Month: April 2014

Today Is April 8th 2014 – The Day That Windows XP Died

There are those who are negligent. There are those who tried to think Microsoft would never let this happen (some would say these deniers are also negligent). Today is the day that we finally reach the end of support for Windows XP.

Think about it; Windows XP was released in 2001. That is 13 years ago! How computers and usage has changed since then. Battery life wasn’t an issue. Attacks on security were different. Touch was a thing you did with a loved one (I hope that’s not your phone!). Roaming was when your phone bill rocketed (OK, that hasn’t changed much).

And Windows XP was also greeted with much derision. People were going to cling to Windows NT 4.0 with their cold dead hands. XP was even called “Windows Telly Tubbies” (after the default wallpaper) and “Windows Fischer Price” (FP instead of XP). Admins hated that things had move around. “Oh! imagine the amount of user training that will be required”. Sound familiar? It took the eventual end of support for NT 4.0 to force people to upgrade, eventually to Windows XP. And in the end, the world kept turning, the earth didn’t swallow us whole, and businesses kept ticking along. Hell, I did a project in 2003 where we blasted away Windows NT 4.0 & Office 97 with Windows XP & Office XP (before Office 2003 was out) and we did very little in the way of user training.

So, bye bye Windows XP … except for you laggards who are clinging to this now dead OS in your career graves.

And no, I don’t care to hear sob stories about “I must use XP”.

And while we’re at it, we’re also bye bye also to a range of other products:

  • Office 2003, and all the sub-components
  • Content Management Server 2002
  • Exchange Server 2003
  • InterConnect 2004 Standard (no idea what it is!)
  • InfoPath 2003
  • FrontPage 2003
  • Project Server 2003
  • SharePoint Portal Server 2003
  • Virtual PC 2004
  • Visio 2003
  • Windows Services for UNIX 3.5
  • And yeah, Windows XP Tablet PC Edition. Yah suckahs … tell me that Apple invented the tablet!!! Jean Luc Picard was getting all touchy feely long before Apple copied the tablet concept (admittedly making is actually useful).

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    So Now You’re Rid Of Windows XP, Turn Your Focus To W2003 (And More)

    Today, April 8th is when support for Windows XP came to it’s extended end of life. It’s now time for you to turn your attention to the next product in your portfolio that is going end of life.

    On July 14th 2015 Windows Server 2003 (W2003) and Windows Server 2003 R2 (W2003 R2) will be going end of life. This should be of no surprise; the information was shared publicly years ago. It will be 10 years since the release of W2003 R2, and 12 years since the release of W2003.

    How big is this challenge for customers? Or from the partner perspective, how big is this opportunity? Personally, I think it’s much bigger than the XP upgrade. There are several reasons. You’re not dealing with standardised builds.  I can’t find market share figures for W2003 but I have heard it said that over 50% of Irish servers are still on W2003 (an 11 year old server OS). And almost every one of those servers has a complex bespoke build that cannot be dealt with using the same levels of automation that we can bring to the desktop. And then there’s the processor architecture challenge.

    Migrating server workloads has it’s own set of complexities when compared to desktops. There are lots of workload specific tools to help with migration, and for most of you, that’s what you’ll be doing … a migration.

    The vast majority of W2003 installations are 32-bit. Microsoft’s last 32-bit server OS was Windows Server 2008. If you’re going to make a substantial effort, then it makes no sense to upgrade to an old OS (WS2012 R2 > WS2012 > W2008 R2 > W2008).

    Realistically, you should be moving to the newest OS that you can. Right now, that is WS2012 R2. You cannot upgrade from x86 to x64, so you’re looking at an opportunity to get fresh rebuilds using your experience at engineering the products that you are running (yeah – that’s a positive spin). In reality, upgrades are messy and bring forward old problems and corruptions. Fresh builds are always best.

    You might argue that a new version of Windows Server (2015?) is coming around April and that gives you a few months to upgrade. If that’s how you plan server migrations, then you’re going to be running W2003 long after support and patch availability ends.

    So get planning … NOW!

    And no, I don’t give a flying monkey’s about your old services that only support W2003. You and your employers need to either pressure those vendors or find a replacement. The world keeps moving, and those who remain static stay in the past and die.

