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April 2009 - Posts

Tuesday, April 28, 2009 6:46 PM

Examine the 2007 Pandemic Flu Exercise to Protect your Organization Against Swine Flu

Download and examine the FFIEC’s “Pandemic Flu Exercise of 2007 After Action Report” immediately, and disseminate their findings across your organization. \this is the only large-scale testing of business pandemic plans ever conducted.
Posted by mertb | 0 Comments
Tuesday, April 28, 2009 6:40 PM

Gartner advise for Pandemic Planning

The recent swine flu outbreaks highlight the need for organizations to have pandemic plans in place. Gartner has comprehensive research related to pandemic planning that can be found here.  Immediate steps for organizations to take include: Monitor
Posted by mertb | 0 Comments
Tuesday, April 28, 2009 6:31 PM

Microsoft Vine as a crisis communication tool during disasters and Swine flu like pandemics

Spreading in the United States, Canada and Europe, the Swine flu now displays “a significant upward shift in risk for a pandemic,” or global scourge according to WHO. Times of crisis usually involve a breakdown in mobile phone or other key communication
Posted by mertb | 2 Comments
Saturday, April 25, 2009 12:15 PM

XP Mode for Windows 7

To ease the application compatibility issues for migrating to Windows 7, Microsoft is going to incorporate the Virtual PC technology in to the Windows 7 operating system. The Windows XP applications will be published and run within the Windows 7 Desktop
Posted by mertb | 3 Comments
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Tuesday, April 21, 2009 9:50 AM

Impressive Virtualization Case Study : 85% virtualized, 30:1 VM density

Impressive virtualization case study from Kroll Factual Data. Some highlights: · A ble to develop, test and deploy new products within three days. · A datacenter which has the ability to deploy additional computing resources in less than 15 minutes. ·
Posted by mertb | 0 Comments
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Monday, April 20, 2009 8:10 AM

How Can Virtualization Help Green IT

Organizations are becoming increasingly aware of the environmental and business benefits of adopting a Green IT environment. This interactive presentation highlights how virtualization facilitates a Green IT environment. It describes the Hyper-V server
Posted by mertb | 1 Comments
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Monday, April 20, 2009 7:56 AM

Free Terminal Services Online Course

This online course provides IT Professionals the knowledge to implement and manage Terminal Services in Windows Server 2008. Topics covered in the clinic include: · Implementation of Terminal Services · Working with Terminal Services RemoteApp, Terminal
Posted by mertb | 0 Comments
Monday, April 20, 2009 7:52 AM

Free Virtual Machine Management Online Course

This online course provides IT Professionals the knowledge to implement and manage Microsoft System Center Virtual Machine Manager 2008. Topics covered in the clinic include: · Features and functionalities of VMM · Implementation and management of VMM
Posted by mertb | 0 Comments
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Monday, April 20, 2009 7:45 AM

Free Application Virtualization Online Course

This online course provides IT Professionals the knowledge to implement and manage Microsoft Application Virtualization. Topics covered in the clinic include: · Features and functionalities of Application Virtualization · Deployment and maintenance of
Posted by mertb | 0 Comments
Monday, April 20, 2009 7:20 AM

Free Hyper-V Virtualization Online Course

This 2-hour online course provides IT Professionals the knowledge to implement and manage Hyper-V in an IT environment. Topics covered in the course include: · Features of Hyper-V · Features of server consolidation · Hyper-V implementation · Creation
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Saturday, April 18, 2009 8:47 AM

Infection Rates of Windows Operating Systems

The latest Microsoft Security Intelligence Report (SIR) has been released. It provides an in-depth perspective on the changing threat landscape including software vulnerability disclosures and exploits, malicious software (malware), and potentially unwanted
Posted by mertb | 0 Comments
Thursday, April 16, 2009 3:16 PM

Infrastructure Planning and Design (IPD) Guides

The Infrastructure Planning and Design (IPD) guides are the next version of Windows Server System Reference Architecture. The guides in this series help clarify and streamline design processes for Microsoft infrastructure technologies, with each guide
Posted by mertb | 0 Comments
Wednesday, April 15, 2009 10:28 PM

