Archive for the ‘Microsoft’ category

Moving a OneNote notebook to SharePoint 2010

January 26th, 2012

A customer was having trouble with moving a OneNote notebook to SharePoint 2010 so they could collaborate on it together so I thought I would do a quick post on the process.

Creating a local notebook

In order to move a notebook to SharePoint you need to have a notebook to move. You probably already have one so I’ll just leave you with a screenshot of creating a new one.

So now you have your local OneNote notebook.

Creating a Document Library on SharePoint

You will need to create document library on SharePoint to hold the notebook. You can either create a new one or using an existing one. From a logical separation point of view you should use it’s own library.

Give it a name and set the document template. The document template choice simply changes what happens when you click on the New Document item in the library, nothing more. You could pick anything you like from the list.

Before leaving the page you need to copy the link to the library. Make sure you only copy up to the the library. Don’t copy the /forms/allitems.aspx bit, it won’t work. If you are having trouble with this part, you can also get the exact link by clicking on the “Email a Link” button and copy it from there.

Moving the local notebook to SharePoint

Back in OneNote, right click on your notebook and on “Properties”.

Click on “Change Location”.

Paste in the link to the new library and click on “Select”.

OneNote will now move your notebook to SharePoint.

Once it’s done you will see a confirmation, click on “OK”.

That is it, simple and quick. You can how invite people to work with you on your notebook and the changes will sync pretty much live between everyone’s machines and also be available offline.

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Posted in 2010, Guide, How do I, Microsoft, Office, SharePoint

Tags: Moving OneNote

Issue while installing SP1 on a SQL 2008 R2 Cluster–Resolved

November 14th, 2011

Came across this odd issue yesterday while patching a SQL 2008 R2 failover cluster. After moving over all the services to the passive node the service pack failed to install on two out of three instances. The instance that worked was an Analysis Services instance the other two that failed were Database Engine instances.

After a another reboot and further patching attempt I poked around Failover Cluster Manager and wouldn’t you know it, The Cluster Name was offline.

Once I brought it online, Service Pack 1 went on fine. If only the Service Pack Installer spotted that, could have saved me a few worried minutes!

Overall Summary Contents

Instance InstanceName overall summary:

Final result: The patch installer has failed to update the shared features. To determine the reason for failure, review the log files.

Exit code (Decimal): -595541211

Exit facility code: 1152

Exit error code: 49957

Exit message: The patch installer has failed to update the shared features. To determine the reason for failure, review the log files.

Start time: 2011-11-13 12:22:06

End time: 2011-11-13 12:23:12

Requested action: Patch

Log with failure: C:\Program Files\Microsoft SQL Server\100\Setup Bootstrap\Log\20111113_121410\InstanceName\Detail.txt

Exception help link: http%3a%2f%2fgo.microsoft.com%2ffwlink%3fLinkId%3d20476%26ProdName%3dMicrosoft%2bSQL%2bServer%26EvtSrc%3dsetup.rll%26EvtID%3d50000%26ProdVer%3d10.50.2500.0%26EvtType%3d0xBF50B949%400xDC80C325

Details.txt Contents

The first error I found was “The RPC server is unavailable”. After that error, several more errors were logged but the RPC server error is where it all started.

2011-11-13 13:42:25 Slp: Sco: Attempting to write hklm registry key SOFTWARE\Wow6432Node\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Uninstall to file C:\Program Files\Microsoft SQL Server\100\Setup Bootstrap\Log\20111113_133842\InstanceName\Registry_SOFTWARE_Wow6432Node_Microsoft_Windows_CurrentVersion_Uninstall.reg_

2011-11-13 13:42:25 Slp: Sco: Attempting to write hklm registry key SOFTWARE\Wow6432Node\Microsoft\MSSQLServer to file C:\Program Files\Microsoft SQL Server\100\Setup Bootstrap\Log\20111113_133842\InstanceName\Registry_SOFTWARE_Wow6432Node_Microsoft_MSSQLServer.reg_

2011-11-13 13:42:25 Slp: The RPC server is unavailable

2011-11-13 13:42:26 Slp: Watson bucket for exception based failure has been created

2011-11-13 13:42:26 Slp: Error: Action "SqlEngineConfigAction_patch_configrc_Cpu64" failed during execution.

2011-11-13 13:42:28 Slp: Error result: -595541211

2011-11-13 13:42:28 Slp: Result facility code: 1152

2011-11-13 13:42:28 Slp: Result error code: 49957

2011-11-13 13:42:28 Slp: Sco: Attempting to create base registry key HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE, machine

2011-11-13 13:42:28 Slp: Sco: Attempting to open registry subkey

2011-11-13 13:42:28 Slp: Sco: Attempting to open registry subkey Software\Microsoft\PCHealth\ErrorReporting\DW\Installed

2011-11-13 13:42:28 Slp: Sco: Attempting to get registry value DW0201

2011-11-13 13:42:28 Slp: Submitted 1 of 1 failures to the Watson data repository

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Posted in SQL Server

Tags: Issue while installing SQL Server 2008 R2 SP1 on a failover cluster The RPC server is unavailable

Installing Search Server 2010 SP1 on Search Server Express 2010 RTM

October 28th, 2011

I was on client site today patching a small SharePoint Search Server Express 2010 environment in preparation for installing a third party app on SharePoint. This being Foundation + Search Server Express RTM, I opted to install all the outstanding patches for SharePoint & Search Server. These are my notes. Feel free to comment if you think it could have been done differently.

