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Virtual Machine Manager - Self-Service Portal 2.0 announcements

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    Now Available - System Center Virtual Machine Manager Self-Service Portal 2.0 SP1
    Mike Briggs [MSFT] Microsoft Employee

    Using the System Center Virtual Machine Manager Self-Service Portal 2.0 SP1, you can respond more effectively—and at a lower cost—to the rapidly changing needs of your organization. Built on Windows Server 2008 R2, Hyper-V technology, and System Center Virtual Machine Manager, the VMMSSP enables you to offer infrastructure as a service.

    The VMMSSP includes a pre-built, role-based self-service portal for both the datacenter managers and business unit IT consumers to provision infrastructures for their applications and services. The VMMSSP is now localized in three languages: Japanese, Traditional Chinese, and Simplified Chinese. This dynamic self-service portal provides automated workflows to on-board business unit IT departments, and enables partners to expose their unique hardware capabilities through familiar Microsoft scripting technologies.

     

    This new version provides localization for Chinese and Japanese and lets users import virtual machines created outside the self-service portal but managed by VMM and additionally to re-import virtual machines previously removed. Fully supported by Microsoft, the System Center Virtual Machine Manager Self-Service Portal 2.0 SP1 is a partner-extensible solution that enables customers to dynamically pool, allocate, and manage their computer, network, and storage resources to deliver a private cloud platform inside their datacenter.

    Next steps:

     

    System Center Virtual Machine Manager Self-Service Portal 2.0 SP1 features:

    • Import virtual machines. Allows DCIT administrators to re-import virtual machines that were removed from the self-service portal and also import virtual machines created outside the portal but managed by VMM.
    • Set virtual machine expiration dates. This feature lets users set an expiration date for the virtual machines that are being created or imported so that the virtual machines auto-delete after the set date. This feature also provides users the flexibility (through role-based access) to set or change the expiration date for the virtual machine.
    • Define and use custom virtual machine actions. A datacenter administrator can now create up to five custom virtual machine actions and make them available to users on the Virtual Machines tab of the self-service portal. For example, a database administrator can create a Create Checkpoint action and add it to the list of actions on the Virtual Machines tab.
    • Use Opalis policies in virtual machine actions. In a datacenter that includes a deployment of Opalis Integration Server, a datacenter administrator can customize tasks in virtual machine actions to trigger Opalis policies instead of running scripts.
    • Define and use custom virtual machine properties. A datacenter administrator can define custom properties to collect information from users in the Create Virtual Machine wizard, and use these properties in the tasks of the CreateVM virtual machine action. For example, if a datacenter administrator creates the properties RAM and CPU Count, the Create Virtual Machine wizard includes fields for RAM and CPU Count. When a user finishes the wizard, the wizard passes the RAM and CPU Count values that the user entered to the tasks in the CreateVM virtual machine action.
    • Notify administrators. This feature provides functionality to notify BUIT or DCIT administrators via email about various events in the system (for example, Submit request, Approve request, and so on).
    • Move infrastructures between business units. This feature allows DCIT administrators to move an infrastructure from one business unit to another when the system is in Maintenance Mode.
    • VMMSSP Management Pack. This feature allows DCIT administrators to monitor the health of the self-service portal components. Download VMMSSP Management pack.
    • Localization. The VMMSSP is now localized in three languages: Japanese, Traditional Chinese, and Simplified Chinese.
    • Manage virtual machine DVD drives and media. When working with virtual machines that have DVD drives, users can attach media such as ISO images to the virtual machines.
    • Connect to VMware virtual machines. Users can now use the VMMSSP to manage and connect to virtual machines hosted by VMware host servers.
  • Link
    Welcome to the VMMSSP v2 TechNet forum
    Mike Briggs [MSFT] Microsoft Employee

    Hello and welcome to the Microsoft System Center Virtual Machine Manager 2008 R2 Self-Service Portal 2.0 forum!

     

    The VMMSSP forum provides you with an opportunity to join a community of VMM 2008 R2 customers where you can share knowledge, get questions answered, and learn from others with IT environments similar to yours. Start by posting questions related to VMMSSP in the forum corresponding to your topic of interest, and leverage the knowledge available in your new forum community.