Free Exchange 2010 Training

Collection 6899: Exploring Features of Exchange Server 2010 This two-hour collection provides you with an overview of the new features in Exchange Server 2010. It also describes the enhancements made over Exchange Server 2007. The clinics within this
Posted by mertb | 0 Comments
Wednesday, April 15, 2009 10:53 AM

Sample Application Virtualization Assessment

Attached is a sample report produced using the MAPS toolkit . The Application Virtualization Assessment report identifies the applications and computers within your environment that are capable of supporting a Microsoft Application Virtualization environment.
Posted by mertb | 0 Comments
Wednesday, April 15, 2009 10:31 AM

Free Environment Assessment Toolkit

For my desktop deployment projects i recommend to use the Microsoft Assessment and Planning toolkit that will find computers on a network and perform a detailed inventory of the computers using Windows Management Instrumentation (WMI), the Remote Registry
Posted by mertb | 0 Comments
Wednesday, April 15, 2009 10:15 AM

Suite B PKI Planning and Deployment

There is a new whitepaper released which discusses the planning and implementation of a Microsoft Windows Server 2008 and Windows Server 2008 R2 public key infrastructure (PKI) that utilizes fully Suite B compliant cryptographic algorithms. It describes
Posted by mertb | 0 Comments
Tuesday, April 14, 2009 11:23 PM

Linux Integration Components for Hyper-V

When installed in a supported Linux virtual machine running on Hyper-V, the Linux Integration Components provide. Driver support for synthetic devices: The Linux integration components include support for both the synthetic network controller and synthetic
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Tuesday, April 14, 2009 7:27 PM

Sample Service Map for SLA

To draft the desktop SLA's its important you build a service map to identify the service componenets and dependencies. A service map represents a service from the perspective of the business and user. It is divided into the following sections: · Customers.
Posted by mertb | 0 Comments
Tuesday, April 14, 2009 6:21 PM

SLA Template for Desktop Services

Attached is a sample desktop services SLA which i refer to my customers when they ask for it. Keep in mind that the SLA is a customer document, and should be kept free of technical jargon.
Posted by mertb | 0 Comments

Attachment(s): Sample Desktop SLA.doc
Monday, April 13, 2009 10:56 AM

Best Practices for Deploying Virtual Machines by Using Hyper-V Virtualization Technology

About 80 percent of server deployments in the Microsoft IT data centers are deployed as virtual servers via Windows Server 2008 Hyper-V technology. To ensure optimal performance, Microsoft Information Technology (Microsoft IT) has developed configuration
Posted by mertb | 0 Comments
Monday, April 13, 2009 10:51 AM

How Microsoft Designs the Virtualization Host and Network Infrastructure

At Microsoft, server virtualization has become a primary way to address data-center power consumption, to address space issues, and to rationalize server utilization. To optimize deployment and management of thousands of virtual machines, Microsoft Information
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Sunday, April 12, 2009 11:59 PM

VDI Security - Using Encryption to Protect Virtual Machine Resources

Windows BitLocker Drive Encryption (BitLocker) is a data protection feature included with Windows Server 2008. BitLocker is an operating system–based software capability that works with features in server hardware and firmware to provide secure operating
Posted by mertb | 2 Comments
Sunday, April 12, 2009 11:51 PM

VDI Security - Hardening Virtual Desktops

The same security measures and hardening you would apply to a physical computer should be applied to virtual machines. You should perform hardening steps for the virtual machine's server role as indicated in the “Server Role Security Configuration” section
Posted by mertb | 1 Comments
Sunday, April 12, 2009 11:46 PM

VDI Security - Virtual Desktop Configuration

The following recommended best practices can help you enhance security when configuring virtual machines on servers running the Hyper-V role: · Configure virtual machines to use fixed-sized virtual hard disks. · Store virtual hard disks and snapshot files
Posted by mertb | 0 Comments
Sunday, April 12, 2009 11:27 PM

VDI Security - Role Based Delegation

System Center Virtual Machine Manager (VMM) 2008 implements role-based security to provide finer control over who can do what within the virtualized environment. This new security model supports delegated administration, which was not available in VMM
Posted by mertb | 1 Comments
Sunday, April 12, 2009 11:17 PM

