Integrating An Intel RAID RS2BL040 Battery Backup AXXRSBBU7 With An Intel Server System SR1630HGPRX

The Intel Server System SR1630HGPRX has a spot on one side of the chassis to mount the Intel RAID Controller’s RAID Smart Battery.

Having the battery unit mounted elsewhere in the chassis is a good idea since having it mounted on the RAID controller itself causes an obstruction to the air flowing towards the RAID controller’s processor heatsink.

Tray Mounting

The plastic tray was a bit of a bear to mount in place:

We had to slip the guides in onto the high points of the mounting slot and somehow pivot it into the low point with a good amount of effort required to get the locking mechanism to snap in place. The lock is just above the white plastic zip tie in the above screenshot.

Note the star shaped pin near the bottom right hand side of the tray. One would initially gather that it was meant to guide the battery backup’s PCB board into the proper place. Especially since there looks to be a hole in the PCB board just for that purpose.

In fact, it is not a guide but a stand-off to prevent the PCB board from being pushed too far into the tray. Keep this in mind when mounting the battery and PCB.

Another catch to getting the battery/PCB in is in fact the catches themselves. There is one on either side of the tray’s lock. They provide a significant amount of resistance to getting the PCB to set in place. We needed to be mindful of just how much they were being pulled back while trying to slip the PCB into place.

And one more thing when it comes to the tray and batter/PCB combination, there is a requirement for the battery to sit above the PCB in order for the PCB to catch under the two mounting clips on the tray. The PCB clip that holds the battery down looks large enough to prevent this, but there is enough flex in the PCB itself to get things into place.

All in all, this is one snug fitting trio.

Remote PCB and RAID Controller

Once we ran the cable from the battery backup to the RAID controller, we needed to install a small daughter card onto the RAID controller itself.

The daughter card, shown above, has the socket that connects to the RAID controller as well as the black pivot pin that is used to set the mounting screw into on the RAID controller. The pivot pin is shown in the correct location above. We needed to loosen the screw on the daughter card and rotate the pivot pin into the correct location prior to installing it onto the RAID controller.

The daughter card installed:

After installing the power cable the RAID controller was connected to the PCI-E riser and finally installed in the system.

Philip Elder
MPECS Inc.
Microsoft Small Business Specialists
Co-Author: SBS 2008 Blueprint Book

*Our original iMac was stolen (previous blog post). We now have a new MacBook Pro courtesy of Vlad Mazek, owner of OWN.

Windows Live Writer

Can’t Download Hyper-V Update Rollup Package 2264080 from Update Catalogue

We saw this update go by on one of our freshly installed Hyper-V Server 2008 R2 nodes:

• Microsoft KB2264080: An update rollup package for the Hyper-V role in Windows Server 2008 R2: August 24, 2010

Now, because the update is available through MU (Microsoft Update), we need to go to the Windows Update Catalogue site to download it separately.

• Microsoft Update Catalogue

Note that an ActiveX component will need to be installed in the browser in order for the site to work.

We input the KB number in the search and get the following result:

Click on the view basket (1) link to download the update or updates if additional ones were selected.

In our case, we ran Internet Explorer 32-bit as a Standard User on Windows 7 Enterprise x64.

After clicking the Download button we should have seen the following IE window pop up:

But, we did not. We saw a similar window in the already existing IE session that would not allow us to do anything. We could not choose a folder at all so things came to a full stop.

We ended up trying to start Internet Explorer in an elevated session (Start –> Internet Explorer –> Right click and credential UAC).

Once we did so we were able to choose a directory to drop the update into:

But, when we clicked the Continue button:

With IE in an elevated session we were still getting stuck.

We ended up logging into one of our Windows 7 VMs using a domain admin account and doing the following to get it to work:

1. Open Internet Explorer
2. Navigate to the Windows Update Catalogue site.
3. Add the site to the Trusted Sites list.
4. Close IE.
5. Open IE and navigate to the Catalogue again.
6. Search for our needed update.
7. Add it to the Basket.
8. Click the Download button.
9. Choose a directory for the download and click Download.
10. Click Continue for the UAC prompt.
• This is what was what was causing the hang.
• 
11. Click Close.

The reason we are downloading the update as opposed to obtaining it through MU is due to the Nehalem hotfix (KB975530) being included along with a fix for running Hyper-V on the new Westmere CPUs. Since we install the Nehalem update by default on all of our Hyper-V deployments we will now use this RU instead.

