Documentation on Best practices for Virtual Server

When you make a Virtual Server deployment, make sure that you follow Microsoft’s recommended Best practices for Virtual Server. They can improve the performance of Virtual Server installations, and make your life as a system administrator easier.

One important thing that many people overlook when creating multiple VMs is the importance of using Sysprep. I wrote a quick walkthrough here, and you can find documentation on Microsoft’s website about it as well. Sysprep makes sure that each cloned virtual machine will be unique – not using it may introduce security and performance issues in your network.

Error while linking a C++ Application with Virtual Server

Reading Virtual Server's performance counters from .NET

This code allows you to retrieve the information for Virtual Server’s performance counters from C#. It reads both the Virtual Machines and Virtual Processors counters.

   1:  PerformanceCounterCategory vmCat =
            new PerformanceCounterCategory("Virtual Machines");

   2:              PerformanceCounterCategory vpCat = 
            new PerformanceCounterCategory("Virtual Processors");

   3:  string[] vmInstances = vmCat.GetInstanceNames();

   4:  string[] vpInstances = vpCat.GetInstanceNames();

   5:   

   6:  List<PerformanceCounter> countersList = 
            new List<PerformanceCounter>();

   7:  

   8:  foreach (string instance in vmInstances){

   9:  PerformanceCounter[] counters =
            vmCat.GetCounters(instance);

  10:  foreach (PerformanceCounter pc in counters)

  11:  {

  12:              countersList.Add(pc);

  13:  }

  14:  

  15:  foreach (string instance in vpInstances)

  16:  {

  17:              PerformanceCounter[] counters =
                        vpCat.GetCounters(instance);

  18:              foreach (PerformanceCounter pc in counters)

  19:              {

  20:                          countersList.Add(pc);

  21:              }

  22:  }

  23:   

  24:  while (true)

  25:  {

  26:              System.Threading.Thread.Sleep(1000);

  27:              foreach (PerformanceCounter pc in countersList)

  28:              {

  29:                          Console.WriteLine(

                                  "{0}:\"{1}\" Counter:{2} Value:{3}",

                                  pc.CategoryName, pc.InstanceName,

                                  pc.CounterName, pc.NextValue());

  30:              }

  31:  }

Differences bewteen Virtual Server and the Hypervisor

Paravirtualization and Xen

Another virtual machine product that has been making a lot of noise lately is Xen, the open source project from Xensource. Xen uses a different  approach to virtualization than Virtual Server, called Paravirtualization. In this type of virtualization, the guest OS has to be modified to work with a software interface to the Virtual Machine Monitor, instead of thinking it is running on the hardware. The thing is that this actually enables better performance of the Guest OS, as it aware that is running on a virtual machine environment. Xen also supports running unmodified OSes, but for that it is mandatory to have hardware virtualization (VT-x on Intel or SVM on AMD CPUs).

The next releases of Windows Virtualization are implementing a similar approach. It will still be pure virtualization, but the Guest OS will also be enlightened. What this means is that the Guest OS will be aware that it is running on a VM, so it will be able to increase the performance using a modified kernel. The best part about all this is that Microsoft and Xensource are actually working together to make sure that the technology included with Windows Virtualization will be compatible with the technology used in Xen. So, at the end, we, the customers, win.

Intellisense in VS

If you would like to edit XML files in Visual Studio and use intellisense, this is what you have to do:

Locate your schema, then copy it to C:\Progam Files\Microsoft Visual Studio .NET 2003\Common7\Packages\schemas\xml.

Then open your XML document and reference the schema by its namespace URI in the root element.

If you want to automate the update of your schema files the use scripting on the Visual Studio's OnStartupComplete event.

Adding a duplicated computer to the domain

We at the virtualization team, have been creating copies of a virtual machine to use them as workstations that will be grouped into a domain. The only problem is that the original virtual machine was not syspreped and apparently this is creating problems joining the domain; this can be seen when new users can not log in the new virtual machine.

One quick and easy way that we have found helpful to fix this is changing the name of the computer (to avoid the duplicated name) and moving it to a temporary workgroup at the same time (we couldn't get to rename otherwise). Then we just made the computer reboot, and then moved it back to the domain, and reboot again. After that, it worked just fine.

Let Your Script Choose It's Host

When you are creating scripts to be executed by the Windows Scrip Host, you know there are two applications that could host your script: WScript which is a GUI host or CScript which is a console based host. By default Windows uses WScript, but you can change the default host with a simple command wscript //H:WScript will set WScript to be the default host, and wscript //H:CScript will set CScript to be the host.

But what happens if you don't want to get such an ultimatum for all of your scripts. Wouldn't it be nice if you could make your script choose it's own host? I asked my self that question and found this VBScript code online (I couldn't find the original source):

' Forces this script to be run under the desired scripting host.
' Valid sScriptEng arguments are "wscript" or "cscript".
' If you don't supply a valid name, Force will switch hosts.
Sub Force(sScriptEng)
 If Lcase(Right(Wscript.FullName, 12)) = "\wscript.exe" Then
  If Instr(1, Wscript.FullName, sScriptEng, 1) = 0 Then
   'Need to switch to CSCRIPT
   CreateObject("Wscript.Shell").Run "cscript.exe " & Chr(34) & Wscript.ScriptFullName & Chr(34)
   Wscript.Quit
  End If
 Else
  If Instr(1, Wscript.FullName, sScriptEng, 1) = 0 Then
   'Need to switch to WSCRIPT
   CreateObject("Wscript.Shell").Run "wscript.exe " & Wscript.ScriptFullName
   Wscript.Quit
  End If
 End If
End Sub

All you need to do is call this procedure at the beginning of your script and it will be ready to go. So, for example:

Force "cscript"

will force your script to run on the CScript host. A wrong parameter will just force the script to run on the opposite host.

