Server 2012 R2 – Page 12 – UseIT

Dell PowerEdge VRTX is a new concept of “blade systems” or shared infrastructure. All-in-one system ideally provides benefits of enterpise blade systems for small and medium organizations. Certified for Windows Server 2012/R2 and recommended for using in the WSFC (Windows Server Failover Clustering) configurations. Cluster can be build with up to 4 server nodes and shared SAS Perc 8 controller (can be in the optional fault-tolerance configuration) with up to 25 2.5” SAS HDDs.

Configuration of Dell VRTX is very easy for understanding , but has a limitation:

The Shared PERC 8 also cannot be supported as booting shared storage for operating system installation for the host.

Let’s imagine, you create a few virtual disks and map to VRTX server slots, run Lifecycle controller (F10 during POST check) – Deployment OS. One is the biggest advantage of Lifecycle – it prepares your system for OS installation (it means that LC adds an additional volume which consists required drivers for specified OS). During OS installation you notice that SHARED LUNs are visible and you ABLE to “click next” and continue OS installation. BUT! SHARED LUNS ON DELL VRTX DOESN’T SUPPORT BOOT VOLUMES. If you will continue with shared LUN, there are some bugs and issues (OS cannot boot and something like this)

So, 1) shared luns only for data not for booting usage 2) use local disks on server slots or mirrored SD cards (only for vmware, not for Hyper-V)

Reference: PowerEdge VRTX: M520 and M620 Blades Not Able to See Shared PERC 8 Virtual Disk in host BIOS and LC

TIP: Configuration of Dell VRTX for Windows Server 2012 R2 WSFC will be available soon

Русская версия/Russian version

Windows Server 2012 R2 provides a lot of updates and improvements to Hyper-V. The most visible change is the new guest service “Hyper-V Guest Service Interface” or just “Guest Services”, which disabled ,by default in the properties of every VM on 2012 R2 Hyper-V.

This service has a really modest functional, but extremely useful. Guest Services allows you to copy the necessary files between the host (server Hyper-V, on which are placed the target VMs = parent partition) and virtual machines (= child partition) without any load on the network components. The copying process is provided by link between Hyper-V host and VM through vmbus (Virtual Machine Bus).
Also, the vmicguestinterface service (from the virtual machine side) responsible for functionality integration service components on the guest OS level. Altogether, we have got native feature for point-to-point (for example, host 1 VM in the DMZ) or multi-point (host VMs) copying necessary files between Hyper-V partitions

Before using this new feature you have to check:

1) Hyper-V Integration services must be up-to-date. Version has to be at least 6.3.9600.16384.

Get-VM | Select Name, IntegrationServicesVersion

2) Guest Services enabled for target VMs

#Gets current VM configuration
Get-VM|Get-VMIntegrationService|ft VmName,Name,Enabled -AutoSize
#Enabling Guest Service
Get-VM | Enable-VMIntegrationService -Name "Guest Service Interface"

3) vmicguestinterface service must be running inside the guest OS

Get-Service vmicguestinterface

Service management is provided by only one cmdlet Copy-VMFile ((Microsoft.HyperV.PowerShell.GuestServiceInterfaceComponent) , which has a list of required parameters:

-SourcePath = what we want to copy (UNC is supported!)
-DestinationPath = where we want to save files
-FileSource = file source type
-VMName = VM names

Example:

#Copies 2012R2.ISO file from file source HOST to VM with name Server 2012R2_1 and saves files to pre-created folder C:\ISO on guest OS
Copy-VMFile "Server2012R2_1" -SourcePath C:\ISO\2012R2.iso -DestinationPath C:\ISO\2012R2.iso -FileSource Host

If you don’t have pre-created destination path – you will get error. To automate process of creation necessary files you have to use -CreateFullPath parameter that checks and creates folders, if they are not exist.

Copy-VMFile "Server2012R2_1" -SourcePath C:\ISO\2012R2.iso -DestinationPath C:\ISO\2012R2.iso -FileSource Host -CreateFullPath

Category: Server 2012 R2

Dell PE VRTX: Unable to see shared LUNs in BIOS and during OS installation

Guest Services in Hyper-V and Copy-VMFile

Before using this new feature you have to check:

Example:

Process of copying:

Final result:

UNC:

Share this:

Before using this new feature you have to check:

Example:

Process of copying:

Final result:

UNC:

Share this: