Category Archives: Hyper-V Cloud
Microsoft Outlook is prompting for User Password after Live Migration Failure | Live Migration caused DNS Resolution issue for Domain Controller VM | Hyper-V Live Migration Best Practices | Virtual Domain Controller Best Practices
Author: Zahir Hussain Shah | MVP Exchange Server, CISSP
Step by Step Troubleshooting of Microsoft Outlook Prompting for User Login Password, after a failed Live Migration of Domain Controller Virtual Machine, and the DNS Name Resolution Issues, while also discussing the Name Resolution and Domain Controller Best Practices for Virtualized Environments
With the above title of the post, we will also be discussing the following topics in the blog post:
- Hyper-V Live Migration Best Practices
- Virtualized Domain Controller Best Practices
- Domain Controllers and DNS Name Resolution Strategy in heterogeneous Domain Controller Environment
Recently, I came across an issue, where after a failed Live Migration of a Windows Server 2008 SP2 VM based Domain Controller (DC) on Windows Server 2008 R2 SP1 Hyper-V Server, caused serious problem for DNS Name Resolution, and since this Virtual DC was the primary DNS Server for all the Servers and clients, it also caused Microsoft Outlook to prompt the user passwords, whenever a user was opening Microsoft Outlook.
Problem: Live Migration Failure:
This Virtual DC was running on Windows Sever 2008 R2 Hyper-V Cluster, and at the time of performing Live Migration of this VM, the Live Migration failed at the source Hyper-V Server due to the fact that, VM was having an ISO image configured in the VM settings, which was located on the local C:\ drive of the Hyper-V host.
As a result of failing the Live Migration, VM stays at the same source Hyper-V Server, but its Virtual NIC settings got an error, and practically you can say that VM DC V-NIC association with the Hyper-V Physical NIC got broken, which resulted the VM lost connection to the Network.
Problem: Bad DNS Resolution and Microsoft Outlook Password Prompt for Users:
Okay, so we know now what happened to the DC VM, so to fix this problem without restarting the machine, I went to the VM properties, and set the Network to the same Hyper-V Virtual Network for the DC VM, and found that the VM came back online on the Network, so we were able to ping the DC, but later soon after that we found that Outlook users started complaining that, they are requested every time to provider user password, whenever they open Microsoft Outlook.
Nevertheless, as being a primary DNS Server and DC for authentication, after Live Migration Failure and resetting up of VMs network settings, it was noticed that, this DC as being a preferred DNS Server is no longer functional, means if you try to nslookup any name, it was getting failed, and also we found that the DNS Server service got stopped on the DC.
Okay now lets talk about Resolution to fix this problem, as its grown massively and affected all the clients and server for DNS Name Resolution and Outlook password prompts, which are quite annoying in nature.
Lets first discuss the Hyper-V Live Migration Best Practices:
I would recommend to always:
- Make sure that you dismount any ISO file attached to the Virtual Machine before hitting Live Migrate to other Hyper-V host, if your ISO file is not highly available, means if it cannot be accessed from the destination Live-Migration Hyper-V host.
- Your preferred DNS Server for Hyper-V Name Resolution and Authentication Server (DC) should bet set to the one, which is either on the different Hyper-V Cluster or Hyper-V Host, which will help you to be still in the game if your Live Migration fails or the DC VM fails.
- It would also be advisable to make sure that instead of pausing the VM, you always go for shutdown on Hyper-V, as a general good-practice.
Secondly to further discuss the above explained problems with regards to DNS Name Resolution and Microsoft Outlook password prompt for end-users, see the below guidelines:
Follow the steps to fix the problem in the order: (Note: We will try not to shut down the VM):
- After failing the Live Migration, the Network settings needs to bet setup correctly, means attaching the VMs NIC to the Hyper-V Virtual Network.
- Since now after doing the above setup, the VM will come on the Network, so either you can take RDP or from the Hyper-V Console, login into the VM, and try to START the DNS Server Service.
- After doing starting the DNS Server Service, you will see the NIC card of VM will be having a small warning sign, which will tell you that there is a problem with the Network Connectivity, so you can reset (Disable / Enable) the NIC of the VM.
- After the NIC resetting try to clear the DNS Cache and Register the machine in the DNS Server database, by ipchonfig /flushdns and ipconfig /registerdns.
