In the 2nd half of this year I started blogging more actively and even though the last couple of weeks didn’t feature many posts, I still have lots of things I want to blog about in 2013.
For now however, you can check out the statistics of 2012 which the WordPress.com stats helper monkeys prepared: Click here to see the complete report.
Thanks everyone for visiting my blog and contributing. Also if you have ideas/suggestions what I should improve or blog about, please let me know.
In the first part of this LAB setup guide, I described the hardware selection process.
In the second part I described the hypervisor selection and installation.
In this post I will describe the VM guest considerations and preparations.
VM guest considerations
Considerations for your VM guests:
VM guest preparations
An home LAB is not complete without VM guests ofcourse. The basic methods for provisioning are:
Often you’ll use a combination of the methods. In my case I’ll deploy many instances of the same guest OS versions for my test lab. I’ll often deploy various versions of Windows multiple times. Therefore I create my own templates for my test lab.
Basic actions for template creation are:
Using this approach I’ve created my own templates consuming 180GB and covering most of the operating systems I (can) encounter and want to test with:
Windows2003-Enterprise-R2-SP2-x64-ParentDisk-Readonly.vhdx
Windows2003-Enterprise-R2-SP2-x86-ParentDisk-Readonly.vhdx
Windows2008-SP2-x64-ParentDisk-Readonly.vhdx.vhdx
Windows2008-SP2-x86-ParentDisk-Readonly.vhdx.vhdx
Windows2008R2-SP1-x64-ParentDisk-Readonly.vhdx
Windows2012-Datacenter-Core-ParentDisk-Readonly.vhdx
Windows2012-Datacenter-GUI-ParentDisk-Readonly.vhdx
Windows7-Enterprise-SP1-x64-ParentDisk-Readonly.vhdx
Windows7-Enterprise-SP1-x86-ParentDisk-Readonly.vhdx
Windows8-Enterprise-x64-ParentDisk-Readonly.vhdx
Windows8-Enterprise-x86-ParentDisk-Readonly.vhdx
WindowsVista-Enterprise-SP2-x64-ParentDisk-Readonly.vhdx
WindowsVista-Enterprise-SP2-x86-ParentDisk-Readonly.vhdx
WindowsXP-Pro-SP3-ParentDisk-Readonly.vhdx
WindowsXP-Pro-x64-ParentDisk-Readonly.vhdx
Storing backups and ISO files
When you have files that have lots of similar data, they are very suitable for deduplication. Also read this great blog post if you want to know how it works.. With for example ISO files and powered-off VMs you can save a lot of space. You should however not configure this for files that change on a regular basis like by example actively running VMs. With Server 2012, you can easily enable deduplication for volumes. Also keep in mind that these files do not require high IOPS, so you can store them on slower disks.
If you want to check how much space you can save without installing Server 2012 and its deduplication feature, you can also run the deduplication evalutation tool (ddpeval.exe) on Windows 7, Windows 8, Windows 2008 R2 or Windows Server 2012. You can even “hack” Windows 8 Pro to allow deduplication.
I was able to reduce the used disk space with 75% from 215 GB to 50 GB. This was with ISO files and the backups of the parent disks I created earlier (not the ones in use).
In the next post I will describe configuring Server 2012 VM as DC with DNS and DHCP using PowerShell.
In the first part of this LAB setup guide, I described the hardware selection process. In this second part I will be describing the hypervisor selection and installation.
Hypervisor selection
First of all, you have to decide on which bare metal hypervisor(s) you wish to use. Personally I prefer Microsoft Hyper-V and VMWare ESXi. Alternatives include but are not limited to Citrix XenServer, Xen, KVM, Red Hat Enterprise Virtualization. I don’t have much experience with these hypervisors though.
Characteristics that could influence your choice of hypervisor:
Everyone needs to determine which hypervisor best meets their needs. Personally I mainly work with Microsoft software and decided to use Hyper-V 3.0 in Windows Server 2012. It’s convenient for me to be able to easily load pre-prepped environments that are provided by Microsoft (in Hyper-V format). I also run Client Hyper-V on my Windows 8 laptop, which makes it easier for me to take my VM’s with me. I do plan to keep up with VMWare developments as well though, so I will create a bootable USB flash drive to boot in VMWare from time to time.
