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How much Value Added Software does one machine need…? aka bloatware, crapware, etc.

December 16th, 2010

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We recently installed a new HP Pro 3120 SSF Series machine that ships with Windows 7 Pro and Office 2010.  The name Pro is a little over-egged as they are actually low-end machines as a replacement the DX24xx range.  The SSF or Space Saver Form is quite correct as its basically a half depth Micro Tower – think back to the Compaq Evo SSF but not nearly as well made.

Now, I’ve always been a fan of HP for their reliability, build quality, and typically a huge fan of their normally excellent Value Added Software – am thinking ProLiant servers, Insight Manager, SmartStart, etc.  However the shipped build on this machine which is aimed at the business market has got me thinking what the guys at HP have been smoking!  maybe too close to their colleagues at Apple!

The Out Of the Box Experience (OOBE) this machine is great, it covers the HP setup routine, registration, updates configuration, and what appears to be a McAfee opt-out.

However, upon booting into Windows for the 1st time its soon apparent that there is a truly massive  clean-up / bloatware removal task needed if being used in a standardised business build, starting with:
- HP Games (18 of them)
- McAfee Browser Protection Service
- McAfee Firewall Protection Service
- McAfee Virus and Spyware Protection Service

the McAfee stuff was a real sneaky one, especially as I quite clearly chose NOT to use McAfee.

Additionally we are removing:

HP Advisor – a 93MB toolbar with links to eBay, McAfee, Huddle, Biz Solutions (actually Solutions and Offers for your business AKA marketing guff!)
Device Access Manager for HP ProtectTools
Drive Encryption for HP ProtectTools
File Sanitizer for HP ProtectTools

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Posted in Microsoft, Tech, Windows 7

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War On Cost II, The Churchill War Rooms, London

November 5th, 2010

Today I’m in London for what I expect will be one of the most valuable events of my calendar – Inframon’s now annual War On Cost event, this year held at The Cabinet War Rooms in London’s Westminster.

Inframon, headed by Gordon McKenna and Sean Roberts are old friends of ‘The Circle’ since we attended their System Center Train the Trainer workshop in November 2008.  Since then we’ve kept in touch at various events & launches, and when they are hosting they always deliver a cracking event.

Indeed, a fair summary as I wrote to some colleagues only a few weeks ago..

Coming up on the 5th November is Inframon’s War on Cost which is basically a 1-day systems management focussed preview of TechEd Europe which starts the following week in Berlin.
A whole bunch of senior Redmond folk come over the week before TechEd to present at this event, hit the town for a few beers (limited for me am afraid this year), stay the weekend in London before going on to Berlin for yet more & possibly better beer!
 
So, click on http://www.waroncost.com/ to register – I’ll absolutely guarantee you, if you have an interest/responsibility in managing a Microsoft estate then you will get a load of value from this event.

The official agenda is below, and if I made notes I’ve added them in-line with the agenda:

Event Schedule

Inframon, the UK’s leading specialist in the Microsoft System Center suite present "War On Cost 2010", a very exclusive event which will be taking place in the Cabinet War Rooms in the heart of London, an historic underground complex that housed a British government command centre throughout the Second World War.

The aim of this event is to give you valuable information on how you can help your organisation drive down the cost of managing your Windows and Non-Windows based infrastructure using the Microsoft System Center Suite of products.

Featuring two dynamic tracks aimed at both Business and Technical decision makers, to give you the knowledge you need to make a difference in your organisation.

 

09:00 – 09:30 INFRAMON KEYNOTE

Introductory keynote from Gordon McKenna, CEO at Inframon setting the scene for our theme "The War on Cost"

Unfortunately I missed the start of Gordon’s keynote as I was unable to enter the Cabinet War Rooms due to an ‘entry lockdown’ whilst waiting for the PM to arrive and enter the building… okay I was slightly late in the first place… but no, not a Churchill impersonator, but Mr David Cameron, the UK Prime Minister!
‘Dave’ as he’s known to his mates was at the war rooms for an interview with ITV – maybe related to the recent UK Government spending cuts and the UK’s War on Cost…? ;-)

DC-comes-to-the-War-On-Cost

David Cameron speaking about The War On Cost..?

I eventually got in the building to then wander around the maze that was the cabinet war rooms and haunt of another famous conservative PM.. a certain Sir Winston Churchill!  to eventually find the Inframon team, Gordon, Sean and the guys in a War on Cost bunker that looked like it certainly did cost!  great venue!

Gordon McKenna ..it was this BIG!!!

Partners (allies) in the battle of the war on cost…
ComTrade – MPs for Citrix & Seibel
Silect Software – MP Studio, CP Studio, ConfigWise
Flexera – Win7 migration application challenges (packaging & sequencing)
Savision – Live Maps & Vital Signs for System Center (extends SCOM with mapping and real-time performance dashboards)
BridgeWays – helps you convert from VMware… Also free Hyper-V MP @….
Odyssey Software -

prize draw for an Windows Phone 7 device, the HTC HD 7 – went to European Market Oct 21st, won’t be in the US till Nov 8th!  and they are as rare as rocking horse sh1t in the UK with one distributor saying to me on Friday 5th Oct “Unfortunately we are not likely to be able to supply the HD7 as all three of the new HTC devices are going to be network exclusives.”

ROOM 1: 09:30 -10:30 MICROSOFT KEYNOTE – RYAN OHARA: DATACENTER TO THE CLOUD

Join us in the main auditorium for a first keynote from Microsoft’s Senior Director of System Center Product Marketing, Ryan O’Hara who will be giving us an insight on how Microsoft’s Datacenter and Cloud strategy can help you in the battle your organisation faces around reducing the cost of managing your IT infrastructure whilst trying to increase efficiency. Learn also how System Center can be a key business enabler in both on-premise and off-premise scenarios.

 

Ryan O’Hara & Justin Buffington (AKA The Professor)

Google, Salesforce, Amazon – don’t provide services that can run in your Data Center / stand up within your service offering

Ryan reckons that MS is the only single vendor that provided the widest reach of cloud based services to provide ‘IT as a service’

Self Service Portal for VMM – version being shown today along with VMM vNext. Capability for business process owners (application owners) to request and provision new data center services through a web portal.

VMM 2012 CTP demo
Moving from a server centric model to a service model – detaching the application from the O/S.

Create Cloud Wizard! ;-) what’s your job? I’m a cloud creator!

Demo of service maps – Opalis 6.3 available at the end of the month to all data Center management suite registered customers… & partners?

Acquisition of AVIcode allows 360 degree monitoring in delivering IT as a service. Black box & White box monitoring… Wazzthat then?

OpsMgr watcher nodes running outside your environment

SCOM2012 / OM10 – now with dashboards and can manage network infrastructure (at last! :-) )

ROOM 1: 10:50 -11:50 MICROSOFTKEYNOTE – ANDREW CONWAY: DESKTOP AND SECURITY CONVERGENCE

With end users increasingly mobile, consumerization impacting IT,  and security and compliance needs converging on the business you are likely considering options for desktop virtualization, endpoint protection, cloud management and application delivery. IT has an opportunity to simplify their investments, tools and processes in order to be ever more responsive to the changing face of their customer.  In this session, we’ll focus on effective solutions that will help you in the War on Cost – we’ll do this and take a forward look at upcoming System Center and Forefront technologies

ROOM 2: 10:50 -11:50 BREAKOUT – SEAN ROBERTSSIMON SKINNER INFRAMON: MICROSOFT PRIVATE CLOUD STORY

Join Sean Roberts and Simon Skinner of Inframon for a walk through Microsoft’s new private cloud story. Learn how to build your own, internal private cloud solution with Microsoft Hyper-V, System Center Virtual Machine Manager and the new Self Service Portal 3.0. See how you can drive more efficient use of your IT infrstructure using batch processing and chargeback reporting putting you back in control of your costs.

