Dario IT Solutions Blog

Hi guys,

It was very nice meeting you all yesterday at the re-birth of the Infrastructure & Management User Group.

Below is the presentation for the main subject we talked about – “Windows 2008 R2 Overview”.

We will continue next month, on December 17th with the subject “Active Directory improvements in Windows 2008 R2”.

In the meantime, share your thoughts and interesting finds at the group site – http://www.linkedin.com/groupRegistration?gid=2389097

Have a great weekend and take care!

A new white paper has been published that compares the options to use multiple instances of SQL without Hyper-V with having multiple virtual machines with single instances of SQL Server. Not only it looks at the different pros and cons, but also provides interesting performance information.

Here’s are the topics covered in this 26-page white paper:

• Executive Overview
• Introduction
• Considerations for Consolidation and Virtualization
  • Identification of Underutilized Servers
  • Server temperature
  • Consolidation Approaches
  • Virtualization Platform: WSRM vs. Hyper-V
• Implementation of the SQL Utility
  • Service Offerings
  • Identification of Candidates for Migration
• Attributes of System Quality
  • Availability and Business Continuity
  • Environmental Sustainability
  • Manageability
  • Performance
  • Predictability and Repeatability
  • Reliability
  • Scalability
  • Security
  • Monitoring
  • Supportability
• Conclusion

Download the white paper from http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/dd557540.aspx

Samsung techies linked 24 of the company’s 256GB SSD (Solid State Drives) together in a RAID configuration with the hopes of making the fast SSDs even faster.

The system actually reaches a whooping transfer speeds of 2GBps (!!). Amazing how disks become the real bottlenecks of today’s computers.

Check out this video, you don’t see that kind of speed every day

Check out this nice list of new clustering features just around the corner:

New Failover Clustering features in R2:

1. Cluster Shared Volumes (CSV) – A distributed access file system optimized for Hyper-V allowing virtual machines and their disk resources to reside be on any cluster node
2. Live Migration – Move virtual machines between different physical machines while keeping them running and maintaining client connections
3. PowerShell Support – The scripting language of the future which will gradually replace cluster.exe
4. DFS-Replication support – Make the primary member of your replication group highly available so that it always has access to the authoritative copy of the data
5. Remote Desktop / Terminal Services support - Make the Connection Broker highly available ensuring that clients are reconnected to their same session or virtual machine within a server farm
6. Network Prioritization – Plan your internal cluster network for efficiency, giving the fastest network the highest priority for internal traffic (heartbeat, CSV & Live Migration traffic)
7. Read-Only APIs – This security enhancement allows admins to query the state of the cluster, but not perform any actions, making it ideal for first-level triage who “can look, but not touch”
8. ETW logging channels – New Crimson channel makes cluster-wide events easier to manage
9. Performance Monitor – Clustering counters allow the user to monitor the cluster and tweak it for optimal performance
10. Enhanced Validation – Improvements to the functional test tool with additional tests which execute on production cluster nodes to ensure they are running optimally, with best practices deployed
11. Migration – The clustering upgrade path now supports more workloads and configurations and offers detailed information about what will be migrated and any additional steps required by the user

New Network Load Balancing features in R2:

1. Extended Affinity – Ensures clients are reconnected to the same node to retain cached information if they are disconnected
2. PowerShell Support – The new NLB scripting language which will gradually replace nlb.exe and wlbs.exe

Hyper-V by default provides all virtual machines equal priority and access to resources. You may have situations where you want to guarantee that a virtual machine has a specific amount of processing power available at all times, that you want to be sure that the virtual machine can never consume more than a specific percentage of processing power, or that you want it as a default to balance power except in peak processing times and then give a specific VM more processing priority. Hyper-V gives you the flexibility to choose your resource control method on a per virtual machine basis.

Check out the following post to learn more.

MAP is a scalable and agent-less assessment platform designed to make it easier for you to adopt the latest Microsoft technologies.

In this version, MAP has expanded its assessment capabilities to include SQL Server 2008, Forefront/NAP, and Microsoft Online Services migration, as well as providing a Power Savings assessment to help you "go green."

