Dave Northey's Blog

Featured PC – The Samsung Series 9

2011-09-05T18:30:55Z

The Samsung Series 9 has been updated for business use. This outstanding piece of hardware now ships with a TPM chip option, allowing you to install Windows 7 Enterprise and enable Bitlocker! The fashionista’s dream PC is now primed for the commercial environment. Ultra Light and Ultra Portable, this PC should seriously be entering into your considerations for your next PC purchase. You’ll get lot of attention walking around with this under your arm!

Specifications

Processor: Intel® Core™ i5 2467M

RAM: up to 8 GB

Hard Drive: up to 128 GB SSD

Graphics: Intel HD Graphics 3000

Optical Drive: External Option

Screen: 13.3 in. \ 1366 x 768

HDMI Out: Yes

IO Ports: HDMI, 1 USB 2.0, 1 USB 3.0

Media Reader: Media Card Reader

Weight: 2.9 lbs. / 1.3 kgs.

Height: 0.6 in. / 1.5 cm.

Just to explain – Microsoft is now a (cloud) services and devices company. We’ve always sold Windows as an OS that runs on every PC – now we get to comment on those PCs. This is a fantastic ultraportable laptop that competes with the MacBook Air.

Oh, did I mention? – it runs Windows

Featured PC – The Toshiba R830

2011-09-05T18:27:56Z

The TOSHIBA R830 Series of laptops boast portability with a 13.3” screen, lightening fast USB 3.0 transfer speeds and a battery life of up to 8hr 55mins! This allows for some serious productivity! To add to the array of features Toshiba have included a TPM chip which allows heightened security features with the installation of Windows Bitlocker – a feature of Windows 7 Enterprise and Ultimate. This is a serious powerhouse in portable computing.

Specifications

Processor: Intel® Core™ i5-2410M processor

RAM: up to 8 GB

Hard Drive: up to 640 GB

Graphics: Mobile Intel® HD Graphics

Optical Drive: DVD RW

Screen: 13.3 in. \ 1366 x 768

HDMI Out: Yes

IO Ports: HDMI, 2 USB 2.0, 1 USB 3.0

Media Reader: Media Card Reader

Weight: 3.2 lbs. / 1.5 kgs.

Height: 1.1 in. / 2.8 cm

Just to explain – Microsoft is now a (cloud) services and devices company. We’ve always sold Windows as an OS that runs on every PC – now we get to comment on those PCs. This is an awesome ultraportable laptop that includes a built in DVD drive!

Oh, did I mention? – it runs Windows

I’m now posting on our team blog…

2009-03-04T18:24:32Z

Just click this picture to be taken to the TechNet Ireland IT Pro Blog.

Dave

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Great Virtualisation Case Study from Lionbridge in Ballina

2009-02-24T18:56:53Z

Lionbridge have been working with Microsoft virtualisation technologies for a good long while now, and have just released a case study explaining it all.

Lionbridge have created a Virtual Cloud Lab using Hyper-V and System Centre and give secure, global access to it using Windows Server 2008 Terminal Services. Lionbridge reduced hardware costs by 80 percent for its virtual LAB environment, standardized its testing environments, accelerated machine provisioning, and enhanced security and business continuity.

The lab itself is in Boston and is currently 9 servers running around 300 virtual machines – this will reduce down to 6 physical servers in the not too distant future. They use the Self Service Portal feature of System Centre Virtual Machine Manager to dynamically deploy new environments without any input from the local IT staff.

It really is a great case study, I encourage you to read it.

Dave

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Free business guidance for Start-ups

2009-02-17T13:47:47Z

Digital Media Forum and Microsoft Ireland are delighted to bring you the Microsoft BizSpark Innovation Accelerator Event – an event designed to help accelerate the Start-up community in Ireland and Northern Ireland. This day-long conference will run on Tuesday, February 24th in the Radisson SAS Royal Hotel in Dublin’s city centre. Entrance is free of charge.

The aim of the event is to provide business guidance for Start-ups and anyone in Ireland or Northern Ireland who thinks they might like to start-up a tech company. The plan is to get together some of Ireland’s most experienced entrepreneurs and business people to share their stories about what makes businesses succeed and what are the pitfalls to avoid.