Hypervisor installation
In the next post I will describe the VM guest preparations, installations and storage strategy.
As you will probably know by now, I’m really into ICT. I mainly focus on virtualization and Microsoft technoIogies. As such, I try to:
A proper lab environment is a prerequisite to do so. Because of virtualization however, this has become so much easier (and cheaper) than before.
In the next couple of blog posts I will try to document the steps I’m taking to build my lab. Today I’m staring the series with the hardware selection. The important part of the hardware I use for my environment is as follows:
To me it was important that my machine would be able to run both Microsoft Hyper-V 3.0 as well as VMware ESXi 5.1 properly. Both have hardware requirements, but VMware ESXi 5.1 is generally more restrictive with regards to supported hardware. Very simply put, it means that the mainboard, CPU, network and storage controller need to be compatible with the features you require.
Normally you would check supported hardware on the official hardware compatibility list (HCL) of the vendor, but these are generally aimed at real server hardware and do not support/contain consumer hardware. So before buying hardware, check on forums to see what combinations of hardware are working for other people and choose the one that matches your desires best. You can also google for ESXi whitebox.
Furthermore, I plan to run many systems at the same time, hence the 32GB of memory and the 2 fast 512GB SSD disks. Besides the fast, but small SSD you generally also need more storage to store other files like by example operating system images and tools.
The next post is about the Hypervisor selection and installation.
I created this script to automate extracting English only MSP files from CAB files in the SCOM 2012 Update Rollup 3 (UR3) files. By default it will delete extracted non-English versions. With some minor modifications it can be used for any CAB file though, not just SCOM 2012 Update Rollup 3. It includes a lot of comments, so it is manageable and can be used for getting to know PowerShell better.
SCOM 2012 Update Rollup 3 can be downloaded here : http://catalog.update.microsoft.com/v7/site/search.aspx?q=2750631
The issue with SCOM 2012 Update Rollup 3 is that after downloading you’ll end up with a total of 41 CAB files. The large number of files is because they are for different components and in multiple languages. And what is even worse, is that the file names do not show which file is for which language.This script will extract all cab files to a subfolder and will then removes the non English ones. Below are some of the example files in Update Rollup 3 to give you an idea about the nondescriptive file names:
Deploying SCOM 2012 components and updates to them can be done in multiple ways: http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/hh551142.aspx
Most of the work while updating will probably be updating the agents. Basically for SCOM 2012 there are 2 major ways to install agents:
With Update Rollup 3, it is now possible to leverage WSUS / Microsoft Update to deploy updates (not the inital agent) to all SCOM 2012 components. I predict this will probably become the preferred way of updating SCOM 2012 for most companies:
+ It does not require many ports on your firewall to be opened.
+ Better bandwidth management (local WSUS, BranchCache, BITS).
+ Auto detects components on systems (component updates are not forgotten).
+ Still in control of when which updates are deployed/approved.
+ Leverage existing patch/update management procedures and systems WSUS/SCCM (standardization).
– Initial agent installation cannot be performed using WSUS.
PS: Also check these great blog posts when deploying Update Rollup 3:
People who know me, know I love my mediaplayer, so much even that barely watch regular TV nowadays. I’ve been using Popcorn Hour mediaplayers for a long time now and even though they’re not the cheapest ones, I’ve always been very happy with them. I’ve even recommended them to many people who bought them as well.
Yesterday however, one of my friends was having an issue with his Popcorn Hour A-200 mediaplayer. I suggested he should check for and install the latest firmware version (August 10, 2012). Because I hadn’t updated mine in quite some time either I decided to upgrade it together with him even though I did not really have a need to upgrade mine.
After the update, my PCH-A200 couldn’t connect to my samba(SMB) / CIFS network shares on Windows Server 2012 anymore. For the shares that worked previously I got an error stating:
“Unable to resolve the host name. Press [return] key to return to the previous screen”.
The network itself was working since I was able to use internet radio.
As it turns out, many problems have been introduced with the latest firmware versions. I did try using NFS shares, but even though I could browse them I was not able to playback videos.
Ultimately I decided to go back two firmware versions. After installing the firmware of May 25th, 2011 everything was working fine again.
Conclusion: Newer versions are not always better !!!!
