How to Change Lync License from Evaluation to Licensed

I have followed Microsoft KB to activate Lync , http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/gg521005.aspx but no luck ..Should I enter the license key somewhere ? I mean when I tried those commands in Lync management shell I had not been asked to enter the license key. I need to enter license key before it expires and I would like to keep the configuration without a complete new installation.

I have gone through Microsoft KB http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/gg521005.aspx

when I enter  msiexec.exe /fvomus server.msi EVALTOFULL=1 /qb  I get following error

Solution 

-----------

 You were trying to run the command for EVALTOFULL, but the product is still in Evaluation Version.

I would request you to run the same command (in my first email) by navigating the Lync Shell to the location “\Setup\amd64\setup” present inside the media downloaded from Volume Licensing website.

Lync 2013 Standard and Enterprises Backup Script

Hi Guys,

Using this script you can backup following things in Lync 2013 Enterprises Edition , single zipped for disaster recovery 


> Microsoft Lync Server 2010 topology, policies, and configuration settings
> Exports an Enterprise Voice Enhanced 9-1-1 (E9-1-1) configuration
> Exports RGS configuration 
> Export User information 
> Backing up some of the vital policies and settings
> Backing up SQL Database
> Export Persistant Chat
> Backing up CERTIFICATE

for Lync 2013 Standard and 2010 edition we have to different script  



This script can be run without any input or change, but feel free to change the paths. Also you can setup a task scheduler to perform this automatically.

Script can be find https://www.dropbox.com/sh/dsr7rzxj2sk4z8r/2nmF1JQXET  and save file as .ps1

Active Directory Interview Questions

In order to get answers,please mail us with question...Due to high mail volumes expect delay in reply.

> 5 questions can be answered at a time

> Questions to : cshakeer@yahoo.com 

What is Active Directory?

What is LDAP?

Can you connect Active Directory to other 3rd-party Directory Services? Name a few options.

Where is the AD database held? What other folders are related to AD?

What is the SYSVOL folder?

Name the AD NCs and replication issues for each NC

What are application partitions? When do I use them

How do you create a new application partition

How do you view replication properties for AD partitions and DCs?

What is the Global Catalog?

How do you view all the GCs in the forest?

Why not make all DCs in a large forest as GCs?

Trying to look at the Schema, how can I do that?

What are the Support Tools? Why do I need them?

What is LDP? What is REPLMON? What is ADSIEDIT? What is NETDOM? What is REPADMIN?

What are sites? What are they used for?

What's the difference between a site link's schedule and interval?

What is the KCC?

What is the ISTG? Who has that role by default?

What are the requirements for installing AD on a new server?

What can you do to promote a server to DC if you're in a remote location with slow WAN link?

How can you forcibly remove AD from a server, and what do you do later? • Can I get user passwords from the AD database?

What tool would I use to try to grab security related packets from the wire?

Name some OU design considerations.

What is tombstone lifetime attribute?

How would you find all users that have not logged on since last month?

What are the DS* commands?

What's the difference between LDIFDE and CSVDE? Usage considerations?

What are the FSMO roles? Who has them by default? What happens when each one fails?

What FSMO placement considerations do you know of?

I want to look at the RID allocation table for a DC. What do I do?

What's the difference between transferring a FSMO role and seizing one? Which one should you NOT seize? Why?

How do you configure a "stand-by operation master" for any of the roles?

How do you backup AD?

How do you restore AD?

How do you change the DS Restore admin password?

Why can't you restore a DC that was backed up 4 months ago?

What are GPOs?

What is the order in which GPOs are applied?

Name a few benefits of using GPMC.

What are the GPC and the GPT? Where can I find them?

What are GPO links? What special things can I do to them?

What can I do to prevent inheritance from above?

How can I override blocking of inheritance?

How can you determine what GPO was and was not applied for a user? Name a few ways to do that.

A user claims he did not receive a GPO, yet his user and computer accounts are in the right OU, and everyone else there gets the GPO. What will you look for?

Name a few differences in Vista GPOs

Name some GPO settings in the computer and user parts.

What are administrative templates?

What's the difference between software publishing and assigning?

Can I deploy non-MSI software with GPO?

You want to standardize the desktop environments (wallpaper, My Documents, Start menu, printers etc.) on the computers in one department. How would you do that?

What are the benefits of using Windows 2003 DNS when using AD-integrated zones?

You installed a new AD domain and the new (and first) DC has not registered its SRV records in DNS. Name a few possible causes.

What are the benefits and scenarios of using Stub zones?

What are the benefits and scenarios of using Conditional Forwarding?

