ptg6432687 180 6 Managing, Administering, and Maintaining a Hyper-V Host Server FIGURE 6.13 Installing Windows Server Backup using servermanagercmd.exe. 5. On the Confirm Installation Selections page, review the summary, and click Install to continue. 6. On the Installation Results page, review the results, and click Close to complete the installation. Installing Windows Server Backup Using servermanagercmd.exe In many cases, administrators might choose to use the command prompt environment as a preference when installing roles, role services, or features. When a particular feature or role is installed using the servermanagercmd.exe utility, all feature, role services, and role dependencies are also added. To install the Windows Server Backup command-line tools using servermanagercmd.exe, perform the following steps: 1. Log on to the Windows Server 2008 system with an account with administrator privileges. 2. Click Start, All Programs, All Programs, Accessories, and select Command Prompt. 3. Type cd \ and press Enter. 4. Type Servermanagercmd.exe –install Backup and press Enter. 5. After the installation completes, the results will be listed in the window, as shown in Figure 6.13. 6. Type servermanagercmd.exe –query and press Enter to get a list of the installed roles, role services, and features. Review the list to verify that Windows PowerShell and Windows Server Backup command-line tools are now installed. 7. Type exit in the command prompt window and press Enter to exit the command prompt. Installing Windows Server Backup on Server Core Installations On a Windows 2008 Server Core deployment, if the Windows Server Backup feature is not installed, you can install it as follows: 1. Log on to the Windows Server 2008 Server Core system with an account with administrator privileges. Download at www.wowebook.com ptg6432687 181 Backing Up the Hyper-V Host and Guests 6 FIGURE 6.14 Using Netsh to verify the current firewall settings on Server Core. 2. In the command prompt window, type cd \ and press Enter. 3. Type in Start /w ocsetup.exe WindowsServerBackup and press Enter. Restart if prompted to do so. 4. Log on to a different Windows Server 2008, Enterprise Edition system with an account with administrator privileges on the local system and on the Server Core system. It is assumed that both systems are part of the same domain and the Server Core system can access other resources on the network from the Server Core system. 5. Click Start, All Programs, Administrative Tools, and select Windows Server Backup. 6. In the Actions pane, click the Connect to Another Computer link. 7. In the Computer Chooser window, select the Another Computer option button, enter the name of the Server Core system, and click OK. 8. If you can connect to the Server Core system, the installation is successful. If the connection fails, either the Server Core firewall is preventing connectivity or Windows Server Backup has not been installed. 9. To determine whether the Server Core firewall is enabled, type Netsh firewall show opmode in the command prompt window on the Server Core system and press Enter. 10. Check to see which profile is active, domain or standard, and check to see whether the operational mode is active or inactive. Figure 6.14 shows that the domain profile is the current profile and that the firewall operational mode is disabled. 11. If the current profile shows an operational state of enabled, type Netsh firewall set opmode disable and press Enter to disable the firewall. NOTE Disabling a firewall on any system is not recommended. Proper firewall configuration should be performed to only allow the necessary services, applications, and ports through the firewall. Download at www.wowebook.com ptg6432687 182 6 Managing, Administering, and Maintaining a Hyper-V Host Server 12. After the firewall has been determined to be disabled, try to connect to the Server Core system remotely again. 13. On the Server Core system, the administrator can also verify that Windows Server Backup has been installed by typing wbadmin.exe in the command prompt window and pressing Enter. If the wbadmin options are listed, Windows Server Backup has been installed. 14. Enter logoff to log off of the Server Core system. Log off of any other system as required. Scheduling a Backup Using Windows Server Backup and Allocating Disks After Windows Server Backup has been installed, if local disks or scheduled backups will be used, a backup must be run to provision or allocate the disks. This can be done only by running a backup and defining which local disk or disks will be dedicated and managed by Windows Server Backup. If multiple disks will be used to provide offsite backup rota- tion, all the disks must be available during the creation of the backup. The external disks that will be used by Windows Server Backup must be managed and completely available to the scheduled backup. Any volumes or data on these disks will be wiped out when the disks are assigned to the backup. This process creates a single NTFS formatted volume that spans the entire disk and sets the disk volume label to include the server name, the date and time, and the disk number for each disk. For example, if disk 1 is assigned to the backup of SERVER1 on September 19, 2008 at 12:00 p.m., the label will be SERVER1 2008_09_19 12:00 DISK_01. To allocate disks for Windows Server Backup, complete these steps: 1. Log on to the Windows Server 2008 system with an account with administrator privileges. 