Life of an IT Pro Advisor @ Microsoft Canada : General

EnergizeIT Post event DVD Package update - Missing Longhorn KEY

rclaus — Fri, 30 Jun 2006 19:16:44 GMT

Because people still contact me on this blog, I thought I would put up a quick post regarding the PID / KEY for Longhorn Server that was included with the post event resources. There is a solution on how to get your key and it was not unique to our event – TechEd Boston attendees were also hit with this issue.

Check out the blog post on the Canadian IT Pro Team blog…. It has all the details for ya.

In case you were wondering – this blog is still active, but it is more of a personal note. I manage and edit the Team Blogs as one of my responsibilities so you’ll find a lot of my posts on that one as well. This one isn’t going away – I’ve just been busy lately.

Get your Windows Vista Beta 2...

rclaus — Thu, 08 Jun 2006 16:56:00 GMT

I just posted on the Canadian IT Pro blog the process to get yourself started on either downloading or ordering a copy of Windows Vista Beta 2 (32 or 64 bit).

Here's the link to the post with the details.

Virtualization News over on the Canadian IT Pro blog site...

rclaus — Tue, 04 Apr 2006 05:32:00 GMT

I wanted to share the latest virtualization news around our announcement at LinuxWorld in Boston. Virtual Server 2005 R2 both 32 bit and 64 bit will be free for download and use in your production environments!

Check out my post on the Canadian IT Pro blog for more details...

I posted on CanITPro blog about E12 64 bit Hardware Recomendations

rclaus — Wed, 15 Mar 2006 23:11:13 GMT

If you are considering purchasing new server hardware in the near future (if you plan on using E12 or not) and you have the ability to future proof yourself a bit – why not get a hold of some 64 bit hardware. You know that you are able to put a 32 bit OS on it for now (if you have app compatibility issues) and can reformat and reinstall with a 64 bit OS later on.

Go on over to the Canadian IT Pro blog to check it out.

Demo Bot Hardware Specifications

rclaus — Tue, 07 Mar 2006 08:55:56 GMT

I just posted the detailed hardware specifications of our “DemoBot” system on the blogs.technet.com/canitpro team blog site. I thought I would direct you there in case you are a bit of a hardware geek and wanted to know what sort of horsepower runs the events we run.

Check it out!

The .local VS real DNS Top Level Domain naming question - SBS (Small Business Server)

rclaus — Mon, 06 Mar 2006 07:44:39 GMT

I just posted a lengthy discussion around the question that comes up when one installs Small Business Server and what to call your Active Directory domain. This has been a topic of discussion with a number of my friends and IT pros I’ve met while on the road whenever we discuss Small Business Server issues.

It’s not something to be taken lightly and it deserves a little more thought then just pressing “next” during the install process. Check it out over at the Canadian IT Professional blog. join in the discussion by posting a comment.

TechNet Build '06 - Secure Well Managed Infrastructure (SWMI) Victoria

rclaus — Mon, 27 Feb 2006 23:09:43 GMT

I am un-expectantly in Vancouver today en route to Victoria. I’ve been called up to help out with the first tour stop of the TechNet Build’06 tour.

If you haven’t had a chance to check out more details about this tour – check out the Canadian IT Pro Blog for more information. I just put up an informational post up there.

In case you don’t have it yet – the site for IT Professionals in Canada can can be found here:

http://blogs.technet.com/canitpro

Attended the OWSUG meeting last night - were you there?

rclaus — Fri, 24 Feb 2006 20:07:17 GMT

I attended the Ottawa Windows Server User Group meeting last night to hear Rory McGraw talk about Monitoring AD Security with MOM 2005. I have a more detailed post on how the meeting went and the content over on the Canadian IT Pro blog (http://blogs.technet.com/canitpro/archive/2006/02/24/420468.aspx)

I wanted to know if you attended or not and what you thought? The numbers are starting to climb for user group attendance and I am happy to see this trend going in an upward fashion. I am also glad that someone ELSE was presenting instead of me (hee hee) since I believe the user group community has to take charge of their destiny and direction of the group. Keep It Up and keep on providing Garth Jones the feedback!

I have to run – I just wanted to make sure you didn’t miss out on the post event details. I believe the www.owsug.ca website will have an updated copy of the presentation and other reference material up soon. If you haven’t visited the site yet – go to it and register to receive updates.

