A blog covering Azure, Hyper-V, Windows Server, desktop, systems management, deployment, and so on …
Brian Madded posted an interesting article on how to use a tool to enable users to mount USB drives while logged into Citrix. Basically, the tool allows the drive to be mounted as a folder within the client file system which is redirected to the server. I can see how that might be useful for other tasks.
Credit: Brian Madden.
The exxhange team has posted a step-by-step on how to run the DST update tool for Exchange. Given the trouble this is causing for owners of servers in North America, I recommend it to anyone who is affected.
Microsoft just released the Transporter Suit for Lotus Domino.
Transporter Suite configures Directory and Free/Busy interoperability between Lotus Domino 6 or 7 and Exchange Server 2007 and Windows Server 2003 Active Directory and migration of users, mail and applications from Lotus Domino 5, 6 or 7 to Active Directory, Exchange Server 2007 and Windows SharePoint Services 3.0.
Some release notes were also released.
The Microsoft Transporter Suite for Lotus Domino Release Notes contains up to date information that is not included in the Transporter Help file. The Transporter Release Notes augments the Transporter Help.
The Exchange team were quick to post a blog entry.
Microsoft just released a MOM 2005 management pack for Office Project Server 2007.
The Microsoft Office Project Server 2007 Management Pack helps you detect and respond to critical events generated by Office Project Server 2007. The Management Pack collects the events from the Microsoft Windows Server 2003 event logs and highlights events that might indicate possible service outages or configuration problems, so you can take action.
No special configuration is required after you import the Management Pack. The default notification group for processing rule responses within this Management Pack is Microsoft Office Project Server Administrators. For information about adding operators to this notification group, see the Microsoft Operations Manager 2005 online help.
This Management Pack quickly brings failures or configuration problems to your attention so you can proactively increase the availability and performance of Office Project Server 2007. This Management Pack also provides the knowledge and expertise you need to leverage MOM 2005 and get an immediate return on your investment.
This Management Pack must be used in combination with the Windows SharePoint Services 3.0 Management Pack.
This Management Pack alerts you about the following critical conditions:
Note: The document is now being shared from my personal website.
I’ve just finished a guide to System Center Configuration Manager 2007 (CM 2007). It covers the basics on the product, architecture and installing the product to get basic functionality. It is the first in a series on CM 2007.
It is expected that in March 2007, Microsoft will release System Center Configuration Manager 2007, the successor to SMS 2003/2003 R2. This document aims to illustrate the new features in CM 2007, document the installation strategies and show an installation of the product.
Quite briefly, the history of this product is one of progress. My first exposure to it was SMS 2.0. Colleagues who worked with it had not much good to say about it. Conversation with others led me to believe that it held much promise but it was painful to own. SMS 2003 was a much better product; in fact, I loved how easy it was to deploy and how powerful it was when used in conjunction with Microsoft Operations Manager 2005. Over time, a number of free to download feature packs extended to functionality of SMS 2003 so that it could automate the deployment and management of more and more of the network. SMS 2003 Release 2 (R2) was a minor update. In included SMS 2003 with Service Pack 2 and 2 exclusive feature packs that added the ability to scan security and manage updates for third party and/or in-house developed applications.
CM 2007 continues the gradual improvement process that was seen from SMS 2003 to SMS 2003 R2. However, it’s a much bigger and much more worthwhile leap.
This whitepaper will:
This is the first in a series of documents based on CM 2007. In the future, you can expect to see documents that drill down into components of the product and provide more detail.
This document is based on the Beta 1 Refresh release of CM 2007. You’ll notice that the product still refers to things as “SMS” or “SMS v4”. This is likely to all change or “Configuration Manager” and “Configuration Manager 2007” before it is released to manufacturing.
The document continues.
I know … it says "Software Development Environments". I try to steer clear of all those "agility" and "software factory" things that MS bandies about because the’re code words for "developers only!". But this time, this might highlight something of real interest to infrastructure specialists. Software developers should be constantly testing and rebuilding their PC’s. That means that Vista will constantly look to reactivate. Hence, lots of information about how to manage Vista activation.
Anyway, Microsoft has released a document on how to plan for activation in such an environment.
Microsoft has released ActiveSync 4.5. This software is installed on Windows PC to enable PDA’s to synchonrise with desktop and domain resources (via the PC).
I’ve not had a PDA in years but when I last had one, the installation of this software required the user of the device to have admin rights. I hated that. Luckilly, the Active Directory that I designed managed local admins via restricted groups in Group Policy. We could add the user into the local administrators group by hand (as before), log them in, install the software and GPO would eventually refresh and remove the user from the administrators group.
The Exchange team posted some information about how the DST update for North America is affecting Exchange 2003. Give it a read if you manage resources in North America.
Vista is only out the door and speculation on its replacement has already started. Sure enough, MS is already working on it and seeking feedback. But the speculation has lead to a comment from Microsoft. So here it is, straight from the horses’s mouth (Kevin Kutz, Director, Windows Client):
"The launch of Windows Vista was an incredibly exciting moment for our customers and partners around the world, and the company is focused on the value Windows Vista will bring to people today. We are not giving official guidance to the public yet about the next version of Windows, other than that we’re working on it. When we are ready, we will provide updates.”
Patch Tuesday is here again. We’ve got a big one this month. The following updates will be available from Microsoft Update in the following few hours:
Again, no Vista or Office 2007 in the affected software list.
Please be sure to test, test, test before you deploy these updates.