Placeholder
Inframon presents: The War on Cost
Published 7 November 2009 Green IT , Microsoft , Systems Management , Tech , Virtualisation Leave a CommentThe Full Circle secures Ascom Network Testing for Windows Server 2008 R2 Early Adopter Program
Published 5 November 2009 Hyper-V , Microsoft , Tech , Virtualisation , Windows Server 2008 R2 Leave a CommentTags: Ascom, Ascom Network Testing, Hyper-V 2.0, Hyper-V Server R2, Hyper-V v2.0, John Dean, Kit Smithers, MHYG, Mind How You Go Media, Reuben Cook, The Full Circle, Virtualisation, Windows Server 2008 R2
The Full Circle (www.thefullcircle.com) has been working with Microsoft Virtualisation technologies since before they were Microsoft Virtualisation technologies… (think back to Virtual PC from Connectix 
).
More recently and formally, we have been working with Microsoft Hyper-V since the v1 Rapid Deployment Program (RDP) in spring 2008. We attended various RDP Bootcamp training and used pre-release/beta versions of Hyper-V extensively to accelerate testing and migration for our Microsoft Windows Essential Business Server (EBS) Technology Adoption Program (TAP) customer, Newman Martin and Buchan – read more at http://reubenjcook.wordpress.com/2008/11/12/windows-essential-business-server-2008-launch/
For Hyper-V v2 we are a UK Early Adopter Program (EAP) partner for Windows Server 2008 R2, with a focus on virtualisation, specifically Hyper-V with failover clustering. We’ve been working with various builds and flavours of Hyper-V v2 including the command line only and free Hyper-V Server 2008 R2, and also the full GUI versions available in the full Windows Server 2008 R2 product.
For an EAP, or TAP for that matter, you need a customer who’s willing to participate in deploying and testing early release software (Beta’s and Release Candidate builds) in a production environment, and then talk about it through press releases, case studies, etc. also known in Microsoft speak as ‘customer evidence’.
The benefits are many! Microsoft gets real world deployments of their new product ahead of general release which helps with convincing the wider market that the technology is dependable and fit to deploy. The customer gets to the latest technology for their business ahead of their competition, and often assistance/support such as sponsored consulting, licenses, etc. The partner (us) gets supported training, technical assistance, and exposure to new products ahead of our competition, plus, of course, exposure in the market through PR & various co-marketing activities.
Our EAP customer deployment was with Ascom Network Testing (formerly Argogroup – www.argogroup.com). Ascom Network Testing is part of the Mobile Test Solutions business of the Swiss company Ascom (www.ascom.com), and is a global provider of mobile test & measurement solutions for some of the worlds largest mobile network operators (the likes of Verizon, T-Mobile, Orange, etc.).
Specifically Ascom wanted to update and improve the backend server components of a product called Monitor Master. Monitor Master is an end-to-end solution for measuring ‘User Experience’ and collates and presents measurement data from mobile services probes out in the field. Monitor Master is a Business Intelligence (BI) platform with a data warehouse back-end running on Microsoft SQL Server.
The project was given the title ‘EPIC’ due to the scale of the larger deployments which can be several hundreds of Gigabytes of data. The primary goals were to accelerate the quality and consistency of customer deployments of the Monitor Master server components. This was achieved by defining and testing new reference architectures including O/S setup, database configuration, hardware platform architecture, and operational procedures to manage the environment.
Clearly Virtualisation can help accelerate almost any platform development project and due to the timings of the project, Windows Server 2008 R2 and Hyper-V v2 was an obvious choice. Soon into the project we came to realise that due to the performance and other benefits of Hyper-V v2 it could actually form part of the solution, not just a tool to help develop it! 
Our old mate, business associate & mentor (for all things PR & communications), John Dean (COO of www.showmethegolf.tv) helped us put together a short release that announced this exciting project, it went out to coincide with the global Windows Server 2008 R2 & Windows 7 launch events and is available online via PRWEB (http://uk.prweb.com/releases/2009/10/prweb3039184.htm), but also below for your enjoyment!:
PRESS RELEASE
The Full Circle Secures Client for Windows Server 2008 R2 EAP
Ascom Network Testing Enrolled as Early Adopter for Hyper-V Virtualisation
London, 15 October 2009 – The Full Circle, the Microsoft Gold Partner specialising in virtualisation and infrastructure deployments, announced today that it had secured Ascom Network Testing’s participation in the Windows Server 2008 R2 UK Early Adopter Program (EAP).