Philip Elder
MPECS Inc.
Microsoft Small Business Specialists
Co-Author: SBS 2008 Blueprint Book

*Our original iMac was stolen (previous blog post). We now have a new MacBook Pro courtesy of Vlad Mazek, owner of OWN.

Windows Live Writer

IMS – Cluster NIC Setup Worksheet Available

There are a lot of places that we need to pull little bits of information from when preparing to build a cluster on the Intel Modular Server.

When it comes to NIC configuration there are _a lot_ of steps to walk through in order to team them and subsequently configure the needed VLANs on each team.

• NIC MAC Addresses
• Needed to identify the individual NICs.
• Example:
• MAC addresses will be 00-15-17-AA-00-01 and 00-15-17-AA-00-02 for on board pair.
• MAC addresses will be 00-15-17-EC-99-01 and 00-15-17-EC-99-01 for the mezzanine based pair (mezzanine comes with sticker).
• NIC Index found by running command: prosetcl adapter_enumerate
• Blog Post: Intel PROSet Adapter Teaming In Server Core and Hyper-V Server 2008 R2
• Blog Post: NIC Binding Order On Server Core or Hyper-V Server 2008 RTM/R2
• NIC GUIDs are required.
• Blog Label: Intel PROSet
• Intel NIC based blog posts.

We have placed a basic worksheet on our Web site that can be downloaded.

Please feel free to use this worksheet as a template for your IMS documentation.

• MPECS Inc: IMS Cluster Worksheet download page

The SAS WWM Initiator IDs are required for configuring a Promise VTrak E-Class RAID storage unit with the IMS based cluster.

Philip Elder
MPECS Inc.
Microsoft Small Business Specialists
Co-Author: SBS 2008 Blueprint Book

*Our original iMac was stolen (previous blog post). We now have a new MacBook Pro courtesy of Vlad Mazek, owner of OWN.

Windows Live Writer

Tech Days 2010 Edmonton Presentation On Clustering

I will be doing a Tuesday October 5th presentation at the Edmonton Tech Days 2010 event at 15:40Hrs (3:40PM) on Hyper-V Clustering!

• Tech Days 2010 Site

The slide deck will be minimal with most of the presentation focused on a live Hyper-V Server 2008 R2 cluster running on an Intel Modular Server setup.

Looking for a Tech Days discount code?

• MVPInvite

The above will discount the entrance cost to $349. Not a bad deal for two days of technical content with no marketing fluff!

Every Tech Days that I have attended have always had bits and bytes to take away. There are lots of ways to get the creative brain juices flowing, this is definitely one of them.

One such bit was fellow MVP Dana Epp’s (his company site) security presentation a few years ago that included a good discussion on using AZMan (John Howard’s explanation) to manage access permissions on a Hyper-V setup.

Philip Elder
MPECS Inc.
Microsoft Small Business Specialists
Co-Author: SBS 2008 Blueprint Book

*Our original iMac was stolen (previous blog post). We now have a new MacBook Pro courtesy of Vlad Mazek, owner of OWN.

Windows Live Writer

Blog Template Update

Well, after close to four years of using the same template that we modified for our purposes when we first started out on this endeavour, the blog now has an updated template using one of Blogger’s defaults.

The links and such are now where they belong on the left hand side of the page and the restrictions on images seem to no longer be applied. They can actually be _seen_ at whatever size they were screenshot at.

So, enjoy the new look and feel. It should be easier to read for those of us with eyes starting to show their wear and tear too! ;)

And again, thanks to all of you for your ongoing support and contributions to this blog. Without the comments and encouragement over the years the blog would have died a death a long time ago.

Philip Elder
MPECS Inc.
Microsoft Small Business Specialists
Co-Author: SBS 2008 Blueprint Book

*Our original iMac was stolen (previous blog post). We now have a new MacBook Pro courtesy of Vlad Mazek, owner of OWN.

Windows Live Writer

Intel Modular Server LUN Copy Feature

The Intel Modular Server has an add-on ability to copy logical disks (LD) from one storage pool to another on the local IMS SAN.

For our in-house cluster we ran a backup of the SBS v7 public beta VM to a VHD located on our data storage server. If we want to start fresh we can restore that SBS v7 OS to a VM in a short amount of time versus doing a fresh Answer File based install.

While we are preparing to stand up a three node cluster on our IMS we are running a test to see if we can keep that SBS v7’s LD available for the soon-to-be cluster.

But, in the meantime we are looking to restructure some of the IMS’s on board SAN storage. So, we are copying that LD from one storage group to another using the LUN Copy feature (MFSLUNCOPY).

