Virtualization Chicago | Concurrency, Inc.

Importing System Center Orchestrator 2012 Integration Packs

Nathan Lasnoski — Wed, 22 Feb 2012 23:08:32 +0000

Orchestrator is already a powerful tool if all you could do is execute PowerShell commands. That’s not all you can do however. Microsoft has constructed integration packs for many different server technologies that make automation simpler and easier. This post walks through importing the System Center management packs into System Center Orchestrator’s management server, then distributing them to the runbook servers.

Why are the two components separate? The benefit of separating the components logically is that you can (1) have more than one runbook server and (2) you can stage integration packs and deploy during a period when you can make changes to the automations you have executing. It also allows you to test integration packs in a development Orchestrator environment prior to deploying into production.

Importing the Integration Packs

Let’s get started. First, we’ll open up our deployment console and select to register the integration packs with the server.

Next, we’ll select the integration packs we want to register.

After the registration has been completed we’ll deploy the management packs to the runbook servers.

We’ll then select the integration packs to deploy. This will give you the option of terminating current runbooks, or deploying without terminating.

Deployment will look like this…

Finding Orchestrator Integration Packs:

Where do I find Orchestrator integration packs? A few places.

Active Directory (RC):

http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/hh553474.aspx

System Center 2012 integration packs (RC).

http://www.microsoft.com/download/en/details.aspx?displaylang=en&id=28725

Exchange and others… (Codeplex):

http://scorch.codeplex.com/

IBM integration packs (RC):

http://www.microsoft.com/download/en/details.aspx?id=27847

Vmware vSphere (RC):

http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/hh228186.aspx

http://www.microsoft.com/download/en/details.aspx?id=27846

HP (RC):

http://www.microsoft.com/download/en/details.aspx?displaylang=en&id=28731

Download site with filter:

http://www.microsoft.com/download/en/search.aspx?q=Orchestrator%20integration%20pack

Happy automating!

Nathan Lasnoski

System Center Orchestrator ROI and Business Value

Nathan Lasnoski — Wed, 22 Feb 2012 22:27:22 +0000

Orchestrator is the killer app of System Center. It allows an IT department to automate the tasks that they would alternatively be performing manually. This can amount to literally hundreds of hours of time savings. Literally take a task that would alternatively been manual and refactor it into an automated process, where System Center Service Manager is receiving the request and Orchestrator is performing it. You will see immediate cost savings associated with eliminating manual tasks, faster turnaround on user requests, and better quality through repeatable automation.

To start your own economic breakdown, take the task, identify the time invested, the quantity of times performed across the year, and compare to the new, automated process. Try to also include request costs, as well as time that you spend communicating and spinning up / spinning down the provisioning process.

Process Comparison

The current state of affairs. The interaction between IT and the business is largely manual. It is comprised of emails that flow back and forth, or tickets without enough information to be effective. This is followed by a manual and time intensive provisioning process. Think of these processes in real terms, such as “new user”, “terminate user”, “new SharePoint site”, “folder access”, etc.

Now… let’s look at the same process with Service Manager and Orchestrator. The request is generated through the Self Service portal by selecting a type of request, which you define.

The user then completes a form, which provides the exact data necessary to complete the request. This can be either free-form, or come from the CMDB data that has already been brought in from other System Center tools.

Finally, the process, rather than being manually performed, is automated through Orchestrator.

Basic Economics

What do the economics look like? Let’s take an average user provisioning process for a 500 person company. We’ll assume this company has about 10% to 20% turnover in a given year. Here is a typical provisioning cost, taking into account the HR / manager requesting the user, as well as the help desk and IT professional time. This includes creating the user, enabling Exchange, enabling Lync, and creating a home directory.

Now, take a look at the economics of a straightforward request, that gets the right information the right time. That alone would have saved money, but, you’ll see the real cost savings comes from the integration with Orchestrator.

