Windows 8 keyboard shortcuts

I’m typically a keyboard user and try to find short ways to my required actions.

The comprehensive list can be found here at the Windows Team Blog –> http://blogs.windows.com/windows/b/windowsexperience/p/win8_keyboard_shortcuts.aspx

End of Life – Support ends for Windows XP and Office 2003

On April 8, 2014, Microsoft will end support for the decade-old Windows XP and Office 2003. This means you will no longer receive updates, including security updates, for Windows XP from Microsoft.

Security Risk:

Without critical Windows XP security updates, your PC may become vulnerable to harmful viruses, spyware, and other malicious software which can steal or damage your business data and information. Anti-virus software will also not be able to fully protect you once Windows XP itself is unsupported.

Software and 3rd Party Issues:

Many software and hardware vendors will no longer support their products that are running on Windows XP as they are unable to get the Windows XP and Office 2003 updates. For example, the new Office leverages the modern Windows and will not run on Windows XP.

More details can be found here –> http://www.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/business/retiring-xp.aspx and http://www.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/endofsupport.aspx

SCVMM 2008 R2–Error 2912 – An internal error has occurred trying to contact an agent

I love the “unknown” error things but as all of us know you can NOT handle all error conditions within application coding. Therefore I would like to provide here an possible resolution which you need to confirm if it applies to your environment.

I faced this error and did some research and found out that this could also be related to BITS (Background Intelligent Transfer Service). BITS is being used excessively by VMM for file transfers.

Error (2912)
An internal error has occurred trying to contact an agent on the vmmmserver.yourdomain.com server.
(Unknown error (0×80041001))

Recommended Action
Ensure the agent is installed and running. Ensure the WS-Management service is installed and running, then restart the agent.

Possible fix:

import-module BitsTransfer
Get-BitsTransfer -AllUsers

Check for the output if you see any BITS jobs which are not owned by "NT AUTHORITY\SYSTEM" and have status "Suspended".

To delete the failed/corrupt BITS job you need to run:
import-module BitsTransfer
$AllJobs = Get-BitsTransfer -AllUsers
Remove-BitsTransfer -BitsJob $AllJobs

You will receive an "Access Denied" but this is ok as SYSTEM owned jobs cannot be deleted:

Remove-BitsTransfer : Access is denied. (Exception from HRESULT: 0×80070005 (E_ACCESSDENIED))

List of known issues for Background Intelligent Transfer Service (BITS)
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/331716/en-us

How to deploy an “classic” terminal server with Windows 2012

Since Windows 2008 the “oldschool” and well known 2003 terminal services are extended on rich web services which provides now great new capabilities in designing and deploying built in terminal server services based on HTTP/HTTPS. in combination with RD Gateway the applications can also be securely published to WWW and session host server be isolated in non public facing network segments. all terminal services are now called Remote Desktop services shortly RD. 

To enable RD (Remote Desktop) services there are generally 2 ways, “Quickstart” and “Standard Deployment”. Also there 2 types of RD services available, Session Virtualization or VDI (Virtual Desktop Infrastructure). In this blog article I focus and deploy RDS for session virtualization which means hosting and publishing of terminal server applications.

Quickstart is straight forward and deploys you quickly the required services and configure an standard pool of applications mainly can be used for setting up a lab/demo environment:

 

Standard Deployment Step-by-Step Guide:

Depending on your deployment select in following steps the Connection Broker, Web Access and Session Host server. In a single server deployment you can specify your single server for all roles:

Finished !! Your 2012 TS is ready for deploying and publishing applications

Now you need to create a “session collection” to specify users/groups who can access which host servers:

I do not allow “user profile disks”  but in case this is required, select “Enable” and set the required NTFS permissions on folder.

When session collection group is created you can start with configuration of the apps you want to publish.

Now you can access your new RD published applications via web, the link is https://servername/rdweb

The connection is based on SSL (HTTPS) but the certificate used is a automatically created self signed certificate which can be exchanged with a trusted certificate.

After logged in with your specified credentials from the “session collection” you will see the published RemoteApp applications:

here is a list of helpful articles to get more insights in RDS features:

How to enable SSO (single-sign-on) in RD Web Access with Windows 2012?

Publishing RemoteApps in Windows Server 2012

Virtual Desktop Infrastructure services with Windows Server 2012

Remote Desktop Services @ MSDN

Remote Desktop Services Overview – Windows 2012

What’s New in Remote Desktop Services 2012

Remote Desktop Services Team Blog

Test Lab Guide: Remote Desktop Services Session Virtualization Standard Deployment

NetApp – New Windows MPIO (V3.5) available

NetApp has released a new version of their MPIO DSM (Version 3.5) which does include several fixes and simplifies the deployment for NetApp connected Windows systems.