In summary, MAP 3.2 assessment areas now include:

• SQL Server 2008 Migration Proposals and Reports (NEW!)
• Forefront/NAP Readiness Proposals (NEW!)
• Microsoft Online Services Migration Surveys, Proposals, and Reports (NEW!)
• Power Savings Proposals (NEW!)
• Server Migration Reports and Proposals (Windows Server 2008 and "virtualized guests by hosts" reporting) (NEW!)
• Server Consolidation Reports and Proposals (Virtual Server 2005 R2 and Hyper-V)
• Desktop Security Assessment to determine if desktops have anti-virus and anti-malware programs installed and up-to-date, or if the Windows Firewall is turned on
• Windows Vista and Microsoft Office 2007 Hardware Assessment Reports and Proposals

Based on hypervisor technology, the Hyper-V™ virtualization feature in the Windows Server® 2008 operating system is a thin layer of software between the hardware and the operating system that allows multiple operating systems to run, unmodified, on a host computer at the same time. Hyper-V is a powerful virtualization technology that can be used by corporate IT to consolidate under-utilized servers, lowering total cost of ownership (TCO) and maintaining or improving quality of service (QoS). Hyper-V opens more potential development and test environment types that otherwise might be constrained by hardware availability.

It is challenging enough in general to right-size the hardware to consolidate current workloads and provide headroom for growth. Adding virtualization to the mix increases the potential capacity planning challenges. The goal of this document is to help address these by focusing on two key areas of running Microsoft® SQL Server® in a Hyper-V environment:

• System resource overhead imposed by running SQL Server in a Hyper-V environment

• How well Hyper-V scales running SQL Server 2008

This white paper describes a series of test configurations we ran, which represented a variety of possible scenarios involving SQL Server running in Hyper-V. The paper discusses our results and observations, and it also presents our recommendations. Our test results showed that SQL Server 2008 on Hyper-V provides stable performance and scalability. We believe Windows Server 2008 Hyper-V is a solid platform for SQL Server 2008 for the appropriate workload. It is practical to run production workloads under a Hyper-V environment, as long as the workload is within the capacity of your Hyper-V guest virtual machine.

For more information, please refer to the whitepaper Running SQL Server 2008 in a Hyper-V Environment – Best Practices and Performance Recommendations.

How Microsoft IT Implements System Center Operations Manager 2007 (Level 300)

http://msevents.microsoft.com/CUI/WebCastEventDetails.aspx?culture=en-US&EventID=1032322478&CountryCode=US

Assure the Availability and Performance of Your SharePoint Environments (Level 300)

http://msevents.microsoft.com/cui/WebCastEventDetails.aspx?EventID=1032368298&EventCategory=4&culture=en-US&CountryCode=US

Client Monitoring with System Center Operations Manager 2007 (Level 300)

http://msevents.microsoft.com/cui/WebCastEventDetails.aspx?EventID=1032348673&EventCategory=4&culture=en-US&CountryCode=US

Client Monitoring with System Center Operations Manager 2007 (Level 200)

http://msevents.microsoft.com/cui/WebCastEventDetails.aspx?EventID=1032341228&EventCategory=4&culture=en-US&CountryCode=US

Client Monitoring with System Center Operations Manager 2007 (Level 100)

http://msevents.microsoft.com/cui/WebCastEventDetails.aspx?EventID=1032340080&EventCategory=4&culture=en-US&CountryCode=US

End-to-End Service Monitoring with System Center Operations Manager 2007 (Level 200)

http://msevents.microsoft.com/cui/WebCastEventDetails.aspx?EventID=1032345599&EventCategory=4&culture=en-US&CountryCode=US

Installation and Management Pack Migration of Operations Manager 2007 (Level 200)

http://msevents.microsoft.com/cui/WebCastEventDetails.aspx?EventID=1032369730&EventCategory=4&culture=en-US&CountryCode=US

Monitoring with System Center Operations Manager 2007 (Level 200)

http://msevents.microsoft.com/cui/WebCastEventDetails.aspx?EventID=1032343631&EventCategory=4&culture=en-US&CountryCode=US

Planning a Successful Microsoft Operations Manager 2007 Deployment with Microsoft System Center Capacity Planner 2007 (Level 300)

http://msevents.microsoft.com/cui/WebCastEventDetails.aspx?EventID=1032348510&EventCategory=4&culture=en-US&CountryCode=US

Reporting with System Center Operations Manager 2007 (Level 200)

http://msevents.microsoft.com/cui/WebCastEventDetails.aspx?EventID=1032338857&EventCategory=4&culture=en-US&CountryCode=US

Security and Enterprise Features of System Center Operations Manager 2007 (Level 200)

http://msevents.microsoft.com/cui/WebCastEventDetails.aspx?EventID=1032343649&EventCategory=4&culture=en-US&CountryCode=US

SQL Server 2008: New Performance Monitoring and Troubleshooting Using Management Studio (Level 300)

http://msevents.microsoft.com/cui/WebCastEventDetails.aspx?EventID=1032349947&EventCategory=4&culture=en-US&CountryCode=US