I am confident that any business can be more productive and save money by combining Service Manager and Orchestrator. The second you can take a manual process and automate it, you have a clear, repeatable ROI for improving the way IT delivers its services.

Come see us at MMS 2012! We’ll be presenting on a similar topic, which is the “Top 10 Production Experiences with Service Manager and Orchestrator”. This will discuss current production deployments of System Center and the direct cost savings we’ve experienced in straightforward, though often crazy interesting examples.

Nathan Lasnoski

Importing a Virtual Machine in Windows 8 Hyper-V

Nathan Lasnoski — Thu, 16 Feb 2012 22:28:48 +0000

Do you want to import a virtual machine to a Hyper-V host in Windows 8? You’re in luck! You can import virtual machines in an exported, or non-exported state. This means that whether you had the chance to export the VM or not, you can still import, as long as you have the configuration file and the virtual hard disks. This was not the case in previous editions, where you could only import a virtual machine if it had first been exported. This post will demonstrate how to take a virtual machine that you’ve exported (or not exported) and import it into Windows 8.

First, you could have either exported the VM from Windows Server 2008 R2, or simply shut it down and copied its contents to the other server. In this case we copied all files to D:\Hyper-V\CNCYSCOM. I would suggest either leaving the old VM configuration present for reference, documenting the configuration, or making a copy of the configuration ahead of the migration.

Open the Hyper-V console and select “Import Virtual Machine”. You’ll get an entry prompt like this.

Then, select the folder in which the virtual machine to be imported exists.

Select the virtual machine for import. This is super useful, since it lets you select one of many virtual machines from a folder, in the case that they have been grouped.

Select an import type. In this case you can choose to restore over an existing VM, or create a new one.

Choose the virtual machine locations for the “external store”, “snapshot store”, and “swap file”.

Find the virtual hard disks for the virtual machine.

Configure the storage location of the virtual hard disks after import.

In the case that the networks don’t match the original host, no big deal! Just select the appropriate network.

After the upgrade has completed, remember to upgrade the integration components to Windows 8 if it came from a previous edition, as well as validate the system doesn’t need to be rebooted. The import and integration component upgrade usually requires a reboot. I’d also check things like IP address, network connectivity, hard disks, and any other VM specific configuration items.

This change to the import process represents a significant change in the technology of Windows 8. I’m very pumped up about how much easier this will make migrating from current servers to new servers.

Happy virtualizing!

Nathan Lasnoski

Monitoring Hyper-V Replica in Windows 8

Nathan Lasnoski — Fri, 03 Feb 2012 15:46:20 +0000

Hyper-V Replica is an awesome technology in Windows 8 that allows for virtual machines to be replicated from one Hyper-V host environment to another. This includes replication to and from clusters and/or standalone hosts. The technology also provides a mechanism for roll-back to previous states and configuration of failover properties, such as IP addresses. In this post, we’ll discuss how we can monitor the replicas to validate replication is occurring as we expect.

The replication properties can be found through a variety of means. These include the console:

From the console you’ll get information on:

Replication cycles
Replication cycles missed
Replication errors
Average replication latency
Average replication size

You can also export to CSV so you can view the data in a report. I’m thinking a cool example would be to plug the report automatically into a SharePoint scorecard using PerformancePoint. I’ll have to try that…

From PowerShell:

PS C:\Windows\system32> Get-VMReplication | fl

ReplicaServerPort : 80

CertificateThumbprint :

AuthenticationType : Integrated

AutoResynchronizeEnabled : False

AutoResynchronizeIntervalStart : 18:30:00

AutoResynchronizeIntervalEnd : 06:00:00

ResynchronizeStartTime :

TestReplicationStartTime :

CompressionEnabled : True

VSSSnapshotReplicationEnabled : False

VSSSnapshotFrequency : 0

RecoveryHistory : 2

InitialReplicationStartTime :