    If you have any suggestions or feedback regarding VMMSSP, please feel free to post in our forums.

  • Link
    New visitors – Please read before posting
    Mike Briggs [MSFT] Microsoft Employee

    Hello!

    This forum is dedicated to questions about Microsoft System Center Virtual Machine Manager 2008 R2 Self-Service Portal 2.0 (VMMSSP). Please use good judgment to post your question to the relevant subforums.

    If your question is not about this product, please find the correct forum here: http://forums.microsoft.com/TechNet/default.aspx?SiteID=17

     

    When posting a question or an issue, it is helpful to include the product version that you have a question about, your VMM environment, the steps you tried, and any specific error messages you observed.

    Thanks!

  • Link
    Announcing the release of Microsoft System Center Virtual Machine Manager 2008 R2 Self-Service Portal 2.0
    Mike Briggs [MSFT] Microsoft Employee

    VMMSSP (also referred to as the self-service portal) is a fully supported, partner-extensible solution built on top of Windows Server 2008 R2, Hyper-V, and System Center VMM. You can use it to pool, allocate, and manage resources to offer infrastructure as a service and to deliver the foundation for a private cloud platform inside your datacenter. VMMSSP includes a pre-built web-based user interface that has sectionsfor both the datacenter managers and the business unit IT consumers, with role-based access control. VMMSSP also includes a dynamic provisioning engine. VMMSSP reduces the time needed to provision infrastructures and their components by offering business unit “on-boarding,” infrastructure request and change management. The VMMSSP package also includes detailed guidance on how to implement VMMSSP inside your environment.

    Prerequisites:

    ·         Windows Server 2008 R2 Enterprise Edition or Windows Server 2008 R2 Datacenter Edition.

    ·         Windows Server Internet Information Services (IIS) 7.0

    ·         Virtual Machine Manager 2008 R2.

    ·         SQL Server 2008 Enterprise Edition or Standard Edition.

    ·         .Net Framework 3.5 SP1

    ·         Message Queueing (also known as MSMQ)

    ·         Windows PowerShell 2.0

    Where to get it: Download VMMSSP 2.0

    Benefits of VMMSSP:

    With VMMSSP, you can:

    ·         Allocate datacenter resources. Use VMMSSP to pool datacenter infrastructure resources, such as network, storage, load balancers, virtual machine templates, and domains, and make them available to business units to meet their infrastructure needs. You can also use VMMSSP to establish the costs associated with reserving and using infrastructure resources.

    ·         Simplify business unit on-boarding. Use VMMSSP to simplify the process of enrolling a business unit and provisioning its infrastructure. With VMMSSP, datacenter administrators can register business unit requirements in one central location. After they have registered, business unit administrators can request resources in the organization’s infrastructure pool to host their IT services.

    ·         Validate and provision infrastructures requests. Use VMMSSP to simplify the process that datacenter administrators use to validate and provision a business unit IT administrator’s infrastructure requests. Using VMMSSP, datacenter administrators can provision the requested resources, and assign them to the requesting business unit IT administrator.

    ·         Provide forms for self-service virtual machine provisioning. Use VMMSSP to streamline the business unit IT user’s experience in managing virtual machines.

    ·         Extend and customize virtual machine actions. Use the powerful extensibility features of VMMSSP to work with IHV, ISV, and SI partners to customize different virtual machine actions (create, delete, stop, start, resume, shutdown, pause, store, and deploy).In this way, you can leverage the unique characteristics of your infrastructure.

     

    Note   Like the self-service portal that is currently available as part of Virtual Machine Manager 2008 R2, the new self-service portal offers a web-based user interface for managing virtual machines. But it also differs from the existing self-service portal in many ways. One of the most important differences is that the virtual machine actions are extensible, so datacenter administrators work with hardware vendors and partners to customize the actions to match their own capabilities or requirements. Another difference is that this self-service portal provides standardized workflows that gather data using web-based forms and support both manual and automated steps. This approach reduces the time needed to provision infrastructures and their components, and helps ensure consistency in the resulting infrastructures.

     

    Important   VMMSSP is not an upgrade to the existing VMM 2008 R2 self-service portal. You can choose to deploy and use one or both self-service portals depending on your requirements.

