With a big Texas “Howdy” coming out to all of the Aussies and New Zealanders in the house!

If you are interested in backing up your Exchange, SQL Server, SharePoint, Windows file or Hyper-V environments, then you ought to be looking at System Center Data Protection Manager.

And if you are attending Microsoft TechEd in either country – then please come talk to me about DPM !!  To see about meeting 1:1 onsite during the events, as well as while I am in Sydney on Sept. 17-18, please email me.

In both venues, I have two DPM speaking sessions:

How to protect and recover applications with DPM 2007

In this talk, we drill into how Data Protection Manager really uses VSS and transactional log backups -- as well as learn more specifically how data protection is achieved for each of the core workloads, including: SQL Server, Exchange, SharePoint, and Virtualization.

      TE AU MGT 302 – Sept. 9 @ 15:30 – meeting room 5

      TE NZ SVR 307 – Sept. 15 @ 14:20 – NZ room 1

Disaster Recovery and Advanced Scenarios with DPM 2007

In this session we discuss features not previously demonstrated for this product, including Disaster Recovery scenarios, command-line control of Data Protection Manager 2007 through PowerShell, deployment and monitoring through other System Center products, and bare metal recovery of production servers using the Data Protection Manager System Recovery Tool (SRT).

      TE AU MGT 303 – Sept. 10 @ 09:45 – meeting room 5

      TE NZ SVR 312 – Sept. 16 @ 09:00 – NZ room 1

Suggested pre-watching

If you are able to attend, these sessions are parts 2 and 3 of a three-part series that I’ve done on DPM 2007 SP1.  The first part is around installation and configuration of the DPM server itself.  If you haven’t installed DPM, you are absolutely encouraged to come to these sessions – but may want to watch the video of part one, first.

TechNet Video From Tech-Ed 2008 US- Technical Introduction to DPM 2007 

DPM 2010 (v3) beta

And as we are just a few weeks from beta – a good glass of wine or coffee will probably get me talking about everything that you will see in the next generation of Data Protection Manager.

As always, thanks for reading.

It’s HERE !!!   And I am very, very excited !!!

Of all of the things that I have worked on for System Center Data Protection Manager 2007 – this is probably one of my absolute favorites, because it has been a frequent request for as long as I have been privileged to work on DPM (3.5 years).  And after all that time, and having starting work in October (10 months ago), I get to announce it.

This week, I am very proud to announce the availability of eLearning for DPM 2007.

This is a collection of 6 two-hour eLearning modules that include hands-on labs, much of the same courseware as our newly announced classroom-based DPM course, and is built for to prepare you for the DPM Certification exam.

There are six modules –each approximately two-hours long

eLearning course 10144 – Installing and Configuring DPM 2007

eLearning course 10145 – Protecting and Recovering SQL Server with DPM 2007

eLearning course 10146 – Protecting and Recovering Exchange Server with DPM 2007

eLearning course 10147 – Protecting and Recovering SharePoint with DPM 2007

eLearning course 10148 – Protecting and Recovering Virtualized Environments with DPM 2007

eLearning course 10149 – Disaster Recovery and Monitoring the DPM server

And Microsoft Learning has them in a bundle, so you can get all 6 modules as a kit.

So, now you have two options to get ready for the certification.  And as some of you have replied to my earlier blogs on the course and found it difficult to locate a local training center that jumped on the classroom course in its first month, this is great alternative.

But the main reason that I am excited about this course is for all of you that are doing Proofs-of-Concept with DPM.  We often hear that you are excited about the features, but not sure how to get started on your first deployment.  Because of that, I intentionally built the course with the POC in mind.

If you are evaluating DPM 2007 for protecting your SharePoint environment – take module 1 (install) and module 4 (SharePoint).   You’re ready to deploy DPM 2007 for your SharePoint solution. 

If you have already deployed DPM for backup and restore, but are now ready to do disaster recovery or monitor DPM in a larger production deployment – take module 6.

If you are a Microsoft partner who specializes in database solutions, then take module 2 to learn how to deploy DPM when you are already deploying SQL Server into your customers’ environments.

Get the idea?  Potential customers who are evaluating DPM, or Microsoft partners who need to ramp up on the newest backup solution for Windows and from Microsoft can simply take what they need.  Or, if you are seeking certification on DPM – take all six, do some hands-on, go for the exam.

If you’ve read my other blogs on the DPM education offerings, you know that I believe vendor-education should first and foremost be about practical guidance on how to be sucessful with the product as an implementer.  I was very privileged to be the primary driver for the courseware on DPM, from the initial learning objectives alongside some really great DPM customers and partners, and all the way through the development of both courses and the exam.

I hope you get as much out of the new training materials as I did in making them.

Thanks for reading

I have long believed that training’s primary purpose is as a deployment enabler.  In fact, prior to these last four years at Microsoft, I originally established and drove the education offering for Double-Take for the same reason – to pragmatically equip customers and partners to understand the product(s) better, thereby accelerating adoption and reducing support challenges.  That was a great adventure, but doing it within Microsoft was even more fun.

From October of last year, through this summer, I have had the opportunity to work on Microsoft training materials for System Center Data Protection Manager 2007.  It has been an exciting experience and I hope that you find the materials relevant and useful.

In June, we released Course 50213A – Implementing Data Protection Manager 2007.