So now, when you will open NSLOOKUP on the VM or on the other Servers / Clients, where this VM was having as preferred DNS Server, you will see the FQDN as the Server in the NSLOOKUP utility, and you can resolve the names.
Okay so now the DNS Name Resolution problem has been resolved, now we will go ahead and will try to fix the Microsoft Outlook password prompt issue, which caused due to the bad DNS Name Resolution issue:
You can follow the below steps to fix the Outlook password prompt issue:
Lets give a restart of one Exchange 2010 CAS Server at once, and once you will have both the Exchange 2010 CAS Server restarted, check for the below:
- Try to see the status of the Active Directory Replication, and give a repadmin /sycnall from the CMD with elevated administrative rights.
- Check for the Name Resolution from both Exchange 2010 CAS Servers.
- Since we didnt restarted the Exchange Mailbox Servers, try to go to them, and clear their DNS Cache and Register them back to the DNS Server with (ipconfig /flushdns, ipconfig /registerdns).
- o Everywhere you to make sure that you are able to resolve names, means the Server status at NSLOOKUP after the DNS Name Resolution steps performed, it should be okay.
- After giving the adequate time of AD Replication, you will find that Microsoft Outlook users are no longer asked for the password prompt, and they can open Outlook without any Windows Security dialog box.
Virtualized Domain Controller Best Practices:
In past, I published a blog post Best Practices for Running Virtualized Domain Controller, today in addition to all the best practices explained in that blog post, I would like to add the few down:
If your Primary DC (preferred DNS Server) is a Virtual Machine, always try to run it on a Standalone Hyper-V Server, because sometimes the failure of either the Hyper-V Cluster or DC VM can cause problem for either of them. I know Im saying for not to make DC VM Highly Available, but at the same time, I also seen from my practice experience, moving primary DC to Hyper-V Cluster will be a problem, when the enter Cluster is down, and when Cluster will try to come up where the DC (primary DNS Server) is not available, you could end-up with the cluster will not come online easily.
Try to virtualize the DC VM as an Additional Domain Controller but not for the primary and preferred DNS Server.
Domain Controllers and DNS Name Resolution Strategy in heterogeneous Domain Controller Environment
- As we said above, try to keep the VM based DCs (VM) as the secondary DNS Servers, because in some circumstances brining a VM based DC come online can cause problem for the entire environment, where brining an Physical DNS Server and DC is relatively handy, because all you need the network connectivity and the server should be up and running.
- From the prospective of bringing entire Datacenter down for some major power maintenance, it would be highly recommended to have Physical Domain Controller for all primary DNS Name Resolution and Active Directory Authentication needs.
I hope with the steps explained in this article, it will greatly help you to fix your DC Authentication and DNS Resolution issues after the failed Live Migration of DC VM, also you can take advantages of the various best practices outlined in this article for DNS Name Resolution Strategy and DC Virtualization for Hyper-V environments.
Cheers!
Microsoft Private Cloud Training Labs | System Center 2012 Trainnig Labs | Private Cloud Guided Labs
Author: Zahir Hussain Shah, MVP, CISSP
Microsoft Private Cloud Training Labs for System Center 2012
In the month of March, 2012, I published a blog post for the Microsoft System Center 2012 Private Cloud Training videos from the Microsoft Private Cloud Jump-Start camp, which provided video series for the recorded session from the Microsoft Private Cloud Jump-Start boot-camp, and covered SC 2012 product suite.
And today I would like to share with some of the coolest discovery I made recently, where I had a chance to evaluate the Microsoft Private Cloud Training Labs for Microsoft System Center 2012 suite, these training labs provide you fast and enhanced method of experiencing the Microsoft System Center 2012 suite of products, and let you to quickly evaluate the products based on the activities and interactions for building and running Private Cloud as per the standard needs.
These labs open inside the browser, and guides you the steps which you have to take for finishing up each lab with the desired set of goals.
So lets go and sign up for Microsoft Private Cloud Guided Labs, and get all the knowledge you need to have to build your own Private Cloud with Microsoft System Center 2012 suite.
Resources:
- Download the System Center 2012 Evaluation
- Open the Microsoft Private Cloud Guided Labs
Cheers!