The whole process took about 25 minutes for the default SBS v7 OS install which is about 20-25 GB in size. The disk is offline at the moment so an accurate number cannot be had. But, the backup VHD file is currently about 20 GB in size.

All of the IMS local storage hard drives with the exception of bays 1 and 2 are 146 GB Seagate 15K Savvio drives. The first two bays have 160 GB X25-M Intel SSDs in them.

Once the copy has completed we can then went on to delete the source LD:

Another use for this feature would be to copy an LD of a Windows 7 desktop OS that has been prepared for production use. We would SysPrep the OS and copy that LD to create as many Windows 7 desktop OSs as was needed.

The Microsoft Desktop Deployment Toolkit would be of great benefit if we have a need for more than a few desktop OS deployments.

Further Reading

• Intel Site: Intel LUN Copier

Philip Elder
MPECS Inc.
Microsoft Small Business Specialists
Co-Author: SBS 2008 Blueprint Book

*Our original iMac was stolen (previous blog post). We now have a new MacBook Pro courtesy of Vlad Mazek, owner of OWN.

Windows Live Writer

A Few Promise VTrak Performance Graphs

We managed to bring the Promise VTrak demo unit online with a test cluster yesterday.

We set up a set of logical disks on the unit and configured them to connect to various cluster based VMs.

One LD was used as a data partition for an SBS v7 VM while the others were being used as the OS partition for a set of Windows 7 VMs.

Here are a couple of graphs that were imaged at the beginning of the Windows 7 Enterprise x64 OS installs:

The above shows the bandwidth being used right when we were starting.

This screenshot shows what the metrics look like over time. When all four Windows 7 desktop OSs were being installed we saw a fairly consistent 145 MB/Second to 165 MB/Second performance for the All Physical Drive Statistics (middle graph).

We have since flattened the cluster and set the VTrak back to factory defaults and are running through a fresh cluster build today.

We will then start the VTrak connection process to run through the set up steps in our in-house guide to make sure we have not made any errors.

From there we will begin testing the throughput on the VTrak via the two Intel Modular Server SCMs by running a series of OS installs and large data copies to storage located on the VTrak.

Philip Elder
MPECS Inc.
Microsoft Small Business Specialists
Co-Author: SBS 2008 Blueprint Book

*Our original iMac was stolen (previous blog post). We now have a new MacBook Pro courtesy of Vlad Mazek, owner of OWN.

Windows Live Writer

Distractions Can Be Costly

This post is born out of a bit of frustration . . . but in a good way.

There is a very good reason why we build comprehensive checklists and make sure that we are documenting our progress through any of the procedures from setting up an SBS 2008 or SBS v7 box to building a very complicated Hyper-V cluster.

There are times where total silence, meaning no music, no talking or conversations, or any other forms of distractions are an absolute must.

Today, while running through the set up of a new cluster there were a number of distractions that jumped in within minutes of each other.

The last step accomplished on node 1 of the soon to be 3 node cluster was to set the IP addresses for the various NIC team VLANs with the following step being the setting of the DNS server for each VLAN.

The error made by me was to be running through the steps following our internal cluster set up guide making notes on its structure and such but not actually _checking off each step_ being done.

The phone rang and it was Monique. Then someone had dropped by seeing that the big door was open a bit to allow cool air into the shop. So, after they were dealt with the following looked just fine:

That is the default teamed VLAN structure on the node with the blanked IP being our own subnet.

Well, the final step once all of the IP addresses are set into each VLAN is to IPConfig /RegisterDNS to clean out all of the DHCP delivered IP addresses in DNS.

In our SBS v7 DNS the Heartbeat subnet IP showed up but the IP for our own subnet did not for the Management VLAN.

In the end it took about half an hour or more to realize that the step that was missed was to set the DNS server IP address for the Management VLAN.

The cost was my own assumption that the DNS server IPs were set in the first place . . . instead of putting that checkmark at each completed step as I should.

I am the primary reason that checklists have become an important aspect of how we do business and how we build IT solutions.

All it takes is one skipped step to bring things to a screeching halt or crashing down on a production network!

Philip Elder
MPECS Inc.
Microsoft Small Business Specialists
Co-Author: SBS 2008 Blueprint Book

*Our original iMac was stolen (previous blog post). We now have a new MacBook Pro courtesy of Vlad Mazek, owner of OWN.

Windows Live Writer

Our New Web Site

We were pretty busy this week so we did not have much time to spend on getting our new site online and configured for how we want to use it.

• MPECS Inc. Web Site

We are happy to say that the site is now online and configured with the basic foundation (no pun intended) we will be building the site on.