2. Click Start, All Programs, Administrative Tools, and select Server Manager. 3. In the tree pane, double-click the Storage node, and select Windows Server Backup. 4. In the Actions pane, click the Backup Schedule link to start the Backup Schedule Wizard. Clicking the Backup Schedule link is the only way multiple disks can be allocated to Windows Server Backup in one process. 5. Click Next on the Getting Started page. 6. Click the Full Backup (Recommended) option button, and then click Next to continue. 7. Select the time to run the scheduled backup from the Once a Day or the More Than Once a Day selections, and click Next to continue. Figure 6.15 details a backup that will run every day at 10:00 p.m. 8. On the Select Destination Disk page, click the Show All Available Disks button. 9. In the Show All Available Disks window, check each of the disks that will be dedi- cated to the scheduled backup, and then click OK to save the settings. Download at www.wowebook.com ptg6432687 183 Backing Up the Hyper-V Host and Guests 6 FIGURE 6.15 Setting the scheduled backup to run every day at 10:00 p.m. NOTE When multiple disks are assigned to a single scheduled backup, any of the disks may be used, and that is not in the control of the administrator. If a disk is removed for off- site storage, the remaining disks will be used for the next scheduled backup. 10. Back on the Select Destination Disk page, check all the disks that have been added, and then click Next to continue. 11. A Windows Server Backup warning window opens requiring confirmation that the selected disks will be wiped out and used by Windows Server Backup exclusively; click Yes to assign the disks for backup. 12. The Label Destination page details the actual Windows disk and the new label. Click Next to accept the labels and continue with the process. 13. On the Confirmation page, verify the settings, and then click Finish to save the new scheduled backup and backup settings and to reformat and label each of the assigned disks. 14. On the Summary page, review the results, and then click Close to complete the process. Creating a scheduled backup using Windows Server Backup enables an administrator to automate the backup process, and with the backup and VSS managing the disk, the administrator only needs to verify that backups have been run successfully. Download at www.wowebook.com ptg6432687 184 6 Managing, Administering, and Maintaining a Hyper-V Host Server Manually Running a Scheduled Backup After the scheduled backup is created for a server, an administrator can let the backup run as scheduled or can run the backup manually using the Backup Once link. To manually run a scheduled backup, just click the Backup Once link. Then, on the Backup Options page, select the option The Same Options You Used for Backup Schedule Wizard for Scheduled Backups. Follow the steps on the remaining pages to kick off the backup. Note that if multiple disks are allocated to a scheduled backup, running a manual backup does not allow the administrator to select which disk to use. The only way to control which disk is used for scheduled backup is to either remove all the other allocated disks from the system or mark the disks as offline using Disk Management or Diskpart.exe. Running a Manual Backup to a Remote Server Share One advantage running a manual backup has over a scheduled backup is that the backup can be directed to a remote server share. A backup stored on a remote server share enables full backups of Windows 2008 systems that do not have local disk storage suitable for backup. Also, without a locally attached disk or a full backup stored on DVD media, performing a complete PC restore can be accomplished only by using a backup stored on a remote server share. To create a manual backup to a remote server share, perform the following steps: 1. Log on to the Windows Server 2008 system with an account with administrator privileges. 2. Click Start, All Programs, Administrative Tools, and select Server Manager. 3. In the tree pane, double-click the Storage node, and select Windows Server Backup. 4. In the Actions pane, click the Backup Once link to start the Backup Once Wizard. 5. When the Backup Once Wizard opens, select the Different Options option button, and click Next, as shown in Figure 6.16. Running a manual backup and selecting the Different Options option is the only way to store a backup on DVDs or remote server shares. 6. On the Specify Backup Type page, select either the Full Backup to back up all the drives on the Windows 2008 system or select the Custom option button to select specific volumes. For this example, select Full Backup, and then click Next. 7. On the Specify Destination Type page, select Remote Shared Folder, and click Next, as shown in Figure 6.17. 