Red Hat hasannounced the availability of Red Hat Enterprise Linux 6.5 (RHEL 6.5) Operating System on 21^st Nov 2013, kernel version is 2.6.32-431

Red Hat Enterprise Linux 6.5 has been extensively validated onsupported Dell PowerEdge servers 

Please refer to theimportant information guide for the complete list of known/fixed issues in Red Hat Enterprise Linux 6.5 on Dell PowerEdge servers

RHEL 6.5 includes driver updates, bug fixes and support for new hardware, For detailed information, please refer to RHEL 6.5 release notes 

Some of the new enablement/features in Red Hat Enterprise Linux 6.5 include

 Networking:

• Mellanox 40G Ethernet controller support is added in RHEL 6.5
  • Mellanox ConnectX-3 Dual Port 40 GbE QSFP+ Network Adapter is supported by the driver mlx4 (en, core) has latest driver version with RHEL6.5.
  • Dell PowerEdge 12th Generation server R720, R720XD, M620, T620, R820, R620 supported with this Mellanox devices.
• Full support for Precision Time Protocol (PTP) IEEE 1588
• PPoE support in NetworkManager
• Support for Single Root I/O virtualization (SR-IOV) has been added to the qlcnic driver as a Technology Preview.

Storage:

• Increased support for PCIe SSD (Solid State Drive) storage. Dell PowerEdge 12th Generation server ships with PCI-e SSD devices
• LVM support for (non-clustered) thinly-provisioned snapshots, previously available as a Technology Preview, is now fully supported in Red Hat Enterprise Linux 6.5
• The NVMe driver has been added to Red Hat Enterprise Linux 6.5

Virtualization:

• vCPU hotplug for Linux guests
• Improved random number generation in guests that allow for greater security.
• Increase in maximum supported memory for KVM guests.

Dell started factory installing Windows Server 2012 R2 when you opt for it while ordering the server. Buying a Server with a preinstalled Operating System from factory reduces your initial configuration effort & time in a number of different ways.  With Windows Server 2012, we began to offer multilingual user interface support for the OS. With Windows Server 2012 R2, we’ve taken it to another level by including few more value addition like Essential customization, pre-installed Update roll ups that will benefit you.

“Typical” Advantages of Factory Preinstall

Buying a server with no OS means that in addition to tracking down and buying the OS, you have to install, patch and configure it.  It can take a long time to make sure you have all the right updates at install time. By opting for platform with OS installed, Dell customers can take advantage of benefits such as:

1. OS is activated without any additional effort
2. Updated drivers already installed
3. Selected latest critical security patches and OS patches installed
4. Additional OS configuration and management tools

Multilingual Windows Server 2012 R2 image

Servers will be shipped with a multilingual OS interface which allows you to choose one of our supported OS languages (See Figure 1). This one-time task will set the language used from then on.  If you desire to switch to a different language, the multilingual media kit shipped along with server can be used to re-install the OS. Due to legal constraints Simplified Chinese and Traditional Chinese were not part of multilingual image.

Figure 1. OS Language selection

 Pre-deployed Multilingual Virtual Hard Disk*

To simplify virtualization configuration, Dell provides a multilingual virtual hard disk (VHDx) file with Windows Server 2012 R2 pre-installed. This is a free, orderable option. When you choose to receive a multilingual VHD, we enable the Hyper-V role, required BIOS settings (Intel VT or AMD-V) and a configuration file. You can use the VHDx file (Available at c:\Dell_OEM\VM) with Hyper-V to create virtual machines (VMs) in seconds [subject to Microsoft's normal licensing restrictions (two per Standard license and unlimited for Datacenter)]. Since this is also a multilingual VHDx, you can use it to install any Dell supported languages. 

Script to switch between Server core & full OS and to retrieve iDRAC IP address

A PowerShell module “DellTools.psm1” (Available at c:\Dell_OEM\PSModule) has been provided to assist with common tasks of switching between Full GUI OS and ServerCore. The module includes a function that allows you to configure your system in “Server with a GUI” mode then convert over to “Server Core” to place the system in production and can be used to switch back for configuration, troubleshooting or other needs. Also, the module provides the capability to retrieve the IP address of the iDRAC of the server from the OS.

Update rollup (KB2883200) and .NET Framework 4.x engine Native Image Cache regeneration

Microsoft released a update rollup just after the RTM of Windows Server 2012 R2 which carries much needed fixes and it is of around 225MB size. You get the update rollup factory installed which reduces significant time for you. Since the Rollup includes certain fixes to .Net Framework, the native image cache will be invalidated which will significantly impact performance of managed-code applications until a complete regeneration of the Native Image Cache is performed. It is a very time-consuming and CPU intensive operation. We have done it for you J

Support for Essential as role

From Windows Server 2012 R2, Microsoft has introduced Essential as role in Standard and Datacenter edition for the customer who wants to experiment with Essential role. We have included the same customizations like brandings that we have done for Essential OS to the Standard and Datacenter edition to provide similar experience as essential OS to you when you enable the Essential role.

 For more information about optimizing your Dell hardware for use with Windows Server 2012 R2, visit the Dell TechCenter wiki page for Windows Server 2012 R2.

What is one of the most frustrating elements of wireless computing? From my perspective, it is the typical lack of bandwidth when trying to view videos, use my VOIP line, and other bandwidth intensive content.  Just this week I have been on several calls with the presenters fading in and out as their VOIP phones search desperately for a solid connection. 

Well the times, they are a changing… to quote an old song.  The recent addition of 802.11ac Gigabit capable Access Points and Controllers to the Dell Networking W-Series family opens up a completely new level of wireless capabilities.  How much better performance?  How about up to 300% better performance when compared to 802.11n.  That is just for the 1^st generation of 11ac devices.  The theoretical  maximum is even higher and speeds will continue to increase over the next year.. 

