TechNet Blogs

Ambiguous URLs and their effect on Exchange 2010 to Exchange 2013 Migrations

The Exchange Team — Thu, 23 May 2013 18:31:00 GMT

With the recent releases of Exchange Server 2013 RTM CU1, Exchange 2013 sizing guidance, Exchange 2013 Server Role Requirements Calculator, and the updated Exchange 2013 Deployment Asistant, on-premises customers now have the tools you need to begin designing and performing migrations to Exchange Server 2013. Many of you have introduced Exchange 2013 RTM CU1 into your test environments alongside Exchange 2010 SP3 and/or Exchange 2007 SP3 RU10, and are readying yourselves for the production migrations.

There's one particular Exchange 2010 design choice some customers made that could throw a monkey wrench into your upgrade plans to Exchange 2013, and we want to walk you through how to mitigate it so you can move forward. If you're still in the design or deployment phase of Exchange Server 2010, we recommend you continue reading this article so you can make some intelligent design choices which will benefit you when you migrate to Exchange 2013 or later.

What is the situation we need to look for?

In Exchange 2010, all Outlook clients in the most typical configurations will utilize MAPI/RPC or Outlook Anywhere (RPC over HTTPS) connections to a Client Access Server. The MAPI/RPC clients connect to the CAS Array Object FQDN (also known as the RPC endpoint) for Mailbox access and the HTTPS based clients connect to the Outlook Anywhere hostname (also known as the RPC proxy endpoint) for all Mailbox and Public Folder access. In addition to these primary connections, other HTTPS based workloads such as EAS, ECP, OAB, and EWS may be sharing the same FQDN as Outlook Anywhere. In some environments you may also be sharing the same FQDN with POP/IMAP based clients and using it as an SMTP endpoint for internal mail submissions.

In Exchange 2010, the recommendation was to utilize split DNS and ensure that the CAS Array Object FQDN was only resolvable via DNS by internal clients. External clients should never be able to resolve the CAS Array Object FQDN. This was covered previously in item #4 of Demystifying the CAS Array Object - Part 2. If you put those two design rules together you come to the conclusion your ClientAccessArray FQDN used by the mailbox database RpcClientAccessServer property should have been an internal-only unique FQDN not utilized by any workload besides MAPI/RPC clients.

Take the following chart as an example of what a suggested configuration in a split DNS configuration would have looked like.

FQDN	Used By	Internal DNS resolves to	External DNS resolves to
mail.contoso.com	All HTTPS Workloads	Internal Load Balancer IP	Perimeter Network Device
outlook.contoso.com	MAPI/RPC Workloads	Internal Load Balancer IP	N/A

If your do not utilize split DNS, then a suggested configuration may have been.

FQDN	Used By	DNS resolves to
mail.contoso.com	External HTTPS Workloads	Perimeter Network Device
mail-int.contoso.com	Internal HTTPS Workloads	Internal Load Balancer IP
outlook.contoso.com	Internal MAPI/RPC Workloads	Internal Load Balancer IP

In speaking with our Premier Field Engineers and MCS consultants, we learned that some of our customers did not choose to use a unique ClientAccessArray FQDN. This design choice may manifest itself in one of two ways. The MAPI/RPC and HTTPS workloads may both utilize the mail.contoso.com FQDN internally and externally, or a unique external FQDN of mail.contoso.com is used while internal MAPI/RPC and HTTPS workloads share mail-int.contoso.com. The shared FQDN in either situation is ambiguous because we can't look at it and immediately understand the workload type that's using it. Perhaps we were not clear enough in our original guidance, or customers felt fewer names would help reduce overall design complexity since everything appeared to work with this configuration.

Take a look at the figure below and the FQDNs in use for some of the different workloads. Shown are EWS, ECP, OWA, CAS Array Object, and Outlook Anywhere External Hostname. The yellow arrow specifically points out the CAS Array Object, the value used as the RpcClientAccessServer for Exchange 2010 mailbox databases, and seen in the Server field of an Outlook profile for an Exchange 2010 mailbox.

An Exchange 2010 deployment with a single ambiguous URL for all workloads.

Let us pause for a moment to visualize what we have talked about so far. If we were to compare an Exchange 2010 environment using ambiguous URLs to one not using ambiguous URLs, it would look like the following diagrams. Notice the first diagram below uses the same FQDN for Outlook MAPI/RPC based traffic and HTTPS based traffic.

If we were to then look at an environment not utilizing ambiguous URLs, we see the clients utilize unique FQDNs for MAPI/RPC based traffic and HTTPS based traffic. In addition, the FQDN utilized for MAPI/RPC based traffic is only resolvable via internal DNS.

If your environment does not look like the one above using ambiguous URLs, then you can go hit the coffee shop for a while or play some XBOX 360. Tell your boss we gave the okay. If your environment does look similar to the first example using ambiguous URLs or you are in the planning stages for Exchange 2010, then please read on as we need you to perform some extra steps when migrating to Exchange 2013.

So what’s the big deal? It is functional this way isn’t it?

While this may be working for you today, it certainly will not work tomorrow if you migrate to Exchange 2013. In this scenario where both the MAPI/RPC and HTTP workloads are using the same FQDN you cannot successfully move the FQDN to CAS 2013 without breaking your MAPI/RPC client connectivity entirely. I repeat, your MAPI/RPC clients will start failing to connect via MAPI/RPC once their DNS cache expires after the shared FQDN is moved to CAS 2013. The MAPI/RPC clients will fail to connect because CAS 2013 does not know how to handle direct MAPI/RPC connections as all Windows based Outlook clients utilize MAPI over a RPC over HTTPS connection in Exchange 2013. There is a chance your Outlook clients may successfully fall back to HTTPS only if Outlook Anywhere is currently enabled for Exchange 2010 when the failure to connect via MAPI/RPC takes place, but this article will help with the following.

Ensure you are in full control of what will take place
Ensure you are in full control of when #1 takes place
Ensure you are in a supported server + client configuration
Ensure environments with Outlook Anywhere disabled for Exchange 2010 know their path forward
Help remove the possibility of any clients not automatically falling back to HTTPS
Remove the potentially long delay when Outlook does fail to via MAPI/RPC even though it can resolve the MAPI/RPC URL and then falls back to HTTPS

Shoot… this looks like us. What should we do immediately?

First off, if you are still in the planning stages of Exchange 2010 you need to take our warning to heart and immediately change your design to use a specific internal-only FQDN for MAPI/RPC clients. If you are in the middle of a 2010 deployment using an Ambiguous URL I recommend you change your ClientAccessArray FQDN to a unique name and update the mailbox database RpcClientAccessServer values on all Exchange 2010 mailbox databases accordingly. Fixing this item mid-migration to Exchange 2010 or even in your fully migrated environment will ensure any newly created or manually repaired Outlook profiles are protected, but it will not automatically fix existing Outlook clients with the old value in the server field.

While not necessary as long as you go through our mitigation steps below, any existing Outlook profiles could be manually repaired to reflect the new value. If you are curious why a manual repair is necessary you can refer to items #5 and #6 in Demystifying the CAS Array Object - Part 2. Again, forcing this update is not necessary if you follow our mitigation steps later in this article. However, if you were to choose to update some specific Outlook profiles we suggest you perform those steps in your test environment first to make sure you have the process down correctly.

