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Thread: Windows 2008 R2 Server on Hyper-V

  1. #1
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    Windows 2008 R2 Server on Hyper-V

    The latest Microsoft server OS uses its virtualization capabilities, its integration with Windows 7 and a multitude of improvements in the administration to deceive. These include reducing operating costs compared to existing versions, simplifying integration with Windows 7 parks, but also provide an effective response to economic and VMware. The stakes are high for Microsoft: 65% of the installed base Windows Server still uses Windows 2000 Server and Windows Server 2003. Windows Server 2008 R2 introduces several enhancements to the Hyper-V, which was expected since its initial release. These updates to the platform of Microsoft virtualization include the availability of VMs and the storage of virtual machines. For Windows users who were waiting for the update to Hyper-V to take the step towards virtualization, Windows 2008 R2 is the answer. The most anticipated new feature in Hyper-V 2.0 is undoubtedly the implementation of the migration of virtual machines, which is replacing the existing system of Quick Migration previously, integrated Hyper-V.

    Benefits:
    • Today, modern servers are so powerful that a single large server enough to match the performance of multiple autonomous servers.
    • Hyper-V is the innovative solution of virtual machines from Microsoft. With Hyper-V, it is easy to group its different physical servers in a single virtualization environment. If we consider the servers currently on the market, it is common to see consolidation ratios of 10 to 1 (1 new physical server hosting virtualized 10 servers).
    • The aim is to divide a large physical server into smaller virtual environments: each runs its own instance of the operating system.
    • On paper, Hyper-V also improves reliability and performance. But how can we be sure our virtualized applications will perform as well as if they were on a real physical server dedicated.

    Some technological advances in the solution:
    • An end to end solution, easily integrated into existing architectures as Microsoft Active Directory, SharePoint, System Center and Microsoft Office.
    • A quick and cheap: according to recent public benchmark the performance of HPC Server is equal to that of Linux clusters
    • An ROI analysis of 5 years also shows that the Microsoft solution is 32% to 51% cheaper than a Linux solution for HPC
    • New analysis capabilities and more powerful computing. HPC Services for Excel 2010, Windows HPC Server 2008 R2, reduces drastically the computing time of large Excel spreadsheets
    • Support more applications with hundreds of technical computing applications are compatible with Windows HPC Server 2008 R2

    Migration

    Microsoft had perhaps not wrong to say that most companies do not need the travel hot. But the lack of this feature had become a source of ridicule for many, while XenServer and ESX had in a long time. Microsoft has come to review it. From a technical perspective, the redesign of the architecture required to enable Hyper-V to support live migration has a lot of implications. Hyper-V 1.0 and placed in a VM saved state (basically the VM backup the contents of its memory to disk) before moving to a new server, which then had to reload the state of the disk memory to take over the VM. Hence the time needed several seconds to switch. To eliminate this delay, Microsoft had to develop a kind of pre-copying mechanism that migrates the majority of the state the virtual machine, while allowing it to continue operating normally.

    Once this initial copy is complete, Live Migration pauses the source virtual machine, copies the latest changes, and transfers control to the new host that the VM restarts almost instantly. The fact that architecture combines break and involves considerably less copy differential data transfer, resulting in a true live migration, as in other virtualization platforms.

    To enable live migration of VMs, Microsoft has also rethink how Windows interacts with Failover Clustering storage resources. As in the original version of Windows Server 2008 and R2, Hyper-V builds on the features of Windows Failover Clustering. In the first version, however, the architecture of Microsoft Failover no provision for storage, which means that the failure of a VM, the functions of the entire cluster failover storage resources on which was shown that VM to another server. Because of this limitation, Microsoft recommended in scenarios of high availability with Hyper-V 1.0 to limit the number of virtual machines to one per system is a real headache for the administration and storage system makers.

    Storage Cluster

    In Hyper-V 2.0, Microsoft added a new feature called Cluster Shared Volumes (CSV). VSCs are based on NTFS file system and allow multiple hosts to simultaneously access the same disk resource. But as NTFS does not lock mechanism to allow multiple hosts to simultaneously access a volume, an additional layer of management was added to ensure that all nodes in the cluster are aware of who owns - and thus manages and changes - which files and folders. Different cluster nodes (actually host servers virtualized with Hyper-V) interrogate management layer CSV before making any changes to files and folders to a real competitor access by multiple servers to a single NTFS volume.

