Angus Logan : Virtual Server & Virtual PC

Differencing Disks zip lots!

anguslogan — Sun, 28 Aug 2005 22:09:00 GMT

WOW! I've been using differencing disks recently with Virtual PC/Virtual Server and man those things can zip!

I can get a 2.6gb VHD down to about 250mb - way cool !

Virtual Server 2005 R2

anguslogan — Sat, 27 Aug 2005 04:54:00 GMT

I was wondering why SP1 of Virtual Server wasn't shippingd for ages (even thought the beta has been open for a long time.

"The latest addition is Virtual Server 2005 R2. Microsoft officials announced at the Intel Developer Forum this week that they had decided to christen the first service pack (SP) update for Microsoft's Virtual Server 2005 product as an R2 release instead of SP1. The renamed product is still due to ship in the fourth quarter of this year."

Via Wally

http://www.microsoft-watch.com/article2/0,2180,1852436,00.asp

It looks like SP1 of Virtual Server 2005 has been renamed to Virtual Server 2005 R2. It looks like there will be new support for x64 on the host and Linux in the guest.

TristanK has a few comments...

anguslogan — Wed, 03 Aug 2005 05:21:00 GMT

Before you read this you must understand - When you install the MSN Screensaver (BETA) it auto scrolls through all the pictures in your My Pictures folder - so when someone else plugs in your laptop into a projector its likely your screensaver will be on. DISABLE YOUR SCREENSAVER - or Take out your Embarassing Glamour shots.

I use it in the office so when I am away from my desk my colleagues don't feel lonely as they can look over and see my face :)

Anyway - [Via extra bits that didn't fit]

Dugie (blog to follow - I suggested getting anywhere he could slap some discreet, tasteful advertising and use his opinions to pay for the hosting) hosted the Brisbane Virtual Server User Group tonight (for the last time before it becomes BIG forever, I think I caught), and a good time was had by all. Except for when Dugie alleged that my carefully designer-stubbled visage looked like I'd just got a permanent morning-after look.

Kudos to whomever ordered the pizza: thin pepperoni and a marked lack of pineapple were well-received (except by those inferior types that actually like pinapple on pizza, but that's a rant for another time).

Angus did the first-ever OneNote presentation I've seen, and... it rocked. Great use of OneNote - the screenshots were captured in it, so why not use it for the presentation directly? Well, he did. The Lab In A Rack system was interesting too- carving chunks of utilization out of multiple Virtual Server back-end systems (and don't forget to download his sexy self-portrait screensaver from his website, available soon).

RE: Compact Your VHD Files

anguslogan — Mon, 01 Aug 2005 04:41:00 GMT

[Via Heath Stewart]

Many times it's necessary to debug solutions on other machines so that you don't corrupt your developer machine, because of different platform requirements, or to attach a debugger without changing the state of the machine. Testing Windows Installer patches is no different. We test on daily target builds using daily upgrade builds. Installing daily builds isn't always such a good idea, and because Windows Installer now caches MSP re-installing a patch with slightly different contents but the same PatchCode proves difficult.

Of course we have labs full of machines, but because these run through a complete installation of both the OS and other components such as service packs and lab tools, I prefer Microsoft Virtual PC and Virtual Server. Both at home and at work I've got a good base build with very little installed, including the latest service packs, hotfixes, and the Visual Studio .NET 2003 native remote debugger. Once that's all set up, I enable undo disks. Now whenever I need to start over I simply turn off the virtual machine and discard the changes. When I restart I have a fresh new machine.

In order to decrease disk space requirements, you have to compact your virtual hard disks, or VHD files. If you run the Virtual Disk Wizard from the File menu and choose to edit and compact an existing VHD, the wizard states that, "Before you compact this virtual hard disk, you must zero out free space on it with a third-party tool that you install on the guest operating system." The CHM file for Virtual PC 2005 Service Pack 1 has a similar message. Finding such a tool wasn't so easy. SDelete from Sysinternals starts by zeroing free space, but then fills it with 0xff and then random bytes. It also grows the size of a dynamic disk because it creates a file to fill all available space which most likely hasn't been allocated yet in the VHD.

