TechNet Blogs

Top Contributors Awards!! Plus YOU could become a TechNet Techno-GURU!!!! NEW COMPETITION

XAML guy — Sat, 25 May 2013 23:52:00 GMT

Welcome back for another analysis of contributions to TechNet Wiki over the last week (Fri-Sat)

Firstly, the usual weekly leader board snapshot...

Congratulations to Peter AGAIN this week. Mehmet remains top for the month.

As usual, here are the results of another weekly crawl over the updated articles feed.

Most Revisions Award
Who has made the most individual revisions

Payman Biukaghazadeh is this week's winner, with 195 revisions over 56 articles! Wow great work Payman!

Ed Price - MSFT has made it to second, with an equally impressive 140 revisions over 80 articles! Back in the charts Ed!

Carsten Siemens has taken third this week, with 116 revisions over 101 articles! Great work again Carsten!!

Most Articles Updated Award
Who has updated the most articles

Different order for the article tallies:

#1 - Carsten Siemens with 101 articles

#2 - Ed Price - MSFT with 80 articles

#3 - Payman Biukaghazadeh with 56 articles!

Most Updated Article Award
Largest amount of updated content in a single article

The article most updated this week is How to Script the Export of Active Directory Objects Attributes, a new contribution by i.biswajith. a nice tidy article, well presented and just the kind of article we love to nom, nom, nom, at TechNet wiki.

Longest Article Award
Biggest article updated this week

This week's largest document to get fiddled with was last week's second largest, the beloved E-Book Gallery for Microsoft Technologies, originally started by Monica Rush, but since updated by just about everyone who is anyone, making this a prize specimen, in both length and girth!. This week NINE people have updated it!! :D

Most Revised Article Award
Article with the most revisions in a week

I am very pleased to find that the article to receive the most revisions this week is mine - TechNet Guru Contributions - May. With 57 revisions this week!!

This is a new initiative we'd like you all to join in with, or tell your techie buddies, especially if they think they're a coding guru, this is a chance for them to prove it and get some recognition for their community offerings.

Smallest Significant Edit Award
Size isn't everything! Every edit counts.

Ignoring the addition of tags, this week's smallest but valuable tweak was again by last week's winner, Carsten Siemens.

It was again a spelling mistake recevived received. Small but HUGE in the bigger scheme of things... Thanks again Carsten!

We thank you all for feeding our wiki for another week.

Nom, nom, nom!

Best regards,
Pete Laker

PowerTip: Use PowerShell to Find Disabled User Accounts

The Scripting Guys — Sat, 25 May 2013 18:59:00 GMT

Summary: Use Windows PowerShell to easily find disabled user accounts in Active Directory.

How can I use Windows PowerShell to find disabled user accounts in Active Directory?

Use the Search-ADAccount cmdlet from the Active Directory module:

Search-ADAccount -AccountDisabled

Configuring PowerShell for Windows Azure

Kevin Remde — Sat, 25 May 2013 16:41:00 GMT

So, you’ve got your Windows Azure subscription all set up (and if you don’t you can set up a FREE TRIAL HERE), and now you want to use PowerShell to work with your Windows Azure-based resources. In case you weren’t aware, Microsoft provides a Windows Azure PowerShell module for scripted management of Windows Azure services.

“Yes! That’s what I want, Kevin!”

Okay then… here’s how you do it:

If you’re running Windows 7 w/SP1, Windows Server 2008 R2 w/SP1, or Windows Server 2008 w/SP2, you’ll need the most recent version of the Windows Management Framework installed. This includes updates to Windows Remote Management (WinRM), Windows Management Instrumentation (WMI), and, importantly, Windows PowerShell 3.0.
If you’re running Windows 8 or Windows Server 2012, then you’re all set with the newest version of PowerShell.

Download and install the Windows Azure PowerShell cmdlets. Note that a restart may be required after installing this module.

Right-click on Windows PowerShell in your Start Menu or Start Screen and choose Run As Administrator.

Set the PowerShell Execution Policy for scripts by running the following command at the PowerShell command prompt:

PS C:\> Set-ExecutionPolicy RemoteSigned

Import the Windows Azure PowerShell module and supporting cmdlets by running the following command at the PowerShell command prompt:

PS C:\> Import-Module Azure

Download and save your Windows Azure Publish Settings file by running the following command at the PowerShell command prompt:

PS C:\> Get-AzurePublishSettingsFile

Import the saved Windows Azure Publish Settings file by running the following command (no "<"s, and with your full path to your .publishsettings file) at the PowerShell command prompt:

PS C:\> Import-AzurePublishSettingsFile "<full_path_to_your_saved_file>.publishsettings"

And there you have it! The importing of that .publishsettings file has installed the proper certificate locally so that your PowerShell session will be authenticated, and have a secured interaction with your Windows Azure subscription.

To test it, run the following command from the PowerShell command prompt:

PS C:\> Get-AzureSubscription

This should return some details about your subscription.

TechNet Radio: Virtually Speaking with Yung Chou Joined by Keith Mayer (Part 2): Greg Shields on Deploying & Managing a Service in the Cloud with Service Templates

YungChou — Sat, 25 May 2013 13:00:00 GMT

Yung Chou , Keith Mayer and Greg Shields from Concentrated Technology are back for part 2 of their deploying and managing a service in the cloud series and in today's episode they demo for us how to plan for and deploy RDS using System Center 2012 SP1 Virtual Machine Manager Service Templates. Tune in for this great follow-up episode and preview of an upcoming TechEd 2013 session. For more information of his TechEd North America sessions is available at http://channel9.msdn.com/Events/Speakers/Greg-Shields.

...(read more)

Microsoft Download Center: System Center 2012 SP1 Integration Map

Aviraj Ajgekar, MSFT — Sat, 25 May 2013 10:01:08 GMT

The downloadable files listed on this page contain the cross-component documentation for the Technical Scenarios for System Center 2012 Service Pack 1 (SP1). The available downloads include:

System Requirements for System Center 2012 SP1 - last updated January 15, 2013
Upgrade Sequencing for System Center 2012 SP1 - last updated January 15, 2013
System Center 2012 SP1 Integration Map - last updated February 21, 2013. This diagram shows the integration points between the various System Center 2012 SP1 components.

This technical documentation is also available in the TechNet Library.

DOWNLOAD HERE

Weekend Scripter: Use PowerShell to Find Computers SIDs in AD DS

The Scripting Guys — Sat, 25 May 2013 07:01:00 GMT

Summary: Microsoft Scripting Guy, Ed Wilson, talks about using Windows PowerShell to find computer security identifiers (SIDs) in Active Directory Domain Services.

Microsoft Scripting Guy, Ed Wilson, is here. TechEd 2013 is soon upon us—both in New Orleans and in Madrid. The Scripting Wife has been extremely busy working on her schedule and the schedule for the Scripting Guys booth. I, on the other hand, have been really busy working on the instructor-led labs for Windows PowerShell for New Orleans and Madrid. (Actually, the labs will be basically the same in New Orleans and Madrid…the “basically” portion depends on how much I have to change after New Orleans.)

Anyway, this post is not related to my instructor-led labs, but it is something I wanted to talk about for a while—that is, I am continually amazed at all the cool things I can do with the Active Directory cmdlets from the Active Directory module. One thing to keep in mind is that the module is updated in Windows Server 2012 and in the Remote Server Administration Tools for Windows 8.

Today I want to play around with SIDs…

Use the Get-ADComputer cmdlet

From time-to-time, I need to know the security identifier (SID) for a computer. Not often, mind you, but occasionally the need arises. A quick look on the Internet, turns up a lot of scripts that attempt to read from the registry. The problem is that on modern operating systems the registry key is protected.

