Peeyush's Blog

Free ebook: Programming Windows 8 Apps with HTML, CSS, and JavaScript (First Preview)

PeeyushT — Tue, 12 Jun 2012 14:40:37 GMT

Preview edition of Programming Windows 8 Apps with HTML, CSS, and JavaScript, by Kraig Brockschmidt

Download a PDF of the ebook here (4.34 MB).

Download the ebook’s sample code here (27.5 MB).

This first preview contains the first four chapters of what we think will be an 18-chapter final ebook:

Chapter 1 The Life Story of a Metro Style App: Platform Characteristics of Windows 8

Chapter 2 Quickstart

Chapter 3 App Anatomy and Page Navigation

Chapter 4 Controls, Control Styling, and Basic Data Binding

Chapter 5 Collections and Collection Controls

Chapter 6 Layout

Chapter 7 Metro Style Commanding UI

Chapter 8 State, Settings, Files, and Documents

Chapter 9 Input and Sensors

Chapter 10 Media

Chapter 11 Purposeful Animations

Chapter 12 Contracts

Chapter 13 Tiles, Notifications, the Lock Screen, and Background Tasks

Chapter 14 Networking

Chapter 15 Devices and Printing

Chapter 16 Extensions

Chapter 17 Apps for Everyone: Localization, Accessibility, and the Windows Store

Chapter 18 Services

Who This Book Is For

This book is about writing Metro style apps for Windows 8 using HTML5, CSS3, and JavaScript. Our primary focus will be on applying these web technologies within the Windows 8 platform, where there are unique considerations, and not on exploring the details of those web technologies themselves. For the most part, then, I'm assuming that you're already at least somewhat conversant with these standards. We will cover some of the more salient areas like the CSS grid, which is central to app layout, but otherwise I trust that you're capable of finding appropriate references for everything else.

I'm also assuming that your interest in Windows 8 has at least two basic motivations. One, you probably want to come up to speed as quickly as you can, perhaps to carve out a foothold in the Windows Store sooner rather than later. Toward that end, I've front-loaded the early chapters with the most important aspects of app development along with "Quickstart" sections to give you immediate experience with the tools, the API, and core platform features. On the other hand, you probably also want to make the best app you can, one that performs really well and that takes advantage of the full extent of the platform. Toward this end, I've also endeavored to make this book comprehensive, helping you at least be aware of what's possible and where optimizations can be made.

Many insights have come from working directly with real-world developers on their real-world apps. As part of the Windows Ecosystem team, myself and my teammates have been on the front lines bringing those first apps to the Windows Store. This has involved writing bits of code for those apps and investigating bugs, along with conducting design, code, and performance reviews with members of the core Windows engineering teams. As such, one of my goals with this book is to make that deep understanding available to many more developers, including you!

What You'll Need

To work through this book, you should download and install the Windows 8 Release Preview along with the Windows SDK and tools. These, along with a number of other resources, are listed on http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/apps/br229516. I also recommend you visit http://code.msdn.microsoft.com/windowsapps/Windows-8-Modern-Style-App-Samples and download the entire set of JavaScript samples; we'll be using many of them throughout this book.

Free ebook: Introducing Windows Server 2012

PeeyushT — Mon, 11 Jun 2012 16:42:57 GMT

Introducing Windows Server 2012, by Mitch Tulloch, is now ready for free download! Please see the links below to download one or all of the available formats.

FORMAT	LINK
PDF	Introducing Windows Server 2012 PDF ebook
EPUB	Introducing Windows Server 2012 EPUB ebook
MOBI	Introducing Windows Server 2012 MOBI ebook

If you prefer a hard copy of the book, you can order it here for $14.99.

Introducing Windows Server 2012 is 256 pages and includes 5 chapters loaded with insider information from the Windows Server Team.

Chapter 1 The business need for Windows Server 2012
The rationale behind cloud computing Making the transition
Technical requirements for successful cloud computing
Four ways Windows Server 2012 delivers value for cloud computing Foundation for building your private cloud

Chapter 2 Foundation for building your private cloud
A complete virtualization platform
Increase scalability and performance Business continuity for virtualized workloads

Chapter 3 Highly available, easy-to-manage multi-server platform
Continuous availability
Cost efficiency
Management efficiency
Chapter 4 Deploy web applications on premises and in the cloud
Scalable and elastic web platform
Support for open standards
Chapter 5 Enabling the modern workstyle
Access virtually anywhere, from any device
Full Windows experience
Enhanced security and compliance

To read more about the latest news on Windows Server 2012 and to download the release candidate, go here

Special thanks for Sukhvinder Singh Gulati for sharing this information.

Free ebooks: Great content from Microsoft Press that won’t cost you a penny

PeeyushT — Wed, 23 May 2012 16:51:00 GMT

Here are some MS Press Free Ebooks for your reference. You can download them.

http://blogs.msdn.com/b/microsoft_press/archive/2012/05/04/free-ebooks-great-content-from-microsoft-press-that-won-t-cost-you-a-penny.aspx

Understanding Microsoft's High-Availability Solutions : Available through MVA

PeeyushT — Sun, 18 Dec 2011 18:54:00 GMT

In continuation to my blog post few days back, I am pleased to share that last week Microsoft released a brand new track on Understanding Microsoft’s High-Availability Solutions.

This course covers the best ways to provide continual availability to all applications, services, servers and VMs in your datacenter. The modules will cover all the planning, deployment and management considerations for bringing high-availability to every components of your datacenter or Private Cloud. By the end of this course you will have an understanding of the basics of each of Microsoft's HA solutions and when each of them should be used. You will understand all the different methods you can use to keep your services up and running. Technologies that will be covered in this course include: Hyper-V, Failover Clustering, Network Load Balancing, SQL Server, Exchange Server, IIS, DFS-R, DNS, and every System Center product (including SC 2012) with a focus on Virtual Machine Manager (VMM)

The course includes:

Understanding Microsoft’s High-Availability Solutions
- Infrastructure HA with Failover Clustering & Hyper-V
- Application HA with SQL, Exchange & Other Servers
- Management HA with System Center
Failover Clustering Overview
- Introduction to Failover Clustering
- Server High-Availability
High-Availability & Clustering
- Overview, Software & Hardware
- Deployment & Management
- Hyper-V HA
Disaster Recovery
- Introduction to Disaster Recovery
- Storage Considerations

Happy Learning!!

Planning and Deploying Lync 2010 Mobility

PeeyushT — Sun, 18 Dec 2011 12:09:45 GMT

A few days back I wrote about the Lync 2010 mobile been released. A few of my friends asked me on how can they plan and implement it in their organization. So here I am sharing some information which Microsoft has shared on Planning and Deploying Lync Mobility.

When you deploy cumulative update for Lync Server 2010: November 2011, you can deploy the mobility feature to provide Microsoft Lync 2010 functionality on mobile devices. This section provides details about the mobility feature and how to plan for deploying it.

Microsoft has released Microsoft Lync Server 2010 Mobility Guide on 8-Dec-2011 which guides you through the process of deploying the Microsoft Lync Server 2010 Mobility Service and the Microsoft Lync Server 2010 Autodiscover Service. When you deploy the Mobility Service, users can use supported iOS, Android, Windows Phone, or Nokia mobile devices to perform such activities as sending and receiving instant messages, viewing contacts, viewing presence. The Mobility Service also enables mobile devices to use some Enterprise Voice features, such as click to join a conference, Call via Work, single number reach, voice mail, and missed calls.

When you use the Microsoft Lync Server 2010 Autodiscover Service along with the Mobility Service, mobile devices can automatically locate the URLs for Lync Server Web Services and the new Mobility Service regardless of network location.

The document is divided into three main sections as:

Planning for Mobility
Deploying Mobility
Monitoring Mobility for Performance

To support Lync mobile applications on mobile devices, the cumulative update for Lync Server 2010: November 2011 provides three new services.

Microsoft Lync Server Mobility Service. This new service supports Lync 2010 functionality, such as instant messaging (IM), presence, and contacts, on mobile devices.
Microsoft Lync Server 2010 Autodiscover Service. This new service identifies the location of the user and enables mobile devices to locate resources, such as the internal and external URLs for Lync Server Web Services and the URL for the new Mobility Service, regardless of network location.
Microsoft Lync Server 2010 Push Notification Service. This service is a cloud-based service that is located in the Lync Online datacenter. When the Lync mobile application on a supported Apple iOS device or Windows Phone is inactive, it cannot respond to new events, such as a new instant messaging (IM) invitation, a missed instant message, a missed call, or voice mail, because these devices do not support mobile applications running in the background. In such a case, a notification, called a push notification, for the new event is sent to the mobile device. The Mobility Service sends the notification to the cloud-based Push Notification Service, which then sends the notification either to the Apple Push Notification Service (APNS) (for supported Apple iOS devices) or to the Microsoft Push Notification Service (MPNS) (for Windows Phone), which sends it on to the mobile device. The user can then touch the notification on the mobile device to activate the application.

You can deploy the mobility feature in the following topologies:

Lync Server 2010 Standard Edition
Lync Server 2010 Enterprise Edition

The Edge Server can be a Lync Server 2010 Edge Server, or it can be an Microsoft Office Communicator 2007 R2 Edge Server if you are in the process of migrating to Lync Server 2010.

The following diagram illustrates the flow of mobile application web requests for Mobility Service and Autodiscover Service.

There are various requirements related to Website, DNS, Port & Firewall, Certificates, IIS etc. which are listed and documented in this document for references.

The next obvious question which comes to the mind is regarding the Capacity Planning.

Determining the amount of capacity that you need for mobility is an iterative process of estimating your mobility usage, measuring your current capacity, planning for additional capacity, and monitoring key indicators for performance. The following figure illustrates the phases involved in capacity planning and the factors involved in each phase.

Mobility Capacity Planning Workflow

Three factors influence your capacity planning for Front End Servers running the Microsoft Lync Server 2010 Mobility Service. The document gives good amount of information on planning for this with some examples.

User model
Mobile device characteristics
Available RAM

The phase-wise sequence of steps to deploy Lync 2010 Mobility feature can put as below. Please refer the sections in the document for references

Phase	Steps	Permissions	Section References in the Documentation
Create Domain Name System (DNS) records	· Create an internal DNS CNAME or A (host) record to resolve the internal Autodiscover Service URL. · Create an external DNS CNAME or A (host) record to resolve the external Autodiscover Service URL.	· Domain Admins · DnsAdmins	Creating DNS Records for the Autodiscover Service
Install cumulative update for Lync Server 2010: November 2011	Install updates on all server roles in your deployment.	CsAdministrator	Installing Cumulative Update for Lync Server 2010: November 2011
Set ports for the Front End Server	· Set internal listening port for the Mobility Service. · Set external listening port for the Mobility Service.	RTCUniversalServerAdmins	Setting Internal Server Ports for Mobility
Install Microsoft Lync Server 2010 Mobility Service and Microsoft Lync Server 2010 Autodiscover Service	· Run McsStandalone.msi on each Front End Server to install the Mobility Service and the Autodiscover Service. · Run McsStandalone.msi on each Director to install the Autodiscover Service.	CsAdministrator	Installing the Mobility and Autodiscover Services
Modify certificates	Add subject alternative name entries to the following certificates to support secure connections for mobile users: · Director certificate · Front End pool certificate · Reverse proxy certificate	Local administrator	Modifying Certificates for Mobility
Configure the reverse proxy	· Assign certificates updated with subject alternative names to the Secure Sockets Layer (SSL) Listener. · Configure a new web publishing rule for the external Autodiscover Service URL. · Ensure that a web publishing rule exists for the external Lync Server Web Services URL on your Front End pool. Or · If you choose to use HTTP for the initial Autodiscover request and not update subject alternative name lists on the certificates, configure a new web publishing rule for port 80 HTTP.	Local administrator	Configuring the Reverse Proxy for Mobility
Test your mobility deployment	Run Test-CsMcsP2PIM to test sending an instant message from one person to another.	CsAdministrator	Verifying Your Mobility Deployment
Configure for push notifications	· For Lync Server 2010 Edge Servers, add a Lync Server online hosting provider and configure hosting provider federation. · For Office Communications Server 2007 R2 Edge Servers, add a federated partner. · If you want to support push notifications over a Wi-Fi network, configure a firewall rule for TCP port 5223. · Use the Set-CsPushNotificationConfiguration cmdlet to enable push notifications to the Apple Push Notification Service (APNS) and Microsoft Push Notification Service (MPNS). This feature is disabled by default. · Use the Test-CsFederatedPartner cmdlet to test the federation configuration and the Test-CsMCXPushNotification cmdlet to test push notifications.	RtcUniversalServerAdmins	Configuring for Push Notifications
Configure mobility policy	Use the Set-CsMobilityPolicy cmdlet to allow or disallow user access to mobility features and to enable or disable Call via Work. These features are enabled by default.	CsAdministrator	Configuring Mobility Policy

I would recommend the readers to have a detailed analysis of the document Lync Server 2010 Mobility Guide before implementing the solution in their premises. Also, based on your support level with Microsoft, it is good to proactively engage the resources instead of fire fighting at the end.