Now you have the option to drop new Dell W-AC224/225 802.11ac access points into your environments to see immediate performance improvements.  When coupled with the latest controllers, like the Dell W-72xx series the improvements are even better.

In recent testing, we saw some impressive results.  When running 11n the Dell Networking W-AP225 delivered an average of 394.34 Mbps.  When running 11ac the same device delivered an average of 644.12 Mbps.  And these are just averages, depending on your environment the speeds can be even higher.

 For more details on recent testing visit the Dell tech center:  http://en.community.dell.com/techcenter/b/techcenter/archive/2013/09/20/dell-networking-w-series-802-11ac-competitive-face-off.aspx

Or visit Dell.com/wireless to explore the entire Dell Wireless family. 

Dell World 2013 is starting Wednesday December 11th and drums are sounding for the third Dell World. Michael Dell and Elon Musk (CEO, Tesla & SpaceX) will be delivering the keynote address on Thursday. The list of speakers is impressive and includes Dell executives like Jeff Clarke, Marius Haas, John Swainson and Suresh Vaswani …so check that out. The agenda is full of interesting sessions or you can attend the Hands-on labs. The technology showcase will allow you to see the latest and greatest that our technologies have to offer. There will be entertainment by Camp Freddy and Friends on the opening evening and Dell World’s partner parties on Thursday evening. 

So get your seats reserved as the registration is still open. The event organizers have also posted a sample justification letter in case you need one. However, if you cannot make it there in-person then you can still join online where you can watch the keynotes and most of the sessions on Thursday and Friday (Dec 12-13, 2013).

The 5th annual Dell TechCenter User Group meeting is also being held during Dell World 2013. There will be presentations, opportunities for networking, and some free food. You don’t need to buy the Dell World Pass to attend this event at Four Seasons 3pm-4:40pm on Wednesday.

In past events, Dell World has been a great opportunity to meet customers and I am looking forward to that again this year. During Dell World 2012, I met a customer who talked about a challenge they have experienced and I am happy to note that my colleague Jose De La Rosa posted a solution for it.

See you there !!!

The growth of virtualization has led to a tremendous rise in network traffic between servers, commonly referred to as East / West traffic.  Migration of heavily loaded virtual machines (VMs) between hosts can fill even today's 10 gigabit pipes.  So, East / West traffic performance is increasingly important to keeping things running smoothly in today's data center.

In July 2013, Cisco published a pair of Performance Briefs (here and here) comparing the network performance of their UCS blade architecture to that of HP and IBM.  They claim that Cisco UCS, which requires traffic between blades in the same blade chassis to leave the chassis and pass through an external Fabric Interconnect, provided faster VM migration times and lower network latency.

When we read the Cisco Performance Briefs, we wondered why Dell wasn't included in the testing.  Does Cisco UCS really have "the lowest latency and the fastest virtual machine migration times", as they claim, even when compared to a Dell solution? 

The testing we performed revealed that a Dell solution based on the PowerEdge M1000e blade chassis and Dell Networking (formerly known as Force10) network switches provides as high as 61% lower network latency compared to the Cisco solution:

Since a large virtualization farm might have blades installed in multiple blade chassis, we also measured latency between Dell blade chassis, and found it to still be 60% lower than between blades in the same Cisco chassis, using the well established Netperf performance tool. 

How does this equate to day to day network operations?  To find out, we also performed a test with a heavily loaded VM migrating between blade servers both within the same Dell enclosure, and between two Dell enclosures, and compared to the same VM migrating between blades in the same Cisco chassis.  As this chart shows, the VM migration was 22% faster between blades in two separate Dell M1000e chassis, and 30% faster between blades in the same chassis, compared to the time to migrate the VM between blades in the same Cisco chassis.

In the Cisco Performance Briefs, the test methodology used in the testing is described only in general terms.  In fact, a note is included for folks interested in learning what testing was actually was done: "For more information about the performance tests that produced these results, please contact your Cisco sales representative."

In contrast, our whitepaper summarizing the results of Dell's testing has the exact hardware, firmware, and software used, and detailed network topologies that were set up for each solution.  Cisco's solution was based on their FlexPod reference architecture, and Dell's solution was configured similarly to ensure a fair comparison.  The results summarized above and in the whitepaper are the result of dozens of runs of Netperf and VMotion on each solution to ensure repeatable results.

We hope that IT decision makers will appreciate the data presented in the whitepaper and the level of detail with which it's presented, and that they find it useful in making their decisions about which blade server solution to purchase.  It doesn't hurt that, based on recently obtained price quotes, the blades, blade enclosure and blade IOMs in the Dell solution cost a whopping 36% less than the same pieces of the Cisco solution, or that Dell blades are more power efficient!

IT professionals run into interesting and complex challenges on a daily basis, and often need to come up with creative, imaginative and on-the-fly solutions to fix problems and keep a business running. Operating system migrations are no different, and can present a handful of situational complexities for IT pros to face and overcome. All in a day’s work for the seasoned IT pro!

Dell and Microsoft want to hear a particular challenge you’ve faced while migrating operating systems, and the unique and innovative way you’ve solved the problem by participating in their Ultimate Tech Challenge: OS Migration. The premise is simple – answer the following question based on experience you’ve had on the job:

What is the biggest challenge you’ve faced with Windows OS migration and how did you solve it?

Dell and Microsoft will select their favorite response from those received and turn it into a white paper that highlights the problem and unique solution utilized to solve it. The selected winner will also receive a Dell XPS 12 (valued at $899.99) for being chosen!

Entering is easy – just share your challenge and solution by responding to this blog post or by emailing your response to enterprise_techcenter@dell.com. Submit your entry by 12/26/2013 at 11:59 p.m. CT. Dell and Microsoft will be reaching out to selected winners shortly after the entry submission period.