Sean Roberts & Simon Skinner …how many MVP’s needed to… don’t ask! Winking smile

ROOM 1: 11:50 – 12:50 BREAKOUT – JUSTIN INCARNATODANIEL SAVAGE MICROSOFT: OPERATIONS MANAGER R2 AND V.NEXT

This session will cover updates to Operation Manager 2007 since the release of R2, including the latest new features included in R2 CU3. We will also go over the next major release of Operations Manager including the vision and product demonstrations. This will be a demo packed session with plenty of time to interact and ask questions

  • OpsMgr R2 Sizing Helper
  • OpsMgr R2 Core MP updates
  • Service Level Dashboard 2.0
  • Cumulative Updates 3 (CU3) for OpsMgr 2007 R2

    • OpsMgr Sizing
    OpsMgr sizing helper to address the unknown around sizing – ‘ask 5 MS engineers an OpsMgr sizing question and you’ll likely get 5 different answers…’

    target environments:

  • Small to Medium deployment – 250-1000 computers
  • Large deployment – 1000-10000 computers

    • Use in conjunction with the OpsMgr design guide, an introduction is at http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/bb735403.aspx

    OpsMgr R2 Core MP updates

     

    Cumulative Updates 3 (CU3) for OpsMgr 2007 R2

    Get it from the download Center at http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/en/details.aspx?FamilyID=9f1e1154-52ae-42df-aeea-b3ee83247e6a&displaylang=en

    The KB article describing the fixes, changes, and instructions is at http://support.microsoft.com/kb/2251525

    The high-level fixes are:

  • Feature Addition: Azure Application Monitoring
  • Feature Addition: Parameter Extraction in Web Application Synthetic Transactions
  • Multi-selection in the alert view is not maintained during a view refresh
  • Upgrading MPs that include new properties may not recreate views correctly
  • The Operations Manager Console stops working when a high number of instances of State Views / Alert Views are left open for extended durations
  • The Operations Manager Console stops working when creating an override on the cluster resource group monitor
  • When using a remote console the notification wizards does not work in certain situations
  • The SDK Services stops working due to an unhandled exception, and the operations console becomes unresponsive
  • The SDK service may stop working due to an arithmetic overflow error in very rare circumstances
  • The notification scheduler does not compensate correctly for different time zones
  • Alerts using the “Specific Time Period” criteria are not included during automatic alert view refresh
  • Generic performance reports consume a large amount of temporary database space and can fail for Windows Server 2003 Computer Groups
  • SCOM 2007 SP1 Reports do not run after a shared Data Warehouse is upgraded to SCOM 2007 R2
  • Monitoringhost.exe does not work reliably on Windows 2003 SP2 X64 Domain Controllers
  • The total transaction response performance counter in URL monitoring is not accurate
  • MPs with empty knowledge elements cannot be imported in Operations Manager 2007 R2
  • Language packs authored for a previous version of an MP cannot be imported once an updated MP is released
  • Language Pack import fails if the MP contains strings which are not contained in the English Management Pack
  • When Agentless Exception Monitoring (AEM) is set up to use SharePoint, reports from Watson are blocked
  • Some ACS reports do not work as expected with Windows Server 2008
  • ACS forwarders with 15 character names in workgroups are unable to communicate with the ACS collector

    • CU4 should be out at the end of Jan’11 – plan is to have quarterly updates

    There is a great post at http://blogs.technet.com/b/kevinholman/archive/2010/10/04/opsmgr-2007-r2-cu3-rollup-hotfix-ships-and-my-experience-installing-it.aspx which covers in-depth on CU3 and its deployment – essential reading!

    OpsMgr v.Next 2012, Daniel Savage, Senior PM Operations Manager

    Support for network device monitoring

    Support for Java EE (J2E) Web Service Monitoring – server level, not currently site/app level

    Release roadmap – Public Beta in Q2 CY11, RC Q3 CY11, RTM Q4 CY11

     

    ROOM 2: 11:50 – 12:20 BREAKOUT – ODYSSEY SOFTWARE: ATTACK THE COSTS AND COMPLEXITY OF MANAGING MOBILE DEVICES IN YOUR ENTERPRISE WITH ATHENA TM DEVICE MANAGEMENT EXTENSIONS FOR SYSTEM CENTER CONFIGURATION MANAGER 2007

    In this session we will demonstrate how to dramatically reduce the cost and complexity of managing deployments of Windows Mobile, Windows Phone 7, Windows CE, BlackBerry, iPhone/iPad, Android and Symbian devices through comprehensive, centralized management of these devices utilizing Odyssey Software’s AthenaTM device management extensions for System Center Configuration Manager 2007.

    ROOM 2: 12:20 – 12:50 BREAKOUT – BRIDGEWAYS SOFTWARE: HETEREOGENEOUS MANAGEMENT WITH OPERATIONS MANAGER 2007

    Learn how you can extend your Operations Manager 2007 platform beyond the Windows stack with Bridgewys cross-platform extensions and connectors, allowing you to manage platforms such as VMWare and Oracle from the same familiar console as the rest of your devices allowing you to consolidate your management tools, driving down your infrastructure costs,

    12:50 – 13:50 LUNCH

    Join us for lunch in our partner pavillion, where you can network with other delegates and meet our ISV partners and speakers

    ROOM1: 13:50 – 14:50 BREAKOUT – JEFF WETTLAUFER MICROSOFT: SYSTEM CENTER CONFIGURATION MANAGER V.NEXT HIGHLIGHTS

    The next generation of the world’s leading systems management technology is now in Beta!  As we enter a new era of work styles, with people working in new ways from new locations on new devices, the System Center flagship product is evolving.  In this session we present a demo rich technical highlight of the next release of ConfigMgr.  We will focus on our continued vision of User Centric client management, highlight new improvements to core capability, infrastructure simplification and more. 

     

    ROOM 2: 13:50 – 14:50 BREAKOUT – SEAN CHRISTENSEN MICROSOFT: SERVICE MANAGER THE BETTER TOGETHER STORY

    Breakout two, takes us on a journey into the world of IT service management with one of the newest members of the System Center family, Service Manager. Learn how you can pull together your IT resources with industry standard best practices, bringing disciplines like incident and problem and change and release management to your organisation allowing you to drive more efficient working processes across your organisation.

    ROOM 1: 15:10 – 16:10 BREAKOUT – JASON BUFFINGTON MICROSOFT: INTELLIGENT DATACENTER APPLICATION PROTECTION

    This session will focus on leveraging Data Protection Manager’s protection and recovery capabilities in large datacenters.  We will look at how Data Protection Manager protects and recovers critical application workloads such as SQL, Exchange and SharePoint – as well as virtual machines within Hyper-V.  The session is full of demonstrations, including the new self-service restore capability for database administrators.  We will also look at combining on-premise and off-premise protection using both Data Protection Manager’s built-in replication mechanisms as well as cloud-based Data Protection Manager-partner repositories.

    One stat to take away… up to 60% of corporate data does not reside in the datacenter… Yikes!!!

    therefore backing up the client machines, with policies to not backup the junk, movies, music, etc.

    ROOM 2: 15:10 – 16:10 BREAKOUT – ADAM HALLGREG CHARMAN MICROSOFT: DATACENTER IT PROCESS AUTOMATION

    In one of the final sessions of the day we bring you the one solution that will probably give you the biggest set of tools in fighting the War on Cost. Microsoft’s newest addition to the System Center suite is Opalis, a robust and multi functional IT orchestration toolkit that can help drive incredible efficiencies in your organisation by automating many of your time consuming, day to day IT processes. This is not a session to be missed.

    16:10 – 16:30 CLOSING KEYNOTE

    Proceedings end with a closing keynote from Inframon CEO Gordon McKenna.

    16:30 – 17:00 TOUR OF VENUE

    Finally you are invited to take a tour of this very historic venue.

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    Posted in Cloud, Data Protection Manager, Green IT, Microsoft, SCE 2010, System Center, Systems Management, Tech, Virtualisation, Windows 7, Windows Server 2008 R2

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    Windows Server 2008 R2 & Windows 7 SP1 Release Candidate (RC v.721)

    October 29th, 2010

    This morning I opened up an email from Microsoft UK entitled ‘TechNet Newsletter – 28 October -  Windows 7 SP1 RC | SQL Server 2008 R2 Migration’ – the main interest for me here is the SP1 RC, not so much the Windows 7 reference, but as Windows Server 2008 R2 and Windows 7 x64 share the same codebase this Service Pack is immediately applicable to the server O/S also.

