Module 12

Managing, monitoring, and

maintaining virtual machine
installations
Module Overview

• WSUS overview and deployment options

• Update management process with WSUS
• Overview of Windows PowerShell DSC
• Overview of Windows Server 2016 monitoring
tools
• Using Performance Monitor
• Monitoring event logs
Lesson 1: WSUS overview and deployment options

• What is WSUS?
• WSUS server deployment options
• The WSUS update management process
• Server requirements for WSUS
• Configuring clients to use WSUS
What is WSUS?

Microsoft
Automatic Update
updates website

Server running
WSUS
Test clients

LAN

Internet

Automatic
updates
WSUS server deployment options

• WSUS implementation:
• Single server
• Multiple servers
• Disconnected servers – Remote locations (Limited internet)
• WSUS hierarchies:
• Autonomous mode – Distributed Management
• Replica mode – Centralized Management
• WSUS database:
• Windows Internal Database (WID) %windir%\wid\data\SUSDB.mdf
• SQL Server database
• Ports:
• 8530 - HTTP
• 8531 - HTTPS
 The WSUS update management process

Phase 1: Assess
• Set up production
environment

Assess

Phase 4: Deploy Phase 2: Identify

Update Discover new
• Approve and •

schedule updates
Deploy management Identify updates
• Review process • Determine if
updates are
relevant
Evaluate
and Plan

Phase 3: Evaluate and plan

• Test updates
• Determine how to update production
environment
Server requirements for WSUS

Software requirements:
• IIS
• Microsoft .NET Framework 4.6 or newer
• Microsoft Report Viewer Redistributable 2008 or newer
• SQL Server 2012 SP1, SQL Server 2012, SQL Server 2008
R2 SP2, SQL Server 2008 R2 SP1, or WID

Hardware requirements:
• 1.4 GHz or faster x64 processor
• 2 GB of RAM or greater
• 10 GB available disk space (40 GB or greater is
recommended)
Configuring clients to use WSUS

Use a GPO to:

• Configure automatic updates
• Specify intranet Microsoft Update service location

For computers running Windows 8 and Windows Server

2012, you can use Automatic Maintenance to control the
update process

For computers running older operating systems, you

should:
• Automatically download updates
• Automatically install updates
Beginning with Windows 10, you can defer updates for up
to one month
Lesson 2: Update management process with WSUS

• WSUS administration
• What are computer groups?
• Approving updates
• Configuring automatic updates
• Demonstration: Deploying updates by using WSUS
• WSUS reporting
• WSUS troubleshooting
WSUS administration

• You can use the WSUS administration console to:

• Manage updates
• Configure computer groups
• View computer status
• View synchronization information
• Configure and view WSUS reports
• Configure WSUS settings and options

• In Windows Server 2016, WSUS also includes

Windows PowerShell cmdlets for administration
Table on Pg 12-11
What are computer groups?

• You can use computer groups to organize WSUS clients

• The default computer groups include:

All computers Unassigned computers

• You can create custom computer groups to control how

updates are applied
Approving updates

• Updates can be:

• Approved automatically, but it is not recommended
• Declined if they are not needed
• Removed if they cause problems

• You should test updates before they are

approved for production
Configuring automatic updates

• You must configure the client computers to use

the WSUS server as the source for updates

• You can use Group Policy to configure clients,

including the following settings:
• Update frequency
• Update installation schedule
• Automatic restart behavior
• Default computer group in WSUS
Demonstration: Deploying updates by using WSUS

In this demonstration, you will see how to:

• Approve an update
• Deploy an update
WSUS reporting

• Update Reports:
• Update Status Summary
• Update Detailed Status
• Update Tabular Status
• Update Tabular Status for Approved Updates

• Computer Updates:
• Computer Status Summary
• Computer Detailed Status
• Computer Tabular Status for Approved Updates

• Synchronization Updates:
• Synchronization Results
WSUS troubleshooting

• Clients not appearing in WSUS:

• Check GPO and client settings

• When the WSUS server stops, you should:

• Check database server
• Reinstall WSUS

• When you cannot connect to WSUS, you should:

• Check network connectivity
• Telnet to HTTP and HTTPS ports

• If you encounter other problems, you should use

the:
• Server diagnostics tool
• Client diagnostics tool
Lesson 3: Overview of Windows PowerShell DSC

• Benefits of Windows PowerShell DSC

• Requirements for Windows PowerShell DSC
• Implementing Windows PowerShell DSC
• Troubleshooting Windows PowerShell DSC
Benefits of Windows PowerShell DSC

