Windows Server virtualization links to check out

Windows Server Virtualization CTP – here are some good links to check out:

• Windows Server virtualization CTP release notes: http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyId=3ED582F0-F844-40BA-B692-230845AF1149&displaylang=en
• Windows Server virtualization online web forum: http://forums.microsoft.com/technet/ShowForum.aspx?ForumID=583&SiteID=17

Updated Virtual Machine Additions for Linux available

There are new Virtual Machine Additions for Linux available for download. There key change to be aware of is the addition of support for SuSE Enterprise Linux 10. The official supported list is now:

• Red Hat Enterprise Linux 2.1 (update 6)
• Red Hat Enterprise Linux 3 (update 6)
• Red Hat Enterprise Linux 4
• SuSE Linux Enterprise Server 9
• SuSE Linux Enterprise Server 10
• Red Hat Linux 7.3
• Red Hat Linux 9.0
• SuSE Linux 9.2
• SuSE Linux 9.3
• SuSE Linux 10.0

The download is no longer on connect.microsoft.com and does not require any registration (yay!). You can easily download it from here.

How to enable duplicate MAC addresses on Virtual Server 2005R2

By default Virtual Server 2005R2 will detect if you have virtual machines on the same box configured with duplicate MAC addresses and stop you from starting them up at the same time.  Now for 90% of cases this is the correct thing to do.  However, if you really, really, really know what you are doing and need to boot virtual machines with the same MAC address you can do the following:

1. Stop the Virtual Server service (either use the services management console or run “net stop “virtual server”".
2. Use notepad to open “C:\Documents and Settings\All Users\Application Data\Microsoft\Virtual Server\options.xml” (where C:\ is one of your system drive is).
3. Locate the <virtual_network> </virtual_network> section and add:

   <duplicate_mac>
   <isAllowed type=”boolean”>true</isAllowed>
   </duplicate_mac>

4. When you are done save the file and restart the Virtual Server service.

You can now start virtual machines with duplicate MAC addresses, but once again please be careful when doing this.

Source:blogs.msdn.com/virtual_pc_guy

Update Rollup 5 for Exchange 2007

Microsoft has released Update Rollup 5 for Microsoft Exchange Server 2007. Update Rollup 5 for Exchange 2007 fixes the issues that are described in the following articles in the Microsoft Knowledge Base:

940051  The recipient information in an e-mail message incorrectly contains the character string “%40″ in the address instead of the at sign (@) in Exchange Server 2007

940058  Non-English characters in the meeting description field are replaced by question marks when an Exchange Server 2007 user opens a meeting invitation that was sent by a Lotus Notes user.

Update Rollup 5 for Exchange 2007 is a cumulative update. This update replaces the updates that are described in the following articles in the Microsoft Knowledge Base:

930809  Description of Update Rollup 1 for Exchange Server 2007

935490 Description of Update Rollup 2 for Exchange 2007

935999 Description of Update Rollup 3 for Exchange 2007

940006 Description of Update Rollup 4 for Exchange 2007

The following list describes the prerequisites for applying Update Rollup 5 for Exchange 2007:

Download the Exchange2007-KB941421-x64-EN package now.

Windows Virtualization Hypercall APIs available via open specification promise

Microsoft today announced that it will extend the Open Specification Promise to the hypercall application programmer’s interface (API) within Windows Server virtualization (codename Viridian), and will be available when Windows Server virtualization is released to manufacturing (RTM). In the interim, today Microsoft posted an updated draft of the hypercall API to Microsoft’s website www.microsoft.com/windowsserver2008/virtualization so that partners can continue to have early access to this important development interface. Microsoft first distributed hypercall API draft documentation to attendees of Windows Hardware Engineering Conference 2006.

The hypercall API enables partners to develop solutions with Windows Server virtualization allowing customers to achieve dynamic IT environments.   These APIs are available for use by any organization seeking to integrate or extend their software with Windows Server 2008 and Windows Server virtualization.