The new features which are included in version 3.5 are:

The Data ONTAP DSM 3.5 for Windows MPIO includes the following changes:

- Data ONTAP operating in Cluster-Mode is now supported, starting with version 8.1. Note the following about Cluster-Mode support:
  – Asymmetric logical unit access (ALUA) is required for all Fibre Channel (FC) paths and for all iSCSI paths to Cluster-Mode LUNs.
  – Mixed FC and iSCSI paths to the same Cluster-Mode LUN is supported.
- New Windows PowerShell cmdlets are available to manage the DSM. The cmdlets replace the dsmcli commands, which are deprecated starting in DSM 3.5. The dsmcli commands will be removed in a future release.
- The Windows Host Utilities are no longer required. The Windows Host Utilities components that enable you to configure Hyper-V systems (mbralign.exe and LinuxGuestConfig.iso) are now included with the DSM. While no longer required, installing the Windows Host Utilities on the same host as the DSM is still supported.
- Hyper-V guests running Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL) are now supported. The Interoperability Matrix lists the specific versions supported.
- The number of reboots required to install or upgrade the DSM is reduced. For example, when you install Windows hotfixes, you can wait to reboot the host until after you install or upgrade the DSM.
- The timeout values set by the Data ONTAP DSM are updated based on ongoing testing.
- The options that you use to specify preferred paths for the Round Robin with Subset policy has changed. Note the following changes:
- The options that you use in the graphical user interface (GUI) to specify preferred paths for the Round Robin with Subset policy has changed. You now use the Set Preferred and Clear Preferred options to specify preferred paths. The Set Active and Set Passive options are no longer available for Round Robin with Subset. Note: These changes do not alter how the Round Robin with Subset policy works. Round Robin with Subset is still an "active/active" policy that enables you to specify preferred and non-preferred paths. The changes align the GUI terminology with how the policy works.

Release Notes can be found here: https://now.netapp.com/NOW/knowledge/docs/mpio/win/reldsm35/pdfs/rnote.pdf

NetApp MPIO Version 3.5 for Windows Systems can be found here:

https://now.netapp.com/NOW/download/software/mpio_win/3.5/

If you deploy MPIO DSM V3.5 from NetApp at a fully patched Windows 2008 R2 SP1 system you will get following “error” if you haven’t installed KB2522766 and KB2528357:

KB2522766 – The MPIO driver fails over all paths incorrectly when a transient single failure occurs in Windows Server 2008 or in Windows Server 2008 R2
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/2522766/

KB2528357 – Nonpaged pool leak when you disable and enable some storage controllers in Windows 7 or in Windows Server 2008 R2
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/2528357

After installing KB2522766 an reboot is required.

Also KB2522766 requires an reboot:

After 2 reboots you can install now MPIO DSM 3.5:

In my case, there is already an “older” version of NetApp MPIO DSM installed which will be automatically detected and upgrade from setup:

Note: In my case this is an Hyper-V server therefore I do install the Hyper-V Guest utilities which are one of the new features and mentioned above in the feature list.

……Finally Finished

After an 3rd reboot you can now proceed with your SAN configuration.

Please stay tuned for more details around the new utilities and especially around the new Powershell commandlet’s for NetApp which are called “Powershell Toolkit Version 1.6”.

Powershell Toolkit 1.6

http://communities.netapp.com/community/interfaces_and_tools/data_ontap_powershell_toolkit/data_ontap_powershell_toolkit_downloads
http://communities.netapp.com/community/interfaces_and_tools/data_ontap_powershell_toolkit?view=documents

Stay tuned….

Regards

Ramazan

Ramazan

How to configure NIC Teaming with HP Proliant and Cisco or Procurve Switch Infrastructure?

Very often I do need to configure NIC teams with HP hardware with Cisco or Procurve networking infrastructure therefore I would like to share an general overview of the NIC HP teaming capabilities, general teaming algorithms and especially how to configure an Cisco or Procurve switches.

My personal preferred teaming mode here is to use the 802.3ad teaming mode as it provides most redundancy and performance throughput capabilities and is the current industry standard which is well understood by enterprise switches.

HP generally provides following NIC teaming capabilities and algorithms:

1.1 Network Fault Tolerance (NFT) only – Network Fault Tolerance (NFT) is the foundation of HP ProLiant Network Adapter Teaming. In NFT mode, from two to eight teamed ports are teamed together to operate as a single virtual network adapter. However, only one teamed port—the primary teamed port—is used for both transmit and receive communication with the server. The remaining adapters are considered to be stand-by (or secondary adapters) and are referred to as non-primary teamed ports. Non-primary teamed ports remain idle unless the primary teamed port fails. All teamed ports may transmit and receive heartbeats, including non-primary adapters.

The fault-tolerance feature that NFT represents for HP ProLiant Network Adapter Teaming is the only feature found in every other team type. The foundation of every team type supports NFT.

1.2 Network Fault Tolerance (NFT) with Preference Order – Network Fault Tolerance Only with Preference Order is identical in almost every way to NFT with the only difference being that this team type allows the SA to prioritize the order in which teamed ports should be the primary teamed port. This ability is important in environments where one or more teamed ports are more preferred than other ports in the same team. The need for ranking certain teamed ports better than others can be a result of unequal speeds, better adapter capabilities (for example, higher receive/transmit descriptors or buffers, interrupt coalescence, and so on), or preference for the team’s primary port to be located on a specific switch.

