Nuffnang

Thursday, October 25, 2012

Hyper-V for Windows Server 2012: overpromising and underdelivering

Hyper-V logoA few weeks ago Microsoft released Windows Server 2012 and with it also Hyper-V 3. The newest release of Hyper-V has some great improvements and new features which will in some cases definitely challenge VMware. To make use of these features and to manage your entire environment you need a management tool, just like VMware vSphere uses vCenter Server.
However at the time of writing, Hyper-V has no management tooling available. Normally System Center Virtual Machine Manager 2012 (which is part of the System Center 2012 suite) would be used to manage the Hyper-V infrastructure. But the current version of System Center can’t handle Windows Server 2012, meaning no management for Hyper-V 3 servers either. The support for Windows Server 2012 is coming with the release of SP1 for System Center 2012 which will probably be released somewhere at the end of Q4 2012 or Q1 2013.
“It’s like selling a car without a steering wheel, dangerous and unsuitable for every day use.”

You can execute the basic management tasks of Windows Server 2012 Hyper-V using tools like Failover Cluster Manager but features like deployment of virtual machines using templates are only available in System Center Virtual Machine Manager (SCVMM). Public cloud, fabric management, provisioning and a lot of other features also need SCVMM 2012 SP1.
But that’s not all, Data Protection Manager 2012 which is part of the System Center suite is not able to back-up of the new Windows Server 2012 Cluster Shared Volumes. The new CSV-format enables customers to make incremental backups of virtual disk files (VHD), much like the Changed Blocking Tracking feature of vSphere. This allows to only backup changed data blocks of the VHD file since the last full backup. So customers wanting to make the full out of Windows server 2012 Hyper-V also have to wait till Microsoft releases SP1 for System Center 2012 Data Protection Manager.
The System Center 2012 Community Technology Preview 2 (CTP2) for SP1, which is able to manage Windows Server 2012 Hyper-V, has been released in June.  However this is a pre-beta version which is just not ready for production.
Microsoft promised attendees at Microsoft Management Summit mid April 2o12 that they will release SC2012 SP1 at the same time as Windows Server 2012.
If you want to build a private cloud now using System Center 2012 you can do so by using Windows Server 2008 R2 Hyper-V or VMware vSphere but mind your step though. You cannot update that Windows Server 2008 Hyper-V cluster to Windows Server 2012 Hyper-V, you will need to build an all new cluster.
Conclusion
Personally I don’t agree with the way that Microsoft is marketing Hyper-V 3. Obviously they should market their product with the new features that are to be available, but they should be honest in when these will be available for use. Don’t go promoting that Hyper-V 3 is fully available with the release of Windows 2012, only to let companies find out that they can’t really use it yet until SP1 for System Center 2012 will be available.
Marketing future products has become somewhat of a habit at Microsoft marketing over the years and the Windows Server 2012 hoax is no exception. Don’t believe the marketing hype, the Microsoft Private Cloud wasn’t ready then, and it isn’t ready now.  For proven private, public, and hybrid cloud technologies that are in production today, trust VMware.

Sunday, October 14, 2012

Overview of new features in Apache HTTP Server 2.4

Core Enhancements

Loadable MPMs
Multiple MPMs can now be built as loadable modules at compile time. The MPM of choice can be configured at run time.
Event MPM
The Event MPM is no longer experimental but is now fully supported.
Asynchronous support
Better support for asynchronous read/write for supporting MPMs and platforms.
Per-module and per-directory LogLevel configuration
The LogLevel can now be configured per module and per directory. New levels trace1 to trace8 have been added above the debug log level.
Per-request configuration sections
, , and sections can be used to set the configuration based on per-request criteria.
General-purpose expression parser
A new expression parser allows to specify complex conditions using a common syntax in directives like SetEnvIfExpr, RewriteCond, Header, , and others.
KeepAliveTimeout in milliseconds
It is now possible to specify KeepAliveTimeout in milliseconds.
NameVirtualHost directive
No longer needed and is now deprecated.
Override Configuration
The new AllowOverrideList directive allows more fine grained control which directives are allowed in .htaccess files.
Config file variables
It is now possible to Define variables in the configuration, allowing a clearer representation if the same value is used at many places in the configuration.
Reduced memory usage
Despite many new features, 2.4.x tends to use less memory than 2.2.x.
 