What are the differences between Windows Clustering, Network Load Balancing and Round Robin, and scenarios for each use?

How do I work with the Host name cache on a client computer?

How do I clear the DNS cache on the DNS server?

What is the 224.0.1.24 address used for?

What is WINS and when do we use it?

Can you have a Microsoft-based network without any WINS server on it? What are the "considerations" regarding not using WINS?

Describe the differences between WINS push and pull replications.

What is the difference between tombstoning a WINS record and simply deleting it?

Name the NetBIOS names you might expect from a Windows 2003 DC that is registered in WINS.

Describe the role of the routing table on a host and on a router.

What are routing protocols? Why do we need them? Name a few.

What are router interfaces? What types can they be?

In Windows 2003 routing, what are the interface filters?

What is NAT?

What is the real difference between NAT and PAT?

How do you configure NAT on Windows 2003?

How do you allow inbound traffic for specific hosts on Windows 2003 NAT?

What is VPN? What types of VPN does Windows 2000 and beyond work with natively?

What is IAS? In what scenarios do we use it?

What's the difference between mixed mode and Native mode in AD when dealing with RRAS?

What is the "RAS and IAS" group in AD?

What are Conditions and Profile in RRAS Policies?

What types or authentication can a Windows 2003 based RRAS work with?

How does SSL work?

How does IPSec work?

How do I deploy IPSec for a large number of computers?

What types of authentication can IPSec use?

What is PFS (Perfect Forward Secrecy) in IPSec?

How do I monitor IPSec?

Looking at IPSec-encrypted traffic with a sniffer. What packet types do I see?

What can you do with NETSH?

How do I look at the open ports on my machine?

Server 2012 What's New in Failover Clustering ???!!!!

This topic describes Failover Clustering functionality that is new or changed in Windows Server 2012. This functionality supports increased scalability, continuously available file-based server application storage, easier management, faster failover, and more flexible architectures for failover clusters.

Feature description

---

Failover clusters provide high availability and scalability to many server workloads. These include server applications such as Microsoft Exchange Server, Hyper-V, Microsoft SQL Server, and file servers. Server applications can run on physical servers or virtual machines. In a failover cluster, if one or more of the clustered servers (nodes) fails, other nodes begin to provide service (a process known as failover). In addition, the clustered roles—formerly called clustered services and applications—are proactively monitored to verify that they are working properly. If they are not working, they are restarted or moved to another node. In addition, failover clusters provide Cluster Shared Volume (CSV) functionality that provides a consistent, distributed namespace that clustered roles can use to access shared storage from all nodes in the cluster. For an overview of the Failover Clustering feature in Windows Server 2012, see Failover Clustering Overview.

New and changed functionality

---

The following table and sections summarize key Failover Clustering functionality in Windows Server 2012 that is new or changed since Windows Server 2008 R2.

 

Feature/functionality	Windows Server 2008 R2	Windows Server 2012
Maximum cluster size	16 nodes 1000 clustered roles or virtual machines per cluster	64 nodes 4000 clustered roles or virtual machines per cluster 1,024 clustered roles or virtual machines per node
Management of large-scale clusters by using Server Manager and Failover Cluster Manager		X
Management and mobility of clustered virtual machines and other clustered roles		X
Cluster Shared Volumes	X	X
Support for Scale-Out File Servers		X
Cluster-Aware Updating		X
Virtual machine application monitoring and management		X
Cluster validation tests	X	X
Active Directory Domain Services integration	X	X
Quorum configuration		X
Cluster upgrade and migration	X	X
iSCSI Software Target integration		X
Task Scheduler integration		X
Windows PowerShell support	X	X

Management of large-scale clusters by using Server Manager and Failover Cluster Manager

---

Failover Clustering in Windows Server 2012 supports up to 64 physical nodes and up to 4,000 virtual machines per cluster (and up to 1,024 virtual machines per node), compared with 16 physical nodes and 1,000 virtual machines per cluster in Windows Server 2008 R2. Both Server Manager and Failover Cluster Manager provide new capabilities in Windows Server 2012 to manage clusters at this scale.

Server Manager can discover and provide management capabilities for the nodes of the cluster. It enables remote multi-server management, remote role and feature installation, and the ability to start Failover Cluster Manager from the Server Manager GUI. For more information, see Manage Multiple, Remote Servers with Server Manager.

New Failover Cluster Manager features that simplify large-scale management of clustered virtual machines and other clustered roles include the following:

• Search, filtering, and custom views. Administrators can more easily manage and navigate large numbers of clustered virtual machines or other clustered roles.
  
