I was also able to install the Hyper-V Server 2012 RC as well without a problem.

There certainly are a few tricks to be aware of in order to get them to install, so please reference my previous article for the detailed instructions.

http://clusteringformeremortals.com/2012/03/01/how-to-install-windows-server-8-beta-on-vmware-workstation-8/

It probably will only be a matter of time before I put Windows Server 8 RC on my laptop and switch to Hyper-V instead of VMware Workstation, but I’ll probably save that for another day when I don’t have some work to get done!

Day 1

· Introduction to the Microsoft Private Cloud with System Center 2012

· Configure & Deploy Infrastructure Components

· Configure & Deploy the Private Cloud Infrastructure

· Configure & Deploy Service Delivery & Automation

· Configure & Deploy Application Management

· Day 2

· Monitor & Operate Infrastructure Components

· Monitor & Operate the Private Cloud Infrastructure

· Monitor & Operate Service Delivery & Automation

· Monitor & Operate Application Management

The good news is that Microsoft still allows you to build 2-node clusters using SQL Server Standard Edition, and since this is generally deployed in an active-passive configuration you do not have to license the standby server. So for $7,172 you can build a pretty robust 2-node SQL cluster, assuming you have an enterprise class SAN that you can use to store your cluster data.

What’s that you say, you don’t have a SAN? Or you’d rather build a solution that eliminates the SAN as a single point of failure and instead allows you to use data replication to keep the data in sync between cluster nodes the way that AlwaysOn Availability Groups allows you to? Or perhaps you want to use take advantage of the speed offered by local attached SSD drives such as those offered by Fusion-IO, but yet don’t want to give up on availability?

You’ll be glad to know that for the cost of a single copy of SQL Server 2012 Standard Edition and the very affordable addition of SteelEye DataKeeper Cluster Edition, you’ll be able to deploy 2-node SQL Server 2012 Standard Edition clusters with data replication for about half the cost of a 2-node SQL Server Enterprise Edition AlwaysOn Availability Group and about ¼ of the price of a AlwaysOn Availability Group with read-only targets.

Not only will you be able to save money, but if you answer yes to any of the following questions, AlwaysOn Availability Groups probably wasn’t the best solution for you to begin with and you would be better served by Windows Server Failover Clustering and DataKeeper Cluster Edition.

• Am I concerned about the cost of SQL Server Enterprise Edition?
• Do I use replication or log shipping?
• Do I need to support Lync Server or other applications that use distributed transactions?
• Do I need to ensure that SQL Agent jobs such as database backups, optimizations, DTS and others continue to run regardless of the node in service?
• Do I need to ensure that SQL login accounts are kept in sync between cluster nodes?
• Do I want to minimize my administrative burden?

The following chart summarizes your SQL Server 2012 availability options, including the 3^rd option which is to build a traditional SQL cluster using Windows Server Failover Clustering with DataKeeper Cluster Edition.

As you can see, Failover Clustering with DataKeeper Cluster Edition is not only going to save you money, it also is going to help you overcome some of the inherent limitations of AlwaysOn Availability Groups.

About the only thing you can’t do with the DataKeeper solution is to have read-only targets. As I mentioned earlier, read-only targets requires a second SQL license, so to have that feature will cost you minimally $54,938. If you really must have read-only targets you’ll be glad to know that you can mix AlwaysOn Failover Clusters with DataKeeper and AlwaysOn Availability Groups if you like. Basically you would wind up with a 2-node SQL failover cluster with DataKeeper and a single standalone SQL Server acting as a read-only target for an AlwaysOn Availability Group. In that case, you would still need two copies of SQL Server Enterprise Edition, one for the cluster and one for the read-only target.

I demonstrated this solution at Tech-Ed 2011 in Atlanta last year and got a lot of really positive feedback. This particular demonstration shows a 2-node multisite cluster, but the same concept can be applied to single site clusters.

http://clusteringformeremortals.com/2011/05/15/sql-server-denali-hadron-multisite-cross-subnet-failover-video-demonstration/

If you have any questions about this article please leave me a comment, I’d be glad to discuss it with you further.