    A couple of months ago I’d posted on SP1 beta (http://blog.thefullcircle.com/2010/08/24/a-tale-of-4-betas/), and having suffered a few minor issues of running a service pack beta I was keen to upgrade.  The main issue experienced was on my test Hyper-V Server R2 build and VM’s loosing external network connectivity under high load/stress requiring the host to be restarted to resolve – not ideal for the a production domain controller, my main Windows Home Server and my Vail test box..

     

    Anyway back to SP1 RC..

    there are 3 methods of install… ISO image/DVD, architecture specific executable, and via windows update (with a modification/additional code)

    If you have the SP1 beta installed you must first uninstall it before attempting SP1 RC install, I’d recommend wusa.exe /uninstall /kb:976932 as this covers both Server Core / Hyper-V Server and full installations.

     

    Windows 7 x86 upgrade via Windows Update

    Win7-SP1RC-windows-update

     

     

    links and resources re-posted:

    http://blogs.technet.com/b/uktechnet/archive/2010/10/27/download-windows-7-and-windows-server-2008-r2-sp1-rc.aspx

    http://technet.microsoft.com/en-gb/evalcenter/ff183870.aspx

    http://social.technet.microsoft.com/Forums/en/w7itproSP/threads

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    Posted in Hyper-V, Microsoft, Virtualisation, Windows 7, Windows Server 2008 R2

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    Microsoft Partner Business Briefings – Transitioning to the Cloud

    October 5th, 2010

    5/10 @ https://partner.microsoft.com/UK/40127070 – ‘Transitioning to the Cloud’ featuring Steve ‘Developers!’ Ballmer

    As a UK Microsoft Gold partner (www.thefullcircle.com) staying up to date with the latest trends in technology, and in particular Microsoft’s take on those trends is essential.

    Today we are at the ExCeL London conference centre in the heart of Docklands to hear Steve Ballmer and others tell us about Cloud computing solutions in a Microsoft Partner Business Briefing called ‘Transitioning to the Cloud’

    Below is Microsoft’s marketing introduction on the event and then the agenda, then my notes from the day..

    Event Overview

    There is no doubt that the market around us is in a transition period, whether this is from an economic, societal or technological standpoint, and we want to work together with you to ensure we are all making the most of these opportunities in 2011. 

    We’ve made a Microsoft-sized commitment to the cloud and through our London Partner Business Briefing we want to share our vision with you and your sales teams. Cloud technology is now a CIO’s #1 priority. Worldwide more than 40 million people have adopted Microsoft cloud services, and AMI Research predicts a rapid transition through 2010-2013 in the UK as businesses purchase cloud solutions. Join us for an exciting day with guest speakers and Microsoft executives.  Expect to receive more information on this event and how to prepare over the coming weeks.

    Agenda

    Welcome 09:30
    A Changing World 09:45
    New Way of Work 10:00
    Customer: Why we chose Microsoft 10:30
    Summary/Interactive Exercise/Feedback 10:50
    Break  
    Our Commitment to the Cloud – Microsoft Executive 11:30
    Our Commitment to Microsoft Partners – Microsoft Partner Network 12:15
    Going first 12:30
    Break  
    Partner Case Study – We chose to Partner with Microsoft for Online Service 13:45
    Product Demonstration/Roadmap 13:55
    Value Proposition/Customer Sales Pitch 14:05
    Partner Case Study – We chose to Partner adopt Windows Azure 14:20
    Product Demonstration/Roadmap 14:30
    Value Proposition/Customer Sales Pitch 14:40
    Break  
    Partner Case Study – We chose to Partner with Microsoft for CRM Online 15:30
    Product Demonstration/Roadmap 15:40
    Value Proposition/Customer Sales Pitch 15:50
    Partner Case Study: Why we chose to Partner with Microsoft for Windows Intune 16:05
    Product Demonstration/Roadmap 16:15
    Value Proposition/Customer Sales Pitch 16:25
    Close – The Go Do’s 16:40

     

    		  

     

    My  notes from the day..

    Welcome – Katie Ledger
    Various marketing videos featuring partners who have embraced..
    ThinkScape “I used to go out to customers, now they come to me!”
    MD’s and CFO’s love the cloud – move from capex to opex
    Katie presented/hosted a Microsoft Cloud event 2 years ago.. – show of hands on who was there and who’s changing their business to embrace cloud… not many!  Will the show of hands be different at the end of the day?

    A Changing World – Barry Ridgeway, new GM of SMS&P
    Small Medium Business is the fastest growing part of the Microsoft business.
    A new acronym.. PaaS – Platform as a Service e.g. Azure
    Opportunity – projection in 3yrs $148B… Microsoft investing $10M in UK marketing (opportunities to ride on that wave by timing marketing releases carefully to coincide)

    Customer: Why we chose Microsoft – Bert Craven, Architect, easyJet
    65 IT team (59 full-time), IT Budget only 0.75% of revenue, 100% SLA requirement, £3B retail business, 20% per year growth! – a challenge!
    Reliance on partners
    Started with classifying systems – a commodity tier, airline system tier, easyJet specific tier – silver, gold, platinum – then defined SLA strategy for each – top tier is 100% uptime and has been achieved
    Simple, standard systems by default!
    The potential cloud offers as a Integration platform cannot be understated – Azure AppFabric “the ace in the pack” (origins in BizTalk)
     - small step – easy to swallow, perceived as lower risk
    misconception of putting your data in the cloud makes it more vulnerable – a double edged sword
    Project Sydney VPN’s…?  wazthat!?!

    James Akrigg – Microsoft Partner Technology Specialist
    Enterprise class systems used to require Enterprise class infrastructure – not anymore!

    Why partner with Microsoft – Martin Neale, MD ICS Solutions
    Started a cloud practise after the event 2yrs ago, built up on BPOS at the start of ’09 – 23 customers in the last year, but signed 6 in the last week!  both public & private sector, a lot of support from Microsoft – the best they have had in all their time as partners… did I tell you about our 7 account managers in 7 years…!?!?  (You’ll be one of few I haven’t.. ;-) )

    Dealing with change.. – Chris Moon (www.chrismoon.co.uk)

    Chris is an inspirational & motivational speaker extraordinaire – a former Army officer who then worked for the charity HALO clearing landmines in Asia and Africa, and is one of the few westerners to have survived kidnap by the Khmer Rouge guerrillas in Cambodia.

    Two years later he became a double amputee when blown up whilst walking in a supposedly cleared minefield in 1995, the blast resulted in the loss of his lower right arm and leg. Doctors say he survived against the odds due to his determination and fitness.

    Within a year of leaving hospital he then ran and finished the London Marathon, plus threw in a Masters Degree in Security Management for good measure!

    He’s since done numerous marathons and many of the world’s toughest ultra-marathons including the Great Sahara Run and Badwater – the 135-mile ‘fun run’ through Death Valley to the mountains on the hottest day of the year – mental! (yes mentally a hero and physically a superman!).
    During his amazing speech he described the Death Valley run as ‘the death fun run’ and revealed comments from others re: ultra-distance as runs that amputees simply don’t do – he clearly doesn’t believe in don’t or can’t

    Chris was inspirational, motivational, heart-warming, and very funny at the same time, a few notes from his speech are below:

    Keep up or get left behind!  The biggest issue to keeping up is the way that you think..

    Never be a victim, take the initiative

    What can I do to avoid Being a victim and Create a victimless environment?
    Engage-Listen-Understand

    Why don’t we like change?
    - fear of the unknown
    - maybe worse off as a result
    - out of comfort zone
    - requires effort & hard work
    - easier not to
    - can cause headaches
    - creatures of habit
    - loss of territory or control
    - puts us in the spotlight
    - previous efforts maybe wasted
    - we don’t like imposition or ‘have to’

    crossing the change curve, instead of following the U-bend, get across it to Aspirational

    Stay calm.. see the wood and trees – lead by example

    Who doesn’t finish an ultra-marathon?  Those who don’t believe that they can
    Never underestimate the power of belief

    Dealing with sudden change
    - be realistic
    - choose a positive perspective
    - choose a positive attitude
    - use imagination

    No matter how great the change, never adopt an attitude that allows you to be crushed
    (followed story of an auzzie vet castrating a water buffalo – circle of life, what goes around comes around, next life, past life..)

    And finally.. What is it like being blown up?   ….VERY LOUD!  (what a guy!)

