System Center Virtual Machine Manager

Error installing App Controller 2012 (user error)

Flemming Riis — Sun, 18 Mar 2012 22:02:45 GMT

Deploying a fresh set of 2012 Applications for a demo later this week I managed to “break” the unbreakable App Controller installer.

Install

Add Credentials and Service Port

Select Certificate

Select SQL Server and Boom Error

A network-related or instance-specific error occurred while establishing a connect to a sql server.

SQL Running , Check

Firewall Allowing SQL , Check

SQL reports

Login failed. The login is from an untrusted domain and cannot be used with Windows authentication. [CLIENT: 10.1.1.35] <VMM01

User Error : the domain administrator used for install have been renamed and no logon / logoff was performed on the VMM Server

So back to App Controller being unbreakable

Virtual Machine Manager 2012 Add Node to running cluster

Flemming Riis — Sat, 10 Mar 2012 18:55:48 GMT

In my little test lab I had to add another node for testing purpose.

Head into Virtual Machine Manager 2012 and add Hyper-V Host and Clusters

Enter the server you want to add to the cluster

After AD Validation select the server

And add it to Virtual Machine Manager

This will enable the Hyper-V role if needed

And we can then see the host in Virtual Machine Manager Console , and then use Add Cluster Node

Add the host , as this is a test lab I will skip cluster validation , but cluster validation will check storage and network access , service pack levels and a bunch of other things ,so always run it in production

One very handy feature is that Virtual Machine Manger will add the Windows Failover Clustering role if not installed, again very handy

And we now have 5 hosts in the lab , almost ready rebuilding VMM to 2012 SP1 CTP so we can add a few Windows8 Hosts

Settting LimitCPUForMigration Virtual Machine Manager 2012

Flemming Riis — Thu, 08 Mar 2012 21:26:06 GMT

In my test environment I ran into a issue due to different cpu types.

So we get a 10709 that we are unable to migrate due to different processor features.

This can be fixed by setting “Allow migration to a virtual machine host with a different processor version” , this can also be set in the template so future machines will have this set pr default

Being Lazy I looked up the powershell syntax from http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/hh801556.aspx

And could see that I can use

get-scvirtualmachine | set-scvirtualmachine –limitcpuformigration $true

that will create a job pr machine and set the setting for us.

Again powershell saves the day.

Unable to connect to Virtual Machine Manager : ID 2607 The SQL Server account does not have permission

Flemming Riis — Tue, 28 Feb 2012 22:16:10 GMT

to access Active Directory Domain Servers

I ran into this problem today where I was unable to connect with the domain administrator (test environment) , I was able to use a different account , the only change being made was that the Windows Domain Administrator was renamed recently

So login with the now renamed administrator throws the above error

Microsoft.VirtualManager.DB.CarmineSqlException: Unable to connect to the VMM database because of a general database failure.
Ensure that the SQL Server is running and configured correctly, then try the operation again. ---> System.Data.SqlClient.SqlException: The login already has an account under a different user name.
at System.Data.SqlClient.SqlConnection.OnError(SqlException exception, Boolean breakConnection)
at System.Data.SqlClient.TdsParser.ThrowExceptionAndWarning(TdsParserStateObject stateObj)

--- SqlException details -----------------
System.Data.SqlClient.SqlException: The login already has an account under a different user name.
at System.Data.SqlClient.SqlConnection.OnError(SqlException exception, Boolean breakConnection)

vmmservice watson report in temp

Removing the old user that was renamed

And adding the username it was renamed to fixed the issue.

This is something that needs to be looked after if you rename a user that have access to VMM2012 as or RC1

Getting started with Microsoft Virtual Machine Manager 2012 Beta 2 (VMM Clustering)

Flemming Riis — Fri, 22 Jul 2011 22:28:25 GMT

One of my new favorite features of Virtual Machine Manager 2012 is the ability to cluster the Virtual Machine Manager Server and Libray so a single host failure wont impact the ability for VMM to function , this also make improves of the uptime at patch windows , as we can move the VMM to the passive node patch and rinse repeat

This short introduction will go though the steps to setup clustering on SQL and VMM but due to limited hardware resources it will be configured a non clustered Microsoft ISCSI Target.

This is a walkthrough there are room for improvement (multiple network cards , proper SQL design , SPOF) , so its meant as a short demo on how easy the cluster enablement of Virtual Machine Manager is

VMM require Windows Failover Clustering with a cluster running before installation of Virtual Machine Manager.

First we need to create the ISCSI targets for the 2 VMM nodes and the 2 VMM SQL Server Nodes , again this is testing so the ISCSI goes on the same network as all other traffic not something that will do for production or large scale testing, but this is a playground so we can cut some corners.