• Extends the Windows Management Framework v4

• Available starting with Windows PowerShell 4.0 on Windows Server
2012 R2 and Windows 8.1
• Enables management and maintenance of systems using
declarative configurations
• Uses resources to build configurations for specific
applications or components on a system
• Can be downloaded from community sites or you can write
your own
• Can reapply configurations automatically when a system
drifts from the desired state
• Is standards-based and heterogeneous
• Can manage any operating system with a OMI-compliant CIM
server
 Benefits of Windows PowerShell DSC

Imperative approach (Windows PowerShell) Declarative approach

(Windows PowerShell DSC)

Script defines how a task should be performed Configurations define what should be done

Scripts can be hard to read Configurations are easier to understand

Scripts will not rerun themselves and must be Configurations reapply as necessary, at
rerun through administrative action to re- whatever interval you choose
apply settings, if needed
Scripts require custom logic to detect and Configurations use the logic built into DSC
correct configuration drift resources to detect and correct configuration
drift
Requirements for Windows PowerShell DSC

1. Enable Windows Remote Management:

• Set-WsManQuickConfig
• AD DS Group Policy for domain-joined systems

2. Configure the Local Configuration Manager on

target systems (if necessary):
3. Install the desired module(s):
• Install-Module –Name xComputerManagement
4. Create and compile a configuration in Windows
PowerShell ISE
5. Deploy the configuration (using push method):
• Start-DscConfiguration
Implementing Windows PowerShell DSC
You create a DSC configuration as a .ps1 file with three required
elements:
• Configuration identifies the file as a configuration file
• Node identifies the computer or virtual machine to which the configuration
applies
• Resource block identifies the properties being configured

Configuration 20740DscConfiguration {

Node "LON-SVR1" {
WindowsFeature MyFeatureInstance {
Ensure = "Present"
Name = "RSAT"
}
WindowsFeature My2ndFeatureInstance {
Ensure = "Present"
Name = "Bitlocker"
}
}
}
Troubleshooting Windows PowerShell DSC

• Use the Windows PowerShell DSC logs to

troubleshoot issues
• The operational log contains all error messages
• The analytic log can identify where error(s) occurred
• The debug log can help you understand how the errors
occurred
• xDscDiagnostics for DSC diagnostics
• Get-xDscOperation finds the results of the DSC
operations
• Trace-xDscOperation returns an object containing a
collection of events, their event types, and the message
output generated from a particular DSC operation
Lesson 4: Overview of Windows Server 2016
monitoring tools

• Overview of Task Manager

• Overview of Performance Monitor
• Overview of Resource Monitor
• Overview of Reliability Monitor
• Overview of Event Viewer
• Monitoring a server with Server Manager
Overview of Task Manager

Task Manager helps you to identify and resolve performance-related issues

Overview of Task Manager

The App history tab shows the amount of resources running apps
have consumed
Overview of Task Manager
The Startup tab shows the applications that automatically start and
allows you to manage them
Overview of Performance Monitor

Performance Monitor enables you to view current performance

statistics or historical data that data collector sets have gathered
Overview of Performance Monitor

Primary processor counters: Primary disk counters:

• Processor > % Processor Time • Physical Disk > % Disk Time
• Processor > Interrupts/sec • Physical Disk > Avg. Disk Queue
Length
• System > Processor Queue Length

Primary network counters: Primary memory counter:

• Network Interface > Current • The Memory > Pages/sec
Bandwidth counter
• Network Interface > Output
Queue Length
• Network Interface > Bytes
Total/sec
Overview of Resource Monitor

Resource Monitor provides an in-depth look at the real-time

performance of your server
Overview of Reliability Monitor

• Monitors hardware and software issues

• Provides stability index number (from 1 to 10):
• 1 represents lowest stability
• 10 represents highest stability

• The Reliability Monitor window components

include:
• Historical reports on stability index
• Reliability details
• Action to be performed: saving historical data, starting
the Problem Reports console, checking online for a
solution to a specific problem
Overview of Reliability Monitor

Reliability Monitor tracks hardware and software issues that have

impacted the system
Overview of Event Viewer

Event Viewer provides categorized lists of essential Windows log

events, and log groupings for individual installed applications and
specific Windows component categories
Overview of Event Viewer

• Event Viewer provides the ability to:

• View multiple logs
• Create customized views
• Configure tasks scheduled to run in response to events
• Create and manage event subscriptions

• Event Viewer has many built-in logs such as:

• Application log
• Security log
• Setup log
• System log
• Forwarded events
Monitoring a server with Server Manager

Server Manager console:

• Installed by default on Windows Server 2016, and
can be installed on Windows 10
• Supports monitoring of Windows Server
operating systems
• Provides a centralized monitoring dashboard
• Analyzes or troubleshoots different types of
issues
• Identifies critical events
• Monitors the status of Best Practices
Analyzer tool
Lesson 5: Using Performance Monitor

• Overview of baseline, trends, and capacity

planning
• What are data collector sets?
• Demonstration: Capturing counter data with a
data collector set
• Demonstration: Configuring an alert
• Demonstration: Viewing reports in Performance
Monitor
• Monitoring network infrastructure services
• Considerations for monitoring virtual machines
Overview of baseline, trends, and capacity planning

• By calculating performance baselines for your server

environment, you can more accurately interpret real-time
monitoring information
• By establishing a baseline, you can:
• Interpret performance trends
• Perform capacity planning
• Identify bottlenecks
• Analyze performance trends to predict when existing
capacity is likely to be exhausted
• Plan the capacity for the key hardware components:
processor, disk, memory, and network
What are data collector sets?

