TechNet Virtual Labs

“Ever wanted to test Microsoft's newest software in a sandbox environment? Wouldn't it be great to be able to test new servers immediately, without formatting hard drives or dedicating one or more computers to the project? Now you can, with the TechNet Virtual Labs.”

For those of you not already aware of these, I wanted to bring them to your attention.  And for you who have used them in the past, you might want to know that the address to get to them has changed.  It is now http://www.microsoft.com/technet/virtuallab.

We have self-paced, fully installed labs in each of these eight areas:

• Security
• Windows Server 2003
• Exchange
• SQL Server
• Microsoft Office SharePoint Portal Server
• Microsoft Systems Management Server (SMS) 2003
• ISA
• Microsoft Live Communications Server 2005
• Windows Rights Management Services

Hmm… I haven’t worked with LCS yet and don’t know much about it.  I’m gonna have to check that one out, too.

Here is a “best of” Q&A from our webcast we did today on an overview of DNS.  This was part 8 of the 12 part Windows Server 2003 Administration series I delivered earlier this year. 

BIG THANKS to Mr. Bryan von Axelson for helping out as our sole Q&A person today.  As you see below, he did a great job of finding answers to some tough questions.

Additional resources for this session are also available HERE.

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“Mr Remde did the win 2003 server series few months ago, is this the same series or material??”

Same part #8 session, only longer!  I was unable to get through the 3^rd demo when I only had an hour for that content last time.  This time you got the full session in all of its glory!

“Can you refer me to the past webcasts on shadow copy and ASR?”

Yes indeed.   http://www.microsoft.com/technet/community/events/windows2003srv/tnt4-04-links-7.mspx

“Will Kevin discuss the scenarios where reverse lookup zones are required?”

We didn’t really address that in the session, but here is some information on DNS Reverse Lookup that might help - http://www.microsoft.com/technet/prodtechnol/windowsserver2003/library/ServerHelp/edf68cca-86f1-4b89-8e44-79f768963e95.mspx

“So does it do the same thing without recursion checked or does it directly go to the root servers?”

Without recursion checked it will NOT go to the root servers.  It will also not use any configured forwarders.  

Here’s a really good troubleshooting document:
http://www.microsoft.com/technet/prodtechnol/windowsserver2003/library/ServerHelp/e42d510a-443d-4c31-96da-f66a67a89d86.mspx

“Why is the _msdcs zone delegated to the same DNS server in Server 2003?”

This Microsoft-specific sub-domain allows location of domain controllers that have Windows Server 2003–specific roles in the domain, as well as the location by globally unique identifier (GUID) when a domain has been renamed. Check out - http://www.microsoft.com/technet/prodtechnol/windowsserver2003/library/DepKit/08eb226b-0192-4c05-b919-c9311bafae35.mspx

“Poll question states: ‘With recursion enabled, where does your local DNS server first look when it receives a query for an external URL?’. If recursion is not enabled will it go to the local cache or Internet root servers first?”

No - DNS process recursion can be enabled or disabled. - This means the processes of trying to satisfy a query is repeated until a solution is found. This is enabled by default causing DNS servers to contact other servers to resolve queries.  If recursion is disabled, it will not look to the root servers or any external server or forwarder.  It will only return results for what it knows and is locally authoritative for.  

“I understand the functionality of the zone, but what doesn't make sense is that if you look under the contoso.com zone, you see that the _msdcs has been delegated, but the delegation is to a zone that exists on the same server, which is viewable just about the contoso.com zone in the GUI. Why is that done?”

This Microsoft-specific subdomain allows location of domain controllers that have Windows Server 2003–specific roles in the domain, as well as the location by globally unique identifier (GUID) when a domain has been renamed. - http://www.microsoft.com/technet/prodtechnol/windowsserver2003/library/DepKit/08eb226b-0192-4c05-b919-c9311bafae35.mspx

“Where was that datacenter photo taken! I've never seen such a thick mesh of cat5!!!”

Love it!

“Is there anyway to get the SOA serial number to follow the more conventional YYYYMMDDNN Year,Month,Day,Version numbering?”

I am not finding anything on making it more conventional - http://www.microsoft.com/technet/prodtechnol/windowsserver2003/library/Operations/f800ced0-617e-4a20-a00e-9d44a4fad1ca.mspx

“Will secure updates work with non-windows workstation?”

Depends on the settings in the Access Control List (ACL).  See http://www.microsoft.com/technet/prodtechnol/windowsserver2003/library/DepKit/c4291308-ab72-49bb-88f6-4aa56fa21661.mspx

“If getting AD and DNS communication errors 4004 and 4015 on a reverse lookup zone, Ad is functioning correctly, can you force the removal of the zone in AD?”

I wasn’t able to find the answer to this.  I did see several people online have asked the same question.  If you are reading this and you’re the person who asked this, please email me directly, and I’ll see what more I can find for you.  Or if someone else reading this wants to share their solution for this, please add a comment!

