Kevin Remde's IT Pro Weblog
Some of you may know that Microsoft's fiscal year, and therefore everything we plan and do for a year, starts July 1st. So this is "Q1" and "H1" of fiscal year "FY08" at our company, and on our team.
And you may also know that we plan and schedule our events and event content on a quarterly basis as well. Our TechNet Events are now in "Q1".
My first Q1 event is later this week, in Indianapolis, IN, so I've finally gotten around to building my TechNet Events "Skill Builder" resource page to hand out at my events, and to make available electronically on my blog HERE.
"When and where will YOU be, Kevin?"
This quarter I am presenting on the following dates and at these locations:
August 30, 2007 - Indianapolis
September 20, 2007 - Minneapolis
September 25, 2007 - Des Moines
September 27, 2007 - Omaha
"What are you guys covering this quarter?"
We're talking about Infrastructure management using Forefront, System Center (Ops Manager 2007, Configuration Manager 2007, and Essentials), as well as a discussion of Networking improvements in Windows Vista and Windows Server 2008.
Check out the TechNet Events site (www.technetevents.com) for the details, and for dates and locations of all of our events all around the U.S.
This is hilarious. It looks like one of the videos Microsoft creates internally as tongue-in-cheek fun, and then hopes will never get out on the Internet.
Props to my friend Chris "Geeking Microsoft" Haaker for finding this one.
Today the company released details on what the upcoming first Service Pack for Windows Vista will include. You can check out these details here at the Windows Vista TechCenter, and specifically here
Webcast Resources:
Here are some resources relating to the webcast I presented on August 31, 2007, entitled "Disaster Recovery in Exchange Server 2007"
I hope you find them useful.
Kevin
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Exchange Server Home Pagehttp://www.microsoft.com/exchange/default.mspx
Disaster Recoveryhttp://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/aa998848.aspx
Disaster Recovery Strategieshttp://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/bb123579.aspx
High Availability and Recovery (MSExchange.org)http://www.msexchange.org/tutorials/Configuring-Exchange-Server-2007-Preview-Chapter9-Disaster-Recovery-Exchange-Server-2007.html
Exchange Server Disaster Recovery Studies (blog)http://exchangeserverdisasterrecovery.blogspot.com/
Exchange Server Disaster Recovery Studies (blog) - Hard Drive Recovery
http://exchangeserverdisasterrecovery.blogspot.com/2007/07/exchange-server-hard-drive-recovery.html
TechNet Magazine Article: Data Protection and Disaster Recovery for Exchange Server 2007http://www.microsoft.com/technet/technetmag/issues/2007/07/Exchange/default.aspx
My TechNet Radio Podcast interview with Ayla Kol on Exchange 2007 Disaster Recoveryhttp://www.microsoft.com/technet/community/tnradio/archive/exchangequestions.mspx
This session’s resource page:
http://www.microsoft.com/technet/EXC-113
Live TechNet Events
http://www.technetevents.com
Microsoft Events page:
http://www.microsoft.com/events
Hi all!
Below are the questions I pulled out of the Q&A log from the TechNet Webcast: "Disaster Recovery in Exchange Server 2007", along with extended answers (especially to those I answered verbally).
Hope you find them useful!
PS: Here is my resource page for this webcast.
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Questions and Answers:
"Will you cover Standby continuous replication (SCR)?"
First off - let me apologize for my webcast answer. SCR is something I was not aware of yet, so I didn't catch on to what you were talking about.
Now.. after searching-it-out - I see that It's a new technology that is a part of Service Pack 1 (SP1) for Exchange Server 2007. It's a wicked-cool extension of LCR and CCR-type log shipping; but much more.
Rather than restating the details on SCR here, you can get them all from the very folks that created it - The Exchange Team - on their blog, "You had me at EHLO", at their post about it here: http://msexchangeteam.com/archive/2007/06/28/445538.aspx
"What is the best method of recovering a single email if the user deleted it from his mailbox?"
First, have them get it from Deleted Items. (grin)
If they've already cleared those, then they could still recover it if they are within the deleted item retention period
"Do you have to have to create a recovery storage group in order to restore exchange 2007?"
I didn't want to say this during the Q&A session on the live webcast... but... Weren't you paying attention?!
No.. you don't. As we talked about - you can restore storage groups to pretty much anywhere... as long as you've defined that mailbox database on a server, you can copy the files over or restore them there, and mount it. Truly portable databases.
"Can all of the roles reside on a single server?"