New Year Resolution - Taking Back control of my life with MissionControl.

rclaus — Wed, 04 Jan 2006 22:42:00 GMT

So it's been over a year now that I have been working for Microsoft as an IT Pro Advisor. When people ask how I like working for Microsoft and how I like my job - I always respond "it's awesome!". Here I am, working in a position where I can connect with IT Professionals across Canada (and the world in online form) in diverse communities and help them out to use and understand technology. Ultimately I hope to make them more productive and provide better service to their clients / customers and make their business more agile. These benefits extends out to communities as a whole since as IT professionals - we look to local and online communities to help us solve issues both technical and non technical. You get out what you put into the pot. I meet a lot of people, customers, friends, colleagues in this job and the level of "connectedness" and the number of "conversations" goes up each and every day. Don't think I am complaining - I love this part of the job - but I do admit that it has increased my workload of following through and following up.

As IT Professionals we're constantly being tasked to do things by our colleagues, bosses, friends, family and even ourselves. "I need more time to get things done", "I'm stuck in firefighter mode at work - reacting instead of proactively planning" and "Sometimes there is so much to do, I can't keep on top of it all". Sound familiar?

As part of my initial "orientation" training that takes place for all new hires into Microsoft, there is a portion of a day in a one week course that is designed to help you take control of the anarchy and give you the basic tools to manage the pending deluge of information and work that awaits. It's a system created and delivered by a company called "Mission Control". (www.missioncontrol.com). It was an eye opener, but unfortunately it only scratched the surface with how the process worked and how to implement it - since it was a compressed edition that was part of a larger orientation session. I made a mental note to check it out again sometime, but I proceeded to continue to work and organize my day / life the same way I had since I could remember.

Fast forward to a year later. Tens of thousands of emails into my inbox, meeting requests, growing kids, family responsibilities, more public events, more user groups, more professional organizations, more client visits…. etc…etc…etc… I want my schedule back - heck, I want my life back. I want to get it all done (I've since learned this isn't possible <g>). I want to take control. Wait a second - what about the Mission Control system I heard about during my MS orientation session?

A couple of months ago I did a quick MSN search turns up www.missioncontrolcanada.com - HEY, a Canadian connection. AWESOME. I digested the site and got in touch with Paul Gossen based out of Vancouver. We talked and I learned about how the system has worked for him and how it can work for others and for organizations and understand what slant the Canadian sub has for implementations. It was a great connection and re-ignited my interest in the solution.

To make a long story short - I managed to be in the same city at the same time last October where a local workshop was being offered. I attended and I am now trying to live my life using their process. My thoughts? Amazing. It is so simple to grasp the concepts but at the same time so challenging to change my habits that have been ingrained for YEARS on how I work, live and relate to others at work and at home.

As an example - when using the MissionControl system, I can now fully dedicate myself to spending time with my son and daughters without thinking (or trying to multitask) about the X number of things that used to be on my mind. When I sit down and work on delivering some content to a user group or public event - I am 100% focused on the best possible delivery and engagement with task at hand. It is unbelievable.

Fast forward to the new year - 2 months post workshop. I should be in fine form with all my stuff under control and using the system. I admit it - I've slipped off the wagon and only partially committing to the system due to holidays, sickness and other BAD excuses.

My New Years resolution? Get back at it! How is this possible? I'll tell you…. In an upcoming post or two about my personal experiences with re-implementing the system. I strongly suggest you check it out (www.missioncontrolcanada.com) - it will change your life and will change the way you handle things at work and at home.

TechNet Innovations Award Nominee (podcast) - Chris Diaz

rclaus — Wed, 21 Dec 2005 16:51:00 GMT

I caught Chris on his Cell Phone as he was on the way back from spending some time down at the Microsoft Redmond campus learning about the next generation of Live Communication Server. He was between flights on his way back to his home in Calgary. Just to let you know - parts of the audio podcast breaks up and cuts out as the signal comes and goes… I wasn't editing what he was saying (hee hee).

