NIC teaming

Posted on May 24, 2010 by Murugan B Iyyappan

NIC teaming is the process of grouping together several physical NICs into one single logical NIC. It is used for network fault tolerance and transmit load balance. The process of grouping NICs is called teaming.

Teaming has two purposes:

• Fault Tolerance: By teaming more than one physical NIC, even if one NIC fails, the network connection does not cease and continues to operate on other NICs.

• Load Balancing: Load balancing within network interconnect controller (NIC) teams enables distributing traffic amongst the members of a NIC team so that traffic is routed among all available paths and enhance the functionality of the server and the network

To configure NIC team, we can use use tools like HP Network Configuration Utility (NCU).

1. Open the HP Network Configuration Utility (HP Network) from Control Panel.

2. The NCU displays all NICs.

3. High light all NICs you want to be the team and click Team on the left panel.

4. The top of the NICs displays HP Network Team #1. High light it and select Properties.

5. The screen of the properties for the network adapter team displays. By default, there are two team settings and both are Automatic (Recommended).

6. On the Teaming Controls, enter the appropriate team name.

7. From the Team Type Selection, select the Transmit Load Balancing with Fault Tolerance (TLB)

6. From the Transmit Load Balancing Method, select TCP Connection

7. Click OK to save the settings.

If the configuration is successful, you should see another network connection in the Network Connections. The Status of the Teaming Controls will display available.  Also the ipconfig will display one connection with just one IP that is for Fault Tolerance.

If you configured it using TLB, the speed of the team will be double. You can check the status from the network connection icon in the system tray icon.

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Microsoft System Center Virtual Machine Manager 2008

Posted on May 21, 2010 by Murugan B Iyyappan

Virtual Machine Manager Server

 

The Virtual Machine Manager Server is the core process that communicates with the virtual machine hosts and maintains the system information in a Microsoft SQL Server ™ 2005 database. The VMM Server can scale to manage hundreds of Virtual Machine Hosts running thousands of virtual machines concurrently. The SQL Server database can be SQL Server 2005 Express to Microsoft SQL Server 2005 Enterprise Edition.

The VMM Server can be accessed through the System Center Virtual Machine Manager 2008 Administrator Console, Windows PowerShell™ command line, or through the Delegated Management and Provisioning portal.

 

Administrator Console

 

The GUI allows administrators to effectively manage an environment of hundreds of virtual machines. The Virtual Machine Manager Administrator Console is built on the familiar System Center framework user interface so that administrators can quickly and easily become proficient at managing their virtual machines. The Administrator Console is built upon a Windows PowerShell command-line interface. Any action in the Administrator Console can be done through the Windows PowerShell command-line and each wizard in the user interface can show the associated command-line actions. In addition, the Administrator Console integrates with System Center Operations Manager 2007 to provide insight into the physical environment as well as the virtual environment. With the ability to map the relationship of virtual and physical assets, IT administrators can more effectively plan hardware maintenance

 

Windows PowerShell Command-Line Interface

 

The new Windows PowerShell command line shell and scripting language helps IT administrators more easily control systems and accelerate automation. Windows PowerShell offers more than 170 standard command-line tools, and consistent syntax and utilities, and is easy to adopt, learn, and use because it works with your existing IT infrastructure and script investments. Each VMM operation is directly mapped to a Windows PowerShell cmdlet, allowing for easy command-line actions.

 

Delegated Management and Provisioning Web Portal

 

In addition to using the GUI administrator console and the Windows PowerShell command-line interface, administrator-designated end-users and others can access VMM by way of a Web portal designed for user self-service. This portal enables test and development users to quickly provision new virtual machines for themselves, according to controls set by the administrator.

 

Microsoft SQL Server Database

 

VMM stores performance and configuration data, virtual machine settings, and other virtual machine metadata in a local SQL Server 2005 database. For reporting, Virtual Machine Manager takes advantage of SQL Server 2005 Reporting Services through Operations Manager. Larger organizations can also configure VMM to work with a remote clustered SQL Server database and a storage-area network (SAN) or network-attached storage (NAS) system, if needed.

