I have been around Ireland talking virtualization with Hyper-V and App-V over the last 6 months and one of the questions that always gets asked is what about server applications……well my answer might be changing soon
MMS 2009: Application Virtualization for Servers
As you'll see, Bill's demo was setup by talk about administering the compute fabric and managing deployment of a tightly bound OS can create challenges. By applying application virtualization to this challenge, we can separate apps from the server. This should mean a more simplified, and accelerated, approach to deploying those virtualized apps and patching. Bill pointed out that this leads to reduce image libraries, and accelerated migration.
This video represents the exciting future of virtualization… and Microsoft is the only company that’s doing this.
The days of maintaining an operating system for each application service deployed will hopefully soon be behind us, and today’s paradigm of running Virtual Machines will be old news. Why migrate entire virtual machines with operating systems & applications when you can just migrate an Application between physical servers? Why sustain all the overhead of running 10 instances of the same Windows Server operating system on a single physical host when all you care about are the Application Services that they’re running?
The future is “Virtualized Server Operating Systems”… aka Application Virtualization for Servers.`
<![CDATA[<a href="http://video.msn.com/?mkt=en-US&playlist=videoByUuids:uuids:092b36d2-645c-4821-9fb3-eda329a00190&showPlaylist=true&from=msnvideo" target="_new" title="App Virt Demo for Servers">Video: App Virt Demo for Servers</a>]]> Notice in the demo that they’re using a ‘special’ alpha version of Virtual Machine Manager complete with Application Services stored as first class citizens in the library, along side virtual machines and operating systems. Pairing application services (in this case, the FAST Search/Indexing Engine) with Virtual Machines is now a piece of cake since there’s virtually no ‘friction’ or ties between the running Operating System and the Application Service. And most importantly, the entire Application Service state can be lifted off of a running OS and placed on an upgraded OS making system upgrades a snap, along with Application Service migration.
Hyper-V was a very big part of the Windows Server 2008 release. I have spent a great deal of time in the last 6 months meeting with Irish Partner and Customers to discuss Hyper-V and System Center. One of the things that has been missing was a great resource book from MSPress. Well that has been resolved with the release of the Windows Server 2008 Hyper-V Resource Kit by Robert Larson and Janique Carbone from the Windows Virtualization Team at Microsoft.
In-depth and comprehensive, this official RESOURCE KIT delivers the information you need to plan, implement, and manage a virtualized enterprise infrastructure. Covers R2 features. You get authoritative technical guidance from those who know the technology best—leading industry experts and the Windows Virtualization Team—along with sample scripts, job aids, and other essential resources. Get expert advice on how to:
- Manage the project visioning phase—scope, risks, budget
- Design Hyper-V server infrastructure and components
- Apply the steps and tools that streamline installation
- Configure single or multiple Hyper-V servers
- Plan a server workload consolidation strategy
- Use console-based tools to manage central and remote operations
- Minimize downtime when migrating from Microsoft Virtual Server to Hyper-V
- Apply security best practices
- Implement business continuity and recovery plans
- Monitor health and tune performance CD features:
- Library of Windows PowerShell scripts for automating Hyper-V management tasks
- Understanding Microsoft Virtualization Solutions From Desktop to Datacenter eBook
- Job aids and links to useful virtualization-related resources and tools
- Fully searchable eBook of this guide
The Irish Windows User Group will be running a session focusing on OCS, aka Office Communications Server. The speaker is John McCabe, a senior engineer with CDSoft.
Mobile users and mobile computing have enabled a more flexible workforce but there is a challenge in enabling communications that are just as flexible and mobile. OCS can be used to resolve these issues. For most of us, this is an alien world and we just wouldn't know where to start. This session aims to show you how you can use OCS to resolve communications issues in your business.
About The Speaker
John McCabe works for CDSoft Limited based in Celbridge, Kildare. He has worked for over 12 years in the IT industry in various different fields ranging from telecoms, security, deployment and design. Over the last 12 months he has focused his attention on pushing Unified Communications in the Irish market place. He has presented alongside Microsoft on “Tech Days” about Unified Communications and many times in Microsoft “Envision” Centre. John has attained the 088-924 and 074-924 Voice Specialization Exams from Microsoft further complementing his UC skillset
Where And When
Registration is mandatory for attending the in-person event at Microsoft.
The event will be held in Building 1 at the Microsoft European Development Centre (EDC), South County Business Park, Leopardstown, Dublin 18.
July 9th 2009
Registration: 09:00
Event: 09:00 until 12:00
Registration
To attend in person you must register.
