Crescent City Networking » Windows Server 2008 R2 http://ccnetworking.com/wordpress Thu, 02 Feb 2012 06:08:40 +0000 en hourly 1 Why you should be using BitLocker on your servers http://blogs.msdn.com/b/virtual_pc_guy/archive/2011/12/21/why-you-should-be-using-bitlocker-on-your-servers.aspx http://blogs.msdn.com/b/virtual_pc_guy/archive/2011/12/21/why-you-should-be-using-bitlocker-on-your-servers.aspx#comments Thu, 22 Dec 2011 00:24:46 +0000 tweetmeme_url = 'http://blogs.msdn.com/b/virtual_pc_guy/archive/2011/12/21/why-you-should-be-using-bitlocker-on-your-servers.aspx';

In Windows Vista we introduced “BitLocker” to Windows – a native full disk encryption technology for Windows.  Most people immediately saw the potential for BitLocker on laptops.  Encrypting your laptop meant that if you were ever unfortunate enough to lose your laptop (through theft or forgetfulness) you would not have to worry about someone else getting access to your data.

But today I would like to explain to you why you want to use BitLocker on your servers too.  All of your servers.

Recently, I had a hard disk fail in one of my servers.  This happens from time to time, and thanks to RAID it was not a big deal.  I just bought a new drive, popped out the old drive, put in the new one, rebuilt the array and I was off and running.

But now I have a problem: what do I do with the old drive?

It’s broken.  So broken that it is hard to delete the data that is on there – but there is data on there none the less.  And despite how unlikely it is that anyone will ever look at it – I am not entirely comfortable with just dropping it in the trash.  Personally, I have had the experience of connecting a broken drive that had been sitting on the shelf for a couple of months and finding that it would work for a couple of hours before failing again.  It is plausible to imagine that someone might find my old drive and hook it up just to see if it worked.

So how do I get rid of that data?

Drives these days are quite hard to destroy.  I have tried to pull them apart manually, I have hit them with a hammer, I have even driven a car over one.  They are surprisingly rugged.  You could sit magnets on them – but you won’t know how effective it has been.  Microwaving the drive should be quite good – but would probably damage the microwave as well.  Besides, there is a much simpler solution: use BitLocker.

Once you have enabled BitLocker on a server – your data is now protected, even if the disk fails.  Especially when the disk fails.  With BitLocker on you can take that failed hard disk and drop it in the bin with no concern of anyone ever getting data off of it.

Happy times.

Cheers,
Ben

]]>

In Windows Vista we introduced “BitLocker” to Windows – a native full disk encryption technology for Windows.  Most people immediately saw the potential for BitLocker on laptops.  Encrypting your laptop meant that if you were ever unfortunate enough to lose your laptop (through theft or forgetfulness) you would not have to worry about someone else getting access to your data.

But today I would like to explain to you why you want to use BitLocker on your servers too.  All of your servers.

Recently, I had a hard disk fail in one of my servers.  This happens from time to time, and thanks to RAID it was not a big deal.  I just bought a new drive, popped out the old drive, put in the new one, rebuilt the array and I was off and running.

But now I have a problem: what do I do with the old drive?

It’s broken.  So broken that it is hard to delete the data that is on there – but there is data on there none the less.  And despite how unlikely it is that anyone will ever look at it – I am not entirely comfortable with just dropping it in the trash.  Personally, I have had the experience of connecting a broken drive that had been sitting on the shelf for a couple of months and finding that it would work for a couple of hours before failing again.  It is plausible to imagine that someone might find my old drive and hook it up just to see if it worked.

So how do I get rid of that data?

Drives these days are quite hard to destroy.  I have tried to pull them apart manually, I have hit them with a hammer, I have even driven a car over one.  They are surprisingly rugged.  You could sit magnets on them – but you won’t know how effective it has been.  Microwaving the drive should be quite good – but would probably damage the microwave as well.  Besides, there is a much simpler solution: use BitLocker.