    Chris has published an autobiography called ‘One Step Beyond’ – indeed I’ve just bought 4 copies for our company from Amazon at http://www.amazon.co.uk/One-Step-Beyond-Chris-Moon/dp/033037155X
    Our Commitment to the Cloud – Steve Ballmer, CEO Microsoft
    A new era of opportunity…
    What is the Cloud – lots of things!
    Cloud services for business – Microsoft claim to be the market leader in cloud services with the largest spread of cloud offerings
    A key question was how important will the private cloud vs. public cloud be – we are discovering that now..
    Factoring in the connectivity costs into the equation – it’s in the calculations

    Steve had never been east of Tower Bridge… I think that was obvious! and it sounded like the guys at the front were lined up with pre-screened questions…?  Is that cynical or just an obvious safety net..?

    Overall I didn’t really get Ballmer, whilst he’s a passionate and powerful speaker (boy does he project!) I can’t say I really took anything major away from his speech whereas seeing Gates in the flesh you really got the feeling that he truly believed in the role of technology to help improve people’s lives for the better.
    The main point that came across was the insistence that the shift to the cloud was one of the most important changes in the history of computing after the Internet – maybe that’s all he wanted to get across, that and the key numbers from Microsoft’s view being:
    - 580M Windows Live customers
    - 40M users of Azure
    - $10M spend in the UK alone on Cloud marketing

    What he did leak was that Windows Phone 7 release in UK in next week or so – I’m keen to jump from the iPhone back to a Windows phone so will be keen to watch the last session of the day… a Windows Phone 7 preview.
    Microsoft Online Services - Shaun Frohlich, James Akrigg, Myles Jeffery (ThinkScape), Katie Ledger

    Demonstration of Software plus Services – SharePoint online, PowerPoint, Outlook migration from a.n.other Email platform to Exchange online, etc.  Lots of tools to make it easy!

    Partner Case Study – We chose to Partner with Microsoft for Online Service
    Myles Jeffery, MD ThinkScape
    Embraced MS cloud technology after watching an online Ray Ozzie presentation in 2008 – a software development company realised they could focus on development and integration rather than platform.  Moved internally (small IT consultancy <10) to BPOS in early 2009 and recommends any prospective partner to do the same.
    Believes the sweet spot for ease of migration is up to 25.
    Coexistence tools are available to assist trials – SharePoint easy, but what about Exchange..? sub-domain for a project team or something better?

    40-million Azure users already, caching in 22 countries keeps the performance good, plus offline caching capabilities

    Product Demonstration/Roadmap – Microsoft CRM Online
    Dynamics CRM 2011 online – Sean Frohlich, James Akrigg & Roger Collins
    Outlook experience, very BCM 2010 look and feel… however its better..
    Can we move to it although we have traditional on-premise Exchange? Yes!
    Is the only CRM application available today that can be switched between on-premise and cloud and vice-versa – is the same codebase.
    Top tip – 40% margin available for new business.
    Dynamics CRM 2011 is available in beta now, and should be publically available in March-April 2011.
    Partners have inclusive seats for CRM online – e.g. as a Gold Partner we would get 250!

    Partner Case Study – We chose to Partner adopt Windows Azure – James Scarfe, Dot Net Software

    How do you make money from selling Azure… there is a small kickback on the referral (5%), however services revenue is where the money is.
    Reduction in time to market is one of the major advantages
    Software virtualisation rather than hardware virtualisation – removing the dependancy on IT platform builds, and the delays in architecture planning such as capacity & resliance planning that a typical corporate IT department needs to do and can take months.  With Azure you can deploy the envionment in minutes and start developing on the production platform striaght away!

    Windows Intune – Sean Frohlich, James Akrigg
    Microsoft recently announced the Windows Intune Beta, a new solution that aims to simplify how businesses manage and secure PCs using Windows cloud services and Windows 7.
    Intune is designed for businesses without an existing PC management infrastructure that need a cost-effective, simple way to manage and secure their PCs (not servers.. for servers and/or over 250 desktops there is System Center Essentials – SCE, or for larger environments Operations Manager).

    For businesses with a highly mobile and/or distributed workforce, the Windows Intune cloud service can help manage and secure PCs across multiple offices, remote & mobile and manage them from anywhere.  If you have multiple smaller offices not on the corporate VPN then Cloud services can work very well, especially for security & remote management avoiding costly site visits.

    Intune fits very well with our long term support of ASP, and now cloud based solutions – two of the three directors of The Full Circle have been heavily involved in managed AV and Security-as-a-Service since early 2002 building one of the first McAfee ASaP (formerly MyCIO) UK platforms, then as a reseller for SecureResolutions, and now with Panda Security with their Managed Office & Email Protection services.

    So in summary it’s a cloud based PC management solution aimed at the small to medium market that takes key parts of Operations Manager, WSUS, ForeFront plus an Enterprise license of Windows 7 to deliver:

    -          Updates (from what I could I see the interface is quite simple and not as feature rich as WSUS, nor as complicated)
    -          Malware protection (based on Security Essentials and Forefront)
    -          Monitoring (alerting for all major functions;  malware, updates, etc.)
    -          Remote Assistance (EA taken as used by Microsoft Support, initiated by the end user, allows remote control & file transfer, is firewall friendly as uses TCP Port 443 – same as https)
    -          Security Policies (malware, updates, Windows Firewall, what about existing Group Policy?)
    -          Hardware and software inventory (quite a simple inventory solution)
    -          Licensing (only Microsoft software)

    Goto http://www.microsoft.com/windows/windowsintune/windowsintune-experience.aspx for more info, and if you are lucky enough to be on the beta login to the console via https://manage.microsoft.com

    Intune is due to be released in 2011 for 11$ per PC per month, and possible another dollar for MDOP on top – which as you can pay £40 per desktop per year for AV alone makes it a compelling offer esp. if you are currently running XP or Vista due to the upgrade license to Windows 7 Enterprise.

    There are c.450 UK partners in the 1st technical beta (now closed – worldwide cap at 10,000), but the next beta wave will be in the New Year – signup for notification of next wave at http://www.microsoft.com/windows/windowsintune/register.aspx

    Windows Phone 7 preview – more to follow…

    http://www.windowsphone7.com/

    http://www.eweekeurope.co.uk/news/five-uk-networks-will-carry-windows-phone-7-10003
    other useful links..

    https://www.quickstartonlineservices.com/pages/default.aspx

    1 comment »

    Posted in Azure, BPOS, Cloud, Microsoft, SharePoint, SQL Server, Windows 7

    Tags:

    A new (media center) PC test – the Tranquil ixL i5 Power PC…

    July 23rd, 2010

    Something we rarely talk about on the blog but enthuse and evangilise to many is Windows Media Center. I’ve been building and using Media Center for our primary entertainment system since the days of Window XP Media Center Edition beta’s c.2002-03.

    I’ve built several systems for various friends and family over the years, but when our main home media center based on a Shuttle SG36M died due to a PSU failure (also took out the motherboard – a bummer!), it was time to be looking for a new machine (the brightside to the failure I guess! ;-) )

    As a long time listener of Ian Dixon’s podcast at http://thedigitallifestyle.com I’d heard of Tranquil (http://www.tranquilpc.co.uk) who are based in Manchester. Tranquil produce fanless pieces of highend exotica covering Media Centers, Home Servers, and powerful new Intel i5 based PC’s…

    Now Tranquil don’t produce ‘cheap’ kit and fortunately I’m a believer in ‘buy cheap, buy twice’ so £459 + VAT later I’d ordered the ixL i5 Power PC with an Intel i5-650 (and a CD/DVD optical drive).

    I got my order in late on Tuesday, and this morning a very nice looking box arrived..

    ..with a complimentary Boost bar! – how they knew my hangover needed a sugar fix I don’t know, but the experience certainly started great! :-)

    Over the weekend I’m looking forward to getting a couple of gigs of 1066Mhz RAM, a Corsair 128GB SSD, and my Hauppauge dual DVB-T in there and seeing how she flys with some test builds.. likely Win7 32-bit and Windows Server 2008 R2 (for testing as a Hyper-V platform plus 64-bit driver support), but first work and clients to see… :-(

    Returning at the weekend for my first test built I grabbed a copy of Windows 7 Ultimate (32-bit) which installed painlessly enough, but did list the following as needy of drivers:

    Display adapter driver – http://downloadcenter.intel.com/Detail_Desc.aspx?agr=Y&ProdId=3144&DwnldID=19099&lang=eng
    Ethernet (network) driver – http://downloadcenter.intel.com/download.aspx?url=/19059/a08/PROWin32.exe&DwnldId=19059&lang=eng
    PCI Serial Port -
    PCI Simple Communications Controller (read IR RX) -

    With no documentation or driver media in the box, if you’ve ordered anything but a pre-built system you will need to go and find driver support from the web, however as the sytem is based on a current Intel desktop motherboard, the Intel® Desktop Board DH57JG, this is a fairly trivial task.

