Feedback Matters Once Again In Microsoft

Microsoft has changed – and I’m not just talking about the obvious stuff that’s in the headlines. Two years ago I saw a pre-beta product and gave feedback to the PMs that this product needed serious changes. I was ignored (FYI, I was not alone in my opinions and in giving this feedback). 18 months ago, I saw a beta release and I gave the same feedback to PMs. I was ignored. 12 months ago the product was released. I blogged about the issues, was quoted by some big tech press names, and suddenly I was Mr. Popular with the PMs and marketing folks. I gave my feedback and I was ignored. 6 months ago the product went through some big changes, but the issue was still there. I commented on it, and once again the marketing folks and PMs were all over me. I gave my feedback … and I was ignored.

But …

A few months ago I found out that someone listened. Enough people like me spoke up. And maybe my market predictions had come true – not that anyone would ever admit that! The product was going to change. And guess what – that change did arrive.

Thank you to the team involved.

The Microsoft that I’ve been working with has changed a lot in the last 24 months. The secrecy of the Sinofsky era is over. Stuff that me and other MVPs have fed back to product groups is being listened to – I wish I could share those stories!!! I’m certainly not saying we design anything. And I’m not saying that everything we feedback is done. But I do see a correlation between feedback and product changes.

If you have feedback then give it to Microsoft. Please don’t make the mistake of telling some local rep – they probably will forget it straight away. Your feedback need to go to the product groups. Microsoft announces forums for feedback every once in a while – I blogged about one yesterday. Take advantage of those. MVPs like myself and Didier Van Hoye actively request feedback before we go to the MVP Summit in Redmond to meet those PMs – take advantage of that too. I might be a jerk in dealing with some comments on this site, but I note the constructive ones and take those ideas to Microsoft.

Microsoft has changed a lot. It was extremely noticeable when we MVPs were last there. It’s a fantastic change – it was by far the most engaging experience I’ve had in Redmond. They really want our feedback to avoid the issues that we saw in the past. So take advantage of this and get the product that you want.

Introducing The Features of Hyper-V In Windows Server 2016 (WS2016)

As I have done with Windows Server 2012 and Windows Server 2012 R2, I am going to do my best to list out and document (level 100 to begin with) the features of Windows Server 2016 (WS2016) Hyper-V.

There will be two levels of “documentation”:

  • The glossary: Where I list out each feature, summarize it, and link to more detailed descriptions.
  • Feature specific posts: Where I will talk a bit more about the feature in question.

The glossary will grow over time and I will add links as feature specific posts are published. I have a bunch of those feature specific posts scheduled daily from today into 2015 covering content on Hyper-V and related technologies in Windows Server. The feature specific posts will take more time – things are subject to change so I am waiting for stabilization first.

Note that I am aggregating publicly discussed/document information from TechNet, Microsoft blog posts, TechEd Europe 2014, Ignite 2015 and interviews by Microsoft staff. There is no content beyond that scope.

Windows Server Technical Preview – Binary VM Configuration Files

Microsoft is changing the format of virtual machine configuration files by going back to the drawing board. There are two files in question:

  • .VMCX which is the virtual machine configuration file.
  • .VMRS which is for runtime state data

Both files are binary files; yes Microsoft is moving away from XML. And editing these files directly is strictly not supported – it never has been! You should use the admin tools, PowerShell, and WMI to edit a VM configuration.

There are two benefits to switching to binary files:

  • Performance: Reading from and writing to the files will become more efficient
  • Stability: There is a lower risk of corruption due to storage failure

This resiliency is being enabled by resilient logging of changes _ a change is written to the log, the log is replayed to the configuration file, and they clear away the log. And believe it or not, Microsoft has seen some customers where the XML format has caused performance bottlenecks!

Azure Backup & SCDPM Public Feedback Opportunity

Microsoft is giving you the chance to provide feedback and vote on existing ideas for Azure Online Backup and System Center Data Protection Manager. This is a great idea. Personally speaking, it’s validating a number of things that I have fed back to Microsoft already, and a number of things that customers have fed back to me.

I’ve been working with Azure IaaS since January of this year. Before that, Azure was meaningless to me; it was a direct sell by Microsoft to developers – yes, even with IaaS there. But then I found out that Azure was coming to Open licensing so partners could resell it, and I started learning. And we at MicroWarehouse started to promote Azure to our customers (the Microsoft partners that resell licensing and implement solutions for their customers) and that’s when I started to get a better feel for what worked in the real world.