Ascom Network Testing is a global mobile data software systems provider. They offer test and measurement solutions to many of the world’s largest mobile network operators, including Verizon, Orange, and T-Mobile.
The EAP enables selected partners to take part in co-funded consulting engagements to drive product deployments prior to full launch. This gives partners and customers strategic advantage while enabling Microsoft to develop public references for their marketing efforts.
Reuben Cook, Founder, The Full Circle – “We are delighted that Ascom Network Testing will be part of the Windows Server 2008 R2 EAP. We are confident it will offer tremendous value as it will enable them to reap the benefits that the new technologies can deliver to the business well in advance of their competitors. Windows Server 2008 R2 is planned for release October 22nd”
Kit Smithers, Chief Technical Officer, Ascom Network Testing Ltd – ”We immediately recognised the benefits of participating in the program. We have a particularly strong interest in the benefits of virtualisation and consolidation, and look forward to enjoying the performance and flexibility benefits that it will give us.”
Mike Peers, Channel Development Manager, Virtualisation, Microsoft – “The Full Circle have been an active partner on our Windows Server 2008 R2 Early Adoption Programme. The programme is designed to help partners gain early experience deploying Hyper-V, whilst also benefitting customers in the early adoption of the technology.”
Cook concluded: “At first we saw Hyper-V as a component that could accelerate Ascom’s internal solution development process. But it has quickly become apparent that Hyper-V could in itself become part of their client solution offering, due to the power, performance and stability it offers. It has been a great success.”
Ends: 340 Words
Microsoft Partner Network 2009, Wembley Stadium, October 7th 2009
Published 7 October 2009 Exchange 2010 , Hyper-V , Microsoft , Tech , Windows 7 , Windows Server 2008 R2 Leave a CommentToday attending the Microsoft Partner Network 2009 at Wembley!
What Microsoft had to say before the event…
Event Overview
Please join the Microsoft UK team and a number of our executives for our primary UK channel event, Microsoft Partner Network 2009.
Targeted at Partner executive level contacts and sales leads we want to provide you with insights into Microsoft’s current strategies, the direction of our business, a selection of the innovative technology we’re launching this year and how we hope to work with you, our Partners, to drive joint success.
It’s a big year as we transition the Microsoft Partner Programme to the Microsoft Partner Network and we want to take the time to ensure you are getting the most out of your relationship with Microsoft.
This event will take a fresh look at the market opportunities, highlight potential strategies to ensure you continue to be ready to meet customers’ needs, and are ready and able to exploit opportunities that arise.
Exploring Microsoft Technology – James Akrigg, UK & British! Microsoft Technology Specialist
SharePoint on the Internet
investors in people and Ferrari website is SharePoint!
The Windows Wiggle
Business value benefits of Windows 7…
Power saving via group policy
City of Miami claim $53 per desktop per year
Windows 7 & Windows Server 2008 R2 – Direct Access… no more VPN!
Bitlocker to go – USB key encryption
R2 & Hyper-V – Live Migration, etc.
New version of SCE 2010 launched last week
UM demo with LCS, Exchange, Outlook to setup a conference call from a calendar item.
Live speech to text demo and it worked!
Windows phone announced yesterday
Microsoft Innovation – Andrew Herbert, MD MS Research Cambridge
MS Cambridge Labs…
F#
next version of xbox with vision technology for natural user interface
“create seamless experiences that combine the power of software across the Internet using any device”
More at Microsoft Research
UK Perspective – Gordon Frazer, GM Microsoft UK
“the biggest room in my house is the room for improvement!”
R&D $9.5B – long term, tenacious innovation
The Journey to Success – Andrew Akrigg
The tools are there – use them!
e.g.
Microsoft GearUp Toolkit
Product Lifecyle information (www link…)
Microsoft Partner Player (web link)
Doing more…
MVP program
sharing your code on codeplex
WS2008-R2 Add Roles Hyper-V cannot be installed..