Before writing such a utility I, of course, tried Microsoft Support. I was able to find one KB article — KB 888760 — that made mention of such a tool, which was not a third-party tool at all.

Download and install Virtual PC 2004 Service Pack 1.

Defragment your guest operating system.

From the CD menu, select Capture ISO Image and browse to the Virtual PC additions directory, which is %ProgramFiles%\Microsoft Virtual PC\Virtual Machine Additions by default.

Mount Virtual Disk Precompactor.iso. By default with auto-run enabled, the precompactor will start automatically.

When it has finished, unmount the ISO from the CD menu.

Run the Virtual Disk Wizard from the File menu and follow the instructions to compact your VHD file.

This can significantly reduce the size of your base VHD file. When it's finished, click Settings to open the settings for your virtual machine, select Undo Disks, and check Enable Undo Disks.

New Data#3 Website Launched! - www.data3.com.au

anguslogan — Sun, 06 Mar 2005 13:57:00 GMT

The new Data#3 website has been launched - see it here. I am pushing to get a detailed case study done but just right now here is a mini one.

Data#3 Microsoft Application Solutions

Solution Consultant: Richard Slatter

Architecture: Leon O'Brien / Angus Logan

Development: Craig Box / Angus Logan / Marcus Rosen

Front End: Justin Walduck

Designer: Natalie Parker

Misc. Troubleshooter: Leon Bambrick

Marketing

Client / Business Sponsor: Data#3 Corporate Marketing Manager - Karen Thompson

Content Guru: Lachlan Grant

Overview

100% Microsoft solution from the ISA firewalls to the Microsoft Content Management Servers 2002 to the SharePoint Portals Servers to the SQL Databases with a bunch of Cisco network equipment in-between. The solution will allow business units to author their own content and maintain their own sub-sites.

Environments

Development - Virtualised Sandbox with Microsoft Virtual Server 2005 Enterprise Edition

MCMS Development Environment

MCMS/SPS Build/Test Environment

Authoring

MCMS 2002 Enterprise Edition

Searching

SharePoint Portal Server 2003 indexing internal & external sites

Production (populated via Incremental Site Deployments)

MCMS 2002 Enterprise Edition

More Technical Stuff

Utilized the Telerik radEditor 2.0.3 to provide a rich authoring experience
Used ITHit's Web Author Enhancement v1
Coded the SPS Search integration by hand
Dynamically pulling down the latest SharePrice from the ASX
Used lots of sexy flash for your viewing pleasure.

Still to come

upgrade ITHit's Web Author Enhancement to 2.0 as there are tons of great features in the new version.
Automatic queuing and routing of leads / opportunities to Microsoft CRM in the back office

Other Notes

I may have used MCMS.Rapid for the website if it was released a little earlier but I think we came up with a robust flexible solution.

Check out the new site and give me some feedback as I would love to hear it.

Technical Demo Toolkit for Microsoft Gold Partners

anguslogan — Wed, 08 Dec 2004 18:35:00 GMT

Via Steve Luper

The Technical Demonstration Toolkit helps you quickly set up demonstration environments to showcase Microsoft software and solutions to your customers.

At the 2004 Worldwide Partner Conference in Toronto, Steve Ballmer promised partners a selection of the best demonstrations that Microsoft uses with customers today. The Technical Demonstration Toolkit includes 66 different demonstrations featuring Microsoft Windows XP, the Microsoft Office System, SQL Server, Exchange Server, SharePoint Portal Server, and more.

Microsoft Gold Certified Partners and Certified Partners will receive the Technical Demonstration Toolkit in the December Partner Monthly Box. More information and additional copies at https://partner.microsoft.com/global/40016133.