• Multiselect. Administrators can easily select a specific collection of virtual machines and then perform any needed operation on them (such as live migration, save, shutdown, or start).
  
• Simplified live migration and quick migration of virtual machines and virtual machine storage. Live migration and quick migration are easier to perform.
  
• Simpler configuration of Cluster Shared Volumes (CSVs). Configuration is a simple right-click in the Storage pane. CSVs have additional enhancements, described in Cluster Shared Volumes, later in this topic.
  
• Support for Hyper-V Replica. Hyper-V Replica provides point-in-time replication of virtual machines between storage systems, clusters, and data centers for disaster recovery.
  

What value do these changes add?

These scalability features in Windows Server 2012 improve the configuration, management, and maintenance of large physical clusters and Hyper-V failover clusters.

Management and mobility of clustered virtual machines and other clustered roles

---

In Windows Server 2012, administrators can configure settings, such as the relative priority to start or place different virtual machines and other clustered roles on cluster nodes, to efficiently allocate resources to clustered workloads. The following table describes these settings:

 

Setting	Description	Scope
Priority settings: High, Medium (the default), Low, or No Auto Start	Clustered roles with higher priority are started and are placed on nodes before those with lower priority. If a No Auto Start priority is assigned, the role does not start automatically (does not come online) after it fails, which keeps resources available so other roles can start.	All clustered roles, including clustered virtual machines
Preemption of virtual machines based on priority	The Cluster service preempts (takes offline) lower priority virtual machines when high-priority virtual machines do not have the necessary memory and other resources to start after a node failure. The freed-up resources can be assigned to high-priority virtual machines. When necessary, preemption starts with the lowest priority virtual machines and continues to higher priority virtual machines. Virtual machines that are preempted are later restarted in priority preference order.	Clustered virtual machines
Memory-aware virtual machine placement	Virtual machines are placed based on the Non-uniform Memory Access (NUMA) configuration, the workloads that are already running, and the available resources on each node. The number of failover attempts before a virtual machine is successfully started is reduced. This increases the uptime for virtual machines.	Clustered virtual machines
Virtual machine mobility features	Multiple live migrations can be started simultaneously. The cluster carries out as many as possible, and queues the remaining migrations to complete later. Failed migrations are automatically retried. Virtual machines are migrated to nodes with sufficient memory and other resources. A running virtual machine can be added to or removed from a failover cluster. Virtual machine storage can be live migrated.	Clustered virtual machines
Automated node draining	The cluster automatically drains a node (moves the clustered roles that are running on the node to another node) before putting the node into maintenance mode or making other changes on the node. Roles fail back to the original node after maintenance operations. Administrators can drain a node with a single action in Failover Cluster Manger or by using the Windows PowerShell cmdlet,Suspend-ClusterNode. The target node for the moved clustered roles can be specified. Cluster-Aware Updating uses node draining in the automated process to apply software updates to cluster nodes. For more information, see Cluster-Aware Updating later in this topic.	All clustered roles, including clustered virtual machines

What value do these changes add?

These features in Windows Server 2012 improve the allocation of cluster resources, particularly when starting or maintaining nodes, in large physical clusters and Hyper-V failover clusters.

Cluster Shared Volumes

---

Cluster Shared Volumes (CSVs) were introduced in Windows Server 2008 R2 to provide common storage for clustered virtual machines. In Windows Server 2012, CSVs can provide storage for additional clustered roles. CSVs allow multiple nodes in the cluster to simultaneously access the same NTFS file system without imposing hardware, file type, or directory structure restrictions. As shown in the following figure, with CSVs, multiple clustered virtual machines can use the same LUN and still live migrate or quick migrate from node to node independently.

Figure 1   Cluster Shared Volumes

The following is a summary of new CSV functionality in Windows Server 2012.

• Storage capabilities for a wider range of clustered roles. These include Scale-Out File Servers for application data, which can provide continuously available and scalable file-based (SMB) server application storage. For more information, seeSupport for Scale-Out File Servers later in this topic.
  
• CSV proxy file system (CSVFS). This file system provides cluster shared storage with a single, consistent file name space while still using the underlying NTFS file system.
  
•  
• Support for BitLocker Drive Encryption. CSVs can be decrypted by using the common identity of the computer account for the cluster (also called the Cluster Name Object, or CNO). This enables physical security for deployments outside secure data centers and meets compliance requirements for volume-level encryption.
  
