Will Craddock's Technology Adventure in Ireland : Virtualization

Upcoming Microsoft Ireland TechNet Tour

will.craddock — Thu, 19 Feb 2009 22:52:52 GMT

Event Description:
‘Tech Days’ are a collaborative effort between Microsoft and the IT Pro community to re-deliver the highlights of Tech Ed Conference to IT Pros across Ireland. Most of the sessions will be delivered by a combination of Microsoft and Community technical presenters and will involve as much time spent demo the technology, as possible. The content delivered will be technical level 300. March will see the four-city tour stop for evening events in Galway and Cork, with full day events in Dublin and Belfast.
Don’t miss this amazing opportunity to get up-to speed on the latest Microsoft technology at no cost! We hope to see you there.
Enda, Dave and Will.

Microsoft Community Tech Days for IT Professionals
Galway, 10th March (Days Hotel Galway, Dublin Road, Galway City East, Map and directions)
7pm-9.30pm
Cost: Free
Register Here

Agenda

1. An Introduction to Windows 7 and Quick Overview of Client Deployment Tools

2. The Accidental DBA

3. SQL Server Reporting Services

Microsoft Community Tech Days for IT Professionals
Cork, 12th March (Rochestown Park Hotel, Rochestown Road, Cork, Map and Directions)
7pm-9.30pm
Cost: Free
Register Here

Agenda

1. Windows 7 & Windows Server 2008 R2 working Great Together and WS 2008 R2 Virtualisation (Live Migration is here!)

2. SharePoint - The Implementation Journey..from WSS to MOSS

3. Unified Communications - Using it Today and Preparing for the Future

Microsoft Community Tech Days for IT Professionals
Dublin, 24th March (Venue tbc)
Cost: Free
Infrastructure Morning (9.30am – 1pm)
Register Here

Agenda

1. Windows 7 & Windows Server 2008 R2 working Great Together and WS 2008 R2 Virtualisation (Live Migration is here!)

2. An Introduction to Windows 7 and Quick Overview of Client Deployment Tools

3. Virtualising Windows Essential Server Solutions (SBS &EBS)

Unified Communications and Collaboration Afternoon (2.30pm – 6pm)
Register Here
Agenda

1. SharePoint - The Implementation Journey..from WSS to MOSS

2. Unified Communications - Using it Today and Preparing for the Future

Microsoft Community Tech Days for IT Professionals
Belfast, 26th March (Venue tbc)
Cost: Free
Infrastructure Morning (9.30am – 1pm)
Register Here

Agenda

1. Windows 7 & Windows Server 2008 R2 working Great Together and WS 2008 R2 Virtualisation (Live Migration is here!)

2. An Introduction to Windows 7 and Quick Overview of Client Deployment Tools

3. Virtualising Windows Essential Server Solutions (SBS &EBS)

Database and Business Intelligence Afternoon (2.30pm – 6pm)
Register Here

Agenda

1. The Accidental DBA

2. SQL Server Reporting Services

3. Integrated BI Solutions with SQL Server 2008, SharePoint Server 2007 (including scorecarding, dashboarding and analytics) & Excel 2007

(including scorecarding, dashboarding and analytics) & Excel 2007

MS @ Home Evenings Event Description:
Placeholder for content

Microsoft @ Home Evening, for IT Professionals
Event Description:

This session will be an overview of the connected technologies of Windows 7, Windows Home Server and Xbox to provide a secure, shared and media rich home computing experience. We will demonstrate parental controls, media tagging, shared media, centralized backup and the extensibility of Home Server and the community that surrounds this product. We will also look at how the web plays a part in this experience through remote web access and a personalized website address for sharing photos and home videos in home server.
Dublin, 23rd March, 7pm-9.30pm (Venue tbc). Register Here
Belfast, 25th March, 7pm-9.30pm (Venue tbc).Register Here
Cost: Free

Agenda

1. Digital Photography

2. Home Server & Media Extender

3. Securing Your Home Network

Licensing Change Notification: Access Windows Server 2003 in Hyper-V hosted on Windows Server 2008 without Windows Server 2008 CALs

will.craddock — Mon, 19 Jan 2009 15:57:29 GMT

This is a reposting of a blog posting from Eric Ligman regarding the Friday announcement of changes to the licensing of widows CAL’s in Virtualization scenarios.

Today we are announcing an exciting change in our licensing policy regarding Windows Server 2008 CALs to better support clients looking to take advantage of the Windows Server 2008 Hyper-V technology to host a Windows Server 2003 environment.

Why? Simple… A number of trends, including consolidation and high availability, are driving more deployments and evaluations of Hyper-V. Based on feedback from our customers, we are updating our licensing policies to address these new scenarios enabled by virtualization.

Prior to this change, if your physical server environment was running Windows Server 2003, you need matching version CALs for all users (i.e. Windows Server 2003 CALs). However, if you move your physical Windows Server 2003 Operating System Environments (OSE) to run as virtual machines hosted by Windows Server 2008 Hyper-V, Windows Server 2008 CALs are required. This is per the current use rights. With this change in our licensing policy that we are announcing today, Windows Server 2008 CALs are no longer required if you are using Windows Server 2008 solely as a virtualization host. The only exception to this is if you are running Windows Server 2008 virtual machines, which would require Windows Server 2008 CALs.

With the change, no Windows Server 2008 CALs are required if Windows Server 2008 is being used only to:

run hardware virtualization software
provide hardware virtualization services
run software to manage and service operating system environments on the licensed server

To help demonstrate the effect of the licensing change, I have included three scenarios below and the resulting requirements:

Scenario 1: Customer deploying Windows Server 2008 workloads
- There is no change in licensing or CAL requirements.
- This is irrespective of whether the customer deploys Windows Server 2008 workloads (other than Hyper-V in a physical or virtual environment.
Scenario 2: Customer only deploys Windows Server 2008 Hyper-V to consolidate Windows Server 2003
- Windows Server 2008 CALs are no longer required
- Customer will still need CALs for the appropriate Windows Server edition (Windows Server 2003 in this example)
Scenario 3: Customer deploys Windows Server 2008 Hyper-V to consolidate Windows Server 2003 but also has Windows Server 2008 deployments
- Windows Server 2008 CAL requirements will apply for the Windows Server 2008 deployment
- A CAL for a particular version of Windows Server allows the user/device to access all instances of that version of Windows Server (and prior versions) across the organization

Here is one question I wanted to be sure and answer for you up front, since I anticipate it might come up:

Q: Is Software Assurance a prerequisite for taking advantage of the new licensing rules?
A: No. Any Volume Licensing customer may take advantage of these new rules, whether they have Software Assurance on their licenses or not.

If you would like more in depth information on this change, please read the updated Volume Licensing Brief that we are posting on this.

Microsoft Virtualization Webcasts

will.craddock — Fri, 16 Jan 2009 15:10:52 GMT

Microsoft will be hosting a series of 300 level webcasts over the coming 10 weeks on the Microsoft Virtualization Solution, from the Desktop to the Datacenter. If you have any interest at all in virtualization (and if you’re an IT Pro how could you not!) then these sessions will be of great value to you.

All of the sessions can be viewed at

http://www.microsoft.com/events/series/windowsserver2008.aspx?tab=webcasts&id=42531

You can sign up to participate in the LiveMeeting's or download the content for review at your own leisure anytime after the meetings.

On the same page you can click on the Virtual Labs link to try Windows Server 2008 and experience how it will affect your daily routine. These virtual labs give you a chance to test drive the new features of Windows Server 2008, which include improvements to management, network protection, and Terminal Services. Sign up for a free 90-minute block of time, download a manual, and step through a lab today.