1.3 Transmit Load Balancing (TLB) with Fault Tolerance – Transmit Load Balancing with Fault Tolerance (TLB) is a team type that allows the server to load balance its transmit traffic. TLB is switch independent and supports switch fault tolerance by allowing the teamed ports to be connected to more than one switch in the same LAN. With TLB, traffic received by the server is not load balanced. The primary teamed port is responsible for receiving all traffic destined for the server. In case of a failure of the primary teamed port, the NFT mechanism ensures connectivity to the server is preserved by selecting another teamed port to assume the role.

1.4 Transmit Load Balancing (TLB) with Fault Tolerance and Preference Order – Transmit Load Balancing with Fault Tolerance and Preference Order is identical in almost every way to TLB with the only difference being that this team type allows the SA to prioritize the order in which teamed ports should be the primary teamed port. This ability is important in environments where one or more teamed ports are more preferred than other ports in the same team. The need for ranking certain teamed ports higher than others can be a result of unequal speeds, better adapter capabilities (for example, higher receive/transmit descriptors or buffers, interrupt coalescence, and so on), or preference for the team’s primary port to be located on a specific switch.

1.5 Switch-assisted Load Balancing (SLB) with Fault Tolerance – Switch-assisted Load Balancing with Fault Tolerance (SLB) is a team type that allows full transmit and receive load balancing. SLB requires the use of a switch that supports some form of Port Trunking (for example, EtherChannel, MultiLink Trunking, and so on). SLB does not support switch redundancy because all ports in a team must be connected to the same switch. SLB is similar to the 802.3ad Dynamic team type.

1.6 802.3ad Dynamic with Fault Tolerance – 802.3ad Dynamic with Fault Tolerance is identical to SLB except that the switch must support the IEEE 802.3ad dynamic configuration protocol called Link Aggregation Control Protocol (LACP). In addition, the switch port, to which the teamed ports are connected, must have LACP enabled. The main benefit of 802.3ad Dynamic is that an SA will not have to manually configure the switch. 802.3ad Dynamic is a standard feature of HP ProLiant Network Adapter Teaming.

1.7 Automatic (both) – The Automatic team type is not really an individual team type. Automatic teams decide whether to operate as an NFT, or a TLB team, or as an 802.3ad Dynamic team. If all teamed ports are connected to a switch that supports the IEEE 802.3ad Link Aggregation Protocol (LACP) and all teamed ports are able to negotiate 802.3ad operation with the switch, then the team will choose to operate as an 802.3ad Dynamic team. However, if the switch does not support LACP or if any ports in the team do not have successful LACP negotiation with the switch, the team will choose to operate as a TLB team. As network and server configurations change, the Automatic team type ensures that HP ProLiant servers intelligently choose between TLB and 802.3ad Dynamic to minimize server reconfiguration.

2. Load Balancing Algorithm

All load-balancing team types (TLB, SLB, and 802.3ad Dynamic) load balance transmitted frames. There is a fundamental decision that must be made when determining load balancing mechanisms: whether or not to preserve frame order.

Frame order preservation is important for several reasons – to prevent frame retransmission because frames arrive out of order and to prevent performance-decreasing frame reordering within OS protocol stacks. In order to avoid frames from being transmitted out of order when communicating with a target network device, the team’s load-balancing algorithm assigns “outbound conversations” to a particular teamed port. In other words, if frame order preservation is desired, outbound load balancing by the team should be performed on a conversation-by-conversation basis rather than on a frame-by-frame basis. To accomplish this, the load-balancing device (either a team or a switch) needs information to identify conversations. Destination MAC address, Destination IP address, and TCP Connection are used to identify conversations.

It is very important to understand the differences between the load-balancing methods when deploying HP ProLiant Network Adapter Teaming in an environment that requires load balancing of routed Layer 3 traffic. Because the methods use conversations to load balance, the resulting traffic may not be distributed equally across all ports in the team. The benefits of maintaining frame order outweigh the lack of perfect traffic distribution across teamed ports’ members. Implementers of HP ProLiant Network Adapter Teaming can choose the appropriate load balancing method via the NCU.

 

2.1 TLB Automatic method

Automatic is a load-balancing method that is designed to preserve frame ordering.

This method will load balance outbound traffic based on the highest layer of information in the frame. For instance, if a frame has a TCP header with TCP port values, the frame will be load balancing by TCP connection (see “TLB TCP Connection method” below). If the frame has an IP header with an IP address but no TCP header, then the frame is load balanced by destination IP address (see “TLB Destination IP Address method” below). If the frame does not have an IP header, the frame is load balanced by destination MAC address (see “TLB Destination MAC Address method” below).

2.2 TLB TCP Connection method

TCP Connection is also a load-balancing method that is designed to preserve frame ordering.

This method will load balance outbound traffic based on the TCP port information in the frame’s TCP header. This load-balancing method combines the TCP source and destination ports to identify the TCP conversation. Combining these values, the algorithm can identify individual TCP conversations (even multiple conversations between the team and one other network device). The algorithm used to choose which teamed port to use per TCP conversation is similar to the algorithms used in the “TLB Destination IP Address method” and “TLB Destination MAC Address method” sections below.

