News - Aidan Finn, IT Pro

Microsoft News Summary – 11 September 2014

More Azure changes. Keeping up with this is difficult!

Azure

More changes announced: VPN Support for Azure Websites, Scalable CMS in the app gallery, role-based access control, and more stuff were announced yesterday.
Update for Azure Backup for Microsoft Azure Recovery Services Agent: The agent now supports weekly backups with 120 retention points, and 9 years of retention (one recovery point every 4 weeks). You can use this version of the agent together with the Microsoft Azure Site Recovery service to protect virtual machines that are running on Windows Server 2012 R2 CORE SKU and Microsoft Hyper V Server 2012 R2 into Azure.

Office 365

Microsoft Unveils Office Delve for Office 365: A new content discovery tool that looks like Flipboard. It’s a bit "eh" for me.
Patching Office 365 with System Center Configuration Manager 2012: Take some control over Office Click to Run using SCCM.

Legal

Microsoft refuses to hand over foreign data, held in contempt of court: AFAIK, Microsoft (as well as every other US-owned cloud operator) needs the higher US courts to agree that data held in MSFT clouds is not MSFT-owned, and therefore outside of the jurisdiction of US agencies unless the actual owner is American and subject to US laws.

Technorati Tags: Microsoft,Azure,Backup,Cloud,Cloud Computing,Hybrid Cloud,Office 365,System Center,Configuration Manager

Microsoft News Summary-21 May 2014

I took a break from these posts last week while I was at TechEd, and then had work catch up to do this week. Let’s get back a rockin’. There is a distinct tendency towards cloud and automation in the news of the last week. That should be no surprise.

Microsoft Enhancing Office 365 ProPlus Management Capabilities: Click-to-run updates will be faster. Admins can selectively block updates. And more …
Announcing Windows PowerShell Desired State Configuration for Linux: If you run a large data center with lots of admin driven deployment then you should look at DSC. And wait for it … DSC is now a CTP release on Linux!
PowerShell DSC for Linux, Step by Step: Put the DSC for Linux into action.
Why SPLA? Why would you go with the Microsoft Services Provider License Agreement (SPLA) instead of OEM or volume licensing? That is followed by the SPLA level 200 FAQ.
An IT Pro’s Perspective of TechEd 2014: My take, on Petri, on how Microsoft related to IT pros at the TechEd NA 2014 keynote.
Choosing a sign-in model for Office 365: Native, DirSync or ADFS & DirSync? Learn the differences.
PowerShell DSC Blog Series – Part 3, Testing DSC Resources: Testing PowerShell Desired State Configuration resources during the authoring process.
Deployment–At last, a GUI for PDT!!! Benedict Berger and Kamil Kosek from Elanity Network Partner have produced something they call “PDT GUI”. It will load and edit Variable.xml files using a very nicely designed simple GUI. It doesn’t yet allow for all PDT possibilities – some of the advanced scenarios such as clustering are not included (yet) – but it really is an excellent way to get started with PDT without the fear of XML.
Description of Update Rollup 2 for System Center 2012 R2 Data Protection Manager: The UR2 for DPM 2012 R2 is fixed … allegedly. Don’t go rushing it out!
Driver file copying goes slowly during bare-metal deployment in System Center 2012 R2 VMM: When you use System Center 2012 R2 Virtual Machine Manager (VMM R2) to provision a physical computer as a virtual machine host (also known as bare-metal deployment), it may take longer than expected to install matching device drivers. No fix shared yet.
System Center Advisor Preview Opened Up: Anyone can sign up now.
Deploying SQL Server 2014 with Cluster Shared Volumes: CSV is now a supported storage file system for SQL Server 2014 failover cluster instances (FCI).

