Barnaby's Canadian IT Pro WebLog : Windows Server System

Great x64 Resource (and he's in Canada)

Barnaby_Jeans — Wed, 01 Feb 2006 07:34:01 GMT

After I published this blog post, I was pointed to a great resource from one of our MS MVP's The "Unofficial x64 FAQ" is maintained by Charlie Russel who is one of our MVP's living out in B.C.

If you are trying to figure out how to get Windows working with the latest devices, check out the site.

Great work Charlie.

TNX: TechNet Exchange Event (Toronto)

Barnaby_Jeans — Wed, 01 Feb 2006 06:54:00 GMT

WOW! What an amazing event. I spent most of today in the John Bassett theatre at the Metro Toronto Convention Center watching Damir and Rick deliver an excellent set of sessions on Communicating and Collaborating.

For anyone out there that was unable to attend the session, and is looking into mobility solutions, you should keep an eye on the CanITPro Blog for the slides and audio versions of the sessions. Rick and Damir skillfully walked the audience through the steps required to configure Exchange, SharePoint, ISA, and Windows Mobile 5 to provide the end user with an environment to allow them to work collaboratively regardless of whether they were in the office or on the road. They even managed to throw in some adhoc, realtime, Instant messaging with one of the User Group leaders in Montreal. Talk about keeping it interesting and interactive.

A lot of the technology that they showed was stuff that as Microsoft employees we take for granted. The ability to launch Outlook and Office Communicator without having to VPN back into the work network is a great boost for productivity, not to mention, ease of use for the user.

I will be uploading all the photos of today’s event (yes I was the guy with the flash, sorry) to my Flickr account over the next couple of days, but here are a few to get you started.

The rest of the photos will be here: http://www.flickr.com/photos/barnaby_jeans/sets/72057594057232847/

I hope you enjoyed the event as much as I did.

Security and critical updates are available on ISO-9660 CD image files from the Microsoft Download Center

Barnaby_Jeans — Wed, 11 Jan 2006 23:33:00 GMT

According to http://support.microsoft.com/kb/913086 Microsoft is now making Security and Critical updates available as an ISO image.

If you have many machines to update, but aren't using a centralized update management solution, you may want to check this out.

Enjoy

Tags: [Microsoft]

ISA Client for 64-bit runs a short beta program

Barnaby_Jeans — Wed, 07 Dec 2005 20:06:00 GMT

From Volker Will's blog:

The ISA Server Team will release an update to the ISA Server 2004 Firewall Client. As part of the development process, they are running a short beta program to collect valuable feedback.
Highlights:

Support for the Microsoft Windows Vistaâ„¢ operating system (builds 5231 and later).

Support for the the 64-bit versions of the Microsoft Windows operating systems.

If you are interested in joining this beta program, please follow these instructions:

Go to http://beta.Microsoft.com

Sign in using your Passport account details

On the home page, click the link below the welcome message ("If you were issued a Guest ID by Microsoft, you can sign in by clicking here")

Enter the Guest ID: ISAFWC_x64

Choose "Survey" on the left side of the page

Complete and submit the survey.

[Via VolkerW's WebLog]

SQL Server 2005 features and versions

Barnaby_Jeans — Fri, 28 Oct 2005 20:38:00 GMT

If you are trying to figure out which version of SQL Server 2005 has the feature that you are interested in, take a look at http://www.microsoft.com/sql/2005/productinfo/sql2005features.mspx for a great matrix that should help.

Tags: [Microsoft] [SQLServer]

Tag the Launch

Barnaby_Jeans — Mon, 17 Oct 2005 15:25:00 GMT

Are you blogging about the joint SQL Server / Visual Studio / BizTalk launch this November?

If you are, you might want to consider tagging your blog posts to make it easy to search for anything "Launch 2005" related.

Simply tag your posts with Launch2005 by adding the following somewhere in your blog post:

<a href="http://technorati.com/tag/Launch2005" rel="tag">Launch2005</a>

If you're uploading pictures to Flickr, you may want to join the Launch2005 group; and remember to tag your photos with Launch2005 as well.

I'll be presenting at almost all of the Canadian tour dates, so look for me in your city starting November 8th.

Update: Don't forget to ping technorati to let them know your blog has been updated.

Tags: [Microsoft] [SQLServer] [Launch2005] [VisualStudio] [BizTalk]

TechNet Tour - Edmonton and Winnipeg

Barnaby_Jeans — Wed, 12 Oct 2005 17:58:00 GMT

Last week I had the opportunity to visit both Edmonton and Winnipeg as part of the TechNet Innovations tour and User Group Tour. I had the opportunity to meet lots of great IT Pro's and answer lots of questions. For both the Edmonton Microsoft User Group and Winnipeg IT Pro User Group we had a great discussion about Microsoft Small Business Server. If you are an IT Pro in either Edmonton or Winnipeg, and are not already a member of the user group, you may want to check them out.