Our plans for the site are not too monumental! :)

Though, as time permits we will be developing the following site features:

• MPECS Inc. Technical Wiki
• Since the blog has grown quite a lot since it was started we will build this Wiki up to focus in on current projects and products that we work with.
• MPECS Inc. Free Downloads
• Content from Intel server configurations that we have designed for our client deployments through to product documentation.
• MPECS Inc. Calendar
• Any public events that we will be attending or participating in.

We intend to keep the Wiki as focused as possible on current IT based solutions that we are working with at the time.

Philip Elder
MPECS Inc.
Microsoft Small Business Specialists
Co-Author: SBS 2008 Blueprint Book

*Our original iMac was stolen (previous blog post). We now have a new MacBook Pro courtesy of Vlad Mazek, owner of OWN.

Windows Live Writer

SBS v7 Beta Available for Download

The new SBS v7 beta can be found here:

• Microsoft SBS v7 Beta

After registration the download is about 6.5 GB in size so it may take a while to get there.

We will be migrating our network off of the current NDA copy we have been using for a month or so onto this new version very shortly.

Philip Elder
MPECS Inc.
Microsoft Small Business Specialists
Co-Author: SBS 2008 Blueprint Book

*Our original iMac was stolen (previous blog post). We now have a new MacBook Pro courtesy of Vlad Mazek, owner of OWN.

Windows Live Writer

Dell iDRAC6 Enterprise Required For Remote Console/KVM

Dell has restructured their DRAC (Dell Remote Access Controller) model features.

On DRAC version 5 remote console KVM redirection was included out of the box.

With the advent of iDRAC6 we now see two versions of the product:

1. iDRAC6 Express
2. iDRAC6 Enterprise

Since out-of-band remote console KVM access is absolutely critical for those of us that manage a lot of servers at remote locations, we need to be absolutely sure that the server’s remote access product meets our needs.

We will be quoting some information from the following Dell document:

• Dell PowerEdge R710 Technical Guidebook (PDF)

On page 49 we find a comparison between the iDRAC6 Express and the iDRAC6 Enterprise products:

Note bullet item number 2 under iDRAC6 Enterprise states:

• Remote video, keyboard, and mouse control with Virtual Console.

So, we now know that all of our remote clients that order Dell servers must have the iDRAC6 Enterprise product installed on the box to give us full out-of-band BMC and console access.

Why Out-Of-Band Access?

We require an iDRAC, DRAC, RMM3, iLO with Advanced license, and other out-of-band management abilities on our remote servers for some of the following reasons:

• We can fully recover a server by booting to OS DVD or USB flash and restoring from attached backup without client intervention.
• We can manage the server from the console (sitting at the keyboard and mouse) when running updates so we don’t lose our connection via RWW or TS/RDS Gateway.
• We can remotely power cycle a server that has an OS that is not responding.
• We can remotely update server component’s firmware.

Essentially, with an out-of-band management device we have the same access to the box as we would if we were standing in the room with it.

Further reading:

• Dell Support: Console redirect with iDRAC 6 Express v1.10 (PowerEdge R710)
• User asking about why they cannot find the KVM/Console feature on iDRAC6 Express. Dell’s response was “iDRAC6 Enterprise required”.
• Dell Enterprise Technology Center: 03-25-09 Dell Enterprise Launch Chat Transcript
• Chat transcript quoted in the above support question that talks about what features are tied to which iDRAC6 version.
• Exploring the iDRAC for Dell PowerEdge Blade Servers

Philip Elder
MPECS Inc.
Microsoft Small Business Specialists
Co-Author: SBS 2008 Blueprint Book

*Our original iMac was stolen (previous blog post). We now have a new MacBook Pro courtesy of Vlad Mazek, owner of OWN.

Windows Live Writer

Bootable USB: Windows 7 USB/DVD Download Tool

In a conversation about creating a bootable USB flash drive the following tool was mentioned:

• Microsoft Store: Windows 7 USB/DVD Download Tool.

Once we download and install the tool we are good to go.

When we run the tool we must choose our source ISO.

After choosing our Windows 7 Enterprise x64 ISO file in the step above we can choose our destination:

We will use the 8 GB OCZ Rally2 Turbo USB flash drive that we used for yesterday’s post on creating a bootable USB flash drive.

Once we click the Begin copying button the following happens:

• The USB flash drive gets formatted.

• It then copies the OS contents onto the drive.

 

Once the process has completed our 8 GB USB flash drive looks like this in our Windows 7 Disk Management console:

It is formatted NTFS and set to Active so it is indeed good to go!