All but the Edge and any clustered Mailbox servers. In a cluster, the Mailbox Role needs to be the only one.. and at the Edge, the Edge Transport Role has to be alone as well. But otherwise you could have Mailbox, Client Access, Hub Transport, and Unified Messaging Roles all on the same server if you choose. Or mix and match. :)
Here's a good description of the Exchange Server 2007 Roles: http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/aa996031.aspx
"With 03 a workaround allowed the front end on the same server. Is there a similar workaround even if not supported? Is an Edge required?"
Edge isn't strictly required, though the functionality is a "very good idea" to have. There is a script that will enable the anti-spam capabilities on a Hub Transport server to take that part over.. but I really recommend either having some screening outside your firewall on premise, or through a hosted service like the Exchange Hosted Services I talked about.
Here are some resources relating to the webcast I presented on August 1st 2007, entitled "System Center Operations Manager 2007: Install and Management Pack Migration".
Microsoft System Center Homepagehttp://www.microsoft.com/systemcenter/
System Center Operations Manager 2007http://www.microsoft.com/systemcenter/opsmgr/default.mspx
System Center Operations Manager 2007 - Evaluationhttp://www.microsoft.com/systemcenter/opsmgr/evaluation/default.mspx
Product Overview (pdf file)http://download.microsoft.com/download/a/0/a/a0a7e90b-d20d-4052-8930-53edac404fe0/Whitepaper-System_Center_Operations_Manager_2007_Overview.pdf
System Center Capacity Planner 2007 Beta 1http://www.microsoft.com/systemcenter/sccp/default.mspx
System Center Operations Manager 2007 - Eval Downloadhttp://www.microsoft.com/technet/prodtechnol/eval/opsmgr/default.mspx
System Center Operations Manager 2007 - Pricing and Licensinghttp://www.microsoft.com/systemcenter/opsmgr/howtobuy/default.mspx
System Center Operations Manager 2007 - TechCenter http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/opsmgr/default.aspx
Operations Manager 2007 Operations Guide
Operations Manager 2007 Design Guide
TechNet Virtual Labs - System Center
http://www.microsoft.com/technet/traincert/virtuallab/systemcenter.mspx
http://www.microsoft.com/technet/MGT-203
Microsoft TechNethttp://www.microsoft.com/technet
Got an e-mail today on my personal Windows Live Hotmail account. It was an invitation to the Windows Live Messenger Cafe.
Oddly (and sadly, or even amusingly.. take your pick) enough, it actually didn't arrive in my inbox. It was in junk e-mail. [ insert *Rim-Shot* sound effect here ]
It is a rather cute site, though.. promoting various social networking options you have under Windows Live. That's cool.
But.. when you mouse-over the face of the woman at the counter... I dunno. Her smile kinda creeps me out. And the fake neon light seems to have a short.. it's flickering.
"What's Microsoft BOB? Did I miss an e-mail?"
No... it's not a new product. And BOB is not an acronym for anything (at least not officially). Those of you who have been computing for awhile may remember back in '95 our product called "Microsoft BOB", which was an attempt to put a sort of friendly, easy navigation layer on top of Windows 95. It was supposed to make it easy for my mother-in-law to use the computer. But it was an idea WAY ahead of its time (my mother-in-law wouldn't have a computer for another 8 years), and it was a dismal failure. Even more dismal than Windows ME.
This Windows Live Messenger Cafe page, with all the little items you can click on, was reminiscent of that interface.
...and I'm still shaking.
Update:
Got an e-mail from another MS employee who informed me that BOB was originally written as a shell for Windows 3.1. I thought for sure it was 95.. but this guy would know.
A very cool offer came to my inbox from an internal source about an offer that Verio is promoting. I verified that it was indeed "bloggable" and open to the public.
Yes.. you get a free website. And you can use it until 2010.
"What's the catch?"
The catch is that you're using hosted Microsoft technologies. The offer is geared towards developers and designers, and is specifically in order to promote Microsoft-based hosting solutions including MS Expression, Visual Studio, and Silverlight.
"The Free hosting program – based on IIS 6 and Windows Server 2003 – will run through January 2010. No credit card is required."
"Wow! Where do I go to sign-up?"
This is not an online offer. In fact, except for this blog post, I don't know that you'll find news about this anywhere else on the web (until other people blog about it, that is.)
You need to call Verio for this. 1-800-932-7483.
And here is the "Contact Verio" page, in case you need another way to reach them.
...and a great example of Silverlight in action, too.
CHECK IT OUT