• Ease of file backup. CSVs support backup requestors that are running the Windows Server 2008 R2 operating system as well as Windows Server 2012 Backup. Backups can use application-consistent and crash-consistent Volume Shadow Copy Service (VSS) snapshots.
  
• Direct I/O for file data access, including sparse files. This enhances virtual machine creation and copy performance.
  
• Removal of external authentication dependencies. This improves the performance and resiliency of CSVs.
  
• Server Message Block (SMB) 3.0 integration. CSVs can provide storage for Hyper-V and applications such as Microsoft SQL Server. For more information, see Server Message Block overview.
  
• Integration with SMB Multichannel and SMB Direct. These new SMB features allow CSV traffic to stream across multiple networks in the cluster and to leverage network adapters that support Remote Direct Memory Access (RDMA).
  
• Storage can be made visible to only a subset of nodes. This feature enables cluster deployments that contain both application and data nodes.
  
• Integration with Storage Spaces. The Storage Spaces feature in Windows Server 2012 provides a mechanism to virtualized cluster storage on groups of inexpensive disks. It can integrate with CSVs to permit scale-out access to data. For more information, see Storage Spaces Overview.
  
• Ability to scan and repair volumes with zero offline time. The NTFS file system identifies, logs, and repairs anomalies without affecting the availability of CSVs.
  

What value do these changes add?

These new features provide easier CSV setup, broader workload support, enhanced security and performance in a wider variety of deployments, and greater file system availability.

What works differently?

CSVs now appear as CSV File System (CSVFS) instead of NTFS.

Support for Scale-Out File Servers

---

Scale-Out File Servers can host continuously available and scalable storage by using the SMB 3.0 protocol. Failover clusters in Windows Server 2012 provide the following foundational features that support this new type of file server:

• A Distributed Network Name (DNN) that provides an access point for client connections to the Scale-Out File Servers.
  
• A Scale-out File Server resource type that supports Scale-out File Services.
  
• Cluster Shared Volumes (CSVs) for storage. For more information, see Cluster Shared Volumes earlier in this topic.
  
• Integration with File Services features to configure the clustered role for the Scale-Out File Server, in addition to the general file server clustered roles.
  

What value do these changes add?

These features support continuously available and readily scalable file services for applications and for end users. For more information, see Scale-Out File Server for Application Data Overview.

Cluster-Aware Updating

---

Cluster-Aware Updating (CAU) is an automated feature that allows updates to be applied automatically to the host operating system, or other system components, in clustered servers while maintaining availability during the update process. This feature leverages automated draining and failback of each node during the update process. By default, it uses the Windows Update Agent infrastructure as its update source. For an overview of the CAU feature, see Cluster-Aware Updating overview.

What value does this change add?

CAU provides increased uptime of high availability services, ease-of-maintenance of failover clusters, and reliability and consistency of IT processes.

Virtual machine application monitoring and management

---

In clusters running Windows Server 2012, administrators can configure monitoring of services on clustered virtual machines that are also running Windows Server 2012. This functionality extends the high-level monitoring of virtual machines that is implemented in Windows Server 2008 R2 failover clusters. If a monitored service in a virtual machine fails, the service can be restarted, or the clustered virtual machine can be restarted or moved to another node (depending on service restart settings and cluster failover settings).

What value does this change add?

These features increase the uptime of high availability services that are running on virtual machines within a failover cluster.

Cluster validation tests

---

The Validate a Configuration Wizard in Failover Cluster Manager simplifies the process of validating hardware and software across servers for use in a failover cluster. The performance for large failover clusters has been improved, and new tests have been added.

The following are improved features of validation:

• Improved performance: Validation tests, especially storage validation tests, run significantly faster.
  
• Targeted validation of new LUNs. Administrators can test a specific new LUN (disk), rather than testing all LUNs every time they test storage.
  
• Integration of validation with WMI. Applications and scripts can programmatically consume cluster validation status is through Windows Management Instrumentation (WMI).
  
• New validation tests. The new tests for CSVs and for Hyper-V and virtual machines (when the Hyper-V role is installed) complement the functionality introduced in Windows Server 2012.
  
• Validation test awareness of replicated hardware. These validation tests help support multi-site environments.
  

What value do these changes add?

The added validation tests help confirm that the servers in the cluster will support smooth failover, particularly of virtual machines from one host to another.

Active Directory Domain Services integration

---

Integration of failover clusters with Active Directory Domain Services (AD DS) is made more robust in Windows Server 2012 by the following features:

• Ability to create cluster computer objects in targeted organizational units (OUs), or by default in the same OUs as the cluster nodes. Failover cluster dependencies on AD DS align with the delegated domain administration model that is used in many IT organizations.
  