Preparation

Downloads

SharePoint Foundation SP1: http://www.microsoft.com/download/en/details.aspx?displaylang=en&id=26640

SharePoint August 2011 CU: http://hotfixv4.microsoft.com/Microsoft%20SharePoint%20Foundation%202010/sp2/sharepointfoundation2010kb2553050fullfil/14.0000.6109.5005/free/438521_intl_x64_zip.exe

SharePoint Search Server SP1: http://www.microsoft.com/download/en/details.aspx?displaylang=en&id=26633

Backups

Of course backing up is critical all through the process so take (or have) a full backup of Windows on your web front ends and backup your SQL server databases before and after.

This being Search Server Express 2010 you might find that you are using SQL Server Express which means your databases should be pretty small so the process shouldn’t take long, not so in my case though… it look at a little while.

Installation Order and process

From this page it links you through to this page which implies you should have all the latest bits installed beforehand… although it’s not super clear as to whether you could install all three in a row without running psconfig until the end.

I’m following a cautious approach: Backup > SharePoint SP1 + Latest CU stuff and run psconfig > validate > Search Server SP1 stuff and run psconfig > validate > backup. Using this approach adds time to overall process but certainly doesn’t hurt. I’ll try to personally validate this “three in one approach” at a later time and/or when my interpretation or understanding changes for certain from someone older and wiser I’ll update this post. Until then, a little too much caution never hurt anyone. Bottom line, it worked just fine. SharePoint is well known for it’s sensitivity to installation order despite the latest advice from Microsoft since the August 2011 CU.

Patching SharePoint 2010 Foundation RTM up to August 2011 CU

Install SharePoint Foundation SP1

Reboot when prompted.

Install SharePoint August 2011 CU

Reboot when prompted.

Run PSConfig (psconfig -cmd upgrade -inplace b2b -wait –force) or the GUI version, SharePoint Products Configuration Wizard. I prefer the GUI because I like to watch grass grow but that’s just me. It also helps that I’m just going a single WFE. Otherwise I’d start with my App Server/Central Admin box and work out from there, one at a time and use psconfig.

This process took about 30 minutes with reboots and the time psconfig took to run. Obviously that has got more to do with the size of the databases and the performance of the SQL server but most SSE2010 installs are probably going to be something similar since while this environment is SQL 2K8 R2 it has very little content and still fairly small search databases.

SP1 & August CU 2011 Installation Validation

Central Admin > Upgrade & Migration > Check upgrade status

Central Admin > Upgrade & Migration > Check product and patch installation status

Patching Server Server Express RTM to Search Server Express SP1

Install Search Server 2010 SP1 (no reboot required)
Run PSConfig (psconfig -cmd upgrade -inplace b2b -wait –force) or the GUI version, SharePoint Products Configuration Wizard.

Search Server 2010 SP1 Installation Validation

Central Admin > Upgrade & Migration > Check upgrade status

Central Admin > Upgrade & Migration > Check product and patch installation status

Central Administration > Search Service Application > Content Sources

Start an incremental crawl of one of your content sources and make sure it works. You could do more, e.g. a full crawl + search for something if you felt so inclined just to give it a slightly more thorough going over.

References:

Install a software update (SharePoint Server 2010) http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ff806338.aspx

SharePoint Foundation SP1: http://www.microsoft.com/download/en/details.aspx?displaylang=en&id=26640

SharePoint August 2011 CU: http://hotfixv4.microsoft.com/Microsoft%20SharePoint%20Foundation%202010/sp2/sharepointfoundation2010kb2553050fullfil/14.0000.6109.5005/free/438521_intl_x64_zip.exe

SharePoint Search Server SP1: http://www.microsoft.com/download/en/details.aspx?displaylang=en&id=26633

Known issues when you install Office 2010 SP1 and SharePoint 2010 SP1: http://support.microsoft.com/kb/2532126

List of all SharePoint 2010 and Office Server 2010 SP1 packages: http://support.microsoft.com/kb/2510766

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Posted in Office365, Systems Management

Tags: Install SP1 for Search Server Express 2010 Install SP1 for SharePoint 2010 Search Server Express 2010

Removing SBS 2008 – Step 3: remove from domain / DCPROMO

August 29th, 2011

The final step in removing your SBS server is to demote it as a domain controller using the DCPROMO tool.

