Microsoft IT created an efficient, flexible Research and Development (R&D) facility that serves the development and test environments at Microsoft. Learn how Microsoft IT leveraged the flexibility and density of the facility, along with the supporting network to develop a private cloud infrastructure that uses cutting edge technology to provide infrastructure as a service and support the needs of the internal businesses.
http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/hh378174.aspx
Microsoft IT is investing in Microsoft cloud offerings at every level to meet and exceed the needs of the business. This video provides insight on the requirements which motivate investments and how IT services are planning and integrating with the cloud offerings.
http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/edge/how-microsoft-it-is-moving-to-the-cloud-to-meet-and-exceed-the-needs-of-the-business.aspx
After decades of using mainframe technology, National Bank of Kuwait wanted a scalable server infrastructure that the IT department could rely on to deliver services to employees and customers. However, because of power capacity issues, it was not feasible for the bank to use hundreds of physical servers. In 2008, National Bank of Kuwait implemented Windows Server 2008 Hyper-V technology, in addition to the Microsoft System Center family of products. It virtualized 75 percent of a portion of its infrastructure (30 physical hosts with 125 virtual machines) and developed a private cloud infrastructure. The bank’s virtualized infrastructure costs 40 percent less than a physical infrastructure, and the licensing costs are 20 percent less. The bank improved its agility and ability to respond to business needs, and it now has an infrastructure that will help support the bank’s growth.
Read the case study here
Microsoft MEA Center of expertise is looking for 15 Fresh graduate for 5 month Internship program Microsoft MEA CoEx is hiring for the Young ranger program; 5 month internship that provide condensed detailed knowledge of Microsoft solutions. Applicants should have a computer engineering or computer science degree. Plus fluent English speaker and French is a plus. If interested please email me your resume at b-monael@microsoft.com
Jeff Woolsey published a great article about VMware VTax and Hyper-V 8, go and read the article here
Enjoy!
We are pleased to announce the release of the new Linux 3.1 Integration Services and support for the following Linux distributions as supported guests within Hyper-V:
The new Linux ISs are available here:
http://www.microsoft.com/download/en/details.aspx?id=26837
The following features are included in the Linux 3.1 Integration Services release:
To all of the Datacenter gurus in MEA, feel free to join our Facebook group Datacenter gurus in MEA to get and share the knowledge… Looking forward to see all of the gurus.
The System Center team is pleased to announce the Community Evaluation Program. The program is designed to provide IT professionals a structured approach to evaluating System Center and Forefront products before their final release. Members of this program are able to evaluate early versions of products with guidance from the product team and by sharing of experiences and best practices among a community of peers. Multiple programs are now open and accepting applications including:
Configuration Manager 2012 Beta 2 - Program starts April 2011
· Download the Datasheet
· Apply to Configuration Manager CEP
Virtual Machine Manager 2012 Beta - Program starts May 2011
· Apply to Virtual Machine Manager CEP
Forefront Identity Manager 2010 R2 - Program starts June 2011
· Apply to Forefront Identity Manager CEP
Orchestrator 2012 Beta - Program starts June 2011
· Apply to Orchestrator CEP
Operations Manager 2012 Beta - Program starts July 2011
· Apply to Operations Manager CEP
To apply and for more information about the programs, please visit: https://connect.microsoft.com/site1211
That's right; it's as simple as that!
Yalla Apps, the Windows Phone 7 developer portal that helps developers publish their Apps to the Marketplace, is launching the Yalla App-a-thon competition.
Yalla Apps is now giving away Fable 3 or Halo:Reach Games for XBOX 360® (or PC) to the first 100 members that publish an App to the Windows Phone 7 Marketplace via the Yalla Apps portal. And that’s not it – the developer who publishes the best app of the month during May and June will also win a Windows Phone 7!
More details about the Yalla App-a-thon competition can be found on http://www.facebook.com/yallaapps?sk=app_217668621584131
Yalla Apps is a widely embraced developer portal that allows developers from the Middle East and Africa to publish their apps to the Windows Phone 7 Marketplace.
Recently, Yalla Apps announced new platform enhancements and services such as:
With Yalla Apps every Windows Phone 7 developer can be a winner!