ExcludedDisks : {}

ComputerName : CNCYVSVR20

PrimaryServerName : cncyvsvr20.concurrency.com

CurrentReplicaServerName : cncyvsvr21.concurrency.com

ReplicaServerName : cncyvsvr21.concurrency.com

ReplicationState : Replicating

ReplicationHealth : Normal

ReplicationMode : Primary

LastReplicationTime : 1/31/2012 10:53:55 AM

ReplicatedDisks : {Hard Drive on IDE controller number 0 at location 0}

SecurityTag :

TestVirtualMachine :

VMId : 9c90cfe3-bd97-4fb2-9286-cc34895ef75a

VMName : CNCYRDCB03

IsDeleted : False

You can also view replication health via perfmon, which would also bubble up into System Center tools like Operations Manager. You can also use these in baselining and estimating WAN saturation.

I hope this helps everyone see where Hyper-V replica will provide a cost effective and manageable replication solution that also provides visibility into the replication channel and its impact on the Hyper-V host or cluster.

Nathan Lasnoski

Hyper-V PowerShell in Windows 8 CTP

Nathan Lasnoski — Wed, 25 Jan 2012 06:01:13 +0000

The Hyper-V platform in Windows 8 now has PowerShell! This is awesome, as it has enabled both automation opportunities, as well as command line ease of use. I’m certain that the use of PowerShell throughout the Windows 8 platform will make the core installation types much more popular. I’ve done some playing around and provided some information about the upcoming PowerShell commandlets below. I’ve included the full command listing, as well as some common command usages. In this series I’ll also walk through common Hyper-V PowerShell examples that we’ll need for automation.