    A visit to http://www.intel.com/products/desktop/motherboards/dh57jg/dh57jg-overview.htm will get you covered with 32 & 64-bit drivers for Windows 7, Vista, XP Pro, plus 32-bit for XP Home, and even Windows XP Media Center Edition (one day I might restore an image of XPMCE as I still have the Compaq D510 SSF PC I used in the first builds back in 2002-3!).

    Going for the lazy option I grabbed the network driver first so I could let Windows Update do its worst on the rest – 35 updates later, inc. Intel HD Graphics (Intel listed 15.17.4.2119 as , Microsoft Update provided 8.15.10.2119 – the last digits being significant, the same) and a restart resulted in still needing the PCI Serial Port & Communications Controller (likely the same driver)

    At the same time, I’d recommend:

    http://www.intel.com/p/en_US/support/highlights/dsktpboards/dh57jg - which includes a link to Automatically detect and update drivers and software
    http://www.intel.com/support/detect.htm (the really lazy option – but it works really well, after I’d been struggling getting the audio outputs to work, bar SPDIF)

    http://www.intel.com/design/motherbd/software/dolby/index.htm

    Chipset: Intel® Chipset Device Software for Intel® Desktop Boards – http://downloadcenter.intel.com/Detail_Desc.aspx?agr=Y&DwnldID=10884&lang=eng
    (this one may also address the PCI Simple Communications Controller / IR reciever, but I’m having no luck just yet…)

    Intel® Desktop Utilities for 4 & 5 Series Desktop Boards – http://downloadcenter.intel.com/Detail_Desc.aspx?agr=Y&DwnldID=18934&lang=eng

    Intel® HD Graphics Driver for Windows* Vista and Windows* 7 15.17.7.2141 – http://downloadcenter.intel.com/Detail_Desc.aspx?agr=Y&ProdId=3144&DwnldID=19099&lang=eng

    Audio: Realtek* ALC Audio Driver - http://downloadcenter.intel.com/Detail_Desc.aspx?DwnldID=19018

    I mentioned performance updates coming soon, on Windows 7 32-bit with the above drivers the Performance Information and Tools (Windows Experience Index) gave a rating of 4.8, comprised of:

    Processor: 6.9
    Memory: 5.5
    Graphics: 4.8
    Gaming graphics: 5.3
    Primary hard disk: 5.9

    Thermal performance and other hardware monitors curtousy of the Intel Hardware Monitor application:

    1 comment »

    Posted in Green IT, Media Center, Microsoft, Tech, Windows 7

    Tags:

    Microsoft Techdays: Virtualization Summit – From the Desktop to the Datacenter

    April 12th, 2010

    Full agenda below, but key points for me:

    VDI & App-V – still virtualise your apps when using VDI to leverage further coat savings & ROI

    Win2008 R2 SP1 – Hyper-V gets ‘Dynamic Memory’ not same as memory over-commit but shares a pool of real server memory across VDI VM’s
    ‘Remote-FX’ – graphics rich across TS/RDP/VDI using server graphics capabilities – putting high-end GPU’s in the server!

    ‘Private Cloud’ & ‘Partner Cloud’ – enabling cloud based computing without the budget of Azure or Amazon Web Services!

    Using optimised desktop for on-demand application provisioning & apparent coexistance of non-compatible apps

    One image per major hardware type – more emphasis on process for application delivery & customisation/personalisation of the desktop.

    Deploying Personal Virtual Desktops by using Remote Desktop Services Web Access step-by-step guide

    VDI using Dynamic (“Non-Persistent”) Virtual Desktops
    - master VDI image then pesonalisation & customisation streamed to image delta – discarded at logoff, roaming profile intact

    Pooled VDI experience vs. RDS architecture (Shared Session Virtualisation)

    giving a video interview with Stuart Leddy for TechNet Flash :-)

    Having an insightful chat with David Overton (SBS Guy) around the prospective launch date of SBS2008 R2.. we think that the announcement won’t be until WPC in July, and then tabled for release in the last calendar quarter of 2010 and very likley post Windows Server 2008 R2 SP1… hmmm!

    Formal / published event information below..

    Event Overview
    Looking at virtualization but unsure about your options? Thinking about Windows 7 migration? Interested in VDI and server virtualization? Want to save on costs but wondering about ROI? Have more questions than answers on the topic?

    This 1-day event will provide you with an understanding of the key products & technologies enabling seamless physical and virtual management, interoperable tools, and cost-savings & value. Microsoft Virtualization provides a completely virtualised infrastructure for your organisation, from the datacenter to desktop to the cloud. Please mark your calendar for Microsoft Virtualization Summit on Monday 12 April 2010 in London. Join us and interact live with Microsoft, key partnerships and early adopter customers in this informative event near you.

    For all the latest agenda and speaker information, please visit our UK Techdays website: www.microsoft.com/uk/techdays

    • Virtualization Summit -
    From the Desktop to the Datacentre

    Vue Cinema Shepherds Bush, Screen 9.

    Looking at virtualization but unsure about your options? Thinking about Windows 7 migration? Interested in VDI and server virtualization? Want to save on costs but wondering about ROI? Have more questions than answers on the topic? This 1-day event will provide you with an understanding of the key products & technologies enabling seamless physical and virtual management, interoperable tools, and cost-savings & value. Microsoft Virtualization provides a completely virtualized infrastructure for your organisation, from the datacenter to desktop to the cloud. Please mark your calendar for Microsoft Virtualization Summit on Monday 12 April 2010 in London. Join us and interact live with Microsoft, key partnerships and early adopter customers in this informative event near you.
    8.30am – 9.30am Registration
    9.30am – 10.30am Virtualization 360 to End-To-End Virtualization
    Dai Vu, Director, Microsoft Corp

    Organisations today face many challenges and have certain priorities they must address. With Microsoft Virtualization they can address these challenges and concerns with the essential capabilities Microsoft delivers through the products they already own. When you couple Microsoft Virtualization solutions with integrated management to bring it all together you now have the visibility into your environment, while increasing your capability to respond to the ever changing business requirements. Also, learn how Microsoft Desktop Virtualization can help organisations with their access, data security, and compliance concerns while also providing anywhere access for their users. Learn how Microsoft Virtualization solutions in the datacenter help IT save money, increase availability and improve agility through the dynamic platform and management capabilities we provide to our customers. This allows IT to be more service-centric in how they provide to their customers. This vision of Virtualization will show that Microsoft today has the capabilities you need today with a path to the future.
    10.30am – 11.30pm Next Generation Optimised Desktop
    Keith Baker, Datacenter Technology Specialist

    Many organisations are using Windows 7 migration as an opportunity to change how they provision and manage their desktops. The Windows Optimised Desktop is a vision for how organizations can bring down the costs of client computing while maximising flexibility, security, and manageability. Learn about the next generation of the Windows Optimised Desktop, which includes new technologies in Windows 7, Desktop Virtualization, Microsoft Desktop Optimisation Pack (MDOP) and System Center.
    11.30pm – 12.00pm Break
    12.00pm – 1.00pm Implementing a Comprehensive VDI Solution
    Matt McSpirit, Partner Technology Advisor – Virtualisation & Management

    Virtual Desktop Infrastructure (VDI) is one of the hottest topics in IT today and is an important cornerstone of the Microsoft’s Optimised Desktop strategy. Desktop Virtualization offers new and powerful opportunities for IT to deliver and manage corporate desktops and to respond to various user needs in a flexible way. For organisations to realise the full benefits of VDI, they need to ensure they choose a solution that addresses the key issues they face today. This session helps outlines the Microsoft VDI offering and benefits of an integrated and comprehensive approach toward desktop flexibility and manageability.
    1.00pm – 2.00pm Extended Break – Time to grab a bite nearby
    2.00pm – 3.00pm Physical to Virtual Management with System Center
    Julius Davies & Clive Watson, Datacenter Technology Specialists