DCPROMO will do a number of things in terms of removing the server’s ability to operate as an Active Directory server, however the main domain functional ‘operation’ (sorry pun!) you will see from other servers in the network is the moving of the ‘Flexible Single Master of Operation’ (FSMO) or now just ‘Operations Masters’ roles to another AD server.

You can control the transfer of the essential FSMO roles to a preferred AD server (if you have multiple) using the a script e.g. to transfer our roles to our UK/GB Infrastructure server GBINF01 the script is:

ntdsutil

roles

conn

connect to server gbinf01 q

Transfer infrastructure master

Transfer naming master

Transfer PDC

Transfer RID master

Transfer schema master

And checked with:

netdom /query fsmo

Schema master GBINF01.thefullcircle.local

Domain naming master GBINF01.thefullcircle.local

PDC GBINF01.thefullcircle.local

RID pool manager GBINF01.thefullcircle.local

Infrastructure master GBINF01.thefullcircle.local

The command completed successfully.

Of course if you just have one other AD server (not recommended as best practise but totally feasible and supported by Microsoft) you don’t need to manually control who gets the roles, and DCPROMO will just transfer the roles to the other server.

If you do have multiple servers (with multiple AD sites) then the next available local site server will get the roles.

Move those roles!

Summary review

Remove Active Directory Domain Services from this computer.

When the process is complete, this server will be a member of the domain thefullcircle.local

Remove DNS Delegation: Yes

Good bye domain services!

Checking the FSMO roles to confirm transfer:

C:>netdom query fsmo

Schema master GBINF01.thefullcircle.local

Domain naming master GBINF01.thefullcircle.local

PDC GBINF01.thefullcircle.local

RID pool manager GBINF01.thefullcircle.local

Infrastructure master GBINF01.thefullcircle.local

The command completed successfully.

You can log back onto your SBS server with either the local creds provided earlier, or with a domain account – it is still a domain member server.

Note this machine may no longer be licensed (certainly if an upgrade e.g. to SBS2011).

If the server was an OEM install you can leave what remains (demoted mostly broken SBS server) on the same hardware for whatever use you feel (within license limits – e.g. this is not a 2nd Exchange server!), but the chances are this is now an old and out of warranty bit of kit that is no longer production worthy anyway – reuse, renew, recycle responsibly (see http://blog.thefullcircle.com/2011/05/06/sort-it-out-and-learn-the-3rsreduce-reuse-recycle/).

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Posted in Microsoft, SBS, SBS 2008

Tags: sbs 2008 dcpromo sbs 2008 remove sbs 2008 removing sbs 2008 retire SBS2008 sbs2008 migration

Removing SBS 2008 – Step 2: ADCS

August 29th, 2011

Active Directory Certificate Services removal..

Check the FSMO roles are on your SBS server..

(you don’t actually need the forward slash "/" after the netdom command anymore but that’s a personal hangup from the old LANMAN days..

As for any server role just remove the role from within Server Manager

(Note the red crosses – this is from a pretty sick SBS 2008 install that had been replaced by Server 2008 R2, SCE (WSUS), and various other Windows network services over a year prior)

Once you’ve started the role removal (after confirming an informational/reading) – head out for a walk / mow the grass / build a model aeroplane.. Basically – leave it some time as you could be watching the screen below longer than paint drying

Later in the process you should see ‘Verifying removal’ and then ‘Collecting removal results…’ – ours took almost an hour between the major application events:

Information 29/08/2011 08:57:51 CertificationAuthority 38 None

Log Name: Application

Source: Microsoft-Windows-CertificationAuthority

Date: 29/08/2011 08:57:51

Event ID: 38

Task Category: None

Level: Information

Keywords: Classic

User: SYSTEM

Computer: SBSSRV01.thefullcircle.local

Description:

Active Directory Certificate Services for thefullcircle-SBSSRV01-CA was stopped.

And

Warning 29/08/2011 09:43:15 ServerManager 1619 None

Log Name: Setup

Source: Microsoft-Windows-ServerManager

Date: 29/08/2011 09:43:15

Event ID: 1619

Task Category: None

Level: Warning

Keywords:

User: THEFULLCIRCLEAdministrator

Computer: SBSSRV01.thefullcircle.local

Description:

Removal succeeded. A restart is required.

Roles:

Active Directory Certificate Services

Warning: You must restart this server to finish the removal process.

When complete (if successful) you should get:

And once ‘closed’ the only option is to restart..

You do need to log back in again (recommend same account as started this process) for the server to finalise the removal of ADCS and report ‘Resuming Configuration’ per:

Also event

Information 29/08/2011 10:10:47 ServerManager 1618 None

Log Name: Setup

Source: Microsoft-Windows-ServerManager

Date: 29/08/2011 10:10:47

Event ID: 1618

Task Category: None

Level: Information

Keywords:

User: THEFULLCIRCLEAdministrator

Computer: SBSSRV01.thefullcircle.local

Description:

Removal succeeded.

Roles:

Active Directory Certificate Services

The following role services were removed:

Certification Authority

And then next to DCPROMO out of the domain!