Technorati Tags: Office 365,PowerShell,Scripting,Licensing,Events,System Center,DPM,VMM,SQL

Microsoft News Summary–24 April 2014

Here’s some interesting bits from the last few days that I have not blogged:

Update Rollup 2 for System Center 2012 R2 was released: As usual, you should wait a month before deploying these updates. Note that some of the updates require manual effort after the installation. In particular, the VMM and SCOM updates require you to update the SQL databases using a script. Therefore: wait 1 month before deploying and do not auto deploy these updates!
UR2 for SysCtr 2012 R2 is breaking some DPM installations: Update Rollup 1 has broken some DPM 2012 R2 installations. There is a fix that involves running a SQL script.
Microsoft Identity Manager replaces ForeFront Identity Manager in H1 2015: Lots of effort into modernising MIM to include new devices and hybrid cloud. More information at TechEd USA next month in session PCIT-B328. And that’s the end of the ForeFront brand.
Update Rollup 6 for System Center 2012 Service Pack 1 is also released: As usual, wait 1 month. Do not auto approve.
Businesses now have until August 12th to deploy the April update for Windows 8.1 and Windows Server 2012 R2: For organizations using WSUS, Windows Intune, or System Center Configuration Manager, the deadline was extended beyond May. After that time, you must have deployed the update to continue to get security updates. This is the new support baseline.
Another Windows 8.1/Server 2012 R2 Update in August? WZor is reporting that there might be another big update in August … that timing is a coincidence, eh?!?! Note – "Update 1" is not called that or "Update" in any of the MSFT deployment tools. It is simply called the April 2014 Update. That means there’s no reason that there cannot be an "August 2014 Update". Some are speculating that this update will bring a new Start Menu.
Smart Paging in Hyper-V Dynamic Memory: A Petri post by me.
Update 2 for Windows Azure Pack (April 2014): WAP also got an update this month.
Static Internal IP Address for Virtual Machines: IP addresses in Azure VMs are not static by default. Here’s how to use PoSH to configure them to be static.
Run a Script or Batch File with Administrative Privileges as Windows Starts: I wonder if this could be used to configure the Shared VHDX filter on a non-clustered lab host?
Operations Manager Health Service Restarts due to Exceeding Handle Count Threshold: an issue where agents were restarting.
Microsoft rolls out new ‘basic’ Azure cloud pricing tier: I blogged about this recently. I switch the VM that this site is on over to that plan this week.
Understanding the Architecture of the Hyper-V Hypervisor: A Petri post by me.
UR2 for System Center 2012 R2 Operations Manager adds new dashboard widgets: Included in this update are updated widgets that allow you to create richer dashboard visualizations within Operations Manager.
Generation 2 VM created in System Center 2012 R2 Virtual Machine Manager cannot start: When you use System Center 2012 R2 Virtual Machine Manager for template creation, you may discover that Generation 2 virtual machines (VMs) based on this template cannot start after creation. Virtual Machine Manager returns the following error: Error (23352) VMM cannot find the device or this device is not valid for a boot device.
Infrastructure as a Service Product Line Architecture-Fabric Architecture Guide: This document provides specific guidance for developing fabric architectures (compute, network, storage, and virtualization layers) for an overall private cloud solution.
Meet your favourite Petri Authors in Person at TechEd North America 2014: A number of us, including me and Damian Flynn, will be present on the evening.

Technorati Tags: Windows Server 2012 R2,Windows 8.1,Hyper-V,Virtualisation,Cloud,System Center,Azure

News Roundup – February 22nd, 2011

A few different things have happened in the past couple of weeks so here’s a roundup.

Internet Explorer 9 RTW
IE9 was release by Microsoft with the usual claims of standards compliance, quicker browsing, better security, and so in. I can’t say if all that’s true or not; I stopped using IE8/9 during the IE9 beta. I got tired of memory being eaten up, slow browsing, crashes, and all that jazz. I also didn’t
Like the direction that IE9 was going.

I’m now part of the majority of Europeans that are primarily using Firefox. For the first time in a very long time, IE is a minority browser in Europe.

MED-V 2.0 RTM
MED-V is a part of MDOP, that package that is only available to Software Assurance customers. I’ve never looked at it. I meet a lot of IT consumers in Ireland because of my community involvement. I don’t know anyone that is using MDOP. I’ve only got so much time so I have to focus on what I work on or learn. Hence, I have not looked at MDOP.

