Server Virtualization

For Server Virtualization. I have written some steps to administrator hyper-v

1.       You go to PowerShell you enter the memory\available\mbytes command what that does is it tells you the amount of physical memory available to the Hyper-V host operating system can be determined by monitoring the “\Memory\Available Mbytes” performance monitor counter on the physical computer. 

2.      Still in PowerShell in Hyper-V use the using the "\Hyper-V Virtual Network Adapter (*) \Bytes/sec" performance monitor counter to identify which virtual network adapters are consuming the most network utilization.

3.      Dynamic Memory is a new Hyper-V feature that helps you use physical memory more efficiently. With Dynamic Memory, Hyper-V treats memory as a shared resource that can be reallocated automatically among running virtual machines. Dynamic Memory adjusts the amount of memory available to a virtual machine, based on changes in memory demand and values that you specify. 

4.      Core Parking is the ability for the operating system to put cores of processors and entire processors in low power state when not in use. Hyper-V R2 supports core parking by allowing VM threads to be moved between cores to enable core parking to happen. Enabling core parking is easy....it is enabled by default when you install Windows Server 2008 R2. You do hav ethe ability to manage some power settings  using PowerCFG.EXE.

5. First create a new pool via PowerShell (New-VMResourcePool). (In case of a VHD pool you must specify the VHD storage paths to add to the pool in the moment you create the pool.)

      In case of an Ethernet pool add existing virtual switches to the pool (Add-Switch).

Reconfigure existing VMs that you want to measure so that they use resources from the pool. The PowerShell Set-VM* commands accept a parameter -ResourcePoolName to do that. Example: Set-VMMemory -VMName APP-02 -ResourcePoolName MyPool1

Start measuring with Enable-VMResourceMetering.

Query collected data as often as you need with Measure-VMResourcePool. Note that you should specify the pool resource type in the command to get reliable data (see my post above, Jan 7th).

When a metering period (such as a week or a month) has passed, reset the counter to zero with Reset-           VMResourceMetering.

6.      The simple idea is to aggregate resources and provide them to virtual machines or tenants if it is service provider (This can be large organization who provide tenants level resource allocation to each departments as well) There are various resources types we can allocate under the HYPER-V 

7.      Hyper-V integration services, are a bundled set of software which, when installed in the virtual machine improves integration between the host server and the virtual machine. Integration services come pre-installed in most supported guest operating systems.

8.      Hyper-V ICS allow a virtual machine to communicate with the Hyper-V host. Many of these services are conveniences, such as guest file copy, while others are important to the virtual machine's ability to function correctly, such as time synchronization. This set of services are sometimes referred to as integration components.

9. Export

Select the virtual machine in Hyper-V Manager in Windows Server 2012 R2.

Right-click on the selected virtual machine.

Select Export.

When prompted, select a location in which to export.  This location can be either a locally attached drive or a network share.

import

Copy the folder containing the virtual machines files (configuration files, snapshots, virtual hard disks, etc.) to the desired destination. This can be either an exported VM, or simply the VM folder from another Hyper-V host.

From within the Actions pane in Hyper-V Manager, click on Import Virtual Machines.

Browse to the folder you copied to the host in step #1 and click on the Next button.

10.  A clone is a copy of an existing virtual machine. The existing virtual machine is called the parent of the clone. When the cloning operation is complete, the clone is a separate virtual machine — though it may share virtual disks with the parent virtual machine.

11.  Before cloning a VM, you may want to prepare the source VM with the Sysprep (System Preparation Tool) utility to reset and remove the unique security identifier (SID) for the VM, and avoid issues such as two computers have a same IP address or two computers have the same computer name. 

12. Open System Center Virtual Machine Manager console.

Go to Virtual Machine tab.

Locate and right click on the virtual machine that you want to clone, and select Clone.

The full clone of origin virtual machine is now created and listed in the SCVMM console. SCVMM also automatically Sysprep the virtual machine it cloned before deploying it.

13.  A snapshot allows an administrator to keep a copy of the "Last known good" VM configuration, that if needed, can replace the broken VM in a matter of seconds. The snapshot replaces the tainted VM and picks up where it left off at the time of the snapshot's creation. ull VM and file-level backups. Agentless. No VM shutdown required. On-LAN backups. Reduced load on ESX hosts

14.   the VM was running or in a saved state, this sub-folder will contain a .bin and a. vs. (virtual machine saved state file). You can specify any location for the. hex and the. avhdx files are always created in the same location as their parent. vhdx files.

15.  The entire VM restore operation recovers an entire VM from the backup file and registers the VM on the target host. Full VM recovery takes more time than Instant VM Recovery as you have to extract the VM image from the backup to the production storage. However, you do not need to take any additional steps to finalize entire VM restore: entire VM restore actually recovers a failed VM on the production storage and provides full disk I/O performance.

16.  just select the VM and select Snapshot from the Actions pane in Hyper-V Manager. The status of the virtual machine will change to “Taking Snapshot” and show the progress of the action using a percentage value. You can view your snapshots in the Snapshots pane (this might require expanding) of a selected virtual machine in the center of Hyper-V Manager. By default, the snapshot is named after the virtual machine and shows the date and timestamp of the snapshot. You can rename the snapshot to something more descriptive. You can also view the settings of a snapshot to observe the specification of the virtual machine at the time of snapshot creation.

17.  t’s better to think about Hyper-V 1.       You go to PowerShell you enter the memory\available\mbytes command what that does is it tells you the amount of physical memory available to the Hyper-V host operating system can be determined by monitoring the “\Memory\Available Mbytes” performance monitor counter on the physical computer. 

2.      Still in PowerShell in Hyper-V use the using the "\Hyper-V Virtual Network Adapter (*) \Bytes/sec" performance monitor counter to identify which virtual network adapters are consuming the most network utilization.