 

Monday, October 8, 2012

Free Data Recovery Software : TestDisk, Data Recovery



TestDisk is a powerful free data recovery software! It was primarily designed to help recover lost partitions and/or make non-booting disks bootable again when these symptoms are caused by faulty software, certain types of viruses or human error (such as accidentally deleting a Partition Table). Partition table recovery using TestDisk is really easy.

TestDisk can

* Fix partition table, recover deleted partition
* Recover FAT32 boot sector from its backup
* Rebuild FAT12/FAT16/FAT32 boot sector
* Fix FAT tables
* Rebuild NTFS boot sector
* Recover NTFS boot sector from its backup
* Fix MFT using MFT mirror
* Locate ext2/ext3 Backup SuperBlock
* Undelete files from FAT, NTFS and ext2 filesystem
* Copy files from deleted FAT, NTFS and ext2/ext3 partitions.

TestDisk has features for both novices and experts. For those who know little or nothing about data recovery techniques, TestDisk can be used to collect detailed information about a non-booting drive which can then be sent to a tech for further analysis. Those more familiar with such procedures should find TestDisk a handy tool in performing onsite recovery.
Operating systems

TestDisk can run under

* DOS (either real or in a Windows 9x DOS-box),
* Windows (NT4, 2000, XP, 2003, Vista),
* Linux,
* FreeBSD, NetBSD, OpenBSD,
* SunOS and
* MacOS

Source files and precompiled binary executables are available for DOS, Win32, MacOSX and Linux from the download page
Filesystems

TestDisk can find lost partitions for all of these file systems:

* BeFS ( BeOS )
* BSD disklabel ( FreeBSD/OpenBSD/NetBSD )
* CramFS, Compressed File System
* DOS/Windows FAT12, FAT16 and FAT32
* Windows exFAT
* HFS, HFS+ and HFSX, Hierarchical File System
* JFS, IBM's Journaled File System
* Linux ext2 and ext3
* Linux LUKS encrypted partition
* Linux RAID md 0.9/1.0/1.1/1.2
o RAID 1: mirroring
o RAID 4: striped array with parity device
o RAID 5: striped array with distributed parity information
o RAID 6: striped array with distributed dual redundancy information
* Linux Swap (versions 1 and 2)
* LVM and LVM2, Linux Logical Volume Manager
* Mac partition map
* Novell Storage Services NSS
* NTFS ( Windows NT/2000/XP/2003/Vista/2008/7 )
* ReiserFS 3.5, 3.6 and 4
* Sun Solaris i386 disklabel
* Unix File System UFS and UFS2 (Sun/BSD/...)
* XFS, SGI's Journaled File System

License:
TestDisk is OpenSource software and is licensed under the terms of the GNU General Public License (GPL v2+).

