The Irish Windows User Group will be running a session focusing on OCS, aka Office Communications Server. The speaker is John McCabe, a senior engineer with CDSoft.
Mobile users and mobile computing have enabled a more flexible workforce but there is a challenge in enabling communications that are just as flexible and mobile. OCS can be used to resolve these issues. For most of us, this is an alien world and we just wouldn't know where to start. This session aims to show you how you can use OCS to resolve communications issues in your business.
About The Speaker
John McCabe works for CDSoft Limited based in Celbridge, Kildare. He has worked for over 12 years in the IT industry in various different fields ranging from telecoms, security, deployment and design. Over the last 12 months he has focused his attention on pushing Unified Communications in the Irish market place. He has presented alongside Microsoft on “Tech Days” about Unified Communications and many times in Microsoft “Envision” Centre. John has attained the 088-924 and 074-924 Voice Specialization Exams from Microsoft further complementing his UC skillset
Where And When
Registration is mandatory for attending the in-person event at Microsoft.
The event will be held in Building 1 at the Microsoft European Development Centre (EDC), South County Business Park, Leopardstown, Dublin 18.
July 9th 2009
Registration: 09:00
Event: 09:00 until 12:00
Registration
To attend in person you must register.
Live Meeting
Although the best experience is to be on site for the presentation, we will be live webcasting the event using Live Meeting. You should use the installed (not the web) client.
There is no need to register for the live event if you only wish to tune into the webcast.
The URL for the meeting is: https://www.livemeeting.com/cc/usergroups/join?id=OCSOverview&role=attend
Rory Donnely is the CIO of Nissan Ireland, he is a big Microsoft fan and adopts our products early on in their lifecycle.
He talks about the technology behind the Case Studies that he has already done for us (Windows Server 2008, Hyper-V, Vista and Office) and his plans to deploy the new Microsoft products as and when they are available.
Rory is responsible for convincing me to go out and buy a Home Server. I get to ask him about his use of IT at home - Media Centre, Xbox, Home Server, Zunes, etc.
You can read Rory's case studies here: http://www.microsoft.com/ireland/casestudies/
And if you live in Ireland and want to join the IT Pro Momentum program please email me mailto:daven@microsoft.com
Enjoy..
Windows 7 – Is it really better than Windows XP?
A Guest blog post by Yagil Adar (who has consulted in Ireland on many occasions).
As part of Adar Consulting business, we are also developing an Integrated Computing System (ICS) that includes much security, safety, positioning and infotainment capabilities and more, that works concurrently and are cross integrated.
During the development that includes many applications with complex functionalities i.e. processing data from 4 cameras, night vision, many sensors, touch screen and other devices, we also took into consideration the Operating System that we will base our system on and asked: Which operating system will more appropriate for our complex needs in the ICS project or to be more specific: Windows 7 – Is it really a better than Windows XP?
The applications and functionality requires a fast CPU and memory accordingly, the hardware is Intel’s E6000 CPU with 2GB memory. With this configuration, performance will not be an issue from HW point of view.
We have defined several requirement from the OS, not all can be published however, a few of them can, and are also related to the more standard (desktop, laptop) user profile.