Hat Tip: Les Connor SBS MVP (Bing Search)

Philip Elder
MPECS Inc.
Microsoft Small Business Specialists
Co-Author: SBS 2008 Blueprint Book

*Our original iMac was stolen (previous blog post). We now have a new MacBook Pro courtesy of Vlad Mazek, owner of OWN.

Windows Live Writer

Create A Bootable USB Flash Drive Larger Than 4 GB

With the advent of larger and larger OS installs that come on dual layer DVDs (8 GB+), we need to revise our previous post methodology for these new OS files on a bootable USB flash drive.

• Previous Blog Post: Windows Vista - Using the DiskPart Command to Create a Bootable USB Flash Drive

The methodology we have been using for USB flash drives with large OS install files has been the following (Assume [Enter] after each command line):

1. Start –> Diskpart (type in search)
2. Right click on Diskpart and Run As Administrator
3. Click Continue if prompted by UAC.
4. List Disk
5. Select Disk 3 (use whatever number in place of “3”)
6. Clean
7. Create Partition Primary
8. Select Partition 1
9. Format FS=NTFS Quick
• Make sure to have the Quick switch or it will take _a long_ time!
10. Active
11. Assign
12. Exit

Now, we can run the above commands using their abbreviations:

1. Lis Dis
2. Sel Dis 3
3. Clean
4. Cre Par Pri
5. Sel Par 1
6. Format FS=NTFS Quick
7. Act
8. Ass
9. Exit

The following is a screenshot of the above command set being used to format an 8 GB OCZ Rally2 Turbo USB flash drive:

Once done we can copy the OS files off of its ISO using Virtual-Clone Drive (SlySoft Site) to mount that ISO with a drive letter in Windows.

This method requires Windows Vista, Windows 7, or server OS with the same code base or newer.

Note that there is no requirement to edit the Boot Configuration Database at all (BCD). We have been using this method for a while now to install beta OSs in our lab here without an issue.

We sometimes drop a Drivers folder on the USB flash drive too. As a just-in-case we add the Everyone NFTS group and give it FULL permissions to the USB flash drive after running the above steps.

Philip Elder
MPECS Inc.
Microsoft Small Business Specialists
Co-Author: SBS 2008 Blueprint Book

*Our original iMac was stolen (previous blog post). We now have a new MacBook Pro courtesy of Vlad Mazek, owner of OWN.

Windows Live Writer

Create Cluster Wizard Error: An enabled computer object for ‘TD-Cluster-01"’ was found.

We are on our second run through creating a cluster on our own network here.

After selecting the correct subnet for the management network and setting an IP for the cluster administration point we received the following error:

Create Cluster Wizard

An enabled computer object for ‘TD-Cluster-01’ was found. This usually means that the name is in use by another computer or cluster network name. If this is not the case then please disable or delete the Active Directory Computer Object.

After opening ADUC on our SBS v7 box we saw the following in our SBSServers OU:

We deleted the Computer account out of the SBSComputers OU and also removed the TD-Cluster-01 DNS A record under our domain’s forward lookup zone.

We then clicked Next in the Create Cluster Wizard after they were deleted.

The wizard went on to create the cluster successfully.

Philip Elder
MPECS Inc.
Microsoft Small Business Specialists
Co-Author: SBS 2008 Blueprint Book

*Our original iMac was stolen (previous blog post). We now have a new MacBook Pro courtesy of Vlad Mazek, owner of OWN.

Windows Live Writer

Failover Cluster Validation Report – Network Failed, Valid IP Configuration Failed

We just finished figuring out how to work with each Hyper-V Server 2008 R2 cluster node having a pair of Intel NICs teamed and then having a set of defined VLANs _on the teams_.

We will publish a post on the proper methodology for NIC teaming and team VLAN creation on the Intel Modular Server soon.

Now, we ran the Validate a Configuration wizard in Failover Cluster Manager (FCM) and ended up being surprised by the following:

Validate a Configuration Wizard

Testing has completed, but one or more tests indicate that the configuration is not suitable for clustering.

When we click the View Report button we see the following:

Network: Failed

Click on the Network hyperlink and we see:

Validate IP Configuration: Failed

When we scroll down to the Valid IP Configuration list for the nodes we see:

Found duplicate physical address 00-15-17-xx-xx-xx on node hv_node-01.xx.local adapter Local Area Connection 9 and node hv_node-01.xx.local adapter Local Area Connection 8.