Microsoft Exchange Server Mailbox Database LUNs are running out of disk space with hidden data | Delete System Volume Information (Disk Shadow) | Free-up Exchange Server Mailbox Database LUN (Disk ) | How Delete Shadow Copies
Author: Zahir Hussain Shah, MVP Exchange Server, CISSP
Recently, I saw a situation, where on the Exchange Server 2010 Mailbox Database LUNs (Disks) are running out of free-disk space, and upon inspection, we found that other than Mailbox Database and Logs folder, there is some hidden data, which is consuming the free-disk space, and it is not seen able, so I got to recall the Disk Shadows problem, for which I wrote an article (Exchange 2010 VMs on Hyper-V Server are stopped due to unavailability of free disk space | Hyper-V Server is running out of free disk space on the Server) in past, where using VSS based Backup tool is failing to delete the VSS snapshot files from the disk (volume), after successful or unsuccessful backup jobs.
Okay, so what is happening here, we will see in the following section:
Problem / Cause:
When you use VSS based backup tools, like Symantec Veritas NetBackup, which uses VSS to take the snapshot (backup) of the required data, and where sometimes due unsuccessful backup jobs, and file locking (antivirus cause) problem, in some circumstances, VSS backup tool / VSS Service fails to delete the temporary files from the Disk (LUN), or in other words, you can say that due to the failed backup jobs, VSS creates the snapshot temporary files in the DISK, and which over the time eats your available free disk space.
Symptoms:
If you want to see how these files look like, you can go to the drive, e.g. E:\ make sure the hidden files are unchecked, open System Volume Information, and there you will see all these temporary created files, like <99898-8888-xxxx-xxxx>.
Solution:
For bring this consumed free disk space, lets do the following for removing these Volume Shadow copies:
1) Open CMD with RUN AS ADMINISTRATOR
2) First list the available generated shadow copies by running the below command:
DISKSHADOW
Since now you are on DISKSHADOW prompt at command prompt, lets list all the available shadow copies by running the below command from the DISKSHADOW prompt:
LIST SHADOWS ALL
Upon running the LIST SHADOWS ALL command, you will see all the shadow copies, so then you can run the below command from the same DISKSHADOW command prompt for deleting these shadow copies:
DELETE SHADOWS ALL
And now you can go back to Windows Explorer, and can evaluate your available free disk space, and will glad to see that all your hidden consumed disk space is back now. 
I hope this will resolve your problem, and will help to stay relax from being tense to see your Hyper-V Servers (or any Server) physical disk free space getting consumed by hidden stuff.
Cheers!
Microsoft System Center 2012 Training | Cloud Computing Training | SCVMM 2012 | Hyper-V Training | Hyper-V Cloud Computing | Microsoft Private Cloud
Author: Zahir Hussain Shah | MVP Exchange Server, CISSP
Take a Cloud Journey, and Build your Career with Cloud Computing expertise!
In the month of January, 2012, I posted a blog article, in which I shared Step by Step Video Training for Building Microsoft Windows Server 2008 R2 Failover Cluster for Microsoft Hyper-V High Availability with Cluster Shared Volumes, this blog post provided a tremendous amount of information for building the Hyper-V Cluster on Windows Server 2008 R2 for making your VM work-loads Highly Available, which is a first-step for going forward with Cloud Computing, because Cloud Computing has always been expressed as a Journey, because it is not a product, which you just install in your network, and thats it, you have Cloud Computing now, but instead of this Cloud Computing is a world of Virtualization, Building Processes, Automation, providing Self-Service experience to your end-users, and efficiently using your computing resources, wherever and whenever you need them to provide different types of Cloud solutions with economics to your customers.
So without further putting texts here, lets directly jump straight towards the training, which will provide you end to end knowledge for building and running Microsoft Private / Public Cloud Computing solutions for you and your customers environment.
Recently, Microsoft arranged a online Microsoft Cloud Computing Jump-Start boot-camp, which took placed on Feb. 21-22, 2012, where the tons of tremendous knowledge transfer session conducted for Microsoft System Center 2012 family and Microsoft Cloud Computing offerings.
