Tag: Windows Server 2008

Expanded Supported Guest Operating Systems on WS2012 Hyper-V

The support for Windows Server 2012 guest OSs has been expanded by Microsoft.  On the server OS side the changes are mostly on the Linux side; OpenSuse and Ubuntu are now listed as supported. Previously they were not supported but they worked.

Guest operating system (server)

Maximum number of virtual processors

Notes

Windows Server 2012

64

Integration services do not require a separate installation because they are built-in.

Windows Server 2008 R2 with Service Pack 1 (SP 1)

64

Datacenter, Enterprise, Standard and Web editions. Install the integration services after you set up the operating system in the virtual machine.

Windows Server 2008 R2

64

Datacenter, Enterprise, Standard and Web editions. Upgrade the integration services after you set up the operating system in the virtual machine.

Windows Server 2008 with Service Pack 2 (SP 2)

8

Datacenter, Enterprise, Standard and Web editions (32-bit and 64-bit). Install the integration services after you set up the operating system in the virtual machine.

Windows Home Server 2011

4

Edition information is not applicable. Install the integration services after you set up the operating system in the virtual machine.

Windows Small Business Server 2011

Essentials edition – 2

Standard edition – 4

Essentials and Standard editions. Install the integration services after you set up the operating system in the virtual machine.

Windows Server 2003 R2 with Service Pack 2 (SP2)

2

Standard, Web, Enterprise, and Datacenter editions (32-bit and 64-bit). Install the integration services after you set up the operating system in the virtual machine.

Windows Server 2003 with Service Pack 2

2

Standard, Web, Enterprise, and Datacenter editions (32-bit and 64-bit). Install the integration services after you set up the operating system in the virtual machine.

CentOS 5.7 and 5.8

64

Download and install Linux Integration Services Version 3.4 for Hyper-V.

CentOS 6.0 – 6.3

64

Download and install Linux Integration Services Version 3.4 for Hyper-V.

Red Hat Enterprise Linux 5.7 and 5.8

64

Download and install Linux Integration Services Version 3.4 for Hyper-V.

Red Hat Enterprise Linux 6.0 – 6.3

64

Download and install Linux Integration Services Version 3.4 for Hyper-V.

SUSE Linux Enterprise Server 11 SP2

64

Integration services do not require a separate installation because they are built-in.

Open SUSE 12.1

64

Integration services are built-in and do not require a separate download and installation.

Ubuntu 12.04

64

Integration services are built-in and do not require a separate download and installation.

Note that Linux (physical or virtual) requires numa=off in the grub file if you have more than 7 CPUs or 30 GB RAM in the (virtual) machine. That’s a Linux thing, not a Hyper-V or virtualisation thing.

The client OS list now is:

Guest operating system (client)

Maximum number of virtual processors

Notes

Windows 8

32

Integration services do not require a separate installation because they are built-in.

Windows 7 with Service Pack 1 (SP 1)

4

Ultimate, Enterprise, and Professional editions (32-bit and 64-bit). Upgrade the integration services after you set up the operating system in the virtual machine.

Windows 7

4

Ultimate, Enterprise, and Professional editions (32-bit and 64-bit). Upgrade the integration services after you set up the operating system in the virtual machine.

Windows Vista with Service Pack 2 (SP2)

2

Business, Enterprise, and Ultimate, including N and KN editions. Install the integration services after you set up the operating system in the virtual machine.

Windows XP with Service Pack 3 (SP3)

2

Professional. Install the integration services after you set up the operating system in the virtual machine.

Windows XP x64 Edition with Service Pack 2 (SP 2)

2

Professional. Install the integration services after you set up the operating system in the virtual machine.

You can see the supported list of guest OSs for the legacy versions of Hyper-V (2008, 2008 R2) here.