If this method is chosen, and the frame has an IP header with and IP address but not a TCP header, then the frame is load balanced by destination IP address (see “TLB Destination IP Address method” below). If the frame does not have an IP header, the frame is load balanced by destination MAC address (see “TLB Destination MAC Address method” below).

2.3 TLB Destination IP Address method

Destination IP Address is a load-balancing method that will attempt to preserve frame ordering.

This method makes load-balancing decisions based on the destination IP address of the frame being transmitted by the teaming driver. The frame’s destination IP address belongs to the network device that will ultimately receive the frame. The team utilizes the last three bits of the destination IP address to assign the frame to a port for transmission.

Because IP addresses are in decimal format, it is necessary to convert them to binary format. For example, an IP address of 1.2.3.4 (dotted decimal) would be 0000 0001.00000010.00000011.0000 0100 in binary format. The teaming driver only uses the last three bits (100) of the least significant byte (0000 0100 = 4) of the IP address. Utilizing these three bits, the teaming driver consecutively assigns destination IP addresses to each functional network port in its team starting with 000 being assigned to network port 1, 001 being assigned to network port 2, and so on. Of course, how the IP addresses are assigned depends on the number of network ports in the TLB team and how many of those ports are in a functional state (see Table 4-4).

3. How to configure 802.3ad with Cisco and HP Procurve?

3.1 Configuration of Cisco Switch with 2 network ports

Switch#conf ter
Switch(config)#Int PORT (a.e. Gi3/1)
Switch(config-if)#switchport mode access
Switch(config-if)#spanning-tree portfast
Switch(config-if)#channel-group <48> mode active
Switch(config-if)#Int PORT (a.e. Gi3/1)
Switch(config-if)#switchport mode access
Switch(config-if)#spanning-tree portfast
Switch(config-if)#channel-group <48> mode active

3.2 Configuration of HP Procurve with 2 network ports

PROCURVE-Core1#conf ter
PROCURVE-Core1# trunk PORT1-PORT2 (a.e. C1/C2) Trk<ID> (a.e. Trk99) LACP
PROCURVE-Core1# vlan <VLANID>
PROCURVE-Core1# untagged Trk<ID> (a.e. Trk99)
PROCURVE-Core1# show lacp
PROCURVE-Core1# show log lacp

a.e.: How to add additional ports to an existing HP trunk?

Note: In this example I do add port D5 and D6 to an configured trunk with trunk ID 70. In total I do have here an 4 port NIC team with ports C23, C24, D5, D6 based on LACP.

3.3 Configuration of HP NIC

NOTE: Automatic can also be used, as the teaming network drivers will automatically detect and handle the best teaming method with the switches => 802.3ad Dynamic Fault Tolerance

3.4 Results in “sh running-config” in Cisco Example

interface GigabitEthernet3/1
description SERVERNAME-NIC1
switchport access vlan <VLANID>
switchport mode access
spanning-tree portfast
channel-group 60 mode active

interface GigabitEthernet3/2
description SERVERNAME-NIC2
switchport access vlan <VLANID>
switchport mode access
spanning-tree portfast
channel-group <1-48> mode active

interface Port-channel<1-48>
description SERVERNAME-TEAM1
switchport
switchport access vlan <VLANID>
switchport mode access

3.5 Results in “sh int status” in Cisco Example

Gi3/1 SERVERNAME-NIC1 connected 10 a-full a-1000
Gi3/2 SERVERNAME-NIC2 connected 10 a-full a-1000
Po60 SERVERNAME-TEAM1 connected 10 a-full a-1000

Note: In this example the network ports Gi3/1 and Gi3/2 are bound to an new PortChannel (Po60) which is created and connected to VLAN10.

4. References

http://www.cisco.com/en/US/tech/tk389/tk213/technologies_configuration_example09186a008089a821.shtml

http://www.cisco.com/application/pdf/paws/98469/ios_etherchannel.pdf

http://cdn.procurve.com/training/Manuals/2900-MCG-Jan08-11-PortTrunk.pdf

IMPORTANTE: In NIC Teaming with HP hardware scenarios especially when Hyper-V is involved it is important to follow the installation guide from the NIC manufacturer, in case of HP NCU it is mainly important to strictly follow the installation order:

1. Install OS + patches
2. Install Hyper-V role
3. Install NCU (Network Configuration Utility) (included in Proliant Support Pack, current version 8.70)

More detailed steps can you find in the HP reference guide here:

Using HP ProLiant Network Teaming Software with Microsoft® Windows® Server 2008 (R2) Hyper-V  (4th Edition)
http://h20000.www2.hp.com/bc/docs/support/SupportManual/c01663264/c01663264.pdf

Note: Please be aware most of this blog post are cross-references from HP and Cisco networking documentation.

Stay tuned ….

Regards

Ramazan

How to use Powershell in Failover Clustering–Part 1

Powershell is a really powerful toy for any Windows administrator where tasks need to be automated and or repeated several times.

Here I would like to start an blog series of how to use Powershell in Windows Server Failover Cluster (WSFC) environments.

Let’s start over with some basic commandlet’s to get status of clustered groups, resources and cluster core resources, move groups and soon. Later we will do some advanced operations with Powershell.