Microsoft Virtual Server 2005 & InCD will have you calling PSS in a foreign country at midnight!

anguslogan — Wed, 24 Nov 2004 06:29:00 GMT

If you ever have the pleasure of trying to debug this error message from Virtual Server 2005

<vm name> could not be started because there is not enough physical memory or system resources available.

But you happen to have HEAPS (2+gb) of memory available...

You may want to check if someone has installed InCD on your Virtual Server.

At the time it may seem bright to install DVD burning software on the Virtual Server so you can remove all your bloated images from old projects but I warn you - install InCD and you will be in pain.

Premium support in Australia isn't that fun outside hours... I don't like the idea of waking up a TAM with a high chance of being told to call the US or the UK : so my midnight PSS calls to Microsoft UK paid off again ; quickly through talking to a person (nice accent!) & logging a case ; But just as I was getting the Case ID my buddy Anton (www.intellica.com.au) found the answer “Oops don't need it anymore, cancel the case!!!“ -> quickest $500 PSS ever made :)

Aggravation Level: Murder/Suicide

Issue Resolution Time: ~ 5 hours

Announcing the release of Virtual Server 2005 Migration Toolkit (VSMT)

anguslogan — Sat, 30 Oct 2004 18:58:00 GMT

Microsoft has released the Virtual Server 2005 Migration Tool Kit - grab a copy of it from here. It allows you to migrate applications from physical servers into virtual servers - very cool.

VirtualPC Service Pack 1

anguslogan — Wed, 13 Oct 2004 19:03:00 GMT

I've just been flexing my new laptop (IBM T41, 2gb RAM) with a bunch of Vanilla VirtualPC/Virtual Server images I build up and Geoff Appleby's post couldn't be more timely.

Download the Virtual PC Service Pack 1 here.

And before you ask - I use virtual PC on the laptop because Virtual Server is too clunky and not as sexy for demos etc.

Microsoft Announces General Availability of Virtual Server 2005

anguslogan — Mon, 04 Oct 2004 02:10:00 GMT

I heard at a Special Interest Group that Microsoft had just announced general availability for Virtual Server 2005...

I hate our MSDN Subscriber Downloads & Beta Place... Your always a few months ahead of the curve... Virtual Server is old news - good news... but old :)

The team I work in at Data#3 uses Virtual Server for everything. Because we are working on projects that require domain controllers; rapid provisioning of development environments; onsite 'build environments'; offsite UAT environments; virtual server rocks.

Here's the press-release:
REDMOND, Wash. -- Sept. 13, 2004 -- Microsoft Corp. today announced the general availability and pricing of Microsoft® Virtual Server 2005. Available in both Standard and Enterprise editions, Virtual Server 2005 helps customers reduce hardware costs and increase operational efficiency in three key scenarios: automation of software test and development environments; rehosting of legacy applications; and consolidation of production server workloads such as networking, directory infrastructure or departmental applications. As a key deliverable of the Dynamic Systems Initiative, Microsoft's vision for simplifying and automating the way customers design, deploy and operate distributed systems, Virtual Server 2005 provides customers with more flexibility and control in the provisioning of data center resources.

Microsoft Virtual Server 2005 Migration Toolkit Beta

anguslogan — Mon, 04 Oct 2004 00:13:00 GMT

8.18.2004 | 9:05 am

(all this content is ripped off from http://www.microsoft.com/windowsserversystem/virtualserver/evaluation/vsmtbeta.mspx)

A free, downloadable tool for Microsoft Virtual Server 2005, VSMT automates the migration of an operating system and installed applications from a physical server to a server running within a virtual machine that is provided and managed by Virtual Server 2005. With Virtual Server 2005, you can set up multiple virtual machines running different operating systems and applications on the same physical computer.