Once you have enabled BitLocker on a server – your data is now protected, even if the disk fails.  Especially when the disk fails.  With BitLocker on you can take that failed hard disk and drop it in the bin with no concern of anyone ever getting data off of it.

Happy times.

Cheers,
Ben

]]> http://blogs.msdn.com/b/virtual_pc_guy/archive/2011/12/21/why-you-should-be-using-bitlocker-on-your-servers.aspx/feed 0 Protecting against ARP spoofing in Hyper-V http://blogs.msdn.com/b/virtual_pc_guy/archive/2011/08/08/protecting-against-arp-spoofing-in-hyper-v.aspx http://blogs.msdn.com/b/virtual_pc_guy/archive/2011/08/08/protecting-against-arp-spoofing-in-hyper-v.aspx#comments Tue, 09 Aug 2011 05:31:41 +0000 tweetmeme_url = 'http://blogs.msdn.com/b/virtual_pc_guy/archive/2011/08/08/protecting-against-arp-spoofing-in-hyper-v.aspx';

A recent post to the Hyper-V TechNet Forums asked what could be done to protect against ARP spoofing from an untrusted virtual machine.

If you are unfamiliar with ARP spoofing – you can read more about it at WikiPedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ARP_spoofing – but the short summary it is a process where a computer pretends to have the IP address of another computer, and successfully gets network traffic that is destined for the target computer redirected to the untrusted computer.

Fortunately, we added functionality to protect against just such an attack in Windows Server 2008 R2 SP1.

Thomas Roettinger, one of our Premier Field Engineers, just posted a sample script that allows you to configure this functionality.  Essentially, this script allows you to specify what IP addresses a virtual machine is allowed to use – and any attempt to use a different IP address will be ignored by the Hyper-V virtual switch.

Cheers,
Ben

]]>

A recent post to the Hyper-V TechNet Forums asked what could be done to protect against ARP spoofing from an untrusted virtual machine.

If you are unfamiliar with ARP spoofing – you can read more about it at WikiPedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ARP_spoofing – but the short summary it is a process where a computer pretends to have the IP address of another computer, and successfully gets network traffic that is destined for the target computer redirected to the untrusted computer.

Fortunately, we added functionality to protect against just such an attack in Windows Server 2008 R2 SP1.

Thomas Roettinger, one of our Premier Field Engineers, just posted a sample script that allows you to configure this functionality.  Essentially, this script allows you to specify what IP addresses a virtual machine is allowed to use – and any attempt to use a different IP address will be ignored by the Hyper-V virtual switch.

Cheers,
Ben

]]> http://blogs.msdn.com/b/virtual_pc_guy/archive/2011/08/08/protecting-against-arp-spoofing-in-hyper-v.aspx/feed 0 Linux Integration Services 3.1 for Hyper-V http://blogs.msdn.com/b/virtual_pc_guy/archive/2011/08/04/linux-integration-services-3-1-for-hyper-v.aspx http://blogs.msdn.com/b/virtual_pc_guy/archive/2011/08/04/linux-integration-services-3-1-for-hyper-v.aspx#comments Fri, 05 Aug 2011 06:19:27 +0000 tweetmeme_url = 'http://blogs.msdn.com/b/virtual_pc_guy/archive/2011/08/04/linux-integration-services-3-1-for-hyper-v.aspx';

Last week we released an update for the Linux Integration Services for Hyper-V.  You can download the 3.1 release here: http://www.microsoft.com/download/en/details.aspx?id=26837

Key details are that this release supports the following Linux distributions:

  • Red Hat Enterprise Linux 6.0 and 6.1 x86 and x64 (Up to 4 vCPU)
  • CentOS 6.0 x86 and x64 (Up to 4 vCPU)

It also provides support for the “KVP” feature of Hyper-V (I have yet to play with this under Linux, and am hoping to soon, but you can read about KVPs in a number of posts that I have made in the past).

Finally this release includes RPM based installers, which is certainly convenient.