In a previous blog post I explained how to use PowerShell remoting to determine OpsMgr Components File Versions.
As an alternative you can also use a local PowerShell script. And what is even easier in my opinion, is creating an agent task. This means you can run the the script against multiple targets and show its result all from within the SCOM 2012 console.
The local PowerShell script can be found here. A management pack containing the agent task and the PowerShell script can be found here.
Based on internet info,these are the version numbers:
SCOM 2012 Cumulative Update 1 / Update Rollup 1 version = 7.0.8560.1021
SCOM 2012 Cumulative Update 2 / Update Rollup 2 version = 7.0.8560.1027
SCOM 2012 Cumulative Update 3 / Update Rollup 3 version = 7.0.8560.1036
SCOM 2012 SP1 beta = 7.0.8925.0
Thanks go out to Derek Har for his blog post that helped me to embed the PowerShell script in the SCOM 2012 management pack.
To give you an idea what the output looks like in SCOM 2012, here are some screenshots:
Bjorn_Tasks_Powershell-Get-SCOMfileversions_01
Bjorn_Tasks_Powershell-Get-SCOMfileversions_02
Microsoft Technology Associate (MTA) courses and exams are aimed at people new to specific IT areas of expertises. Previously these exams were available only to academic students, faculty, and staff. Now, anyone can take these exams.
Exams available at this moment are:
More information about MTA can be found here.
Also to stay up-to-date regarding Microsoft learning and certification news, be sure to follow developments on the Born To Learn blog.
We’re currently working hard on our SCOM 2012 environment. One of the things that need to be done, is upgrading the environment to the latest version, which is currently Update Rollup 3.
Two great blog posts are available to assist you in the upgrade process:
Unfortunately SCOM 2012 at this moment only shows the major version 7.0.8560.0 when using get-scommanagementserver or get-scomagent. For agents you can use this PowerShell command:
get-scomagent | ft computername, version, patchlist -auto
The patchlist is however not available for managementservers, which means another approach is necessary to get an overview of the upgrade status of your SCOM environment.
Since OpsMgr 2012 Update Rollup 3 is available through WSUS now for the first time, you could leverage existing WSUS reports. Depending on your environment, not all systems might be in WSUS or the systems might be using different WSUS servers.
The script I made, is based on Stefan Stranger’s blog post. The script basically works like this:
The script can be found here:
http://bjornhouben-web.sharepoint.com/Lists/Scripts
Since I’m still pretty new to PowerShell scripting, any feedback is welcome so I can improve
[EDIT 22-04-2016]
Added the script as HTML in the blog itself
[EDIT 22-04-2016]
<########################################################################################
Name : Determine SCOM Components File Versions Using PowerShell Remoting.ps1
Date : December 10th 2012
Author : Bjorn Houben
Blog : http://blog.bjornhouben.com
Website : http://www.bjornhouben.com
Linkedin : http://nl.linkedin.com/in/bjornhouben
Purpose : Unfortunately SCOM 2012 now only shows the major version 7.0.8560.0 when using get-scommanagementserver or get-scomagent.
This script will show the file versions of the SCOM 2012 components: Management Server, Gateway Server, Console, Web Console, Agent and reporting tools.
Using PowerShell remoting, this script will query your SCOM environment for management servers and agents and will then check their local file versions.
Assumptions : To query SCOM, you are running the script from a system that meets all of these requirements:
1. The “Operations Manager Shell” is installed.
2. You can connect to the management server for queries.
3. Your account has sufficient permissions to query the management server.
To query the file versions on remote systems:
