Category: 1225

In the previous blogpost in this series I discussed virtualization-aware Active Directory. With the use of the newly introduced VM-GenerationID, virtual Domain Controllers can now detect when they are reverted back to an earlier state or when their virtual hard disk is reused. Let’s look into the latter scenario a bit. In Windows Server 2008 … Continue reading "New features in Active Directory Domain Services in Windows Server 2012, Part 13: Domain Controller Cloning"

In organizations with different teams being responsible for Active Directory management and management of the virtualization/hypervisor layer, it is not uncommon to seriously damage contents in Active Directory with snapshots. Virtualization Admins can easily cripple Active Directory by reverting a snapshot of a virtual Active Directory Domain Controller, since Active Directory, currently, is not virtualization-aware.

Windows Server 2012 can be seen as a major release for Windows Server. Not just in terms of virtualization (Hyper-V 3.0), storage (SMB 3.0 and Storage Spaces) or manageability, but also in terms of Active Directory. There’s a load of new features, improving the lives of many Active Directory admins!

This week I got the chance to work with some x86 High Performance Computing hardware at the Donald Smits Center for Information Technology (CIT) at the University of Groningen. Their hardware typically contains more than 64 logical processors and TBs of RAM. 10Gb/s interconnects and loads of Solid State Disks (SSDs) are also not very … Continue reading "Working with High Performance Computing resources (scale up vs. scale out in the Microsoft World)"

Today, Daniel van Soest and Rik van Berendonk visited the University of Groningen to play with Windows Server 2012 on some serious systems.

I’ve seen a couple of vendors release backup products, specifically targeted at Hyper-V. Some solutions utilize the Hyper-V Volume Shadow Service (VSS) writer to make backups. The big question, however, is whether this type of backup is of any use to backup Domain Controllers for disaster recovery. Over the years, we’ve seen a lot of … Continue reading "Host-Based Backup and Restore of Virtual Domain Controllers Whitepaper"

On Wednesday March 3, 2010 Hyper-V.nu (the Dutch Hyper-V Community) organizes another meeting for Dutch Hyper-V enthusiasts. This time, they’re partnering with Nobel for the location, food and drinks.

This morning I performed a ‘zero to live migration’ demo for the joined HP Netherlands, Hyper-V.nu (Dutch Hyper-V Community) meeting. You can find more information on this meeting on my previous blog post. I brought my photo camera with me and asked Jaap Wesselius to take some pictures, while I showed some slides from a … Continue reading "Hyper-V.nu Meeting Action Shots"

On November 24, 2009 HP Netherlands and Hyper-V.nu (the Dutch Hyper-V Community) organize a special meeting. Between 9 AM and 12 AM several speakers will contribute to a deep dive into the possibilities in Windows Server 2008 R2 and the use of Microsofts desktop virtualization products. It’ll be fun hanging out with Jaap Wesselius and … Continue reading "Performing a Live Migration demo for Hyper-V.nu"

Virtualization offers huge benefits in flexibility, cost-effectiveness and eco-friendliness. It’s an easy business case to make to any IT department nowadays. After all, Gartner claims the cost of energy outweighs the initial purchase of an x86 server in its first three years. However, most virtualization projects aren’t legacy-free: To make a virtualization business case stick, … Continue reading "Active Directory in Hyper-V environments, Part 6"