Good luck, IT pros! We look forward to your responses.

NO PURCHASE NECESSARY. Ends 12/26/2013. By submitting your entry, you agree to be contacted by a Dell representative. For Official Rules, visit http://bit.ly/18UqmeL. 

IT professionals run into interesting and complex challenges on a daily basis, and often times to come up with creative, imaginative and on-the-fly solutions to fix problems and keep a business running. Dealing with servers and storage issues are no different, and can present a handful of situational complexities for IT pros to face and overcome. All in a day’s work for the seasoned IT pro!

Dell and Microsoft want to hear a particular challenge you’ve faced while dealing with servers and storage, and the unique and innovative way you’ve solved the problem by participating in their Ultimate Tech Challenge: Servers. The premise is simple – answer the following question based on experience you’ve had on the job:

How do you best use SSD as a storage option with Microsoft Windows Server for optimal performance and cost?

Dell and Microsoft will select their favorite response from those received and turn it into a white paper that highlights the problem and unique solution utilized to solve it. The selected winner will also receive a Dell XPS 12 (valued at $899.99) for being chosen!

Entering is easy – just share your challenge and solution by responding to this blog post or by emailing your response to enterprise_techcenter@dell.com. Submit your entry by 12/26/2013 at 11:59 p.m. CT. Dell and Microsoft will be reaching out to selected winners shortly after the entry submission period.

Good luck, IT pros! We look forward to your responses.

NO PURCHASE NECESSARY. Ends 12/26/2013. By submitting your entry, you agree to be contacted by a Dell representative. For Official Rules, visit http://bit.ly/1fjVu6B

"The Elway Gazette"

Hi Community, here is my compilation of the most interesting technical blog posts written by members of the Microsoft MVP Community. The number of MVPs is growing well, I hope you enjoy their posts. @all MVPs If you'd like me to add your blog posts to my weekly compilation, please send me an email (flo@datacenter-flo.de) or reach out to me via Twitter (@FloKlaffenbach). Thanks!

Featured Posts of the Week!

Whitepaper: NVGRE, Hyper-V Network Virtualization and Software-Defined Networking by Aidan Finn

Automatische Erstellung von bootfähigen VHDX-Images in German by Benedict Berger

QUICK LOOK AT MULTI-TENANT RRAS MANAGEMENT PACK by Stanislav Zhelyazkov

How WS2012 R2 Hyper-V Backup Works by Aidan Finn

KB2894032 – Clustered VM Cannot Access Fiber Channel LUN After Performing Live Migration on WS2012 Hyper-V by Aidan Finn

Azure 

Assigning Owner and User Role to VMs in Windows Azure Pack by Hans Vredevoort

IaaS Usage Metering & Reporting mit System Center 2012 R2 & Windows Azure Pack in German by Daniel Neumann

UPDATE Windows Azure Pack: Service Management API Samples – Dec 2013 #WAP #SCVMM #Cloud by James van den Berg

#Microsoft Cmdlet Reference Download for System Center 2012 #sysctr by James van den Berg

Events

Meine Vorträge von der TechNet Conference 2013 in Berlin in German by Carsten Rachfahl

Hyper-V

Whitepaper: NVGRE, Hyper-V Network Virtualization and Software-Defined Networking by Aidan Finn

KB2893986 – Vulnerability in WS2012 & Windows 8 Hyper-V Could Allow Elevation of Privilege by Aidan Finn

How WS2012 R2 Hyper-V Backup Works by Aidan Finn

Designing Converged Network for Windows Server 2012 R2 Hyper-V by Lai Yoong Seng

Designing a Hyper-V Virtual Machine by Aidan Finn

Review PHD Virtual : PHD Virtual Backup for Hyper-V by Lai Yoong Seng

THROTTLING HYPER-V REPLICA TRAFFIC by Thomas Maurer

Perform a Hyper-V Replica Initial Copy Via the Network by Aidan Finn

Create New Generation 2 Virtual Machine with PowerShell – fundamentals by Romeo Mlinar

Videointerview mit VirtualPCGuy über seine drei top WS2012 Hyper-V R2 Feature in German by Carsten Rachfahl

Hyper-V Recovery Manager – Teil 1: Überblick in German by Benedict Berger

Multi-node OpenStack RDO on RHEL and Hyper-V – Part 2 by Alessandro Pilotti

Office 

Windows Phone als Office-Fernbedienung in German by Nils Kaczenski

Office 365

Tipp: Office 365 für Unternehmen–Trainingscenter in German by Kerstin Rachfahl

PowerShell

PowerShell function to pause with a progress bar… by Jeff Wouters

Get-Hash for files or strings by Jeff Wouters

VMware Event Logs and PowerCLI by Jeffery Hicks

Creating VMware Snapshots with PowerCLI by Jeffery Hicks

#PSTip Converting .NET types to CIM types and vice versa by Shay Levy

Sharepoint 

*** NOW AVAILABLE *** Inside Microsoft SharePoint 2013 by Andrew Connell

Status Update for my SharePoint 2013 Advanced Workflow Pluralsight Course by Andrew Connell

System Center Core

QUICK LOOK AT MULTI-TENANT RRAS MANAGEMENT PACK by Stanislav Zhelyazkov

System Center Virtual Machine Manager

System Center Virtual Machine Manager 2012 R2: Migrating Tenants and Clouds by Damian Flynn

WORKING IN VMM LIKE SERVICE PROVIDER FOUNDATION AND WINDOWS AZURE PACK by Stanislav Zhelyazkov

System Center Virtual Machine Manager SoFS: Building a Virtual SoFS Lab by Damian Flynn

Windows Client

“Not enough memory” error message and Windows Phone 8 Emulator does not start in Windows 8.1 by Steve Jain

Windows Server

Your current security settings do not allow this file to be downloaded by Jaap Wesselius

Automatische Erstellung von bootfähigen VHDX-Images in German by Benedict Berger

My TechCamp 2013 Presentation – Windows Server 2012 R2 by Aidan Finn

Tools

Upgrading The DELL PowerVault MD3600 Disk Firmware by Didier van Hoye

"The Elway Gazette"

Hi Community, here is my compilation of the most interesting technical blog posts written by members of the Microsoft MVP Community. The number of MVPs is growing well, I hope you enjoy their posts. @all MVPs If you'd like me to add your blog posts to my weekly compilation, please send me an email (flo@datacenter-flo.de) or reach out to me via Twitter (@FloKlaffenbach). Thanks!