    A number of other infrastructure products are also going end of life in the next year or so:

    • Compute Cluster Pack: 14 July 2015
    • Forefront Client Security: 14 July 2015
    • Host Integration Server 2004: 13 January 2015 (I haven’t heard of this one in years)
    • Internet Security and Acceleration Server 2004 Enterprise Edition: 14 April 2015
    • Internet Security and Acceleration Server 2004 Standard Edition: 14 October 2014
    • Microsoft Operations Manager (MOM) 2005: 13 January 2015
    • Systems Management Server 2003 and 2003 R2: 13 January 2015
    • Virtual Server 2005 and Virtual Server 2005 R2: 13 January 2015

    There are other things going end of life but I’ve stuck to infrastructure.

    Unable To Delete Logical Switch From SCVMM 2012 R2

    This post is about a situation where I was not able to remove a logical switch from System Center Virtual Machine Manager 2012 R2 (with Update Rollup 1). This scenario might affect other versions. And the fix might not work for everyone.

    I was removing a bunch of logical network stuff from VMM, just mucking around with different types of builds to find one that suited my needs in the lab. I came to delete the virtual switch (logical switch) from Fabric in the SCVMM console but it failed to go. The reason given was that there was a remaining dependency. I checked the dependencies but none were listed.

    Very strange!

    I tried everything I could think of. Then I gave my MVP friend Damian Flynn a shout to see if he’d seen it. He had (if Damian hasn’t seen it, then it doesn’t exist in VMM), but wasn’t able to remember exactly what the fix was. I suspected I’d be using PowerShell. Damian confirmed it. So we went “wandering” in SCVMM. I found a remaining VM Network. There is no inter-dependency with it and the logical switch, but I decided to delete it. And it wouldn’t delete because a physical computer network adapter was depending on it.

    That was strange – I had no hosts or physical computer hardware profiles left ,,, apparently. Time for PowerShell. Finding the verb-noun combination was easy. Damian filled in the –all for me. The following cmdlet corrected me.

    Get-SCPhysicalComputerNetworkAdapterProfile -all

    Interesting.

    I tried but it failed.

    Get-SCPhysicalComputerNetworkAdapterProfile -all |Remove-SCPhysicalComputerNetworkAdapterProfile

    Apparently a virtual network adapter depended on these physical NICs. Ah… now I knew what was wrong. More on that later.

    The next cmdlet confirmed my theory:

    Get-SCVirtualNetworkAdapter –all

    I removed that virtual network adapter with:

    Get-SCVirtualNetworkAdapter -all | Remove-SCVirtualNetworkAdapter

    Now I was able to run the following:

    Get-SCPhysicalComputerNetworkAdapterProfile -all |Remove-SCPhysicalComputerNetworkAdapterProfile

    Then I was able to remove both the virtual network and the logical switch.

    So what happened? My previously deleted physical computer hardware profile featured two physical NICs (with CDN defined – don’t know if that’s important for this situation). Those two NICs were teamed using a logical switch and uplink port profile, and a virtual management adapter was connected to the logical switch. That’s what my queries revealed: a virtual network adapter (the virtual management NIC) and physical network adapters. Both the VM Network and the logical switch were dependent on these resources.

    It appears that the process to delete the physical computer hardware profile left behind the physical NICs and the virtual management adapter, and the GUI didn’t have a way to present those stragglers.

    Thanks to Damian for his help … it proved to be a fine opportunity to run through my design with him. Doing Hyper-V networking via SCVMM is quite different to the much more flexible native WS2012 R2 PowerShell option.

    KB2956569 – Degraded Integration Services Message For Linux Guests

    MIcrosoft has posted an article for when the Hyper-V management console may display messages that indicate that the integration services (integration components) of a non-Windows guest are degraded and no formal support will be provided unless the integration services are updated.

    You may see errors such as:

    and:

    and:

    According to Microsoft the cause is:

    The various messages shown in the symptoms section occur because the non-Windows guest integration services may not always have the code to interoperate with the latest Hyper-V protocols. This is due to the fact that Windows release cycles are not in sync with the release cycles of other operating systems. As a hypothetical example, the latest Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL) release may ship in January but the latest Windows release may ship in the following September. Between January and September, the Windows team may upgrade the Hyper-V protocols due to which the RHEL release shipped in January may have integration components that were written based on earlier Hyper-V protocols. Now, when a user tries to run an older RHEL release as a virtual machine on a newer Windows release then they may observe messages suggesting that the RHEL integration components are degraded.