One extra thing to note – if you are running SLES 10 SP3 / 11, or RHEL 5.2 / 5.3 / 5.4 / 5.5 you will need to continue to use the previous release of the Linux Integration Services – which can be downloaded from here: http://www.microsoft.com/download/en/details.aspx?id=24247

Cheers,
Ben

]]>

Last week we released an update for the Linux Integration Services for Hyper-V.  You can download the 3.1 release here: http://www.microsoft.com/download/en/details.aspx?id=26837

Key details are that this release supports the following Linux distributions:

  • Red Hat Enterprise Linux 6.0 and 6.1 x86 and x64 (Up to 4 vCPU)
  • CentOS 6.0 x86 and x64 (Up to 4 vCPU)

It also provides support for the “KVP” feature of Hyper-V (I have yet to play with this under Linux, and am hoping to soon, but you can read about KVPs in a number of posts that I have made in the past).

Finally this release includes RPM based installers, which is certainly convenient.

One extra thing to note – if you are running SLES 10 SP3 / 11, or RHEL 5.2 / 5.3 / 5.4 / 5.5 you will need to continue to use the previous release of the Linux Integration Services – which can be downloaded from here: http://www.microsoft.com/download/en/details.aspx?id=24247

Cheers,
Ben

]]> http://blogs.msdn.com/b/virtual_pc_guy/archive/2011/08/04/linux-integration-services-3-1-for-hyper-v.aspx/feed 0 Best Practices for using SQL Server with Dynamic Memory http://blogs.msdn.com/b/virtual_pc_guy/archive/2011/08/03/best-practices-for-using-sql-server-with-dynamic-memory.aspx http://blogs.msdn.com/b/virtual_pc_guy/archive/2011/08/03/best-practices-for-using-sql-server-with-dynamic-memory.aspx#comments Thu, 04 Aug 2011 06:55:23 +0000 tweetmeme_url = 'http://blogs.msdn.com/b/virtual_pc_guy/archive/2011/08/03/best-practices-for-using-sql-server-with-dynamic-memory.aspx';

I realize that I am running late on recent news at the moment – but things have been busy Smile

On Tuesday this week we published a whitepaper that goes into great depth about using SQL Server with Dynamic Memory.  You can download it from here: http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/hh372970.aspx

This ~40 page document not only outlines the best practices and recommendations for using SQL Server with Dynamic Memory, but it also provides details of the testing that has been done here and the results that were found.  This is particularly useful in giving you some insight into the reasons for the recommendations that are given, and an understanding of what might happen if you do not follow them.

It is well worth the read.

Cheers,
Ben

]]>

I realize that I am running late on recent news at the moment – but things have been busy Smile

On Tuesday this week we published a whitepaper that goes into great depth about using SQL Server with Dynamic Memory.  You can download it from here: http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/hh372970.aspx

This ~40 page document not only outlines the best practices and recommendations for using SQL Server with Dynamic Memory, but it also provides details of the testing that has been done here and the results that were found.  This is particularly useful in giving you some insight into the reasons for the recommendations that are given, and an understanding of what might happen if you do not follow them.

It is well worth the read.

Cheers,
Ben

]]> http://blogs.msdn.com/b/virtual_pc_guy/archive/2011/08/03/best-practices-for-using-sql-server-with-dynamic-memory.aspx/feed 0 Cluster problems after installing SP1 http://blogs.msdn.com/b/virtual_pc_guy/archive/2011/06/20/cluster-problems-after-installing-sp1.aspx http://blogs.msdn.com/b/virtual_pc_guy/archive/2011/06/20/cluster-problems-after-installing-sp1.aspx#comments Mon, 20 Jun 2011 18:31:00 +0000 tweetmeme_url = 'http://blogs.msdn.com/b/virtual_pc_guy/archive/2011/06/20/cluster-problems-after-installing-sp1.aspx';

This is a bit old – but I am still getting questions from people about it so I wanted to get a blog post down.  If you have a cluster with three or more nodes – you may encounter problems with CSV after installing SP1.  If you are seeing any of the following problems:

 

  • 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.