You can use the beta version of VSMT to create images of physical computers and deploy them in virtual machines running on Virtual Server 2005. With VSMT, you can migrate source computers running the following operating systems to virtual machines in Virtual Server 2005:

• Windows NT 4.0 Server with Service Pack (SP) 6a, Standard and Enterprise Editions
• Windows 2000 Server SP 4 or later
• Windows 2000 Advanced Server SP 4 or later
• Windows Server 2003, Standard Edition and Enterprise Edition

The solution with it all!

anguslogan — Mon, 04 Oct 2004 00:10:00 GMT

I am working on a monster solution that is really testing all the integration capabilities of the Microsoft's product range:

Client

Citrix or Terminal Services
- Internet Explorer
- InfoPath

Datastore

SQL Server 2000 Enterprise Edition (clustered)

Custom Interfaces

ASP.NET

Microsoft Products

Server Platform

Windows Server 2003

Development Environment

Microsoft Virtual Server 2005 (4gb ram maxed out)
Virtual Network
All servers Virtualized
All developers Virtualised using Windows XP boxes accessed via Remote Desktop Client
Approx 50gb of Virtual machines

Integration

.NET WebServices

Security

SecureID
Active Directory (2003 native mode)

Other Possible products and/or considerations

Project Server for task tracking and resource planning
BizTalk 2004 for Integration

If this dosen't become a Microsoft Case study I don't know what I'll do !!!

Now Available: Virtual Server 2005, Standard Edition, Release Candidate

anguslogan — Sun, 03 Oct 2004 23:28:00 GMT

6.15.2004 | 7:23 am

Download the Virtual Server 2005 Release Candidate, a time-limited version of the software that enables customers to run a broad range of x86-based operating systems concurrently on a single physical server.
Visit the Virtual Server 2005 official site.

I have been using it in-house for about a year and think its one of the best things Microsoft has released for a few years.

One of the killer features is you can run up your Virtual Machines (VM's) in the lab using Virtual Server 2005 through a web interface and then copy the Virtual Hard Disk (VHD) to your laptop and run Virtual PC to access them.

Microsft Gold Partner Hands on Labs via ASP Virtualisation

anguslogan — Sun, 03 Oct 2004 22:54:00 GMT

5.28.2004 | 7:28 pm

If you are a Microsoft Gold Partner you have got to check this out.

There are Hands on Labs that are linked off the Gold Partner site that spin up a new instance of a virtual server in one pane and the steps of the hands on lab in the next.

The Service is provided through http://www.granitepillar.com/ which seems to be an ASP for Microsoft Virtual Server... very cool idea!

Pro's

This saves you creating the environment to run your hands on lab

Con's

No way to get the HOL artifacts off the VM once you are done or you are running out of time
VM only lives for 50 minutes then it is cleaned off the server (make those toilet breaks quick!!!)

Questions?

Can we use these HOL's to train customers?

How to cut the fat off a 'Dynamic Virtual Hard Disk'

anguslogan — Sun, 03 Oct 2004 22:44:00 GMT

Origionally authored 28 May 2004 7.24pm at http://www.thespoke.net/MyBlog/anguslogan/MyBlog_Comments.aspx?ID=21240
---
Craig Box, a colleague of mine at Data#3, went on a mission to cut the excess fat of some Virtual Server images that we were using around the office. Ie. image.vhd taking up about 6.5gb of space while the HDD was only 2.5gb.

He foudn that when data is "deleted" from a Virtual Machine image the area of the disk can't be compressed by Virtual Server until it is 'Zeroed'.

There are a few tools around that do “zeroing” but take a long time to do it (because they are aimed at writing random data on the disk so it can’t be read again). There is a tool on a forum (http://www.techzonez.com/forums/showthread.php?t=8606) that uses the “cipher” utility found in XP (and 2003).

The process to compress a “Dynamic Virtual Hard Disk”:

Delete any unwanted files on the drive
Do a disk defrag
Run the zerodata tool (it opens a command window with nothing in it (don’t close it just let it go))
Shutdown the Virtual Machine
Compress the vhd (virtual disks>inspect)

The Virtual Hard Disk (VHD) was reduced from 6.5Gb down to 2.5Gb.

... Thanks heaps Craig u rock!