Lync Mobility is a great feature which can be provided to the employees and give them the control for their communication options.

Mobile Clients for Microsoft Lync Released!!!

PeeyushT — Sat, 17 Dec 2011 09:03:00 GMT

The Monday (12-Dec-2011) did not gave much blues as Microsoft released the Mobile Client for Microsoft Lync.

If you have a Windows Phone then you can open the link http://windowsphone.com/s?appid=9ce93e51-5b35-e011-854c-00237de2db9e on your phone and install it.

Lync mobile clients enable you to stay connected, communicate and conference on the go. Mobile clients for Microsoft Lync 2010 take the power of unified communications mobile—including rich presence, instant messaging, audio conferencing, and calling features from a single, easy-to-use interface.

Few of the features that I like the most are:

Join conferences with a single touch; no access code or pin number required. I also do not have to remember anything. Just click the meeting request (like I would do on my laptop and voila I am connected to the conference).
Stay connected, while controlling your availability; see who's available at a glance and connect over IM, email or a call; set your own status and notification settings so you can stay in touch while protecting your "off-work" time.
Communicate with others using a single, consistent identity. Call-via-work allows outbound calls using your Enterprise Voice number, making it easier for others to recognize calls from the Lync mobile client.
Connect with confidence through channel encryption, transport layer security (TLS) support, and perimeter/internal network protection that help safeguard your communications.

For more information, please review http://lync.microsoft.com/en-gb/Product/UserInterfaces/Pages/lync-2010-mobile.aspx

Now you must be wondering if this is available only on Windows Phone!!! Microsoft has plans for other platforms like, iOS, Android, Symbian. Lync Mobile for Android is already available in the market place https://market.android.com/details?id=com.microsoft.office.lync . Lync for iPhone is now available at http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/microsoft-lync-2010-for-iphone/id484293461?mt=8 while for iPad is available at http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/microsoft-lync-2010-for-ipad/id484222449?mt=8

The following tables compare the features and capabilities among Microsoft Lync 2010 mobile clients and the Lync 2010 desktop client in the following categories:

Sign-in, sign-out, and push notifications
Enhanced presence
Contacts and contact groups
Instant messaging (IM)
Conferencing
Telephony
External users
Archiving and compliance

These tables indicate the features that are available to Lync users in an on-premises deployment of Lync Server 2010. The same features are also available to Lync Online and Office 365 users unless otherwise indicated in the table footnotes.

Sign-in and Push Notifications

Feature/Capability	Lync 2010 desktop client	Windows Phone	iPhone	iPad	Android	Nokia (Symbian)
Lync session remains signed in	●	●¹	●¹	●¹	●¹	●¹
Support for push notifications		●	●	●	²	²
Country code populates based on region settings			●	●	●
Account information for multiple users can be cached on the same device	●

¹ On Windows Phone, Lync signs out automatically if the user has not used the application for a period of time, as follows:

If the user has enabled push notifications, Lync signs out after 36 hours.
If the user has not enabled push notifications, Lync signs out after 1 hour.

On iPhone and iPad, Lync signs out automatically if the user has not used the application for a period of time, as follows:

If the user has enabled push notifications, Lync signs out after 36 hours. Lync sends a push notification indicating that the user must sign back in.
If the user has not enabled push notifications, Lync signs out after 1 hour.

On Android and Nokia (Symbian), Lync remains signed in as long as the application can contact the server. Contact with the server occurs automatically every 5 minutes, even if Lync is in the background or the device is locked.

If the Lync application cannot communicate with the server for more than one hour, the server will sign out the user. If the user is not signed in to any other Lync client, the user will appear Offline.
The Lync application automatically signs in when it can communicate with server again.
If an Android device is connected through Wi-Fi, the device may close the Wi-Fi connection after a certain period of time (the default on many Android devices is 10 minutes), at which point the Lync app will lose the connection with the Lync server.

² On Android and Nokia (Symbian) mobile devices, the Lync application runs in the background and push notifications are not required.

Enhanced Presence Support in Lync Mobile Clients

Feature/Capability	Lync 2010 desktop client	Windows Phone	iPhone	iPad	Android	Nokia (Symbian)
Publish and view status	●	●	●	●	●	●
View status based on calendar free/busy information	●	●	●	●	●	●
View status notes and Out of Office messages	●	●	●	●	●	●
Add a custom location	●
Add a custom note	●	●	●	●	●	●
Publish status based on calendar free/busy information	●¹
Set manual presence state (such as Busy, Do Not Disturb, etc.)	●	●	●	●	●	●

¹ Lync mobile clients do not update a user’s presence based on the user’s free/busy calendar information. If a mobile client user is also signed in to the Lync desktop client, the desktop client updates the user’s presence based on the user’s free/busy calendar information. If the user is signed in to a mobile client only, the user’s presence does not update based on free/busy calendar information.

Contacts and Contact Groups Support in Lync Mobile Clients

Feature/capability	Lync 2010 desktop client	Windows Phone	iPhone	iPad	Android	Nokia (Symbian)
View Contacts list	●	●	●	●	●	●
View contact groups	●	●	●	●	●	●
View Frequent Contacts group	●
Modify Contacts list	●					●
Tag contacts for status change alerts	●
Control privacy relationships	●
Search the corporate address book	●	●	●	●	●	●
Search Contacts list	●	●	●	●	●	●
Manage contact groups	●					●¹
Expand distribution groups	●	●	●	●	●	●
Search for Response Groups	●²	●	●	●	●	●
Display or hide contact photos	●	●	●	●	●

¹ With Lync 2010 for Nokia, a user can search for a contact and add the contact to a group, and remove a contact from a group.

² Not available to Lync Online and/or Office 365 users.

IM Support in Lync Mobile Clients

Feature/capability	Lync 2010 desktop client	Windows Phone	iPhone	iPad	Android	Nokia (Symbian)
Initiate IM with a contact	●	●	●	●	●	●
Participate in multiparty IM	●	●	●	●	●	●
Invite others from within the conversation window	●	●	●	●	●	●
Display current conversations	●	●	●	●	●	●
Navigate among multiple IM conversations	●	●	●	●	●	●
Automatically log IM conversations in Exchange	●
Send an IM conversation as an email message	●	●	●	●	●	●
Initiate an email to a contact	●	●	●	●	●	●
View missed IM invitations	●	●	●	●	●¹	●¹
Vibrate with incoming IM		●²	●	●	●	●
Send location in an IM			●	●		●

¹ If the user accepts an IM invitation on the desktop client, a missed IM notification will display on the user’s mobile phone

² This device vibrates every time an IM is received even if the current message in the IM conversation is displayed

Conferencing Support in Lync Mobile Clients

Feature/Capability	Lync 2010 desktop client	Windows Phone	iPhone	iPad	Android	Nokia (Symbian)
Click a link in the meeting reminder to join a meeting	●	●¹	●¹	●¹	●¹	●²
Participate in multiparty IM	●	●	●	●	●	●
Use dial-out conferencing (server calls the mobile device)	●	●³	●³	●³	●³	●³
Use dial-in audio conferencing	●⁴
View meeting video	●
Wait in meeting lobby	●	●	●	●	●	●
Use in-meeting presenter controls	●
Access detailed meeting roster for audio conferences	●	●				●
Access detailed meeting roster for IM conferences	●	●	●	●	●	●
Share desktop or program	●
Use meeting tools (present Microsoft PowerPoint files, use whiteboard, conduct polls, share files)	●
Navigate a list of your meetings			●	●

¹ For Office 365 users, this feature is available for audio conferencing provider (ACP)-enabled meetings only.

² For Office 365 users, this feature is available for audio conferencing provider (ACP)-enabled meetings only. For on-premises Lync Server 2010 users, Lync 2010 for Nokia client integrates with Nokia Phone Calendar and all Lync meetings in the Calendar contain a Join Meeting button.

³ Not available to Office 365 users.

⁴ For Lync Online and/or Office 365 users, this feature is available from third-party audio conferencing providers.

Telephony Support in Lync Mobile Clients

Feature/Capability	Lync 2010 desktop client	Windows Phone	iPhone	iPad	Android	Nokia (Symbian)
In Lync, tap the call icon to call a contact	●¹	●²	●²	●²	●³	●²
Transfer a call	●¹
Manage call forwarding	●⁴	●	●	●	●⁴	●
Manage team call settings	●⁴
Manage delegates	●⁴
Initiate a call to a Response Group	●⁴
Support emergency services	●⁵
Make calls on behalf of another contact (manager/delegate scenario)	●⁴
Handle another's calls if configured as a delegate	●⁴	●⁴	●⁴	●⁴		●⁴
Use Call via Work (Lync Server places your outgoing calls so that the receiver’s caller ID displays your work number instead of your mobile number)		●⁴	●⁴	●⁴		●⁴
Access voice mail	●⁵		●	●		●
Use the keypad in Lync	●	●⁴	●⁴	●⁴		●⁴

¹ For Lync Online and/or Office 365 users, this feature is available for PC to PC calls. PSTN calls are supported by Lync to phone mobile partners.

² For on-premises Lync Server 2010 users, on Windows Phone, iPhone, iPad, and Nokia (Symbian) devices, the user taps the call icon in the contact card and accepts the callback from Lync Server. For Office 365 users, on Windows Phone, iPhone, iPad, and Nokia (Symbian) devices, when the user taps the call button, a dialog box opens asking the user to confirm that he or she wants to call the number.

³ On Android devices, for both on-premises and Office 365 users, the user taps the call icon in the contact card to copy the contact’s phone number to the Android dial pad, and then the user clicks the call button.

⁴ Not available to Lync Online and/or Office 365 users.

⁵ For Lync Online and/or Office 365 users, this feature is supported by Microsoft partners.

External User Support in Lync Mobile Clients

Feature/Capability	Lync 2010 desktop client	Windows Phone	iPhone	iPad	Android	Nokia (Symbian)
Initiate IM with a public contact	●	●	●	●	●	●
Initiate IM with a federated contact	●	●	●	●	●	●
Conduct two-party calls with external users	●
Conduct multiparty calls with external users	●
Use Call via Work to reach a federated contact on their mobile phone by calling their published work number¹		●²	●²	●²		●²

¹ By default, federated users are assigned the External Contacts privacy relationship. To be able to reach a federated contact on his or her mobile phone by calling his or her published work number, the federated contact must manually assign you the Colleagues privacy relationship.

² Not available to Office 365 users.

Archiving and Compliance Support in Lync Mobile Clients

Feature/Capability	Lync 2010 desktop client	Windows Phone	iPhone	iPad	Android	Nokia (Symbian)
Provide client-side archiving	●
Provide client-side recording	●¹

¹ Not available to Lync Online and/or Office 365 users.

Microsoft Virtual Academy (MVA) : Cloud based learning

PeeyushT — Fri, 16 Dec 2011 07:30:16 GMT

It’s been a long time that I have written anything here. I am glad to be back. I have changed my role and am now working as a Technical Account Manager, managing Premier Customers in India.

During one of my interactions, I came to know about Microsoft Virtual Academy (MVA).

What is MVA?

Microsoft Virtual Academy – MVA is a fully cloud-based learning experience focusing on Microsoft Cloud Technologies. You can access a variety of training content online and become one of the renowned experts in the IT Pro community around the world. MVA provides its users with a virtual university experience: the student can select a track and study the material and then do the self-assessment. By doing so, he will collect points that will promote him to a Bronze, Silver, Gold or Platinum Level. Students on MVA can get access to all the information, statistics and advancements of their training career, allowing them to maintain a long-term relationship with Microsoft. Learning through MVA is free of charge, and you can study the contents at any time and at your own pace. The MVA platform is hosted on the latest Microsoft Azure technology, which guarantees that your learning experience will flow uninterruptedly for the best online learning experience ever!

What tracks are available?

The subjects of the tracks range from technologies and products to different solutions, each of which contributes to contextualizing and/or updating the knowledge acquired. Tracks are completed when you study the material and pass the self-assessments assigned to each.

You will receive points for downloading and studying the materials and passing the self-assessment, which will help you climb to the next level within the Academy, all the way up to Platinum.