System Center Operations Manager 2007 Installation and Management Pack Migration (Level 200)

http://msevents.microsoft.com/cui/WebCastEventDetails.aspx?EventID=1032341254&EventCategory=4&culture=en-US&CountryCode=US

System Center Operations Manager 2007 Technical Overview (Level 200)

http://msevents.microsoft.com/cui/WebCastEventDetails.aspx?EventID=1032340808&EventCategory=4&culture=en-US&CountryCode=US

System Center Operations Manager 2007: Install and MP Migration (Level 200)

http://msevents.microsoft.com/cui/WebCastEventDetails.aspx?EventID=1032345595&EventCategory=4&culture=en-US&CountryCode=US

Main Downloads page (catalog, documentation)

http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/opsmgr/bb498232.aspx

Operations Manager Product Team Blog:

http://blogs.technet.com/momteam

SystemCenterForum.org

http://www.systemcenterforum.org

System Center Content Search (Vista gadget)

http://gallery.live.com/liveItemDetail.aspx?li=49e26ad0-113d-4f3d-a711-57f6530c75d9

System Center Operations Manager Blog Search:

http://search.live.com/macros/microsoft_user_assistance/sc_operations_manager_blogs

Event Flow Diagram

http://blogs.technet.com/momteam/archive/2007/10/30/event-alerts-perf-data-flow-in-opsmgr-2007.aspx

DWDATARP.exe (For setting Data Retention policies in the Warehouse)

http://blogs.technet.com/momteam/archive/2008/05/14/data-warehouse-data-retention-policy-dwdatarp-exe.aspx

End-To-End Task test:

http://www.systemcenterforum.org/testing-end-to-end-notification-in-opsmgr-or-essentials-2007-mp/

Targeting Best Practices Poster:

http://download.microsoft.com/download/f/a/7/fa73e146-ab8a-4002-9311-bfe69a570d28/BestPractices_Rule_Monitor_REV_110607.pdf

Best practices to use when you configure overrides in System Center Operations Manager 2007

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/943239

Authoring Guide:

http://download.microsoft.com/download/7/4/d/74deff5e-449f-4a6b-91dd-ffbc117869a2/OM2007_AuthGuide.doc

Effective configuration Viewer:

http://www.microsoft.com/Downloads/details.aspx?FamilyID=a9db4dca-6716-478d-89b9-42f27ebc76a8&displaylang=en

Override Explorer:

http://blogs.msdn.com/boris_yanushpolsky/attachment/4301837.ashx

Group membership:

http://www.systemcenterforum.org/list-ops-mgr-group-membership-using-powershell

http://blogs.msdn.com/boris_yanushpolsky/archive/2007/10/26/which-groups-is-a-particular-computer-member-of.aspx

Management Group Configuration tool:

http://blogs.technet.com/cliveeastwood/archive/2007/06/04/mginfo-management-group-license-and-summary-info-utility-for-operations-manager-2007-and-essentials-2007.aspx

Maintenance mode Scripts:

http://blogs.technet.com/cliveeastwood/archive/2007/09/18/agentmm-a-command-line-tool-to-place-opsmgr-agents-into-maintenance-mode.aspx

http://blogs.msdn.com/boris_yanushpolsky/archive/2008/03/04/one-more-maintenance-mode-script.aspx

How Microsoft Does IT (includes MOM 2005 and Ops Mgr documents):

http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/bb687791(TechNet.10).aspx

(from http://www.microsoft.com/itshowcase)

Certificates for Windows 2008 and Ops Mgr:

http://blogs.technet.com/momteam/archive/2008/06/02/obtaining-certificates-for-ops-mgr.aspx

Adding Custom Information to alerts and Notifications:

http://blogs.technet.com/kevinholman/archive/2007/12/12/adding-custom-information-to-alert-descriptions-and-notifications.aspx

Last contact time Style reports:

http://blogs.technet.com/kevinholman/archive/2008/06/27/which-servers-are-down-in-my-company-and-which-just-have-a-heartbeat-failure-right-now.aspx

http://blogs.technet.com/kevinholman/archive/2008/06/27/creating-a-new-data-source-for-reporting-against-the-operational-database.aspx

Converting an MP to XMl (unseal it)

http://blogs.msdn.com/boris_yanushpolsky/archive/2007/08/16/unsealing-a-management-pack.aspx

Powershell basics:

http://blogs.msdn.com/scshell/

http://blogs.msdn.com/scshell/archive/2006/09/28/getting-started.aspx

Powershell script examples:

http://blogs.technet.com/brianwren/archive/2008/03/11/mms-command-shell-presentation.aspx

