Tuesday, April 14, 2015

Local GUI for Hyper-V Server 2012 R2 and Windows Server Core

If you've been using Windows Server for a while, then you are certainly familiar with Windows Server Core (which offers many advantages such as reduced attack surface, minimized downtime, reduced consumption of resources etc.) and standalone version of Hyper-V Server, available for download from Microsoft website free of charge.

However, if you decide to run Server core or standalone version of Hyper-V Server you'll need to do a lot of work to configure and be able to manage your servers. Windows Server core comes without GUI and is not easily manageable without sufficient scripting skills or heavy investing in SCVMM, which can be prohibitive for price-sensitive smaller businesses because of the licensing costs. Remote Server Administration Tools are free, but doesn't allow to manage newer versions of Hyper-V Server from the previous operating systems. This means what you'll be forced to use a combination of tools/command lines to manage servers on day-to-day basis constantly figuring out that went wrong and how to fix it (remotely of course, as local management is not available in most cases). Not every small and medium shop have an expertise like that to be able to keep running smoothly in case of software and hardware problems.
There are other possibilities to manage Windows Sever core and Hyper-V Server. You might want to look at VT Technology Management Utilities ( vtUtilities) for Hyper-V.



vtUtilities support management of Hyper-V on hosts running Windows Server 2008 R2/ 2012 / 2012 R2 from both Windows 7 and Windows 8.1



vtUtilities can be installed locally on Hyper-V host and provide Graphical User Interface with functionality similar to Microsoft Hyper-V Manager allowing to troubleshoot and fix network connections and related problems what cannot be resolved via remote management.



vtUtilities greatly simplify management of Hyper-V on environments configured for high availability with failover clustering functionality.



vtUtilities allow monitoring health of the Hyper-V host and guests, enabling an easy access to Hyper-V event logs and virtual machine jobs history and providing diagnostic and troubleshooting options.


vtUtilities allow access to advanced virtual network switch features by providing virtual network manager



vtUtilities deliver GUI for:

  • Replication, including support for extended replica
  • Guest migration
  • VHDX
  • Virtual Fibre Channel Adapters
  • Virtual Network Management (including the management of virtual connections and bindings)
  • Advanced Virtual Switch Management (including port-level access control)
  • File system views and operations
  • Guest configuration management (including support for Generation 2 virtual machines)
  • Server manager view
  • New virtual machine wizard, Import virtual machine wizard
  • Hyper-V settings management
  • Diagnostic and troubleshooting (including real-time performance monitoring of host and guests, access to Hyper-V event log and asynchronous Hyper-V tasks history)
  • Failover Clustering for high availability 


Installation


The product requires a 64-bit versions of Windows 7 or Windows 8/8.1 and any version of Windows Server you are intending to use: Windows Server 2008 R2, 2012, 2012 R2 ( vtUtilities can be used on 64-bit versions of Windows what don't support Hyper-V role too). Other prerequisites include x64-based processors and .NET 3.51 or later.

See our Getting Started Guide for instructions

Pricing


One time fee $120 for a permanent license.

Trial


A 7-day free trial for registered customers can be downloaded here: vtUtilities free trial


vtUtilities are certified for Windows Server 2008 R2, Windows Server 2012 and 2012 R2 as well as listed in Windows Server Catalog.

Monday, April 13, 2015

Windows Server Technical Preview and Hyper-V Server Technical Preview Expiration Extention

Microsoft made available for download Windows Server TP and Hyper-V Server TP Expiration Extention. This download allows to continue using Windows Server TP and Hyper-V Server TP from October 2014 without interruption until the next preview is available in May 2015

Download link: 


Version 2009254  

Date published: 04/11/2015

Additional Information:


