Taylor Brown's Blog

New Hyper-V Hot Fix Released (KB 2636573) For Guest Crash

Taylor Brown [Microsoft Hyper-V] — Tue, 10 Jan 2012 18:50:01 GMT

Today we released a fix for to resolve an issue that can lead to guest VM’s crashing after a live migration. This issue only impacted virtual machines that where utilizing virtual SCSI controllers and was only seen under some specific stress conditions however if you have VM’s with SCSI controllers and utilize live migration than I would recommend investigating and installing this hotfix.

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/2636573

Article ID: 2636573 - Last Review: January 10, 2012 - Revision: 1.0

FIX: The guest operating system may crash when you perform a live migration of Hyper-V virtual machines in a Windows Server 2008 R2 environment

Symptoms

In a Windows Server 2008 R2 environment, you perform a live migration of Hyper-V virtual machines. In this scenario, the guest operating system may crash. Additionally, you receive a Stop error message that resembles the following:

STOP 0x000000D1 (parameter1, parameter2, parameter3, parameter4)
DRIVER_IRQL_NOT_LESS_OR_EQUAL

Resolution

To resolve this problem, install this update on the host computer where the Hyper-V virtual machines are located.

Update information

To resolve this problem, install this update from Microsoft Windows Update (http://update.microsoft.com) .
Additionally, you can install this update from the Microsoft Download Center.
The following files are available for download from the Microsoft Download Center:

Download the update package now. (http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyId=06c9e6e0-26de-44dc-a2e7-6a87fe0d5e76)
Release Date: January 10, 2012
For more information about how to download Microsoft support files, click the following article number to view the article in the Microsoft Knowledge Base:

119591 (http://support.microsoft.com/kb/119591/ ) How to obtain Microsoft support files from online services

Microsoft scanned this file for viruses. Microsoft used the most current virus-detection software that was available on the date that the file was posted. The file is stored on security-enhanced servers that help prevent any unauthorized changes to the file.

Prerequisites

To apply this hotfix, you must be running Windows Server 2008 R2 Service Pack 1 (SP1).
For more information about how to obtain Service Pack 1 for Windows Server 2008 R2, click the following article number to view the article in the Microsoft Knowledge Base:

976932 (http://support.microsoft.com/kb/976932/ ) Information about Service Pack 1 for Windows 7 and for Windows Server 2008 R2

Registry information

To use the hotfix in this package, you do not have to make any changes to the registry.

Restart information

You must restart the computer after you apply this hotfix.

Taylor Brown
Hyper-V Enterprise Deployment Team
taylorb@microsoft.com
http://blogs.msdn.com/taylorb

New Whitepaper: Running SQL Server with Hyper-V Dynamic Memory - Best Practices and Considerations

Taylor Brown [Microsoft Hyper-V] — Tue, 02 Aug 2011 16:52:13 GMT

The SQL CAT team has published a new whitepaper regarding dynamic memory best practices with Hyper-V… If your virtualizing SQL I would highly recommend taking a look!

Summary:
Memory is a critical resource to Microsoft SQL Server workloads, especially in a virtualized environment where resources are shared and contention for shared resources can lead to negative impact on the workload. Windows Server 2008 R2 SP1 introduced Hyper-V Dynamic Memory, which enables virtual machines to make more efficient use of physical memory resources. Hyper-V Dynamic Memory treats memory as a shared resource that can be reallocated automatically among running virtual machines. There are unique considerations that apply to virtual machines that run SQL Server workloads in such environments. This whitepaper provides insight into considerations and best practices for running SQL Server 2008 R2 in Hyper-V Dynamic Memory configurations on Windows Server 2008 R2 SP1.

To continue reading, please download the whitepaper: http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/hh372970.aspx

Taylor Brown
Hyper-V Enterprise Deployment Team
taylorb@microsoft.com
http://blogs.msdn.com/taylorb

KB2531907 - Validate SCSI Device Vital Product Data (VPD) test fails after you install Windows Server 2008 R2 SP1

Taylor Brown [Microsoft Hyper-V] — Tue, 26 Apr 2011 19:00:00 GMT

If you are running a cluster with Windows Server 2008 R2 SP1 and three or more nodes you should install this KB.

KB Link: http://support.microsoft.com/kb/2531907

Symptoms

Consider the following scenario:

You configure a failover cluster that has three or more nodes that are running Windows Server 2008 R2 Service Pack 1 (SP1).

You have cluster disks that are configured in groups other than the Available Storage group or that are used for Cluster Shared Volumes (CSV).

These disks are online when you run the Validate SCSI Device Vital Product Data (VPD) test or the List Potential Cluster Disks storage validation test.

In this scenario, the Validate SCSI Device Vital Product Data (VPD) test fails. Additionally, you receive an error message that resembles the following:
Failed to get SCSI page 83h VPD descriptors for cluster disk <number> from <node name> status 2

The List Potential Cluster Disks storage validation test may display a warning message that resembles the following:

Disk with identifier <value> has a Persistent Reservation on it. The disk might be part of some other cluster. Removing the disk from validation set.

Resolution

The following hotfix resolves an issue in which the storage test runs on disks that are online and incorrectly not in the Available Storage group.
The error and warning messages that are mentioned in the "Symptoms" section may also occur because of other issues such as storage problems or an incorrect configuration. Therefore, you should investigate other events, check the storage configuration, or contact your storage vendor if this issue still occurs after you install the following hotfix.

Taylor Brown
Hyper-V Enterprise Deployment Team
taylorb@microsoft.com
http://blogs.msdn.com/taylorb

Now Available - Microsoft Virtualization Jump Start Training Videos!

Taylor Brown [Microsoft Hyper-V] — Tue, 26 Apr 2011 17:14:57 GMT

The recent Free Online Class - Microsoft Virtualization for VMware Professionals was a hit – I head it had one of the highest attendance levels ever… The content from that course is not available online.

Announcing Microsoft Virtualization Jump Start Training Videos!

Microsoft Learning hosted another new and exclusive Jump Start virtual training event – Microsoft Virtualization for VMware Professionals. We are thrilled to announce availability of the HD-quality video recordings – FREE – on TechNet Edge and soon coming to MS Showcase, the Zune Marketplace, iTunes! Additionally, every module will be made available (with assessment questions) on the Microsoft Virtual Academy (MVA) in the next few weeks.

What’s the high-level overview?

The 15-hour course is broken into three sections covering Microsoft Virtualization: Platform, Management, and VDI
“Team-teaching” approach led by Microsoft Technical Evangelist, Symon Perriman and Microsoft partner and virtualization architect, Corey Hynes
Every module is an engaging discussion, packed with best practices and real-world demonstrations

Who is the target audience for this training?

IT Professionals, Virtualization Engineers, Data Center Managers, IT Decision Makers, Network Administrators, Storage/Infrastructure Administrators & Architects
Microsoft customers and partners currently using VMware
Companies using VMware searching for real-world answers as they consider whether or not Microsoft Virtualization truly fits their needs

Where do I go for this great training?

The HD-quality video recordings of this course are on TechNet Edge.
Entire course on TechNet Edge: Microsoft Virtualization for VMware Professionals

Where can people learn more?

Virtualization experts worldwide are taking a new look at Microsoft Virtualization. After this Jump Start, we hope you will understand why. Check out the Microsoft Learning “Virtualization Training Portal” to better understand virtualization-specific certifications and where to find instructor-led classes to help you and your team. Additionally there is great training content on the Microsoft Virtual Academy (MVA) where you can learn at your own pace, connect with other IT Pros and earn prizes & rewards.

Taylor Brown
Hyper-V Enterprise Deployment Team
taylorb@microsoft.com
http://blogs.msdn.com/taylorb

Free Online Class - Microsoft Virtualization for VMware Professionals

Taylor Brown [Microsoft Hyper-V] — Mon, 28 Mar 2011 17:49:22 GMT

Symon Perriman, formally from the Windows Clustering team and now a technical evangelist is going to be putting on a free tanning class on March 29-31, 2010 from 10:00am-4:00pm PDT. Below are the full details of the class for any that are interested.

Microsoft Virtualization for VMware Professionals
Free Online Classes – March 29 – 31

Just one week after Microsoft Management Summit 2011 (MMS), Microsoft Learning will be hosting an exclusive three-day Jump Start class specially tailored for VMware and Microsoft virtualization technology pros. Registration for “Microsoft Virtualization for VMware Professionals” is open now and will be delivered as a FREE online class on March 29-31, 2010 from 10:00am-4:00pm PDT

What’s the high-level overview?