A computer’s SID is stored in the HKLM\SECURITY\SAM\Domains\Account registry, but that registry key is protected, and not even the Administrator has rights to the key. This means that the administrator must take ownership of the key, and then add rights to the key. This is not a good idea.

The easy way to find the SID for a computer on the domain is to retrieve the value from Active Directory Domain Services (AD DS). To do this, I use the Get-ADComputer cmdlet and filter based on the computer name. In this example, I return the SID for my local computer. By using the Select-Object (select is an alias) at the end of the line, I return an object that has two properties: name and SID. I can then use those properties in other computations if I need to do so. This command and its output are shown here:

PS C:\> Get-ADComputer -Filter "name -eq 'edlt'" -Properties sid | select name, sid

name sid

---- ---

EDLT S-1-5-21-1457956834-3844189528-3541350385-1147

The cool thing is that because I am querying from Active Directory, I can easily return the SID from a “remote” computer. In the example shown here, I retrieve the SID from a computer named DC1 in the domain. I use the Format-List cmdlet (fl is the alias) at the end of the command so the output displays better on the blog.

PS C:\> Get-ADComputer -Filter "name -eq 'dc1'" -Properties sid | select name, sid | fl *

name : DC1

sid : S-1-5-21-1457956834-3844189528-3541350385-1000

PS C:\> C:\fso\PsGetsid.exe

I used to use the PSGetSid.exe utility from the SysInternals tools. This tool also works remotely. However, there are two issues with the tool. The first is that it is a bit slower than querying AD DS. The second is that it returns a string that must be parsed if I want to use the information in other cmdlets. The output from the Get-ADComputer cmdlet and from PSGetSid.exe are shown in the following image. The results are the same.

Well, that is it for now. I have to get back to work on my labs. Hope to see you in New Orleans or Madrid. If you are there, make sure to come by and say “hi” to the Scripting Wife and me.

I invite you to follow me on Twitter and Facebook. If you have any questions, send email to me at scripter@microsoft.com, or post your questions on the Official Scripting Guys Forum. See you tomorrow. Until then, peace.

Ed Wilson, Microsoft Scripting Guy

Query Troubleshooting - Post 1

pjsummersjr — Sat, 25 May 2013 03:29:00 GMT

In this post, I plan to provide some top-level query debugging tips for SharePoint 2013 Search. I plan some follow up posts but I'm going to start small and build.

My search career has its roots in the old FAST Search and Transfer company so my technical roots are in FAST ESP. ESP, and even FAST Search for SharePoint 2010, provided a very simple way of debugging queries: the ESP query logs. Unfortunately, in SharePoint 2013, there is no isolated query log and SharePoint writes all query logging to the SharePoint ULS logs. In fairness, ULS stands for "Unified Logging Service" so it stands to reason that the query logs would live there.

The first thing you need is a tool for analyzing the ULS logs. I used ULSViewer available on MSDN but any tool, including scripts, that can read and filter on the log entries will do.

For this first post, I am going to focus on a specific issue I encountered.

I had posted some PDF's to a file share and setup a new content source to crawl that file share. After the full crawl completed, I ran a search. Couldn't find them. Hmmmm… maybe the system is still indexing, I'll give it a few minutes.

A few minutes later, I search again. Nothing.

I double check the crawl logs. A bunch of warnings but no failures.

I decide to look into the ULS logs to see if there's anything that might indicate an issue with either the query, the crawl or something else. It took a few minutes and a review of some messages with the product team and I finally figured it out.

First, based on some hints, I filtered on messages with "Query Processing" in the Category field. For a single query, it showed this:

The highlighted log entry shows my original query: "msdn" but all that was being returned was the federated query to Bing :-(.

I was baffled and was wishing I could have my old ESP 15100 QRServer interface back. Then, I looked through a small set of ULS log entries I had and found this:

Why is "Title=Paul" in there and where did it come from? … QUERY RULES!!!! I had created a query rule to demonstrate boosting based on certain tokens in the title of the document.

I deactivated my query rule and WAH-ZAM! my query started working and there were all of my file share documents. You'll also notice that there is an additional filter in there which excludes people profile content. That comes from the Result Source. The default result source excludes people profile content by default.

What else is out there? I'm looking and I'll let you know when I find out.

How a Microsoft gold competency can make a difference for your business

Diane Golshan — Fri, 24 May 2013 23:54:08 GMT

by Julie Golding, US MPN Lead

If you are new to the Microsoft Partner Network, or are exploring your opportunities to deepen your engagement with Microsoft, you will want to understand what the Microsoft competencies are, and why they matter to both you and your customers. Competencies indicate expertise in a specific technology area that aligns to Microsoft products and technologies, so customers can identify IT experts to help solve their business challenges.

In this post, I’ll talk about the value of earning a gold competency, and provide you with information to help you get started. If you are going to the Worldwide Partner Conference in Houston this July, I am talking about competencies and other MPN opportunities in a session called “A guided tour of US Partner Programs and the resources that keep you informed,” (session numbers US12 and US12R). You can add this session to your schedule through WPC Connect starting May 28.

A company with a Microsoft gold competency has demonstrated its capability and commitment to meet the evolving technology needs of customers through solutions based on Microsoft products and technologies. Worldwide, only 1 percent of the companies in the Microsoft partner ecosystem have attained the distinction of holding a gold competency, and earned the right to showcase that distinction and market their competency by displaying a Microsoft Partner Network logo that specifies a company’s gold competency achievement.

Microsoft gold competency benefits

A recent IDC study determined that the Microsoft Partner Network benefits for companies with competencies have a tangible, business value of about $320,000. Highlighted below are four gold competency benefits that usually spark the most discussion and interest when I talk to partners about gold competencies:

Access to up to 100 licenses for more than 40 Microsoft products, as well as licenses for competency-specific products, for internal use. Partners tell me that this benefit is one of the most valuable they receive, as it lets them show customers how they are using Microsoft-based solutions in their own organization.
Dedicated account coverage, in person or phone-based, to act as your direct contact at Microsoft. He or she can play an important role in helping you utilize your membership benefits, save time, generate revenue, and identify opportunities.
Windows 8 opens up many new opportunities for partners to incorporate application development into the solutions they deliver. Equip your developers with up to 10 Visual Studio Premium with MSDN subscriptions.
Solution incentives that reward you for driving sales of specific Microsoft solutions, and create opportunities for you build sustainable revenue streams.

Microsoft gold competency requirements

In general, the main requirements for attaining a gold competency are listed below. Each competency has its own requirements, though, so you will want to review and understand the requirements for the specific competency you are pursuing. And, even if you decide that a gold competency isn’t right for you right now, I recommend aligning your technical and sales personnel to the certifications and assessments/accreditations for the competency that best maps to your Microsoft practice and business.

Certifications – demonstrate technical expertise by employing or contracting with the specified number of unique Microsoft Certified Professionals who have passed relevant certification exams
Assessments and accreditations – demonstrate sales, marketing, and/or licensing knowledge by having the specified number of people pass assessments
Customer evidence and feedback – demonstrate success at building and deploying solutions relevant to the competency by submitting customer references, and use the Customer Satisfaction Index survey to measure customer satisfaction and loyalty
Agree to meet a minimum Microsoft revenue amount
Pay the gold competency fee

Join the MPN 101 group on Yammer to connect with Julie and with other subject-matter experts from the Microsoft US Partner Team.

In this video, Microsoft partners talk about the value their Microsoft competency brings to their business.

The ‘In the Cloud’ Podcast, Episode 10: The Countdown to TechEd 2013!