Students can enroll in several tracks at a time, depending on availability. However, it is important that you only register for the contents that are most important to you, otherwise you might overextend yourself and this could affect your yield and average.

How can I start using MVA?

To start using the MVA you need to take the following steps:

Log on to the MVA at http://www.microsoftvirtualacademy.com/
Select one of the courses and enroll at http://www.microsoftvirtualacademy.com/Studies/SearchResult.aspx

Select the learning topics you are interested in, study the materials and pass the self-assessments to accumulate points and achieve Bronze, Silver, Gold or Platinum status.

I hope this information has been helpful to you.

Announcement: Microsoft Office 365 Jump Start Training Videos Just Released!

PeeyushT — Fri, 17 Jun 2011 18:59:04 GMT

Just one week after TechEd 2011, Microsoft Learning hosted another exclusive three-day Jump Start course and we are excited to announce the availability of the HD-quality video recordings—FREE—on TechNet Edge, MS Showcase, the Zune Marketplace, and iTunes! Additionally, every module will be made available (with assessment questions) on the Microsoft Virtual Academy (MVA) later this month!

What’s the high-level overview?

• The 15-hour course is broken into three five-module sections: (1) Office 365 Platform, (2) Exchange Online and (3) Lync & SharePoint Online

• Leverages a “Team-teaching” approach led by Microsoft evangelist Adam Carter (Bomb) and senior Microsoft technologists with real-world experience

• Every module is an engaging discussion, packed with best practices and real-world demonstrations

• Target audience: IT Professionals, IT Decision Makers, Network Administrators from Microsoft customers and partners who need to determine how to best leverage the cloud.

Where do I go for this great training?

The HD-quality video recordings of the entire course on TechNet Edge: “Microsoft Office 365 for IT Professionals” Jump Start.

Microsoft Lync 2010 Adoption and Training Kit

PeeyushT — Wed, 25 May 2011 05:19:50 GMT

The Microsoft Lync 2010 Adoption and Training Kit provides a one-stop shop for resources for IT pros, project managers, help desk agents, and trainers. The kit provides:

A workbook that provides step-by-step guidance for each phase of the rollout and adoption process
Adoption and training resources, such as primers, email templates, and templates for a custom Lync 2010 intranet site to help organizations successfully roll out Lync
Modular, reusable, rebrandable, and in most cases, customizable user education and training materials, including frequently asked questions, Quick Start guides, how-to videos, Work Smart guides, and training videos
Buzzworthy applications such as IM an Expert and learning tools such as the Lync How-to that you can use to generate user excitement and drive the adoption of Lync

For more information please review http://lync.microsoft.com/Adoption-and-Training-Kit/Pages/default.aspx

Microsoft Announces Licensing Portability for Moving To/From Cloud

PeeyushT — Tue, 24 May 2011 17:43:22 GMT

Microsoft is relaxing its volume licensing rules to allow customers to move existing servers to the clouds without paying extra. Dubbed "license mobility", the changes come into effect 1 July.

The changes are for customers with Volume License deals through Software Assurance for Microsoft SQL Server, Microsoft Exchange Server, Microsoft SharePoint Server, Microsoft Lync Server, Microsoft System Center servers, and Microsoft Dynamics CRM.

Microsoft Shares Licensing Updates at Microsoft Hosting Summit

BELLEVUE, Wash. — March 30, 2011 — Earlier today, Microsoft shared details regarding licensing enhancements to offer customers the flexibility to deploy application servers on-premises or hosted by Service Providers in the Cloud. These enhancements are referred to as license mobility. Microsoft is also announcing a reduction to the pricing and management overhead for Windows Server in the Microsoft Services Provider Licensing Agreement (SPLA) program by retiring all Outsourcing SKUs, eliminating use restrictions for Non-Outsourcing SKUs and adding the Core Infrastructure Suite to the SPLA program. These changes come into effect on July 1, 2011.

As customers evaluate and move their workloads and server applications to the cloud, they are looking to leverage existing licensing investments. This includes taking advantage of cost savings that Service Providers can deliver through shared infrastructure to achieve economies of scale and operational efficiency. To help address this, Microsoft will start offering license mobility in July to extend customers’ current Volume License investments under Software Assurance (SA) to the cloud. These terms also apply to future Volume License investments.

License mobility will cover Microsoft SQL Server, Microsoft Exchange Server, Microsoft SharePoint Server, Microsoft Lync Server, Microsoft System Center servers, and Microsoft Dynamics CRM. Licenses for application servers that are covered under software assurance can be run in service providers’ datacenters on shared hardware for that customer’s dedicated use.

More details shared during the Hosting Summit included licensing enhancements for Service Providers. These include the introduction of a new and more affordable Core Infrastructure Suite to the SPLA program. At the same time, Microsoft is retiring the Outsourcing SKUs for Windows Server effective July 1, 2011. At the point of retirement, workload restrictions for "non-outsourcing" SKU will be removed thereby reducing the pricing and management overhead for Windows Server in SPLA and eliminating use restrictions for Non-Outsourcing SKUs.

Also notable, for customers who wish to use Software as a Service (SaaS) from their Service Providers, Microsoft will expand the Subscriber Access Licenses (SAL) for SA SKUs to cover Enterprise SAL licenses for Exchange Server, Lync Server and SharePoint Server.

Additional details about these developments during the Hosting Summit are shared in the Q&A below.

What enhancements is Microsoft making to license mobility?
Adoption of Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS) continues to increase, compelling customers to move workloads and applications to the cloud. We understand that while customers are interested in moving to the cloud they are looking to leverage existing licensing investments.

To help address this, Microsoft will start offering license mobility in July to extend customers’ current Volume License investments under SA to the cloud. License Mobility will provide customers the flexibility to deploy certain server applications with active Software Assurance on-premises or in the cloud, without having to buy additional licenses. This includes Exchange Server, Lync Server, SharePoint Server, SQL Server and Dynamics CRM. This change provides customers with additional hosting flexibility and affordability.

How do these enhancements help service providers?
For Service Providers this change eliminates the prior requirement for dedicated hardware and enables improved economies of scale and operating efficiencies. The Service Provider Licensing Enhancements include:

A new Core Infrastructure Suite in SPLA that will make licensing the infrastructure at the Service Provider's datacenter more affordable. This suite will include Windows Server Datacenter, System Center Server Management Suite Datacenter (SMSD) and Forefront Endpoint Protection.
Reduced pricing for certain Subscriber Access Licenses for Software Assurance (“SALs for SA”) that will make shared application hosting more affordable for customers with active Software Assurance. Additionally, we will expand the SALs for SA SKUs to cover Enterprise SAL licenses for Exchange Server, Lync Server and SharePoint Server.
Removing the Windows Server Outsourcer SKUs and associated price point will result in a lower single price offering across all Service Provider workloads.

Why is Microsoft making license mobility available to customers?
Microsoft is making enhancements to license mobility because our customers and partners have asked us to enhance the flexibility of our licensing to support the range of IT deployment options that are available to them today, including on-premises, Microsoft delivered cloud services and partner delivered cloud services.

How does this impact your customers who are thinking about or are moving “to the cloud”?
License mobility gives customers an additional licensing option to take advantage of cloud and other multi-tenant environments. Not only will license mobility make the transition easier for existing SA customers, it provides customers who prefer to purchase perpetual licenses the ability to continue doing so while still taking advantage of the efficiencies that the cloud offers. The cloud is critical to our customers’ business and we want to do whatever it takes to provide them with the support needed as they make the change.

Each customer is approaching the cloud at their own pace. That’s why it’s important that we offer them the flexibility that license mobility provides. This new licensing right helps disconnect the purchase decision from the decision of where the customer deploys the license.

If a customer moves their license to the cloud, will they have the right to move it back to their on premise server in the future?
Yes, for Volume Licenses, customers will have the flexibility to move the license once every 90 days between environments. This is similar to the current 90 day policy on license movement between on premise servers.

When will this be available and what is the purchase requirement?
License mobility enhancements will become available worldwide on July 1, 2011.

What products are covered by license mobility?

Microsoft Dynamics CRM
Microsoft Exchange Server
Microsoft Lync Server
Microsoft SharePoint Server
Microsoft SQL Server
Microsoft Systems Center servers

What products are excluded from license mobility?
Products under the Windows Server operating system, Windows Client operating system, Desktop Applications and Developer Tools licensing models are excluded from license mobility. In addition, Windows Server Outsourcer SKUs are being removed which will result in a lower single price offering for all Service Provider workloads.

Why did Microsoft discontinue Outsourcing SKUs for Windows Server?
Microsoft continues to seek ways to simplify licensing offers and improve consistency across Microsoft products. With this in mind, and further motivated by partner feedback, Microsoft is retiring Outsourcing SKUs for Windows Server effective July 1, 2011. At the point of retirement, workload restrictions for “non-outsourcing” SKU will be removed. Thus, the “non-outsourcing” SKU will cover all scenarios currently covered by both SKUs. This change will significantly reduce the cost of Windows Server licenses for many service providers.

What are the benefits of retiring Outsourcing SKUs?
Removal of the Windows Server Outsourcing SKUs and associated price point will result in a lower single price offering across all Service Provider workloads. In addition, the change increases platform manageability by adding clarity to licensing terms and improving licensing consistency across Microsoft products.

New Office 365 Developer Training Course on MSDN

PeeyushT — Tue, 19 Apr 2011 10:24:02 GMT

Summary:

The Office 365 Beta is now open to the public. Office 365 provides a cloud-based subscription service that includes Office 2010 Professional Plus, SharePoint Online, Exchange Online and Lync Online.

Office 365 also provides developers and ISVs a platform for building cloud-based collaboration and communication solutions for the cloud. To help developers make the transition to building solutions for the cloud with Office 365, I’m pleased to announce the release of the Office 365 Training Course for Public Beta. The kit includes 7 sessions, over 10 hours of video, and 16 labs as both an offline training kit as well as an online training course on MSDN.

Details:

The Office 365 Developer Training Kit includes the following training units:

Developing in the Cloud with Office 365
- Office 365 provides a communication and collaboration service in the cloud that you can leverage to build custom solutions for SharePoint Online, Exchange Online and Lync Online. In this session, you’ll learn about this new cloud service and the breadth of solutions that can be developed using the same skills, tools and SDKs you use today when building on-premises solutions.
Developing for SharePoint Online with Sandbox Solutions
- Sandboxed Solutions are the development paradigm for SharePoint Online. In this session, you’ll learn about sandboxed solutions including how to develop, debug and deploy solutions. You’ll also learn the breadth of solutions that can be developed in the sandbox and strategies for developing common scenarios that are not enabled in the sandbox.
Building Workflow Solutions for SharePoint Online
- Building Workflow solutions for SharePoint Online allows you to automate collaboration-centric business processes and surface them to your users via SharePoint Online. In this session, you’ll learn the differences between declarative and code-based workflows, design a workflow using Visio 2010, implement that workflow in SharePoint Designer 2010 and customize the workflow using Visual Studio 2010 and custom actions.
Developing SharePoint Online Solutions with the Client Object Model
- The SharePoint Client Object Model provides libraries for programmatically accessing SharePoint Online via Silverlight and JavaScript. In this session, we’ll go deep into the Client Object Model and show you how to develop solutions using both Silverlight and JavaScript.
Leveraging Excel and Access Services in SharePoint Online
- Excel and Access Services provide powerful features for building SharePoint Online solutions. In this session, you’ll get an inside look at both Excel and Access services and how each can be accessed programmatically when building SharePoint Online solutions.
Developing Communication Solutions for Lync Online
- In this session, you learn how to integrate Lync features into your WPF and Silverlight clients much in the same way that Office and SharePoint do, including presence, contact lists and click-to-communicate features. You will also learn how to extend Lync communications to include data and features from your client applications much in the same way that Outlook 2010 does with the "IM" and "Call" features within an email.
Developing Messaging Solutions for Exchange Online
- In this session, you'll learn how to integrate Exchange Online mailbox data such as mail, calendar and task items as well as Exchange Online services such as the free-busy service into your applications using an easy to discover and easy to use managed API.

Getting Started:

To use this kit as self-paced training and customer demos, you’ll need to do the following:

Download and configure the Information Worker VMs (2010-9) to provide you a local development environment.
Download and install the Office 365 Developer Training Kit onto the 2010a VM.
Request access to either the Office 365 Beta to provide you access to the service.
Visit the Office 365 Training Course on MSDN to watch the videos and get started with the labs and demos.

