Quote of the Month

“Life isn’t a matter of milestones, but of moments.”
Rose Kennedy

VMM Tricks: How to get the audit trail records from a VMM Job

Source

Today, in VMM, you can open the Administrator Console and click on the Jobs view to see all the Jobs in VMM. When you select an individual job, you can click on the “Change Tracking” tab and view any changes that were recorded in VMM as part of this job.

In this post, i will show you how to do this in PowerShell since it is not as intuitive. Basically, audit trail records that are placed in the change tracking tab are not cached on the client computer by default. the only way to surface them in powershell is to individually invoke the get-job commandlet and pass it the Job parameter while asking for the FULL job to be downloaded. the following powershell script does exactly that and displayed the audit trail records for all jobs in the system.

#get all jobs in the system
$jobs = get-job -all
foreach ($job in $jobs)
{

#get the details including the audit records for each single job in VMM
$singlejob = get-job -job $job -full
$auditrecordsexist = $singlejob | select AreAuditRecordsAvailable
if ($auditrecordsexist)
{

#if any audit records exist, print them out
foreach ($record in $singlejob.AuditRecords)
{
$record
$prev = $record.Previous
$newr = $record.New
$prev
$newr
}
}
}

Cluster Disk With Identifier (identifier) has a Persistent Reservation on it

One of my customer’s team member had destroy the Hyper-V Cluster by mistake. He formatted the cluster nodes without evict them before doing that . The nodes of the clsuter used to be  part of old cluster that was destroyed by mistake.

I tried to build the nodes again from the scratch and Create new cluster, When I run the validation wizard I got this error:

Cluster disk with identifier (identifier) has a persistent reservation on it ,the disk might be part of other cluster. removing the disk from other validation set.

My SAN is HP EVA. The Cluster is not able to see any of my LUNS although I can see them from disk management and can’t create the cluster.

This error due to the fact that the LUNs still keeping the old identifiers from the old cluster, You have to use Cluster command line to clear the reservation by that command:

cluster.exe node %nodename% /clear:disknumber

Now everything should work fine and you can pass the validation wizard

Get up to 25% off Certification Exams until the end of the year!

With the number of new products that have come out recently it’s a good time to re-visit your Microsoft certification status and get up to date.

To help with this the folks over at Microsoft Learning are running a program until December 31st 2009 where you can get up to 25% certification exams.

We also have what we call Learning Plans which help you become certified in the most notable and correct Microsoft products.  If you follow the Career Map you can get a clear picture of where you want to be based on your role and see what certifications you’ll need to do to get there.

So make sure you take up this offer and if you are at a user group or presentation I give in the next month I may have a Microsoft Press book to giveaway!  But you have to be there to win.

Jeffa

Windows 7 and Windows Server 2008 R2 hot issues (Nov. 2009)

Hi Everyone,

 

A series Windows 7 and Windows Server 2008 R2 issues have been reported to Microsoft customer support. From these issues, we figured out several hot issues and authored Knowledge base articles to explain the solutions.

 

To identify and troubleshoot these issues, you can find more information from the KB articles:

• 975787 Adjust User Account Control settings in Windows 7
• 976832 Error message when you insert a smart card in a reader on a Windows 7-based or Windows Server 2008 R2-based computer: “Device driver software was not successfully installed”
• 975784 Enable the Quick Launch bar in Windows 7
• 975785 Customize the notification area in Windows 7
• 975786 Customize the notification area in Windows 7
• 975788 Turn off the secure desktop in Windows 7
• 976034 Get a detailed Power Efficiency Diagnostics Report for your computer in Windows 7
• 976170 Troubleshoot Aero problems in Windows 7
• 976877 Troubleshoot Aero problems in Windows 7
• 976736 How to install Windows PowerShell on a computer that is running Windows Server 2008 R2 Core
• 2006291 Error message When You Bring up the Server Manager Console and click on Add / View Roles: “0×800B0100″
• 977510 Authentication fails when an external client tries to log on by using a read-only domain controller in a perimeter network

 

Regards,

Content Team

Hyper-V pass-through disk performance vs. fixed size VHD files and dynamic VHD files in Windows Server 2008 R2

Daveberm on Clustering For Mere Mortals had did some good effort to test new Dynamic VHD files in windows 2008 R2, With the release of Windows Server 2008 R2, one of the enhancements was improving the performance of dynamic VHD files. Prior to R2, writes to dynamically expanding VHD files could be 3x slower than writes to a fixed size VHD file due to limited meta data caching. Overall, Microsoft is claiming the performance of dynamic VHD files vs. fixed size VHD files is almost identical.