And we need some disks for the clusters , we just adding a quorum and a data disk on both the SQL and VMM cluster

And we need to present the disks the the iscsi targets.

And then we are ready to form the Windows Clusters and get ready for SQL and Virtual Machine Manager Installation

On each of the 4 machines we need to configure iscsi and connect the drives before starting the cluster installation.

And create a Qourum and Data drive for the SQL installation

And verify on the second node that the luns are visible.

And enable Windows Failover Clustering Feature on the VMM and SQL nodes.

Add both nodes for creating the cluster

And let the cluster validation wizard do the work for you to ensure that the cluster can be formed

And we are ready to form the cluster , we have one networking warning due to no redundancy of the network setup again for testing we can live with it.

And we need a name for the soon to be formed cluster

And the wizard is forming the cluster for us

And on the SQL node we needs to start the SQL Failover Cluster Installation

We need SQL Database Engine and Management Tools

And we need a name for the clustered SQL Server

Default is that we create a new cluster and let the install add the resources needed

And we need a cluster drive for install

And a ip address for the SQL part of the cluster

And we need to ensure that we use Latin1_General_CI_AS for Virtual Machine Manager database

And the we are waiting for the install to proceed

And Sucess

And on the 2nd node we need to start the installer to ensure that we have a 2nd node to failover to if the hardware breaks down

And we need to ensure that we install to the right instance

And waiting

And Scuess we now have a running SQL cluster

On the VMM nodes we need to setup the shared storage and start the failover cluster wizard as we did on the SQL servers

And we need a name for the base part of the cluster

We need to install WAIK on both nodes before we start with the VMM install

VMM detects that its running on a cluster and ask if we want to install into a cluster to ensure HA incase of hardware failure

Default install location for the application

And we need to point to our newly created SQL Cluster for placement of the database

And we need a name for the VMM Cluster itself

And for VMM HA a domain account and AD bound encryption key is a requirement

Library shares needs to be created manually after VMM Instal

And we are installing.

Success

On the second node we need to run the VMM installer , this will detect that VMM is already installed as HA and can then add the 2nd node to the cluster

The Wizard picks up the SQL information so no interaction is needed (exept for next)

We need to enter the password for the service account

And the installer is doing its job

And Success time to test

When starting the VMM Client we need to use SCDVMMCLUSTER and not the local nodes in the cluster

And we can see that we have connection to the cluster and we now have a VMM infrastructure with no single point of failure

Getting started with Microsoft Virtual Machine Manager 2012 Beta 2 (Monitoring)

Flemming Riis — Tue, 12 Jul 2011 19:50:02 GMT

Microsoft have provided updated management packs for Operations Manager and Virtual Machine Manager 2012 , this intro will cover the basics to get running and start monitoring of the Virtual Machine Manager , I will follow up with a post drilling down more of the features and testing PRO tips.

First off we need the basic in place , so adding Windows Server Operating System and Windows Clustering and SQL

The management packs are located in the Management Pack directory on the Virtual Machine Manager server.

If some part is missing like IIS here resolve will fix that and you can proceed.

importing the management packs is usually fast , make sure to deploy in testing first to see the impact of the installed MP if IIS/SQL MP is new in the installation there will usually be a lot of alarms to deal with before drilling down into Virtual Machine Manager.

And verify that everyone have been imported successfully

We need to deploy agents on the Virtual Machine Manager Server and the HyperV hosts in the environment

Find the machines that needs the Operations Manager Agent.

Verify that the agent have been successfully installed

And manually set “Allow the agent to act as a proxy” on both the Virtual Machine Manager Server and all Hyper-V hosts

System Center Virtual Machine Manger needs the Operations Manager Console to sent PRO tips and integrate with Operations Manager

So on the Virtual Machine Manger install the User Interfaces from Operations Manager and remember to patch the console with the same Culminate Update you have running on the Operations Manager Server

Go into Virtual Machine Manager and System Center Settings Operations Manager Server

We need a run as account for connecting to Operations Manager , I use the default management account in the test enviroment

Then we need to connect to the Operations Manager - Root Management Server

And Operations Manager need account with admin rights to the Virtual Machine Manager Server

PRO tips is enabled pr default so we can get hints flowing so we know what to move around

For now I don’t have Analyses Services running in the test environment so no weather forecasting will be available

Verify that the Operations Manager Connection have been created successfully

And in the Virtual Machine Manager Console we can see that we are connected to the Management Group and Root Management Server

And in Operations Manager we can see that the internal connectors are created

Lets see the alerts we got from the monitoring after installation.