· High stability No BSOD (no crashes and blue screens) – the system must work flawlessly with uptime of more than 1000 hours
· Return successfully from Standby mode The system will return from standby sleep mode with no error including re-establishing the connections with all hardware device including USB, Wi-Fi, BT, sensors, cameras and more
· Memory Management and Memory leak control The system must prevent memory leak including during return from standby sleep mode (vehicle is parked – same as laptop lid down)
· Start and shutdown time From cold boot the system boot time must be fast, same for complete shutdown
Test configuration
· Only the Operating System and drivers have changed, (Apps and HW) are the same
· The test was run with 32Bit OS’s :Windows 7 RC 7100, Windows XP Pro SP3 64 bit was checked – more on that later
· All critical and important updates installed via Windows Updates
· The system HW is based on Intel’s MINI-ITX MB with several HW devices connected via USB hub or directly to the board: USB memory device Sandisk Cruser U3 2GB, cameras and other devices
Test results
High stability
What we have tested
· 5 days Constant work with no BSOD with full load (all apps are loaded and running)
· Go to and return from sleep mode - set computer to standby sleep mode and test if it is successfully returns to full functionality (similar to lid open in laptops)
Operating system
Results
Windows XP
OK
Windows 7
· Go to and return from sleep mode
Operating System
Result
Remarks
Not OK
Returning from standby sleep mode repeatedly and constantly caused a BSOD
The fail massage refers to the USBSCAN.SYS driver
No post SP3 fixes or workarounds where found to solve this problem
Stability summary: Window 7 is more stable
Memory management
· All Apps are loaded including Infotainment, cameras, security, safety and more Phase I : check system memory after 30 minutes from system boot Phase II check system memory after 72 hours Compare and check if there is a memory leak in the system (All Apps are well behaved)
System memory Phase I
System memory Phase II
750MB
788MB
Memory leak of 38MB in 72HR That is 5%
1100MB (1.1GB)
1114MB
Memory leak of 4MB in 72HR That is 0.36%
Memory Management summary: Window 7 manages memory better
Start and shutdown time
· Cold Boot start time in – loading all apps and to hear sound (not includes BIOS diag time)
· Full shutdown
Cold boot start time (sec)
Full shutdown
160
36
55
16
Start and shutdown time summary: Window 7 is faster
Conclusions:
So….Windows 7 is it really that good? From these tests and others the answer is YES Windows 7 provides tangible benefits that justify migrating to this OS
The next step
Part of the ICS for the car we are evaluating which is the best architecture 32Bit or 64Bit for the current version and the next one due to the 3.3 GB limit for the 32Bit version more on that in a future post
Yagil.
Please give us feedback on this guest post – was it useful? Would you like to see more guest bloggers?
Thanks
John McCabe (Technical Consultant with CD Soft) talks about his production deployment of Office Communications Server 2007 R2 running on the beta of Windows Server 2008 R2.
He explains how he convinced the business to deploy a beta product in production and what he thinks of Hyper-V R2 (he likes it)! He also explains why he didn't go with VMware.
CD Soft now run their entire business from a two-node Hyper-V cluster as well as providing a hosted OCS offering to their customers.
You can download the Release Candidate of Windows Server 2008 R2 from here and start build your own Live Migration failover cluster.
Aidan Finn (Systems and Infrastructure Manager with C-Infinity) talks about why he chose NOT to go with VMware in favour of Hyper-V and System Centre.
Aidan is a System Centre MVP and an active blogger and user group leader. He has been engaged in IT Pro Momentum from the very beginning. He talks about how he has used the program and how he shares his knowledge with others.
He closes out by sharing his plans for the up and coming R2 releases of Windows Server 2008, Hyper-V and System Centre. Aidan blogs here: http://joeelway.spaces.live.com
This article states that OCS is not supported in a virtualised environment. Since the initial draft of the article, the support stance changed. Some OCS Server roles can now be deployed in a virtualised environment:
Presence, Instant Messaging (including remote access, federation, and Public IM Connectivity) and Group Chat workloads are supported. The following server roles can be deployed virtually:
· Front-End Servers
· Back-End SQL Server 2008 64 bits
· Group Chat Channel Servers
· Group Chat Compliance Servers
· Edge Access Servers
The virtual machines must be running on Windows Server 2008 64 bits. Archiving Server and Monitoring Server (CDR Only) can be connected to a virtualized Enterprise pool, but they must run on a physical server. The virtualised deployment must meet the requirements of the Microsoft Server Virtualization Validation Program (SVVP) - http://www.windowsservercatalog.com/svvp.aspx?svvppage=svvp.htm
For more information, consult the OCS team blog - http://communicationsserverteam.com/archive/2009/05/13/488.aspx . A capacity planning whitepaper accompanies this announcement - http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyID=0a45d921-3b48-44e4-b42b-19704a2b81b0
Thanks for joining us at the Windows 7 Roadshow!
Please find the presentations used at the Roadshow here. I have also uploaded some useful papers which support much of the topics and features covered.
And here are some deployment aids and general Windows 7 resources you might be interested in:
· Microsoft Deployment Toolkit: http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/solutionaccelerators/dd407791.aspx
(there is a link to the beta on connect as well)
· Microsoft Assessment and Planning (MAP): http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/solutionaccelerators/dd537566.aspx
· Windows 7 walkthrough videos: http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/dd320282.aspx
· Windows 7 Springboard (in progress): http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/dd361745.aspx
· USMT 4.0: http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/dd560752(WS.10).aspx
· Windows Easy Transfer: http://windowsteamblog.com/blogs/windowsexperience/archive/2009/05/05/a-look-at-improvements-to-windows-easy-transfer-for-windows-7.aspx
We’re pleased to announce the launch of the very first TechNet Virtual Conference taking place on 19 June 2009.
