Archive for October, 2013

Is My Hard Drive Failing? Signs of Hard Drive Failure

How do you know if your hard drive is failing? Here are some clues and symptoms: The hard drive light (if your computer has one) remains lit and the computer freezes up. This happens randomly and lasts a minute or so You can hear knocking sounds or scratching noise Check the Windows Event Viewer for […]

Hyper-V, VMware, and VirtualBox Hypervisor Limitations

This is a quick table comparing key features and limitations of some hypervisors available today, such as VMware, Hyper-V, and VirtualBox:   Name Maximum host cores / CPUs Maximum host memory Maximum host disk volume size Maximum number of guest VM running Maximum number of logical CPU per VM guest Maximum amount of memory per […]

Microsoft Hyper-V Backup for VHD and VHDX VMs

Here’s a simple and fully automated Hyper-V backup software with several disaster recovery key features. It will help you save time and storage space, using built-in deduplication and full CPU core usage. Visit BackupChain’s website for details, below is a summary of the key benefits: Key Benefits Backup solution is licensed per host: Unlimited VMs […]

How to Update Windows Offline Without an Internet Connection

Have a look at this great tool at http://www.wsusoffline.net/docs/ It allows you to create an offline download of all relevant Windows updates. You can then run this tool on every server you have to perform a Windows update without downloading the same packages over and over. In addition you know precisely which updates are being […]

Windows Server 2012 R2 New Features & What’s New in Server 2012 R2

Affinity rules ARP/ND Spoofing/Poisoning Protection Asymmetric Hyper-V Clusters BitLocker compatibility with CSVs Block-Level Redirected I/O Boot From SAN Cluster Aware Updating Cluster Bootstrapping Cluster Scalability Cluster Scheduled Tasks Cluster Shared Storage Cluster Validation Wizard CNO and VCO Flexibility Concurrent Live Migration Converged Fabrics CSV 2.0 CSV Backup Improvements CSV Block Cache CSV Filter Drivers CSVFS […]

Current Windows Server 2012 Updates and Hotfixes

The following are active and current Windows 8 and Windows Server 2012 updates: KB Article and Date Published Recommended? IC Version Applies to: Availability KB 2756872: Windows 8 Client and Windows Server 2012 General Availability Update Rollup (http://support.microsoft.com/kb/2756872) Published on 10/2/2012 Yes, install on all Hyper-V hosts and supporting storage servers. Fixes a number of […]

List of Effective Hyper-V Backup Strategies

Common Hyper-V Backup Strategies Backing up Hyper-V virtual machines can be straightforward; however, things may get complex, too, depending on your setup. There are several common disaster recovery scenarios for Hyper-V: Backup the VMs and keep a backup history. For example, back up every night and keep the last 7 days Live backups and offline […]

Hyper-V Backup Quick Start Guide

This “How-to” guide provides a short walkthrough of all the steps required to set up a successful Hyper-V backup. Prerequisites In order to create a VHDX backup, you need to first download and install the 64-bit version of BackupChain, which also installs on Hyper-V and Windows Core Servers via the command line, see notes on download page. Task […]

Hyper-V Server 2008 R2: Important Hotfixes and Updates

The following list may help you review whether your Windows Server 2008 R2 and/or Hyper-V Server 2008 R2 is up to date:   KB Article and Date Published Required? IC Version Applies to: Availability KB974598: “You receive a “Stop 0x0000007E” error on the first restart after you enable Hyper-V on a Windows Server 2008 R2-based […]

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