Over in the Windows Server R2 Virtualization Forum Dale Unroe shared a nifty tip:
Once you install the RSAT tools for Win7, you can use Tore’s Hyper-V Monitor Gadget for Windows Sidebar to monitor your R2 VMs - slickness.
Technet Edge has a new series of Matt McSpirit video demos showing you R2 Hyper-V goodies:
1. Hyper-V R2: Initial Installation & Configuration
2. Hyper-V R2: Dynamic Storage
3. Hyper-V R2: Building a Hyper-V R2 Cluster
4. Hyper-V R2: Making Highly Available VMs
5. Hyper-V R2: Introducing Cluster Shared Volumes
6. Hyper-V R2: Failover & Live Migration
7. Hyper-V R2: USB over Network with Fabulatech
Enjoy.
I recently spoke with UK Evangelist James O'Neill about PowerShell - including 2.0, authoring best practices and the free PowerShell Management Library for Hyper-V at www.codeplex.com/psHyperV. James blogs at http://blogs.technet.com/jamesone/. You can listen to the 12 minute audio podcast, click on the thumbail to download the .WMA file from my skydrive:
We also chatted about the innovative first-ever TechNet Virtual Conference 2009. Click the thumbnail below do download the 3 minute podcast audio file (.WMA) on that:
If you manage your environment with Operations Manager 2007 SP1 or R2, you’ve been waiting for the Hyper-V management pack, which includes:
Important Note: This MP takes following dependencies:
Andrew’s blog post gives the details:
“The full agenda is here.
In addition to these technical TechNet sessions there’s a special track for IT managers:
and because it’s virtual we have virtually included Mark Russinovich to do the keynote – Mark is a Microsoft Technical Fellow specializing in the Windows platform and the top speaker at TechEd EMEA last year so well worth watching.
We do still need you to register.
..In the days of real TechNet road shows you would get a goody bag for turning up so for this virtual conference, the first 500 to register will sent a rather better goody bag (even the bag looks pretty good) which I understand has coffee and bikkies in.”
NOTE to non-britophiles – when andrew says “bikkies” he means coookies….
and they must be perishable, cause the fine print says (emphasis added for non UK-residers) "This draw is open to any person resident in the UK who is 18 years of age or older at the time of entry."
There is an old Italian saying that goes “Traduttore, traditore.” that warns “"The translator is a traitor."
Localization is a hugely important activity for us in IT Pro content development. So is this whole “community/Web 2.0” thing. There is a new effort in this area we need your help and feedback on. Check out this page
http://msdn.microsoft.com/pt-br/library/w0x726c2.aspx
What’s going on here? We publish a page of technical content in English, run it through Machine Translation (MT), post the MT side-by-side with the English, and then rely on you, dear multi-lingual reader, to use the wiki-like functionality on that page to help improve the MT translation.
Is this going to work? What do we need to do to help you as multilingual IT Pros embrace this pilot, and help us make it a success? Leave comments here, or send feedback/suggestions to tonyso@microsoft.com and I’ll route to the correct team.
Find them all at http://edge.technet.com/Tags/Hyper-V/
2 new ones to check out:
Windows XP Mode for Windows 7 on TechNet Edge
7 minutes, 25 seconds The announcement of Windows XP mode caused a lot of excitement. In this screencast we have a look at how it is set up, what users see, and get an idea of what it can do. Windows XP Mode for Windows 7 makes it easy to install and run many of your Windows XP productivity applications directly on a Windows 7-based PC. Download Windows XP Mode Beta.
TechNet Edge: Dual Boot from VHD with Windows 7 and Windows Sever 2008 R2
23 minutes, 0 seconds Want to learn how to boot from VHD with the new operating systems we have coming? How about dual boot with Windows 7 and Windows Server 2008 R2?
There is a new site to help you grow in your IT Pro career: Microsoft Thrive.
There is a lot of material there on developing your skills (‘natch), but there is also a hidden gem, no, maybe better to call it a hidden pot o’gold? Well, it’s an RSS feed of free-as-in-beer stuff, so maybe stream o’gold? Ick, wrong associations to that search string…
Whatever, check it out: RSS Feed for Thrive: Technical Offers
Example: Understanding Microsoft Virtualization Solutions
This guide will teach you about the benefits of the latest virtualization technologies and how to plan, implement, and manage virtual infrastructure solutions. The technologies covered include: Windows Server 2008 Hyper-V, System Center Virtual Machine Manager 2008, Microsoft Application Virtualization 4.5, Microsoft Enterprise Desktop Virtualization, and Microsoft Virtual Desktop Infrastructure.
View Chapter 1: Microsoft's Virtualization Solution
or
Sign up to download the entire e-book (PDF, 14.4 MB).
Also: (note nifty use of (nested) parens)
As an IT Pro, you may or may not be aware of the “remix culture”. Really, when you read TN/MSDN blogs, you are participating in it…even if you don’t think about it that way.
I’m looking for some feedback from you about an idea I’ve been discussing with my IT Pro content colleagues here at Microsoft.
Here’s the thing, you get a call from one of your users who has a problem, you go to various sources of information to help them solve that problem. Let’s just say one of those sources is TN/MSDN. How useful would it be if when you found the fix on TN/MSDN it included text you could “remix” into a mail to your user?
The security folks are inching down this path, for example see the Conficker content at: http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/security/dd452420.aspx
which includes helpful pointers for “consumers” like this
I am wondering – how useful would this idea be to you if it was prepacked right there on the TN page? Something like:
Here’s a mail you can send to your users:
“The network is at risk because of a possible Conficker worm infection. While we <insert your text here describing the action you are taking>, you can help by doing the following:
1. Go to http://update.microsoft.com/microsoftupdate to verify your settings and check for updates.
2. If you can't access http://update.microsoft.com/microsoftupdate, go to http://safety.live.com and scan your system.
3. If you can’t go to http://safety.live.com, contact support at 1-866-PCSafety or 1-866-727-2338. This phone number is for virus and other security-related support. It is available 24 hours a day for the U.S. and Canada. For support in other countries, visit the Worldwide computer security information page.