There were a couple of things that we talked about during the TechNet session; one of them was the TechNet Innovation Award. To quote the website:

The TechNet Canada Innovation Award is awarded to a Canadian IT Professional who is a bright star in the IT community. The Innovation Award is given in recognition of Canadian IT professionals who make a positive impact using Microsoft-based technology.

Well, now you can go ahead and nominate yourself or a fellow IT Pro for the award. Check out http://www.microsoft.com/canada/technet/innovationaward/ for more information. We also talked about the Discover TechNet quiz with the chance to win an XBox (and to see how well you know the team). Take a look at http://www.microsoft.com/canada/technet/discover/ before October 31st, 2005.

One of the recurring questions that I got asked was about the ClearPC demo boxes that we use. Well here is some more information on the configuration of the hardware:

ClearPC Secret Agent Briefcase - http://www.clearpc.ca/secretagent/
ASUS A8N-SLI Deluxe Motherboard - http://usa.asus.com/products4.aspx?l1=3&l2=15&l3=0&model=375&modelmenu=1
- Dual Gig-E Lan
- Onboard Hardware SATA Raid Controller
AMD Athlon64 4000+ CPU
4 GB Ram
3 x Western Digital WD740 (10,000 RPM, SATA)
Various fans and lights

Depending on the demos that we are doing, these machines are either configured with Windows Server 2003 or Windows Server 2003 x64. For the upcoming SQL Launch, you might see these machines running SQL Server 64-bit on Windows Server 2003 x64.

Tags: [Microsoft] [SQLServer] [Launch2005] [Small Business Server] [TechNet] [Edmonton] [Winnipeg]

Are you interested in Supply Chain Management?

Barnaby_Jeans — Tue, 20 Sep 2005 02:39:00 GMT

If you're going to be in the Greater Toronto Area, and are interested in Supply Chain Management, I'll be speaking at the Third Annual Symposium on Supply Chain Management at the Wyndham Bristol Place Hotel on Thursday September 29th.

The title of the session is: Enhancing Business-to-Business Integration using Microsoft Technologies. Specifically I'll be talking about how you can use BizTalk Server 2004 to help integrate your supply chain.

If you're going to be at the event, leave me a comment here, and perhaps we can connect.

The inside scoop on *.microsoft.com from the team that runs it...

Barnaby_Jeans — Mon, 12 Sep 2005 23:23:00 GMT

It looks like the team that runs all of the Microsoft.com sites have started a blog (http://blogs.technet.com/mscom/default.aspx). Their first post has some great information on the number of servers they are running, the number of hits on www.microsoft.com, and all kinds of other interesting stuff.

More importantly, as their post states: WE WANT TO HELP YOU!

So if you have operational questions, head over to http://blogs.technet.com/mscom/default.aspx and see if they have an answer for you.

Vista Beta 1 Install Fest - Photos and interviews

Barnaby_Jeans — Mon, 29 Aug 2005 18:35:00 GMT

This past Saturday one of my colleagues - Bruce Cowper - hosted a Vista Beta 1 Install Fest at the Microsoft office in Mississauga. I was there to help out as well as document the event.

If you were at the event and are looking for the photos that I was taking, head over to: http://www.flickr.com/photos/barnaby_jeans/sets/842897/

We also did some interviews that you may want to listen to (mp3) (wma).

As Bruce mentions in his blog, let us know if you like these types of events. If you would be interested in something similar for SQL Server or BizTalk, leave me a comment here.

Update: If you have a podcatcher and want to subscribe to this blog to automatically download the audio, try subscribing to: http://feeds.feedburner.com/BarnabysCanadianItProWeblog

Running Exchange on 64-bit

Barnaby_Jeans — Tue, 12 Jul 2005 01:39:00 GMT

I just came across a post from the Exchange team that explains the issues with trying to run current versions of Exchange on Windows Server 2003 x64.

To quote their blog (http://blogs.technet.com/exchange/archive/2005/07/11/407529.aspx):

In short – running current versions of Exchange, including Exchange 2003 on Windows Server 2003 x64 editions is not supported.

Their blog post goes on to explain some of the technical reasons why, as well as to point you to the list of applications that do run under 64-bit versions of Windows Server 2003.

The good news is they have plans... (just not with the current version of Exchange).

Update: I noticed there were some wierd format things happening. Should be fixed now.

Expand your knowledge tour

Barnaby_Jeans — Mon, 25 Apr 2005 13:15:00 GMT

Well, the first week of the tour is complete, and I'm just sitting at the airport waiting to fly out to Calgary. Bill Hilf and I have already completed 3 cities, Toronto, Montreal, and Ottawa. I'm heading out west to visit Calgary and Vancouver on this leg of the Tour.

