Musings of an IT Pro Evangelist : Windows Server 2008 R2

Free Windows Server 2008 R2 E-Book

txsnow — Wed, 04 Nov 2009 01:46:37 GMT

Hey folks! Just wanted to remind everyone you can download a FREE Windows Server 2008 R2 E-Book today! This guide is a 200 page, 9 Chapter get up to speed guide on Windows Server 2008 R2. If you are a Windows Server Administrator, this guide is something you should keep handy.

Simplify configuration of Windows Server 2008 R2 Server Core using SConfig

txsnow — Tue, 09 Jun 2009 00:13:00 GMT

While at TechEd 2009 in Los Angeles, I was asked by a couple of different attendees if we had plans to simplify basic configuration of items like networking and machine naming on Server Core. Well the answer to that is a big YES! Take a look at this screencast on the new SConfig tool included with Windows Server 2008 R2.

Changes to the backup utility in Windows Server 2008 R2

txsnow — Fri, 05 Jun 2009 22:55:00 GMT

Windows Server Backup has some pretty sweet changes coming in Windows Server 2008 R2 including:

The ability to backup System State as a separate job as well as the ability to do incremental System State backups.
The ability to exclude specific file types, file folders, and specific files instead of having to backup an entire volume.
The ability to backup to a volume or a network share instead of requiring a dedicated disk for backups.

Gordon Ryan takes us through a demonstration of these changes in a recent video on TechNet Edge.

For more information on Windows Server Backup in R2, take a hop over to the Windows Server 2008 R2 Tech Center on TechNet.

Active Directory Recycle Bin

txsnow — Tue, 27 Jan 2009 17:16:56 GMT

Yesterday I posted a link to my Active Directory Recycle Bin demo over on Edge. Today I thought I would follow that up that post with a few things about the recycle bin feature in R2.

The great thing about the AD Recycle Bin is that if you make the mistake of deleting say an entire OU (you know the one that contains the accounts of every high up executive), you will be able to restore those objects in their entirety to the same state they were in immediately before they were deleted. Previously we had to rely on re-animation of objects in AD that didn't restore all attributes and group memberships or purchase third party solutions in order to recover from accidental deletions.

A few things to be aware of:

In order to use the AD Recycle Bin all of the domain controllers in your forest need to be running Windows Server 2008 R2 and your forest needs to be in the R2 forest functional mode.
You need to enable the Recycle Bin feature since by default it's disabled. Once it's enabled, you cannot disable it so be aware before enabling the feature.
The default deleted item object lifetime is 180 days. You can increase or decrease that value using Powershell. You can also extend the ability to restore objects longer (via authoritative restore) by extending the tombstone lifetime.

For more information and details on how to execute a restore, take a look at the AD Recycle Bin step by step guide on TechNet.

RSAT for Windows 7 and Windows Server 2008 R2

txsnow — Mon, 26 Jan 2009 20:39:37 GMT

Wow what a crazy winter! I've been traveling around speaking to folks about Windows Server 2008 R2. Let me tell you all Prague is an amazing city, but winter there is COLD! *Shudder*. When I was in Prague speaking to all of the great MCT's who took the time out of their busy schedules to listen to this guy talk, I was asked about the Remote Server Administration Tools for Windows 7 and Windows Server 2008 R2. Well folks they are available now. If you want to get your hands on them simple head over to the download site and grab em while they are hot!

In the coming days I will also answer several questions that came up during my sessions regarding some of the new features on Windows Server 2008 R2. For those of you who are not MCT's and have not yet had a chance to learn about some of these features, head on over to TechNet Edge and check out my post on the beta release of Server 2008 R2 as well as my feature demo of the Active Directory Recycle bin. More feature demos are coming soon so keep checking!