Virtualization

You can download the release candidate for Windows 7 XP Mode here.
You can download the release candidate for Virtual PC (for Windows 7) here.

Also, there is an update to support RemoteApp for Vista SP1 and XP SP3 virtual machines.

Start evaluating Office Communications Server today. Office Communications Server 2007 R2 delivers streamlined communications for your users so they can find and communicate with the right person, right now, from the applications they use most (like Office Outlook).

Once installed, the OCS trial lasts for 60 days.

It is a multipart download that is rather large overall, but includes just about every piece imaginable of the OCS suite, pre-installed:

Windows 2008 Domain controller:
DC.part1.exe, DC.part2.rar, DC.part3.rar

Exchange Unified Messaging:
ExchangeUM.part01.exe, ExchangeUM.part02.rar, ExchangeUM.part03.rar

Office Communications Server Communicator Web Access:
OCS-CWA.exe

Office Communications Server Mediation Server:
OCS-Mediation.exe

Office Communications Server Standard Edition:
OCS-STD.part01.exe,OCS-STD.part02.rar

Office Communications Server VHD deployment guide:
OCSVHDTDDeploymentGuide.zip

Windows 2008 Enterprise Edition:
Win2k8EE_64.part01.exe.Win2k8EE_64.part02.rar,Win2k8EE_64.part03.rar.Win2k8EE_64.part04.rar

You can download it from here.

As Windows 7 gets closer to beta, I assume problems like these will become less and less. With that said, it has performed wonderfully for me so far.

Here is what I have done to get working guest networking under Windows 7 with VMWare Workstation 6.5:
#1. Avoid using bridging - it simply won't work.
#2. Avoid using NAT - that won't work either.
#3. Use 'Host-only', even though that doesn't make sense, it will in a moment.
#4. Enable Internet Connection Sharing on your internet enabled interface (whether it be a wired NIC, wireless NIC, or PPP connection), and select "VMNet1" as the network interface that needs the sharing.
#5. Change the IP address of VMNet from 192.168.0.1 to whatever it normally is for VMNet1 (typically something along the lines of 192.168.213.1).
#6. Set your guest networking to match the VMNet1 subnet (something like 192.168.213.2 if 192.168.213.1 is your VMNet1 host interface).

I can't figure out how to do it yet, but if there was a simple way to change VMNet1 to use 192.168.0.1 by default within VMWare overall, the manual changes would be unnecessary and I believe the ICS would continue to work after an hour or so.

If a VMWare expert out there can tell me how to do that, we might have a 100% working solution.

I've also had USB guest problems, which I've worked around in the meantime by using a USB-over-Network solution such as the product from Fabulatech.

You might be wondering why a Linux-centric post is doing here, but it could be helpful for others out there trying out Ubuntu 8.10 Beta with systems that have Intel gigabit Ethernet adapters in them.

Only newer Intel chipsets seem to be affected by this bug in the earlier Linux 2.6.27-RC builds, but there is a potential of NVRAM wiping if certain (rare) situations occur. For this reason, by default, Ubuntu 8.10 Beta has the affected PCI IDs blacklisted.

However, if you update your kernel to the latest kernel release for Ubuntu Intrepid, using Update Manager or other methods (apt-get or synaptic). As of today, the package version is 2.6.27-4.6.

If you want to read more about the blacklisting and the bug fix involved, read the article here, and here.

The only other bummer I have run into so far with this new version of Ubuntu is that the newest ATI binary drivers do not support X.org 7.4 (yet) so if you want 3D goodness *right now* you have to downgrade to the old Hardy 7.3 libraries. I don't want to go through that hassle and will just wait for ATI/AMD to play catch up.

Info on ATI getting the binary drivers to work on Ubuntu 8.10 here.

Other than that, everything works out of the box after you un-blacklist the wired interface.

Bluetooth, wireless, everything, fired right up. I can't say that about prior versions of Ubuntu with my Thinkpad T60.

Thankfully wireless was working with WPA2 so that I could get on my home network and upgrade the kernel or else I would have been sneakernetting the upgrade files.

In Windows Server 2008, "Microsoft Hyper-V VSS Writer" is not listed when you run the vssadmin list writers command.

When you perform a backup of the Hyper-V virtual machines, the following event is logged to the Hyper-V-VMMS event log:

Log Name: Microsoft-Windows-Hyper-V-VMMS-Admin
Source: Microsoft-Windows-Hyper-V-VMMS
Event ID: 10107
Description:
An error occurred while identifying the Hyper-V VSS writer. Check for any corrupt or invalid configuration files and try again.
In this scenario, the backups of the virtual machines may be inconsistent because the Hyper-V VSS writer is not used during the backup job.

This problem occurs because of corrupted or invalid virtual machine configuration files.

You can grab the update from the KB 956697 webpage.

Microsoft Hyper-V Server 2008, a new hypervisor-based server virtualization product (like ESXi), will be released within 30 days and be available at no cost via the Web.