Windows Server Technical Preview Extension Comes in a Patch  WinITPro

Extending the Windows Server Technical Preview  HyperVBear

Thursday, April 9, 2015

New Links for Windows Server, Hyper-V, Azure, vNext / March - April 2015

Downloads

Downloadable Windows Server 2012 R2 Editions Features Comparison  technet

Windows ADK for Windows 10 TP

SC 2012 MP for Microsoft Windows Server AD CS 2012

RSAT tools for Win10 Tech Preview

Windows Server TP and Hyper-V TP Expiration Extention

Windows Server 2012/2012 R2 TechNet Library Documentation (PDF)

SC Management Pack for Windows Server 2012 R2 Hyper-V

SC Operations Manager MP for Windows Server Storage Spaces

Linux Integration Services Version 4.0 for Hyper-V

Blogs


Windows Server 2003 End Of Support -General Migration Tools And Resources  technet

Windows Server 2003 - AD Migration Resources  technet

Windows Server 2003 - File Server Migration Resources  technet

Windows Server 2003 EOS - Terminal Services and Remote Desktop Services Migration Resources
technet

DSC with Azure and Azure Pack  Kristian Nese

Best practices for migrating a datacenter from VMware to Microsoft Hyper-V   Server & Tools

Step by Step instructions for installing RDS Session Deployment using PowerShell in Windows Server 2012 R2  technet

Enabling Secure Boot on Linux with the Windows TP  Server & Tools

Disable VM Heartbeat Monitoring  technet

Step-By-Step: Setting Up AD Sites, Subnets & Site-Links  CanITPro

Step-By-Step: Utilizing PowerShell History Viewer in Windows Server 2012 R2  CanITPro

Step-By-Step: Creating a Windows 10 To Go Key Inside a Hyper-V VM  CanITPro

Step-By-Step: Testing Windows 10 via VMware Workstation   CanITPro

Step-By-Step: Moving An Active Directory Database to A New Location  CanITPro

Step-By-Step: Connect an Azure Web App to an existing Virtual Network  CanITPro

Step-by-Step: Assigning a Static IP address to a VM in the new Azure Management Portal  CANITPRO

Step-By-Step: Installing and Configuring Azure PowerShell  CanITpro

Step-By-Step: Docker Client Setup for Windows  CanITPro

Step-By-Step: Setting Up DirectAccess  CanITPro

How to find MAC Addresses of member NICs in a Native Windows Team  technet

Checking and Correcting Virtual Hard Disk Fragmentation  server & tools

How Hyper-V Backup Got Better in 2012 R2 (but now requires a SCSI controller) S & T

Step-by-Step: Windows Azure Backup  technet

Lab Appendix ( Jan-June 2015 Azure Hybrid IT Camps) technet

Hyper-V and "Event ID: 58 - The disk signature of disk 2 is equal to the disk signature of disk 0"  S & T

SCVMM for Beginners  VirtAdmin

Shared VHDX on Storage Spaces Martin Hannemann

Azure in 5 minutes  technet

SMB 1.0 Support in Windows Server 2012 R2  WindowsOSHub

The Four Stages of NTFS File Growth  S & T

Step By Step: How To Extend and Resize A Two-Way Mirrored Storage Tiered Space? I believe in Hyper-V

In Defense of Switch Independent Teaming With Hyper-V  WorkingHardInIT

Hyper-V backup integration components for VMs on Widows 10 TP or Windows Server 10 TP hosts

Converged Network QoS and Live Migration over SMB S & T

What's New In Hyper-V Replica in Windows Server 2012 R2  technet

Additional way to monitor DirectAccess machine/user activity on Windows 2012 / 2012 R2 DirectAccess with component direct logging  technet

Windows Server 2012 Protection Matt Harmon

Managing Windows Server 2012 and 2012 R2 with RSAT  technet

Microsoft Hyper-V Performance Whitepaper  cloudtidings

Windows Server Failover Clusters, Disk Signatures & Snapshots themsftdude

Guidance for SCVMM / Hyper-V deployment in a locked down, multi-forest environment  miru,ch

Automating VMware to Hyper-V Migrations Using MVMC  Jeff's Blog

NIC Teaming User Guides for Windows Server 2012 Products Now Available in TechNet Gallery