We understand that time and budget pressures make attending events difficult – so to help both you and the environment we decided to take the TechNet Conference virtual. Now you can keep up to date with all the latest Microsoft insights and product developments from the comfort of your own desk.
The good news is that registration is FREE.
Virtual Keynote Featuring Mark Russinovich… and more! We are also really pleased to announce an exclusive keynote featuring Mark Russinovich, Microsoft Technical Fellow specializing in the Windows platform.
Additionally, to accomodate the needs of both IT Professionals as well as IT Decision Makers and Licensing Specialists, we are presenting TWO tracks: One for IT Professionals, another for IT Management.
Technical presentation topics will include:
Management presentation topics will include:
Register now! http://go.microsoft.com/?linkid=9666808
One of the topics we covered as part of the recent TechNet Windows 7 Tour of Ireland was application compatibility. We gave an overview of XPMode, Applocker, and using shims for applications coded to look for specific OS versions. As great a job Sebastian, Dave and I did in covering these features, Mark Russinovich will do it better! Mark, Technical Fellow in the Platform and Services Division at Microsoft and all round genius of SysInternals fame is hosting another in his Springboard Series of webcasts
Windows 7 Application Compatibility: Your Questions Answered (Part 1)
Date: Thursday, June 18
Time: 11:00am Pacific Time
https://ms.istreamplanet.com/springboard
Windows 7, is approaching fast and from the application standpoint is very similar to Windows Vista. We’re going to examine Windows 7 application compatibility not only from the perspective of moving from Windows Vista, but also for those coming from Windows XP. Join us to discuss the most common challenges around application compatibility when coming from a legacy operating system, why changes were made along the way, compatibility technologies inside the OS and methods for getting incompatible applications to run on Windows 7. Along the way we share tips and tricks, demonstrate free tools to analyze and fix applications and answer your specific questions about application compatibility live.
In Part 2 of this Virtual Round Table discussion (planned for later this Summer/Fall), we’ll discuss the options and approaches for using virtualization tools In depth to address application incompatibilities – including presentation virtualization, desktop virtualization and application virtualization. We’ll be sending out more details and posting information to www.microsoft.com/springboard for part 2 as the dates are finalized.
As part of the “virtual” experience, you may submit your questions about Windows 7 Application Compatibility to the panel live during the event—or submit questions in advance to vrtable@microsoft.com.
Springboard Series: The resource for Windows desktop IT professionals
The Information Systems Security Association, an Irish security professionals group is hosting an event coming up on June 10th overlooking Microsoft’s products and security. You can register for this free event at http://www.issaireland.org/june09 and it is open to anyone who registers. Below is an overview of the event:
“Our next event will be on Wednesday June 10th and will be a special event in conjunction with Microsoft, focusing on the upcoming security enhancements in the Windows platform and Microsoft's security work in Dublin. This event will run from 2PM to 5PM and our venue this month is the Academy building at 42 Pearse Street, just around the corner from Pearse Street DART station.”
Security Improvements in Windows 7 & Server 2008 R2 Dave Northey, Principle Systems Engineer, Microsoft Ireland Later this year Microsoft will release two new products in the Windows family: Windows 7 and Windows Server 2008 R2. Both releases will introduce new security features and capabilities as well as enhancing the security of the Windows platform. As Irish organizations consider their deployment strategies for Windows 7 and 2008 R2 it is appropriate that our first presentation should introduce the security improvements in both products and demonstrate some of the new features of interest to security professionals. Our speaker for this session will be Dave Northey, Principle Systems Engineer with the TechNet group at Microsoft Ireland. Dave has worked with Microsoft for over 13 years in a career which has spanned Microsoft's consulting, account management, sales and evangelist groups. Since 2006 Dave's has worked with Irish IT professionals to introduce Windows Vista, Server 2008, Hyper-V, SoftGrid, System Centre and other new technologies in Microsoft's infrastructure portfolio.