With all the new features in System Center Virtual Machine Manager 2012, you will most likely use the library more intensively than you did in VMM 2008 R2.


The library contains some very interesting things you'll want to be aware of:


·         Templates


Service Deployment Configurations – When you have created your service templates (a group of machines that work together) you will have the templates ready for deployment, stored here.


Service Templates – Includes machine definitions as well as applications (Supported application types are Web Apps (MSDeploy), Virtual Apps (Server App-V), and Database Apps (SQL DAC)


VM Templates – Yes, it`s the good old traditional template. If you have basic VM templates, with no applications configured (your syspreped VMs), you will store them here.


(An important note: Your templates are the starting point for services and source of truth since they specifies machine and connectivity requirements. Deployed services are always linked to their templates. Updated to services must be applied by changing the template first).


If we dive deeper into the library, we will also find the Profiles. This is also new in VMM 2012. The great thing with all this is that you can customize and define the settings and applications you would like, and use it over and over again.


·         Profiles


Application Profiles – Application deployment and servicing can be customized using scripts. These will be executed within the guest OS. You can specify the compatible OS for the application (Web App, SQL App, Virtual App, App script, and script – which would basically let you do whatever you want. Link your packages, and put in the executable that is required.






























Capability Profiles – This one has 3 default profiles. ESX, Xen, and Hyper-V.
If we take a closer look at one of those, we will see that the Hyper-V profile shows us some well-known information – containing CPU range (1-4), Memory Range (8MB to 64GB) etc. This indicate the limits and behavior of the three different Hypervisors we`re dealing with, so the VMs can understand and take advantage of.




















Guest OS Profile – Create a guest OS Profile that your VM templates can take advantages of. This will include Adm pwd, product key, time zone, OS version, domain/workgroup info, and optionally an answer file. You can even select roles and features.


Hardware Profiles – Select ‘cloud capability’ – meaning which Hypervisor this profile is compatible with, CPU, RAM, network, VHDs, and so on. If you want to create a basic SQL server VM template, start with a proper hardware profile, and segment the data and log VHDs for example.


Host Profiles – The host profile is for defining the physical server. Meaning – the bare metal deployment. Configure HW, OS, and Host Settings.


SQL Profiles – It`s very common that every important part of your business uses a SQL server today. Why not configure a SQL profile, so you can deploy it simply, customized for your needs? You`ll do this in this profile. Configure media source, SQL admins, security mode, and also enable TCP/IP and named pipes for remote connection. If you require extra configuration, you can attach a SQL configuration file. Finish the profile and specify the service accounts.


Ok, let`s move further towards the Library server and the library shares.
It`s really simple to add library shares and to create folders for grouping the different resources.
Another option is to create a ‘Resource Group’.


What is a resource group?
“In System Center Virtual Machine Manager (VMM) 2012, you can group equivalent file-based library resources together as a resource group. For example, if you have a Windows Server 2008 R2-based virtual hard disk (.vhd) file that is stored in library shares that are located in two sites, such as Seattle and New York, you can use a resource group to indicate that the two resources are considered equivalent. Then, when you create a template for a new virtual machine, you can specify the resource group .vhd instead of a site-specific .vhd. This enables you to use a single template across multiple sites.”
The resources in a group must be of the same file type. Group your VHDs, SQL Apps, Virtual Apps, and sort things out – clean and simple.