Microsoft Enterprise Project Management Content Publishing News : Hyper-V

Hyper-V Security Guide

robert.m.hoover — Tue, 14 Apr 2009 17:38:00 GMT

The Solution Accelerators team has just released a new Hyper-V Security guide that may prove helpful in designing secure Project Server deployments in Hyper-V.

The guide is available for download here: http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyID=2220624b-a562-4e79-aa69-a7b3dffdd090&displaylang=en

Secure your virtualized server environment with the Hyper-V Security Guide

For organizations that seek cost-effective operations, the benefits of virtualization are more evident than ever. Microsoft Hyper-V technology allows consolidation of workloads that are currently spread across multiple underutilized servers onto a smaller number of servers. This capability provides you with a way to reduce costs through lower hardware, energy, and management overhead while creating a
more dynamic IT infrastructure.

Virtualization technologies are causing enterprise organizations to shift their thinking about IT. The Hyper-V Security Guide can help you elevate the security of virtualized Windows Server® environments to address your business-critical needs. This accelerator provides IT professionals like you with recommendations to address your key security concerns around server virtualization. The guide provides authoritative guidance that relates to the following strategies for securing virtualized environments:

Hardening the Hyper-V role. The guide provides prescriptive guidance for hardening the Hyper-V role, including several best practices for installing and configuring Hyper-V with a focus on security. Among these best practices are measures for reducing the attack surface of Hyper-V as well as recommendations for properly configuring secure virtual networks and storage devices.

Delegating virtual machine management. The ability to safely and securely delegate administrative access to virtual machine resources within an organization is essential. The guide highlights several available methods to administer different aspects of a virtual machine infrastructure and ways to control administrative access to
different servers and at different levels.

Protecting virtual machines. The guide also provides prescriptive guidance for securing virtual machine resources, including best practices and detailed steps for protecting virtual machines by using
a combination of file system permissions, encryption, and auditing.

Virtualization Learning Snacks

robert.m.hoover — Thu, 09 Apr 2009 22:51:00 GMT

Here are some Silverlight "learning snacks" from Microsoft Learning that provide some basic information around Microsoft's Virtualization solution. These are great for anyone that may need to present a Virtualization case to business decision makers in their organization.

Microsoft Virtualization (15 minutes) New

The Microsoft Virtualization solution consists of four virtualization technologies: server, application, presentation, and desktop. Together, these technologies provide you with a complete desktop-to-datacenter virtualization solution that can help you create a dynamic IT infrastructure. This free Learning Snack highlights various features and benefits of the four virtualization technologies. It also takes a closer look at server virtualization and how it is implemented and managed in the Windows Server 2008 operating system.

Intro to Windows Server 2008 Virtualization (3 minutes)

This Snack explains the new virtualization features in Windows Server 2008 and lists the system requirements. It also demonstrates the steps necessary to install Windows Server virtualization.

Green IT and Virtualization (8 minutes)

Organizations are becoming increasingly aware of the environmental and business benefits of adopting a Green IT environment. This Learning Snack highlights how virtualization facilitates a Green IT environment. It describes the Hyper-V server role and the System Center Virtual Machine Manager (SCVMM) tool, which help create and support a virtualized infrastructure in Windows Server 2008.

Newly Published Content!

robert.m.hoover — Wed, 08 Apr 2009 20:09:00 GMT

After a short publishing hiatus, here is some content that we've been working on:

Deploy Project Server 2007 updates This article provides an overview of available Project Server 2007 updates.

Checklist for deploying Project Server 2007 updates This checklist describes the general sequence in updating a Project Server 2007 farm deployment to the most current update. It also gives references to other articles that provide detailed guidance and procedures for installing various type of Project Server 2007 updates.

Office Project Server 2007 performance counters This technical reference article provides a list of performance indications you can monitor in Project Server 2007.

Inventory of SQL Server databases for a typical Project Server 2007 deployment This technical reference article provides a list of databases that are created in a Project Server 2007 and Portfolio Server 2007 deployment.