Full List of Hyper-V Commands

PS C:\Windows\system32> Get-Command -Module Hyper-V

CommandType Name ModuleName Definition

———– —- ———- ———-

Cmdlet Add-VMDvdDrive Hyper-V …

Cmdlet Add-VMFibreChannelHba Hyper-V …

Cmdlet Add-VMHardDiskDrive Hyper-V …

Cmdlet Add-VMMigrationNetwork Hyper-V …

Cmdlet Add-VMNetworkAdapter Hyper-V …

Cmdlet Add-VMNetworkAdapterAcl Hyper-V …

Cmdlet Add-VMRemoteFx3dVideoAdapter Hyper-V …

Cmdlet Add-VMScsiController Hyper-V …

Cmdlet Add-VMStoragePath Hyper-V …

Cmdlet Add-VMSwitch Hyper-V …

Cmdlet Add-VMSwitchExtensionFeature Hyper-V …

Cmdlet Checkpoint-VM Hyper-V …

Cmdlet Compare-VM Hyper-V …

Cmdlet Complete-VMFailover Hyper-V …

Cmdlet Connect-VMNetworkAdapter Hyper-V …

Cmdlet Connect-VMSan Hyper-V …

Cmdlet Convert-VHD Hyper-V …

Cmdlet Disable-VMIntegrationService Hyper-V …

Cmdlet Disable-VMMigration Hyper-V …

Cmdlet Disable-VMResourceMetering Hyper-V …

Cmdlet Disable-VMSwitchExtension Hyper-V …

Cmdlet Disconnect-VMNetworkAdapter Hyper-V …

Cmdlet Disconnect-VMSan Hyper-V …

Cmdlet Dismount-VHD Hyper-V …

Cmdlet Enable-VMIntegrationService Hyper-V …

Cmdlet Enable-VMMigration Hyper-V …

Cmdlet Enable-VMResourceMetering Hyper-V …

Cmdlet Enable-VMSwitchExtension Hyper-V …

Cmdlet Export-VM Hyper-V …

Cmdlet Export-VMSnapshot Hyper-V …

Cmdlet Get-VHD Hyper-V …

Cmdlet Get-VM Hyper-V …

Cmdlet Get-VMBios Hyper-V …

Cmdlet Get-VMComPort Hyper-V …

Cmdlet Get-VMConnectAccess Hyper-V …

Cmdlet Get-VMDvdDrive Hyper-V …

Cmdlet Get-VMFibreChannelHba Hyper-V …

Cmdlet Get-VMFloppyDiskDrive Hyper-V …

Cmdlet Get-VMHardDiskDrive Hyper-V …

Cmdlet Get-VMHost Hyper-V …

Cmdlet Get-VMHostNumaNode Hyper-V …

Cmdlet Get-VMHostNumaNodeStatus Hyper-V …

Cmdlet Get-VMIdeController Hyper-V …

Cmdlet Get-VMIntegrationService Hyper-V …

Cmdlet Get-VMMemory Hyper-V …

Cmdlet Get-VMMigrationNetwork Hyper-V …

Cmdlet Get-VMNetworkAdapter Hyper-V …

Cmdlet Get-VMNetworkAdapterAcl Hyper-V …

Cmdlet Get-VMNetworkAdapterFailoverCon… Hyper-V …

Cmdlet Get-VMNetworkAdapterVlan Hyper-V …

Cmdlet Get-VMProcessor Hyper-V …

Cmdlet Get-VMRemoteFx3dVideoAdapter Hyper-V …

Cmdlet Get-VMReplication Hyper-V …

Cmdlet Get-VMReplicationAuthorizationE… Hyper-V …

Cmdlet Get-VMReplicationServer Hyper-V …

Cmdlet Get-VMResourcePool Hyper-V …

Cmdlet Get-VMSan Hyper-V …

Cmdlet Get-VMScsiController Hyper-V …

Cmdlet Get-VMSnapshot Hyper-V …

Cmdlet Get-VMStoragePath Hyper-V …

Cmdlet Get-VMSwitch Hyper-V …

Cmdlet Get-VMSwitchExtension Hyper-V …

Cmdlet Get-VMSwitchExtensionFeature Hyper-V …

Cmdlet Get-VMSystemSwitchExtension Hyper-V …

Cmdlet Get-VMSystemSwitchExtensionFeature Hyper-V …

Cmdlet Grant-VMConnectAccess Hyper-V …

Cmdlet Import-VM Hyper-V …

Cmdlet Import-VMInitialReplication Hyper-V …

Cmdlet Measure-VM Hyper-V …

Cmdlet Measure-VMReplication Hyper-V …

Cmdlet Measure-VMResourcePool Hyper-V …

Cmdlet Merge-VHD Hyper-V …

Cmdlet Mount-VHD Hyper-V …

Cmdlet Move-VM Hyper-V …

Cmdlet Move-VMStorage Hyper-V …

Cmdlet New-VFD Hyper-V …

Cmdlet New-VHD Hyper-V …

Cmdlet New-VM Hyper-V …

Cmdlet New-VMReplicationAuthorizationE… Hyper-V …

Cmdlet New-VMResourcePool Hyper-V …

Cmdlet New-VMSan Hyper-V …

