Last week I had a Windows 7 planning meeting with one of our clients and like in any other Windows 7 related meeting that i have had in the past months with other customers, the topic about XP Mode was brought up. It appears that when speaking about application compatibility, first thing people think of is XP Mode. To be honest I don’t blame them, because when XP Mode was first introduced in April 2009 during the Windows 7 Beta phase it was promoted as a possible workaround for Application Compatibility issues and therefore got a lot of attention. The message almost sounded like “There is no barrier to move to Windows 7 because if you run into an application compatibility issue, you can always use XP Mode”. So what’s your point? Well, while the statement as such is absolutely true, there are a few things to consider when we speak about computers that run in an enterprise environment.
What is XP Mode?
Windows Virtual PC is the latest Microsoft virtualization technology for Windows 7. It is the runtime engine for Windows XP Mode to provide a virtual Windows environment for Windows 7. With Windows Virtual PC, Windows XP Mode applications can be seen and accessed from a Windows 7 desktop.
So in simple words, with XP Mode one can run the Windows XP operating system in a virtualized environment on top of Windows 7
System Requirements
The first version of XP mode required that the hardware supported hardware assisted virtualization (HAV), but that requirement was removed in March 2010 allowing more users to use Windows XP Mode. The hardware therefore should at least meet the Windows 7 system requirements plus an additional 512 MB – 1 GB of memory and 5-15 GB disk space for the Virtual OS.
Installation – Deployment
If only needed on a handful of clients Windows XP mode can be installed manually by a systems administrator through the following website http://www.microsoft.com/windows/virtual-pc/download.aspx which will install Windows Virtual PC and then the XP Mode Virtual Machine. But if more than just a few installations are needed, companies should consider preparing an automated process for which Microsoft has provided a guide and sample scripts that can be downloaded from here. When deploying XP mode either the standard Windows XP Service Pack 3 image provided by Microsoft or a customized Windows XP Service Pack 3 image can be used.
Applications that run in XP Mode
Applications that need to run in XP Mode can be made available either by having them pre-installed within a customized image or by installing them through Software Distribution. Of course it would also be possible to install applications manually on a per VM basis, but this is a time consuming task. When using Software Distribution, companies must take into account that also the virtual OS will consume a license.
Antivirus and Security Updates
Because the virtual OS has also access to a companies IT infrastructure (users will want to print and access data from their applications running in XP Mode), Antivirus protection and security updates must be taken into account as well. Companies will have to carefully look at the licensing aspects because usually most products are licensed on a per installed operating system basis. However some vendors offer special agreements for the use of XP Mode. McAfee allows the use of VirusScan Enterprise on both Windows 7 and XP Mode on one computer and counts this as one license, however for the use of the McAfee Host Intrusion Protection software a single license can only be used either for Windows 7 or Windows XP Mode. If both clients need HIPS, two licenses are needed. (McAfee source).
To keep the Windows XP VM up to date with operating system security patches, companies should consider to either patch these clients through their Software Distribution Patch Management infrastructure or configure these clients to directly access Windows update or an internal WSUS server and automatically install patches as they become available respectively become approved by the system administrator. Again the number of deployed clients with XP Mode enabled will dictate the best dictate the best and most efficient strategy.
Will this work out?
If the use of XP Mode is only considered for a small number of clients, the effort of manually installing XP mode or preparing an automated deployment process is acceptable, however if a company plans to deploy XP Mode on several hundreds of clients and in addition plans to use it for a longer period of time they should look at more scalable solutions such as Microsoft Enterprise Desktop Virtualization (MED-V). MED-V provides a more centralized approach for deploying and managing virtual images. However only companies that have access to MDOP which is available through the Software Assurance program can use MED-V.
Running a virtualized Windows XP on top of Windows 7 is probably the easiest way to solve compatibility issues, however companies should not consider the use of XP Mode as a way to get around the effort of testing and remediating their applications for the use with Windows 7. XP Mode should be seen as a short term temporary solution removing potential road blocks for the deployment of Windows 7. In the long run remote desktop virtualization or application virtualization might be a better option.
The first time I became familiar with the term Bring Your Own was when I traveled through Australia with my wife and oldest son back in the year 2000. It basically means that you are allowed to bring your own bottle of wine to a restaurant and just pay a corkage fee.
