April, 2010

When you think of the cloud you most likely are not thinking of stratus, cumulus, or cirrus.   You are probably thinking about the many different online service offerings like:

• Microsoft Exchange Online
• Microsoft SharePoint Online
• Azure (Windows and SQL)
• Microsoft Office Web Apps

And so on.

My guess is you are not thinking about your Windows Server 2008 R2 servers in your on-premise data centers.  More importantly you should be, Windows Server 2008 R2 provides not only solid component in your data center as we have talked about in the past:

• The Giant in Your Data Center
• "To Windows Server, the Quiet King of Communication and Collaboration!" 

Windows Server 2008 R2 provides a key foundational piece in the architecture that allows us to break down the barriers of communication, collaboration, and management between on-premise, private cloud and public cloud computing. 

When you think about the cloud, you might be thinking the same way I thought, do I go to the cloud or do I keep my datacenter on-premise?  My answer, you can and should do both.  The best thing, when I think about Microsoft and the cloud, is you will continue leverage your existing IT skill sets.  In addition your and your business has the flexibility to either develop and deploy private cloud solutions or to connect these solutions to the public clouds from hosting providers and Microsoft.

This flexibility to run your applications locally or in the cloud is a key benefit that Kelley Blue Book.  As Andy Lapin, Director of Enterprise Architecture for Kelley Blue Book states:

“It is nice to have a flexible solution like Windows Azure where we don’t have to pay any upfront costs to get something deployed quickly.  We have the flexibility that lets us figure out things as we go at a low cost.”

You can read more about how Kelley Blue Book leverages the cloud here: Kelley Blue Book Azure Case Study.

The ability to leverage your existing IT knowledge and investments is a key component to making the cloud work for you. Another big reason to leverage the cloud is the scalability it can offer your business, whether you need 10 or 10,000 servers for your workload the cloud can dynamically provide this for your organization.  It truly provides you a just in time capability that traditional on-premise data centers have struggled with in the past.

So the question is not, “To Cloud or not To Cloud”.  Rather how does your datacenter talk to the cloud.

Let me just say:

THANK YOU!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

for everyone who came to the Windows Server IT Pro Community tour.  I had a great time travelling all over the district and an even better time meeting everyone!  We had over 286 folks over the tour, not bad for an evening event, and chances are not on the normal meeting time for many of you.    We visited  9 cities, Cleveland (twice), Grand Rapids, Southfield, Louisville, Columbus, Cincinnati, Nashville, Indianapolis, and Dayton   The true purpose of the road show is three fold was to help me jumpstart my participation in the local IT Pro community.  Remember I want to be a part of your community and please let me know how I and Microsoft can best support your local efforts.  As I discovered over the tour your passion for technology and the community was simply fantastic to see and be a part of.  I could not have done the tour with out your support!

I had several questions and here are the answers, I am sure I missed some, if I did let me know.

Q: Can the Active Directory Administrative Center (ADAC) run on Windows 7 or other clients?
A: Yes you can you need to load the RSAT tools Remote Server Administration Tools for Windows 7. The RSAT tools can be installed on Enterprise, Professional, or Ultimate editions of Windows 7. After you install the tools, you will go to add/remove windows features and add ADAC.

Q: How do you do a bare metal backup and restore to a different hardware?
A: Yes you can, take a look here for more information: Backup and Recovery Overview for Windows Server 2008 R2 but better yet check out Chapter 8 of my book:

Microsoft Windows Server 2008 R2 Administration Instant Reference ( I know shameless plug)

Q: Can you use the Microsoft Deployment Toolkit (MDT) for non-ms operating systems?
A: Not that I am aware of, however you can use SCOM to help manage those systems.

Q: What are the Windows System Resource Manager (WSRM) requirements?
A: It does require Windows Server 2008 R2 for the most current version, take a look here for more information: Windows System Resource Manager

Q: How does bit locker compare to truecrpyt PC Gaurdian?
A: While I could really not find any information on truecrypt, I think my spelling is wrong, can someone point me to the tool or let me know what the comparison is. Here is some info on BitLocker. BitLocker uses Advanced Encryption Standard (AES) as its encryption algorithm with configurable key lengths of 128 or 256 bits, as well as an optional Diffuser. The default encryption setting is AES-128 with Diffuser, but the options are configurable by using Group Policy. For additional information about the BitLocker encryption method: (AES-CBC + Elephant diffuser Here is a good FAQ: BitLocker Drive Encryption in Windows 7: Frequently Asked Questions

