As promised, here are the “Best of Q&A” from the live chat I helped to deliver on September 2, 2009, entitled “TechNet Webcast: Thrive Live Chat! – Virtualization”
A BIG THANK YOU to my guest, Shanen Boettcher, for such a wonderful conversation and some great information for IT Pros around getting ready for Virtualization.
And THANK YOU to all of the people who attended the session LIVE! You asked some fantastic questions. That’s what these chats are all about!
Also – Here the RESOURCES I pulled together for this webcast.
I hope you find these useful!
Kevin
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Questions and Answers
“We are currently doing Server Virtualization with great success, but what does it look like from a desktop perspective?”
VDI (Virtual Desktop Infrastructure) is certainly a hot topic these days. As described in the chat, this is a new and exciting area that allows companies to have more choices around how they configure and distribute desktop operating environments to their users; either benefiting by saving money on hardware, or by giving them more control over the desktop environment.
For more information on VDI and what Microsoft provides in that area, check out the Desktop Virtualization page here: http://www.microsoft.com/virtualization/products/desktop/default.mspx
But no matter what kind of virtualization you’re supporting, the goal is that the end-user is not required to do much (if anything) different. His virtualized application should behave as any application would. His desktop should have a full AERO interface, and perform well. And in some cases, you can even improve their experience (“Wow, the application was updated automatically for me… I didn’t need to install anything!”)
“Does the MS assessment and Planning toolkit make recommendations based on the 2008 Hypervisor or the 2008R2 Hypervisor?”
On the webcast we actually answered your question incorrectly! The new (4.0) of the MAP (Microsoft Assessment and Planning) Toolkit indeed is geared towards Windows Server 2008 R2 and Windows 7 scenarios.
Here is the landing page: http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/solutionaccelerators/dd537566.aspx?SA_CE=NOT-MAPBETA-SITE-VIRT-WINSVR-20090615
And you can download it here: http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyID=67240b76-3148-4e49-943d-4d9ea7f77730&DisplayLang=en
“Are all the management tools supported in VM’s?”
Yes.
“How many [virtual machine] migrations are supported at the same time?”
Only one migration can be taking place for each participating host (as either a source or destination hyper-V host). But if your hosts are in, say, a 16 node cluster, then you could potentially have as many as 8 Live Migrations happening at the same time.
“Is SCVMM integrated with Windows 2008 R2?”
SCVMM 2008 R2 was recently released to support the new functionality in Hyper-V that comes in Windows Server 2008 R2 (chief one being Live Migration). So, yes, it is ready to work with Server 2008 R2 virtualization.
http://www.microsoft.com/systemcenter/virtualmachinemanager/en/us/default.aspx
“Is all of the management in System Center? What if you don’t have that in place?”
You can do management without System Center, but basically that limits you to running the Hyper-V Admin Console, which is mainly for basic configuration and “start/stop” functions. Yes, you can even do live migration and drive it using Windows Clustering. And if you’re good with PowerShell and WMI, you can build scripts to perform any bulk or frequently occurring administrative tasks.
However, for small-to-midsize companies who don’t want to invest in the System Center suite, we do recommend that you at least get System Center Essentials 2007 and the System Center Virtual Machine Manager 2008 Workgroup Edition. (We even currently have a 37%-off deal if you buy those two together.)
If you’re curious about the differences between System Center Essentials 2007 and the System Center products (Operations Manager 2007 and Configuration Manager 2007), check out this great comparison page: http://www.microsoft.com/Systemcenter/essentials/en/us/compare-products.aspx
“If I was looking to specialize in virtualization, what training/certification is available and what advice would you give me?”
First of all, SORRY EMMANUEL! I referred to you as “Emma” in the webcast, because my small Q&A window cut off the rest of your name! (sigh) For Microsoft training and certification tracks, the best place to always go is http://www.microsoft.com/learning.
Here is the Microsoft Learning “Training Portal” for Virtualization: http://www.microsoft.com/learning/en/us/training/virtualization.aspx
“Why did the Terminal Services (TS) name change to RDS in the Server 2K8 R2 version?”
Sorry we ended the chat just before you asked this great question, Joseph.
I don’t have all the details, but I do know that the main reason for the change was because it really is more about a “remote desktop” experience now. As we talked about in the chat, you have remote desktop options of either a profile running on a terminal server (traditional Terminal Services), plus the added option of a unique OS running virtually under Hyper-V. Both appear as a desktop to the end-user.. but the technology underneath is different. Still, the beauty here is that many of the supporting technologies and much of the supporting infrastructure (Remote Desktop Gateway, Connection Broker, etc.) work on behalf of either the terminal-service-type desktop as well the remote desktop-that’s-really-a-virtual-machine desktop.
“Is the Virtual Machine Manager running on your desktop the same download VMM 2008 R2 that is a demo install?”
Yes. In order to drive Hyper-V Live Migration using System Center Virtual Machine Manager, you will use the newest version, which is SCVMM 2008 R2.
“Can you put up the blog again?”
Oops.. missed this one after we ended the chat. Well.. if you’re here, you’ve found it. (smile)
Absolutely Full of I.T. 