We just released the post for the enhanced virtualization support for Exchange 2010 which include UM and running DAG over Hyper-V cluster with live migration enabled. Read the post Here
Copied from the Virtualization blog
One common refrain we hear from you is that you appreciate the fact we’re driving down the costs of virtualization and adding more and more capabilities in the box such as Live Migration (LM) and High Availability (HA). We’re happy to do it and we’re just getting started. :) To use both LM and HA, these require shared storage. This shared storage can be in the forms of SAS, iSCSI or Fiber Channel SAN. For many environments this isn't an issue, but there are some specific scenarios where customers need LM and HA and the cost of a dedicated SAN is a blocker. For example,
Wouldn't it be great to have another option? We think so too. Today, as a big THANK YOU to our Windows Server 2008 R2 customers we are taking another step in lowering the barriers and making it even easier to take advantage of Windows Server 2008 R2 Hyper-V High Availability and Live Migration.
>> We are making the Microsoft iSCSI Software Target available AS A FREE DOWNLOAD. <<
What does this mean? It means you can install the Microsoft iSCSI software target on a Windows Server 2008 R2 system and use it as shared storage for Live Migration. Interested? Here are a few key pointers.
The full announcement about the release of the Microsoft iSCSI Software Target from Jose Barreto
The Microsoft iSCSI Software Target Download
Configuring the Microsoft iSCSI Software Target with Hyper-V blog from Jose
============================================================================ FAQ ============================================================================ Q: The Microsoft iSCSI Software Target is now free. Is it supported in a production environment?
A: Yes. The Microsoft iSCSI Software Target is supported in a production environment. The Hyper-V team regularly tests with the MS iSCSI Software Target and it works great with Hyper-V. ============================================================================ Q: On what operating systems is the Microsoft iSCSI Software Target supported?
A: The Microsoft iSCSI Software Target is supported for Windows Server 2008 R2 Standard, Enterprise and Datacenter Editions. ============================================================================ Q: Can the free Microsoft Hyper-V Server 2008 R2 use the free Microsoft iSCSI Software Target?
A: Yes and No. Yes, Microsoft Hyper-V Server 2008 R2 can act as a client to access virtual machines via iSCSI. The way to do that is to type iscsicpl.exe at the command prompt to bring up the Microsoft iSCSI Initiator (client) and configure it to access an iSCSI Target (server). However, you can't install the Microsoft iSCSI Software Target on a Microsoft Hyper-V Server. The Microsoft iSCSI Software Target requires Windows Server 2008 R2.
Use server virtualization to consolidate Microsoft SQL Server 2008 R2 database servers to reduce hardware, software, and operational costs. You can ensure business continuity at low cost and further enhance application availability and create an agile virtualization solution that reduces deployment time and lets you adapt your database infrastructure to changes in hardware utilization quickly or capacity requirements with minimal downtime.
Read the details here
System Center Virtual Machine Manager 2012 delivers industry leading fabric management, virtual machine management and services deployment in private cloud environments. Virtual Machine Manager 2012 offers key new features that include hypervisor creation and management, network management, storage management, private cloud creation, self-service usage and service creation. It features deep investments in server application virtualization, service design and service modeling all of which can be used to efficiently offer an on-premises private cloud.
http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/en/details.aspx?FamilyID=e0fbb298-8f02-47e7-88be-0614bc44ee32&utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+MicrosoftDownloadCenter+%28Microsoft+Download+Center%29
This poster provides a visual reference for understanding key Hyper-V technologies in Windows Server 2008 R2 Service Pack 1. It focuses on architecture, snapshots, live migration, virtual networking, storage, RemoteFX and Dynamic Memory. You can use this poster in conjunction with the previously published Windows Server 2008 Hyper-v Component Architecture, Windows Server 2008 and Windows Server 2008 R2 component posters (see http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/en/details.aspx?displaylang=en&FamilyID=5567b22a-8c47-4840-a88d-23146fd93151, http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkId=193499 and http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkId=179116). This poster has been updated for Windows Server 2008 R2 Service Pack 1 with Dynamic Memory and RemoteFX.