This two-day classroom-based course replaces a five day course (50023) that was developed prior to DPM’s initial release to manufacturing in 2007.  I am much more excited about this two-day offering, as it really was defined by customers and external DPM experts as to what you need to know to be successful with DPM 2007.   And since it is being delivered through Microsoft Learning’s CourseWare Library (CWL), it is easy for Microsoft partners to download and deliver without some of the formality of Microsoft Official Curriculum (MOC), though still to a similar quality bar.

To follow on with this, (in my opinion) no course is complete without an exam.  So, this month, I am happy to announce Microsoft technical specialist Exam 70-658 – Configuring System Center Data Protection Manager 2007

I confess that I have not yet taken the exam myself yet, but as I was privileged to watch how the DPM customers and experts determined what was needed to be effective with DPM, I have a high confidence factor that the exam covers a good bit of reality that should confirm your knowledge without confounding you in niche scenarios. 

Also, as the exam was developed after the course and using the same “learning objectives” – I hope that taking the course, plus a relevant hands-on experience, should adequately prepare you for the test.

On a personal note – my own Microsoft certification goes back to 1995, with Windows 3.1 (desktop) and Windows NT 3.5 (server).  And I was later an MCT.  So, contributing to a Microsoft course and exam really was surreal.  But I digress …

If you are one of the first to take the course or the exam – please let me know!  Comment back to this blog post or email me to tell us how we did and how we can continue to equip you to be successful with DPM.

As always, thanks for reading…

On Thursday morning (yes tomorrow), I’ll be delivering a webcast on reducing costs and improving your backup and recoverability with System Center Data Protection Manager (DPM). 

http://msevents.microsoft.com/CUI/WebCastEventDetails.aspx?EventID=1032412440

Event Overview

In today’s economy, more than ever, IT Pro’s are looking for ways to reduce costs while still improving existing processes or fixing things that aren’t meeting expectations – including backup.  In this session, we’ll discuss legacy protection solutions for backup, disk-to-disk replication, and long-distance disaster recovery  -- and how you can cut costs while gaining better backups and more reliable recoveries with System Center Data Protection Manager 2007.

Duration:  60 Minutes

Start Date:  Thursday, July 16, 2009 8:00 AM Pacific Time (US & Canada)

This one is all about the numbers.   Centralized Backup numbers.   Comparison to alternative numbers.  ROI numbers.

When you are looking at technology problems, sometimes it is easiest to just look at the $$ and sense.  :-)

Thanks for reading, hope you’ll tune in

As promised, I did receive LEGO Battles for Fathers Day – so I wanted to share my enthusiasm for this game.  My sons have both been into LEGO for a few years – and of course, I played with them when I was a kid.

We have collectively played through all 3 video game series (as well as a few older PC titles like Lego Chess):

• LEGO Star Wars
• LEGO Batman
• LEGO Indiana Jones

And we’ve played quite a bit of Civilization:Revolution (Xbox360) and Age of Empires III (Nintendo DS) – so building small, pixilated armies is pretty standard stuff for us.

Put all of that together, and how can you not want this latest installment to the LEGO gaming series ?!?

Yes, you can build your own armies – from multiple playsets including LEGO Castles, LEGO Space, LEGO Pirate, plus many other pieces and parts.  And …

To read the rest of the game review – please check out my gaming blog.

As always, thanks for reading

This has been an exciting month for me and DPM on two fronts:

First, for Fiscal Year 2010 (starting last week at Microsoft), I am re-focusing exclusively on DPM within System Center and will not be also driving Windows Server file services or Windows Storage Server.   It was very cool to be part of the WSS08 launch (see WSS blog posts) and I will admittedly miss not getting to be there when Windows Server 2008 R2 launches.  

FCI (File Classification Infrastructure) is still the 2nd coolest technology that Microsoft has.  DPM is #1.   Well, except for Surface which is a trip.  And the whole Xbox360 platform and Xbox Live.  Oh, and Office 2010 has some cool features, especially in Outlook.  And … (you get the idea)

More importantly and as the blog post is titled – DPM and I are coming to TechEd Africa !

I’ll be giving 4 talks over 3 days:

- Technical Intro to DPM 2007 sp1

- Protecting Apps with DPM 2007 sp1

- Advanced Features of DPM 2007 sp1

- What is coming in DPM v3

They also have some System Center specific events planned in a few cities – so I will be travelling with a few buddies from System Center (Sacha and Wally).  

And as this is my first trip to that continent – I am really looking forward to meeting several customers, and hopefully squeezing in a photo safari for the weekend in-between work weeks.

If you are going to be at Tech-Ed Africa … or if you are in Cape Town or Johannesburg – please give me a shout from this blog.

Congratulations to my friends at Dell for their launch of storage appliances that are powered by Windows Storage Server 2008.

This is a great example of what happens with the partnership of Microsoft with a server manufacturer. 

In this case, instead of simply pre-installing Windows Server and a standard Dell PowerEdge server (which is already a strong solution) – Microsoft raised the file-serving bar with Windows Storage Server, and Dell is now delivering it with lots of goodness in a PowerVault.

See earlier post on how/why Windows Storage Server is delivered through OEM partners.

Dell has embraced the industry leading file services features that started with Windows Server 2008, including Distributed File System (DFS), Network File System (NFS), easy management through the File Server Resource Manager (FSRM) and the great performance advancements of SMB 2.0.