Live Meeting
Although the best experience is to be on site for the presentation, we will be live webcasting the event using Live Meeting. You should use the installed (not the web) client.
There is no need to register for the live event if you only wish to tune into the webcast.
The URL for the meeting is: https://www.livemeeting.com/cc/usergroups/join?id=OCSOverview&role=attend
Rory Donnely is the CIO of Nissan Ireland, he is a big Microsoft fan and adopts our products early on in their lifecycle.
He talks about the technology behind the Case Studies that he has already done for us (Windows Server 2008, Hyper-V, Vista and Office) and his plans to deploy the new Microsoft products as and when they are available.
Rory is responsible for convincing me to go out and buy a Home Server. I get to ask him about his use of IT at home - Media Centre, Xbox, How Server, Zunes, etc.
You can read Rory's case studies here: http://www.microsoft.com/ireland/casestudies/
And if you live in Ireland and want to join the IT Pro Momentum program please email me mailto:daven@microsoft.com
Enjoy..
Windows 7 – Is it really better than Windows XP?
A Guest blog post by Yagil Adar (who has consulted in Ireland on many occasions).
As part of Adar Consulting business, we are also developing an Integrated Computing System (ICS) that includes much security, safety, positioning and infotainment capabilities and more, that works concurrently and are cross integrated.
During the development that includes many applications with complex functionalities i.e. processing data from 4 cameras, night vision, many sensors, touch screen and other devices, we also took into consideration the Operating System that we will base our system on and asked:
Which operating system will more appropriate for our complex needs in the ICS project or to be more specific: Windows 7 – Is it really a better than Windows XP?
The applications and functionality requires a fast CPU and memory accordingly, the hardware is Intel’s E6000 CPU with 2GB memory. With this configuration, performance will not be an issue from HW point of view.
We have defined several requirement from the OS, not all can be published however, a few of them can, and are also related to the more standard (desktop, laptop) user profile.
· High stability
No BSOD (no crashes and blue screens) – the system must work flawlessly with uptime of more than 1000 hours
· Return successfully from Standby mode
The system will return from standby sleep mode with no error including re-establishing the connections with all hardware device including USB, Wi-Fi, BT, sensors, cameras and more
· Memory Management and Memory leak control
The system must prevent memory leak including during return from standby sleep mode (vehicle is parked – same as laptop lid down)
· Start and shutdown time
From cold boot the system boot time must be fast, same for complete shutdown
Test configuration
· Only the Operating System and drivers have changed, (Apps and HW) are the same
· The test was run with 32Bit OS’s :Windows 7 RC 7100, Windows XP Pro SP3
64 bit was checked – more on that later
· All critical and important updates installed via Windows Updates
· The system HW is based on Intel’s MINI-ITX MB with several HW devices connected via USB hub or directly to the board: USB memory device Sandisk Cruser U3 2GB, cameras and other devices
Test results
High stability
What we have tested
· 5 days Constant work with no BSOD with full load (all apps are loaded and running)
· Go to and return from sleep mode -
set computer to standby sleep mode and test if it is successfully returns to full functionality (similar to lid open in laptops)
| Operating system | Results |
| Windows XP | OK |
| Windows 7 | OK |
· Go to and return from sleep mode
| Operating System | Result | Remarks |
| Windows XP | Not OK | Returning from standby sleep mode repeatedly and constantly caused a BSOD The fail massage refers to the USBSCAN.SYS driver No post SP3 fixes or workarounds where found to solve this problem |
| Windows 7 | OK | |
Stability summary: Window 7 is more stable
Memory management
What we have tested
· All Apps are loaded including Infotainment, cameras, security, safety and more
Phase I : check system memory after 30 minutes from system boot
Phase II check system memory after 72 hours
Compare and check if there is a memory leak in the system
(All Apps are well behaved)
| Operating system | System memory Phase I | System memory Phase II | Remarks |
| Windows XP | 750MB | 788MB | Memory leak of 38MB in 72HR
That is 5% |
| Windows 7 | 1100MB (1.1GB) | 1114MB | Memory leak of 4MB in 72HR
That is 0.36% |
Memory Management summary: Window 7 manages memory better
Start and shutdown time
What we have tested
· Cold Boot start time in – loading all apps and to hear sound (not includes BIOS diag time)
· Full shutdown
| Operating system | Cold boot start time (sec) | Full shutdown |
| Windows XP | 160 | 36 |
| Windows 7 | 55 | 16 |
Start and shutdown time summary: Window 7 is faster
Conclusions:
So….Windows 7 is it really that good?