Featured Posts of the Week!

Update List for Windows Server 2012 R2 Hyper-V by Hans Vredevoort

From Microsoft Private #Cloud to Hybrid Cloud Services Part 2 of 5 #SCVMM 2012 R2 by James van den Berg

System Center 2012 R2 PowerShell Cmdlet Referenz in German by Daniel Neumann

System Center Virtual Machine Manager 2012: Creating a Clustered File Server by Damian Flynn 

Azure 

Windows Azure Pack Is Clearly The Place To Be by Hans Vredevoort

From Microsoft Private #Cloud to Hybrid Cloud Services Part 2 of 5 #SCVMM 2012 R2 by James van den Berg

Windows Azure Media Services verwenden in German by Toni Pohl

Hyper-V

Flow Of Storage Traffic In Hyper-V Over SMB 3.0 to WS2012 R2 SOFS by Aidan Finn

Perform a Hyper-V Replica Initial Copy Using External Media by Aidan Finn

Migrating Two Non-Clustered Hyper-V Hosts To A Failover Cluster (With DataOn & Storage Spaces) by Aidan Finn

The Hyper-V Virtual Switch: An Overview by Aidan Finn

KB2894485 – Cross-Page Memory Operation Crashes VM on Win8 or WS2012 Hyper-V Host by Aidan Finn

KB2902014 – Guest System Time Incorrect After VM Crashes On Win8 or WS2012 Hyper-V Host by Aidan Finn

KB2908415 – CSVs Go Offline Or Cluster Service Stops During VM Backup On WS2012 Hyper-V by Aidan Finn

Recommended Updates For WS2012R2 Hyper-V by Aidan Finn

Update List for Windows Server 2012 R2 Hyper-V by Hans Vredevoort

Office 365

How Delegate 365 can help you with Office 365 Student Advantage by Toni Pohl

PowerShell

Updated Console Graphing in PowerShell by Jeffery Hicks

Friday the 13th PowerShell Fun by Jeffery Hicks

System Center Core

System Center 2012 R2 PowerShell Cmdlet Referenz in German by Daniel Neumann

System Center Virtual Machine Manager

Explaining Port Classifications in VMM 2012 R2 by Kristian Nese

System Center Virtual Machine Manager SoFS: Configuring the Fabric by Damian Flynn

System Center Virtual Machine Manager 2012: Creating a Clustered File Server by Damian Flynn

UPDATE: Technical Documentation for System Center 2012 R2 – Virtual Machine Manager #SCVMM #Hyperv by James van den Berg

Windows Server

KB2898774 – Data Loss Occurs On SCSI Disk That Turns Off In WS2012-Based Failover Cluster by Aidan Finn

KB2905412 – Stop Error 0xD1 On Windows-Based Computer With Multiple Processors by Aidan Finn

KB2779069 – Hotfix To Determine Which Cluster Node Is Blocking GUM Updates In WS2008R2 & WS2012 by Aidan Finn

With Windows Server 2012 R2 Microsoft has enhanced its support for Kernel Debugging over selected 10 gigabit network adapters. Debugging over 10 gigabit network adapters is not supported in Windows Server 2012.

How to enable KDNET in your OS and Finding Device/Vendor ID’s please refer the below link -

Setting up Kernel Debugging over network

Broadcom Network Cards that support KDNET

Intel Network Cards that support KDNET

Emulex Network Cards that support KDNET

Mellanox Network cards that support KDNET

*Note: The Device IDs for a Network Controller can be checked from device manager inside operating system.

Additional Information and Resources –

• Complete list of Supported Ethernet NICs for Network Kernel Debugging in Windows 8.1 - http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/windows/hardware/dn337010(v=vs.85).aspx
• Supported Ethernet NICs for Network Kernel Debugging in Windows 8 - http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/windows/hardware/dn337009(v=vs.85).aspx
• Dell Supported Network cards for KDNET in Windows Server 2012 - http://en.community.dell.com/techcenter/os-applications/w/wiki/3900.dell-supported-network-cards-for-kdnet-in-windows-server-2012.aspx
• Setting up KDNET in Windows Server 2012 -http://en.community.dell.com/techcenter/os-applications/w/wiki/3901.kernel-debugging-over-network-in-windows-server-2012.aspx

"The Elway Gazette"

Hi Community, here is my compilation of the most interesting technical blog posts written by members of the Microsoft MVP Community. The number of MVPs is growing well, I hope you enjoy their posts. @all MVPs If you'd like me to add your blog posts to my weekly compilation, please send me an email (flo@datacenter-flo.de) or reach out to me via Twitter (@FloKlaffenbach). Thanks!

Featured Posts of the Week!