BradAnderson — Fri, 24 May 2013 23:43:00 GMT

In this episode, I discuss what to expect from TechEd North America (June 3) and TechEd Europe (June 25), as well as some of the big themes in my Day 1 keynote at both events.

This is a huge event for the tech industry, and I look forward to seeing a lot of friends and partners in both cities! If you haven't registered for TechEd yet, visit the official site here.

Friday with International Community Update - TechNet Wiki Day Award

Luiz Henrique Lima Campos [MVP] — Fri, 24 May 2013 23:00:00 GMT

Hello Community, Luiz Henrique Lima Campos here today to update you on the latest news in the international community TechNet Wiki.

Let's talk first of the winners of the last day TechNet Wiki, April 20.

International Community

Patris_70 with Article: ایجاد Sites (fa-IR) - as he took the Award: Book. Windows® 8 Administration Pocket Consultant

Congratulations Patris and always keep helping us with TechNet Wiki, your articles are very important to the TechNet Wiki.

Congratulations and thanks for your commitment and dedication to contribute to the community of Microsoft TechNet Wiki.

Brazil Community

MarceloSep with Article: Windows Server 2012 - Configurando GPO para bloquear acesso a dispositivos USB - as he took the Award: Book. Windows® Server 2012 Administration Pocket Consultant

Congratulations Marcelo and always keep helping us with TechNet Wiki!

Congratulations and thanks for your commitment and dedication to contribute to the community of Microsoft TechNet Wiki.

Now for the prize of the Day May 30, 2013

The next prize will be on May 30, 2013, Awards are again one will be for the international community, and one Award for Brazil, as we previously reported we will send Books for any place in the world we expect the participation of all.

Brazil: Book Certificação CompTIA Security+ | Yuri Diógenes e Daniel Mauser 2ª edição Brazil and to the international Community : Book Windows® Server 2012 Administration Pocket Consultant

Want to know about the day TechNet Wiki? Go to: http://social.technet.microsoft.com/wiki/pt-br/contents/articles/14147.technet-wiki-day.aspx

A big hug to everyone.

And not to forget to follow:

Facebook TechNet Wiki Day
@ tnwikiday
@ WikiNinjas
@ WikiNinjas_BR

TechNet Wiki Day
Luiz Henrique Lima Campos
Microsoft MVP, MCT,MCP,MCC,MCDST,MCSA,MCSA+M,MCTS e MCITP
Moderador no Microsoft Answers e TechNet Forums e Membro do TechNet Wiki Community Council
Visite o meu blog: http://luizhenriquelima.wordpress.com/
Me siga no twitter: @luizlima

Come See Me at TechEd 2013 North America!

Steve TH - MSFT — Fri, 24 May 2013 22:34:00 GMT

TechEd 2013 North America is 6/2 through 6/6 in New Orleans!

http://northamerica.msteched.com/?mtag=TENAC9TEPage

I'll be there and I hope to see you there too! Alfred Ojukwu, Henry Schulman, and myself will be there from MCS presenting two sessions on App-V 5.0:

Sequencing Applications Using the New Microsoft Application Virtualization 5.0 Sequencer
http://channel9.msdn.com/Events/TechEd/NorthAmerica/2013/WCA-B205#fbid=UNR8sVE6CJM
June 5, 2013 from 3:15PM to 4:30PM

Integrating the New Microsoft Application Virtualization 5.0 with other Virtualization Solutions
http://channel9.msdn.com/Events/TechEd/NorthAmerica/2013/WCA-B324#fbid=UNR8sVE6CJM
June 6, 2013 from 8:30AM to 9:45AM

In addition, I'll be manning the MDOP and Desktop Virtualization booths periodically through the week so feel free to stop by!

Is your business ready for the cloud?

Jake Siegel — Fri, 24 May 2013 22:11:00 GMT

Considering a move to the cloud? To find the best route, your organization should first figure out where it stands.

Microsoft released the free Cloud Security Readiness Tool (CSRT) in October 2012 to help organizations assess their IT environment and evaluate the benefits of cloud adoptions. As Jeff Jones explains on the Microsoft Security Blog, hundreds of organizations from around the world have used the CSRT to better understand their current IT state and the potential cloud benefits listed in the Cloud Security Alliance's Security, Trust & Assurance Registry (STAR).

On Thursday, Microsoft released the Trends in Cloud Computing report, which analyzes the results of current IT maturity and adoption practices of organizations worldwide that have used the CSRT.

"At the highest level of analysis, most respondents indicated that their existing IT states were still getting started or making progress," Jones writes. "Respondent answers to only one question (which relates to deploying antivirus/antimalware software) appears to indicate relative maturity for the average respondent."

Head over to the Microsoft Security Blog for a deeper dive into the trends report.

Jake Siegel
Microsoft News Center Staff

Weekend Reading: May 24th Edition – The world meets Xbox One, and Windows Azure heads to Asia

Steve Wiens — Fri, 24 May 2013 22:04:00 GMT

In this edition of Weekend Reading, we’ve got stories on the unveiling of Xbox One, Microsoft expanding Windows Azure across Asia, new HP Windows 8 PCs coming soon, plus Windows Phone apps for work and play.

Xbox One, unveiled. On Tuesday, in an event live-streamed across the globe, Microsoft lifted the veil on Xbox One – the all-in-one games and entertainment system that’s designed to put you at the center of all your games, TV, movies, music, sports and Skype. The event also revealed games for Xbox One, an exclusive agreement with the NFL, and Skype for Xbox One, which will let you play your Xbox games, apps and live TV with friends and family using Skype. Keep watching the Xbox Wire blog for details, images and video, and check out the making of Xbox One – an architect panel hosted by Major Nelson.

Microsoft announces major expansion of Windows Azure services in Asia. As the worldwide demand for cloud computing continues to grow, so does Windows Azure. 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. Learn how Microsoft is working to satisfy cloud computing needs Asia and the world in Wednesday’s Official Microsoft Blog post from Satya Nadella, president of Server & Tools Business at Microsoft.

The new generation Kinect for Windows Sensor is coming next year. By now, most of you likely have heard about the new Kinect sensor that Microsoft will deliver as part of Xbox One later this year. Yesterday, the Kinect for Windows team announced that Microsoft will also deliver a new generation Kinect for Windows sensor next year. In his post, Kinect for Windows Director Bob Heddle said, “We’re continuing our commitment to equipping businesses and organizations with the latest natural technology from Microsoft so that they, in turn, can develop and deploy innovative touch-free applications for their businesses and customers.” The image below demonstrates the enhanced fidelity and depth perception the new Kinect sensor will offer. Preview some of the other capabilities coming with the new sensor in this post on the Kinect for Windows Blog.

Major League Soccer and Windows 8 bring fans 'the smartest league' experience. Microsoft and Major League Soccer (MLS) announced a multiyear agreement to work together to bring MLS fans the best and fastest soccer content through the power of Windows 8. The announcement took place Sunday at the LA Galaxy versus New York Red Bulls game at Red Bull Arena, where the two companies showcased a new and improved MLS app and previewed the new in-stadium fan experiences powered by Windows 8. There’s a shot of the app below. For more of the story, head over to Microsoft News Center, and check out Brandon LeBlanc’s post on the Windows Experience Blog.

HP unveils a bunch of new Windows 8 PCs. HP announced new Windows 8 PCs yesterday – including a brand new portable all-in-one PC called the HP ENVY Rove 20 (pictured below). The HP ENVY Rove 20 is a portable all-in-one PC designed for the entire family. It can be used as a desktop PC or can be easily moved into the living room to enjoy multi-player games, or used in the kitchen while cooking a favorite recipe using one of the many cooking apps from the Windows Store like HP Recipe Box. Get specs and availability details on the HP ENVY Rove 20 and HP’s other newly unveiled PCs in yesterday’s post on the Windows Experience Blog. You might also want to take a look at the HP Split x2.

