E2E Virtualisation Conference over the weekend, and had a good time chatting with lots of folks including Ronnie Isherwood (@virtualfat), Jeff Wouters (@JeffWouters), Didier van Hoye (@workinghardinit), and Carsten Rachfahl (@hypervserver). 

Carsten was awarded MVP status in Virtual Machine (like myself) by Microsoft earlier this year.  He’s a big contributor to the German (and English too) speaking community, tweeting, blogging, podcasting, and creating videos.

After my second session on CSV and backup design, Carsten asked if I would be willing to shoot a video interview on the subject.  Absolutely, and it just so happened we had a cool background with the London docklands at sunset – being an amateur photographer I was willing to shiver a little for nice light Smile

2011-11-21-Aidan_Finn_Hyper-V_CSV_and_Backup-art

The video was posted this morning by Carsten.  He was a busy man; more videos were shot over the weekend with some of the others, and we even did a roundtable video where we talked about our favourite features of Windows 8.  Those videos will be posted in the coming weeks.

Event: Hyper-V Immersion Training for IT Pros

My final 2 months of 2011 are nuts and here’s part of the reason why.  I’ll be co-presenting 3 * 1 day immersion training events on Windows Server 2008 R2 Hyper-V.  The session is the same on each day; it gives you an opportunity to pick one that suits your schedule and means we should have enough seats for all.  That means you should only register for 1 day.  Do not register for 2 or 3 days.

The day starts with the basics in the morning, and dives deep into all the nuts and bolts, from clustering, to networking, to Linux, to Dynamic Memory, to CSV and backup design.  Sign up and attend this, and you’ll be eligible to attend the hands-on training classes we’ll be running in the new year.

image

Presenters: Aidan Finn (Me) and Dave Northey (DPE, Microsoft Ireland, aka @IEITPRO)

Audience: Infrastructure Specialists, IT Decision Makers, IT Generalists, IT Implementers, Administrators, Consultants, Technical Support.

Location: Microsoft European Development Centre, Building 2 South County Business Park, Leopardstown, Dublin 18

We will run the workshop from 9.30am until 5.00pm on 3 different dates; please choose one date which suits you:

There is no cost for attending this training session. All participants to this 1 Day session will receive a priority invite to the in-depth ITPro training taking place in early 2012, and you will be entered into a fabulous draw in which we have 3 new Nokia Lumia 800 to give away Smile

Windows 8 Slate PC, HDMI, Samsung 40” LED TV, and NFL Gamepass

If you follow me on Twitter then you know that I’m a fan of American Football and the San Francisco 49ers.  Outside of the USA, NFL is a minority sport, and if it is shown, only 1-2 games are shown by the broadcaster.  I really wanted to watch as many 49ers games as possible, and the best solution for that was to subscribe to NFL Gamepass – basically an online subscription to all NFL games and the NFL network that is only available outside of the USA.  It’s great because if I am travelling I can watch games live or recorded (latter without adverts) on a PC, laptop, iPhone or iPad.

Watching it on the laptop from the couch grew tiresome.  That small screen is just too small.  I bought my TV in 2005 and it’s a 32” CRT.  It works fine but there was not way to connect a PC to it.  I needed a change.

I did a bit of research and decided upon the Samsung UE40D5000 40" Full HD (1080p) LED TV.  It has 4 * HDMI, 1 VGA, composite, and 1 * SCART sockets (and some others).  The reviews were good; reasonably priced and the blacks are really black (great contrast).  I picked one up today at lunch.  And when I say “pick” I mean it … damn these are so light compared to my CRT TV.  Next I picked up a HDMI lead.

I got the TV home and set it up.  Then I propped up the Build Windows slate PC that is running the Windows 8 developer preview build.  The base (docking station) has a full sized HDMI socket.  I ran a lead between the base and the TV.  Then I did the Windows + P trick to tell the slate to extend the display to a projector.  IE was fired up (on the desktop for Flash), I logged into NFL Gamepass, and then I expanded the stream to fill the TV.

Oh .. baby yeah!  It isn’t as good as native 1080p, but it isn’t far off, to be honest.  Next up, streaming media from my Windows Home Server 2011 machine via the Xbox 360.

EDIT #1:

I swapped out my Xbox 360 lead for the MSFT supplied HDMI lead and have media streaming from the WHS.  Nice!