Category: Lync Server 2010

Update Rollup 6 for System Center 2012 R2

Microsoft has just released new rollup for SC 2012 R2.

VMM was updated with new features:

Option to use Generation 2 VMs in Services and VMRoles: In Update Rollup 6, VMM now provides support for Generation 2 virtual machines for services and VM Roles. By using this feature, you can deploy multi-tier services and choose the virtual machine generation for individual tiers. Users can service these service instances through conventional and image-based servicing.

Total Networking Usage Exposure rules in Management Pack: This change introduces two rules that target Hyper-V Hosts:

  • Total Incoming VNic Network traffic collection rule
  • Total Outgoing VNic Network traffic collection rule

These rules measure the total incoming and total outgoing traffic in Kilo Bytes per VNic per virtual machine in the following method:

For each VM:

  1. Enable Hyper-V Metering if it is not enabled.
  2. Run Measure-VM.
  3. Collect metering data for every remote address of “0.0.0.0/0” or “::/0” per VNic.

Add Azure Subscription feature: By using the Add Azure Subscription feature in Update Rollup 6, administrators of Virtual Machine Manager can add Microsoft Azure subscriptions to VMM and perform basic actions on Azure instances in those subscriptions. The feature is included in Virtual Machine Manager in Update Rollup 6 for System Center 2012 R2. For each Azure subscription that you add, you can use a console to see all role instances in all deployment groups in that subscription.

What you can do with this feature

If you already manage your on-premises virtual machines in Virtual Machine Manager, you can use this feature to perform some very basic actions on Azure instances without leaving the VMM console. For example, you can do the following:

  • Add or remove one or more Azure subscriptions by using the VMM console.
  • See a list view of details and statuses of all role instances in all deployments in that subscription.
  • Manually update the list of instances.
  • Perform the following basic actions on the instances:
    • Start
    • Stop
    • Shutdown
    • Restart
    • Connect through RDP

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More info: https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/kb/3051171

TOTD: No operating system was loaded on VMs after upgrade to vNext

You successfully upgraded cluster 2012 R2 to Windows Server Technical Preview (not recommended in productions until RTM) , VM’s configurations to new version without any errors and try to run VMs in cluster. In this case, you may notice VM switches to boot from PXE and “No operating system was loaded on Vms after upgrade fo vNext” error appears.

hv_vnext_cluster_error_configuratuion_version

Solution:

It’s all because of Secure Boot settings.

I have VMs with Windows Server inside so I get them and set required secure boot template:

Get-ClusterGroup|? {$_.GroupType -EQ "VirtualMachine"}|get-vm|Set-VMFirmware -SecureBootTemplate MicrosoftWindows

Note: for VMs with Linux OS which support secure boot you have to run

Set-VMFirmware vmname -SecureBootTemplate MicrosoftUEFICertificateAuthority