Microsoft TechNet Ireland Blog : Windows Server

System Center Operations Manager 2007 R2 hits RTM

will.craddock — Wed, 03 Jun 2009 23:27:00 GMT

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.

Windows 7 and Windows Server 2008 R2 has an official release date!

will.craddock — Wed, 03 Jun 2009 22:54:00 GMT

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.

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Live Migration using Windows Server 2008 R2 and Hyper-V (put to music)

daven — Tue, 31 Mar 2009 09:57:00 GMT

In the time it takes for you to listen to this one song (5 minutes 19 seconds), I build a cluster, create a highly available virtual machine and fail it from node to node multiple times.

Failover Clustering with Windows Server 2008 R2 includes Clustered Shared Volumes (CSV) – the ability for multiple servers in the cluster to have full read-write access to individual files on a cluster volume (the VHD files used in virtual machines). It’s this ability that enables Live Migration (the feature that everyone wants – but not many people really need).

As you can see from this demonstration, Failover Clustering with Windows Server 2008 is very easy, as is creating Virtual Machines using Hyper-V. Put the two together and you now have a very cost effective High Availability solution for consolidating your physical servers onto a virtualised platform. And we now have Live Migration!

Click to start, double click anywhere to play it in Full Screen and move your mouse over it to get the Player Controls to pop up.

Oh, and it’s here as well (different sound track):

Enjoy

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Virtualisation Unplugged - access to content

ieitpro — Wed, 04 Feb 2009 15:08:00 GMT

Thanks to those who made it to the 'Wellie' in Belfast yesterday and Douglas in Cork today for Virtualisation Unplugged.James and Dave really know Microsoft Virtualisation inside-out, so I'm glad you tested them with a few tough questions.

Even though James claims to be a bit of a sell-out, by buying into the whole blogging habit, his blog is still definitely worth keeping an eye on. It can be found @ http://blogs.technet.com/jamesone/. Also, his Virtualisation Unplugged slides can be found here.

Dave Northey's is back blogging these days, so you will see his Windows 7 deck here in the coming days.

Free Virtualisation Events in Dublin, Belfast and Cork!

ieitpro — Thu, 22 Jan 2009 11:07:00 GMT

Virtualisation is on practically every IT Pro's agenda these days. This is why there’s a wealth of Microsoft Virtualisation events training available over the coming months.

First up..Maxima Ireland, with support from Microsoft and Citrix, are hosting a Virtualisation seminar in Sandyford, Dublin on the 29^th of January. Email the event owner to register or for further information.

For more than 18 years, Microsoft and Citrix have offered customers solutions to deliver Windows-based applications using Citrix Presentation Server™ running on Terminal Services. Both companies are now co-marketing new client computing offerings with the next generation of Citrix Presentation Server and the Citrix XenDesktop™ products, both based on Windows Server 2008 and Windows Optimized Desktop solutions, and managed by Microsoft System Center. With these solutions, customers can build an array of flexible, low-cost and manageable client computing options for different types of enterprise users.

The agenda for the seminar is as follows:

Making the Business Case for Virtualisation
Citrix/Microsoft Dynamic Delivery Centre
Citrix/Microsoft Lifecycle Management

Outside of Dublin (Belfast and Cork)..Free TechNet Events: Virtualisation Unplugged

Who should attend: IT Managers, IT Professionals

Summary: Virtualisation Unplugged is a full day technical session with Microsoft experts to discover a complete set of virtualisation tools from desktop to datacentre that will improve business continuity and maximise ROI. The day will cover loads of technologies including Windows Server 2008, Hyper-V, System Centre Virtual Machine Manager, Terminal Services and Application Virtualisation.

James O'Neill, Virtualisation expert from the Microsoft UK, has had great success touring all over the UK delivering this seminar and we are delighted to bring him to Ireland to deliver two 'Virtualisation Unplugged' tour dates here. Date: 3rd February, 4th February
Location:
Belfast (3rd) - Register Here!
Cork, (4th) - Register Here!
Cost: Free Event

Good video to watch: Mark Russinovich on virtualization, Sysinternals and the cloud

ieitpro — Wed, 14 Jan 2009 13:48:00 GMT

Here's some more interesting footage from TechEd that I missed before...

Mark Russinovich, technical follow, about Windows 7, WS08 R2, virtualization and Vista. It's about 8 minutes long. You can watch Mark's interview here.

In this interview from Microsoft Tech-Ed EMEA 2008 in Barcelona, author and Microsoft technical fellow Mark Russinovich sits down with SearchWinIT.com senior news director Margie Semilof to discuss several topics that are on the horizon for Windows administrators, such as cloud computing, client virtualization, and the release of Windows 7 Server. He also provides insight on the fate of WinFS, what's new with Sysinternals and the controversy surrounding Windows Vista.