Published 16 September 2009 Hyper-V , Microsoft , Windows Server 2008 R2 Leave a CommentTags: hardware virtualization, Hyper-V, not compatible with Hyper-V, ocsetup Microsoft-Hyper-V, roles, scripted install, Windows Server 2008 R2
When trying to automate the build/deployment of Windows Server 2008 R2 Enterprise Edition (Full install) using scripts for adding roles and features beware using ”start /w ocsetup Microsoft-Hyper-V” as this may break your server from successfuly performing a Hyper-V install..
If you do use that script then something (quite a lot) happens and various components appear to be installed including a restart. Don’t be fooled in thinking Hyper-V has installed as when checking, Hyper-V isn’t listed as an installed Role and the management tool is not installed…
Later attempts to use the Add Roles Wizard to add Hyper-V reports it cannot be installed, giving this error dialogue:
The processor on this computer is not compatible with Hyper-V. To install this role, the processor must have a supported version of the hardware-assisted virtualization, and this feature must be turned on in the BIOS.
eek! but my x64 bit server has hardware virtualisation support hasn’t it..?!?!? of course the answer is yes, but this what you will see on a box that hasn’t.
After rebuilding my test platform I realised the fix to this was to revert the attempted Hyper-V scripted install by using:
start /w ocsetup Microsoft-Hyper-V /uninstall
Allow the Windows Optional Component Setup dialogue to restart when prompted
Hope this helps save you a rebuild!
IAMCP UK chapter meeting – 10th Sept. 2009
Published 10 September 2009 Microsoft , Tech , Windows 7 , Windows Server 2008 R2 Leave a CommentTags: Microsoft, Windows 7, Windows Server 2008 R2, microsoft partner, windows azure, international association of microsoft partners
Today attended the International Association of Microsoft Certified Partners (IAMCP UK) UK chapter meeting hosted at Microsoft’s very swish London Victoria offices.
IAMCP U.K Chapter Meeting Agenda
Date: Thursday, 10th September, 2009.
Location: Microsoft, 100 Victoria St, London, SW1E 5JL.
Timings: 09:30 to 14:00
| Time Slot: | Agenda Item: | Presenter: |
| 09:30 | Arrival and registration
|
|
| 10:00 | Introduction; IAMCP Overview and Updates | Kelvin Kirby, Chairman, IAMCP UK Chapter |
| 10:15 | Overview of Windows 7 and Windows Server 2008 R2 | Aileen Hannah & Gareth Hall, Microsoft |
| 10:50 | Windows® Azure™ Platform – What does it mean to me? | Dan Scarfe, Chief Executive, Dot Net Solutions |
| 11.15 | BREAK
|
|
| 11.30 | Surviving in the Current Market Conditions | Darren Shirlaw, Shirlaws
|
| 12.15 | An Overview of the UK Public Sector ICT Market | Stephen Roberts, Principal Analyst, Kable |
| 12:45 | Voices for Innovation Update | Donna Whitehead, VFI
|
| 12:55 | Close & Wrap Up
|
|
| 13:00 – 14:00 | Lunch and Networking | Partners are encouraged to stay and network over lunch. |
Aileen Hannah – Launch Lead for Windows Client
Windows 7E (EU version) – dropped, Win7 in EU will be full product
“Microsoft are 100% confident that 98% of Vista apps will work on Win7” (not inc. Security s/w!
Win7 DirectAccess – needs Windows Server 2008 R2 on back-end
Win7 BranchCache – works with R2, but also will do P2P without R2
Windows 7 Manageability
Problem Recorder – automate screen grabs and email to support! J
Troubleshooting Assistant
MDOP costs $6 /seat /annum
brains and beauty... 2008 R2 & Windows 7 works better together
Gareth Hall – Windows Server Product Manager, UK
“$3B of investment covered in 3 minutes!”
Windows 7 & R2 is a combined sell – massive interest in both, ‘work better together’
R2 upgrades do not require new CAL licensing, full version do
Value of Windows Server practise – costs more, takes longer to implement… customer benefit?
R2 Active Directory Recycle Bin – ever spent 3 weeks trying to recover a bad AD object delete?