    The resolution is a doozie:

    Users are hereby advised to ignore all messages and warnings that seem to indicate that no technical support will be provided because integration services for a non-Windows guest virtual machine are degraded. Microsoft will provide technical support even if when such messages are visible while running supported non-Windows guests on Hyper-V.

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    Build 2014 Keynote 2 – Azure

    The first presenter is Scott Guthrie, executive VP of cloud and enterprise, in a red t-shirt as usual. He wants to talk about a strategy that uses IaaS and PaaS together to give customers the best of breed service. 44 new features and services will be announced in this keynote. 2 new regions in Shanghai and Beijing:

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    Huge growth:

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    Titanfall was a huge multiplayer game, powered by Azure. The game cannot be played without the cloud. >100,000 Azure VMs powered this thing on launch day. That’s incredible; I’d love to see the virtual network design for that. We get some stuff about NBC using Azure. Tuning out for a while – most people do that with NBC.

    New enhancements in Iaas:

    Virtual machines:

    • This week Visual Studio will allow devs to create/destroy/debug VMs in Azure
    • New support to capture images with any number of drives. You then can deploy easily from that image.
    • Can configure VM images using DSC, Puppet (?), and PowerShell.

    Mark Russinovich comes out. He demos Visual Studio to create VMs. Very easy wizard. He then runs PowerShell to create an image from a VM.

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    He then shows Puppet puppet master from the gallery. Luke Kanies of Puppet Labs. He gives a demo. Looks like it’s doing a lot of the service template concept that you get from SCVMM in the private cloud. Getty Images (huge pro stock library) dude comes out. They’re moving to Azure. They use Puppet for automation & configuration management. Now they can burst from their own data centre into Azure. Azure gives them Puppet labs and support for Windows & Linux VMs.

    Guthrie is back out. Also announcing:

    • GA of auto-scaling: Great for creating automated elasticity for services based on demand.
    • Dynamic routing: I wonder if this is the “iBGP dynamic routing with best path selection” that was talked about at TechEd in 2013?
    • Point-site VPN GA
    • Subnet migration
    • Static internal IP address: This is a big simplification requirement for deploying hybrid cloud.

    Moving on to PaaS. Azure Web Site service is one of the most popular services in Azure. And other PaaS stuff. I tune out.

    Looks like the IT pro stuff is done, as am I.

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    Changes To Licensing For Enterprise App Sideloading in Windows 8.1

    The Windows 8.1 Update, with changes to volume licensing, is bringing changes to the licensing of Enterprise Sideloading.

    Sideloading is where you can use a tool like Windows Intune to push a custom developed/acquired “Metro” app onto Windows without using the Microsoft Store. Note that Intune can also do this with iOS (free license) and Android (not looked into the licensing). The solution is nice. If the device is IT-owned, then IT enrolls the device. If it’s a BYO device, then the user electively enrols to Windows Intune via the Company Store app. And IT then publishes the custom app (and can link Store apps) to the portal that users can pull down. It’s basically a private app store for enrolled devices.

    Prior to May 1st 2014, Enterprise Sideloading requires per-device licensing. And it’s pricey. In fact, it’s only sold in blocks of 100 devices. When you compare that to the free option from Apple, then that iPad or iPhone looked cheap when you needed to push sideloaded apps to your devices. This made Windows devices expensive and the 100-minimum purchase was a blocker for smaller deployments.

    That all changes on May 1st 2014. According to a blog post by Microsoft:

    In May, we will grant Enterprise Sideloading rights to organizations in certain Volume License programs, regardless of what product they purchase, at no additional cost. Other customers who want to deploy custom line-of-business Windows 8.1 apps can purchase Enterprise Sideloading rights for an unlimited number of devices through Volume Licensing at approximately $100. For additional information on sideloading licensing, review the Windows Volume Licensing Guide.

