Khám phá windowns server 2008 - p 24 potx

ptg6432687
210
7 Optimizing the Hyper-V Host Server and Guest Sessions
accurately as possible. They do so by giving you a greater understanding of your Windows
2008 environment. This knowledge and understanding can then be used to reduce time
and costs associated with supporting and designing an infrastructure. The result is that
you gain more control over the environment, reduce maintenance and support costs,
minimize firefighting, and make more efficient use of your time.
Business depends on network systems for a variety of different operations, such as
performing transactions or providing security, so that the business functions as efficiently
as possible. Systems that are underutilized are probably wasting money and are of little
value. On the other hand, systems that are overworked or can’t handle workloads prevent
the business from completing tasks or transactions in a timely manner, might cause a loss
of opportunity, or might keep the users from being productive. Either way, these systems
are typically not much benefit to operating a business. To keep network systems well
tuned for the given workloads, capacity analysis seeks a balance between the resources
available and the workload required of the resources. The balance provides just the right
amount of computing power for given and anticipated workloads.
This concept of balancing resources extends beyond the technical details of server configu-
ration to include issues such as gauging the number of administrators who might be
needed to maintain various systems in your environment. Many of these questions relate
to capacity analysis, and the answers aren’t readily known because they can’t be predicted
with complete accuracy.
To lessen the burden and dispel some of the mysteries of estimating resource require-
ments, capacity analysis provides the processes to guide you. These processes include
vendor guidelines, industry benchmarks, analysis of present system resource utilization,
and more. Through these processes, you’ll gain as much understanding as possible of the
network environment and step away from the compartmentalized or limited understand-
ing of the systems. In turn, you’ll also gain more control over the systems and increase
your chances of successfully maintaining the reliability, serviceability, and availability of
your system.

There is no set or formal way to start your capacity-analysis processes. However, a proven
and effective means to begin to proactively manage your system is to first establish
systemwide policies and procedures. Policies and procedures, discussed shortly, help shape
service levels and user expectations. After these policies and procedures are classified and
defined, you can more easily start characterizing system workloads, which will help gauge
acceptable baseline performance values.
The Benefits of Capacity Analysis and Performance Optimization
The benefits of capacity analysis and performance optimization are almost inconceivable.
Capacity analysis helps define and gauge overall system health by establishing baseline
performance values, and then the analysis provides valuable insight into where the system
is heading. Continuous performance monitoring and optimization will ensure systems are
stable and perform well, reducing support calls from end users, which, in turn, reduces
costs to the organization and helps employees be more productive. It can be used to
Download at www.wowebook.com
ptg6432687
211
Defining Capacity Analysis
7
uncover both current and potential bottlenecks and can also reveal how changing
management activities can affect performance today and tomorrow.
Another benefit of capacity analysis is that it can be applied to small environments and
scale well into enterprise-level systems. The level of effort needed to initially drive the
capacity-analysis processes will vary depending on the size of your environment, geogra-
phy, and political divisions. With a little up-front effort, you’ll save time, expense, and
gain a wealth of knowledge and control over the network environment.
Establishing Policy and Metric Baselines
As mentioned earlier, it is recommended that you first begin defining policies and proce-
dures regarding service levels and objectives. Because each environment varies in design,
you can’t create cookie-cutter policies—you need to tailor them to your particular business
practices and to the environment. In addition, you should strive to set policies that set

user expectations and, more important, help winnow out empirical data.
Essentially, policies and procedures define how the system is supposed to be used—estab-
lishing guidelines to help users understand that the system can’t be used in any way they
see fit. Many benefits are derived from these policies and procedures. For example, in an
environment where policies and procedures are working successfully and where network
performance becomes sluggish, it would be safer to assume that groups of people weren’t
playing a multiuser network game, that several individuals weren’t sending enormous
email attachments to everyone in the global address list, or that a rogue web or FTP server
wasn’t placed on the network. When a host server is running several virtual guest sessions,
the possibility of many various areas of performance problems can arise as guest session
performance impacts the overall host server, with other guest sessions also being impacted.
The network environment is shaped by the business more so than the IT department.
Therefore, it’s equally important to gain an understanding of user expectations and
requirements through interviews, questionnaires, surveys, and more. Examples of policies
and procedures that you can implement in your environment pertaining to end users
include the following:
. Email message size, including attachments, can’t exceed 10MB.
. Beta software, freeware, and shareware can be installed only on test equipment (that
is, not on client machines or servers in the production environment).
. All computing resources are for business use only. (In other words, no gaming or
personal use of computers is allowed.)
. Only business-related and approved applications will be supported and allowed on
the network.
. All home directories will be limited in size (for example, 500MB) per user.
. Users must either fill out the technical support Outlook form or request assistance
through the advertised help desk phone number.
Download at www.wowebook.com
ptg6432687
212
7 Optimizing the Hyper-V Host Server and Guest Sessions

