Learn XenDesktop 4 on Hyper-V 2.0 for Free!

By:Rik Hoffelder

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Microsoft recently released a new lab as part of their TechNet Virtual Lab series that allows you to learn how to integrate Citrix XenDesktop 4 with Hyper-V 2.0. As regular readers of this site know, The Generation V has touted Citrix and Microsoft as “Better Together” for some time. This free 90 minute virtual lab will allow you to learn how these two products integrate and how easy it is to deploy and manage your VDI environment. You’ll see why we believe this.

The virtual lab walks you through System Center Virtual Machine Manager, Citrix Delivery Services, and Citrix Provisioning server. This coupled with a Hyper-V 2.0 virtualization platform makes for a solid operating and management infrastructure. What makes this even better is you have the opportunity to explore other aspects of these applications and services; you don’t have to follow the lab steps necessarily, although I strongly recommend it your first time through.

You can access this free lab here. Microsoft offers many other virtual labs on a wide range of products at no charge. Many labs are pre-configured for a specific situation, such as an Exchange migration, or SQL upgrade, while others a fully install and preconfigured giving you an opportunity to try a product without investing time in building your own lab. This is a great learning tool and it’s FREE! Yes there is a catch, isn’t that always the case? So what is it? Well the labs are time limited, after time expires it resets, but you can run them as often as you like. Did I mention it’s FREE? So, what are waiting for, browse on over and give one a try today!

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Override vs. Disable

By:Rik Hoffelder

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System Center Operations Manager 2007 (and R2) offers several ways to override or even disable a monitor or rule. So which way is best? First it is important to understand the options available when you need to create an override. SCOM offers two options, Override and Disable (Figure 1). In many situations you want to disable the rule completely to no longer monitor that particular function. So you would instinctively choose the Disable the Rule option. This however would be the wrong choice..

Figure 1







By selecting this option you would write the override to the Default Management Pack. The Disable the Rule option does not allow you select a more appropriate management pack to write the customization. As noted in Understanding the Default Management Pack I recommend writing overrides, including disabling, to a management pack created just for customizations for the entity type.
The best method is to select the Override the Rule option. The Override the Rule option will allow you to select or create a management pack for the customization. When selecting Override the Rule you are presented several more options (Figure 2). These options allow you to target the override to the object generating the alert only, all similar objects, a specific group of similar objects, the rule itself, or a completely different object type.
Figure 2

So which is the best option? Is there a best practice recommendation? The answer really depends on what you want to accomplish. If the override is to set a higher alert threshold for the processor utilization for one particular server, you would select the For the object: Servername option. If you wanted to disable the Mailbox over Quota warning alert for all Exchange mailbox servers, you would select the For all objects of type: Exchange Mailbox Server Role option. However if you wanted to target the override to a particular subset of Exchange Mailbox servers you would create a group in Authoring mode then target the override to that specific group using the For a group option.
I hope this brings a little more clarity to these options and which is best for your implementation. Please feel freee to drop me a comment on this or future topics you would like to read.

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Understanding the Default Management Pack

By:Rik Hoffelder

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What is the Default Management Pack in System Center Operations Manager 2007 (and R2) and what purpose does it serve? I am asked that question often and felt it was time to help you understand what it does, how to use it, and why you shouldn't. The Default Management Pack is included as part of the base SCOM installation process and serves as a location to store customizations such as rule and monitor overrides, custom views, custom monitors and recovery processes, and the like..

While this is its intended design, creating customizations and overrides causes the parent management packs to become dependent on the Default Management Pack. This isn't necessarily a bad thing until you go to remove an unneeded management pack. For example, you have created overrides to rules and monitors for the Exchange 2003 management pack. You have implemented Exchange 2007, in the process decommissioned Exchange 2003 and now you want to remove the management pack.
Because the Exchange 2003 management pack is "sealed" changes cannot be saved to it. As a result the SCOM override wizard sets the default destination for the override to the Default Management Pack. While the wizard gives you the opportunity to create a management pack to store the override, it doesn't give you any indication that you should. As a result most administrators will choose to stick with the default setting and save it to the Default Management Pack. This is usually a good practice as Microsoft application wizards typically provide a default setting that is most appropriate for vast majority of installations. However in this case following the defaults causes the dependency which results in complicated removal of old management packs.
So what's the problem? Well the problem is you cannot remove the parent management pack, in this case Exchange 2003, without first removing the Default Management Pack. Because of overrides you preformed with other management pack rules and monitors they too are dependent on the Default Management Pack. As a result removing the Default Management Pack will also remove all of those customizations.

As a best practice I recommend creating a new "unsealed" management pack in parallel to all other management packs as a place to store overrides. This allows for easier removal of old management packs and their customizations without affecting other management packs. For example if you have downloaded the sealed Exchange 2007 Management Pack from Microsoft you would manually create an Exchange 2007 Customizations Management Pack to store any changes you need to make. I strongly recommend you create a parallel management for each sealed management pack, for example I would avoid creating a Performance Monitors Overrides management pack then store all overrides from all other management packs in it. This would result in dependencies from several management packs and essentially lead you to the same issues as using the Default Management Pack
Cleaning the Default Management Pack


Fortunately there is a documented process that will allow you clean the Default Management Pack of a specific parent's dependencies; however it is not for the faint of heart as noted in (and content borrowed directly from) Removing dependencies on the Default Management Pack (Thank you Microsoft MOM Team!). The steps below are used to clean the Default Management Pack and allow the removal of the dependent management packs.

1. 
   
   Use the console to delete the overrides you've created for MPToRemove. If you don't remember what overrides you've set, try this:
   
   
   
2. Go the Authoring pane on the console.
1. Use Ctrl-M to bring up the scoping dialog and check MPToRemove as your target. Click OK.
   
