For those who are unfamiliar with Desktop Virtualization, Train Signal is providing a free video series “Intro To Desktop Virtualization on YouTube.
Be sure to check out these websites and twitter accounts as well if you want to keep track of what Train Signal is doing:
http://www.trainsignal.com
@TrainSignal
@davidmdavis
Tags: desktop, infrastructure, Microsoft, train signal, Training, Training Videos, trainsignal, VDI, videos, Virtual Desktop Infrastructure, virtualization, VMware, Youtube
In yesterday’s post I described that for my purposes it was still necessary to run VMware Workstation sometimes despite having Client Hyper-V installed on my Windows 8 machine.
What you have to keep in mind though, is that you’re already running a hypervisor when you have Client Hyper-V installed in Windows 8. Installing and running VMware Workstation might cause problems. So unfortunately you cannot run them at the same time. This is also true for other virtualization products like by example virtualbox.
As a workaround you can either uninstall or (temporarily) disable Hyper-V. When you want to switch between Hyper-V and VMware Workstation it is ofcourse best to just temporarily disable Hyper-V.
In this forum post, a couple of methods are described to (temporarily) disable Hyper-V. It includes creating a seperate boot menu entry to boot with Hyper-V disabled and modifying the setting either through registry or a command. All methods do require a reboot however.
PS:
- This kind of configuration is ofcourse not supported and should only be used for testing purposes in non production environments.
- Depending on both your hardware and what your planning to do, you might also want to consider:
- Running VMware ESXi from a USB stick
- Running Windows 8 from a USB stick with Windows To Go (WTG).
- It should also work on Hyper-V in Windows Server 2008 and up, but I haven’t tested it.
Tags: Citrix, Citrix XenServer, Client Hyper-V, ESXi, home lab, Hyper-V, Hyper-V 3.0, hypervisor, Microsoft, multiple hypervisors, nested esxi, nested hypervisor, Server 2012, test lab, virtualbox, virtualization, VMware, VMware ESXi, VMware ESXi 5.1, VMware Fusion, VMware vSphere, VMware vSphere 5.1, VMware Workstation, VMware Workstation 9, Windows, Windows 2012 Server, Windows 8, Windows Server 2012, Windows To Go, workstation, WTG, XenServer
In a previous blog post I’ve already shown this script that use PowerCLI to get the percentage of physical and virtual servers from your VMware environment for each Virtual Center server. This script however only took into account ESX hosts and VM’s in each Virtual Center server separately.
This means that:
- The UCS blades weren’t taken into account as physical servers.
- No percentage was being calculated for each physical location.
This new script automates determining for each location the number of physical and virtual servers in VMware vSphere and Cisco UCS.
PS: You can get more detailed information from the script, but it has been disabled using comments by default.
Tags: automation, Cisco, Cisco UCS, Cisco Unified Communication System, corporate social responsibility, CSR, Green IT, Microsoft, PowerCLI, Powershell, Script, Scripting, UCS, virtual center, virtual infrastructure, virtualcenter, virtualisation, virtualization, VMware, VMware vSphere, vSphere, Windows
With the current focus on Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) including Green IT, it might be important to know what percentage of servers has been virtualized.
This script I made will use PowerCLI to get the percentage of physical and virtual servers from your VMware environment for each Virtual Center server. You can specify multiple Virtual Center servers if desired.
Tags: automation, corporate social responsibility, CSR, Green IT, Microsoft, PowerCLI, Powershell, Script, Scripting, virtual center, virtual infrastructure, virtualcenter, virtualisation, virtualization, VMware, VMware vSphere, vSphere, Windows
As a passionate ICT person, I work with multiple virtualization products including Microsoft Hyper-V and VMware vSphere.
At home I’m running Server 2012 with Hyper-V in my home lab and even though it works perfectly, I miss the option to be able to run multiple other hypervisors beneath it like by example multiple Hyper-V, VMware ESXi or Citrix XenServer instances.