Creating and Configuring a Generic Application Resource

PeeyushT — Fri, 11 Mar 2011 11:10:03 GMT

Windows Server 2008 (and R2) Failover Clustering supports virtually every workload which comes with Windows Server, however there are many custom and 3^rd party applications which take advantage of our infrastructure to provide high-availability. Additionally there are some applications which were not originally designed to run in a failover cluster. These can be created, managed by and integrated with Failover Clustering using a generic container, with applications using the Generic Application resource type. For more information about cluster-unaware applications, visit http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/aa369166(VS.85).aspx.

We use the Generic Application resource type to enable such applications to run in a highly-available environment which can benefit from clustering features (i.e. high availability, failover, etc.).

When a generic application resource is online, it means that the application is running.
When a generic application is offline, it means that the application is not running.

The 3rd party application should be installed on both the nodes and the installation path should be the same on both the nodes. If the application is just an exe the path to the exe should be the same on both the nodes.

How to Create/Configure a Generic Application Resource

There are three methods to create and configure a generic application resource as below:

High Availability wizard
PowerShell cmdlets (“command-lets”)
Cluster.exe command-line tool (to be deprecated after Windows Server 2008 R2)

In this post I will be covering only the first method and will be using notepad.exe as an example. Notepad is the application that we would like to make highly available.

Checklist

Before creating a generic application resource, please review the checklist at below link.

http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/cc782179.aspx

Cluster Configuration

I have a 2-node cluster running Windows Server 2008 R2. Cluster name is A1C1F4X64.

Name of my cluster nodes are:

1. A1C1F4X64N1

2. A1C1F4X64N2

Below is a partial screenshot of Failover Cluster Manager.

Create a Generic Application Resource Using the High Availability Wizard

Now I will walk you through the High Availability wizard of Failover Cluster Manager to create a generic application resource. Below are the steps:

Launch Failover Cluster Manager from Start menu. Connect to the cluster.
Right click on Services and applications, and click on Configure a Service or Application…

3. High Availability Wizard appears. After reading the information presented on Before You Begin page, click Next.

4. On Select Service or Application page, select Generic Application and click Next.

5. On Generic Application Settings page:

For Command line, enter the name of the executable. In our example, it is notepad.exe.
For the 3rd party application, you would need to provide the full path for the exe
For Parameters, enter the parameters that are supplied to the executable. We will leave it blank indicating that notepad.exe is not taking any additional parameters.

Click Next.

6. On Client Access Point page, we will be providing input for the network name and IP addresses that clients will be using when accessing our highly available generic application. I am choosing a network name (A1C1F4X64GApp) and a static IP address suitable for my network configuration.

Click Next.

7. On Select Storage page, you have an option to choose a disk for the generic application. If your generic application needs a disk resource, you can select a disk. In my example notepad.exe is not going to use any disk. So, I am not selecting any disk.

Click Next.

8. On Replicate Registry Settings page, add the registry keys that your application will be using/updating. Once added, the registry keys will be replicated on all cluster nodes so that the application is functional on all nodes of the cluster. In our example, notepad.exe is not going to use any registry key. Hence we are not providing any information on this page.

Click Next.

9. On Confirmation page, verify that the information is correct. If you need to make modifications, you can use Previous button to go back to earlier pages in the wizard and modify the information.

Click Next.

10. The Wizard should successfully create the generic application resource and bring the resource online. Summary page appears.

11. On Summary page, you can click on View Report… button. This will show you detailed report of what actions were taken to create the generic application resource.

The report can also be located under %SystemRoot%\Cluster\Reports directory for later viewing.

12. Click Finish to complete the High Availability wizard.

13. Locate the newly created item (A1C1F4X64GApp) under Services and applications. This is the container (also known as the group) for the generic application resource.

Above image shows that group A1C1F4X64GApp is online on node A1C1F4X64N2. The name of the generic application resource is “notepad Application”.
Tlist command on A1C1F4X64N2 shows that a process for notepad.exe is running.

Resources

Generic Application Resource Type - http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/cc782775.aspx
Cluster-Unaware applications - http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/aa369166(VS.85).aspx
Checklist: Installing a Generic Application resource - http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/cc782179.aspx
Windows Clustering - http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/aa373130(VS.85).aspx
Creating and Configuring a Generic Application Resource - http://blogs.msdn.com/b/clustering/archive/2009/04/10/9542115.aspx

SQL Server 2008 Client Tools Installation

PeeyushT — Tue, 01 Feb 2011 09:34:52 GMT

SQL Server 2008 Client Tools Installation

Run the setup program from the installation media to load the SQL Server Installation Center.

Once the SQL Server Installation Center loads navigate to the 'Installation' option and select the 'New SQL Server stand-alone installation or add features to an existing installation' option.

For the sake of brevity, once you being the installation process the Feature Selection screen is where you have the option to just install the client tools as shown below.

As you complete the process you will be able to confirm your selections by reviewing the options in the Ready to Install screen as shown below.

In this circumstance, the tools are installed in the C:\Program Files\Microsoft SQL Server\ directory. The tools can also be accessed by navigating to Start | All Programs | Microsoft SQL Server 2008.

Live Series by Partner Technical Services

PeeyushT — Thu, 06 Jan 2011 12:15:39 GMT

Partner Technical Services is pleased to present the following live series events. Each event consists of a webcast, or series of webcasts, delivered using Office Live Meeting. These events will help you to sell or deploy Microsoft products or technologies. Sessions are delivered by experienced Partner Technical Consultants who will be on-hand to answer questions during and after each session. For more information, including charging information, or to register for these events please visit: https://partner.microsoft.com/UK/40102459.

Live Series by Partner Technical Services: Business Intelligence Series

Tuesday 11th January, 11am-12:30pm - Introduction to Business Intelligence

Understand the benefits business intelligence technologies can deliver for your customers. Learn how to sell and position

Microsoft business intelligence software- helping to reduce your sales cycle.

Thursday 18th January, 11am-12:30pm - SharePoint 2010 Business Intelligence

SharePoint 2010 presents many opportunities to deliver best-in-class business intelligence to your customers. Attend this webcast to help your customers to realise their potential with SharePoint 2010.

Business Productivity Online Services (BPOS) 9.1

Delivered by a Partner Technical Consultant via Office Live Meeting this BPOS 9.1 package consists of 9 individually priced sessions designed assist professionals during their preparation to implement BPOS. Topics include understanding the competition, migration to BPOS and security for BPOS. Attend this training to accelerate your sales and deliver high quality BPOS engagements

January 24th - 26th
February 21st - 23rd
March 21st -- 23rd
April 4th - 6^th

Windows Azure

This Windows Azure package is aimed at architects and developers who need to understand how to develop and deliver solutions in the cloud. Delivered by a Partner Technical Consultant via Office Live Meeting these 5 sessions will cover Azure competition, development and storage in the cloud. Empower you and your developers to deliver the benefits of Azure to your customers.

January 27th - 28th
February 24th - 25th
March 24th - 25th
April 7th - 8th

Live Series by Partner Technical Services: Windows Intune

Tuesday 25th January, 11am-12:30pm

Windows Intune provides revenue opportunities for Microsoft Partners. Attend this webcast for an overview of the product features and begin to think about how to capitalise those opportunities.

Live Series by Partner Technical Services: Windows 7 Deployment Series

Learn about Windows AIK and MDT for image engineering and deployment. Reduce the time it takes to build images and deploy them- regardless of the scenario.

Tuesday 1st February, 11am-12:30pm - Introduction to Deploying Windows 7 with the Windows AIK

Learn how Windows AIK can help you to streamline and reduce the time for image creation.

Thursday 3rd February, 11am-12:30pm - Image Engineering with the Windows AIK

This session helps you to understand the different design options available with Windows AIK. At the end of the session you will be able to make informed decisions for your Windows 7 deployment project.

Tuesday 8th February, 11am-12:30pm - Windows 7 Deployment with the MDT

Understand why you would want to use MDT to deployment images for your Windows 7 deployment project.

Thursday 10th February, 11am-12:30pm - Advanced Windows 7 Deployment with MDT

Learn about advanced scenarios (different hardware, different sites, zero-touch) that MDT can cater for. By the end of this session you will have an understanding of how MDT can support your customer’s scenario.

Live Series by Partner Technical Services: Developer Series

Wednesday 2nd February 11am-12:30pm - Visual Studio 2010 - how to choose the right edition

This session will provide an insight in to the different editions of Visual Studio 2010. It also helps you to choose the right edition of developer tool for your projects. We will also see some compete information on Visual Studio 2010.

Wednesday 9th February 11am-12:30pm - Exploring Expression Blend for WPF and Silverlight

Attend this session to explore all the new features in Expression blend for Silverlight 4 and WPF 4 applications

Live Series by Partner Technical Services: Windows Phone 7 - A look at the Smart Design

Tuesday 15th February- 11am- 12:30pm

Attend this session to understand Windows Phone 7 Strategy & Philosophy. Learn how Windows Phone 7 provides an Integrated & consistent platform that’s different from the competitors.

Live Series by Partner Technical Services: How to compete for Dynamics CRM Vs Salesforce.com

Tuesday 1st March- 11am-12:30pm

This session will enable you to combat Salesforce Competition and enable you to pitch Dynamics CRM appropriately. This session will help you understand the value prop for CRM by enabling you to have more insightful conversation around this competition.

Virtual Partner Day - Collaboration and Unified Communications (for EMEA Partners)

PeeyushT — Tue, 09 Nov 2010 19:27:46 GMT

Tuesday 23rd - Wednesday 24th November 2010: Virtual Partner Day - Collaboration and Unified Communications

Partner Technical Services are pleased to present this special Live Series event. This virtual partner day provides the opportunity to attend a choice of 26 live meeting sessions helping you to sell and deliver Microsoft collaboration and unified communication technologies, including Lync Server 2010, SharePoint 2010, Exchange 2010, Project Server and CRM 2011.

Tuesday 23^rd November

Time (GMT)	Lync Server 2010	SharePoint 2010	Exchange 2010	Other
09:45 AM - 11:15 AM	Lync Server 2010 - A First Look	SharePoint 2010 Collaboration & BPOS Migration	Unified Communication: A key to collaboration	Project Server 2010 - Overview
11:30 AM - 01:00 PM		SharePoint 2010 Upgrade and Migration*	Exchange Online Overview	CRM 2011 Overview
02:00 PM – 03:03 PM	Lync Server 2010 – Manageability*	SharePoint 2010 - Enterprise Content Management*	Exchange - Competitive Advantage against Gmail	Improving Collaborative Efforts with Office 2010 and Office Web Apps
03:45 PM – 05:15 PM	Lync Server 2010 - Setup and Deployment*	Silverlight and Client Object Model in SharePoint 2010*	Exchange 2010 - Competitive Advantage against Notes

Wednesday 24^th November

Time (GMT)	Lync Server 2010	SharePoint 2010	Exchange 2010	Other
09:45 AM - 11:15 AM	Lync Server 2010 - Audio Conferencing Deep Dive*	SharePoint 2010 Business Intelligence*	Exchange Online- E-mail migration*
11:30 AM - 01:00 PM	Lync Server 2010 - Migration and Co-Existence*	SharePoint 2010 Business Continuity Planning*	Better IPC with Exchange 2010*	Sales Force Automation with Dynamics CRM 2011 and Office 2010*
02:00 PM – 03:03 PM		Dynamics CRM and SharePoint Integration*	Better Mobility with Exchange 2010 & Active Sync
03:45 PM – 05:15 PM	Lync Server 2010 - Edge Architecture*	SharePoint 2010 based Document Assembly, Manipulation, and Processing using Open XML*	Exchange Server 2010 Development*

* These sessions are charged at 1.5 advisory hours. The charge includes multiple attendees from each Partner organization and access to the session recording. If your organization is not entitled to advisory hours or you require additional advisory hours please contact tasinfo@microsoft.com. All other sessions are free of charge.

More Information and Registration

These sessions are provided as part of MPN Partner Technical Services benefits. Some are free of charge- others are charged at 1.5 advisory hours. For more details of the sessions on offer please visit the registration page here.

SharePoint 2010 resources

PeeyushT — Mon, 25 Oct 2010 19:50:00 GMT

IT Pro Resources

http://sharepoint.microsoft.com/en-us/pages/default.aspx Main Microsoft site (running on SharePoint 2010)

http://sharepoint.microsoft.com/en-us/product/capabilities/Pages/default.aspx Capability overview

http://sharepoint.microsoft.com/en-us/buy/Pages/Editions-Comparison.aspx Edition comparison

Training

http://technet.microsoft.com/en-gb/sharepoint/ff677987.aspx Advanced IT Pro training

IT Professional Overview A video that shows you some of the great new features in SharePoint 2010.