DirectAccess – takes a lot of setting up, but is very compelling. Already IPv6 then easy, who is!?
(services opportunity)
Dan Scarfe – CEO, Dot Net Solutions: Windows Azure Platform – What does it mean to me?
“.NET for the Data Center”
Azure (www.azure.com/PartnerQuickstart) is made up of:
Windows Azure (Compute, Storage, Management)
SQL Azure (Relational data, Management)
.NET Services (Connectivity, Access Control) EasyJet are trialling connectivity from mobile devices to check-in systems so your mobile device will register you for check-in whilst you are in the queue.
Generation 4 data centers – Chicago, IL 700,000 sq.ft (16 football fields), 60 megawatts, Dublin, 303,000 sq.ft (8 football fields), 22.2 megawatts – more DC’s planned
Containers full of servers, whole container is connected, cannot walk inside, if a server goes down it is marked as bad like a sector on a disk, eventually the whole container is swapped out best energy efficiency for data center technology in the world
Same platform as MS Online offerings (Exchange, SharePoint, Dynamics)
Azure app development is very easy for .NET developers
Pricing – pay as you go, charges based on metering
If going for a cloud based solutions you really are getting into bed with the vendor, it had better be the right one as bed hopping has serious ramifications!
Hyper-V Server R2 RC failover cluster to Enterprise/full version RTM…
Published 7 September 2009 Hyper-V , Microsoft , Virtualisation Leave a CommentTags: Hyper-V, Hyper-V cluster, Hyper-V Failover Cluster, Hyper-V RTM, Hyper-V Server R2, upgrade
A couple of months ago I wrote about the joys of upgrading your Hyper-V R2 release candidate cluster to a new version (e.g. release code). This process involved tearing down and destroying your cluster which can be a complete pain on many levels (not just for your users! )
Anyway, on this occasion I’m attempting to upgrade a Hyper-V R2 Release Candidate failover cluster to Enterprise RTM full product without destroying the cluster (although rebuilding the nodes clean – this is a must to be supported).
What this means is that from Beta->RC and from RC->RTM, you will have to do the following:
1. Move workloads onto fewest node/s
2. Move ownership of Storage from the node you are going to remove and rebuild. You may need to stop the cluster service if th Quorum will not move (it will if you force it by stopping the service )
3. Using ‘Failover Cluster Manager’ drill-down on Nodes, and right-click on the non-primary node, chose More Actions…, Evict – you’ll get a message warning that evicting a node can cause problems if a clustered application requires that node.. obviously! – click ‘Evict node NODENAME’
3.5. Move the node out of the domain back to a workgroup (so we can reuse this name) and delete the computer account from AD
4. When it comes to the last remaining node in the cluster, due to Quorum requirements, you will need to destroy the cluster. Select the cluster, goto More Actions… select Destroy the Cluster
5. Remove the ‘Failover cluster virtual network name account’ from AD Users & Computers
5. Being slightly paranoid, I also disabled the Failover Clustering service from with Hyper-V Configuration and removed the machine from the domain (back to a workgroup)
3. Wipe/Reload with new version of Hyper-V.
4. Create new 1 Node Cluster, join to SAN etc
5. Move VMs, offline, to new Hyper-V host.
a. Upgrade VM’s IC’s
6. Wipe/Reload remaining host
7. Join it to the cluster
8. Smile, before you do the same for RTM…
- Configure Clustering
- Install the Windows Server Failover Clustering feature
from a cmd shell “start /w ocsetup FailoverCluster-FullServer” - Configure Shared Storage
Use iscsicpl.exe, if the service is not started then start it – click ‘Yes’
Use Quick Connect to connect to the iSCSI Target, click ‘Done’ to list the targets
Connect to the Quorum target, then add the volume
Repeat adding the other cluster volumes (VHDs, Data, Logs, etc.) - Add the new node to the Failover Cluster
Use Failover Cluster Manager to validate the cluster
Add the node to the cluster even if validation fails (it will if node O/S is different) - Modify Hyper-V Settings for the cluster
Change the location of VHDs and VMs to:
C:\ClusterStorage\volume1\hyper-v\
- Install the Windows Server Failover Clustering feature
- Move virtual machines and correct network errors on the target node
- Use Hyper-V VM Settings to correct the network setting if they report a Configuration Error
- Start the VM’s on the new node J
- Rebuild the next one..