This cutting edge course will feature expert instruction and real-world demonstrations of Hyper-V and brand new releases from System Center Virtual Machine Manager 2012 Beta (many of which will be announced just one week earlier at MMS). Register Now!

Day 1 will focus on “Platform” (Hyper-V, virtualization architecture, high availability & clustering)

10:00am – 10:30pm PDT: Virtualization 360 Overview

10:30am – 12:00pm: Microsoft Hyper-V Deployment Options & Architecture

1:00pm – 2:00pm: Differentiating Microsoft and VMware (terminology, etc.)

2:00pm – 4:00pm: High Availability & Clustering

Day 2 will focus on “Management” (System Center Suite, SCVMM 2012 Beta, Opalis, Private Cloud solutions)

10:00am – 11:00pm PDT: System Center Suite Overview w/ focus on DPM

11:00am – 12:00pm: Virtual Machine Manager 2012 | Part 1

1:00pm – 1:30pm: Virtual Machine Manager 2012 | Part 2

1:30pm – 2:30pm: Automation with System Center Opalis & PowerShell

2:30pm – 4:00pm: Private Cloud Solutions, Architecture & VMM SSP 2.0

Day 3 will focus on “VDI” (VDI Infrastructure/architecture, v-Alliance, application delivery via VDI)

10:00am – 11:00pm PDT: Virtual Desktop Infrastructure (VDI) Architecture | Part 1

11:00am – 12:00pm: Virtual Desktop Infrastructure (VDI) Architecture | Part 2

1:00pm – 2:30pm: v-Alliance Solution Overview

2:30pm – 4:00pm: Application Delivery for VDI

Every section will be team-taught by two of the most respected authorities on virtualization technologies: Microsoft Technical Evangelist Symon Perriman and leading Hyper-V, VMware, and XEN infrastructure consultant, Corey Hynes

Who is the target audience for this training?

Suggested prerequisite skills include real-world experience with Windows Server 2008 R2, virtualization and datacenter management. The course is tailored to these types of roles:

- IT Professional
- IT Decision Maker
- Network Administrators & Architects
- Storage/Infrastructure Administrators & Architects

How do I to register and learn more about this great training opportunity?

Register: Visit the Registration Page and sign up for all three sessions
Blog: Learn more from the Microsoft Learning Blog
Twitter: Here are a few posts you can retweet:

- Mar. 29-31 "Microsoft #Virtualization for VMware Pros" @SymonPerriman Corey Hynes http://bit.ly/JS-Hyper-V @MSLearning #Hyper-V
- @SysCtrOpalis Mar. 29-31 "Microsoft #Virtualization for VMware Pros" @SymonPerriman Corey Hynes http://bit.ly/JS-Hyper-V #Hyper-V
- Learn all the cool new features in Hyper-V & System Center 2012! SCVMM, Self-Service Portal 2.0, http://bit.ly/JS-Hyper-V #Hyper-V #Opalis

What is a “Jump Start” course?

A “Jump Start” course is “team-taught” by two expert instructors in an engaging radio talk show style format. The idea is to deliver readiness training on strategic and emerging technologies that drive awareness at scale before Microsoft Learning develops mainstream Microsoft Official Courses (MOC) that map to certifications. All sessions are professionally recorded and distributed through MS Showcase, Channel 9, Zune Marketplace and iTunes for broader reach.

Please join us for this fantastic event!

Taylor Brown
Hyper-V Enterprise Deployment Team
taylorb@microsoft.com
http://blogs.msdn.com/taylorb

Ship It: Windows Server 2008 R2 SP1

Taylor Brown [Microsoft Hyper-V] — Wed, 09 Feb 2011 19:34:06 GMT

Service Pack 1 for Windows Server 2008 R2 and Windows 7 has officially shipped today. For Hyper-V this brings some great new features such as dynamic memory and RemoteFX as well as many other minor feature improvements, bug fixes and performance enhancements. You can read all about it on the server team blogs. Or just download it and try these great features for your self!

Taylor Brown
Hyper-V Enterprise Deployment Team
taylorb@microsoft.com
http://blogs.msdn.com/taylorb

High Performance SQL Server Workloads on Hyper-V Whitepaper

Taylor Brown [Microsoft Hyper-V] — Tue, 06 Jul 2010 18:28:00 GMT

A new whitepaper detailing high performance SQL workloads running in Hyper-V R2 virtual machines. The paper can be downloaded here... Below are a few highlights/examples from the paper.

Dedicated Passthough LUN’s vs VHD’s

Figure 3: I/O and disk latency for dedicated pass-through disks versus VHDs

Multi-Instance Throughput: Native versus Virtual (16 core server)

The results of this test are summarized as follows:

Slightly higher logical processor utilization is required to achieve the same throughput with virtualization due to minimal additional processor overhead.
Native instances and virtual instances achieve the same level of scalability.
I/O performance of ~5 percent for pass-through disks is greater than fixed-size VHDs as shown in Figure 3. Note that pass-through disks have an approximately one millisecond lower latency as compared to fixed-size VHDs.

Figure 4: Multi-Instance throughput: native instances versus virtual instances (16 cores)

Taylor Brown
Hyper-V Enterprise Deployment Team
taylorb@microsoft.com
http://blogs.msdn.com/taylorb

Getting More Information About You Cluster LUN’s (Part 3 of 3)

Taylor Brown [Microsoft Hyper-V] — Thu, 01 Jul 2010 17:00:00 GMT

So here’s the scenario you need or want to figure out which LUN is which on your cluster…

On Tuesday I published part 1 where I utilized Get-ClusterParameter and the DiskUniqueIds property to enumerate LUN information for cluster storage, in part 2 I simplified that same approach. In today’s post I am going to continue utilizing the Get-ClusterParameter again looking at the Physical Disk Private Properties however in this post I’ll be looking at the DiskIdGuid property. This property contains the GUID for a physical disk formatted with as GPT. Using this GUID we can match it with VDS and get all of the good information that VDS has about disks.

Method 1

This method is fully supported by Microsoft and is relatively strait forward.

Step 1: Import the FailoverClusters module into your PowerShell Window
             Import-Module FailoverClusters
Step 2: Get the CSV object your interested in using the Get-ClusterSharedVolume cmdlet
              $csv = Get-ClusterSharedVolume –Name “MyCSV”
Step 3: Get the Cluster Parameters for the CSV object using Get-ClusterParameter
              $CSVParams = Get-ClusterParameter -InputObject $csv
Step 4: Filter to get just the DiskIdGuid
              ($CSVParams | Where-object -FilterScript {$_.Name -eq "DiskIdGuid"}).Value

Ok now you’ve got the GUID for the LUN it will be something like {32443078-9afc-4c0a-b142-466f582a4051}.

Step 5: Start diskpart.exe
Step 6: Start iterating over disks using select disk <number> and then uniqueid disk until you match the GUID’s. It will look like this:

C:\Users\taylorb>diskpart.exe
Microsoft DiskPart version 6.1.7601
Copyright (C) 1999-2008 Microsoft Corporation.
On computer: 37-4611K2713G

DISKPART> select disk 1
Disk 1 is now the selected disk.

DISKPART> uniqueid disk
Disk ID: {F1B5319E-FF92-40BB-9BC9-D5FFAD0AD66B}

DISKPART> select disk 2
Disk 2 is now the selected disk.

DISKPART> uniqueid disk
Disk ID: {32443078-9AFC-4C0A-B142-466F582A4051}

Step 7: Once you find the disk you want you can use the detail disk command to get more information. It will look like this:

DISKPART> detail disk

IBM 2810XIV Multi-Path Disk Device
Disk ID: {32443078-9AFC-4C0A-B142-466F582A4051}
Type : FIBRE
Status : Reserved
Path : 0
Target : 1
LUN ID : 2
Location Path : UNAVAILABLE
Current Read-only State : No
Read-only : No
Boot Disk : No
Pagefile Disk : No
Hibernation File Disk : No
Crashdump Disk : No
Clustered Disk : Yes

There are no volumes.

Method 2

This method utilizes an undocumented and unsupported class I first posted about previously in Using The Virtual Disk Service (VDS) From Powershell to Mount and Use VHD's as well as in Virtual Disk Service (VDS) Powershell Script Version 2 - Previously Created Volume Support + Mount Points + Bug Fixes. Again I must reiterate this is not an officially supported API it has no warrantee – it may break at any time and Microsoft Support can not and will not help you with it. Now that the disclaimer is over – in this example I am using the VDS api’s to do the mapping for me.

