Hyper-V NIC Teaming

In a previous post I wrote about my experiences with Hyper-V on Server 2008 R2, and that teaming didn't work.

Well the good news is it works. The bad news is it feels like a house of cards.

Working with HP DL380 G5 and the very latest Proliant Support Pack (PSP 7.6) I managed to setup Hyper-V (on 2008 R2 Core) for Live Migration on teamed NICs. The storage is fibre attached and I would imagine that iSCSI teams are still not possible, but if anyone manages to do this let me know.

Anyway, onto the details.

For an exisiting Hyper-V server:

• Do one host at a time Live Migrating everything off it before starting
• Delete your Virtual Networks through Hyper-V Manager
• Install the PSP, downloading and updating NIC firmware as required
• Reboot
• Download the HP Network Configuration Utility (NCU) for 2008 R2 and install
• Reboot
• Create the team using the util C:\Program Files\HP\NCU\hpteam.cpl
• Reboot
• Set the IP info for your net interface (sconfig)
• Restart Hyper-V and Cluster services
• Recreate your Virtual Networks in Hyper-V manager.

Note: The last step is that hardest and takes ages to process so BE PATIENT.

also if it does fail then you have to break your team, reboot, recreate your team and try again.

I'd recommend turning off Windows Updates and avoid doing them for the moment. There is talk of windows updates breaking the teaming. Your own testing will be required on this one.

EDIT; I found a hiccup with teaming and MAC address. Have a read just so you are aware; http://anicegameof.blogspot.com/2010/04/hyper-v-mac-conflicts.html

Application Virtualization (AppV)

So I've had some fun installing AppV 4.5 recently and thus far it's all been a little too easy.

Tip:
Install IIS first - including all the IIS6 management and the Windows Authentication components.
Certificate - Hey another ceritificate. Setup the site for SSL.
Active Directory - Create a AppV management and an APPV user group (and also a service account) before you install. Add your admin account to the management group.

Gotcha:
No 64-bit support till the next version (4.6) is released.
That means no Windows 2008 R2 installs and no 64-bit client.
This will bite you if you deploy 64-bit Windows 7 (Which I would always do given the choice)
Update: Got a copy of the 4.6 Public Beta client and will be giving that a bash.

...and now time to sequence some apps. More about that to follow.

Command Line

Changing the theme of this Blog for a moment I'm going to use this post as my own person dumping ground for stuff relating to Server 2008 Core and other Command Line thing... mostly so I have an easy reference place online. Steal / use whatever you like :)

Moving the Page File

diskpart.exe

DISKPART> select disk 0
DISKPART> select partition 1
DISKPART> shrink desired=2280
DISKPART> create partition primary
DISKPART> select partition 2
DISKPART> format fs=ntfs label="Swap"
DISKPART> assign letter=E
DISKPART> exit

wmic.exe computersystem where name=”%computername%” set AutomaticManagedPagefile=False
wmic.exe pagefileset create name="E:\pagefile.sys"
wmic.exe pagefileset where name="E:\\pagefile.sys" set InitialSize=2048,MaximumSize=2048
wmic.exe pagefileset where name="C:\\pagefile.sys" delete

Turning off Hibernation (on by default on 2008)

powercfg.exe /hibernate off