Then, of course, the extra Microsoft goodies that come in Windows Storage Server 2008 such as Single-Instance Storage (SIS) for data de-duplication.

See earlier post on why a Windows Storage Server is like a Saleen Ford Mustang.

Then, they added management capabilities like remote management through iDRAC and OpenManage 6.1 including DMC (Dell Management Console), IT Assistant – and hardware features like those for Energy Smart.

And all of this is being delivered by Dell around 3 driving principles.

- Advanced Software for More Efficient Data

- No Time Wasted to Setup or Manage

- Integration that Adapts to Your Environment

In fact, <melodramatic sigh> the only negative thing I can say about this offering is that they didn’t invite this Dallas boy down to Austin to celebrate the launch.  </self-pity>

Congratulations to Dell for coming out with what looks like a great storage appliance!!

As always, thanks for reading…

Later today, we’ll be delivering a TechNet webcast on managing Data Protection Manager in large enterprises.  Essentially, there are three things we want to cover:

Using PowerShell to automate tasks across DPM servers

Using the DPM management pack for System Center Operations Manager 2007

Using Bocada’s Centralized Manager for DPM 2007

To watch the webcast, live or on-demand, please go to

http://msevents.microsoft.com/CUI/EventDetail.aspx?EventID=1032412446

Wednesday, June 10, 2009 1:00 PM Pacific Time (US & Canada)

This is a very good day to be in storage and a Windows network administrator – because HP just announced that they are shipping storage appliances that are powered by Windows Storage Server 2008.  For more on the WSS08 release last month, check out these blogs:

May 5 - Announcing Windows Storage Server 2008 – Waa Hoo !

May 7 – Why a Windows Storage Server is like a Saleen Ford Mustang

And while everyone here at Microsoft is really excited about the release and what it means for our customers, the other side of the coin is that the WSS releases are only available through our OEM partners.  So our release party doesn’t really start until they announce their releases.  Kind of like two people sharing a birthday party doesn’t really start until both guests of honor get there.  Guess what, the party has started !!!

Congratulations to HP and their customers on this release of WSS08 devices: 

X1000 series - Delivers Windows-powered unified network storage that is easy to install, easy to manage, and easy to expand to your small, medium, or workgroup IT environment.

X3000 series - Adds cluster-able and easy-to-manage file, iSCSI, and management services to mid-range and Enterprise array/SAN environments to create unified network storage solutions.

descriptions clipped from hp.com – links above

For more details on the HP family of WSS08 platforms, check out the Windows Storage Server blog.

I must also confess a little guilty pleasure in this particular announcement.  WSS08 is the first Microsoft product release that I have had a contribution in, other than Data Protection Manager.  And having lived in Texas my whole professional career with my first hands-on servers being Compaq SystemPro’s (386-based), before ProLiant’s and well before the HP acquisition … it is very cool to be an infinitesimally small contributor to its launch.

Congrats HP !!

And to the rest of you … if you have been looking for a storage appliance but did not want to sacrifice the benefits you get from running Windows, including features, price/performance, flexible choice in security/backup/management tools, manageability with the same tools you use for the rest of your environment, etc.  … The Wait Is Over !!

As always, thanks for reading …

I get this question every once in a while – so I thought I would offer my perspective on this.

To answer that, let me do a short reminder of what a Windows Storage Server is:

We started with the mainstream Windows Server operating system – and tune it from being the industry-leading general purpose OS that is equally suited to being the base of Exchange/SQL Server as it is for serving files … and making it optimized for file sharing.

We added additional capabilities that are reasonable and desired in storage appliances – like de-duplication and block-storage in the form of an iSCSI target

And then we hand it over to the OEMs.  

Then, the server hardware manufacturer (e.g. HP) starts with the same basic metal as their tried-and-true ProLiant family but have the option of pre-configuring packages of components and form-factors, and adding their own special sauce.

Then they package it up – with the additional understanding that it comes ready to go when you power it up.  Basically, 30 minutes from cardboard to file serving (rails and racks, not withstanding).

So, in short, WSS08 powered storage appliances are more than just another version of Windows running on a ProLiant with a different SKU.   So, with that in mind, even if we chose to provide the WSS08 software as software-only for production use (it is available in some releases of TechNet and MSDN for testing purposes) … it wouldn’t be the same thing because the metal and the integration are part of it.

ANALOGY TIME

If you want a ham and cheese sandwich, you could go to your regular grocer and get a bag of pre-cut circular sandwich meat from the refrigerator section and some pre-processed cheese slices.  Throw it between two pieces of generic white bread and call it a sandwich.

But then, one day, you go to an authentic deli or sandwich shop and get some ham sliced fresh from the bone.  You add some amazing cheese that you’ve never seen before (and can’t spell) and put it between two pieces of something-too-wonderful-to-be bread that someone hand rolled and baked this morning.  Mmmmm…

Now, if you go home and you bring some of that good meat with you.  You still won’t have that phenomenal sandwich again – because you don’t have the amazing cheese (additional software) or the wonderful bread (server hardware).

Its lots of stuff put together that comes into your hands – prebuilt for deliciousness.  A storage appliance that is powered by Windows Storage Server 2008 is the same way.  This is not my best analogy because saying that the general purpose Windows Server 2008 operating system is like store-bought lunch meat is just … well … baloney.

