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 […]

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 […]

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 […]

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 […]

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 […]

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 […]

In case you want to start a Hyper-V virtual machine from the command line or from a script, you’d want to use HyperVUtils.exe.     To start a VM: HyperVUtils.exe “vmName” start     A freeware version of BackupChain Hyper-V Command Line Tools v1.1 is available for free here.

Use the following command to shut down a virtual machine in Hyper-V with a timeout: HyperVUtils.exe “Win8 x64” shutdown 600   A freeware version of BackupChain Hyper-V Command Line Tools v1.1 is available for free here.

Reboot a virtual machine in Hyper-V from the command line using: HyperVUtils.exe “Win8 x64″ reboot A freeware version of BackupChain Hyper-V Command Line Tools v1.1 is available for free here.

Check your Server 2012 updates using the list below: Date added Knowledge Base Article Title Component Why we recommend this hotfix 7/15/2013 2870270       (http://support.microsoft.com/kb/2870270/            ) Update that improves cloud service provider resiliency in Windows Server 2012 Failover Cluster Service, CSV Filter and NTFS.sys This hotfix prevents a CSV failover by fixing an underlying issue […]