cloud and datacenter management
This blog is about sharing my experience and thoughts on Public, Private, Hybrid Cloud Management
Microsoft released the latest Linux Integration Services (LIS) for the guest Linux VM’s running on HYPER-V. With this latest update following improvement has been introduced.
•Expanded Releases: now applicable to Red Hat Enterprise Linux, CentOS, and Oracle Linux with Red Hat Compatible Kernel versions 5.2, 5.3, 5.4, and 7.2.
•Hyper-V Sockets.
•Manual Memory Hot Add.
•SCSI WNN.
•lsvmbus.
•Uninstallation scripts.
You can get the latest LIS from here.
Microsoft released new tool for System Administrators to monitor the Active Directory replication. This reminds me the good old command line “repadmin”. This tool will go beyond that and provide more information than what given by CSV file output. Apart from that one of the tool I really love when it comes to AD monitoring is Quest tools which acquired by Dell.
The Active Directory Replication Status Tool (ADREPLSTATUS) analyzes the replication status for domain controllers in an Active Directory domain or forest. ADREPLSTATUS displays data in a format that is similar to REPADMIN /SHOWREPL * /CSV imported into Excel but with significant enhancements.
Specific capabilities for this tool include:
Expose Active Directory replication errors occurring in a domain or forest
Prioritize errors that need to be resolved in order to avoid the creation of lingering objects in Active Directory forests
Help administrators and support professionals resolve replication errors by linking to Active Directory replication troubleshooting content on Microsoft TechNet
Allow replication data to be exported to source or destination domain administrators or support professionals for offline analysis
Considering the detail level information provided by this tool I would say this is must for System Administrators J
This is not a latest news but thought sharing with you all an myself J.
Once you download and setup the tool it will scan the environment and provide you reports on the assessment. Reports can provide in details level descriptions as well. This tool work across physical and virtual machine environment.
Automated Assessment
Your report shows areas that are ready to move and areas that need additional configuration or design changes.
Click into each area to get expert guidance and advice tailored to your specific situation.
Right now not all workload are scan and provided reports but I expect and improvement will come in the future. You can find detail instruction of the tool from here.
Finally, we’re hearing the god news from HYPER-V team we’ve been waiting for. HYPER-V on Server 2016 Preview version (Build 10565) is supporting nested virtualization. Now if you’re newbie on this then let me explain as much as possible by using general terms J
Nested virtualization means you’re running HYPER-V inside a HYPER-V vm ok? Well I guess that is not enough J
There you go now you’ve nested virtualization. Very cool if you want to enable HYPER-V cluster and do testing. You can find more information about this news from here.
I already assume you’re aware and having Hyper-V experience knows the convenience / advantages of being able to take snapshots of VMs state before implementing a potentially disruptive change. But you also know the dangers of snapshotting for workloads such as domain controllers (DCs), Exchange Servers and SQL Servers: If you apply a checkpoint to a VM that’s replicating with others, it’s effectively sent back in time. That can cause AD corruption, password mismatches, missing group memberships and other data loss. But if you’re a developer then snapshot is a blessing for you to re-produce bugs…etc
With Server 10 (aka Server vNext) Microsoft is introducing new types of snapshots, called “Production Checkpoints”
It uses the Volume Snapshot Service (VSS) from within the VM, because the VM is aware that it happened (it’s more like a backup operation), applying a checkpoint won’t disrupt workloads. Basically machine will boot in normal boot process be restoring the previous snapshot data. Enterprise level applications (SQL, Exchange) will be aware about this restore process. This is an option you can enable and if you still prefer previous snapshot method in your demo environment you can switch back. With production checkpoint enabled Microsoft has taken HYPER-V customers to whole new level.
You can find entire list of Server vNext improvements in here
This might be somewhat old news for some readers but just want to share Microsoft has given indication they will provide nested virtualization capability on next release. This has been highlighted on the Windows Containers: What, Why and How session on Microsoft Build Conference.
This is one of the features most of the HYPER-V fans requesting from Microsoft (Including HYPER-V MVP’s as well). With this feature enabled we can enable HYPER-V role inside the Virtual machines. This would be really cool when we carry out demo labs.
Are you a IT Pro or a Developer who work with Azure VM’s frequently? Have you gone through the pain of finding best way to transfer files between Azure VM’s up and down? There are numerous methods you can do this but I found Veeam’s FastSCP (Secure Copy Protocol) is much easier to use. This is still in the Beta stage but I found it’s quote useful. Though I found out sometimes folder refresh is not very efficient but I guess it will be fixed soon. You can grab the beta software for testing from here.
Step 1: Downlaod the software and install and go to FastSCP console 
Step 2: Make sure you already have a Azure VM created prior. Go to Azure portal and copy the Azure cloud service url 
Step 3: Go to Veeam FastSCP console and click “Add Virtual machine” and provide the url you’ve copied along with VM login credentials,
Step 4: Start playing around 
You can create folders from FastSCP console to the Azure VM and start uploading and downloading files easily. If there is any bugs you better call Veeam guys
Bug: When I try to create a colder I found out even though I click the button called “Create Folder” it doesn’t appear in the FastSCP console. Best method is to click that button once and refresh the console and then you’ll find the folder you’ve created.