Video demo: Using SQL Server 2005 Analysis Services with the Project Server 2007 Cube Building Service This two-part video demonstration walks through the steps necessary to configure the Microsoft Office Project Server 2007 cube building services for use with SQL Server Analysis Services 2005.

Walkthrough: Deploy Project Server 2007 to a server farm environment This article contains a white paper and a four-part video series which provide a walkthrough of a typical Office Project Server 2007 deployment. The white paper contains step-by-step instructions for each step necessary to successfully deploy Office Project Server 2007. While the scenario described in the white paper may differ from the deployment scenario that you plan to use for your organization, you can gain significant hands-on experience by following the steps described herein in a test environment.

Virtualizing Project Server 2007 This section includes six topics that explain hyper-v architecture and best practices for planning, installing, and configuring a Project Server 2007 deployment on Hyper-V.

Project Server 2007 webcasts This set of articles describes and links to archived Project Server TechNet Webcasts. Topics include server administration, network communication, workload scenarios and reference architecture, and data flow.

Deploy cumulative updates (Project Server 2007) This article has been updated to provide information regarding client update requirements for cumulative updates that include the Project Server 2007 infrastructure update. It also provides information about cumulative update server packages for Project Server 2007 integrated with Office SharePoint Server 2007.

Deploy the infrastructure update for Office Project Server 2007 This article has been updated to reflect Project 2007 client requirements for the Project Server 2007 infrastructure update.

Deploy Service Pack 1 for Office Project Server 2007 This article has been updated to reflect Project 2007 client requirements for the Project Server 2007 infrastructure update.

Migration best practices for Project Server 2007 This article has been updated to describe the best practice of applying the latest update to the Project Professional 2007 client from which you run the migration tool to ensure that it has the latest updates.

Prepare for migration to Project Server 2007 This article has been updated to describe the best practice of applying the latest update to the Project Professional 2007 client from which you run the migration tool to ensure that it has the latest updates.

Requirements for using SQL Server 2008 Analysis Services with the Project Server 2007 Cube Building Service This article has been updated to refer to the Feature Pack for SQL Server 2005 – December 2008. The Analysis Management Objects installed with the SQL Server 2005 Management Objects that were in earlier versions of the SQL Server 2005 Feature pack required a workaround in order for the Cube Building Service to function correctly.

Microsoft Project Server 2007 IT Professional TechNet Webcast Series

robert.m.hoover — Wed, 24 Sep 2008 23:30:00 GMT

I just wanted to pass on word that starting October 1^st, 2008, Michael Jordan (Lead Architect – MCS EPM Global Practice | WW COE for EPM) will present a series of Project Server 2007 webcast on TechNet targeted at IT Professionals.

These 60 minutes webcasts will present in details key aspects to consider when you evaluate, plan, deploy, and operate Project Server 2007 specifically:

· Solution Overview and System Elements

· Solution Elements and Data Flow

· Workload Scenarios and Reference Architecture

· Network Communication

· Server Administration

· Maintenance and Monitoring

· Deployment into a SharePoint Server Intranet Farm

· Disaster Recovery

· Virtualization

You need to register for the free of charge webcast by clicking the link; then you get emailed a link to sign on and participate in the web cast on its date and time (please note only the first two webcast are available for registration at this stage).

Each TechNet webcast is recorded for later viewing which should be through the same registration URL.

For a listing of all EPM webcasts on TechNet check the following: http://www.microsoft.com/events/series/epm.aspx

Webcast Title

Abstract

Date

Microsoft Office Project Server 2007 - Solution Overview and System Elements

In this webcast, we introduce the Microsoft Office Project Server 2007 solution and the main product components. We describe key concepts such as high availability and scalability, which should be taken into account when planning and deploying Project Server 2007. This introductory webcast is part of a webcast series targeted at IT professionals. In the series, we present in detail key aspects to consider when you evaluate, plan, deploy, and operate Project Server 2007. We discuss the main considerations when planning for high-availability deployments—when to scale up and out, points of failure, and software/hardware boundaries.

Wednesday, October 1, 2008