Found duplicate physical address 00-15-17-xx-xx-xx on node hv_node-02xx.local adapter Local Area Connection 9 and node hv_node-02.xx.local adapter Local Area Connection 8.

Note that the MAC addresses are indeed the same for both Local Area Connections on each node. The MAC address indicated belong to the two VLANs running on Team 1 (the Management team).

So, we searched to see what would come up to work around the problem.

• Microsoft KB974264: Cluster configurations using IEEE 802.1Q VLAN Tagging fail the cluster validation tests in Server 2008 and Server 2008R2

From the KB article:

A configuration which uses IEEE 802.1Q VLAN Tagging to connect to multiple VLANs for the public network interfaces, and has a seperate (sic) heartbeat network, will fail the cluster validation tests.

The validaton (sic) test fails because the test detects that the same MAC address is in use on the 802.1Q VLAN networks.   However, this configuration is valid and is supported if this is the only failure in the validation tests and the failure is due to the use of IEEE 802.1Q VLAN Tagging .  All other cluster requirements still apply.

The validation will fail with the error, “Found duplicate physical address ...", and will detail which address is duplicate.

The article then states that the error will be changed to a warning in future product versions.

So, we can safely ignore the message.

Philip Elder
MPECS Inc.
Microsoft Small Business Specialists
Co-Author: SBS 2008 Blueprint Book

*Our original iMac was stolen (previous blog post). We now have a new MacBook Pro courtesy of Vlad Mazek, owner of OWN.

Windows Live Writer

Our WWW Is Migrating To SharePoint Foundation 2010

Our Web site is in the process of being migrated to SharePoint Foundation 2010 on OWN’s servers as of this writing.

While the DNS A record change winds its way through the various DNS servers out there our original SharePoint v3 site or the new site may show up.

Please note that any Outlook connected SharePoint features from our site will be broken and need to be reconnected once we set up the new SharePoint Foundation 2010 site!

Our original site will still be available and anyone with a logon and password will still have access to our exclusive content:

• MPECS Inc. SharePoint v3 Legacy Site.

Philip Elder
MPECS Inc.
Microsoft Small Business Specialists
Co-Author: SBS 2008 Blueprint Book

*Our original iMac was stolen (previous blog post). We now have a new MacBook Pro courtesy of Vlad Mazek, owner of OWN.

Windows Live Writer

Intel PROSet Adapter Team – Creating a VLAN Setup for Clustering on IMS

Our previous post on setting up an adapter team:

• Blog Post: Intel PROSet Adapter Teaming In Server Core and Hyper-V Server 2008 R2

Once our adapter teams are created the next step for us is to create a dedicated VLAN for our Heartbeat network.

In this case we will have two adapter teams created:

1. Management
• NIC 0 Switch 1
• NIC 0 Switch 2
2. vSwitch
1. NIC 1 Switch 1
2. NIC 1 Switch 2

The above team names are what we are working with on our Intel Modular Server at this point.

So, we need to know what the index number is for each team:

1. PROSetCL Team_Enumerate
• 

Now that we know our index numbers, we can go ahead and create the two needed VLANs:

1. PROSetCL Team_CreateVLAN 2 untagged Management
2. PROSetCL Team_CreateVLAN 2 99 Heartbeat
3. PROSetCL Team_EnumerateVLANS 2
1. 

The “untagged” VLAN will remain connected to our management network. VLAN 99 will be our exclusive heartbeat network.

Now, in our Hyper-V Server 2008 R2 “console” we can see that we do indeed have 3 NICs to work with:

We will then go ahead and set our heartbeat subnet and bind the Hyper-V virtual switch to the vSwitch team.

Now that our teaming has been configured our node is ready to become a part of our cluster!

Philip Elder
MPECS Inc.
Microsoft Small Business Specialists
Co-Author: SBS 2008 Blueprint Book

*Our original iMac was stolen (previous blog post). We now have a new MacBook Pro courtesy of Vlad Mazek, owner of OWN.

Windows Live Writer

64-bit Linux Kernel Exploit – Full Root Rights

There is a new Linux kernel exploit that apparently is being exploited big time:

• http://forums.cpanel.net/f185/x86_64-kernel-exploit-165758.html#post692222
• http://blog.ksplice.com/2010/09/cve-2010-3081/
• http://linux.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=10/09/20/0217204

What does this mean for us?

We need to make sure that _any_ of our client’s hosted services running on Linux have an up to date kernel. We do so by contacting the hosting provider to verify their systems.

Otherwise our client’s sites may end up serving some exploits.