New AD Replication Status Tool

Microsoft has released a new Active Directory replication diagnostics tool called ADREPLSTATUS.  Features include:

  • Auto-discovery of the DCs and domains in the Active Directory forest to which the ADREPLSTATUS computer is joined
  • “Errors only” mode allows administrators to focus only on DCs reporting replication failures
  • Upon detection of replication errors, ADREPLSTATUS uses its tight integration with resolution content on Microsoft TechNet to display the resolution steps for the top AD Replication errors
  • Rich sorting and grouping of result output by clicking on any single column header (sort) or by dragging one or more column headers to the filter bar. Use one or both options to arrange output by last replication error, last replication success date, source DC naming context and last replication success date, etc.)
  • The ability to export replication status data so that it can be imported and viewed by source domain admins, destination domain admins or support professionals using either Microsoft Excel or ADREPLSTATUS
  • The ability to choose which columns you want displayed and their display order. Both settings are saved as a preference on the ADREPLSTATUS computer
  • Broad OS version support (Windows XP -> Windows Server 2012 Preview)

Check out the original blog post by Microsoft to learn much more.

Broken AD replication has proven to be a bit of a curse in the past. I’m amazed at how many sites (not small ones either) don’t monitor this stuff, relying on cheapware ping-based monitoring rather than the application-layer monitoring of something like System Center 2012 – Operations Manager.  They end up with fragmented AD, all sorts of weird crap happening, etc.  If you’re a consultant in a site and you’re deploying/configuring something with a reliance on AD, then here’s a handy warning sign: the customer “approves” security updates manually, and the last update to their PCs/Servers was the most recent Service Pack for the OS (usually for Windows XP).  Take a little time and check the AD replication status before you proceed Smile

Note that this new tool does not support Windows Server 2000 – that’s long since left extended support.

KB2710487 – Error 1359 & Cluster Service Stops In W2008 or W2008 R2 Failover Cluster

Microsoft released a hotfix for failover clustering on Windows Server 2008 and Windows Server 2008 R2. 

Assume that you set up a failover cluster in a Windows Server 2008 or Windows Server 2008 R2 environment. However, after the Cluster service runs for a long time (for example, 100 days), the service stops. Additionally, the following error is logged in the Cluster event log:

Workitem callback threw exception: InternalError(1359)’ because of ‘internal error'(Reply to can only be invoked for messages sent by Mrr component).

This issue occurs because the value of the Multicast-Request-Reply (MRR) ID changes to -1. This value cannot be processed.

A supported hotfix is available from Microsoft.

Linux Integration Services V3.3 For Hyper-V

Version 3.3 of the Linux integration components was just released with support for Windows 8 and Windows Server 2012.

It supports the following versions of Hyper-V:

  • Windows Server 2008 Standard, Windows Server 2008 Enterprise, and Windows Server
  • 2008 Datacenter
  • Microsoft® Hyper-V Server 2008
  • Windows Server 2008 R2 Standard, Windows Server 2008 R2 Enterprise, and Windows
  • Server 2008 R2 Datacenter
  • Microsoft Hyper-V Server 2008 R2
  • Windows 8 Release Preview
  • Windows Server 2012

See those last two?  Windows 8 and Windows Server 2012 are supported.

The supported guest OS’s are:

  • Red Hat Enterprise Linux 6.0-6.2 x86 and x64 (Up to 4 vCPU)
  • CentOS 6.0-6.2 x86 and x64 (Up to 4 vCPU)
  • Red Hat Enterprise Linux 6.0-6.2 x86 and x64 (Up to 32 vCPU when used on a Windows 8 Release Preview or Windows Server 2012 host)
  • CentOS 6.0-6.2 x86 and x64 (Up to 32 vCPU when used on a Windows 8 Release Preview or Windows Server 2012 host)

RHEL 6.2 and CentOS 6.2 were added to the list in v3.3. SLES and RHEL 5.x use version 2.1 of the Linux Integration Services.

Notice that RHEL and Centos support up to 32 virtual CPUs on Windows Server 2012 or Windows 8???  Nice scalable Linux workloads on Hyper-V Smile  OK let’s talk turkey.

