January – 2010 – TechVirtuoso

Great overview of VMWare vs Microsoft server virtualization options

January 16th, 2010 at 1:40 PM 1 Comment Michael Stanclift

Up until this last year, the virtualization options available from Microsoft lagged woefully behind VMWare. This is led people like me to really ignore Microsoft’s virtual offerings. However, Redmond is quickly playing catchup with the release of Windows Server 2008 R2 and the upgrades to the integrated Hyper-V virtualization options, as well as other platforms such as MED-V, Virtual PC and App-V. This is causing a lot of other administrators to take a second look.

Over at the blog Clustering For Mere Mortals, David Bermingham has a great write up comparing the features, pros and cons of the latest version of Hyper-V vs VMWare vSphere (previously ESX)

How do I recover my virtual machines in the event of a complete site loss? The good news is that virtualization makes this process a whole lot easier since a virtual machine is just a file that can be picked up and moved to another server. While up to this point VMware and Microsoft are pretty similar in their availability features and functionality, but here is where Microsoft really shines. VMware offers Site Recovery Manager which is a fine product, but is limited in support to only SRM-certified array-based replication solutions. Also, the failover and failback process is not trivial and can take the better part of a day to do a complete round trip from the DR site back to the primary data center. It does have some nice features like DR testing, but in my experience with Microsoft’s solution for disaster recovery they have a much better solution when it comes to disaster recovery.

Head on over to his site to get the full rundown.

Why lazy sysadmins and IE 6 make the net unsafe

January 16th, 2010 at 11:14 AM 3 Comments Michael Stanclift

The number of businesses still using Internet Explorer 6 is painful to see. Coupled with the fact that all of them are on Windows XP or Windows 2000, it turns from pain into terror, especially when it comes to security.

For a lot of system administrators, the reasons to stay outweigh the reasons to upgrade. Websites that break, plugins that won’t load, old software that isn’t updated anymore. Trust me, I’ve been there. However, a lot of it boils down to lazy and poor practices of system administration.

Yes, you’re lazy and you’re bad at your job. Internet Explorer 6 was released in 2001. Yes, 2001, most of us don’t even drive cars that old, let alone unleash people on the “information superhighway” with a browser that old. It was designed at a time when security was not the issue it is today. It was designed to work on operating systems like Windows 98 and Windows ME. Would you let people use Windows ME on your network? No! So why are you letting them use a browser that was built for it?! (more…)

Exchange 2010 deployment assistant published

January 15th, 2010 at 6:12 PM 3 Comments Michael Stanclift

Looking to upgrade your infrastructure to Exchange 2010, then Microsoft has a tool to help make the process a little smoother. They’ve published an updated version of their Exchange 2010 Deployment Assistant, which now supports migration paths from Exchange 2007 as well as help with new 2010 installs. Previously, the assistant would only advise users of Exchange 2003.

The Deployment Assistant allows administrators to create Exchange 2010 deployment instructions that are customized to their environment. The Deployment Assistant asks a small set of questions, and based on your answers, it provides a set of instructions that are designed to get you up and running on Exchange 2010. Instead of reading dozens of topics in the Exchange 2010 library, you simply answer a few questions, and the Deployment Assistant gives you customized content to install Exchange 2010.

The assistant is strictly web based, and does not require you to run anything on your systems. It does require you to have intimate knowledge of your Exchange environment for the results to be very helpful. You can find it over at Technet.

End of life for Windows 2000 is coming sooner then you think

January 15th, 2010 at 5:57 PM No Comments Michael Stanclift

Just a reminder, Windows 2000 will reach it’s end of life in July. Microsoft has outlined July 13, 2010 as the date Windows 2000 will no longer be supported by Microsoft. There are already a variety of security threats in the wild where Microsoft has said they will not be releasing updates to protect Windows 2000 because they say it is not feasible. After next July, no support or new updates (except for online self-help) will be available.

In a related bit of news, Microsoft is addressing an issue latest Forefront antimalware client update won’t install on Windows 2000 when the installation is run via Automatic Updates. When this issue occurs, the update uninstalls the previous version of the antimalware client, and then tries to install the new version and fails, leaving the system without the antimalware service. Microsoft’s published workarounds are to decline the updates for Windows 2000 systems (976669 is the FCS slipstream client) and make sure that the previous FCS antimalware updates are approved (971026 and original FCS client), or run the install interactively as a logged on user.

My workaround… stop using a 11 year old operating system and upgrade to at least Windows 2003.

Microsoft and Edmonton focusing on open government

January 15th, 2010 at 5:42 PM 2 Comments Michael Stanclift

Edmonton, Canada has rolled out their open government program using Microsoft’s Open Government Data Initiative (OGDI) solution, and is working with them to develop an website that will give citizens and developers easier access to information and suggest ideas that enhance public infrastructure and services. The city’s program uses open source components along with Windows Azure. The use of open standards and application programming interfaces lets local developers and the city’s IT staff easily retrieve data for use in online applications or mashups.

According to Port 25, “Microsoft announced the OGDI initiative in May 2009, with the goal of reducing the cost of publishing government data while simplifying data access by leveraging cloud computing and open standards, which is exactly what has been achieved with Edmonton.”

