Windows Infrastructure

The benefits of VMQ (part 1)

One of the big improvements in windows 2008R2 regarding the performance of networking in a Hyper-V environment is the implementation of Virtual Machines Queues (VMQ). VMQ uses hardware packet filtering to deliver packet data from the external network to your virtual servers directly and doing so, reduces the overhead of routing packets between the management OS and virtual servers.

To make us of VMQ you should be running Windows 2008R2, the physical NIC should support VMQ (or VMDq as Intel calls it) and your virtual machines should be running Windows 7, Windows Server 2008R2 or Windows 2008/Vista with the windows 2008R2 Integration Services installed. Older versions cannot make us of VMQ.

Most Intel 10Gig NIC do support VMDq. In the gigabit range you should go for an Intel ET, ET2, EF or VT Based card. Other vendors have announced they will support VMQ in the near future, at this moment I'm not aware of any vendor, other than Intel that has support for VMQ.

When VMQ is enabled a dedicated queue is established on the physical NIC for each virtual NIC that has requested a queue. Because queues are allocated on a first-come-first-served basis it would be a bad idea to enable VMQ for all your VM's. So identify your heavy traffic VM's and enable VMQ for those VM's only. Because VMQ works primary to improve receive side performance, providing the VM's that receive the most packets will benefit most from enabling VMQ.

To enable VMQ for a Virtual Machine, you first need to enable VMQ for a physical NIC. After you have enabled it you can enable VMQ on the Hyper-V Server. Finally you need to configure the virtual NIC of your virtual machine to use VMQ.

These steps will be covered in Part 2. In part 3 we will fine tune VMQ a bit more and see some results of VMQ in action. All I can say at this moment that VMQ is well worth having on your Hyper-V implementations.

August 25, 2010 · Posted by Erik den Burger · 0 Comments

Enabling End-User Recover in DPM fails

Yesterday I tried to enable end-user recovery on my DPM2010 server in my testlab when I was presented the following message:

"Active Directory could not be configured because the Active Directory domain could not be found. Make sure that the domainname is properly constructed. The following example shows a properly constructed domain name: city.corp.company.com"

That's strange. I knew I entered the correct AD name; I checked the network setting, especially the DNS settings but everything was looking OK. So a quick search on the internet (technet is your friend), I discovered the enhanced security of the windows 2008 domain controllers was causing this. The solution was simple. You just need to run the DPMADSchemaExtension.exe tool from a DC instead of running it on the DPM Server.

After doing so I was able to configure the end-user recovery for my DPM 2010 Test.

August 6, 2010 · Posted by Erik den Burger · 0 Comments

Do Not Install Dell EqualLogic PS Series Firmware Versions 5.0.0 or 5.0.1

Tags: Hyper-V · Windows Infrastructure

This weekend I got this message from Dell:

Not the first time Equallogic has troubles with their firmware....

Dear Customer,

Do Not Install Dell EqualLogic PS Series Firmware Versions 5.0.0 or 5.0.1

According to Dell’s records, you have recently downloaded v5.0.0 or v5.0.1 of the Dell EqualLogicTM firmware. Dell has become aware of potential issues with the installation and operation of these versions of the firmware. Under certain conditions, any or all of the following might occur:

• Volumes might not come online properly immediately after the install.

• Replication might not occur properly.

• VMware V4.1 Zero offload performance might be affected.

If you have not yet installed the V5.0.0 or V5.0.1 firmware updates, Dell recommends that you do not install at this time. Dell is working to resolve these issues in future releases.

If you have either of these firmware updates installed and are experiencing any issues with your

array(s), please contact your local Dell EqualLogicTM technical support team for assistance.

Sincerely,

Dell EqualLogic

July, 2010

August 2, 2010 · Posted by Erik den Burger · 0 Comments

Headhunting

Today I got a call when I was working at the office. It was a nice woman, lets call her Marjolein, that would like to give me an offer I couldn't refuse. She started her call by telling her name and her company and that she was a headhunter and she was asked by another company to give me a call. As I'm currently working for Wortell and I don't want to change jobs I interrupted her and asked where she got my phone number. She got my name from her large network of people and called the reception.

I told her kindly that I'm not looking for another job at this moment as I am happy working for Wortell. She replied that it wasn't her intention to steal people from other companies but she thought I would be interested in another job. So I was clear and said I wasn't happy with their way of doing business and that I thought she was indeed stealing people from a company. I said that if I would like to get another job I wouldn't need the assistance of a headhunter in general and in particular her company. I would think she would get the message at this point but now she has even the guts to ask me for my private mobile telephone number. Off course I kindly refused to give het my number which made her sound really disappointed. After the call I informed the reception about this phone call. It looks like she called half of our company already. A memo has been sent to all reception desk workers not to handle her calls anymore.

