Month: January 2012

Day 2 of Office 365

To follow up on yesterday’s Gmail migration issues:

  • Attempt 1 was to connect the email account: works nicely for Hotmail migration but Gmail is another story because it doesn’t have real folders (using tags).  My mails were coming into the inbox as unread.  I quickly stopped and backtracked that.
  • Attempt 2 was to use the recommended IMAP migration.  My Gmail was set up for IMAP already so all was good there. I created the required CSV and started the import.  Or I tried to.  O365 refused to connect to my Gmail account, no matter what I did.
  • Attempt 3 was manual.  Outlook was already connected to Gmail.  I connected it to O365.  I then manually copied all of my folders and mails from one account to another, all 1.5 GB of it.

With the pain over, I can move on.  I use the OWA interface of O365 from the office, so I can keep it separate from Outlook which is connected to the Office Exchange server and mail account.  OWA works nicely.

I had a play with the SharePoint Internet website.  That was nice and easy to reconfigure.  To be honest, I doubt I’ll ever use SharePoint for my own stuff.  I have a Home Server and I use Live Mesh, along with Carbonite backup.  I can always get at my files either by a local replica or by browsing one of a number of sites.

Lync … hmm.  The DNS records are “interesting”.  I believe I’ve got them set up correctly.  My domain is with an ISP and I’m not moving it to MSFT.  I use it for a number of things and I want to retain control.  Lync has been a ropey experience.  I can’t say it’s as good as Live Messenger for staying in contact with people.  I can hook up with anyone on Messenger without Federation.  But Lync isn’t built to be that way.  In fact, all the instructions I’ve seen imply that you can enable federation to specific domains.  Not in the Office365 that I have: I can enable it or disable it and nothing more.  I’ve connected successfully to my Messenger account so I know it works. 

What doesn’t work?  Well, audio is just a wee bit important to Lync.  And it cannot find my audio device.  That’s despite the fact that I listen to music, watch Silverlight and Flash webcasts, and so on with absolutely no issues.  The Realtek audio driver is up to date … turns out others in the office with this model of HP PC (8100 Elite Convertible Minitower) have the same issue.

Anyway, my main reason to get O365 was email, and that’s now working fine.

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When Selling Office365 As A Partner Of Record …

According to Redmond Channel Partner:

As with BPOS and other Microsoft cloud offerings, the payouts are 12 percent for net-add seats and 6 percent in annual recurring fees. The 6 percent fee starts paying in the first year, making the first-year fees 18 percent.

As a partner you will only get those fees if your customer registers you as the partner of record when they sign up.  Unfortunately, that is optional and not a mandatory of the sign up process.  In fact, it’s a link that is tucked away off to the side.

The customer will be asked for the Partner ID of the partner of record.  That’s not public information.  So here’s what might happen.  A customer wants to sign up after you’ve sold the concept of cloud computing.  They go to the site.  They go through the process.  Even if they see the link and understand what it does, they won’t have your Partner ID, they’ll likely skip it, and pay Microsoft without you becoming the partner of record.

My suggestions for the people selling O365 (yes; I’m talking to you, sales people):

  1. Have your partner ID handy.  Don’t make it public, because it is used for a few different things in the partner programs.  Know what the ID is.  Most MSFT partners have no idea what their partner ID is.  You can find it when you log into the Microsoft Partner Network website.
  2. When your customer agrees to sign up, go out to them (or remote assist them) and walk through the sign up process.  Think of it as “value added reselling”.  You know what your partner ID is and you’ll know to hit that register partner link.  If you’re not there, the customer is sure to miss it, or they’ll not be able to find/read your email containing the ID.

A customer can add or change a partner of record using the instructions on O365 online help.  I’ve just done it for my subscription … giving one lucky partner in Galway all of a few cents per month.

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Windows Server 8, Core Installation, Server Graphical Shell, and Minimal Server Interface

Another post appeared on the Server & Cloud Platform team blog last night, describing the various ways we can install Windows to get different administration interfaces.  We’re getting:

  • Full installation: all the bells and whistles with a full GUI there all of the time.
  • Minimal Server Interface: there is a GUI that allows “most” local administration tasks.  You won’t have Internet Explorer, the desktop, Windows Explorer, Metro-style application support, multimedia support, or Desktop Experience.
  • Server Core: By default, no GUI at all, just the command prompt and PowerShell.