Then you need to download this hotfix: http://support.microsoft.com/kb/2531907

Cheers,
Ben

]]>

This is a bit old – but I am still getting questions from people about it so I wanted to get a blog post down.  If you have a cluster with three or more nodes – you may encounter problems with CSV after installing SP1.  If you are seeing any of the following problems:

 

  • 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.

Then you need to download this hotfix: http://support.microsoft.com/kb/2531907

Cheers,
Ben

]]> http://blogs.msdn.com/b/virtual_pc_guy/archive/2011/06/20/cluster-problems-after-installing-sp1.aspx/feed 0 MVP Whitepaper: A Guide to Hyper-V Dynamic Memory http://blogs.msdn.com/b/virtual_pc_guy/archive/2011/06/17/mvp-whitepaper-a-guide-to-hyper-v-dynamic-memory.aspx http://blogs.msdn.com/b/virtual_pc_guy/archive/2011/06/17/mvp-whitepaper-a-guide-to-hyper-v-dynamic-memory.aspx#comments Fri, 17 Jun 2011 08:00:05 +0000 tweetmeme_url = 'http://blogs.msdn.com/b/virtual_pc_guy/archive/2011/06/17/mvp-whitepaper-a-guide-to-hyper-v-dynamic-memory.aspx';

Hyper-V MVP – Aidan Finn – has just published a fantastic whitepaper about dynamic memory.  Go and check it out now: http://www.aidanfinn.com/?p=11289

Cheers,
Ben

]]>

Hyper-V MVP – Aidan Finn – has just published a fantastic whitepaper about dynamic memory.  Go and check it out now: http://www.aidanfinn.com/?p=11289

Cheers,
Ben

]]> http://blogs.msdn.com/b/virtual_pc_guy/archive/2011/06/17/mvp-whitepaper-a-guide-to-hyper-v-dynamic-memory.aspx/feed 0 Common Criteria Validation for Hyper-V in Windows Server 2008 R2 http://blogs.msdn.com/b/virtual_pc_guy/archive/2011/05/04/common-criteria-validation-for-hyper-v-in-windows-server-2008-r2.aspx http://blogs.msdn.com/b/virtual_pc_guy/archive/2011/05/04/common-criteria-validation-for-hyper-v-in-windows-server-2008-r2.aspx#comments Wed, 04 May 2011 20:12:34 +0000 tweetmeme_url = 'http://blogs.msdn.com/b/virtual_pc_guy/archive/2011/05/04/common-criteria-validation-for-hyper-v-in-windows-server-2008-r2.aspx';

Last week Windows Server 2008 R2 completed the Common Criteria (CC) certification process and achieved Evaluation Assurance Level 4 with augmentation (EAL4+).  This certification also includes Hyper-V.  To get more details on the results you can read the Common Criteria Evaluation and Validation Scheme Validation Report and Security Target.

You can also read more on the Windows Server blog.

Cheers,
Ben

]]>

Last week Windows Server 2008 R2 completed the Common Criteria (CC) certification process and achieved Evaluation Assurance Level 4 with augmentation (EAL4+).  This certification also includes Hyper-V.  To get more details on the results you can read the Common Criteria Evaluation and Validation Scheme Validation Report and Security Target.

You can also read more on the Windows Server blog.

Cheers,
Ben

]]> http://blogs.msdn.com/b/virtual_pc_guy/archive/2011/05/04/common-criteria-validation-for-hyper-v-in-windows-server-2008-r2.aspx/feed 0 Updated Hyper-V Best Practice Analyzer http://blogs.msdn.com/b/virtual_pc_guy/archive/2011/02/28/updated-hyper-v-best-practice-analyzer.aspx http://blogs.msdn.com/b/virtual_pc_guy/archive/2011/02/28/updated-hyper-v-best-practice-analyzer.aspx#comments Mon, 28 Feb 2011 22:12:00 +0000 tweetmeme_url = 'http://blogs.msdn.com/b/virtual_pc_guy/archive/2011/02/28/updated-hyper-v-best-practice-analyzer.aspx';

Last April we released the first Hyper-V Best Practice Analyzer.  This has been one of our top Hyper-V related downloads – and we have received lots of good feedback about this tool.