Windows Phone apps for work and play. For mobile fun, it’s been a great week for Xbox games from Electronic Arts, with four titles previously available only to Nokia owners now available to everyone and four new Nokia exclusives hitting the Windows Phone Store. All Windows Phone users can now test their driving and parking skills in the spatial-awareness “Parking Mania” ($2.99). If you love classic board games, you’ve got to try “The Game of Life” ($2.99). Sneak, scamper, and snack your way on an epic journey in “SPY Mouse” ($2.99). Read about these games in Michael Stroh’s Wednesday post on the Windows Phone Blog. And when you’re ready to get back to business, take a look at Splashtop 2 – a great new app that provides mobile access to your computer and files on the fly.

Forza Motorsport 5 revs up for Xbox One launch. With an exciting week coming into the rearview mirror, and a 3-day weekend stretching out ahead here in the US, the timing was perfect for a return to the Next at Microsoft blog’s time-honored tradition of Forza Fridays. That’s right, the good folks at Xbox are including Forza Motorsport 5 in the slate of games that will be available when Xbox One launches. Next Editor and diehard Forza fan Steve Clayton said, “I for one was blown away by the slick and very cinematic trailer they released, and can’t wait take this bad boy for a spin.” You can check out the video below or head over to today’s post on Next at Microsoft.

That’s it for this edition of Weekend Reading. Thanks for stopping by The Official Microsoft Blog!

Posted by Jeff Meisner
Editor, The Official Microsoft Blog

Microsoft Cloud-enabled Datacenter Design and Management

MSFTTS2 — Fri, 24 May 2013 22:02:00 GMT

Rob Waggoner

You're Invited...

Microsoft Cloud-enabled Datacenter Design and Management

Course Description: This 2-day, instructor-led course will help you understand how to evolve a traditional datacenter configuration to a cloud-enabled datacenter that is capable of automating service delivery, on-premises or extended to hoster and public clouds, using the latest capabilities of Windows Server 2012, System Center 2012 SP1 and Windows Azure.

At this training, you will learn how to:

ü Design the datacenter infrastructure with Hyper-V, network virtualization, and next generation storage in Windows Server 2012

ü Automate infrastructure provisioning, management and monitoring with System Center 2012

ü Enable self-service, usage reporting and management of infrastructure resources across on premise private, hosted private, and public clouds

ü Monitor and manage applications in on-premises private, hosted private, and public clouds

Module 1: Getting Started

Module 2: Infrastructure Design

Module 3: Networking

Module 4: Storage

Module 5: Virtualization

Module 6: Virtualizing and Managing Microsoft Workloads

Module 7: Virtualized Migration

Module 8: Availability and Recovery Services

Module 9: Infrastructure Monitoring

Module 10: Runbook Automation

Module 11: Application Monitoring

Module 12: Service Delivery

Module 13: Service Delivery Chargeback and Reporting

Module 14: Automation Scenarios

Module 15: Understanding Windows Azure IaaS

Module 16: Self-service for Hybrid Clouds

Labs completed in this training:

o Lab 1.2.1: Network Virtualization

o Lab 1.4.1: Configuring your Infrastructure

o Lab 2.2.1: Configuring your Private Cloud

o Lab 2.4.1: Monitoring your Infrastructure and Network with System Center 2012

o Lab 2.6.1: Application Performance Monitoring

o Lab 3.3.1: Service Delivery & Automation

o Lab 3.4.1: Hybrid Cloud Management

Learning Objectives:

ü Articulate the Microsoft strategy for the Datacenter

ü Describe Cloud Infrastructure design considerations

ü Build, configure and implement Hyper-V network virtualization

ü Create a next generation storage infrastructure and highly available file server over SMB

ü Work with VMM Service Templates

ü Apply best practices when working with virtualized workloads

ü Migrate Linux, UNIX and ESX VMs to Hyper-V

ü Monitor hardware and software infrastructure components

ü Create automation runbooks for IT tasks with Orchestrator

ü Integrate application monitoring into your environment

ü Articulate Microsoft’s approach to service delivery and datacenter automation

ü Deliver self-service capabilities on IT services by using the Service Manager self-service portal integrated with Orchestrator automation capabilities

ü Explain and configure chargeback and reporting

ü Understand how Azure implements IaaS

Welcome Time:
8:30am EDT

Locations and Registration links below:

Event Time :

Start: 9:00AM

End: 5:00PM

*Requirement: Each student must bring their own laptop to this training course, equipped with internet access capability. It is highly recommended to bring with you, a 2^nd reading device; Windows Surface or tablet.

Registration Fee: $99.00

Who Should Attend:

This course is targeted at Enterprise Architects and Pre-sales Engineers at System Integrators who are interested in updating and expanding their skills to design Envisioning sessions and deliver Proof of Concepts on dynamic datacenters using Windows Server 2012, System Center 2012 and Windows Azure technologies.

This course is particularly useful for those with experience in System Center Operations Manager or System Center Configuration Manager who wish to expand their capabilities around the end-to-end Datacenter solution provided by Microsoft.

Prerequisites:

Participants should be familiar with

server and system management

concepts in their own corporate

actual or planned deployments, as

well as the architectural and

operational challenges they face in

their own environments today.

Before attending this course, it is

highly recommended that you have

achieved:

MCITP: Virtualization Administrator on Server 2008 R2 or equivalent knowledge
MCITP: Enterprise Administrator Server 2008 R2 or equivalent knowledge

Other recommended prerequisite knowledge includes:

Microsoft Hyper-V 2008 R2 SP1
Microsoft System Center Virtual Machine Manager 2008 R2
Microsoft System Center Operations Manager 2007 R2

Here are the locations and dates of these events, please click on your desired location to be taken to the registration page.

Bellevue, WA: June 10-11	Tempe, AZ: June 13-14
Houston, TX: June 17-18	Chicago, IL: June 17-18
Irvine, CA: June 20-21	Overland Park, KS: June 20-21
Malvern, PA: June 20-21	Charlotte, NC: June 24-25
New York: June 27-28	San Francisco: June 13-14

Until next time,

Rob

Technorati Tags: Windows Azure,System Center,Training,Server and Cloud Management,Cloud Datacenter design

I have a Surface RT and going away for a few days, now what??? I have a MSDN subscription :-) (Part 2)

Anders Ravnholt MSFT — Fri, 24 May 2013 22:00:00 GMT

In the previous blog post (here) I talked about how you can start using Windows Azure with an MSDN subscription and we did the following:

Installed App. Controller
Configured App. Controller to communicate with Windows Azure
Created our own Windows 2012 image that we want to use in Windows Azure

In this blog post, I will explain how we can upload the self-made image to Windows Azure and create a virtual machine using the uploaded image.

It this blog post we will do the following:

I need to move my image to Windows Azure from my App. Controller server.
I need to provision the VM, based on my image in Windows Azure.
I need to connect to the Windows machine using my Surface RT and start writing a blog post.

Sounds fun, right? Let’s get started.

I need to move my image to windows Azure from my App. Controller server

App. Controller is the component is the System Center suite that enables you to connect to clouds and get one holistic view of all your resources across clouds.

In this example, we will use App. Controller to move the VHD from the App. Controller server to a BLOB created under a Windows Azure subscription.

To do this, follow these steps:

Logon to the App. Controller server as administrator, start the App. Controller console and login.
In the left menu select “Library” and under the sub-menu select “Shares”.
Click the “Add” button to add a share to the App. Controller Library.