Learning Snacks are full of goodness! (and easy to digest)

ieitpro — Wed, 07 Jan 2009 19:25:00 GMT

You may remember I posted Vista 'learning snacks' last month - well now they're available for Windows Server 2008 and Virtualisation too! They're actually really good! See here.

Learning Snacks are short, interactive presentations about popular topics created by Microsoft Learning experts. Each Snack is delivered by using innovative Microsoft Silverlight technology and includes various media, such as animations and recorded demos. At the end of each free presentation, you can view more Snacks, learn more about the topic, or visit a related Web site.

IMPORTANT: Deploy October Critical Microsoft Security Update Immediately!

ieitpro — Thu, 27 Nov 2008 19:50:00 GMT

You will recall that on the 23rd October we released the out-of-band update MS08-067. Deployment of this update has been high, but a worm, Worm:Win32/Conficker, has been detected across the world with increasing frequency. If you have not done so already, please protect yourself by installing the update MS08-067 as soon as possible - both on home machines and in the office.

Please do not hold off on installing the update for fear of issues with it – the Microsoft Security Teams are unaware of a single case, which when investigated, was a regression issue with MS08-067.

Please see more information on Microsoft Security Response Center blog, the Microsoft Malware Protection Center blog, or via our encyclopaedia write up. Microsoft continues to encourage customers to install MS08-067 immediately to protect their systems from possible exploitation. For customers who believe they have been affected and want to scan their computers, Microsoft recommends using its free full scanning service. Microsoft will continue to monitor the situation and will post updates when necessary.

SBS 2008 BusinessSpeak and GeekSpeak with Harry Brelsford & Philip Elder LIVE SBS 2008 Server-side Setup

ieitpro — Thu, 27 Nov 2008 12:15:00 GMT

Your chance to see the SBS 2008 server-side setup process, learn more about the pre-requisite step of configuring your router\firewall.

6pm December 7^th, location tbc. Please register to receive updates. You must be logged in to register for this event.

There is a 5euro charge for this event; all money raised is to be given to charity, decided by attendees. To register click the lick, become a member of the site and register for the event here: http://www.partneroutreach.com/Events/tabid/54/ctl/Details/Mid/373/ItemID/4/Default.aspx?selecteddate=12/7/2008

Small Business Server User Group: Remote Monitoring tools

ieitpro — Thu, 27 Nov 2008 12:09:00 GMT

Presenting - Hound Dog, N-Able, and Microsoft System Center Essentials. Places are limited for this event, so please register early. To register click the link and login: http://www.sbsireland.com/Events/tabid/55/ModuleID/514/ItemID/37/mctl/EventDetails/Default.aspx?selecteddate=12/11/2008

11th December (Dublin 5.30pm-8.30pm):

Small Business Server 2008 now Available - Evaluate Now

ieitpro — Wed, 26 Nov 2008 18:48:00 GMT

SBS 2008 is an affordable, integrated solution - 'all-in-one' suite of business technologies tailored to small businesses' specific needs.

Learn more at www.microsoft.ie/sbs or the TechNet SBS blog.

Clcik here to download the free SBS 2008 trial

Windows Essential Business Server 2008 Launched! – Evaluate now

ieitpro — Wed, 26 Nov 2008 18:44:00 GMT

Windows Essential Business Server 2008 is an integrated and affordable solution that offers the Microsoft software midsize businesses require - preconfigured, integrated and manageable from a unified administration console, and at a significant discount compared to standalone products.

Click here to download trial version

Tech Ed Rocks!

ieitpro — Fri, 14 Nov 2008 14:38:00 GMT

Now to Tech Ed...over 5,000 IT Professionals were at this annual conference, a small portion of whom were Irish! The keynote delivered by Brad Anderson, focused on the key to a 'Dynamic Enterprise in Changing Business Conditions' - this was ok...there were far more interesting and entertaining topics and speakers to follow during the week.

Lucky for you if you didn't attend the conference, you can actually catch the highlights on video @ http://www.microsoft.com/emea/teched2008/itpro/. Some of the conference topline announcements worth mentioning are:

. New Windows Server 2008 R2 features: Live Migration; Branch Cache; DirectAccess; and Remote Desktop Services (RDS) - the new name for Terminal Services.
. System Center Operations Manager 2007 R2 beta.
. Integrated Identity and Security Solutions - Identity Lifecycle Manager 2 RC and Intelligent Access Gateway SP2 (including virtualization appliance).
. "Dublin" - codename for a set of extensions to the Windows Server application server. "Dublin" will be delivered as a separate out-of-band release, downloadable for use by Windows Server customers; the first Customer Technology Preview (CTP) was delivered at last week's Microsoft Professional Developer's Conference in October 2008.