Linux Integration Services Version 3.5 for Hyper-V Available For Download by Didier van Hoye

Failed Live Migrations with Event ID 21502 Planned virtual machine creation failed for virtual machine ‘VM Name’: An existing connection was forcibly closed by the remote host. (0×80072746) Caused By Wrong Jumbo Frame Settings by Didier van Hoye

Disk2VHD Version 2.0 AKA Disk2VHDX! by Aidan Finn

Relinquishing job because the mailbox is locked by Johan Veldhuis

Azure 

Using Windows Azure Media Services by Toni Pohl

Windows Azure Virtual Machine Readiness Assessment #WindowsAzure by James van den Berg

Bringing Windows Azure into NIC 2014 by Kristian Nese

Exchange

Relinquishing job because the mailbox is locked by Johan Veldhuis

Events 

Experts Live 2013 Presentations Available for Download by Hans Vredevoort

Hyper-V

November 2013 UR KB2887595 causing network problems by Hans Vredevoort

MSMQ Eventlog Fehler im Failover Cluster in German by Carsten Rachfahl

Using Copy-VMFile cmdlet in Windows Server 2012 R2 Hyper-V by Ravikanth Chaganti

Failed Live Migrations with Event ID 21502 Planned virtual machine creation failed for virtual machine ‘VM Name’: An existing connection was forcibly closed by the remote host. (0×80072746) Caused By Wrong Jumbo Frame Settings by Didier van Hoye

How Do I Plan And Size A Hyper-V Deployment – MAP 9.0 by Aidan Finn

Perform a Hyper-V Replica Initial Copy Via a Restore by Aidan Finn

#PSTip Copying folders using Copy-VMFile cmdlet in Windows Server 2012 R2 (Hyper-V) by Ravikanth Chaganti

Hyper-V Predictions for 2014 by Aidan Finn

Linux Integration Services Version 3.5 for Hyper-V Available For Download by Didier van Hoye

Disk2VHD Version 2.0 AKA Disk2VHDX! by Aidan Finn

Yammer Enterprise–Erste Schritte in German by Martina Grom

Himmlische IT-Podcast Folge 30: Office 365 Tools in German by Kerstin Rachfahl

PowerShell

Friday Fun: A Christmas Present for You by Jeffery Hicks

Using the CIM Cmdlets in Windows PowerShell to solve a challenge by Jan Egil Ring

PowerShell Deployment Kit (PDT) for System Center Demos by Susantha Silva

PowerShell Deployment Toolkit (PDT) For System Center by Aidan Finn

PowerShell – A quick way to write content plain text to a file by Jeff Wouters

#PSTip Overriding the ToString() Method, part II by Shay Levy

System Center Core

#Microsoft System Center 2012 R2 Configuration Analyzer #sysctr #SCVMM by James van den Berg

System Center Virtual Machine Manager

System Center Virtual Machine Manager 2012: Configuring Storage by Damian Flynn

System Center Virtual Machine Manager 2012 R2: Cloud Delegations, VMs, and Templates by Aidan Finn

Making a NVGRE Gateway with System Center 2012 R2 Virtual Machine Manager #SCVMM #sysctr by James van den Berg

System Center 2012 R2 VMM – IP-Adresse einer VM ohne Anmeldung ändern in German by Daniel Neumann

Windows Server

Memory requirements for Windows Server 2012 (R2) by Jeff Wouters

Windows Server 2012R2 StorageSpaces Minimal DiskSize 4GB #winserv #StorageSpaces #guidance by Robert Smit

Windows authentication without passwords in OpenStack by Alessandro Pilotti

Corrupted Memory Dump When You Obtain Full Memory Dump From A VM On WS2012 Or W2008R2 Cluster by Aidan Finn

Introduction to Dell Fault Resilient Memory (FRM)

Fault Resilient Memory (FRM) is a new Memory Operating Mode available on Dell PowerEdge 12th generation servers. The mode establishes an area of memory that is fault resilient and can be used by an Operating System supporting the FRM  feature to load critical Applications/Services  & the OS Kernel to maximize system availability. VMware ESXi 5.5 supports FRM through its Reliable Memory (ReM) Feature. 

Benefits of enabling FRM

            FRM creates a highly resilient memory zone for the hypervisor, protecting it from all but the most severe of memory errors.  With the VMware Reliable Memory feature, vSphere v5.5 is able to take advantage of this zone, providing the hypervisor with a strong protection from memory faults that would otherwise bring down the entire system.  When used in conjunction with other Dell PowerEdge reliability and redundancy features for virtualization -- such as the Internal Dual SD Modules usable with ESXi installations and Memory Page Retire, which helps the hypervisor to locate and fence off areas prone to many correctable errors that could lead to an uncorrectable error in the standard memory space -- it creates a highly reliable VMware virtualization server environment for customers concerned with high availability and uptime.

Refer to white paper posted at Dell tech center to know more about this feature. 

"The Elway Gazette"

Hi Community, here is my compilation of the most interesting technical blog posts written by members of the Microsoft MVP Community. The number of MVPs is growing well, I hope you enjoy their posts. @all MVPs If you'd like me to add your blog posts to my weekly compilation, please send me an email (flo@datacenter-flo.de) or reach out to me via Twitter (@FloKlaffenbach). Thanks!

Featured Posts of the Week!

