Some Tips When Embarking on Hyper-V Deployment

Here are few things that you might want to keep in mind if you are embarking on a Hyper-V project:

• Whether you are an administrator that will pick up responsibility, or a consultant doing the deployment, you need to understand the products that are being used. Learn about Hyper-V. Understand how networking works. Figure out the differences between Fixed and Dynamic VHD. Learn how Dynamic Memory adds and balloons memory in virtual machines. Learn about VMM, including things like templates, delegation, PRO, and so on. And clustering … you gotta know how to troubleshoot a Windows cluster.
• Understand the applications that you are installing in virtual machines.  The old rules do not always apply.  Use your favourite search tool to understand the supported/recommended configurations for AD, SQL, SharePoint, Exchange, or System Center when installed in a VM on any virtualisation platform (TechNet).  And that applies to any application (Oracle screams out here).
• Become a storage engineer. When I was a Windows admin, most of my problems usually stemmed from the network. As a virtualisation engineer, I have found that storage performance management and troubleshooting is critical. Key to this is understanding Hyper-V/Clustering CSV and redirected I/O.
• Understand your backup requirements and how they impact storage/CSV and host networking design.. If you are using storage level backup then you need to consider storage purchase (hardware VSS provider that supports CSV is critically important), storage design, and virtual machine placement, to control the impact of redirected I/O.
• Visit the TechNet page that lists updates to Windows Server 23008 R2 Hyper-V on a regular basis. http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ff394763(WS.10).aspx Almost every problem I’ve heard of someone having could have been avoided by applying the updates on here. Note that SP1 rolled up any updates prior to its release.
• Be aware of management agents that you install on your hosts. For example, OpsMgr receives cumulative updates and management pack updates. Sometimes these can resolve stability or performance issues.
• Watch out for bug fixes for WMI. I’ve seen a stability issue and a memory leak dealt with in the past couple of years that have either effected a cluster I “owned” or those of customers.
• If you are installing AV on your Hyper-V hosts then read the supported configuration. http://support.microsoft.com/kb/961804
• Don’t assume anything. Learn about what you are making a decision on. Whether that’s assuming that you understand how something works, or you assume that you understand the performance requirements of your exiting pre-conversion physical servers without using an assessment tool.
• Treat your Hyper-V hosts/clusters like a mainframe. Your hosts will probably be running lots of mission critical virtual machines and applications. Host/cluster downtime doesn’t affect just a few machines; it could affect all business operations in the organization. That means you should have strict change control, limited administrative access, and so on. Don’t group your hosts with other Windows servers. Treat them as special. Have a set of know trusted driver versions. Don’t just update when a new version is released. Test, test, test. Then upgrade.
• If you don’t know this stuff, then bring in an expert who does.  And don’t be afraid to ask questions, or admit when you’re wrong.

That’s not an exclusive list, but it’s a start.