Running TestDisk executable
If TestDisk is not yet installed, it can be downloaded from TestDisk Download. Extract the files from the archive including the sub-directories.
To recover a lost partition or repair the filesystem from a hard disk, USB key, Smart Card, etc., you need enough rights to access a physical device.
  • Under DOS, run TestDisk.exe
  • Under Windows, start TestDisk (ie testdisk-6.13/testdisk_win.exe) from an account in the Administrator group. Under Vista, right-click testdisk_win.exe and then "Run as administrator" to launch TestDisk.
  • Under Unix/Linux/BSD, you need to be root to run TestDisk (ie. sudo testdisk-6.13/testdisk_static)
  • Under MacOSX, if you are not root, TestDisk (ie testdisk-6.13/testdisk) will restart itself using sudo after confirmation on your part.
  • Under OS/2, TestDisk doesn't handle a physical device, only a disk image. Sorry.
To recover partition from a media image or repair a filesystem image, run
  • testdisk image.dd to create a raw disk image
  • testdisk image.E01 to recover files from an Encase EWF image
  • testdisk 'image.???' if the Encase image is split into several files.
To repair a filesystem not listed by TestDisk, run testdisk device, i.e.
  • testdisk /dev/mapper/truecrypt0 or testdisk /dev/loop0 to repair the NTFS or FAT32 boot sector files from a TrueCrypt partition. The same method works with filesystem encrypted with cryptsetup/dm-crypt/LUKS.
  • testdisk /dev/md0 to repair a filesystem on top of a Linux RAID device.
Log creation
  • Choose Create to instruct Testdisk to create a log file containing technical information and messages, unless you have a reason to append data to the log or you execute TestDisk from read only media and must create the log elsewhere.
  • Choose None if you do not want messages and details of the process to be written into a log file (useful if for example Testdisk was started from a read-only location).
  • Press Enter to proceed.
Disk selection
All hard drives should be detected and listed with the correct size by TestDisk:
  • Use up/down arrow keys to select your hard drive with the lost partition/s.
  • Press Enter to Proceed.
If available, use raw device /dev/rdisk* instead of /dev/disk* for faster data transfer.
Partition table type selection
TestDisk displays the partition table types.
  • Select the partition table type - usually the default value is the correct one as TestDisk auto-detects the partition table type.
  • Press Enter to Proceed.
Current partition table status
TestDisk displays the menus (also see TestDisk Menu Items).
  • Use the default menu "Analyse" to check your current partition structure and search for lost partitions.
  • Confirm at Analyse with Enter to proceed.
Now, your current partition structure is listed. Examine your current partition structure for missing partitions and errors.
The first partition is listed twice which points to a corrupted partition or an invalid partition table entry.
Invalid NTFS boot points to a faulty NTFS boot sector, so it's a corrupted filesystem.
Only one logical partition (label Partition 2) is available in the extended partition. One logical partition is missing.
  • Confirm at Quick Search to proceed.
Quick Search for partitions
  • Confirm according to your OS and created partitions to proceed.
TestDisk displays the first results in real time.
(click on thumb to display the image).
During the Quick Search, TestDisk has found two partitions including the missing logical partition labeled Partition 3.
  • Highlight this partition and press p to list your files (to go back to the previous display, press q to Quit).
All directories and data are correctly listed.
  • Press Enter to proceed.
Save the partition table or search for more partitions?
  • When all partitions are available and data correctly listed, you should go to the menu Write to save the partition structure. The menu Extd Part gives you the opportunity to decide if the extended partition will use all available disk space or only the required (minimal) space.
  • Since a partition, the first one, is still missing, highlight the menu Deeper Search (if not done automatically already) and press Enter to proceed.
A partition is still missing: Deeper Search
Deeper Search will also search for FAT32 backup boot sector, NTFS backup boot superblock, ext2/ext3 backup superblock to detect more partitions,
it will scan each cylinder
(click on thumb).
After the Deeper Search, the results are displayed as follows:
The first partition "Partition 1" was found by using backup boot sector. In the last line of your display, you can read the message "NTFS found using backup sector!" and the size of your partition. The "partition 2" is displayed twice with different size.
Both partitions are listed with status D for deleted, because they overlap each other.
  • Highlight the first partition Partition 2 and press p to list its data.
The file system of the upper logical partition (label Partition 2) is damaged
(click on thumb).
  • Press q for Quit to go back to the previous display.
  • Let this partition Partition 2 with a damaged file system marked as D(deleted).
  • Highlight the second partition Partition 2 below
  • Press p to list its files.
It works, you have found the correct partition!
  • Use the left/right arrow to navigate into your folders and watch your files for more verification
Note: FAT directory listing is limited to 10 clusters - some files may not appear but it doesn't affect recovery.
  • Press q for Quit to go back to the previous display.
  • The available status are Primary, * bootable, Logical and Deleted.
Using the left/right arrow keys, change the status of the selected partition to L(ogical)
Hint: read How to recognize primary and logical partitions?
Note: If a partition is listed *(bootable) but if you don't boot from this partition, you can change it to Primary partition.
  • Press Enter to proceed.
Partition table recovery
It's now possible to write the new partition structure.
Note: The extended partition is automatically set. TestDisk recognizes this using the different partition structure.
  • If all partitions are listed and only in this case, confirm at Write with Enter, y and OK.
Now, the partitions are registered in the partition table.
NTFS Boot sector recovery
The boot sector of the first partition named Partition 1 is still damaged. It's time to fix it. The status of the NTFS boot sector is bad and the backup boot sector is valid. Boot sectors are not identical.
  • To copy the backup of the boot sector over the boot sector, select Backup BS, validate with Enter, use y to confirm and next OK.
More information about repairing your boot sector under TestDisk Menu Items. The following message is displayed:
The boot sector and its backup are now both OK and identical: the NTFS boot sector has been successfully recovered.
  • Press Enter to quit.
  • TestDisk displays You have to restart your Computer to access your data so press Enter a last time and reboot your computer.