Script

#Load the Microsoft Storage VDS Library
#This is an undocumented, unsupported library, there is no warrantee nor gaurantees.
[System.Reflection.Assembly]::LoadWithPartialName("Microsoft.Storage.Vds") | Out-Null
$VdsServiceLoader = New-Object Microsoft.Storage.Vds.ServiceLoader
$VdsService = $VdsServiceLoader.LoadService($null)
$VdsService.WaitForServiceReady()
$VdsService.Reenumerate()

#Build up a collection of all disks presented to the os
$Disks = ($VdsService.Providers |% {$_.Packs}) |% {$_.Disks}

#Import the FailoverClusters module
Import-Module FailoverClusters

#Retreve all of the CSV Lun's
$AllCSVs = Get-ClusterSharedVolume
foreach ($Csv in $AllCSVs)
{
    $CSVParams = Get-ClusterParameter -InputObject $Csv

    #Retreve the DiskIDGuid Object from the Cluster Parameters
$DiskGUIDString = ($CSVParams | Where-object -FilterScript {$_.Name -eq "DiskIdGuid"}).Value

    #Match up the DiskID's
$Disk = ($Disks | Where-Object -FilterScript {$_.DiskGuid -eq $DiskGUIDString})
        Write-Host "CSV ClusterResourceName: " $Csv.Name
        Write-Host "DiskID: " $DiskGUIDString
        Write-Host "DiskFriendlyName: " $Disk.FriendlyName
        Write-Host "DiskName: " $Disk.Name
        Write-Host "DiskAddress: " $Disk.DiskAddress
        Write-Host
}

Sample Output

Windows PowerShell
Copyright (C) 2009 Microsoft Corporation. All rights reserved.

PS C:\Users\taylorb>.\GetCSVDevInfo1.ps1

CSV ClusterResourceName: Cluster_CSV1_IBMXIV
DiskID: {32443078-9afc-4c0a-b142-466f582a4051}
DiskFriendlyName: IBM 2810XIV Multi-Path Disk Device
DiskName: \\?\PhysicalDrive2
DiskAddress: Port1Path0Target1Lun2

CSV ClusterResourceName: Cluster_CSV2_IBMXIV
DiskID: {ee36e403-75cb-4e23-87b4-e82af7949f4e}
DiskFriendlyName: IBM 2810XIV Multi-Path Disk Device
DiskName: \\?\PhysicalDrive3
DiskAddress: Port1Path0Target1Lun3

CSV ClusterResourceName: Cluster_CSV3_IBMXIV
DiskID: {5db28bcb-6ed3-4b80-b363-861a25cc10e4}
DiskFriendlyName: IBM 2810XIV Multi-Path Disk Device
DiskName: \\?\PhysicalDrive4
DiskAddress: Port1Path0Target1Lun4

Taylor Brown
Hyper-V Enterprise Deployment Team
taylorb@microsoft.com
http://blogs.msdn.com/taylorb

Getting More Information About You Cluster LUN’s (Part 2 of 3)

Taylor Brown [Microsoft Hyper-V] — Wed, 30 Jun 2010 17:08:00 GMT

So here’s the scenario you need or want to figure out which LUN is which on your cluster…

Yesterday I posted a script which used Get-ClusterParameter and the Physical Disk Private Properties to gather information on the storage being used by the cluster – as promised here’s a less verbose version of that script…

Script

Import-Module FailoverClusters
$csv1 = Get-ClusterSharedVolume Cluster_CSV1_IBMXIV
$csvParams = Get-ClusterParameter -InputObject $csv1
$DiskUniqueIds = ($csvParams | Where-object -FilterScript {$_.Name -eq "DiskUniqueIds"}).Value

$CountOfIdentifiers = $DiskUniqueIds[8]

$currentArrayIndex = 12
for($a = 0; $a -lt $CountOfIdentifiers; $a++)
{
    $CodeSet = $DiskUniqueIds[$currentArrayIndex]
    $Length = $DiskUniqueIds[$currentArrayIndex+8]
    $NextOffset = $DiskUniqueIds[$currentArrayIndex+10]

    switch ($DiskUniqueIds[$currentArrayIndex+4])
    {
    0 {Write-Host "StorageIdType: VendorSpecific";break}
    1 {Write-Host "StorageIdType: VendorId";break}
    2 {Write-Host "StorageIdType: EUI64";break}
    3 {Write-Host "StorageIdType: FCPHName";break}
    4 {Write-Host "StorageIdType: PortRelative";break}
    5 {Write-Host "StorageIdType: TargetPortGroup";break}
    6 {Write-Host "StorageIdType: LogicalUnitGroup";break}
    7 {Write-Host "StorageIdType: MD5LogicalUnitIdentifier";break}
    8 {Write-Host "StorageIdType: ScsiNameString";break}
    }

    switch ($DiskUniqueIds[$currentArrayIndex+12])
    {
    0 {Write-Host "StorageIdAssoc: Device";break}
    1 {Write-Host "StorageIdAssoc: Port";break}
    2 {Write-Host "StorageIdAssoc: Target";break}
    }

    $Data = $null
    switch($CodeSet)
    {
    2 { #StorageIdCodeSetAscii
$DiskUniqueIds_ptr = [System.Runtime.InteropServices.Marshal]::UnsafeAddrOfPinnedArrayElement($DiskUniqueIds, $currentArrayIndex+16)
        $Data = [System.Runtime.InteropServices.Marshal]::PtrToStringAnsi($DiskUniqueIds_ptr, $Length)
        break
        }

    3 { #StorageIdCodeSetUtf8
$DiskUniqueIds_ptr = [System.Runtime.InteropServices.Marshal]::UnsafeAddrOfPinnedArrayElement($DiskUniqueIds, $currentArrayIndex+16)
        $Data = [System.Runtime.InteropServices.Marshal]::PtrToStringUni($DiskUniqueIds_ptr, $Length)
        break
        }

    default { #0=StorageIdCodeSetReserved, 1=StorageIdCodeSetBinary
for($x = ($currentArrayIndex+16); $x -lt ($currentArrayIndex + 16 + $Length); $x++)
        {
            $Data += , $DiskUniqueIds[$x]
        }
        break
        }
    }
    Write-Host "Data: " $Data
    $currentArrayIndex+=$NextOffset

    Write-Host
}

Sample Output

Windows PowerShell
Copyright (C) 2009 Microsoft Corporation. All rights reserved.

PS C:\Users\taylorb>.\GetCSVDevInfo1.ps1

StorageIdType: EUI64
StorageIdAssoc: Device
Data: 0 23 56 0 1 19 0 28

StorageIdType: VendorId
StorageIdAssoc: Device
Data: IBM 2810XIV 1300113001C

StorageIdType: VendorSpecific
StorageIdAssoc: Device
Data: vol=CSV_1

StorageIdType: VendorSpecific
StorageIdAssoc: Device
Data: host=37-4611K2713K

StorageIdType: TargetPortGroup
StorageIdAssoc: Port
Data: 0 0 0 0

StorageIdType: PortRelative
StorageIdAssoc: Port
Data: 0 0 7 1

Taylor Brown
Hyper-V Enterprise Deployment Team
taylorb@microsoft.com
http://blogs.msdn.com/taylorb

Getting More Information About You Cluster LUN’s (Part 1 of 3)

Taylor Brown [Microsoft Hyper-V] — Tue, 29 Jun 2010 22:00:42 GMT

So here’s the scenario you need or want to figure out which LUN is which on your cluster…

Well if you just use the Get-ClusterSharedVolume cmdlet it won’t get you very far… However there’s another cmdlet Get-ClusterParameter that will give you enough data that when combined with some other PowerShell/.Net magic will. This function will return the Cluster Object Private Properties for a given object you can look on MSDN to see all of them – in this case we are interested specifically in the Physical Disk Private Properties.

