Month: October 2014

There’s not all that much news to cover this morning. Oh … hold on …

Hyper-V

• Hyper-V Virtual Switch Performance – Dynamic VMQ: A feature designed to provide optimal processor utilization across changing workload that was not possible with static processor allocation for VMQ as done in Windows 7 (or Windows Server 2008 R2 release)
• Changing Ubuntu Screen Resolution in a Hyper-V VM: A nugget of info from Ben Armstrong.
• Hyper-V Failover Cluster Validation – think twice: CSVs will be offlined for the tests.

Windows Server

• What is Windows Server ODX? A post by me on Petri.com
• How to use the Test-StorageHealth.ps1 PowerShell script with different configurations: Test a SOFS with different configurations.
• Storage Spaces Survival Guide (Links to presentations, articles, blogs, tools): Jose Barreto shares his favorite links related to Storage Spaces in Windows Server 2012 R2.
• Windows 2003? Let it go! Didier Van Hoye offers more reasoning to start your upgrade ASAP.

Windows Client

• Introducing Windows 10 for Business: I have links to more stuff on my post.
• An IT Pro’s Perspective on Windows 10: A post by me on Petri.com.
• Windows 10 – Great news for partners: Advice for partners on the new OS.

System Center

• Windows 10 enterprise management with System Center Configuration Manager and Intune: I think SCCM management is going to become more important with the arrival of frequent OS updates.
• Windows Azure Pack VM Deployment Tip: VMM VM Template + Default Network Configuration = Potential Issues; Workaround Enclosed: Covering a known issue [Failure when attempting to Deploy Standalone VMs (VMM VM Templates)] when leveraging the WAP tenant portal and VMM VM templates.
• Updated SMA Runbook Toolkit (SMART) download, with new Visualization and Dependency Mapping Tool: The SMA Runbook Toolkit (SMART) has seen multiple component releases so far, and this time Microsoft is bringing them together in a single download package.
• Designing VM Roles with SMA in mind: SMA Runbooks can be triggered by Windows Azure Pack events like VM Role creation. You can configure this by going to the VM Cloud automation tab and linking a runbook to an Azure Pack known object like “Microsoft VMRole“.
• iOS 8 support now available for System Center 2012 R2 Configuration Manager via Extension for Windows Intune: Manage those iDevices.
• Cumulative Update 3 for System Center 2012 R2 Configuration Manager: Is now available. See the changes. And here are the things to consider before deploying it.
• New Guided Walkthrough for troubleshooting ConfigMgr 2012 software update synchronization issues: If you experience issues with software update synchronization issues in ConfigMgr 2012 then this troubleshooter is a great place to start.
• Wish you knew what configuration change caused an issue? Or what changed on a server? (Now available in Advisor): Backed by popular demand we are proud to announce the availability of the Change Tracking Intelligence pack in System Center Advisor. With this intelligence pack you can now track all Software and Windows Service changes on your servers. Very nice!
• Recommendations for antivirus exclusions that relate to Operations Manager: This article introduces some recommendations for antivirus (AV) exclusions that relate to Microsoft System Center Operations Manager 2007, System Center 2012 Operations Manager, and System Center 2012 R2 Operations Manager.

Azure

• Microsoft Azure Announced as Cloud Computing Winner at 2014 Tech Impact Awards: Seattle Business magazine announced Microsoft Azure as the 2014 Tech Impact Awards winner in the Cloud Computing category.
• SAP on Microsoft Azure – announcing new certifications including Oracle Database: Starting yesterday, you can run SAP Business Suite, Business All-In-One, and NetWeaver Application Server using Oracle DB or SAP ASE on Azure.
• Monitoring, Diagnosing and Troubleshooting Azure Storage: The Azure Storage service includes sophisticated capabilities to help you to manage the challenges of building services in the cloud.
• Microsoft Offers Price Reductions on Select Azure Services: We like price reductions. Some of them are significant.
• Troubleshooting Common Configuration Issues with Azure Backup: This blog post helps resolve common configuration issues with the Microsoft Cloud Backup Solution, Azure Backup. Customers typically encounter them at the time of Azure Backup installation or registration.
• New D-Series of Azure VMs with 60% Faster CPUs, More Memory and Local SSD Disks: A new type of Azure VMs for those who need more read speed from temporary caches, e.g. SQL Server.
• New D-Series Virtual Machine Sizes: More on the D-series VMs.
• Open Sourcing Automation Tools for Testing Linux Images on Microsoft Azure: Microsoft are open sourcing their test automation tools in a GitHub project, making it easy to validate Linux images for running in Azure. As noted in a recent blog post by SUSE, these test automation tools are Powershell, Python, and BASH scripts that allow Linux images to be tested for compatibility with Azure.
• Step-By-Step – Creating a File Share in Azure: File storage in Azure offers shared storage for applications and virtual machines in Azure. The access to the share uses SMB 2.1 protocol. basically, apps and VM can access date using a mounted file share, and on-premise applications can access file data in a share via the File storage API.
• Introduction to Migrating Server Workloads to Windows Server 2012 R2 and Microsoft Azure: A TechNet Radio … video.

Security

• Blood-crazed Microsoft axes Trustworthy Computing Group: Microsoft is closing its Trustworthy Computing Group as part of the loss of 2,100 jobs in a restructuring plan unveiled on Thursday (19/09/2014).

Office 365

• Delivering the first chapter of Groups in Office 365: Grouping of users will be rolled out to all customers that have an Exchange Online or Office 365 commercial subscription, both new and existing. Eligible Office 365 plans include the Office 365 Enterprise E1–E4 subscription plans (including the corresponding A2–A4 and G1–G4 plans for Academic and Government customers, respectively), Office 365 Business Essentials and Business Premium plans, Office 365 Small Business, Small Business Premium and Midsize Business plans and Office 365 Kiosk plan.
• Step-By-Step – Setting up the new Azure AD Sync Tool: AAD Sync is Microsoft’s new directory synchronization tool that simplifies the process of connecting Azure AD to Windows Server AD. It also makes it more simple to connect complex, multi-forest deployments.

The Funnies

• America’s CBS attempts to out-dumb CNN: