Month: July 2013

My Smartphone Pregnancy Is Over

My last phone contract ended last November and I’ve been contemplating a new device since then.  I finally came to a decision …

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After 8 months of procrastination I went with the HTC One.  The Nokia Lumia 925 did have a shot but being limited to 16 GB (too small for me now) and the absence of any good podcast apps killed it for me.

Note: Very few countries have access to podcasts in the store, and every podcast app on Windows Phone sucks donkey balls.

I’ve already talked about the S4 and Xperia Z.  Every review raved about the HTC One.  I finally handled one in the press room at TechEd NA, and that pretty much sealed it.  No; it does not have the best camera, but I use a pretty nice DSLR for photography.

One unexpected (for me) spanner in the works was the Lumia 1020 that was announced tonight (after a week of “leaks”).  A 41 megapixel camera in a phone?  But you know what: we serious photographers call them megapixies.  Shooting through a tiny lens, from a tiny sensor, through fingerprints …. I’m sorry but it sounds more marketing than anything else to me.  Call me skeptical.  I’ve heard so much crap about cameras (including top end DSLRs) over the years I’ve long since given up believing it until I see the results.

So I got my HTC One.  Office 365 got all my contacts and email down in seconds.  All the apps I want are there.  Podcast apps: there’s no shortage of highly rated free apps.  I love the phone so far … but I’ve had it all of 8 hours.  We’ll see how it goes over time.

Problem With The July 2013 Update Rollup For WS2012 Hyper-V

A number of people have experienced issues after installing the July 2013 Update Rollup.  Some of you were quick to comment on my post (thank you for sharing) and more comments were posted on the TechNet forum.

The issue appears to affect people with a common configuration: a virtual switch connected to a NIC team, and multiple VLANs being supported.  No; I don’t know how this slipped through testing. Yes; Microsoft are aware of the issue.

Please do not install KB2855336 until further notice.

EDIT:

An alleged fix was included with an updated version of the July 2013 update rollup.

Best Practices for Virtualizing & Managing SQL Server On Hyper-V

This Microsoft-written guide provides high-level best practices and considerations for deploying and managing SQL Server 2012 on a Microsoft virtualization infrastructure. The recommendations and guidance in this document aim to:

  • Complement the architectural design of an organization’s specific environment.
  • Help organizations take advantage of the key platform features in SQL Server 2012 to deliver the highest levels of performance and availability.

There are lots of tips, requirements, and recommendations, such as this one for SQL Server VMs that are replicated using Hyper-V Replica.  Yes, Hyper-V Replica is supported by SQL Server – ya hear that Exchange!?!?!

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The setting in question can be found here and can be enabled when modifying the replication of a VM using PowerShell.  It:

Determines whether all virtual hard disks selected for replication are replicated to the same point in time. This is useful if the virtual machine runs an application that saves data across virtual hard disks (for example, one virtual hard disk dedicated for application data, and another virtual hard disk dedicated for application log files).

Long story short: it maintains consistency of an application across disks.

KB2846837–Incorrect RSS Core Assignment On Win8 or WS2012 Computer That Has Multi-Core processors

One for you SMB Multichannel freaks out there.  This KB article and hotfix from Microsoft is for when incorrect Receive Side Scaling (RSS) processor assignment on a Windows 8 or Windows Server 2012-based computer that has multi-core processors.

Symptoms

Consider the following scenario:

  • You have a Windows 8-based or Windows Server 2012-based computer that has multi-core processors.
  • You have three or more network adapters installed on the computer. 
  • You enable Receive Side Scaling (RSS) and set a RSS profile to use the "Closest" parameter for the network adapters.
  • You run the following PowerShell command to retrieve RSS properties of the network adapters:

Get-NetAdapterRss

In this scenario, the first two network adapters are assigned processors correctly. However, other network adapters are not assigned correctly.

Cause

This issue occurs because RSS incorrectly uses the maximum processor count that is supported by the computer to assign processors. The expected action is that RSS uses the active processor count during the processor assignment.

A supported hotfix is available from Microsoft.

There’s no mention of this applying if using DVMQ, the cousin of RSS.

Creating & Adding Lots Of Shared VHDX Files To VMs Using PowerShell

As previously mentioned, I want to run a virtual SOFS in my lab using Storage Spaces.  This is completely unsupported, but it’s fine for my lab.  In the real world, the SOFS with Storage Spaces features physical servers with a JBOD.

I’m lazy, and I don’t want to be creating VHDX files, adding disks by hand, configuring sharing, and repeating for each and every VHDX on each and every VM.

First up: creating the VHDX files.  This snippet will create a 1 GB witness and 8 * 100 GB data disks:

$Folder = “E:Shared VHDXDemo-FSC1”

New-VHD -Path “$FolderDemo-FSC1 Witness Disk.vhdx” -Dynamic -SizeBytes 1GB

for ($DiskNumber = 2; $DiskNumber -lt 9; $DiskNumber++)
{
New-VHD -Path “$FolderDemo-FSC1 Data Disk$DiskNumber.vhdx” -Dynamic -SizeBytes 100GB
}

The next snippet will (a) attach the VHDX files to the default SCSI controller of the VMs, and (b) enable Shared VHDX (Persistent Reservations):

$VMName = “Demo-FS1.demo-internal”

Add-VMHardDiskDrive $VMName -ControllerType SCSI -ControllerNumber 0 -ControllerLocation 0 -Path “E:Shared VHDXDemo-FSC1Demo-FSC1 Witness Disk.vhdx” -SupportPersistentReservations

for ($DiskNumber = 1; $DiskNumber -lt 9; $DiskNumber++)
{
Add-VMHardDiskDrive $VMName -ControllerType SCSI -ControllerNumber 0 -ControllerLocation $DiskNumber -Path “E:Shared VHDXDemo-FSC1Demo-FSC1 Data Disk$DiskNumber.vhdx” -SupportPersistentReservations
}

And there’s the power of PowerShell.  In just a few minutes, I figured this out, and saved myself some boredom, and then sped up my job. With a bit more crafting, I could script a hell of a lot more in this:

  • Creation of VMs
  • Copying and attaching OS disks
  • The above
  • Booting the VMs
  • Use functions to group code and an array of user entered VM names

Note: You might want to consider adding more SCSI controllers to the VMs, especially if you have plenty of vCPUs to spare.  And yes, I did use Dynamic VHDX because this is a lab.

KB2855336 – WS2012 Update Rollup For July 2013

A number of people have reported here and on the TechNet forum that there is a problem with this update.  It appears to cause bluescreens of death on hosts that have NIC teams supporting VLAN tagging.  Please do not approve/install this update until further notice.

EDIT:

An alleged fix was included with an updated version of the July 2013 update rollup.

Microsoft has released another update rollup for July 2013 for Windows Server 2012.  There are a number of fixes included that are relevant to Hyper-V.  This update rollup is available through Windows Update: make sure you have WS2012 and Update Rollups enabled and deployed, and please use Cluster Aware Updating to update your clusters!

KB2847176: File system is recognized incorrectly after you extend a CSVFS volume on a Windows Server 2012-based cluster.

Assume that you run the Diskpart.exe command prompt utility to extend a Cluster Shared Volumes File System (CSVFS) volume on a Windows Server 2012-based cluster. The volume extends beyond the size limit of the file system. In this scenario, Disk Manager and Diskpart.exe recognize the file system as a RAW file system instead of as a CSVFS file system.

For example, assume that a file system that was formatted by using an 8 KB cluster size has a size limit of 32 TB. When you extend a CSVFS volume beyond 32 TB, Disk Manager and Diskpart.exe recognize the file system as a RAW file system.

