Archive for the ‘Windows Server 2012’ Tag

3 node Cluster in Azure contains “weak event was created” in FCM after install of KB2750149 #azure #templates #winserv #SQL   3 comments

Just created a 3 node SQL cluster in windows Azure and used Templates with windows 2012 with SQL and find a nasty bug. All fixed with a update but still annoying.  I was hoping to get a full patched system. With atleast all the hoxfixes in them. But even in Azure keep your patching up to date!

Building Windows 2012 Clusters in Azure needs patching !

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Build my Azure Cluster with AV Set on a 3 node cluster with a fileshare witness.  But even in Azure keep your patching up to date!

As you can see little bugs are still there and if you don’t know about this you could run into trouble.

Below is all the hoxfix information you need.

When installing this update to a Windows 2012 Cluster Server, you will receive the below error when you select Roles or Nodes from within Failover Cluster Manager.

A weak event was created and it lives on the wrong object, there is a very high chance this will fail, please review and make changes on your code to prevent this issue

You can still manage your Cluster from a node that does not have this fix or through Powershell.  The recommendation at this time is to remove and not install this fix.

This issue has been resolved.  After installing the KB2750149 patch for .NET Framework, please also install the below patch.

KB2803748
Failover Cluster Management snap-in crashes after you install update 2750149 on a Windows Server 2012-based failover cluster
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/2803748

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But how cool is that SQL availability groups in azure and even a Cluster in Azure ! And the deployment was really fast.

More about this later My Azure credit is gone ;-(

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Posted February 24, 2014 by Robert Smit [MVP] in Windows Server 2012

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The Cloud OS: It’s Time! Today is the date that Windows Server 2012 R2 is GA (General Availability) #winserv #hyperv   1 comment

You could already download windows server 2012 R2 from teched or msdn but now the R2 product is general availability

At the heart of the Microsoft Cloud OS vision, Windows Server 2012 R2 brings Microsoft’s experience delivering global-scale cloud services into your infrastructure. Windows Server 2012 R2 offers exciting new features and enhancements across virtualization, storage, networking, virtual desktop infrastructure, access and information protection, and more.

These are new Posters for Windows Server 2012 R2 including Hyper-v 3.0

 

Microsoft Windows Server 2012 R2 Hyper-V Component Architecture Poster and Hyper-V Mini-Posters

 

  • Generation 2 Virtual Machines GA
  • Hyper-V and Failover Clustering GA
  • Session Modes GA
  • Upgrading Your Private Cloud GA
  • Live Migration GA
  • Hyper-V Storage GA
  • Hyper-V Virtual Hard Disk Sharing GA
  • Windows Server 2012 R2 Hyper-V Component Architecture GA

 

Hyper-V Server is a dedicated stand-alone product that contains the hypervisor, Windows Server driver model, virtualization capabilities, and supporting components such as failover clustering, but does not contain the robust set of features and roles as the Windows Server operating system. As a result, Hyper-V Server produces a small footprint and requires minimal overhead. Organizations consolidating servers where no new Windows Server licenses are required or where the servers being consolidated are running an alternative OS may want to consider Hyper-V Server.

 

What’s New in Windows Server 2012 R2

This content focuses on changes that will potentially have the greatest impact on your use of this release.

Posted October 16, 2013 by Robert Smit [MVP] in Windows Server 2012, Windows Server 2012 R2

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Windows Server 2012 R2 update thoughts hyper-v virtual Ethernet adapter network cable unplugged   4 comments

If you update a windows server 2012 to the R2 version and you have teamed the Network card you could end in trouble. Especially if you run hyper-v.

You could find this in your device manager. No way to uninstall the network adapter and even with show hidden devices. you will see the Vnics but are unable to uninstall them.

hyper-v virtual Ethernet adapter network cable unplugged

Cleaning the register is also no option you don’t have the rights to do this only the trusted installer has rights. yes you could change this but is this the best decision ? I don’t thinks so

hyper-v virtual Ethernet adapter network cable unplugged

So here you are with several vnic’s and stuck in your system, uninstalling hyper-v is the best option but you will need to import all the virtual machines. yes you can us PowerShell and scripts to do this but if you have this situation the wmi objects are also stuck and most scripts won’t work.