3.      Dynamic Memory is a new Hyper-V feature that helps you use physical memory more efficiently. With Dynamic Memory, Hyper-V treats memory as a shared resource that can be reallocated automatically among running virtual machines. Dynamic Memory adjusts the amount of memory available to a virtual machine, based on changes in memory demand and values that you specify. 

4.      Core Parking is the ability for the operating system to put cores of processors and entire processors in low power state when not in use. Hyper-V R2 supports core parking by allowing VM threads to be moved between cores to enable core parking to happen. Enabling core parking is easy....it is enabled by default when you install Windows Server 2008 R2. You do hav ethe ability to manage some power settings  using PowerCFG.EXE.

5. First create a new pool via PowerShell (New-VMResourcePool). (In case of a VHD pool you must specify the VHD storage paths to add to the pool in the moment you create the pool.)

      In case of an Ethernet pool add existing virtual switches to the pool (Add-Switch).

Reconfigure existing VMs that you want to measure so that they use resources from the pool. The PowerShell Set-VM* commands accept a parameter -ResourcePoolName to do that. Example: Set-VMMemory -VMName APP-02 -ResourcePoolName MyPool1

Start measuring with Enable-VMResourceMetering.

Query collected data as often as you need with Measure-VMResourcePool. Note that you should specify the pool resource type in the command to get reliable data (see my post above, Jan 7th).

When a metering period (such as a week or a month) has passed, reset the counter to zero with Reset-           VMResourceMetering.

6.      The simple idea is to aggregate resources and provide them to virtual machines or tenants if it is service provider (This can be large organization who provide tenants level resource allocation to each departments as well) There are various resources types we can allocate under the HYPER-V 

7.      Hyper-V integration services, are a bundled set of software which, when installed in the virtual machine improves integration between the host server and the virtual machine. Integration services come pre-installed in most supported guest operating systems.

8.      Hyper-V ICS allow a virtual machine to communicate with the Hyper-V host. Many of these services are conveniences, such as guest file copy, while others are important to the virtual machine's ability to function correctly, such as time synchronization. This set of services are sometimes referred to as integration components.

9. Export

Select the virtual machine in Hyper-V Manager in Windows Server 2012 R2.

Right-click on the selected virtual machine.

Select Export.

When prompted, select a location in which to export.  This location can be either a locally attached drive or a network share.

import

Copy the folder containing the virtual machines files (configuration files, snapshots, virtual hard disks, etc.) to the desired destination. This can be either an exported VM, or simply the VM folder from another Hyper-V host.

From within the Actions pane in Hyper-V Manager, click on Import Virtual Machines.

Browse to the folder you copied to the host in step #1 and click on the Next button.

10.  A clone is a copy of an existing virtual machine. The existing virtual machine is called the parent of the clone. When the cloning operation is complete, the clone is a separate virtual machine — though it may share virtual disks with the parent virtual machine.

11.  Before cloning a VM, you may want to prepare the source VM with the Sysprep (System Preparation Tool) utility to reset and remove the unique security identifier (SID) for the VM, and avoid issues such as two computers have a same IP address or two computers have the same computer name. 

12. Open System Center Virtual Machine Manager console.

Go to Virtual Machine tab.

Locate and right click on the virtual machine that you want to clone, and select Clone.

The full clone of origin virtual machine is now created and listed in the SCVMM console. SCVMM also automatically Sysprep the virtual machine it cloned before deploying it.

13.  A snapshot allows an administrator to keep a copy of the "Last known good" VM configuration, that if needed, can replace the broken VM in a matter of seconds. The snapshot replaces the tainted VM and picks up where it left off at the time of the snapshot's creation. ull VM and file-level backups. Agentless. No VM shutdown required. On-LAN backups. Reduced load on ESX hosts

14.   the VM was running or in a saved state, this sub-folder will contain a .bin and a. vs. (virtual machine saved state file). You can specify any location for the. hex and the. avhdx files are always created in the same location as their parent. vhdx files.

15.  The entire VM restore operation recovers an entire VM from the backup file and registers the VM on the target host. Full VM recovery takes more time than Instant VM Recovery as you have to extract the VM image from the backup to the production storage. However, you do not need to take any additional steps to finalize entire VM restore: entire VM restore actually recovers a failed VM on the production storage and provides full disk I/O performance.

16.  just select the VM and select Snapshot from the Actions pane in Hyper-V Manager. The status of the virtual machine will change to “Taking Snapshot” and show the progress of the action using a percentage value. You can view your snapshots in the Snapshots pane (this might require expanding) of a selected virtual machine in the center of Hyper-V Manager. By default, the snapshot is named after the virtual machine and shows the date and timestamp of the snapshot. You can rename the snapshot to something more descriptive. You can also view the settings of a snapshot to observe the specification of the virtual machine at the time of snapshot creation.

17.  t’s better to think about Hyper-V checkpoint as a consistent state of a VM in a specific point in time. This means you could preserve this state for a while and revert back to it if something happened with the current state of a VM. Checkpoints are not vms According to TechNet check point is the same as a snapshot.

18.   When you apply a snapshot.  It reverts the vm back to a working state.

19.  The short answer is to delete each of the snapshots, and then shutdown your VM. Hyper-v will merge the AVHD files into the original parent VHD and you will have just the one VHD file at the end      

checkpoint as a consistent state of a VM in a specific point in time. This means you could preserve this state for a while and revert back to it if something happened with the current state of a VM. Checkpoints are not vms According to TechNet check point is the same as a snapshot.

18.   When you apply a snapshot.  It reverts the vm back to a working state.

19.  The short answer is to delete each of the snapshots, and then shutdown your VM. Hyper-v will merge the AVHD files into the original parent VHD and you will have just the one VHD file at the end