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European Windows 2012 Hosting - Netherlands :: How to Enable and monitor ASP.NET App Suspend on Windows Server 2012 R2

clock October 16, 2013 08:43 by author Scott

This is great feature in Windows Server 2012 and I found this interesting article from MSDN about App Suspend on Windows Server 2012. So, I decide to copy this article from msdn. Thanks to msdn.

App Suspend is a new hosting configuration in Internet Information Services (IIS) in Windows Server 2012 R2. The only requirement is that your app is running on the .NET Framework 4.5.1, which comes with Windows Server 2012 R2. No code changes are required. It’s literally as simple as the flip of a switch. Let’s take a look at that switch.

How to enable ASP.NET App Suspend

Enabling ASP.NET App suspend is pretty easy, in Internet Information Services Manager. As I wrote earlier, this setting is set on an app pool basis. Here’s what you need to do.

Open the IIS Manager

Right-click on an app pool – you’ll see the context menu

Select “Advanced Settings …”

You will see the Advanced Settings dialog. The “Idle Time-out” settings are the important ones to look at for this scenario, particularly the “Idle Time-out Action”. The default for that setting is terminate.

Change the “Idle Time-out Action” to Suspend, as you see below. Your app pool is now configured for ASP.NET App Suspend.

You will probably want to test out this feature. You could wait the entire 20 minutes, however, I suggest that you temporarily set the time-out to 1 minute, for testing purposes. Do remember to switch it back.

Monitoring site suspension

You can validate that an app was suspended in the event viewer, in the Application event log. Search for event 2310. You can see an example event, below.

Done.



European Windows 2012 Hosting - France :: Look Further Windows 2012 Powershell 3.0

clock September 24, 2013 08:34 by author Scott

Now that Windows 8 and Windows Server 2012 is available, the same is true for Windows PowerShell 3.0 since it is included in the operating system. Windows PowerShell will also be available for down level operating systems (Windows 7, Windows Server 2008 and Windows Server 2008 R2) shortly, as part of the Windows Management Framework (WMF). In addition to PowerShell, new versions of Windows Management Instrumentation (WMI) and Windows Remote Management (WinRM) is included in the WMF.

What is new?

PowerShell 2.0 brought a whole set of new features including background jobs, remoting and the PowerShell ISE. In PowerShell 3.0 there have been made a great number to these features as well as many new ones. I will go through some of the major news:

Workflows – Based on the Windows Workflow Foundation the PowerShell team have brought workflows into PowerShell. A workflow is a sequence of automated steps or so called activities which performs tasks or receives data from managed devices. This makes it possible for IT Professionals to perform automated tasks against a wide variety of devices, for example software installation. A practical example is the installation and configuration of a Windows Server Failover Cluster, where installation and configuration can be orchestrated from a workflow. Among the feature set of a workflow is the ability to suspend and resume execution, no matter if the reason is planned or a temporary network outage. You can see examples and read more about this feature in this article on the PowerShell team blog.

Enhancements to PowerShell Remoting - Robust sessions is a new feature in PowerShell Remoting which makes it possible for a PowerShell Remoting session, a so-called “PSSession”, to survive a temporary network outage. Delegated administration is another new feature in remoting, where a RunAsAccount can be configured on a remoting endpoint. This makes it possible to delegate tasks to for example helpdesk user, without needing to delegate tasks on the backbone application itself.

Simplified syntax – Especially for beginners, the syntax for various parts of PowerShell might be hard to remember and understand. An example of this is the syntax for the –FilterScript parameter of Where-Object and the –Process parameter of Foreach-Object, which both accepts a so-called script block. In version 1.0 and 2.0 of PowerShell we had to use the $_.propertyname syntax inside this scriptblock. For example Get-Service | Where-Object {$_.Status –eq ‘Running’}. In version 3.0, this still works, but there is an alternate more user friendly syntax as well: Get-Service | Where-Object Status –eq ‘Running’. Here we can see that we did not have to use the curly brackets or the $_. syntax. You should note that you have to use the existing syntax if you are doing more than one comparison, however, this makes it much easier for beginners who are likely to do a single comparison in the beginning. Also experienced users will enjoy this feature since it requires less typing.

More user friendly – A lot of enhancements have been made to make PowerShell more user friendly. A common mistake for new users is not loading the required module for the cmdlet they want to run. For example, if you run Get-ADUser without first running Import-Module ActiveDirectory, you would get an error message stating that Get-ADUser is not recognized. In PowerShell 3.0 there is a new feature called module autoloading, which automatically loads the required module for the cmdlet which is being run. Another features in terms of user friendliness is the new cmdlet Show-Command, as well as the Intellisense feature in PowerShell ISE. You can read more about these two features in this and this article on the PowerShell team blog.

Windows PowerShell Web Service – makes it possible to expose a set of PowerShell cmdlets as a Restful Endpoint via OData (Open Data Protocol). This makes it possible to run PowerShell cmdlets from both Windows and non-Windows devices. Note that this feature is more targeted against advanced users and developers.