If you attended the sessions and are looking for some follow-up information, feel free to check out http://www.microsoft.com/technet/canada/platformbriefing/postevent/ or more importantly, leave me a comment or feedback here.

If you are on the west coast and are interested in attending, you may still be able to register:

Calgary (April 26th) http://msevents.microsoft.com/CUI/EventDetail.aspx?EventID=1032271371&Culture=en-CA
Vancouver (April 27th) http://msevents.microsoft.com/CUI/EventDetail.aspx?EventID=1032271372&Culture=en-CA

Event description:

Recommended Audience: Developer, IT Professional and Technology Decision Maker.

Barnaby Jeans, Microsoft Canada National IT Pro Advisor, will be in town to talk to Microsoft and Linux audiences about the evolution of operating systems and the comparative strengths and weaknesses of Windows, UNIX and Linux. Gain insights into how Linux and OSS have developed how they are tested and distributed. Get the answers to the questions on everybody’s mind: Are Linux and OSS driving technology innovation?

I look forward to seeing everyone, and if you have any questions after the event, please post them here.

Download Virtual Server 2005 Service Pack 1 (Beta)

Barnaby_Jeans — Thu, 21 Apr 2005 17:55:00 GMT

This morning, Steve Ballmer announced the beta release of Microsoft Virtual Server 2005 Service Pack 1 (SP1). We are very pleased to tell you that SP1 is now available on Microsoft Beta Place.

To participate in the beta program, you need to:

Go to http://beta.microsoft.com.
(Note: You need a Passport account to sign in. If you don’t have one, BetaPlace will help you create one.)
Once logged into Beta Place with a Passport account, provide vssp1BetaTester as the guest account. This will take you to the nomination page for the SP1 beta.
Note: The Guest ID is both case and space sensitive and must be entered exactly as shown. The most common reasons for a “Guest ID is locked out” or “invalid Guest ID” error message is because you either incorrectly entered the Guest ID or you entered a space before or after entering the Guest ID in the Guest ID field.
Follow the directions on this page to nominate yourself. You will receive an e-mail notice when you've been accepted into the program. About 24-48 hours after you receive this e-mail, you will be able to log in to Beta Place and download the SP1 beta, read the documentation, etc.

SP1 provides support for 64-bit host operating systems including 64-bit versions of Windows Server 2003 and Windows XP, performance enhancements, built-in support for network installations of guest operating systems, and several other features. We look forward to the participation of a large group of beta testers as we complete the development of this product.

Is Linux ready for prime time enterprise?

Barnaby_Jeans — Tue, 12 Apr 2005 16:36:00 GMT

According to industry analyst firm Gartner, the technology industry has entered a period of high commercialization of Linux. Many acknowledge that Linux may have a place in their organizations, but many questions remain – questions about the business and technical merits of Linux, what risks will need to be managed, and its future direction and roadmap.

It was with that in mind that Microsoft Canada engaged Compugen to review Windows Server 2003 and enterprise-level distributions of Linux from Red Hat and SuSE to help understand the practical implications of using one operating system versus another. The objective was simple - to produce a reference document to help IT managers and professionals consider their options. The test compared the usability characteristics of the three operating systems when it comes to performing a set of typical IT tasks from setting up user profiles to installing to managing desktop security.

Key findings from this test and demonstrations of how each platform fared in solving these IT tasks were given to the press last week. Liam Lahey from eChannelLine Canada was one of the journalists in attendance last week and has already published his article on the event. http://www.integratedmar.com/ECL.cfm?item=DLY041005-5

The comment I think is most relevant is “Windows Server 2003 provided better functionality and usability than SuSE Enterprise 9 and Red Hat ES 3.4 primarily due to the immaturity of the Linux system management tools and a lack of supporting documentation.”

I think what companies need to remember as they look at open source software, is the level of support and accountability that they can expect to receive, and who they expect to receive it from.

Read the full report on the Compugen site.

What are your thoughts?

UPDATE: (May 6, 2005)

The Web cast is up and running from this event. Head over to http://www.insinc.com/hrc/20050508

NT4 to AD In-Place Migration

Barnaby_Jeans — Mon, 11 Apr 2005 17:02:00 GMT

One of my colleagues, Rick Claus, is currently posting a series on migrating your enterprise from NT4 to Active Directory.

He currently has posted parts 1, 2, and 3 of a 7 part series.

The posts so far:

NT4 to AD In-Place Migration - Are YOU a candidate? (In-Place Migration - Part 1)

How much of an AD design required before a migration? (In-Place Migration - Part 2)

Creating the Lab environment for your AD (In-Place Migration - Part 3)

Expect to see a couple of posts each week for the next couple of weeks.

If you have any comments, head over to Rick's Blog: http://blogs.technet.com/rclaus/