Once you start adding lots of vCPUs to Linux, you have a few concerns:

  • Bear in mind that I’m a Linux noob and forgive me for lack of details, but Linux has issues where it needs some work to have more than 8 vCPUs in a VM.  One fix is to use Linux Kernel 3.4 or later.
  • With lots of vCPUs you need to handle NUMA nodes, and your Linux guest will be NUMA hardware aware on WS2012 with Linux Kernel 3.4 or later.

Thanks to the folks in MSFT for the quick updates!

KB2686812 – W2008 and W2008 R2 May Hang On Boot With Hyper-V Role Enabled

A new Hyper-V KB article appeared online overnight for a situation where Windows Server 2008 and Windows Server 2008 R2 may hang on boot with the Hyper-V role enabled. 

“Consider the following scenario:

  • Install Windows Server 2008 or Windows Server 2008 R2.
  • Enable the Hyper-V Role under Server Roles.
  • The machine hangs or encounters a 0x3E bugcheck  (MULTIPROCESSOR_CONFIGURATION_NOT_SUPPORTED) after you restart the machine.

On a system with Mixed Processor Steppings, the Memory type range registers are not consistent across all the processors. When the Hyper-V role is enabled, this can cause system instability.

Ensure that all Processor Steppings are consistent (MTRR Capabilities) across all processors that are installed on the system. 

This has been reported to occur with the following combination of processors/Server hardware:
– HP BL460G1/G5 with Intel Xeon 5110 and E5310 processors installed”.

Personally, I thought people would know better than to mix processors in a single host like this.

Deploying New Hyper-V Integration Components

Imagine this: you are running a pretty big Hyper-V environment, Microsoft releases a service pack that adds a great new feature like Dynamic Memory (DM), legacy OS’s will require the new ICs, and you really want to get DM up and running.  Just how will you get those ICs installed in all those VMs?

First you need to check your requirements for Dynamic Memory.  The good news is that any Windows Server 2008 R2 with SP1 VM will have the ICs.  But odds are that if you have a large farm then things aren’t all that simple for you.  Check out the Dynamic Memory Configuration Guide to see the guest requirements for each supported OS version and edition. 

OK, let’s have a look at a few options:

By Hand

Log into each VM, install the ICs, and reboot.  Yuk!  That’s only good in the smallest of environments or if you’re just testing out DM on one or two VMs.

VMM

VMM has the ability to install integration components into VMs.  The process goes like this:

  1. Shut down a number of VMs
  2. Select the now shut down VMs (CTRL + select)
  3. Right-click and select the option to install new integration components
  4. Power up the VMs

You’ll see the VM’s power up and power down during the installation process.  Now you’re done.

WSUS

Here’s an unsupported option that will be fine in a large lab.  You can use the System Center Updates Publisher to inject updates into a WSUS server.  Grab the updates from a W2008 R2 SP1 Hyper-V server and inject them into the WSUS server.  Now you let Windows Update take care of your IC upgrade.

Configuration Manager

This is the one I like the most.  ConfigMgr is the IT megalomaniac’s dream come true.  It is a lot of things but at it’s heart is the ability to discover what machines are and distribute software to collections of machines that meet some criteria.  So for example, you can discover if a Windows machine is a Hyper-V VM and put it in a collection.  You can even categorise them.

You may notice that Windows Server 2008 with SP2 Web and Standard editions require a prerequisite update to get DM working. 

So, you can advertise the ICs to a collection of W2008 with SP2 standard and web editions, making that update a requirement.  The update gets installed, and then the ICs get installed.  All other OS’s: it’s just an update.  And of course, you just need to install SP1 on your W2008 R2 VMs.  As you may have noticed, I’[m not promoting the use of the updates function of ConfigMgr; I’m talking about the ability to distribute software.