Pass-through disks are another option when configuring a Hyper-V VM. According to my results, the performance of a pass-through disk is marginally better than that of VHD files. However, if you use pass-through disks you lose all of the benefits of VHD files such as portability, snap-shotting and thin provisioning. Considering these trade-offs, using pass-through disks should really only be considered if you require a disk that is greater than 2 TB in size or if your application is I/O bound and you really could benefit from another .1 ms shaved off your average response time.

Check it there

VMM tricks: How to troubleshoot the “Not Responding” host status in VMM 2008

This content is published in Microsoft KB 976640

Step 1: Use Virtual Machine Manager Configuration Analyzer

The Virtual Machine Manager Configuration Analyzer is a diagnostic tool that you can use to evaluate important configuration settings for computers that either are serving or might serve VMM roles or other VMM functions. The Virtual Machine Manager Configuration Analyzer does the following:

• Scans the hardware and software configurations of the computers that you specify
• Evaluates these configurations against a set of predefined rules
• Displays error messages and warnings for any configurations that are not optimal for the VMM role or other VMM functions that you have specified for the computer

System Requirements:

Before you install the Virtual Machine Manager Configuration Analyzer, you must download and install the 64-bit version of Microsoft Baseline Configuration Analyzer. To download the MBCASetup64.msi file, visit the following Microsoft Web site:

http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkID=97952

Note The system requirements for Microsoft Baseline Configuration Analyzer indicate that only Windows Server 2003 is supported. However, the Virtual Machine Manager Configuration Analyzer and Microsoft Baseline Configuration Analyzer have been tested and are supported on 64-bit versions of Windows Server 2008.

You must install and run the Virtual Machine Manager Configuration Analyzer on the computer that either currently is or will become your VMM 2008 server. To review the system requirements for the VMM 2008 server, visit the following Microsoft Web site:

http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkId=133516

To download the Virtual Machine Manager Configuration Analyzer, visit the following Microsoft Web site:

http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyID=02d83950-c03d-454e-803b-96d1c1d5be24&displaylang=en

Step 2: Check required hotfixes

On any servers that host a VMM role together with Hyper-V or Virtual Server hosts, you apply the following hotfixes:

956589 Description of the Hyper-V update for issues that may occur when you manage the Hyper-V role on the 64-bit editions of Windows Server 2008 by using SCVMM

956774 A Background Intelligent Transfer Service (BITS) client cannot handle files that have paths that contain the volume GUID in Windows Server 2008 or in Windows Vista

958124 A wmiprvse.exe process may leak memory when a WMI notification query is used heavily on a Windows Server 2008-based or Windows Vista-based computer

954563 Memory corruption may occur with the Windows Management Instrumentation (WMI) service on a computer that is running Windows Server 2008 or Windows Vista Service Pack 1

955805 Certain applications become very slow on a Windows Server 2008-based or Windows Vista S955805-based computer when a certificate with SIA extension is installed

The following are some common error messages that are addressed in these hotfixes:

Error (2911)
Insufficient resources are available to complete this operation on the server.domainname.com server.
(Not enough storage is available to complete this operation (0×8007000E))

Error (2912)
An internal error has occurred trying to contact an agent on the server.domainname.com server.
(No more threads can be created in the system (0×800700A4))

Error (2916)
VMM is unable to complete the request. The connection to the agent server.domainname.com was lost.
(Unknown error (0×80338012))

Error (2915)
The WS-Management Service cannot process the request. Object not found on the server.domainname.com server.
(Unknown error (0×80041002))

In addition to these hotfixes, you must also apply the following hotfix on the VMM server:

961983 Description of the hotfix rollup package for System Center Virtual Machine Manager 2008: April 14th, 2009

Step 3: Disable TCP Offloading

You must disable TCP Offloading in Windows, in the registry, and in any network adapter teaming management software that is being used. You must check all these locations to make sure that TCP Offloading is completely disabled. This operation must be performed on both the VMM server and the host computer.