Additionally as we previously discussed in item #3 of Demystifying the CAS Array Object – Part 1, the ClientAccessArray FQDN is not needed in your SSL certificate as it is not being used for HTTPS based traffic. Because of this, the only thing you would need to do is create a new internal DNS record, update your ClientAccessArray FQDN, and finally update your Exchange 2010 Mailbox Database RpcClientAccessServer values. It bears repeating that you do not have to get a new SSL certificate only to fix an Ambiguous URL situation.

Ok, fixed that… now what about the clients we don’t want to repair manually?

Our suggestion is to implement Outlook Anywhere internally for all users prior to introducing Exchange Server 2013 to the environment.

Many of our customers have already moved to Outlook Anywhere internally for all Windows Outlook clients. In fact, those of you reading this with OA in use internally are good to proceed to the coffee shop or go play XBOX 360 with the other folks if you’d like to.

Now for the rest of you… sit a little closer. Go ahead and fill in, there are plenty of seats in the front row like usual.

In Exchange Server 2013 all Windows Outlook clients operate in Outlook Anywhere mode internally. By following these mitigation steps you will be one step ahead of where you will end up after your migration to Exchange Server 2013 anyways.

If you do not have Outlook Anywhere enabled at all in your environment, please see Enable Outlook Anywhere on TechNet for steps on how to enable it in Exchange 2010. If your company does not wish to provide external access for Outlook Anywhere that is ok. By simply enabling Outlook Anywhere you will not be providing remote access unless you also publish the /rpc virtual directory to the Internet.

It is suggested customers, especially very large ones, consider enabling Kerberos authentication to avoid any potential performance issues you may run into utilizing the default NTLM authentication. Information on how to configure Kerberos Authentication can be found here on TechNet for Exchange Server 2010 and the steps for Exchange Server 2013 are similar which we will have documentation for in the near future. However, please keep in mind Kerberos authentication with Outlook Anywhere is only supported with Windows Vista or later.

By default with Outlook Anywhere enabled in the environment your clients prefer RPC/TCP connections when on Fast Networks as seen below.

The trick we use to force Outlook Anywhere to also be used internally is via Autodiscover. Using Autodiscover we can make Windows Outlook clients prefer RPC/HTTPS on both Fast and Slow networks as seen here.

The method used to make clients always prefer HTTPS is configuring the OutlookProviderFlags option via the Set-OutlookProvider cmdlet. The following commands are executed from the Exchange 2010 Management Shell.

Set-OutlookProvider EXPR -OutlookProviderFlags:ServerExclusiveConnect

Set-OutlookProvider EXCH -OutlookProviderFlags:ServerExclusiveConnect

If for any reason you need to put the configuration back to its default settings, issue the following commands and clients will no longer prefer HTTP on Fast Networks.

Set-OutlookProvider EXPR -OutlookProviderFlags:None

Set-OutlookProvider EXCH -OutlookProviderFlags:None

You can prepare to introduce Exchange Server 2013 to your environment once all of your Windows Outlook clients are preferring HTTP on both fast and slow networks and are connecting through mail.contoso.com for RPC over HTTPS connections.

There are a small number of things we would like to call out as you plan this migration to enable Outlook Anywhere for all internal clients.

First, your front end infrastructure (CAS 2013, Load Balancer, etc…) must ready to immediately handle the full production load of Windows Outlook clients when you re-point the mail.contoso.com FQDN in DNS.

Second, if your Exchange 2010 Client Access Servers were not scaled for 100% Outlook Anywhere connections then performance should be monitored when OA is enabled and all clients are moved from MAPI/RPC based to HTTPS based workloads. You should be ready to scale out your CAS 2010 infrastructure if necessary to mitigate any possible performance issues.

Lastly, Windows Outlook clients older than Outlook 2007 are not supported going through CAS 2013 even if their mailbox is on an older Exchange version. All Windows Outlook clients going through CAS 2013 have to be at least the minimum versions supported by Exchange 2013. Any unsupported clients, such as Outlook 2003, do not support Autodiscover and would have to be manually with a new MAPI/RPC specific endpoint to assure they continue communicating with Exchange 2010 until the client can be updated and the mailbox migrated to Exchange 2013.

Note: The easiest way to confirm what major/minor version of Outlook you have is to look at the version of OUTLOOK.EXE and EMSMDB32.DLL via Windows Explorer or to run an inventory report through Microsoft System Center Configuration Manager or similar software. The minimum version numbers Exchange Server 2013 supports for on-premises deployments are provided below.

Outlook 2007: 12.0.6665.5000 (SP3 + the November 2012 Public Update or any later PU)
Outlook 2010: 14.0.6126.5000 (SP1 + the November 2012 Public Update or any later PU)
Outlook 2013: 15.0.4420.1017 (RTM or later)

If we were to visualize the mitigation steps from start to end we need to compare it between phases.

First, the upper area of the below diagram depicts the start state of the environment with internal Windows Outlook clients utilizing MAPI/RPC and ambiguous URLs for their HTTPS based workloads. The lower area of the diagram depicts the same environment, but we have now forced Outlook Anywhere to be used by internal Windows Outlook clients. This change has forced all mailbox and public folder access traffic over HTTPS through the mail.contoso.com Outlook Anywhere FQDN.

We now have all Windows Outlook clients utilizing Outlook Anywhere internally by levering Autodiscover to force the preference of HTTPS. Now that all Windows Outlook traffic is routed through mail.contoso.com via HTTPS, the ambiguous URL problem has been mitigated. However, you may have other applications integrating with Exchange whom are unable to utilize Outlook Anywhere and/or Autodiscover. These applications will also be affected if you were to update the mail.contoso.com DNS entry to point at Exchange 2013. Before moving onto the second step it may be most efficient to add a HOSTS file entry on the servers hosting these external applications to force resolution of mail.contoso.com to the Layer-7 Load Balancer used by Exchange 2010. This should allow you to temporarily continue routing external application traffic that needs to talk to only Exchange 2010 via MAPI/RPC while you work on updating the applications to be Outlook Anywhere compatible, which they will need to be before they can ever connect to Exchange 2013.

Having dealt with both the Windows Outlook clients and third-party applications whom cannot utilize Outlook Anywhere, we can now move onto the second step. The second step is executed when you are ready to introduce Exchange 2013 to the environment.

The below diagram starts by showing where we finished after executing step one. The lower area of the below diagram shows that we have updated DNS to point the mail.contoso.com entry to the new IP of the new Exchange 2013 load balancer configuration. Because of the HOSTS entry we made our application server continues talking to the old Layer-7 load balancer for its MAPI over RPC/TCP connections. Exchange 2013 CAS will now receive all client traffic and then we proxy traffic for users still on Exchange 2010 back to the Exchange 2010 CAS infrastructure. The redundant CAS was removed from the diagram to simplify the view and simply show traffic flow.

In summary, we hope those of you in this unique configuration will be able to smoothly migrate from Exchange 2010 to Exchange 2013 now that you have these mitigation steps. Some of you may identify other potential methods to use and wonder why we are offering only a single mitigation approach. There were many methods investigated, but this mitigation approach came back every time as the most straightforward method to implement, maintain, and support. Given the potential complexity of this change we invite you to ask follow-up questions at the follow Exchange Server Forum where we can often better interact with you than the comments format allows.