Hyper-V 2.0 has reached Release To Manufacturing (RTM)!
Published 23 July 2009 Hyper-V , Microsoft , Tech , Virtualisation Leave a CommentTags: Hyper-V 2.0, Hyper-V RTM, Hyper-V v2.0, Windows Server 2008 R2
Yesterday Microsoft made the announcement that Windows Server 2008 R2 and Windows 7 (both share the same code-base) have reached the RTM milestone! Many thought this was tabled for August 6th, however that is when the likes of MSDN & TechNet users will be able to get theor mits on it!
Its all great news of course, but the important bit for us (www.thefullcircle.com), are the changes to Hyper-V, dubbed Hyper-V v2.
This is a major version upgrade to the product, indeed Microsoft is so confident in the robustness of Hyper-V 2.0 that it placed the public www.microsoft.com site on it! (already the whole of the TechNet site had been running on Hyper-V v1 since early 2008).
One of the most important inclusions in Hyper-V 2.0 is Live Migration. Live Migration allows you to move a virtual machine from one physical host to another with no down time, or at least good enough so the users, or even the network stack doesn’t see it!
While the existing release of Hyper-V supported quick migration, there were a few seconds of downtime associated with the move; that has been removed.
Another unheralded feature of Hyper-V 2.0 is Cluster Shared Volumes (CSV). Essentially, if you tried to set up a cluster using Hyper-V virtual machines in the original release, for each virtual hard drive (VHD) you had to carve out a LUN on your SAN where that VHD could reside.
Using Cluster Shared Volumes allows you to place multiple VHDs on a single LUN, while the VMs themselves still act as if each VHD is on its own LUN. All CSV volumes are stored in the ClusterStorage root directory, so navigating the different volumes is as simply as using Explorer.
Hyper-V 2.0 also supports up to 64 logical processors on the host computer and includes the ability to add to a running virtual machine (and remove them) without needing to reboot the OS on that VM. You can also dynamically allocate memory without any interruption of service. Finally, the processor compatibility feature allows live migration across different CPU versions within the same processor family (for example, Intel-to-Intel and AMD-to-AMD), but not across processor vendors (same with VMware).
Hyper-V v2.0 is what Microsoft shops (and maybe even some VMware shops!) have been waiting for.
Hyper-V now offers feature parity with VMware’s enterprise solutions in some scenarios, and in others surpasses it (see how long merging a large snapshot on VMware takes.. )
Windows Server 2008 R2 & Hyper-V Cluster upgrades or not…
Published 20 July 2009 Hyper-V , Microsoft , Tech , Virtualisation 1 CommentTags: Hyper-V, WS2008, Hyper-V Server, Hyper-V Server R2, WS2K8, clustering, Hyper-V cluster, upgrade, in-place upgrade
Ahh the joys of participating in beta programs!
As part of my day job, and as co-founder of IT consulting firm “The Full Circle” www.thefullcirle.com – a Microsoft Gold Partner that likes to keep ahead of the game (or at least stay in it!) by being an early adopter, we are always working with new software and that means building and rebuilding boxes. Clearly virtualisation can make huge savings, especially in time but not always, especially when working with beta & pre-release software…
Our current journey of discovery is clustering with Windows Server 2008 Release 2 (R2) which is currently in late stages of development (went RC about month ago), and we are delighted to be a UK Early Adopter Program partner!
We have been working with a couple of different builds, the beta build 7000, and recenly the Release Candidate build 7100. Our own infrastructure was built using the beta, as is our customer EAP project, and following a number of cluster issues we performed an in-place upgrade to the RC code…
However, last week I learnt that in-place upgrades to clusters are not supported across beta/pre-releases to RC, and eventually to RTM - this is often the case as would never be a mass adopter / real-world scenario.