    The immediate benefit is that it is now possible to host multiple virtual machines on a single LUN, which greatly reduces the number of logical units and greatly simplifies administration. The cluster can indeed perform a failover on a single VM without affecting an entire disk resource. It should be noted that the use of cluster services has other advantages including high availability. The solution ensures dynamic redirection of input / output (SAN and LAN) in case of failure of a network link.

  2. #2
    Join Date
    May 2008
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    432

    Re: Windows 2008 R2 Server on Hyper-V

    Virtualization

    With the release of vSphere 4.0, VMware has significantly raised the level of its technical platform, but also greatly boosted the cost of virtualization, particularly for small and medium enterprises. Microsoft's response is particularly aggressive in that, for Windows accounts, Hyper-V is a free role. And with all its features including high availability and live migration (however, perform the appropriate licenses for System Center VMM to manage multi-server environments and drive just migration functions. The result is platform virtualization at unbeatable prices, at least for Windows accounts. Microsoft also added several welcome improvements to Hyper-V 2.0. The first is called Dynamic Virtual Machine Storage and allows adding and removing hot disk resources in a virtual machine.

    But Hyper-V 2.0 is quite sufficient for most needs virtualization infrastructure services and can be further improved through third-party tools such as Citrix Essentials that adds valuable storage administration, management of lab or disaster recovery, for a cost substantially lower than that of VMware offerings. Food for thought in these times of fiscal scarcity. We note in conclusion that the license restrictions remain unchanged from Windows Server 2008 and it is highly recommended to opt for Windows Server Datacenter Edition for receiving an unlimited number of Windows virtual machines per physical server. Otherwise, purchase a license for Windows Server 2008 R2 Enterprise Edition provides the right to host up to 4 VM.

    Virtual Environments

    This support virtual environment has been achieved through the integration of the main functions of System Center Virtual Machine Manager 2008 R2 - with the notable exception of the management of VMware environments.

    This integration allows you to manage and deploy virtual environments under Hyper-V R2 at a very reasonable cost. From the Administration Console SCE 2010, the administrator can easily enable the Hyper-V on a physical server, then deploy and manage virtual machines. Among the available functions are of course creating new VM (manually or from an existing model), or converting a physical machine into virtual machine using the tools of P2V (physical to the migration of virtual) integrated. SCE 2010 can also perform a few clicks migrating a virtual machine from one physical server to another and includes functions for optimizing the placement of virtual machines based on server load.

    Hyper-V Performance Optimization

    There is not necessarily a lot of tuning options to improve performance at the same virtualization software. Indeed it is natively designed to be efficient ... As we see in this case is the ecosystem around the hypervisor can our services bringing performance degradations. But here are some tips that may save a few performance points.

    The MMC Hyper-V
    • MMC management of Hyper-V shows real-time valuable information on VM:
    • The calculation of CPU utilization
    • The uptime
    • Displaying a thumbnail of the VM

    This information requests additional work to the hypervisor. Also, a good practice to close the MMC if its use is not necessary.

    VMConnect

    Similarly, if you want to connect to a VM, the easiest thing to double click on the VM and application concerned VMConnect displays the screen of the VM. Classic, but (some) consumer resource: open only VM that you want to watch. Others must remain closed.

    Different partitions of Hyper-V

    To guarantee the performance of our virtual infrastructure, we will work on several paintings by basing ourselves on the structure of Hyper-V. The file is cut into as many parts as there are partition.

  3. #3
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    May 2008
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    432

    Re: Windows 2008 R2 Server on Hyper-V

    Hardware

    Hyper-V virtualizes four essential material resources.

    CPU: Virtualization of the CPU generates additional requirements at the system which vary according to different factors (the number of VMs, load applications, etc.). Server-level virtualization, this translates into a decrease in overall performance. From the perspective of the CPU, the computing capacity of a virtual machine is very similar to that of the physical machine.

    Hyper-V is able to take advantage of multi-core and multi-processor, which allows you to run processor-intensive VM (databases, electronic mail) without affecting the performance of other VMs. For example, a server with two quad-core processors, it will be possible to simultaneously run 16 threads (the threads may correspond to different applications). Windows 2008 Server is limited to 64 threads and Windows 2008 Server R2 to 256 threads.

