Archive for September, 2009

WS2008-R2 Add Roles Hyper-V cannot be installed..

16 September 2009 at 14:05 · Filed under Hyper-V, Microsoft, Windows Server 2008 R2 ·Tagged , , , , , ,

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:

Hyper-V-cannot_install

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!

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IAMCP UK chapter meeting – 10th Sept. 2009

10 September 2009 at 09:08 · Filed under Microsoft, Tech, Windows 7, Windows Server 2008 R2 ·Tagged , , , , ,

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!

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Hyper-V Server R2 RC failover cluster to Enterprise/full version RTM…

7 September 2009 at 15:19 · Filed under Hyper-V, Microsoft, Virtualisation ·Tagged , , , , ,

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… ;-)

 

  1. Configure Clustering
    1. Install the Windows Server Failover Clustering feature
      from a cmd shell “start /w ocsetup FailoverCluster-FullServer”
    2. 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.)
    3. 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)
    4. Modify Hyper-V Settings for the cluster
      Change the location of VHDs and VMs to:
      C:\ClusterStorage\volume1\hyper-v\
  2. Move virtual machines and correct network errors on the target node
    1. Use Hyper-V VM Settings to correct the network setting if they report a Configuration Error
  3. Start the VM’s on the new node J
  4. Rebuild the next one..  ;-)

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