For this first example I am going to utilize the DiskUniqueIds property to extract information about the specific LUN. Looking at the documentation for this property it returns a STORAGE_DEVICE_ID_DESCRIPTOR structure which has a set of identifiers – after some more digging around it turns out these identifiers are actually STORAGE_IDENTIFIER structures which have some interesting values. For most of the storage I have in the lab at the very least the vendor ID (StorageIdTypeEUI64) which is actually a bit mask of the IEEE vendor ID along with some vendor specific data (the bit map is documented here and you can search for vendor ID’s here) as well as a VendorID string and some LUN information although some will tell you what port is being used etc…

In order to format all of this data I’m using some inline C# to define a class with the reprehensive structures and enumerations – just copied from MSDN and made pretty for .Net interop. I also wrote a function in the C# class named DiskUniqueIdstoStorageId, this function takes the byte array returned from calling the Get-ClusterParameter cmdlet and marshel’s it or formats it into the C# classes thus allowing me to consume the now managed object’s in C#. All in all it might be overkill so look for a shorter version coming soon.

Script

$StorageDevice= @"
using System;
using System.Runtime.InteropServices;

public static class StorageDevice
{
    public enum StorageIdCodeSet
    {
        Reserved = 0,
        Binary = 1,
        Ascii = 2,
        Utf8 = 3
    }

    public enum StorageIdType
    {
        VendorSpecific = 0,
        VendorId = 1,
        EUI64 = 2,
        FCPHName = 3,
        PortRelative = 4,
        TargetPortGroup = 5,
        LogicalUnitGroup = 6,
        MD5LogicalUnitIdentifier = 7,
        ScsiNameString = 8
    }

    public enum StorageIdAssoc
    {
        Device = 0,
        Port = 1,
        Target = 2
    }

    [StructLayout(LayoutKind.Sequential, CharSet = CharSet.Ansi)]
    public struct STORAGE_IDENTIFIER
    {
        public StorageDevice.StorageIdCodeSet CodeSet;
        public StorageDevice.StorageIdType Type;
        public UInt16 IdentifierSize;
        public UInt16 NextOffset;
        public StorageDevice.StorageIdAssoc Association;

        [MarshalAs(UnmanagedType.ByValTStr, SizeConst = 1)]
        public string Identifiers;
    }

    [StructLayout(LayoutKind.Sequential, CharSet = CharSet.Ansi)]
    public struct STORAGE_DEVICE_ID_DESCRIPTOR
    {
        public UInt32 Version;
        public UInt32 Size;
        public UInt32 NumberOfIdentifiers;

        [MarshalAs(UnmanagedType.ByValTStr, SizeConst = 1)]
        public string Identifiers;
    }

    public static STORAGE_IDENTIFIER[] DiskUniqueIdstoStorageId(byte[] DiskUniqueIds)
    {
        IntPtr ArrayAddress = Marshal.UnsafeAddrOfPinnedArrayElement(DiskUniqueIds, 0);

        STORAGE_DEVICE_ID_DESCRIPTOR devId =
            (STORAGE_DEVICE_ID_DESCRIPTOR)Marshal.PtrToStructure(
            ArrayAddress, typeof(STORAGE_DEVICE_ID_DESCRIPTOR));

        IntPtr AddressOfIdentifiers = (IntPtr)
            ((long)ArrayAddress +
            (long)(Marshal.OffsetOf(
            typeof(STORAGE_DEVICE_ID_DESCRIPTOR), "Identifiers")));

        IntPtr OffsetOfIdentifiersStrings = Marshal.OffsetOf(
            typeof(STORAGE_IDENTIFIER), "Identifiers");

        STORAGE_IDENTIFIER[] ArrayofSTORAGE_IDENTIFIER =
            new STORAGE_IDENTIFIER[devId.NumberOfIdentifiers];

        IntPtr CurrentAddressOfIdentifiers=AddressOfIdentifiers;

        for (int i = 0; i < devId.NumberOfIdentifiers; i++)
        {
            ArrayofSTORAGE_IDENTIFIER[i] =
                (STORAGE_IDENTIFIER)Marshal.PtrToStructure(
                CurrentAddressOfIdentifiers, typeof(STORAGE_IDENTIFIER));

            IntPtr AddressOfIdentifiersString =
                (IntPtr)((long)CurrentAddressOfIdentifiers +
                (long)OffsetOfIdentifiersStrings);

            switch (ArrayofSTORAGE_IDENTIFIER[i].CodeSet)
            {
                case StorageIdCodeSet.Ascii:
                    ArrayofSTORAGE_IDENTIFIER[i].Identifiers =
                        Marshal.PtrToStringAnsi(AddressOfIdentifiersString,
                        (Int32)ArrayofSTORAGE_IDENTIFIER[i].IdentifierSize);

                    break;

                case StorageIdCodeSet.Utf8:
                    ArrayofSTORAGE_IDENTIFIER[i].Identifiers =
                        Marshal.PtrToStringUni(AddressOfIdentifiersString,
                        (Int32)ArrayofSTORAGE_IDENTIFIER[i].IdentifierSize);

                    break;

                default:
                    for (int x=0; x < ArrayofSTORAGE_IDENTIFIER[i].IdentifierSize; x++)
                    {
                        ArrayofSTORAGE_IDENTIFIER[i].Identifiers =
                            String.Format("{0} {1:X}",
                            ArrayofSTORAGE_IDENTIFIER[i].Identifiers,
                            Marshal.ReadByte(AddressOfIdentifiersString, x));
                    }
                    break;
            }
            CurrentAddressOfIdentifiers = (IntPtr)
                ((long)CurrentAddressOfIdentifiers +
                (long)ArrayofSTORAGE_IDENTIFIER[i].NextOffset);
        }
        return ArrayofSTORAGE_IDENTIFIER;
    }
}
"@
add-type -TypeDefinition $StorageDevice

Import-Module FailoverClusters
$AllCSVLuns = Get-ClusterSharedVolume
foreach ($CSV in $AllCSVLuns)
{
    $CSVParams = Get-ClusterParameter -InputObject $CSV
    $DiskUniqueId = ($CSVParams | Where-object -FilterScript {$_.Name -eq "DiskUniqueIds"}).Value
    $StorageId = [StorageDevice]::DiskUniqueIdstoStorageId($DiskUniqueId)
    Write-Host "CSV ClusterResourceName: " $CSV.Name
    Write-Host "Identifiers: "
    $StorageId
    Write-Host
    Write-Host
}

Sample Output

Windows PowerShell
Copyright (C) 2009 Microsoft Corporation. All rights reserved.

PS C:\Users\taylorb>.\GetCSVDevInfo1.ps1

CSV ClusterResourceName: Cluster_CSV1_IBMXIV
Identifiers:
CodeSet        : Binary
Type           : EUI64
IdentifierSize : 8
NextOffset     : 28
Association    : Device
Identifiers    : 0 17 38 0 1 13 0 1C

CodeSet        : Ascii
Type           : VendorId
IdentifierSize : 36
NextOffset     : 56
Association    : Device
Identifiers    : IBM     2810XIV          1300113001C

CodeSet        : Ascii
Type           : VendorSpecific
IdentifierSize : 13
NextOffset     : 32
Association    : Device
Identifiers    : vol=CSV_1

CodeSet        : Ascii
Type           : VendorSpecific
IdentifierSize : 22
NextOffset     : 40
Association    : Device
Identifiers    : host=37-4611K2713K

CodeSet        : Binary
Type           : TargetPortGroup
IdentifierSize : 4
NextOffset     : 24
Association    : Port
Identifiers    : 0 0 0 0

CodeSet        : Binary
Type           : PortRelative
IdentifierSize : 4
NextOffset     : 24
Association    : Port
Identifiers    : 0 0 7 1

CSV ClusterResourceName: Cluster_CSV2_IBMXIV
Identifiers:
CodeSet        : Binary
Type           : EUI64
IdentifierSize : 8
NextOffset     : 28
Association    : Device
Identifiers    : 0 17 38 0 1 13 0 1D

CodeSet        : Ascii
Type           : VendorId
IdentifierSize : 36
NextOffset     : 56
Association    : Device
Identifiers    : IBM     2810XIV          1300113001D

CodeSet        : Ascii
Type           : VendorSpecific
IdentifierSize : 13
NextOffset     : 32
Association    : Device
Identifiers    : vol=CSV_2

CodeSet        : Ascii
Type           : VendorSpecific
IdentifierSize : 22
NextOffset     : 40
Association    : Device
Identifiers    : host=37-4611K2713F

CodeSet        : Binary
Type           : TargetPortGroup
IdentifierSize : 4
NextOffset     : 24
Association    : Port
Identifiers    : 0 0 0 0

CodeSet        : Binary
Type           : PortRelative
IdentifierSize : 4
NextOffset     : 24
Association    : Port
Identifiers    : 0 0 7 3

Taylor Brown
Hyper-V Enterprise Deployment Team
taylorb@microsoft.com
http://blogs.msdn.com/taylorb

TechEd 2010

Taylor Brown [Microsoft Hyper-V] — Mon, 14 Jun 2010 16:49:32 GMT

Last week was TechEd 2010 held in New Orleans, it was a great conference with over 10,000 attendees (speakers, exhibitors, attendees combined). It was also a very very busy week – between working at our Microsoft Virtualization booth, presenting and attending dinner’s/parties the days where long. This year all of the sessions from TechEd where recorded and are available for free to anyone. Below is the session that I presented with Vijay Tewari. Additionally all of the virtualization sessions can be found at http://www.msteched.com/Tracks/Virtualization, there are a few that are missing currently however expect those to be uploaded over the next few days.