Further to detecting whether a system has been exploited:

• Ksplice: Detecting the CVE-2010-3081 high-profile exploit

One of the linked to articles on Slashdot Linux: Hole in Linux Kernel Provides Root Rights has this comment which is just too funny not to point out:

 

Good to see a sense of humour there! :)

Philip Elder
MPECS Inc.
Microsoft Small Business Specialists
Co-Author: SBS 2008 Blueprint Book

*Our original iMac was stolen (previous blog post). We now have a new MacBook Pro courtesy of Vlad Mazek, owner of OWN.

Windows Live Writer

Software Installer Setup.exe Link On Companyweb

With Office 2010 being such a large install there are some difficulties around deploying Office 2010 via Group Policy.

An alternative to deploying by Group Policy is to provide users with a simple way to access the Setup.exe file.

In our case, what we have been doing is dropping a link to Setup.exe on our client’s Companyweb site.

Users will get a couple of security prompts which they can click through and then the Office setup routine will start.

The format of the link when we set it up on the site is as follows:

• file:///\\MY-SBS\ClientApps\Office2010ProPlus\Setup.exe

Once the link is created we will send out a memo to users indicating that they can find a link to the Office 2010 install on their Companyweb site.

The above screenshot would be in that memo as all users have their Internet Explorer open to the Companyweb page.

Note that this method can only be used with an Open License version of Office.

Philip Elder
MPECS Inc.
Microsoft Small Business Specialists
Co-Author: SBS 2008 Blueprint Book

*Our original iMac was stolen (previous blog post). We now have a new MacBook Pro courtesy of Vlad Mazek, owner of OWN.

Windows Live Writer

Intel DQ35JO On Board Graphics Problem – Really Poor Performance

One of our shop desktops has a Core 2 Duo E6850 running at 3 GHz installed on an Intel Desktop Board DQ35JO Executive Series.

The system had Windows 7 Enterprise x64 installed a while back with all of the latest driver and BIOS updates being applied along the way.

The system has two older BenQ FP931 19” 4x3 LCD monitors connected to the on board video ports.

This system has had a strange behaviour since Windows 7 64 bit has been installed on it. When dragging a window between the two monitors or even moving it from one point on the desktop to another on the same monitor the drag process would be ridiculously slow.

It was almost like the window was being pulled through the water in the way it moved across the screen or screens.

We have a few in-house projects on the go today so while our client systems were doing their thing we pulled the workbench system apart.

There are two 320GB Seagate 7200.10 drives set in a RAID 0 stripe that had no connection issues. The CPU and cooler looked to be as expected as did the optical drive.

When we got to the memory we found:

• Channel 1 slot 1: 1 GB KVR667D2N5/1G
• Channel 2 slot 1: 512 MB KVR533D2N5/512
• Channel 1 slot 2: 1 GB KVR667D2N5/1G
• Channel 2 slot 2: 512 MB KVR533D2N5/512

When checking in the BIOS we saw that the memory sticks were in the correct place as memory status showed “Dual Channel Mode”.

So, we had a look at Kingston’s memory support site for the DQ35JO.

• Kingston Intel DQ35JO Memory Configurations

Note the distinct lack of any part number beginning with KVR533. We must have had the two 533 MHz parts in the parts bin when we put this box together and tossed them in to get a full 3 GB of RAM in the box.

We dug around in the parts bin and came up with four KVR800D2N6/1G sticks of RAM. We installed them, checked in the BIOS to make sure that all four sticks were being seen and then booted up Windows 7.

Once into Windows 7 we saw the above as well. So, we knew that our now 4 GB of RAM was being seen by the operating system.

But what of the window dragging and overall graphics problem?

It was gone!

Windows would now drag between monitors or around on a monitor with no lag time or any “fluid” like motions.

Since the DQ35JO’s on board graphics uses system RAM we can see why there would be a performance hit of significant proportions when the RAM in the system was the wrong spec.

Philip Elder
MPECS Inc.
Microsoft Small Business Specialists
Co-Author: SBS 2008 Blueprint Book

*Our original iMac was stolen (previous blog post). We now have a new MacBook Pro courtesy of Vlad Mazek, owner of OWN.

Windows Live Writer

Western Digital RE3 Series SATA Drives In Intel Hot Swap Expander Backplanes May Error Or Go Offline

It seems that there is an issue between the Western Digital RE3 SATA drives running at 3 Gb/s in Intel’s hot swap expander backplanes.