Experiencing the Microsoft SharePoint 2010 User Interface: A video that provides a look at the new, improved user interface in SharePoint 2010.

Getting Started Screencast Series: A series of entry-level screencasts by Microsoft SharePoint MVPs that lets you take advantage of an 11-module e-learning course

http://www.microsoft.com/learning/en/us/training/sharepoint.aspx training and certification

Documentation

http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ee428287.aspx full TechNet documentation

http://go.microsoft.com/?linkid=9730143 The total economic impact of SharePoint 2010

Downloads

Download trial http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/evalcenter/ee388573.aspx

VM demonstration images http://go.microsoft.com/?linkid=9728417

Communications

SharePoint Team Blog

SharePoint 2010 Forums

Downloadable Books

Getting started with SharePoint Server 2010

http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkId=191146

Planning guide for SharePoint Server 2010

http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkId=196150

Upgrading to SharePoint Server 2010

http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkId=196221

Deployment guide for SharePoint Server 2010

http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkId=196222

Operations guide for SharePoint Server 2010

http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkId=196154

Technical reference for SharePoint Server 2010

http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkId=196155

Diagrams and white papers

Technical diagrams (SharePoint Server 2010)

Evaluation guide for SharePoint Server 2010 (white paper)

Developer Resources

http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/sharepoint/default.aspx SharePoint developer centre

Setting Up the Development Environment for SharePoint 2010 on Windows Vista, Windows 7, and Windows Server 2008

What’s New in SharePoint Foundation 2010

What’s New in SharePoint Server 2010

Get Started Developing on SharePoint 2010

Getting Started with Development for SharePoint Foundation

Training

http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ff770300.aspx is the best starting point.

http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/sharepoint/ff420377.aspx is excellent free developer training.

http://channel9.msdn.com/learn/courses/SharePoint2010Developer/ channel 9 training

http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/en/details.aspx?FamilyID=83a80a0f-0906-4d7d-98e1-3dd6f58ff059&displaylang=en SharePoint developer training kit download

Documentation

SharePoint 2010 SDK Documentation. Software development kits (SDKs) or references

SharePoint 2010 Technical Articles. Technical articles are 15-20 pages in length and provide detailed technical information and code examples

SharePoint 2010 Book Excerpts. Book excerpts are online excerpts of published books.-

SharePoint 2010 Visual How-Tos. Visual how-to articles are 10-15 pages in length and combine some of the best elements of blogs, video, and technical articles by providing a brief overview, a code sample, and a how-to video.

SharePoint 2010 Quick Notes. Quick Notes are 2-4 page tasks in a single scenario.

http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ee556429.aspx Search connector development

Code Samples

SharePoint Downloads and Samples

SharePoint Code Gallery Projects

SharePoint CodePlex Projects

Community

SharePoint 2010 Forums

SharePoint Community

ALM Resource Center | SharePoint 2010

Application Lifecycle Management is the coordination of all aspects of software engineering—including the formulation and communication of business and technical requirements, code design and architecture, project tracking, change management, coding, testing, debugging, and release management—by using tools that facilitate and track collaboration among and within work teams.

http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/sharepoint/dd552992.aspx

Planning, Implementing and Supporting SQL Server Virtualization with Windows Server 2008 R2 Hyper-V and Live Migration

PeeyushT — Sat, 14 Aug 2010 15:03:11 GMT

This whitepaper provides prescriptive guidance and detailed steps for planning and implementing SQL Server virtualization with Windows Server 2008 R2 Hyper-V and Live Migration. The document also communicates strategies for managing a SQL Server virtual environment with SQL Server native capabilities and System Center products such as Virtual Machine Manager (VMM) 2008 R2, Configuration Manager 2007 R2, Operations Manager 2007 R2 and Data Protection Manager 2010.

This document is organized into four sections to deliver a straightforward and un-daunting process for planning, implementing and managing your SQL Server virtualization efforts. The document opens with a high level introduction that will acquaint you with the technologies and concepts involved in planning, implementing and managing SQL Server virtualization. The document then expands on these technologies by discussing how to use each capability to simplify your SQL Server virtualization efforts. The four sections include:

Part 1 Planning: This section of the document describes the steps on how to effectively plan a SQL Server virtualization strategy by first communicating how to conduct a discovery of SQL Server computers, instances, and databases in your network. It then covers key considerations that will help you select the most appropriate Hyper-V hardware to support your SQL Server virtualization efforts.
Part 2 Implementation: In this section you will find step-by-step procedures on how to use the Physical-to-Virtual (P2V) tool to conduct a migration of a SQL Server physical server to a virtual server. Steps on how to create a new SQL Server virtual machine from the ground-up are also described in Part 2.
Part 3 High Availability and Live Migration: Achieving high availability within your SQL Server virtual environment with Live Migration is the focus of Part 3. Step-by-step procedures for implementing Live Migration are covered in this section.
Part 4 Ongoing Operations and Support: The final section of the document discusses several strategies that will help you manage your SQL Server virtual environment. Part 4 also includes an overview of how to use System Center Operations Manager to proactively monitor and protect your SQL Server virtual environment.

Some of the technologies used in this white paper are:

SQL Server 2008 R2 - SQL Server 2008 R2 delivers several breakthrough capabilities that will enable your organization to scale database operations with confidence, improve IT and developer efficiency, and enable highly scalable and well managed Business Intelligence on a self-service basis for your users. (http://www.microsoft.com/sqlserver/2008/en/us/r2.aspx)
Windows Server 2008 R2 - Windows Server 2008 R2 builds on the foundation of Windows Server 2008 and delivers valuable new functionality and powerful improvements to the core Windows Server operating system to help organizations of all sizes increase control, availability, and flexibility for their changing business needs. New Web tools, virtualization technologies, scalability enhancements, and management utilities help save time, reduce costs, and provide a solid foundation for your information technology (IT) infrastructure. (http://www.microsoft.com/windowsserver2008/en/us/default.aspx)
Hyper-V - With Hyper-V, it's easier than ever to take advantage of the cost savings of
virtualization through Windows Server 2008 R2. Optimize your server hardware investments by consolidating multiple server roles as separate virtual machines running on a single physical machine, efficiently run multiple different operating systems in parallel, on a single server, and fully leverage the power of x64 computing. (http://www.microsoft.com/windowsserver2008/en/us/hyperv-overview.aspx)
Live Migration - Windows Server 2008 R2 Hyper-V provides greater flexibility with Live Migration. Live Migration is integrated with Windows Server 2008 R2 Hyper-V and Microsoft Hyper-V Server 2008 R2. With Hyper-V Live Migration, you can move running virtual machines (VMs) from one Hyper-V physical host to another, without any disruption or perceived loss of service. IT professionals increasingly look to Live Migration to create a dynamic and flexible IT environment that responds to emerging business needs. Live migration provides the core technology required for dynamic load balancing, VM placement, high availability for virtualized workloads during physical computer maintenance, and reduced data center power consumption. (http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyID=FDD083C6-3FC7-470B-8569-7E6A19FB0FDF&displaylang=en&displaylang=en)
System Center Virtual Machine Manager (VMM) R2 - System Center Virtual Machine Manager is a comprehensive heterogeneous management solution for the virtualized data center. Virtual Machine Manager enables increased physical server utilization, centralized management of virtual machine infrastructure, and rapid provisioning of new virtual machines by the administrator and authorized end users. Virtual Machine Manager provides the best solution for leveraging existing IT administrative skills and processes for managing the virtual and physical environment. (http://www.microsoft.com/systemcenter/virtualmachinemanager/en/us/default.aspx)
System Center Operations Manager 2007 R2 - System Center Operations Manager provides end-to-end service management that is easy to customize and extend for improved service levels across your IT environment. This enables Operations and IT Management teams to identify and resolve issues affecting the health of distributed IT services. End-to-end Service Management is not restricted to Microsoft-based environments. Support for Web Servers for Management (WS-Management), Simple Network Management Protocol (SNMP), and partner solutions allow for non-Microsoft systems and hardware to be included in service monitoring within Operations Manager 2007. (http://www.microsoft.com/systemcenter/operationsmanager/en/us/default.aspx)
Microsoft System Center Data Protection Manager 2010 - (DPM) provides continuous data protection for virtual machines hosted on servers running Microsoft’s Hyper-V. This protection includes online backup of supported guest virtual machines hosted on clustered or standalone systems; protection of virtual machines during the Live Migration process; and, item level recovery from host-level backup. DPM 2010 offers disk-to-disk, disk-to-tape, and disk-to-disk-to-tape technologies; all of which maintain the business value of a virtualized infrastructure by ensuring that it is better protected and always available. (http://www.microsoft.com/systemcenter/en/us/data-protection-manager.aspx)

The whitepaper can be downloaded from the Microsoft Download Center “Planning, Implementing and Supporting SQL Server Virtualization with Windows Server 2008 R2 Hyper-V and Live Migration”

Microsoft announces SQL Server Migration Assistant for MySQL

PeeyushT — Fri, 13 Aug 2010 18:57:00 GMT

Migrate from MySQL to SQL Azure or SQL Server with ease!

On 12-August Microsoft announced the release of first version of SQL Server Migration Assistant (SSMA) for MySQL! Along with this release, Microsoft refreshed the existing SSMA family of products for Oracle, Sybase and Access with the latest v4.2 release.

SQL Server Migration Assistant for MySQL is the newest migration toolkit, others include Oracle, Sybase, Access, and an analyzer for PowerBuilder. The toolkits were designed to tackle the complex manual process customer’s deal with when migrating databases. In using the SQL Server Migration Assistants, customers and partners reduce the manual effort; as a result the time, cost and risks associated with migrating are significantly reduced. Our recent SSMA survey showed that 94% of SSMA downloader’s would recommend the tool to others. All SSMA toolkits are available for free download.

Since the SQL Server Migration Assistants for Oracle became available in June of 2005, Microsoft has seen more than a 250,000 downloads across all of the SSMAs. US Department of Defense, Aon, AIM Healthcare, Motorola, Simon & Schuster, Sony Ericsson and Artesia are just a few of the customers that have downloaded and used the SQL Server Migration Assistant toolkit to migrate to Microsoft SQL Server.

With this wave of release, customers can migrate to any edition of SQL Server 2008 R2, SQL Server 2008 or SQL Server 2005. Brand NEW with this release, SSMA for MySQL and SSMA for Access products also support simple and direct migration to SQL Azure.

The latest SQL Server Migration Assistant is available for free download and preview at:

SSMA for MySQL v1.0, out of the two downloads, ‘SSMA 2008 for MySQL’ enables migration to SQL Azure
SSMA for Access v4.2 out of the two downloads, ‘SSMA 2008 for Access’ enables migration to SQL Azure
SSMA for Oracle v4.2
SSMA for Sybase v4.2

Customers and partners can provide feedback via ssmateam@microsoft.com.

SSMA for MySQL v1.0 is designed to work with MySQL 4.1 and above. Some of the salient features included in this release are the ability to convert/migrate:

Tables
Views
Stored procedures
Stored functions
Triggers
Cursors
DML statements
Control statements
Transactions

The latest SSMA v4.2 release for Oracle/Sybase/Access includes:

Console support for automated DB assessment/DB migration/SQL syntax conversion for application migration.
Support for client side and server side data migration for convenience.
Better support for 64-bit platform.
Microsoft Access (Access 97 and above) to SQL Azure migration (you can continue to use existing Access front end applications though the data resides in SQL Azure)
Support for migrating to SQL Server 2008 R2
Support for migrating from latest Oracle (11g R2), Sybase (15.5) and Access (2010) releases

Learn SQL skills

PeeyushT — Wed, 04 Aug 2010 20:14:00 GMT

If anyone wants to upgrade/refresh their SQL skills and would like to do so using any webcasts\training videos\technet videos for SQL Server 2008; they can refer to the following resources:

Some more short videos are listed below:

How to create, modify, and execute a stored procedure with Project Houston?

How to create, select, and modify a view with Project Houston?

How to create, modify, execute, save, and open a query with Project Houston?

How to create and modify a table with Project Houston?

How Do I: Optimize SQL Server Integration Services?

In this video, Max Adams will introduce 5 tips to increase the performance of SQL Service Integration Services packages. From network packet resizing to altering the ETL (Extract, Transform and Load) SQL statements, these tips are designed to make the packages perform at an optimal level.

How Do I: Render reports to a wide-range of formats?