Networking and Windows Server 2008 R2 Hyper-V: Deployment Considerations

Taylor Brown
Hyper-V Enterprise Deployment Team
taylorb@microsoft.com
http://blogs.msdn.com/taylorb

Writing Your Own VMConnect App/Web Interface For VM Console Access To Hyper-V VM’s

Taylor Brown [Microsoft Hyper-V] — Wed, 02 Jun 2010 01:02:41 GMT

Ever since Hyper-V’s first beta I’ve had people ask about the ability to write there own custom interface to replace VMConnect. Some wanted a windows application other’s wanted to write a web application. The goal’s varied from wanting to just show the console session for monitoring to integrating it VM’s into existing physical machine applications to wanting to develop custom hosting applications allowing users to do some things like start/stop and interact but nothing more. When we started developing Hyper-V we decided that instead of writing our own transport for sending over screen images, key strokes, mouse etc… that we would instead leverage the existing remote desktop protocol (RDP, Terminal Services, TS, what ever you want to call it).

That means that accomplishing developing such a applications is actually pretty straight forward if you know the magic incantation. The good news is that the Dynamic Datacenter Tool Kit team has posted a full C# sample for just this. If you combine this code with some of the other code posted either here on my blog or on MSDN you can pretty easily write your very own Hyper-V UI.

The Dynamic Data Center Toolkit for Hosters is located at http://code.msdn.microsoft.com/ddc and the Hyper-V RDP Active X control sample is a sub project off of that page.

Taylor Brown
Hyper-V Enterprise Deployment Team
taylorb@microsoft.com
http://blogs.msdn.com/taylorb

Windows Server 2008 SP1 Here We Come… With Dynamic Memory and RemoteFX For Hyper-V

Taylor Brown [Microsoft Hyper-V] — Thu, 18 Mar 2010 18:26:32 GMT

I’ve been waiting and waiting to post this and today I can… Today we officially announced Windows Server 2008 R2 service pack 1 – with service pack 1 we will be releasing two great features for Hyper-V. The first is Dynamic Memory which allows virtual machines to automatically adjust the amount of physical memory they reserve based on the workload running in the virtual machine at runtime ‘dynamically’. The second is RemoteFX which enables virtual machine users to received a full 3D multimedia experience remotely though enhanced remote desktop connections… All of this was announced at http://www.microsoft.com/presspass/press/2010/mar10/03-18desktopvirtpr.mspx… Take a look and trust me much more to come on this topic!

Taylor Brown
Hyper-V Enterprise Deployment Team
taylorb@microsoft.com
http://blogs.msdn.com/taylorb

Hyper-V Virtual Hard Disk (VHD) Performance White Paper

Taylor Brown [Microsoft Hyper-V] — Fri, 26 Feb 2010 20:59:09 GMT

It must be white paper week :) – today we posted a great document discussing virtual hard disk (VHD) performance with Windows Server 2008/Microsoft Hyper-V and Windows Server 2008 R2/Microsoft Hyper-V R2. It’s about 35 pages long and goes into great detail on the test methodology as well as the results and application of the results…

Take a look:

http://download.microsoft.com/download/0/7/7/0778C0BB-5281-4390-92CD-EC138A18F2F9/WS08_R2_VHD_Performance_WhitePaper.docx

Taylor Brown
Hyper-V Enterprise Deployment Team
taylorb@microsoft.com
http://blogs.msdn.com/taylorb

Hyper-V: Live Migration Network Configuration Guide

Taylor Brown [Microsoft Hyper-V] — Thu, 25 Feb 2010 19:54:53 GMT

Today we released a great new document discussing requirements, recommendations and options for configuring networking when leveraging live migration.

http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ff428137(WS.10).aspx

Hyper-V: Live Migration Network Configuration Guide

Updated: February 24, 2010

Applies To: Windows Server 2008 R2

This guide describes how to configure your network to use the live migration feature of Hyper-V™. It provides a detailed list of the networking configuration requirements for optimal performance and reliability, as well as recommendations for scenarios that do not meet these requirements. …

Taylor Brown
Hyper-V Enterprise Deployment Team
taylorb@microsoft.com
http://blogs.msdn.com/taylorb

Attaching Passthough Disks Via WMI (SCSI or IDE)

Taylor Brown [Microsoft Hyper-V] — Fri, 16 Oct 2009 20:06:02 GMT

So you want to use passthough disks with Hyper-V cool – but how do you script attaching them? Well here’s your answer… But first you need to decide if you are going to attach them to the virtual IDE controller or the virtual SCSI controller. The IDE controller is ideal if you plan to boot from the passthough disk or if your guest doesn’t support the virtual SCSI adapter (Linux), the SCSI controller is ideal if you want to add/remove storage from the virtual machine while it’s running (feature of Hyper-V R2) or if you have more than 4 disks you want to add. Attaching to SCSI or IDE is pretty similar – there are really only 1 difference I bolded it on both scripts below you just have to select the correct controller. Other than that you can either use the physical disk number for disk manager (not too bad) or if you provide a LUN ID when you create the storage (in the case of a SAN) you can use that which can be a bit more deterministic. Either way enjoy!

Attaching Passthrough Disk To IDE Controller

$HyperVGuest = "Passthough Demo"

$VMManagementService = Get-WmiObject -class "Msvm_VirtualSystemManagementService" -namespace "root\virtualization"
$Vm = Get-WmiObject -Namespace "root\virtualization" -Query "Select * From Msvm_ComputerSystem Where ElementName='$HyperVGuest'"

$VMSettingData = Get-WmiObject -Namespace "root\virtualization" -Query "Associators of {$Vm} Where ResultClass=Msvm_VirtualSystemSettingData AssocClass=Msvm_SettingsDefineState"

$VmIdeController = (Get-WmiObject -Namespace "root\virtualization" -Query "Associators of {$VMSettingData} Where ResultClass=Msvm_ResourceAllocationSettingData AssocClass=Msvm_VirtualSystemSettingDataComponent" |`
where-object {$_.ResourceSubType -eq "Microsoft Emulated IDE Controller" -and $_.Address -eq 0})

$DiskAllocationSetting = Get-WmiObject -Namespace "root\virtualization" -Query "SELECT * FROM Msvm_AllocationCapabilities WHERE ResourceSubType = 'Microsoft Physical Disk Drive'"
$DefaultHardDisk = (Get-WmiObject -Namespace "root\virtualization" -Query "Associators of {$DiskAllocationSetting} Where ResultClass=Msvm_ResourceAllocationSettingData AssocClass=Msvm_SettingsDefineCapabilities" | `
where-object {$_.InstanceID -like "*Default"})

$Disk = Get-WmiObject -Namespace "root\virtualization" -Query "select * from Msvm_DiskDrive Where DriveNumber=2"
#$Disk = Get-WmiObject -Namespace "root\virtualization" -Query "select * from Msvm_DiskDrive Where ElementName Like '%Lun 200%'"

$DefaultHardDisk.Parent = $VmIdeController.__Path
$DefaultHardDisk.Address = 0
$DefaultHardDisk.HostResource = $Disk.__PATH

$VMManagementService.AddVirtualSystemResources($VM, $DefaultHardDisk.PSBase.GetText(1)) | ProcessWMIJob $VMManagementService "AddVirtualSystemResources"

Attaching Passthrough Disk To SCSI Controller

$HyperVGuest = "Passthough Demo"

$VMSettingData = Get-WmiObject -Namespace "root\virtualization" -Query "Associators of {$Vm} Where ResultClass=Msvm_VirtualSystemSettingData AssocClass=Msvm_SettingsDefineState"