Running Windows Core: How-to find volume size & free space  technet

Running Windows Core: How-to display & change the computer name  technet

Running Windows Core: How-to view domain and join/unjoin domain  technet

Running Windows Core: How-to view, enable and disable roles and features  technet

Announcing the Preview of Disaster Recovery for VMware Virtual Machines and Physical Servers to Azure using ASR  technet

How To Get Started Automating Azure Infrastructure As A Service with PowerShell Step-By-Step

Checking Virtual Machine Health After a Disaster  technet

How to install SharePoint2013 on Windows Server 2012 R2  tenbulls

Tip of the Day: Dedup'ing VHDx files technet

Tip of the Day: USB support in Hyper-V... sorta  technet

Tip of the Day: Reading the USN Journal 

Tip of the Day: Putting OneDrive on Windows Server 212 R2

Tip of the Day: Disk Usage

Implement a Hyper-V Cluster from VMM 2012 R2 Tech-Coffee

Windows Server 2012 R2 Failover Clustering  Intense School

Utilizing a laptop to build a portable Windows Server 2012 R2 Hyper-V lab  Renante's Era Blog

Six Handy Step-by-Step Guides for using Azure as part of a Hybrid Cloud  technet

Finding the most recent Windows Server 2012 R2 template with PowerShell  msdn

Removing a Missing Network Adapter  msdn

Installing Android on Hyper-V & Enrolling in Intune - Part 2   msdn

Do We Still Need GUI Management Tools in Windows Server?  petri

Remote debugging tip on Windows Server 2012 R2  msdn

Hyper-V and "Event ID: 157 - Disk x has been surprise removed"  s & t

Hyper-V PowerShell One-Line-Challenge  s & t

Remote Desktop Services (RDS) 2012 session deployment scenarios “Standard Deployment”  technet

Names don’t get resolved from Windows 2012 R2 Virtual Machines which are using NVGRE to connect to the Internet on SCVMM  msdn

Checkpoint-ing Hyper-V with PowerShell  technet

Hyper-V Core Cluster Home Lab Setup  tech thoughts

Rethinking Enterprise Storage: That’s a Wrap! Summary and glossary of terms for hybrid cloud storage  s & t

Running Windows Core: How-to view the network routing table  technet

Running Windows Core: How-to view installed programs  technet

Mind Map - Windows Server 2008 R2 Failover Cluster  msdn

Using PowerShell to Look at a VM Configuration  msdn

Step-by-Step: Encrypting Data Volumes in the Azure Cloud with Windows Server 2012 R2, PowerShell and BitLocker  technet

Azure Site Recovery with Hyper-V Generation 2 Support   hyper-v.nu

How Do I Extend My Datacenter in Microsoft Azure?  s & t

SMA Run book for enabling hyper-v replica after deployment in WAP  technet

Hyper-V Overview technet

Step by Step: Building a Scale-Out Server (SoFS) on Windows Server 2012 R2 Mitch Garvis

Azure Premium Storage, now generally available  msft azure

The Most Popular Hyper-V PowerShell Cmdlets  msdn

Announcing Azure Service Fabric: Reducing Complexity in a Hyper-scale World   msft azure

Running Windows Core: How-to query and logoff administrative RDP users  technet

How I Converted My Physical And Virtual Machines Into Hyper-V Format Liberian Geek

Generation 2 VM support ASR  technet

Deciding When To Use Gen 1 or Gen 2 VMs with Hyper-V  technet

Handling Persistent Reservation failures in Windows 2012/2012 R2  technet

Getting started with Azure  technet

What's new in ADFS on Windows Server 2012 R2  technet

Deciding On When To Use VHDX or VHD files with Hyper-V  technet

Connect Virtual Networks between Windows Azure Pack and Windows Azure technet

Azure & Windows 10  msdn

Top Support Solutions for Windows Server 2012 and Windows Server 2012 R2

Top Support Solutions for Windows Server 2008 and Windows Server 2008 R2

List of Sleep and Hibernate related hotfixes post RTM for Windows 8.1 and Windows Server 2012 R2  technet

WindowsITPro


Solve patching loop problem with Windows Server 2012 R2

Role of the User Access Logging service Included in Windows Server 2012

A command line future: Part 1

Windows Server 2003 EOL’s Y2K Problem

DNS Creation in PowerShell

Windows Server 2012 to vNext rolling upgrade?