Nowadays we hear a lot about companies that consider implementing a BYOC policy meaning that they allow their employees to bring their own computer to work. The idea behind this concept is that companies intend to save money by allowing their users to use their own personal computer instead of having to provide them with a company owned device. In simple words, companies give their employees some money and tell them: Go buy yourself a PC with a 3 year warranty contract, if you have a problem later, fix it yourself.
Now I see some of you thinking No Way, not in my company!. I agree that there is a kind of a contradiction here because during the past 10 years we have all learned that we can only reduce costs by driving standardization meaning keep the number of different hardware as low as possible and have a common configuration across all managed clients. The BYOC approach appears to to move into the opposite direction.
So is this a good thing or not? To be honest at this stage I am neither for or against it. As a Technology Consultant who works within the desktop management space for many large global companies I see quite some challenges and threads, but that doesn’t mean that I am against the concept as such. I rather think it’s the same as with Virtualization, one size doesn’t fit all, meaning that for some companies or certain user groups the BYOC approach might well fit but definitely not for their entire workforce.
Although BYOC is not a Technology, If we take Gartner’s Hype Cycle, I believe we are currently at Stage 1 – Technology Trigger.
Many people are talking about BYOC, some even have serious plans to move towards the BYOC concept, but we haven’t seen many large companies that have implemented it, most likely because there are quite some things to consider. I’ll speak more about these in Bring Your Own Computer – Part 2.
At present when searching for BYOC information on the web, you will automatically hit on Citrix and Intel who both have or are running BYOC pilots. More information about the Citrix BYOC initiative can be found here and here. Citrix has been quite smart in taking the lead in the BYOC space, because they do provide the Technology that companies will need to consider when applying the BYOC concept. With Citrix XenApp or XenDesktop you can connect with any device to the corporate network but still get access to all centrally managed applications. Have a look at my other blog post XenApp Demos from the Cloiud and you will see how that works.
Now this is a kind of interesting because in the early days of VDI it was often seen as an ultimate cost saver, but meanwhile we have learned that this isn’t always the case, again one size doesn’t fit all. According to Brian Madden looking at the Hype Cycle VDI today is at Stage 3 – Trough of Disillusionment. If we take into account how long it took VDI to get to stage 3, I’m sure it will take a while until we see BYOC widely implemented. Nevertheless I’m almost certain BYOC is something we’ll see more often in the near future and my advice is that even if you have the biggest objections or concerns with the BYOC concept start thinking of how you would handle it within your environment.
In these days we hear a lot about Desktop Virtualization and Application Virtualization. Last week-end someone asked me what I was currently doing and I told him that beside my normal day job, I am doing a number of Citrix trainings. Now let me mention that this person is just a regular user who doesn’t know anything about managing an Enterprise IT infrastructure, leave alone he would understand what Virtualization technology is about. Heck… how to explain Application Virtualization, Streaming, VDI to an ordinary mortal?
Well here we go, Citrix has a Test Drive for Citrix XenApp, you can access it through http://citrixcloud.net/. Just click on one of the Devices and register for a demo account, once submitted you will receive almost instantly a demo account and URL to connect to the Citrix XenApp Demo.
Once you have installed the Citrix Plug-in you’re ready to launch the Demo.
When launching Microsoft Word for the first time it took approx. 42 seconds to start it. Once started, i left Word open and launched Microsoft Excel and Microsoft Power Point, both started within approximately 5 seconds. I then closed all the Applications again and launched Excel, that took just 25 seconds to start. I left it open and launched Powerpoint and Word again, both opened within 5-10 seconds.
Below a screenshot from Power Point. It integrates seamlessly, you actually wouldn’t notice that the application isn’t executed locally.
if you haven’t seen XenApp in action, I definitely recommend you give this a try.
I had the pleasure to look at the XenClient a few months ago when it was still under development, but now anyone can download it from the XenClient Citrix web site. Never heard of XenClient before? Well then watch the video, I’m sure one or the other is going to like this.
XP-More is a tool that helps manage Windows 7 Virtual Machines (XP Mode and any other). Specifically, it makes duplication of VMs a no brainer – no more raw XML editing and manually duplicating files.
