Why do you need a Hyper-V? - virtual-machine

Ok, I know what is basically a Hyper-V is.
Simple, a virtual machine. Well, good for testing application and development usage.
Ok, so far so good for the understanding. and here the main question:
Why do you need to install servers in a Hyper-V on a real server?
Isn't that running a server os on the real machine is somehow better performance than running it in a virtual environment?
for example, database server. Install it in a virtual machine? why not on the real machine?

One example of its use would be to create the perfect developer environment if you want to run many different versions of SQL Server on the same physical box.
SQL Server 2005 isn't compatible with Windows 10 so a virtual server running Windows 2003 is better to house it. Windows 2008 for SQL Server 2008 and so on.
This also gives you the flexibility to allocate resources to different VMs and prioritise RAM to the instance that your currently developing against. Giving you server level options with client tools running on the host OS as intended.
Check out this blog post on setting up such a dev environment.
http://www.purplefrogsystems.com/paul/2016/05/using-hyper-v-and-powershell-to-create-the-perfect-developer-workstation/

Related

Concurrent Remote Desktop Connection on VM in Server 2012

I am new to Server and VM things. I recently have the following scenario:
I have 1 physical server that has server 2012 R2 installed on it.
My task is to setup two windows 7 VM environment by hyper-v for testing.
Since there are more than two people accessing the VMs in the future. I know the existing user is kicked when another user login to the VM. Is there any ways to configure this such that both users can access without being kicked? (without violating the terms)
I heard about remote desktop service and did some research on it. However, I do not know if it would fit on this scenario. If it fits, can you explain how it will work?
If none of that work, I am thinking my last plan will be setting up more VMs for the group to use.
Thanks
You will have to first add Hyper-v role in your server from server manager.
Since you are planning to add two virtual machines, you must assign 2 static IPs to each of the VMs.
To run concurrent two RDPs in windows 7, you can install this patch in your VM that has windows 7 OS. Once you have added the patch restart the VM and you will be able to access VM with 2 different user concurrently.

Free option for virtual SQL Server

I am working on an application in my free time and I want to use a SQL Server database. I have the .iso for SQL Server 2008 R2 Developer but I don't have an extra computer to dedicate as a server. I assumed I could use VMware Player for a virtual server but from what I've read it seems that I would need VMware vCenter or another paid version.
Is there a free option for creating a SQL Server database virtually? This will be extremely small scale (3 tables and just for my personal use) so I am not worried about performance at all.
You can install that locally on your computer. There is no need for a virtual engine. Even if some of the MS documents say you need a server operating system, that is not the case. The setup has a check for valid operating system, and it just installs fine on Windows XP, Vista, 7 in my experience.
But if you want, VMWare Player would also work. In contrast to its name, you can also create virtual engines with it - but with some limitations.
And for a really small solution, even SQL Server Express, which is also free, would do. If I remeber correctly, the main restriction is that the data may not exceed 1 TB.
SQL Server can run locally without any problems, even in your dev/gaming/browsing computer without creating too much interference. There is no problem in installing it for testing and even for production of small systems (the express edition is free and valid for those uses).
Another, even slimmer, alternative, if you dare to upgrade to SQL 2012, would be to use a new feature called LocalDB. It's basically the very same db engine with a very important difference: it does NOT run as a service, but instead it's a regular program that is automatically started when a connection is attempted. Advantages would be that it does not consume resources until it's needed and yet you've got almost the full feature set of the real server. Here is an introduction on it. While I've never used it (always with the full express version), it seems good for the kind of programs you want to develop.

How can I practice my SQL Server, Sybase, and Oracle skills on a linux box?

I have a linux box. When I had a Windows box, I was able to download the free non-commericial use MS SQL Server.
How can I run free personal copies of SQL Server, Sybase, or Oracle on my linux box?
I don't need to to have any permanent databases or any great amount of storage. I just want to (re-)familiarize myself with these different SQL dialects, and compare techniques and timing to the MySQL and postgresql I do have installed.
Thanks.
At least for Oracle, they have their Express Edition, which is free download and available for Linux.
For SQL Server, you will have to get Windows, either as a separate OS, or in a virtual machine (like Virtual Box or VMWare).
SQL Server does not run on Linux. MySQL, however, would and likely came with your Linux distribution.
The Oracle download is here.
Sybase is here.
Use Xen or VMWare to create a new virtual machine running Windows or whatever platform you fancy.
If you set the VM to full screen it is pretty much like running natively. Alternatively, connect to your virtual machines via a linux Remote Desktop/RDP client.
If you have a student ID, you can get Windows Server 2003 & 2008 + SQL Server 2005 & 2008 + VS 2005 & 2008 + a bunch of other goodies for free via Microsoft Dreamspark --- https://www.dreamspark.com/
Note that you can probably obtain a student ID by signing up for a random class (and then dropping it) at your local community college.
Easiest way to get started with Oracle
Get the free vmware player here:
http://www.vmware.com/products/player/
And the vmware oracle appliance here:
http://www.vmware.com/appliances/directory/62414
Running this gets you an installed and configured server. Download the (also free) client and developer tools and you're set.

Move Physical Windows Server 2008 into a Hyper-V VM

I'd like to import a real Windows Server 2008 server as a Hyper-V Virtual Server on another Windows Server 2008 instance.
Anyone have any idea how to do this?
I'm looking at the System Center Virtual Machine Manager 2008 but it doesn't seem to import Windows Server 2008 - nor is it free.
Is there some other workaround (i.e. import the image into VMWare first, then convert to Hyper-V)?
Please help.
Regards,
Randall
while testing disaster recovery, iwas pleasantly surprised
(and impressed) that the builtin windows server backup
restored to hyper-v without a hitch.
this was on production hardware, with hw raid 5 and such -
so i expect it would work with slightly less exotic stuff as well.
I know from personal experience that using VMware's converter works to take an image of the system. You can then use Hyper V to import the VMware image you created.
When I was testing the the beta version of Hyper-V this was the only reliable method I found to import a physical system into a Hyper-V environment.
It's seems crazy to doubled convert something, but it worked!

Should I upgrade to Windows Server & Exchange 2008?

Currently running Server 2003 but am looking at reinstalling in the near future due to a change of direction with the domains. Should I take this opportunity to install Windows Server 2008 instead?
I would love to play with new technology and the server is only for a small home business so downtime/performance issues aren't really a concern.
I am no expert on Windows server revisions, but the only new feature of Server 2008 I can think of is Hyper-V. But I would try Server 2008 just for Hyper-V, as this VM hypervisor is supposedly much faster than VMware and Virtual PC, and is compatible with Virtual PC virtual disks.
One rule that has served me very well over the years is: Do not upgrade infrastructure components just for the sake of upgrading. If it works well, leave it be. You mentioned that some downtime isn't a big deal, but if the server is actually used then there is a chance it can become a big deal unexpectedly. Why not simply get (or build) a new machine and play with the new operating system there? That way you get the best of both worlds.
There is no Exchange Server 2008. Exchange has always been tightly integrated with IIS which tends to bind it to a specific version of Windows. However, Exchange Server 2007 SP1 can be installed on Windows Server 2008.
Exchange Server 2003, however, cannot run on Windows Server 2008 and I do not believe there are any plans to do so in a future service pack.
Note that Exchange Server 2007 requires x64 architecture, running the 64-bit OS, on a production system. The days of booting /3GB are past - it simply does not provide enough virtual address space for current large databases. Exchange's long-running virtual memory fragmentation problem has not been fixed, it has just been given more virtual address space to work in.