KB2854362: Vmms.exe processes freeze on certain nodes in a Windows Server 2012-based Hyper-V failover cluster.

Assume that you deploy a Windows Server 2012-based Hyper-V failover cluster that is based on a scale-out file server cluster. When a failover starts, the Vmms.exe process freezes on some of the failover cluster nodes. Therefore, several virtual machines are in the offline state.

KB2845653: “0x0000000A” Stop error when you perform a live migration of a virtual machine on a Windows Server 2012-based cluster

Assume that you have a Windows Server 2012-based multiple-node cluster. You try to perform a live migration of a virtual machine that has a duplicated (cloned) MAC address. In this situation, the host computer crashes. Additionally, you receive the following Stop error message:

STOP: 0x0000000A (parameter1, parameter2, parameter3, parameter4)

Notes

  • This Stop error describes an IRQL_NOT_LESS_OR_EQUAL issue.
  • The parameters in this Stop error message vary, depending on the configuration of the computer.
  • Not all “Stop 0x0000000A” errors are caused by this issue

KB727972: Cluster node freezes when you restart a computer in a Windows Server 2008 R2 or Windows Server 2012 environment.

Consider the following scenario:

  • You deploy a failover cluster in a Windows Server 2008 R2 or Windows Server 2012 environment.
  • You enable the Volume Shadow Copy Service on a cluster disk.
  • You replace a host bus adapter (HBA) on a cluster node.
  • You restart the cluster node.

In this scenario, the cluster node freezes.

KB853952: Active Directory database becomes corrupted when a Windows Server 2012-based Hyper-V host server crashes.

Assume that you have a Windows Server 2012-based virtualized domain controller on a Windows Server 2012-based Hyper-V host server. When the Hyper-V host server crashes or encounters a power outage, the Active Directory database may become corrupted.

This issue occurs because the guest system requests the Hyper-V server to turn off disk caching on a disk. However, the Hyper-V server misinterprets the request and keeps disk caching enabled.

Configuring WS2012 R2 Hyper-V Live Migration Performance Options Using PowerShell

Didier Van Hoye (VM MVP like me) beat me to blogging about configuring the new options for Live Migration in Windows Server 2012 R2 Hyper-V.  He’s doing that a lot lately Smile  There Didier shows you how to configure the performance options for Live Migration in the GUI.  Here’s how you can do it using PowerShell:

Set-VMHost –VirtualMachineMigrationPerformanceOption <Option>

Where <Option> can be:

  • Compression: This is the default option in WS2012 R2 and uses idle CPU capacity (only) to reduce the time to live migrate VMs.
  • SMB: Using SMB 3.0 Direct (if RDMA is available) and Multichannel (if multiple NICs are available)
  • TCPIP: The legacy non-optimized Live Migration option

Example:

Set-VMHost –VirtualMachineMigrationPerformanceOption SMB

And that’s how Ben Armstrong probably scripted his host changes in his TechEd 2013 Live Migration demo (obviously with a lot more logic wrapped around it).

Windows 8.1 To RTM In “Late August”

As tweeted yesterday, Microsoft’s Tami Reller revealed in the WPC 2013 keynote that Windows 8.1 will RTM in late August.  All along I’ve theorized that the schedule would be similar to Windows 8, which was similar to Windows 7.  That would mean that GA would be in October.  In fact, Reller said that Windows 8.1 would be available to customers in “a few months” for the Christmas market, once again missing the lucrative back-to-school market when Apple makes a fortune.

Mary Jo Foley has reported that Windows 8.1 may in fact be available to existing Windows 8 customers soon after RTM.  That is the norm for volume license customers – but that’s because they often have agreements that allow instant access and deployment, e.g. Software Assurance.  This time around, Windows 8.1 isn’t a new purchase – it’s a built-in upgrade right for everyone with Windows 8.  So it makes sense that Microsoft would consider this.