“The majority of our customers have mixed-source environments, and they want their platform vendors to make things work together,” said Roger Levy, senior vice president and general manager, Open Platform Solutions at Novell.  “That’s why we entered into a technical collaboration agreement with Microsoft.  As a result, Novell is the first vendor to develop and ship technology that will allow a paravirtualized Windows Server 2008 to be hosted as a guest on the Xen hypervisor.  Microsoft’s decision to put the hypercall API under their Open Specifications Promise will make it even easier for Novell, our customers and partners, and the entire open source community to develop high-quality virtualization solutions that deliver true interoperability between Windows and Linux.”

“Citrix is committed to the delivery of value-added virtualization solutions for  the Windows platform, so interoperability with Microsoft’s virtualization solutions is key to our success.  This is made possible by Microsoft’s  open and progressive approach to licensing key technologies such as its VHD image format and the Windows Server Virtualization hypercall API,” said Simon Crosby, CTO, Virtualization & Management Division, Citrix. “This will allow us to ensure that virtual machines created on XenServer will be compatible with Microsoft WSV when it is delivered as a component of Windows Server 2008.”

Microsoft is taking a step further in its commitment to interoperability by extending the Open Specification Promise to the hypercall API within Windows Server virtualization. With the OSP, any individual or organization is free to implement, commercialize and modify Microsoft’s virtualization format technology for free, now and forever. In October 2006, Microsoft expanded its commitment to interoperability by applying the OSP to Microsoft’s Virtual Hard Disk (VHD) image format.

As a reminder, Windows Server virtualization is scheduled to RTM within 180 days of the RTM of Windows Server 2008, which is currently scheduled for Q1 2008.

Source: http://blogs.technet.com

Get Serial Number of Main Board from Command Line

Windows XP and Windows Server 2003 contain the WMI (Windows Management Instrumentation) Wmic.exe command-line utility. By using Wmic.exe we can get a lot of information about computer (server).

To display the local computer name and serial number of Main Board I’ve created a very simple script, SerNum.bat. SerNum.bat contains:

@echo off
Setlocal
For /F %%a in (‘wmic baseboard GET SerialNumber /value^|find “SerialNumber”‘) do Set %%a
@echo %Computername% – %SerialNumber%
endlocal

On my desktop, the above script displays:

PELEKAN-XP1 – VF0SA75A0SK

VMware Workstation 6.0.2, Build 59824

At 10/18/07 VMWARE announced about a new build of VMware Workstation 6.0.2.
Take a look on Release Notes.

Microsoft Virtual Server 2005 R2 Service Pack 1

Microsoft Virtual Server 2005 R2 Service Pack 1 – is an ideal, produc-tion-quality server for consolidating multiple workloads onto a physical server, allowing organizations to make more efficient use of their hardware resources. Built upon Microsoft Virtual Server 2005 R2 Enterprise Edition and bolstered with new functionality, Virtual Server 2005 R2 SP1 enables IT organizations to enhance their administrative productivity and rapidly deploy new servers to address changing business needs through automated deployment and configuration of connected virtual machines that are easily administered with standard server management tools. Microsoft Virtual Server 2005 R2 SP1 now provides improved performance for non-Windows guest operating systems by leveraging hardware-assisted virtualization, high availability for both planned and unplanned downtime, and improved support for backup and disaster recovery. Virtual Server 2005 R2 SP1 is an extensively tested and well supported virtualization solution that is supported both by the broader ISV community and by Microsoft in conjunction with its server operating systems and applications.
In conjunction with Windows Server 2003, Virtual Server 2005 R2 SP1 provides a virtualization platform that runs most major x86 operating systems in a guest environment, and is supported by Microsoft as a host for Windows Server operating systems and Windows Server System applications. Virtual Server 2005 R2‘s comprehensive COM API, in combination with the Virtual Hard Drive (VHD) format and support for virtual networking, provide administrators complete scripted control of portable, connected virtual machines and enable easy automation of deployment, and ongoing change and configuration.
Additionally, its integration with a wide variety of existing Microsoft and third-party management tools allows administrators to seamlessly manage a Virtual Server 2005 R2 SP1 environment with their existing physical server management tools. A wide array of complementary product and service offerings are available from Microsoft and its partners to help businesses plan for, deploy, and manage Virtual Server 2005 R2 SP1 in their environment.