More information on OGDI can be found here. You can also download the OGDI “starter kit” over at Microsoft Codeplex.

DPM 2010 Release Candidate webcast

January 11th, 2010 at 3:13 PM 1 Comment Michael Stanclift

Microsoft Data Protection Manager 2010 is coming soon, and Microsoft is set to release an updated test version even sooner. The beta of 2010 has been out since September and the product team has been taking feedback to make the product even better then the 2007 version.

This Thursday, at 9AM PST, Microsoft will be hosting a 90 minute webcast to cover what has changed in the release candidate and the progress being made towards the final version. Anyone using DPM will want to be sure not to miss this. The team will demonstrate the software that early adopters have been running as well as new Windows client protection capabilities, the new SQL/SharePoint/Exchange protection and recovery features, as well as their enhanced Disaster Recovery scenarios.

There will also be information on the new auto-healing/auto-scaling features (which current DPM administrators like myself will love) — the team also promises a few new surprises that weren’t in the beta.

Microsoft releases MySQL migration assistant

January 11th, 2010 at 2:50 PM No Comments Michael Stanclift

If the pending purchase of Sun (owner of MySQL) by Oracle scares you, and you’re looking to get your data out of MySQL before it gets eaten up by that other evil empire, then Microsoft has a tool for you.

They’ve released a test version of their new migration assistant to help database administrators make the change over. There is a version for both SQL 2005 and for SQL 2008 or SQL Azure. The tool provides an assessment of migration efforts as well as automates schema and data migration from MySQL to SQL Server. The tool will migrate any MySQL 4.1, 5.0 or 5.1 database.

Microsoft makes other migration assistants available for Oracle, Access, and a variety of other database formats, so this new tool is not unprecedented. It is however the first time it has made tools for the open-source MySQL available.

January 'Patch Tuesday' to be very light on security

January 7th, 2010 at 7:21 PM 2 Comments Michael Stanclift

This patch Tuesday will be one of the lightest ones for security in recent memory. According to the Security Bulletin Advance Notification for this month, Microsoft will only be releasing one patch for Windows, and none for Internet Explorer or Office. The patch will be issued on Tuesday, January 12, and will be followed on January 13 by a 90 minute webcast at 11:00 AM Pacific. In addition to the one patch for Windows, Microsoft will also release an updated version of the Malicious Software Removal Tool.

The patch is considered critical for Windows 2000 users, and low for all other versions, and relates to a remote code execution venerability. Effected operating system versions include every currently supported edition both on the client and server side:

Windows 2000 Service Pack 4 [Critical]
Windows XP Service Pack 2 & Service Pack 3
Windows XP x64 Edition Service Pack 2
Windows Server 2003 Service Pack 2 (32-bit, 64-bit & Itanium)
Windows Vista Service Pack 1 & Service Pack 2 (32-bit & 64-bit)
Windows Server 2008 Service Pack 2 (32-bit, 64-bit & Itanium – except Server Core installs)
Windows 7 (32-bit & 64-bit)
Windows Server 2008 R2 (64-bit & Itanium – except Server Core installs)

Microsoft will still be releasing one or more non-security but high-priority update through Windows Update and Windows Server Update Services, but has not yet disclosed details.

Microsoft highlights MED-V features for Windows 7

January 7th, 2010 at 1:33 PM No Comments Michael Stanclift

Microsoft Enterprise Desktop Virtualization (MED-V), is a component of the Microsoft Desktop Optimization Pack (MDOP) for Software Assurance customers. It allows administrators to provide a virtualized desktop image to users and manage them from a central console. The upcoming Service Pack 1 for MED-V will expand support for Windows 7 (both 32 and 64-bit) as a host platform. Considering most large companies held off on upgrading to Windows Vista and opted to wait for Windows 7, this technology will help boost the migration since they can do so and run older programs that may no longer be supported or have not been certified for Windows 7.

In V1 SP1, MED-V continues to employ Virtual PC 2007 as the virtualization engine but unlike the consumer “Windows XP Mode” it does not require hardware-assisted virtualization like Intel VT or an AMD-V to be present in the processor. This allows even those with lower end or older processors to take advantage of enterprise desktop virtualization.

Microsoft has put together a screencast demonstrating running a MED-V workspace using a V1 SP1 client in the Windows 7 environment.

Natural User Interface & Microsoft Research

January 7th, 2010 at 1:11 PM 1 Comment Michael Stanclift

The QWERTY keyboard and the mouse have been the primary methods of interaction with computers for a long time. But there is a group at Microsoft seeking to make that a thing of the past. Enter the team at Microsoft Research.

Larry Larsen over at Microsoft’s Channel 9 has a great interview with Bill Buxton, one of the Principle Researchers at MSR and the author of Sketching User Interfaces. It talks about their work with what Microsoft has dubbed “Natural User Interface” and how the multi-touch technologies in products like the Apple iPhone and Windows 7 will eventually become a regular part of computing, as well as new technologies like those in the Xbox 360 Project Natal.

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