You can download or can watch all these sessions recording as follows:
Private Cloud Jump Start (01): Introduction to the Microsoft Private Cloud with System Center 2012
Private Cloud Jump Start (02): Configure & Deploy Infrastructure Components
Private Cloud Jump Start (03): Configure & Deploy the Private Cloud Infrastructure
Private Cloud Jump Start (04): Configure & Deploy Service Delivery & Automation
Private Cloud Jump Start (05): Configure & Deploy Application Management
Private Cloud Jump Start (06): Monitor & Operate Infrastructure Components
Private Cloud Jump Start (07): Monitor & Operate the Private Cloud Infrastructure
Private Cloud Jump Start (08): Monitor & Operate Service Delivery & Automation
Private Cloud Jump Start (09): Monitor & Operate Application Management
If you enjoy a 100-level strategic overview of the cloud, consider checking out this Cloud 101 Jump Start on March 13, 2012.
Let’s embrace the “Cloud”!
Best Practices for running Virtualized Domain Controller on Hyper-V | Prevent Active Directory UNS Roll-back | Active Directory Replication issues | Source Domain Controller is rejecting replication | Netlogon service is paused on the Domain Controller
Author: Zahir Hussain Shah | MVP Exchange, CISSP
Managing Virtualized Domain Controller | Recovering Domain Controller from UNS Roll-back | Best Practices for Domain Controller VMs
Recently I saw a situation, where a Domain Controller on Windows Server 2008 based Virtual Machine (VM) running on Windows Server 2008 SP2 Hyper-V, was tried to move from one Hyper-V Server to another Hyper-V Windows Server 2008 R2 SP1, initially the VM was shut down normally, and then copy the VHD to another Hyper-V Server, and then created new VM with attaching the copied VHD, and as expected the VM didnt had IP Address, so after giving the IP Address, machine was pinging, but at the moment of checking the Active Directory Replication, I saw below errors:
Problem:
From Active Directory Sites and Services snap-in, if we try to replicate now for all the available connections, we receive errors:
o The Source / Destination Domain Controller is rejecting replication from the Destination / Source.
Upon running, Repadmin /syncall command from the CMD, you present with below error:
o SyncAll reported the following errors:
Error issuing replication: 8452 (0×2104):
The naming context is in the process of being removed or is not replicated from the specified server.
From: 730663f3-e425-4041-b969-a34b5b241af0._msdcs.domain.net
To : 3920866b-fecd-4a9d-8c29-97a20e307517._msdcs.domain.net
Cause:
When the VM was moved from the running Hyper-V Server to the newly configured Hyper-V Server, where the VM configuration file got created new, and since the VM was down for bit long time, so when it brought up, and communicated with the other Domain Controller, it found that it has lower USN number, which indicated as old Active Directory database, thus as part of built-in Windows Server 2008 and Windows Server 2003 SP1 security mechanism for Active Directory, the domain controller has marked himself as NON-Writable Domain Controller, and started rejecting for replication.
Symptoms
You can verify your problem with the below mentioned symptoms of the problem, so if you have the exact same problem, then you may follow the below steps to recovery your Domain Controller:
AD DS pauses the Net Logon service, which prevents user accounts and computer accounts from changing account passwords. This action prevents the loss of such changes if they occur after an improper restore.
AD DS disables inbound and outbound Active Directory replication.
AD DS generates Event ID 2095 in the Directory Service event log to indicate the condition.
Solution:
Before, we move forward with the resolution, I would like to address here few of the Best Practices for virtualizing Domain Controller, these best practices are not Hyper-V specific, can should be applied to all the Hypervisors:
Do not pause, stop, or store the saved state of a domain controller in a virtual machine for time periods longer than the tombstone lifetime of the forest and then resume from the paused or saved state. Doing this can interfere with replication. To learn how to determine the tombstone lifetime for the forest, see Determine the Tombstone Lifetime for the Forest(http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkId=137177).
Do not copy or clone virtual hard disks (VHDs).
Do not take or use a Snapshot of a virtual domain controller.
Do not use a differencing disk VHD on a virtual machine that is configured as a domain controller. This makes reverting to a previous version too easy, and it also decreases performance.
Do not use the Export feature on a virtual machine that is running a domain controller.
Do not restore a domain controller or attempt to roll back the contents of an Active Directory database by any means other than using a supported backup. For more information, see Backup and Restore Considerations for Virtualized Domain Controllers.