Policies and procedures, however, aren’t just for end users. They can also be established
and applied to IT personnel. In this scenario, policies and procedures can serve as guide-
lines for technical issues, rules of engagement, or an internal set of rules to abide by. The
following list provides some examples of policies and procedures that might be applied to
the IT department:
. System backups must include system state data and should be completed by 5:00
a.m. each workday and restores should be tested frequently for accuracy and disaster
preparedness.
. Routine system maintenance should be performed only outside of normal business
hours (for example, weekdays between 8:00 p.m. and 12:00 a.m. or on weekends).
. Basic technical support requests should be attended to within 2 business days.
. Priority technical support requests should be attended to within 4 hours of the request.
. Any planned downtime for servers should follow a change-control process and must
be approved by the IT director at least 1 week in advance with a 5-day lead time pro-
vided to those impacted by the change.
Benchmark Baselines
If you’ve begun defining policies and procedures, you’re already cutting down the number
of immeasurable variables and amount of empirical data that challenge your decision-
making process. The next step to prepare for capacity analysis is to begin gathering base-
line performance values. The Microsoft Baseline Security Analyzer (MBSA) is an example of
a tool that performs a security compliance scan against a predefined baseline.
Baselines give you a starting point with which you can compare results. For the most part,
determining baseline performance levels involves working with hard numbers that repre-
sent the health of a system. On the other hand, a few variables coincide with the statisti-
cal representations, such as workload characterization, vendor requirements or
recommendations, industry-recognized benchmarks, and the data that you collect.
Workload Characterization
Workloads are defined by how processes or tasks are grouped, the resources they require,
and the type of work being performed. Examples of how workloads can be characterized
include departmental functions, time of day, the type of processing required (such as batch

or real time), companywide functions (such as payroll), volume of work, and much more.
It is unlikely that each system in your environment is a separate entity that has its own
workload characterization. Most, if not all, network environments have systems that
depend on other systems or are even intertwined among different workloads. This makes
workload characterization difficult at best.
So, why is workload characterization so important? Identifying system workloads allows
you to determine the appropriate resource requirements for each of them. This way, you
Download at www.wowebook.com
ptg6432687
213
Defining Capacity Analysis
7
TABLE 7.1 Organizations That Provide Benchmarks
Company/Organization
Name Web Address
The Tolly Group www.tollygroup.com
Transaction Processing www.tpc.org/
Computer Measurement
Group
www.cmg.org/
can properly plan the resources according to the performance levels the workloads expect
and demand.
Benchmarks
Benchmarks are a means to measure the performance of a variety of products, including
operating systems, nearly all computer components, and even entire systems. Many
companies rely on benchmarks to gain competitive advantage because so many profes-
sionals rely on them to help determine what’s appropriate for their network environment.
As you would suspect, Sales and Marketing departments all too often exploit the bench-
mark results to sway IT professionals over their way. For this reason, it’s important to
investigate the benchmark results and the companies or organizations that produced the

results. Vendors, for the most part, are honest with the results; but it’s always a good idea
to check with other sources, especially if the results are suspicious. For example, if a
vendor has supplied benchmarks for a particular product, check to make sure that the
benchmarks are consistent with other benchmarks produced by third-party organizations
(such as magazines, benchmark organizations, and in-house testing labs). If none are avail-
able, try to gain insight from other IT professionals or run benchmarks on the product
yourself before implementing it in production.
Although some suspicion might arise from benchmarks because of the sales and marketing
techniques, the real purpose of benchmarks is to point out the performance levels that
you can expect when using the product. Benchmarks can be extremely beneficial for deci-
sion making, but they shouldn’t be your sole source for evaluating and measuring perfor-
mance. Use the benchmark results only as a guideline or starting point when consulting
benchmark results during capacity analysis. It’s also recommended that you pay close
attention to their interpretation.
Table 7.1 lists companies or organizations that provide benchmark statistics and bench-
mark-related information, and some also offer tools for evaluating product performance.
Download at www.wowebook.com
ptg6432687
214
7 Optimizing the Hyper-V Host Server and Guest Sessions
NOTE
New from Microsoft is the Microsoft Baseline Configuration Analyzer (MBCA) version
1.0, which is covered in more detail later in this chapter in the section “Microsoft
Baseline Configuration Analyzer (MBCA).” MBCA is a tool that will deliver benchmark
reports generated from baselines and system analysis. MBCA is available as a down-
load from the Microsoft website for both 32- and 64-bit platforms.
Using Capacity-Analysis Tools
Analyzing system capacity and performance requires a handful of tools and the knowledge
to use them properly to obtain valuable data. Windows 2008 includes several tools to
assist with this initiative, and even more are available for download or purchase from