• Intel Support: TA-958: Drive errors may occur when using certain 3rd party drives at 3.0 Gb/s

Root Cause
The SAS expander chip on Intel® Server Drive Enclosure AXX6DRV3GEXP and AXX4DRV3GEXP experience an undesired flow-control behavior when connected to a SATA disk drive running at 3.0 Gb/s. Drives operating at 3.0 Gb/s may not receive proper data or SATA flow control and may result in a timeout error. There is no timeout at 1.5 Gb/s. This interoperability limitation of the SAS expander with SATA disk drive is currently seen on Western Digital’s RE3 series SATA drives.

Products affected:

• Intel Server Drive Enclosure AXX6DRV3GEXP
• 6 drive expander backplane.
• Intel Server Drive Enclosure AXX4DRV3GEXP
• 4 drive expander backplane.

To mitigate the issue the drive needs to be set to run at 1.5 Gbp/s by setting the jumper at position 5/6.

• Western Digital RE3 Support Page
• Western Digital RE3 Jumper Positions

It is also important to make sure that the hot swap backplane has the most current firmware.

• Intel Server Chassis SC5650 Support Page

The hot swap backplane firmware download link can be found on the server chassis support page.

SATA vs. SAS

As a rule we no longer use SATA drives in any of our server configurations.

With the cost of SAS drives having come down quite substantially over the last few years along with the huge performance benefits we get with using SAS drives there is really no reason to use SATA drives in a server setting anymore.

The exception to this rule is for Intel Solid-State Drives that run with a SATA interface.

Philip Elder
MPECS Inc.
Microsoft Small Business Specialists
Co-Author: SBS 2008 Blueprint Book

*Our original iMac was stolen (previous blog post). We now have a new MacBook Pro courtesy of Vlad Mazek, owner of OWN.

Windows Live Writer

16 GB Super Talent USB 3.0 Flash Drive Performance

We finally had a bit of time today to put together a system that we could install the Vantec 2-Port SuperSpeed USB 3.0 PCI-e Host Card.

One of the first things we did was to test the read and write speed of some USB 3.0 storage devices that we have here.

One device is the 16 GB Super Talent Express Drive USB 3.0 flash drive.

When the drive gets plugged into a USB 3.0 or USB 2.0 port we see the following:

The Super Talent has a burned-in “CD-ROM” partition with a few help files and this as shown on an XP Pro workstation:

There are some instructions out there on how to remove that partition but they are not too clear on the process as it is burned right into the stick.

We ran a number of read and write tests to the Super Talent to see what we would get for performance.

Read Performance

This is our average read speed:

• 5 GB file copy Read: Average 58.0 MB/Second

Given that our 4 GB and 8 GB OCZ ATV Turbo USB 2.0 flash drives read and write at 35 MB/Second the above is a decent step up in overall read performance.

Write Performance

We were disappointed in the following though:

• 5 GB file copy Write: 34.9 MB/Second

Ouch. That write speed is about the same as our OCZ ATV Turbo USB 2.0 drives.

The cost on the Super Talent was about the same as the price on the 4 GB version of the OCZ ATV Turbo drive too.

Conclusion

Between the CD-ROM partition and the not-so-great write performance we will be taking a pass on any further Super Talent Express Drive USB 3.0 drives.

With native USB 3.0 support a ways off on server and desktops with a few exceptions, we have some time to look out for products that will fully utilize the speeds that USB 3.0 has to offer.

Philip Elder
MPECS Inc.
Microsoft Small Business Specialists
Co-Author: SBS 2008 Blueprint Book

*Our original iMac was stolen (previous blog post). We now have a new MacBook Pro courtesy of Vlad Mazek, owner of OWN.

Windows Live Writer

Some Intel Modular Server Reading

The Intel Modular Server site has a set of documents that explore a variety of subjects from solutions built on the IMS to guides and best practices for setting up the box.

On the New Documents page, as of this writing, is a document on how to work with the built-in IMS storage.

• IMS PDF Document: Intel® Modular Server Storage Best Practices

The above guide contains a very in-depth explanation of how to work with the IMS SAN.

A good overview of the IMS SAN storage is here:

• IMS PDF Document: Intel® Modular Server Storage Guide

We are finding that how we configure storage in the built-in SAN as well as any Promise VTrak E-Class and VTrak JBODs connected to the IMS is absolutely critical to the overall performance of a Hyper-V cluster.

Philip Elder
MPECS Inc.
Microsoft Small Business Specialists
Co-Author: SBS 2008 Blueprint Book

*Our original iMac was stolen (previous blog post). We now have a new MacBook Pro courtesy of Vlad Mazek, owner of OWN.

Windows Live Writer