The project Chris worked on really shows how a Microsoft Partner can leverage Microsoft technologies and OTHER Microsoft partners to make a very comprehensive offering. In this case we're talking about a hosted communications and collaborations suite based on LCS that can support multiple simultaneous video streams across firewalls. Chris also credits the hard work of his team and partners for the success of the solution, but it comes down to good old fashioned hard work to get it done. I had to ask him about the cowboy hat he's sporting in the picture, since I am a hat man myself (I wear a green Tilley Endurable everywhere I go). He claims it's to show off his western flavour (being from Calgary) to help with his distinction from the other nominees.

Have a listen yourself here in either WMA or MP3 format.

Don't forget to VOTE! http://www.microsoft.ca/technet/innovationaward5

TechNet Innovations Award Nomimee (podcast) - Martin Cayer

rclaus — Wed, 21 Dec 2005 16:46:00 GMT

Martin was the third interview of the day. It was great chatting with him. Apparently it was a surprise nomination from a field tech that got him into the competition. Martin believes he's basically just a tech support guy compared to some of the other nominees. One of the biggest challenges he enjoyed not long ago was when his organization completed their NT 4 to Active Directory Migration. Now he enjoys being able to use Group Policy to manage the environment and make everyone's lives easier. He's glad to see that the investments in new technology have started to pay off by making his organization more efficient and less reactive in nature. He's a Windows Server Update Service advocate - deployed across the board and now being used to patch desktop and server OS as well as applications. Chatting with Martin made me feel like I was sitting around the table having drinks with one of "the guys" swapping stories.

Have a listen yourself here in either WMA or MP3 format.

Don't forget to VOTE! http://www.microsoft.ca/technet/innovationaward5

New Blog from a colleague - "No Spin Architecture"

rclaus — Mon, 21 Nov 2005 18:36:00 GMT

For those developers that happen to read my blog (I know you are out there…) you might be interested in a newly hired colleague of mine on the developer side of the house – Mohammad Akif. He’s an Architect that came to us from SUN and is VERY well versed in J2EE and our .NET platform. He sits on the Microsoft Architecture Editorial Board for the new Architecture certifications and has written a number of publications and technical documents.

His new blog is called “No Spin Architecture” and can be found here. (http://blogs.msdn.com/mohammadakif)
As an infrastructure guy, I mainly look after putting up the servers and services required to support these architectures, but once in a while I need to understand a bit more about the dev platform in order to get the job done. Mohammad is one of the guys I can talk to and understand what he’s talking about.

As an aside, we’re both presenting to the Canadian Federal Strategic Architect Forum here in Ottawa tomorrow. He’s covering off the developer side of the house whereas I will be talking about “Core Server futures with R2 and beyond”. I love presenting to this group as they are a lively bunch that enjoys some active round table discussion.

Visiting a couple of Canadian IT Pros and their clients in the field…

rclaus — Thu, 10 Nov 2005 22:46:00 GMT

Last week I was on a mini tour for a partner and as I always try to maximize my time while on the road, I hooked up with a couple of IT Pros who just happen to be user group presidents (and friends). I spent some time with Melvin Hart (Nova Scotia IT Pro User Group) while in Halifax and Mitch Garvis (Montreal IT Pro User group). Besides having some great conversation over meals and coffee, they asked if I could tag along on a client visit or two. I figured, what the heck - it would be fun to see what their client pains are and how both of them worked as IT Professionals.

First off was Melvin and his customer who is a reseller of services out of Dartmouth. We had time to stop in en route to the airport - I was heading out to Montreal later that day. It was a non descript building with an open concept office packed with parts, wire and stacks of paper with 5 or 6 cubicles jammed in. They had been experiencing problems with their custom FoxPro database application that handles their billing systems - Melvin suspects a corrupted index. I was a little shocked to learn that they still used this version of FoxPro (rather outdated) - yet alone running all their systems with Windows 9x connected to an NT4 server with internet connectivity. Melvin was a superstar, talking with the users, reassuring them that things were ok and that once he had the database files back on his server, he would be able to fix the index. After we left the customer and headed out to the airport, we talked about the implications of using Win9X with internet connectivity and maintaining an NT 4 server. He mentioned that he's already been talking to the owner about upgrading the systems, but hasn't got much traction to date. Unfortunately it seems as if computer systems are viewed as a static resource like a telephone system - if it works and isn't broken, why replace/upgrade it? Melvin isn't giving up!!! He's still there to support them when they need help and he's also there to assist them to move to a new platform when they are ready to go.