$VmScsiController = (Get-WmiObject -Namespace "root\virtualization" -Query "Associators of {$VMSettingData} Where ResultClass=Msvm_ResourceAllocationSettingData AssocClass=Msvm_VirtualSystemSettingDataComponent" | `
where-object {$_.ElementName -eq "SCSI Controller"})

$DiskAllocationSetting = Get-WmiObject -Namespace "root\virtualization" -Query "SELECT * FROM Msvm_AllocationCapabilities WHERE ResourceSubType = 'Microsoft Physical Disk Drive'"

$DefaultHardDisk = (Get-WmiObject -Namespace "root\virtualization" -Query "Associators of {$DiskAllocationSetting} Where ResultClass=Msvm_ResourceAllocationSettingData AssocClass=Msvm_SettingsDefineCapabilities" | `
where-object {$_.InstanceID -like "*Default"})

$Disk = Get-WmiObject -Namespace "root\virtualization" -Query "select * from Msvm_DiskDrive Where DriveNumber=2"

#$Disk = Get-WmiObject -Namespace "root\virtualization" -Query "select * from Msvm_DiskDrive Where ElementName Like '%Lun 200%'"

$DefaultHardDisk.Parent = $VmScsiController.__Path

$DefaultHardDisk.Address = 0
$DefaultHardDisk.HostResource = $Disk.__PATH

$VMManagementService.AddVirtualSystemResources($VM, $DefaultHardDisk.PSBase.GetText(1)) | ProcessWMIJob $VMManagementService "AddVirtualSystemResources"

Taylor Brown
Hyper-V Integration Test Lead
http://blogs.msdn.com/taylorb

Recommend Hotfixes For System Center Virtual Machine Manager (SCVMM)

Taylor Brown [Microsoft Hyper-V] — Tue, 14 Apr 2009 00:00:48 GMT

If your running System Center Virtual Machine Manager (SCVMM) you should take a look at KB 962941. The KB describes and links to all of the recommended Windows hotfixes, SCVMM hotfixes and Hyper-V server hotfixes that are important for SCVMM functionality.

KB Article Link: http://support.microsoft.com/kb/962941

Taylor Brown
Hyper-V Integration Test Lead
http://blogs.msdn.com/taylorb

Hyper-V: Background Merging of AVHD’s… When’s it done?

Taylor Brown [Microsoft Hyper-V] — Wed, 11 Mar 2009 04:10:25 GMT

I think it might be best to start at ground zero with this topic and explain what a snapshot really is and how it work’s (if you already know skip a head…). Hyper-V introduced a new feature called a snapshot – snapshots allow you to capture and save the point in time state of a running or saved virtual machine and then go back to that state at a latter point in time. For example you can have a Windows XP RTM virtual machine running take a snapshot, install SP1, take a snapshot and install SP2 and then latter revert back to the SP1 snapshot and either discard the SP2 installation or keep it around so you can apply that state latter. Snapshot’s are pretty handing in this regard – you can create pretty extensive tree’s of snapshots and you can rapidly apply specific states to virtual machines. Under the covers snapshots primarily use a technology that was implemented back in the pre-Microsoft days of Virtual PC called differencing VHD’s. What a differencing VHD effectively does is point back to a parent VHD for it’s data but any updates made to the VHD reside in the new differencing VHD and subsequent requests for that same data will be overridden by the child differencing VHD. These parent child relationships can get many levels deep and a parent can have many children – however if a parent is ever modified it’s children's state is now invalid since the child was unaware of the changes. So back to snapshots – when a snapshot is taken we create a new differencing disk to point the virtual machine to and we call it an AVHD or automatic VHD since it was created automatically by requesting the snapshot – at the same time we will save off the virtual machines running state if it’s running including it’s memory state and it’s device state (network adapter IP etc…). When you revert back to a previous snapshot you reload the memory and device state and the VM is pointed at a new AVHD from the parent of that time. And that’s snapshots in a nut shell…

OK now back to topic at hand – when you delete a snapshot the next time the virtual machine is off or saved we will merge the AVHD created by the snapshot back into it’s respective parent… We do this automatically and in the background – so lets say you wanted to know when it’s was done programmatically… It’s not too hard just run the following query to see if any merges are going on presently - PS C:\> Get-WmiObject -Namespace "root\virtualization" -Query "select * from Msvm_ConcreteJob" | Where {$_.ElementName - eq 'Merge in Progress'}. Below you can see the full output of that query when a merge is occurring. Hope this helps!

PS C:\> Get-WmiObject -Namespace "root\virtualization" -Query "select * from Msvm_ConcreteJob" | Where {$_.ElementName -eq 'Merge in Progress'}

__GENUS                 : 2
__CLASS                 : Msvm_ConcreteJob
__SUPERCLASS            : CIM_ConcreteJob
__DYNASTY               : CIM_ManagedElement
__RELPATH               : Msvm_ConcreteJob.InstanceID="E3675DEB-A13C-440D-AEAD-B6CEB5ADF1D7"
__PROPERTY_COUNT        : 36
__DERIVATION            : {CIM_ConcreteJob, CIM_Job, CIM_LogicalElement, CIM_ManagedSystemElement...}
__SERVER                : TAYLORB
__NAMESPACE             : root\virtualization
__PATH                  : \\TAYLORB\root\virtualization:Msvm_ConcreteJob.InstanceID="E3675DEB-A13C-440D-AEAD-B6CEB5ADF1D7"
Cancellable             : True
Caption                 : Merge in Progress
DeleteOnCompletion      : False
Description             : Merge in Progress
ElapsedTime             : 00000000000000.000000:000
ElementName             : Merge in Progress
ErrorCode               : 0
ErrorDescription        :
ErrorSummaryDescription :
HealthState             : 0
InstallDate             : 16010101000000.000000-000
InstanceID              : E3675DEB-A13C-440D-AEAD-B6CEB5ADF1D7
JobRunTimes             : 1
JobState                : 4
JobStatus               :
LocalOrUtcTime          : 2
Name                    : Merge in Progress
Notify                  :
OperationalStatus       : {0, 0, 0}
OtherRecoveryAction     :
Owner                   :
PercentComplete         : 13                          <----Percent Complete
Priority                : 0
RecoveryAction          : 0
RunDay                  : 0
RunDayOfWeek            : 0
RunMonth                : 0
RunStartInterval        : 00000000000000.000000:000
ScheduledStartTime      : 16010101000000.000000-000
StartTime               : 16010101000000.000000-000
Status                  :
StatusDescriptions      : {, , }
TimeBeforeRemoval       : 00000000000500.000000:000
TimeOfLastStateChange   : 20090309234922.000000-000
TimeSubmitted           : 16010101000000.000000-000
UntilTime               : 16010101000000.000000-000

Taylor Brown
Hyper-V Integration Test Lead
http://blogs.msdn.com/taylorb

Performance Smack Down - Hyper-V vs. VMware vs. Citrix

Taylor Brown [Microsoft Hyper-V] — Tue, 10 Mar 2009 01:35:33 GMT

Virtualization Review posted the results of a performance shootout between Microsoft Hyper-V, VMware ESX, and Citrix XenServer… The launched three tests against the various platforms. First was a small number of heavy workload systems, one database server running a midsize database and six VMs with heavy workload of CPU and memory. Second - was a large number of heavy workload systems, with one database server running a midsize database and twelve VMs with heavy workload of CPU, memory and disk IO. Third – was a large number of light workload systems, with one database server running a midsize database and twelve VMs running a light CPU, memory and disk IO.

Take a look at the full article – it has a bunch of raw performance data and is definitely worth at least a quick read. Full Article: http://virtualizationreview.com/features/article.aspx?editorialsid=2641

Quotes:
”Hyper-V was the first product compared, and it performed quite differently from expectations. Hyper-V has been a focus of Microsoft dev efforts, and it shows. Overall, Hyper-V did well in this comparison and proved itself a worthy product.”

“In our tests, Hyper-V did well in all categories-it's a real, viable competitor for the competition. Table 2 shows Hyper-V's comparative performance.”

“After doing these comparisons of ESX to Hyper-V and XenServer, it's clear that at the hypervisor level, ESX is optimized for a large number of less-intensive workload VMs. For intensive workloads that may not be optimized for memory overcommit apps, Hyper-V and XenServer should definitely be considered-even if that means adding another hypervisor into the data center.”