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Posted in Microsoft, SBS, SBS 2008

Tags: SBS2008 sbs2008 migration

Removing SBS 2008 – Step 1: Exchange 2007

August 29th, 2011

recent migrations as part of SBS 2011 EAP, etc….

Screen clipping taken: 28/08/2011 23:26

Summary: 4 item(s). 0 succeeded, 1 failed.

Elapsed time: 00:01:16

Mailbox Role

Failed

Error:

Object is read only because it was created by a future version of Exchange: 0.10 (14.0.100.0). Current supported version is 0.1 (8.0.535.0).

Elapsed Time: 00:01:16

Client Access Role

Cancelled

Hub Transport Role

Cancelled

Remove Exchange Files

Cancelled

http://forums.msexchange.org/m_1800521706/mpage_1/key_/tm.htm

[PS] C:Windowssystem32>Remove-PublicFolderDatabase -Identity "SBSSRV01Second Storage GroupPublic Folder Database"

Confirm

Are you sure you want to perform this action?

Removing Public Folder Database "SBSSRV01Second Storage GroupPublic Folder

Database".

[Y] Yes [A] Yes to All [N] No [L] No to All [S] Suspend [?] Help

(default is "Y"):A

Confirm

You are attempting to remove the last public folder database in the

organization. If you remove this database, all of its contents will be lost and

only users running Outlook 2007 or later will be able to connect to your

Exchange organization. Are you sure that you want to delete the last public

folder database?

[Y] Yes [A] Yes to All [N] No [L] No to All [S] Suspend [?] Help

(default is "Y"):A

Remove-PublicFolderDatabase : Object is read only because it was created by a f

uture version of Exchange: 0.10 (14.0.100.0). Current supported version is 0.1

(8.0.535.0).

At line:1 char:28

+ Remove-PublicFolderDatabase <<<< -Identity "SBSSRV01Second Storage GroupPu

blic Folder Database"

+ CategoryInfo : NotSpecified: (0:Int32) [Remove-PublicFolderData

base], InvalidADObjectOperationException

+ FullyQualifiedErrorId : E2ABE251,Microsoft.Exchange.Management.SystemCon

figurationTasks.RemovePublicFolderDatabase

Summary: 2 item(s). 0 succeeded, 1 failed.

Elapsed time: 00:00:39

Mailbox Role

Failed

Error:

The public folder database "SBSSRV01Second Storage GroupPublic Folder Database" contains folder replicas. Before deleting the public folder database, remove the folders or move the replicas to another public folder database. For detailed instructions about how to remove a public folder database, see http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?linkid=81409.

Elapsed Time: 00:00:39

Remove Exchange Files

Cancelled

http://technet.microsoft.com/en-gb/library/aa998192(EXCHG.80).aspx

http://technet.microsoft.com/en-gb/library/aa997893(EXCHG.80).aspx

http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/bb331970(EXCHG.80).aspx

http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/bb201664(EXCHG.140).aspx

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Posted in Microsoft, SBS, SBS 2008

Tags: migrating from sbs Removing SBS 2008 removing sbs exchange

UK Tech.Days 2011: Delivering IT as a service with the Microsoft private cloud

May 24th, 2011

The Full Circle (www.thefullcircle.com) is a Microsoft Partner for both Online Services such as Office 365 (Public Cloud), and Virtualisation using Hyper-V with System Center (Private Cloud).

As part of this commitment we regularly attend Microsoft training and events, and over the course of this week there are a number of ‘Tech Days’ covering various industry hot topics – Cloud, Mobile, Web, Client and Server aimed at two distinct audiences – IT Pro’s and Developers.

Just over a year ago we attended the Virtualisation Summit TechDays event as covered in http://blog.thefullcircle.com/2010/04/12/microsoft-techdays-virtualization-summit-from-the-desktop-to-the-datacenter/
Today’s topic from the Vue Cinema in Fulham, West London (around the corner from the office Smile ) is a continuation of last year’s theme – Private Cloud – running your own utility based compute platform using Microsoft technologies, namely Hyper-V for virtualisation and System Center for management.

This 1-day event will provide you with an understanding of the latest technical updates for your datacentre & infrastructure investments. This event will share more expert knowledge and information than ever – with deep dive sessions on the Windows Server 2008 R2 platform, Hyper-V virtualization capability, and System Center end-to-end service management capabilities.

For more information, please visit: http://uktechdays.cloudapp.net/techdays-live/delivering-it-as-a-service-with-the-microsoft-private-cloud

Transforming your Datacentre

Kevin Sangwell

Virtualisation + Fabric Management + Mature Operations and Service Management + Cloud Principals = Private Cloud

a lot of benefit is based on stove pipes of provisioning teams – racking team handing off to system build, waiting on networks for VLANS, then storage team for LUNs, etc. to give the average time from order to service ready of a new server being c.12 weeks start to end.