    Minimum CPU requirement
    In order to run Hyper-V, the specifications of the CPU is very specific and restrictive

    The processor must:
    • Be 64-bit (x64)
    • Have an instruction set that allows the hardware virtualization support Intel VT or AMD-V. You have to activate this feature in the BIOS.
    • Instructions have Data Execution Protection or DEP. To do this, you must enable Intel XD bit (execute disable bit) or AMD NX bit (no execute bit) after the family of your CPU (how to determine if hardware DEP is available on your server?)
    • In terms of speed, we generally recommend a minimum 2 GHz CPU.

    Memory:The virtualization layer requires its own memory area. Hyper-V does not diminish the amount of memory required to run a host operating system and applications. Instead, the memory will be reserved in advance by the hypervisor. Therefore, if you create 4 VM each with 2 GB of RAM it will take whatever happens at least 8 GB of RAM for the VM. This is a fundamental difference compared to VMWare ESX dynamically assigns memory. The DRAM is expected to arrive on Hyper-V in future versions.

    RAM therefore largely determines the total number of VMs that can be installed on a single server Hyper-V.
    • Minimum: 1 GB
    • Maximum: 32 GB (31 GB for all VM + 1 GB for the OS and Hyper-V parent)
    • Predict in advance the number of VMs that you want to install the Hyper-V, to calculate and provide a safety factor and evolution of at least 50%.

    Storage:VMs have different needs in terms of storage compared to a real OS: there must be sufficient GB of storage to accommodate all VMs, application files, databases, etc. Running multiple VMs on a single physical server has a direct impact on the performance of I / O disks because of the need for simultaneous and concurrent access to data (benchmarks often measure IOPS: Input / Output Operations Per second). The storage can quickly become a weak link for the performance of Hyper-V.
    • Minimum: 10 GB
    • Recommended: 40 GB or more
    • Warning: servers with over 16 GB of RAM require more disk space for virtual memory and memory dump files.

    More information:
    • Hyper-V mode Windows 2008 Core natively need about 3 GB of disk space
    • Hyper-V in Windows 2008 mode to full mode natively need about 8 GB of disk space

    The network : Network throughput VMs is comparable to the same network throughput real OS. The difference is that the network flow can become a bottleneck if the management of physical network cards is mismanaged. The ideal rule would be a VM = 1 physical NIC.

    Virtual Switches: Hyper-V introduces new virtual devices, the "virtual switches" that act as switches to level 2. These virtual switches support VLAN Tagging which allows multiple networks to share on the same card. Warning! To implement the VLAN Tagging requires that your network devices support this.

    Minimum:
    • A network adapter 100/1000 Mbps per physical server
    • A virtual NIC per VM

    This configuration can operate without problems for some VM possibly causing network traffic. Concerns will arise when the network load increases: while the flow passes through the same pipe and performance will probably fall. Another problem is the physical network adapter will cut occasionally or permanently which will cause the loss of connection to the administration of Hyper-V. A good idea is to dedicate one card to the administration and one or more cards for the VM.

    Network Card: A good practice is to rename the network cards and identify those that will be used for administration and one (s) dedicated (s) to the VM. NIC dedicated to VM does not need an IP address on the parent partition and even less services file sharing and printer. This also prevents the inadvertent recording (and polluting) in DNS. In Hyper-V R2, the option is a native of Isolation. It is possible to create a network (external) without it being connected to the parent partition. For this, simply uncheck the following when creating the virtual switch: Switch Virtual Hyper-V.

    Recommended:
    • Four 1000 Mbps NICs per physical server
    • A physical network adapter per VM
    • A network adapter dedicated to the administration

  4. #4
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    Re: Windows 2008 R2 Server on Hyper-V

    How to Install

    One of the best recommendations for optimizing Hyper-V
    install on a Windows 2008 Core. In addition to improved safety (reduced attack surface) the footprint of load on the hardware is minimal at a Core installation mode.

    In return, a Core installation mode is more difficult to implement and administer (on either the lack of graphical interfaces and most configuration wizards, except sconfig). Moreover, it is possible that the tools used for the operation of your information system are not yet compatible with a Core installation mode (e.g. backup agent or supervision).

    Hyper-V in full mode

    An ultra-minimalist installation can divert some Windows administrators, see scare (what if my OS is planted?). It is quite possible to consider installing Hyper-V via Windows 2008 Server installation complete, but the idea remains the same: do not pollute Windows applications with different . The Hyper-V should be and remain a dedicated server. We could also implement this recommendation obvious to most server services: messaging, web, databases: it is simpler, more reliable.