Exchange Server Forum: Exchange Server 2013 – Setup, Deployment, Updates, and Migration

Brian Day
Senior Program Manager
Exchange Customer Experience

May 23, 2013 News Thursday: General Availability of AMQP Support in Windows Azure and More Server and Tools News...

stbblogger — Thu, 23 May 2013 18:30:13 GMT

AMQP 1.0 Support in Windows Azure Service Bus Reaches General Availability

Microsoft demonstrated its commitment to an open, interoperable ecosystem for AMQP, a secure, reliable, and open binary protocol for business messaging, with the transition of AMQP 1.0 support in Windows Azure Service Bus from Preview to General Availability.

...(read more)

Deploying Remote BLOB Storage with SQL Server 2012 AlwaysOn Availability Groups

Bill Baer (Microsoft) — Thu, 23 May 2013 18:24:10 GMT

AlwaysOn Availability Groups can provide a high-availability and disaster recovery solution for SQL Server Remote Blob Store (RBS) BLOB objects (blobs). AlwaysOn Availability Groups protects any RBS metadata and schemas stored in an availability database by replicating them to the secondary replicas. AlwaysOn Availability Groups Overview The AlwaysOn Availability Groups feature is a high-availability and disaster-recovery solution that provides an enterprise-level alternative to database mirroring...(read more)

Why a grand bargain with Google could be a raw deal for consumers

Jake Siegel — Thu, 23 May 2013 18:21:00 GMT

"If Google knows more about your life than your significant other, your family, or your friends, what does that say? Google is a big business and has to make money – off of you. Do you trust Google to do so with your best interests at heart?"

Stefan Weitz, senior director at Bing, raised those questions on Wednesday over at the Bing blog. Last week, Weitz and his team watched the Google I/O conference stream. What the conference made clear, he wrote, was that underneath all the technophilia, Google's main focus is on monetizing its users' data.

The folks at Bing aren't the only ones to take notice. As Weitz pointed out, a research psychologist named Robert Epstein published an article in TIME magazine a few weeks ago that examined the difference between what consumers think Google does versus what Google actually does.

“About a billion people use Google’s search engine each month to find everything from plastic hangers to plastic surgeons, and, as far as the consumer is concerned, Google is an information company, pure and simple,” Epstein wrote. “But from Google’s perspective – and I don’t mean Google’s PR department, I mean Google’s management – Google is an advertising company.”

As Epstein explained, “the immediate problem is that the transaction is inherently deceitful. The consumer perceives the transaction at one level, Google at another.”

There's nothing startling about selling online ads to generate revenue, Weitz said. Bing does it, too. "But we’ve tried to be transparent about the data we share and use, and because we are not solely an advertising-driven company, we have the leeway to make product choices that serve consumers first."

Head over to the Bing blog for a deeper dive into what all a "grand bargain" with Google entails.

Jake Siegel
Microsoft News Center Staff

Hyper-V Recovery Manager on Windows Azure

Erik Laurhammer — Thu, 23 May 2013 18:10:00 GMT

Jeg har en god nyhet og en dårlig nyhet. Den gode er at Hyper-V Recovery Manager nå er tilgjengelig i en «preview». Den dårlige er at den ikke er tilgjengelig for oss i Norge enda. Enn så lenge må vi sikle på produktet og lese hva andre finner ut og synes.

Kort fortalt vil Hyper-V Recovery Manager leve i Azure. Herfra vil den fra en «tredje lokasjon» kunne administrere og orkestrere Hyper-V Replica (inkludert ikke planlagt failover, planlagt failover og test av failover). Er det ikke flott?

Litt info fra Microsoft: http://www.windowsazure.com/en-us/home/features/recovery-services/

Litt detaljer fra TechRepublic: http://www.techrepublic.com/blog/datacenter/hyper-v-recovery-manager-on-windows-azure-game-changer-in-dr-architecture/6186

Microsoft recently made available a preview service, Hyper-V Recovery Manager (HVRM). This is a hybrid service that leverages the high ground of the Azure public cloud in a smart way. HRVM manages the replication of your primary data center to your disaster recovery (DR) site. HVRM is a service for Windows Azure customers that appears in the Windows Azure Customer Portal after you sign up for the service. From the portal, you can perform emergency, on-demand, and test failovers of your infrastructure to the DR site. You can achieve excellent DR readiness protecting virtual machine (VM) workloads at a fraction of the cost compared to traditional approaches.

New generation Kinect for Windows sensor is coming next year

Steve Clarke (Microsoft News Center) — Thu, 23 May 2013 18:02:00 GMT

Kinect for Xbox One made a big splash earlier this week as part of the launch of Xbox One. On Thursday Microsoft announced it will also deliver a new generation Kinect for Windows sensor next year. It’s part of the company’s commitment to equipping businesses and organizations with the latest natural technology from Microsoft so they, in turn, can develop and deploy touch-free applications for their businesses and customers. A new Kinect for Windows sensor and software development kit (SDK) are core to that commitment.

The new Kinect for Xbox One sensor and the new Kinect for Windows sensor are being built on a shared set of technologies. Similar to the way the Kinect for Xbox One sensor will help revolutionize gaming and entertainment, the new Kinect for Windows sensor will revolutionize computing experiences. In a nutshell, the advanced precision and intuitive responsiveness that the new platform provides will speed the development of voice and gesture experiences on computers.

Key capabilities of the new Kinect sensor include higher fidelity, expanded field of view, improved skeletal tracking, and new active infrared.

Read the blog post for more on each of these areas, and stay tuned – at BUILD 2013 in June, Microsoft will share details about how developers and designers can prepare to adopt these new technologies so their apps and experiences are ready for general availability next year.

Steve Clarke
Microsoft News Center Staff

Microsoft brings Windows Azure and the cloud to Asia

Lukas Velush — Thu, 23 May 2013 17:49:00 GMT

Satya Nadella announced Wednesday that Microsoft is expanding its cloud presence in Asia in a big way.

“As the worldwide demand for cloud computing continues to grow, so does Windows Azure,” Nadella, president of Microsoft’s Server and Tools Business, says in a blog post on the Official Microsoft Blog. “Microsoft is the only at-scale global public cloud provider to deliver a hybrid cloud advantage and we’re excited to announce plans to invest hundreds of millions of dollars to expand the Windows Azure footprint in Asia – specifically in China, Japan and Australia.”

...(read more)

So good. Must share.

Kevin Remde — Thu, 23 May 2013 17:42:16 GMT

As a Microsoft employee and as a $MSFT stockholder, I have to confess that I was THRILLED last night when I saw this commercial for the first time on TV…

So, if you were thinking of buying that iPad..you should think again and get a real Windows 8 tablet!

(Here’s the one in the commercial, if you’re interested: ASUS VivoTab Smart.)

Further. Forward. Faster. A story of BI, BIG Data and Application Infrastructure

Chris Di Lullo — Thu, 23 May 2013 17:41:00 GMT

Learn about IT architectural best practices and business value of Microsoft-related products and technologies.