The Innovation Accelerator Event will feature practical sessions on business areas key to success of any Start-up such as Sales, Marketing, Finance and Legal. Participating speakers are coming from every area of the Irish tech community to help with this initiative. Seminar style-sessions will run alongside some panel discussions where our more experienced entrepreneurs can relate stories from the trenches.

The agenda is available at http://digitalmediaisland.com/on-tour/bizspark-innovation-accelerator-feb-24th/schedule/

You can find more details and register at http://digitalmediaisland.com/on-tour/bizspark-innovation-accelerator-feb-24th/

Dave

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Windows 7 in 20 minutes..

2009-02-10T12:46:53Z

I was given the task of introducing Windows 7 to a crowd of IT Professionals last week – easy enough, but not so in just 20 minutes. Searching around inside Microsoft for the elevator pitch PowerPoint deck proved to be impossible (there’s decks for each audience type, and they all had way too many slides). So I ended up creating my own (well, stealing a few from here & there, making the odd modification), and then just demonstrating everything I could within the time allowed.

This is what I ended up with:

Slide1: Lets me talk to the good points of Windows Vista. Also a bit of a history lesson. Vista = the most secure OS.

Slide 2: This lets me talk to the fact that we’re all Consumers (as well as IT Pros). Feedback = Goals for Windows 7.

Slide 3: A bit more detail on the goals.

Slide 4: Now I’m talking to the IT Professionals (the work related stuff). Obviously most of the consumer stuff I’ve just spoken about relates to the being more productive (at their desk). The “In a branch” is Branch Cache. “On the road” is DirectAccess.

The main security bits are UAC (which you can now control) and BitLocker To Go (the ability to encrypt USB sticks and have them be used in XP & Vista as read only devices).

Then there’s all the management components. Virtualisation is MEDV and App-V.

Dave.

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The Business Case for IPv6

2009-02-06T13:18:44Z

I got to talk at the IPv6 Summit last week in Dublin Castle – Agenda, Slides and Videos of all the sessions are here.

My talk was on Finding the Business Case for IPv6.

The video of my session is now online and can be viewed here. And my slides are here.

I’m still working on finding the questions that I promised to find answers to (I’ve a conference call next week that will hopefully get me the answers).

Enjoy

Dave

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Developer Developer Developer!

2009-01-26T17:58:38Z

I know, I know, I’m an IT Pro – what am I doing writing anything about Developers?

Well, turns out that most of us (IT Pros) do the small bit of developing every now and again (even if it’s only the odd script).

Anyway, on Saturday the 4th April, there’s a FREE day of developer training being arranged by the community for the community and they’re looking for a few extra talks (and I can’t see why they can’t be from IT Pros).

Details here. And you can submit your talk here.

Oh, and if you’re speaking, not only is the event FREE, but so is your overnight accommodation!

Good luck,

Dave.

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Virtualisation Unplugged

2009-01-26T13:57:41Z

Discover end-to-end virtualisation, from desktop to data centre.

Join our virtualisation expert, James O'Neill, for a full day technical session in which you'll discover a full set of virtualisation solutions, from desktop to data centre, that will improve business continuity and maximise ROI throughout your organisation.

As well as guiding you through Microsoft's virtualisation strategy, Virtualisation Unplugged covers:

The importance of green IT
Building your virtualised environment with Hyper-V
Managing your virtualised environment with System Center
Virtualising your desktops (VDI) and applications (MDOP)
What's new in Terminal Services 2008?

Due to the current virtualisation buzz we expect places to be extremely limited, so reserve yours now.

Wellington Hotel, Belfast on February 3rd (9:30 – 16:30)

Rochestown Park Hotel, 4th (9:30 – 16:30)

See you there,

Dave.

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VHDMount without VHDMount

2009-01-16T18:20:44Z

To mount a VHD file onto your file system, you either ran some very complicated VB (or PowerShell) Script or you used VHDMount.exe that came with Virtual Server. If you’re running Windows 7 (or Windows Server 2008 R2), you can now use Diskpart.

So, from an elevated command prompt, run Diskpart.

Select the VHD in question:

sel vdisk file="c:\users\daven\desktop\xp professional.vhd"

Then attach it to your system:

attach vdisk

That’s it. Pretty easy.

Dave

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Building my Demo Laptop (Part 3)

2009-01-16T18:02:59Z

In this post I’ll talk you through how I have created a Hyper-V Failover Cluster on my single laptop.