More Information and download details can be found on the CodePlex XP-More project page
Often people think that App-V is is an Application Compatibility Solution, it’s not. Chris Jackson has written an excellent article where he explains this in detail. Read the entire article here
Learn how to configure App-V; create, publish, and update virtual applications; and create and manage policies for virtual applicationss. The videos can be downloaded from here
I’m just about to expand my knowledge a bit around App-V. I haven’t done any hands-on yet, because I usually first focus on gathering all the useful resources available on the net, and then start reading these. By doing so, I found these fantastic videos on The Blogcast Repository.
By the way, if you are not familiar with The Blogcast Repository but like video based trainings, have a look at the Repository, there is lots of other Microsoft related Technology training material there.
As I wrote in my earlier post this month, VMWare published a Release Candidate for VMWare Workstation 7. One of the most interesting new features (to me) is the Pause feature that is described as following:
The pause feature causes a virtual machine to cease operation temporarily, without powering off or suspending. Use the pause feature when a virtual machine is engaged in an lengthy, processor-intensive activity that prevents you from using your computer to do a more immediate task.
VMWare Guest in Pause Mode
For those of you that have been using VMWare before, you probably know that situation where nothing goes anymore on your system because your 1 or 2 or even more VM’s consume all of your system resources. Well that’s exactly where the Pause feature will be of great help.
Note The Pause Feature does only release CPU usage, not Memory. The graph below shows the Host system CPU utilization of a Windows 7 64 bit client, where a VM Guest, running on Windows 7.
To simulate CPU load within the Guest OS , i simply executed a dir c:\*.* /s command and I then “paused” and “re-enabled” the VM twice after a few seconds.
Windows Virtual PC requires that your hardware supports hardware-assisted virtualization. There are a number of third party utilities around already, but now Microsoft released one as well. It’s called the Hardware-Assisted Virtualization Detection Tool and can be downloaded from here
If you launch the tool manually it will tell you if your system meets the requirements for running Windows Virtual PC or not, quite similar as the Securable utility I wrote about in the Detect XP Mode Support article.
But since I usually work in enterprise environments, I’m more interested in command line automation than in visual user interfaces, so let’s see what we have here.
When downloading the tool you get the havdetectiontool.exe, which is a self extracting executable. So the next step is to extract the content which we do by running the havdetectiontool.exe /x command which will prompt you for a location where to store the content. Once extracted you will see a havtoollauncher.exe and a subdirectory called Sources that contains the havtool executables for both 32 and 64 bit clients.
I was not able to find any command line options for the havtoollauncher.exe itself, so i moved on the to the 32 bit version of the havtool.exe. And yes, indeed the tool does provide command line options, Hura!
Executing the following command will parse the output into a log file:
havtool /log havresult.txt /q
Content of havresult.txt
System CPU doesn’t support Hardware Assisted Virtualization. BIOS Vendor : Hewlett-Packard BIOS Version : F.22 System Manufacturer : Hewlett-Packard Final returnValue = 1
Executing the following commands will set the result into the Errorlevel variable and then create a new System Variable called HAV and sets its value with the Return code.
havtool /q SETX /M HAV %ERRORLEVEL%
Setting a system variable is just one example, you could also write a custom registry key or log file. Once you have marked your system with the result, you can use your system management software such as SCCM 2007 to collect the data and create your custom reporting.
if you have watched the Windows XP Mode IT Pro Deployment Video, you might be interested in the scripts they’ve used to automatically install XP Mode and create virtual machines. You can download them from here
When talking about Hyper-V with customers or colleagues, I notice that there is quite some confusion around the definition of Hyper-V Server and Windows Server 2008 with Hyper-V.
Hyper-V Server 2008 / 2008-R2 The Hyper-V Server is a stand-alone product, which contains only the Windows Hypervisor, Windows Server driver model and virtualization components. What’s important to know, the Hyper-V Server comes for FREE!.
No, Hyper-V Server is not just Windows Server Core + Hyper-V, the only thing this server is designed for is virtualization and therefore does not contain any other server roles.
Windows Server 2008 / 2008-R2 with Hyper-V Here Hyper-V is an enabled server role running on Windows Server 2008 (64 bit) or Windows Server 2008 R2 (note that Server 2008 R2 only comes in 64 bit).
The below table provides an overview of the Hyper-V Server and Windows Server products.