The WSFC Powershell (CLI) interface is everywhere available where WSFC feature is installed:

• Windows Server 2008 R2 (SP1)
  • Full
  • Core (not installed by default)
• Microsoft Hyper-V Server 2008 R2 (SP1)
• Remote Server Administration Tools (RSAT) for Windows 7 (SP1)

First of all, you must import the “FailoverCluster” module to get the commandlet’s. To get a list of all available modules you can use:

PS:\ Get-Module -ListAvailable

To import the module you need to use “Import-Module” commandlet:

PS:\ Import-Module FailoverClusters

YUHUU We have now the full set of all Failover Cluster commandlet’s available, let’s have a look which they are:

PS:\ Get-Command –Module FailoverClusters or Get-Command | findstr Cluster

As you can see, there are for the most of the GUI actions an cmdlet available, sometimes more. In total there are 69 Failover Cluster specific cmdlet’s which gives you many many *creative* usage ways.

NOTE: A really helpful method with Powershell is the Get-Help cmdlet:
Built-in help: Get-Help cmdlet -Full
Examples: Get-Help cmdlet –Examples
Online help (INET connection is required): Get-Help cmdlet –Online

Let’s start with some easy commandlet to do some basic operations:

How to get a list of all clustered groups via Powershell?

PS:\ Get-ClusterGroup

As you can see I do have some resources offline. Let’s bring them online

How to bring online a Cluster Group via Powershell?

PS:\ Start-ClusterGroup “GROUPNAME”

Now, let’s move a group to a different node to balance the workloads in my *test* cluster

How to move a cluster group via Powershell?

PS:\ Move-ClusterGroup “GROUPNAME” –Node “NODENAME”

How to get a list of all clustered resources via Powershell?

PS:\ Get-ClusterResource

How to get a list of all clustered groups from an node via Powershell?

PS:\ Get-ClusterNode –Name “NODENAME” | Get-ClusterGroup

How to get a list of all clustered resources within a cluster group via Powershell?

PS:\  Get-ClusterGroup "GROUPNAME" | Get-ClusterResource

How to get more parameters from a clustered disk (resource)?

PS:\ Get-ClusterResource "Cluster Disk 1" | Get-ClusterParameter

How can I test/validate my cluster via Powershell?

Since R2 you can also validate your cluster via CLI Powershell:

PS:\ Get-Help Test-Cluster

A.e.: PS:\ Test-Cluster –Node Node1,Node2

A list of all available Test-Cluster scenarios – which can be *in-/excluded*- can you find here:

Hope this has opened your interest in more around Powershell for Failover Clustering – stay tuned for more or start with playing with PS…..

Some additional reference can you find here:

Mapping Cluster.exe Commands to Windows PowerShell Cmdlets for Failover Clusters
http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ee619744(WS.10).aspx

PowerShell Quick Reference
http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyId=DF8ED469-9007-401C-85E7-46649A32D0E0&displaylang=en

Clustering with PowerShell
http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ee619751(WS.10).aspx

PowerShell for Failover Clustering: Finding the Drive Letter
http://blogs.msdn.com/b/clustering/archive/2009/10/16/9908325.aspx

PowerShell for Failover Clustering: Understanding Error Codes
http://blogs.msdn.com/b/clustering/archive/2010/04/28/10003627.aspx

PowerShell for Failover Clustering: Frequently Asked Questions
http://blogs.msdn.com/b/clustering/archive/2009/05/23/9636665.aspx

Regards

Ramazan Can

Post SP1 Hotfixes for Windows 2008 R2 SP1 with Failover Clustering and Hyper-V

In addition to my previous blog around the list of recommended hotfixes for SCVMM, Hyper-V and Failover Clustering, I do personally maintain currently a list with all post (recommended/required/regular….) SP1 released hotfixes especially with focus on Failover Cluster and Hyper-V:

http://ramazancan.wordpress.com/2010/11/21/recommended-hotfixes-scvmm-hyper-v/

KB2528357 – Nonpaged pool leak when you disable and enable some storage controllers in Windows 7 or in Windows Server 2008 R2
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/2528357

KB2568088 – Virtual machine does not start on a computer that has an AMD CPU that supports the AVX feature and that is running Windows Server 2008 R2 (SP1)
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/2568088

KB2547551 – Hyper-V Export function consumes all available memory in Windows Server 2008 or in Windows Server 2008 R2 (SP1)
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/2547551

KB2550569 – "0×20001" Stop error when you start a Linux VM in Windows Server 2008 R2 SP1
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/2550569

KB2504962 – Dynamic Memory allocation in a Virtual Machine does not change although there is available memory on the host
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/2504962

KB2534356 – Some CPU cores are parked while other active CPU cores have a heavy workload in Windows Server 2008 R2 SP1
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/2534356

KB2496034 – Cluster service stops when an error occurs in the registry replication process of a failover cluster in Windows Server 2008 R2 (SP1) or in Windows Server 2008
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/2496034

KB2549448 – Cluster service still uses the default time-out value after you configure the regroup time-out setting in Windows Server 2008 R2 (SP1)
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/2549448

KB2549472 – Cluster node cannot rejoin the cluster after the node is restarted or removed from the cluster in Windows Server 2008 R2 (SP1)
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/2549472