All of these features are welcome additions, but my personal favorite is the “Dynamic Clusters” or what I think is probably better described as “Dynamic Quorum”. It basically allows the quorum to reconfigure itself dynamically so that if configured properly you could actually withstand the failure of all but one remain node (last man standing) and still have a functional cluster. Previously this was only possible if you used the “Disk Only” quorum model which is not recommended as the disk quorum represented a single point of failure.

With the new dynamic quorum model as nodes are removed from the cluster the remaining nodes reconfigure themselves in the most resilient manner. For example, previously if you had a 5 node cluster using the “Node Majority” quorum model if you happen to lose three nodes the remaining two nodes would shut down as they no longer had a majority vote (2 out of 5 is not a majority). With the new model, as nodes leave the cluster the quorum reconfigures itself so that the remaining two nodes would remain online.

The description above is really an over simplification of what actually happens under the covers and I plan to write more about it in the future, but it is definitely a welcome feature that you should check out!

There are a few other blog articles relevant to clustering in Windows Server 8 that you will definitely want to check out as well….

How to Enable Failover Clustering and Network Load Balancing PowerShell Help on Windows Server “8″:
http://blogs.msdn.com/b/clustering/archive/2012/03/21/10286213.aspx

How to Enable CSV Cache:
http://blogs.msdn.com/b/clustering/archive/2012/03/22/10286676.aspx

How to Create a Cluster in a Restrictive Active Directory Environment: http://blogs.msdn.com/b/clustering/archive/2012/03/30/10289577.aspx

This Step-by-Step Article assumes you have three Windows Server 8 servers running in a domain environment. My lab environment consists of the following:

Hardware
My three servers are all virtual machines running on VMware Workstation 8 on top of my Windows 7 laptop with 16 GB of RAM. See my article on how to install Windows Server 8 on VMware Workstation 8.

Server Names and Roles
PRIMARY.win8.local – my cluster node 1
SECONDARY.win8.local – my cluster node 2
WIN-EHVIK0RFBIU.win8.local – my domain controller (guess who forgot to rename his DC before I promoted it to be a Domain ControllerJ)

Network
192.168.37.X/24 – my public network also used to carry iSCSI traffic
10.X.X.X /8– a private network defined just between PRIMARY and SECONDARY for cluster communication

This article is going to walk you through step-by-step on how to do the following:

• Install the iSCSI Target Role on your Domain Controller
• Configure the iSCSI Target
• Connect to the iSCSI Target using the iSCSI Initiator
• Format the iSCSI Target
• Connect to the shared iSCSI Target from the SECONDARY Server
• Configure Windows Server 8 Failover Clustering

The article consist mostly of screen shots, but I also add notes where needed.

Install the iSCSI Target Role on your Domain Controller

Click on Add roles and features to install the iSCSI target role.

You will find that the iSCSI target role is a feature that is found under File And Storage Servers/File Services. Just select iSCSI Target Server and click Next to begin the installation of the iSCSI Target Server role.

Configure the iSCSI Target

The iSCSI target software is managed under File and Storage Services on the Server Manager Dashboard, click on that to continue

The first step in creating an iSCSI target is to create an iSCSI Virtual Disk. Click on Launch the New Virtual Disk wizard to create a virtual disk.

Connect to the iSCSI Target using the iSCSI Initiator

Format the iSCSI Target

Connect to the shared iSCSI Target from the SECONDARY Server

Configure Windows Server 8 Failover Clustering

Take note, I choose Windows 7, NOT Windows 7 64-bit. I’m not sure it matters, but I believe this will work best for you.

The download is pre-licenses, so you don’t have to enter anything here. However, this will cause problems later if you don’t disconnect the floppy – more on this later.

Click Customize Hardware

Choose the processor that matches your host and enable Virtualize Intel VT-x/EPT (your processor must support this) if you want to run the Hyper-V role on this server. See my earlier blog post on how to make that happen.

Make sure you unselect “Power on this virtual machine after creation”, we need to edit one more thing before we continue.

After you create the VM, go back in and disconnect the Floppy, otherwise the install will fail because the autoinst.flp is missing the product key.