    Virtualization has transformed how IT can deliver the applications and services to their customers in a very dynamic climate. But not all applications and machines are great candidates for virtualization, and it will take some time for IT to move all of the applications that can be converted to virtual machines. This session will discuss how an IT organisation can leverage System Center, a comprehensive set of integrated management tools, allowing you to keep complexity to a minimum and streamline operations. A common management environment reduces training, ensures uniform policy application and simplifies maintenance by leveraging your existing software, personnel, and most importantly, your existing IT management process.
    3.00pm – 3.30pm Break
    3.30pm – 4.30pm Deploying Business Critical Workloads and Applications
    Dai Vu, Director Microsoft Corp

    This session will cover how Windows Server 2008 R2 Hyper-V provides an optimal platform for running your business critical workloads like Exchange, SQL and SharePoint as well as other various applications and workloads, including best practices, key concepts and other considerations.
    4.30pm – 5.30pm Building a Foundation for Your Private Cloud
    Sohbat Ali, Solution Architect

    Windows Server 2008 R2 and the Microsoft System Center family of products are enabling customers to build the foundation for a private cloud infrastructure by using the Dynamic Infrastructure Toolkit for System Center (availability scheduled in the first half of 2010). This free, partner-extensible toolkit will provide you architectural roadmap, deployment guidance, best practices, and familiar tools to create agile, virtualized IT infrastructures. This session will provide more information on the toolkit components, and how you can improve your datacenter efficiency by lowering the overall costs of on-boarding, deployment, and management.

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    Posted in Hyper-V, Microsoft, Systems Management, Virtualisation, Windows 7, Windows Server 2008 R2

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    Training – Updating Your Technology Knowledge of Microsoft Windows XP to Windows 7

    December 14th, 2009

     

    Activity description: 44CO135 – Updating Your Technology Knowledge of Microsoft Windows XP to Windows 7 (M6291)

    Summary:

    This two-day instructor-led course provides students with the knowledge and skills to work with the new technologies in Windows Vista and Windows 7. This course is intended for individuals who already have experience with Windows XP to upgrade their skills to Windows 7.

    Objectives:

    After completing this course, students will be able to:

    •Manage the desktop settings that personalize the computing experience.
    •Describe how Windows 7 Beta Search enhancements improve productivity.
    •Implement Search Federation to search remote data sources within the enterprise infrastructure.
    •Describe the new Group Policy Preferences and Administrative Templates that are available to IT professionals who manage Group Policy Objects.
    •Describe how IT professionals use the Group Policy Management Console to create scripts that manage Group Policy Objects.
    •Identify and use the improvements made to the latest version of PowerShell.
    •Describe how DirectAccess enables IT professionals to remotely manage and update user PCs.
    •Describe the platform and network requirements necessary to implement DirectAccess.
    •Describe the VPN reconnection features and the platform and network requirements.
    •Illustrate how to use Group Policy to prevent specific types of files from being synchronized to the server.
    •Describe how BranchCache improves user productivity in branch offices by caching content from remote file and Web servers in branch locations.
    •Administer new User Account Control security settings to improve the end-user computing experience.
    •Describe how AppLocker enables IT Professionals to specify the programs that are allowed to run on user desktops.
    •Describe how Windows 7 Beta improves upon the firewall policy by allowing IT professionals to identify multiple active firewall profiles.
    •Describe new Windows 7 Beta features as they relate to Windows Deployment Services and virtualization.
    •Explain how the Problem Steps Recorder can be used to reproduce and record experiences with an application failure.
    •Summarize key components of the Windows Troubleshooting Platform and run the troubleshooting wizard from the Start menu for a specific problem.
    •Identify how unified tracing provides IT professionals with a single tool for troubleshooting issues in the Windows 7 Beta networking stack.
    •Describe how Windows Management Instrumentation provides IT professionals with programmatic access to reliability data, enabling them to check stability status and review recent events remotely.
    •Describe how to use the Device Manager and Devices and Printers to manage devices

    Top tips & resources picked up during the course…

    - Windows 7 is the last O/S from Microsoft available in a 32-bit sku, the reason still available on x86/32-bit is due to global economic conditions, to extend the life of older hardware (and not limiting the deployment of 7).

    - Group Policy Preferences brought in with Server 2008 and allows user changes after the policy has been deployed.
    Group Policy Audit Tool – auditpol.exe
    AD DS Auditing Step-by-Step Guide – http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/cc731607(WS.10).aspx

    - Deployment accelerators at www.microsoft.com/springboard (‘Quickly access resources designed to ease the deployment and management of your Windows client infrastructure’), also check Stephen Rose at http://blogs.technet.com/stephenrose/

    - DirectAccess & SBS… wait for SBS 2008 R2

    - Windows 7 & Windows Server 2008 R2 is DoD Suite B compliant
    Use BitLocker and BitLocker to go on all your mobile devices

    - Google hacking… Andy showed us the interesting stuff that can be done with Google Hacking e.g. goto www.google.com and type in the search bar site:mil filetype:pdf “top secret”
    also the use of the ‘similar’ button to get around site logon

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    Posted in Microsoft, Training, Windows 7

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    Microsoft tech•ed Europe 2009, Berlin, 12 November 2009

    November 12th, 2009

    Slighty shabby and a late start to Thursday following the Windows Server 2008 R2 EAP dinner followed by the 1E TechEd party – a heavy night! 

    For the dinner, the UK team chose a fabulous Italian restaurant called Bacco (www.bacco.de/english/restaurant/restaurant.html) which I’d definately go back to and hosted a great evening… many thanks to Stuart, Gareth, Neil, Alex, etc. from Microsoft UK. 

    We were also joined by Allen Stewart & Rajesh Dave from corp.  Allen is Principal PM for Windows Server and Raj is a PM for Windows Hyper-V.  Both very interesting & incredibly knowledgable guys with deep understanding across a wide range of topics (and not just Microsoft!).
    I pestered them for info on Hyper-V thin provisioning of memory and whilst they couldn’t confirm anything as we all said ‘we live in hope!’ ;-) 

    …as for the  night, I’d been invited to the 1E TechEd Europe party at Spindler & Klatt www.spindlerklatt.de - an uuber trendy restaurant/club in East Berlin frequented by the likes of Angelina, Clooney, and now Cook! 

    What a great party and many many thanks to the team at 1E (www.1e.com).  Did I mention I was the 4th member of the business in the founding year?  (yes I probably did & several times.. lots to drunk! ;-) ) We went our separate ways in 1999, oh for a slice of that now… anyway, moving on! 

    Seriously though hats off to Samir, Mark, and Phil – they have built a company that knows how to throw a great party (regarded as the best at TechEd), and a team of very bright, talented people who have a lot of respect for the company and its founders. 

    Ouch my head is pounding!  time to go to sessions, starting with… 

    ITS211 Keeping Your CIO Happy: Microsoft Office SharePoint Server 2007 SLA Scorecarding with Operations Manager 2007 and SQL Server 2008

    Gordon McKenna & Sean Roberts speaking at TechEd
    Presenters: Gordon McKenna, Sean Roberts, www.inframon.com
    Thu 11/12 | 10:45-12:00 | London 2 – Hall 7-1b
    Learn how you can create CIO level SLA scorecards in SharePoint Server 2007 for Microsoft System Center Operations Manager 2007 using some of the new features in Microsoft SQL Server 2008 Reporting Services and to create Executive SLA views of your Operational Environment. The session looks at why these types of views are important to many companies, what impact this can have on your business, and what simple steps you can take to achieve very effective, high-level executive views of everything from performance and availability of your key LOB services and applications, whether important SLAs and KPIs are being achieved and whether your IT department is meeting the day-to-day needs of your business. The key demos in this session take you through the steps you need to implement effective business scorecarding in SharePoint Server 2007 using key metrics collected in the Operations Manager 2007 Datawarehouse based on “real-world” experiences gained from the field. After attending this presentation you will have a good insight into how CIO Scorecards can help you add value to your Operations Manager deployments, helping you to show real value to your executives.
    Tip – to remove parameter data from Ops Mgr reports imported into a SharePoint webpart, suffix the url with &rc:Parameters=collapsed
    Cracking session from Gordon & Sean on how to try and keep your CIO happy (if that’s possible! ;-) )
    blog Daniel Savage

