Everything You Wanted to Know About Hyper-V Replica

Hyper-VWe had a fun demo of how to configure and use Hyper-V Replica in Windows Server 2012 using two HP MicroServers at the KYSBSUG meeting on Thursday May 9, 2013. Hyper-V replica truly is one of the killer features of Windows Server 2012.

Below are the links we discussed at the KYSBSUG meeting along with some extra URLs from my Hyper-V Replica research.

Tip: If you’re completely green to Hyper-V Replica, check out out the VIR302 video below from TechEd 2012.

Bottom line – this list is pretty much anything you could ever want to know about Hyper-V Replica in Windows Server 2012:

Update 2013-05-10: Added 11 more Hyper-V Replica resources

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KYSBSUG May 2013 Meeting – Hyper-V Replica

The votes are in, and the topic has been decided by you.
Mark your calendars for this week

Date: Thu May 9, 2013
Time: 6:30 PM Eastern – 8:30 PM Eastern
Venue: Money Concepts
Address: 323 Townepark Circle, Louisville, KY 40243

Topic: Hyper-V Replica in Windows Server 2012
Presenter: Tim Barrett

Description: This month we’ll show how to setup Hyper-V Replica in Windows Server 2012 and we’ll show Hyper-V replica in action.

Registration: Registration for this event is NOT required.

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Voting – May 2013 KYSBSUG Meeting

KYSBSUG LogoThere are some really cool features in Windows Server 2012, almost too many to choose from.

We’d like the group to vote on which topic YOU would like to see presented at the next KYSBSUG meeting in May 2013 in Louisville, Kentucky USA.

Here are the topics:

  • Hyper-V Replica
  • Hyper-V Over SMB
  • Hyper-V Shared Nothing Live Migration
  • Windows Server 2012 Storage Spaces

If you would like to attend this meeting in person in May 2013, please cast your vote via this quick survey (no login or email address required):
http://www.surveymonkey.com/s/RP9MYPF

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You Must Be THIS Tall to Ride Hyper-V

From the mail bag: The SBS Diva requested that I share my thoughts on SBS consultants who are new to Hyper-V. Thanks go to Susan for the idea to share. Complaints or disagreements about the content go to me.

First, I think we can all agree that there’s a big difference between getting virtualization installed and truly understanding / supporting it. 
 
Hardware Lab

If you want to get your feet wet with Hyper-V, a free e-book like “Understanding Microsoft Virtualization Solutions, 2nd Edition” is a good place to start. But reading only gets you so far. You need hands-on experience.

It’s pretty easy and inexpensive to buy an HP MicroServer, throw 8 GB of RAM and a second NIC in it. Then load up a trial version of Server 2008 R2 or Server 2012. That setup is not powerful, it’s not fast, but the important bits are there to see how it’s done. Other than using a repurposed PC from a client or eBay, I don’t know of a more inexpensive way to setup a hardware-based lab.
 
To Virtualize or Not to Virtualize?

Our first rule of thumb is that if you’re using SBS 2008 or 2011 and no other member servers, you’ll probably be happier on bare metal. Sure, you can install the free Hyper-V server on the bare metal, install a single SBS VM, and install RSAT (Win7 or Win8) on a member PC to manage it. That makes disaster recovery easier from a Hardware Abstraction Layer perspective. But unless you’ve got a brown belt or higher in PowerShell (or a third party tool like vtUtilities) there’s pain-a-plenty for the average SBS installer / consultant who’s green with Hyper-V or Server Core.  Virtualization rights of 1+1 (2008) or 1+2 (2012) are great with the full GUI, but buying a full copy of Windows Server just for the GUI isn’t really a good pricing option for a single SBS install w/ no member servers.
 
Our second rule: If you have SBS + a member server, virtualize it. Period. And that goes for Essentials or Standard.
 
The Minimum You Need to Know

Certification is a baseline, not an indication of “I know everything about this subject” (even if you get a perfect score). Passing Microsoft exam 70-659 is, in my opinion, a bare minimum for a technician to be ‘supporting’ Hyper-V in production at a customer site. Can you install Hyper-V (core or GUI) without passing that exam? Sure. Is there a lot of RDS / VDI / System Center on that exam that you may never use? Probably. But it’s still a good baseline for understanding the long-range implications of the Hyper-V design decisions you make.

