MICROSOFT HYPER-V SERVER 2008 R2 SP1 RELEASED!

The good news just keeps coming and we’re pleased to keep the momentum rolling with the latest release of our rock stable, feature rich, standalone Microsoft Hyper-V Server 2008 R2 with Service Pack 1! For those who need a refresher on Microsoft Hyper-V Server 2008 R2, it includes key features based on customer feedback such as:

• Live Migration
• High Availability with Failover Clustering
• Cluster Shared Volumes
• 10 Gb/E Ready
• Processor Compatibility Mode
• Enhanced Scalability
• …and much more.

For more info on Microsoft Hyper-V Server 2008 R2, read: http://blogs.technet.com/b/virtualization/archive/2009/07/30/microsoft-hyper-v-server-2008-r2-rtm-more.aspx. Service Pack 1 for Hyper-V Server 2008 R2 includes all the rollup fixes released since Microsoft Hyper-V Server 2008 R2 and adds two new features that greatly enhance VDI scenarios:

• Dynamic Memory
• RemoteFX

After installing the update, both Dynamic Memory and RemoteFX will be available to Hyper-V Server. These new features can be managed in a number of ways:

• Using the updated R2 SP1 Hyper-V Manager user interface on a full version of Windows Server 2008 R2 SP1
• Using the updated Remote Server Administration Tools (RSAT) for Windows 7 & Windows 7 SP1
• System Center Virtual Machine Manager 2008 R2 SP1
• System Center Virtual Machine Manager 2012 Beta

Dynamic memory is an enhancement to Hyper-V R2 which pools all the memory available on a physical host and dynamically distributes it to virtual machines running on that host as necessary. That means based on changes in workload, virtual machines will be able to receive new memory allocations without a service interruption through Dynamic Memory Balancing. In short, Dynamic Memory is exactly what it’s named. If you’d like to know more, I've included numerous links on Dynamic Memory below.

Configuring RemoteFX with Microsoft Hyper-V Server 2008 R2 SP1

Although using Dynamic Memory does not need any additional server side configuration beyond installing the R2 SP1 update, enabling RemoteFX does require some additional configuration on the host.  The exact steps for enabling the RemoteFX are detailed below:

1)      Verify the host machine meets the minimum hardware requirements for RemoteFX. 

2)      Verify the host has the latest 3D graphics card drivers installed before enabling RemoteFX.

3)      Enable the RemoteFX feature using the following command line:

Dism.exe  /online /enable-feature /featurename:VmHostAgent

4)      From a remote machine running the full version of Windows Server 2008 R2 SP1 or a client OS running the latest version of RSAT, connect to the Hyper-V Server machines, create a Windows 7 R2 SP1 virtual machine and under “Add Hardware”, select “RemoteFX 3D Video Adapter”.  Select “Add”.

If the “RemoteFX 3D Video Adapter” option is greyed out, it is usually because RemoteFX is not enabled or the 3D video card drivers have not been installed on the host yet. Before attaching the RemoteFX adapter, make sure to set user access permissions, note the computer name and enable Remote Desktop within the VM first. When the RemoteFX 3D video adapter is attached to the VM, you will no longer be able to connect to the VM local console via the Hyper-V Manager Remote Connection.  You will only be able to connect to the VM via a Remote Desktop connection.  Remove the RemoteFX adapter if you ever need to use the Hyper-V Manager Remote Connection.

Now you get Microsoft iSCSI Target for FREE!

Are one of those IT Pros whom need a SAN but don’t have the budget to pay for one? You like to deploy Hyper-V clusters for the benefits of LM and HA?

You can now build your own SAN box by installing Microsoft iSCSI software target on a Windows Server 2008 R2 system.

Read about the announcement here.

Introducing Attack Surface Analyzer

Chance upon this interesting security tool that I like to share with you. Attack Surface Analyzer is a verification tool by Microsoft to catalog changes in system state, runtime parameters, and securable objects on the Windows OS. This analysis helps identify any increase in attack surface that is caused by installing applications. Because Attack Surface Analyzer does not require source code or symbol access, IT Pros and security auditors can use the tool to gain a better understanding of the aggregate attack surface change that may result from the introduction of line-of-business (LOB) applications to the Windows platform. Attack Surface Analyzer enables:

• Developers to view changes in the attack surface resulting from their applications


• IT Pros to evaluate aggregate attack surface changes by LOB applications


• IT security auditors to identify risk related to attack surface during threat risk assessments


• IT security incident responders to better understand the state of securable objects on a system during investigations

Read more and download from here.

Microsoft Virtual Academy is Launch!

Microsoft Virtual Academy (MVA) is a new training and learning resource site to help train IT Pros on Cloud Services. Check it out!! MVA

System Center Virtual Machine Manager 2008 R2 SP1 is available now

SCVMM 2008 R2 SP1 was released today.
Check it out here.

New features includes.
Dynamic Memory:

• Better utilization of memory resources on a Hyper-V host.
• Allows administrators to create and deploy Virtual Machines and report on the "currently in use" memory.
• More efficient utilization of memory, consistent performance and higher consolidation ratios.

Microsoft RemoteFX:

• Allows administrators to create and deploy Virtual Machines with RemoteFX enabled to qualified Windows Server 2008 R2 SP1 Hyper-V hosts.
• New set of end user experience enhancements.
• Rich, local-like desktop enivronment over the network.

Virtual Machine Folder ACL access denied

I upgraded a Windows 2008 Hyper-V server to R2 and one of the virtual machine failed to start with error “Account does not have sufficient priviledge to open attachment “<Virtual machine file>” (0x80070005). (Virtual machine ID <GUID>)”.

Hyper-V could not read the virtual machine files due to ACL issues. Added SYSTEM account, etc does not work as Hyper-V has it’s own Service SID “NT VIRTUAL MACHINE”

To resolve this, try the follow:

Open the directory that stores your virtual machine

Open the “Virtual Machines” subdirectory under your virtual machine directory

Record the GUID as per the file name of the .xml file in this directory

Run icacls “<virtualmachinefolder>” /grant “NT VIRTUAL MACHINE\<virtualmachineguid>”:F /T

Hosting Windows 7 VHD on Virtual PC

Follow up to my earlier post to convert your Windows 7 physical computer to virtual. Let’s create a Virtual Machine on Virtual PC to run your Windows 7 VHD.

First, you need to have your Windows Virtual PC installed. And get ready your Windows 7 DVD or ISO image.

1. Open Windows Virtual PC and click on Create Virtual Machine.

2. Give your Virtual Machine a meaningful name and specify the location to save the virtual machine file.

3. Specify the memory to allocate to this VM and specify whether you want to enable network connectivity to this VM.

4. Attached the Windows 7 VHD that you create from Disk2VHD earlier. Specify if you want to enable Undo Disk. Undo disk allows you to delete any changes you made to the VHD and recover it to its initial state.

5. Open your new VM.

6. You will encounter boot error. Attach your Windows 7 DVD or ISO to your VM and configure your VM BIOS to first boot to CDROM.

7. Reboot your VM to Windows 7 DVD and select to Repair your computer.

8. On System Recovery Options, select Repair and restart.

9. You should be able to login to your system after restart. The final step is to install Integration Components.

10. You are done after installing Integration Components!!