To build a Failover Cluster you need a SAN. I use the Microsoft iSCSI target software that ships with Windows Storage Server. Being a Microsoft employee I have access to the bits, so I have installed it onto my laptop (so my physical laptop is going to be my iSCSI SAN. I have previously posted how to set all this up here. But I’ve re-posted it here to make your lives easier: Note that my offer of a time-bombed copy of the bits, for evaluation, is still valid.

Click to start, double click anywhere to play it in Full Screen and move your mouse over it to get the Player Controls to pop up.

On my demo laptop I have created two Windows Server 2008 Core virtual machines. Each VM is connected to the internal network switch that I created in Part 2 and is also connected to a Private Network Switch that I’m using for the Cluster Heartbeat. I’m using 192.168.0.x for my demo network and have uses 10.0.0.x on my heartbeat (I’ve also left IPv6 turned on).

I have added both Failover Clustering and Hyper-V using ocsetup to the Server Core VMs. I need to make sure you understand this bit – you cannot virtualise virtualisation. I can install the Hyper-V role into a VM but I can never start a virtual machine – if I do I will get a BSOD. Oh and install the RTM Hyper-V bits before you do this – the Release Candidate Hyper-V that shipped with the RTM of Windows Server 2008 do not let you do this (KB950050).

Once the two VMs are configured I create a cluster using the Failover Cluster Management tool (running from the Windows Server 2008 install on my laptop). Again, I have posted this before here. And I’ve re-posted the demos again to make your lives easier (these videos are old – still using RC code – but the process is fine).

Click to start, double click anywhere to play it in Full Screen and move your mouse over it to get the Player Controls to pop up.

Next I connect Hyper-V manager to one of the cluster nodes and configure a VM with the VHD and the configuration on the SAN drive. For my demos, I know I cannot ever start this machine, so I don’t bother installing anything onto it. Next I go into Failover Cluster Management and create a Highly Available Virtual Machine – which I can fail over from node to node (but don’t ever start it – BSOD on the cluster node). I have posted on this before here. And it’s here again (note that my comments about static MAC addresses have proved to be not true in the RTM of Hyper-V).

Click to start, double click anywhere to play it in Full Screen and move your mouse over it to get the Player Controls to pop up.

So now I can demo everything in Hyper-V. I have three Hyper-V machines to manage and I can show how to create highly available VMs.

In Part 4 I’ll explain how to get System Centre Virtual Machine Manager installed and working.

Dave

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It pays to complain

2009-01-16T14:11:33Z

There’s been a “small” issue with licensing around Hyper-V for a while and because of all the complaints we’ve received we have actually changed our licensing.

The issue was this: I’m a Windows Server 2003 shop and want to virtualise onto Hyper-V. Because Hyper-V is a role of Windows Server 2008, I now have all my users & PCs accessing resources on 2008 servers. This means that I now have to go and buy new, 2008 CALs for everyone!

Here’s that again in “official speak”:

Under current licensing policy a physical server environment running Windows Server 2003 requires matching version CALs for all users (i.e. Windows Server 2003 CALs). However, if physical Windows Server 2003 Operating System Environments (OSE) run as virtual machines hosted by Windows Server 2008 Hyper-V, Windows Server 2008 CALs are required.

So the change we have made gets rid of this stupidity. And in “official speak”:

With the change, no Windows Server 2008 CALs are required if Windows Server 2008 is being used to:

• run hardware virtualization software

• provide hardware virtualization services

• run software to manage and service operating system environments on the licensed server

You’ll be able to read the official line later on today at http://www.microsoft.com/licensing/resources/volbrief.mspx when the US wakes up.

So, in a nutshell, if you think something is wrong – say so. It pays to complain!

Dave

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SQL for the Oracle DBA

2009-01-13T11:50:00Z

***There's been a change to the timing of this event. It now runs from 9:30-13:00 with registration starting at 9:00***

Free training on Thursday 22nd January on SQL for Oracle DBAs!

It is a half day of training taking place in Dublin the afternoon of January 22nd. See here for details and how to register.

The objective of this training is to give an experienced Oracle DBA a basis for understanding SQL Server and an understanding of the key differences between SQL Server and Oracle together with a basic knowledge of how to administer an installation of SQL Server.