CA01 and the other machines are not yet installed buy powered on so Virtual Machine Manager reports the Clients Tools for not running.

This was a short walkthrough of the installation of the integration between Operations Manager and Virtual Machine Manager

Getting started with Microsoft Virtual Machine Manager 2012 Beta 2 (Adding Hosts)

Flemming Riis — Wed, 15 Jun 2011 21:33:28 GMT

After install of the Virtual Machine Manager we need to add hosts to the fabric.

We are adding hosts that are running in the same domain , a later post will show provisioning of bare metal servers to running Hyper-V hosts

To add hosts to the Virtuel Machine Manager we need to either create a RunAs account or enter credential with enough rights to install agents on the remove systems , depending on your security level a named account that have local admin rights for all Hyper-V hosts will do , or credentials can be entered when needed

So lets quickly create a user and assign needed rights.

To avoid to much work by hand we crate a new GPO for the OU containing the Hyper-V Hosts

Find a name we can recall

Leverage GPP and update local group with the newly create service account

and after a gpupdate /force we can verify that our service account now have local admin rights on the hyper-v hosts

So back to the Virtual Machine Manager Console and Create Run as Account

and the run as is ready for action.

there is a lot of flexible options for adding hosts , here we just searching for hosts starting with SCDHV

and we have some host ready for action.

and we will install the agents , please note that if earlier version of the VMM agent have been installed it needs to be removed before install of VMM 2012 Beta

a nice little detail is that VMM will enable Hyper-V if the role is not enabled on the hosts again saving us a few steps until we are ready for end-end deployment of new hyper-v hosts

And we have 4 hosts ready for action in our new standalone Virtual Machine Manager 2012 beta install.

Getting started with Microsoft Virtual Machine Manager 2012 Beta 2 (Install)

Flemming Riis — Sun, 12 Jun 2011 22:09:04 GMT

To get started testing VMM2012 beta there are two options , Microsoft have provided a full vhd almost ready to run , or you can install the bits yourself , this small getting started guide will follow a manual install process but below is link to VHD and Install procedure from Microsoft , most of this guide is very basic so but can be scrolled though fast

This getting start guide is a step-step version of http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/gg610617.aspx

Deploying System Center Virtual Machine Manager (VMM) 2012 by Using a VHD

http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/gg610688.aspx

System Center Virtual Machine Manager 2012 Beta – Evaluation (VHD)

http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/en/details.aspx?FamilyID=76002803-4fe8-4573-a76d-6b2b11adfe58

System Center Virtual Machine Manager (VMM) 2012 Beta Documentation

http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/en/details.aspx?FamilyID=F7C174F2-1D39-4FED-9778-3F41B84F744B

We need a virtual machine to run VMM from , this will “just” be a another virtual machine running on in this case a stand alone box , but it might as well be inside a cluster but many people prefeer to know where their VMM server is running so they don’t have to hunt for it in case of trouble.

Microsoft sizing guide says 4gb recommended with less than 150 hosts , here we are going to place SQL and VMM on the same box so ill double just to keep smooth runnings

VMM needs to be able to access the VMM hosts so make sure to use a network where it will be possible to access the Hyper-V hosts

We will create a data drive for SQL and VMM later so for now keep a reasonable boot size

and install on Windows 2008 R2 SP1 as 2008 R2 and 2008R2 SP1 is the only supported guest os

Windows Install (cant wait until VMM is running so we don’t need to do this manually)

as this will be a stand alone edition Standard Edition will do just fine

and we will wait a bit for Windows Install to complete

And its time for a domain join.

We need a service account for VMM for media sharing and HA , this should be a domain user with local admin rights on the VMM server

add the servicevmm01 account to the local adminstrator group on the guest that will host the Virtual Machine Manger

and to verify that rights are correct I prefeer to logon and install VMM with the service account

Time to install WAIK as a prereq for VMM

Select destination and next to start install of WAIK

For this part we will use a local installed SQL server.

Install SQL Database Engine and Management Tools

and select instance root location

I change the collation to Latin1 CI_AS to avoid possible collation trouble with danish locales but from what I can see its supported to run any collation as long as its CI/AS

make sure that the vmm service account have access to the SQL server

and its time to wait again

Start Install

Select VMM Server and VMM Administrator Console

No keys are needed during beta

and select a location for VMM install

Enter credentials for creating the database here we use the service account for vmm as it a stand alone installation

and enter service account again for running vmm , this standalone will just use local encryption keys , we will cover AD based keys in a later post

Moving Library off the boot drive

and waiting for a bit

and the VMM Server is ready for action

and we are ready to create/manage our fabric , stay tuned.