 

Virtual Machine Hosts

 

Microsoft Windows hosts must have the VMM agent software installed

 

Microsoft Virtual Server 2005 R2 – Virtual Server 2005 R2 is a hosted server virtualization technology made for the Windows Server 2003 platform, and runs most major x86-based operating systems in a guest environment. Virtual Server 2005 R2 runs on both 32-bit x86 and 64-bit x64 hosts. It provides support for 32-bit virtual machine guests.

 

Microsoft Windows Server 2008 Hyper-V – Hyper-V is a hypervisor-based virtualization platform that Microsoft has included with Windows Server 2008. Unlike Virtual Server 2005 R2 which is a hosted technology running on top of the Windows Server 2003 operating system, Hyper-V is a hypervisor based technology and it runs directly on the system hardware. Hyper-V can run on a full Windows Server 2008 installation or it can run on a minimal Server Core installation for maximum performance with minimal overhead. Hyper-V requires a 64-bit x64 host and provides support for 32-bit and 64-bit guest virtual machines.

 

Microsoft Hyper-V Server is a standalone offering that allows customers to consolidate Windows or Linux workloads onto a single physical server without the need to acquire a Windows Server license. It also is hypervisor based technology that runs directly on the system hardware.

 

VMware ESX – In addition to managing the two Microsoft virtualization products System Center Virtual Machine Manager 2008 is also able to interact with VMware’s Virtual Infrastructure 3 (VI3) enabling the management of VMware virtual machines running on ESX. VMware’s VirtualCenter for VMware Server is required for the management of VMware hosts.

 

VMM Library Servers

 

The virtualized data center relies on the ability to find and maintain very large image files for virtual machines (known as virtual hard drives, or VHD files). Unlike a physical server, these virtual hard drives can be unintentionally lost or duplicated. VMM provides a complete library to help administrators quickly create new virtual machines.

The library organizes and manages all the ―building blocks‖ of the virtual data center in a single interface, including:

·         Stored virtual machines

·         Virtual hard disks

·         CD/DVD software images, also called ISO files

·         Post-deployment customization scripts

·         Hardware configurations

·         PowerShell Scripts

·         Templates

 

The VMM library stores virtual assets, including:

 

Offline virtual machines – The ability to store and quickly re-provision virtual machines makes it more likely that users and administrators will take applications offline that are used episodically, such as applications used for demonstrations. This function saves resources that would otherwise be wasted.

Templates – Wizard-based templates help speed the deployment of new machines, and help ensure that standard hardware and software configurations are used.

Software images – IT administrators use these disc images as an alternative to physical media for software distribution. With these disc images, administrators can distribute software to remote sites using a wide-area network.

Post-deployment customization scripts – After virtual machines are set up, scripts can be deployed to ensure updated security settings or take care of other administrator functions.

Physical hardware settings – With common pre-set hardware settings readily available, IT administrators have control similar to that in a physical environment.

 

For geographically disperse operations, distributed VMM library servers facilitate the quick transmission of assets to physical hosts at the edge of the organization, enabling rapid creation and deployment of virtual machines in branch offices.

VMM offers enterprise-class features, especially the ability to manage thousands of both Microsoft and VMware virtual machines distributed across various network environments. VMM supports management of hosts on a perimeter network (also known as DMZ, demilitarized zone, and screened subnet) and also the utilization of a remote clustered SQL Server database.

 

 

Windows PowerShell

 

 For even greater automation and control, VMM is fully scriptable using Windows PowerShell. With this tool, IT administrators can run remote scripted services against many virtual machines, thus avoiding labor-intensive manual processes. For example, IT administrators can write Windows PowerShell scripts to perform batch P2V conversions or batch Virtual 2 Virtual (V2V) conversions of virtual disks to the VHD format.