With VMware products like VMware Fusion, VMware Workstation you can enable this with only a couple of minor adjustments as described in these great articles:
For me personally, I’ll stay with my Hyper-V based home server and my Windows 8 Client with Client Hyper-V installed. For testing purposes however, I’ll have to use VMware Workstation 9 on my Windows 8 machine. (even though I have Client Hyper-V installed). This way I can still run other hypervisors when needed.
I still hope though that Microsoft will add a similar feature to Hyper-V in the future.
Tags: Citrix, Citrix XenServer, Client Hyper-V, ESXi, home lab, Hyper-V, Hyper-V 3.0, hypervisor, Microsoft, multiple hypervisors, nested esxi, nested hypervisor, Server 2012, test lab, virtualization, VMware, VMware ESXi, VMware ESXi 5.1, VMware Fusion, VMware vSphere, VMware vSphere 5.1, VMware Workstation, VMware Workstation 9, Windows, Windows 2012 Server, Windows 8, Windows Server 2012, workstation, XenServer
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 the third part, I described VM guest considerations and preparations.
In the fourth part, I described Configuring Server 2012 VM as DC with DNS and DHCP using PowerShell
In the fifth part, I described easily creating (many) proper AD users with PowerShell
In this post I will describe creating a local PowerShell v3 Help Repository.
First of all, let me explain what a local PowerShell v3 Help Repository is and why you might want it. With PowerShell v3 not all help files are included. You can however always selectively download the latest versions of the help files (for specific commands). This saves space and also makes for a more flexible system where help files can be updated more easily.
Downloading the updates to the help files requires an internet connection however, and this might not be possible or desirable in many situations. Also if every server would download these files from the internet, this would waste internet bandwidth. Microsoft realizes this and provides you with the option to create a local PowerShell v3 Help Repository.
My script to create this local PowerShell v3 Help Repository can be found here. The basic steps include:
- Create a folder where the Help files will be stored.
- Share the folder.
- Create a scheduled task to daily update the help files in .the share
- Create a file in the share that contains the command that needs to be run from another server to update its help files using the local repository (so you don’t have to remember the command).
As stated in step 4, you can manually update the help files. Personally I prefer creating a GPO that creates a scheduled task on every other system to update the help files on a regular basis using the local repository share you just made. This way when you need the help files, you don’t have to wait until the update has been completed and you also don’t have to rely on internet access.
Personally I would have preferred it if Microsoft also offered an option to deploy the help file updates using WSUS. But for now, this will have to do.
Tags: account, automate, help, help files, Help Repository, ICT, lab, Powershell, Powershell 3.0, Powershell v3, scheduled task, Script, share, update, update help files, Update-help
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 the third part, I described VM guest considerations and preparations.
In the fourth part, I described Configuring Server 2012 VM as DC with DNS and DHCP using PowerShell
In this post I want to share with you this great blog post “How to use PowerShell to populate Active Directory with plenty enough users for SharePoint” by Wictor Wilén – SharePoint MCA, MCM and MVP.
What you basically do is:
- Use http://www.fakenamegenerator.com to create x number of users from countries you specify and containing fields/data that you specify. This will be sent by mail for free as a .csv
- Use PowerShell to import the CSV and create the user accounts in AD.
What I like about the method is that besides creating many users, it also uses user data that you could encounter in real-life. Also you can modify the user data to more closely match your desired environment. By example by specifying that you want to have Dutch and US names only. For testing purposes, it can be good to include names with strange characters as well, because when these work well …. chances are that everything works well.
[UPDATE 25-01-2014]
Since there were some issues with the original source, I decided to store a cached version as PDF as well (just in case) : How to use PowerShell to populate Active Directory with plenty enough users for SharePoint
It is best to visit the original site though, if it’s available.
[UPDATE 25-01-2014]
[UPDATE 24-03-2016]
An alternative method is displayed here: https://gallery.technet.microsoft.com/scriptcenter/Create-Real-Fake-Names-e1635ef4
[UPDATE 24-03-2016]
Tags: account, Active Directory, Active Directory Domain Services, AD DS, automate, DC, Domain Controller, fake name generator, ICT, lab, name generator, Powershell, Script, user, user data
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 the third part, I described VM guest considerations and preparations.