This video shows how use SQL Server Reports Portal and related tools to export or render reports to different file formats. This video demonstrates the following: How to export to PDF. How to export to Excel. How to export to Word. How to setup a subscription that exports a report in the PDF format to a file share. How to export to other file formats using the Report Builder. Design Considerations for Rendering: http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/aa178936(SQL.80).aspx

How Do I: Create an gallery of reusable report parts?

This video shows how use create a gallery of reports parts in SQL Server Reporting Services 2008 This video demonstrates the following: • How to create a report part gallery • How to publish report parts from existing reports • How to specify settings while publishing report parts • How to use the published report parts within reports

Creating a Basic Package (SQL Server Video)

This video demonstrates how to create a basic package by using the SSIS Designer in Business Intelligence Development Studio. You’ll learn how to create the project for the package, add a data flow task to the control flow of the package, and add elements to the data flow.

Designing Your SSIS Packages for Parallelism (SQL Server Video)

This video demonstrates how to increase the performance of your Integration Services packages by designing for parallelism.

How to: Automate SSIS Package Execution by Using the SQL Server Agent (SQL Server Video)?

This video demonstrates the following: 1) How to create a proxy account that runs an Integration Services package as a job step in SQL Server Agent; 2) How to create the job and the job step; 3) How to schedule the running of the job.

How to: Call a Web Service by Using the Web Service Task (SQL Server Video)?

Learn how to call a Web service successfully from an Integration Services package by configuring an HTTP connection manager and the Web Service task. Then, set up an XML task to read the information that you have retrieved, and use that information in the package.

Exporting SQL Server Data to Excel (SQL Server Video)

This video demonstrates how to use the SQL Server Import and Export Wizard to create a package that exports data from a SQL Server database to a Microsoft Excel spreadsheet.

How to: Use the Data Profiling Task (SQL Server Video)?

Learn how to use this powerful new task in SQL Server 2008 to become familiar with an unfamiliar database, or to look for problems in existing data. Take a quick look at all eight of the profiles that the task can compute.

Measuring and Understanding the Performance of Your SSIS Packages in the Enterprise (SQL Server Video)

This video demonstrates how to measure and understand the performance of packages, based on lessons learned from enterprise customers. In this video, you will learn the following guidelines for improving performance: 1) How the limits of the source system affect performance; 2) Why disk I/O is important; 3) Why you should establish a package performance baseline.

Understanding SSIS Data Flow Buffers (SQL Server Video)

This video looks at the memory buffers that transfer data to the data flow of an Integration Services package.

Tuning Your SSIS Package Data Flow in the Enterprise (SQL Server Video)

This video demonstrates how to improve the performance of the data flow in an Integration Services package. In this video, you will learn how to tune the following phases of the data flow: 1) Extraction; 2) Transformation; 3) Loading. You can apply these performance tuning tips when you design, develop, and run the data flow.

Troubleshooting: SSIS Package Execution Using SQL Server Agent (SQL Server Video)

This video demonstrates how to troubleshoot an SQL Server Integration Services package that doesn't run when you call the package from a SQL Server Agent job step. The package does run successfully outside SQL Server Agent.

How to: Implement a Lookup Transformation in Full Cache Mode (SQL Server Video)?

This video demonstrates how to implement a Lookup transformation in Full Cache mode by using a Lookup transformation, Cache connection manager, and reference data set that is stored in cache.

Add a Node to an Existing Failover Cluster in SQL Server 2008

In this video, Max Verun will demonstrate how to add a node to an exisiting SQL Server Faliover Cluster instance.

How Do I: Do I need to Scale Up or Scale Out in SQL Server 2008?

Scaling is all about making SQL Server 2008 capable of handling larger workloads. With SQL Server 2008 there are two distinct paths one can take when faced with a database environment which no longer can handle the workload it is receiving: Scale Up, Scale out In this video, Max Adams explores both of these options.

How Do I: Create Reusable Report Parts with SQL Server Report Builder?

This video explains how to create and publish reusable report parts with SQL Server Report Servers 2008 R2 and Report Builder
This video demonstrates the following:

Create a report using Report Building
Publish a report
Publish a report part
Edit and republish an existing a report part

How Do I : Install and Configure Master Data Services?

This video explains how to install the new Master Data Services component included with SQL Server 2008 R2.
This video demonstrates the following:

Where to find the installation program for MDS
How to complete the installation wizard
How to configure the MDS database
How to configure the MDS website

How Do I: Integrate a Map with SQL Server Reporting Services?

This video explains how to insert a map into a report using SQL Server 2008 R2 Reporting Services. The map utilizes spatial data within a SQL Server database
This video demonstrates the following:

Create a report using Business Intelligence Design Studio
Add a map to the report
Define spatial to visual within the report
The various maps available by default plus where to find additional maps

Creating Effective Aggregations - Technical Article

Aggregations are the key to getting the best performance out of your cube. MVP Chris Webb demonstrates the steps he takes to design effective aggregations.

How Do I: Installing SQL Server 2008?

In this video I will use the Installation Wizard to install a new instance of SQL Server 2008.

How Do I: Forecast Table Analysis Tool?

In this tutorial you will learn how to use the Forecast Table Analysis Tool for Excel. The Forecast tool uses the Microsoft time series algorithm to predict future values based on trends in existing time series data.

How Do I: Highlight Exceptions Table Analysis Tool for Data Mining?

In this tutorial we will learn how to use the Highlight Exceptions Table Analysis Tool for Excel. The Highlight Exceptions tool uses the Microsoft clustering algorithm and pattern analysis to find values in a dataset that are atypical.

How Do I: Scenario Analysis - Goal Seek Table Analysis Tool for Data Mining?

The Scenario Analysis tool uses the Microsoft logistic regression algorithm and allows you to model two types of scenarios and report the effect on either a single row or the entire table of input data. In this video we'll look at the Goal Seek scenario Table Analysis Tool for Microsoft Excel.

How Do I: Prediction Calculator Table Analysis Tool?

In this tutorial you will learn how to use the Prediction Calculator Table Analysis Tool for Excel. This tool generates both interactive and printable calculators for scoring new data against a desired outcome.

How Do I: Modifying Measures, Attributes and Hierarchies?

This video demonstrates how to modify the measures, attributes and hierarchies in a cube.

How Do I: Getting Started with the Table Analysis Tools for Excel?

This video will help you get started with the Data Mining Table Analysis Tools add-in for Excel by showing you how to open the tools, use the sample Excel data, and connect to an Analysis Services server.

How Do I: Analyze Key Influencers Table Analysis Tool?

In this tutorial you will learn how to use the Analyze Key Influencers Table Analysis Tool for Excel. The Analyze Key Influencers tool uses the Microsoft Clustering algorithm to enable you to select a column that contains a desired outcome or target value, and then analyze the patterns in your data to determine which factors had the strongest influence on that outcome.

How Do I: Fill From Example Table Analysis Tool?

In this tutorial we will learn how to use the Fill From Example Table Analysis Tool for Excel.

How Do I: Defining and Deploying a Cube?

This video demonstrates how to define and deploy an OLAP cube using Analysis Services.

Detect Categories Table Analysis Tool

In this tutorial we will learn how to use the Detect Categories Table Analysis Tool for Excel.

Shopping Basket Table Analysis Tool for Data Mining

In this tutorial you will learn how to use the Shopping Basket Analysis Table Analysis Tool for Microsoft Excel. The Shopping Basket Analysis tool uses the Microsoft Association Rules algorithm to detect the relationship of items frequently purchased together.

Scenario Analysis - What If Table Analysis Tool for Data Mining?

The Scenario Analysis tool uses the logistic regression algorithm and allows you to model two types of scenarios and report the effect on either a single row or the entire table of input data.

How Do I: Create a Utility Control Point (UCP)?

The Create Utility Control Point Wizard will help you to create a UCP on an instance of SQL Server to manage your SQL Server Utility. Presented by Colleen Hamilton and Buck Woody http://blogs.msdn.com/sqlrem/

How Do I: Convert a Table to use the Hierarchical Data Type?

In this video, Ty Anderson shows how to use T-SQL to convert a table that is self-referencing table for hierarchy purposes into a table that utilized the new Hierarchical data type.

How Do I: Design High Performance Cubes in SQL Server 2008 Analysis Services?

In this video, Jacques Victor explains how to Design High Performance Cubes in SQL Server 2008 Analysis Services.
The benefit of building a cube to house data is that business rules can be centralized for calculations that can't easily be stored in a relational data mart.
Note: The AdventureWorks Db is used in this video.
The Db can be found here: http://msftdbprodsamples.codeplex.com/wikipage?title=Installing%20Databases

How Do I: Optimize Data Warehousing with Microsoft SQL Server 2008?

In this video, Max Adams will present 10 tips toward optimizing Data Warehouses or DataMarts build on Microsoft's SQL Server 2008 platform.

How Do I: Monitor SQL Server Analysis Services Performance?

Tuesday, January 12, 2010, 1:59:25 AM

In this video, Jacques Victor explains how to monitor SQL Server Analysis Services performance with SQL Server Profiler which can be used as a performance optimization and monitoring tool for Analysis Services.

How Do I: Use SQL Profiler with SQL Server 2008?

This video demonstrates how use SQL Profiler to perform the following tasks: - Create and Edit Traces
- Create Trace Templates
- Watch Trace results
- Start, Pause, and Stop a Trace
- Replay Trace results
- Capture SHOWPLAN events and view analyze their results

How Do I: Setup Snapshot Replication with SQL Server 2008?

This video demonstrates how to configure Snapshot Replication between two instances of SQL Server 2008. This video demonstrates the following: Creating a Publisher database, Creating Subscriber database, Selecting replicable SQL Server database objects, Configuring security for the replication processes.

How Do I: Set up Database Mirroring?

Database mirroring is a feature of SQL Server that allows an administrator to create a copy of the database that is always up to date. If the principal server fails or needs to be taken offline for maintenance the mirror server can be quickly set up to take on the workload. Mirroring provides high availability for your databases. In this video Scott Golightly shows how to use T-SQL commands to set up database mirroring between two servers. Follow along with these easy steps to create a database mirror to help protect your mission critical data.

How Do I: Setup Transactional Replication?

Transactional replication is a feature of SQL Server that replicates committed changes to the publisher database to one or more subscriber databases. Transactional replication is useful when you need data that is up to date in different locations. In this video Scott Golightly shows how to set up transactional replication. First the publisher is configured, then the distributor, next publications with articles are created, and finally a subscriber is created. The video shows making changes to the publisher database and having those changes appear at the subscriber.

How Do I: Optimize SQL Server Integration Services?

How Do I: Create a data-tier application ?

Systematically create and register a data-tier application from an existing user database on a UCP enrolled instance of SQL Server.

How Do I: Connect to an existing UCP?

You will need the name of the instance of SQL Server and credentials to connect to an existing UCP.

How Do I: Set resource health policies?

Edit resource health policies for a managed instance of SQL Server, a data-tier application, and utilization of host resources like CPU and storage space.

How Do I: Modify UCP users?

Grant users the rights to view health status or administer health policies on the currently connected SQL Server Utility.

How Do I: Enroll instances of SQL Server with a UCP?

The Enroll Instance Wizard will guide you through the process of enrolling an instance of SQL Server with the currently connected UCP.

How Do I: Using the HierarchyID Data Type in SQL Server 2008 to manage data hierarchies?

Managing hierarchies in Information Systems has long been a challenge to most information systems professionals. The issues are simple, but the implementation of hierarchies within databases is complex and often onerous. The HierarchyID datatype introduced in SQL Server 2008 provides a new way to deal with these types of issues. In this video, Max Adams will introduce this new HierarchyID Datatype and examine how to:
- Create tables that implement this datatype
- Populate the table with data using CTE
- Query the table using some of the inherent functions available for the HierarchyID Datatype.

How Do I: Profile Data with the Data Profiling Task and Viewer

Data quality is important to every business. Using the SQL Server 2008 Data Profiling task computes statistics about the data in a database to spot incorrect values. The Data Profiling viewer allows you to view the generated statistics. In this video Scott Golightly shows how to create the data profile and how to review the results.

How Do I: Import Text Files with SQL Server Integration Services?

Many programs produce logs as plain text files. Sometimes these log files need to be imported into SQL Server to allow further analysis of the data. In this video Scott Golightly shows how to use SQL Server Integration Services to import text files into SQL Server

How Do I: Use the Row Value Constructor to insert data into a SQL Server 2008 table?

This video shows how to insert data into a SQL Server 2008 table using the Row Value Constructor.
This demo shows how to:
- Insert data into a SQL Server 2008 table
- Four different methods are used to insert bulk data, including the new Data Row Constructor

How Do I: Use the Service Audit Object in SQL Server 2008?

