We are excited to see the release of XenDesktop 7 and support our partner Citrix. XenDesktop 7 brings together both XenApp and XenDesktop functionality into a common release and now brings support for Windows Server 2012.  XenDesktop can easily be deployed on Hyper-V and take full advantage of Windows Server 2012 to increase agility, reduce cost, and provide a scalable and robust platform for desktop virtualization.

Customers have frequently asked us for capacity planning guidance before deploying Hyper-V Replica – e.g.: “How much network bandwidth is required between the primary and replica site”, “How much storage is required on the primary and replica site”, “What is the storage impact by enabling multiple recovery points” etc.

The answer to the above and many other capacity planning questions is “It depends” – it depends on the workload, it depends on the IOPS headroom, it depends on the available storage etc. While one can monitor every single perfmon counter to make an informed decision, it is sometimes easier to have a readymade tool.

The Capacity Planner for Hyper-V Replica which was released on 5/22, allows you to plan your Hyper-V Replica deployment based on the workload, storage, network and server characteristics. The guidance is based on results gathered through our internal testing across different workloads.

You can download the tool and it’s documentation from here - http://www.microsoft.com/en-us/download/details.aspx?id=39057

Instructions:

1) Download the tool (exe) and documentation

2) Read the documentation first and then try out the tool. You should familiarize yourself with some nuances listed in the documentation before using the tool.

So go ahead, use the tool in your virtual infrastructure...

What is resynchronization and why is it needed?

Hyper-V Replica provides protection to VMs by tracking and replicating changes to the virtual hard disks (VHDs) of the VM. Hyper-V Replica runs 24 hours, 365 days in a year; for any VM that has been enabled for replication it ensures that the data on the primary site and the Replica site are kept as closely in sync as supported.

To begin with, Hyper-V Replica (HVR) requires that the data on the virtual hard disks (VHDs) of the primary and replica VMs be the same. This is achieved through the process of initial replication, and establishes a baseline on which replicated changes can be applied. However, due to factors beyond the control of the administrator – such as faulty hardware and OS bugchecks – it is possible that the primary and Replica VMs are not in sync.

Thus in a rainy day scenario (details in following section), when HVR determines that the replica VM can no longer be kept in sync with the primary by applying the replicated changes then resynchronization is required. Resynchronization (or Resync) is the process of re-establishing the baseline – by ensuring that the primary and replica VHDs have exactly the same data stored.

(NOTE: In this post we will use a VM...