Virtual Machine Servicing Tool 2012 is here

Virtual Machine Servicing Tool ( VMST ) is one of Microsoft Solution Accelerators which provides automated tools and guidance that IT professionals can use to update offline virtual machines, templates, and virtual hard disks efficiently and without exposing them to security risks.

Virtual Machine Servicing Tool (VMST) 2012 is designed to work with System Center 2012 –Virtual Machine Manager (VMM), System Center 2012 Configuration Manager and Windows Server Update Services (WSUS) 3.0 SP2.

VMST 2012 helps you reduce IT costs by making it easier to update your offline virtual machines, templates, and virtual hard disks with the latest operating system and application patches—without introducing vulnerabilities into your IT infrastructure.

This Solution Accelerator includes the following components:

Microsoft Virtual Machine Converter is RC

Today I received an Email from Microsoft announces that Microsoft Virtual Machine Converter which I posted for it while it was beta ( read here ) is now in a Release Candidate stage.

Microsoft Assessment and Planning (MAP) Toolkit 7.0

As Windows Server 2012 / Windows 8 are coming soon ( RTM by August 2012 ) , I received an email from Microsoft announcing that Microsoft has released the new version ( 7.0 ) of  Microsoft Assessment and Planning toolkit , which provides organizations with tools to assess readiness for Windows Server 2012 and Windows 8.

Microsoft Assessment and Planning (MAP) 7.0 provides you with the capabilities that allows you to :

Windows Server 2012 Jump Start: “Preparing for the Datacenter Evolution” videos are now available on TechNet

Windows Server 2012 is the upcoming release from Microsoft for servers OS . On June 20-21, 2012 , Microsoft Learning partnered with the Microsoft Server and Tools team and Developer and Platform Evangelism (DPE) delivered the “Windows Server 2012 Jump Start: Preparing for the Datacenter Evolution” .

By now Microsoft announced that the HD-quality video recordings available on TechNet Videos !

“Setup has detected SQL instance MICROSOFT$VMM$ on the local server. (ID:225)” while installing System Center Virtual Machine Manager 2008

I was installing System Center Virtual Machine Manager 2008 when installation failed at SQL installation step. When I tried to resume the installation , after removal of all related to SQL installation from the server , I got the following error which indicates existence of SQL instance on the server , When choosing “Install SQL Server 2005 Express Edition SP2”

I tried also to install SQL manually then choose “Use a supported version of SQL server” , but I got :

Microsoft Assesment Tool for Private Cloud

Moving to virtualizing your infrastructure or new to virtualization technologies, it would be nice to give Microsoft Assessment Tool for Private Cloud a try. The assesment tool for private cloud collects data from you via answering a few questions about your current IT infrastructure, virtulization capabilties in place already, service level agreements if any etc.. 

As soon as the tool completes its assessment, it provides you with a comparison of your business class as compared to other industry peers with cloud virtualization in place. In addition it provides you with a set of recommendations for various areas that you can improve in costs, delivery and quality to your end users and for your organization.

Microsoft Virtual Machine Converter Solution Accelerator [ Beta ]

The Microsoft Virtual Machine Converter (MVMC) provides a Microsoft-supported, freely available, standalone solution for converting VMware virtual machines (VMs) and VMware virtual disks (VMDKs) to Hyper-V virtual machines and Hyper-V virtual hard disks (VHDs). MVMC supports converting virtual machines using the following guest operating systems: 

• Windows Server 2003 with Service Pack 2
• Windows Server 2003 R2 with Service Pack 2
• Windows Server 2008 R2
• Windows 7

System Requirements

The Microsoft Virtual Machine Converter converts VMware virtual machines created with:

• VMware vSphere 4.1
• VMware vSphere 5.0

To virtual machines for:

• Windows Server 2008 R2 SP1 Hyper-V
• Microsoft Hyper-V Server 2008 R2 SP1

Ubuntu 12.04 will be by default “Hyper-V ready” !

Last Saturday , Mike Sterling [ Virtualization Program Manager at Microsoft ] tweeted that upcoming release of Ubuntu 12.04  - which are expected to be released by 2012-04-26 - will have hyper-V drivers embedded.

This is a great news for those who have or will have a mixed environments

CTP of System Center 2012 Service Pack 1 (SP1) Documentation

Recently VMM team published an interesting document CTP of System Center 2012 Service Pack 1 (SP1)Documentation

This download provides a step-by-step guide that walks you through the new Virtual Machine Manager (VMM) features in the CTP of System Center 2012 SP1, such as:

·        Network virtualization  

·        VHDX support 

·        Support for file shares that use the Server Message Block (SMB) 2.2 protocol 

·        Live migration enhancements

Go and check the step-by-step guide that walks you through the new Virtual Machine Manager (VMM) features in the CTP of System Center 2012 SP1.