Microsoft Corporate is recommending (as always) that you use the Server Core installation by default (obviously not for RDS session hosts Smile).  We should be remotely managing the machines using the Remote Server Administration Toolkit (or whatever RSAT will be called when Win8 is RTM).  You probably know my thoughts on that up to now: phooey!  It’s a nightmare to do troubleshooting and we can do stuff quickly with a few mouse clicks in the GUI instead of googling for 30 minutes to find obscure command prompt or POSH commands, which we then need to figure out.  “Learn PowerShell” … yes, once I’ve learned Windows 8 server and desktop, the new Hyper-V, and the 8 or so System Center products that are on the way … and find some time to do the day job.  And learning POSH does nothing to use 3rd party hardware management tools on the servers themselves, e.g. hardware diagnostics that use IE.

I’m not a shouting-at-the-trees-crazy-man vocal minority on this one.  Most people I know who have tried Server Core switch to full installations very quickly, as I did (my first Hyper-V cluster pilot was Core).  And to be a bit more scientific, the Great Big Hyper-V Survey of 2011 backs me up:

  • Hyper-V Server: 15.93%
  • Full Windows Server installation: 71.08%
  • Server Core installation: 12.99%

So there’s a compromise (an improvement) in Windows 8.  Apparently, with a command (probably a PowerShell cmdlet) and a reboot we can install a GUI (looks like either Minimal Server Interface or the full Server Graphical Shell if I’ve read the post correctly) on Server Core.  OK, that isn’t a bad start.  I’d like to see the reboot replaced by a logoff/logon.  But it’s a step forward to making Server Core more acceptable.  I’ll hold off judgement until the beta comes out (end of February) and have a play with it but it’s a good step forward by the looks of it.

Time Flies …

I was convinced that I’d been using Gmail since around 2000 … until I was corrected on Twitter and I checked.  Gmail has only been around since 2004 and in that time it has become a common piece of our lives as white bread.  It isn’t exciting (at least not since the days when invites to the beta were limited and much sought after), all it really does is e-mail.  I feel like I’ve been using it for much longer than I obviously have.

My Office 365 Subscription Experience

I set up my first trial of Office 365 last year during the beta.  It was a pretty smooth process for E-Mail, requiring an MX and confirmation.  I didn’t really care too much about SharePoint.  Lync … well … Lync requires a lot of DNS stuff, none of which was possible to do myself in my registrar’s control panel.  For a trial, it wasn’t worth getting them to set up the records for Lync manually.

Before the Christmas holidays, I signed up for another trial, this time choosing the P plan for professionals and small businesses.  The 25 GB mailbox was tempting … I’ve a number of email accounts (personal, MVP stuff, Microsoft stuff) and it’s been annoying for me to use, and some folks I know just send 1 email to all of them to get me – my clear delineations weren’t clear to others.

Problem: Partner Selection

This morning I decided to subscribe to the P plan.  Payment was easy.  The issue I had with the signup process was from the channel point of view (I work for a distributor).  Way off to the side, almost invisible, was the option to Add Partner.  This was where I could optionally choose to add a qualified Office 365 partner.  I thought “I’ll do that and choose one of our customers (a reseller) that has signed up with our O365 distribution channel”.  Up popped a screen and it asked me for the partner ID of the reseller.  Huh!  I’m pretty sure folks in Microsoft think that every MSFT partner lives in the Microsoft Partner Network website and can shout out their numeric partner ID like a soldier does their serial number.  Not quite!  When faced with this, I did what any customer will do – I clicked cancel and completed the payment without specifying a partner. 

Email Setup

First thing was to get my email address configured.  The MX was set up last year.  But my account (the default administrator) was set up with a damned onmicrosoft.com address.  I configured my sign-in to use my domain but the sent email still used the MSFT domain.  I edited my account in Admin –> Users –> <Select Account> –> More –> Change Mailbox Settings, and removed the “other address” from Email Options.

Email Migration

I wanted to import a Hotmail and a Gmail account.  Hotmail was smooth and easy.  I went into Options – See All Options –> Account –> Connected Accounts.  Here I added the details of my hotmail account.  All the folders and email were imported nice and smooth.

Gmail is a different beast.  You have to enable POP access in your Gmail account (Settings –> Forwarding And POP/IMAP).  That beast is importing 1.5 GB of email right now, and it appears to have 2 issues:

  • My 10 year old folder structure in Gmail is being ignored.
  • Read emails are being marked as unread.