I’ll be honest – I don’t know if the ConfigMgr method is supported or not (like the WSUS option) but it’s pretty tidy, and surely must be the most attractive of all in a large managed environment.  And because it’s a simple software distribution, I can’t see what the problem might be.

KB2345316: Prevent a DDOS Attack From A Hyper-V VM

Microsoft has released the second ever (since the release of Windows Server 2008!) security fix for Hyper-V. 

“This security update resolves a privately reported vulnerability in Windows Server 2008 Hyper-V and Windows Server 2008 R2 Hyper-V. The vulnerability could allow denial of service if a specially crafted packet is sent to the VMBus by an authenticated user in one of the guest virtual machines hosted by the Hyper-V server. An attacker must have valid logon credentials and be able to send specially crafted content from a guest virtual machine to exploit this vulnerability. The vulnerability could not be exploited remotely or by anonymous users”.

In other words, you have to be logged into a VM running on the host (be a legit internal user) and have sufficient rights in the VM’s operating system to craft this packet.

The issue affects Windows Server 2008 and Windows Server 2008 R2.

KB2230887: Dynamic Memory for W2008 Web and Standard Editions

Dynamic Memory makes use of the ability to insert memory using plug and play.  That’s something that was restricted to Enterprise and Datacenter editions of Server.  Good news: MS plans to make this available to Web and Standard editions via hotfixes and service packs.

A hotfix has been released for Windows Server 2008 Web edition and Standard edition.

“When Dynamic Memory is enabled for a virtual machine system that is running one of the following operating systems, the memory of the virtual machine does not increase after the virtual machine is started. 

  • Windows Server 2008 Standard Edition Service Pack 2 (SP2)
  • Windows Server 2008 Standard Edition Server Core SP2
  • Windows Web Server 2008 SP2 
  • Windows Web Server 2008 Server Core SP2”

Install the update, install the SP1 integration components and then you can configure DM for these VMs.

By the way, no fixes will be required for Windows Server 2003!  Windows Server 2008 R2 VM’s should be updated to SP1.

Hyper-V: Blue Screen & Unable to Access Data Folder

I am doing some work on my Hyper-V lab machine at home that requires a lot of VM’s and a lot of disk space.  My eSATA disk just does not have the space so I had to do the unthinkable: use a 1TB USB 2.0 drive that I had sitting spare to store some VM’s (please do not ever do this in production).  It will be slow but I can live with that for some lab stuff.

I attached the drive, cleared off a few bits and pieces, and used VMM Quick Storage Migration to move a bunch of VM’s over.  I deployed a new VM and started working on it.  It blue screened soon after boot up.  Strange!  I haven’t seen that before.  I worked on it again and *bang* it was gone again.

My first suspect was W 2008 R2 SP1 beta, but I soon had a clue that it wasn’t at fault.  In event viewer, under Hyper-V-VMMSAdmin I saw a bunch of errors telling me that Hyper-V could access various folders, including snapshots (I know I tell you not to use them in production but I use them in a lab) and data folders.  The alerts associated with my new VM cooincided with the crash.

I appeared to have a permissions issue.  I didn’t have time to figure out exactly what was at fault.  Instead I moved the VMs, formatted the volume, and moved the VMs back again.  Everything is working perfectly.

I reckon the info on this post has the answer.

Use Wim2VHD to Quickly Build a Lab Network

WIM2VHD has been around for quite a while now but I don’t know that many people realised what it could offer.  Mikael Nystrom (Server deployment MVP) has blogged a reminder.  You can use WIM2VHD to quickly create a VHD from a WIM file, e.g. the install.wim file in the Vista/Windows7/Server 2008/Server 2008 R2 installation media, and then attach that VHD to a Hyper-V virtual machine.  This is a quicker way to build a set of lab machines than doing an installation, e.g. WDS, MDT, sneakernet, etc, if you don’t have a set of library images (VMM).  I’ve been guilty of not doing this … reminder to self: use WIM2VHD in the future when I need to build a lab template.  Mikael has the notes you’ll need to do the job in his blog post.