KB2446607 – You cannot enable BitLocker on a disk volume in Windows Server 2008 R2 (SP1) if the computer is a failover cluster node
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/2446607

KB2462576 – The NFS share cannot be brought online in Windows Server 2008 R2 (SP1) when you try to create the NFS share as a cluster resource on a third-party storage disk
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/2462576

KB2485543 – You cannot access or mount a Windows Server 2008 R2 (SP1) based NFS share after a failover if the NFS share uses Krb5 or Krb5i authentication
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/2485543

KB2545685 – Recommended hotfixes and updates for Windows Server 2008 R2 SP1 Failover Clusters
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/2545685

KB2531907 – Validate SCSI Device Vital Product Data (VPD) test fails after you install Windows Server 2008 R2 SP1
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/2531907

KB2494162 – The Cluster service stops unexpectedly on a Windows Server 2008 R2 (SP1) failover cluster node when you perform multiple backup operations in parallel on a cluster shared volume
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/2494162

KB2552040 – A Windows Server 2008 R2 (SP1) failover cluster loses quorum when an asymmetric communication failure occurs
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/2552040

KB2494036 – A hotfix is available to let you configure a cluster node that does not have quorum votes in Windows Server 2008 and in Windows Server 2008 R2 (SP1)
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/2494036

KB2496089 – The Hyper-V Virtual Machine Management service stops responding intermittently when the service is stopped in Windows Server 2008 R2
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/2496089

KB2521220 – "0x0000001E" Stop error when you perform disk I/O-intensive operations on dynamic disks in Windows Server 2008 or in Windows Server 2008 R2 (SP1)
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/2521220

KB2512715 – Validate Operating System Installation Option test may identify Windows Server 2008 R2 Server Core installation type incorrectly in Windows Server 2008 R2 (SP1)
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/2512715

KB2501763 – Read-only pass-through disk after you add the disk to a highly available VM in a Windows Server 2008 R2 SP1 failover cluster
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/2501763

KB2520235 – "0x0000009E" Stop error when you add an extra storage disk to a failover cluster in Windows Server 2008 R2 (SP1)
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/2520235

KB2529956 – Windows Server 2008 R2 (SP1) installation may hang if more than 64 logical processors are active
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/2529956

KB2545227 – Event ID 10 is logged in the Application log after you install Service Pack 1 for Windows 7 or Windows Server 2008 R2
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/2545227

KB2517329 – Performance decreases in Windows Server 2008 R2 (SP1) when the Hyper-V role is installed on a computer that uses Intel Westmere or Sandy Bridge processors
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/2517329/en-us

KB2532917 – Hyper-V Virtual Machines Exhibit Slow Startup and Shutdown
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/2532917

KB2494016 – Stop error 0x0000007a occurs on a virtual machine that is running on a Windows Server 2008 R2-based failover cluster with a cluster shared volume, and the state of the CSV is switched to redirected access
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/2494016/en-us

KB2263829 – The network connection of a running Hyper-V virtual machine may be lost under heavy outgoing network traffic on a computer that is running Windows Server 2008 R2 SP1
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/2263829/en-us

KB2485986 – An update is available for Hyper-V Best Practices Analyzer for Windows Server 2008 R2 (SP1)
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/2485986/en-us

KB2494162 – The Cluster service stops unexpectedly on a Windows Server 2008 R2 (SP1) failover cluster node when you perform multiple backup operations in parallel on a cluster shared volume
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/2494162/en-us

KB2521348 – A virtual machine online backup fails in Windows Server 2008 R2 (SP1) when the SAN policy is set to "Offline All"
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/2521348

KB2519736 – Stop error message in Windows Server 2008 R2 SP1 or in Windows 7 SP1: "STOP: 0x0000007F"
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/2519736

KB980915 – A long time delay occurs when you reconnect an IPSec connection from a computer that is running Windows Server 2003, Windows Vista, Windows Server 2008, Windows 7, or Windows Server 2008 R2 (SP1) (in IPSEC scenarios)
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/980915

RemoteFX specific:

KB2501816 – "Display driver stopped responding but has recovered" error in a Windows 7 SP1-based VM that has a RemoteFX video adapter
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/2501816

KB2505030 – A RemoteFX VM does not start, and you receive the error "Microsoft Synthetic 3D Display Controller: Failed to Power on" when you try to add the RemoteFX 3D Video adapter from Hyper-V settings
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/2505030

KB2506391 – In Windows Server 2008 R2 SP1, RemoteFX virtual machines cannot start, and you receive an error: "Failed to Power on with Error ‘Insufficient system resources exist to complete the requested service’"
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/2506391

KB2505694 – Error message when you try to start a RemoteFX-enabled virtual machine: "Microsoft Synthetic 3D Display Controller : Failed to Power on with Error ‘Insufficient system resources exist to complete the requested service’"
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/2505694

KB2506417 – New and existing RemoteFX-enabled virtual machines do not start on a domain controller that is running the Remote Desktop Virtualization Host service in Windows Server 2008 R2 SP1
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/2506417