But the rest of the story works pretty good.

As always, thanks for reading …

I am very excited to announce the availability of a new classroom-based course on DPM 2007 SP1.

http://www.microsoft.com/learning/en/us/syllabi/50213A.aspx

This is a two-day course that covers everything that you need to know to be successful with DPM.  That is a bold statement, but it was built by MVPs, early DPM adopters that are now full deployed throughout their enterprise, as well as MS stakeholders.

About this Course

This two-day instructor-led course provides students with the knowledge and skills to implement Data Protection Manager (DPM) 2007.  This course is intended for IT professionals who are responsible for installing and configuring DPM 2007, and for using DPM 2007 to protect data and applications.

After completing this course, students will be able to:

• Describe Data Protection Manager (DPM) 2007
• Describe the prerequisite requirements and Install DPM 2007 servers
• Perform post-installation configuration tasks
• Protect & Recover SQL Server data with DPM 2007
• Protect & Recover Exchange Server data with DPM 2007
• Protect & Recover SharePoint data with DPM 2007
• Protect & Recover virtualized environments with DPM 2007
• Monitor DPM 2007
• Prepare for and Perform disaster recovery in DPM 2007

For those of you that know me from my days at NSI Double-Take, you may recall that I originally built the training & certification program there – and have always thought of technical education strictly as a way to enable easier first deployments and proofs-of-concept when evaluating software … plus increasing the usage of the product by educating on additional capabilities that you may not have perhaps known about.  So the courseware there (and this course) are focused around job roles/tasks and what are the key skills necessary to do what you need to get done.

This class takes most of what we cover in the DPM breakout sessions at Tech-Ed, MMS, and IT Forum – and puts it into two fun-filled backup and recovery days.

Also notable is that this course uses the newest delivery vehicle from Microsoft Learning – CourseWare Library (CWL) … which means that it is very easy for Microsoft training partners to download and offer – usually at a significantly reduced cost, compared with Microsoft Official Curriculum (MOC). 

If you are a Microsoft training partner – please visit the CWL portal and take a look at course 50213A

If you are a Microsoft trainer – start brushing up on DPM 2007 SP1  :-)

If you are a Microsoft customer – ask your preferred training provider when they will offer course 50213A

And for everyone – stay tuned to find out about the upcoming DPM 2007 certification exam that will follow this course.

As always, thanks for reading…

For the record, I am not really a car buff.  I am a “Buff”ington … and enjoy renting mustangs from Avis … but I’ve had a few questions on my Windows Storage Server 2008 RTM blog (below), so let me expand on my analogy:

Just a few miles down the road in Detroit, Saleen takes Ford Mustangs and ups their performance and adds additional features.  Their influence and expertise is in part because some of them come from Ford and they work with Ford – and that makes them if not uniquely, then at least especially, capable in optimizing the Mustang.

Interestingly, I recently heard that Saleen has even influenced the new general assembly line – which makes all Mustangs better.

Sure, a Ford Mustang owner could do similar performance tuning and add after-market parts, but there is something special (and optimal) about it coming already tricked out. 

Cheaper, Faster, Better and Easier than doing it yourself.

WSS08 is tuned by Microsoft, starting from the WS08 OS default settings.  Then, we add our special features not found in WS08 - like SIS and the iSCSI Target.   Then, our hardware partners take their standard server hardware (e.g. Dell PowerEdge) and they have the opportunity to tune it as it turns into a PowerVault.  After putting in our tuned and enhanced OS, they can also add additional software components that again creates additional differentiation.  So by the time that the customer gets it, the result is an appreciably optimized and enhanced device that is seamlessly integrated. 

Sticking with the Saleen analogy, a good portion of our work over the years in file/storage features for the Windows Storage Server line is now reflected in the main Windows Server OS – e.g. File Server Resource Manager, Storage Explorer, Simple Manager for SAN’s, etc.

Sure, a Dell PowerEdge owner with a Windows Server 2008 DVD could build the base, and tune it according to whitepapers, and seek comparable similar add-on software.  But again, there is something special (and optimal) about it coming already tricked out and ready to go into production.  

Cheaper (TCO), Faster (performance), Better (features) and Easier  than doing it yourself.

Hopefully, that clarifies or perhaps entertains. :-)  If not, I will defer to my co-worker and DPM Product Planner, who really is a car buff.  Using an Xbox gaming analogy which is closer to my passion, I would say that the additions and optimizations in Windows Storage Server are like unlockable special weapons that were designed by the game developer for a particular boss fight – as opposed to your standard sidearm when the storyline begins alongside the other items you collect.   Sure, you can do the battles with the stuff that you gather along the way, but it is much cooler and offers some great cut-scenes or finishing moves, if you use these specialty items. 

As an updated reminder, we have two TechNet Webcasts today from Storage Solutions:

Introducing Windows Storage Server 2008

8AM Pacific / 11AM Eastern US time:

http://msevents.microsoft.com/CUI/WebCastEventDetails.aspx?EventID=1032410705

For background – check out my blog on WSS08 from earlier this week.

In this webcast, I am joined by one of those scary-smart but all-around-nice-guys, Scott Johnson, the senior program manager for WSS08 – or as I have come to know him, “Mister Storage Server”

and then, after reloading my coffee …

Disaster Recovery with Data Protection Manager 2007 and Iron Mountain

9:30AM Pacific / 12:30PM Eastern US time:

http://msevents.microsoft.com/CUI/WebCastEventDetails.aspx?EventID=1032410562

I originally planned on delivering this webcast a few weeks ago – but it had to be rescheduled.

