AnilDesai.net

Microsoft MVP Award for 2008-2009

Apr 1

Posted by Anil Desai in Uncategorized | No Comments

I just found out that I was again selected for the Microsoft MVP Award! The Microsoft Most Valuable Professional (MVP) Award is designed to provide thanks and recognition to individuals that write and speak about Microsoft technologies. My specific award area is "Management Infrastructure: Architecture". I also do a lot of writing and speaking on related technologies, including Microsoft SQL Server and virtualization.

You can find more details on my MVP Profile. If any other MVPs are reading this post, let me know – perhaps we can meet up at the conference in Seattle later this month.

Using System Center Virtual Machine Manager (SCVMM)

Mar 28

Posted by Anil Desai in Management, Microsoft System Center, Virtualization | No Comments

It’s clear that many organizations are looking for solutions to managing their virtualization environments. Numerous vendors have entered this market, and leading enterprise management vendors have added virtualization support to their products. Microsoft’s entry – System Center Virtual Machine Manager – helps to address some of the most common problems related to deploying and managing VMs. While there are certainly limitations in the first version of the product, Microsoft will soon be adding supporting for VMware.

I recently wrote an article on SCVMM for SearchServerVirtualization.com. From the introduction:

Is it really possible to have too much of a good thing? When it comes to virtual machines (VMs), that often seems to be the case. More is not necessarily better from the standpoint of systems administration. The issue of VM sprawl – the rapid proliferation of virtual machines in a production environment – can present a challenge. Apart from the larger number of operating systems and application stacks to manage, the entire process of IT systems management can be upended.

For most IT departments, automation is a necessity for managing more than a few systems, whether physical or virtual. In this tip, I will offer a solution: Microsoft’s System Center application suite. While this software package is only one option, I’ll use it to illustrate how automation can help resolve real issues.

You can access the entire article, Managing virtual machines with Microsoft System Center for free online.

RunAs Radio: Virtualization / Hyper-V Discussion

Mar 27

Posted by Anil Desai in IT Tips, Management, Microsoft Hyper-V, Systems Admin | No Comments

Earlier this morning, I had the privilege of chatting with Richard Campbell and Greg Hughes, hosts of RunAs Radio. The discussion focused on Microsoft’s Hyper-V, and the importance of virtualization management/automation. It’s a fairly fast-paced conversation and is around 30 minutes long. The show will be available shortly (and for free) at http://runasradio.com/default.aspx?showNum=52.

Virtual Strategy Magazine: Optimizing Virtualization Performance

Mar 24

Posted by Anil Desai in Management, Policies | No Comments

M article, Empire Management, Episode 2: Optimizing Virtualization Performance, is now available on the Virtual Strategy Magazine web site. From the article’s introduction:

Whether your primary job function is more like that of Han Solo – avoiding Imperial pursuit forces – or that of Darth Vader (doing said pursuing), you know that performance is important. Part of every IT manager’s mission is to squeeze as much potential performance out of existing investments as possible. While your data center might resemble a massive Death Star, it’s important that it’s individual components run as smoothly as, say, a TIE Fighter.

In my previous article in this series, Empire Management 101, I focused on topics related to how you can monitor the performance of your virtualization host servers and the VMs that they support. In this article, I’m going to focus on the application of this information – how you can use performance details to make better decisions about how to deploy and distribute your VMs.

Don’t let all the Star Wars references fool you – the article does include some important technical recommendations for monitoring, managing, and optimizing virtualization performance. May the Force be with you!

Advanced NAS Features for Virtualization Article

Mar 10

Posted by Anil Desai in Management, Storage, Virtualization | No Comments

I recently wrote an article on using Network-Attached Storage (NAS) devices for supporting virtualization. You can find the article, Using advanced NAS features in virtualization at SearchServerVirtualization. From the article’s introduction:

When it comes to determining the type of storage to deploy, are you a storage-technology snob? Or do you consider network-attached storage (NAS) devices as part of your storage strategy?

There’s clearly a perception among some systems administrators that high-end solutions such as Fibre Channel-based SANs provide the better performance. Or they might prefer products based on iSCSI, which provide some of the same benefits such as block-level disk I/O. Plus, iSCSI-based products run over existing copper-based Ethernet connections instead of requiring a much more expensive fiber optic infrastructure, making them even more attractive to admins.

So where does this leave the tried and true NAS device? While newer technologies get most of the attention, modern NAS devices provide many new features, including ones that simplify virtualization and support larger numbers of virtual machines (VMs). How these advanced features benefit virtualization will be the focus of this tip.