• Automated repair of cluster virtual computer objects (VCOs) in case they are deleted accidentally.
  
• Cluster access only to read-only domain controllers. This supports cluster deployments in branch office or perimeter network scenarios.
  
• Ability of the cluster to start with no AD DS dependencies. This configuration enables certain virtualized data center scenarios.
  

Quorum configuration

---

The following features in Windows Server 2012 provide enhanced support in managing the cluster quorums:

• Simplified Quorum Configuration Wizard. The Quorum Configuration Wizard has been simplified and integrates well with both new features and existing quorum functionality.
  
• Assign votes to nodes. The administrator can specify which nodes have votes in determining quorum (by default, all nodes have a vote).
  
• Dynamic quorum. With dynamic quorum, cluster administrators can now automatically manage the quorum vote assignment for a node based on the state of the node. This feature increases the availability of the cluster in more scenarios than previously.
  

Cluster upgrade and migration

---

Using the updated Migrate a Cluster Wizard in Windows Server 2012, administrators can migrate the configuration settings for clustered roles (formerly called clustered services and applications) from clusters that are running Windows Server 2008, Windows Server 2008 R2, or Windows Server 2012. Migration enhancements in Windows Server 2012 include the following:

• Export and re-import of Hyper-V virtual machines.
  
• Migration to CSV disks.
  
• Mapping of storage and virtual networks.
  
• Reuse of existing storage.
  

What value does this change add?

The Migrate a Cluster Wizard provides ease and flexibility for the deployment, upgrade, and migration of failover clusters.

iSCSI Software Target integration

---

The Microsoft iSCSI Software Target is an integrated feature in Windows Server 2012. It can provide storage from a server over a TCP/IP network, including shared storage for applications that are hosted in a failover cluster. In Windows Server 2012, a highly available iSCSI Target Server can be configured as a clustered role by using Failover Cluster Manager or a Windows PowerShell cmdlet.

What value does this change add?

iSCSI Software Target helps provide economical, highly available storage.

Task Scheduler integration

---

The Task Scheduler is integrated with Failover Clustering in Windows Server 2012. The administrator can configure scheduled tasks in the cluster in three ways:

• Cluster-wide. The task is scheduled on all cluster nodes.
  
• Any node. The task is scheduled on a single, random node.
  
• Resource specific. The task is scheduled only on a node that owns a specified cluster resource.
  

Windows PowerShell support

---

New Windows PowerShell cmdlets support capabilities in Failover Clustering in Windows Server 2012 including the following:

• Managing cluster registry checkpoints, including cryptographic checkpoints.
  
• Creating Scale-Out File Servers.
  
• Monitoring of virtual machine applications.
  
• Updating the properties of a Distributed Network Name resource.
  
• Creating and managing clustered tasks.
  
• Creating a highly available iSCSI Target Server.
  

Note
To use the Failover Clustering Windows PowerShell cmdlets, you must install the Failover Cluster module for Windows PowerShell that is included with the Failover Clustering Tools. For a complete list of the cmdlets, see Failover Clustering Cmdlets in Windows PowerShell.

What value does this change add?

The new Windows PowerShell cmdlets provide management and scripting support for the new Failover Clustering features in Windows Server 2012.

What works differently?

The Test-ClusterResourceFailure cmdlet replaces Fail-ClusterResource.

Removed or deprecated functionality

---

• The Cluster.exe command-line tool is deprecated, but it can be optionally installed with the Failover Clustering Tools. Failover Clustering Windows PowerShell cmdlets provide functionality that is generally equivalent to Cluster.exe commands. For more information, see Mapping Cluster.exe Commands to Windows PowerShell Cmdlets for Failover Clusters.
  
• The Cluster Automation Server (MSClus) COM interface is deprecated, but it can be optionally installed with the Failover Clustering Tools.
  
• Support for 32-bit cluster resource DLLs is deprecated, but 32-bit DLLs can be optionally installed. Cluster resource DLLs should be updated to 64-bit.
  
• The Print Server role is removed from the High Availability Wizard, and it cannot be configured in Failover Cluster Manager.
  
• The Add-ClusterPrintServerRole cmdlet is deprecated, and it is not supported in Windows Server 2012.

Whats New in Hyper-v 2012 ?

           

Role description

---

The Hyper-V role enables you to create and manage a virtualized computing environment by using virtualization technology that is built in to Windows Server 2012. Hyper-V virtualizes hardware to provide an environment in which you can run multiple operating systems at the same time on one physical computer, by running each operating system in its own virtual machine. For more information about Hyper-V, see the Hyper-V Overview.