From these tests and others the answer is YES
Windows 7 provides tangible benefits that justify migrating to this OS
The next step
Part of the ICS for the car we are evaluating which is the best architecture 32Bit or 64Bit for the current version and the next one due to the 3.3 GB limit for the 32Bit version
more on that in a future post
Yagil.
Please give us feedback on this guest post – was it useful? Would you like to see more guest bloggers?
Thanks
John McCabe (Technical Consultant with CD Soft) talks about his production deployment of Office Communications Server 2007 R2 running on the beta of Windows Server 2008 R2.
He explains how he convinced the business to deploy a beta product in production and what he thinks of Hyper-V R2 (he likes it)! He also explains why he didn't go with VMware.
CD Soft now run their entire business from a two-node Hyper-V cluster as well as providing a hosted OCS offering to their customers.
You can download the Release Candidate of Windows Server 2008 R2 from here and start build your own Live Migration failover cluster.
And if you live in Ireland and want to join the IT Pro Momentum program please email me mailto:daven@microsoft.com
Enjoy..
Aidan Finn (Systems and Infrastructure Manager with C-Infinity) talks about why he chose NOT to go with VMware in favour of Hyper-V and System Centre.
Aidan is a System Centre MVP and an active blogger and user group leader. He has been engaged in IT Pro Momentum from the very beginning. He talks about how he has used the program and how he shares his knowledge with others.
He closes out by sharing his plans for the up and coming R2 releases of Windows Server 2008, Hyper-V and System Centre.
Aidan blogs here: http://joeelway.spaces.live.com
You can download the Release Candidate of Windows Server 2008 R2 from here and start build your own Live Migration failover cluster.
And if you live in Ireland and want to join the IT Pro Momentum program please email me mailto:daven@microsoft.com
Enjoy..
This article states that OCS is not supported in a virtualised environment. Since the initial draft of the article, the support stance changed. Some OCS Server roles can now be deployed in a virtualised environment:
Presence, Instant Messaging (including remote access, federation, and Public IM Connectivity) and Group Chat workloads are supported. The following server roles can be deployed virtually:
· Front-End Servers
· Back-End SQL Server 2008 64 bits
· Group Chat Channel Servers
· Group Chat Compliance Servers
· Edge Access Servers
The virtual machines must be running on Windows Server 2008 64 bits. Archiving Server and Monitoring Server (CDR Only) can be connected to a virtualized Enterprise pool, but they must run on a physical server. The virtualised deployment must meet the requirements of the Microsoft Server Virtualization Validation Program (SVVP) - http://www.windowsservercatalog.com/svvp.aspx?svvppage=svvp.htm
For more information, consult the OCS team blog - http://communicationsserverteam.com/archive/2009/05/13/488.aspx . A capacity planning whitepaper accompanies this announcement - http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyID=0a45d921-3b48-44e4-b42b-19704a2b81b0
Thanks for joining us at the Windows 7 Roadshow!
Please find the presentations used at the Roadshow here. I have also uploaded some useful papers which support much of the topics and features covered.
And here are some deployment aids and general Windows 7 resources you might be interested in:
· Microsoft Deployment Toolkit: http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/solutionaccelerators/dd407791.aspx
(there is a link to the beta on connect as well)
· Microsoft Assessment and Planning (MAP): http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/solutionaccelerators/dd537566.aspx
· Windows 7 walkthrough videos: http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/dd320282.aspx
· Windows 7 Springboard (in progress): http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/dd361745.aspx
· USMT 4.0: http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/dd560752(WS.10).aspx
· Windows Easy Transfer: http://windowsteamblog.com/blogs/windowsexperience/archive/2009/05/05/a-look-at-improvements-to-windows-easy-transfer-for-windows-7.aspx
We’re pleased to announce the launch of the very first TechNet Virtual Conference taking place on 19 June 2009.
We understand that time and budget pressures make attending events difficult – so to help both you and the environment we decided to take the TechNet Conference virtual. Now you can keep up to date with all the latest Microsoft insights and product developments from the comfort of your own desk.
The good news is that registration is FREE.
Virtual Keynote Featuring Mark Russinovich… and more!
We are also really pleased to announce an exclusive keynote featuring Mark Russinovich, Microsoft Technical Fellow specializing in the Windows platform.
Additionally, to accomodate the needs of both IT Professionals as well as IT Decision Makers and Licensing Specialists, we are presenting TWO tracks: One for IT Professionals, another for IT Management.