This complimentary forum will fuel your thinking as an IT Leader and IT architect, support networking with peers and industry leaders, and help you learn and share best practices and experiences in an informal environment.

We will have two separate tracks which will cover Big Data and BI and Application Platform and the Cloud. We ask you to have at least one IT architect from your team at each track.

The sessions will be presented by Microsoft experts in each respective area. We know you will get great value from the discussions!

Mississauga - May 30th

Montreal - June 4th


8:30 – 9:00 am	Breakfast
9:00 – 10:00 am	Evolving the Data Center: Transforming Data into Insight Join us for highlights of Microsoft’s next wave of technologies for delivering comprehensive solutions that help meet the needs of your most mission critical systems‚ and enable innovative solutions across on-premises and cloud environments. This session will address some of the tough issues facing organizations today such as managing the explosion of unstructured data‚ and empowering end-users to gain meaningful insights from the abundance of externally and internally available data.
10:00 – 10:15 am	Break
	Track 1 BI and Big Data	Track 2 Application Platform and the Cloud
10:15 – 11:15 am	Microsoft Business Intelligence. What’s new? Business Analytics represents an entire ecosystem for organisational decision making. From enabling the use of any data, of any size, virtually anywhere, and connecting to the world's data, through to generating valuable insights, wherever you are. In this presentation we will demonstrate how you can easily build a cube and accelerate the development process with the new tabular models in SQL Server Data Tools (SSDT, Formerly BIDS). We will also provide an overview of the newest features in SSRS (Data Alerts and PowerView for ad-hoc reporting) and Excel 2013 (Data Explorer, PowerPivot Enhancements and PowerView)	Building SQL Server Private Cloud: Value of Server Consolidation Most organisations are looking to reduce their IT costs while getting more flexibility and better availability. Join us to learn how you can take advantage of your current solutions to help reduce long term licensing costs, simplify patch and upgrades, and help reduce your environmental footprint
11:15 – 12:15 pm	Fast Forward with BIG Data and SQL Server 2012 Parallel Data Warehouse. Big Data is a concept discussed in many organisations and all over the web. Join us to understand how Microsoft can simplify your Big Data approach and see the benefits of a Big Data strategy for your company. We also introduce new Microsoft BIG Data solution: SQL Server 2012 Parallel Data Warehouse (PDW)—the next generation of the scalable, massively parallel processing (MPP) data warehouse appliance.	Extending Your Apps and Infrastructure Into the Cloud You’re in charge of reconciling the on-premise datacenter with the cloud and you have to execute flawlessly. What should go in the cloud? What should stay on premise? How do you decide? Once you’ve made your decision, how do you actually make it happen? After all, enterprise apps are complex and often depend on services, directories, and databases which are located on premise. Mission critical hardware and services in your datacenter already have sophisticated tools and processes in place. Downtime is not an option. Come learn how to turn this seemingly daunting task into a solid step towards moving applications, services, and infrastructure to the cloud. In this seminar, gain the knowledge, experience, and confidence you need to extend your apps and infrastructure into Windows Azure while minimizing risk and complexity.
12:15 – 1:00 pm	Lunch
1:00 – 2:00 pm	Modern UI Apps on devices (phone, tablet, desktop) Learn how the development runtime model has changed in Windows 8 and Windows Phone 8 from previous versions of the Microsoft client platforms. This session will describe the options for building Apps that can be published in the Windows and Windows Phone Stores using Visual Studio 2012 and developed in C# or in HTML5 and Javascript. In the session we will investigate how to maximize code re-use between an App designed for a small mobile form factor, medium-size tablet form factor geared towards touch, and a large desktop form factor with mouse and keyboard. We will investigate how changes in the security, identity and storage models effects how we build, maintain and deploy these Modern UI applications and we will run through a complete demonstration of building and submitting Apps to the Microsoft App certification processes.	Upgrading to SQL Server 2012 “Done Right” Learn how to successfully implement different upgrade scenarios, including advanced such as rolling updates. By the end of the session you will have a clear understanding of which tools to use, which upgrade strategies to implement, and how to successfully upgrade to SQL Server 2012.
2:00 – 2:30 pm	Summary and Wrap Up

Please RSVP now, number of seats is limited!

New Ways to Visualize Your Data

Inside Microsoft Research — Thu, 23 May 2013 17:15:00 GMT

Posted by Rob Knies

If you are feeling hungry, you go to the kitchen. If you’d like to take a swim, you head to a swimming pool. If you want to catch a movie, you’re bound for a theater.

And, Danyel Fisher says, if you’re interested in data, you open Excel.

“Excel is where data lives,” says Fisher, a researcher with the Visualization and Interaction for Business and Entertainment (VIBE) team at Microsoft Research Redmond. “When people have data to organize, in any form, it usually passes through Excel at some point—sometimes, just as a quick way to look at it, and sometimes, with tools like Flash Fill and charting and sorting—that’s where it stays.

“Data visualizations are incredibly powerful and fun ways for users to understand their data.”

...(read more)

Er løsningen din støttet?

Erik Laurhammer — Thu, 23 May 2013 17:12:00 GMT

Heldigvis har teknologi og løsninger blitt såpass bra at de for det meste bare fungerer. Kun unntaksvis er det behov for støtte av en karakter som krever at selve løsningen med alle enkeltkomponentene er offisielt støttet («supportert»). Selv om mye er blitt bedre, er det fortsatt slik at produsenten gjør feil som må rettes opp, feilkonfigurasjon forkommer og alle kombinasjoner er kanskje ikke testet og fungerer like bra sammen (spesielt når løsningen består av komponenter fra forskjellige produsenter). Når man havner i en slik situasjon der man trenger hjelp, hva er det verste som kan skje? Det er kanskje at man får beskjed om at løsningen ikke er støttet og hjelpen stopper opp.

Hvorfor er produsenten så opptatt av at løsningen skal være støttet? Svaret er sammensatt og komplisert, men det handler først og fremst om at produsenten må ha noe som er konstant og sikkert (dvs. testet og funnet i orden). Det blir på samme måten som at snekkeren må stille krav til mureren, med tanke på grunnmuren, for at han skal kunne ta ansvar for huset han skal bygge på toppen.

For å være så sikker som mulig på at grunnmuren er som den skal, har Microsoft og våre infrastrukturpartnere i årevis testet så mange kombinasjoner som mulig. Denne testingen er gjort for å avlaste kundene, slik at feil kan rettes opp før løsningene settes i produksjon. Tanken er at løsningen som settes i produksjon allerede er testet og funnet i orden. Hvis det er feil som ikke allerede er avdekket, så rettes disse opp. Dette er en av pilarene som gjør det mulig å kombinere komponenter fra forskjellige produsenter og samtidig være trygg på at man får hjelp hvis det oppstår feil.

Microsoft har logoprogram og «Failover Cluster Validation Tests» osv. som sikrer (så langt det er mulig) at maskinvaren i løsningen fungerer med for eksempel Windows Server 2012. Følger man disse prinsippene er også løsningen støttet.

I dagens datarom blir for det meste Windows Server ikke lenger installert direkte på fysisk maskinvare, men på toppen av en Hypervisor. Hvordan sikrer Microsoft at Windows Server fungerer så godt som mulig på virtuell maskinvare? Svaret er som for fysisk maskinvare, vi tester.

