Virtualization

How To Shrink VMware Virtual Disk Files (.vmdk) (Windows OS installed as Guest).

Recently I worked on building VM Appliance and when I was ready to convert my VM to appliance I’ve figured out that virtual disk is too big. So, I did what I usually do in this situation. And now I’d like to show how you can shrink the virtual disk files of your VMware virtual machines so that if you zip them, they will use much less space. It is then easier to upload and share them with other people.

Yes, I know, many of you now said “Misha is going to talk about Shrink”. You know what, you pretty true, but …

Everybody knows What the “shrink” does. Shrink removes an empty space from .VMDK file.

However, the problem is this: What is empty space?

When Windows deletes a file, it doesn’t actually delete the data on the disk, it just deletes the references/pointers in the file allocation table. So when “Shrink” is processing a vmdk and is looking at the raw disk, it’s seeing values that aren’t empty (non-zero), and exports them as such.

You can easily test this out. Create a new vmdk on a VM. Export the VMDK right after you’ve created it. The exported files will be very small. Now fill the vmdk up with files and export; it will be very big. Now, delete all the files in the vmdk and export; it’ll still be big! If you will try to do a “Shrink”, you will see that the vmdk file is still big.

So, before doing a Shrink, I’m always using a really cool command line tool developed by Mark Russinovich, SDelete. Simply, execute SDelete with parameter -c inside running Virtual machine, then shut down the Guest and do a Shrink.

Last note. Just in case you forget how to do a shrink ;). From command line go to C:\Programme\VMware\VMware Server\ and execute the vmware-vdiskmanager.exe as shown in following example:

“C:\Programme\VMware\VMware Server\vmware-vdiskmanager.exe” -k “ITSTUFF-SRV-1.vmdk”

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Microsoft, Red Hat to Offer Joint Technical Support

Microsoft and Red Hat announced this morning that they have recently signed agreements to test and validate their server operating systems running on one another’s hypervisors. This is deeply significant as it means that customers will be able to confidently deploy Windows Server and Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL), virtualized on Microsoft and Red Hat hypervisors, knowing that the solutions will be supported by both companies.

In short, Red Hat has joined Microsoft’s Server Virtualization Validation Program, and Microsoft is now a Red Hat partner for virtualization interoperability and support. Microsoft will also be listed in the Red Hat Hardware Certification List once the Red Hat certification process has been completed later this year.

Free Virtualization E-Learning Collection Available

This free e-learning collection of four clinics offers a comprehensive introduction to Hyper-V and Terminal Services in Windows Server 2008, System Centre Virtual Machine Manager 2008, and Microsoft Application Virtualization.

Click here to learn more

Summary

Collection 6333: Exploring Microsoft Virtualization Technologies

Overview

This collection of three 2-hour online clinics and an 1-hour online clinic provides IT Professionals experienced in Windows 2000 Server or Windows Server 2003 with the knowledge and skills to implement and manage virtualization technologies.
Topics covered in the clinic within the collection include:

• Introduction to Microsoft System Center Virtual Machine Manager 2008
• Overview of Microsoft Application Virtualization
• Overview of Terminal Services in Windows Server 2008
• Overview of Hyper-V

Student Prerequisites

• Experience in planning, implementing, and supporting Windows Server–based networks, operating systems and platform infrastructure. This may include experience in Windows 2000 Server, Windows Server 2003, and Windows Server 2008.
• Knowledge of server virtualization and Hyper-V.

Hyper-V Step-by-Step Guide: Hyper-V and Failover Clustering

The Hyper-V role enables you to create a virtualized server computing environment using a technology that is part of the Windows Server® 2008 operating system. This solution is provided through Hyper-V. You can use a virtualized computing environment to improve the efficiency of your computing resources by utilizing more of your hardware resources.

The Failover Clustering feature enables you to create and manage failover clusters. A failover cluster is a group of independent computers that work together to increase the availability of applications and services. The clustered servers (called nodes) are connected by physical cables and by software. If one of the cluster nodes fails, another node begins to provide service (a process known as failover). Users experience a minimum of disruptions in service.

This guide shows you how to use these two technologies together to make a virtual machine highly available. You will do this by creating a simple two-node cluster and a virtual machine, and then failing over the virtual machine from one node to the other. Continue @ Source…

How to Trick System Center Virtual Machine Manager (SCVMM) Prerequisites Checking

One of the software requirements for VMM is Windows PowerShell v1. If we try to install SCVMM Administrator Console, we could get this error in the prerequisites dialog:

“System Centercentre Virtual Machine Manager requires Windows PowerShell 1.0.“

We can see this error in two situations:

1. We have not installed PowerShell 1.0.
2. We have installed another version of PowerShell, let say PowerShell CTP 2.

BTW, we will have the same issue if we try to install Exchange 2007 Admin Tools while having PowerShell CTP 2 installed.

The workaround is very simple.
“Prerequisites Checking” is looking for a registry key named PID. The value for this key should be “89383-100-0001260-04309“.

We can create it manually, create file PSv1.reg. Here is a content of PSv1.reg:

Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00
[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\PowerShell\1]
“PID”=”89383-100-0001260-04309″

Import the PSv1.reg, by running it, and ran the SCVMM installation again and the problem will disappear.

Now that the prerequisite phase is complete we can safely remove the created key.

Top Issues for Microsoft Support for Windows Server 2008 Hyper-V

After a few months of supporting customers, Microsoft has enough case data to report on the top issues being reported for Hyper-V. The issues are categorized with the top issue(s) in each category listed with possible resolutions and additional comments as needed. Continue here

How to enable Windows Server Backup support for the Hyper-V VSS Writer

To be able use VSS based backups of Hyper-V VMs using Windows Server Backup, we need to add the following registry keys to register the Hyper-V VSS Writer with Windows Server Backup. WindowsServerBackup key is not created when we install the Windows Server Backup feature. We have to create this key manually.

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Microsoft\Windows NT
\CurrentVersion\WindowsServerBackup\Application Support\{66841CD4-6DED-4F4B-8F17-FD23F8DDC3DE}

When the keys listed above created, we also need to create a String Value with the following parameters / settings:

Name: Application Identifier
Type: REG_SZ
Value: Hyper-V

When backing up virtual machines, we must select all volumes where VM related files is present, because Windows Server Backup only supports volume based backups.

For more information about Hyper-V virtual machine backups, take a look on the KB958662.

Understanding Microsoft Virtualization - Free eBook

This is the book for IT professionals who want to learn more about the latest Microsoft virtualization technologies, including Windows Server 2008 Hyper-V, System Center Virtual Machine Manager 2008, Microsoft Application Virtualization 4.5, Microsoft Enterprise Desktop Virtualization, and Microsoft Virtual Desktop Infrastructure. The book also examines other virtualization-enabling technologies from Microsoft including Windows Server 2008 Terminal Services, Roaming User Profiles, Folder Redirection, and Offline Files.

Download (14.4MB PDF)

Managing Virtualization with SCVMM and Powershell

Take an inside look at Hyper-V and System Center Virtual Machine Manager from an architectural and experience a real world view. See how SCVMM and PowerShell can help you manage your virtualized environment seamlessly. The session comes complete with live demos of real life scenarios, and even a look at SCVMM managing a VMWare ESX!

Source: www.microsoft.com