Effective Config Viewer:

http://www.microsoft.com/Downloads/details.aspx?FamilyID=a9db4dca-6716-478d-89b9-42f27ebc76a8&displaylang=en

Developing MPs

http://www.developer.com/design/article.php/3740486

Enable Proxying on Agents UI

http://blogs.msdn.com/boris_yanushpolsky/archive/2007/08/02/enabling-proxying-for-agents.aspx

What Thresholds Monitors Have

http://blogs.msdn.com/boris_yanushpolsky/archive/2007/08/07/so-what-thresholds-do-my-monitors-have.aspx

Boris Yanushpolsky’s blog

http://blogs.msdn.com/boris_yanushpolsky/default.aspx

Bulk Enable / Disable of rules or monitors (Override Creator):

http://blogs.msdn.com/boris_yanushpolsky/archive/2007/08/04/disabling-enabling-multiple-rules-monitors-discoveries-at-once.aspx

New KB Articles / Hotfixes Summary:

http://blogs.technet.com/cliveeastwood/rss.aspx?Tags=New%20and%20upcoming%20KB%20Articles/Operations%20Manager%202007&AndTags=1

Update Custom Fields

http://www.microsoft.com/communities/newsgroups/en-us/default.aspx?dg=microsoft.public.opsmgr.powershell&tid=0bdee97c-95b6-4074-9eff-f7edca3d0ff2&cat=01DE69DE-CFDB-E7B7-8849-BF4BC19A6B88&lang=en&cr=US&sloc=&p=1

http://www.systemcenterforum.org/updating-custom-fields-in-alerts-operations-manager-2007/

Design Reports in SCOM:

http://opsmgr.wordpress.com/2007/07/19/want-to-design-a-new-report-in-scom-2007/

DB IOPS Performance

http://blogs.technet.com/momteam/archive/2008/06/24/performance-iops-for-the-db-and-dw-in-opsmgr-2007.aspx

DW Backup and Grooming:

http://searchwincomputing.techtarget.com/generic/0,295582,sid68_gci1316214,00.html

Creating tasks:

http://www.systemcenterforum.org/wp-content/uploads/PowershellTasks_v1.0.pdf

Planning and designing the infrastructure:

http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyId=AD3921FB-8224-4681-9064-075FDF042B0C&SAMI_Campaign_Name=IPD062708RTM_IPDDL&displaylang=en

Operations Manager Training Videos:

http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/opsmgr/bb498237.aspx

Publishing Reports to Sharepoint:

http://blogs.technet.com/momteam/archive/2008/02/29/publish-reports-to-sharepoint.aspx

Operations Manager Reporting Guide:

http://download.microsoft.com/download/7/4/d/74deff5e-449f-4a6b-91dd-ffbc117869a2/OpsMgr2007_RprtGuide.doc

Configuring notifications for a specific alert:

http://blogs.technet.com/kevinholman/archive/2008/02/01/configuring-notifications-to-include-specific-alerts-from-specific-groups-and-classes.aspx

System Center Capacity Planner:

http://www.microsoft.com/systemcenter/sccp/default.mspx

Operations Manager Authoring Console:

http://download.microsoft.com/download/f/4/3/f438d6a0-290c-42b8-8f9c-c6660f89e1aa/OpsMgr07_x64_AuthConsole.exe

http://download.microsoft.com/download/f/4/3/f438d6a0-290c-42b8-8f9c-c6660f89e1aa/OpsMgr07_x86_AuthConsole.exe

I had the opportunity today (16.9.08) to participate in Microsoft�s getVIRTUALnow event, and to present the session “Physical and Virtual Server Management”

I presented my take on data center management, which involves automating management tasks in response to system\application states.

It was impressive to see the number of vendors that were present in the event. Microsoft seem to be quick in building the required ecosystem of partners that will push it’s Virtualization offerings greatly in my opinion.

The main point in my presentation was that when looking at the data center (or IT environment) as a whole, tools like Systems Center Operations Manger and Systems Center Virtual Machine Manager (that has integration built into them from the grounds up) really stand out in the crowd in comparison to tools that are built for a specific environment (like managing only virtual machines).

One of the demonstrations involved Performance Resource Optimization (PRO) which is one of VMM�s top features, as it allows administrators to automate practically any type of response to a given condition, including responding to application, virtualization, system, storage, or network events.

For more demonstrations, take a look at Liran’s post – “Get Virtual Now with Hyper-V Technology“.

Also, You are more then invited to check out a bunch of pictures we took at the event – http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=55996&id=15415483905&ref=mf