Agenda

Why SQL Server and not Oracle
Structural Differences
Getting Started with SQL
Day to Day Tasks
Monitoring
Security
Advanced topics
- High Availability
- Migrations

Register now

Please Note: Event starts at 1.30pm, Lunch will be provided from 1pm

Speaker Bio

Kevin Ashby joined Microsoft EMEA in January 2005 as an Enterprise Technology Strategist in the CATM team focused on any database related issues.
He has been involved with database platforms for more than 20 years and has performing many roles including development, DBA, technical design and account management. In recent years Kevin has worked as a infrastructure and database architect designing numerous database infrastructure solutions for both high and low end systems. Many of the designs have been for 99.999% availably systems including designing for true fault tolerance and high performance
Kevin’s Oracle background starts with Oracle 5 as a developer, and he became a DBA in Oracle 6, designing infrastructures solutions with Oracle 8 which included 99.999% availability via operating system clusters and Oracle parallel server, running through to 9iRAC and 10g Grid for in house developed solutions and Oracle based commercial applications included Oracle Applications, Oracle Collaboration Suite, 9iAS, 10gAS. He has even talked at OracleWorld a number of times and has been involved with the Oracle community in the UK for many years.

See you next Thursday

Dave

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Building my Demo Laptop (Part 2)

2009-01-12T18:10:29Z

So my demo environment needs to be self contained (everything on the one laptop), needs to be as quick as it can and be able to demo as much of the Microsoft virtualisation stuff as technically possible. My laptop itself will obviously be the Hyper-V host – which needs to be in a domain, if I’m going to manage it.

I had the option of making the laptop the domain controller for my demo domain (daves-demos.ie), but I’ve steered away from this, as it would mean that my demos were not as portable as I’d like. Instead I have created a Virtual Machine running Windows Server 2008 and configured it as the domain controller (it also runs DNS). I’ve configured it to always start and I have joined my laptop to the domain. From now on I always log onto the domain as a Domain Admin.

To let the VMs talk to the host, I have created an Internal Network switch within Hyper-V and to let all the VMs use my wireless network card, I have enabled Internet Connection Sharing on it to the internal Hyper-V switch. This puts a 192.168.0.1 address on the Hyper-V network interface, which just means that I am using 192.168.0.x for all my network addresses: 192.168.0.100 is my Domain Controller and DNS (192.168.0.1 is my gateway).

I can keep disk space down to a minimum and improve performance (of my demos) by using Differencing disks (not recommended in production). A differencing disk, is merely the differences between itself and a base image. My base images are read-only, sysprepped installations of the operating systems I’m using. To create these base images I build a VM, of the particular operating system (64-bit Windows Server 2008 for example), update it, then run sysprep. I have all my base images sitting on my D:\ drive - I have both 32 & 64-bit Windows Server 2008 (full install), a 64-bit core install, 32-bit Vista and 32-bit XP. This means that all operating system “activity” is running on my D:\ drive.

Then I create differencing drives for each of the VMs I’m going to create. Each differencing drive points to one of the base images. Then I create the Virtual Machines and have them boot from the newly created differencing drive. Because the base image was sysprepped, the new VM will run through a mini-setup and ask for stuff like computername. I configure its networking stack and join it to the domain. All reads for the base operating system come from the base image and all machine specific reads and all writes go to the differencing drive (which is physically located on one of my external drives) – this means that every VM has its disk IO going to two separate spindles, which just makes it quicker. Also, because I can have multiple VMs all pointing to the same base image, disk space is kept to a minimum (I only have one install of each OS, rather than one per VM).

Of my eleven VMs, I have five running off of each external USB drive and one from the internal D:\ drive – this one is the Domain Controller (I want this one to start whatever – with or without my external drives plugged in). It does mean that my poor old D:\ drive is doing all the IO for twelve Windows installations (11 VMs plus the physical installation) – did I mention that it was a Solid State disk (they’re great they are)!

More later,

Dave.

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Building my Demo Laptop (Part 1)

2009-01-09T18:06:22Z

It turns out that how I built my demo laptop is generating a bit of interest. These posts have become the “how to” pointers for creating a Proof of Concept for Microsoft Virtualisation and Management solutions.

So to start. My laptop is a dual core, 64-bit device with 8GB of memory. It came with 4GB, but a BIOS update from its manufacturer let me address 8. As an aside I got the 8GB of memory from www.memoryc.com for a mere €200 (plus VAT).