Download the poster from here
Just one week after Microsoft Management Summit 2011 (MMS), Microsoft Learning will be hosting an exclusive three-day Jump Start online class specially tailored for VMWare and Microsoft virtualization technology pros. A “Jump Start” course is “team-taught” by two expert instructors in an engaging radio talk show style format.
In support of the “VMWare Compete” initiative, registration for “Microsoft Virtualization for VMWare Professionals” is open now and will be delivered as a FREE online class on March 29-31, 2010 from 10:00am-4:00pm PDT. Our last two events -- Windows Phone 7 Jump Start (over 1,400 live students and more than 418,000 views of the videos) and Developing Cloud Applications with the Windows Azure Platform" -- were very popular and we’re excited to see registrations start to come in for this three-day course.
Who is the target audience for this training?
Suggested prerequisite skills include real-world experience with Windows Server 2008 R2, virtualization and datacenter management. The course is tailored to these types of roles:
· IT Professional
· IT Decision Maker
· Network Administrators
· Storage/Infrastructure Administrators & Architects.
What’s the high-level overview?
· This cutting edge course will feature expert instruction and real-world demonstrations of Hyper-V and brand new releases from System Center 2012 (many of which will be announced just one week earlier at MMS).
· Day 1 will focus on “Platform” (Hyper-V, differentiating VMWare terminology/features, high availability & clustering)
· Day 2 will focus on “Management” (System Center Suite, SCVMM 2012, Opalis, Private Cloud solutions)
· Day 3 will focus on “VDI” (VDI Infrastructure/architecture, v-Alliance, application delivery via VDI)
· Full outline available on the registration page
· Every section will be team-taught by two of the most respected authorities on virtualization technologies: Microsoft Technical Evangelist Symon Perriman and leading Hyper-V, VMWare, and XEN infrastructure consultant, Corey Hynes
Session One | “Platform” | March 29, 2011 | 10am-4pm PDT
· Virtualization 360 Overview
· Microsoft Hyper-V Deployment Options & Architecture
· Differentiating Microsoft and VMware (terminology, etc.)
· High Availability & Clustering
Session Two | “Management” | March 30, 2011 | 10am-4pm PDT
· System Center Suite Overview w/ focus on DPM
· Virtual Machine Manager 2012 | Part 1
· Virtual Machine Manager 2012 | Part 2
· Automation with System Center Opalis & PowerShell
· Private Cloud Solutions, Architecture & VMM SSP 2.0
Session Three | “VDI” | March 31, 2011 | 10am-4pm PDT
· Virtual Desktop Infrastructure (VDI) Architecture | Part 1
· Virtual Desktop Infrastructure (VDI) Architecture | Part 2
· v-Alliance Solution Overview
· Application Delivery for VDI
Hurry up and register here
Microsoft has released Windows 7 and Windows Server 2008 R2 Service Pack 1 (SP1) to manufacturing. SP1 is a combined service pack for both operating systems encapsulated in a single installer. Based on business value, customers all over the world continue to deploy Windows 7 and Windows Server 2008 R2. With the availability of SP1, there really is no better time for customers to migrate.
Windows 7 Service Pack 1 is an update that does the following:
Windows Server 2008 R2 SP1 includes RemoteFX and Dynamic Memory which provides customers with the ability to take advantage of enhanced server and desktop virtualization.
Microsoft believes that virtualization is a stepping stone to cloud computing. Microsoft provides all of the necessary elements including fully integrated server, virtualization, and management solutions for customers and partners to deploy private clouds today.
Download the Service Pack from here
Microsoft’s search engine Bing, and even Yahoo, are providing users with more accurate searches than their rival Google, according to a report out this week.
Bing and Yahoo, which is now using Microsoft’s Bing search technology, had the highest search success rates last month, reported Experian Hitwise, an Internet monitoring firm. More than 81 percent of searches on their sites led users to visit a Web site.
However, Google, the dominant player in the search market, wasn’t as successful with its January searches.
According to Experian Hitwise, Google had a 65 percent success rate.
