leedesmond’s blog

You can test run the evaluation / trial versions* of the ready-made VHD for the System Center 2012 Service Pack 1 (SP1) family of products. As they run on Windows Server 2012, you can use this opportunity to test out the latest Cloud OS as well. Required is a physical machine with Hyper-V R2 server host virtualization (running on Windows Server 2008 R2).

• System Center 2012 SP1 Configuration Manager – Evaluation (VHD)
• System Center 2012 SP1 App Controller – Evaluation (VHD)
• System Center 2012 SP1 Data Protection Manager – Evaluation (VHD)
• System Center 2012 SP1 Operations Manager – Evaluation (VHD)
• System Center 2012 SP1 Orchestrator – Evaluation (VHD)
• System Center 2012 SP1 Service Manager – Evaluation (VHD)
• System Center 2012 SP1 Service Manager (Data Warehouse) – Evaluation (VHD)
• System Center 2012 SP1 Virtual Machine Manager – Evaluation (VHD)

* available in US English only (en-us)

Technorati tags: PowerShell, Windows Server 2012/Windows Server 8, Hyper-V, System Center, Cloud Computing

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Highly anticipated and now officially RTM across the board is the latest Service Pack 1 for all members of the entire System Center 2012 SP1 product family, namely:

• System Center 2012 Orchestrator SP1 (’Opalis’ 2012)
• System Center 2012 Service Manager SP1 (SC 2012)
• System Center 2012 Data Protection Manager SP1 (DPM 2012)
• System Center 2012 Operations Manager SP1 (SCOM 2012)
• System Center 2012 Configuration Manager SP1 (SCCM 2012)
• System Center 2012 Virtual Machine Manager SP1 (VMM 2012)
• System Center 2012 App Controller SP1 (SCAC 2012)

TechNet and MSDN subscriptions, as well as Volume Licensed customers, can download the final RTM/GA bits from the respective web portals immediately*.

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The Swiss IT Pro User Group, Unified Communications SIG is pleased to invite you to join in the next UC focused technical presentation. Scheduled on Tue 8 May 2012 afterwork (CEST evening local time), my good colleague Elia Noris will deliver an in-depth session on a subject that receives fairly limited coverage (until now).

An experienced IT professional and UC specialist based out of Zurich, Elia will explore how Lync Server synthetic transaction works and will discuss real-world deployment scenarios, rounding up with a look at extending the built-in capabilities with System Center Operations Manager - Management Pack for Lync (SCOM MP for Lync).

Event Info
This free in-depth technical session will be delivered in English, live on location at EB Zürich and simulcast online via webcast on Tue 8 May 2012 starting at 1830 CEST (UTC+2) / What is my local time?

Click more to see event details, abstract and speaker biography.

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Following the very successful delivery of “TTT Course 50508A: Microsoft Private Cloud and Datacenter Management” in multiple cities worldwide, many of you have expressed great interest to find out more about the course.

Here is an outline of the 3-day course contents of this intensive, fast-paced Instructor-Led Training (ILT) with hands-on lab that we can deliver at your location in your local language. Feel free to contact me at desmond (d0+) lee {a+} swissitpro.ch for more information and schedule details*. Places are limited so hurry and sign-up today!

Module 1: Microsoft Vision for the Cloud
Module 2: Microsoft Operations Framework (MOF) / ITIL Overview
Module 3: VMM Self Service Portal (SSP) 2.0
Module 3.1: Overview of the Dynamic Datacenter
Module 3.2: Planning and Installing the SCVMM SSP 2.0
Module 3.3: Configuring and Administering the  SCVMMSSP 2.0
Module 4: Hyper-V Accelerate POC
Module 5: Service Manager
Module 5.1: Planning and Architecture Design
Module 5.2: Configuration Management and Connectors
Module 5.3: Management Packs (Incident, Problem and Change Mgmt)
Module 6: Opalis Integration Server
Module 6.1: Architecture and Component Overview
Module 6.2: Interfaces and Workflow Basics
Module 6.3: Building System Center Workflows

Bonus Materials:
System Center 2012 products and AVIcode

Search for a related blog post “TTT Course 50508A: Microsoft Private Cloud and Datacenter Management” on this site for additional information.

* alternatively at my Email / SIP address with the prefix “d [d0+] lee” and @ domain winworkers.com (replace items in brackets / braces accordingly)

Technorati tags: Events, Training, Hyper-V R2, Virtual Machine Manager / Self Service Portal, Service Manager, Opalis, System Center Configuration / Operations Manager, MOF, ITIL, Public / Hybrid / Private Cloud Computing

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I have been very busy on the road for the past weeks to deliver the Train-the-Trainer course for valued Microsoft partners, hosters and solution providers worldwide entitled “TTT Course 50508A: Microsoft Private Cloud and Datacenter Management”.