8. On the Specify Remote Folder page, type in the UNC path of the remote server share, and then click the Do Not Inherit option button to set the permissions on the destination folder that will be created and will store the backup. 9. Click Next on the Specify Remote Folder page. A window opens asking for creden- tials to use when connecting to the share. Enter the appropriate username and pass- word that can create subfolders and write to the share, and then click OK. Download at www.wowebook.com ptg6432687 185 Backing Up the Hyper-V Host and Guests 6 FIGURE 6.16 Selecting to run a backup using the Different Options option. FIGURE 6.17 Selecting to store the manual backup on a remote shared folder. NOTE If a remote folder is specified for the backup destination, ensure that the folder does not already contain a WindowsImageBackup folder (because the permissions might be overwritten by the new backup). If the permissions are not a worry and will remain as they are, clicking the Inherit option button on the Specify Remote Folder page is preferred. Download at www.wowebook.com ptg6432687 186 6 Managing, Administering, and Maintaining a Hyper-V Host Server 10. On the Specify VSS Backup Type page, select the Copy Backup If a Scheduled Backup Already Exists option, and then click Next to continue. If no other backup product and no scheduled backup will be created, select the VSS Full Backup option, and then click Next to continue. 11. On the Confirmation page, review the settings and click Backup to start the manual backup. 12. On the Backup Progress page, you can view the progress in real time, or you can click the Close button (in which case the progress can be tracked in the Tasks pane back in the Windows Server Backup console). Click Close when the backup com- pletes. Managing Backups Using the Command-Line Utility Wbadmin.exe Windows 2008 systems running Server Core installations contain only the Windows Server Backup command-line tools. The command-line backup tool is named wbadmin.exe and can be accessed using a command prompt window. Wbadmin.exe is very functional and can be used to perform most of the functions available in the GUI. NOTE If a Standard or Enterprise Edition of Windows 2008 is deployed on the network, the Windows Server Backup console can be used to manage a Server Core backup. Understanding and becoming familiar and fluent with the command-line options of wbadmin.exe is required for administrators who need to manage Windows 2008 Server Core systems. The following sections detail a few common tasks that can be performed using wbadmin.exe. Viewing Backup History To view the backup history of a system, perform the following steps: 1. Log on to the Windows Server 2008 system with an account with administrator privileges. 2. Open a command prompt. 3. Type in wbadmin.exe Get Versions and press Enter to list the backup history. Running a Manual Backup to Remote Storage Using Wbadmin.exe Using wbadmin.exe to run backups can be tedious. To understand each of the options available for a manual backup in a command prompt window, type wbadmin.exe Start Backup /? and press Enter. To run a manual backup and store it on a remote server share, a few options are required. The data will be stored on the remote server share Download at www.wowebook.com ptg6432687 187 Maintaining Windows Server 2008 Hyper-V Systems 6 \\Server2\NetworkBackup, the C: drive will be backed up, and the companyabc\adminis- trator account will be used to connect to the remote share. To run the manual backup using the preceding criteria, perform the following steps: 1. Log on to the Windows Server 2008 system with an account with administrator privileges. 2. Open a command prompt. 3. Type in wbadmin.exe Start Backup –backuptarget:\\Server2\NetworkBackup –include:c: -user:companyabc\administrator –password:My$3cretPW! and press Enter to start the backup. 4. The backup will process the command and require confirmation to continue. Press Y when prompted and then press Enter to start the backup. 5. The backup progress will be detailed in the command prompt window. After the backup completes, enter exit to close the command prompt window. Maintaining Windows Server 2008 Hyper-V Systems Maintaining Windows 2008 Hyper-V host and guest systems isn’t an easy task for adminis- trators. They must find time in their firefighting efforts to focus and plan for maintenance on the server systems. When maintenance tasks are commonplace in an environment, they can alleviate many of the common firefighting tasks. The processes and procedures for maintaining Hyper-V systems can be separated based on the appropriate time to maintain a particular aspect of a server. Some maintenance proce- dures require daily attention, whereas others might require only quarterly checkups. The maintenance processes and procedures that an organization follows depend strictly on the organization; however, the categories described in the following sections and their corresponding procedures are best practices for organizations of all sizes and varying IT infrastructures. Daily Maintenance Certain maintenance procedures require more attention than others. The procedures that require