* Veeam Management Pack™ for VMware (SCOM), online demo video (9 min)

The key thing to save the endpoint management and protection cost and increase agility is to combine them into one.

Forefront Endpoint Protection can now be managed directly from the SCCM (and SCOM) console. There will be no separate Forefront Endpoint Protection console.

Demo PPT deck download:

01. FEP - client agent deployment
02. FEP - client policy deployment
03. FEP - WSUS malware definition download n distribution to agents
04. FEP - Detect n clean malware - Email notification
05. FEP - Quick n Full Scan from SCCM console
06. FEP - Monitoring w SCOM
07. FEP - Malware n Computer List reports

.

Summary: Switching from VMware to Microsoft Hyper-V virtualization environment is saving money for two businesses that are also using Microsoft's System Center 2012 (especially Operations Manager and Orchestrator) to manage and monitor applicationsand the infrastructure that supports them.

Original article here.

* System Center 2012 overview slide deck download (9M)

* Private Cloud demo video download (6M)

* Register and download to try 14 scenarios of Microsoft Private Cloud.

* Private Cloud (with approval activity) demo video download (7M)

* Windows Server 2012 Hyper-V demo video download (2M), including Hyper-V replica and Shared-nothing Live Migration.

* Windows Server 2012 pricing FAQ info

* System Center 2012 suite evaluation (~ 8 GB ) plus optional Windows Server 2008 R2 SP1 download

* System Center 2012 Client Management and Security Solutions with System Center Configuration Manager and Endpoint Protection 2012 download

* Want to compare the cost and features between Microsoft and VMware?
Use our Private Cloud Economics tool, a very quick tool.

With 500 VMs and 6 VMs per processor, VMware is 7.3 times more expensive than Microsoft.

* System Center Service Manager (SCSM) 2012:

- The Private Cloud Self-Service Portal is a feature in SCSM 2012.

- SCSM 2012 Software Development Kit documentation download (9 MB)

- SCSM 2010 SDK info

Courtesy: Nguyen Quoc Dung.

Use these scripts if you want to list and execute all AD objects that are inactive for more than 60 days and count all Computers in AD grouped by OS, so you can know how many percentages of computers running XP or Windows 7. These information is extracted from AD Database and write a statistical report to a text file.

How to use it:

- Script file download (Use it at your own risk): ListComputers.jse

- Run it in computer joined domain and under domain account, just by double click on it (if you want get default information: Count computers in current domain).

- For optional, I have only some more arguments, with syntax like: ListComputers.jse -forest [-domain:domainname] -detail

- Example: ListComputers.jse -forest

This will list all domains in forest and count computers for each domain

• ListComputers.jse -domain: contoso.com

This will count computers in domain contoso.com

ListComputers.jse -detail

This will count computers in current domain and list all computer name with the obsoleted days, see the below result as an example.

• You can use args -detail with -domain:domainname or with -forest. Don’t use -domain and -forest at the same time.
• If you put wrong args, script will run as no args (same thing like you double click to file)

- Result is a file name like [ScriptName]_[Day]_[Month]_[Year].log in the same folder of this script.

======================= Sample script result

Script start at: Tue Feb 28 22:20:18 UTC+0700 2012
List of domain(s) in forest:
Contoso.com

List of Operating System in domain Contoso.com (Total=21):
Windows Server 2008 R2 Enterprise: 13 (Obsoleted: 10)
Windows Server 2008 R2 Standard: 1 (Obsoleted: 0)
Windows XP Professional: 1 (Obsoleted: 1)
Windows Server 2003: 3 (Obsoleted: 2)
Windows 7 Enterprise: 1 (Obsoleted: 1)
Windows 7 Professional: 2 (Obsoleted: 2)

List of computers by Operating System:

 - Windows Server 2008 R2 Enterprise (13):
    CN=DC02,OU=Machines,DC=Contoso,DC=com (Obsoleted 148 days)
    CN=EX2010,OU=Machines,DC=Contoso,DC=com (Obsoleted 78 days)
    CN=CON-SCCM-DW,OU=Machines,DC=Contoso,DC=com (Obsoleted 175 days)
    CN=CON-SCOM,OU=Machines,DC=Contoso,DC=com (Obsoleted 214 days)
    CN=CON-HOST-LAB,OU=Machines,DC=Contoso,DC=com (Obsoleted 148 days)
    CN=CON-MOSS1,OU=Machines,DC=Contoso,DC=com (Obsoleted 243 days)
    CN=CON-MOSS2,OU=Machines,DC=Contoso,DC=com (Obsoleted 204 days)
    CN=SCORCH2012,OU=Machines,DC=Contoso,DC=com
    CN=SCSM2012,OU=Machines,DC=Contoso,DC=com
    CN=SMSP,OU=Machines,DC=Contoso,DC=com (Obsoleted 174 days)
    CN=SCCMOM2012,OU=Machines,DC=Contoso,DC=com (Obsoleted 64 days)
    CN=CON-HYPERV-SRV,OU=Machines,DC=Contoso,DC=com (Obsoleted 79 days)
    CN=CON-SHAREPOINT,OU=Machines,DC=Contoso,DC=com

 - Windows Server 2008 R2 Standard (1):
    CN=DC01,OU=Domain Controllers,DC=Contoso,DC=com

 - Windows XP Professional (1):
    CN=CLIENT01,OU=Machines,DC=Contoso,DC=com (Obsoleted 467 days)

 - Windows Server 2003 (3):
    CN=EX2007,OU=Machines,DC=Contoso,DC=com (Obsoleted 463 days)
    CN=REMOTE,OU=Machines,DC=Contoso,DC=com
    CN=CON-OPALIS,OU=Machines,DC=Contoso,DC=com (Obsoleted 125 days)

 - Windows 7 Enterprise (1):
    CN=V-VHN9,OU=Machines,DC=Contoso,DC=com (Obsoleted 148 days)

 - Windows 7 Professional (2):
    CN=CON-WIN7-01,OU=Machines,DC=Contoso,DC=com (Obsoleted 134 days)
    CN=CON-WIN7-02,OU=Machines,DC=Contoso,DC=com (Obsoleted 99 days)

Script end at: Tue Feb 28 22:20:18 UTC+0700 2012. Running time: 1 seconds
Written by Nguyen Quoc Dung (dungnq@me.com)

 * Windows Server 8 Overview webcast on Channel9

Getting Started with Windows 8

- Windows Key (): switch to Home screen

- Home screen, then type some characters: search for Apps (and Settings and Files as well)

- Home screen: right click a Tile to see the Advanced button in the Taskbar

- Ctrl-Alt-Del: Restart or Shutdown

- Move the mouse past the lower left corner: Search (for Apps), Settings (Desktop) and Power shutdown or restart

Other links:

* Designing search for the Start screen article

* Search: integrating into the Windows 8 search experience webcast in Channel9

* Windows 8 to offer new Metro-based search feature article

* Windows 8 Consumer Preview Product Guide for Business http://www.microsoft.com/download/en/details.aspx?id=28970

* Windows 8 guide http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/hh771457.aspx?ITPID=mscomsc

Windows 8 Consumer Preview English, 32-bit (x86)

Download URL: http://windows.microsoft.com/en-US/windows-8/iso

Includes a disk image file (.iso) to install the Windows 8 Developer Preview and Metro style apps on a 32-bit PC.

How to install Windows 8 using USB media

Use Windows Disc Image Burner or follow this article http://blogs.technet.com/b/quenguyen/archive/2009/05/27/installing-windows-7-from-a-usb-stick.aspx

There are a number of resources regarding this that I’ve seen on the Web in various blogs but I’m documenting my approach as much for me so I can remember it as for you as well. There have been a number of conferences that I have arrived at expecting to have a hard-wired connection to the internet to find out that there is only a wireless connection available. When your presentation demos are relying on VMs running under Hyper-V on the laptop, this is a showstopper since natively the VMs rely on a hard-wired connection being served up by Hyper-V. So how does one get around this and share the host machine’s wireless connection with the Hyper-V VMs? Again, this is the way I have done it, it certainly is not the only way. It’s simple to setup and once there I can toggle to use the wireless connection for the VM whether the VM is already running, saved or shutdown.