Read the full article at http://www.macworld.com/article/157794/2011/02/bing_google_accuracy.html?lsrc=rss_products_mac_accessories
Very interesting article about SCVMM 2012 on ZDNet http://www.zdnet.co.uk/blogs/zdnet-uk-first-take-10013312/microsoft-system-center-virtual-machine-manager-2012-10021598/
Copied from http://blogs.msdn.com/b/dgoldman/archive/2011/01/28/the-official-stance-on-address-list-segregation.aspx?wa=wsignin1.0
Since the early days of Exchange Server our customers have used various methods to provide different views of the Global Address List (GAL) to subsets of users within the same Exchange Organization. This segmentation allowed administrators to optimize address lists in large companies, creating smaller 'virtual' organizations, with users only able to see the users they need to see. This segmentation still allowed users to share common features in Exchange such as Public Folders, Transport Rules and High Availability constructs.
Historically the method used to provide this segmentation varied between versions of Exchange as the product evolved in design and implementation and until now had not been supported with Exchange 2010.
The Exchange Customer Experience Team has heard the feedback our customers have provided to us and are now working to incorporate a set of features that will provide a Global Address Segmentation capability directly into Service Pack 2, which will be available to customers in the second half of 2011. We plan on posting more about Service Pack 2 in the next couple of weeks.
This decision was taken in order to simplify the deployment and configuration of the feature for all customers by providing a consistent and controlled experience through the standard Exchange management interface.
As a result of the decision to build the functionality into the product, we have also decided that we will not release an updated version of the Configuring Virtual Organizations and Address List Segregation Whitepaper that was published for Exchange Server 2007.
This decision is not one that was taken lightly, but was considered necessary given the scope of the changes that will be introduced into the product with the introduction of the GAL Segmentation feature and the need to provide customers with a clear upgrade path which did not require them to revert a series of previously implemented manual changes.
If you are currently blocked from deploying Exchange 2010 because of a need for this feature in your environment we encourage you to watch for the updated guidance from Microsoft as the feature is developed, then plan your migration accordingly.
In order to provide transparency in these early stages of development, our intentions for this feature are:
The way we intend to deliver this feature is by using an "Address Book Policy" assignment model, rather than continuing with the ACL based GAL Segmentation concept we previously provided. This approach is not intended to provide complete tenant isolation as is provided in the Hosting mode available in Exchange 2010 SP1, rather it is intended to allow an administrator to grant access to certain views of the GAL rather than restricting views.
If you intend to resell Exchange 2010 mailboxes by using the feature we are introducing, in what is generally recognized as a hosting configuration, we strongly recommend that you instead evaluate the Hosting mode of Exchange available since the release of Service Pack 1. Should you choose to further customize the On-premises configuration to meet requirements for multi-tenancy your configuration may not be supported by the Exchange team. The hosting mode of the product has been designed with true multi-tenancy capability in mind and is our strategic platform that we recommend customers who wish to host Exchange mailboxes adopt going forward. Likewise, if you are interested in privately hosting Exchange for the rest of your company, it is strongly advised to consider the limitations and extra requirements associated with the multi-tenant version of Exchange and decide if you truly will need the full functionality or if you only require Address Book Policies.
the ConfigMgr extensions for SCAP have been re-reased, and are now available here
The SCAP Extensions for ConfigMgr are a tool that convert SCAP datastream files into DCM Configuration Packs for use with Configuration Manager 2007. These extensions also convert DCM compliance reports back into SCAP format. This release includes a user guide that provides instructions for using the command-line tools, and detailed information about the mapping between the SCAP data formats and the DCM format.
Using the SCAP Extensions for ConfigMgr, your organization can optimize its existing Configuration Manager 2007 infrastructure to ensure that the computers you manage meet this federal compliance requirement and generate the requisite FDCC reports for the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) and the U.S. Office of Management and Budget (OMB).