Den virtuelle maskinvaren som Microsoft desidert tester mest, er selvfølgelig vår egen Hyper-V. Vi tester ALLE våre produkter og løsninger da dette er plattformen våre utviklerne bruker for utvikling og test. Vi sikrer på den måten at alle våre produkter ikke bare fungerer, men også skalerer, yter og er mulig å feilsøke på nettopp denne virtuelle maskinvaren.

Hva med virtuell maskinvare fra andre leverandører, blir det gjort testing for å sikre at for eksempel Windows Server fungerer så godt som mulig på disse? Svaret er selvfølgelig ett stort JA. Microsoft har til og med et eget program for å sikre at all testingen som gjøres, er tilgjengelig for kunder og partnere.

Programmet er: Server Virtualization Validation Program (SVVP)
http://www.windowsservercatalog.com/svvp.aspx?svvppage=svvp.htm

Virtualiseringsløsningene fra følgende levrandører er per. 23.05.2013, testet og funnet i orden for Windows Server 2012:
Fujitsu Service-oriented Platform (SOP) Virtualization Version 3.4.3-1209.21.sop
Hitachi Compute Blade Version 01
Hitachi Compute Blade Version 59
Hitachi Compute Blade Version 79

Hva er status for de mest brukte løsningene i markedet (i tillegg til Hyper-V som i Norge har 35% andel i Q412 - IDC)?

VMware: vSphere ESXi 5.0 (Update 1) er per. 23.05.2013 testet med Windows Server 2008 R2.
Det vil si at vSphere 5.1 ikke er testet i SVVP-programmet og Windows Server 2012 er ikke testet med noen versjoner av vSphere i SVVP-programmet.

Citrix: XenServer 6.1 er per. 23.05.2013 testet med Windows Server 2008 R2.
Det vil si at Windows Server 2012 ikke er testet med noen versjoner av XenServer i SVVP-programmet.

Hva betyr dette i praksis for de kundene som benytter disse kombinasjonene? Så lenge alt fungerer, så har dette liten eller ingen konsekvens. Det er når problemene oppstår at moroa begynner. Trenger man hjelp av Microsoft vil vi hjelpe til så langt det er økonomisk forsvarlig, eller som de sier over dammen: «…Microsoft will continue to provide support for Windows Server 2012 on VMware vSphere ESXi 5.1 and XenServer 6.1 on a commercially reasonable basis and may require the customer to reproduce the issue on certified physical hardware or Microsoft Hyper-V…»

La oss derfor håpe at de mest aktuelle løsningene så fort som mulig blir testet og funnet i orden, slik at kunder og partnere kan «sove godt om natten».

Hva kan dere gjøre for å få fart på prosessen? Ta kontakt med din leverandør/produsent og be om at løsningen blir sertifisert, alternativt få skriftlige garantier (en selger lover det meste når han må) for at du får hjelp og støtte hvis problemer skulle oppstå.

Announcement: Surface Pro has Landed in the UK

Sarah Lamb — Thu, 23 May 2013 17:00:00 GMT

Today we are delighted to see the much anticipated arrival of Surface Pro into the UK market.

This device extends the Surface range from Surface RT, and represents Microsoft’s entry into the full primary device market. The UK market interest in the device has been huge since it arrived in the US market in February, which makes the arrival in the UK market all the more welcome.

How to find out more: please go to http://www.surface.com

Microsoft and Internet2 Establish Direct Peering to Improve Academic Cloud Research

Microsoft Education Team — Thu, 23 May 2013 16:41:00 GMT

Microsoft has had a strong relationship with the education sector for many years. As part of this long-standing commitment, we wanted to share some exciting news! Microsoft has just entered into two new peering agreements with Janet , the UK’s research and education network, and Internet2 , the US’s research and education network, to provide a faster and more secure connection for these institutions’ cloud-based IT services. What is most exciting about this news is the wealth...(read more)

PowerPivot for SharePoint 2010 & SQL 2012 - Refresh in browser fails due to multiple "Process" Data Models in Analysis Services.

Tom S - MSFT — Thu, 23 May 2013 16:03:00 GMT

When opening a workbook after a Schedule Data Refresh, the workbook does not open in Excel Services:

This is because after a Scheduled Data Refresh, the “Refresh data when opening the file” is checked. This is by design, because after a Scheduled Data Refresh, the workbook’s Data Model is updated with new information and the workbook is re-published to the SharePoint Library. To ensure that you are getting fresh data in the browser, the “Refresh data when opening the file” is checked. (I will get to the reason why it is spinning later under the Cause section).

If we uncheck “Refresh data when opening the file” and open the workbook in the browser, the workbook opens, but if we click on a slicer (a workbook refresh is triggered), the error “Unable to refresh data for a data connection in the workbook. Try again or contact your system administrator. The
following connections failed to refresh: PowerPivot Data” is thrown:

This is caused by a Bug. When the Scheduled Data Refresh runs, a Process cube is created under the SharePoint Server running PowerPivot > Analysis Services > PowerPivot Instance > Databases. The Process cube should be deleted, but it is not. Therefore many (not sure I can call them “duplicate” since they have a unique GUID so I will use the term “multiple”) “multiple” Data Models are created and not deleted. When the workbook is refreshed, the workbook looks for the Data Model associated with that workbook under the SharePoint Server running PowerPivot > Analysis Services > PowerPivot Instance > Databases. As you can see there are many “multiple” Data Models and the workbook refresh either hangs (spinning when using “Refresh data when opening the file”) or fails when clicking on a slicer (error “Unable to refresh data for a data connection in the workbook. Try again or contact your system administrator. The following connections failed to refresh: PowerPivot Data).

To resolve this, you will need to upgrade to SQL SP1 and apply the Cumulative Update 4 (not released quite yet, it is in the final testing stage).

XenDesktop 7 Supports Windows Server 2012

Microsoft Server and Cloud Platform Team — Thu, 23 May 2013 16:00:00 GMT

We are excited to see the release of XenDesktop 7 and support our partner Citrix. XenDesktop 7 brings together both XenApp and XenDesktop functionality into a common release and now brings support for Windows Server 2012. XenDesktop can easily be deployed on Hyper-V and take full advantage of Windows Server 2012 to increase agility, reduce cost, and provide a scalable and robust platform for desktop virtualization.

Self-Service BI with the Microsoft Data Explorer Preview for Excel 2013: 5 Reasons to Get Started Right Away

SQL Server Team — Thu, 23 May 2013 16:00:00 GMT

Using a variety of data sources has been a daunting task for mere mortals. Now, with the Data Explorer add-in for Excel, you don’t need to be a super hero to unlock data gems. The Microsoft Data Explorer Preview for Excel is now available for download.

Here are the Top 5 Reasons to investigate this new add-in:

Discover the World’s Data
Connect to a wide variety of Data Sources
Combine data from multiple data sources
Reshape and transform your data effortlessly
Refresh your data anytime

Sound interesting? Head on over to the Microsoft Business Intelligence blog post, “5 Things You Need to Know about Microsoft Data Explorer Preview for Excel” for more details and become a super hero in your organization!

