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Virtualize your summer with Microsoft

Hmmm here in Belgium our pools look like this these days:

So maybe it’s a good chance to dive in the “Virtual summer” with Microsoft!

If you dive in here http://technet.microsoft.com/nl-be/ff793346?ocid=ban-n-be-loc—sumitprovirt1tnug you can find all the necessary goodies on Virtualization wit Microsoft to keep you occupied inside while you enjoy your nice view of your pool in the rain

There are tracks for:

• half an hour ( a mediate shower)
• half a day (Things will get better in the afternoon)
• a full day (Might as well dedicate a full day)
• a full week (Monsoon season is early this year)

So for every weather type there’s something in there. Get ready for the next virtualization wave an read up on all the different techniques and components used to get you going.

Microsoft Virtual Academy

http://www.microsoftvirtualacademy.com

When you are done with browsing through the vast amount of info please also do not hesitate to put your knowledge to the test and visit the Microsoft Virtual Academy. Another great resource on the various Virtualization topics. Here you’ll find different tracks on:

• Office 365
• SQL Azure
• How Microsoft and Citrix are teaming up to build a solid Virtualization platform
• Windows Azure

First check out the training material and then take the test. The tracks are nicely build up and you can take them at your own pace.

They give you a nice overview of the different techniques and provide a nice mix of in-depth knowledge and overview of the products and features used.

Make sure to check out the virtualization tracks. They also hold a lot of info on the new upcoming version of SCVMM2012.

Each track provides you also with the materials and links to related eval versions of the software.

You see enough to keep you busy when things aren’t going as planned weather wise

SCVMM 2012 Beta: Installation process

I’ve installed SCVMM 2012 beta in my test lab. I thought I ‘d share the different steps involved.

Preparations:

“By failing to prepare you are preparing to fail” Benjamin Franklin.

First of all: Get the eval files. You can get them here in different forms:

http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/gg671824.aspx

I’m using the files and not the pre prepped VHD in this post.

On the same page there’s also a link to documentation to get things started.

Prerequisites:

To save you a lot of time I’ve listed the prerequisites you need to fulfill to install the VMM2012 beta software as quickly and painless as possible:

Memory: If you use a Virtual machine in Hyper-V make sure you give it at least 2048mb of memory. Even when you use dynamic memory the minimum amount needs to be at 2048mb otherwise the installer will not pass the prerequisites and just stops. When you give the machine 2048mb it will pass the prerequisite check with a warning because the recommended amount of ram is 4096mb.

WAIK: Install the waik 2.0 which can be downloaded here: http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/en/confirmation.aspx?displaylang=en&FamilyID=696dd665-9f76-4177-a811-39c26d3b3b34

IIS 7 (for selfservice portal): Install IIS7 through the webserver role.

SQL: You can use an existing SQL server or install one locally. There’s no (or not yet an) option to install SQL express during install like in SCVMM 2008. I’ve installed SQL Server 2008 R2 Express which is free and downloadable through this link: http://www.microsoft.com/express/Database/

.NET Framework 3.5 SP1: Can be installed through the server role wizard.

User: Add the VMM admin user to the local admin group. Even when the user is in a group which is in the local admin group you still need to add the specific user to the local admin group during install or the install will fail. More info below.

Install:

So after the download is complete run the archive on your server:

Start the setup from an elevated prompt. This is a habit I made myself used to to always start a setup like this. It’s a small effort to launch the setup like this but it can safe you a lot of troubleshooting time when things are not installing correctly.

If all goes well you will see the install splash screen (which is actually quit nice imho)

Click install:

OEPS first crash. The setup crashed.

Turned out I still had a pending reboot after installing the prerequisites and therefore the installer was not able to verify whether I had .NET framework installed.

I rebooted my test machine and ran the sequence above again and this time it passed the step without crashing. Remember this is still BETA so things may happen

Let’s continue on our journey:

Tick the I have read button and click next:

Select the desired features and click next.

Note that in comparison with SCVMM2008 if you select VMM Server it’s automatically installing the VMM admin console as well. In my test scenario I’m installing all the features:

Fill in your data and click next:

Choose your install location (some straight forward stuff, bear with me ).

Although we are using dynamic memory on this machine and it can have all the memory it requests the machine thinks that there’s only 2048mb installed and gives us a warning but we’re able to pass and click next:

In the SQL database configuration you need to fill in the desired server, instance, user to use and dbase name.

I have chosen to install this on a locally installed SQL 2008 R2 express edition. However when I selected the installer was not able to find the proper dbase.

You have to make sure that the protocols are enabled on your SQL install to be able to connect to the dbase. Like shown below:

The install continued after that. In the next screen you need to fill in your accounts. You’ll need a domain account to be able to use the high availability options. In this case I choose not to store the encryption key in my AD but again for the high availability environments this is mandatory:

If your account is not in the local admin group you’ll get the error below:

I just leave all the ports as default. But if you need specific ports in your environment make sure to put them here and configure your firewall accordingly.

Review all the settings in the summary and press Install (finally some action )

Installing…

Success!  

So we now have our SCVMM2012 beta installed. If you are using Hyper-V I would recommend to take a snapshot of your install. The added advantage is that if you install your dbase locally it’s also included in the snapshot which is great for testing environments

In the next blog post I’ll go further into detail to get the environment up and running and see what nice features are in the new release.

Finally:

The new icon: Will there be more Cloud specific services in there?