Some resources for you:
Kuwait February 1, 2011 Venue: JW Marriott, Kuwait City
Agenda:
09:00 Registration 09:30 Welcome and Introduction Adel El Hallak, System x Market Segment Manager, IBM Middle East & Africa 09:45 Intelligent Servers Andy Nehme, Business Development Director, GCC, Intel Corporation 10:30 Next Generation of x86 Systems Derek Yuill, Field Technical Sales Specialist, System x, IBM MENA 11:15 Tea Break 11:30 Microsoft Virtualization Technologies Mohamed Baher, Kuwait DataCenter Solutions Specialist, Microsoft 12:15 Live Demonstration on IBM Systems Mohamed Baher, Kuwait DataCenter Solutions Specialist, Microsoft 12:30 Q&A 13:00 Networking and Lunch
The System Center Service Manager – Exchange Connector connects Service Manager to Exchange for processing incoming emails related to incidents and change requests. The emails can update the incident action log or change the status of an incident to resolved or closed. Incoming emails with special keywords allow a change request reviewer to approve or reject a review activity and activity implementers can mark activities assigned to them as completed. The SendEmail solution allows analysts to send messages to users via email from the console.
Feature Summary This release is compatible with Service Manager 2010 SP1. It contains the final set of features for this version, including
Download the connector from here
Lot are asking about DPM 2010 resources, here is a compilation of some links
Planning a System Center Data Protection Manager 2010 Deployment
Deploying System Center Data Protection Manager 2010
Data Protection Manager 2010 Operations Guide
Data Protection Manager 2010 Troubleshooting Guide
TechNet library for DPM 2010
Microsoft Gulf Community blog is an Excellent blog for the Gulf community, you will find interesting posts by our community leads and news about upcoming events within the region. I encourage all of the Gulf Dev and IT Pros to visit the blog at http://blogs.msdn.com/b/msgulfcommunity/
If you are within the Gulf region, It will be also valuable for you to profile yourself in our database, you can do so by following the below steps:
YOU ARE ALL SET!
Forefront Endpoint Protection 2010
Forefront Endpoint Protection 2010 enables businesses to align security and management to improve endpoint protection while greatly reducing operational costs. It builds on System Center Configuration Manager 2007 R2 and R3, allowing you to use your existing client management infrastructure to deploy and manage endpoint protection. Download both trials and discover their combined benefits.
http://www.microsoft.com/forefront/endpoint-protection/en/us/try-it.aspx
Configuration Manager & SMS
Steve Rachui’s Manageability blog – ConfigMgr/OpsMgr
http://blogs.msdn.com/steverac/
System Center WebLog by Russ Slaten
http://blogs.msdn.com/rslaten/
The Configuration Manager Support Team Blog
http://blogs.technet.com/configurationmgr/
The Deployment Guys
http://blogs.technet.com/deploymentguys
System Center Configuration Manager Solutions
http://blogs.technet.com/mwiles/
Carlos Santiago's Manageability Blog - Configuration Manager
http://blogs.technet.com/carlossantiago/
Michael Niehaus' Windows and Office deployment ramblings
http://blogs.technet.com/mniehaus/
Paul Thomsen at myITforum.com
http://myitforum.com/cs2/blogs/pthomsen/default.aspx
Jeff Gilbert's Web blog at myITforum.com
http://myitforum.com/cs2/blogs/jgilbert/default.aspx
Operations Manager & MOM
The Operations Manager Support Team Blog
http://blogs.technet.com/b/operationsmgr/
Kevin Holman's OpsMgr Blog - Site Home - TechNet Blogs
http://blogs.technet.com/b/kevinholman/
Jonathan Almquist on Operations Manager - Site Home - TechNet Blogs
http://blogs.technet.com/b/jonathanalmquist/
Jimmy Harper’s Operations Manager Bog - Site Home - TechNet Blogs
http://blogs.technet.com/b/jimmyharper/
Other
System Center Virtual Machine Manager
http://blogs.technet.com/b/scvmm/
The App-V Blog
http://blogs.technet.com/b/appv/
The Out of Band Management Support Team Blog
http://blogs.technet.com/oob/
Tweets
@OpsMgr
Tweets from the Ops manager team
@MPReleases
Notification of new Management Pack Releases as they happen.