Lufthansa Systems Boosts Customer Satisfaction with Private Cloud

Microsoft Server and Cloud Platform Team — Thu, 23 May 2013 16:00:00 GMT

Cloud computing is catching on like wildfire. Indeed, the global cloud computing market is expected to grow from $40.7 billion in 2011 to $241 billion in 2020, according to Forrester Research. As interest in cloud computing increases, a key challenge hosted service providers face is keeping up with the skyrocketing number of customers.

Lufthansa Systems, a wholly-owned subsidiary of the Lufthansa Group, operates a global network of modern data centers with locations in Kelsterbach, Germany; London; Dallas; and Singapore. As the company expanded its data center capacity, it was becoming more difficult to meet customer expectations for high availability—while still keeping costs in check.

Lufthansa Systems had already replaced its physical servers with a virtualized data center environment, but it hadn’t been enough. The company wanted to avoid the cost of continually adding IT staff and capital equipment as demand for its services grew.

To make its server environment even more efficient, Lufthansa Systems turned to Windows Server 2012 with Hyper-V and Microsoft System Center 2012. The “management features were key for us,” says Bardo Werum, the company’s senior vice president infrastructure. “They turn a ‘mere’ virtualization environment into a highly effective private cloud.”

First, Lufthansa Systems has dramatically increased data center efficiency by quadrupling its server density from four-node clusters to 16-node clusters. This, in turn, has freed up a greater percentage of virtual machines for actual production as compared to failover production. “We were looking for the next step beyond virtualization, and this is it,” says Werum.

Second, Windows Server 2012 and System Center 2012 have enabled the company to reduce IT costs significantly.

Third, by using less hardware and managing virtual machines more effectively, the company has been able to improve data center uptime “With Windows Server 2012, we can give our customers better service level agreements—that’s good for them and good for us,” Werum says.

Finally, Windows Server 2012 is making it possible for Lufthansa Systems to increase revenue by offering new services to customers. For example, the company has created a self-service capability in which customers can create and configure virtual machines whenever they want. It now also offers its clients anytime, one-button testing of virtual machine replication.

In the end, it all adds up to improved customer service, says Werum. “Higher availability and faster disaster recovery are the main reasons for us to adopt Windows Server 2012 and System Center 2012,” he says. “They lead to increased customer satisfaction.”

To learn more, please read the full Lufthansa Systems AG case study.

Say hello to the powerful new Kinect for Windows sensor

Steve Clayton - Editor — Thu, 23 May 2013 16:00:00 GMT

A next-generation Kinect for Windows sensor is coming next year, bringing new capabilities that will revolutionize our interactions with computers

...(read more)

Up Global: Startup Weekend and Startup America Form New Partnership to Build Entrepreneurs in a Big Way

BizSpark Online — Thu, 23 May 2013 15:53:19 GMT

Startup Weekend and the Startup America Partnership announced today that they will join together to create UP Global, a new organization supporting the creation of vibrant entrepreneurial communities around the world. With generous support from The Kauffman Foundation, the Case Foundation, Omidyar Network, Google for Entrepreneurs, Microsoft and The Coca-Cola Company, UP Global will combine the impact and reach of Startup Weekend’s action-based programs with Startup America Partnership’s deep expertise in building strong regional eco-systems. UP Global will leverage the strengths of both organizations to build a more comprehensive offering that bolsters entrepreneurial communities across the globe.

“We initially launched the Startup America Partnership as a three-year project focused on jumpstarting the entrepreneurial economy, but as we watched the tremendous momentum that was built through the launch of more than 30 regional ecosystems, we knew there was a need to continue a broader effort to help maximize the success of American startups,” says Steve Case, chairman of the Startup America Partnership, who will also join UP Global as chairman of the board. “Partnering with Startup Weekend, which has played a critical role in inspiring and preparing tens of thousands of entrepreneurs, was the perfect solution to continue our mission..”

As part of UP Global, the Startup America Partnership will strengthen and expand the first truly national entrepreneurial ecosystem with deep local roots. UP Global will then expand and utilize best practices internationally with the vision of being the single most effective organization supporting entrepreneurial communities across the globe. Both Startup Weekend and the Startup America Partnership will retain their brand names and missions, joining with Startup Digest, Next and NYSE Corporate Connections, all closely collaborating and powered by UP Global.

“Over the past few years we’ve seen an incredible groundswell in grassroots entrepreneurial activity on across the nation and around the world. There is a huge need to drive consolidation and added collaboration among community leaders in order to create more clarity for entrepreneurs so they can easily find the local resources they need to get up and going, when they need them. Seeing two organizations that we support come together is a win for all entrepreneurs,” says Tom McDonnell, CEO of The Kauffman Foundation.

UP Global will become the first full-spectrum support structure for entrepreneurs, focusing on every aspect of the entrepreneurial journey, from pre-idea through high growth stages. The organization will be grounded in two key pillars: empowering startup champions to deliver action-based learning programs for entrepreneurs, and building local, regional, and national networks between startup champions in order to drive collaboration, sharing of best practices, and celebration of the entrepreneurs at the heart of the movement.

“Startup communities are truly driven by their leaders, and we’ve shown that we can provide useful tools and frameworks for those leaders to foster sustainable early stage ecosystems, ultimately leading to the creation of more meaningful and persistent firms,” says Marc Nager, CEO of UP Global.

For more information on UP Global, please visit www.UP.co.

Introduction For SQL Bits

Marcel Boothe — Thu, 23 May 2013 15:50:00 GMT

Earlier this month saw SQL Bits, one of the largest SQL Server Technical User Group conferences in Europe. The event served as a great opportunity to hero six of the dozen or so professionals who have achieved the highest level of SQL certifications in the past year. To achieve Microsoft Certified Solutions Master (MCSM) status requires many months of hard work yet many professionals globally recognise the value it and the other SQL Server Technical certifications bring them to enhance their career and the companies they work for. We caught up with Paul Egan and James Skipworth – two of the latest to gain the certification to explain what motivated them to embark on this endeavour.

Paul Egan is CEO of SQL Database Solutions Ltd. “Early on in my IT career I remember reading an article in a magazine which asked the question, why IT professionals are not required to take exams when they are for many other skilled professions. I think it is important to take exams for two reasons, firstly to keep skills up to date, IT is continually evolving and we have to keep up with changes. Secondly to demonstrate skill and commitment to learning and professional development to a future employer.

I started my journey to MCSM certification status by watching these readiness videos http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/sqlserver/ff977043.aspx I decided that I would watch them in the evenings to improve my SQL Server skills - they are excellent free training and I have recommended them to many people since. Once I was on the programme I was working all the time. I was commuting to and from work on the train and either watching training videos or working my way through the long reading list at www.sqlskills.com/mcm.asp

It has meant a great deal to me passing the exam, knowing I have achieved one of the highest technical certifications available to SQL Professionals. I have also learnt a great deal on my journey, knowledge which I use every day. Being a freelance SQL Professional I am very hopeful that my certification will help me with new opportunities of work in the future. It is quite an interesting time for SQL Server professionals with the new features of availability groups and the cloud offering using Windows Azure SQL Database or SQL 2012 in a Windows Azure virtual machine. I am looking forward to learning more about them.”