Both are very unhelpful.  And no, I was not going to set up mail rules – why the frak should I have to do that to recreate a 10 year old folder structure?  I’m in the midst of trying to find a realistic alternative.  No, I won’t be installing Exchange to do this (COME ON MAN!).  This seriously impacts the migration of customers from Google Apps to Office 365.  Try tell any user that you’ll only import their Inbox, their folders will be lost, and all their email will be marked as unread.  You’ll be lucky if your not flayed alive.

EDIT#1

It appears that the only option I have (that doesn’t include paying for a 3rd party tool) is to configure Outlook to connect to both Gmail (to create an IMAP connected PST) and O365.  Then I can import the Gmail PST into O365.  That will take a wee while (1.5 GB of email).  So much for cloud computing easing my bandwidth demands during migration.  MSFT has been talking up a “soon to be released” PST Capture tool since October 2011.  It is not available yet.

Remember: Office 365 primarily sells to small and startup businesses.  They don’t have Exchange.  They probably have nothing or are on Google Apps.  Office 365 seems to have forgotten that.

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KB2636573 – Hyper-V Guest OS May Crash When Performing Live Migration

I can’t say I’ve ever seen this one, but worth installing this new bugfix update for preventative maintenance.

In a Windows Server 2008 R2 environment, you perform a live migration of Hyper-V virtual machines. In this scenario, the guest operating system may crash. Additionally, you receive a Stop error message that resembles the following:

STOP 0x000000D1 (parameter1, parameter2, parameter3, parameter4)
DRIVER_IRQL_NOT_LESS_OR_EQUAL

To resolve this problem, install this update on the host computer where the Hyper-V virtual machines are located.

Netflix Launch in Ireland Will Not Stop Piracy of Movies & TV

We’ve heard all our American friends talking about how great Netflix is for them. We’re read the headlines that it’s responsible for 30% of their bandwidth. And we were excited when we heard they were coming to the UK and Ireland.

In Ireland, we just have shite delivery of TV and movie content. No one rents movies any more. We spend enough time commuting to work and don’t want to pay extortionate amounts for DVD rentals. Online services are limited to iTunes or Zune. Despite the presence of hundreds of TV channels, people have gotten tired of the poor delivery of TV shows from America. For example, Irish TV station Network 2 is where they are typically shown …. when there isn’t some God-awful Man United or Arsenal or Champions League game on. And RTE1 is celebrating their 50th anniversary by filling their hours with repeats of shows made in the 1960s and 1970s. Heck, the funniest show on TV is The Big Bang Theory and they used to show that at 2am in the morning. And anything they do show is years old …. they’re only about 18 months behind on CSI … which they show when there’s no football on a Tuesday night (rare enough).

So it should come as no surprise that just about anyone who has a fixed broadband connection has disks full of “online backups”. That way people can watch all the good shows within a few hours of them being on in America. Yup, the producers earn zippo from this but who’s to blame? If there’s demand but there’s no distribution then people will find a way. Certain music may have been banned in the USSR but the kids still found a way. And the Internet makes it oh so easy (SOPA won’t have a hope BTW).

So along comes Netflix. In the USA you get unlimited content for $8/month. My big fear was of a currecny rip-off. I expected €15 or €20 rates in Ireland. They launched yesterday and the price was a mere €7/month. That works out less than the annual compulsory TV license to pay for the awful state owned broadcaster (RTE). If anything could squash movie and TV piracy then this should be it.

So it appears that half the nation signed up for the 30 day free trial with unlimited access to the Netflix Ireland catalogue. And boy were we disappointed. There might be a dozen movies from 2011. On the TV side, they only have seasons 1 & 2 of Dexter (USA) and season 1 of Outnumbered (UK).

Netflix CEO Reed Hastings was interviewed on Newstalk 106 (radio) this morning at 08:52. I listened to a recording online. People texted in to criticise the service. The content was shite. You’re tricked into Facebook integration to share information about your viewing habits – you have to go into Netflix account settings to disable that.

Long story short: people in Ireland (and the UK) will not pay €6.99/month for an archive of Corey Feldman movies. They want current content. If satellite, cable, broadcast, and online services won’t do it, then they’ll continue to use Bittorrent. I suspect a lot of people will be cancelling their Netflix accounts when their free trials expire. That’s my plan unless the content improves drastically in the next 4 weeks.