1. PowerShell remoting must be enabled and configured correctly.
2. Connectivity to the remote systems must be available.
3. The account used for PowerShell remoting must have sufficient permissions.
Known issues:
Limitations :
Notes : This script was inspired by Stefan Stranger’s blog post about installing update rollup 3:
To determine the changed files, I used the commands provided in this blog post:
Get-ItemProperty -Path “$env:ProgramFiles\System Center 2012\Operations Manager\Server\*.dll” | select -ExpandProperty VersionInfo | where {$_.FileVersion -eq “7.0.8560.1036”} | Format-List FileName, FileVersion
Get-ItemProperty -Path “c:\\Program Files\System Center 2012\Operations Manager\Reporting\Tools\*.*” | select -ExpandProperty VersionInfo | where {$_.FileVersion -eq $SCOM2012_Update_version} | Format-List FileName, FileVersion
Get-ItemProperty -Path “$env:ProgramFiles\System Center 2012\Operations Manager\Console\*.dll” | select -ExpandProperty VersionInfo | where {$_.FileVersion -eq $SCOM2012_Update_version} | Format-List FileName, FileVersion
Get-ItemProperty -Path “$env:ProgramFiles\System Center 2012\Operations Manager\WebConsole\WebHost\bin\*.dll” | select -ExpandProperty VersionInfo | where {$_.FileVersion -eq $SCOM2012_Update_version} | Format-List FileName, FileVersion
Get-ItemProperty -Path “$env:ProgramFiles\System Center Operations Manager\Gateway\*.dll” | select -ExpandProperty VersionInfo | where {$_.FileVersion -eq $SCOM2012_Update_version} | Format-List FileName, FileVersion
Get-ItemProperty -Path “$env:ProgramFiles\System Center Operations Manager\Agent\*.dll” | select -ExpandProperty VersionInfo | where {$_.FileVersion -eq $SCOM2012_Update_version} | Format-List FileName, FileVersion
Disclaimer : This script is provided AS IS without warranty of any kind. I disclaim all implied warranties including, without limitation,
any implied warranties of merchantability or of fitness for a particular purpose. The entire risk arising out of the use or
performance of the sample scripts and documentation remains with you. In no event shall I be liable for any damages whatsoever
(including, without limitation, damages for loss of business profits, business interruption, loss of business information,
or other pecuniary loss) arising out of the use of or inability to use the script or documentation.
To improve :
Copyright : I believe in sharing knowledge, so this script and its use is subject to : http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/
History : December 10 2012 : Created script
########################################################################################>
#Load the OperationsManager PowerShell module
Import-Module OperationsManager
#Get managementservers and agents
$ManagementServers = Get-SCOMManagementServer
$Agents = Get-SCOMagent
#Declare function for PowerShell remoting
Function get-remotefileversions($computername)
{
#Invoke-command is used to perform commands on remote machines using PowerShell remoting. The ScriptBlock defines what will be executed on each local machine.
invoke-command -computername $computername -ScriptBlock{
#Get the local hostname
$hostname = $env:COMPUTERNAME
#Declare the function to get fileversions
Function get-fileversion($description,$file)
{
#Declare the desiredversion.
#SCOM 2012 Update Rollup 3 version = “7.0.8560.1036”
#SCOM 2012 SP1 beta version = “7.0.8925.0”
$desiredversion = “7.0.8560.1036”
IF((test-path $file) -ne $true) #If file is not present, no file version check will be performed
{
#write-host “Not present;$file”
}
ELSE #If file is present, file version check will be performend
{
#write-host “Present;$file”
#Get the fileversion
$fileversion = (Get-ItemProperty -Path $file | select -ExpandProperty VersionInfo).FileVersion
#Define the outputformat
$output = “$hostname;$fileversion;$description;$file“
IF($fileversion -eq $desiredversion) #If fileversion matches desired version, do not show in output
{
#write-host $output
}
ELSE #If fileversion does not match desired version, show in output
{
#Show only non compliant versions
$output | write-host
}
}
}
#Define the files to check
#Files for SCOM 2012 Management Server
get-fileversion “Management Server” “$env:ProgramFiles\System Center 2012\Operations Manager\Server\Microsoft.EnterpriseManagement.DataAccessService.OperationsManager.dll”
