EBS Virtualized – STEP by STEP – PART 1 – The Disclaimer

OK, so this is the number one question I get “Nick, how do I set up EBS in production for an EBS site with less than 30 users using Hyper-V on a single server?” Now there is already a ton of documentation already on TechNet, but I have to agree, that you need to know where to look to piece it all together.  So here goes – the first part of what will more than likely be several parts creating a virtualized environment. 

It’s worth pointing out that although the technology behind virtualization is relatively simple, there are many, many ways you can get this wrong.  So here’s my caveat – you do stupid things going in, expect stupid things to come out.

I’m also going to make an assumption here that you know how to use Hyper-V and have successfully set it up before.  Just in case here are some quick tips and tricks you might need to know;

Service won’t start – check NX and VT/AMD-V is enabled in bios.  You’ll need to cold reboot for these to enable.

Different Hyper-V icons to what you see in my images?  Download Hyper-V RTM from Windows Update

Everything taking much longer than mine – Get bigger/faster/newer HW

Disk size enormous – I told you fixed disks, remember? ;)

Can get Hyper-V server to connect non-domain joined? Learn Azman (hint)

No finally before I move to part 2, I need to be really clear on this – every customer site is different this is meant to be guidance outlining the considerations I make when deploying EBS virtualized.  As a Partner or IT professional you too need to make such considerations.  Having said that – I know several sites deployed similarly to this and have had great feedback on performance and manageability.

Right, tomorrow we talk about HW sizing.