Microsoft will demonstrate live migration feature of Windows Server 2008 R2. And the next version of Microsoft Hyper-V Server (the one after 2008) will have live migration capabilities.

System Center Virtual Machine Manager 2008 will be released within 30 days [not a surprise], which will manage Windows Server 2008 Hyper-V, Microsoft Virtual Server 2005 R2, Microsoft Hyper-V Server 2008 or VMware Virtual Infrastructure 3.

Microsoft’s global server OEM partners ... report that nearly 100% of their customers who order Windows Server 2008 with hardware are also choosing to have Windows Server 2008 Hyper-V included with their order.

Dedicated virtualization lab established within the Microsoft Enterprise Engineering Center.

Originally spotted here.

Good: You can use ‘sleep’ and ‘hibernate’ on a laptop again.
Bad: You disable Hyper-V until you reset the registry key and reboot once again.

Originally spotted here.

The original post references changing a registry setting, with a reboot in between, namely:

Disable Hyper-V, enable Power Management features (Sleep, Hibernate, etc):
[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\hvboot]
"Start"=dword:00000003

Enable Hyper-V, disable Power Management features:
[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\hvboot]
"Start"=dword:00000000

I figured out an easier way, for me, at least, is to use the sc.exe command:

Disable Hyper-V, enable Power Management features (Sleep, Hibernate, etc):
sc config hvboot start= disabled

Enable Hyper-V, disable Power Management features:
sc config hvboot start= boot

Keep in mind sc.exe has syntax from another planet - namely, you really do need a space between "start=" and "boot" or "disabled", or sc.exe will error out.

I took this exam back in June during the beta period and received notification in the middle of the last night that I passed.

"Congratulations on earning your Microsoft Certified Technology Specialist: Windows Server 2008 Hyper-V, Configuration certification! We hope you enjoy the benefits of your certification and of membership in the Microsoft Certified Professional community."

Pretty cool, although I've been doing a lot of Hyper-V since the early beta builds in the TAP program and application streaming with Softgrid for a while, so this test was in line with a lot of activities I already do. Good to know that I passed because a few of the questions were pretty tricky.

You can read more about the exam here and here.

Took it today and passed it. I don't know if I am one of the first 200 to pass it or not, which would make me a Microsoft Desktop Optimization Pack (MDOP) Charter member, but we'll see.

Since a good majority of the test focuses on Softgrid aka Microsoft Application Virtualization, I thought I had a pretty good shot at passing the exam. I have a decent background in streaming applications with Softgrid and Citrix.

My weak spots on the test were in the Asset Inventory Service and the Desktop Error Reporting sections, because I haven't dealt with those programs as much as I have Softgrid and the Diagnostic and Recovery Tool (DaRT - the updated and renamed ERD Commander).

If you are wondering what I am talking about, you can check out the exam details here, and learn about MDOP here.

Taking a tip from here, and due to the fact, in the current Intel/AMD chip architecture, only one hardware-based hypervisor can run at a time, you will want to create a special boot entry for a Hyper-V-less boot time configuration of Windows 2008.

Assuming you are currently booted into Windows 2008, at an administrative command prompt, type the following:
bcdedit /copy {current} /d "Windows 2008 (No Hyper-V)"

The above command should say:
The entry was successfully copied to {guid}.

Copy that {guid} to the clipboard including the curly braces.

Now, type the following command:
bcdedit /set {guid} hypervisorlaunchtype off

In the above command, replace {guid} with what you into the clipboard.

Boot into the 'Windows 2008 (No Hyper-V)' instance and you will no longer bluescreen while running VMWare guests.

Install this update to enable remote management of a Windows Server 2008 computer that is running the Hyper-V role.

Grab it the x86 version here and the x64 version here.

It will help prevent an error that happens when the VMBus tries to load in the guest OS. I've just made it part of my build process in general because telling Server 2008 and Vista to detect the HAL at every boot doesn't really make much of a difference in boot time. I'm hoping in Windows 7 / Server v.Next that this is just the default anyway.

This tidbit of information is also useful if you end up taking the MCTS: Virtualization certification test.

You can read more about the issue and workaround here.

It came out a little bit ahead of schedule, but hopefully that just means they can work on R2 to add back all the interesting features I was looking forward to when Hyper-V was originally announced.

You can read the KB article about it here.

Read the release notes here.

Download the x86 binaries here and x64 binaries here.

This download comes as a pre-configured VHD. This download enables you to evaluate Microsoft Forefront Codename "Stirling". This fully functional pre-configured VHD provides you with a trial software that will automatically expire after 30 days.

Forefront codename “Stirling” is an integrated security system that delivers comprehensive, coordinated protection across endpoints, messaging and collaboration servers, and the network edge that is easier to manage and control.

You can download it from here.

Taken from Trika's blog:

You are invited to take beta exam 71-652: TS: Windows Server Virtualization, Configuring.
Registration begins: June 2, 2008
Beta exam period runs: June 3, 2008– June 23, 2008

Use the following promotional code when registering for the exam: 652HV