    This therefore means that the Hyper-V it should install, in addition to Hyper-V, which is strictly necessary (and again). This is not because it's a Windows server you need to install any software library of the company and do everything and anything with. Among our colleagues in VMWare, this principle is applied: VMWare ESX is certainly the foundation based on Linux, but have the desire to install an antivirus, surf the web, etc.

    Some of my colleagues even recommend installing the OS Parent workgroup mode (and therefore does not make him a member of the Active Directory so it is 100% autonomous). This configuration can defend themselves but to all the same limitations. They are :

    1. Advantages: the OS is truly waterproof parent with respect to the outside and it does not depend on another entity. It is a good solution for a single-server configuration to a SME.
    2. Disadvantages: remote administration and interaction with SCVMM become virtually impossible. A banned if you are considering, for example, to implement high availability.

    Operating System

    Regarding the choice of the parent OS, the answer is now very simple. If you want maximum performance should choose Windows 2008 Server R2 for two reasons :
    • This is the only version that supports Hyper-V R2.
    • Windows Server 2008 R2 is 37% faster than Windows 2008 SP2

    Configuration

    The first thing is to ensure that the virtual machine is not configured to start automatically in the console Hyper-V. Indeed, the cluster to decide on the online and offline virtual machine and not Hyper-V.

    The second thing is to make sure they have a fairly large number of failure allowed the virtual machine before switching. For this, we allow a large number of failures over a broad area. In this way, we ensure that we will not switch the virtual machine simply by what the network is overloaded.
    For the Failback I think it should be done outside working hours. This avoids the phenomenon of ping pong virtual machine.

    Create virtual machines with Hyper-V

    Hyper-V is describe by the capability to allocate unchanging resources to every virtual machine (CPU, ram) and the main concern of running a virtual machine than the other. Extremely suitable attribute specially when there are more spaces. The administration of a server virtualization can be consummate with no trouble using the tool Hyper-V manager from Administrative tools in the Start menu.
    In the right section of Hyper-V Manager, the first item allows you to generate a fresh virtual machine. In the second screen show that there is an chance to offer a custom name to the virtual machine and desire the path where you store it. The next part must point in the direction of the amount of RAM reserved for the new VM. As an alternative, in the diagram underneath you can want which network interface is associated to the machine, does not offer any connectivity. Then you can connect a virtual hard disk or a file in which to store all data in the operating system that will put the virtual machine.

    There is the opportunity of produce a file from scratch, use accessible disk or not to assign any space (useful if you have to try a live distro or software). It’s healthier to abound with the size (size) of the disc, since then more space may be tricky particularly since the space is really used only to actual need. In section luck, you can indicate which media make available to the VM to install an operating system. Microsoft has to end with made it promising to use an ISO image as a means of installation, in adding together to CD and use the network.

    After this course of action you will get a summing up of your preference, with the ability to repeat their steps. Before starting the virtual machine you just twisted with Hyper-V, you can still see and fiddle with a few settings to get the best insurance settlement from Hyper-V. Always in the right segment of the manager of virtualization software is the Settings. Clicking on it opens a configuration window that allows you to adjust many things. You can add particular devices such as SCSI controllers, network cards, grafted on the computer after the creation of the virtual machine.

    In the BIOS may indicate the order of boot devices if it wants to install an operating system using the network is good that the option is higher than IDE, so for the floppy. In "Memory" you can change the amount of RAM attribute to the virtual machine. Extremely interesting is the section "Processor", here you can assign multiple CPUs to the virtual machine based on the number of those available on your computer. In addition, they may be assigned an execution priority to the virtual environment or limited (and protect) the resources.

    Hyper-V virtual networks
    • Open the Server Manager on the server that will host three virtual machines (which in slang is called Hyper-V Partition), in our example one that contains the Domain Controller. Select the server Hyper-V ee we click on the action Manage Virtual Networks
    • Select the type of virtual network (external) and we click on Add button
    • Change the name to the virtual network you just created by New virtual network to something to our liking (I opted for external virtual network) and click on OK button.
    • In creating the external virtual network, Hyper-V uses the physical network card as a switch, and creates a virtual network adapter for each partition.
    • In fact, if we open the network connections of the Parent Partition, there are two connections that I renamed Switch (Physical NIC) and local network card (Virtual NIC)
    • Of course in Child Partition find only local network adapter (Virtual NIC) rather than physical, as we have seen that
    acts as a switch and it resides only in the Parent Partition.
    Open the properties window of the Switch.
    Open the properties window instead of the local network adapter.

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