KB2506434 – In Windows Server 2008 R2 SP1, RemoteFX VMs cannot start if the Hyper-V server display adapter has been changed
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/2506434

KB2519946 – Timeout Detection and Recovery (TDR) randomly occurs in a virtual machine that uses the RemoteFX feature in Windows Server 2008 R2 (SP1)
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/2519946

KB2523676 – GPU is not accessed leads to some VMs that use the RemoteFX feature to not start in Windows Server 2008 R2 SP1
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/2523676

KB2533362 – Hyper-V settings hang after installing RemoteFX on Windows 2008 R2 SP1
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/2533362

MPIO specific:

KB2277904 – You cannot access an MPIO-controlled storage device in Windows Server 2008 R2 (SP1) after you send the "IOCTL_MPIO_PASS_THROUGH_PATH_DIRECT" control code that has an invalid MPIO path ID
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/2277904

KB2406705 – Some I/O requests to a storage device fail on a fault-tolerant system that is running Windows Server 2008 or Windows Server 2008 R2 (SP1) when you perform a surprise removal of one path to the storage device
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/2406705

KB2460971 – MPIO failover fails on a computer that is running Windows Server 2008 R2 (SP1)
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/2460971

KB2511962 – "0x000000D1" Stop error occurs in the Mpio.sys driver in Windows Server 2008 R2 (SP1)
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/2511962

KB2522766 – The MPIO driver fails over all paths incorrectly when a transient single failure occurs in Windows Server 2008 or in Windows Server 2008 R2 (SP1)
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/2522766/

Thanks to Alex K. for the MPIO part…..

Please let me know if I have missed any KB here.

PS: KB2496089 is already included in SP1 –> Hotfixes and Security Updates included in Windows 7 and Windows Server 2008 R2 Service Pack 1.xls

Stay tuned…..

Regards

Ramazan

Failover Cluster Network Design with Hyper-V–How many NICs are required?

Failover Clustering reliability and stability is also “strongly” dependent on the underlying networking design and *drivers* but that’s a another story…. Let’s focus here in the design part.

Since there is no more the hard requirement like in Windows 2003 based clusters (MSCS) for an “HB” (heartbeat) network there is some “unsureness” around the network design for Failover Clustering based on Windows 2008 especially when virtualization workloads are involvedHeartbeat traffic.

Cluster intra-communication (heartbeat traffic) will now go over each cluster network per default except you disable for cluster usage like in case of ISCSI:

NOTE: It is a well known best practice to disable cluster communication for ISCSI networks = dedicated for ISCSI traffic only!

The “golden” rule here is, for a “general” Failover Cluster, Microsoft does “recommend” to have at minimum 2 redundant network “paths” between the cluster nodes . But often you want to use more than the minimum “recommended” as you want to have additional redundancy (and/or performance) in your network connectivity (a.e. NIC Teaming) or you will use features like Hyper-V (CSV, LM) which will bring his own network requirements.

Depending on the used workloads on top of Failover Clustering, the number of required physical NICs can grow fast. In example in Hyper-V Failover Clustering with using Live Migration and ISCSI for VM guests the recommended number is roughly at minimum 4 physical NICs, of course more are required, when using NIC teaming technologies for redundancy and or performance objective.

Here are a few example scenarios and the number of the “minimum recommended” required physical NIC ports per cluster node:

Scenario 1:

Failover Cluster with 2 Nodes and Hyper-V (1 x  Virtual Switch dedicated) in use without LM/CSV

=> min. 3 physical NICs are recommended => 2 Cluster Networks are automatically discovered and added to Cluster

Scenario 2:

Failover Cluster with 2 Nodes and Hyper-V (1 x Virtual Switch dedicated) in use with LM/CSV

=> min. 4 physical NICs are recommended => 3 Cluster Networks are automatically discovered and added to Cluster

Scenario 3:

Failover Cluster with 2 Nodes and Hyper-V (1 x Virtual Switch dedicated) in use with LM/CSV and ISCSI at host

=> min. 5 physical NICs are recommended (see note below for ISCSI) => 4 Cluster Networks are automatically discovered and added to Cluster

Scenario 4:

Failover Cluster with 2 Nodes and Hyper-V (2 x Virtual Switch dedicated) in use with LM/CSV and ISCSI at host and guest

=> min. 6 physical NICs are recommended (see note for ISCSI) => 4 Cluster Networks are automatically discovered and added to Cluster

Scenario 5:

Failover Cluster with 2 Nodes and Hyper-V (3 x Virtual Switch dedicated) in use with LM/CSV and ISCSI at host and guest

=> min. 7 physical NICs are recommended (see note for ISCSI) => 4 Cluster Networks are automatically discovered and added to Cluster

NOTE: In case of ISCSI it is recommended to have at minimum 2 physical network paths for redundancy (availability) purposes. NIC TEAMING IS NOT SUPPORTED HERE, MPIO or MCS must be used for reliability and availability purposes. As a best practice you should disable “cluster communication” through the ISCSI interfaces!

Of course, now when you use techniques like NIC teaming for networks like “Management, Hyper-V switches, CSV..” the number of required physical NICs will automatically grows.