The second visit was with Mitch in Montreal where he asked if I could spend some time with him and one of his customers - a charitable organization in downtown Montreal. They were a bit more up to date technology wise, using Windows 2000/Windows XP and Small Business Server 2003 Premium edition. After upgrading to SP1 for SBS 2003, they were having some challenges with ISA Server 2004 using the proxy client software. Apparently there is a non trusted domain in their environment for a small pocket of users who requires internet access via the proxy services of ISA. In case you didn't know, SBS 2003 does not allow you to establish a trust relationship with other domains, so these handful of clients were not working correctly. Once the problem was identified, a brief migration discussion came up and a new plan of action for getting these people integrated into the SBS 2003 domain was struck. There were a few other small issues that were discussed and resolved including time synchronization, alerts in the ISA server log as well as what were the best practices to establish a public internet access wireless network for their "public" boardrooms. It was a great visit and once again it was awesome to see how Mitch works with the customer to put them at ease and keep them informed of all their options.

What did I learn from this experience? It's the IT Pros out there who make the difference by connecting with their customers and listening to what they need and what concerns them. YOU are the public face of technology for your customers / clients and YOU are regarded as the experts and heroes. It is my pleasure to help out IT Pros across Canada as part of my job and connect with them at any and every opportunity.

It was great to see some customers and work alongside a couple of stand up IT Pros in Canada. What about you? What challenges are you facing? What sort of stuff would you like to see in future blog posts or upcoming tours across Canada? Post some comments here and sound off!

Exchange Performance Tuning and the IBM Storage tour

rclaus — Sat, 05 Nov 2005 22:39:00 GMT

I just wrapped up the eastern half of a partner event with IBM Canada storage group. I was asked to speak about Optimizing Exchange Performance at their 1/2 day information session on SAN storage solutions based on their DS4000 series SAN architecture. It was really nice to see the business partners and the customers come out to such an event and listen to how to tune an Exchange server on IBM hardware attached to an IBM SAN.

I was asked a lot about disk tweaking, partition block allocation size and IOs per second and what that all meant to the performance on the Exchange server. Ironically enough as you can see from my previous post - we just released a tool that does a lot of what I was talking about for you automatically and reports on how to tweak it.

I wanted to thank the IBM Canada storage team members Ken Halbert (National Channel Manager) and Chris Mak (IT Specialist with the storage group) for asking me and my team to participate.

For those who attended the session or for those who are interested in seeing the short deck I used, here's the link for the content now posted online.

By the way - if you are interested in joining my colleague Bruce Cowper on his west coast stops of the tour I believe there is still time to register. The IBM guys say their events registration should be up by Monday (http://www.ibm.com/news/ca/events/).
November 15th - Vancouver
November 16th - Calgary
November 22nd - Toronto

Ottawa TechNet Monthly (October 2005) Resource Page

rclaus — Mon, 31 Oct 2005 17:21:00 GMT

The first Ottawa TechNet monthly session on Advanced Active Directory Design was well received by the crowd that made it in on the 25^th… I am glad to see the interest is still there (and growing) to continue to have these sessions within the timeslot (12 to 1:30) that seems to work best for everyone. As discussed, Registration/Lunch will be from 11:30 until 12:00 (I will be in the room eating with you) with content starting sharply at 12:00 ending at 1:30 with a ½ hr “Tear Down and Q&A” for spill over conversations. It is my commitment to stick to this schedule and be there as a resource for you.

Speaking of resources, I decided to be a bit more proactive with my follow up after events I delver with regards to resources available online. This one is an easy one – for the Advanced Active Directory Design session there is only a couple of links I wanted to share with you..

The first link is for a copy of the slide deck… Here it is…

The second link is for my “in place migration methodology” that I have used on 30 or so of my past NT4 migrations to Active Directory. This article can be found here…

So there you go – I hope that you find the content useful.

Oh yeah – one more thing… I mentioned that I am trying something that was well received last year with regards to “series” concepts. The next Ottawa TechNet monthly will be the first in a series of 3 session targeted towards Group Policy… Each session will build off the previous session and will hopefully be as interactive as the crowd happens to be. So bring your questions, scenarios and GPO experiences and let’s share them with the group. Register today - here's the link to the events page!

As always - if you have something to say or want to leave a comment - click on the comment link to share it with the world.