Windows PowerShell Web Access – If you have used Microsoft Exchange Server`s webmail functionality, OWA, this feature will look familiar. The sign in page for PowerShell Web Access looks very similar to the OWA sign in page. When logged in, you will be presented with a PowerShell session. This makes it easy to use PowerShell both from a web browser on your computer as well as from mobile devices such as an Iphone or Windows Phone. Note that this feature requires Windows Server 2012. You can find instructions on how to configure this feature in this article on Microsoft TechNet.

Updateable help – Until PowerShell 3.0 the help files that is parsed when you are using the Get-Help cmdlet has been a part of the installation. Updating these files have not been possible, since rolling out help files through the channels for updating the operatingsystem (Windows Update, WSUS) could not be justified. Due to this reason, it was not possible for the PowerShell team to correct errors and enhance the help files after the product had shipped. To overcome this limitation, a new feature named updateable help has been added in version 3.0. There is a new cmdlet called Update-Help you can execute in order to update the help files. If you need to download the files in order to bring them over to a computer not connected to the internet you can use the Save-Help cmdlet. You can read more about updateable help in this article by PowerShell MVP Don Jones.

Microsoft Script Explorer – Technically this is not a part of PowerShell 3.0, but rather a standalone download released in the same timeframe as PowerShell 3.0. Using Script Explorer you can search for scripts and other resources on both Microsoft TechNet as well as 3rd party repositories and local UNC-paths, for example a company repository. Script Explorer can either be run as a standalone application or integrated into the PowerShell ISE as an add-on. By integrating it to the ISE you can copy scripts you find directly in to the editor. Script Explorer will also support Windows PowerShell 2.0.

In addition to the above mentioned features, there has been made a great number of bug fixes and enhancements based on feedback from Microsoft Connect.



European Windows 2012 Hosting - Amsterdam :: Creating Storage Pool Windows Server 2012

clock August 15, 2013 07:58 by author Scott

Storage Spaces, the Windows Server 2012 storage subsystem, is a storage virtualization platform that allows fast and easy provisioning of storage pools, and the virtual hard disks that they host.

This article provides an in depth look at how to create a storage pool on Windows Server 2012, using both the PowerShell Cmdlets and the Storage Manager GUI tools.

Before you can create a storage pool on your Windows Server 2012 computer, you need to add some storage to it. This can be either SAS or SATA drives, installed either internally or externally, such as a JBOD or a SAN array.

Here are the steps to create a storage pool from the Management GUI

1. Open Server Manager, then select “File and Storage Services.”

2. Select “Storage Pools” from the left side menu.

Then select “New Storage Pool” from the Tasks actions list.

3. Click Next on the “Before you begin” dialog.

4. Name your storage pool.

5. Select physical drives to add to the storage pool.

6. Click “Create” on the confirmation dialog box. If you want to create a Virtual Disk immediately, there is a checkbox to bring up the New Virtual Disk wizard on the results screen. Click “Close” to complete the storage pool.

Now, the next step we need to create a storage pool with powershell

As seen in the management GUI, there is not much information that is required to create a storage pool.

The three things that are required are:

1. The storage pool name
2. Which disks to use to create the pool
3. The storage subsystem (Storage Spaces)

The cmdlet we use to create the storage pool is New-StoragePool. While the only three things that are required are name, disks, and subsystem, New-StoragePool also provides some other more advanced features.

The name of the storage pool will be passed through the “FriendlyName” parameter.

The disks to create the storage pool on will be passed into the New-StoragePool in the “PhysicalDisks” parameter. Which disks are available is found by using the Get-PhysicalDisk cmdlet, and can be made even easier using the “-IsPooled” parameter (which will either provide all of the disks that are already pooled, or if set to false will return all of the disks not already in a pool. The Get-PhysicalDisk cmdlet can be run as part of the –PhysicalDisk parameter, or can be run previously and the results stored in a variable. If creating a script that will be reused, it’s advisable to use a variable, so that it is easier to read and understand.

“#Inline, as typed in at the console (incomplete – it would still need the storage subsystem)

New-StoragePool –PhysicalDisk (Get-PhysicalDisk –IsPooled $false) –FriendlyName “Pool1”

#Easier to read and understand in a saved script

$disks = Get-PhysicalDisk –IsPooled $false

New-StoragePool –PhysicalDisk $disks –FriendlyName “Pool1”

The storage subsystem in this case is looking for the “Storage Spaces” instance of storage subsystem. It is returned in the Get-StorageSubsystem cmdlet. In the New-StoragePool cmdlet, it is passed in as either the unique ID, the name, or the friendly name of the subsystem. For simplicity, it is helpful that New-StoragePool accepts the storage subsystem to create the storage pool on through the pipeline.

#This uses the $env:computername environment variable to provide the Storage Spaces subsystem.
#If only one subsystem is installed on the system

$Disks = Get-PhysicalDisk –IsPooled $false

Get-StorageSubsystem –FriendlyName “Storage Spaces on$env:computername” | `

New-StoragePool –Friendlyname “Pool1” –PhysicalDisk $Disks

That is everything that is needed to create a basic storage pool. However, these optional parameters for New-StoragePool may provide some benefit.