In this webcast, I will be talking about what DPM 2007 SP1 can do to replicate from one DPM server to another (DPM 2 DPM 4 DR), to an Iron Mountain CloudRecovery facility, and also how System Center can deliver a complete disaster recovery capability in partnership with virtualization.

It’s going to be a fun day to talk about Storage Solutions from Microsoft, so I hope you will join me !!

As always, thanks for reading … and watching …

.

If you have read the series – this is a ‘must play’.   At least for a while…

This particular Harry Potter game is based on the fifth book of the Harry Potter book series – the Order of the Phoenix.

As with the book, the game starts out at 12 Grimwald Place, the headquarters of the Order of the Phoenix.  This is essentially a tutorial area where you’ll learn a few magic spells.

In this game, you’ll learn to interact with the environment using your magic wand to push, pull, levitate and repair items – with the use of the right-stick of your Xbox360 controller.  It is fairly easy and will become second nature fairly early on.  Later, you’ll get to interact with most of your favorite characters that were digitized and voiced by the original actors from the movie.

With the tutorial complete, it is off to Hogwarts !!

To read the rest of this game recommendation – check out my other gaming blog

.

I am really excited to announce the release to manufacturing (RTM) of Windows Storage Server 2008.  Let me tell you why:

On May 7^th, I have asked one of the lead development managers to help me with a TechNet Webcast on “Introducing Windows Storage Server 2008” :

http://msevents.microsoft.com/CUI/WebCastEventDetails.aspx?EventID=1032410705

You might also want to check out the WSS team blog - blog.technet.com/StorageServer

Or our newly created website for Windows Storage Server - www.microsoft.com/StorageServer – where you can learn more about WSS08 and find links to our partners’ sites.

Our hardware partners will be announcing their Windows Storage Server appliances over the next several weeks – but until then, check out the links above, as well as the file services in WS08 that WSS08 is built on and get ready for the best storage appliance that we’ve ever built.

As always, thanks for reading …

Happy Cinco de Mayo !!

As a Texan, my friends and I already had plans to celebrate this occasion, but now we have one more excuse to raise a tall margarita -- the next generation of Data Protection Manager.

At 11:00 AM Pacific US time – we will be doing a TechNet webcast for customers and partners who want to know about what is coming in version 3 – code named “Zinger”

TechNet Webcast- First Look at Microsoft System Center Data Protection Manager v3 (Level 300)

It is early for beta software and such, but this webcast will give you our big picture of what is coming next for DPM.

Unlike my favorite zinger pastry snack, this one has lots more substance than cream filling.   Join us tomorrow to learn more…

Hello friends,

First and foremost, thank you to all of those that read this blog.  It’s been an enjoyable way for me to share information (and my opinions) and I hope you’ve enjoyed them as well.

Easily one of the most cool things that happens to me when meeting customers and partners is to have someone say “Hey, I read your blog!”   It is a genuine thrill and source of encouragement.

This week, I am branching out in two directions – and invite you to engage in either as it interests you:

	I will confess that I haven’t fully grasped how to best use Twitter. As a follower – I am definitely learning some things from some of the folks that I follow and it’s been a great way to learn things in real time. As a searcher - I am finding more and more folks that are twittering on #DPM, so I look for those tags and try to weigh in when I can. As for following me – I will try to use it as another way to notify when new things are going on for Windows storage solutions, particularly on DPM, but also Windows Storage Server and file services within Windows Server. Over the next three weeks, I will be at both MMS and TechEd, so will also share some real-time updates on DPM’s education efforts to the masses.
	Many of you know that my other passion besides data protection/storage is video games – and usually gaming with my family. I felt privileged to contribute to Xbox Dad’s column on Xbox.com in 2008 until Xbox.com discontinued the family gaming column – but I really wanted another platform to continue that medium. And by doing it on my own site, I will also be writing on our family’s Wii and DS games, as well as other family friendly entertainment topics. Please visit www.ChristianGamerDad.com if you want to keep following my game recommendations.  I will cross-post for a while, to keep things connected.

This site still will be a primary platform for me – and http://blog.JasonBuffington.com is the friendly URL for this blog – mostly DPM and some gaming/crossposts.

Again, as always, thanks for reading.

Earlier today, it was announced that:

Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment and TT Games have joined forces with the LEGO Group, Harmonix and MTV Games to merge two of the most popular videogame franchises with the creation of LEGO® Rock Band®. The unique family-friendly music experience is currently in development by TT Games in partnership with Harmonix, and published by Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment.

As many of you know, I am big fan of the LEGO® video game series:

Blog post -- LEGO : Star Wars – the best kids’ game that I know of

Blog post -- LEGO : Batman – even better than Star Wars !

And I am currently playing LEGO : Indiana Jones trilogy with one of my sons

But this is great news because my wife and I have discussed before that while we’d like to play Rock Band.  Our best times to play are when the kids’ are asleep.  We could play as a family but frankly, most of the titles aren’t exactly friendly for pre-teens.   So, until MTV Games decides to release Rock Band downloadable content from the ‘Contemporary Christian’ genre (yeah, not holding my breath) – this is as close to Rock Band as I get without an occasional guys’ night out.