Note:
Never perform Hyper-V or any other Hypervisor Snapshot based activity for any of the Production System, Snapshot is meant for RnD environment, where they save time during testing environment for going back to the previous state, taking snapshot for production environment is never recommended, as it starts writing to Differential Disk (Hyper-V case), which reduce the VM performance also.
Note:
My blog and this blog post in particular, has no relation or liability on Microsoft, all the information provided here is to help, and after performing any of these below mentioned steps, if things go wrong on your side, then Microsoft or myself will not liable for that, do research and then perform these operation, as they are highly critical ones.
Steps for the recovering Domain Controller from USN roll-back condition:
1. First verify whether, you have the same problem, and after verification, further follow the process, You can use the Repadmin tool to make this determination. For information about how to use Repadmin, see Monitoring and Troubleshooting Active Directory Replication Using Repadmin (http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkId=122830). If you are not able to determine this yourself, contact Microsoft Customer Service and Support(http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkID=102491) for assistance, after you verified that you have the same exact symptoms of the problem, as specified above, then follow the process of demoting the affected DC
2. Go to other DCs, and from there see the hosted FSMO roles in your environment, and move (seize) all the roles, which are currently located on the effected DC, and after moving the roles to other DC, run Replication (repadmin /syncall /AdeP), now go back to the effected DC, and from there open CMD with dcpromo /forceremoveal to forcefully remove the Active Directory from the Server, and then you have to clean the meta-data about the old (removed) DC, because the DC was not able to send / receive replication, so the other DOMAIN CONTROLLERS are not aware the removal of the DC, so we have to take this DC out from the AD DB from others, for more information check this link.
3. Forcefully demote the domain controller. This involves cleaning up the domain controllers metadata and seizing the operations master (also known as flexible single master operations or FSMO) roles. For more information, see the Recovering from USN rollback section of article 875495 (http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkID=137182) in the Microsoft Knowledge Base.
4. Once we have cleaned the meta-data of the DC, so now its our turn to re-install the ACTIVE DIRECTORY on the same VM, as normal, and once you will complete the installation, then you are back in the business!
5. As best practice, delete all former VHD files for the domain controller, so there will be no confusion.
More information on: Running Domain Controller in Virtualized Environment
VM based Domain Controller Replication Issues & USN-Roll back
I hope this blog post will help you to recover from USN roll-back situation, as it is so frustrating at times, because our DCs are like blood in our network.
Cheers!
Good News! Microsoft Open-Door Registrations for UAE are now opened!
Author: Zahir Hussain Shah | MVP Exchange, CISSP
Recently, I got to know that Microsoft TechEd Middle East event has been replaced by Microsoft Open-Door event, which will held on 12 13, March, 2012 at Madinat Jumeirah, Dubai.
So for what you are waiting for, go and get register yourself for two-days great learning and networking event in the town, register for Microsoft Open-Door UAE, click here
What is Open Door?
Open Door is Microsofts premier technical education event aimed at offering technology professionals and decision makers the chance to explore and connect with a broad set of current and soon-to-be-released Microsoft technologies, tools, platforms and services.
An all-encompassing 2-day event, Open Door is the perfect venue for customers and partners to engage and interact, while learning about Microsofts breadth of solutions, technologies and innovations.
Who is coming to Open Door?
Open Door will be attended by a wide range of Microsoft customers including IT professionals, developers and IT decision makers from small and medium-sized businesses, government institutions and large enterprises.
I’m also planning to visit, and if I get there, then you will probably see me around MVP booth.
Regards,
Hyper-V Live Migration is not working | The disk structure is corrupted and unreadable | Cluster resource ‘Virtual Machine VM in clustered service or application VM failed | Virtual Machine VM failed to start.
Author: Zahir Hussain Shah | MVP Exchange Server
Applies to: Hyper-V Live Migration is not working | CSV is not accessible from passive cluster nodes| Validate Disk Failover failed | Failed to write file data on cluster disk 0 partition 1, failure reason: The disk structure is corrupted and unreadable | Virtual Machine VM live migration did not succeed at the destination | Cluster resource ‘Virtual Machine VM in clustered service or application VM failed | Virtual Machine VM failed to start.