Personally, I think NAS solutions are great for organizations of all sizes. They’re certainly far more cost effective than Fibre Channel SANs and work well with solutions that don’t need block-level I/O.

Read the full article to learn about these advanced features and to find out if or how NAS devices can help alleviate potential storage-related issues for your virtual infrastructure.

WebCast: Controlling VM Sprawl

Feb 20

Posted by Anil Desai in Management, Policies, Virtualization | No Comments

I recently recorded a live WebCast titled Virtualization: Best Practices for Preventing VM Sprawl. The presentation walks through some recommendations for gaining (or regaining) control in environments where IT departments are having a hard time managing hundreds or dozens of VMs. Here’s the abstract:

Industry experts agree that implementing virtualization without good management is more dangerous than not using virtualization in the first place. While organizations and IT staff do see the many benefits of implementing virtualization, the challenge of controlling virtual infrastructures is quickly rising as a top management priority. According to a Gartner survey, Virtual Machine (VM) "sprawl" is a major concern that appears to lack a comprehensive solution (Virtualization Needs and Trends, Cameron Haight, 29 August 2007).

This webinar will look at sources of VM sprawl and investigate the dangers inherent in a sprawl condition. It will focus on best practices for preventing VM sprawl and for establishing and maintaining control of virtualized environments.

The presenter, Anil Desai, draws on his past experience as a data center manager who has successfully managed environments of thousands of virtual machines as well as his books on this subject to outline a series of best practices aimed at maintaining control of your virtual machines, no matter how many you have.

The WebCast was sponsored by Embotics, and includes information about their V-Commander product, which helps manage VMs. I hope you find the content to be useful!

Free P2V Backup/DR Tutorial

Feb 14

Posted by Anil Desai in Backup / Disaster Recovery, Management, VMware | No Comments

Virtualization technology provides a lot of promise related to implementing backups and managing disaster recovery environments. For example, since VMs are self-contained, they can be easily moved or copied to other servers. Administrators can use a variety of methods to keep multiple VMs synchronized (see my Backup / DR category for some articles on the topic). But, in the real world, the problem becomes implementation. With most virtualization platforms, you’ll either need to invest in additional (and often, costly) tools, or you’ll need to roll your own.

For the latter approach, Frane Borozan has created a physical2virtual.backup tutorial that walks through the major steps of setting up backups and DR for VMware environments. From the site’s home page:

I will here describe whole process of implementation of virtual servers into your current network infrastructure. With virtualization you will get virtual failover servers and you will have fresh replica of all of your important data, so in case main servers failure you will have fast disaster recovery plan that just works. Of course you can have clusters in your network infrastructure but what is the cost of managing clusters and paying licenses for that expensive kind on in stable software.

There are always savings into hardware and power consumption, imagine now you need to have one physical for every server you own if you want to have good disaster recovery plan, with this you can have dozen of backups on the same server and you will run only backup that is needed in case of the disaster.

He also provides scripts and batch file commands for automating the process (a huge time-saver for those that want to use this approach). Perhaps the best thing about the Tutorial is that it’s really practical. It doesn’t assume you’ll be making multi-million-dollar investments in proprietary hardware and software. Rather, it helps you utilize your standard infrastructure – multi-homed servers and Gb Ethernet switches.

Good luck, and feel free to leave comments if you have any feedback on the approach!

DevTeach Conference Sessions

Feb 13

Posted by Anil Desai in Databases / SQL Server, Microsoft Hyper-V, Virtualization | 1 Comment

I’m going to be speaking at the DevTeach Conference in Toronto, Canada. The conference runs from May 12 – 16, 2008. I’ll be giving two presentations on virtualization and one on SQL Server. Here are the topics and descriptions:

Evaluating Virtualization Tools and Technologies

There’s far more than one way to implement virtualization. For example, Microsoft has several different products which are designed to help solve organizations’ largest IT challenges. This presentation will cover information about presentation virtualization (Citrix and Windows Terminal Services), application virtualization (Virtuzzo and Microsoft SoftGrid), and server virtualization (including products from VMware, Microsoft, and other vendors). The goal is to help IT professionals determine the best solution(s) for implementing virtualization in their environments.

Windows Server 2008’s Hyper-V: Inside and Out

One of the most compelling features of Windows Server 2008 is its completely new virtualization feature. This presentation will provide details related to the architecture of Hyper-V and what it means to IT departments. Details related to deploying and managing VMs will be presented, with a focus on virtual hard disk and virtual network management. Attendees will also learn how to automate virtualization using WMI and Windows PowerShell.