New and changed functionality

---

The following table lists functionality in Hyper-V that is new for this release or has been changed.

 

Feature/functionality	New or Updated
Client Hyper-V	New
Dynamic Memory	Updated
Hyper-V module for Windows PowerShell	New
Hyper-V Replica	New
Importing of virtual machines	Updated
Live migration	Updated
Resource metering	New
Significantly increased scale and improved resiliency	Updated
Simplified authorization	New
SR-IOV	New
Storage migration	New
Storage on SMB2 file shares	New
Virtual Fibre Channel	New
Virtual hard disk format	Updated
Virtual machine snapshots	Updated
Virtual NUMA	New
Virtual switch	Updated

Client Hyper-V

---

The Hyper-V technology is now available in a desktop operating system version of Windows.

What value does this change add?

This change enables you to use Hyper-V without installing a server operating system. For more information, see Client Hyper-V.

Dynamic Memory

---

Dynamic Memory improvements include support for configuring minimum memory, and Smart Paging, which is a memory management technique to provide a reliable restart experience for virtual machines configured with less minimum memory than startup memory.

What value does this change add?

These changes can help you improve your hardware utilization by making it more practical to run more virtual machines on a single physical computer at the same time. Memory resources can be allocated to virtual machines more efficiently, because you can configure a virtual machine with less minimum memory than startup memory without having to plan for enough memory to be available to restart the virtual machine.

What works differently?

You can now configure a virtual machine with minimum memory, using either Hyper-V Manager or the Set-VMMemory cmdlet. Smart Paging reduces the risk that a virtual machine might not be able to restart if a restart is required when there is not enough available physical memory. Smart Paging uses disk resources as additional, temporary memory when more memory is required to restart a virtual machine than the amount of memory currently allocated to a virtual machine. To minimize the potential performance impact of Smart Paging, HyperV uses it only when all of the following occurs:

1. The virtual machine is being restarted.
   
2. There is no available physical memory.
   
3. No memory can be reclaimed from other virtual machines running on the host.
   

For more information about improvements to Dynamic Memory, see the Hyper-V Dynamic Memory Overview.

Hyper-V module for Windows PowerShell

---

Hyper-V module for Windows PowerShell includes more than 160 cmdlets to manage Hyper-V, virtual machines, and virtual hard disks.

What value does this change add?

The availability of built-in Hyper-V cmdlets makes it easier to automate various operations than was possible in previous versions of Hyper-V. The cmdlet names are consistent with other Windows PowerShell cmdlets (using verbs such as ‘Get’ and ‘Set’) which makes it easier for users familiar with Windows PowerShell to learn to use new cmdlets.

What works differently?

Hyper-V cmdlets are available after being installed. The cmdlets can be installed when you install the role, or as a feature available through the Remote Server Administration Tools. For more information, see Hyper-V Automation Overview.

Hyper-V Replica

---

This feature enables you to replicate virtual machines between storage systems, clusters, and data centers in two sites to provide business continuity and disaster recovery.

What value does this change add?

This feature makes it easier and less expensive to plan and implement business continuity and disaster recovery solutions for your virtual machines.

What works differently?

You can use a built-in solution to configure virtual machines to be replicated to a second server running Hyper-V. For more information, see Maintaining Business Continuity of Virtualized Environments with Hyper-V Replica: scenario overview.

Importing of virtual machines

---

The import process has been updated to help you resolve configuration problems that would otherwise prevent a virtual machine from being imported. You also can import a virtual machine after copying the files manually, rather than exporting the virtual machine first.

What value does this change add?

The import process has been simplified and is more reliable.

What works differently?

Before this update was introduced, the import process copied a virtual machine and its files but did not check for configuration problems. Now, the import process has been redesigned to detect and help you correct certain configuration problems.

Live migration

---

It is now possible to perform a live migration in a non-clustered environment, as well as perform more than one live migration at the same time and use higher networks bandwidths.

What value does this change add?

These improvements provide more flexibility in moving a running virtual machine by making it easier and faster to perform live migrations.

What works differently?

You can now perform a live migration without setting up failover clustering and Cluster Shared Volumes. Live migration in a non-clustered environment is supported both when storage is kept on a central SMB share, and when the storage is local. You can complete migrations faster by using higher network bandwidths (up to 10 gigabits). You can also perform more than one live migration at the same time to quickly move many virtual machines. For more information, see Virtual Machine Live Migration Overview. For instructions on performing a live migration outside a cluster, see Configure and Use Live Migration Without Failover Clustering for Server Availability.