When things go sideways with Hyper-V someday (and it will happen), you’re going to need a lot more knowledge than a simple installation whitepaper or a couple of Hyper-V videos on YouTube to get you out of that mess.
 
Exam 70-659 (TS: Windows Server 2008 R2, Server Virtualization)

Resource-wise, for the 70-659 exam Mitch Garvis did a nice set of eLearning with videos for Microsoft Learning (priced at $191.99 US)
https://www.microsoftelearning.com/eLearning/collection.aspx?guid=79CF085B-9EF7-4B35-8752-08161F333908
 
Also, the 70-659 Jump Start with Symon Perriman and Philip Helsel was really good too:
http://mctreadiness.com/MicrosoftCareerConferenceRegistration.aspx?pid=274
 
That stuff is 2008 R2 (as is the exam) but 99% of the servers out there are not Server 2012 yet. If you’re brand new to Hyper-V and you don’t have any virtualized clients yet, skip 2008 R2 and go straight for 2012.
 
Microsoft Certified Solutions Associate (MCSA): Windows Server 2012

For Server 2012 virtualization I HIGHLY recommend the *free* Early Experts content that Microsoft is putting online for the MCSA 2012. (Our SBS user group is going through that material on a weekly basis to prep for those 3 MCSA 2012 exams).
http://earlyexperts.net

The 2012 virtualization videos from TechEd 2012 North America on Channel 9 are also awesome (and free as well).

Social Media

If you want to keep on the cutting edge of Microsoft virtualization, check out Aidan Finn’s blog http://www.aidanfinn.com. Mitch Garvis http://garvis.ca and Philip Elder http://blog.mpecsinc.ca have excellent virtualization content as well.

Update (2012-12-04)

I forgot to add the link for the Microsoft Virtual Academy (also free).
http://www.microsoftvirtualacademy.com/Home.aspx

Bottom Line

Play with Hyper-V (2008 R2 or preferably 2012) ASAP if you haven’t already. And make sure you and your techs honestly know what you’re doing before you put customer data at risk. Hyper-V is your friend. It’s just a friend that you need to get to know first.

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Windows Server 2012 IT Camp in Louisville 11-14-2012

Title: Windows Server 2012 & Windows Azure IaaS IT Camp
Date: Wed November 14, 2012
Time: 9AM – 4PM Eastern
Venue: New Horizons – Louisville
Address: 7410 New Lagrange Rd, Ste 120, Louisville, KY 40222
Event Code: 163132
Registration URL: Click here to register

Description:

Join Us For a Free One-Day Windows Server 2012 & Windows Azure IaaS Event

IT Pro Cloud events will give you the opportunity to engage with Microsoft Certified Trainers and check out the new Windows Server 2012 in action. Get hands-on with the new technology, and learn how to manage and build your modern data center with the Microsoft Cloud OS platform: Windows Server 2012, Windows Azure, and System Center 2012.

This one day event will cover these topics:

  • The Cloud OS: A Modern Platform for the World’s Apps
  • Windows Server 2012 Virtualization Enhancements
  • Windows Server 2012 Storage Enhancements
  • Overview of Windows Azure Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS) & Hands On Lab

Plus, attendees of the Windows Server 2012 IT Camps nationwide will be entered into a Grand Prize drawing for a new Microsoft Surface tablet! Attendees can also take advantage of select training and certification bundles on these technologies.

Seating is limited so register today!

IMPORTANT NOTE:

To participate in the Hands on Lab for IT Professionals, you will need to bring your own laptop with the following minimum system requirements.

  • 4GB RAM (8GB preferred)
  • 40GB free disk space (80GB preferred)
  • x64 compatible processor with Intel VT or AMD-V technology
  • Make sure you are running Windows Server 2008 R2 SP1, Windows 7 or Windows 8 Release Preview, or Windows Server 2012 Release Candidate as your bootable Operating System. Please ensure your network card drivers are readily available, if not already functional in Windows Server 2008 R2 SP1 installation
  • Make sure you have the wireless working by by adding the Wireless LAN Service Feature under Roles and Features
  • Check your BIOS and make sure Virtualization is enabled
  • BEFORE attending this event, you MUST download files from http://aka.ms/cloudositcamp 
  • BEFORE attending this event, you MUST download Windows Server 2012 RC ISO: http://aka.ms/qvl2ai
  • Note that you cannot have a drive encryption technology (Bitlocker or 3rd party)
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Windows Experience Index in Windows Server 2012

I’ve been running Windows Server 2012 as the base OS for my laptop which can play games such as link vao w88 moi nhat, and one thing that has really helped the OS become more of a ‘daily driver’ is adding back in some of the functionality of Windows 8.