Set domain runas account for SQL Server Management Pack in SCOM by Jeff Wouters

Legacy Apps Preventing Your Move From Windows XP to Windows 8.1? by Didier van Hoye

ConfigMgr Powershell Application Detection Methods by David O'Brien

Upgrade SCCM 2012 SP1 to SCCM 2012 R2 by Hasitha Willarachchi

Exchange

My new book: Pro Exchange 2013 Administration by Jaap Wesselius

Events

DELL World 2013 – Tour Of the Acoustic & Storage Testing Labs & Presenting at the Dell TechCenter User Group by Didier van Hoye

Microsoft Virtualisierungs Podcast Folge 34: Veranstaltungen in German by Carsten Rachfahl 

Hyper-V

Performing a Hyper-V Replica Test Failover by Aidan Finn

Create HA virtual network for Hyper-V in Windows Server 2012 R2 by Romeo Mlinar

Importing a VM from Hyper-V 2008 R2 to Hyper-V 2012 R2 by Toni Pohl

PowerShell

#PSTip Extending Type Data by Shay Levy

FRIDAY FUN: DOES ANYONE REALLY KNOW WHAT TIME IT IS? by Jeffery Hicks

Desired State Configuration (DSC) Resource Kit Wave-1 by Ravikanth Chaganti

System Center Configuration Manager

ConfigMgr Powershell Application Detection Methods by David O'BrienUpgrade SCCM 2012 SP1 to SCCM 2012 R2 by Hasitha Willarachchi

System Center Operations Manager

Set domain runas account for SQL Server Management Pack in SCOM by Jeff Wouters

Windows Client

Legacy Apps Preventing Your Move From Windows XP to Windows 8.1? by Didier van Hoye

Windows Server

Group Policy Preferences und der Internet Explorer 11 in German by Matthias Wolf

Tools

Using Web Platform Installer with remote database support by Toni Pohl

This year, the acquisitions Dell has made in backup and recovery IP (AppAssure, NetVault, LiteSpeed, Ocarina, and vRanger) came together into one data protection portfolio. It has been an interesting ride…we’re not only talking the bringing together not only 5 products into a single portfolio, but more importantly uniting data protection professionals from 3 companies (Dell, Quest, and AppAssure). We've got lots to share with you about ways to backup, recover, and store all that info on which your businesses depend, and want to kick off January with some discussions on some of the trends in our industry.

But before we look forward to what’s in store for data protection in 2014, it’s interesting to look back at what we did in 2013. We shared our news with you on the Quest Data protection community last year. That’s one change you’ll see soon – we’ll be blogging here in the Dell Tech Center, in a revamped Data Protection community. In case you missed them, here are the 10 most popular posts from last year:

1. Obviously lots of interest in backup applications for SQL Server! LiteSpeed for SQL Server v7.5 – What’s New
2. This was the official announcement for the Backup.U program, a vendor-neutral social driven educational effort about the practice of backup and recovery. Backup.U Announcement: Dell Data Protection partners with StorageIO for a new education series
3. Our team’s activity at VMWorld US: Backup and Recovery team gets back to basics at VMworld
4. Our team’s activity at TechEd : Come see us at Microsoft TechEd in New Orleans!
5. We hosted Tech Field Day 9, we actually had the opportunity to first talk about our portfolio here: Tech Field Day 9 @Dell
6. Part of Backup.U are Google Plus hangouts: Join Us on September 24 for #Backup.U Data Protection Fundamental 201 G+ Hangout
7. Y’all love your SQL Server…:LiteSpeed for SQL Server v7.1 – What’s New
8. We do talk about all of our launches in our blog, this post was about the DR appliances (the Ocarina IP) and Netvault:A Superhero Duo: The Dell DR Dedupe Appliance & NetVault Backup
9. In case you missed it, at Dell World we announced pretty significant improvements for NetVault:Live From Dell World: Introducing NetVault Backup 10
10. We spent a lot of time over in SpiceWorks this year, but still blogged about some of the more frequent questions on AppAssure:AppAssure 5.3.1 drive filling up - troubleshooting tips

Obviously we’ll keep blogging about releases, what we’re doing at events, and that sort of thing. But what would you guys most like to see from us? What would you like to hear?

Looking forward to sharing more with you in 2014!

"The Elway Gazette"

Hi Community, here is my compilation of the most interesting technical blog posts written by members of the Microsoft MVP Community. The number of MVPs is growing well, I hope you enjoy their posts. @all MVPs If you'd like me to add your blog posts to my weekly compilation, please send me an email (flo@datacenter-flo.de) or reach out to me via Twitter (@FloKlaffenbach). Thanks!

Featured Posts of the Week!

Virtual disks under Storage Spaces won’t stay attached after reboot! by Romeo Mlinar

Are you still thinking about getting started with PowerShell? by Ravikanth Chaganti

Videointerview with 10 MVPs in a Ferris wheel by Carsten Rachfahl & Didier van Hoye

Recommended Updates Lists For WS2012 R2 Hyper-, Failover Clustering & File Services by Aidan Finn

Azure 

Windows Azure Pack – Admin & Tenant Portal AD Single Sign On einrichten in German by Daniel Neumann

Windows Azure Pack - Forcing VM Roles to be Highly Available by Kristian Nese

Windows Azure Pack (WAP) Framework Components by Damian Flynn

Events

New Year, New Challenges by Didier van Hoye

Videointerview with 10 MVPs in a Ferris wheel by Carsten Rachfahl & Didier van Hoye

Hyper-V

KB2878635 – A December 2013 Update To Improve CSV Backup Resiliency On WS2012 Hyper-V by Aidan Finn

Don’t Let Live Migration Settings Behavior Confuse You by Didier van Hoye

Linux Integration Services 3.5 for Hyper-V Released by Lai Yoong Seng

Create a Generation 2 Sysprep VM using Convert-WindowsImage.ps1 by Lai Yoong Seng

Recommended Updates Lists For WS2012 R2 Hyper-, Failover Clustering & File Services by Aidan Finn

KB2868279–Moving A VM From WS2012 R2 Hyper-V To WS2012 Hyper-V Is Not Supported by Aidan Finn

Configuring VM VLAN Isolation in Hyper-V by Aidan Finn

PowerShell

Are you still thinking about getting started with PowerShell? by Ravikanth Chaganti

#PSTip Validating version numbers without RegEx by Ravikanth Chaganti

Windows Server 2012 R2 Cluster Reset Recent Events With PowerShell by Didier van Hoye