Taylor Brown
Hyper-V Integration Test Lead
http://blogs.msdn.com/taylorb

Hyper-V VMMS Certificate Expiration Problem and Resolution

Taylor Brown [Microsoft Hyper-V] — Wed, 04 Mar 2009 09:30:45 GMT

In the coming days/weeks some of you may see some new errors from Hyper-V. The first is an error when you try and use VMConnect or SCVMM to connect to a running virtual machine – the error is “Cannot connect to the virtual machine because the authentication certificate is expired or invalid. Would you like to try connecting again?”. The second is an error when trying to start or resume saved virtual machine – the error is “'VMName' failed to initialize. Could not initialize machine remoting system. Error: ‘Unspecified error’ (0x80004005). Could not find a usable certificate. Error: ‘Unspecified error’ (0x80004005).”

This issue is fully described in KB967902 as well as a link to the HotFix. Bryon Surace also posted this on the Windows Server Blog.

Taylor Brown
Hyper-V Integration Test Lead
http://blogs.msdn.com/taylorb

How Are My VHD’s/Passthough Disk’s Connected To My Virtual Machine?

Taylor Brown [Microsoft Hyper-V] — Tue, 17 Feb 2009 04:03:25 GMT

Updated 2/23 – Added VHD File Size and Fixed a Few Bugs.

This is a follow up on my previous post on Hyper-V WMI: What VHD’s/Physical Disks Are Associated With a Virtual Machine?. I had been getting questions about how to better identify what disks are connected to what bus location/controller. Specifically I have been getting a lot of questions about how back up or copy just the VHD that the guest sees as drive letter C or D etc… I wrote a revised script that gives a bit more information specifically the controller addresses and the Instance ID of the controller. The reason that’s interesting is that you can determine that the C volume is on Disk Number 1 and that Disk Number 1 is connected to IDE Port 0/1 and on the parent you know that IDE Port 0/1 is backed by S:\vhds\foo.vhd well then you know what to backup… So what about SCSI controller’s? Well they are a bit more challenging but not to much – if you look at the PNP ID of the controller its VMBUS\<GUID> where the GUID is the same as the first GUID in the WMI instance id for the controller on the management OS (take a look at the screen capture below). Hopefully this is helpful – Enjoy!

Here’s the Script:

$HyperVParent = "localhost" 
$VMManagementService = Get-WmiObject -class "Msvm_VirtualSystemManagementService" -namespace "root\virtualization" -ComputerName $HyperVParent 


foreach ($vm in Get-WmiObject -Namespace root\virtualization -Query "Select * From Msvm_ComputerSystem where Description='Microsoft Virtual Machine'" -ComputerName $HyperVParent)
{     $VMSettingData = Get-WmiObject -Namespace "root\virtualization" -Query "Associators of {$Vm} Where ResultClass=Msvm_VirtualSystemSettingData AssocClass=Msvm_SettingsDefineState" -ComputerName $HyperVParent  
    $VirtualDiskResource = Get-WmiObject -Namespace "root\virtualization" `
        -Query "Associators of {$VMSettingData} Where ResultClass=Msvm_ResourceAllocationSettingData AssocClass=Msvm_VirtualSystemSettingDataComponent" `
        -ComputerName $HyperVParent | Where-Object { $_.ResourceSubType -match "Microsoft Virtual Hard Disk" } 
    
    $PhysicalDiskResource = Get-WmiObject -Namespace "root\virtualization" `
        -Query "Associators of {$VMSettingData} Where ResultClass=Msvm_ResourceAllocationSettingData AssocClass=Msvm_VirtualSystemSettingDataComponent" `
        -ComputerName $HyperVParent | Where-Object { $_.ResourceSubType -match "Microsoft Physical Disk Drive" } 
        
    if ($VirtualDiskResource -ne $null)
    {
        Write-Host "VHD Connections: "
        foreach ($i in $VirtualDiskResource)
        {
            Write-Host "  Virtual Hard Disk At: "  ([WMI]$i).Connection[0]
            Write-Host "  Virtual Hard Disk VHD Size: " (get-item ([WMI]$i).Connection[0]).Length
            Write-Host "  Virtual Hard Disk Connected To: " ([WMI]([WMI]$i.Parent).Parent).ElementName
            Write-Host "  Controller Index: " ([WMI]([WMI]$i.Parent).Parent).Address
            Write-Host "  Controller Instance ID: " ([WMI]([WMI]$i.Parent).Parent).InstanceID
            Write-Host "  Disk Location On Controller: " ([WMI]$i.Parent).Address
            Write-Host     
        }
    }
    
    if ($PhysicalDiskResource -ne $null)
    {
        Write-Host "Physical Disk Connections: "
        foreach ($i in $PhysicalDiskResource)
        {
            Write-Host "  Passthrough Disk At:"  ([WMI]$i.HostResource[0]).ElementName
            Write-Host "  Passthrough Disk Drive Number:  " ([WMI]$i.HostResource[0]).DriveNumber
            Write-Host "  Virtual Hard Disk Connected To: " ([WMI]$i.Parent).ElementName
            Write-Host "  Controller Index: " ([WMI]$i.Parent).Address
            Write-Host "  Controller Instance ID: " ([WMI]$i.Parent).InstanceID
            Write-Host "  Disk Location On Controller: " ([WMI]$i).Address
            Write-Host
        }
    }
}

Here’s the Output of the Script:

PS D:\> .\DiskAttachment2.ps1
VHD Connections:
Virtual Hard Disk At: C:\Users\Public\Documents\Hyper-V\Virtual hard disks\SERVER2008-ENT-64-6001.18000.080118-1840_amd64fre_ServerEnterprise_en-us_VL.vhd
Virtual Hard Disk Connected To: IDE Controller 0
Controller Index: 0
Controller Instance ID: Microsoft:4DA5F246-7501-49B3-AE41-B1B5B4FCF57F\83F8638B-8DCA-4152-9EDA-2CA8B33039B4\0
Disk Location On Controller: 0

Virtual Hard Disk At: C:\vhd\VHD on Local Storage.vhd
Virtual Hard Disk Connected To: IDE Controller 0
Controller Index: 0
Controller Instance ID: Microsoft:4DA5F246-7501-49B3-AE41-B1B5B4FCF57F\83F8638B-8DCA-4152-9EDA-2CA8B33039B4\0
Disk Location On Controller: 1

Virtual Hard Disk At: S:\Vhds\VHD on LUN.vhd
Virtual Hard Disk Connected To: SCSI Controller
Controller Index:
Controller Instance ID: Microsoft:4DA5F246-7501-49B3-AE41-B1B5B4FCF57F\B090A115-B8E6-4706-BE6C-C8ECDDC4A90B\0
Disk Location On Controller: 1

Virtual Hard Disk At: S:\Vhds\Disk on SCSI 2.vhd
Virtual Hard Disk Connected To: SCSI Controller
Controller Index:
Controller Instance ID: Microsoft:4DA5F246-7501-49B3-AE41-B1B5B4FCF57F\87617569-E20C-4982-AC44-04A4251C82BA\0
Disk Location On Controller: 0

Physical Disk Connections:
Passthrough Disk At: Disk 3
Passthrough Disk Drive Number: 3
Virtual Hard Disk Connected To: SCSI Controller
Controller Index:
Controller Instance ID: Microsoft:4DA5F246-7501-49B3-AE41-B1B5B4FCF57F\B090A115-B8E6-4706-BE6C-C8ECDDC4A90B\0
Disk Location On Controller: 0

Here’s a Screen Capture Of the PNP ID in the Guest:

Taylor Brown
Hyper-V Integration Test Lead
http://blogs.msdn.com/taylorb

Red Hat Support Coming To Hyper-V

Taylor Brown [Microsoft Hyper-V] — Mon, 16 Feb 2009 22:43:34 GMT

Last night Mike Neil posted to the Virtualization Team Blog regarding a new agreement between Microsoft and Red Hat to bring Red Hat guest support to Hyper-V. Take a look at Mike’s full blog post Microsoft and Red Hat Cooperative Technical Support and/or the Red Hat press release Red Hat Moves to Expand Server Virtualization Interoperability. Happy day to all..