What this means is that from Beta->RC and from RC->RTM, you will have to do the following:
1. Move workloads onto fewest nodes (1 in my case)
2. Using ‘Failover Cluster Manager’ drill-down on Nodes, and right-click on the non-primary node, chose More Actions…, Evict – you’ll get a message warning that evicting a node can cause problems if a clustered application requires that node.. obviously! – click ‘Evict node NODENAME’
3. When it comes to the last remaining node in the cluster, due to Quorum requirements, you will need to destroy the cluster. Select the cluster, goto More Actions… select Destroy the Cluster
4. Remove the ‘Failover cluster virtual network name account’ from AD Users & Computers
5. Being slightly paranoid, I also disabled the Failover Clustering service from with Hyper-V Configuration and removed the machine from the domain (back to a workgroup)
3. Wipe/Reload with new version of Hyper-V.
4. Create new 1 Node Cluster, join to SAN etc
5. Move VMs, offline, to new Hyper-V host.
a. Upgrade VM’s IC’s
6. Wipe/Reload remaining host
7. Join it to the cluster
8. Smile, before you do the same for RTM…
Hyper-V Server R2 RC in-place upgrade from previous beta builds (whilst running your production workloads… ;-)
Published 11 July 2009 Hyper-V , Microsoft , Tech , Virtualisation Leave a CommentAs part of my work with Microsoft Gold Partner ‘The Full Circle’ (http://www.thefullcircle.com) we are constantly running pre-release software and systems, but in a production enviornment (often scary, sometimes unstable, but always a learning process! – in a good way! . Our virtualised Small Business Server 2008 server is no exception and since the beginning of 2009 has been running under Microsoft’s Hyper-V – first under Windows Server 2008 Server Core, and this last few months under Hyper-V Server and recently Hyper-V Server R2 RC.
Our first Hyper-V R2 (aka yper-V V2) beta build was 7000 – the same as the public beta of Windows 7 (Windows 7 and Windows Server 2008 R2 share the same code-base). However, earlier this week I was at our colo facility adding a new Hyper-V Server to our Hyper-V cluster and had forgotten the DVD media (doh!), anyway the benefits of a 100Mbps Internet handoff meant this issue was quickly rectified with a swift 1.23GB download (took almost as long to burn the ISO to DVD .
When building the box I quickly noticed a couple of differences, namely..
A 100Mb system reserved partition (back down from 200Mb previously)
A few subtle UI tweaks (grey background, Windows logo animation, R2 prominense, etc.)
..closer inspection once built revealed some different menu options in the sconfig (formerly HVconfig – dos style configuration menu) around remote management such as PowerShell (R2 of Hyper-V Server, like server core supports .Net Framework and therefore another level of management and application support). The biggest tell of course, is in the bottom right hand side of the screen – it no longer says ‘Windows 7 Standard. For testing purposes only. Build 7000′ but Windows Server 2008 R2 Standard. Evaluation copy. Build 7100′
Having these new capabilities was great, however it also gave me another job to do – upgrade the existing primary server from build 7000 to 7100. Yep the one that is running our production SBS 2008 server, as in all of our Email, SharePoint, work, personal, you name it, its on this VM.
1st challenge – you can’t mount an ISO (unless you have an ILO or DRAC/BMC card) so you need to put the disk in the server
2nd challenge – don’t restart and boot from the DVD to perform the upgrade, remember its an in-place upgrade
I still rely on JHoward’s great bit of code – HVRemote (run cscript //h:script 1st), although note if you are managing your enviornment with System Center Virtual Machine Manager (SCVMM) then you’ll get a message advising the tool is Quitting
saved states are not compatible (just like the early Hyper-V beta back in March-April 2008
license agreement
compatibility report
copying files
rm
HP publish a case study of the NMB EBS deployment using the C3000 ’shorty’
Published 11 July 2009 Centro , EBS 2008 , Microsoft Leave a CommentTags: ebs, Essential Business Server, HP, HP C3000, NMB, Shorty, TFC, The Full Circle
A couple of weeks ago HP published a great looking case study that The Full Circle (www.thefullcircle.com) and our customer, Newman Martin and Buchan (www.nmbinsurance.com), have been working with HP to produce for this last few months.
If you’re interested the link to the PDF version is http://h20195.www2.hp.com/v2/GetPDF.aspx/4AA2-6324ENW.pdf
We will also be doing something in a little more search friendly HTML!