VDI Security - Securing VM Storage Devices

By default, new VHD files in the Public profile are stored in the %users% \Public\Documents\Hyper-V\Virtual Hard Disks directory. You can change the default storage location for VHDs by selecting Hyper-V Settings in the Hyper-V Manager. If you specify
Posted by mertb | 0 Comments
Sunday, April 12, 2009 10:51 PM

VDI Security - Securing the Host Network

The configuration of the physical network interfaces of the computer running Hyper-V can help to improve the isolation of the management operating system from the virtual desktops. Its recommended that you install at least two network adapters on the
Posted by mertb | 0 Comments
Sunday, April 12, 2009 10:46 PM

VDI Security - Hyper-V Operating System Installation Type

You can install Hyper-V with either the Full or the Server Core installation options of the 64-bit editions of Windows Server 2008 (Standard, Enterprise, or Datacenter). Server Core is a minimal server installation option that provides a low-maintenance
Posted by mertb | 0 Comments
Sunday, April 12, 2009 10:29 PM

VDI Security - Securing Virtual Desktops running on Hyper-V

The following considerations and recommendations relate to configuring virtual machines on a computer running Windows Server 2008 Hyper-V. · Determine where to store the virtual machine files and the VHDs . See “Securing Dedicated Storage Devices” earlier
Posted by mertb | 0 Comments
Sunday, April 12, 2009 10:02 PM

Hyper-V Attack Surface

An important part of Virtualization security is to secure the physical host which is Hyper-V in our case. The link below includes a spreadsheet you can download that lists all the attack surfaces for Windows Server 2008. Hyper-V Attack Surface Reference
Posted by mertb | 0 Comments
Sunday, April 12, 2009 3:22 PM

PowerShell Management Library for Hyper-V

A great toolkit for Hyper-V management using PowerShell. Lots of Hyper-V functions which you can use for your virtual machine operations. PowerShell Management Library for Hyper-V
Posted by mertb | 1 Comments
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Saturday, April 11, 2009 12:21 AM

Sample TCO Study for Application Virtualization

I have done several Application Virtualization TCO studies for my customers and the results are in between 5% to 8% overall TCO reduction depending on the customer's IT maturity and market. Most of the TCO savings comes from the application testing, packaging
Posted by mertb | 0 Comments
Friday, April 10, 2009 11:48 PM

Out of Band Desktop Management

IT aims to reduce downtime and minimize desk-side visits to further lower its desktop TCO especially for distributed networks. One feature which supports this initiative is Intel's Active Management Technology (AMT) that does not rely on an operating
Posted by mertb | 1 Comments
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Thursday, April 09, 2009 10:48 PM

Microsoft Application Virtualization Best Practices Analyzer

The Application Virtualization Best Practices Analyzer is a diagnostic tool that verifies configuration settings for a computer running a Microsoft Application Virtualization Streaming Server version 4.5 or Microsoft Application Virtualization Management
Posted by mertb | 0 Comments
Wednesday, April 08, 2009 8:59 PM

Microsoft Enterprise Desktop Virtualization Design Guide

This guide outlines the critical infrastructure design elements that will help ensure a successfull implementation of Microsoft Enterprise Desktop Virtualization (MED-V). MED-V Planning an Design Guide Download
Posted by mertb | 0 Comments
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Wednesday, April 08, 2009 12:08 AM

A comprehensive pdf on VDI

Here is a great VDI pdf on Microfot's VDI and desktop virtualization strategy.
Posted by mertb | 1 Comments

Attachment(s): MicrosoftClientVirtualizationStrategyWhitePaper.pdf
Tuesday, April 07, 2009 11:54 PM

Microsoft Virtual Desktop Infrastructure

Fei Lu describes the Microsoft Virtual Desktop Infrastructure technology in Windows Vista, and scenarios where organizations can take advantage of the flexibility this technology offers. Windows Springboard Series: Windows Vista Virtual Desktop Infrastructure
Posted by mertb | 1 Comments
Tuesday, April 07, 2009 11:50 PM

VDI Forum

Please use the following forum for Microsoft VDI related questions. I will be following this forum regularly http://social.technet.microsoft.com/Forums/en/windowsserver2008r2virtualization/threads
Posted by mertb | 0 Comments
Tuesday, April 07, 2009 5:30 PM