In reality do many large IT shops still behave this way? unfortunately for a lot of enterprise shops the answer is yes, this, is of course, fortunate for us! Smile

Building the foundation: Server Virtualisation and Management

Julius Davies & Clive Watson (Data Centre Technology Specialists)

Evangelising Hyper-V, also introduced Hyper-V Server as ‘Enterprise’ but cut-down without GUI, same capabilities… in terms of CPU (64 Cores), Memory (1TB), etc. and the difference being that Enterprise and Data Center have licensing rights to run more VMs… this took me by surprise and at the break discussed with Stuart Leddy, old friend of ‘The Circle’ and Microsoft Core Infrastructure Marketing Lead – Server & Tools Business Group.

Hyper-V R2 Server is akin to Enterprise but cut-back, rather than the original Hyper-V Server which was more like Server Core with Standard constraints (32GB, etc.)…
since R2 – 1TB memory, 64 CPU cores – see:

Q. Are there any limitations to the number of processors and/or cores that Microsoft Hyper-V Server can utilize?

A. Hyper-V Server 2008 R2 supports systems with up to 64 logical processors on the physical machine.

Q. Are there any physical memory limitations to Microsoft Hyper-V Server?

A. Hyper-V Server 2008 R2 supports up to 1 TB of physical memory.

Teaming Support provided by NIC vendor

Intel = PROSet, Broadcom = BACS, HP = NCU
Best practise: :install/enable Hyper-V, then install networking utilities…. ???? WTF? perhaps before configuring networking? surely you present a Teamed NIC to Hyper-V rather than abstract post event

Hyper-V Networking for Clusters – guide at http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ff428137(WS.10).aspx

Best practise suggesting 5 separate networks!! host mgmt, heartbeat, CSV’s, live migration, VM traffic, if iSCSI x2 with MPIO! (interestingly their demo platform used 3 – Corpnet (External), Live Migration, and Storage

How can we better manage?

Clive talked about SCVMM 2008 R2 SP1… but not much SCVMM 2012… a shame!

interesting use of the term ‘evacuate virtual machines to another host’ (implementing a PRO Tip), and ‘rehydrating’ back onto a host once fixed. Usual demo of Self Service and breaking VM’s – audit trail, etc.

ahha..a little bit about v.Next / 2012 – its all about Fabric Management!

VMM Self-Service Portal 2.0 – bringing business requests and IT service delivery/provisioning together.

HP Hyper-V Reference Architecture

Adam Richardson, HP & Neil MacCuish, CSC

Adam dot Richardson @HP.com – a sales guy, but a good sales guy. Talking about the shape of HP customers and their agility, or rather, in a lot of cases lack of… 1 customer who took 18months to deploy a mail platform – yikes!

Some ‘Hyper-Customers’ – in excess of 100,000 servers installed – Microsoft is one of them.

Hyper-V Cloud Reference

Virtualisation at the Royal Mail

Customer Profile
The government owned Royal Mail Group (RMG) is responsible for universal mail collection and delivery in the United Kingdom and delivers more than 70 million items every working day.
Business Situation
RMG needed to improve the resilience and flexibility of its IT infrastructure to prepare the company to meet the challenge of a changing market for postal services.
Solution
The company looked to CSC as its IT outsourcing and systems integration partner to virtualise its servers using the Hyper-V feature of Windows Server 2008 R2 Datacenter.

Summary / Headlines

9 months to platform ready
up to 720 Guest VM’s over 2 x HP 16 slot blade enclosures
Delivered against plan** (of course, it evolved)

Key Points & Learnings

Issues not really technology based – people change are harder
** Build it and they will come! – once the business realises you’re faster they will come to you
Keeping it green, Service Integration
One team – HP/CSC/Microsoft – go to meetings together, share the issues, share the plan

Managing your infrastructure with System Center

Ellis Paul & Paul Collins

Presenting your business case for Private Cloud

Adam Collins, Risual

Cloud, over time will allow a closer alignment between IT and the business by giving back time to focus on more strategic objectives and decision making. Understanding how to position with the business, build a technology roadmap and deliver long term value from your current and future investments is a critical task that can’t be put off any longer. Within this session you will be presented with the necessary tools to support you in taking advantage of Cloud solutions from both an experienced IT consultancy in Risual and a global customer in Paul Smith.

Very interesting session starting with the driver being ‘ensure predictable IT costs’ with five pillars to support:

Business
Service Delivery
Sustainability (Green IT) –
Contract Management –

Assumed Benefits – Financial, Operational Efficiency, Governance, CSAT, Innovation, Agility, Sustainable IT

Hyper-V and System Center- Competitive Comparisons

Matt McSpirit

You’ll learn more about the different components within the Hyper-V and System Center, but more specifically, how they can provide a greater level of comprehensive management, choice, and advanced automation.