• Data collector sets enable you to gather performance-

related and other system statistics for analysis
• Data collector sets can contain the following types of
data collectors:
• Performance counters
• Event trace data
• System configuration information
Demonstration: Capturing counter data with a
data collector set

In this demonstration, you will see how to:

• Create a data collector set
• Create a disk load on the server
• Analyze the resulting data in a report
Demonstration: Configuring an alert

In this demonstration, you will see how to:

• Create a data collector set with an alert counter
• Generate a server load that exceeds the
configured threshold
• Examine the event log for the resulting event
Demonstration: Viewing reports in
Performance Monitor

In this demonstration, you will see how to view a

performance report
Monitoring network infrastructure services

Monitoring is essential for:

• Optimizing network infrastructure server
performance
• Troubleshooting servers

AD DS
Internet DHCP server DNS server
Perimeter Intranet
network
Considerations for monitoring virtual machines

• Virtual machines must be assigned sufficient

resources for their workload
• If multiple virtual machines run on a host, ensure
the host has enough resources
• Resources are shared, so performance of one
virtual machine can affect the performance of
others
• You must remember to monitor the resource
utilization on the host and the guests
Lesson 6: Monitoring event logs

• Using Server Manager to view event logs

• What is a custom view?
• Demonstration: Creating a custom view
• What are event log subscriptions?
• Demonstration: Configuring an event subscription
Using Server Manager to view event logs

• Server Manager provides a centralized location

for event logs from remote servers
• Event logging
• Enabled by default
• Categorized by technology: AD DS, DNS, and Remote
Access
• Customized views
• Create queries for specific types of events that need to
be displayed
• Configure event data that needs to be displayed
What is a custom view?

Custom views allow you to query and sort just the events that you want
to analyze
Demonstration: Creating a custom view

In this demonstration, you will see how to:

• View Server Roles custom views
• Create a custom view
What are event log subscriptions?

Event subscriptions allow you to collect event logs from multiple servers, and
then store them locally
Demonstration: Configuring an event subscription

In this demonstration, you will see how to:

• Configure the source computer
• Configure the collector computer
• Create and view the subscribed log
Lab A: Implementing WSUS and deploying updates

• Exercise 1: Implementing WSUS

• Exercise 2: Configuring update settings
• Exercise 3: Approving and deploying an update by
using WSUS
Logon Information
Virtual machines: 20740C-LON-DC1
20740C-LON-SVR2
20740C-LON-SVR4
20740C-LON-CL1
User name: Adatum\Administrator
Password: Pa55w.rd
Estimated Time: 60 minutes
Lab Scenario

Adatum Corporation is a global engineering and

manufacturing company with its head office in London,
United Kingdom. An IT office and a datacenter are located
in London to support the London location and other
branch office locations. Adatum has recently deployed a
Windows Server 2016 server and client infrastructure.
Adatum has been applying updates manually to servers in
a remote location. This has made it difficult to identify
which servers have the updates applied and which do not.
This is a potential security issue. Your task is to automate
the update process by extending Adatum’s WSUS
deployment to include the branch office.
Lab B: Monitoring and troubleshooting Windows
Server 2016

• Exercise 1: Establishing a performance baseline

• Exercise 2: Identifying the source of a performance
problem
• Exercise 3: Viewing and configuring centralized
event logs
Logon Information
Virtual machines: 20740C-LON-DC1
20740C-LON-SVR1
User name: Adatum\Administrator
Password: Pa55w.rd

Estimated Time: 60 minutes

Lab Scenario

Adatum is a global engineering and manufacturing

company with its head office in London, United Kingdom.
An IT office and datacenter are in London to support the
London office and other locations. Adatum recently
deployed a Windows Server 2016 server and client
infrastructure.
Because the organization has deployed new servers, it is
important to establish a performance baseline with a
typical load for these new servers. You have been asked to
work on this project. Additionally, to make the process of
monitoring and troubleshooting easier, you decide to
perform centralized monitoring of event logs.
Lab Review

• During the lab, you collected data in a data

collector set. What is the advantage of collecting
data this way?
Module Review and Takeaways

• Review Questions
• Tools
• Best Practices
• Common Issues and Troubleshooting Tips