James Skipwith, Principal at Exorior adds:

“As a consultant, the MCSM means a lot to me and hopefully to my clients. It shows that I am at the top-level in my chosen profession, that I have worked hard to achieve such a certification, and that they can be assured that any architecture I propose or work I do will be of the highest level. It validates my extensive experience with SQL Server and instils confidence in those who work with me. It shows that I care about what I do, that I am very serious about it, and that I do know what I'm talking about (most of the time anyway!)

I took my first Microsoft exam back in December 2000. With each new release of SQL Server I upgraded my exams to MCITP, both DBA and Developer, and then I found out the MCSM could be done outside of an onsite course at Redmond. It was a big decision to go for this though. I had a full work schedule, three children under the age of four, and also had to fund it myself due to being a self-employed consultant. The challenge was too great to pass up: I booked on the QuickStart course and worked, hard, for just over a year. It was all worth it in the end. In January this year I found out that I had passed and the sense of achievement was fantastic. Yes, passing the MCSM requires a lot of work and experience but it also requires motivation, a thirst for knowledge, and a stubborn refusal to be beaten!”

Microsoft, provides Certified Solutions Master (MCSM) across five disciplines: Data Platform, SharePoint, Communication, Messaging and Directory Services. To find out more click here

For those interested in becoming a Microsoft Certified Solutions Master but are just starting their IT career, MCSA or MCSE level certification provides a valuable stepping stone in that direction.

Upsizing PowerPivot 2013 Workbooks to SSAS for Knowledge Workers

Warren_R_Msft — Thu, 23 May 2013 15:42:00 GMT

Much of the existing content for converting a PowerPivot workbook to a SQL Server Analysis Services (SSAS) tabular instance assumes that the reader is a developer. This post details the process of upsizing a PowerPivot workbook to SSAS from the point of view of a knowledge worker and or a SharePoint administrator.

This post assumes you are using PowerPivot as a data source, so no UI is present in the workbook hosting the PowerPivot model. The display of the data would happen from another workbook that connects to the PowerPivot workbook as a data source or from some other reporting tool like PowerView or Excel Services.

What is upsizing PowerPivot (aka convert PowerPivot to tabular model, aka convert PowerPivot to SSAS):

Upsizing PowerPivot is simply moving the solution from a SharePoint centric storage mode to a SSAS centric storage mode. The end result is that the PowerPivot model and data will not be stored in SharePoint.
PowerPivot stores models in Excel Workbooks when using a SharePoint centric mode and stores the models in native SSAS files when using SSAS storage mode.

The key takeaway is that the same query engine is used regardless of where the model is stored, Excel client, SharePoint or SSAS.

Why upsize a PowerPivot workbook:

You may want to consider upsizing your PowerPivot workbook after it exceeds 100MB in size for the following reasons.

Stability

SharePoint was not optimized to host very large files and it has a hard limit of 2GB for a single file.
You will find that SharePoint features may fail or behave oddly when you are using very large files, this is also a burden on the SharePoint system that could adversely affect other users.

Performance

When a PowerPivot workbook is stored in SharePoint the PowerPivot model and all of the data must be streamed from the SharePoint database to a special instance of SSAS to build the database.
If your users are experiencing intermittent poor performance this could be because the cache time has expired and the backend SSAS database needs to be rebuilt.
In SharePoint 2013 the default behavior of Excel Services data \ “Refresh all connections” is to have the PowerPivot data completely reload itself from source data. For large workbooks this could cause poor user experience.

If you want to have a PowerPivot workbook larger than 2GB your only options are to upsize or only use it in the Excel client (64bit), SharePoint only support files 2GB or smaller.

Issues to consider before upsizing:

Your administrators will need to install and configure a tabular instance of SSAS in your network.
You will need to install “SQL Server Data Tools” on your system.
SSAS does not use the SharePoint security system, if you want to restrict who can access the workbook data you will need to configure it on the SSAS database.

This consists of assigning Windows users and or group’s access to the database.
Can be done with “SQL Server Data Tools”

If you were not using the workbook as a data source you will need to create a separate workbook to view the data. This would be in cases where both the data and the pivot tables that view the data are stored in the same workbook.

Steps to upsize a PowerPivot workbook:

Have your administrator setup an tabular instance of SSAS in your network

Use the SQL 2012 media, pick Analysis Service and Tabular mode
http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/hh231722.aspx
Make sure to have the SSAS service run under a domain account, it will need to access the file share made in step 2
You must install SQL 2012 SP1 if you are using Excel 2013 workbook as the source.
i. http://www.microsoft.com/en-us/download/details.aspx?id=35575
The “SQL Server Browser” service must be enabled and running

Create a file share somewhere where both the service account used in step 1.c and the users building the model have full control.
On the client PC that will author the model install the SQL Server Data Tools (formerly called BIDS) from the SQL Server 2012 media.
- Run setup, pick “Installation” then “New SQL Server stand-alone installation or add features to an existing installation”
- On the “Setup Role” screen pick “SQL Server Feature Installation”
- On the “Feature Selection” screen pick “SQL Server Data Tools” (see image below)
Finish the installation wizard.
Install SQL Server 2012 SP1 on the client computer, this allows for support of Office 2013 workbooks.

http://www.microsoft.com/en-us/download/details.aspx?id=35575

Copy the workbook you want to upsize to the fileshare created in step 2
Start the “SQL Server Data Tools” program
Pick “Business Intelligence Settings” in the “Choose Default Environment Settings” popup (see below)
Create a new Project. Menu: File \ New \ Project
Within the “Business Intelligence \ Analysis Service” template pick “Import from PowerPivot” project type.
Enter a good project name, this project will hold the model and build the database on the SSAS server.
Enter the tabular mode SSAS server\instance name in the next popup window (see below)
Test the connection to ensure the SSAS Server was entered correctly and is functioning properly.
Click “Yes” to the warning below, it is simply asking that you trust where the PowerPivot workbook is getting data from. And informing you that the data will not be imported, this is OK because the server will fetch data from the data sources defined in the PowerPivot model. If you have data in the model that is from a linked sheet that will need to be copied by hand into this solution via the “Past Append” function.
Select the workbook you want to upsize in the file open dialog box that pops up next. This file should reside on the file share created in step 2 and referenced in step 6.
If all goes well, several progress bars should pass by in the lower right corner of the screen and you should end up with an open Model.bim file like screen shot below:
Click the Existing Connections ( ) toolbar button and review any existing connection(s) included in the model (see image below).

The domain account used in step 1.c should have read access to all of the data sources used.

