netmgr001

Hi I'm looking into the possibility of using SCVMM 2008 r2 for managing two hyper-v hosts but principally for creating P2V's of existing hardware onto the two new hyperv hosts. Where are people installing SCVMM ? On a dedicated non-hyperv physical host, or under parent parition on ONE of their hyper-v hosts. Or in the child partition of a hyperv host. Also, what are the network requirements depending on where you choose to install, and still be able to undertake P2v

i'll need to use the broadcom utility for enabling teaming won't i ? Or is it possible in network settings in win2k8.

Hi I've got an old dell poweredge 1950 which i'm playing about with to try out iscsi connectivity ad it's got a broadcom 5709C dual port gigE card which is iSCSI (offload ?) capable,. I've downloaded the broadcom utility for configuring the iSCSI ip address with a view to connecting one of the ports to a physically seperate switch for connection to iSCSI target. If i go the route of setting a static ip do i need to do anything with the LAN ipv4 address on the same port ? How are people setting up their gigE cards for iSCSI connections ? Do you set ip addresses and other settings in windows 2008 or use broadcom utiltiy. In particular how do you configure when using dual or quad port servers as hyperv hosts with an iscsi storage array.

it looks like you need to go round the back of the nut and squeeze. I had a removal tool which shipped the hp racks which works from front and is very effective. Still a bit fiddly, but less risk of hurting yourself. another vote for the color coded patch cables, i made the mistake of going down the route of same colored cables, and gave up trying to color code each end afterward.

Hi, i'm wanting to connect a lun i've created using the raid admin utility to a windows 2008 server. Both xraid and windows server (qlogic 4gbps hba's) are connected to my simple fabric, all in the same zone. But i don't know if this is possible as i don't believe there is a vds provider for the xraid, am i left with trying to get my head around the qlogic SAN surfer app to see if that will discover the LUN, what is the process for having the xraid array visible to the windows 2008 server ?

the EMC vnxe is interesting. But i don't know how it would compare on price vs performnce with something like a Dell Md3220i where you can fill it with 1TB NL-SAS drives for not far off the 7120 per TB dollar price. If you want capacity and can sacrifice on performance then the Md iscsi from Dell or HP MSA iscsi san's will always be a popular choice.

Just got a quick question about enabling a Windows 2008 enterprise box as a kms host. The server had already previously been activated with a w2k8 MAK. I've tried running the slmgr -ipk command to add a Windows Server 2008 R2 KMS key so i can activate Windows 7 KMS clients and then the -ato command, but when i run the -dlv command afterward it doesn't come back as saying it's a KMS host. Do i need to uninstall the existing MAK key for it to operate as a KMS host for internal win7 clients, would that be a -upk command, and do i need to dig out the original MAK key for use with the command ?

thanks for the response. The first part is kind of like what i thought, but i am a bit confused by some of the terminology used. I'd guess that depending on scale quite a lot of people would have a dedicated 'management' server which has the resources to run SCOM, SCCM, probably virtualized, plus a dedicated box to do DPM. If those two systems center servers are 'managing' a seperate virtual server with general hyper-v hosts (AD, DHCP, File+Print etc) does that mean you buy ONE management license only. Or do you have to license all three boxes, a datacenter license for the 'general' hyper-v host, a datacenter license for your systems center management servers - because it might be running more than 2 OSE's running Systems center servers, and a standard management license for the DPM box ?

just a follow up to this; we're now looking into setting up mobile accounts/home folders. The home folders are created locally under /Users when the AD users log on, but i don't see an option to sync home folders to the network. i thought it would be possible for us to have the users' windows h: drive (\\windowsserver\home\%username% in AD) as an smb share after logging into OSX. But then how do you point the afp:// osx mobile home directory to a location on the mac server in a dual directory setup ? if i check derive UNC path from AD i won't be able to have the above windows stored homedir, will i ?

I've got some questions relating to licensing the forthcoming systems center 2012 suite of products and EES. I think it's the case that the EES desktopplatform org wide SKU includes Enterprise CALs which cover management of client devices for things like SCCM, SCOM, Forefront. So assuming desktop 'clients' are covered that way ? Is it the case the actual install of the systems center server products does not require licensing ? So if you have virtualized SCCM, SCOM management servers and a dedicated DPM 2012 box they don't require VLK under EES ? It's only when you want to manage w2k8 servers as 'clients' using the management servers that you need to purchase the Standard or Datacenter ML's ? How does that work for things like DPM agents in a virtual/physical environment and using SCVMM 2012 to create VM's under hyper-v ? Sorry for sounding hopelessly confused.

We have setup a magic triangle where mac clients are dual-directory bound, using AD for auth. Plan is to have 10.6 server storing the home folders. In AD Users are setup with UNC paths to connect to a home folder located on an osx 10.6 'home' share. afp and smb enabled on the 10.6 server box. What ACL and other permissions should be set on the root 'home' share containing all users folders in WGM ? So that users' home folders can be created on login and there's security to ensure that users only see their own homefolders and not others. Is it a case of adding exactly the same ACL share permissions as you would if hosting homes on a w2k8 box ? will this work without hitch. Or should specific ACL permissions be set at the volume level ? Also, what's the best practice for chosing protocol type when using home folder syncing ? Does syncing work if the AD plugin on the client is setup to use smb as the method to derive network home location ?

i have a question regarding the placement of VHD's and the creation of CSV's in a small hyper-v setup you'd find in a medium sized school where you'd maybe have two or max three virtualised hosts either clustered or just splitting of workload without clustering, i'm still trying to get my head around CSV's and the use of the different type of VHD's against RAW disk mapping, but it seems that for simplicity you'd want to mirror how you'd setup your physical servers based on the application type in terms of RAID levels. So if you've got a starter fibre or iscsi array with 12 disks, can you have 8+1 for RAID-5, and then have a two-disk RAID 1 for parent partition boot from SAN (if that's supported), and then that leaves one disk left over for hot spare ? But then how would you carve up the raid-5 into LUNs if you were to virtualize the usual suspects like exchange, SIMS, file serving. as long as you happy to stick with RAID-5 for those apps and not need to separate out for log files and RAID 1+0. Just do it based on the size of the LUN required ? dedicate a LUN for each application. Or just have one big LUN per RAID group.

I'm trying to setup an HP ML370 G5 server with the ilo2 advanced install to boot from an iso file of my w2k8 x64 dvd, rather than my local DVD drive. I've opened the virtual media applet, selected the iso file from my local pc, and it's showing as being connected. When i boot the server it goes straight past the boot from Cd option. I've looked for a boot from virtual cd/dvd option if one indeed exists, but i can't see anything. On the dell servers we have this option appear in the boot menu, but doesn't appear to be such an option with the ML370 G5. any ideas ?

Can anyone recommend a good, free ISO image mounter for windows 7, that they have experience of using ? Without restrictions.

Hi I'm looking into the possibility of using a regular whitebox-type desktop pc with core2duo processor as an ISA/TMG box in a dual or triple interface configuration, initally in a test/lab setup. Can anyone recommend a cheap dual port pci express network adapter that would work in the above setup in a DQ965GF based pc. So not only compatible in a pc with that mainboard but also one that won't have any w2k8 r2 driver issues [not that i'm assuming there would be]. Or any recommendations for two single port network adapters which would do a good job ? thanks