Microsoft. In addition, several other companies also have performance and capacity-analy-
sis solutions available. Some of these tools can even forecast system capacity, depending
on the amount of information they are given.
A number of sizing tools exist from various companies. A sizing tool takes data relative to
the networking environment and returns recommended hardware configurations, usually
in a Microsoft Excel spreadsheet or similar reporting application. An example of one such
tool is the Microsoft Exchange 2007 Sizing and Configuration tool by HP. This tool, avail-
able for download from />121.html, recommends HP servers and hardware configuration based on information
about Exchange 2007, such as the number of mailboxes, volume of mail that will be
migrated, and so on.
As covered in Chapter 3, “Planning, Sizing, and Architecting a Hyper-V Environment,” the
Microsoft Virtualization Solution Accelerator is also an excellent tool that does capacity
analysis of existing physical and virtual server systems in the process of determining the
proper size and capacity of the host server that will manage the guest sessions.
Microsoft also offers several useful utilities that are either inherent to Windows 2008 or
are sold as separate products. Some of these utilities are included with the operating
system, such as Task Manager, Network Monitor, Windows Reliability and Performance
Monitor, and the enhanced Event Viewer. Data collected from these applications can be
exported to other applications, such as Excel or Microsoft Access, for inventory and analy-
sis. Other Microsoft utilities such as System Center Configuration Manager (SCCM) and
System Center Operations Manager (OpsMgr) are sold separately.
Task Manager
The Windows 2008 Task Manager is similar to its Windows 2003 predecessor in that it
offers multifaceted functionality. You can view and monitor processor-, memory-, applica-
tion-, network-, services-, user-, and process-related information in real time for a given
system. This utility is a well-known favorite among IT personnel and is great for getting a
quick view of key system health indicators with the lowest performance overhead.
Download at www.wowebook.com
ptg6432687
215

Using Capacity-Analysis Tools
7
To begin using Task Manager, use any of the following methods:
. Press Ctrl+Shift+Esc.
. Right-click the taskbar and select Task Manager.
. Press Ctrl+Alt+Delete, and then click Task Manager.
When you start Task Manager, you’ll see a screen similar to that shown in Figure 7.1.
The Task Manager window contains the following six tabs:
. Applications—This tab lists the applications that are currently running. You can
start and end applications from this tab.
. Processes—On this tab, you can find performance metric information of the
processes currently running on the system. Sorting the processes by CPU or memory
usage will reveal which processes are consuming the most system resources.
. Services—New to Windows Server 2008 and Windows Vista is the Services tab in
Task Manager. As shown in Figure 7.1, administrators can now see what services are
running without having to load Computer Management or the Services
Management Console (services.msc) separately.
. Performance—This tab can be a graphical or tabular representation of key system
parameters such as kernel usage, paging, CPU cycles, and more (in real time).
FIGURE 7.1 Services tab in the Windows Server 2008 Task Manager.
Download at www.wowebook.com
ptg6432687
216
7 Optimizing the Hyper-V Host Server and Guest Sessions
FIGURE 7.2 Windows Server 2008 Task Manager.
. Networking—This tab displays the network traffic coming to and from the machine.
The displayed network usage metric is a percentage of total available network capac-
ity for a particular adapter.
. Users—This tab displays users who are currently logged on to the system.
In addition to the Task Manager tabs, the Task Manager is, by default, configured with a

status bar at the bottom of the window. This status bar, shown in Figure 7.2, displays the
number of running processes, CPU utilization percentage, and the amount of memory
currently being used.
As you can see, Task Manager presents a variety of valuable real-time performance infor-
mation. This tool proves particularly useful for determining what processes or applications
are problematic and gives you an overall picture of system health with quick access to
terminate applications or processes or to identify potential bottlenecks.
There are limitations, however, which prevent it from becoming a useful tool for long-
term or historical analysis. For example, Task Manager can’t store collected performance
information for view later, it is capable of monitoring only certain aspects of the system’s
health, and the information that is displayed pertains only to the local machine. For these
reasons alone, Task Manager doesn’t make a prime candidate for capacity planning.
Network Monitor
Network Monitor is a crucial tool that system administrators should have in their arsenal.
Network Monitor, now in its third version, has been overhauled to support the new
networking changes introduced with both Windows 2008 and Windows Vista. Network
Download at www.wowebook.com
ptg6432687
217
Using Capacity-Analysis Tools
7
FIGURE 7.3 The Network Monitor 3.1 interface.
Monitor 3.1 includes several enhancements for capturing network traffic and parsing the
captured data for use in troubleshooting, capacity analysis, and performance tuning. The
next few sections cover using Network Monitor to capture network traffic between two
computers, on a wireless connection, over remote-access connections, how to analyze
captured data, and how to parse captured data for analysis. Network Monitor 3.1, shown
in Figure 7.3, can be downloaded from the System Tools section in the Microsoft
Download Center at www.microsoft.com/downloads/.
NOTE

The Network Monitor TechNet blog located at con-
tains a wealth of information about Network Monitor, capturing, and analyzing data.
NOTE
Network Monitor 3.1 is available in 32-bit and 64-bit versions and can run on Windows
Server 2008, Windows Server 2003, Windows Vista, and Windows XP systems.
What’s New in Network Monitor 3.1
Network Monitor 3.1 expands on the capabilities of Network Monitor 3.0 by including
several more features and fixes for issues that were discovered in the 3.0 version. Network
Monitor 3.1 is very flexible and can even stop a capture based on an event log entry in
Event Viewer.
Download at www.wowebook.com
ptg6432687
218
7 Optimizing the Hyper-V Host Server and Guest Sessions
Network Monitor 3.0 included the following:
. An optimized interface that included network conversations and an expandable tree
view of frames for the conversations
. A real-time display and updating of captures
. The ability to capture traffic on multiple network cards simultaneously
. The ability to run multiple capture sessions simultaneously
. A script-based protocol parser language
. Support for Windows Vista, Windows Server 2008, Windows XP, and Windows
Server 2003 on 32- or 64-bit platforms
Network Monitor 3.1 includes the following new features:
. The ability to capture wireless traffic, scan one or all wireless channels supported by
the network card, and view signal strength and transfer speed of the connection
. The ability to trace traffic inside of a Windows Vista virtual private network (VPN)
tunnel by capturing remote-access server (RAS) traffic
. The ability to right-click in the Frame Summary pane and click Add to Filter
. Support for the Windows Update service by periodically checking for updates to the

Network Monitor program
. A redesigned filter toolbar
. A redesigned engine for supporting more protocol schemes
. New public parsers such as ip1394, ipcp, PPPoE, and more
. Multiple fixes to known issues and faster parser loading
Using Network Monitor 3.1
Before you can start using the advanced features of Network Monitor, analyzing captured
data, and identifying potential issues and bottlenecks, a basic understanding of Network
Monitor and how it works is necessary.
To capture network traffic, install Network Monitor 3.1 and complete the following steps:
1. Run Network Monitor (Start, All Programs, Microsoft Network Monitor 3.1,
Microsoft Network Monitor 3.1).
2. Click the Create a New Capture Tab button on the left.
3. Click the Play button or press F10 to start capturing traffic.
To apply filters to a captured stream of information, complete the following steps:
1. With a capture running and the tab selected, as shown in Figure 7.4, click the Filter
menu in the menu bar at the top of the Network Monitor program.
Download at www.wowebook.com
ptg6432687
219
Using Capacity-Analysis Tools
7
FIGURE 7.4 Capture tab in Network Monitor 3.1.
a. To create a capture filter—Click Capture Filter, Load Filter, Standard Filters to
select a preconfigured filter that will capture traffic relative to a specific item
such as DNS.
b. To create a display filter—Click Display Filter, Load Filter, Standard Filters to
select a preconfigured filter that will only display information relative to a
specific item such as DNS from captured data.
c. To create a color filter—Click Color Filter, Load Filter, Standard Filters to

apply a color effect to specific items such as DNS.
2. After a filter has been added, it must be applied. Filters can be applied by clicking
the Apply button in the Capture Filter pane, pressing the Ctrl+Enter keys simultane-
ously, or clicking Apply in the Filter menu for the added filter.
3. Apply the filters by clicking the Filter menu at the top of the Network Monitor
program.
a. To apply a capture filter, highlight Capture Filter, and click Apply Filter.
b. To apply a display filter, highlight Display Filter, and click Apply Filter.
c. To add a color filter, click Color Filter, click Add, add an expression (for exam-
ple, RDP or 192.168.1.5), and format the font for your preference. Click OK,
and click OK again to apply the filter and close the Color Filter window.
Alternatively, a capture or display filter can be applied by right-clicking an item in the
Frame Summary pane and selecting either Copy Cell as Filter or Add Cell to Display Filter,
Download at www.wowebook.com