Deploy the project to the server via the menu item: Build \ Deploy

Should get Success message as shown below

At this point you have a working data source that you can access from new workbooks and other data source consumers. In Excel you just treat it like any other Analysis Services data source.

http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/excel-help/connect-to-or-import-data-from-sql-server-analysis-services-HP010342296.aspx

All is good, except that the new SSAS database is not getting refreshed with the latest data, it is a static snapshot of the data at the time you deployed it to the server. You can setup an automated processing schedule by: (the following steps can be accomplished using the “SQL Server Management Studio” tool):

Ensure that the “SQL Server Agent” service is running on the SSAS server
Ensure that the account running the “SQL Server Agent” service has permissions to process the new SSAS tabular database. You can create a new role for the database that has “Process” permissions and assign the agent account to that.
Create a new SQL Server Agent job, with one step.
The step should be setup with Type = SQL Server Analysis Services Command, Run as = SQL Server Agent Service Account, Server = Name of you SSAS Tabular server (see image below)
Command should be:
<Process xmlns="http://schemas.microsoft.com/analysisservices/2003/engine"> <Type>ProcessDefault</Type> <Object> <DatabaseID>TabularProject1</DatabaseID> </Object></Process>

Where DatabaseID should equal the name of the SSAS database you just created.
Schedule the job to run daily or however often you want changes made in the source data to reflect in the SSAS tabular database.
FYI, New data is fetched from the source data sources when the SSAS database is processed.

Congratulations you have now upsized your PowerPivot model to a powerful full featured SSAS database.

Storage Service (SMI-S) Tracing and Logging

Jeff Goldner — Thu, 23 May 2013 15:40:00 GMT

Microsoft added the ability to manage storage using Storage Management Initiative (SMI-S) providers to Windows Server 2012. Sometimes things don't go quite the way you plan and some debugging is needed to figure out what is going on.

So in order to provide better ability for storage vendors and customers to debug problems encountered with SMI-S providers, the Windows Standards-Based Storage Management Service (I’ll refer to it as Storage Service) offers a tracing facility as well as various other logging options.

CIMXML Logging

If you followed my earlier blogs, you would have learned that SMI-S is an implementation of the Common Information Model (CIM) encoded in XML format (CIM-XML) and transported using the Hypertext Transport Protocol (HTTP).

It is possible to save the requests and responses in a log file so storage vendors can see what requests are issued and what responses were captured by the Storage Service. Most SMI-S providers have similar capabilities and the logs on either side can be compared if problems are encountered.

Normally, this form of logging is not enabled but it can be turned on fairly easily when necessary. It will have some (small) impact on performance, and the log file can get quite large. Note that no security information is recorded in this log so user names and passwords are never captured.

There are a few registry values that control CIMXML logging, all under the key:

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Storage Management\CIMXMLLog

Value	Description	Default
LogLevel	Set this to 4 to enable logging; 0 to disable	0 (disabled)
LogFileName	Name of the log file, including the complete path. The NETWORK SERVICE account must have write permission to the directory and file.	%systemroot%\temp\cimxmllog.txt
MaxLogFileSize	Maximum size of the log file in bytes. When the log exceeds this size, it will be renamed with a .BAK extension and a new file will be opened. At most two files can be saved.	0x4000000

TIP: Although the default file name ends in .txt, I usually change the name to have a .xml extension. When the file is opened in a text editor like Notepad++, the editor applies color coding and allows collapsing and expanding sections of the log, as if it was XML (it’s pretty close, just the timestamps aren't).

The easiest way to enable CIMXML logging is using PowerShell. Open an administrative PowerShell window and use these cmdlets (no line break in the Set-ItemProperty cmdlet):

Set-ItemProperty -Path "HKLM:SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Storage Management\CIMXMLLog" -Name "LogLevel" -Value "4" -Force

Set-ItemProperty -Path "HKLM:SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Storage Management\CIMXMLLog" -Name "LogFileName" -Value "C:\Temp\cimxml.xml" -Force

Restart-Service MsStrgSvc

After restarting the storage service, you will have to do a rediscovery operation (Update-StorageProviderCache) to the appropriate level. To disable:

Set-ItemProperty -Path "HKLM:SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Storage Management\CIMXMLLog" -Name "LogLevel" -Value "0" -Force

Restart-Service MsStrgSvc

Note: Logging is only available for SMI-S providers communicating through CIMXML, which is the most common transport. The Storage Service can also communicate with providers implemented under the Windows Management Instrumentation (WMI) framework. This logging function is not available for SMI-S WMI providers.

Windows Event Log

All provisioning activities are recorded in the StorageManagementService Event Log channel (which is enabled by default). Errors are also recorded here. The following sample shows a typical activity that was recorded when I registered a provider using HTTPS. You can see that the user name is logged so auditing of actions carried out through the Storage Service is possible.

Tracing

The Storage Service uses Event Tracing for Windows (ETW) which allows narrowing down issues without using a debugger or source code. In many code paths, the tracing capability has the ability to record unexpected error and warning conditions or informational messages in an Event Tracing Log (.etl) file. Tracing to a file can be enabled by using the logman command line.

Real-time tracing is possible using the TraceView utility (part of the Windows Driver Kit) and the appropriate symbol files. I mention this here so you can see that we have built in a lot of diagnostic capabilities into the service. Typically this information is only valuable to developers. However the public symbols do not contain the tracing information, so this is mostly useful if you need to open a support case.

To enable tracing, use the following command (from a command prompt, not PowerShell):

logman create trace "ETWTrace" -ow -o c:\ETWTrace.etl -p {18C2F19C-F79D-408F-837B-F0B23F20A0F7} 0x3f 0x5 -nb 16 16 -bs 1024 -mode Circular -f bincirc -max 4096 -ets

To stop tracing

logman stop "ETWTrace" –ets

System Center 2012 SP1 technikai dokumentációk

Marton Csiki [MSFT] — Thu, 23 May 2013 15:17:14 GMT

Két napja elérhetővé vélt egy kiegészítő dokumentációs csomag a jelenleg TechNet-en elérhető információkon felül. Ennek az alábbiak a részei:

System Requirements for System Center 2012 SP1
Upgrade Sequencing for System Center 2012 SP1
System Center 2012 SP1 Integration Map

A dokumentumokat innen lehet letölteni: http://www.microsoft.com/en-us/download/details.aspx?id=36429

Ezekből az Integration Map-et emelném ki külön, amely részletesen bemutatja, hogy a System Center komponensek között hol milyen integrációs lehetőségek vannak. Az alábbi ábrát a dokumentumból ollóztam:

- Marci

TechNet Radio: IT Time – (Part 2) Upgrading from Windows Server 2008 to Windows Server 2012 – Hyper-V and Virtual Machine Considerations

Tommy Patterson — Thu, 23 May 2013 15:07:09 GMT

In part 2 of their upgrading to Windows 2012 series Blain Barton and Tommy Patterson take us through the considerations you need to make for Hyper-V and Virtual Machines. Tune in as they discuss the best way to upgrade your Hyper-V infrastructure, how to consolidate folder locations, and various ways to import your VMs. Experience Microsoft’s latest products with these FREE downloads! Build Your Lab! Download Windows Server 2012 , System Center 2012 SP1 and Hyper-V Server 2012 and...(read more)

Cloud Computing Trends Report : Maturity of IT Departments

Jeff Jones - MSFT — Thu, 23 May 2013 15:03:23 GMT

As cloud computing matures, a growing number of organizations are interested in moving to cloud environments to help lower IT costs, increase efficiencies, and realize greater flexibility. However, organizations that consider cloud computing have also voiced a number of concerns. In multiple studies over the past several years, security and privacy are commonly cited as top concerns. For example, Intel IT Pro Research (May 2012) of 800 IT pros found that more than 54% were very concerned and...(read more)