Matt McSpirit for one of his last UK presentations before jumping to Redmond for a career in Corp. with Andrew Fryer doing his ‘Pap’ impression but with a gagging order this week.. Winking smile

As usual a great presentation from Matt who gave a deep (and broad!) session on why Hyper-V isn’t just a viable alternative to VMware, but a serious contender. In a lot of cases not just a better value proposition (not difficult) but also more performant (not so easy!), and with independent 3rd party evidence to back up the claims e.g. TS workloads on VMware, Hyper-V R2 SP1, and XenServer (Virtual Reality Check – Phase II version 2.0) and more at http://www.virtualrealitycheck.net (same as http://www.projectvrc.nl)

There was a lot of myth busting around the issue often cited that Hyper-V is fundamentally flawed because it sits on top of Windows – of course there is Hyper-V Server (think Server Core), but what isn’t common knowledge is how many patches there have been for VMware and some pretty high profile issues, and as per Microsoft many require guest or host restarts – its not just Microsoft platforms that require reboots!

And, of course Matt plugged http://virtualboytv.com for great content including video walk-through’s and more e.g. bare-metal to live migration in under an hour!! – I’ve used Matt’s site as a handy reference and basic training tool many times and highly recommend as well worth your time.

What next?

For more information on what The Full Circle can do to help you find your way in the clouds, see http://www.thefullcircle.com/whatWeDo/Pages/Cloud.aspx

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Posted in Cloud, Hyper-V, Microsoft, System Center, Systems Management, Virtualisation, Windows Server 2008 R2

Tags: Hyper-V Hyper-V Server 2008 R2 Microsoft private cloud SCVMM

Hyper-V P2V using Windows Server Recovery (WinRE)

May 21st, 2011

A few weeks ago I posted about using Disk2VHD see http://blog.thefullcircle.com/2011/05/02/hyper-v-p2v-using-disk2vhd/, however disk2vhd does have limitations e.g 137GB volume size, and you can get errors such as disk too large for dynamic disk, etc. (covered at the end of that post).

Another way of getting a physical host converted to a VM is to back it up, create a VM container, and restore into the new virtual machine, then go through the steps to strip back the hardware and system drivers as normal.

First you’ve got to get a good bare metal recovery backup and for the purposes of this post I’m just going to cover a Windows Server 2008 R2 source/physical server.

Bare Metal Backup on Windows Server 2008 R2

Obviously you need the backup components installed – Add/Remove Features – Windows Server Backup, or scripted using start /w ocsetup WindowsServerBackup

Launch Windows Server Backup and select ‘Bare metal recovery’ – all components to support a bare metal recovery will be checked, if you’ve installed any programs to another disk other than the %HOMEDRIVE% you may find you need to backup more than one disk volume..

Once the backup is running you can monitor from the GUI or command line… e.g.

C:>wbadmin get status
wbadmin 1.0 – Backup command-line tool
(C) Copyright 2004 Microsoft Corp.
The backup of volume System(C:) successfully completed.
The backup of volume Data(D:) successfully completed.
Creating a backup of volume Logs(E:), copied (12%).

You can also check on how many versions of backups are available e.g. which one you intent to restore into a VM by using the wbadmin get versions command:

C:>wbadmin get versions
wbadmin 1.0 – Backup command-line tool
(C) Copyright 2004 Microsoft Corp.

Backup time: 17/05/2011 00:00
Backup location: Network Share labeled \thefullcircle.localBackups
Version identifier: 05/16/2011-23:00
Can recover: Volume(s), File(s), Application(s), Bare Metal Recovery, System State

If the backup drive is an external drive such as a USB this would be reported as:

Backup target: 1394/USB Disk labeled X:

Restore using Windows System Image Recovery

In this case again we are using Windows Server 2008 R2 boot media but this can also be performed using a Windows 7 or ERD Commander WinPE environment, of course technically this is WinRE.

1) Boot from your media, make any language, locale, and keyboard selections

2) Rather than Install now, select Repair your computer

3) Select Restore your computer using a system image that you created earlier.

4) If you’re quick enough skip trying to find an image, but more likely you will get a dialogue advising that Windows cannot find a system image on this computer, that’s fine – click Cancel, then Next.

5) At the re-image your computer prompt, select Advanced…

6) You can then search your network for an image, or you may need to load drivers (should be unlikely with the driver support of Windows Server 2008 R2 as shares codebase with Windows 7 – pretty good driver support!)

7) Clearly you do want to connect to the network (if you have DHCP enabled happy days, if not take a crash course in netsh commands to set an IP address)

Choose your network location..

9) Enter credentials – there is no point trying to save them, you’ve probably booted from an ISO or DVD-ROM anyway..

10) Select your backup, click Next, then select your volumes

11) Choose any additional restore options such as Excluding disks, loading additional drivers, or under Advanced – restart options when complete, checking disk errors – checked/yes by default

12) A final confirmation of what will be restored, and then ‘another’ final check, Yes is the only option unless you’ve changed your mind about doing a restore today…

Wot no disk partitions, volumes, or anything to restore to?

Then you may get this message..

or this one

which takes you back to..

and you can get busy with diskpart, etc. from within a Command Prompt (surely that’s a Command Shell?)… select the disk, create a primary partition, make it active, and then start again..

or just let the machine do the work.. click Restart and start again.. (again!)