    Service Level dashboard – free solution accelerator dashboard on Microsoft 

    SVR401 & 402 DirectAccess Technical Drilldown, Part 1 of 2: IPv6 and Transition Technologies + Part 2 of 2: Putting It All Together

    John Cradock presents DirectAccess Technical Drilldown, Part 1 of 2: IPv6 and Transition Technologies 

    Presenter: John Craddock (www.xtseminars.co.uk)
    Thu 11/12 | 13:30-14:45 | Helsinki – Hall 7-2a
    Take a sprinkling of Windows 7, add Windows Server 2008 R2, IPv6 and IPsec and you have a solution that will allow direct access to your corporate network without the need for VPNs. Come to these demo-rich sessions and learn how to integrate DirectAccess into your environment. In Part 1 learn about IPv6 addressing, host configuration and transitioning technologies including 6to4, ISATAP, Teredo and IPHTTPS. Through a series of demos learn how to build an IPv6 Network and interoperate with IPv4 networks and hosts. In Part 2 we add the details of IPSec, and components that are only available with Windows 7 and Windows Server 2008 R2 to build the DirectAccess infrastructure. Learn how to control access to corporate resources and manage Internet connected PCs through group policy. Part 1 is highly recommended as a prerequisite for Part 2.
    John Craddock is an extremely talented AD/identity expert, and deeply technical across many other fields – in this case IPv6 & DA.
    I was also lucky enough to have a drink with John and my old Microsoft PSS chum Paul Duffy on Monday night at the cleverly named hotel ‘Berlin Berlin’.
    John is a genuine international industry expert and a thoroughly nice bloke with it!   Paul, another ‘genie-I’ went on to become PM for Office Communicator and knows a thing or ten about OCS amongst other subjects to a deep level.  This probably explains why these two know each other!
    Anyway, back to the session plus my own notes, links, etc.
    Gems & Tips
    - be careful, not all apps will be compatible – test!
    - to be native will likely mean new network gear, is new network layer (layer 2 unchanged)
    - hex is back!  use of double colon notation, but can only be used once per address
    - cannot mix with ipV4 mask bit notation
    - host derived with mac address which has privacy issues, Win7 & R2 generate random based on interface, can be disabled (revert to mac based) with netsh interface ipv6 set global randomizeidentifiers=disabled
    - route print -6 will show IPv6 route table
    - ::1 is IPv6 loopback
    - if you have a registered IPv4 address then you automatically have an IPv6 address on the 6to4 network
    6to4 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/6to4 states 6to4 performs three functions:
    1. Assigns a block of IPv6 address space to any host or network that has a global IPv4 address.
    2. Encapsulates IPv6 packets inside IPv4 packets for transmission over an IPv4 network using 6in4.
    3. Routes traffic between 6to4 and “native” IPv6 networks.

    - you need to manually unblock ISATAP entry in DNS which can be done via the registry or command line, e.g. 

    C:>dnscmd /config /globalqueryblocklist wpad 

    Registry property globalqueryblocklist successfully reset.
    Command completed successfully. 

    ISATAP is a huge subject in it’s own right, the Intra-site Automatic Tunnel Addressing Protocol Deployment Guide is available at http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?familyid=0f3a8868-e337-43d1-b271-b8c8702344cd&displaylang=en 

    Putting it all together..

    - Check tunnel endpoint authentication using ‘klist’ to list Kerberos data
    - Use NRTP to direct DNS queries to a specific server for a particular names space (view using ‘netsh namespace show effectivepolicy’)
    - PKI needs to be right as certificates are the foundations
    - you must publish the revocation list
    - NLS (Nework Location Server) is just a https website accessible from the DA server, e.g. nls.corp.example.com
    - if it doesn’t work, it could be a couple of days troubleshooting! 

    If you’re thinking of setting this up in a virtual lab, I also took note from Allen Stewart’s blog at http://blogs.technet.com/wincat/

    …if you’re planning to virtualize your lab environment on Hyper-V, you should ensure you’re using Legacy Network Adapters for the child partition where you’re running the DAS. Using the default synthetic NICs is OK for all the other resources in the test lab, but for the DAS itself, it’s important to have both the Internet and Corpnet NICs as legacy ones, to ensure proper passing of traffic between both sides of the DAS. If you use the default synthetic adapters, you may end up in a situation where traffic doesn’t properly flow from the outside to the inside, even though all your IPsec, 6to4, Teredo, and IP-HTTPS settings are correct. Basically, you’ll be in a situation where connectivity will fail at a basic level, with you not even being to successfully ping the internal DNS server using its ISATAP address.If you’ve already built your lab on Hyper-V using the synthetic adapters, the fix is pretty simple. Just replace them with legacy ones, reconfigure the IP addressing as specified in the guide and rerun the DirectAccess wizard, again supplying all the information specified in the guide. After doing so, all your traffic should flow properly.

    - Thanks Allen!

    DAT312 All You Needed to Know about Microsoft SQL Server 2008 Failover Clustering

    Presenter: Gopal Ashok
    Thu 11/12 | 17:00-18:15 | London 3 – Hall 7-1b
    There are major architectural changes in SQL Server 2008 for failover cluster setup and management, geared towards increased reliability and high-availability. To learn all the benefits and changes, attend this session for a comprehensive overview direct from the product development group. We cover SQL Server 2008 failover clustering setup, underlying Windows Server cluster and how SQL Server uses it, what’s new in SQL Server 2008 for failover clustering, differences from previous versions of SQL Server and future directions. This includes details of SQL Server 2008 failover clustering setup operations together with demos to illustrate the new setup.

    - new features
    - applications need retry mechanisms built in to provide seamless failover
    - no longer have to take down the cluster to upgrade, supports rolling upgrades 

    Want to deploy stretched clusters?  lots do.  As in separate geo-redundant clusters, not separate nodes e.g. 

    Stretched SQL Clusters or the doodles of an artist?

    Stretched SQL Clusters or the doodles of an artist?

    - sql 2008 failover clustering install breaks on windows server 2008 R2 and needs to be slipstreamed with SP1 (If only we knew this last weekend!)
    (slipstreaming is incorporating patches into the installation media to effect a higher level of install base over RTM – Microsoft tend to do this but not always quickly!)
    see http://blogs.msdn.com/psssql/archive/2009/03/17/how-to-fix-your-sql-server-2008-setup-before-you-run-setup-part-ii.aspx for more info
    - during upgrades to a 2-node cluster there will be a period of time when you are exposed to node failure, and must not have a failover attempt for fear of corruption.  removing the node from the cluster owners will stop premature attempted failover. 

    Further Microsoft resources.. (will add others also) 

          SQL Server ® 2008 Failover Clustering White Paper: http://sqlcat.com/whitepapers/archive/2009/07/08/sql-server-2008-failover-clustering.aspx 

          Recommended  Books Online  Doc Refresh #7 (May, 2009), or later: http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ms130214.aspx 

          Failover Clusters – Getting Started: http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ms189134.aspx 

          Rolling upgrade process and best practice: http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ms191295.aspx 

          Maintaining a Failover Cluster: http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ms178061.aspx 

          Setup command line usage: http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ms144259.aspx 

          Configuration.ini file usage: http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/dd239405.aspx 

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    Posted in Data Protection Manager, Exchange 2010, Hyper-V, IPv6, Microsoft, Networking, SharePoint, System Center, Systems Management, Tech, Training, Virtualisation, Windows 7, Windows Server 2008 R2

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    Microsoft tech•ed Europe 2009, Berlin, 11 November 2009

    November 11th, 2009

    A daily update from Microsoft tech•ed Europe 2009, Berlin, 8-13 November 2009

    Not the best day for me in terms of TechEd objectives (i.e. attending learning sessions, etc.) with the first post of the day saying ‘decisions decisions… for sessions just 09:00-10:15′ as struggled to choose between:

    DAT302 Top 10 Best Practices for Microsoft SQL Server 2008 Analysis Services
    or
    MGT11-IS Get Virtualized with Microsoft System Center Essentials!
    or
    OFS322 Overview of Social Computing in SharePoint 2010
    or
    SVR207 Windows Server 2008 R2 File Classification Infrastructure: Managing your file data more effectively.
    or
    SVR319 Multi-Site Clustering with Windows Server 2008 R2

    Ended up doing none of the above, but did have a productive breakfast meeting with Stuart Leddy, UK Windows Server Product Marketing Manager.  Stuart has been heading up the Windows Server 2008 R2 UK EAP activities that we have been involved in with Ascom Network Testing (http://blog.thefullcircle.com/2009/11/05/the-full-circle-secures-ascom-network-testing-for-windows-server-2008-r2-early-adopter-program/)

    The day turned into going from one full session to the next, and walking back and forth for what seemed like miles in between!
    my TechEd tip for the day - for popular sessions get there 10 minutes before they start!