Cmdlet New-VMSwitch Hyper-V …

Cmdlet Optimize-VHD Hyper-V …

Cmdlet Remove-VM Hyper-V …

Cmdlet Remove-VMDvdDrive Hyper-V …

Cmdlet Remove-VMFibreChannelHba Hyper-V …

Cmdlet Remove-VMHardDiskDrive Hyper-V …

Cmdlet Remove-VMMigrationNetwork Hyper-V …

Cmdlet Remove-VMNetworkAdapter Hyper-V …

Cmdlet Remove-VMNetworkAdapterAcl Hyper-V …

Cmdlet Remove-VMRemoteFx3dVideoAdapter Hyper-V …

Cmdlet Remove-VMReplication Hyper-V …

Cmdlet Remove-VMReplicationAuthorizati… Hyper-V …

Cmdlet Remove-VMResourcePool Hyper-V …

Cmdlet Remove-VMSan Hyper-V …

Cmdlet Remove-VMSavedState Hyper-V …

Cmdlet Remove-VMScsiController Hyper-V …

Cmdlet Remove-VMSnapshot Hyper-V …

Cmdlet Remove-VMStoragePath Hyper-V …

Cmdlet Remove-VMSwitch Hyper-V …

Cmdlet Remove-VMSwitchExtensionFeature Hyper-V …

Cmdlet Rename-VM Hyper-V …

Cmdlet Rename-VMResourcePool Hyper-V …

Cmdlet Rename-VMSan Hyper-V …

Cmdlet Rename-VMSnapshot Hyper-V …

Cmdlet Rename-VMSwitch Hyper-V …

Cmdlet Repair-VM Hyper-V …

Cmdlet Reset-VMResourceMetering Hyper-V …

Cmdlet Resize-VHD Hyper-V …

Cmdlet Restart-VM Hyper-V …

Cmdlet Restore-VMSnapshot Hyper-V …

Cmdlet Resume-VM Hyper-V …

Cmdlet Resume-VMReplication Hyper-V …

Cmdlet Revoke-VMConnectAccess Hyper-V …

Cmdlet Save-VM Hyper-V …

Cmdlet Set-VHD Hyper-V …

Cmdlet Set-VM Hyper-V …

Cmdlet Set-VMBios Hyper-V …

Cmdlet Set-VMComPort Hyper-V …

Cmdlet Set-VMDvdDrive Hyper-V …

Cmdlet Set-VMFibreChannelHba Hyper-V …

Cmdlet Set-VMFloppyDiskDrive Hyper-V …

Cmdlet Set-VMHardDiskDrive Hyper-V …

Cmdlet Set-VMHost Hyper-V …

Cmdlet Set-VMMemory Hyper-V …

Cmdlet Set-VMMigrationNetwork Hyper-V …

Cmdlet Set-VMNetworkAdapter Hyper-V …

Cmdlet Set-VMNetworkAdapterFailoverCon… Hyper-V …

Cmdlet Set-VMNetworkAdapterVlan Hyper-V …

Cmdlet Set-VMProcessor Hyper-V …

Cmdlet Set-VMRemoteFx3dVideoAdapter Hyper-V …

Cmdlet Set-VMReplication Hyper-V …

Cmdlet Set-VMReplicationAuthorizationE… Hyper-V …

Cmdlet Set-VMReplicationServer Hyper-V …

Cmdlet Set-VMResourcePool Hyper-V …

Cmdlet Set-VMSan Hyper-V …

Cmdlet Set-VMSwitch Hyper-V …

Cmdlet Start-VM Hyper-V …

Cmdlet Start-VMFailover Hyper-V …

Cmdlet Start-VMInitialReplication Hyper-V …

Cmdlet Stop-VM Hyper-V …

Cmdlet Stop-VMFailover Hyper-V …

Cmdlet Stop-VMInitialReplication Hyper-V …

Cmdlet Stop-VMReplication Hyper-V …

Cmdlet Suspend-VM Hyper-V …

Cmdlet Suspend-VMReplication Hyper-V …

Cmdlet Test-VHD Hyper-V …

Cmdlet Update-VMSwitchExtensionFeature Hyper-V …

Get VM Listing

PS C:\Windows\system32> Get-VM

Name State CPU(%) AssignedMemory(M) MemoryDemand(M) MemoryStatus Uptime Status ReplicationStat

—- —– —— —————– ————— ———— —— —— —————

CNCYREPLICATEST Off 0 0 00:00:00 Operating normally Disabled

Get-VM Information for Specific VM

PS C:\Windows\system32> Get-VM “CNCYREPLICATEST”

Name State CPU(%) AssignedMemory(M) MemoryDemand(M) MemoryStatus Uptime Status ReplicationStat

—- —– —— —————– ————— ———— —— —— —————

CNCYREPLICATEST Off 0 0 00:00:00 Operating normally Disabled

Get All VM Information for Specific VM

PS C:\Windows\system32> Get-VM “CNCYREPLICATEST” | fl

Name : CNCYREPLICATEST

State : Off

CpuUsage : 0

AssignedMemory :

MemoryDemand : 0

MemoryStatus :

