Virtualization Summit

I wanted to let you know about a very exciting event (or really series of events) that we are putting on. The Virtualization Summit has been designed to help people understand what their choices are for virtualization.

Whether you are interested in Desktop Virtualization Solutions, or how IT can use Microsoft Virtualization Solutions in the Datacenter, this will be a great series of events to attend.

Are you interested in VDI, do you think Microsoft doesn’t care about VDI? Think again, come and find out.

Please check out the details, and come enjoy the event!

SQL Server, a great workload for Hyper-V?

People ask me what are good candidates for Virtualization, and can Hpyer-V really run those heavy workloads. I tell them, that with Windows Server 2008 R2 Hyper-V, almost all workloads are candidates, and when you couple Hyper-V with the great management you get with System Center, you have a great infrastructure platform for virtualization.

Yesterday, Vipul Shah, a Senior Product Manager with the Virtualization Team, showed some proof to my statements when he guest posted on Virtualization Planet about how Windows Server 2008 R2 Hyper-V and System Center is a great platform for running SQL Server consolidated workloads. He pointed to a newly released video by Ted Kummert, Senior Vice President, Microsoft Business Platform Division that outlines how virtualization enables consolidation.

This is exciting as we ran some performance tests against a complex stock trading application using a machine with Second Level Address Translation (SLAT) and saw good performance throughout the tests. We recently discussed in the Best Practices for SQL Server Virtualization webcast (click here) and in the SQL Server Consolidation Guidance (click here) the results of those tests, and guidance on running SQL as a virtual machine.

Other Business Critical Applications like Microsoft Exchange and Microsoft SharePoint are also fantastic workloads to be consolidated.

It is good to see this information getting out there. Thoughts?

Kenon

SCE 2010 RC Released – Mid Market Wonders

System Center Essentials is a Mid to Small Market integrated Management solution that combines Physical and Virtual systems Management along with Client Management. It is exciting that this release is coming as now smaller customers will realize a way to fully leverage their physical and virtual infrastructure and increase their efficiencies to provide their organizations top tier IT.

Check out this Video: Virtualization Features of SCE 2010 also, check out the cost. Yeah, I know this is for SCE2007, but still, customers can see tremendous value, and SCE 2010 will be a GREAT Value as well. Check out this whitepaper on licensing.

From the SCE PM

The System Center Essentials 2010 Release Candidate and is now available to the public for download. This was a huge milestone for the team as it brings together twenty-two months of planning and development to deliver a unified virtual and physical IT management solution for midsize businesses. With almost nine thousand customers registered for the public beta, we look forward to driving even more awareness with the release candidate. Here are the new features and functionality added for RC:

· Additional virtualization support: Pro tips integration, Live migration with clustering support, Jobs view

· Upgrade / Migration support: TAP customers running beta can upgrade to the RC; Customers running SCEv1 (including running VMM workgroup edition) will be able to upgrade to SCEv2 RTM; Disaster recovery and moving from to a new server while retaining data will be supported in SCEv2 Resource Kit.

· Licensing: New workflow for purchase from evaluation; SKUs are buildable with correct license terms.

· Agent deployment with WSUS: If a failure occurs deploying Operations Manager agent, SCE will attempt to deploy using WSUS infrastructure.

· Localization build & process complete: Completed full test pass on localized build; Localized SCE MP and integrated partner localized MPs into build process.

So, Check it out and enjoy!

Massive iSCSI IOPs for Hyper-V

Suzanne Morgan, a Senior Program Manager – Storage and File Systems at Microsoft is presenting a webcast today at 11 PST on some fantastic iSCSI performance numbers (Check out this blog for information on the webcast).

I don’t want to steal all the thunder from this webcast, but would like to share with you some exciting information. The webcast talks about both Windows Server 2008 R2 iSCSI performance numbers, but also Windows Server 2008 R2 Hyper-V performance numbers.

What this graphic shows is that with Hyper-V using Intel VMDq and Microsoft VMQ, we are achieving 750,000+ IOPs, and achieve native throughput at 8k and above block sizes.

What does this mean? Well, if you are going to run, say, Microsoft Exchange in a VM hosted on iSCSI storage, you will be able to handle a tremendous amount of mailboxes even under a “heavy” profile.

Take a listen to the webcast and see where Windows Server 2008 R2 has gotten to.

4 Big Guns on a Conference Call Recap

Wow! the Microsoft/HP call/announcement went out and it was great to hear them on the call answering questions.

I think Mark Hurd said it best when someone asked isn’t this just the same old, same old? He said something to the fact that if this wasn’t big, you wouldn’t have gotten these people on the phone together. This announcement is going to change the way customers can reap the benefits of virtualization. It is going to be huge.

I wrote on it on the Windows Server 2008 R2 Experts Blogs today, so check it out. I think the two things to note for Virtualization are:

• HP and Microsoft will put together bundles that make virtualization easier for the masses
• Systems designed for Virtualization
• Management Integrations to make it fly
• Where we are going to take the cloud gives our customers endless possibilities

This is going to be fun.

With R2 Microsoft can Dynamically Handle Virtual Workloads

Unless you have been under a rock for the past 6 months, you have probably heard that Microsoft now has the ability to move a running Virtual Machine from one box to another without downtime. With the release of Windows Server 2008 R2, Hyper-V, or the free version Windows Hyper-V Server 2008 R2, we now have Live Migration capabilities. This was a feature that was lacking with the previous version and a major blocker for adoption by some organizations.