Technical presentation topics will include:
- Windows 7 Deployment and Management
- Windows Server 2008 R2 – 10 things to make life easier for IT Pros
- Do More with Less Using Windows PowerShell™ 2.0
- Desktop Deployment at Microsoft
- Microsoft Desktop Optimization Pack – how to improve efficiencies
- An overview of Office Communications Server R2 and Voice Capabilities
- Trials and Tribulations of SharePoint implementation
- Data Protection Manager – the one stop shop for protecting your critical data
Management presentation topics will include:
- Windows 7 Deployment and Management
- How IT will change over the next 10 years and why you should care
- Growing the Business and Managing costs at Microsoft – An Insider’s View
- Server Licensing Changes in a Virtual World
- SLIM: Sustainable Lifecycle and Innovation Management
- Millennial Worker – The new world of business
Register now!
http://go.microsoft.com/?linkid=9666808
One of the topics we covered as part of the recent TechNet Windows 7 Tour of Ireland was application compatibility. We gave an overview of XPMode, Applocker, and using shims for applications coded to look for specific OS versions. As great a job Sebastian, Dave and I did in covering these features, Mark Russinovich will do it better! Mark, Technical Fellow in the Platform and Services Division at Microsoft and all round genius of SysInternals fame is hosting another in his Springboard Series of webcasts
Windows 7 Application Compatibility: Your Questions Answered (Part 1)
Date: Thursday, June 18
Time: 11:00am Pacific Time
https://ms.istreamplanet.com/springboard
Windows 7, is approaching fast and from the application standpoint is very similar to Windows Vista. We’re going to examine Windows 7 application compatibility not only from the perspective of moving from Windows Vista, but also for those coming from Windows XP. Join us to discuss the most common challenges around application compatibility when coming from a legacy operating system, why changes were made along the way, compatibility technologies inside the OS and methods for getting incompatible applications to run on Windows 7. Along the way we share tips and tricks, demonstrate free tools to analyze and fix applications and answer your specific questions about application compatibility live.
In Part 2 of this Virtual Round Table discussion (planned for later this Summer/Fall), we’ll discuss the options and approaches for using virtualization tools In depth to address application incompatibilities – including presentation virtualization, desktop virtualization and application virtualization. We’ll be sending out more details and posting information to www.microsoft.com/springboard for part 2 as the dates are finalized.
As part of the “virtual” experience, you may submit your questions about Windows 7 Application Compatibility to the panel live during the event—or submit questions in advance to vrtable@microsoft.com.
Springboard Series: The resource for Windows desktop IT professionals
The Information Systems Security Association, an Irish security professionals group is hosting an event coming up on June 10th overlooking Microsoft’s products and security. You can register for this free event at http://www.issaireland.org/june09 and it is open to anyone who registers. Below is an overview of the event:
“Our next event will be on Wednesday June 10th and will be a special event in conjunction with Microsoft, focusing on the upcoming security enhancements in the Windows platform and Microsoft's security work in Dublin. This event will run from 2PM to 5PM and our venue this month is the Academy building at 42 Pearse Street, just around the corner from Pearse Street DART station.”
Agenda
Security Improvements in Windows 7 & Server 2008 R2
Dave Northey, Principle Systems Engineer, Microsoft Ireland
Later this year Microsoft will release two new products in the Windows family: Windows 7 and Windows Server 2008 R2. Both releases will introduce new security features and capabilities as well as enhancing the security of the Windows platform. As Irish organizations consider their deployment strategies for Windows 7 and 2008 R2 it is appropriate that our first presentation should introduce the security improvements in both products and demonstrate some of the new features of interest to security professionals.
Our speaker for this session will be Dave Northey, Principle Systems Engineer with the TechNet group at Microsoft Ireland. Dave has worked with Microsoft for over 13 years in a career which has spanned Microsoft's consulting, account management, sales and evangelist groups. Since 2006 Dave's has worked with Irish IT professionals to introduce Windows Vista, Server 2008, Hyper-V, SoftGrid, System Centre and other new technologies in Microsoft's infrastructure portfolio.