With the very successful and overwhelming support for the delivery in Sydney, Australia (29 - 31 Mar 2011) and Singapore (11 - 13 Apr 2011), I shall again be out-of-office in Johannesburg, South Africa this coming week (18 - 20 Apr 2011).

For those whom I had the opportunity to work with, please allow me to extend my sincere thanks and appreciation once again for your keen interests, intense participation and thought-provoking interaction.

If you are interested in this or other deep-dive technical workshops in your region anywhere in the world (China, Asia, Japan, Korea, Europe, Russia, North/South America, Australia, New Zeland, Africa, Middle East, etc.) and would like more information, please do not hesitate to contact me directly. Simply sign up for a free account on this blog and provide your detail information so that we can establish contact with you. At Winworkers, have a global team of expert trainers/coaches and consultants that can deliver in your native tongue from English, German, French, Chinese (Cantonese, Mandarin, etc.), Spanish, Dutch to Russian, etc. I look forward to hearing from you soon!

Oui, je parle le français.
Ja, ich spreche Deutsch.
Si, yo hablo español.
(Chinese Mandarin / Cantonese) Wo3 huì jiang3 zhong1 wén (pu3 tong1 huà) hé guang3 dong1 huà.

Reference:
Microsoft Private Cloud Solutions

Update (4 May 2011)
Search for a related blog post “TTT Course 50508A (Outline): Microsoft Private Cloud and Datacenter Management” on this site for additional information.

Technorati tags: Events, Training, Hyper-V R2, Virtual Machine Manager / Self Service Portal, Service Manager, Opalis, System Center Configuration / Operations Manager, MOF, ITIL, Public / Hybrid / Private Cloud Computing

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Tue 08 March 2011 12:00 PM - 01:00 PM
System Center Virtual Machine Manager vNext: Service Lifecycle Management for the Private Cloud

Track: Management (MGT201)
Speaker/s: Desmond Lee
Session Type: Breakout Session
Room: Red Room 1 | Level: 200 - Intermediate

Private clouds enable abstraction of services from the underlying fabric. This abstraction delivers benefits to the enterprises for fabric management as well as service management. Come and see how VMM vNext delivers industry leading service design, deployment and management for private cloud environments. See the power and benefits of using Server Application Virtualization and image based servicing. Learn how to create private clouds, design service templates and empower your end users to deploy and manage services in the private cloud. Attendees will gain an understanding of VMM vNext supported scenarios, along with an understanding of how to use these capabilities to build an on-premise private cloud.

Wed 09 March 2011 11:45 AM - 12:45 PM
System Center Virtual Machine Manager vNext: Fabric Management for the Private Cloud

Track: Management (MGT301)
Speaker/s: Desmond Lee
Session Type: Breakout Session
Room: Purple Room 1 | Level: 300 - Advanced

Private clouds enable abstraction of services from the underlying fabric, delivering benefits to the enterprise for fabric as well as service management. Come and see how VMM vNext delivers industry-leading Fabric Provisioning and Infrastructure Management. See how VMM vNext will handle Networking, Storage, Cluster and Bare Metal Provisioning. Learn how VMM vNext will help with Dynamic Optimization, Power Optimization and Monitoring of the Infrastructure to ensure that you are providing the desired service levels to the consumers of your Infrastructure, with the speed and agility they require.

Technorati tags: TechEd, Events, Virtual Machine Manager, Cloud Computing

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A quick update: I shall be delivering an additional break-out session on the private cloud with VMM vNext (System Center Virtual Machine Manager 2012) at Tech.Ed Middle East 2011. See you in Dubai real soon!

(MGT301) System Center Virtual Machine Manager vNext: Fabric Management for the Private Cloud
Wed 9 March 2011
10:30 AM - 11:30 AM

Private clouds enable abstraction of services from the underlying fabric, delivering benefits to the enterprise for fabric as well as service management. Come and see how VMM vNext delivers industry-leading Fabric Provisioning and Infrastructure Management. See how VMM vNext will handle Networking, Storage, Cluster and Bare Metal Provisioning. Learn how VMM vNext will help with Dynamic Optimization, Power Optimization and Monitoring of the Infrastructure to ensure that you are providing the desired service levels to the consumers of your Infrastructure, with the speed and agility they require.

Technorati tags: TechEd, Events, Virtual Machine Manager, Cloud Computing

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Tech.Ed Middle East 2011 is returning to Dubai, UAE this year. This is a major technical conference for IT Pros and developers in the region and will take place from Tue 8 to Thu 10 Mar 2011. A pre-conference is scheduled on Mon 7 Mar 2011. To register or find out more information, click here.