    The Windows 8.1 Volume Licensing Guide goes on to say that the following editions of Windows can sideload:

    • Windows 8.1 Pro Update (that’s Windows 8.1 Pro with the Windows 8.1 Update, by the way)
    • Windows 8.1 Enterprise

    The machines must be domain joined and have a policy setting enabled. That setting is Computer Configuration > Administrative Templates > Windows Components > and then App Package Deployment > Allow all trusted apps to install [TRUE].

    Back to the licensing …

    Customers can also enable Enterprise Sideloading of trusted Windows 8.1 apps on Windows RT 8.1 or Windows 8.1 Pro and Windows 8.1 Enterprise devices that are not domain-joined by using a Volume Licensing Multiple Activation Key (MAK).

    OK, what does this all cost? If you are signed up to one of the below licensing schemes then Enterprise Sideloading will be free from May 1st 2014:

    • Enterprise Agreement
    • Enterprise Subscription Agreement
    • Enrollment for Education Solutions (under a Campus and School Agreement
    • School Enrollment
    • Select and Select Plus

    Other customers who want to deploy custom line-of-business Windows 8.1 apps can purchase Enterprise Sideloading rights through the Open License program as of May 1, 2014. These rights include the ability to sideload on Windows 8 and Windows 8.1 devices. MAKs for these customers will be made available through the VLSC.

    This license will be $100 for an unlimited number of devices.

    So in short:

    • The ability to distribute custom apps via Enterprise Sideloading is added to Windows 8.1 Pro via the Windows 8.1 Update.
    • The license for Enterprise Sideloading is free to those larger customers that are enrolled to an applicable large customer volume license agreement.
    • Anyone else can get the Enterprise Sideloading license for an unlimited number of devices for $100 through an Open volume license program.

    Good news, I would say.

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    What Does Windows Server 2012 R2 Update Offer?

    As I’ve already stated, the “Update” that has so-far been called Windows 8.1 Update (sometimes Update 1) is also applicable to Windows Server 2012 R2. What does this include?

    • Cumulative update: All of the post-RTM updates are included
    • Bug fixes: Lots of elective hotfixes that Microsoft releases but are not distributed through Windows Update
    • Enterprise Mode for Internet Explorer: I hope you don’t browse on your application servers or Hyper-V management OSs! This one is important for RDS session hosts, and offers backwards compatibility for IE11 (simulating IE8).
    • Active Directory fix for Office 365: To enable sign-on using an O365 email address, again for RDS.
    • The updated UI experience: No this is not the Windows xNext experience. This is the Update’s updated experience. Again … intended for RDS session hosts.

    The bug fixes are particularly important. I think there might also be updates in there that have not been publicly released yet too.

    Use the MSDN download to do your testing. And then when ready, wait a week or two, and let someone else do the production testing for you. If the blogosphere and IT news remain clear, then approve the update(s) and let rip!

    As I said yesterday, there is also an updated ISO containing WS2012 R2 with the slipstreamed updates.

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    Clarifying The Updates Coming To The Windows UI

    It appears, judging by Twitter, that lots of people haven’t been following my tweets or reading the stories by Mary Jo Foley and Paul Thurrott. So let’s clear up what is happening in the upcoming updates.

    Windows 8.1 (and Windows Server 2012 R2) Update

    On April 8th, via Windows Update, you will be receiving updates to:

    • Windows 8.1
    • Windows Server 2012 R2

    These updates (6 in the package) will both prepare and update the UI of the OS. These updates are small UI changes to help non-touch users get a better experience. Instead of me wasting bandwidth, go read the comprehensive review by Paul Thurrott.

    A less mentioned change is that this update will change how enterprise sideloading works. This feature allows you to push apps by bypassing the official Microsoft app store. I haven’t seen the specifics that I’ve been briefed on printed in the public so I won’t say much more, other than, it’s a great news story with cost reductions.

    Windows vNext (Windows 9 or Windows 8.2)

    The big changes are coming in the next version of Windows in 2015. These include the return of the Start MENU and the ability to run Universal Windows Apps in windows on the desktop.

    What we know about licensing is that:

    • Windows IoT (Internet of Things): A new micro-device OS edition will be free.
    • Sub-9” devices: Windows for mobile devices will be free.

    Both of these moves are to encourage OEMs to produce using Windows and to give you cost-competitive devices.