How Microsoft Manages Information Security Frank O'Keeffe, Regional Information Security Manager, Microsoft IT
At past ISSA events we have heard how organizations such as Intel manage information security internally, following on from this we have asked Frank O'Keeffe to present Microsoft's approach to information security and highlight the lessons which can be learned from an organization of their scale and complexity. Microsoft Information Technology (Microsoft IT) provides global IT and information security services for Microsoft. This presentation focuses on how the Information Security organization within Microsoft IT helps Microsoft protect its digital assets. In addition to being Microsoft's Regional Information Security Manager for EMEA Frank is one of the senior ISSA members in Ireland with over 10 years information security experience at Microsoft, Elavon, Symantec and the Irish Defence Forces, and holds the CISA, CISSP and SSCP certifications.
Microsoft's Malware Research: Conficker Case Study Elda Dimakiling & Francis Allan Tan Seng, Microsoft Malware Protection Centre
One aspect of Microsoft's information security efforts is often overlooked: their work in the anti-malware area. Following a series of acquisitions in recent years Microsoft is now a leading anti-virus and anti-malware company offering multiple products and services to protect customers and with one of the largest research & response organizations. A key part of this anti-malware organization is the Microsoft Malware Protection Centre in Dublin where two of our speakers, Elda Dimakiling and Francis Allan Tan Seng, are based. On June 10th Francis and Elda will present Microsoft research on the Conficker worm, its propagation techniques and its payload. Their presentation will show the impact of Conficker, discuss Microsoft's role in dealing with this attack and suggest good practices on how to prevent similar attacks in future.
Tools for Securing Windows Environments Short talks & demos by Irish security professionals
To close this event we will have a series of short presentations from ISSA members to discuss and demonstrate the many free tools which are available for securing Windows environments. These short talks will cover free tools from Microsoft such as LogParser and TAM ("Threat Analysis & Modeling") as well as third-party tools which members have found useful.
I’m planning to do some real world performance tests with Solid State Disks vs. the old fashioned spinning media type and am looking for requests.
There’s already loads of raw data throughput tests out there, but I’m planning to do the more “day-to-day” stuff. I’m thinking of simply comparing boot times of SSD and various laptop disks (I’ve only got a laptop to run my tests on). I can also test the performance of virtual machines, time to hibernate & resume, anything really.
What tests would you like to see results for?
Thanks
Thursday May 28th saw the RTM of Operations Manager 2007 R2 being approved, which immediately initiated the next stage of the process ... getting this latest version of Microsoft's end-to-end monitoring product for IT environments and datacenters out to YOU! Read more in our overview whitepaper, What's New datasheet, or download the trial, and see customer stories and more information on our pages on Microsoft.com and TechNet.
The trial version of Operations Manager 2007 R2 RTM (build 7221) is now available via the Microsoft Download Center. General Availability of the product will be 1st July 2009, at which point new and existing customers will be able to obtain the bits from their respective customer download centers, such as MVLS.
Read more about:
- Newly released datasheets & collatoral
- Overview whitepaper
- “What’s New” whitepaper
- Technet Online Virtual Labs
- Technet Webcasts on Ops Manager 2007 R2
- Technet EDGE video blogs about Ops Manager 2007 R2
- Extensions for Ops Manager 2007 R2 including
- Interoperability Connectors
- Visio Add-in
- Exchange 2007 Management Pack
- etc.
MORE INFO:
http://blogs.technet.com/systemcenter/archive/2009/05/22/om2007r2-rtm.aspx
As we toured around Ireland on the Windows 7 Tour, the single most asked question was around when was it coming out. Well……..
“TAIPEI, Taiwan — June 2, 2009 — Microsoft is so confident with the progress made with the development of Microsoft Windows 7 and Microsoft Windows Server 2008 R2 that it will deliver Release to Manufacturing (RTM) code to partners for both products in the second half of July. Both Windows 7 and Windows Server 2008 R2 will be available to the public on Oct. 22, 2009.”
For anyone who attended the great Windows Live and Digital Photographer session put on by Aidan Finn as part of TechDays Ireland will also like the announcement at the same event. Another bid to create a useful class of consumer devices is Fugoo. The Fugoo platform uses a version of Windows in conjunction with widely available Web “widgets,” which publish everything from the time and weather to currency exchange rates and horoscopes. 
Fugoo’s prototype devices integrate that software functionality into home appliances to create dynamic displays in clocks, picture frames and even coffee makers.
At Computex, Fugoo is announcing that its first commercially available product, a digital picture frame launched in partnership with Pandigital in the U.S., will be available on the market this summer.
The frame is Web-enabled and can download photos from social networks or online photo services. It also allows users to download photos directly from a PC or digital camera.
See the full details of the press release at http://www.microsoft.com/presspass/features/2009/Jun09/06-02SteveGuggenheimer.mspx.