Virtual Machine Manager – General announcements

  • Link
    New to VMM Forum? Read before posting a question.
    Carmen Summers Microsoft Employee

    Hello!

     

    This forum is dedicated to questions about SCVMM (System Center Virtual Machine Manager). Please use good judgement to post your question to the relevant subforums. 

    If your question is not about this product, please find the correct forum here: http://forums.microsoft.com/TechNet/default.aspx?SiteID=17.

     When posting a question or an issue, it is helpful to include the product version you have question about, your VMM setup environment, the steps you tried and specific error message you observed. 

    A few related forums for your ease of reference are:

     

    Thanks!

     

  • Link
    How to collect SCVMM traces
    Carmen Summers Microsoft Employee

    For general information about troubleshooting VMM 2012, such as collecting traces and logging information, see VMM 2012 General Troubleshooting Guide (http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkID=211124) on the Microsoft Download Center.  .

    Before Collecting a DebugView Trace

    1.       Install DebugView on the SCVMM server, the host in question, and/or the Web server (for troubleshooting self-service portal issues).

    2.       Save the following code into a text file and name it "odsflags.cmd":

    @echo off

    echo ODS control flags - only trace with set flags will go to ODS

     

    if (%1)==() goto :HELP

    if (%1)==(-?) goto :HELP

    if (%1)==(/?) goto :HELP

     

    echo Setting flag to %1...

    reg ADD "HKLM\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\Tracing\Microsoft\Carmine" /v ODSFLAGS /t REG_DWORD /d %1 /f

    echo Done.

    goto :EXIT

     

    :HELP

    echo Usage: odsflags [flag], where flag is

    echo TRACE_ERROR = 0x2,

    echo TRACE_DBG_NORMAL = 0x4,

    echo TRACE_DBG_VERBOSE = 0x8,

    echo TRACE_PERF = 0x10,

    echo TRACE_TEST_INFO = 0x20,

    echo TRACE_TEST_WARNING = 0x40,

    echo TRACE_TEST_ERROR = 0x80,

     

    :EXIT

    3.       Save the following code into a text file and name it "odson.reg":

    Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00

     

    [HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\Tracing\Microsoft\Carmine]

    "ODS"=dword:00000001

    4.       Save the following code into a text file and name it "odsoff.reg":

    Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00

     

    [HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\Tracing\Microsoft\Carmine]

    "ODS"=dword:00000000

    5.       Copy the three files created above, odsflags.cmd, odson.reg, and odsoff.reg, to the machines that DebugView will be used on.

    6.       Run the following commands at an elevated Command Prompt:

    odson.reg

    odsflags.cmd 255

    (If you need to collect traces for both VMM Server and the host or the Web server, make sure to run these commands on all of these computers).

    Collecting a DebugView Trace

    1.       Open DebugView as an administrator and ensure that both Capture Win32 and Capture Global Win32 are selected on the Capture menu item. You should be able to see tracing from the VMM components showing up in DebugView. (If you need to collect traces for both VMM Server and the host, make sure to do these steps on all of these computers).

    Figure 2: DebugView.exe Capture menu

    2.       Restart the Virtual Machine Manager Service on the SCVMM server by running the following commands at an elevated command prompt:

    net stop vmmservice

    net start vmmservice

    3.       Restart the Virtual Disk Service by running the following commands at an elevated command prompt:

    net stop vds

    net start vds

    4.       Restart the Virtual Machine Manager Agent service on the host by running the following commands at an elevated command prompt:

    net stop vmmagent

    net start vmmagent

    5.       Restart the IIS service on the Web server by running the following command at an elevated command prompt:

     iisreset

    6.       Reproduce the issue.

    7.       After reproducing the issue, save the output from the DebugView to a text file for analysis.

     Important:

    Turn off tracing after collecting the data by running the following command at a Command Prompt:
    odsoff.reg

     

     

    The format of a DebugView trace differs from that of an ETL trace since DebugView captures all Win32 application activity and, if selected, Kernel mode activity. If saved as a text file, it may be opened in other tools such as TextAnalysisTool.net or Trace32.

     

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