Microsoft Hyper-V Clustering Recommendation and Best Practices for Live Migration and Cluster Shared Volumes (CSV) – Quick Solutions Guide
This is my second blog post related to Microsoft Windows Server 2008 R2 Clustering for Microsoft Hyper-V 2008 R2 Clustering and High Availability, in my previous blog article for building Hyper-V 2008 R2 High Availability, in which I presented to you the links to a wonderful video series for building Hyper-V HA for creating Highly Available Virtual Machine work-loads with Hyper-V Live Migration and Cluster Shared Volumes.
In this article, I will walk you through the several post-implementation related issues and their resolution, which you may get encounter with your configuration and some of the best practices, for helping you to fix your problem, and get your highly available VMs running on Hyper-V Cluster.
Okay, now lets start here with each post-issue, I have seen occurs after Implementing Hyper-V Cluster with CSV and Live Migration, I will explain one by one.
1) Failed to write file data on cluster disk 0 partition 1, failure reason: The disk structure is corrupted and unreadable
By the way, it is not a post-implementation problem, but I would like to share this with you, this happened to me, while I was building my five nodes Windows Failover Cluster on Microsoft Windows Server 2008 R2 for Hyper-V, this issue is related to Cluster Validation failure for Failover Disks, it happened to my newly attached CLUTER DISKs (LUNs), which I formatted and made offline before I ran Cluster Validation, but I got the failure that “The disk structure is corrupted and unreadable.”
Problem:
Failed to write file data on cluster disk 0 partition 1, failure reason: The disk structure is corrupted and unreadable corrupted and unreadable.
Resolution:
To fix this problem, I formatted all the disks, made them offline again, and re-run the Cluster Validation Test, and this time it turned out as passed!
2) Live Migration Best Practices and Post-Implementation Issues and their Resolutions:
In this section, I will guide you the best practices for fixing issues related to the Live Migration, after the post-implementation of Windows Failover Clustering for Hyper-V with CSV:
I. Recommended Cluster Network Microsoft Failover Cluster Settings:
Lets assume you got two networks physical cards in your Server, as follows:
LAN Connected Server VLAN
Cluster Heartbeat Network Cluster Network for Live Migration
In the Failover Cluster Manager, you have to set the below settings for both of them:
-
- image001
-
- image002
II. Recommended Cluster Network File and Printing and NetBIOS Settings:
As you know that disabling File and Printing Services and NetBIOS, for Cluster Internal Network, have always been a recommended practice, but with Live Migration and Hyper-V Clustering, it is required to turn on these both settings on the Cluster Network, which we will be using for Live Migration.
III. Refreshing Virtual Machine Configuration:
With my experience, while I saw that the Quick Migration was working but Live Migration was not working, so I gave a Refresh Virtual Machine Configuration from the Microsoft Failover Manager, and after that tried to give a live migration, and it worked, so you can say that after making any changes to VM (Highly Available) in Clustering, you should give Refresh to VM Configuration Cluster, so which tells the cluster that these are the changes made to the VM, and which directly interact with Clustering behavior of the VM.
IV. CSV- Cluster Shared Volumes behavior:
When you add CSV in the Microsoft Cluster Failover Manager for the support and funtionlity of Live Migration, you see a different behavior of these disk, as compare to the other type of storage on the Cluster Nodes, and over time, I have seen some misconception and misguided assumptions about these CSV LUNs, so let me explain the expected behavior of CSV LUNs on the Cluster nodes as follows:
a. Online / Offline: CSV LUNs will only be online on the Current Owner of the LUNs in the Cluster, e.g. as shown in the below image that only disk three is online and disk 1, disk 2 are both offline, is because that the Cluster Node 1 is the current owner of the DISK 3, and thats why it is showing here online, and both DISK 1, and DISK 2 are offline.
b. Reserved: When you add at LUN to Cluster as CSV, the Disk as become Reserved, means that it will only work for Windows Server 2008 R2 CSV functionality, where it is allowed for file-level locking, not the disk level.
c. Accessing CSV LUNs from Windows Explorer and over NetBIOS SMB session:
After adding the CSV LUNs to the Failover Cluster Manager in the CSV Tab, you will start seeing the below behavior in the C: drive of the Cluster Nodes, and when you will double click on the ClusterStorage, it will get buys, but will let you go inside the folder after sometime, depending on your Network speed and server performance, but as per expected functionality, you should be able to open this folder on all cluster nodes.