Uptime : 00:00:00

Status : Operating normally

ReplicationState : Disabled

Get VM Host Information

PS C:\Windows\system32> Get-VMHost

DefaultVirtualHardDiskLocation : C:\Hyper-V

DefaultVirtualMachineLocation : C:\Hyper-V

FullyQualifiedDomainName : concurrency.com

Name : CNCYVSVR14

MinimumMacAddress : 00155D496500

MaximumMacAddress : 00155D4965FF

MaximumSimultaneousStorageMigrations : 2

MaximumSimultaneousLiveMigrations : 2

InboundVirtualMachineMigrationEnabled : False

FibreChannelWorldWideNodeName : C0:03:FF:00:00:FF:FF:00

FibreChannelWorldWidePortNameMaximum : C0:03:FF:3D:2D:2C:FF:FF

FibreChannelWorldWidePortNameMinimum : C0:03:FF:3D:2D:2C:00:00

LogicalProcessorCount : 4

MemoryCapacity : 8415461376

ResourceMeteringSaveInterval : 01:00:00

NumaSpanningEnabled : True

HostNumaStatus :

NumaStatus :

InternalNetworkAdapters : {}

New VM Creation

PS C:\Windows\system32> New-VM -?

NAME

New-VM

SYNTAX

New-VM [[-Name] ] [[-MemoryStartupBytes] ] [-BootDevice ] [-NoVHD] [-SwitchName

[-Path ] [-AsJob] [-ComputerName ] [-WhatIf] [-Confirm] []

New-VM [[-Name] ] [[-MemoryStartupBytes] ] [-BootDevice ] [-SwitchName ] -N

-NewVHDSize [-Path ] [-AsJob] [-ComputerName ] [-WhatIf] [-Confirm]

[]

New-VM [[-Name] ] [[-MemoryStartupBytes] ] [-BootDevice ] [-SwitchName ] -V

[-Path ] [-AsJob] [-ComputerName ] [-WhatIf] [-Confirm] []

I’m excited to work more with VM automation. Stay tuned for some cool examples!

Nathan Lasnoski

Configure Hyper-V Replica in Windows 8

Nathan Lasnoski — Wed, 11 Jan 2012 06:02:45 +0000

I’d say that one of the features I’m most excited about in Windows 8 is Hyper-V replica. Microsoft may not be the first to create every technology, but they certainly have a habit of commoditizing technologies that people used to need to purchase separately. Hyper-V replica is another example of this, since Microsoft is including in their free hypervisor a cross-site replication tool. The best part is that Hyper-V replica is really easy to setup. This guide gives you a walkthrough of those steps:

TARGET HOST

You will need to start by configuring the target Hyper-V host to allow itself to be a replication target. Start by selecting to view the Hyper-V settings on the server.

You will then configure the replication section with the replication authentication type, the port for the connection, certificate (if used), and the “allow list”. You can select that any authenticated source can replicate to the host as well.

SOURCE HOST

Find the virtual machine you’d like to replicate. This can be either a clustered virtual machine or a standalone virtual machine. Select the virtual machine and choose to “enable replication”.

Find the virtual machine to replicate, right click, and select “Enable Replication”.

Start the wizard and select “Next” to continue.

Configure the replication target on the same port and security type of the destination server.

Select the VHDs to replicate to the target. This is typically all of the VHDs for the virtual machine.

Now… comes an awesome feature called recover history. This allows the target system to maintain older copies of the VM that you can recover to. Select the number of intervals you want to retain on disk at the target location.

Configure the seeding of the target server. You can either replicate the VM to the failover site, or move it with offline media.

AFTER CONFIGURATION

After configuration you can configure failover features, such as IP addresses and can also initiate failover. I’ll cover those in the next blog post.

I hope you are as excited about this feature as I am. Happy replicating!

Nathan Lasnoski

CIO Article: BMW Takes a Sharp Turn Toward App Virtualization

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Configuration Manager vNext Beta

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NetApp Success Story

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