This video shows how to use the Service Audit Object to record events within SQL Server 2008 Enterprise Edition.
This demo shows how to:
- Create a Server Audit Object
- Create a Server Audit Specification
- Create a Database Audit Specification
- Examine the audit logs for Login Failed events

How Do I: Import Data from Oracle Databases?

Many organizations have both Oracle and SQL Server databases. In this video Scott Golightly shows how easy it is to use the import data wizard and SQL Server Integration Services to import data from a table in an Oracle database into SQL Server.

How Do I: Configure Database Mail in SQL Server 2008?

Database Mail is useful for sending e-mail to administrators and end users. Database mail can contain data from queries or from files or other resources on your network. In this video Scott Golightly shows how to configure Database Mail in SQL Server 2008. After setting up Database Mail we see how to test the mail and view the mail log.

How Do I: Block Connections to SQL Server By IP Address Using Logon Triggers?

This video shows how to restrict access to SQL Server 2005 SP 2 (Or Above) based on IP Address.
This demo shows how to:
- Retrieve the IP Address of the client using the EVENTDATA() function
- Use a Logon Trigger to restrict access to a SQL Server instance

How Do I: Use PowerShell to Transfer Data?

PowerShell can be used to export or import data. By creating a simple script you can easily move data between databases. This can be given to developers or testers to allow them to refresh data in their systems.

How Do I: Use PowerShell to Audit Servers?

Most DBAs spend a portion of their day reviewing servers looking for errors and potential problems. Windows PowerShell offers the ability to automate some of those tasks freeing the DBA to perform other duties. In this video Scott Golightly will show how to use PowerShell to automate reviewing log files and checking SQL Server properties.

Use the Database Engine Tuning Advisor

For many database administrators ensuring top performance is a large part of their job. By using the Database Engine Tuning Advisor the database any workload can be analyzed for changes to the database that will increase performance. By taking advantage of the database engine tuning advisor, administrators can reduce the amount of time they spend analyzing the database to increase performance. In this video Scott Golightly shows how to use a SQL script as the input to the database engine tuning advisor to determine how to increase performance in certain tables in the Adventureworks sample database.

Use the Filestream Data Type to Store BLOB Data

In this video Scott Golightly shows how to configure Windows and SQL Server to enable the Filestream data type. After configuring SQL Server to support the Filestream, Scott creates a new database and table that uses the Filestream data type. The Filestream data type is new in SQL Server 2008 and enables storing binary large object (BLOB) data like pictures and music as a file on a share to efficiently store the data while treating it as an integral part of the database so backup and restore operations include the Filestream data as well. Filestream allows SQL Server to efficiently manage the rich data that today's applications demand.

Configure a Report Portal in SSRS

This video shows how configure a SSRS report portal from scratch. This demo shows how to: setup a Report URL, define an execution account, create a Reports Server database, configure SMTP and more...

Create and Publish a Data Cube for SQL Server Analysis Server 2008

This video shows how to use Business Intelligence Development Studio (BIDS) to create an data cube for SQL Server Analysis Server 2008. This demo shows how to: use BIDS to create a data model project, create Data Sources, Data Views, Dimenions, and Cubes and how to Deploy the project to SSAS 2208.

Provide an Up-to-Date Data Warehouse with Change Data Capture

In this video Scott Golightly introduces us to the Change Data Capture feature of SQL Server 2008. After showing how to configure Change Data Capture on a database Scott shows a sample SSIS package that extracts the changed data from the database.

Automate Report Delivery in SQL Server Reporting Services Using Subscriptions

This video shows how to create report subscriptions to au This demo shows how to: configure a shared data source to store credentials (required for subscriptions), configure SSRS for SMTP email delivery, create a subscription that delivers reports to a file share and create a subscription that delivers reports via email.

Setting up a Maintenance Plan to Backup Databases

In this video Scott Golightly shows us how to create database maintenance plans using the Maintenance Plan wizard and SQL Server Integration Services (SSIS). Scott also shows how to customize plans that were created with the wizard.

Create and Modify Reports Using the Report Builder Tool

In this video Scott Golightly shows us how to use SQL Server 2008 Business Intelligence Studio to create a report model. We then use the report model and the Report Builder tool to create a report. The report is saved to the SQL Server Reporting Services reporting site where it can later be run or modified by other users who want a slightly different report.

Manage SQL Server 2008 Spatial Data

In this video Scott Golightly takes us through an overview of spatial data in SQL Server 2008. Using the geometry data type Scott looks at some of the functions that a DBA might have to know to properly understand and maintain the data being stored in the database. The session ends with a look at spatial indexes and how to create them.

Streamline an Upgrade from SQL Server 2005 to SQL Server 2008

In this video Scott Golightly introduces the SQL Server Upgrade Advisor. He then shows us two methods for using the command line to upgrade a SQL server without having to wait for dialog boxes or provide further input.

Synchronizing Remote SQL Server Databases with the Sync Framework

In this video Scott Golightly shows how to install the synchronization framework and then how to use it in conjunction with SQL Server 2008 change tracking to update remote, occasionally connected databases.

Configure Report Security in SSRS

This video shows how configure SSRS report security using both default and custom roles This demo shows how to: grant a user access to a report & folder, grant group access to a report & folder, create a custom role in SSRS, configure users to utilize the custom role and set different permissions for different folders in SSRS.

The New SQL Audit Feature of SQL Server 2008

In this video Scott Golightly shows us the new SQL Audit feature of SQL Server 2008. Scott shows us how to set up a server audit using Transact SQL. He also shows us how to create a database audit using SQL Server Management Studio. Using SQL Audit you can audit different actions on your database to ensure compliance and protect valuable information.

Use Policy Based Management Features of SQL Server 2008 to Manage SQL Servers

In this video Scott Golightly shows us how to use the new policy based management features of SQL Server 2008 to manage our SQL Servers. Scott shows us how to use facets, create conditions, and create policies to manage our servers. The video demonstrates cases where the policy can automatically update your servers to ensure they are in compliance. Finally we look at the policies based on the best practices analyzer provided by Microsoft.

The SQL Server 2008 Resource Governor

In this video Scott Golightly explores the SQL Server 2008 resource governor. The resource governor can help you allocate your CPU and memory effectively and ensure that rougue queries do not take over your server. Scott examines resource pools, resource groups, and the classifier function. Scott shows how to monitor the resource pools using performance monitor.

Create a Report with Visual Studio 2008 and Deploy it to SQL Server Reporting Services 2008

This video shows how to build a report using Visual Studio 2008 and then deploy it to SQL Server Reporting Services. This demo shows how to: create report project in Visual Studio, create an shared data sources, how to design a report, how to add interactive sorting, change the project settings to deploy the report,deploy the report and run the report in SSRS.

Enable Transparent Data Encryption

In this video Scott Golightly shows how to use the transparent data encryption (TDE) feature of SQL Server 2008 Enterprise Edition. In addition to showing how to create the keys and certificates necessary to enable TDE, Scott encrypts the AdventureWorks sample database. After encrypting the database, Scott discusses the effect encryption has on your server and demonstrates what happens with database restores when the proper keys are not available.

Improve Performance and Storage Utilization With Data Compression

In this video Scott Golightly shows how to use the data compression feature of SQL Server 2008 Enterprise and Developer Editions. In addition to showing how to enable data compression, Scott discusses the effect it can have on the size of your table, when you may not want to use it, and shows examples of how to see if compression is having the desired result.

Exporting SQL Server Data to Excel

This video demonstrates how to use the SQL Server Import and Export Wizard to create a package that exports data from a SQL Server database to a Microsoft Excel spreadsheet.

How to: Call a Web Service by Using the Web Service Task

How to: Implement a Lookup Transformation in Full Cache Mode

This video demonstrates how to implement a Lookup transformation in Full Cache mode by using a Lookup transformation, Cache connection manager, and reference data set that is stored in cache.

How to: Use the Data Profiling Task

Creating an Analysis Services Project

This video demonstrates how to create an Analysis Services project, define a data source, and define a data source view. You will also learn how to change the value of the FriendlyName property for objects in the data source view to increase the user-friendliness of their names.

Defining and Deploying a Cube

This video demonstrates how to define and deploy an OLAP cube using Analysis Services.

Modifying Measures, Attributes and Hierarchies

This video demonstrates how to modify the measures, attributes and hierarchies in a cube.

2010 Information Worker Demonstration and Evaluation Virtual Machine (RTM) available as a free download

PeeyushT — Wed, 12 May 2010 18:54:04 GMT

Brief Description

This download contains a two Windows Server 2008 R2 Hyper-V Virtual Machine set for evaluating and demonstrating Office 2010, SharePoint 2010 and Project Server 2010.

Overview

Virtual machine “a” contains the following pre-configured software:

Windows Server 2008 R2 Standard Evaluation Edition x64, running as an Active Directory Domain Controller for the “CONTOSO.COM” domain with DNS and WINS
Microsoft SQL Server 2008 R2 Enterprise Edition with Analysis, Notification, and Reporting Services
Microsoft Office Communication Server 2007 R2
Microsoft Visual Studio 2010
Microsoft SharePoint Server 2010 Enterprise Edition
Microsoft Office Web Applications
Microsoft FAST Search for SharePoint 2010
Microsoft Project Server 2010
Microsoft Office Professional Plus 2010
Microsoft Visio 2010
Microsoft Project 2010
Microsoft Office Communicator 2007 R2

Virtual machine “b” contains the following pre-configured software:

Windows Server 2008 R2 Standard Evaluation Edition x64, joined to the “CONTOSO.COM” domain
Microsoft Exchange Server 2010

Active directory has been preconfigured over 200 “demo” users with metadata in an organizational structure. All of these user profiles have been imported and indexed for search within SharePoint Server 2010.
SharePoint Server 2010 has been configured in a “Complete” farm using the default SQL Server 2008 R2 instance. A default site has been created using the Team Site template at http://intranet.contoso.com/ and a FAST Search Center at http://intranet.contoso.com/search/.
As shipped virtual machine “a” requires image “b” for email. Running image "b" is optional.

System Requirements

Supported Operating Systems: Windows Server 2008 R2

Additionally you will need:

Windows Server 2008 R2 with the Hyper-V role enabled.
Drive Formatting: NTFS
Processor: Intel VT or AMD-V capable
RAM: 8 GB or more recommended
Hard disk space required for install: 50 GB

Instructions

Please refer to the included "Virtual Machine Setup Guide.docx" document for full setup instructions.
Setting up Hyper-V:

Install the Hyper-V role on your Windows Server 2008 R2 host (See: TechNet: Hyper-V)
Extract the VM images by running the self-extracting executable "2010-7a.part01.exe" and "2010-7b.part01.exe"
Open Hyper-V Manager
Under Actions, click Virtual Network Manager…
Choose New virtual network in the Virtual Networks pane
Choose Internal from the type list and click Add
Enter a name of Internal and click OK
Close the Virtual Network Manager dialog.

Importing the Virtual Machine:
Due to the activation and expiration models in Windows Server 2008 and R2, it’s highly recommended that you do one of the following: Retain a copy of the unaltered VM or, Create and retain a snapshot from before first run of the VMs.

In Hyper-V Manager, under Actions, click Import Virtual Machine
Use the Browse button to select the folder where the virtual machine package was extracted.
Click Import and wait for the Import to complete – the import status will appear in the Operations column
Select the newly imported virtual machine and click Settings in the right pane of the Hyper-V Manager
Confirm (and correct if necessary) that the Network Adapter is connected to the Internal network from the steps above
Close the virtual machine Settings dialog.

Starting the VM:

Return to or start the Hyper-V Manager
Select the “a” Virtual Machine
Click Start
Click Connect – a Virtual Machine Connection window should appear
Wait for the VM to boot up and reach the login screen.
Start the “b” Virtual Machine (optional)
Select the “b” Virtual Machine
Click Start
Click Connect – a Virtual Machine Connection window should appear
Log in to the VM Image. (password below). Note: The Virtual Machine Connection uses Ctrl-Alt-Home instead of the normal Ctrl-Alt-Del sequence for login.

User: administrator
Password: pass@word1
Domain: CONTOSO

Evaluation Period:
The Virtual Machines contained in this package are 180 day evaluations. Additionally they will require activation, or re-arming, after a 10 day period after which they will shut down after 2 hours of continuous operation. To "re-arm" the Virtual Machines use the shortcut provided under Start > All Programs > re-arm > Re-arm Windows (restart required). This will reset the grace period for 10 days. This can be done twice. In order to activate Windows you must add a second network card to each VM in Hyper-V and connect it to the Internet. Once connected you can activate Windows within the Virtual Machine and the VM will run for 180 days.