ResiliencySettingsNameDefault – specify the default resiliency on new Storage Spaces created on the storage pool.
ProvisioningTypeDefault – specify the default provisioning type for new Storage Spaces created on the storage pool.
IsEnclosureAware – Used if the enclosure containing the disks supports SCSI Enclosure Services. SCSI Enclosure Services provides extra information such as slot location, and LEDs on the enclosure.

To take advantage of Storage Spaces, the storage virtualization technology in Windows Server 2012, you first need to add storage to your server. Once the storage has been added, it needs to be grouped together in storage pools. The storage pools are used to store the virtual hard drives on them.

Create Storage Pools with the Management GUI and PowerShell

Storage pools can be created either through the management GUI or through PowerShell. The management GUI is easier if you are not familiar with the commands used to create storage pools. However, once familiar with the commands, PowerShell becomes easier and faster to create storage pools.

To use the management GUI for creating storage pools, you access "Storage and File Services" from Server Manager. From there, you can access the storage pools, and can take actions on them such as create new storage pools, delete storage pools, or rename them. There are fewer options available for creating storage pools from the management GUI. For example, you cannot specify the default VHD provisioning type on the storage pool when it’s created with the management GUI.

To use PowerShell for creating the storage pools, you need to use three cmdlets:

- First, you need to get the storage subsystem using the get-storagesubsystem cmdlet.
- Second, you need to find the disks you will use to create the storage pool using the get-physicaldisk cmdlet.
- Finally, you will use the storage subsystem and the physical disks together as parameters in the new-storagepool cmdlet.

You can use more options for creating the storage pools by using PowerShell, and you can also save the script to use on multiple systems if needed.

Now that you've added the storage pools to your Windows Server 2012, you'll be ready to add storage spaces onto them and you'll officially be using storage virtualization!



European Windows 2012 Hosting - Amsterdam :: Clustered Shared Volumes (2.0) in Windows Server 2012

clock August 5, 2013 12:09 by author Scott

Clustered Shared Volumes was first introduced in Windows Server 2008 R2, and was almost as popular as sliced bread by the time. A great enhancement, and it was solely meant for Hyper-V virtual machines.

Instead of using a dedicated LUN for each VM (so that you could migrate them between cluster nodes without taking down the other VMs on the same LUN) as in Windows Server 2008, you had now the possibility to store multiple VMs on the same LUN by converting it to CSV.

CSV is a distributed file access solution that let multiple nodes in a cluster to access the same file system simultaneously.

This means that many VMs can share the same volume, while you can failover, live migrate and move VMs without affecting the other virtual machines. This leads to better utilization of your storage since you don’t have to place VMs on separate disks, and the CSV’s are not depending in disk letters so you can scale this configuration out, if you’d like.

What’s the latest and greatest related to CSV 2.0:

- Windows Server 2012 has brought some changes to the architecture, so there’s now a new NTFS compatible file system, which is called CSVFS. This means that applications running on a CSV are able to discover this, and leverage this. But still, the underlying file system is NTFS.

- BitLocker Support is added to the list, which means you can secure your CSVs on a remote location. The Cluster Name Object is used as the identity to decryption and you should include this in every cluster deployment you are doing, because the performance penalty are less than 1%.

- Direct I/O for data access which gives enhancements for virtual machine creation and copy operations.

- Support for other roles than Virtual Machines. There’s an entirely new story around SMB in Windows Server 2012, and CSV is also affected by this. You can now put a SMB file share on top of your CSVs, which makes it easier to scale out your cluster storage, to share a single CSV among several clusters, where they will access their shares instead of volumes. Just a reminder: You can run Hyper-V virtual machines from a SMB file share in Windows Server 2012. This requires that both the server and the client is using SMB 3.0.

- The marriage to Active Directory has come to an end. External authentication dependencies, which you would run into if you started your cluster without an available AD is now removed. This gives us an easier setup of clusters, with less trouble and dependencies.

- File backup by supporting requestors that’s running Windows Server 2008 R2 or 2012. You can use application consistent and crash consistent VSS snapshots.

- SMB support with multichannel and direct. CSV traffic can now stream across multiple networks in the clusters and utilize the performance in your NICs that supports RDMA.

- Integration with storage spaces (new in Windows Server 2012) so that you can leverage your cheap disks (just a bunch of disks, JBOD) in a cluster environment

- Maintenance by scanning and repairing volumes with no downtime

Although there’s several enhancement for VM mobility in 2012, where you can move VMs without shared storage, there are still significant benefits by clustering your Hyper-V hosts.

 



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HostForLIFE.eu is European Windows Hosting Provider which focuses on Windows Platform only. We deliver on-demand hosting solutions including Shared hosting, Reseller Hosting, Cloud Hosting, Dedicated Servers, and IT as a Service for companies of all sizes.

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