Upgrade 2012 R2 cluster to vNext

Server 2003 Remote Access Migration

3 Ways to install Hyper-V: Which is best?

SLAT requirements in vNext Hyper-V

What is Nano Server?

Tape drive use with Hyper-V

Hot-add a NIC to Hyper-V in vNext

Is switching between Nano Server and Server Core possible in vNext?

Windows 10, vNext


Confirmed: Tiny Windows Server is on the way  theregister

Windows Server to Get Major Changes in a Future Release  WinITPro

Microsoft working on 'Nano' version of Windows Server for web-scale ops  theregister

Leaked slides detail Microsoft's 'Nano server' - the future nucleus of Windows Server  neowin

Microsoft's Nano Server: What to expect from this leaner, meaner Windows Server  CW.com

New and Improved Features in Windows 10 - Cortana  msdn

Microsoft's 'Redstone': An update to Windows 10 due in 2016  zdnet

 Microsoft unveils Hyper-V Containers and Nano Server, a tiny version of Windows Server  VB

Microsoft: Docker for Windows Server is right around the corner  IW

Microsoft Unveils New Container Technologies for the Next Generation Cloud

Microsoft Announces New Container Technologies for the Next Generation Cloud   S & T

Microsoft Announces Nano Server  petri

Hyper-V Containers bringing speed and scale to the next level in today’s cloud-first world
Nano Server for Modern Apps and Cloud in vNext: You better know PowerShell.

Microsoft Expands Its Container Support With Hyper-V Containers And Stripped-Down Server OS  TC

Microsoft Is Making a Stripped-Down Windows to Rival Linux  wired

Microsoft unveils Hyper-V containers, nano servers  Business Cloud News

Windows 10: resources and downloads to get you started  technet

Is it just me or Windows 10 is looking like Windows 1.0?  msdn

What if Microsoft really did open-source Windows?  Infoworld

Where Windows 10 stands right now  Infoworld


Press


Why the next version of Windows Server will be a two-faced beast  TechRadar

First Look: Hyper-V Server Technical Preview  Redmondmag.com

How To Use Smart Paging in Hyper-V  Redmondmag.com

The 2015 Microsoft Product Roadmap  Redmond Channel Partner

Microsoft explains Windows 10 Technical Preview build release pace/process  SuperSite for Windows

Configuring NIC Teaming for VMs with Hyper-V 3.0  serverwatch

Enable Notifications to Open Firewall Ports in Windows Server 2012 R2  petri

Create a Distributed File System Namespace in Windows Server 2012 R2  petri

Migrate Windows Server 2003 File Servers using Windows Server Migration Tools  petri

Creating a Recovery Plan for Hyper-V VM failover to Microsoft Azure  petri

How to Create Custom Views in Windows Server 2012 R2 Event Viewer  petri

Microsoft: Next Windows Server 2016 test build due in May  ZDNet

Microsoft issues Hyper-V hotfix for Windows 10 along with plans for containers  The Inquirer

Windows Server Changes: What You Need to Know  cmswire

How to run virtual machines on Windows 8.1 with Client Hyper-V  zdnet

How To Use Windows Server as a Network Router  Redmondmag.com


Video


Disaster Recovery using Azure Site Recovery for SMB - Hyper-V Replication (Channel 9)

Edge Show 142: Storage Quality of Service in Windows Server vNext (Channel 9)

Quick Nano Server Scale Demo  (Channel 9)


Build 2015



Nano Server: A Cloud Optimized Windows Server for Developers (Channel 9)

Chatting with Snover (Channel 9)



Books


Latest Free eBooks


MVA


Managing Linux Workloads in Windows Server and System Center


image via Microsoft