Resource metering

---

You can now track and gather data about physical processor, memory, storage, and network usage by specific virtual machines.

What value does this change add?

You can determine the resource usage of specific virtual machines. You can use this data to perform capacity planning, to monitor consumption by different business units or customers, or to capture data needed to help redistribute the costs of running a workload.

What works differently?

You can configure a virtual machine to measure the physical processor, memory, storage, and network usage, and then measure the usage periodically. For more information, seeHyper-V Resource Metering Overview.

Significantly increased scale and improved resiliency

---

This version of Hyper-V offers significantly larger compute and storage resources than was previously possible and improves the handling of hardware errors.

What value does this change add?

These features help ensure that you can configure large, high-performance virtual machines to support workloads that might need to scale up significantly.

What works differently?

The computer that runs Hyper-V in the Release Candidate of Windows Server 2012 can be configured with up to 320 logical processors and 4 terabytes (TB) of memory. Virtual machines can be configured with 64 virtual processors and 1 TB of memory. Improved handling of hardware errors increases the resiliency and stability of the virtualization environment. For more information, see Hyper-V Support for Scaling Up and Scaling Out Overview.

Simplified authorization

---

The Hyper-V Administrators group is introduced and is implemented as a local security group.

What value does this change add?

This group can reduce the number of users that belong to the local Administrators group while providing users with access to Hyper-V.

What works differently?

The Hyper-V Administrators group is a new local security group. Add users to this group instead of the local Administrators group to provide them with access to Hyper-V. Members of the Hyper-V Administrators have complete and unrestricted access to all features of Hyper-V.

SR-IOV

---

This new feature allows you to assign a network adapter that supports single-root I/O virtualization (SR-IOV) directly to a virtual machine.

What value does this change add?

Use of SR-IOV maximizes network throughput while minimizing network latency as well as the CPU overhead required for processing network traffic.

What works differently?

You can provide a virtual machine with direct connectivity to a physical network adapter. For more information, see Hyper-V Support for Scaling Up and Scaling Out Overview.

Storage migration

---

Move the virtual hard disks used by a virtual machine to different physical storage while the virtual machine remains running.

What value does this change add?

This new feature makes it easier to manage the physical storage subsystems used by virtual machines.

What works differently?

It is no longer necessary to take a virtual machine offline to move, maintain, or upgrade the underlying physical storage.

Storage on SMB2 file shares

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Hyper-V now supports use of SMB2 file shares to provide storage for virtual machines.

What value does this change add?

This new feature provides a new way to provide virtual machines with shared storage, without use of a storage area network (SAN).

What works differently?

You can specify a file share as the storage location for virtual machines. For more information, see High-Performance, Continuously Available File Share Storage for Server Applications Technical Preview.

Virtual Fibre Channel

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This new feature allows you to connect directly to Fibre Channel storage from within the guest operating system that runs in a virtual machine.

What value does this change add?

This feature makes it possible to virtualize workloads and application that require direct access to Fibre Channel-based storage. It also makes it possible to configure clustering directly within the guest operating system (sometimes referred to as guest clustering).

What works differently?

This feature makes host bus adapter (HBA) ports available within the guest operating system. For more information, see Hyper-V Virtual Fibre Channel Overview.

Virtual hard disk format

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The new format has been introduced to meet evolving requirements and take advantage of innovations in storage hardware.

What value does this change add?

The new format increases the maximum storage size per virtual hard disk, as well as improves the stability and efficiency of those disks.

What works differently?

A new virtual hard disk format (VHDX) supports up to 64 terabytes of storage. It also provides built-in protection from corruption stemming from power failures and prevents performance degradation on some large-sector physical disks. For more information, seeHyper-V Virtual Hard Disk Format Overview.

Virtual machine snapshots

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After a virtual machine snapshot is deleted, the storage space that the snapshot consumed before being deleted is now made available while the virtual machine is running.

What value does this change add?

It is no longer necessary to shut down, turn off, or put the virtual machine into a saved state to recover the storage space.

What works differently?

Operations that keep the virtual machine and any remaining snapshots synchronized after deleting a snapshot now occur while the virtual machine remains running. After those operations are complete, the files that contained the snapshots (.avhd files) are deleted. Previously, those operations did not occur while the virtual machine was running or paused.

Virtual NUMA

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A virtual NUMA topology is made available to the guest operating system in a virtual machine.

What value does this change add?