System Center Configuration Manager

How to Upgrade ConfigMgr 2012 SP1 Agent to ConfigMgr 2012 R2 Aegnt by Hasitha Willarachchi

ConfigMgr – Application Base variables the easy way with Powershell by David O'Brien

System Center Virtual Machine Manager

System Center 2012 R2 Service Provider Foundation – Anmeldeinformationen in German by Daniel Neumann

How to Setup Hyper-V Recovery Manager with a Single VMM server topology by Kristian Nese

KB2761899 – Hyper-V VMMS Fails When Dynamicportrange Is Changed On WS2012 by Aidan Finn 

Windows Server

Virtual disks under Storage Spaces won’t stay attached after reboot! by Romeo Mlinar

How Many SSDs Do I Need For Tiered Storage Spaces? by Aidan Finn

How Much RAM & CPU Does Window Server Deduplication Optimization Require? by Aidan Finn

This blog post has been written by Vinod PS and Rohitkumar Arehalli

Note: To use this feature, you must update the firmware of iDRAC to 1.51.51 and later, and Lifecycle Controller to 1.3.0.850 and later.

LifeCycle Controller now supports updating 64-bit DUP using catalog update. The latest catalog file carries both 32-bit and 64-bit DUPs. If both the 32-bit and 64-bit DUPs are available in a catalog, preference is given to 64-bit DUP for the firmware update. 32-bit DUP is used for firmware update only when 64-bit DUP is not available in a catalog.

Additional Information:

More information on iDRAC

This blog post has been written by Dave Collier and Ananthanarayanan AK

       With the release of the iDRAC7 1.50.50 firmware, significant enhancements have been made to the Virtual Media feature. First and foremost, Virtual Media operation is more intuitive than it was in previous releases, as it’s based on the server’s “view” of the virtual devices, rather than the client’s. In addition, Virtual Media is now integrated with the Virtual Console feature, though a stand-alone Virtual Media mode is available, as well.

Connecting and Mapping Virtual Media

 To enable Virtual Media, open a Virtual Console session, select the Virtual Media menu and choose “Connect Virtual Media”.

Wait a few seconds while Virtual Media connects. Again select the Virtual Media menu and choose “Map CD/DVD” or “Map Removable Disk” (or “Map Floppy Disk”, if floppy emulation is enabled on the iDRAC Attached Media page).

Selecting “Map CD/DVD” will bring up the following dialog, where the CD/DVD media or image can be selected.

Note that the Drive/Image File drop-down list will include all unmapped devices of the selected type (i.e. CD/DVD), as well as image files of the appropriate type (.iso for CD/DVD, .img for removable and floppy disks) that are located in the default image file directory, which is typically the user’s desktop. If the desired drive or image file is not seen in the pull-down list, the “Browse” button can be clicked to navigate to the required location.

 Once the desired drive or image has been selected, click “Map Device” to complete the activity.

 At this point, selecting the Virtual Media menu option again will display the mapped device status:

The procedure is the same for mapping a Removable Disk or a Floppy.

 Note that Virtual Media supports mapping a single DVD/CD and a single Removable Disk or Floppy at one time.

Virtual Media Status

At any time, details of the mapped devices can be displayed by selecting the Tools menu, and choosing “Stats”:

This will display the Virtual Console (KVM) and Virtual Media statistics, where the mapping information, read/write status, session duration and traffic metrics are presented:

Un mapping and Disconnecting Virtual Media

Note, it is always recommended to eject the Virtual Media drive from the host operating system prior to unmapping the device or disconnecting Virtual Media, in order to allow any pending file operations to complete.

 To unmap a Virtual Media device, select the Virtual Media menu and choose the device you wish to unmap.

A popup warning will be displayed:

If you wish to continue to unmap the device, click “Yes”. Clicking “No” will exit the dialog without unmapping the device.

To disconnect Virtual Media (terminating the session and unmapping all Virtual Media drives), open the Virtual Media menu and select “Disconnect Virtual Media”.

Standalone Mode

As mentioned above, Virtual Media can be launched in standalone mode. This might be needed if Virtual Console is disabled or if your account has Virtual Media but not Virtual Console privileges. To launch Virtual Media in standalone mode, in the iDRAC tree view, select Virtual Console. On the Virtual Console page, click on Launch Virtual Console.

 You might see this message:

If so, click OK. You might receive various certificate notices, if so, click through them.

The standalone Virtual Media window will be displayed.

You’ll note that this is the Virtual Media section of the Virtual Console and Virtual Media Stats page discussed above. From here, Virtual Media operations can be controlled as described above.

Creating an Image

To create a Virtual Media image, select the Virtual Media menu and click on “Create Image…”. The “Create Image from Folder” dialog will be displayed:                    

Browse to the desired Source Folder and the Image File location and click “Create Image”. The specified image file will be created.

We at Dell hope you find this enhanced and refined Virtual Media feature to streamline your server management processes. Please give us feedback on how we’re doing and what new features you’d like to see.

Additional Information:

More information on iDRAC

This article explains about monitoring of PowerEdge 12G servers using an agent-free, out-of-band mode, via Integrated Dell Remote Access Controller 7 (iDRAC7) in customer’s environment managed by Nagios Core and Nagios XI consoles. By using out-of-band management, IT administrators no longer need to install or periodically certify/validate traditional in-band OpenManage Server Administrator (OMSA) agent installed in the Operating System (OS). This technology allows IT administrators to effectively monitor Dell systems with increased availability from any location, and without the use of agents. It accomplishes this regardless of operating system or hypervisor presence or state. These integrations are offered at no charge to the customers and are easier to deploy and use.

In the below sections, the key features and download link for Nagios Core and Nagios XI are briefed shortly.