Set your scripts free!

Who says you can't expand VHDS?

1. Create a new VHD and install everything I had done
2. Try to find a way to expand the VHD with whatever hack came to my mind.

1. A BartPE ISO that has some kind of imaging utility (ours has Ghost and TrueImage - amazing programs!)
2. A fixed empty VHD that will fit the image of the disk you are trying to expand
3. Lots of patience
   

1. Add the BartPE.iso as an additional CD-ROM Drive
2. Add the empty VHD (let's call it images.vhd) as an additional VHD
3. Boot your PC, it should boot from the CD and Bart-PE should start
4. Format images.vhd into an NTFS drive using whatever you want
5. Create an image of your source disk (the one you are trying to expand) and place it on the images drive
   

1. Create a new VM configuration with a new VHD that will hold the new size (format it as NTFS with any utility you like)
2. Add the BartPE.iso as an additional CD-ROM Drive
3. Add the images VHD as an additional VHD
4. Boot your PC, it should boot from the CD and Bart-PE should start
5. Use Ghost or whatever you want to restore from the Image from the Images.vhd
   

UrlRewriting Library for Asp.Net 2.0

Checking ScottGu's Blog the other day, he pointed to some useful links, I specially like the UrlRewriting library, I'm considering using it so wait for updates for my experience with it. I recommend to check that library it looks really good.

Via ScottGu's Blog

UrlRewritingNet.UrlRewrite V2.0 Released: Albert Weinert sent me mail on Friday pointing me at the new release of the UrlRewriting engine that he and Thomas Bandt wrote for ASP.NET. It is available as a free download and includes samples + full source code.

Live Writer sample post

The Windows Live team recently launched the Live Writer tool for writing blog posts. This is a sample post made with the tool. So far, it looks nice, with most features already working.

One of the nicest features is Live Map integration:

San Jose, Costa Rica

I think I am going to stick with Blogjet for the time being (especially for the flickr integration). But it won't harm you to check out Live Writer as well.

Virtualization 101 for IT

Copy and Paste from Host VM to Guest VM (and vice-versa)

Remote Virtual Server Object

We, here at the virtualization team, have been digging around and testing some of the development options you have for the automation of virtualized environments.

Developers might be waiting for that famous Microsoft Hypervisor that will be available with Windows Server "Longhorn". In the meantime, there are still tools you can use. The Virtual Server COM API is one of them.

You can instantiate this object on a local server where Virtual Server is up and running and you can then have access to its properties and procedures. But if you want to develop something a bit more dynamic you might be interested on creating a centralized management tool for a group of Virtual Servers. This can be accomplished by initializing the Virtual Server Object remotely. Learn more about this by accessing the Virtual Server Programmers Guide, included in your Virtual Server installation.

What I want to point out on this entry is that if you are planning to use the remote access, beware you are going to need your Virtual Server on the same domain where the application is running, or as a difficult alternative you can set up a trusted link. Also, the user executing the code must be added to the Administrator's group on the remote Virtual Server. Failing on doing this will lead to runtime security issues that will simply prevent the object from having access to the remote server.

Virtual Server, WMI and C#

This code snippet allows you to connect to a remote instance of Virtual Server 2005 R2, via WMI, and retrieve all the Virtual Machine WMI objects.

   1:   

   2:  System.Management.ConnectionOptions co = 

   3:      new System.Management.ConnectionOptions();

   4:  co.Username = user;

   5:  co.Password = password;

   6:   

   7:  ManagementScope scope = new ManagementScope(

   8:      new ManagementPath(@"\\"+computer+
            @"\root\vm\virtualserver"),co);

   9:   

  10:  scope.Connect();

  11:  SelectQuery oq = 

  12:      new SelectQuery("SELECT * FROM VirtualMachine");

  13:   

  14:  ManagementObjectSearcher searcher =

  15:      new ManagementObjectSearcher(scope, oq);

  16:   

  17:  foreach (ManagementObject queryObj in searcher.Get())

  18:  {

  19:       //Do something

  20:  }

You need to provide a user and password with enough credentials to query the Virtual Server instance.
BTW, if you ever need to format your code for display on the web, check out this website.

HP and Intel Developer Workshops - Boston

There’s a new HP and Intel Developer Workshops coming up in a couple of weeks. This one is going to be in Peabody, MA (close to Boston), between August 22–24. We will be teaching some of the lectures in the 64–bit Windows track.

These workshops provide a great opportunity for you to get hands-on experience on Itanium machines. We will also have open lab time so you can start porting your application to the architecture – and remember that we are going to be around to help you with your efforts.

Microsoft Kills Virtual PC

Tool for creating MSDN-style documentation from .NET code

One nice features of the JLCA is that it converts javadoc-style comments into the corresponding .NET XML comment. Well, a new tool was released a few weeks ago that can take .NET’s XML documentation and create nice looking files. It is called Sandcastle, and is currently a CTP download. It can create .html files from the source code, which can be processed with the HTML Help Workshop to generate a .chm file. It also has a Visual Studio Add-in that makes the process really easy.

You can download the CTP here, and read all about it in the Sandcastle team blog.

Yes!! Virtual Machine Manager (aka Carmine) available for download

“Carmine” (System Center Virtual Machine Manager (SCVMM) Beta 1) is available for download! You first need to register for the beta at http://connect.microsoft.com, and then login into http://connect.microsoft.com/vmm/downloads with your passport Id.

I just finished downloading it and will start playing with it soon. Too bad that calling into VMM from Powershell and the functionality to convert from a physical machine to a virtual machine are not included in this beta.

Virtualization

Program Customized Testing Environments Without Trashing Your Machine