Hyper-V in Windows Server 2012

I’ve been reading a lot lately about what people have been saying about Microsoft’s latest go at a hyper-visor and many say that now with Hyper-V 2012, Microsoft is catching up to VMware in the enterprise virtualization arena. I’ll identify some of the key points of what Hyper-V 2012 is bringing to the virtualization world.

• 32 Virtual CPUs and 512GB to a Virtual Machine
• VHDX File Format for Virtual Hard Disks (16TB of Storage)
• Native NIC teaming
• 64 Node Clustering
• Cluster-Aware updating
• Hyper-V Replica (Replication of Virtual Machines)

Two of my favorite additions though are the Cluster-Aware Updating and Hyper-V Replica features.
Cluster-Aware Updating helps to manage down time by maintaining availability during windows update time, so you pretty much schedule when you want the updates to occur and let the cluster take care of the rest, automatically moving Virtual Machines,  maintaining services and availability and then moving them back once the server has restarted and updates are completed. Hyper-V Replica, which performs asynchronous replication of VMs to a replica site (either stand alone or cluster).

Thanks & Regards

  Srikanth Goud  - Virtualization Administrator

Boot to the Desktop in Windows 8 & 8.1

In Windows 8.1, the appropriate setting is found in the "Taskbar and Navigation properties" window. To open it, you have several options. The fastest is to go to the Desktop and right click on the taskbar (or tap and hold). In the contextual menu, click or tap Properties.

Alternatively, you can open the Control Panel and go to "Appearance and Personalization". There, click or tap "Taskbar and Navigation".

In the "Taskbar and Navigation properties" window, click or tap the Navigation tab.

In the Start screen section, check the box which says "When I sign in or close all apps on a screen, go to the desktop instead of Start". Another setting that is worth enabling is "Show Start on the display I’m using when I press the Windows logo key", so that you have a quick way to access the Start while on the Desktop.

Then, click or tap OK and you are done. The next time you log into Windows 8.1, it will take you straight to the Desktop.

Thanks & Regards

  Srikanth Goud  - Virtualization Administrator