I do get a lot of emails from several headhunters all the time. Most of them 'know' me from linked-in. And most of them have a very good offer, a golden opportunity or something like that. I've never used a headhunter and I will probably never do so. Why use a headhunter, they only make money in selling people and making false promises.

August 2, 2010 · Posted by Erik den Burger · 0 Comments

2008R2 Service Pack 1 (Beta) available

Tags: Hyper-V · Windows Infrastructure

During the World Partner Conference Microsoft announced the public beta of Service Pack 1 for Windows 2008R2 and Windows 7. Actually this release was supposed to be available in a couple of weeks so the announcement surprised me. The final version is supposed to be out somewhere next year but now the beta is out earlier than expected, who knows?

Besides fixing bugs SP1 introduces two new exciting technologies.

Dynamic Memory

Dynamic memory gives Hyper-V admins a pool available memory on a physical host and dynamically distribute the memory to any virtual guest running on that host. An interesting concept that will make Hyper-V even more flexible to use.

RemoteFX

RemoteFX will enhance the MS Desktop virtualization. It will deliver a better user experience for users of desktop virtualization solutions (RDS, VDI). It will allow users to use full motion video, 3D-Applications and rich Silverlight content. And because the power of the server is being utilized these experiences will be available to a wide array of devices. Another feature that will be welcomed by a lot is the ability to forward USB ports of the local client to the virtual machine just like you are using client based printers now.

As you see, a lot of new technologies that will provide new opportunities. So go out and download SP1 here.

July 12, 2010 · Posted by Erik den Burger · 0 Comments

Test blogpost from my iPad

Tags: Windows Infrastructure

This is my first blogpost from my brand new iPad. Not sure if this toy will help me in my professional life but that's what I'm gonna find out. I'll keep you posted.

June 25, 2010 · Posted by Erik den Burger · 0 Comments

Microsoft Partner of the year

As you may know I'm working for a company in the Netherlands called Wortell. And today we learned that this year we have won not one but two awards of the annual Microsoft Partner Awards. We can call ourselves Country partner of the year and also Online Services Partner of the year. This is something we have been working hard for the past 12.5 years. Although I've been only a part of this for the last year.

It is always a good feeling when you have overcome the challenges of a new product and built an innovative solution tailored for our customers, as we did with the Microsoft online services. Instead of fighting against the cloud we have found a way to use the cloud in our advantage.

Personally, I'm looking forward to a lot of new technologies that will use the cloud. Some of these are just released, like the new DPM 2010, some other will be released soon (SCCM V.next)

June 23, 2010 · Posted by Erik den Burger · 0 Comments

Microsoft Reputation Services 1.1

Tags: TMG

The TMG team has announced the 1.1 version of the MRS. These services are responsible for the categorization of the URL filtering of TMG.

Because more and more people were using the Services the capacity has tripled. Together with a new way of categorizing it will result in faster new/changed URL classifications made availability to customers.

Furthermore a couple of changes in the MRS Portal were made that will result in better user experience on the MRS Portal.

May 29, 2010 · Posted by Erik den Burger · 0 Comments

Equallogic Management Pack

Recently Dell released the storage management pack suite that enables System Center Operations Manager 2007 R2/SP1 and System Center Essentials 2007 SP1 to discover, monitor and depict the status of Dell Equallogic PS Arrays.

The software can be downloaded at http://support.dell.com/support/downloads/download.aspx?c=us&l=en&s=gen&releaseid=R266477&formatcnt=0&libid=0&typeid=-1&dateid=-1&formatid=-1&source=-1&fileid=391688

May 10, 2010 · Posted by Erik den Burger · 0 Comments

Deleting a failed Domain Controller

In the past the removal of a failed Domain Controller wasn't that easy as it sounds. Just deleting the account in de Active directory wasn't enough, you had to manually remove the NTDS object. By using the ntdsutil utility and some cryptic commands you were able to remove the Domain controller.

One if the improvements of Windows 2008 was the inclusion of automatic metadatacleanup. So if you delete a domain controller using the AD Users and Computers snap in you have an option to remove the DC permanently and all metadata will be automatically removed. So there is no need to use the ntdsutil utility anymore. You probably won't use this every day but even then it is good that life is becoming more easy every day ….