Virtual Server 2005 R2 SP1 addresses four key customer scenarios:
• Consolidate infrastructure, application, and branch office server workloads. Virtual Server 2005 R2 SP1 is ideal for server consolidation in both the datacenter and the branch office, allowing IT staff to make more efficient use of their hardware resources. It also allows IT staff to enhance their overall productivity and rapidly deploy new servers that enable the people in their organization to quickly address changing business needs.
• Consolidate and re-host legacy applications. Virtual Server 2005 R2 SP1 enables re-hosting of legacy operating systems (Windows NT Server 4.0 and Windows 2000 Server) and their associated custom applications from older hardware to new hardware running Windows Server 2003.
• Automate and consolidate software test and development environments. Virtual Server 2005 R2 SP1 enables IT and development staff to consolidate their test and development server farm and automate the provisioning of virtual machines.
• Simplify disaster and recovery planning. Virtual Server 2005 R2 SP1 can be used as part of a disaster and recovery plan that requires application portability and flexibility across hardware platforms.
What’s New in This Release
Virtual Server 2005 R2 SP1 includes the following new capabilities:
• Enterprise Edition can be installed on servers with up to 32 physical processors.
• Virtual Server host clustering. Support for host-to-host connectivity lets you cluster all virtual machines running on a host.
• iSCSI support. iSCSI clustering enables guest-to-guest connectivity across physical machines.
• x64 support. Virtual Server runs natively within a 64-bit Windows host operating system, providing increased performance and memory headroom.
• Enhanced PXE booting. PXE boot support has been added to the virtual machine network adapter. This means that when the appropriate network infrastructure is in place, you can perform a network installation of a guest operating system in the same way as physical servers.
• Other improvements. Virtual Server now includes improved hyperthreading, support for F6 Disk (SCSI driver), Active Directory integration using service connection points, and virtual disk pre-compactor functionality.
• Performance improvements.

What is Exchange Server Recipient Update Service (RUS)?

The Exchange Server Recipient Update Service (RUS) is responsible for maintaining address information about mail-enabled objects and for applying changes when you create or remove recipient policies (as described in the Microsoft article “XADM: How the Recipient Update Service Applies Recipient Policies“). If the RUS stops working, such changes won’t be applied correctly.

To know if the RUS is behaving badly, Check out the Microsoft article “How To Verify That the Recipient Update Service Is Working Correctly“.

Managing Windows 2008 Server Core through RDP

As described in previous articles, Windows Server 2008 has an interesting option to install it with a minimal graphical user interface (or GUI for short). This method of installation is called “Server Core“, and it allows an administrator to only install the minimum binaries required to run a specific server role (currently, there are 9 possible Server Core roles). You can read more about it on my “Understanding Windows Server 2008 Server Core” article.

To manage a server running a Server Core installation by using a terminal server client

1. On the server running a Server Core installation, type the following command at a command prompt:

   cscript C:\Windows\System32\ Scregedit.wsf /ar 0

   This enables the Remote Desktop for Administration mode to accept connections.

   In order to view your current settings you can type:

   cscript C:\Windows\System32\ Scregedit.wsf /ar /v

   

   If you see “1″ in the script output, that means that RDP connections are denied. If you see a “0″, they will be allowed.

   Note: If you are running the Terminal Services client on a previous version of Windows, you must turn off the higher security level that is set by default in Windows Server 2008. To do this, type the following command at the command prompt:

   cscript C:\Windows\System32\Scregedit.wsf /cs 0

To enable remote management from an RDP connection through the firewall

1. To enable remote management from any MMC snap-in, type the following:

   netsh advfirewall firewall set rule group=”Remote Desktop” new enable=yes

To open an RDP session with the Server Core machine

1. On the remote management computer, click Start > Run, type mstsc, and then click OK.
2. In Computer, enter the name of the server running a Server Core installation, and click Connect.

   

3. Log on using an administrator account.

   

4. When the command prompt appears, you can manage the computer using the Windows command-line tools.

   

   Note that while you’re logged on to the server, the original server console session is locked out.

   

5. When you have finished remotely managing the computer, type logoff in the command prompt to end your Terminal Server session.

Summary

Windows Server 2008 Server Core installations, like any other servers, require remote management. In order to allow for that, the server’s Firewall and registry settings need to be changed. This article showed you how to do that.