 

Physical-to-Virtual Conversion

 

P2V is a core feature of System Center Virtual Machine Manager (VMM), no additional costs per conversion. VMM P2V includes the ability to create images of physical hard disks, prepare them for use in a virtual machine, and create the final virtual machine for an end-to-end P2V solution and supports Microsoft Windows® 2000 Server, Windows Server 2003, Windows Server 2003 R2, Windows XP, Windows Vista, and Windows Server 2008

 

Intelligent Placement

One aspect where Virtual Machine Manager (VMM) outshines its competition is in helping administrators decide on which physical hosts to place virtual machines. VMM uses the performance data gathered from the Virtual Machine hosts. If data is available from System Center Operations Manager, VMM will also use that data for identifying potential candidate servers for consolidation to the virtual infrastructure.

 

 

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Microsoft System Center

Posted on May 21, 2010 by Murugan B Iyyappan

 

System Center Configuration Manager 2007 R2  assesses, deploys, and updates servers, client computers, and devices-across physical, virtual, distributed, and mobile environments and optimized for gaining enhanced control over IT systems. Used globally for configuration management by more enterprises than any other solution – System Center Configuration Manager intelligently automates IT systems management to reduce costs and to help organizations manage their global infrastructures more quickly and more precisely to improve visibility and control.

System Center Operations Manager 2007 R2 uniquely enables customers to reduce the cost of data center management across server operating systems and hypervisors through a single, familiar and easy to use interface. Through numerous views that show state, health and performance information as well as alerts generated according to some availability, performance, configuration or security situation being identified, operators can gain rapid insight into the state of the IT environment, and the IT services running across different systems and workloads.

By extending the value that existing Operations Manager customers already see in managing their Windows Server deployed applications to UNIX and Linux, customers are also able to better meet their service level agreements for applications in the data center.

With Operations Manager 2007 R2 customers are also able to improve their availability and performance metrics through enhanced service level monitoring, while their IT operations staff will be able to have improved access the key functionality they need to maintain and enhance the service they deliver to their end users.  

Virtual Machine Manager 2008 R2 helps enable centralized management of physical and virtual IT infrastructure, increased server utilization, and dynamic resource optimization across multiple virtualization platforms. It includes end-to-end capabilities such as planning, deploying, managing, and optimizing the virtual infrastructure.

Benefits:

• Centrally creates and manages virtual machines across the entire datacenter

• Easily consolidates multiple physical servers onto virtual hosts

• Rapidly provisions and optimizes new and existing virtual machines

•  Performance and Resource Optimization (PRO) enables the dynamic management of virtual resources through management packs that are PRO enabled.

System Center Essentials 2010 (Essentials 2010) is a new management solution in the System Center family of IT systems management products specifically designed for midsized businesses.

Essentials 2010:

•             Provides a unified solution with a single console for managing a broad range of tasks across your physical and virtual servers, clients, hardware, software, and IT services for a unified experience.

•             Enables you to proactively manage your IT environment, helping keep your system up-to-date with a solution that accelerates problem resolution and enables automation of system updates and data collection.

•             Is easy to deploy and maintain helping simplify complex management tasks for increased IT efficiency.

•             Microsoft built Virtual Machine Manager 2008 R2 technology right into the product, so that Essentials 2010 provides a single console and management solution for managing both your physical and virtual servers. This includes support for converting physical servers to virtual machines and support for live migration.

•             The console has a new look and feel making it easier than ever to quickly check the health of your IT environment and address any issues.

•             Installation, Group Policy checks and configuration are even easier with checks for prerequisites during installation and for proper configuration.

System Center Service Manager 2010, a new addition to the System Center suite of products, delivers an integrated platform for automating and adapting IT Service Management best practices to your organization’s requirements.

 Service Manager provides built-in processes based on industry best practices for incident and problem resolution, change control, and asset lifecycle management. Through its configuration management database (CMDB) and process integration, Service Manager automatically connects knowledge and information from System Center Operations Manager, System Center Configuration Manager, and Active Directory Domain Services.