Q: Are GPO’s recycled?
A: Yes, but sorta. J You can use Active Directory Recycle Bin to restore all deleted objects that were previously stored in AD DS. However, if you use Active Directory Recycle Bin to restore deleted Group Policy objects (GPOs) or Exchange-related objects that were previously stored in AD DS, any application-specific data for these objects that was not stored in AD DS will not be restored. I would recommend that you use the Group Policy Management snap-in to back up and restore GPOs and then manually re-create links to the appropriate site, domain, or OU objects in AD DS. For more information: Back Up, Restore, Import, and Copy Group Policy Objects

For more information check out Chapter 4 of the book:

Microsoft Windows Server 2008 R2 Administration Instant Reference (hehe)

Again please let me know how I can support your efforts, you are an email away mhester@microsoft.com.  Talk with you soon!

Well my great friend and mentor Kerrie Meyler did it again.  She just recently released a book on System Center Operations Manager 2007.  I am still waiting for my copy, but I am sure all you system center gurus will love it!  If you have the book let me know what you think!

You can get the book here: System Center Operations Manager (OpsMgr) 2007 R2 Unleashed: Supplement to System Center Operations Manager 2007 Unleashed 

What's in the book:

• Supplements what is already available in System Center Operations Manager 2007 Unleashed (Sams, 2008) by providing in-depth R2 coverage of CrossPlat, Windows 2008 and SQL Server 2008 platform support, plus numerous other enhancements.
• Provides additional depth on topics of interest to OpsMgr users by tapping the expertise of community subject matter experts. These include:
• PowerShell and the OpsMgr Shell
• OpsMgr and Microsoft's Business Server Solutions
• Virtualization
• Management Pack Authoring
• Advanced ACS topics
• Distributed Applications examples
• Targeting
• Monitoring Distributed Environments
• High Availability
• Business Continuity
• Visio Add-In for OpsMgr 2007
• Tuning Management Packs - updated for R2
• Compilation of over 300 URLs related to OpsMgr topics

In this episode, Brian and I, we continue our talk on what to measure when you want to lose weight.  Sure you know about the scale, but is that only useful tool.  No, you could even just use belt loops!  Learn about the other tools that can help you to change your life and how you measure success.

Comment if there are particular topics you would like us to cover.

I was surfing around the web and noticed this article from COMPUTERWORLD:  MSDN, TechNet get Office 2010 this week .  With me being a TechNet subscriber, I was interested and checked out the article, and just saw tweets from Paul Thurrott and Mary Jo Foley mentioning about the download.

Upon further review of the article, I saw this, right in the beginning of the article:

Subscribers to Microsoft Corp.'s developer and IT professional services are first in line to get Office 2010, which will be released to MSDN and TechNet on Thursday, the company has confirmed.

MSDN (Microsoft Developer Network) and TechNet subscribers can download the production versions of Office 2010 starting April 22, five days before volume license customers with Software Assurance will be able to obtain the new application suite.

Well today being April 22nd, I decided to check for myself and sure enough, guess what I saw in the TechNet Subscribers download center? 

Yup that is right I saw Office 2010 RTM (x86 and X64), happily downloading now!

BTW shameless plugs, if you want  to get a NEW TechNet Plus Direct subscription you can save 25% with this code: TNITQ406

This offer is only for NEW TechNet Plus Direct orders only and is only valid for redemption in the US.  Offer is valid 4/1/10 to 6/30/10, subject to change

Read more about the TechNet subscription offer here: No Fooling: Use the New TechNet Subscription code TNITQ406 to save 25% for your Favorite IT Pro

If you want to attend a live launch event, please check out this post for cities and dates: Congratulations Office 2010 and SharePoint 2010 RTM and come learn about it at Launch!

Hey everyone and I apologize for being late, I am sure some of these questions are from early March and some of the events.  So here are the questions.

Q: How big can a VHD drive be?
A: The limit is 2 TB.

Q: Can you support ISCI San an Hyper-V?
A: Well kinda, here is a good article that will hopefully clear up the confusion. Booting Hyper-V VMs off of iSCSI?