Generally, the cluster service – “NETFT” network fault tolerant – will automatically discover each network based on their subnet and add it to the cluster as a cluster network. ISCSI networks should be generally disabled for Cluster usage (cluster communication).

Further official guidance around network design in Failover Clustering environments can be found here:

Network in a Failover Cluster
http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/cc773427(WS.10).aspx

Network adapter teaming and server clustering
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/254101

Hyper-V: Live Migration Network Configuration Guide
http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ff428137(WS.10).aspx

Requirements for Using Cluster Shared Volumes in a Failover Cluster in Windows Server 2008 R2
http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ff182358(WS.10).aspx

Designating a Preferred Network for Cluster Shared Volumes Communication
http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ff182335(WS.10).aspx

Appendix A: Failover Cluster Requirements
http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/dd197454(WS.10).aspx

Cluster Network Connectivity Events
http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/dd337811(WS.10).aspx

Understanding Networking with Hyper-V
http://www.microsoft.com/download/en/details.aspx?amp;displaylang=en&displaylang=en&id=9843

Achieving High Availability for Hyper-V
http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/magazine/2008.10.higha.aspx

Windows Server 2008 Failover Clusters: Networking (Part 1-4)
http://blogs.technet.com/askcore/archive/2010/02/12/windows-server-2008-failover-clusters-networking-part-1.aspx
http://blogs.technet.com/askcore/archive/2010/02/22/windows-server-2008-failover-clusters-networking-part-2.aspx
http://blogs.technet.com/askcore/archive/2010/02/25/windows-server-2008-failover-clusters-networking-part-3.aspx
http://blogs.technet.com/askcore/archive/2010/04/15/windows-server-2008-failover-clusters-networking-part-4.aspx 

Description of what to consider when you deploy Windows Server 2008 failover cluster nodes on different, routed subnets
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/947048

Stay tuned….

Regards

Ramazan

Running Domain Controller on top of Hyper-V and Failover Cluster?

Generally this questions is currently a well discussed topic in my customer scenarios therefore I would like to cover the important points when talking about virtualized DCs and especially when Failover Clustering is involved.

Hyper-V:

Mainly the virtualization of DC roles are generally supported if you had understood the caveats. Generally in production environments you should NOT use “snapshot/save state” features for DCs especially in multi-DC deployment but also in single-DC. Reason even for Single-DC environments is that domain members does update their computer password frequently and which doesn’t match anymore when you apply an previous snapshot (please see KB175468 around machine password). Of course, there are some workarounds but from my perspective none of them apply in production environments.

If you read the below articles and you are aware what exactly to overlook, “Yes you can” use this feature in lab scenarios, like you must snapshot all domain members at the same time or reset computer password after applying an earlier DC snapshot. But GENERALLY YOU SHOULD (NEVER) NOT USE SNAPSHOT/SAVE STATE FUNCTION IN PRODUCTION for DC role(s)!

So when running a domain controller within a Hyper-V virtual machine do NOT use:

1. Save states OR,
2. Virtual machine snapshots

In Hyper-V deployments there are some general “considerations” which need to overlooked when deploying virtualized domain controllers, here are some great articles which covers this in detail and gives also some guidelines:

Running Domain Controllers in Hyper-V
http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/virtual_active_directory_domain_controller_virtualization_hyperv(WS.10).aspx

Things to consider when you host Active Directory domain controllers in virtual hosting environments
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/888794/en-us

Considerations when hosting Active Directory domain controller in virtual hosting environments
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/888794/en-us

The Domain Controller Dilemma
http://blogs.msdn.com/b/virtual_pc_guy/archive/2008/11/24/the-domain-controller-dilemma.aspx

Problems with virtual machines and domain membership
http://blogs.msdn.com/b/virtual_pc_guy/archive/2006/03/28/561508.aspx

Hyper-V and Domain Controllers – Demo Tips and Tricks
http://blogs.msdn.com/b/virtual_pc_guy/archive/2009/11/20/hyper-v-and-domain-controllers-demo-tips-and-tricks.aspx

Effects of machine account replication on a domain
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/175468

Running Domain Controllers within Virtual Server 2005
http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyId=64DB845D-F7A3-4209-8ED2-E261A117FC6B&displaylang=en

Failover Cluster:

Especially in Failover Cluster environments it is a “best practice” and recommended to have at least 1 physical/virtual DC available which is outside of the cluster environment as cluster service does require DC communication before starting cluster service (VCO/CNO).

Checkout the following blog post from my MVP colleague – Lai Yoong Seng MVP Virtual Machine – which discusses arising issues, when putting your DCs on top of Failover Cluster:

http://www.ms4u.info/2011/05/why-you-should-not-running-domain.html

We call this “Henne und Ei Problem” in German where translation has the same sense “Chicken and Egg Issue”

Windows 2003 MSCS:

Determining Domain Controller Access for Server Clusters (Windows 2003)
http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/cc779512(WS.10).aspx

Active Directory, DNS and Domain Controllers (Windows 2003)
http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/cc775654(WS.10).aspx

Cluster Networking Requirements (Windows 2003)
http://technet.microsoft.com/es-es/library/cc783193(WS.10).aspx

Stay tuned….

Regards

Ramazan