Virtualization and E-Discovery

Interesting article how virtualization technologies are effecting legal litigation and e-discovery processes. Especially how assessment and discovery gets a bit complicated. How Virtualization Affects EDD Collection
Posted by mertb | 0 Comments
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Tuesday, April 07, 2009 5:25 PM

Hyper-V Planning and Deployment Guide

This guide includes information about hardware requirements and limits, supported guest operating systems, and instructions for installing the role and management tools. It also includes information about configuring security, network, and storage for
Posted by mertb | 0 Comments
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Tuesday, April 07, 2009 5:23 PM

Sharepoint Virtualization

The Microsoft-UK services team recently posted an in-depth virtualizing SharePoint series. It is a culmination of their experiences over the last couple years helping customers successfully host SharePoint in virtualized environments. Virtualizing Sharepoint
Posted by mertb | 0 Comments
Tuesday, April 07, 2009 5:16 PM

How to make RemoteApp show the application icon when starting

When you start a remote application using an RDP file, you typically see the default RDP UI while the application is being started. The problem with this UI is that it shows the generic Remote Desktop icon for every application you start. However, by
Posted by mertb | 0 Comments
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Tuesday, April 07, 2009 5:14 PM

Hyper-V Security Guide

This Solution Accelerator provides instructions and recommendations to help strengthen the security of computers running the Hyper-V role on Windows Server 2008. It covers three core topics: hardening Hyper-V, delegating virtual machine management, and
Posted by mertb | 0 Comments
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Tuesday, April 07, 2009 5:06 PM

MED-V v1 Released

Microsoft Enterprise Desktop Virtualization (MED-V) provides deployment and management of virtual Windows desktops to enable key enterprise scenarios. MED-V 1.0 helps enterprises upgrade to the latest version of Windows even when some applications are
Posted by mertb | 0 Comments
Tuesday, April 07, 2009 4:59 PM

App-V 4.5 Planning and Deployment Guide

The Application Virtualization Planning and Deployment Guide provides information to help you better understand and deploy the Microsoft Application Virtualization application and its components. It also provides step-by-step procedures for implementing
Posted by mertb | 0 Comments
Tuesday, April 07, 2009 4:52 PM

App-V 4.5 Operations Guide

The Microsoft Application Virtualization Operations Guide provides information and step-by-step procedures to help you administer the Microsoft Application Virtualization (App-V) system and its components. App-V 4.5 Operations Guide
Posted by mertb | 0 Comments
Tuesday, April 07, 2009 4:19 PM

Scoping for App-V Sequencing

App-V is an emerging technology and there is always some uncertainty on how to scope the effort and time for planning and deploying new technologies. I found some information from the App-V Sequencing guide on the approximate sequencing times for several
Posted by mertb | 0 Comments
Tuesday, April 07, 2009 4:08 PM

Best Practices for App-V Sequencing

We are doing several proof of concepts for Enterprise App-V deployments and here is the list of best practices we follow from the App-V 4.5 Sequencing Guide: It is recommended that you familiarize yourself with the installation and execution of the application
Posted by mertb | 0 Comments
Tuesday, April 07, 2009 3:45 PM

App-V Sequencer Workstation Configuration

The App-V sequencer is the packaging component of the App-V virotualization suite and its very critical to sequence the applications accordingly before deploying to your clients. The following configuration is from the App-V 4.5 Sequencing Guide and includes
Posted by mertb | 0 Comments
Thursday, April 02, 2009 7:35 PM

Setup Enterprise Learning Framework

The Enterprise Learning Framework (ELF) is a tool that helps corporations develop a training and communication plan for employees during Windows Vista and the 2007 Microsoft Office system deployment. The ELF identifies the most relevant learning topics
Posted by mertb | 0 Comments
Wednesday, April 01, 2009 7:56 AM

Application Knowledge Sheet

Collecting application data is crucial for any desktop deployment project. Beside the software inventory, there is other strategic information which needs to be analyzed for every application. This information can be summarized as follows: Departments
Posted by mertb | 0 Comments
Attachment(s): Application Knowledge Sheet.doc
 
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