Newer operating systems and high-performance applications such as SQL Server include optimizations that recognize a computer’s NUMA topology to increase performance by considering NUMA when scheduling threads or allocating memory. The virtual NUMA feature makes it possible for the guest operating system and NUMA-aware applications running in the virtual machine (such as SQL Server) to take advantage of these performance optimizations.

What works differently?

A virtual NUMA topology is made available to the guest operating system. The default virtual NUMA topology is optimized to match the NUMA topology of physical computer.

Virtual switch

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The architecture of the virtual switch has been updated to provide an open framework that allows third parties to add new functionality to the virtual switch.

What value does this change add?

This change enables Microsoft partners to extend the virtual switch by providing new functionality such as monitoring, forwarding, and filtering into the virtual switch.

What works differently?

The open architecture makes it possible to use extensions, which are implemented by using Network Device Interface Specification (NDIS) filter drivers and Windows Filtering Platform (WFP) callout drivers. These two public Windows platforms for extending Windows networking functionality are used as follows:

• NDIS filter drivers are used to monitor or modify network packets in Windows.
  
• WFP callout drivers allow independent software vendors (ISVs) to create drivers to filter and modify TCP/IP packets, monitor or authorize connections, filter IP security (IPsec)-protected traffic, and filter remote procedure calls (RPCs).
  

For more information, see the Hyper-V Virtual Switch Overview.

Removed or deprecated functionality

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The following features and functionalities have been removed from this release of Hyper-V. Applications, code, or usage that depends on these features will not function in this release unless you employ an alternate method. For more information about removed or deprecated functionality in this release, see Features Removed or Deprecated in Windows Server 2012.

• Virtual machine (VM) Chimney, also called TCP Offload, has been removed. The TCP chimney will not be available to guest operating systems.
  

The following features and functionalities are deprecated starting with this release of Hyper-V. Eventually, they will be completely removed from the product. We recommend that you begin planning now to employ alternate methods for any applications, code, or usage that depend on these features.

• The WMI root\virtualization namespace is deprecated. The new namespace is root\virtualization\v2.
  
• Windows Authorization Manager (AzMan) is deprecated. You may need to use new management tools for virtual machines or redesign the authorization model you use.

What's new in Active Directory Domain Services 2012

By using the Active Directory® Domain Services (AD DS) server role, you can create a scalable, secure, and manageable infrastructure for user and resource management, and provide support for directory-enabled applications such as Microsoft® Exchange Server.

AD DS provides a distributed database that stores and manages information about network resources and application-specific data from directory-enabled applications. A server that is running AD DS is called a domain controller. Administrators can use AD DS to organize elements of a network, such as users, computers, and other devices, into a hierarchical containment structure. The hierarchical containment structure includes the Active Directory forest, domains in the forest, and organizational units (OUs) in each domain.

Organizing network elements into a hierarchical containment structure provides the following benefits:

• The forest acts as a security boundary for an organization and defines the scope of authority for administrators. By default, a forest contains a single domain, which is known as the forest root domain.
  
• Additional domains can be created in the forest to provide partitioning of AD DS data, which enables organizations to replicate data only where it is needed. This makes it possible for AD DS to scale globally over a network that has limited available bandwidth. An Active Directory domain also supports a number of other core functions that are related to administration, including network-wide user identity, authentication, and trust relationships.
  
• OUs simplify the delegation of authority to facilitate the management of large numbers of objects. Through delegation, owners can transfer full or limited authority over objects to other users or groups. Delegation is important because it helps to distribute the management of large numbers of objects to a number of people who are trusted to perform management tasks.
  

Security is integrated with AD DS through logon authentication and access control to resources in the directory. With a single network logon, administrators can manage directory data and organization throughout their network. Authorized network users can also use a single network logon to access resources anywhere in the network. Policy-based administration eases the management of even the most complex network.

Additional AD DS features include the following:

• A set of rules, the schema, that defines the classes of objects and attributes that are contained in the directory, the constraints and limits on instances of these objects, and the format of their names.
  
• A global catalog that contains information about every object in the directory. Users and administrators can use the global catalog to find directory information, regardless of which domain in the directory actually contains the data.
  
• A query and index mechanism, so that objects and their properties can be published and found by network users or applications.
  
• A replication service that distributes directory data across a network. All writable domain controllers in a domain participate in replication and contain a complete copy of all directory information for their domain. Any change to directory data is replicated to all domain controllers in the domain.
  
• Operations master roles (also known as flexible single master operations or FSMO). Domain controllers that hold operations master roles are designated to perform specific tasks to ensure consistency and eliminate conflicting entries in the directory.

for more IT infrastructure info visit  http://ithelp.8m.com 

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