the most attention are categorized into the daily procedures. Therefore, it is recommended that an administrator take on these procedures each day to ensure system reliability, availability, performance, and security. These procedures are examined in the following three sections. Checking Overall Server Functionality Although checking the overall server health and functionality might seem redundant or elementary, this procedure is critical to keeping the system environment and users working productively. Download at www.wowebook.com ptg6432687 188 6 Managing, Administering, and Maintaining a Hyper-V Host Server Questions that should be addressed during the checking and verification process include the following: . Can users access data on guest sessions? . Are guest session applications responding to client requests? Are there long queues for applications such as inbound email message queues, held or paused print queues on guest sessions running print services, and so on? . Is there an exceptionally long wait to log on (that is, longer than normal)? . Can users access external resources? Verifying That Backups Are Successful To provide a secure and fault-tolerant organization, it is imperative that a successful backup be performed each night. In the event of a host or guest server failure, the admin- istrator might be required to perform a restore from tape. Without a backup each night, the IT organization will be forced to rely on rebuilding the server without the data. Therefore, the administrator should always back up servers so that the IT organization can restore them with minimum downtime in the event of a disaster. Because of the impor- tance of the backups, the first priority of the administrator each day needs to be verifying and maintaining the backup sets. If disaster ever strikes, the administrators want to be confident that a system or entire site can be recovered as quickly as possible. Successful backup mechanisms are imperative to the recovery operation; recoveries are only as good as the most recent backups. Remember on a Hyper-V server that there’s more than just one server to backup: All the guest sessions running on the host server need to be successfully backed up. At any one time, a server with 4, 8, 10, 15, or more guest sessions will require that all guest sessions are checked to confirm the backup of each guest session was successful. Monitoring Event Viewer Event Viewer is used to check the system, security, application, and other logs on a local or remote system. These logs are an invaluable source of information regarding the system. The Event Viewer Overview and Summary page in Server Manager is shown in Figure 6.18. NOTE Checking these logs often helps your understanding of them. There are some events that constantly appear but aren’t significant. Events will begin to look familiar, so you will notice when something is new or amiss in your event logs. All Event Viewer events are categorized either as informational, warning, or error. Some best practices for monitoring event logs include the following: . Understanding the events that are being reported Download at www.wowebook.com ptg6432687 189 Maintaining Windows Server 2008 Hyper-V Systems 6 FIGURE 6.18 The Event Viewer Overview and Summary page. . Setting up a database for archived event logs . Archiving event logs frequently To simplify monitoring hundreds or thousands of generated events each day, the adminis- trator should use the filtering mechanism provided in Event Viewer. Although warnings and errors should take priority, the informational events should be reviewed to track what was happening before the problem occurred. After the administrator reviews the informa- tional events, she can filter out the informational events and view only the warnings and errors. To filter events, follow these steps: 1. Expand the Event View folder in Server Manager. 2. Select the log from which you want to filter events. 3. Right-click the log and select Filter Current Log. 4. In the log Properties window, select the types of events to filter. In this case, select the Critical, Error, and Warning check boxes. 5. Click OK when you’ve finished. Figure 6.19 shows the results of filtering on the system log. You can see in the figure that there are a total of 7,510 events. In the message above the log, the filter is noted and also the 304 resulting number of events. The filter reduced the events by a factor of over 20 to 1. This really helps reduce the volume of data that an administrator needs to review. Download at www.wowebook.com . administrator privileges. 2. Open a command prompt. 3. Type in wbadmin.exe Start Backup –backuptarget: Server2 NetworkBackup –include:c: -user:companyabcadministrator –password:My$3cretPW! and press. the command prompt window. After the backup completes, enter exit to close the command prompt window. Maintaining Windows Server 2008 Hyper -V Systems Maintaining Windows 2008 Hyper -V host and. command prompt window, type cd and press Enter. 3. Type in Start /w ocsetup.exe WindowsServerBackup and press Enter. Restart if prompted to do so. 4. Log on to a different Windows Server 2008,