Additionally, while it is taking time to opening the folder, if you try to open the same location over SMB NetBIOS session, it will open it bit fast, but make sure that you enabled the File and Printer Sharing and NetBios settings on the Cluster Network, and others. E.g. \172.16.55.1c$ClusterStorageVolume1.
V. Same Hyper-V Virtual Network Settings on all Hyper-V Nodes in the Cluster:
Lets assume that we got five cluster node setup for Hyper-V clustering, and before building the cluster, as recommended we installed the Hyper-V role on these five cluster nodes, and as part of configuration, we will be creating Virtual Network in Hyper-V for VMs to communicate to the reset of the Network, and therefore we created a Network called Server-VLAN, and for allowing the any type of Migration, whether its a quick migration, live migration or VM move, it is required that you keep the same Virtual Network name on all Cluster (Hyper-V) nodes, because when the Virtual Machine moves in case of Live Migration with VM Configuration file, when the second node where you try to make the VM online, the migration process tries to open and make online the VM with the pre-configured VM configuration parameters, where if the Network Name would be different or the same name of Virtual Network (Server-VLAN example) is not there, VM migration and making the VM online will fail.
I hope with the all above explained as a best practices, will help you to make your Hyper-V High Availability Implementation a success project.
Cheers!
Install Windows Server 2008 R2 Cluster for Hyper-V | How to build Hyper-V Clustering | Hyper-V Live Migration | Hyper-V Cluster Shared Volumes | Create Hyper-V VM from Failover Cluster Manager | Hyper-V Quick and Live Migration – Hyper-V Training Video
Author: Zahir Hussain Shah | MVP – Exchange Server
Step by Step Video Training for Building Microsoft Windows Server 2008 R2 Failover Cluster for Microsoft Hyper-V High Availability with Cluster Shared Volumes, Pass-Through Disk and Managing Hyper-V VMs from Windows Server Failover Cluster Manager snap-in
Being a Microsoft Exchange Server Solution Architect and MVP, we all can see the Hyper-V as product getting mature day by day, and its fast growing usage at every level of business sector, and as initially Hyper-V introduced himself as a Hypervisor for Testing / RnD VM based Servers, and a Virtualization Layer for its competitors, but with the recent fast growth of the product, and changes the people perception, now Microsoft Hyper-V is being used as a Production Hypervisor, and many Application and Systems Developers started making their products to run over Hyper-V, which is indeed a success of Hyper-V in the todays Information Technology world.
As long as Microsoft Exchange Server is concerned, so I’m pleased to inform you that Microsoft Exchange Server 2010 is officially supported over Microsoft Hyper-V, and for information, please read my below posts:
http://zahirshahblog.com/2011/12/19/microsoft-exchange-server-2010-virtualization-support-compatibility-with-different-hypervisors-microsoft-hardware-and-application-virtualization-support-for-microsoft-windows-server-and-microsoft-e/
http://zahirshahblog.com/2011/12/25/exchange-server-2010-virtualization-virtualize-microsoft-exchange-2010-with-hyper-v-installing-exchange-server-2010-on-hyper-v-how-to-virtualize-microsoft-exchange-server-2010-with-hyper-v/
Let’s back to the Hyper-V, in this blog post, as it sounds with the blog post name, I will be provide you training video for “Step by Step Video Training for Building Microsoft Windows Server 2008 R2 Failover Cluster for Microsoft Hyper-V High Availability with Cluster Shared Volumes, Pass-Through Disk and Managing Hyper-V VMs from Windows Server Failover Cluster Manager snap-in”, created by Matt McSpirit as part of his screencast at Microsoft TechNet – TechEdge.
Matt divided this screencast into four video, which are linked as follows:
Ø Hyper-V R2: Building a Hyper-V R2 Cluster : Part I
Ø Hyper-V R2: Making Highly Available VMs : Part II
Ø Hyper-V R2: Introducing Cluster Shared Volumes : Part III
Ø Hyper-V R2: Failover & Live Migration : Part IV
I hope this blog post and Matt’s screencast will help all of you, who wants to start with Hyper-V HA and Live Migration, it really works…
Cheers!