OEMs might be pissed off with a move like this … but hey … they deserve to be pissed on because they really dropped the ball with device availability for Windows 8.  It’s 10 months later and devices are only on the shelves in the last month in these parts.  The instant availability of Windows 8.1 could be good for marketing of the OS – a lot of people will upgrade to get their Start Button (there is no Start Menu) and they’ll show customers, friends, family, etc, and that might be a very clever social (version 1) marketing technique.

No news on Windows Server and System Center 2012 R2 availability.  I would guess it’ll happen around the same time as Windows 8.1, in line with the “Blue” concept.  October (same as WS2012) would be the latest GA I think, maybe to give Windows 8.1 marketing a chance to have airtime, and then give WSSC 2012 R2 a chance to have it’s own marketing bandwidth.  But that’s all guessing.  We know that WSSC was developed together and will be released at or around the same time … the first time this will happen.

Microsoft Kills TechNet Subscription–Speak Now Or Forever Hold Your Peace

This is last week’s news but I was a little occupied and, to be honest, a refresher isn’t a bad thing.  Last week, Microsoft sent out notifications to TechNet subscribers that the subscription service was coming to an end:

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TechNet Subscription is a service where you can get just about every Microsoft install products (minus the dev ones) for evaluation purposes.  IT Pros have used TechNet as a means for evaluating, testing, and learning Microsoft products over the years.  At a modest fee of a few hundred, it was a great value service.  Without TechNet Subscription I could never have become an MVP.  I could have run home labs, I couldn’t have done demos in presentations.  Before that, I leaned on TechNet to run a lab to learn Server, AD, Virtual Server (when you had to pay for it), etc.  What I learned what transferred to the production network.

Now IT Pros are to seek alternatives:

  • Evaluation Center: Get time-limited trials.  Sorry, but we IT Pros are kind of busy.  We can’t be rebuilding labs from scratch every 90-180 days.  Are you trying to make like more difficult?  I had an interesting chat with a MOC trainer (a very large international company) a few weeks ago.  He was driven insane by the need to redeploy entire training environments every 3 months because of activation limitations.
  • Virtual Academy: Seriously?!?!? Level 100/200 training?  That’s supposed to prepare an IT Pro?
  • Virtual Labs: Canned, limited, virtual only labs.  Sorry.  That’s a joke.
  • Forums: You’re having a laugh right?
  • MSDN: The equivalent subscription is 3-4 times more expensive because it is aimed at developers, and includes rights to use Visual Studio with the included s/w for development and testing purposes, not just evaluation.

I’ve said this in private, had it ignored, and now I’ll say this publicly.  This is a stupid move.  This stinks of start menu obstinacy.  Even the start menu caused a divide.  The entire IT Pro audience is furious about this.  Somewhere a bean counter has looked at the bottom line and forgotten that hybrid cloud only works if the private cloud part is implemented.  Who exactly is going to implement that?  A person who has seen 5 minute videos on Virtual Academy?  Get a grip!

Right now, a person is reading this and saying “hey you MVPs aren’t affected”.  Yes, correct.  One of our benefits is an MSDN subscription so my access to materials is not affected.  I’m not angry for myself; I’m angry for the community, the people I represent as an MVP.  Where are the next generation of MVPs going to come from?  Are they going to be dumb retweeters for MSFT marketing?  Are they going to learn just level 100 content from online labs?  How are customers/consultants going to learn how to implement private cloud?  BTW, the usage rights for MSFT partners to MSDN are limited to just a few people.  Good luck with hybrid cloud without private cloud expertise.

This is an opportunity for Microsoft to listen to feedback and reverse course before it is too late.  Don’t wait a year to apologise after you’ve alienated a market … see Windows 8.

As for you the reader, I do not want to hear a peep from you unless you’ve signed this petition.  There’s too many sheep out there.  Don’t bother tweeting, linking, commenting, or anything else unless you have signed the petition.

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