For more detail on the press notice – including its anticipated release for Holiday 2009 season … click here

As always, thanks for reading…

I have a full line-up for Tech-Ed 2009 and System Center Data Protection Manager 2007 Sp1 – May 11-15, 2009.

May 11, 2:45-4:00 PM	VIR04-INT	Why Virtualization and Data Protection are Better Together
May 12, 10:15-11:30 AM	MGT204	Technical Introduction to Data Protection Manager 2007 sp1
May 12, 1:00-2:15 PM	MGT316	Protecting Applications with Data Protection Manager 2007 sp1
May 13, 2:45-4:00 PM	MGT02-INT	How to protect SharePoint with Data Protection Manager 2007 sp1
May 15, 10:45-11:30 AM	MGT401	Advanced Capabilities of Data Protection Manager 2007 sp1

For some hands-on time with DPM, please check out:

MGT18-HOL	Technical Introduction to Data Protection Manager 2007 sp1
UNC06-HOL	How to protect Exchange Server with Data Protection Manager 2007 sp1

In addition, some of my friends are also presenting this week

Devin Ganger	MGT301	Advanced Data Protection for Microsoft Exchange Server
Sacha Dawes	MGT201	Microsoft System Center for the Data Center
Bob Roudebush	WSV311	High Availability and Disaster Recovery considerations for Hyper-V

And there is a rumor that my former employer (Double-Take) will be bringing back their Cluster-Funk band.  If so, you won’t want to miss it !!

During the day, I’ll also be hanging out at either the Management TLC talking about DPM or the Windows Server TLC talking about file services and some very cool new features coming in WS 08 R2. And if you want some 1:1 time – reach out via Tech-Ed Connect.   Safe travels if you are headed to Los Angeles – I hope to see you there.

And as always, thanks for reading …

The only thing more fun than Las Vegas in the Springtime has got to be the DPM sessions at the Microsoft Management Summit 2009 (MMS-2009.com) – April 27 – May 1st.

If you are coming – check out our DPM sessions:

MONDAY
April 27 @ 1:30PM	SO20	breakout session	Ray Maker	Designing DPM 2007 deployments for Branch Environments
TUESDAY
April 28 @ 10:15AM	IO30	instructor-led lab	Mike Kellogg; Ray Maker	How to protect Exchange Server with DPM 2007 sp1
April 28 @ 6:45PM	BO02	birds of a feather	Ray Maker	How MS IT deployed DPM and other lessons learned
WEDNESDAY
April 29 @ 10:15AM	IO32	instructor-led lab	Jason	How to protect SharePoint with DPM 2007 sp1
April 29 @ 11:45AM	SO16	breakout session	Jason	Technical Introduction to Data Protection Manager 2007 sp1
April 29 @ 11:45AM	SO16	instructor-led lab	Mike Kellogg	Technical Introduction to Data Protection Manager 2007 sp1
April 29 @ 2:15PM	SO17	breakout session	Jason	Protecting Applications with Data Protection Manager 2007 sp1
April 29 @ 2:15PM	IO30	instructor-led lab	Mike Kellogg; Ray Maker	How to protect Exchange Server with DPM 2007 sp1
April 29 @ 4:00PM	SO18	breakout session	Jason	Advanced Capabilities of Data Protection Manager 2007 sp1
THURSDAY
April 30 @ 10:15AM	SO19	breakout session	Jason	What is new in DPM 2007 service pack 1?
April 30 @ 11:45AM	IO32	instructor-led lab	Jason	How to protect SharePoint with DPM 2007 sp1
April 30 @ 2:30PM	IO33	instructor-led lab	Mike Kellogg	Technical Introduction to Data Protection Manager 2007 sp1
April 30 @ 4:00PM	IO30	instructor-led lab	Mike Kellogg; Ray Maker	How to protect Exchange Server with DPM 2007 sp1

For some hands-on time with DPM, please check out:

YO30	How to protect Exchange Server with Data Protection Manager 2007 sp1
YO31	How to protect SQL Server with Data Protection Manager 2007 sp1
YO32	How to protect SharePoint with Data Protection Manager 2007 sp1
YO33	Technical Introduction to Data Protection Manager 2007 sp1

Safe travels to Las Vegas – and I hope to see you there.

And as always, thanks for reading …

Have you ever played Scrabble or Battleship with someone 1000 miles away?  

Me neither – let’s try it !!  

A few weeks ago, the fun folks at Electronic Arts teamed with Hasbro to release several classic board games for the Xbox 360.  They are available via the Game Marketplace as Arcade titles for 800 points each (about $10 US).   for the full details, check out my blog from a few weeks ago:

http://blogs.technet.com/JBUFF/archive/2009/04/02/Xbox-Family-Game-family-game-night-by-Hasbro.aspx (or just scroll down)

Now, to make it easier for folks to try these games out online, the Xbox Live community will be having ‘Family Game Nights’ for the next few weeks, highlighting some of these games.  Basically, its an organized way to say “Hey, if you want to try out playing this online, there will be 1000’s of other folks available to play during these hours.”   This is good for all kinds of reasons:

-  Because it lets me power up my Xbox a few hours earlier, instead of waiting for my kids to go to bed, on a school night

-  Because it is hard for me to find someone who wants to play me in Scrabble - cuz I’ve got a mongo-magnimific vocabulary

-  And because it can be hard to find other thirty-somethings who what to play Connect 4 or Battleship

So, save the next few Tuesday nights for Xbox 360 and Family Game Night on Xbox Live.