Q: Where can I find the Deployment steps and downloads?
A: For deployment take a look at this site for lite touch deployment: Lite Touch Deployment Feature Team Guide

Q: Can RIS install Windows 7?
A: Yes, although I have not tested it, Vista and 7 share similar deployment methods, you can find more info here: Windows Vista Deployment Enhancements

Q: Does WDS require AD?
A: Yes, take a look here: Windows Deployment Services Getting Started Guide 

Q: Does WDS use TFTP?
A: Yes, you can take a look at how it is used here: WDS TFTP Server

Q: Is there a detection tool for hardware assisted virtualization?
A: Yes and here it is, Microsoft® Hardware-Assisted Virtualization Detection Tool

In this episode Brian has a great conversation with Ray, who like many of us struggled with the roller coaster of working out and eating right in the summer, but going back to the bad habits in the winter. He shares with us what snapped him out of this yo-yo weight loss and what he now does different.  He also teaches us that sometimes there is more to it than just the number on the scale.

I am very excited to announce the RTM of Microsoft Office 2010, SharePoint 2010, Visio 2010, and Project 2010.  This is a great milestone!  Guess what, I am also not the only one who is excited:

“I'm deeply impressed by the many ways Microsoft has improved on the solid foundation of Office 2007.”  - Ed Mendelson, PC Magazine Microsoft Office 2010 Beta

“…Office 2010 rolled into beta and was even better than Office 2007. Seriously, have you used the beta? It rocks out loud. I may spend a lot of time in the cloud, but I also often have to produce publication-ready documents. Besides, have you ever tried to do a mail merge in Google Docs? Of course you haven’t, because you can’t.”  - Chris Dawson, ZDNet Can I be a Windows, Apple, Linux, and Google guy all at once?

"Visual Studio 2010 includes tools for SharePoint development that will make it much more easy for developers to create and deploy SharePoint applications. Now Visual Studio developers can target SharePoint as a platform." - Mike Gualtieri, Forrester  Microsoft to offer second beta for Visual Studio 2010

"It is not just line-of-business apps, CRM or BI that can be built; it is a way to connect to everything.” - Joel Oleson - Quest Software Platform theme emerges with SharePoint 2010

So when is the next important date, the launch of Office 2010 and SharePoint 2010 on May 12^th, and the start of General Availability this June.  Do you want to attend a launch find, either go to www.technetevents.com or click on a city (sorted by city) below:

Good morning we have some new downloads to beta’s of Office 2010 and SharePoint 2010.  Check them out below. 

Attend a launch event by going to www.technetevents.com

We are coming to a city near you and we want to see you at the events!  We are going to talk about Office 2010 and SharePoint 2010.  Come out and spend some time hearing how these products can rock your world!  Here are just a small sampling of the cities we are heading to, we are going national and if you do not see your city on the list go to www.technetevents.com to find the city closest to you and REGISTER today, seating is limited!

You have probably heard the term MDOP before and wondered what it is and why it is important to you.  MDOP stands for the Microsoft Desktop Optimization Pack, and it will help take your Windows 7 deployments to the next level.   MDOP provides value to your existing infrastructure, but more important can offer you some key efficiencies.  With the 2 new recently released components (App-V 4.6 RTM and MED-V 1.0 SP1 RC) in MDOP, this will help you to deploy Windows 7 and Office 2010 faster and easier.    Both of the two new enhancements provide great virtualization enhancements that allow you get your enterprise desktops up and running quickly.

In the case of App-V 4.6 (Application Virtualization), it literally allows your users to access their applications from anywhere. App-V 4.6 also has the added benefit of providing you easier deployment and improved management capabilities.  I really like this quote from Ron Reye, Director of Technology, Bethel Park School District about App-V 4.6 and the efficiency it can offer you and your business:

BPSD has much greater control over its application environment. A virtualized application is a managed application. Using the App-V management console, we have visibility into applications that we never had in the past. This helps us to address issues immediately instead of having to send a technician out to troubleshoot and fix problems.

With MED-V, this gives you a solution to help with compatibility in the deployment of your applications.  This is some cases will allow you to get around traditional deployment blockers, like application or hardware compatibility.  This quote from  David Feng, IT Director, Sporton International sums up the value of MED-V and compatibility nicely:

“Without MED-V, we wouldn’t be able to deploy Windows 7 enterprise wide. Now, we don’t have to worry whether an older application is compatible with Windows 7. We just run it with MED-V, and it works. While Windows XP Mode is great for small implementations, it isn’t designed for an enterprise environment because it does not include centralized deployment and management capabilities.”