Its primary hard drive is a solid state device that I mentioned last year in this post.

I dual boot this laptop between my chosen client operating system (Windows 7 as of today) and Windows Server 2008. I have to have my client OS protected by Bitlocker, so I dual boot by having a second drive in my DVD bay (onto which I have installed Server).

If your interested the approach was to first install the client OS (which was Vista when I did this) and installed onto the entire drive. Next was to run the Bitlocker drive preparation tool (which uses Diskpart to create a 1.5GB boot partition) followed by enabling Bitlocker. Then with the second drive in the bay, I installed Server 2008 from within Vista and selected the second drive.

This gave me my dual boot environment with Bitlocker for my client OS. It meant that I didn’t have access to the 1st drive from within Server. I had two options: Bitlocker my server drive (to enable me to use auto unlock) or use manage-bde.wsf –unlock –rp XYZ when I need access (this is what I do – I have a single line command file that I run as administrator when I need access).

Now to get Hyper-V working well. On a laptop the issue is disk IO (laptop disks are slow). I’ve used my solid state drive for my client OS, which leaves me with a single drive. So I use an additional two USB drives when running all my VMs.

So Disk 1 has both my boot partition (S:) and My Windows 7 install (C:). Disk 0 is my Windows 2008 installation (D:). Disks 2 & 3 are my external USB drives and I use them for my VMs (more on this in my next post).

Dave

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Hyper-V on a Laptop

2009-01-08T12:11:32Z

This post is an introduction to how I have configured my demo laptop. I can comfortably run eleven VMs on the one laptop, including a two node Hyper-V cluster, App-V and the four main System Center products (Virtual Machine Manager, Data Protection Manager, Operations Manager and Configuration Manager).

I have built this to enable me to demonstrate Microsoft's Virtualisation offerings: everything from Terminal Services and Application Virtualisation to self service provisioning of new Hyper-V virtual machines using System Center Virtual Machine Manager.

If you have ever seen me talk about Microsoft & Virtualisation, this is the laptop I use for my demos. It's nothing spectacular, just a small, dual core business laptop with 8GB of memory and a couple of extra disks.

In subsequent posts I intend to explain in detail what I went through to get this working, what was easy & hard, what I would do differently if I ever do it again.

Dave

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How would you know if your PC was affected by the IE7 flaw?

2008-12-20T15:16:14Z

I had an interesting question posed to me the other day: How would you know if your PC was affected by the IE7 flaw?

My first answer was: Hmm.. It is very possible that you won't know.

Then I did some digging.. The answers I found were:

Desktop firewall program alerting that a foreign application is attempting to access the Internet.
Presence of files named winlk.ini, sysdn.ini and hosts.dat in %windir%
To check if your web site has been compromised, search for the string ardoshanghai.com/s.js in the web page.

But the best answer was the most obvious one: Have your AV signatures up to date there is a possibility it will catch this (depending on who your AV vendor is).

I hope this helps someone,

Dave.

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Configuring Server Core

2008-12-03T17:12:03Z

This post describes the best/easiest method to configure and manage Server Core.

There are numerous posts and articles explaining how to enable a particular feature on Server Core and there are even more on how to configure Server Core so that it can be managed remotely. Well, this is the best method I have come across so far:

The minimum you need to do after a Server Core installation is rename the server and get it to join a domain (if you're not using DHCP then you'll also need to configure your IP stack).

To rename your server:

netdom renamecomputer %ComputerName% /NewName:<NewComputerName>

To join a domain:

netdom join %ComputerName% /domain:<DomainName> /userd:<UserName> /passwordd:*

To configure your IP stack (do this before trying to join a domain if not using DHCP):

netsh interface ipv4 show interfaces (you're looking for the ID of your corporately connected NIC)
netsh interface ipv4 set address name="<ID>" source=static address=<StaticIP> mask=<SubnetMask> gateway=<DefaultGateway>
netsh interface ipv4 add dnsserver name="<ID>" address=<DNSIP> index=1

That's it - everything else can now be done remotely (once you've done this bit):

Using Group Policy to configure Server Core.

The hardest/messiest part of configuring Server Core, is all the Firewall rules you need for each of the remote administration tasks you might want to perform. We can 'cheat'! Logon to a Full installation of Windows Server 2008. Open up Windows Firewall with Advanced Security. Right click on the Firewall and select Export Policy (save this somewhere - we'll use it later).