Some of the features I’ve turned back on include:

  • Wireless networking
  • Sound
  • Visual effects
  • Biometrics for the fingerprint reader
  • And disabling the Shutdown Event Tracker

Tip: If you’re interested in running Windows Server 2012 as your daily driver, check out the Windows Server 2012 Workstation project:
http://www.win2012workstation.com/ 

After doing some hardware upgrades I wanted to see how well the laptop performs, but there is no Windows Experience Index in Server 2012. No problem though, the WSW2012 project includes instructions for installing the Experience Index bits.

After you install the Win8 Experience bits (at your own risk, and after you’ve backed your PC up, of course) you can access the performance index using the following steps:

  1. Click in the Start area (lower left)
  2. Type “performance”
  3. Then click on the Settings button

    Click Start, type "performance" and click Settings

  4. On the left side of the screen you should see Performance Information and Tools. Click on it.

    Click Performance Information and Tools

  5. Now you can run the performance assessment.
    Here’s a sample (it looks just like Windows 8).

    Windows Experience Index

  6. If you click on the option to View and print detailed performance and system information

    View and print detailed performance and system information

    …the result is a much more detailed list of the specs.

  7. Detailed view of the Windows Experience Index

Interestingly, the Windows Experience Index scale now goes up to 9.9.

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How to Rename Multi-Boot Options in Server 2012

At the #EarlyExperts study group last night the question came up about how to rename the text in the multi-boot window on computer startup.

Here’s how to rename those text entries:

Open an elevated command prompt in Windows Server 2012.

Type the following:

BCDEDIT /SET DESCRIPTION “The description of the OS you’re currently logged into”

Then type BCDEDIT (enter) to see the changes.

Example shown below:

BCDEDIT /SET DESCRIPTION lets you change the description on the boot menu

To change the default boot device, type MSCONFIG at the same command prompt

Use MSCONFIG to change the default boot order

Pick the OS partition you want to be default, then click the “Set as default” button and click OK.

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Download – Free Introducing Server 2012 eBook

eBook - Introducing Windows Server 2012Title: Introducing Windows Server 2012
RTM Edition

Author: Mitch Tulloch w/ the Windows Server Team
Publisher: Microsoft Press
Published: © September 2012 by Microsoft Corporation
Pages: 256
Ebook ISBN: 978-0-7356-7535-3
File size: PDF (17.7 MB) also in EPUB & MOBI
Price: FREE
Download URL: Click here for download

Table of Contents

  • Chapter 1 The business need for Windows Server 2012
  • Chapter 2 Foundation for building your private cloud
  • Chapter 3 Highly available, easy-to-manage multi-server platform
  • Chapter 4 Deploy web applications on premises and in the cloud
  • Chapter 5 Enabling the modern workstyle

Note: This is an updated version of the eBook. The previous version was based on the Server 2012 beta. This version of the eBook is based on the RTM (Released To Manufacturing) / final code.

If you prefer a hard copy of the book, you can order it here for $14.99 from the official distributor, O’Reilly Media.

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Downloads – June 2012

Recent batch of useful downloads from Microsoft:

WINDOWS 8

WINDOWS SERVER 2012 / POWERSHELL 3.0

HYPER-V

INTUNE

OFFICE 2010

VOLUME LICENSING

KINECT

.NET

SHAREPOINT 2010

SECURITY

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Download – Free Introducing Server 2012 eBook

eBook - Introducing Windows Server 2012Title: Introducing Windows Server 2012
Based on Beta 
Author: Mitch Tulloch w/ the Windows Server Team
Publisher: Microsoft Press
Published: © June 2012 by Microsoft Corporation
Pages: 256
Ebook ISBN: 978-0-7356-6975-8
File size: PDF (17.5 MB) also in EPUB & MOBI
Price: FREE
Download URL: Click here for download

Table of Contents

  • Chapter 1 The business need for Windows Server 2012
  • Chapter 2 Foundation for building your private cloud
  • Chapter 3 Highly available, easy-to-manage multi-server platform
  • Chapter 4 Deploy web applications on premises and in the cloud
  • Chapter 5 Enabling the modern workstyle

Note: This book is also available in hard copy for $14.99 from O’Reilly

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