Monthly Archives: April 2011

Microsoft iSCSI Software Target 3.3 for Windows Server 2008 R2 available for public download

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As TechNet subscribers, we had access to Windows Storage Server 2008 with Microsoft iSCSI Software Target 3.2  (also see Jose Barreto’s blog on this here). That was sweet but for one little issue. This SKU cannot be a Hyper-V Host. In order not to lose a physical host in the lab you could edit the MSI installer from the Windows Storage Server 2008 install media where you would delete the SKU check. Problem solved but not very legal so nobody ever did that.  You can install Windows Storage Server in a VM for the lab I know but that becoming very SkyNet like … Virtual servers providing virtual storage for virtual servers … and while a good option to have I like to have a hardware host.

Bring Windows Storage Server 2008 R2 along and Microsoft decided that we could have the iSCSI Software Target 3.3 software without constraints, except that you needed a TechNet/MSDN subscription, to install on W2K8R2. This is the one I’m running in my labs at the moment installed on a Physical Windows Server 2008 R2 Enterprise edition that also is a Hyper-V host. This provides all my iSCSI storage to both physical and virtual clusters. I used it to test MelioFS with FileScaler recently with a 2 node virtual cluster.

Today, Jose Barreto blogged about the public release of iSCSI Software Target 3.3 for Windows Server 2008 R2. This is very good news as now everyone has access to an iSCSI target for labs, testing, POCs, and even production. Thank you, Microsoft. Now with some luck, we could get some SMI-S support for it with SCVMM2012? Please?

If you need some help, Jose Barreto has a bunch of blog posts on configuring the iSCSI target, so I suggest you check out his site. As an added benefit, Microsoft iSCSI Software Target 3.3 setup & configuration is scriptable using PowerShell.

KB2230887 Hotfix for Dynamic Memory with Windows 2008 Standard & Web edition does not apply to without Hyper-V editions?

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As my readers all know by now, since I blogged about this here, you need to install an update/hotfix for Hyper-v Dynamic Memory to work with Windows 2008 Standard & Web edition. You can find more information here:  Hyper-V Dynamic Memory does not work on a Windows Server 2008 Standard Edition or Windows Web Server 2008 virtual machine (VM)

UPDATE 2011/06/23: Microsoft released the hotfix based on end-user feedback and you can download version 2 that works on all SKUs now http://support.microsoft.com/kb/2230887 (v2).

The cause is that on these versions of the operating systems the the required memory enlightenment is supported. After installing the hotfix (or SP1 in the case of Windows 2008 R2) memory addition enlightenment is available on these SKU and your good to go.

But recently I ran into an issue. One virtual machine guest on a Windows 2008 R2 SP1 cluster that is running the Windows 2008 Standard edition without Hyper-V SKU, x86 the standalone installer for Windows6.0-KB2230887-x86 throws following warning:

Windows Update Standalone Installer

The update does not apply to your system

OK

That’s a bit strange. As you can see the hotfix has not been installed. And why would I need the with Hyper-V SKU to use dynamic memory with this guest?

I installed the same hotfix without any issue on several Windows 2008 Standard Edition (the SKU with Hyper-V)  guests. So what is going on here? What exactly is different about the without Hyper-V SKU?  Note that Windows 2008 R2 no longer has such a SKU.  Microsoft states that it is an SKU for people who don’t need virtualization. Well as they installed it as a guest virtual machine they chose this version and now what? No hotfix for dynamic memory as a guest?

There is a TechNet forum discussion going on here where they have this issue and I asked them to check what SKU it was happening on. Bingo! It’s on the Windows 2008 Standard without Hyper-V version!

I don’t expect any Hyper-V functionality or management tools but I do expect to get the hotfix to enable Dynamic Memory in guests with this SKU, just like we get any other update that is relevant to Hyper-V, for example, upgraded Integration Services. I’m going to ping a Microsoft contact on this one and see if they can help with this. And in case you’re wondering SKU = Stock Keeping Unit.