Now, Live Migration is available, great, but do I still have to manually pick and choose which VMs to move from one location to another. Answer, No, you don’t.

This TechEd Online TechTalk details how Microsoft dynamically handles changes in workloads.

Even before Microsoft released Hyper-V R2 with Live Migration Capabilities, they released a capability within the System Center Suite of Tools called PRO Tips (or Performance and Resource Optimization Tips) that, through the use of Management Packs in Operations Manager, monitors aspects of the Physical Layer, Virtual Layer, or Application Layer, and when an alert is generated, can automatically (or manually) take action within the Virtual environment. This video explains how PRO works, and discusses the benefits of PRO to enable a dynamic infrastructure.

Beyond that, take a listen to the following TechNet Webcast on PRO that describes in detail what PRO is, how it works, talks some on the Partner Integrations we have.

Influencer?

Do you have opinions and ideas? Would you like to share your thoughts on Virtualization and System Center (or Management as others would call it)?

Become and Influencer!!!

We are looking for folks that have an opinion, and I know you do.

Check out: http://bit.ly/2PfCpT and join Microsoft’s Influencer Program.

Microsoft Site Recovery Solutions Launch

An interesting Post today by Jim Schwartz, Director Virtualization Solutions, at Microsoft.

Basically, we are leveraging the openness of our Platform to allow partners to develop solutions that meet a customer’s particular need. In this case it is Site Recovery.

Despite tough times, an Enterprise Strategy Group study shows that 31% of businesses surveyed said DR will be their main driver for Virtualization in 2009.

These are some exciting solutions, and I can’t wait for the webcast to see what this will provide.

Take a look at the article, and let me know what you think of the webcast.

New Infrastructure Planning and Design Guide for SCVMM 2008 R2 Released

To help an organization answer the age old question,”How do i get started?” Our Solutions Accelerator Team has created an IPD Guide for System Center Virtual Machine Manager 2008 R2 as well as for Windows Server 2008 R2 Hyper-V.

These IPD Guides have Step by step processes to help guide an organization down the path of virtualization.

For SCVMM 2008 R2 the flow looks like the following:

For Windows Server 2008 R2 the 9-Step process is below:

 

These Guides are great and really help people embark on the journey towards virtualization where they can achieve the benefits of virtualizing their infrastructure more quickly than doing it on their own.

Still Strong after almost 2 years - Hey Dad MS Licensing Video

Back around this time in 2007, while I was still a Staff Systems Engineer over at VMware, I had a lunchtime meeting with an enemy TSP, Michael Cooper, from Microsoft. There we discussed how MS licensing (of the OS) in a Virtual environment worked. When could you VMotion (Live Migrate) these VMs, and what were the repercussions of the 90 Day Rule.

We actually did this with sweetener packets on the table and it really cleared things up for me.

From there, a year ago last January (2008), I created a First in a short lived (1) series of Videos called “Hey Dad”, where I worked with my kids to produce a little documentary on how the MS Licensing policy works.

I thought it was a nice video, and everyone that saw it seemed to understand the MS licensing scheme better. One of the coolest things about it was when someone from MS Europe sent me a request asking if they could use the Video in one of their internal trainings. Internal Trainings. At the time, I though, wow, shouldn’t this be easier? I get it, it doesn’t seem that hard, but really most people don’t, and hopefully after watching the video, they will.

Nearly two years later, and it is still one of the definitive training videos for MS Licensing of OSs in the Virtual World as referenced by one of Rich from Bechtle’s latest Blog Microsoft & Virtual Licensing

It is nice to see it still working. Now to expand the series for Licensing MS Apps in a Virtual World…

VMworld 2009 Wrap-Up

Wow, how to sum it all up. Definitely, VMworld was fun, and VMware puts on a nice conference. I would have to say, however, that I was a little disappointed.

The keynotes didn’t show anything new? Everything I saw there was really everything I saw at VMworld Europe (in fact it was pretty much the same stuff I saw at last year’s VMworld), and to be honest, I think they presented it better at VMworld Europe. I wasn’t the only one to think so (Mike Laverick at rtfm-ed.co.uk):

And that was it. So nothing too radical or shocking - and more or less a restatement of the agenda in Canne…

If you happened to stay until the very end, you got a few seconds on SpringSource, but even that seemed not put together very well.

They did finish a big release cycle, and probably the next major release is a few years off, so they may not have the roadmap down right now, perhaps that is what it was.

There were a couple of sessions that I liked, but mostly, those were flat as well. The VMware Head to Head vs. Microsoft and Citrix was interesting, but obviously they are going to only show their good side there and put us in the most unfavorable light that they can.

The part I liked the best was the Solutions Exchange. Being the “little guy” at the conference, there was a definite feeling of excitement. It felt very similar to when I first started with VMware and was at the LinuxWorld conference. There was a feeling in the Microsoft Booth and with the customers and partners that I talked with where they wanted to work with us. As I was walking around the booths, or tweeting away, I was contacted by many different partners, and there was this energy about it. From DataCore and their help with my 3 Laptop Demo (which I didn’t show at the show), to Pano Logic to Citrix, to all of the partners at the show. They all seemed to want to work with us.

Everyone was really upbeat about Microsoft’s advances, and when we talked with customers, more and more “light bulbs” went off. I can really do all of that? It costs only that much? WOW!

It was really good seeing all of my old friends from VMware (and some from other companies), and though there were some awkward silences (when conversation switched to business), it was the best part of the whole show.

It is a two horse race now, and we are coming in strong. This year is going to be exciting, and I can’t wait.