How to share a wireless connection with Hyper-V VMs:

• In Hyper-V Manager, under Actions, click Virtual Network Manager…
• In Virtual Network Manager, select Internal and click Add     
  • Provide a name like, Internet Wireless Connection, and click OK
• On the host machine open the Control Panel, click Network and Internet, click View Network Status and Tasks, and click Change Adapter Settings     
  • Here you will see the new “Internet Wireless Connection”
  • Hold down the Ctrl-key (to make multiple selections) and click on your new “Internet Wireless Connection” and then click on the “Wireless Network Connection”
  • Now that both are selected, right-click on either one of the selected connections and choose Bridge.
• That’s it for creating the Bridged connection.
• Now, in Hyper-V Manager, click on the VM that you want to make the wireless connection available to (the machine can either be running or off which makes it nice so you can actually change this on the fly).     
  • With the VM selected, open its Settings…
  • Click on the Network Adapter that was previously associated with the External wired connection.
  • In the drop-down under Network: select your new “Internet Wireless Connection” and click OK.
• Once you start the VM, or if running once the network resets, you should be all set.
• Don’t forget to change this to the wired connection again once you get back on a hard-wire.

Source: http://blogs.msdn.com/b/donovanf/archive/2011/04/22/making-a-wireless-connection-accessible-to-a-hyper-v-virtual-machine-vm.aspx

Other articles: http://blogs.technet.com/b/keithcombs/archive/2008/08/22/wireless-networks-for-hyper-v-virtual-machines.aspx & http://sqlblog.com/blogs/john_paul_cook/archive/2008/03/23/using-wireless-with-hyper-v.aspx (with RRAS)

At Microsoft, sensitive business information in e-mail and business documents was at risk of exposure to unauthorized users. Microsoft IT implemented AD DS so that authors could use Microsoft Office and SharePoint Server to restrict access to confidential data.

Click here for the Technical White Paper

Products & Technologies

• Windows Server 2008 R2 with SP1
• Active Directory Domain Services and Active Directory Rights Management Services
• Microsoft SQL Server 2005 and SQL Server 2008
• Microsoft Office 2010
• Microsoft SharePoint Server 2010
• Microsoft Exchange Server 2010
• Windows Mobile 6.x

* From Microsoft TechNet: We have tested DPM 2010 running in a Hyper-V Virtual environment and it is fully supported considering the following limitations, requirements.

1) The DPM storage pool disks cannot be .vhd's - they must be either iSCSI attached disks or Pass thru disks.

The following 4 types of disk configuration are supported as DPM storage pool in a Virtual machine.

A) Pass-through disk with host direct attached storage (DAS)
B) Pass-through FC LUN which is attached to host.
C) Pass-through iSCSI LUN which is attached to host.
D) iSCSI LUN which is attached to VM directly.

2) Item level restore for protected Virtual machines is not possible because that requires the Hyper-V role to be installed on the DPM server, but is not possible if Virtualized.
3) Short or Long term backup to tape will be limited to using iSCSI attached tape libraries, and we recommend a separate NIC for that connection.

Other than those limitations / restrictions, DPM runs fine in a VM.

As to your point #2 above: it is certainly possible to enable the Hyper-V role in a virtual machine. You just can't start any machines due to the lack of hardware support.
For ILR, do the affected VMs need to be started? Or just mounted?
If it's the former I can see that this won't work. If it's the latter, it should.

Hardware requirement:
CPU: min 1GHz, dual core, recommended 2.33 quard core
RAM: min 4GHz, recommended 8GHz
Storage pool: min 1.5 times the size of protected data, recommended 3 times.

http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ff399021.aspx
For the DPM database, DPM 2010 requires a dedicated instance of the 64-bit or 32-bit version of SQL Server 2008, Enterprise or Standard Edition, with Service Pack 1 (SP1). During setup, you can select either to have DPM Setup install SQL Server 2008 SP1 on the DPM server, or you can specify that DPM use a remote instance of SQL Server.

If you decide to have DPM Setup install SQL Server 2008 SP1 on the DPM server, you are not required to provide a SQL Server 2008 license.

The installation guide is here http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ff399503.aspx

Source: http://kb.wisc.edu/page.php?id=5294

These are some of the important characteristics of Volume Activation 2.0 as implemented at the  UW-Madison.