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Posted in Hyper-V, Microsoft, Virtualisation, Windows Server 2008 R2

Tags: disk2vhd hyper-v p2v wbadmin Windows Server Recovery WinPE WinRE

Installing the SQL Server 2008 R2 Service Pack 1 Community Technology Preview

May 14th, 2011

This week saw the CTP release of SQL Server 2008 R2 SP1 which combines all fixes to date for SQL 2008 R2 up to Cumulative Update 6 (CU6), and fixes to issues that have been reported through customer feedback platforms. These include supportability enhancements and issues that have been reported through Windows Error Reporting (WER) – why it’s good to participate! Smile

As posted by Aaron Bertrand, note that CU7 is *NOT* included in this service pack; so, if you are relying on any of those fixes, you should hold out until after SP1 is released *and* after the first subsequent cumulative update is released, as that is when the branch will most likely be caught up.

Anyway, as we have a SQL R2 RTM box badly in need of some patching I thought to hell with the warnings and let’s give it a whirl… The machine in question just happens to be our production dB backend for SharePoint 2010, SCE2010, Business Contact Manager, plus some dev/test SharePoint dB’s..

Firstly you’ll need to download the bits for your platform (ours is Intel x64) from Download details: Microsoft® SQL Server® 2008 R2 Service Pack 1 Community Technology Preview

Also download the SQL Server 2008 R2 SP1 Feature Pack CTP1 which is a collection of stand-alone packages which provide additional value for SQL Server. It includes the latest versions of:

Redistributable components for Microsoft® SQL Server® 2008 R2 SP1 CTP

Add-on providers for Microsoft® SQL Server® 2008 R2 SP1 CTP

the bits of interest to us from the Feature Pack are:

PowerPivot_for_Excel_amd64.msi

PowerShellTools_amd64.msi

ReportBuilder3_x86.msi (This will be important for the RS crowd regardless of the SP)

rsSharePoint_amd64.msi

SqlCmdLnUtils_amd64.msi

sqlua.msi (The Upgrade Advisor – later discounted as for pre R2 upgrade)

In terms if overall process, I’d start with backups and whilst they are running get your reading head on, there is plenty to keep you occupied!

1) Backup, Backup and verify!

O/S level e.g. Windows Server Backup and application level e.g. SQL Backup, and perhaps even the app behind it, in our case SharePoint 2010 and System Center Essentials

In Windows Server 2008 onwards if you have Windows Server Backup command line tools installed you can easily check the status of the last backup with wbadmin get versions, e.g.

wbadmin get versions

Backup time: 14/05/2011 00:00
Backup location: Network Share labeled \thefullcircle.localBackups
Version identifier: 05/13/2011-23:00
Can recover: Volume(s), File(s), Application(s), Bare Metal Recovery, System State

2) Read the Release Notes and the Readme, read the MS TechNet SQL blog post

3) Note the warnings..

Please note: This Customer Technical Preview (CTP) release is not supported by Microsoft Customer Support Services. Please submit feedback using the Microsoft SQL Server Connect Feedback Center. In addition, some of the fixes documented in this CTP release may not be included in the final release. There may also be fixes included in this CTP release that are not documented in the master KB article.

then ignore it

4) Don’t Analyze Your Upgrade with Upgrade Advisor – already on SQL 2008 R2!!

In the readme it mentions to Analyze Your Upgrade with Upgrade Advisor although clearly if we are installing SP1 for R2 we are already on R2!?! Confused smile

– I’ll skip this step me thinks!

5) Do check your Edition, Version and Installed SQL Server features

Clearly you can see your version number in SSMS, e.g.

but are you absolutely sure of your edition? (only recently The Full Circle performed a SQL Cluster Edition downgrade for a major London Financial Index, the main one.. Winking smile

due to a mistaken edition installation that would have proved VERY costly to license – like £4K per processor)

Use the SQL query:

SELECT SERVERPROPERTY(‘productversion’), SERVERPROPERTY (‘productlevel’), SERVERPROPERTY (‘edition’)

to retrieve the version and edition e.g.

10.50.1600.1 RTM Enterprise Edition (64-bit)

Next double check what features you have installed, you’ll need to run Setup from your SQL R2 media, go to Tool, and select Installed SQL Server features discovery report e.g.

