Alex Marin Gasga : HMC

HMC 4.5 is available now!!! deploy deploy deploy

alexmga — Mon, 16 Jun 2008 12:04:00 GMT

This weekend the most expected version of HMC was released for service providers to deploy it. With this version, service providers can offer OCS (IM, Collaboration, PC-toPC VoIP) services as part of their online services. At the same time support to Windows 2008 and WSS 3.0 SP1 is included in this solution.

You can have access to the bits of the solution from the following location:

http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyId=C9CBBC69-4AE4-450D-AF5E-F49E7C701CF4&displaylang=en

Or for those who are interested in developing on top of MPS (i.e. self-service portal, namespaces, increase the business logic of the current APIs, etc.) there is a SDK available as well for developers to consume:

http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyId=CE3FC537-86AE-4802-9A05-43E2A27A4B45&displaylang=en

The documentation to migrate from previous versions is still pending, but it will be released soon. If you have HMC 4.0, you shouldn't expect too much of impact in your APIs or portals already implemented. If what you have is HMC 3.5 or earlier, you should consider a similar migration path like to HMC 4.0 with the addition of migrating LCS to OCS 2007. Don't forget to consider these migrations paths while deploying the solution.

Are you an MPS developer or have an MPS-portal? there are some news you should be aware of...

alexmga — Wed, 30 Jan 2008 14:52:00 GMT

For those of you (ISVs, Hosters) who develop applications for MPS (multi-tenant applications, provisioning), it's important for you to know that there is an MPS SDK update available for you to review and consider in your development. As an example of these changes, the following namespaces were updated (specific procedures):

Exchange 2007 Provider
Hosted Email 2007 Namespace
Hosted SharePoint 2007 Namespace
Managed Email 2007 Namespace
Managed SharePoint 2007 Namespace
SharePoint 2007 Provider

You can download the SDK with the details of the changes from the following reference:

http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyId=CE3FC537-86AE-4802-9A05-43E2A27A4B45&displaylang=en

If you already have a MPS-based portal (custom or 3rd party), ensure that your solution has a roadmap to integrate these updates. Most of the times, these updates have no impact in current deployments, however as for any other change in your environment: TEST IT FIRST!!! This will help you to minimize headaches later.

Feel free to contact if you need have any question.

Exchange 2007 on VS 2005

alexmga — Thu, 06 Dec 2007 11:18:00 GMT

If you are planning to run Exchange 2007 on a virtual environment, think twice before following that path:
http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/bb232170.aspx

From the previous article, these are the messages that you have to consider:

Neither Exchange 2007 nor Exchange 2007 SP1 is supported in production in a virtual environment
Exchange 2007 and Exchange 2007 SP1 are supported in production environments using only the 64-bit version of Exchange 2007
Currently neither Microsoft Virtual Server nor Microsoft Virtual PC supports 64-bit guest systems
Exchange 2007 and Exchange 2007 SP1 are also not supported in production in a virtual environment using virtualization software that is not Microsoft software.

As an additional note, in future Hypervisor (add-in to WS2008) will support 64-bit guests systems, but still we’ll have to wait for a confirmation from the product team if it’s going to be supported on virtual environments.

For those who are implementing HMC 4.0, the same rules apply and moreover MPS is not supported in a virtual environment. That doesn't mean that the solution won't work, because it does, but later on, if you face any issue (i.e. SMTP queues growing, services hanging, etc.) MS support won't be able to warratee a solution, unless the issue can be replicated in a physical server.

Hope these considerations help you to take the right decision while deploying Exchange in a virtual environment

SCOM 2007 & HMC 4.0 just released!!!

alexmga — Wed, 17 Oct 2007 19:46:00 GMT

One of the most expected guides has been released, the guide to deploy SCOM 2007 in HMC 4.0. Be one of the first ones to update your MOM 2005 infrastructure in HMC 4.0 by following the details mentioned in this guide:

http://www.microsoft.com/serviceproviders/solutions/hostedmessagingscomupdate.mspx

There you'll find:

A white paper that provides a feature overview and guidelines on deploying the Operations Manager 2007 update in an HMC 4.0 environment
An updated Microsoft Provisioning System (MPS) management pack

In case you are new to HMC 4.0, you can get more information on the solution from the following site:

http://www.microsoft.com/serviceproviders/solutions/hostedmessaging.mspx

I encourage you to share with me your comments and suggestions.