Insert the path to the share created in the last blog post, that contains the image VHD e.g. \\ac01\vhdstore and click “Ok”
The new share folder will now show under “Shares”, select the folder share and the VHD will show in the main window.

Below the “Shares” you can see the Windows Azure subscription library called “Windows Azure”, expand the library
The Windows Azure subscription name created earlier will now show. Under the subscription, you can see all storage accounts created under this Windows Azure account.

Above you can see how the two storage account shows in App. Controller (on the left) and how the same accounts are showing in the Windows Azure portal.

Go back to the local share (under Shares) created earlier and select the VHD e.g. Windows2012Base.vhd.
In the ribbon menu, select “Copy”.

Go back to the Windows Azure Library subscription and expand the storage account where you want to upload the image.
Under the “Storage Account” select which container you want to use (If no container is available you can create a new container from the ribbon menu) e.g. ravnholtcontainer
When you select the container all VHD stored in the container will show.
Click the “Paste” button from the ribbon bar to copy the local image to the Windows Azure container.
In the lower right side of the screen, you will see a small message telling that the copy is completed.

You can now see the image has been uploaded to the Windows Azure container.

Go back to the Windows Azure Subscription under “Library”, expand the subscription name and select “Images”.
Click “Add” button in the ribbon bar.
Give the image a name e.g. windows2012base.
Select “Add from container” and browse the path to the container used to upload the VHD file and select the file.
Select “Windows” for the operating system and click “Ok”.
After a few minutes, you will see that a new image has been added to the bottom of the list.

We have now successfully created a template and uploaded a VHD image to Windows Azure.

To verify that the image is in fact showing in the Windows Azure portal do the following:

Login to Windows Azure Portal
Select “Virtual Machines” form the menu on the left side.
Select “Images” from the top menu.
Verify that the new image is showing in the list of images and the status is “Available”

I need to provision a VM, based on my image in Windows Azure

After the image has been uploaded and a new template has been created in Windows Azure we now need to provision a VM, which utilizes this image.

To do this, follow these steps:

Login to Windows Azure Portal.
Select “Virtual Machines” form the menu on the left side.
Select “+New” from the bottom menu.
Select “Compute” > “Virtual Machine” > “From Gallery”.

Scroll down the list and select the image created earlier with App. Controller e.g. Windows2012base and click “Next Arrow”.
Give the VM a name e.g. Win2012Desktop, Select “Small” for Size and Specify a user name and password and click “Next”.
Give the VM a dns name e.g. Win2012Desktop and click “Next”.
Leave the “Availability Set” to “None” and click “Complete”.

The creation of the VM will now start and take a couple of minutes to deploy.

After the creation is completed click on the virtual machine to configure it.
Under “quick glance” write down the DNS name e.g. win2012desktop.cloudapp.net.

Select “Endpoint” from the top menu.
Verify that “Remote Desktop” is listed and “Private Port” is set to “3389”.
Write down the “Public Port” e.g. 61455 (this can be changed if needed by selecting “Edit the Endpoint” form the bottom menu).

I need to connect to the Windows machine using Surface RT and start writing a blog post

After completing the above steps, we now have a Windows 2012 Server running in Windows Azure based on our self-created image.

Next step is to test if we can connect to the Windows 2012 Server from a Surface RT.

To do this, follow these steps:

Start your surface RT.
Login with a user.
Press the “Windows Key”.
Swipe in from the right and select “Search”.
Type “Remote Desktop” in the search window.
Click on the Remote Desktop Connection in the result window.
Write the name for the VM as written down under “quick glance” and add the “Public port” in the following format: <VM Name>:<Public Port> e.g. win2012desktop.cloudapp.net:61455
Click “Connect”.
After login Start “Live writer”.
Specify your blog account details.
Blog away.

I have attached two pictures that shows this blog post running on the VM in Windows Azure from my Surface RT.

Not sure it proves anything, but no smoking mirrors is what I’m trying to say.

I hope that this gives you some insight into how Windows Azure VMs can be used for running apps that would normally not work on your Surface RT.

Please let me know if you have any ideas or feedback on these two blog posts.

'You have a computer virus on your PC.’ Phone scam preys on security fears

Deborah Pisano — Fri, 24 May 2013 21:51:00 GMT

If you started calling random phone numbers, odds are good that you’d reach a fair number of people who own a Windows-based PC. Apparently a recent group of scammers claiming to be from “Microsoft Operating Systems” figured the same.

According to Microsoft’s Security Tips & Talk blog, a group of scammers has been preying on consumers by telling would-be-victims that a virus has been reported from their Windows PC and they (the scammers) are calling to “fix” it. These callers are not from Microsoft.

Here’s what you need to know: Microsoft will not make unsolicited phone calls about computer security or software fixes. If you receive such a call, hang up. If you’ve already fallen victim to these sophisticated scammers, yesterday’s post on the Microsoft Security Tips & Talk blog offers some guidance to help you further protect yourself.

New season of ‘Arrested Development’ arrives Sunday on Netflix apps for Windows Phone, Windows 8 and Xbox

Steve Wiens — Fri, 24 May 2013 21:25:00 GMT

The beloved comedy series “Arrested Development” returns Sunday, May 26 with a new 15-episode season on Netflix, and with all that fresh content available at once, it’s looking like this weekend will include some serious quality time with the dysfunctional Bluth family.

Even better, you can watch them anytime and anywhere by downloading the Netflix apps for Windows Phone, Windows 8 and Xbox Live (free to download, subscription required). Get all three apps now and let the marathon begin.

Steve Wiens
Microsoft News Center Staff

App-V 5.0 – Error: Virtual Fonts subsystem failure on first launch

Dafalk — Fri, 24 May 2013 21:14:00 GMT

Hi all,

I’ve been seeing the following error a few times with my own packages so I thought it was time to figure out what the issue is.

If you check the event log a more descriptive error is available, and it states the following:

Process 18672 failed to start due to Virtual Fonts subsystem failure. Package ID {5152004a-ed53-4435-a814-1ac15f070e7c}. Version ID {0361fd0e-c618-443b-b803-70e4bc663541}. Error: 0x83401D2A-0x80070490

Note: The App-V event log is located in the following location within Event Viewer:

Applications and Services Logs\Microsoft\AppV\Client\Admin

Workaround

If you want to workaround this issue then you can do the following:

1. Edit the UserConfig.xml for the package and set Fonts Enabled="false"

2. Once this is complete then republish the package using the custom userconfig.xml. I updated my package using the following powershell command:

Get-AppvClientPackage "Adobe Reader 11.0.03" | Publish-AppvClientPackage -DynamicUserConfigurationPath '.\Adobe Reader 11.0.03_UserConfig.xml'

Now when I launch the application, it launches as expected.