Create a new switch and new networks next to the old stuff and leaf the old nics disabled is an option but not the best method. ( IMHO )

Fix it and see if the networks are gone and working well to avoid feature problems is the best approach.

there is one line to fix this :

netcfg –u vms_pp 

Remember after running this all the Virtual Machines on this machine are lost their network card. you will need to add the new network card to the VM and assign it to the new switch. this can be done by PowerShell quick and easy.

after this you have one healthy Hyper-v Server or Cluster

Posted September 28, 2013 by Robert Smit [MVP] in Windows Server 2012, Windows Server 2012 R2

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Windows Azure new memory-intensive VM size (two CPU cores with 14 GB of RAM)   4 comments

There are new Virtual Machines available in Windows Azure.

Windows Azure

The following versions of Windows Server are offered in the Windows Azure image gallery: Windows Server 2008, Windows Server 2008 R2, Windows Server 2012 and Windows Server 2012 R2. Prices as shown in the table below apply to all versions except Windows Server 2012 R2, which is currently in preview and is being offered for customers to test and experience at Linux rates (see pricing details under the "Linux" tab).

Memory-intensive VMs in Windows Azure provide larger amounts of memory and are optimal for running high-throughput applications such as databases. For more information, visit the Virtual Machines webpage.


Standard Instances

Provide optimal set of compute, memory and IO resources for running a vast array of applications. Detailed configuration of the instances is available azurehere.

Compute Instance Name Virtual Cores RAM Price Per Hour

Extra Small (A0) Shared 768 MB $0.02
(~$15/month)
Small (A1) 1 1.75 GB $0.09
(~$67/month)
Medium (A2) 2 3.5 GB $0.18
(~$134/month)
Large (A3) 4 7 GB $0.36
(~$268/month)
Extra Large (A4) 8 14 GB $0.72
(~$536/month)

* Based on 744 hours per month

More is Better ;-)

Memory Intensive Instances

Provide larger amounts of memory optimal for running high-throughput applications, such as databases or SharePoint server farms. Detailed configurations of these instances are available here.

COMPUTE INSTANCE NAME VIRTUAL CORES RAM PRICE PER HOUR
A5 2 14 GB $0.51
(~$380/month)
A6 4 28 GB $1.02
(~$759/month)
A7 8 56 GB $2.04
(~$1,518/month)

* Based on 744 hours per month

 

Posted September 24, 2013 by Robert Smit [MVP] in Windows Azure, Windows Server 2012 R2

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Windows Azure Pack #tee13 #azure #pack   1 comment

The Windows Azure Pack delivers Windows Azure technologies for you to run inside your datacenter, enabling you to offer rich, self-service, multi-tenant services that are consistent with Windows Azure.

The Microsoft Cloud OS: One Consistent Platform

The Cloud OS is Microsoft’s vision of a consistent, modern platform for the world’s apps running across multiple clouds; enterprise datacenters, hosting service provider datacenters and Windows Azure. The Windows Azure Pack helps to deliver on this vision by bringing consistent Windows Azure experiences and services to enterprise and hosting service provider datacenters with existing investments in System Center and Windows Server.

Web Sites

Consistent with Windows Azure Web Sites, this service helps provide a high-density, scalable shared web hosting platform for ASP.NET, PHP and Node.js web applications. It includes a customizable web application gallery of popular open source web applications and integration with source control systems for custom-developed web sites and applications.

Virtual Machines

Consistent with Windows Azure Virtual Machines, this service helps provide Infrastructure-as-a-Service (IaaS) capabilities for Windows and Linux virtual machines (VMs). It includes a VM template gallery, scaling options and virtual networking capabilities.

Service Bus

Consistent with Windows Azure Service Bus, this service helps provide reliable messaging services between distributed applications. It includes queued and topic-based publish/subscribe capabilities.

Automation and extensibility

The Windows Azure Pack also includes capabilities for automation and integrating additional custom services into the services framework, including a runbook editor and execution environment.