SQL Server Data Protection and High Availability

SQL Server includes numerous features for protecting important data and ensuring high-availability. This presentation will provide live demonstrations of implementing backup and recovery plans, log-shipping, database mirroring, Fail-Over clusters and database snapshots. The presentation includes recommendations for choosing the best approach given a set of requirements. Presentation scripts and sample code will also be made available.

You can also find more details on the dozens of other presentation topics on the DevTeach Sessions page.

A Comprehensive Document of What’s Really in Vista SP1

Feb 5

Posted by Anil Desai in Systems Admin, Windows Vista | No Comments

I have been testing Windows Vista SP1 for many months now, since the early beta versions of the update. While I can’t say that it has solved all of my problems (see My Struggles with Windows Vista for details), it has made a few noticeable improvements in performance. However, with all the media coverage I have seen thus far, people tend to focus on one or two of the hundreds of changes included in the Service Pack. The information ranges from simple restatements of Microsoft press releases to "benchmarks" which use dubious measurement methods.

Fortunately, Microsoft has recently published a comprehensive guide that lists all of the changes introduced by SP1. You can download Notable changes in Windows Vista SP1 in PDF or XPS format. The guide is long, but it provides a concise, descriptive and (presumably) complete list of what you can expect. Certainly, there’s a lot of ambiguity based on "certain types of devices" and similar marketing-friendly terms. (Sometimes I wish Microsoft would just identify the hardware manufacturers that don’t follow the rules for driver development.) Overall, it’s a handy reference that I recommend. The document also includes a whopping 35-page index of all of the hotfixes and security updates that are included with the SP1 update.

Unfortunately, even with the latest updates, I still can’t get Sleep mode to work on two of my desktop computers (one of which shipped with Windows Vista and the other which is based on a clean installation). So far, it looks like Windows Vista SP1 will be "too little, too late" for me. I just hope something happens to prove me wrong.

Windows Server 2008 Webcasts: Info in 10-Minute Chunks

Jan 24

Posted by Anil Desai in IT Tips, Systems Admin, Windows Server | No Comments

One of the hardest parts of learning about a huge new operating system release like Windows Server 2008 is sifting through all of the available information for for what really matters to you. For example, if you routinely have to support Branch Office scenarios for your domain controllers, you’d like to avoid all of the marketing babble about how revolutionary the product is and get right down to to the technical details. And, if you’re like me, you don’t want to skip around a 90-minute webcast to find the five minutes of information you really want to hear.

The Windows Server 2008 Webcast Express Demo Videos highlights the many different improvements and new features in Windows Server 2008 through some concise videos (most are around 10 minutes long). It focuses on screencasts rather than PowerPoint slides so you can see various features in action. I recently checked out the High Performance and Scalable Networking webcast to learn about QoS options and IPv6 updates. Overall, this is my preferred way of getting information. I rarely like to set aside 90 minutes or so to attend a webcast, but it’s easy to find 10 – 15 minutes to learn about something new just about every day.

Using Google Trends and Zeitgeist

Jan 21

Posted by Anil Desai in IT Tips, Virtualization | No Comments

One of the most interesting things about our reliance on search engines is the ability to see what others are looking for. Google, for one, provides numerous tools for monitoring search patterns and other details. I have been aware of Google Trends for quite a while, but only recently started using it for doing some searches. The site allows you to enter one or more search terms and provides you with graphs related to the results. Following is a chart from the results of a comparison of searches for the popular terms virtualization, enterprise management, and storage management.

I chose these terms as a simple example of the information that’s available. In addition to trend information on the number of searches, you can find the source by region/city India and Singapore seem to be really interested in these IT topics), coordination with information about news on the various topics, and a graph of news references over time. You can also click on a region to drill-down on source locations or limit the years of analysis.

You could try entering your own name or your blog site, but keep in mind that terms have to be pretty high before the service will return results. My major complaint with the site is that the y-axis of the graph does not show any scale. Rather, it just depicts "Search Volume". I’m sure this is done for competitive reasons, and it’s a reasonable trade-off for the free information.

Of course, stat-junkies would love to see summary information to get their finger on the pulse of the world (according to search terms). Google Zeitgeist provides just that: Year-end summaries and breakdowns of interesting topics.