Azure Online Backup was the thing that grabbed people’s attention. Who can argue with €0.15/GB/month? That’s less than half of the cheapest discount rate that we found for online backup that is typically sold in Ireland by resellers. However, there were issues.

The biggest one is that there is no centralized portal. Partners use this to manage backups and get reports. That all has to be done on-premises with Azure Online Backup and that increases the cost of operations significantly.

The other hot issue for me is the lack of a backup mechanism for VMs running in Azure. The only offered solution is to install an agent in the guest OS and then we’re back to the bad old days of backup. VM backup should be “select a VM and backup magically happens”, grabbing the files and state that make up the VM. We don’t have that in any way in Azure.

So that’s why I went onto the site to provide feedback and to vote this morning. You should do the same if you have any interest in Azure. Here’s the top vote getters as they are right now:

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Microsoft News – 10 December 2014

I’ve included a few videos that Carsten Rachfahl recorded at the MVP Summit in Redmond last November.

Hyper-V

Windows Server

System Center

Azure

Office 365

Intune

  • Microsoft Intune App Wrapping Tool for iOS: The tool is a Mac OS command line application that creates a ‘wrapper’ around an app. Once an app is processed, you can then change the apps functionality using an Intune mobile application management policy that you configure.

Microsoft News – 9 December 2014

I do not give a flying fiddlers about some wizard Accenture is selling to deploy System Center. Moving on to relevant things …

Hyper-V

System Center

Azure

Intune

Licensing

Miscellaneous

Microsoft News – 5 December 2014

It’s December, and not much happens then in the world of Microsoft. However, we do have GA of Azure RemoteApp (RDS in the cloud) on the 11th!

Windows Server

Windows Client

Azure

Intune

No Prompt To Connect To Microsoft Wireless Display Adapter

My quest to be able to present wirelessly via Windows 8.1 Miracast from a tablet continued. When at the MVP Summit in early November I ordered a Microsoft Wireless Display Adapter from the Microsoft Store (the brick and mortar store in Bellevue had none).

A few weeks ago I tried the device with a large Sony display TV that we have in the boardroom at work. The dongle is powered via USB – the intention is that you plug this into any available USB port in the TV. The dongle connects to the TV via HDMI. That’s easy to connect up and it only takes the device a few seconds to power up. It prompted me to connect my device.

So I tried my Toshiba KIRAbook. And then I tried my Lenovo Yoga. Both have compatible processors. And neither could connect. I had two symptoms:

  • The Microsoft Wireless Display Adapter did not appear in the device search results
  • If I could see the device to connect to it, I was not prompted with a PIN to confirm the connection and it would time out.

I thought I had a dud device – and me being back in Ireland would make a return impossible. I knew it wasn’t a regional issue because I know of a company in Ireland using one and MVP Didier Van Hoye confirmed that his one is working.

So I gave up … sort of. Today I had time (finally) to test it out again. This time I connected the USB port to a phone power adapter and plugged it straight into an electrical outlet. The HDMI port went into a TV. And then I tested with:

  • Toshiba Encore 8” Windows 8.1 tablet
  • Toahiba KIRAbook

And the connection worked. Right now, Family Guy (Netflix USA) is streaming video and audio to the TV from the KIRAbook.

So the problem is (I believe) that not all TVs output enough power via their USB port to adequately meet the needs of the dongle. The solution is to power the dongle directly from an electrical socket.

Microsoft News – 3 December 2014

It’s been a slow period but there’s some interesting stuff in Azure networking and websites.

Hyper-V

Windows Server

Azure

Office 365

Miscellaneous

Altaro – Webinar & eBook On Microsoft Licensing For Virtual Environments

Altaro has published a free e-book called Licensing Microsoft Server in a Virtual Environment. I know this is a hot topic because it’s one of this site’s top search results every month. The ebook, written by Eric Siron, covers:

  • The concept of Microsoft licensing in a virtual environment
  • Windows Server, Hyper-V Server 2012 & 2012 R2 licensing
  • Difference between keys & licenses
  • Understand license transfers, stacking & implications for a cluster
  • Mapped example diagrams of common virtual licensing environment

Altaro is also running a webinar on this topic on Decentber 4th, featuring fellow Hyper-V MVP Thomas Maurer and Andrew Syrewicze. This webinar will run for 45 minutes with live Q&A, starting at 10am EST or 3pm GMT.