2. In the navigation tree, click Monitors.
3. Right click on each Monitor listed and select Overrides Summary.
   
4. Click each override and then click Delete.
   
5. Repeat steps a-e for the other Management Pack objects. For some objects, the right click menu path is Overrides -> Overrides Summary.
   
   
3. 
   
   Export the Default Management Pack:
   
   
   
1. In the console, go to Administration pane and click Management Packs in the left tree.
   
2. Right click on Default Management Pack and select Export Management Pack...
   
4. Make a backup copy of the exported file.
   
5. In the console, right click on Default Management Pack and choose Delete.
   
6. Rigit click on MPToRemove and choose Delete.
   
7. 
   
   Edit the Default Management Pack to remove Reference tags that point to MPToRemove:
   
   
   
1. Open the Microsoft.SystemCenter.OperationsManager.DefaultUser.xml file with XML Notepad.
   
2. Find the References tags at the beginning of the XML. If you're using XML Notepad, you'll find it on the left side under Management Pack->Manifest->References.
   
   
   
   
3. Remove all Reference tags that point to MPToRemove. In this example, I'm unlinking the Active Directory Management Pack, and you can see the text on the right refers to AD.
   
4. Save and close the file.
   
8. 
   
   Import the Default Management Pack back into Operations Manager:
   
   
   
1. In the console, go to the Administration pane.
   
2. Right click Management Packs and choose Import Management Packs...
   
3. Follow the instructions to import the Management Pack. The file name is Microsoft.SystemCenter.OperationsManager.DefaultUser.xml.
   
9. If the import fails, rename your backup copy of the Default Management Pack to its original name, import it, import MPtoRemove , and verify that you've manually deleted all the overrides. Then try this procedure again.
   

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TCP Ports for SCVMM and Hyper-V

By:Rick Rohne

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Knowing what is actually going on under the hood is important. Especially if you are planning implementing firewalls in between the SCVMM box and the HyperV servers or you are installing another application such as Citrix Essentials or any other management app on the same SCVMM box. You need to ensure that you do not have a port conflict. You know, it's hard to find this information. Thought I would at least share.

Name	Direction	Port	NOTES
SCVMM Admin Consol	Admin PC to SCVMM Server	8100	WCF
SCVMM Self Service Console	Admin PC to Self Service Portal (Host Header)	80	WCF
SCVMM Agent	SCVMM Server to hyperV server	80	WRM
SCVMM Agent	SCVMM Server to hyperV server	443	BITS
SCVMM Library	SCVMM Library to HyperV Host	80	BITS
SCVMM Database	SCVMM Server to SQL Server	1433	SQL
HyperV Host Communication	HyperV host to HyperV host	80	BITS
VM Connect	SCVMM to Hyperv Hosts	2179	custom
SCVMM Self Service portal to HV host	SCVMM to Hyperv Hosts	3389	RDP
SCVMM Self Service portal to VM host	SCVMM Self Service to VM Hosts	5900	VMRC
SCVMM to ESX Management	SCVMM to ESX	443	HTTPS
SCVMM to ESX File Transfer	SCVMM to ESX	22	SSH
Ops Manager Reporting Server	SCVMM to OPS Manager Reporting Server	80	HTTP

I hope this helps, I will add to it when I find more information.

• If you are planning to install the Self Service Console on the SCVMM box, you will have to add a host header. This can be done during install.

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Sharing an ISO Image using Hyper-V and SCVMM R2

By:Rick Rohne

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By Default, SCVMM copies an ISO from the Library share to the directory of the VM. This is desired behavior for the most part because it eliminates VM failures if the ISO directory becomes un-available, and it also reduces network bandwidth and Disk I/O during the use of the CDROM.

In some cases (Such as a lab environment or a situation where you are limited on storage), this might be un-desirable behavior and you might wish to have the ISO shared instead of copied. To accomplish this, you will have to reconfigure SCVMM and Hyper-V to have access to the shared directories. The following steps are required to share the ISO instead of copying it:

1. Configure the SCVMM service to start with an Active Directory Account
2. Configure the required NTFS permissions on the VMM library share
3. Configure Constrained Delegation for “Each” Hyper-V host
4. Configure the VM to Share instead of Copy the iso.
   
   NOTE: This is only supported with SCVMM R2.

Configure a SCVMM Service Account

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1. Open Computer Management or Server manager and find the Virtual Machine Manager service.
2. Change the service to start using a Domain User Account
   

Configure NTFS Permissions on the Library Share

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Grant the following permissions to the share:

• Read Access for the SCVMM Service Account
• Machine Account of each Hyper-V host that will use the ISO images
  

Configure Constrained Delegation for “Each” Hyper-V host

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1. Using Active Directory Users and Computers, navigate to the Machine Account running Hyper-V
2. Right click the Hyper-V server and select properties
3. Select the Delegation tab and select “Select this computer for delegation to specified services only”
4. Click Use any Authentication Protocol
5. Click Add.
6. In the Add Services dialog box, click Users or Computers, select each VMM library server that stores ISO image files.
7. In the Available services list, select the cifs protocol for each of the VMM library servers, and then click Add.

To configure a virtual machine to share an ISO image

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1. Right-click the virtual machine, and then click Properties.
2. Click the Hardware Configuration tab.
3. In the left pane, under Bus Configuration, click IDE devices, and then select the IDE device that is being used to capture the ISO image file.
4. Under Capture mode, select Existing image file, and then use the Browse button to select the shared ISO image file in the VMM library that you want to use.
5. To share the image file from the VMM library instead of attaching a copy of the image to the virtual machine, select the Share image file instead of copying it check box.

NOTE: Do not keep the ISO mounted when it is not in use. Keeping the ISO mounted may result in a failed VM.

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