My personal highlights were any of the sessions delivered by Mark Minasi (mostly Vista sessions) or Mark Russinovich - watch out for the session entitled 'The Case of the Unexplained'. These guys were brilliant presenters and actually managed to entertain as well as teach! I also hear Steve Riley's sessions earlier in the week were amazing. Again, check out the video highlights @ http://www.microsoft.com/emea/teched2008/itpro/

For those of you particularly interested in Windows Server 2008, System Centre 2007 and Virtualisation – local Microsoft MVP Aidan Finn (System Center Configuration Manager 2007) did a stand-up job on blogging on the key infrastructure sessions during the week.

See http://joeelway.spaces.live.com/?_c11_BlogPart_BlogPart=blogview&_c=BlogPart&partqs=cat%3dTechEd%2bEMEA%2bIT%2bPro

IT Professional Training at reduced rates - places still available!

ieitpro — Mon, 03 Nov 2008 14:11:00 GMT

03/11/2008, Dublin (BT): Implementing and Maintaining Microsoft SQL Server 2008 Reporting Services
3 days, €400. Register Your Interest Here

10/11/2008, Dublin (Global Knowledge ): Microsoft Windows Server 2008 Hyper-V Virtualization in Depth
3 days, €400. Register Your Interest Here

13/11/2008, Dublin (Global Knowledge ): Introduction to Installing and Managing Microsoft® Exchange Server 2007
2 days, €267. Register Your Interest Here

17/11/2008, Dublin (New Horizons): Microsoft Dynamics CRM 4.0 Applications
2 days, €267. Register Your Interest Here

17/11/2008, Cork (PFH): SQL Server 2008 Implementation and Maintenance
5 days, €1,000. Register Your Interest Here

19/11/2008, Belfast (New Horizons): Implementing and Administering Windows® Small Business Server 2008
3 days, €400. Register Your Interest Here

19/11/2008, Dublin (New Horizons): Customization and Configuration in Microsoft Dynamics CRM 4.0
2 days, €267. Register Your Interest Here

21/11/2008, Dublin (New Horizons): Installation and Deployment in Microsoft Dynamics CRM 4.0
1 day, €133. Register Your Interest Here

24/11/2008, Belfast (BT): Microsoft Windows Server 2008 Hyper-V Virtualization in Depth
3 days, €400. Register Your Interest Here

24/11/2008, Cork (PFH): Implementing and Administering Windows® Small Business Server 2008
3 days, €600. Register Your Interest Here

01/12/2008, Belfast (BT): Implementing and Maintaining Microsoft SQL Server 2008 Reporting Services
3 days, €400. Register Your Interest Here

02/12/2008, Cork (PFH): Advanced SharePoint Development
4 days, €799. Register Your Interest Here

08/12/2008, Galway (New Horizons): Updating Your Skills from Microsoft Exchange 2000 Server or Microsoft Exchange Server 2003 to Microsoft Exchange Server 2007.
3 days, €400. Register Your Interest Here

08/12/2008, Dublin (New Horizons): Visual Studio 2008: Windows Presentation Foundation
3 days, €400. Register Your Interest Here

15/12/2008, Dublin (Global Knowledge): Managing System Center Operations Manager 2007
3 days, €400. Register Your Interest Here

15/12/2008 Dublin (New Horizons): Developing Web Applications Using Microsoft Visual Studio 2008
4 days, €533. Register Your Interest Here

Launching Small Business Server & the New Essential Business Server - 12th November 2008

ieitpro — Mon, 03 Nov 2008 14:01:00 GMT

Calling all SBS Partners!

On November 12^th Microsoft is launching the next version of Small Business Server & the New Essential Business Server. These are known together as Windows Essential Server Solutions. To celebrate this Microsoft Ireland are hosting an Irish launch event on the 12^th November from 09:00 to 14:00 at Microsoft, Sandyford Ind. Estate, Dublin 18.

SBS 2008 has built on the strengths of the previous version and added improved management, back up and remote access capabilities. Essential Business Server is the new integrated multi server solution designed for mid market organisation with up to 300 users. EBS is designed for the mid market offering them a comprehensive IT Solution with reduced complexity at an affordable price.

This partner event we will bring you through the new features of these products from both a technical and a sales perspective and will prepare to take full advantage of the market opportunity. Full agenda outlined below. Places are limited and we expect to fill them fast. Registrations will be completed on a first come, first serve policy.

NOTE: TO REGISTER YOU MUST BE ASSOCIATED TO YOUR COMPANIES PARTNER MEMBERSHIP ACCOUNT. If you are not currently associated click here and follow the simple steps.

Click Here To Register Do not hesitate to contact our registration line on 01 279 7788 if you need assistance.