Last week we released an update for the Hyper-V Best Practice Analyzer that you can download here:

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/2485986

(Note – you need to have the original Best Practice Analyzer installed first).

This update includes:

Windows Server 2008 R2 SP1 updates:

  • The memory configuration rules have been updated to account for the new supported limits once dynamic memory is enabled.
  • Server roles that are needed for RemoteFX are no longer flagged as being a problem if they are installed with Hyper-V
  • Allow a consolidation ratio of 12:1 for Windows 7 virtual machines (still 8:1 for server virtual machines)

Bug fixes:

  • Correctly report “Microsoft Hyper-V Server” as a server core installation
  • Correct issues with identifying whether ECC or non-ECC ram is present in the physical computer

Changed from customer feedback:

  • No longer flag the presence of the file server role as an issue – as there are many valid configurations for this.

Cheers,
Ben

]]>

Last April we released the first Hyper-V Best Practice Analyzer.  This has been one of our top Hyper-V related downloads – and we have received lots of good feedback about this tool.

Last week we released an update for the Hyper-V Best Practice Analyzer that you can download here:

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/2485986

(Note – you need to have the original Best Practice Analyzer installed first).

This update includes:

Windows Server 2008 R2 SP1 updates:

  • The memory configuration rules have been updated to account for the new supported limits once dynamic memory is enabled.
  • Server roles that are needed for RemoteFX are no longer flagged as being a problem if they are installed with Hyper-V
  • Allow a consolidation ratio of 12:1 for Windows 7 virtual machines (still 8:1 for server virtual machines)

Bug fixes:

  • Correctly report “Microsoft Hyper-V Server” as a server core installation
  • Correct issues with identifying whether ECC or non-ECC ram is present in the physical computer

Changed from customer feedback:

  • No longer flag the presence of the file server role as an issue – as there are many valid configurations for this.

Cheers,
Ben

]]> http://blogs.msdn.com/b/virtual_pc_guy/archive/2011/02/28/updated-hyper-v-best-practice-analyzer.aspx/feed 0 Getting out of trouble with SCVMM http://blogs.msdn.com/b/virtual_pc_guy/archive/2011/02/24/getting-out-of-trouble-with-scvmm.aspx http://blogs.msdn.com/b/virtual_pc_guy/archive/2011/02/24/getting-out-of-trouble-with-scvmm.aspx#comments Thu, 24 Feb 2011 23:06:12 +0000 tweetmeme_url = 'http://blogs.msdn.com/b/virtual_pc_guy/archive/2011/02/24/getting-out-of-trouble-with-scvmm.aspx';

I have been using SCVMM (System Center Virtual Machine Manager) more and more in my home environment of late.  But I also keep getting myself in trouble – usually because I keep on trying to do things the “Hyper-V way”.

Recently– I tried to do a quick storage migration of a running virtual machine from my production server to my dev / test server (yes – I do have production and dev / test Hyper-V servers at home) and the migration failed.  I retried the migration through SCVMM and it failed again.

At this point in time I should have chosen to undo the operation through the SCVMM console.  Unfortunately – I instead dived into the Hyper-V Management console and deleted the snapshots that SCVMM had created as part of the quick storage migration. 

This left me in a bad position.

SCVMM still had this virtual machine marked as failed – and any attempt to repair the virtual machine would fail too – as whenever I tried to repair, or undo, the migration the first thing SCVMM would do is to look for the virtual machine snapshots that I had deleted.  To make things even worse – the “failed” virtual machine was running on my production Hyper-V server, which I really did not want to reboot to help SCVMM sort out the state of the system.