Troubleshooting the Error

Firstly I knew the error was due to the Virtual Fonts subsystem and I know that the Fonts subsystem is written to the AppxManifest.xml file. So I opened up the .appv and had a look in the AppxManifest.xml. The following was set for <appv:Extension Category="AppV.Fonts">

<appv:Extension Category="AppV.Fonts">

<appv:Fonts>

<appv:Font Path="[{Windows}]\Installer\$PatchCache$\Managed\68AB67CA7DA73301B744BA0000000010\11.0.0\MinionPro_Bold.otf" />

<appv:Font Path="[{Windows}]\Installer\$PatchCache$\Managed\68AB67CA7DA73301B744BA0000000010\11.0.0\MinionPro_BoldIt.otf" />

<appv:Font Path="[{Windows}]\Installer\$PatchCache$\Managed\68AB67CA7DA73301B744BA0000000010\11.0.0\MinionPro_It.otf" />

<appv:Font Path="[{Windows}]\Installer\$PatchCache$\Managed\68AB67CA7DA73301B744BA0000000010\11.0.0\MinionPro_Regular.otf" />

<appv:Font Path="[{Windows}]\Installer\$PatchCache$\Managed\68AB67CA7DA73301B744BA0000000010\11.0.0\MyriadPro_Bold.otf" />

<appv:Font Path="[{Windows}]\Installer\$PatchCache$\Managed\68AB67CA7DA73301B744BA0000000010\11.0.0\MyriadPro_BoldIt.otf" />

<appv:Font Path="[{Windows}]\Installer\$PatchCache$\Managed\68AB67CA7DA73301B744BA0000000010\11.0.0\MyriadPro_It.otf" />

<appv:Font Path="[{Windows}]\Installer\$PatchCache$\Managed\68AB67CA7DA73301B744BA0000000010\11.0.0\MyriadPro_Regular.otf" />

<appv:Font Path="[{AppVPackageRoot}]\Reader\plug_ins3d\prc\MyriadCAD.otf" />

<appv:Font Path="[{AppVPackageRoot}]\Resource\Font\AdobePiStd.otf" />

<appv:Font Path="[{AppVPackageRoot}]\Resource\Font\CourierStd-Bold.otf" />

<appv:Font Path="[{AppVPackageRoot}]\Resource\Font\CourierStd-BoldOblique.otf" />

<appv:Font Path="[{AppVPackageRoot}]\Resource\Font\CourierStd-Oblique.otf" />

<appv:Font Path="[{AppVPackageRoot}]\Resource\Font\CourierStd.otf" />

<appv:Font Path="[{AppVPackageRoot}]\Resource\Font\MinionPro-Bold.otf" />

<appv:Font Path="[{AppVPackageRoot}]\Resource\Font\MinionPro-BoldIt.otf" />

<appv:Font Path="[{AppVPackageRoot}]\Resource\Font\MinionPro-It.otf" />

<appv:Font Path="[{AppVPackageRoot}]\Resource\Font\MinionPro-Regular.otf" />

<appv:Font Path="[{AppVPackageRoot}]\Resource\Font\MyriadPro-Bold.otf" />

<appv:Font Path="[{AppVPackageRoot}]\Resource\Font\MyriadPro-BoldIt.otf" />

<appv:Font Path="[{AppVPackageRoot}]\Resource\Font\MyriadPro-It.otf" />

<appv:Font Path="[{AppVPackageRoot}]\Resource\Font\MyriadPro-Regular.otf" />

<appv:Font Path="[{AppVPackageRoot}]\Resource\Font\PFM\SY______.PFM" />

<appv:Font Path="[{AppVPackageRoot}]\Resource\Font\SY______.PFB" />

</appv:Fonts>

So I now know all the paths to the fonts that are expected. As I’m already looking in the package I thought I would check to see if these were available.

I first checked the path [{AppVPackageRoot}]\Resource\Font\ and as seen below all the fonts are there.

I then checked the path [{AppVPackageRoot}]\Reader\plug_ins3d\prc and the font is available.

But when I checked for “[{Windows}]\Installer\$PatchCache$” the files or even the folder weren’t captured in the package.

Straight away I had realised what the problem was…

I always try to clean up my packages at the end of the sequencer by deleting files and folders that I see are not required in the package and the installer folder is one of them.

Inadvertently the sequencer had picked up there were fonts in that folder that it referenced in the AppxManifest.xml file, so when you try and launch the application the App-V client reads the AppxManifest.xml and if it can’t find the fonts in the package itself then you will receive this error.

Fix

To fix this issue you have two options:

1. As shown above specify a custom userconfig.xml and disable Virtual Fonts. When you publish the package make sure that the custom xml file is specified.

2. Be very careful on what you delete in the sequencer, as you can see by doing a simple clean up operation caused an error which took some time to track down.

My fix was to re-sequence the application and I ensured that the folder that contained the fonts wasn’t deleted at the end of the sequencing procedure.

Conclusion

I hope this blog has helped you understand why this error occurs and explains what you should do to ensure this doesn’t occur in your environment.

David Falkus | Premier Field Engineer | Application Virtualization

Office 365 Insight into the Hybrid Configuration Wizard

Michael Hall (MCS) — Fri, 24 May 2013 21:04:00 GMT

In this post I want to cover the Hybrid Configuration process - specifically detail on the Configure Legacy Exchange Support step.

The Hybrid Configuration Wizard has 6 tasks that it executes:

Global Prerequisites task – prerequisite check see below.
Legacy Exchange Support Task – Legacy Exchange requirements.
Recipient Configuration Task – Accepted domains and email address policy changes.
Organization Relationship Task – Federation configuration.
On Off Settings Task – Organization Relationship config like Availability Address Space, Free Busy Access, TargetOWAURL etc.
Hybrid mail flow task – Creates send and receive connectors for Hybrid mail flow.

Lets cover the first two tasks where most of the problems usually occur (from what I’ve seen in the field).

Global prerequisites task – this task does the following checks:

Checks the accepted domains to determine if a hybrid domain exists. This enumerates and loops through all your accepted domains so please don’t use * as an accepted domain on your Exchange Organization (yes I’ve encountered this) – this breaks the Hybrid Configuration Wizard and it crashes the EMC.
Checks if the current server has the CAS Role installed and checks your Autodiscover URLs on the ExternalURL - so ensure the hybrid namespace and Autodiscover URLs are set correctly as this is used later in the configuration during Organization Relationship configuration.
Checks the validity of the certificate for the current Client Access Server.
1. Check if the certificate is a self-signed certificate.
2. Check if the certificate is trusted on the CAS role.
3. Check if the date on the certificate is valid.

Legacy Exchange Support task – This task covers legacy Public Folder configuration to allow Free/Busy lookup where Public Folder Databases exist in an organization. It can cause some major headaches if your Public Folder infrastructure is not healthy and the way it looks up Exchange servers in the organization.

Herewith the logic of this task:

Checks if Legacy Exchange Support is required – this is done as follows:
1. Populates list with Get-ExchangeServer
2. Loops through each server and checks if server is Exchange 2010 or higher.
3. Runs Get-PublicFolderDatabase against each server.
4. If the above returns any results the code will continue and kick off the rest of the Public Folder configuration in the next steps.
5. If Get-PublicFolder –identity ‘\NON_IPM_SUBTREE\SCHEDULE+ FREE BUSY’ –server <server> -recurse cmdlet returns any results the code will go to the next step.
6. Loops through each Public Folder and checks if “OU=EXTERNAL (FYDIBOHF25SPDLT)” exists.
7. If step e returns null objects the code kicks off the Install-FreeBusyFolder cmdlet to create the OU=EXTERNAL (FYDIBOHF25SPDLT) folder in Public Folder hierarchy.

I want to pause here for a moment and just highlight that the code executes Get-ExchangeServer and loops through each server. The impact of this is that your first server in the Get-ExchangeServer results will be the oldest server in your organization. So your brandspanking new Exchange 2010 Hybrid servers will be the last servers on this list. So be aware that if you have any firewalls between any of your Exchange Servers we need clear traffic between the Hybrid Servers and the first Exchange server in that list – otherwise you might get the ‘Subtask ValidateConfiguration execution failed: Configure Legacy Exchange Support’ error.

It’s also important that your Public Folder infrastructure replication is working and healthy – otherwise you might experience problems with the Intall-FreeBusyFolder cmdlet.