Downloads
Security Compliance Manager
The Microsoft Security Compliance Manager provides centralized security baseline management features, a baseline portfolio, customization capabilities, and security baseline export flexibility to accelerate your organization’s ability to efficiently manage the security and compliance process for the most widely used Microsoft technologies.
http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/en/details.aspx?familyid=5534bee1-3cad-4bf0-b92b-a8e545573a3e
Forefront Endpoint Protection Server Health Management Pack
The Forefront Endpoint Protection Server Health Management Pack monitors health of the FEP servers and alerts on server health changes. As most of FEP functionality is based on Configuration Manager infrastructure, this MP only monitors two standalone components: 1) SQL agent job that copies data from Configuration Manager database to FEP Data Warehouse 2) FEP alerting service Management Pack also alerts on events in Windows Event Log that indicate error conditions of FEP Server.
http://pinpoint.microsoft.com/en-us/applications/forefront-endpoint-protection-server-health-monitoring-management-pack-12884909405
Forefront Endpoint Protection Security Management Pack
The Forefront Endpoint Protection Security Management Pack provides real-time monitoring of your Forefront Endpoint Protection clients by using System Center Operations Manager. Alerts can be configured for virus activity, firewall downtime, or update failures. In addition to real-time event monitoring, the Forefront Endpoint Protection Security Management Pack also provides automated response capabilities to remediate security related issues.
http://pinpoint.microsoft.com/en-us/applications/forefront-end-point-protection-2010-security-management-pack-12884909636
Lync Server 2010 Group Chat management pack
The Lync Server 2010 Group Chat management pack monitors the Group Chat Server event logs to detect any issues with the following Group Chat Server roles (Channel service, Lookup service, and Compliance service).
http://pinpoint.microsoft.com/en-us/applications/lync-server-2010-group-chat-monitoring-management-pack-12884909664
Configuration Manager Dashboard
Microsoft System Center Configuration Manager 2007 Dashboard lets customers track application and operating system deployments, security updates, the health status, and IT compliance with key regulations—with an easy to use, customizable Web interface. Because the Dashboard is built on Windows® SharePoint® Services, IT staff can access information without using the Configuration Manager console.
http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/en/details.aspx?familyid=27fe0d80-38c6-464a-953a-1c2edcf35c2d
Events/Webcasts
Microsoft System Center Configuration Manager 2007 On-Demand Webcasts
http://www.microsoft.com/events/series/technetmms.aspx?tab=webcasts&id=42364#42364
Microsoft Operations Manager (MOM) On-Demand Webcasts
http://www.microsoft.com/events/series/technetmms.aspx?tab=webcasts&id=42363
Microsoft System Center Operations Manager 2007 On-Demand Webcasts
http://www.microsoft.com/events/series/technetmms.aspx?tab=webcasts&id=42365
Microsoft System Center Data Protection Manager 2007 On-Demand Webcasts
http://www.microsoft.com/events/series/technetmms.aspx?tab=webcasts&id=42555
Microsoft System Center Overview On-Demand Webcasts
http://www.microsoft.com/events/series/technetmms.aspx?tab=webcasts&id=42366
If you have questions or feedback, contact us.
https://msevents.microsoft.com/CUI/EventDetail.aspx?EventID=1032454027&culture=en-US
New KB's
Microsoft System Center Configuration Manager 2007: System Center Configuration Manager 2007 clients running Windows 7 or Windows Server 2008 reboot even though deployment management settings are configured to suppress reboots
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/2476479/en-US
Microsoft System Center Configuration Manager 2007: System Center Configuration Manager 2007 Hotfix Installation Guidance
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/2477182/en-US
Microsoft System Center Configuration Manager 2007 Service Pack 2: The second Search paths may not discovered when you enable the Active Directory System Discovery method or the Active Directory User Discovery method that runs on a System Center Configuration Manager 2007 SP2 site server
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/978757/en-US
Microsoft System Center Operations Manager 2007: OpsMgr 2007: Backup programs may fail to backup the event log when the 64-bit agent is installed
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/970219/en-US
Microsoft System Center Data Protection Manager 2007: How System Center Data Protection Manager works with EFS encrypted files
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/2476276/en-US
Microsoft System Center Service Manager 2010: Improperly configured views in the Service Manager 2010 console generate the error "An error occurred while loading the items"
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/2477329/en-US
See the details of this news and other exciting news coming out of CES; please see the CES Virtual Pressroom here