“When setting up a split DNS (local and Internet for the same name space), you set up the local DNS to forward but how do you answer ‘Do not use recursion for this domain’?”

I don’t think I understand this question.  You’re setting up an internal DNS Server for your AD domain, maybe corp.contoso.com, where contoso.com is an externally known and managed DNS namespace.  So internally on your DNS server you probably have it set up with a forwarder to some external DNS Server.  Recursion shouldn’t be a problem, because queries that are internal will be resolved right away.  All others will be sent to the forwarded DNS Server for that server to be responsible for finding an answer.

If I don’t get it, please comment or email me.

Cheers!

If you haven’t seen this yet, you really need to.  It’s fantastic! 

And if you don’t speak Korean, it’s okay.  The text of the video is printed below the video.

Resource Page for

TechNet Webcast: Successfully Implementing a Complex Active Directory Design (Level 200)

Here are some resources relating to the TechNet webcast topic presented on November 21, 2005.  I hope you find them useful.

Kevin

Planning and Implementing Federated Forests in Windows Server2003

http://www.microsoft.com/technet/prodtechnol/windowsserver2003/technologies/activedirectory/fedffin2.mspx

Service Administrator Scopt of Authority

http://www.microsoft.com/technet/prodtechnol/windowsserver2003/library/DepKit/2f956712-68b6-48de-8d2f-d2e22dffbb44.mspx

Autonomy vs. Isolation

http://www.microsoft.com/technet/prodtechnol/windowsserver2003/library/DepKit/e638db7d-ae87-45b2-beba-ec5815876ca2.mspx

Determining the Number of Forests Required

http://www.microsoft.com/technet/prodtechnol/windowsserver2003/library/DepKit/0c1cfacb-ff12-466f-81c6-9d29c7c2c427.mspx

Forest Design Models

http://www.microsoft.com/technet/prodtechnol/windowsserver2003/library/DepKit/0e40afb5-4504-4990-b579-052abe6bc599.mspx

Mapping Design Requirements to Forest Design Models

http://www.microsoft.com/technet/prodtechnol/windowsserver2003/library/DepKit/056cc631-3c06-4f2a-842c-2a8dc49078ff.mspx

http://www.microsoft.com/technet/prodtechnol/windowsserver2003/library/DepKit/4c9a255a-80bd-4fa5-bcc3-7019ab387faf.mspx

Official Series Content Resource Page
http://www.microsoft.com/events/series/adaug.mspx

Free Windows Server 2003 Virtual Labs:
http://www.microsoft.com/technet/traincert/virtuallab/windowsserver2003.mspx 

Windows Server 2003 Evaluation kit:
http://www.microsoft.com/windowsserver2003/evaluation/trial/evalkit.mspx 

Windows Server 2003 Training and Events:
http://www.microsoft.com/windowsserver2003/techinfo/training/default.mspx

SQL Server 2005 Tidbit 035

Credit for this one goes to Chris Avis, who had this asked of him in an event recently…

“What is the max number of filegroups supported as part of a single database?”

Well… it’s a nice big binary number: 111111111111111 (or 32,767 for you decimal lovers). 

The answer is found here.

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Got an IT question?  Give me a comment, or contact me.

SQL Server 2005 Tidbit 036

Credit for this one goes to Chris Avis, who had this asked of him in an event recently…

“With ‘instant file initialization’, what is it really doing?”

Here’s a document that describes it well.

From the document:

In SQL Server 2005, data files can be initialized instantaneously. This allows for fast execution of the previously mentioned file operations. Instant file initialization reclaims used disk space without filling that space with zeros. Instead, disk content is overwritten as new data is written to the files. Log files cannot be initialized instantaneously.

Interestingly – Instant File Initialization requires that the SQL Server 2005 be running on either Windows XP or Windows Server 2003.

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Got an IT question?  Give me a comment, or contact me.

 Yep… I haven’t been blogging much lately.  But I’m still here.

“What’s up, Kevin?”

Well… last weekend after celebrating Thanksgiving here with my in-laws, I and the whole family flew out to San Francisco to celebrate my brother Carl’s wedding.  He married a lovely woman (Danielle) and we couldn’t be more happy for the two of them.  The picture above is me with my wife and kids, along with Carl and Danielle.  And we all enjoyed the long weekend doing the usual touristy things around San Francisco.

See?

And this week I’m currently in Des Moines doing a TechNet Event for the folks here.

So that answers one of your questions.  The other question is:

“Kevin… what’s going on with the graphics on your blog?  The pictures are not showing up!”

Yeah.. well… the site I'm using to host my images has had some difficulties lately.  So please be patient… hopefully the pictures will be back soon.  OR I’ll have to find a different location for the photos.  (I’d use MSN Spaces, but I don’t like the manual upload and then linking to them in the blog post.  I really LOVE how BlogJet just automatically connects to an FTP server and uploads them for me.)