It’s a requirement to have the Mailbox role on the Hybrid server in the event that you have Public Folders in the organization. Also, you need to create a Public Folder database on the server and ensure (force) that the hierarchy - \NON_IPM_SUBTREE folders and subfolders are replicated to this database by using AddReplicaToPFRecursive.ps1 script

.\AddReplicaToPFRecursive.ps1 –Server OLD2007 –TopPublicFolder \ –ServerToAdd NEW2010
.\AddReplicaToPFRecursive.ps1 –Server OLD2007 –TopPublicFolder \NON_IPM_SUBTREE –ServerToAdd NEW2010
.\AddReplicaToPFRecursive.ps1 –Server OLD2007 –TopPublicFolder \NON_IPM_SUBTREE\ SCHEDULE+ FREE BUSY’ –ServerToAdd NEW2010

Some more information on Hybrid Servers with Public Folders - http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/hh757251(v=exchg.141).aspx

Remember to size your storage correctly for the Hybrid Servers if they will be hosting Public Folder Databases and the usual Public Folder guidance applies - http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/bb629523(v=exchg.141).aspx

Hopefully the above can help with your troubleshooting steps if you receive the dreaded ‘Subtask ValidateConfiguration execution failed: Configure Legacy Exchange Support’ error during your Hybrid Configuration.

Until next time,

Michael

Microsoft D.C. TechFair 2013 showcases the future of technology

Jeffrey Meisner — Fri, 24 May 2013 20:22:00 GMT

Posted by Jeff Meisner
Editor, Microsoft on the Issues

This week, Microsoft Research hosted DC TechFair, providing the Washington, DC community with an inside look at the future trends and technology areas that are changing the face of computing. Our world-class researchers joined the Microsoft Innovation & Policy Center team to demonstrate new discoveries and developments in IT and computing that are changing lives for the better. From new ways to access and learn information about your neighborhood, your country, and the physical world, to overcoming challenges in education, healthcare, and the environment, DC TechFair featured the latest cutting-edge innovations.

Guests joined Dr. Peter Lee, corporate vice president, head of Microsoft Research USA, and other leading researchers for the half-day open house showcasing the future of technology.

[Read more...]

Fostering Tag

...(read more)

Microsoft offers blueprint to help capital markets firms compete in changing landscape

Jennifer Warnick — Fri, 24 May 2013 20:05:00 GMT

The capital markets industry is faced with unprecedented challenges. The industry sees this as “the new normal” and firms are back to the drawing board to develop new business models to drive growth. Fierce global competition, increased regulatory scrutiny and oversight (especially regarding transparency), combined with increasingly complex asset classes, means many firms are navigating uncharted waters, trying to not only compete but also decipher the changing landscape.

Good thing Vincent Fily, Microsoft’s head of worldwide capital markets technology strategy, is offering some timely advice for them to consider.

He wrote the new Microsoft Industry Reference Architecture for Capital Markets (MIRA-CM), a framework that provides clarity on technology capabilities to unlock business innovation for anyone involved in making technology decisions in financial markets, from IT workers to executives.

“Capital Markets firms are striving to be faster and better than their competitors across the globe. At the same time, technology transformation is emerging as a key imperative to help businesses drive growth in this era of regulatory pressure, high levels of competition and a difficult economic environment” Fily said. “MIRA-CM is designed to serve as an innovation tool to help capital markets firms align business needs with technology solutions,” Fily said. “It provides a roadmap for the future with the architectural flexibility to deliver industry solutions on-premise or in the cloud. These capabilities include highly scalable infrastructure, secure data and application platforms, big data and predictive analytics, ultra-low latency processing, customer relationship management, workflow, productivity and collaboration, as well as a connected user experience.”

Microsoft is uniquely positioned to help the capital markets industry address these opportunities via its comprehensive range of mission-critical technology solutions and capabilities, which extend from front to back office, from device to data center, and from on-premise to the cloud.

“Driving profitability of capital markets divisions is becoming increasingly more complex as regulations and a challenging economic environment continues to stress operations. Moreover, the requirement for holistic risk measurement across operations is becoming critical to success,” said Steven R. O’Hanlon, chief executive officer and president of Numerix.

He continued: “The institution that can succeed in bringing big data and analytics together – in real time – will separate itself from the pack and drive a path to profitability in this new market paradigm. The MIRA-CM is a critical blueprint for organizations looking to succeed. The architecture clearly sets an institution on a path to fully leverage readily available Microsoft technologies to achieve the business success expected of trading operations.”

Visit Microsoft’s MIRA-CM page to read the white paper, and to learn more about how capital markets can best utilize technology.

Microsoft also released an Industry Reference Architecture for Banking in 2012.

Jennifer Warnick
Microsoft News Center Staff

PowerView - An error has occurred while loading the model for the item or data source.

Tom S - MSFT — Fri, 24 May 2013 19:56:00 GMT

Even though this is the PowerPivot and Excel Services blog, I felt that adding a blog on this common PowerView error was worthy of a post.

Many times I have seen customers with the error:

"Power View

An error occurred while loading the model for the item or data source '<filename.extension'>. Verify that the connection information is correct and that you have permissions to access the data source."

If you expand the "Show details", you will see Claims errors, but what does that mean?

<detail><ErrorCode xmlns="http://www.microsoft.com/sql/reportingservices">rsCannotRetrieveModel</ErrorCode><HttpStatus xmlns="http://www.microsoft.com/sql/reportingservices">400</HttpStatus><Message xmlns="http://www.microsoft.com/sql/reportingservices">An error occurred while loading the model for the item or data source 'http://microsoft/sites/bidemo/PowerPivot/Tabular.bism'. Verify that the connection information is correct and that you have permissions to access the data source.</Message><HelpLink xmlns="http://www.microsoft.com/sql/reportingservices">http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/? inkId=20476&EvtSrc=Microsoft.ReportingServices.Diagnostics.Utilities.ErrorStrings&EvtID=rsCannotRetrieveModel&ProdName=Microsoft%20SQL%20Server%20Reporting%20Services&ProdVer=11.0.3349.0</HelpLink><ProductName xmlns="http://www.microsoft.com/sql/reportingservices">Microsoft
SQL Server Reporting Services</ProductName><ProductVersion xmlns="http://www.microsoft.com/sql/reportingservices">11.0.3349.0</ProductVersion><ProductLocaleId xmlns="http://www.microsoft.com/sql/reportingservices">127</ProductLocaleId><OperatingSystem xmlns="http://www.microsoft.com/sql/reportingservices">OsIndependent</OperatingSystem><CountryLocaleId xmlns="http://www.microsoft.com/sql/reportingservices">1033</CountryLocaleId><MoreInformation xmlns="http://www.microsoft.com/sql/reportingservices"><Source>ReportingServicesLibrary</Source><Message
msrs:ErrorCode="rsCannotRetrieveModel" msrs:HelpLink="http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkId=20476&EvtSrc=Microsoft.ReportingServices.Diagnostics.Utilities.ErrorStrings&EvtID=rsCannotRetrieveModel&ProdName=Microsoft%20SQL%20Server%20Reporting%20Services&ProdVer=11.0.3349.0"
xmlns:msrs="http://www.microsoft.com/sql/reportingservices">An error occurred while loading the model for the item or data source 'http://microsoft/sites/bidemo/PowerPivot/Tabular.bism'. Verify that the connection information is correct and that you have permissions to access the data source.</Message><MoreInformation><Source>Microsoft.ReportingServices.ProcessingCore</Source><Message msrs:ErrorCode="rsErrorImpersonatingUser" msrs:HelpLink=http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/? inkId=20476&EvtSrc=Microsoft.ReportingServices.Diagnostics.Utilities.ErrorStrings&EvtID=rsErrorImpersonatingUser&ProdName=Microsoft%20SQL%20Server%20Reporting%20Services&ProdVer=11.0.3349.0 xmlns:msrs="http://www.microsoft.com/sql/reportingservices">Cannot
impersonate user for data source 'TemporaryDataSource'.</Message><MoreInformation><Source>Microsoft.ReportingServices.ServiceRuntime</Source><Message msrs:ErrorCode= "rsClaimsToWindowsTokenError" msrs:HelpLink=http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/? inkId=20476&EvtSrc=Microsoft.ReportingServices.Diagnostics.Utilities.ErrorStrings&EvtID=rsClaimsToWindowsTokenError&ProdName=Microsoft%20SQL%20Server%20Reporting%20Services&ProdVer=11.0.3349.0 xmlns:msrs= "http://www.microsoft.com/sql/reportingservices">Cannot convert claims identity to windows token. </Message><MoreInformation> <Source>Microsoft.SharePoint</Source><Message>Could not retrieve a valid Windows identity.</Message><MoreInformation><Source>mscorlib</Source><Message>Access is enied.</Message></MoreInformation> </MoreInformation></MoreInformation></MoreInformation></MoreInformation><Warnings xmlns=http://www.microsoft.com/sql/reportingservices /></detail>