Keep in mind that the type of information you can extract from search term statistics can sometimes be misleading. For example, I’ll bet that people rarely search for the terms "Oracle" and "Microsoft" vs. just going to the respective vendors’ sites directly. Then again, searches for the term "Google" seem fairly high based on Google Trends results. Overall, features like this make for some interesting observations. I primarily use Google, but I’m interested in hearing from readers: What other online statistics services am I missing?

Creating VMs with Hyper-V

Jan 17

Posted by Anil Desai in Microsoft Hyper-V, Virtualization | No Comments

If you’re itching to get your hands (or at least your eyes) on Hyper-V, you can read more about the process of using it’s new management tools from a SearchServerVirtualiztion.com tip I recently wrote. The article is available for free (registration might be required). From the introduction to Creating Microsoft Hyper-V virtual machines:

Can you think of a better past time than to start working (or playing) with some upcoming beta software? OK, I can too, but it still beats most aspects of getting back to the daily grind. If you have already installed Hyper-V on a compatible machine, you can get started with creating and configuring new virtual machines (VMs). I’ll present the steps required to configure the server and to create and import VMs.

Also, check out my upcoming screencasts on the same topics.

Evaluating Virtualization Management Solutions: Free eBook Chapter

Jan 11

Posted by Anil Desai in Best Practices, Management | 1 Comment

The tenth and final chapter of my eBook, the Definitive Guide to Virtual Platform Management is now available for free download (registration is required). The complete eBook, available as a single PDF, should be available sometime in the near future. The chapter focuses on details that IT professionals should keep in mind when looking for tools to manage virtualization. From the introduction:

IT organizations are often aware of the fact that costs associated with managing new technology can far outweigh the initial deployment costs. Virtualization is no exception. Although the ability to run multiple isolated workloads on the same hardware can provide immediate cost savings and benefits throughout the environment, the associated administration tasks involve significant time and effort.

Throughout the previous chapters, I have covered a wide array of practices and recommendations for gaining and retaining control over virtualized environments. The primary challenge is that properly managing an environment that contains dozens (if not hundreds) of virtual machines can be very difficult. When these tasks are performed manually, IT organizations must absorb significant costs.

Fortunately, there’s a better way—through the use of virtualization-aware enterprise automation solutions much of the work can be simplified or even eliminated. With the proliferation of virtual machine technology, literally dozens of products are available for meeting these needs. The focus of this chapter is on presenting factors that should be considered when evaluating these solutions. I’ll present details related to the overall goals of virtualization management, along with specific features IT organizations should look for in products that will help manage their mixed virtual and physical infrastructures.

I hope readers find the entire guide to be useful. Feel free to leave questions and comments here.

Tools for Managing Virtualization

Jan 8

Posted by Anil Desai in Management, Policies | No Comments

While virtualization technology certainly helps reduce some of the most important problems for IT organizations, there’s a potential downside. Many organizations have found that they’re ill-equipped to manage the dozens or hundreds of VMs that tend to pop-up once virtualization software has been deployed. Some of these deployments circumvent IT, while others just slip in under the radar. For example, VMs that are only occasionally powered on or that are not connected to external networks can be overlooked entirely. When they’re brought online, they’re often out-of-date with respect to patches.

Megan Santosus recently interviewed me for her SearchServerVirtualization.com article, Does virtualization need special management tools? From the article:

If server virtualization has a dark side, it may be virtual machine (VM) sprawl. The principal problem created by sprawl is that IT administrators can’t certify that all deployed VMs meet an organization’s policies and procedures just as they would certify physical servers. "Deploying VMs at many organizations circumvents the standard processes for deploying physical servers," noted SearchServerVirtualization.com contributor Anil Desai.

The main idea is that virtualization-aware tools are a must for organizations that must maintain control of their production deployments. Embotics is one of many organizations that has understood that need and has developed products that are focused on virtual environments. For more details, see the White Paper that I wrote for Embotics, titled Controlling VM Sprawl: Best Practices for Maintaining Control of Virtualized Infrastructures.

Free Microsoft Learning Course on Hyper-V

Jan 4

Posted by Anil Desai in Management, Microsoft Hyper-V | No Comments

The Microsoft eLearning web site includes a wide variety of different online training courses. I have used many of these to keep up-to-date with new releases and product features. Best of all, there are many courses that are available for free. One such course is Clinic 5935: Introducing Server Virtualization in Microsoft Windows Server 2008 (RC0).

While the naming and terminology of the Hyper-V feature uses some outdated terms, all of the major technical information should still be accurate. This is a good place to start with Microsoft’s E-Learning and to lean about Microsoft’s upcoming virtualization products. Thanks’s to virtualization.info for the link.