A blog covering Azure, Hyper-V, Windows Server, desktop, systems management, deployment, and so on …
Get your test lab ready …. it looks like there’s going to be 12 updates released by Microsoft next Tuesday affecting:
I just saw an article on BetaNews that said Microsoft will launch the next version of their version of Windows for PDA’s and phones, Windows Mobile 6.0, at the 3GSM Conference in Barcelona. The conference starts on Monday (Feb 12th) and runs through until Thrursday.
It appears that v6.0 will be an incremental upgrade, i.e. the kernal hasn’t changed much if at all. There will be greater USB support, support for the 2007 product releases (e.g. Exchange 2007) and there will be user optional integration with Microsoft’s Live services. There’s a pre-release review on Mobile-Review.
Credit: BetaNews & Mobile-Review.
It’s been announced that EMC is to sell 10% of their wholey owned subsidiary, VMware. Apparently, this announcement has been "welcomed" by EMC shareholders due to disappointment. There is concern that there is a move by competitors, i.e. Xen and Microsoft, into free virtualisation solutions which has force Vmware to respond and will hit revenue. VMware will have to focus sales ont heir flagship ESX product and virtualisation management solutions.
Wow!
We’ve seen a boom in the acceptance and deployment of virtualisation in the last year. On the desktop end, Microsoft woul have the advantage with their free Virtual PC. At the mid level, it”s fairly even but VMware’s "Server" product has the slightest of edges (due to state saving vs disk ifferencing, IMO). Certainly, everyone I talk to and deal with still sees VMware as the market leader in the enterprise/high-end market. Maybe this will change in the future and maybe not. But VMware ESX was the product of choice for usually conservative CIO’s. I don’t think that’s going to change very quickly, no matter how good the Microsoft "Longhorn" solution will be (partnered by Xen).
VMware has the technology lead right now, but in the future, we will have closer competition between the alternative players and VMware. VMware will have to continue to differentiate themselves and compete by increasing integration with other operating systems and ensuring that their accompnaying technologies rovide a superior overall solution than that provided by their copetitors.
An Operations Guide for the IMF that is included in Exchaneg 2003 Service Pack 2 has been released. You may or may not know, but there is a basic anti-spam defence built into all E2003 servers that have had service pack 2 installed. Many SOHO’s cannot afford to use a third party solution for a comprehensive defense so this solution can give them the ability to cut out a lot of spam. I use it myselft and very little spam actually gets through.
I’ve never heard of this tool until I saw it was available this morning. The blurb is that it will help SOHO’s by saving "time on everyday tasks, work the way they want, and grow their business through online sales, online invoicing, and payment processes".
System Requirements are:
There’s a dedicated website for Office Accounting Express 2007. You can also download a datasheet.
As you may know, Microsoft is pretty streict about all nodes in a Windows Cluster being identical. As such, companies such as HP offer "cluster packages" that include 2 identical servers and an MSA 1500. Without any automation, you are relying on manual checks to verify the servers are identical, from model number right down to service pack and driver version level.
Microsoft released a new wizrd tool last night. The Cluster Configuration Validation Wizard promises that it:
"… does a complete system inventory and runs focused tests on servers that are configured and ready for Microsoft Server Cluster installation (in other words, before the servers are a cluster). ClusPrep will also run the inventory and many of these same tests after clustering is installed, however, because of their potentially disruptive nature, most storage tests are not run if the servers are already a cluster.
ClusPrep will validate that your system is configured properly by taking inventory of your system configuration and highlighting discrepancies in service pack levels, driver versions, etc.; evaluating and testing your network and storage configuration.
If the results of your ClusPrep execution do not show errors (viewable in detail from the XML report) then you can have a high level of confidence that your subsequent cluster installation and/or operation will be successful.
ClusPrep is a “client/server” tool: you install it on one machine (must be installed on a 32-bit architecture machine), and it drives tests on a collection of server machines (can be any architecture). All drivers and test agents are automatically installed on the servers as part of ClusPrep operation. In other words, the only install you do is on the machine from which you initiate the testing".
Microsoft has released 4 documents that provide descriptions and overviews of features, guidlines for planning and steps for deploying Exchange 2007 organisations for the following:
You should also check out:
Beta 1 of MS FSSMC (I’m not typing that all out again!) is available. This product is intended to give you a web console to manage Forefront Security for Exchange Server, Forefront Security for Sharepoint and Microsoft Antigen. This gives you centralised management of all three products to manage operations, downloads, distribution and reporting. By using this tool, administrators, security officers and auditors can have a single view entire enterprise deployment of these products.
Bink posted a link this afternoon to an article that made me laugh. The Guardian newspaper (UK) has this article by a commentator who describes why he hates the Apple Mac and why he prefers PC’s.
I know that photographers, DTP, press, etc often prefer the Mac. They must have a reason. But a lot of this article just rings true for me. Note: my only exposure to Mac’s is to the old ones that had a computer and monitor all in one box and I hated them. I would rather go back to the VAX-VMS green screens we had in college.
Credit: Bink.
I changed the hotel I’m staying at in Belfast for this job after the Radisson (a) refused to give me a corporate rate and (b) upped their prices by £30 a night! On the recommendation of someone from my client’s site, I’ve moved over to the Hastings/Stormont beside the government buildings that often feature on the news. It’s a decent place and charges normal rates. On the downside, the room rate does not include free broadband.
They do offer broadband via BT Openzone, a Wi-Fi "hotpoint" pay-for service. There’s a bunch of services including 1 hour, 1 week and 1 month subscriptions and an annual contract rate. For £40, I’ve gotten 4,000 minutes in a month. You get a user name and a password for that period.
Yo can subscibe via the website, by phone (during M-F business hours) or via the default webpage that opens up in your browser when you connect to the Wi-Fi network. The process is easy. just have a pen and paper handy to document the random looking username and password – they promise to SMS it out to you but I never got the text!
The Wi-Fi signal in the hotel is excellent. I’ve got a full signal in my room and in the bar where I am sitting now, waiting on a "heart attack on a plate" while downing a pint of Stella. The £40 seems steep on the face of it, but that’s just over half what I’m saving by being in this hotel instead of the overpriced Radisson.
I had my first hiccup with the service today. There was a national failure with the authentication system. I rang the helpdesk, preparing myself for a 45 minute wait to speak with an idiot (as you get with Eircom or BT Ireland). Instead, the phone was answered immediately by a well spoken rep who quickly and clearly explained the problem and gave me a free 1 hour pass to get me online while things were being repaired. Bravo!
There’s a tool you can download from their site for managing your Wi-Fi access. It has 3 profiles: Home, Office and Roaming. You can configure your security and credentials for each of these. By clicking on the corect profile, the tool reconfigures your NIC and connects to the network. The roaming profile refers to your BT Openzone account. It simply asks for and saves your username and password and then connects you. It also records your connection times so you can account for your usage.
The utility also includes a complete listing of hot spots across the globe. This can be searched quickly and conveniently by location name or by drilling down through country, city and location. BT has negotiated roaming agreements with other operators, e.g. T-Mobile so you can roam if you have a contract … though roaming charges will apply.
If you’re in need of a hotel with Internet access, don’t limit yourself to the business hotels that over charge based on their name. Consider the alternatives, get yourself a wi-fi subscription and save yourself some cash.