If you want to analyze this more you can use Rodney Viana's tool to analyze the C2WTS:

Troubleshooting Claims to Windows NT Token Service (c2WTS) in SharePoint 2010 may be difficult if you don’t know where to start

http://blogs.msdn.com/b/rodneyviana/archive/2011/07/19/troubleshooting-claims-to-windows-nt-token-service-c2wts-in-sharepoint-2010-may-be-difficult-if-you-don-t-know-where-to-start.aspx

I ran Rodney's tool and saw:

Testing Service c2WTS
+- Service c2WTS found
+- Service c2WTS is running
+- Path of service: C:\Program Files\Windows Identity Foundation\v3.5\c2wtshost.exe
+- Config File: C:\Program Files\Windows Identity Foundation\v3.5\c2wtshost.exe.config
+- Service Logon: SYSTEM\NT AUTHORITY
----- start of config file ----
<?xml version="1.0"?>
<configuration>
<configSections>
    <section name="windowsTokenService" type="Microsoft.IdentityModel.WindowsTokenService.Configuration.WindowsTokenServiceSection, Microsoft.IdentityModel.WindowsTokenService, Version=3.5.0.0, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=31bf3856ad364e35" />
</configSections>
<startup>
    <supportedRuntime version="v4.0" />
    <supportedRuntime version="v2.0.50727" />
</startup>
<windowsTokenService>
    
    <allowedCallers>
      <clear />
      <add value="WSS_WPG" />
    </allowedCallers>
</windowsTokenService>
</configuration>
----- end of config file ----
Retrieving security groups/users allowed to use the service from config file
+- WSS_WPG
Trying to login .........
Using current Windows Credentials
***** c2WTS could not provide a valid Windows Token. Reason: WTS0003: The caller is not authorized to access the service.

Server stack trace:
   at System.ServiceModel.Channels.ServiceChannel.ThrowIfFaultUnderstood(Message reply, MessageFault fault, String action, MessageVersion version, FaultConverter faultConverter)
   at System.ServiceModel.Channels.ServiceChannel.HandleReply(ProxyOperationRuntime operation, ProxyRpc& rpc)
   at System.ServiceModel.Channels.ServiceChannel.Call(String action, Boolean oneway, ProxyOperationRuntime operation, Object[] ins, Object[] outs, TimeSpan timeout)
   at System.ServiceModel.Channels.ServiceChannelProxy.InvokeService(IMethodCallMessage methodCall, ProxyOperationRuntime operation)
   at System.ServiceModel.Channels.ServiceChannelProxy.Invoke(IMessage message)

Exception rethrown at [0]:
   at System.Runtime.Remoting.Proxies.RealProxy.HandleReturnMessage(IMessage reqMsg, IMessage retMsg)
   at System.Runtime.Remoting.Proxies.RealProxy.PrivateInvoke(MessageData& msgData, Int32 type)
   at Microsoft.IdentityModel.WindowsTokenService.S4UClient.IS4UService_dup.UpnLogon(String upn, Int32 pid)
   at Microsoft.IdentityModel.WindowsTokenService.S4UClient.<>c__DisplayClass1.<UpnLogon>b__0(IS4UService_dup channel)
   at Microsoft.IdentityModel.WindowsTokenService.S4UClient.CallService(Func`2 contractOperation)
   at c2WTSTest.Form1.button2_Click(Object sender, EventArgs e)

Now Verifying if user msft\test has rights on c2WTS
+- User msft\test has no access to the service
*** Analysis Complete ***

The first highlighted item tells me the account that was running the C2WTS: SYSTEM\NT AUTHORITY

The second highlighted item gives me the error: c2WTS could not provide a valid Windows Token. Reason: WTS0003: The caller is not authorized to access the service.

The error tells me that the account running the Claims to Windows Token Service lacks permissions/security.

Steps to resolve the issue.

I changed the Claims to Windows Token Service to a managed account and then applied the below changes (Note: you can attempt to apply the below changes to the existing account running the C2WTS):

a. Add the service account to the local Administrators Groups.

b. In local security policy (secpol.msc) under user rights assignment give the service account the following permissions:

i. Act as part of the operating system

ii. Impersonate a client after authentication

iii. Log on as a service

Restart IIS

After making this change the error went away.

Windows Group Policy and Logon Impact

ServerAndToolsBlogsTeam — Fri, 24 May 2013 19:56:00 GMT

You can make decisions as you design and deploy your Group Policy Objects (GPOs) that will have an impact on how quickly your Windows desktops start and become usable to your users. Some of these decisions are obvious, while many are not. This post will guide you through some of the ways Group Policy can impact performance as well as some of the improvements we made for Windows 8.

See the full post at http://blogs.technet.com/b/grouppolicy/archive/2013/05/23/group-policy-and-logon-impact.aspx.

Introducing our latest SQL Server 2008 Microsoft Certified Master - Bob Pusateri

boB 'The Tool Man' Taylor — Fri, 24 May 2013 19:35:36 GMT

Bob started working with SQL Server 2000 when he was in high school. Graduating with a degree in Computer Engineering from the University of
Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, he started his career as a .NET software developer. After two years he moved to the database team, and has worked in
database administration roles ever since.

Bob enjoys performance tuning, working with VLDBs, learning everything he can about SQL Server internals, and finding efficient and elegant
solutions to problems. He is currently Database Administrator for the Northwestern University Medical Enterprise Data Warehouse, where he maintains
SQL Server databases over 20TB in size.

Bob is a member of both Chicagoland chapters of the Professional Association for SQL Server and enjoys blogging and speaking at
user groups and SQL Saturday events. More than anything else, he loves spending time with his wife, Michelle, and their cat, Oliver.

Blog: http://www.bobpusateri.com

Twitter: @SQLBob

Introducing our latest SQL Server 2008 Microsoft Certified Master - Uwe Ricken

boB 'The Tool Man' Taylor — Fri, 24 May 2013 19:32:10 GMT

Uwe Ricken is working with IT-systems since 1991 and especially with SQL Server
since version 6.0. He started with the development of database applications in 1998 with a professional CRM-System based on Microsoft products (Microsoft
Office and SQL Server). Since 2008 he focused completely on SQL Server and is working in 3rd level support for banks, insurances and world wide acting
industries.

Helping others and sharing knowledge is another passion so you find him quite often in the Microsoft forums for SQL Server.

If he’s not working with SQL Server he’s writing about his daily experiences with SQL Server in his blog.

Due to the fact that most blogs are English he decided to publish in German language only.

His hobbies are diving, driving his motorcycle and Italian sport cars from
Maranello.

One dream is a tour on the road 66 across the USA.

Uwe blogs at http://db-berater.blogspot.de (German only)