I’m not going to paste the whole report here, but just for one of our instances:

Microsoft SQL Server 2008 R2 Setup Discovery Report

Product	Instance	Instance ID	Feature	Language	Edition	Version	Clustered
Microsoft SQL Server 2008 R2	MSSQLSERVER	MSSQL10_50.MSSQLSERVER	Database Engine Services	1033	Enterprise Edition	10.50.1600.1	No
Microsoft SQL Server 2008 R2	MSSQLSERVER	MSSQL10_50.MSSQLSERVER	SQL Server Replication	1033	Enterprise Edition	10.50.1600.1	No
Microsoft SQL Server 2008 R2	MSSQLSERVER	MSSQL10_50.MSSQLSERVER	Full-Text Search	1033	Enterprise Edition	10.50.1600.1	No
Microsoft SQL Server 2008 R2	MSSQLSERVER	MSAS10_50.MSSQLSERVER	Analysis Services	1033	Enterprise Edition	10.50.1600.1	No
Microsoft SQL Server 2008 R2	MSSQLSERVER	MSRS10_50.MSSQLSERVER	Reporting Services	1033	Enterprise Edition	10.50.1600.1	No

6) Run the big one!

In our case it’s the x64 version – SQLServer2008R2SP1-KB2463333-x64-ENU (314MB’s worth although will expand out to c.525MB and in our case the SP consumed c.2GB on the C: drive which is where our instance binaries reside (data & logs on another volume of course).

I’m not going to paste screen shot after screen shot, but the steps are:

6.1) A normal SQL upgrade/update process

6.2) Accept the License terms and do check the box to send feature usage data to Microsoft – it really does help steer the product!

6.3) Select your Features (okay another screen grab!) – let the tool select, and you check/confirm

6.4) Check for files in use (not you!, the tool does this)

6.5) Let the update go and make tea, sweep the deck, tidy your desk, etc. ours took c.25 minutes

6.6) If all goes well you should get a screen per below advising to Restart your engines!

Checking the version number should reveal 10.50.2425.0 SP1

Also checking SSMS for version info, in our case gave:

Microsoft SQL Server Management Studio                        10.50.2425.0
Microsoft Analysis Services Client Tools                        10.50.2425.0
Microsoft Data Access Components (MDAC)                        6.1.7601.17514
Microsoft MSXML                        3.0 4.0 6.0
Microsoft Internet Explorer                        8.0.7601.17514
Microsoft .NET Framework                        2.0.50727.5444
Operating System                        6.1.7601

And if it hasn’t gone well…? you’ve got the rest of the day to interrogate SQL setup logs in the usual place (C:Program FilesMicrosoft SQL Server100Setup BootstrapLog) – we’ve 80MB and 340 files in the last entry alone (of 4 today!), and at worst case start thinking about your restore process!

7) If you are a developer, do some more reading!

There are a lot of enhancements, fixes, and new features and that’s a different topic all together, however by the best cover I’ve seen thus far is Aaron Bertrand’s most excellent blog, and specifically the following posts:

http://sqlblog.com/blogs/aaron_bertrand/archive/2011/04/25/more-changes-you-might-not-have-noticed-in-the-sql-server-2008-r2-sp1-ctp.aspx,

http://sqlblog.com/blogs/aaron_bertrand/archive/2011/04/22/sql-server-2008-r2-sp1-ctp-is-now-available.aspx

http://sqlblog.com/blogs/aaron_bertrand/archive/2010/05/18/new-cumulative-updates-for-sql-server-2008-sp1-r2.aspx

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Posted in Microsoft, SQL Server

Tags: how to install sql 2008 r2 sp1 SQL 2008 R2 CTP INSTALL SQL 2008 R2 SP1 SQL 2008 R2 SP1 CTP

Microsoft to Acquire Skype!!! Good for Microsoft, Good for Skype…?

May 10th, 2011

Microsoft to Acquire Skype: Combined companies will benefit consumers, businesses and increase market opportunity.

Whoooaaaahhhh!

A good friend and ex co UK Microsofter just sent me this as a link (funnily enough on Skype) – what can I say!?! or did..

[13:39:20] Steve Beer: http://www.microsoft.com/Presspass/press/2011/may11/05-10CorpNewsPR.mspx
[13:42:57] Reuben Cook: VERY interesting. blimey! gotta be a big boost for MS esp. windows phone and x-box
[13:45:03] Reuben Cook: interesting for Lync though… Skype has definitely been taking revenue from enterprise VoIP – what were the stats – 207 billion minutes in 2010 – jeeze!

I wonder what effect this will have on the (MS) share price… would have thought positive for Microsoft unless, of course and according to the market, they are paying too much… hmmm?
Anyway, probably a little too early in the day to tell – at time of writing only just gone 09:00 on Wall Street.

Now according to some other posts (excellent one at http://gigaom.com/2011/05/09/why-microsoft-is-buying-skype-for-8-billion/) this has already gone through, and joint announcements are due today…

Keep your eyes peeled and listening out for the familiar Skype ringtone

yep, its confirmed..

[14:53:14] Steve Beer: "Microsoft confirms $8.5B Skype purchase & plans to call new service Microsoft Skype Network, or "MS Skynet" for short."

update: Friday 13th May..

Since the acquisition was announced my Skype video hasn’t been working (I can see the other party, and my own image, etc.) all the other party gets is the spinning wheel of dullness…

Who do I call to fix this? Microsoft? or have they been buggering with the code already and already we need a Service Pack or perhaps a Cumulative Update to fix it?!? Winking smile