Open up Group Policy Management Console (gpmc.msc) and create a new Policy Object (I've called mine "Server Core Configuration Policy Object")

Disable the User Configuration Settings and set the Security Filtering to only apply to a particular group (I have a security group defined with all my Server Core machines as members).

Link this new Policy Object to your domain (now all Server Core machines in your domain will get the configuration settings we're about to apply).

Edit the Policy Object.

Navigate down to Computer Configuration, Policies, Windows Settings, Security Settings, System Services, and set the following to automatically start:

Plug and Play
Remote Registry
Virtual Disk

Now for the 'clever' bit. Navigate down to Computer Configuration, Policies, Windows Settings, Security Settings, Windows Firewall with Advanced Security. Right click and select Import Policy and select the Firewall Policy we just saved from a Full installation).

This policy includes pretty much every rule you'll ever need to set. Scroll down the Inbound Rules and enable all the rules you need/want (I've merely enabled anything that mentions Remote).

That's it. As soon as a Server Core machine joins your domain, add it to the Server Core security group (that we've filtered the Group Policy object on) and you'll now be able to perform every remote management task you like - including everything in Computer Manager (Device Manager, Disk Management, etc) as well as WINRM & WINRS (from which you can run all your OCSETUP tasks). The only gotcha is that for Volume management, you need the Firewall rules enabled on the device your performing the management from.

Enjoy,

Dave.

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Dave's back!

2008-12-03T16:13:41Z

Please excuse the lack of posts (I have too many excuses to list here).

I'm now back on line and will be posting regularly again.

Dave

Free training - Deployment of Vista & Office 2007

2008-10-16T21:07:25Z

TechNet Deployment Event
This technical level 300 event is well worth attending if you are considering deploying Windows Vista or Office 2007 in the near future. Attend this event and some of Microsoft Ireland's top consultants will walk you through a real life customer deployment project from beginning to end - what they did, when they did it, what tools were used along the way.
The session will also update participants on the proven business, management and technical benefits provided by both technologies, will address the issue of application compatibility with Windows Vista, and demonstrate how best to deploy in organisations of all sizes.
At the end of the event you will have a chance to ask questions and discuss your particular deployment project with a Microsoft expert.
Where: Microsoft Auditorium, Building 2 (EPDC 2), South County Business Park, Leopardstown, Dublin 18
When: 23rd October - 09:00
Register: Click here.
Agenda
09:00 Registration & Coffee
09:30 Sessions commence
Session 1: Business, management and technical benefits of Vista and Office 2007
Session 2: Microsoft Deployment Experience - "How To Deploy" - Windows Vista and Office 2007
Clinics: Customer Deployment Clinics - Small groups can discuss their particular deployment project with a Microsoft expert.
Lunch: Light Lunch will be served.
14:00 Event Close

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3 Free Exam Vouchers

2008-10-09T21:09:04Z

Microsoft is testing a new exam format and needs your help.

The New Virtual Lab based Exam 70-113: TS: Windows® Server 2008 Active Directory, Configuring tests candidate’s abilities to actually perform tasks and solve problems in virtual lab environment like they would do it normally in a real world.

Upon completion of this pilot exam, the first 3000 candidates will receive 3 (!) free exam vouchers that can be used to register for any Microsoft Certification exam delivered at a Prometric testing center. The voucher will be distributed electronically 4 weeks after end of Pilot. This pilot exam will not provide you with a score as with normal beta exams. This pilot is a test of the exam experience, so only a portion of the final exam will be presented to you during this pilot. This pilot exam will not be added to your transcript and you will need to take the exam in its released form in order to be awarded the credential. Find exam preparation information: http://www.microsoft.com/learning/exams/70-640.mspx

Registration Information

You must register at least 7 days prior to taking the exam. Register before October 25^th to take the exam before October 31^st.
Please use the following promotional code when registering for the exam: H640 (promo code is active till October 31st)
Receiving this invitation does not guarantee you a seat in the pilot; we recommend that you register immediately.