April 14 – Scrabble

April 21 – Connect 4

April 28 – Battleship

And if you see DarkJediHunter online … then, please invite me to a game or join mine !!

What better day to talk about ‘disasters’ than tax day in the US !?!

On Wednesday, April 15th, I’ll be giving a TechNet Webcast on ‘Disaster Recovery with Data Protection Manager and Iron Mountain’.

http://msevents.microsoft.com/CUI/WebCastEventDetails.aspx?culture=en-US&EventID=1032410562

It is 1PM Pacific, which makes it kind of late in the evening for my non-American friends – and I am sorry about that.  Please check out the archive.

Or if you tune in live, we’'ll talk about all things ‘DR’ and ‘BC’ with ‘DPM’:

- How to replicate from one DPM server to another for Disaster Recovery

- How branch offices can take advantage of a new DPM 2007 SP1 feature called ‘Local Datasource Protection’ for local and remote protection of branch data

- How to use System Center to get Business Continuity in a cost effective way

- and demonstrate the new CloudRecovery offering from Iron Mountain and DPM

If you are into data protection, you won’t want to miss this fun-filled hour !!

As always, thanks for reading…

FINALLY !!

Old fashioned family games -- on Xbox!!

The classics -- Yahtzee, Scrabble, Connect Four, Sorry, Battleship, and others...

This month, on Xbox Live Marketplace Arcade, Hasbro released a really cool shell, where you will find yourself in a game room.  On the game wall, you'll find these and other classic Hasbro games, first available as trials and unlockable as Arcade games (800 marketplace points, or roughly $10 each).

Sure, many of you may have a few of these in a game closet - but do you still have all of the pieces?  If you are playing scrabble, do you really want to pull all of the tiles out and make sure that they are stirred and facing down?  And does everyone do well at scoring the scrabble board?  Have you ever run out of score sheets for Yahtzee?

Family Game Night solves all of these problems -- and awards some Achievement points while you are at it (200 achievements per game title).  The first four games are released, a few more are already on the game wall to be delivered soon, but the game wall has conspicuously more open squares so that if Hasbro sees the market demand, we should hopefully continue to see more games added.

Our family has tried a few of them, so let me share our perspectives:

Yahtzee - this one is our favorite so far.  My four-year-old needs some help, but it is equally fun for my eight- and ten-year-olds, as well as my wife and I.  It is truly the classic game, without searching for a score pad.  And there are other variants of the game that include low scoring, wild card die, etc. Scrabble – another one that is a big crowd pleaser.  Plays mostly like the board game, though you don’t have to turn all the tiles over, and you don’t have to figure out how to score everything.

Battleship – is SAWEET!   You do have to make sure your opponent leaves the room while you place your boats, and vice versa.  And unlike the real game, you can’t cheat and move your boats mid-game as they start to get close to you. Connect Four – is well, Connect Four.  This one won’t get played much on date night with my wife, but since I also have younger children and it doesn’t make the clashing sound when you empty the tray, we’ll end up getting it.

There are other games that are not yet available (including Boggle and Sorry!), and as I mentioned earlier, Hasbro does not appear to be done yet.  There are lots of free spaces on the game wall.

This game/gameroom has a lot of replay value.  Of course, each game not only has its achievement points, but also, for every achievement that you earn, there is a piece of furniture that you unlock.  Since this is all framed in a game room shell, you’ll be decorating the room as trophies of the accomplishments you did.  The gameroom even has multiple themes, so no two players will have the same dominion.

There are a few things that I would like to be slightly different – so in case anyone from EA or Hasbro reads my blog (yeah, right), here are a few requests:

Yahtzee – you currently have to move all of the dice from the rolling tray to the top to score them.  So, even if you have a great first role and want to be done – you have to move each of them to the top.  My younger kids have accidentally rolled when they didn’t mean to when trying to finish before the 3rd roll.  Yahtzee only currently uses the X and A buttons.   Yo, Hasbro, the controller has two more buttons.  Could we please have one of them for “Accept/Score”?  Please?

Scrabble - The only weird gotcha is that you cannot see your own tiles except when it is your turn.  How about putting the other players’ racks on the side or something.  I miss being able to stare at them and try to figure out words while the other players are playing.  Having to wait can slow down the game, somewhat.

As you can see, these are minor tweaks – and as such, I would give the game a solid A that just needs a few minor touches (hint, hint) to be way awesome!   It is very cool to see these classic games being delivered in an electronic format, on a really big screen, and with some very cool variants and scoring benefits. 

And hey, when you can’t take your Xbox360 on road trips with you (like on an airplane), EA and Hasbro have made most of the same games available on a single card for the Nintendo DS – including multi-player across DS’s and their wireless connection.

My sincere thanks to Hasbro and EA for bringing these classic games, and their addictingly fun variants, to the 21st century and gaming consoles everywhere.

And to you kind folks reading this … as always, thanks for reading…

We are really excited to have recently launched 3 TechNet Virtual Labs (vLabs) on DPM 2007 SP1. 

