Month: March 2013

Awesome Post By Hans Vredevoort On The New Hyper-V Book

Last night Hans Vredevoort, MVP, posted an article on the new Hyper-V book, Windows Server 2012 Hyper-V Installation And Configuration Guide (Amazon.com, Amazon.co.uk, Amazon.de).  All I can say is “Wow!” and “Thank you, Hans”.

When the author team got together we had a very short conversation on who we wanted as our tech reviewer.  If you read my blog, then there’s a damned good chance you read Hyper-V.nu too, and a very big reason for that will be the posts by Hans.  He’s a respected member of the community, with thought out opinions, and damn, does he do his research! 

I’ve worked on 3 books with Hans, twice with him as the tech reviewer and once when he an author.  We knew what we’d get – Hans would make us look smarter.  Hans was digging out RFC docs to double check facts, testing scripts line by line, and not taking things for granted.  That’s why you’ll find Hans in the credits over and over.

Now don’t blame Hans if there are mistakes!  The nature of book writing is never ending deadlines, pressure to get things finished, and they are static.  Sometimes we authors added things after Hans had done his reviews, sometimes we find out something different, and worse … sometimes Microsoft releases information after you’re all done.  That one’s a total pain!

But thanks again, Hans, for the post and the hard work!

9781118486498 cover.indd

The Windows Server 2012 Hyper-V Book Release FAQ

Windows 8–“You Already Own This App” But It’s Missing Or Not Installed

I just had a weird issue where some apps got messed up on my Windows 8 PC at work.  They disappeared.  I went onto the Windows Store to re-install them but according to the store:

You already own this app

Sure, I might “own” it, but it’s not installed.  How do I fix that?

It’s not obvious but there is a way to sort it out in the Windows Store:

  • Open the Windows Store.
  • Left click or swipe from the top, and click/touch Your Apps.
  • In the top left change Apps Not Installed On This PC to Apps Installed On <Name Of Device>.  This is because the store thinks that the app is actually installed.
  • Click/touch the app(s) that is missing.
  • In the bottom, click Install.  This is … a repair I suppose.

Bob’s your uncle!

Note: This does not seem to work with the default Microsoft apps.  I don’t have a solution for this yet.

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Living With Windows Phone – Week 1

I’ve had the Nokia Lumia 820 (Windows Phone 8) up and running for nearly a week now, including a full bank (national) holiday weekend.  What did I make of it?

On the positive side:

  • I like the merged contacts … on a personal phone.  I hate the default merge from the social networks on a business phone.  For personal usage, I like going to one place to start a conversation.  Any people that weren’t merged automatically were merged manually on the phone with very little effort.
  • The core app functionality I want is there.  I’ve seen complaints about the Twitter and Facebook apps.  They’re simple and clean and have the functionality you need, just how I like it.

On the negative side:

  • The breadth and quality of apps is poor.  You want a big name app?  Odds are it is not there in the Marketplace.  You want a jerky moving stickman sprite?  You got it!  Offering $100 to app devs will only continue this problem, not fix it.  We want quality, not quantity.  Microsoft needs to court the established app developers on other platforms instead of tempting students into earning beer money in return for cr-apps.
  • 8 GB of storage, even with expansion, is not enough.  I’ve added a 16 Gb MicroSD card but that is only used for video/document/music storage.  Apps must be installed on the internal (8 GB) storage, and apps often (Audible for example) ignore the available storage expansion.  I have to limit app installs and Nokia map downloads because I’ve used 80% of the available 8 GB in a week (after clean up).
  • The battery life of the Nokia 820 is not good.

Let me expand on the latter.  My work phone is a HTC 8x WP8 handset.  The battery life on it is similar to an iPhone.  It’ll sit on my desk, lightly used to be honest, for 2 days without power and without complaining.  This morning I used the Nokia for 15 minutes, while tapping the snooze button, on my house Wi-Fi (not 3G) while I checked e-mail, Facebook, etc.  The battery was drained by 16%.  I listen to audio books in the car (I got bored of bank scandals 2 years ago).  The FM transmitter is powered directly from the cigarette lighter.  I have been forced to power the phone from the USB slot on the transmitter because I’ll drain the battery too much during the 1 hour commute.

The phone actually gets quite warm while being used.  You can feel the heat through the back of the handset.  This is surely indicative of some inefficiency in the design of the handset?  I’ve never had another “hot” phone.  I have to charge this phone in the office, on the lead intended for the 8x.  The 8x is OK because it’s not as used/power hungry.  I never had to do this with my iPhone.

So far, I have to rate the HTC 8x as a much superior phone to the Nokia 820 but the Windows Phone 8 adventure continues.

By they way, I handled a Sony Xperia Z Android phone today.  Surprisingly light.  The square corners are a concern … I think I’d have to walk and sit down very carefully with that phone in my pocket.