Taylor Brown
Hyper-V Integration Test Lead
http://blogs.msdn.com/taylorb

Microsoft Hyper-V Server 2008 R2 Beta Released

Taylor Brown [Microsoft Hyper-V] — Tue, 27 Jan 2009 01:53:00 GMT

The Microsoft Hyper-V Server 2008 R2 Beta has been posted on the download center along with an overview document and a setup and configuration guide. Please note that all features, support, configuration etc… is subject to change as this is a beta

Download Links

Microsoft Hyper-V Server 2008 R2 Beta Download
Microsoft Hyper-V Server 2008 R2 Beta Overview
Microsoft Hyper-V Server 2008 R2 Beta Setup and Configuration Guide

New Features In R2

Failover Clustering: The initial release of Microsoft Hyper-V Server 2008 did not include support for failover clustering. However, with Microsoft Hyper-V Server 2008 R2 Beta, host clustering technology is included to enable support for unplanned downtime.

Live migration: Microsoft Hyper-V Server 2008 R2 includes support for live migration. Live migration enables customers to move running applications between servers without service interruptions.

Processor and memory support: Microsoft Hyper-V Server 2008 R2 Beta now supports up to 8-socket physical systems and provides support for up to 32-cores. In addition, Microsoft Hyper-V Server 2008 R2 Beta supports up to 1TB of RAM on a physical system.

Updated Hyper-V Configuration Utility: The Hyper-V Configuration utility is designed to simplify the most common initial configuration tasks. It helps you configure the initial configuration settings without having to type long command-line strings. New configuration options have been added for R2 Beta including:
-Remote Management Configuration
-Failover Clustering Configuration
-Additional options for Updates

Virtualization Platform Comparison

The following is an overview comparison of the feature and support set for:
-Microsoft Hyper-V Server 2008
-Microsoft Hyper-V Server 2008 R2 Beta
-Windows Server 2008 R2 Beta (Enterprise and Datacenter Editions)

Capabilities	Microsoft Hyper-V Server 2008	Microsoft Hyper-V Server 2008 R2	Windows Server 2008 R2 EE, DC
Processor Architecture x64 only	Yes	Yes	Yes
Hypervisor-based	Yes	Yes	Yes
Product Type	Standalone product	Standalone product	Operating System
Number of Sockets (Licensing)	Up to 4	Up to 8	Up to 8 = EE \| Up to 64 = DC
Number of cores supported by the hypervisor	24 (with QFE)	32	32
Memory	Up to 32 GB	Up to 1 TB	Up to 1TB
VM Migration	None	Quick and live migration	Quick and live migration (EE & DC)
Administrative UI	Command line, text based configuration utility and remote GUI management	Command line, text based configuration utility and remote GUI management	Command line, remote management, and local GUI (Hyper-V Manager MMC)
Management	Existing management tools
Virtualization Rights for Windows Server guests	0	0	EE = 4 VM DC Edition = unlimited VM per proc
Number of running VM Guests	Up to 192, or as many as physical resources allow	Up to 256, or as many as physical resources allow	Up to 256, or as many as physical resources allow
Storage	Direct Attach Storage (DAS): SATA, eSATA, PATA, SAS, SCSI, Firewire, Storage Area Networks (SANs): iSCSI, Fiber Channel, SAS
Planned Guest OS support	Windows Server 2008 R2, Windows Server 2008, Windows Server 2003 SP2, Windows 2000 Server, Novell SUSE Linux Enterprise Server 10, Windows 7, Windows Vista SP1 & Windows XP SP3/SP2

Taylor Brown
Hyper-V Integration Test Lead
http://blogs.msdn.com/taylorb

Hyper-V Backup/Restore QFE Released

Taylor Brown [Microsoft Hyper-V] — Sat, 17 Jan 2009 00:02:31 GMT

If you are backing up your Hyper-V virtual machines using our VSS writer (backing up the physical server) you should be aware of a new Hotfix (KB959962) we released today that addresses three issues.

Issue 1
If you back up a Hyper-V virtual machine that has multiple volumes, the backup may fail. If you check the VMMS event log after the backup failure occurs, the following event is logged:

Log Name: Microsoft-Windows-Hyper-V-VMMS-Admin
Source: Microsoft-Windows-Hyper-V-VMMS
Event ID: 10104
Level: Error
Description:
Failed to revert to VSS snapshot on one or more virtual hard disks of the virtual machine '%1'. (Virtual machine ID %2)

Issue 2
The Microsoft Hyper-V VSS Writer may enter an unstable state if a backup of the Hyper-V virtual machine fails. If you run the vssadmin list writers command, the Microsoft Hyper-V VSS Writer is not listed. To return the Microsoft Hyper-V VSS Writer to a stable state, the Hyper-V Virtual Machine Management service must be restarted.

Issue 3
You cannot restore a Hyper-V virtual machine if the virtual machine was configured to use a legacy network adapter.

You can review the KB article and download the fix at http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;EN-US;959962.

Taylor Brown
Hyper-V Integration Test Lead
http://blogs.msdn.com/taylorb

Hyper-V V2: Guest Only External Networks + Add Roles Wizard Changes

Taylor Brown [Microsoft Hyper-V] — Tue, 13 Jan 2009 04:29:00 GMT

The Hyper-V best practice in traditional production environments is that any physical network interface used by guest virtual machines is dedicated and isolated to guest only traffic and not shared with the management operating system (host). This recommendation was made for several reasons – security is the primary reason since virtual machines are considered less trusted than the management partition isolating the network traffic reduces the risk that a malicious guest could take advantage of a remote security exploit to take over the physical machine. Following this practice also reduces the risk of a guest virtual machine saturating the network preventing the server administrator from being able to log onto the physical machine and take appropriate action. In Server 2008 (Hyper-V V1) you accomplished this by unbinding TCP (as well as any other network protocol) on the virtual adapter exposed by Hyper-V – in Server 2008 R2 we have added a new feature which be default does not create the virtual adapter on the management partition (of course there’s an option to have it the old way). In addition this functionality was pushed into the Add Roles Wizard when you create your first virtual network. Here’s some screen captures to illustrate.

Server 2008 (V1)	Server 2008 R2 (V2) One Physical Interface	Server 2008 R2 (V2) Two Physical Interfaces
Add Role Wizard – Virtual Network Page	Add Role Wizard – Virtual Network Page	Add Role Wizard – Virtual Network Page
Allows the creation of a new virtual network at install time even if the server has only one network interface.	When there is only one physical interface the ability to create a new virtual network at install time is disabled – you can create a new network post install.	When there are two or more interfaces you can select the interface(s) for which you want virtual networks created – you must leave at least one interface unchecked.
Hyper-V Virtual Network Manager Post Role Install	Hyper-V Virtual Network Manager Post Role Install	Hyper-V Virtual Network Manager Post Role Install
Post install the virtual network is created and bound to the physical interface.	No virtual network is created – however you can now create an interface which can/should be shared with the management partition/operating system.	Post install a new virtual network is created and bound to the physical interface but no virtual interface is exposed to the management partition/operating system.
Network Connections On The Host	Network Connections On The Host	Network Connections On The Host
You can see both the physical and virtual adapters are available – the physical interface will only have the Microsoft Virtual Network Switch Protocol bound to it and the virtual interface will have TCP and other network services bound.	Since there are no virtual networks created by default you don’t have any virtual interfaces exposed and the physical interface is not bound to the Microsoft Virtual Network Switch Protocol.	There are still just two interfaces on the management partition/operating system* both are physical (the fact that one is disconnected is because it really is disconnected on my server).*
	Hyper-V Virtual Network Manager Creating a New Shared Virtual Network
	When creating a new virtual network checking the “Allow management operating system to share this network adapter” checkbox will create a new virtual interface on the management partition/operating system.
	Network Connections On The Host
	A new virtual interface is created - the physical interface will only have the Microsoft Virtual Network Switch Protocol bound to it and the virtual interface will have TCP and other network services bound.

Taylor Brown
Hyper-V Integration Test Lead
http://blogs.msdn.com/taylorb

Taylor Brown's Blog

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Symptoms

Resolution

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What’s the high-level overview?

Who is the target audience for this training?

Where do I go for this great training?

Where can people learn more?

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So here’s the scenario you need or want to figure out which LUN is which on your cluster…

Method 1

Method 2

Script

Sample Output

Getting More Information About You Cluster LUN’s (Part 2 of 3)

So here’s the scenario you need or want to figure out which LUN is which on your cluster…

Script

Sample Output

Getting More Information About You Cluster LUN’s (Part 1 of 3)

So here’s the scenario you need or want to figure out which LUN is which on your cluster…

Script

Sample Output

TechEd 2010

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Microsoft Virtualization for VMware Professionals
Free Online Classes – March 29 – 31