    Eventually did get into a 1st choice session I wanted at 12:20…

    MGT03-DEMO Introduction to Microsoft System Center Essentials 2010

    Presenters: Ravikiran Chintalapudi, David Mills, Eamon O’Reilly, Jeremy Winter
     
    Come see the new customer-driven enhancements and fully integrated virtual management capabilities in the next release of Microsoft’s unified IT Management solution for medium-sized businesses, System Center Essentials 2010!
     
    - great product, can manage 50 servers and 200 clients
     
     

    SVR307 Security Best Practices for Hyper-V and Server Virtualisation

    Jeff Woolsey, Senior Program Manager, Microsoft Virtualization
    http://blogs.technet.com/virtualization/

    Virtualisation is one of the hottest topics in IT today and security is a top priory for IT staff. In this session we cover security best practices for Hyper-V and introduce the Hyper-V Security Guide. This guide is Microsoft’s reference for hardening servers running Windows Server 2008 with Hyper-V enabled.

    - Use of BitLocker
    - AV scanning of offline VHD images… stale/dormant VMs that get reintroduced to the corporate network then can wreak havoc to new vulnerability exploits.  first product to do this is McAfee VirusScan Enterprise for Offline Virtual Images (rolls off the toungue!)
    - AV configuration… added benefit of passthrough disks – host AV will scan these disks.  install AV on the guests!
    - VHD performance, 2nd most popular VM workload in Microsoft is SQL! fixed disk performance is now on par with raw/real disk!  but remember spindles still count!
    - Dynamic VHDs are now up to 15x faster with R2 – still a 10-15% performance hit over fixed, and the risk of disk over commit
    - Multipath I/O (MPIO) in R2 & Win7 is soo much easier with iSCSI Quick Connect
    - Advanced Storage Capabilities… storage dedupe and replication, if it is block based it will work
    Hyper-V Networking – don’t forget the parent is a VM too!  the Hypervisor slides in beneath the O/S once enabled.  More NICs the better, min 2, min 3 with iSCSI
    Jumbo Frames… Significant performance increases, but the infrastructure must support it.  also needs to be end-to-end.  confirm test with ping host -l 4000 -f – if you get a response you have jumbo frames
    Virtual Machine Queues - Hyper-V R2 supports processing offloading to newer network adaptors (Intel, Broadcom, etc.), most benefit with 10Gb/E
    - more tips… turn off screen savers in guests, in Windows Server 2003 create using 2-way to ensure MP HAL

    more of a best practise and walkthrough of some basic tasks like not forgetting to install Intergration Component, good session and great blogger (not me – Jeff! ;-) )

     

    DAT301 Building and Implementing a High Availability Strategy for Your Enterprise

    Presenter: Gopal Ashok
    Wed 11/11 | 17:30-18:45 | London 3 – Hall 7-1b
    Every business has mission-critical applications running on Microsoft SQL Server that require maximum uptime. Some application data is more critical than others and requires strict guarantees with regard to data loss. Depending on the application requirements and IT constraints, the availability strategy and corresponding technology choices will vary. As an architect, DBA, or IT admin it is important to develop the right HA strategy and corresponding solution which meets the availability requirement and at the same time provides the cost benefit for your organisation. Microsoft SQL Server 2008 Always On Technologies provide a full range of options to minimise downtime and maintain appropriate levels of application availability. Come to this session to learn how to develop a comprehensive HA solution using the Always On technologies. The session walks you through the various technologies and features, providing a cost-benefit analysis and comparison, talks about the key decision points to consider when choosing a technology, and showcases real-world examples of how these technologies are currently used to provide a High Availability solution for various customer environments around the world.

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    Posted in Data Protection Manager, Exchange 2010, Hyper-V, Microsoft, SharePoint, System Center, Systems Management, Tech, Training, Virtualisation, Windows 7, Windows Server 2008 R2

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    Microsoft tech•ed Europe 2009, Berlin, 9 November 2009

    November 9th, 2009

    <if you are reading this the week of 9th November then apologies up front, its published but is really a working draft>

    Microsoft TechEd Europe 2009, Berlin 8-13th November, 2009

    So this week I’m a TechEd & Berlin virgin, although I guess I’m not alone as there are over 7200 people from 104 countries attending this event! (ignore the later picture, it’s out of date before it was taken).

    MD of German MS Business

    www.citymosiac.de – Berlin Social Media project to mark 20yrs since collapse of the Berlin Wall

    Stephen Elop, President, Microsoft Business Division
    you can’t save your way to success, simply cost cutting not the answer
    do more with less has become “with less, do more” – the new efficiency
    UK govnt. Embracing cloud computing to increase efficiencies

    Customer evidence from Statoil (Petter Wersland), NASDAQ OMX (Carl-Magnus Hallberg), Chester Zoo (Phil Morris)

    Statoil – Exchange 2010 TAP, reduced storage by 60% but increased mailbox size 40-fold!
    Identity & access & the cloud – complexities need to be addressed.

    NASDAQ – latency issues due to disperse geography with low-long bandwidth, use of Win7 & Branch-cache.  Emphasis on IT & technology alignment with business projects, close to the strategy of the business.

    Chester Zoo – Virtualisation saved £11K in electricity alone, being a Zoo obvious green agenda alignment.  Chester Zoo installed 50km of fibre optics, and have wireless cameras throughout the complex, inc. In cages – IT manager has been attacked by monkeys.. (literally!)

    Windows 7 had over 7m beta users
    Win7 was the biggest pre-order product on amazon.co.uk, dethroning Harry Potter “Windows 7 is King””  (oh dear!)

    Cloud Computing

    Microsoft Online Services

    Exchange Online – adopters inc. GSK, Aeon, etc,  often in conjunction with on premises Exchange

    Exchange 2010 GA today, RTM launch

    Julia White, Director, Exchange 2010 Product Team

    Demoed a mailbox move whilst in use…. err? Is that new?  Didn’t show the client at the end of the move process… was there a prompt?

    Exchange 2010 mail tips that advise the user of issues before they click send, e.g. incorrect distribution groups, Out of Office, etc.

    Speech to text and vice-versa

    Outlook Web Access now, Outlook Web App

    Unified Messaging improvements, also integrated into OWA

    Transport rules that can apply actions to email types regardless of sender choices (or lack of – e.g. adding DRM to certain types of email)

    DRM working across access types (mobile, browser… demo used FireFox)

    Multi-mailbox search capabilities

    Forester claim a complete ROI on Exchange 2010 deployment in 6 months!
    Various ForeFront launches announced today

     

    IT Infrastructure

    Apparently (allegedly) 70% of the world’s servers are running Windows

    -          Windows Server 2008 R2 stats – 460,000 downloads thus far

    Robert Whabe, Corporate VP, Microsoft Server & Tools Business

    Evolution of the Datacenter – green IT, virtualisation moving to private then public cloud

    BranchCache reduced MS Mexico sales office bandwidth by 90%

    SCOM/OpsMgr Dashboard demo showing KPI & summarised

    Jeff Wettlaufer, Technical PM, System Center
    Bunch of redelivered stuff around SCVMM e.g. PRO, Live Migration, power mgmt, etc.

     

    Devlopers! Developers! Devlopers!

    An auditorium for over 7000

    Many signs pointing to TechEd, but where is it?!?!

    F'F'F'Five degrees in Berlin

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    Posted in Exchange 2010, Hyper-V, Microsoft, Systems Management, Tech, Training, Virtualisation, Windows 7, Windows Server 2008 R2

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