mcs.ireland.blog/infrastructure

Event: Windows Server 2008 R2 Hyper-V Deep Dive

2009-03-12T13:14:41Z

At TechDays for IT Pro’s 2009 ( http://www.microsoft.com/ireland/technet/techdays.aspx ) there will be some sessions on Windows 7 and Windows Server 2008 R2. This will include some information and demonstrations on the new version of Hyper-V. However, due to time constraints, we won’t have time to get into the deep details of how and why things work. Aidan Finn (C Infinity - http://www.cinfinity.ie ) will be talking about the new technologies that will be included as part of Hyper-V in Windows Server...(read more)

Cool stuff from Microsoft IT

2008-08-25T18:27:06Z

Microsoft IT usually deals with all Microsoft products and Technologies before they get the street. Because we are early adopters we also have the opportunity to develop good administration practices and we like to share those practices with our customers and partners. That's the main goal of Microsoft ITShowcase program. ITShowcase has just published a new document that shows how Microsoft handles AD schema changes. Microsoft IT Showcase is pleased to announce the publication of Structured Active...(read more)

ANNOUNCEMENT: Live Mesh Tech Preview expansion to Ireland (in English)

2008-08-19T12:59:35Z

Live Mesh is a very cool new technology that Microsoft is developing and during the Tech Preview we want you guys to experience it (as users and by developing to the platform) and share your thoughts. What’s Live Mesh? Live Mesh, enables you to synchronize and access information and files across your different PCs and it also lets you remotely control your PC through your web browser if you’re away from it. Future releases will be adding support for more devices including Windows Mobile...(read more)

Two new events from Windows Server 2008 User Group Ireland

2008-08-07T15:06:33Z

The Windows Server 2008 User Group Ireland ( Aidan Finn ) is organizing two cool events, as usual, please pass on the news to your colleagues and friends. Hyper-V and Virtual Machine Manager 2008 "We will be running an event on Hyper-V and Virtual Machine Manager on 2nd September in Buswells Hotel in Dublin 2 at 7pm. The speakers will be Dave Northey and Mark Gibson from Microsoft Ireland and Aidan Finn (me) from C Infinity. Please accept this invitation if you wish to attend. Places are limited...(read more)

Windows Vista Compatibility Center

2008-07-22T00:47:22Z

This site has gone live recently - great resource to check the Vista compatibility status of hardware or software: Windows Vista Compatibility Center There's a lot (lot) more compatible devices/applications than some people might think.... if you're buying or deploying Vista then this site is a good resource for you....(read more)

Creating Mind Maps with Visio

2008-07-21T14:30:28Z

I'm a heavy mind map user - in my experience you either don't use them at all, or you use them all the time. If you fall into the latter camp, there are quite a few mind map tools on the market. What a lot of people don't know, myself included until last week, is that you can create them with Visio. The advantage I've found is that this enables you to have technical architecture diagrams plus mindmaps all in the same Visio file, it can be a great time saver and keeps all project documentation...(read more)

Virtualisation - A few notes

2008-06-30T16:14:47Z

The last week we had some interesting notes related with the Virtualisation topic that I thought it would be worth sharing. First Microsoft IT Showcase has published its Guide to select loads candidates for virtualisation Microsoft IT Showcase is pleased to announce the publication of Identifying Server Candidates for Virtualization , which discusses how Microsoft IT identified virtualization as one of the prime strategies to address the issues of server underutilization and data-center capacity. ...(read more)

ILM "2" Beta 3 is now available for download

2008-06-20T11:41:26Z

ILM "2" Beta 3 has recently been posted for download on the connect website. This beta release is a major milestone in the release roadmap for the product and contains most of the features of the product that a lot of people have been waiting to get a play with. Crucially, you can download a full VPC demo image and start having a look at the product today! Included in this beta release: ILM "2" Beta 3 package ILM "2" Beta 3 Release notes ILM "2" Beta 3 IT Pro...(read more)

Configuration Manager 2007 - 32-bit or 64-bit OS?

2008-06-19T15:33:00Z

As I'm sure most of you are already aware, System Center Configuration Manager (SCCM) 2007 is a 32-bit application. Installing SCCM SP1 on 64-bit Windows 2003 and 64-bit Windows Server 2008, is of course fully supported. However, given that SCCM is still a 32-bit application, performance will not be as great on 64-bit hardware as a native 64-bit application would be. Therefore the recommendation to ensure best results, is to install 32-bit versions of Windows Server even when working with 64-bit...(read more)

PXE Boot Problems with Configuration Manager 2007

2008-06-18T22:19:22Z

One of the most impressive features of System Center Configuration Manager (SCCM) 2007 is Operating System Deployment (OSD) which began life as a feature pack for SMS 2003. An integral component of OSD is a new site role in SCCM called the PXE service point that responds to PXE requests from computers that have been imported into SCCM database. The PXE service point site role is used to initiate the operating system deployment process and must be configured to respond to PXE boot requests made by...(read more)

OCS 2007 Enterprise Edition - Certificate & DNS Requirements

2008-06-18T19:36:49Z

Having just deployed Office Communication Server (OCS) 2007 into a customer site, I thought I would share some of my experiences, specifically around DNS and Certificate requirements. OCS Features Installed Audio & video conferencing Web conferencing NO federation or external user access OCS Infrastructure Components Software - OCS OCS 2007 Enterprise Edition Hardware 2 x Front End Servers - OCSSRV01 & OCSSRV02 1 x SQL Back End SQL Server (clustered) Load balancer AD / Mail / Enterprise Pool...(read more)

Today’s the day for the second Springboard Live! virtual roundtable: The topic? Windows Vista Security

2008-06-18T16:59:33Z

Let’s talk Windows Vista security begins 17:00 GMT. Microsoft Technical Fellow and desktop guru Mark Russinovich will again be hosting a live, interactive Springboard Series virtual roundtable—this time on the topic of Windows Vista security. As with the March roundtable on deployment, Microsoft will be taking questions from those tuning in for the live event. Questions can also be submitted in advance by e-mailing vrtable@microsoft.com . Tell them to visit https://ms.istreamplanet.com/springboard...(read more)

Windows Vista Deployment - Part 4 - End User Experience

2008-06-17T20:29:17Z

One of the most important things of a Windows Vista deployment is managing change. The end users will at the end of the day have a new operating system with a massive amount of new features they will have to discover in order to take full advantage of the productivity increases they bring. But how do you communicate this to the user and when? This is an excellent question to be asking yourself, luckily Microsoft provide a great tool to do this. This tool is called the Enterprise Learning Framework...(read more)

Using Key Management Services (KMS) Across Domains

2008-06-17T20:27:33Z

In some environments it may be necessary to implement Key Management Services (KMS) activation across domains. An example of this can be illustrated by the requirements of a recent project that I was working on. The customer in question is in the process of consolidating a number of legacy domains into a new pristine AD domain - trust relationships exist between the domains. This migration will take a considerable amount of time given both the size of the customer's infrastructure and the requirement...(read more)

Using Key Management Services (KMS) for Vista Activation

2008-06-17T19:11:41Z

I have been working recently on a large Vista deployment project for an Enterprise customer. An integral component of the project required the installation and configuration of Key Management Services (KMS) to activate all newly deployed Vista computers. Typically, an Enterprise customer will choose KMS as the preferred method of activation as the number of Multiple Activation Keys (MAK) supplied as part of their Microsoft Enterprise Agreement will be substantially less than the total amount for...(read more)