A long while later after a few reboots…

You are now ready to use Windows Server 8 Beta! I have not installed the VMware tools yet, but I’ll probably try later. If you try it let me know what you think.

Here’s an excerpt:

The Louvre Museum has 8.5 million visitors per year. This blog was viewed about 130,000 times in 2011. If it were an exhibit at the Louvre Museum, it would take about 6 days for that many people to see it.

Click here to see the complete report.

http://clusteringformeremortals.com/2011/05/15/sql-server-denali-hadron-multisite-cross-subnet-failover-video-demonstration/

SQL Server 2012 and cross subnet failover capabilities will open up a whole new world of possibilities for people looking for disaster recovery options for SQL 2012.

Please check out these two exciting virtualization career training opportunities: http://mctreadiness.com/MicrosoftCareerConferenceRegistration.aspx?pid=270.

Virtualization Career Training

On Tuesday, October 4^th Technical Evangelists Symon Perriman and Rick Claus are hosting an online conference on Virtualization Career Training with Microsoft Learning.  This half day virtual event (8am – 11am PST) will offer a Level
100
to 200 introduction for anyone who wants to learn more about Microsoft Virtualization and how it can help their career.  It is free and public so sign up for this warm-up for the Jump Start event on October 6^th.

        Module 1 – Technology: Learn about Microsoft’s virtualization technologies, how they work, and the future roadmap to the Cloud!

        Module 2 – Career: Understand the importance of virtualization and Private Cloud, and how it can make or break an IT Professional’s career!

        Module 3 – Certification: Get prepared for your next steps towards a virtualization career by understanding and preparing for the Microsoft 70-659 Technical Specialist exam, Windows Server 2008 R2, Server Virtualization.

Learn More: http://mctreadiness.com/MicrosoftCareerConferenceRegistration.aspx?pid=270

Register: http://mctreadiness.com/MicrosoftCareerConferenceRegistration.aspx?pid=288

Instructor Bios:  http://mctreadiness.com/MicrosoftCareerConferenceRegistration.aspx?pid=287

Virtualization Exam 70-659 Training

On Thursday October 6^th Technical Evangelist Symon Perriman and Technical Instructor Philip Helsel will host an online 8-hour deep dive training event for the Microsoft 70-659 Technical Specialist exam, Windows Server 2008 R2, Server Virtualization.  This virtual event runs from 8am to 5pm PST and will include presentations, demos and live Q&A with the attendees.   It costs $99 to attend, but includes a free exam voucher worth $150!  It is public so sign up for some great training to help improve your career here: http://mctreadiness.com/MicrosoftCareerConferenceRegistration.aspx?pid=272.  Register early to make the most of a weekly virtualization coaching newsletter!

        Module 1 – Installing and Configuring Host and Parent Settings

        Module 2 – Configuring Child Settings

        Module 3 – Managing and Monitoring Virtual Environments

        Module 4 – Ensuring High Availability and Recoverability

        Module 5 – Performing Migration

        Module 6 – Configuring Remote Desktop (RD) Role Services Infrastructure

Technologies that we will cover include: Windows Server 2008 R2, Hyper-V, System Center Virtual Machine Manager (VMM), System Center Operations Manager (OpsMgr), System Center Data Protection Manager (DPM), Windows Server Backup, Failover Clustering, Remote Desktop Services, Active Directory, Microsoft Assessment & Planning Toolkit (MAP), Virtual Machine Servicing Tool (VMST), Windows Server Update Services (WSUS) & more!
Learn More: http://mctreadiness.com/MicrosoftCareerConferenceRegistration.aspx?pid=274

Register: http://mctreadiness.com/MicrosoftCareerConferenceRegistration.aspx?pid=272

Exam Information: http://www.microsoft.com/learning/en/us/Exam.aspx?ID=70-659

Thanks!
Symon Perriman
Technical Evangelist
Private Cloud Technologies
Microsoft

See videos on TechNet

Follow announcements @SymonPerriman

I added the hypervisor.cpuid.v0 = “FALSE” to the config file and I changed the CPU settings to use Intel VT –x/EPT as shown below.

But this is what I get when I try to enable the Hyper-V role.

Maybe it is time to invest in a new laptop?