Kinect For Windows

They said it would happen and it is.  The Kinect that has sold some 18 million units for Xbox 360 is coming for Windows.  This announcement was posted on the Kinect for Windows Team blog.

Today, we are announcing that the new Kinect for Windows hardware and accompanying software will be available on February 1st, 2012 in 12 countries (United States, Australia, Canada, France, Germany, Ireland, Italy, Japan, Mexico, New Zealand, Spain, United Kingdom), at a suggested retail price of US $249. Kinect for Windows hardware will be available, in limited quantities at first, through a variety of resellers and distributors. The price includes a one-year warranty, access to ongoing software updates for both speech and human tracking, and our continued investment in Kinect for Windows-based software advancements. Later this year, we will offer special academic pricing (planned at US $149) for Qualified Educational Users.

If you don’t know what Kinect is … well it first appeared for Xbox 360 and allows you to become the controller.  That’s right, it scans your entire body and tracks your movements.  It can also accept voice commands.  For example, when I watch media on my Xbox/TV, I use voice commands to start the video player.  There has been some criticism of Kinect.  The Xbox version requires a lot of clear space in front of the TV and that’s a bit of an issue for those of us not living in McMansions.  There is also a little bit of lag/inaccuracy in it’s movement detection.  But that was version 1 technology.  Would you compare a V1 iPod with what you can buy now?

The Kinect for Windows blog states that they have:

… optimized for scenarios beyond the living room, and delivering new software features on an ongoing basis, starting with “near mode” (see my earlier blog post for more about this). In addition to support for Windows 7 and the Windows 8 developer preview (desktop apps only), Kinect for Windows will also support gesture and voice on Windows Embedded-based devices and will enhance how data is captured and accessed within intelligent systems across manufacturing, retail and many more industries.

The SDK for developing Kinect for Windows software will be free and licensed for business use.  That will encourage innovation.

It looks like this supports Windows 7 and Windows 8.  When will it be available?  You don’t have long to wait: February 1st, 2012.  You can pre-order now on Amazon for $249.99.

Cannot Compare Windows 2008 R2 and Windows 8 Hyper-V

I finished drafting a presentation last night that I am doing at the Hyper-V.nu event in Amsterdam next week.  I have 1 hour to present on networking in Windows Server 8 Hyper-V.  As I wrapped up the draft, I looked back and thought “Oh crap!”.  There is a lot of content in this deck.

This morning on the way to work, I remembered this time 3 years ago.  I did a road show with Microsoft Ireland and presented on the topic of Windows Serer 2008 R2 Hyper-V with Dave Northey (DPE, MSFT IE).  We covered all the features of that release in about 60-90 minutes.

Hans Vredevoort (MVP also presenting on storage at the Hyper-V.nu event) tweeted over the weekend that he’d need 3 days to present his topic completely.  I empathise with him.  We’ve so much content to present.  I think my hour is going to be a blinding flash of PowerPoint, TLA’s, and diagrams.  The storage side of Windows 8 is damned exciting (see a sample here), but the amount of stuff in networking is frakkin’ crazy.  There’s absolutely no comparison between Windows Server 8 Hyper-V and its predecessor.  It should be an interesting day on the 19th.

IDC – 2012 Will Be VMware’s Last Year as King of the Hill

Take a look at the new features of Windows Server 8 Hyper-V.  Now consider that these (and all of Hyper-V) are all built into your VM licensing and you don’t actually have to pay for them.  Buying VMware is an additional cost.

IDC released their predictions for 2012 and #3 is:

2012 Will Be VMware’s Last Year as King of the Hill

To be fair, IDC has also previously claimed that Windows Phone would grab the #2 spot in the market, ahead of Apple *ahem*

But this is different.  Hyper-V right now beats VMware on price, and when you try to reduce VMware pricing, 2008 R2 SP1 Hyper-V beats VMware on functionality.  Windows Server 8 changes that field by dealing with the objections and by doing stuff that VMware doesn’t. And don’t forget that System Center (current and future) smack VMware’s “management” products around like a one-legged little person in a heavyweight MMA fight.

Queue the wailing and gnashing of teeth. I look forward to moderating the comments by VMware marketing Smile