 

Get started with Windows Azure Pack

Posted June 26, 2013 by Robert Smit [MVP] in Windows Server 2012, Windows Server 2012 R2

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Windows Server 2012 Configure / Deploy Hyper-v Replica Broker How To #TEE13 #MSteched   14 comments

Windows Server 2012 Hyper-V Role introduces a new capability, Hyper-V Replica, as a built-in replication mechanism at a virtual machine (VM) level. Hyper-V Replica can asynchronously replicate a selected VM running at a primary site to a designated replica site across LAN/WAN

there is a great guide for you LAB on this site http://blogs.technet.com/b/yungchou/archive/2013/03/24/hyper-v-replica-broker-explained.aspx

Hyper-V Replica Cluster

To Deploy a Hyper-v failover cluster as a replica site, must use Failover Cluster Manager to perform all Hyper-V Replica configurations and management. And first create a Hyper-V Replica Broker role.

In this case I have two clusters left and right. first go to the FCM and add a role

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A Hyper-V Replica Broker is the focal point in this case. It queries the associated cluster database to realize which node is the correct one to redirect VM specific events such as Live Migration requests in a replica cluster.

Windows Active Directory domain is not a requirement for Hyper-V Replica which can also be implemented between workgroups and untrusted domains with a certificate-based authentication. Active Directory is however a requirement if involving a Hyper-v host which is part of a failover cluster, and in such case all Hyper-V hosts of a failover cluster must be in the same Active Directory domain with security enforced at the cluster level. I see sometimes that the broker creations is failing. The resource will not come online.

imageimage So During the creation of the cluster resource you will need a Name ( netbios ) and a IP. that is all.  But remember as all cluster resources the cluster will create the items and not you Mister Admin. Just make sure Your DNS and cluster resource can create Items.

If you are not sure about this check my old blog post https://robertsmit.wordpress.com/2012/06/26/cluster-network-name-resource-failed-to-create-its-associated-computer-object-in-domain/

Now that my Resource is created and it is in my cluster In both Cluster I want to do Cross Replication Winking smile

If you know Hyper-v then you would do the settings in the hyper-v settings but as you can see all the options are grayed out.

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Go to the Cluster manager and right click on the broker select replication settings.

image Same menu and configurable.

First enable the replica server in the first case I use Kerberos ( the easy one )

So don’t check the certificate based box.

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here you can do give any server access to this replica easy to do and quick just fill in the path where the VM files need to be stored.

the other option is give only server that I want access. Well in my case I also used a * not that smart well now Only server in my domain can replicate and not every server. If you want to do a point to point connection just fill in the FQDN of the server.

once you have filled in the entry you can’t change the name only the storage path. Well that is fine for now.

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Again we add the Resource this time a Virtual machine. Just make sure there is a VM in the Hyper-v

What we do here is make the VM high available and yes you could also replicate the VM right from the Hyper-v console.

image but that does not make the VM High Available.

 

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Selecting the VM image Now we can start the machine and the VM is HA

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We have the broker in place and a VM it is time to replicate.

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Don’t use the broker on the current cluster you can’t replicate to your own cluster Smile

image All you have to know is the name of your cluster where the VM is placed

So I use the name of the cluster and see if it works, The wizard does see that there is a other broker in the left01 cluster and ask me to change that YES click on update

imageimage again Here can I choose Kerberos or certificate Rememeber I checked both boxes on the broker cluster resource If I made a choice there I could no choose here.

I go for……Kerberos

image Check what VM disk are needed to replicate If you have a disk that holds stuff that si not needed for replications then unselect the disk here.

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You can create multiple recovery points or just one and change the time currently you can set this from 1 hour to 12 hours.  It is a wish to get this sooner.

and how to copy the stuff , over the network or with media. and the time to start.

I take the right now option

 

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and If you want to change the settings just go to the settings of the VM and change it

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In the Cluster or in the Hyper-v console you can see the status easy quick and fast replication.

In my next blog post I will do the same with a Certificate and you need extra steps for this.

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Posted June 12, 2013 by Robert Smit [MVP] in Hyper-V, Windows Server 2012

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#Windows 8 UI Discovery Mini-Poster   3 comments

Windows 8 UI Quick Reference US

 

Thanks to Martin McClean

Posted February 20, 2013 by Robert Smit [MVP] in Windows 8

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