When you combine MDOP with your Windows 7 deployments, not only will it help your deployments go faster.  It will have the added benefit of streamlining future software deployments and give you enhanced management capabilities. 

I know what your thinking that is great but we need to step back for second, how do I convince the business to deploy Windows 7.  More than most likely Snap, Search, Jump Lists, and Quick Preview are probably not enough to convince the business to deploy.  You most likely have to prove 3 key points to management, that go hand in hand:

• Cost Savings
• Business Efficiency
• Compatibility

MDOP is designed to help you with business efficiency and compatibly but what about your checkbook!   You need to show real and tangible business value.  You need to take a look at the ROI Calculator.  We worked with Alinean to create an that enterprises can use to find out the savings Windows 7 may offer their company. This well help show serous savings for Windows 7.  The results of the calculator may surprise you. 

We have also done several studies on cost savings. We did three in depth customer studies so far, we estimate customers may see overall Direct IT cost savings in the range of $111–to-$191 per PC per year. What does that mean?  For each thousand PCs in the enterprise, this equates to $111-191K direct IT cost savings. To prove the point even further take a look a webcast Ben Gray and Jeffrey North of Forrester discussed the results of a Total Economic Impact (TEI) study here,

How do you get MDOP?

MDOP is available to Software Assurance customers only.  So if your are an existing MDOP customer you can access App-V 4.6 by downloading MDOP 2010 at the Microsoft Volume Licensing Site (MVLS). If you would like to test MDOP 2010 before purchasing, it can be downloaded from your MSDN or TechNet subscriptions today!

In addition to App-V and MED-V mention above MDOP also includes:

• Microsoft Advanced Group Policy Management (AGPM) enhances governance and control over Group Policy through robust change management, versioning, and role-based administration.
• Microsoft Asset Inventory Service (AIS) is a hosted service that collects software inventory data and translates it into actionable business intelligence.
• Microsoft Diagnostics and Recovery Toolset (DaRT) reduces downtime by accelerating troubleshooting, repair, and data recovery of unbootable Windows-based desktops.
• Microsoft System Center Desktop Error Monitoring (DEM) provides insights into application and operating system failures, allowing helpdesk to be more proactive in managing PC problems, without installing an agent to the endpoint.

MDOP can help you get there, quickly, efficiently and with cost savings.

If you want to learn more take a look at two great posts:

• MDOP 2010 Opens Doors for Faster Windows 7 Deployment 
• http://blogs.zdnet.com/microsoft/?p=5338 (a good post written by Mary-Jo Foley)

Happy April, we had a change of the program and the code, the new code to get a discount !  I hope everyone is starting off with a great spring.  What a better way to celebrate Spring than giving your favorite IT Pro a new TechNet subscription and you can save 25% with TNITQ406!!!!!

Just Use TNITQ406 when ordering your new subscription.

Click here to get your TechNet Subscription:

Purchase a TechNet Subscription

Then just enter the Promotion Code:  TNITQ406

If you have not checked out what you get with a TechNet Subscription here are a few of the benefits:

• Full-version software licensed for evaluation purposes; includes Microsoft operating systems, servers, and Office System software as well as Beta software: pre-release versions of Microsoft software to keep up to date on the latest technologies.
• Two (2) complimentary technical support incidents and a 20% discount on additional phone support incidents you purchase.

And of course you still get the TechNet Library containing the Microsoft Knowledge Base, security updates, service packs resource kits, utilities, technical training, and product documentation to keep your systems and IT skills up to date!!!!

Some details about the offer:

This promo code is only for new subscriptions, you can use the code for renewals as well, however you are already saving 33% on renewals (but if you use my code it makes me look like I am doing my job :-)  Again we are having a bit of a contest so please use my code: TNITQ406. 

So go get your TechNet Subscription today, and remember use the promotion code: TNITQ406 to save 25%!!!!!!!!

This offer is only for NEW TechNet Plus Direct orders only and is only valid for redemption in the US.  Offer is valid 4/1/10 to 6/30/10, subject to change

[UPDATE] If you get a 1025 error, please drop me an email by using the email link on the left.  I appologize for any issues.