In this post I cover quickly configuring a Server 2012 VM as DC with DNS and DHCP by using PowerShell.
The steps I do take less than 10 minutes in my test lab now. Here’s a short description:
- Create a VM that uses your previously made parent disk.
- Configure the server name and IP addressing and reboot the computer.
- Install AD DS (domain controller) including DNS forward lookup zone and reboot the computer.
- Configure AD and DNS : Enable AD Recycle Bin, Add DNS forwarder, add DNS reverse lookup zone, create DNS PTR record for DC.
- Install + configure DHCP : Install DHCP, Add scope, configure scope, authorize DHCP server in AD.
The scripts I’ve created for steps 2 to 5 can be found here and are based on the great work Stefan Stranger already did in his blog post Installing a new OpsMgr 2012 (SP1) environment the fast way. I added some stuff of my own so it would meet my needs and I tried to keep it as generic as possible so other people can re-use my code as well.
PS: In step 2, IP addressing is not in place yet. To get scripts tot the system, consider:
- Putting the scripts in an ISO file that you can mount.
- Opening Hyper-V Virtual Machine Connection to VM and using “Clipboard”, “Type Clipboard Text”.
Tags: Active Directory, Active Directory Domain Services, AD DS, automate, configuration, DC, DHCP, DNS, Domain Controller, Domain Naming System, Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol, forward lookup zone, forwarder, Hyper-V, hypervisor, ICT, installation, lab, Powershell, reverse lookup zone, Script, Virtual Machine, virtualization, VM
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:
- Use legacy network adapter ? Could be necessary for by example PXE boot.
- In most cases the regular network adapters will be the best choice.
- How much memory to assign ? Should I use dynamic memory in Hyper-V ? Should I overcommit using VMware ?
- In most cases for your home lab it is probably best to use dynamic memory / overcommit. Some applications however might not work correctly, or you might not have the desired outcome.
- How many virtual CPUs should I assign ?
- Should I store my VMs on a single physical disk or on multiple physical disks ?
- Should I use virtual disks or pass-through disks ?
- For VMs that I use for testing, I use virtual disks because they provide more flexibility.
- For my file server I choose to use pass-through disks so I can simply remove the disk from my server and place them in another system. I’m also afraid that should you encounter an issue when using a virtual disk, that the chance is greater that you lose everything because the virtual disk will break.
- When I use virtual disks, should I use thin provisioned disks or thick provisioned disks ?
- Thick provisioned disks are supposed to deliver better performance, but at the cost of more disk space. Also for a home LAB I doubt the performance loss is minimal and acceptable, so I would go with thin provisioned disks. Also when using SSD disks, space is costly and limited. Be sure to monitor disk space usage though.
- Should I use differencing disks in Hyper-V / linked clones in VMWare ?
- When you plan to use multiple VMs running the same operating system, you can save space by using differencing disks / linked clones. This also impacts the disk I/O however, so monitor it to see if it fits your needs. Since I use SSD disks and run multiple VMs with the same OS, I use differencing disks.
VM guest preparations
An home LAB is not complete without VM guests ofcourse. The basic methods for provisioning are:
- Using pre-prepped VMs that are provided by third parties like by example Microsoft and VMWare. For VMWare there is even a virtual appliance Marketplace.
- Installing VMs manually every time.
- Using 3rd party deployment tools to provision operating systems to VMs. By example System Center Configuration Manager.
- Deploying VMs from templates you create manually.
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:
- Installation of the operating system
- Installing the Hyper-V Integration Component (or VMWare tools).
- Adding roles and features I expect to be using in (the majority of) my VMs.
- Downloading and installing the latest updates.
- Performing sysprep to generalize the installation and choosing to turn off the system afterwards.
DO NOT TURN ON THE SYSTEM, otherwise you need to run sysprep again.
- Saving the virtual disk files for future use.
- If you’re going to be using differencing disks, you will use this disk as the parent disk. Make sure you set it to read-only.
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.
Tags: hypervisor, ICT, lab, virtualization
blog.bjornhouben.com 