For more information please review http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?displaylang=en&FamilyID=751fa0d1-356c-4002-9c60-d539896c66ce

SCE 2010 and DPM 2010 RTM

PeeyushT — Mon, 19 Apr 2010 18:52:41 GMT

Underscoring its commitment to providing midsize businesses with cost effective solutions for managing both physical and virtual IT environments, Microsoft today announced the release to manufacturing (RTM) of System Center Essentials 2010 and System Center Data Protection Manager 2010.

System Center Essentials 2010 (SCE 2010) provides IT professionals in mid-sized organizations with a unified physical and virtual management experience. It enables you to better secure, update, monitor, and troubleshoot from a single console, so you can efficiently and proactively manage your IT environment.

The main addition to this second System Center Essentials release is the seamless integration of Virtual Machine Manager 2008 R2 technology, making it quick and easy for midsize business to begin realizing the cost-cutting benefits of server consolidation using virtualization. SCE 2010 will enable you to rapidly move from a physical to virtual server environment while maintaining the control and simple management you have come to expect from the product.

System Center Data Protection (DPM) 2010, meantime, delivers unified data protection for Windows servers such as SQL Server, Exchange, SharePoint, Virtualization and file servers -- as well as Windows desktops and laptops. Microsoft has re-engineered DPM 2010 to be more scalable so that both midsize and enterprise-class organizations can take advantage of it.

Key additions in DPM 2010 include:

The ability for roaming laptops to get centrally managed policies around desktop protection, so that your laptop data is protected, whether you are connected to the corporate network or remote
Enhanced virtualization protection, including Hyper-V R2 LiveMigration scenarios and the ability to recover single-files from within host-based backups
Additional protection and recovery capabilities for Windows application servers like SQL Server, Exchange or SharePoint
Native site-to-site replication for disaster recovery to either another DPM server or an off-site cloud provider
Significant enterprise-scalability increases for deploying DPM in large environments
Centrally managed System State and Bare Metal Recovery

Look for an update on licensing and pricing for these products soon. Go check out SCE 2010 and DPM 2010.

IDC White Paper on Business-Critical Workloads Available

PeeyushT — Fri, 16 Apr 2010 09:09:24 GMT

A new IDC white paper is available at http://download.microsoft.com/download/5/B/D/5BD5C253-4259-428B-A3E4-1F9C3D803074/IDC_Business_Critical_Workloads.pdf which documents what’s happening in the world of x86-based Servers; why they are THE platform businesses choose for their business-critical workloads.

This is an objective look at how businesses are taking advantage of new advances in server hardware. The paper also goes into detail about the kinds of workloads being tackled with this kind of hardware married with Windows Server as the OS platform, and the benefits businesses are getting out of it.

In this report they explain "IDC finds that BP workloads are progressively shifting from mainframes and host servers based upon RISC and EPIC (Itanium-based) architectures to x86 servers," (on p. 6).

There is also a webcast of Al Gillen where he describes the research.

The report expects to see x86-based machines increasingly running business processing (BP) workloads and credits improvements in x86-based server hardware technologies -- plus scalability enhancements in Windows Server 2008 R2 and SQL Server 2008 R2 -- as leading to a technology shift that Windows Server Becoming a Mainframe Contender.

Another report is available at http://redmondmag.com/articles/2010/04/14/windows-server-becoming-a-mainframe-contender.aspx

Partner Virtual Tech Days

PeeyushT — Wed, 31 Mar 2010 10:50:18 GMT

UK Partner Technical Services team are excited to announce the upcoming “Virtual Partner Days”, running 27to 29April 2010 for Microsoft Partners.

The events will focus on content for Technical Pre-Sales, Business Decision Makers, IT Professionals and Developers. There will be 48 Live Meeting sessions delivered by Microsoft Subject Matter Experts across the 3 days. These sessions will range from beginner to intermediate level, including demos, recommended practices, competitive positioning and value propositions.

These sessions are specifically designed to help you gain maximum exposure across multiple Microsoft products and technologies – all sessions are aligned with the “Get the Message” theme which will help you understand how Microsoft technology works together. The sessions will be approximately 1½ hours long & there is no limitation on the number of people from your organization that can attend.

The Technical/ISV sessions will deduct 1 hour (per technical event chosen) from the your available advisory (TAS) hours. The sessions will be delivered online using Microsoft Live Meeting 2007, registration will be through the UK PLC and the audio will be privately broadcast over the Internet.

The Virtual Partner Day event synopsis is located here - click through to the PLC to see the full list of events with live links enabling your Partner to book onto sessions.

If you require further information about Partner Technical Services or the Virtual Partner Days, please contact the TAS Team at uktas@microsoft.com

I look forward to see you all there.

Windows XP Mode now accessible to more PCs

PeeyushT — Tue, 23 Mar 2010 18:36:47 GMT

Last week Microsoft made some major announcement around Virtualization and one of the announcements was around an update to Windows XP mode which makes it more accessible to PCs in small and midsize businesses who want to migrate to Windows 7 Professional but have applications that still require Windows XP. Windows XP Mode will no longer require hardware virtualization technology to run. This change makes it extremely easy for businesses to use Windows XP Mode to address any application incompatibility roadblocks they might have in migrating to Windows 7. Windows XP Mode will of course continue to use hardware virtualization technology such as Intel VT (Intel Virtualization Technology) or AMD-V if available. You can find more information and download the update available here.

Windows XP Mode is designed for small and midsize businesses. For enterprise customers, we recommend they use Microsoft Enterprise Desktop Virtualization (MED-V) which is part of the Microsoft Desktop Optimization Pack for Software Assurance. MED-V provides deployment and manageability features better fit to address the needs of the enterprise customer. For more information on MED-V, click here. You can discover how MED-V works with deployment and management of virtual Windows desktops in key scenarios for the enterprise here on the Springboard Series on TechNet. And Stephen Rose recently blogged about our MED-V SP1 release here.

SQL Licensing under Virtualization

PeeyushT — Fri, 19 Mar 2010 15:35:53 GMT

In virtual environments, all products in the Per Processor licensing model are licensed by virtual processor. If you run the software in virtual Operating System Environments (OSEs), you need a license for each virtual processor used by those OSEs on a specific server, rather than all the physical processors in the server. If you run the software in physical OSEs, you need a license for each physical processor used by the physical OSE.

The Per Processor licensing model is slightly different than for other Microsoft server products. Instead of stating how you may use the software on a server for each license, it states how you may use the software on a server after the server has been appropriately licensed. To license a server appropriately, you must follow three steps for each Per Processor product running on the server:

Count the number of physical processors that the physical OSE in which the software will run is using.
Count the number of virtual processors that each virtual OSE in which the software will run is using. (A virtual processor is considered to have the same number of threads and cores as each physical processor on the underlying physical hardware system. Fractions of virtual processors count as full virtual processors.)
Add the numbers together and assign that number of licenses to the server on which the software will run.

After the server has been appropriately licensed, you may run any number of instances of the software in any number of physical and virtual OSEs on the licensed server.

Similar to hardware partitioning, the licensing model treats virtualization technology as a means of assigning and allocating processors to a specific workload. For example, to determine the required number of licenses for SQL Server Standard (licensed Per Processor) for server A in Figure 14 (assume each processor is a single core processor):

Step 1—There are no instances of SQL Server Standard running in the physical OSE. The count for this step is zero.
Step 2—There are instances of SQL Server Standard running in two separate virtual OSEs. Each of those virtual OSEs is using one virtual processor. The count for this step is two.
Step 3—To license server A appropriately for SQL Server Standard, you must assign it two SQL Server Standard licenses.

Figure 14 – Licensing Per Processor products by virtual processor.

Similarly, to count the number of licenses for BizTalk Server for server A:

Step 1—There are no instances of BizTalk Server running in the physical OSE. The count for this step is zero.
Step 2—There are instances of BizTalk Server running in two separate virtual OSEs. Each of those virtual OSEs is using one virtual processor. The count for this step is two.
Step 3—To license server A appropriately for BizTalk Server, you must assign it two BizTalk Server licenses.

The number of licenses required is not affected by the number of instances of the software running in a particular OSE. It is based on the number of physical or virtual processors used by each OSE running the software.

Under this model, you may find that you assign more virtual processors to virtual OSEs than the total number of physical processors in the server. For example, in Figure 15, SQL Server Enterprise Edition is running in five virtual OSEs, each of which is using one virtual processor. Assigning five SQL Server Enterprise Edition licenses to server A is one way to license it appropriately. However, SQL Server 2005 also provides an alternative for SQL Server Enterprise Edition. With SQL Server Enterprise Edition, you may license all the physical processors on a server and then you may run any number of instances in OSEs on that server without licensing the virtual processors. This would be the most cost-effective way to license the scenario below. BizTalk Server 2006 R2 Enterprise Edition has the same licensing option.

Finally, instead of acquiring six Windows Server 2008 Standard licenses, you could acquire four Windows Server 2008 Datacenter processor licenses, one for each physical processor. You would then have the right to run any number of Windows Server instances on the licensed server. You could also acquire two Windows Server 2008 Enterprise licenses, which provide the right to run up to eight (four for each license) Windows Server 2008 instances in virtual OSEs at the same time.

Figure 15 – More virtual processors than physical processors.

Instances of Per Processor products on servers that are not using virtualization technology run in the physical OSE of the server, and a license is required for each physical processor in the server. For example, in Figure 16, you need four processor licenses for SQL Server because there are four physical processors in the server. The number of licenses required is not affected by the number of instances of the software running in a particular OSE. It is based entirely on the number of physical or virtual processors used by the OSE running the software.

Figure 16 – Licensing Per Processor products running in the physical OSE.

As discussed above, both BizTalk Server 2006 R2 Enterprise Edition and SQL Server 2005 Enterprise Edition have expanded use rights. If you license all of the physical processors on a server, you may run any number of instances of the server software in the physical OSE and any number of instances of the server software in virtual OSEs. In this case, you do not need to license virtual processors. For example, by assigning four licenses of SQL Server Enterprise Edition to a server with four physical processors, you may run any number of instances of SQL Server Enterprise Edition in the physical and virtual OSEs.

Reference : https://partner.microsoft.com/global/productssolutions/40075646

Q. How do I license SQL Server 2008 for my virtual environments?

A. For Standard, Workgroup, and Enterprise, if you decide to license on a per processor basis, you must buy a SQL Server license for each virtual processor. For Enterprise Edition, you can also choose to license all physical processors in a box. This gives you rights to run SQL Server on any number of virtual processors running on the same physical server. If you use Server/CAL based licensing, for Standard and Workgroup editions, you must obtain SQL Server licenses for each Virtual Operating System Environment on which you run instances of SQL Server. However, for the Enterprise edition, if you have a Server license for the physical Server, you may run any number of SQL Server instances in any Virtual Operating System Environment that you run on that same physical server.

If you are using hardware partitioning on a multi-processor server, you can use any number of virtualized instances for SQL Server Enterprise Edition as long as all processors in that hardware partition are licensed. For example, if you have a partition of 10 physical processors on a 32-processor server, purchasing 10 processor licenses of SQL Server 2008 gives you the rights to run any number of SQL Server instances on physical or virtual environments on that partition.

Link: http://www.microsoft.com/sqlserver/2008/en/us/licensing-faq.aspx

Q. What are the virtualization license rights for Windows Server 2008?

A. The virtualization rights with Windows 2008 haven't changed from Windows Server 2003, except for Windows 2008 Standard. In Windows 2008 we have the following versions: - Standard Edition - One physical instance and one virtual guest instance running at same time. This is new in Windows 2008. - Enterprise Edition - One physical instance and four virtual guest instances running at same time - Datacenter Edition - One physical instance and unlimited number of virtual guest instances running at the same time It is this new 1 + 1 licensing for standard that makes the new Microsoft Hyper-V Server purchase attractive only if you want a virtualization server running guest OSs that are not Windows Server. That's because Windows 2008 Standard has 1 virtual license and a full server capability on the server. It's not just restricted to Hyper-V, it could have additional roles added in the future or repurposed. If you want Windows 2008 just for virtualization, buy the standard version and install in its core mode with only the Windows Server Virtualization role, which is essentially what Hyper-V server will be.

Windows Server 2008 Datacenter allows for running an unlimited number of virtual instances per server license. Windows Server 2008 Enterprise allows four simultaneous virtual instances per server license.

Link: http://www.microsoft.com/windowsserver2008/en/us/compare-features.aspx

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