Microsoft Introduction To Windows 8 Client Hyper-V

Microsoft has released a very high level document on Windows 8 Client Hyper-V (the actual name for this edition/version of Hyper-V) which you can optionally enable in Windows 8 Pro or Windows 8 Enterprise:

Client Hyper-V is the virtualization technology built into Windows 8. Client Hyper-V is the same virtualization technology previously available only in Windows Server. A similar functionality in Windows 7 is called Windows XP Mode.

Client Hyper-V enables you to run more than one 32-bit or 64-bit x86 operating system at the same time on the same host computer. But instead of working directly with the computer’s hardware, the operating systems run inside a virtual machine (VM).

Hyper-V enables developers and IT professionals to easily maintain multiple test environments and provides a simple mechanism to quickly switch between these environments.

Licensing:

I will not be answering questions on licensing, no matter what mechanism you try to contact me with.  Ask your LAR, distributor, or reseller … that’s their job because that’s why you pay them and that’s why they have lawyers Smile

Windows 8 Enterprise gives you up to 4 VOSEs.  That means you can install Windows 8 Enterprise up to 4 times in virtual machines that are running on a PC that is licensed for Windows 8 Enterprise.  It doesn’t matter what virtualization you use: VirtualBox, VMware Workstation, Client Hyper-V, or whatever.  This is not a limit on how many VMs you can create; it is a limit on how many times you can install Windows 8 in virtual machines that are running on the licensed physical PC.  You’ll need licensing for any other operating system (Windows Server for example) if you want to install that OS in the VMs that you can run on your machine.

Reminder #1: This applies no matter what virtualisation you use.

Reminder #2: Send your licensing questions to your reseller, not to me.

Non-USA (Including Irish) Businesses Can Bulk Order Microsoft Surface

Mary Jo Foley has reported (lots more information there than here) that businesses can now buy (direct from Microsoft) a bulk number of Surface devices.  The choices vary by country:

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In the USA you can buy the RT and Pro Surfaces.  In Ireland you are restricted to the Surface RT:

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Note that when you add our VAT (a whopping 23%) then the Surface RT bulk order for business price is exactly the same as the consumer price (at least for the 32 GB RT tablet).

The Pro is the one businesses will want so I don’t see too much biz here for partners outside of the USA/Canada until the Pro model spans other markets.  There is no distribution channel that I know of for partner reselling so it won’t really happen – what partner will buy at retail price to resell at uncompetitive prices?  I expect HP/Lenovo to dominate there until Dell has a suitable Intel model (their new one does not fly IMO).

Go check out Mary Jo’s article if you want to learn more.

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The Convenience Of Digital Media

Finding new books and music have been made much easier thanks to services like iTunes, Xbox Music, and Kindle.  I remember being stuck in a hide up the side of a mountain in Norway, waiting for Golden Eagles to come to our bait to photograph them, and burning the hours away reading a book.  After a couple of days, I’d get a new book with just a few touches, and be rearmed for the next day.  Just last week I bought a book while I was recommending that people check it out (I know the authors are that good).

The convenience is amazing.  I want it, I search, I buy it.  The e-sellers and the credit card companies must love this now-current way of selling content, as the brick & mortar stores shut down all over the place.

You know what I do miss … the feeling of finding a treasure.  When I got into music, the music I wanted to listen to wasn’t in the charts.  The Virgin Megastore was only in Dublin and a trip to the city was a once or twice a year thing.  You’d dig through local music stores trying to find something you wanted.  And even if you got to Tower Records or Virgin, they focused on the chart music that angry teenagers are trained to hate.  And the pleasure of finding that cassette (then the CD) was glorious after flicking through row and after row of boxes, rack after rack, to find something you liked. 

It was the same for books.  My college work placement was in Dublin and I’d head downtown most Thursday evenings to browse through Easons on O’Connell Street or the used book (also music) store in Abbey Street.  As a student, finding a near new CD or book was even better than finding a new one … more money for cider!!!!

I wonder if kids have that experience now … or is it just click-click-click-consume?

Ireland Events – Windows Server 2012 “Why Upgrade?”

Myself (through MicroWarehouse Ltd.) and Dave Northey (DPE, Microsoft Ireland) are going to be doing a 4-stop road show on the topic of why and how you should upgrade to Windows Server 2012.

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The show will run from 9am until 1pm as follows:

  • 15th April: Cork
  • 17th April: Galway
  • 19th April: Belfast
  • 24th April: Dublin

The primary audience are Microsoft partners but all will be welcome.  You can register here.

BTW: There will be absolutely no Hyper-V content unless you bring up the subject Smile

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Simulate A Bandwidth Challenged WAN For BranchCache Demos On WS2012 Hyper-V

I just started to read a post by Keith Mayer (Microsoft) on BranchCache and I got to wondering “how could I build a nice demo rig to demonstrate this stuff?”.  Way back when I started showing DFS-R in Windows Server 2008 R2, we used some network appliance that the guys called a “network nightmare” to throttle our network and show off how efficient DFS-R could be with redundant block (cross file) replication.  I want something like that … but virtual … and free.

Actually, it’s really easy and effective.