Locate all network adapters in the registry under the following subkey:

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\System\CurrentControlSet\Control\Class\{4D36E972-E325-11CE-BFC1-08002BE10318}

There are additional subkeys under this subkey that are named with four digits, starting with “0000.” Locate the subkeys that show the physical network adapter names on the details pane. Find the “DriverDesc” value on the details pane. This value should contain the name of a network adapter, such as “HP NC360T PCIe Gigabit Server Adapter.” For each of these subkeys, make the following changes:

Disable all vendor-specific offloading. Set values for any entries that include the word “Offload” to “0″ (disabled). For example, these entries include the following:

Collapse this tableExpand this table

Entry	Description
*FlowControl	No description available
*IPChecksumOffloadIPv4	Describes whether the device enabled or disabled the calculation of IPv4 checksums
*TCPChecksumOffloadIPv4	Describes whether the device enabled or disabled the calculation of TCP Checksum over IPv4 packets
*TCPChecksumOffloadIPv6	Describes whether the device enabled or disabled the calculation of TCP checksum over IPv6 packets
*UDPChecksumOffloadIPv4	Describes whether the device enabled or disabled the calculation of UDP Checksum over IPv4 packets
*UDPChecksumOffloadIPv6	Describes whether the device enabled or disabled the calculation of UDP Checksum over IPv6 packets
*LsoV1IPv4	Describes whether the device enabled or disabled the segmentation of large TCP packets over IPv4 for large send offload
*LsoV2IPv4	Describes whether the device enabled or disabled the segmentation of large TCP packets over IPv4 for large send offload
*LsoV2IPv6	Describes whether the device enabled or disabled the segmentation of large TCP packets over IPv6 for large send offload
*IPsecOffloadV1IPv4	Describes whether the device enabled or disabled the calculation of IPsec headers over IPv4.
*IPsecOffloadV2	Describes whether the device enabled or disabled IPsec offload version 2 (IPsecOV2).
*IPsecOffloadV2IPv4	Describes whether the device enabled or disabled IPsecOV2 for IPv4 only.
*RSS	Receive side scaling
*TCPUDPChecksumOffloadIPv4	Describes whether the device enabled or disabled the calculation of TCP or UDP checksum over IPv4
*TCPUDPChecksumOffloadIPv6	Describes whether the device enabled or disabled the calculation of TCP or UDP checksum over IPv6

To disable TCP Offloading in Windows, use the following registry entry for task offloading for the TCP/IP protocol:

Subkey: HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\System\CurrentControlSet\Services\TCPIP\Parameters
Entry: DisableTaskOffload
Type: REG_DWORD

You can set this registry entry to 1 to disable all task-offloading from the TCP/IP transport.

Many vendors have some forms of offloading capabilities built into their teaming management software. Such offloading can appear in many forms and is usually vendor-specific.

For more information about offloading, visit the following Microsoft Developer Network Web site:

http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/aa938424.aspx

Step 4: Check the Svchost.exe process of the Windows Remote Management service

Virtual Machine Manager depends very much on the Windows Remote Management service for underlying communication. Therefore, the “Not Responding” status is very likely to occur because of an error in the underlying Windows Remote Management communication between the VMM server and the host computer. In this case, the status is “OK” shortly after you restart the host computer. However, the status changes to “Not Responding” after 3 to 4 hours. Additionally, if you stop the Windows Remote Management service at a command prompt, it takes much longer than usual to be completed. Sometimes, it can take up to five minutes to stop.

This problem can occur if the shared Svchost.exe process that hosts the Windows Remote Management service is backed up.

To resolve this problem, configure the Windows Remote Management service to run in a separate Svchost.exe process. To do this, open an elevated command prompt, type the following command, and then press ENTER.

Note Make sure that you type the command exactly as it appears here. Notice the space after the “=” symbol.

c:\>sc config winrm type= own

If the command is completed successfully, you see the following output:

[SC] ChangeServiceConfig SUCCESS

Step 5: Check the VMM server computer account

This problem also occurs because the VMM server computer account is removed from the local Administrators group on the host computer. This setting may be caused by the “Restrictive Groups” Group Policy setting.

For more information about this cause, click the following article number to view the article in the Microsoft Knowledge Base:

969164 Virtual Server or Hyper-V host may have a status of “Not Responding” or “Needs Attention” due to Restricted Groups group policy setting

To resolve this problem, move the VMM server and host computers to a new organizational unit (OU) that blocks inheritance of all Group Policy objects.