· Go to the Prometric Website: http://www.register.prometric.com/ClientInformation.asp

· Find Microsoft exam 70-113: TS: Windows® Server 2008 Active Directory, Configuring

· Use Promo Code H640 (promo code is active till October 31st)

Send your opinion about exam experience to: http://blogs.technet.com/betaexams/ and to: pbexam@microsoft.com

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Windows Vista Performance (the sequel)

2008-10-09T14:04:56Z

Windows Vista with SP1 (and some tweaks) is faster than Windows Server 2008.

Since my last post on this topic, I've been doing my homework.

On my laptop Vista was always quicker than Server, but I have found some very useful information (most of which has already been or will be covered on the Springboard series of events and resources).

At a high level the steps to get Vista and Office to perform well on a laptop are:

Laptop should have a minimum of 2GB Memory and a 7200 rpm disk (Solid State Disks can make a MASSIVE improvement).
Install Windows Vista SP1 and Office 2007 SP1 and use Windows Update. Some OEM installations of Vista include a lot of unnecessary "value-add" features, most of which can be disabled (a clean install will perform better)
Now find the latest stable, Windows Logo'd device drivers. Source them in this priority:

1. Hardware Manufacturer

2. OEM

3. Windows Update

4. Inbox

The devices where this will make the biggest difference are the Graphics Card and the Network Adapter.

As an example of this:

I've just installed Vista SP1 onto a laptop. There are no inbox drivers for the NVIDIA graphics card or the Intel Wireless Adapter. I connect my laptop to the internet via the onboard ethernet controller and run Windows Update. I'll download and install drivers for both (probably) - I'm now running drivers from Windows Update. Now go and look for device drivers on your hardware manufacturer's support website (for your graphics card and network) - Hardware Manufacturer's drivers have been "tweaked" for their specific implementations and have been thoroughly tested. Install these drivers if they are newer than the ones from Windows Update (you now have the best device drivers installed for your laptop). If there aren't any drivers there (that are newer than the ones you downloaded from Windows Update), now go and look on the OEM's support websites (NVIDIA and Intel in this example) - these drivers may be newer, but are not necessarily stable and have not been tested on your specific laptop model. If there's nothing there, you have ended up with option 3 (Windows Update drivers), if there are newer drivers here, install them but keep looking on your hardware manufacturer's website for their implementation of the drivers.

The above steps will give you a fast and stable build. Any other "issues" will be down to badly behaving applications - you'll need to get into some serious troubleshooting..

Dave

A few places have come up at the SQL Academy

2008-10-09T11:01:08Z

The second session, in our invite only SQL Server 2008 training series is happening in Dublin next Tuesday (14^th October 2008 from 14.00-17.00 *Registration from 1pm). We have a few spare seats available - so if you're interested in some free training on SQL Server 2008, click here and express your interest (you must be located in Ireland to qualify). Places will be given away on a first come, first served basis - so don't hesitate.

Session two will cover the new SQL 2008 features and capabilities.

1. In the first part of the meeting live CLUSTER installation of SQL Server 2008 will be demonstrated and analyzed. We shall discuss in details the new SETUP options as well as the different considerations that should be taken care when planning your upgrade process.

2. In the second part of the talk we will delve into DATA COMPRESSION, its usage, performance and some internals. We will then discuss T-SQL programmability enhancements, such as MERGE, HIERARCHYID and the new DATE and TIME data types.

3. Last but not least we shell talk about the new FILESTREAM capabilities: FILESTRAM performance, comparison of FILESTREAM and other blob\file storage options, and demos.

Dave

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SQL Server User Group Meeting in Cork

2008-10-07T13:18:45Z

Niall Flanagan (Ireland's SQL Server MVP) is doing a talk down in Cork next week in the Imperial Hotel.

Niall will be going into depth on SQL Server Indexes (Internals and Performance).

The event is on next Monday 13th October and runs from 19:00 - 21:00

Click here to register.

Dave

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Today's ISACA talk.

2008-10-03T18:46:32Z

Today I had a go at dispelling the myth that the words Microsoft and Security don't go together. I certainly had "fun" with the projector! Turns out it was a pin in the VGA cable - my Vista laptop was getting well and truly confused as to whether it was connected to a projector or not (you will have noticed that other presentations did not have any RED in them - I can now blame the red pin in the vga cable).

Anyway, I hope all that attended enjoyed my talk and are now convinced that those two words are well and truly joined at the hip.

I've posted my slides here (if you want to take a look) and my little NAP demo can be found here.

Thanks

Dave

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