After searching the web and thinking about it for a bit – I came up with a simple solution.

I removed my production Hyper-V server from SCVMM, and then added it back.  Neither of these operations affect the virtual machines running on the Hyper-V server – and it effectively resets the state of the server for SCVMM.

The whole process took about 5 minutes and I soon had all my virtual machines correctly listed in SCVMM.

Cheers,
Ben

]]>

I have been using SCVMM (System Center Virtual Machine Manager) more and more in my home environment of late.  But I also keep getting myself in trouble – usually because I keep on trying to do things the “Hyper-V way”.

Recently– I tried to do a quick storage migration of a running virtual machine from my production server to my dev / test server (yes – I do have production and dev / test Hyper-V servers at home) and the migration failed.  I retried the migration through SCVMM and it failed again.

At this point in time I should have chosen to undo the operation through the SCVMM console.  Unfortunately – I instead dived into the Hyper-V Management console and deleted the snapshots that SCVMM had created as part of the quick storage migration. 

This left me in a bad position.

SCVMM still had this virtual machine marked as failed – and any attempt to repair the virtual machine would fail too – as whenever I tried to repair, or undo, the migration the first thing SCVMM would do is to look for the virtual machine snapshots that I had deleted.  To make things even worse – the “failed” virtual machine was running on my production Hyper-V server, which I really did not want to reboot to help SCVMM sort out the state of the system.

After searching the web and thinking about it for a bit – I came up with a simple solution.

I removed my production Hyper-V server from SCVMM, and then added it back.  Neither of these operations affect the virtual machines running on the Hyper-V server – and it effectively resets the state of the server for SCVMM.

The whole process took about 5 minutes and I soon had all my virtual machines correctly listed in SCVMM.

Cheers,
Ben

]]> http://blogs.msdn.com/b/virtual_pc_guy/archive/2011/02/24/getting-out-of-trouble-with-scvmm.aspx/feed 0 Windows Server 2008 R2 SP1 RTM–Now available for all! http://blogs.msdn.com/b/virtual_pc_guy/archive/2011/02/22/windows-server-2008-r2-sp1-rtm-now-available-for-all.aspx http://blogs.msdn.com/b/virtual_pc_guy/archive/2011/02/22/windows-server-2008-r2-sp1-rtm-now-available-for-all.aspx#comments Tue, 22 Feb 2011 22:29:00 +0000 tweetmeme_url = 'http://blogs.msdn.com/b/virtual_pc_guy/archive/2011/02/22/windows-server-2008-r2-sp1-rtm-now-available-for-all.aspx';

I am very happy to see that the final version of Windows Server 2008 R2 SP1 is now available for everyone.  You can either wait for it to appear through Windows Update – or you can go and download it from here:

http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/en/details.aspx?FamilyID=c3202ce6-4056-4059-8a1b-3a9b77cdfdda

Some general pointers for people:

If you are updating from a beta or RC version of SP1 you will need to follow the guidance that I provided here (note that while this post is written for going from SP1 beta to SP1 RC, the same steps and caveats apply for beta to RTM or RC to RTM).

If you have not tried out SP1 yet – some good places to start are:

Cheers,
Ben

]]>

I am very happy to see that the final version of Windows Server 2008 R2 SP1 is now available for everyone.  You can either wait for it to appear through Windows Update – or you can go and download it from here:

http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/en/details.aspx?FamilyID=c3202ce6-4056-4059-8a1b-3a9b77cdfdda

Some general pointers for people:

If you are updating from a beta or RC version of SP1 you will need to follow the guidance that I provided here (note that while this post is written for going from SP1 beta to SP1 RC, the same steps and caveats apply for beta to RTM or RC to RTM).

If you have not tried out SP1 yet – some good places to start are:

Cheers,
Ben

]]> http://blogs.msdn.com/b/virtual_pc_guy/archive/2011/02/22/windows-server-2008-r2-sp1-rtm-now-available-for-all.aspx/feed 0