Introducing Opalis

Opalis is an automation platform for orchestrating and integrating IT tools to drive down the cost of datacenter operations, while improving the reliability of IT processes. It enables IT organizations to automate best practices, and this is achieved through workflow processes that coordinate System Center and other management tools to automate incident response, change and compliance, and service-lifecycle management processes.

Through its workflow designer, Opalis automatically shares data and initiates tasks in System Center Operations Manager, System Center Configuration Manager, System Center Service Manager, Virtual Machine Manager, Active Directory and 3rd party tools. Opalis workflow automates IT infrastructure tasks, while System Center Service Manager workflow provides automation of human workflow. The combined offering ensures repeatable, consistent results by removing the latency associated with manual coordination service delivery. System Center and Opalis enable integration, efficiency, and business alignment of the datacenter IT services by:

  • Automating cross-silo processes and enforcing best practices for incident, change, and service lifecycle management.
  • Reducing unanticipated errors and service delivery time by automating tasks across vendor and organization silos.
  • Integrating System Center with non-Microsoft tools to enable interoperability across the datacenter.
  • Orchestrating tasks across systems for consistent, documented, compliant activity.

The Opalis Difference

The Opalis automation platform is comprised of unique data bus and intelligent workflow capabilities, which enable script-free integration and orchestration to automate context adaptive processes. This provides the flexibility required to leverage existing customer IT investments, apply and enable rapid implementation, and quick return on investment!

Unbiased Connectivity—works across Microsoft and non-Microsoft tools, no rip and replace or vendor lock-in.

1-Click Integration Data Bus—pass data between target systems without code, scripts, or variables.

Intelligent Workflow—create context-adaptive workflows that change and branch based on real-time data.

Script-Code Free Automation—Integrate and orchestrate systems without fragile, hardcoded scripts.

                              Companies need to understand what their actual requirements are and what each and every products can do. So that they can get the mazimum output from the System Center. Because every product is similar to each other and have some unique features. This is going to be the future of Windows System Administrators and provides vital control over the network and systems 

 

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Microsoft Desktop Optimization Pack (MDOP)

Posted on May 13, 2010 by Murugan B Iyyappan
Microsoft Application Virtualization (App-V) turns applications into centrally managed services that are never installed, never conflict, and are streamed on demand to end users.
Microsoft Enterprise Desktop Virtualization (MED-V) provides deployment and management of virtual PC images to enable key enterprise scenarios, primarily resolving application compatibility with a new version of Windows.
Microsoft Advanced Group Policy Management (AGPM) enhances governance and control over Group Policy through robust change management, versioning, and role-based administration.
Microsoft Asset Inventory Service (AIS) is a hosted service that collects software inventory data and translates it into actionable business intelligence.
Microsoft Diagnostics and Recovery Toolset (DaRT) reduces downtime by accelerating troubleshooting, repair, and data recovery of unbootable Windows-based desktops.
Microsoft System Center Desktop Error Monitoring (DEM) provides insights into application and operating system failures, allowing helpdesk to be more proactive in managing PC problems, without installing an agent to the endpoint.
 
MDOP 2009 R2 for Windows 7 is now available!
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Microsoft Enterprise Desktop Virtualization (MED-V)

Posted on May 13, 2010 by Murugan B Iyyappan

MED-V is a core component of the Microsoft Desktop Optimization Pack (MDOP) that enables deployment and management of Microsoft Virtual PC Windows® desktops to launch and test environmental test scenarios. With MED-V the organization can upgrade to the latest version of Windows even some applications are not functioning or supported by the latest version.

 

MED-V builds on top of Virtual PC to run two operating systems on one device and provides virtual image delivery, policy-based provisioning, and centralized management.

 

Simply saying, we can run Windows XP on Windows 7 and launch applications installed in Windows XP from Windows 7.

 

What do we need?

MED-V Software, Virtual PC 2007 SP1, MED-V Virtual Machine Additions Update

 

Where do we get it?

MED-V software is part of MDOP 2009 Microsoft Volume Licensing Site (MVLS)

 

For more info:

http://technet.microsoft.com/hi-in/windows/ee532035(en-us).aspx

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