Virtual Labs is a very cool offering where we’ve taken the same Hands-On Labs that you could try at Tech-Ed, IT Forum, Microsoft Management Summit or any other Microsoft conference – and we’ve hosted them on a monster virtualization server farm.  The result is that you can open your browser, start a lab, and your very own lab environment will spin up for about 3 hours.  Go through the student manual – or just play with the features that you want to learn about.  At the end of your time, the images reset (yes, there is a clock in the window).

Think of the uses:

(1) We often hear from SharePoint administrators that their peers who manage SQL Server or Exchange are using DPM, and they want to learn more about their workload.   Well, after you have checked out how your buddy is using it in production in your environment, then log on and see how it will work on your application.

(2) Microsoft partners – now, you can demonstrate DPM to your customers, without setting up machines or VMs.  Just log on and demo!

(3) For technical reviewers who haven’t evaluated what is new in Service Pack 1 for DPM, check out the webpage on the new features – and then try out the ones that are most interesting to you in this lab.

We’ve posted 4 virtual labs for you:

Technical Introduction to DPM 2007 SP1 – a good basic start, with protection and recovery of Exchange 2007 and SQL Server 2005

How to protect SQL Server with DPM 2007 SP1 – more focused on deeper scenarios, including some data migration from SQL 2005 to SQL 2008

How to protect SharePoint with DPM 2007 SP1 – here is your chance to see whole farm protection, with single item restore – nuff said!

How to protect Exchange with DPM 2007 SP1 – lets you protect whole storage groups, but shows how to restore SGs, DBs, and mailboxes/items in a supported way.

This is a great way to get started with DPM.   And if there are scenarios or other environments that you’d like learn more about, let me know.  Oh, and by the way, there are lots of other virtual labs on TechNet that you might enjoy as well.  (they aren’t as cool as DPM, obviously, but still good stuff)

As always, thanks for reading…

In my opinion, Crash is one of the less appreciated kid-gaming characters out there.  Sure, we've all heard of Sonic and Mario, but Crash the Bandicoot?   Why not ?!

Crash of the Titans is the first Crash title that I've played (though my boys have played others) and I think I look forward to this one almost as much as my son. 

Overview
In Crash of the Titans (CotT), you are the beloved Bandicoot, and your arch nemesis, the evil Neo Cortex has once again decided to wreak havok on your world.  He has taken control of numerous small creatures and mutated them into his sinister minion.  All of them are cartoonish and not really scary, but lots of fun to wallop on.  When you beat up a bad creature (or many plants), you get magic orbs called mojo which serve to automatically amp up your new abilities.  You can either breeze through the levels or thoroughly whomp on every plant and creature in sight - depending on the fun-loving bandicoot in your family.  Along with Crash for Player-1, you have "Carbon Crash" (duplicate) for Player-2.  So, player-2 doesn’t have to play a wimpy sidekick, nor an all powerful parent character that is unbalanced.  Which brings me to my happiest part of this game - Co-Op.

Very Innovative Co-Op
What makes the co-op in this really "innovative" (and you don’t get to say that often) is that one of the co-op modes (and default setting) is called "leap frog".  In this mode, every time that you jump and then land again, control switches from Player-1 to Player-2.  This can be lead to some chaotic battles when you are jumping and fighting - and both players have to be on their game the whole time.  

Of course, you can also switch to "backpack" mode where the majority of the time, both players can play at the same time, though other times, one player jumps in the others' backpack - usually for sliding or obstacle areas between battles.  This is especially helpful when one player is not as good on obstacles as the other.  The kid can get in Dad's backpack to get through the jumps and slides, and then both go back to playing again.  Or in my case, I jump in my son's backpack because after all of his Sonic games, he just has mad skills for some obstacle types so why not just let him do them (and it makes him feel good that he's doing it totally on his own).

How the Game plays
As you go through the game, you'll mostly beat up little bad guys.  But as you meet bigger monsters, you'll "jack" them -- as in "hijack".  As you beat on them, a dizzy star meter fills above their head.  If you stop when they are completely dizzy but before they explode into magical mojo, you can jack them, meaning that you jump on their shoulders and now control them.  Very handy for knocking through large obstacles and other key gaming events.   In fact, in bigger battles, it goes something like this:

1. Start by beating on the small bad guys that rush you first
2. Then, you and your co-player can team up to beat on one until it is dizzy
3. One of you then jack's that one.  Sure enough, more of the biggies are coming too
4. You who jacked the monster then whack on one of his friends until he is dizzy
5. Then, your co-player jacks that one
6. Now, you are both controlling biggies - so whack on the others.  And if you find a biggie monster that you like better than what you are currently riding, just whack it until it is just dizzy enough - and then jack over to it
7. Repeat as needed while Giggling and Whooping.

Recommendations and Other Thoughts
It is full of action and a really immersive world of beautiful graphics.  Though I must admit that Crash does not entirely fit my normal "ideal family game" in that you are walloping on bad guys the whole time - so for those that oppose even "Tom & Jerry" style violence, this one is out.  And it doesn't have a TV show or other medium outside of the games. 

On the plus side, there are other Crash titles, including those for original Xbox which does play on the Xbox 360 courtesy of compatibility mode.  And most notably, since Crash of the Titans is already about a year or so old, its sequel "Crash - Mind Over Mutants" is already released (which appears to have the same style).  So, after my son and I finish CotT, you can count on us getting CMoM and you'll hear about it here when we get started.

As always, thanks for reading...