Microsoft Legal Creating Trouble?
I’m listening to the Paul Thurrot podcast this morning. He reported that MS is trying to push through a bill in Washington State. It would allow MS to sue a company that uses the service of another company, where that other company uses pirated MS software. It would be limited to corporations making more than 50 million dollars. The effect would be ridiculous. Any corporation would have to audit the computers and license purchases of service providers. That would create all sorts of bureaucracy. As if MS licensing wasn’t bad enough?!

I see it causing trouble in the public cloud or hosting business. Open source Linux already rules the roost here. This effort by MS legal won’t help that.

Windows 8
Microsoft aren’t talking (directly) but there are plenty of leaks. Screenshots are out there if you look for them. Some scheduling information is also available. The M2 build is allegedly complete and bug detection/fixing is underway, and maybe M3 build is underway as well.

BTW, I reckon that PDC 2011 delegates might want to leave room in their bags for a slate PC (maybe an ARM tablet) with an install of Windows 8 on it.

MMS 2011
The conference to go to is underway. If you are there, I strongly recommend the SCVMM sessions. The keynotes will be streaming live online, starting today.

IBM Makes 200 Redundant in Ireland

200 people in the server manufacturing side of IBM are being made jobless, it was announced today. The work is being moved to Singapore.

You Know How Iceland Was To Become The New Digital Hub?

Lots of experts were predicting that Iceland was to become the new digital hub of the world. Abundant free geo thermal power, a cold climate, new gigantic connectors to the rest of the world, brand new data centres … and then something happened. Now what was it … I only saw something on the news recently and it’s gone and slipped my mind …. ah yeah: Mother nature decided to tip a great big hole in the country and cover the northern hemisphere with ash. It appears this might cause companies to think twice about locating critical IT resources in the already-financially crippled country.

More Than Half Of People Prefer To Buy PC’s In Shops

I just read this on Silicon Republic. 53% prefer the ability to ask questions and the ability to return a product without messing with couriers. I understand this. I’m wary of buying a PC online because features I value are not listed, e.g. can I enable DEP and CPU assisted virtualisation in the BIOS? As I mentioned earlier, retail PC sales grew by 10% rather than shrunk. Online sales suffer due to an inability to interact and the mess associated with returns and support.

MS Merged Windows Server & Azure Divisions

Microsoft has announced that the Windows Server and Tools division will merge with Azure online services. This means that future developments can be integrated. We’ve already heard that VMM v.Next will allow you to migrate VM’s from your Hyper-V private could up to Azure. And with bolt-ons we know that we can integrate an internal Active Directory with things like Exchange Hosted Services and BPOS. It looks to me like MS will make this a more seamless approach, probably leveraging Active Directory Certificate Services.

Interesting times ahead!

Technorati Tags: Azure,Windows

Dell Plans To Terminate All Production In Europe

Silicon Republic has just reported this. As Dell winds down the Limerick (southwest Ireland) plant and transfers the remaining work to Lodz in Poland, they are also looking to transfer ownership of Lodz to Foxconn. This is subject to EU approval; I’m fairly sure (bit not entirely) that Dell got funding to set up in Poland.

WebsiteSpark

Microsoft today announced a new program for small web development companies (less than 10 employees) called WebsiteSpark. Similar to BizSpark, it offers free software for 3 years for companies who develop websites for others. This software includes:

4 processor licenses of Windows Web Server 2008 R2
4 processor licenses of SQL Server 2008 Web Edition
DotNetPanel control panel (enabling easy remote/hosted management of your servers)
3 licenses of Visual Studio 2008 Professional Edition
1 license of Expression Studio 3 (which includes Expression Blend, Sketchflow, and Web)
2 licenses of Expression Web 3

That’s a nice tidy some of money these company’s will save. My employers registered as a WebsiteSpark hosting partner today – that means customers of ours who are web developers can get free production licensing (Web Server and SQL Web Edition) for their hosting needs. They also get the DotNetPanel control panel – devs like to use a control panel because they’re often not familiar with the ways of Windows/IIS management for backend website management.

Note that it’s Windows Web Server 2008 R2? These folks are getting the very latest web platform to run on. This is a 64bit platform offering support for up to 32GB of RAM, 4 CPU sockets, IIS7.5, and PowerShell 2.0.