Dell Out-of-Band Server Monitoring Plug-in for Nagios Core console

Dell Out-of-band (OOB) Server Monitoring Plug-in is a plug-in for Nagios Core that monitors Dell PowerEdge 12G servers via agent-free, out-of-band (OOB) method, using iDRAC7 with Lifecycle Controller.

The key features supported by the plug-in are:

• Classification of Dell OOB servers
• Periodic health monitoring of the server
• Launch 1:1 iDRAC7 console for further troubleshooting 

The product is available on Nagios Exchange in the Plugins download section. Click here for download page

Dell Out-of-Band Server Monitoring Configuration Wizard for Nagios XI console

Dell Out-of-Band (OOB) Server Monitoring Configuration Wizard enables the Datacenter customers to monitor the Dell PowerEdge 12G servers  using agent-free, out-of-band method, via iDRAC7 with Lifecycle Controller in environment managed by existing Nagios XI console.

Supported features:

• Classification of Dell OOB servers 
• Inventory of Dell OOB servers (ServiceTag, Model, Firmware Version, Server Hostname, Operating System (OS) name, OS version)
• Periodic health monitoring of the server 
• Launch 1:1 iDRAC7 console for further troubleshooting

The product is available on Nagios Exchange in the Addons download section. Click here for download page.  

We encourage you to email your queries, comments or other feedback regarding these Nagios integrations to us (mailto:Nagios_Inquiries@dell.com).

In this post I’d like to give you more details about the new Active Directory Virtual Lab (ADVL) feature of Recovery Manager for Active Directory – Forest Edition (RMAD-FE)

With this new feature you can fully automate the creation of virtual Active Directory labs to test Schema Extensions or your forest recovery concept (Firedrill) by just a few clicks.

Here is how it works:

after connecting to your virtualization platform you are able to select the Domain controllers of your productive environment you’d like to clone to your virtual lab:

You can then configure hardware, AD roles and other things of the DC’s in your virtual lab:

The solution will check all the Settings (“verify Settings”) and after this you can start creating your lab (“create lab”)

Important thing to notice: the lab will have exactly the same name as the productive one so … the lab has to be isolated, but don’t worry, you will get several warnings to check this 

ADVL will pass the creation of the virtual machine to Hyper-V or VConverter (depending on your platform) which will create a clone of a current snapshot of your live DC’s. After this ADVL itself will do all the necessary configuration steps like resetting passwords, seizing roles or cleanup the metadata. This is the more interesting thing and will bring in the real value of the tool!

In my test Environment it took about 1 hour to create a virtual lab out of my productive AD with just a few clicks.

So this will help you to save a lot of time and money.

"The Elway Gazette"

Hi Community, here is my compilation of the most interesting technical blog posts written by members of the Microsoft MVP Community. The number of MVPs is growing well, I hope you enjoy their posts. @all MVPs If you'd like me to add your blog posts to my weekly compilation, please send me an email (flo@datacenter-flo.de) or reach out to me via Twitter (@FloKlaffenbach). Thanks!

Featured Posts of the Week!

Storage Quality of Service (QoS) In Windows Server 2012 R2 by Didier van Hoye

How To Measure IOPS Of A Virtual Machine With Resource Metering And MeasureVM by Didier van Hoye

Choosing Between VLANs or Hyper-V Network Virtualization by Aidan Finn

Hyper-V Virtual NUMA Versus Dynamic Memory by Aidan Finn

Exchange

An error occurred when processing the security tokens in the message by Johan Veldhuis

Events

SYSTEM CENTER UNIVERSE EUROPE 2014 ANNOUNCED by Thomas Maurer

Hyper-V

How To Measure IOPS Of A Virtual Machine With Resource Metering And MeasureVM by Didier van Hoye

Choosing Between VLANs or Hyper-V Network Virtualization by Aidan Finn

RECOMMEND HOTFIXES AND UPDATES FOR HYPER-V AND FAILOVER CLUSTERS by Thomas Maurer

Virtual Machines not shutting down on host shutdown in Windows Server 2012 R2 by Steve Jain

Hyper-V Manager GUI on Server Core by  Lai Yoong Seng

WINDOWS SERVER GATEWAY PERFORMANCE DATA (KBYTES SENT AND KBYTES RECEIVED) IS NOT SHOWN IN VIRTUAL MACHINE PERFORMANCE VIEW IN VIRTUAL MACHINE MANAGER MANAGEMENT PACK by Stanislav Zhelyazkov

KB2902821 – A VM On WS2012 Or WS2012 R2 Hyper-V Cannot Use DLC Protocol To Contact SNA Host by Aidan Finn

Creating Hyper-V 12 R2 Cluster from Windows Server 12/VMM by Niklas Akerlund

Hyper-V Virtual NUMA Versus Dynamic Memory by Aidan Finn

PowerShell

Windows PowerShell DSC Resource Kit Community Edition by Jan Egil Ring

System Center Core

Deploying System Center Using the PowerShell Deployment Toolkit by Damian Flynn

System Center Configuration Manager

How to rename ConfigMgr 2012 Folders with Powershell by David O'Brien

System Center Dataprotection Manager

Reporting Services Server cannot connect to the DPM database. ID: 3001 by Lai Yoong Seng

System Center Virtual Machine Manager

System Center 2012 R2 Virtual Machine Manager – KB2915463 in German by Daniel Neumann

Windows Server

Memory Page Combining by Aidan Finn

Storage Quality of Service (QoS) In Windows Server 2012 R2 by Didier van Hoye

Use Cases For Fluid Cache For SAN With DELL Compellent In High Performance Virtualization With Windows 2012 R2 by Didier van Hoye

HOW TO INSTALL VPN ON WINDOWS SERVER 2012 R2 by Thomas Maurer

Tools

Video von Andre Kieft:: What is the difference between SkyDrive and SkyDrive Pro? by Kerstin Rachfahl

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