Step 6: Check for other causes

Some other causes that are potential causes of this problem include the following:

• The VMM agent is not running.
• Some antivirus software is scanning ports or protocols.

VMM accounts membership

You can put the VMM accounts into the appropriate groups according to the following.

VMM server machine account:

• The Administrators group on the VMM server and on all host computers
• The Virtual Machine Manager Servers local group on the VMM server

The account for actions in VMM:

• The Local Administrators group on the VMM server and on all host computers

Getting Started with Citrix Essentials for Hyper-V

Citrix learning is providing new training for Citrix Essentials for Hyper-V. Go and catch your seat.

Description

This course is available at no cost for a limited time only!  Register now to add this course to your learning transcript and lock in the promotional offer. This course will remain available in your learning transcript for future access. Note: New users will need to create an account.

In this Essentials for Hyper-V online training course, learners will be introduced to Citrix Essentials for Hyper-V and gain the knowledge needed to perform basic installation and configuration tasks. Through online simulations, students will install and configure key features and explore product capabilities, such as virtual storage management, provisioning services, lifecycle management and workflow studio.

New content added!
This course is now updated to include features and enhancements aligned with the Windows Server 2008 R2 release.

Register

VMM tricks:VMM implementation in cross-domains topology

My team were trying to implement VMM R2 in multiple domains topology. They installed VMM R2 on windows 2008 R2. We start by implementing VMM 2008 R2 and SSP (Self Service Portal)on Domain A.

We have users from domain A and B. Ans one way trust relationship between those domain from domain A to B.  i.e Domain A trust users from domain B.

This scenario was designed so that users from Domain A, B would have the capability to deploy new VMs using Web interface (SSP).

The installation went fine with local admin account (Domain user from domain A with local admin privilege) and I am able to see all users from Domain A and B and add them to Self Service portal users role.

The problem that users from domain B can’t log in to SSP while users from domain A can.

As per Microsoft Technet

Does VMM support cross-domain authentication?

Yes. Kerberos authentication is a prerequisite for VMM. To configure your environment to allow users in one Active Directory Domain Services (AD DS) domain to access VMM resources in another domain, you can either ensure that both domains are in the same forest or configure a forest-level trust relationship and use Kerberos authentication. To set up a forest-level trust relationship, both domains must be in Windows Server 2003 forest mode. Windows 2000 Server does not support forest-level trusts.

So this was the first problem.. VMM should use Kerberos authentication while my one way trust was External ( NTLM ).. My domain are above 2003 so I delete my old trust and create new forest one way trust again.

Now VMM should work but Opsssss it did not ?!!!!!!

As per Microsoft technet it should work fine but nothing worked at all. After some digging with the trust we found it. it has to be 2-way forest level trust between the two domains. :S

And we got confirmation from Microsoft:

Based on this finding, I fully analyze all internal Kerberos traffic again and the two trust is required from SSP.

1. if we only configure one-way trust from SCVMM server domain to user domain, the DC in SCVMM domain will be able to establish secure channel with user domain and get the trust TGT ticket. Thus we can configure SSP and choose user from trusted domain.

2. However, when user accesses SCVMM portal from trusted domain, because it is one way and there is no trusted account for user domain in SCVMM domain, the user cannot get trusted TGT ticket and thus the user cannot get session ticket to access SSP.  The accessing will fail back to NTLM by SCVMM DC contacts DC in user domain for NTLM authentication.

According to authentication requirement for SCVMM, we need configure two-way trust so that user can get session ticket to access SSP in other domain.

So… to have users from different domain we need configure two-way trust so that user can get session ticket to access SSP in other domain.

VMM tricks: Installing SCVMM on a host with a name containing “-SCVMM-” fails with Error 257

This one is funny..Source

Well, the title says it all. If the host you’re trying to install SCVMM on has a name that contains “-SCVMM-” in upper case letters, setup fails with Error 257.

Example: MUC-SCVMM-1

Resolution: Use a slightly different name, like “MUC-SCVMMR2-1″ or “MUC-SCVmm-1″,

The reason is that the uppercase string “-SCVMM-” is used internally for host cummincation by SCVMM.

 

Cheers

Robert