get-fileversion “Management Server” “$env:ProgramFiles\System Center 2012\Operations Manager\Server\Microsoft.EnterpriseManagement.Modules.PowerShell.dll”
get-fileversion “Management Server” “$env:ProgramFiles\System Center 2012\Operations Manager\Server\Microsoft.EnterpriseManagement.RuntimeService.dll”
get-fileversion “Management Server” “$env:ProgramFiles\System Center 2012\Operations Manager\Server\MomIISModules.dll”
#Files for SCOM 2012 Console
get-fileversion “Console” “$env:ProgramFiles\System Center 2012\Operations Manager\Console\Microsoft.EnterpriseManagement.Presentation.Controls.dll”
get-fileversion “Console” “$env:ProgramFiles\System Center 2012\Operations Manager\Console\Microsoft.EnterpriseManagement.Presentation.Core.dll”
get-fileversion “Console” “$env:ProgramFiles\System Center 2012\Operations Manager\Console\Microsoft.EnterpriseManagement.Presentation.DataProviders.Library.dll”
get-fileversion “Console” “$env:ProgramFiles\System Center 2012\Operations Manager\Microsoft.EnterpriseManagement.UI.ConsoleFramework.dll”
get-fileversion “Console” “$env:ProgramFiles\System Center 2012\Operations Manager\Microsoft.Mom.UI.Components.dll”
#Files for SCOM 2012 Web Console
get-fileversion “Web Console” “$env:ProgramFiles\System Center 2012\Operations Manager\WebConsole\WebHost\bin\Microsoft.EnterpriseManagement.Presentation.Core.DLL”
get-fileversion “Web Console” “$env:ProgramFiles\System Center 2012\Operations Manager\WebConsole\WebHost\Microsoft.EnterpriseManagement.Presentation.DataProviders.Library.dll”
get-fileversion “Web Console” “$env:ProgramFiles\System Center 2012\Operations Manager\WebConsole\WebHost\Microsoft.EnterpriseManagement.Presentation.Security.Cryptography.dll”
#Files for SCOM 2012 Gateway
get-fileversion “Gateway” “$env:ProgramFiles\System Center Operations Manager\Gateway\Microsoft.EnterpriseManagement.Modules.PowerShell.dll”
get-fileversion “Gateway” “$env:ProgramFiles\System Center Operations Manager\Gateway\MomIISModules.dll”
get-fileversion “Gateway” “$env:ProgramFiles\System Center Operations Manager\Gateway\MOMScriptAPI.dll”
#Files for SCOM 2012 Reporting
get-fileversion “Reporting” “$env:ProgramFiles\System Center 2012\Operations Manager\Reporting\Tools\OpsMgrTraceTMFVer.Dll”
get-fileversion “Reporting” “$env:ProgramFiles\System Center 2012\Operations Manager\Reporting\Tools\TraceFmtSM.exe”
get-fileversion “Reporting” “$env:ProgramFiles\System Center 2012\Operations Manager\Reporting\Tools\TraceLogSM.exe”
#Files for SCOM 2012 Agent
get-fileversion “Agent” “$env:ProgramFiles\System Center Operations Manager\Agent\Microsoft.EnterpriseManagement.Modules.PowerShell.dll”
get-fileversion “Agent” “$env:ProgramFiles\System Center Operations Manager\Agent\MomIISModules.dll”
get-fileversion “Agent” “$env:ProgramFiles\System Center Operations Manager\Agent\MOMScriptAPI.dll”
get-fileversion “Agent” “${env:ProgramFiles(x86)}\System Center Operations Manager\Agent\Microsoft.EnterpriseManagement.Modules.PowerShell.dll”
get-fileversion “Agent” “${env:ProgramFiles(x86)}\System Center Operations Manager\Agent\MomIISModules.dll”
get-fileversion “Agent” “${env:ProgramFiles(x86)}System Center Operations Manager\Agent\MOMScriptAPI.dll”
}
}
#Run the get-remotefileversions function for all Management Servers
Foreach($ManagementServer in $ManagementServers)
{
get-remotefileversions $managementserver.NetworkName
}
#Run the get-remotefileversions function for all agents
Foreach($Agent in $Agents)
{
get-remotefileversions $agent.NetworkName
}
Since I’m currently working with System Center Operations Manager 2012 (also often referred to as SCOM 2012 or OpsMgr 2012), I needed a testing environment.
Because time is precious, I want to minimize the time and effort needed to set it up. This is what I did:
Also be sure to read Stefan Stranger’s blog post that goes into more detail with regards to the domain controller and automating the task for setting it up. It also includes screenshots to give you a better idea of the process.
PS: I love how Microsoft provides these pre-configured VHD’s. This has been great in the past, but now with client Hyper-V 3.0 in Windows 8 it saves me even more time because I don’t have to boot to Windows Server 2008 or Windows Server 2012 for Hyper-V.
blog.bjornhouben.com 