    Nothing else is known. However, I continue to advise buying Software Assurance (in the biz) via EA (enterprise) or OVS (small/medium biz) for at least:

    • Server OS (it’s cheaper if you use virtualization, and license per host like you should be)
    • Any server CALs (Windows Server, RDS, etc)

    Why? ….

    Will The UI Updates Be Back-Ported To Windows 8 or Windows Server 2012?

    No.

    Does any software business do this? You see Apple doing this? Does Google do this for Android? No.

    Pay attention to licensing experts next time around, and get that Software Assurance if you don’t want to be left behind. Feeling screwed? Pity, because you probably screwed yourself by locking yourself into a single version of software.

    Windows 8.1 Update & Windows Server 2012 R2 Update Is Available On MSDN

    The update formerly known as Windows 8.1 Update 1 is available on MSDN now as a slipstreamed build called Windows 8.1 with Update

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    There is also something called Windows 8.1 Industry Update that appears to be the non-slipstreamed update for existing installs.

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    Some may have forgotten, but Windows desktop and server share the same code base, even if they live in different groups within the org chart in Microsoft. Windows Server 2012 with Update is also available on MSDN:

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    The Windows 8.1 non-slipstreamed update should also install on existing WS2012 R2 installations.

    I was told by Kirill Andrienko that the ill-fated TechNet also has the updates.

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    Event Notes: The Build 2014 Keynote – Futures

    Myerson is back on stage. Now we get some futures – stuff that is coming but not soon. The next topic is Xbox (television). Universal Windows Applications will be able to run on the Xbox (One I guess). This app can also use Kinect from a single set of source code.

    Kinect v2 for Windows is being updated to match the Xbox One. 1080p camera with wide field of view for a much smaller room.

    The Xbox graphics platform is coming to DirectX 12 and will now also be on Windows Phone and Windows.

    Now onto the next buzzword: the Internet of things. We see an Intel Quark chip (a full x86 system on a chip) which is the size of the nail on your little finger. Basically, it’s a tiny PC. He now logs into a “floor piano” (think Tom Hanks in Big) that is a PC. Belfiore is back to play the piano. We see a live debug of the data stream on the PC/piano.

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    They also visually present the data on an Azure app.

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    Now on to Windows. They are not announcing Windows 9. But they are going all-in on the desktop experience. Universal Windows Apps can run in a Window. The Start Menu will be back.

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    When Windows IoT (Internet of Things) is available it will be available for $0.

    Windows is available now for devices smaller than 9” for $0.

    Now up, Nokia ex CEO Stephen Elop, the man who will run Micosoft devices. Lumia Windows Phone 8 devices will get better with Windows Phone 8.1. The next generation of Lumias are being announced. I’ll tune out a bit here.

    Elop now introduces Satya Nadella, who is dressed comfortably in a t-shirt. He makes the big pitch to developers. He talks about ubiquitous technology and ambient technology and the integration with cloud.

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    The DPEs previously went out to get questions for Nadella to answer. Let’s see if he deals with the tough ones or not.

    Q) Why build for Windows?

    A) You want to build for Windows because we are going to innovate. We are not coming at this as the incumbent. We are coming at this from many directions – hardware, services, platform, etc. They will keep pushing. Some USPs by bringing IT pros, devs, and users developers – the magic of the Windows platform. Second big attribute is to create an expanding developer opportunity. Apps can run across all device kinds and in the desktop in the near future. That’s a huge potential market. Don’t forget that there are hundreds of millions of PCs sold every year, and 1.5 billion Windows users out there. And Windows rules the enterprise.

    Q) Will apps developed on Windows run on other platforms?

    A) His answer suggests he gets this: crazy to abandon code. He talks about the integration with 3rd party libraries (Unity, Xamarin, and more)  for cross-platform coding.

    Q) Most are using iPads or Android tablets and not Windows tablets.

    A) There are multiple dimensions of competitiveness. Hardware, platform, price, and apps are those dimensions. Partners are producing a range of devices from low- to high-end. MSFT will innovate Surface. A new touch Office is coming. The key competitiveness is “how do users use the tablet in their device family?”. MSFT want to provide developer consistency and user consistency – a USP.

    …. and there were more dev focused questions.

    That’s all folks!