Thank you.
If you would like more information about the conficker worm, please visit http://www.microsoft.com/protect/computer/viruses/worms/conficker.mspx.”
Thoughts? Leave comments to send mail to tonyso@microsoft.com
You spend more time supporting users than you’d like – you’d like to be doing more proactive stuff, right? You spend the majority of that time bailing users out of security issues. Why should only big banks, insurance, and car companies get bailouts?
Microsoft is offering you a bailout for your users who are security-consciousness-challenged:
Microsoft Security Essentials Beta: Free-as-in-beer (Live ID signin to connect program required – BUT WORTH IT!)
From the website, for free you get “High-quality protection against viruses and spyware, including Trojans, worms and other malicious software. And best of all, there are no costs or annoying subscriptions to keep track of.
Security Essentials is easy to install and easy to use. Updates and upgrades are automatic, so there's no need to worry about having the latest protection. It's easy to tell if you're protected – when the Security Essentials icon is green, your status is good. It's as simple as that.
When you're busy using your PC, you don't want to be bothered by needless alerts. Security Essentials runs quietly in the background, only alerting you if there's something you need to do. And it doesn't use a lot of system resources, so it won't get in the way of your work or fun.
This beta is available only to customers in the United States, Israel (English only), People's Republic of China (Simplified Chinese only) and Brazil (Brazilian Portuguese only).Please visit the more information page to learn more about system requirements, our End User License Agreement and other important information.”
Why write your own IT Pro scripts when you can have the world’s best do it for you?
Check out the Microsoft Script Center Summer Scripting Games 2009, starting 6/15, 2009.
The 100 meter dash
The Long Jump
Think you can do better than the competitors? Feel free to submit your entries (no registration is required), or to invite your customers.
Here is a link to the PoshCode code gallery that is being used by Scripting Games.
Here is a link to the Scripting Games support forum.
Here is a link to the Scripting Guys on Twitter.
I am a gaijin. That’s what the title of this post is supposed to say after running it through Bing translator, but how would I know? I don’t read Kanji. Is the title even written in Kanji? Or is it hiragana? Me, clueless. And gaijin, still.
In these cases, and especially when trying to communicate technical info, it is really great to have a knowledgeable human translator to help.
Meet Paul. He writes in both English, like this MSDN Magazine article: Configuration Testing With Virtual Server, Part 2, and in Japanese, like this blog.
“Paul Despe is a Program Manager on the Hyper-V team. Paul has worked as a Software Design Engineer in Test on both the Virtual PC and Virtual Server products. Before joining Microsoft, Paul worked in Japan and at Connectix, a virtualization software company acquired by Microsoft in 2003. Paul can be reached at paulde@microsoft.com.”
If you follow the Technet blogs feed, you can see all the different languages that TN bloggers post in, but how can we bring all these together around technical content in the library?
Like this, maybe?
Thoughts? Leave feedback and thanks in advance.
Getting Things Done (GTD) fans may be interested in the latest way to “belt-tighten” in this time of multi-contraction: Declaring E-Mail Bankruptcy.
Now, if I could just get an e-mail bailout….
How to (according to 43folders):
“1) Collect the email addresses of everyone you haven’t replied to. Paste them into the BCC field of a new message you’ll send to yourself.
2) Write a polite note explaining your predicament. Apologize profusely – … and promise to keep up with your email in the future. Try to sound credible.
3) Ask for a resend of anything particularly pressing, and offer to give such messages special attention.”
Discussion continues here in content development about whether/the extent to which customers care who develops content – as long as they can distinguish that the information is “supported”. The debate covers a broad range of suggestions, from putting author’s actual names on content (do you care?)
to tracking/reporting all a writer’s activities across TN/MSDN, blogs, forums, the twitterverse, etc.
It is also performance review time at Microsoft, which drives some (thankfully only once-yearly) bizarre behavior. For example, my review process this year includes some “360 feedback” (don’t panic, I initiated it). One website that purports to help with this provided me the following “brand map” of brand tonyso:
Attributes:
Brand Skills:
Projective Exercises:
Apparently,
“if I were a dog, I’d be a greyhound, moves fast and hits his own personal target”.
“if I were a car, I’d be a Mustang, runs on lots of power underneath.”
Just curious – any of this come across in the blog? If so, why? For example, if you, dear reader, from reading the blog, find me overly-sycophantic, do please explain why :-)
Perhaps this “internet brand management” is just Myers-Briggs repackaged and updated for the 20-somethings? (I’m an ENTJ, BTW)
Oh, and if you know of an IT Pro job description that covers the visionary-visioning thing – please share.
CNN reports today that a Minnesota woman has been fined US$1.9M for 24 illegally downloaded songs.
NOW the economy can turn around, whew! That was close…
Windows Server Site Visits in July 09 (Open to US and Canada participants only)
The Windows Server User Research team wants to learn from people who are involved in any and all aspects of managing servers! If your company has at least 500 PCs and has offices in North America, and you have time in July 2009, they’d like to come visit with 2-4 members in your IT department.
Meeting with you in-person gives the team greater understanding of software usage in order to better design future tools for the IT industry. They will also be offering each participant their choice of a retail Microsoft software or hardware product from a list of our most popular products. If you are interested or know someone who could be interested in participating, please email them at itvisits@microsoft.com, uh, like, today.
Tick, tock.