I am very happy to share that I shall be back at Tech Ed Middle East as a speaker to deliver a break-out session on VMM v.Next in the private cloud (computing) in the management track. A synopsis is outlined here:

(MGT205)  System Center Virtual Machine Manager vNext: Service Lifecycle Management for the Private Cloud

Tue 8 March 2011
12:00 PM - 01:00 PM

Private clouds enable abstraction of services from the underlying fabric. This abstraction delivers benefits to the enterprises for fabric management as well as service management. Come and see how VMM vNext delivers industry leading service design, deployment and management for private cloud environments. See the power and benefits of using Server Application Virtualization and image based servicing. Learn how to create private clouds, design service templates and empower your end users to deploy and manage services in the private cloud. Attendees will gain an understanding of VMM vNext supported scenarios, along with an understanding of how to use these capabilities to build an on-premise private cloud.

With just about a month left to the start of the conference, you should act today to be part of the exciting Tech Ed experience. I look forward eagerly to be back in the region to meet and speak with you again. See you all there in person real soon!

Technorati tags: TechEd, Events, Virtual Machine Manager, Cloud Computing

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The following error may appear if you restore a virtual hard disk (VHD) and attempt to attach it to a new guest virtual machine (or child partition) in Hyper-V R2:

[Window Title]
New Virtual Machine Wizard

[Main Instruction]
The server encountered an error while configuring hard disk on virtualMachineName.

[Content]
Failed to add device ‘Microsoft Virtual Hard Disk’.

User Account does not have permission to open attachment.

Cannot get information for attachment ‘C:\ClusterStorage\Volume1\virtualMachineName\virtualMachineName_disk_1.vhd’

Account does not have permission to open attachment.

[Expanded Information]
‘virtualMachineName’ failed to add device ‘Microsoft Virtual Hard Disk’. (Virtual machine ID  - - - - )

‘virtualMachineName’: User account does not have permission required to open attachment ‘C:\ClusterStorage\Volume1\virtualMachineName\virtualMachineName_disk_1.vhd’. Error: ‘General access denied error’ (0×80070005). (Virtual machine ID  - - - - )

‘virtualMachineName’: Cannot get information for attachment ‘C:\ClusterStorage\Volume1\virtualMachineName\virtualMachineName_disk_1.vhd’. (Virtual machine ID  - - - - )

‘virtualMachineName:  account does not have permission required to open attachment ‘C:\ClusterStorage\Volume1\virtualMachineName\virtualMachineName_disk_1.vhd’. Error: ‘General access denied error’ (0×80070005). (Virtual machine ID  - - - - )

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This error is caused by the file level NTFS permissions that were restored together with the VHD. The resolution is simple: navigate to the folder containing the affected VHDs, call out the VHD’s properties, go to the Security tab and change permissions to inherit from the parent folder.

Technorati tags: Hyper-V, Windows Server 2008 R2

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Throughout DPM 2010 , there are many clickable links* that you can activate to understand the cause of a message or error condition. Unfortunately, almost all of them still end up redirecting you to land at a TechNet web site indicating the infamous “Page Not Found” error. When this will be fixed for a RTM product is still a big question though.

With Windows Server 2008 and above, the same kind of information is logged with corresponding Event ID, Source, OpCode, etc. under Diagnostics / Event Viewer / Applications and Services / DPM Alerts. Nevertheless, the provided link “Event Log Online Help” simply prompts you to approve the question “Event Viewer will send the following information across the internet. Is this OK?”. In the end, the result will not be any more reassuring: “Fehler- und Ereignismeldungszentrum”. You can always consult the %ProgramFiles%\Microsoft DPM\DPM\Temp\MSDPMCurr.errlog but the logged contents are more relevant for the support or product team to aid troubleshooting in tricky situations.

The entire experience makes searching for resources to mitigate the situation very tedious and time consuming. Unless you have Premier Support contract in place, you will be standing in line waiting for Microsoft Support to provide technical assistance. There may now be a sign of quick relieve with the release of the “Data Protection Manager 2010 Troubleshooting Guide“. Over 200 pages long, it documents a known list of protection/recovery issues of various system and application workloads as well as troubleshooting DPM issues plus listing common Event ID, the possible causes and recommended resolution.

Although not as convenient as the in-line product help, it would be helpful to deliver this guide** as separate Help download file for local consumption. Not all security policies enable Internet access especially from a server role as critical as backup and restore.

* “More information” link
** or for that matter any real documentation

Technorati tags: System Center, Data Protection Manager

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