I’ve got 2 VMs, VM01 (the client) and VM02 (the remote file server).  What I’m going to do is restrict the outbound bandwidth from VM02 in the NIC settings of VM02 in Hyper-V Manager – also possible using PowerShell.

Before I do, I’m going log into VM01 and copy a Ubuntu 12.04 ISO from a file share on VM02 to VM01:

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After a few runs, that takes 11 seconds.  Both VMs are on the same host, virtual switch, and simple subnet.  Now to hammer that.

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I’ve enabled bandwidth management and set Maximum Bandwidth to 10 Mbps, not an uncommon speed for branch offices.  Click OK and that’s done.  There’s no need to shutdown or reboot the VM.

Now do the copy again …

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That file copy is going to take a bit longer Smile  Point proven!  Now you can head over to Keith’s blog, set up BranchCache, and show how Windows Server 2012 and Windows 8 Enterprise can add value to a business by overcoming limited bandwidth to/from branch offices.

If you want to build this out into a bigger virtual WAN, then you could do that.  Just set up a VM with multiple NICs.  It could be an appliance (I haven’t looked at Vyatta in quite a while) or maybe you set up a Windows Server VM with RRAS and enable simple RIP routing.  Now you can restrict the NICs on the router to simulate a bandwidth challenged WAN.

Before you comment – yes I know, this solution won’t simulate latency.

Living With Windows Phone – Day 2

Last night I finished setting up the new Nokia Lumia 820 Windows Phone 8 handset that came to me.  In summary – I’ve moved the SIM from my personal iPhone 4 to it with the intention of trying to use the WP8 machine as my normal phone.

It’ was an app-heavy night.  Starting with LastPass … cos I’ve lots of long passphrases recorded there Smile  Other apps that I found and (left) installed:

  • Accuweather: the best hour-by-hour forecast I’ve found
  • Amazon Kindle
  • Audible: I would prefer something that can play 3rd party audio but a 1 book/month subscription is cheap and is more than I can listen to anyway.  I can cancel at any point if I want.
  • British Airways
  • ConnectivityShortcuts: quickly disable connectivity, great for flying
  • XE Currency
  • Facebook
  • Football Live: NFL news because there isn’t an official app
  • Here Maps (Nokia): downloadable maps
  • Hotels.com
  • IMDB: perfect for those debates on the way home from the movies
  • Irish Tides: tidal app for landscape photography
  • IrishTimes: Irish news paper
  • Lastminute.com
  • LinkedIn
  • Lync 2010: Who knows when my O365 will be updated so I can upgrade to Lync 2013
  • My Travel Story Free: Snap holiday/travel photos by themselves are pointless.  Stick them in a “journal” to give them context.
  • Netflix
  • PDF Reader
  • PhotoBeamer (Nokia): Wonderful app for presenting photos to a web browser on your PC/projector
  • Photosynth
  • Podcast Picker: the best of a bad bunch when it comes to podcasting on WP8. It can find, download (must be harder than it seems because some bigger names fail), auto download, and allow me to create playlists.  I have no interest in McGuyver solutions based on iTunes.
  • Post-it Tiles: The sort of app I use to record the parking space I’ve used at the car park
  • Pumps.ie: get the price of car fuel at local locations in Ireland
  • RTÉ News Now: Irish news from the national broadcaster
  • Shazam: Find out what music is playing
  • SkyDrive
  • Skype
  • Sunlight: Get the sunrise and sunset times.  I am still looking for one that has the golden and blue hours.
  • Twitter

As for my car’s Bluetooth, it’s a Parrot CK3100 LCD.  It synced up easily enough with the handset.  My Belkin FM transmitter works well.

I also installed a free battery app called “Battery”.  It gives a more meaningful display of the charge via a tile, as well as predicted battery life (while disconnected) or charge time (while charging).  There’s also a graph to illustrate power usage over time.

There is a little concern about battery life.  It was gobbled up this morning while watching the recorded Samsung S4 launch coverage on TWiT during breakfast.  However, I charged it in the car via the FM transmitter and I’ve been showing the phone to a few people in the office.  The battery is still showing as 100% full.

Photography is a big thing for me.  I copied my “favourites” album from my Windows 8 tablet to the phone.  These photos are full sized JPEGs from my DSLRs over the years.  They’ll range from crops on an 8 MP camera to full sized 16 MP images.  And they only get into this library is the are sharp (focus + detail).  On Windows 8, I’ve noticed that there appears to be an API issue in the new UI when you zoom in on images.  The detail is lacking.  Open up the images in the desktop and they are much more crisp.  What would it be like on WP8?

I am used to some form of compression when copying photos onto the iPhone.  You get a certain amount of zoom but the transfer reduces the photo size to save space (I think).  I was at a photography club event and met another member I hadn’t seen in a while.  We shared “war stories” and showed our prizes on our phones.  He had an iPhone and could only zoom a bit to show detail.  My relatively low res Lumia 820 allowed quite a bit more zoom on my images while retaining detail.  It felt (subjective judgement) that the WP8 photos app zooms better than Metro apps in Windows 8.  Score one for the Nokia.