All Management Packs can be found in Pinpoint:
http://systemcenter.pinpoint.microsoft.com/en-US/applications/search/operations-manager-d11?q=
Here is an overview of Server 2012 MPs:
Disabling UAC:
in Windows 2008 R2 was possible via running msconfig (for example winkey+r -> msconfig), going to the Tools tab and launching “Change UAC settings”. There, you select “Never notify” to disable UAC.
The same approach is still available in Windows Server 2012, though UAC is still active after you selected “Never notify”!
You have the option to turn off UAC via registry by changing the DWORD “EnableLUA” from 1 to 0 in “HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\policies\system”.
You will get a notification that a reboot is required. After the reboot, UAC is disabled.
So we have Windows Server 2012 and Windows 8 RTM and want to activate them with our KMS server. For this to be successful we need to update our KMS Service, with is currently servicing out Windows Server 2008 R2 servers and Windows 7 clients.
When we try to activate a Server 2012 server the following error will occur:
To resolve this issue:
Download and install the following update: KB2757817 (Update adds support for Windows 8 and Windows Server 2012 to Windows Server 2008, Windows 7, and Windows Server 2008 R2 KMS hosts).
How to obtain this update
The following files are available for download from the Microsoft Download Center:Collapse this tableExpand this table
| Operating system | Update |
| All supported x86-based versions of Windows Vista and of Windows Server 2008 | Collapse this imageExpand this image Download the update package now. (http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyId=cca1a7a5-10f5-4aea-b0c5-999f2dc9f07f) |
| All supported x64-based versions of Windows Vista and of Windows Server 2008 | Collapse this imageExpand this image Download the update package now. (http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyId=85cdb6a5-9658-47b3-b344-0284954a7379) |
| All supported IA-64-based versions of Windows Vista and of Windows Server 2008 | Collapse this imageExpand this image Download the update package now. (http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyId=799f0f06-cbca-483c-8130-9bb99d8dc87e) |
| All supported x86-based versions of Windows 7 | Collapse this imageExpand this image Download the update package now. (http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyId=a1829040-975f-43ab-877d-5cf4a5382987) |
| All supported x64-based versions of Windows 7 | Collapse this imageExpand this image Download the update package now. (http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyId=23fd50b9-baa5-466f-9dff-af06729f23a9) |
| All supported x64-based versions of Windows Server 2008 R2 | Collapse this imageExpand this image Download the update package now. (http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyId=bd2cda64-6319-4beb-91e3-9439048bf19d) |
| All supported IA-64-based versions of Windows Server 2008 R2 | Collapse this imageExpand this image |
If you don’t install this Update then registering a Windows Server 2012 KMS will throw an Error: 0xC004F050 The Software Licensing Service reported that the product key is invalid.
So install the update (Windows6.1-KB2757817-x64.msu) and restart the server!
Just restarting the KMS service (“net stop sppsvc” and “net start sppsvc“) is NOT enough.
Let’s see what is already running:
slmgr.vbs /dlv => The Windows 2008 R2 KMS key.
Uninstall the current KMS key using slmgr.vbs /upk
(We all know this has to be done from an elevated command prompt..)
Now it is time to install the new KMS key.
slmgr.vbs /ipk {YOUR_SERVER_2012_KMS_KEY}
slmgr.vbs /ato to activate the KMS Service
And now we can check our environment to see what we can activate:
slmgr.vbs /dlv => the Windows Server 2012 KMS key.
With Windows Server 2012 Microsoft introduces a built-in software based data deduplication solution. Where some deduplication solutions provide their services file-based, the deduplication in Windows Server 2012 is block-based.
Deduplication in Windows Server 2012:
Data deduplication – Possible Savings
Microsoft has done some research in their deduplication technology and come up with some numbers on the storage savings deduplication provided:
| Usage | Possible Saving |
| General | 50-60% |
| Documents | 30-50% |
| Application Library | 70-80% |
| VHD(X) Library | 80-95% |
Data deduplication – Performance
Data deduplication will cost you some performance, that is a fact.
Whether done on a storage level or in an OS…
Microsoft has offered some information about this.
Write actions have no direct performance hit since the deduplication process is done in the background when the system is idle.
Read actions do have a performance hit, around 3% when the file is not in cache.
My real life experience so far: the performance loss is totally neglectable and the you will love the amount of data you can put on that fast SSD!
Data deduplication and PowerShell
Deduplication can be configured, controlled and monitored via the new Server Manager GUI or by PowerShell.
To enable the deduplication feature by using PowerShell commands:
| Add-WindowsFeature -name FS-Data-Deduplication |
To configure deduplication on volume D on a device:
| Enable-DedupVolume D: |
To get the statistics of a volume (the amount of storage we actually saved) use:
| Get-DedupStatus |
By default, the deduplication process will only affect files that have not been changed for 30 days.
To change this value to for example: 0 (process the file a.s.a.p.) use:
| Set-DedupVolume D: -MinimumFileAgeDays 0 |
The deduplication process is done through scheduled tasks.
My advice: do not use the scheduled tasks if you are running Virtual Machines on the volume.
If this is your scenario (like mine), shut down the VM’s and do a manual optimization after creating one or more VM’s!
To start this process manually use:
| Start-DedupJob D: –Type Optimization |
To view the status of a job, use:
| Get-DedupJob |
We can use PowerShell to enable deduplication, but we can also disable deduplication on a volume with PowerShell.
Use this:
| Start-DedupJob -Volume D: -Type Unoptimization |
For the PowerShell cmdlet’s for deduplication use:
| Help Dedup |