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February 2008 - Posts
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On Wednesday, we launched Windows Server 2008, Visual Studio 2008, and SQL Server 2008 at the first Heroes Happen Here event in Toronto. As the next few weeks go by we will be visiting other cities across the country to allow you to learn more about how these products can help your organization and continue your technical journey. As we travel across the country we invite you to share your experiences and thoughts about the Heroes Happen Here events with others in the IT community through your pictures on Flickr, blog posts, and Twitter tweets. Through the work of four talented individuals from the Toronto SharePoint User Group, doing this is as easy as tagging your photos on Flickr, Twitter tweets or blog posts with the HHH_CA tag. Welcome to the www.heroeshappenhere.ca site!! _thumb.jpg)
Thanks to the work of the four individual pictured above at the Toronto event - (from left) Mark Zanoski, Bill Brockbank, Kanwal Khipple (project lead), and Muhsin Shahid - you have a site where your pictures, blog posts, and Twitter tweets will automatically be aggregated and shared with your peers and all you need to do is remember to include the HHH_CA tag to make it happen. On top of that, the Register link on the www.heroeshappenhere.ca site will allow you to sign up for your own @heroeshappenhere.ca Windows Live Hotmail email address (and Windows Live ID) with a full 5GB of space!! Remember to sign out of any other Windows Live ID before clicking the Sign-Up link on the Register page. One thing I find cool about the site is that it uses some really great new technologies like Silverlight and PopFly to deliver the content. The picture carousel displaying all of the HHH_CA tagged photos, a PopFly component, is really cool so check it out at www.heroeshappenhere.ca. We will be posting a video interview with the team in the next little while so stay tuned!! 
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Will Craddock is the president of the Regina IT Professionals group and is part of the IT team at SaskEnergy. SaskEnergy is Saskatchewan's natural gas distribution company, a provincial Crown corporation with roots of more than half a century in Saskatchewan. About 8 months ago Will mentioned the SharePoint 2007 deployment they we planning and I got him registered with the IT Pro Momentum program which is a program aimed at supporting early adopters. Recently I asked Will how the project was going and he said SharePoint had been deployed and agreed to share the experience. ------------------------------ How is SaskEnergy using MOSS 2007? We are using MOSS as a presentation layer for our internal communications with employees at this time. Our first utilization of the product was to build a proof of concept application to collect employee’s time, attendance, expense, and mileage information for a specific pay period and interact with our ERP (JD Edwards Enterprise One) in the collecting, displaying and posting of this information. This POC was done as part of the Momentum program for early adopters at Microsoft. After successfully building this POC, utilizing custom web services to interact with JDE, we moved on to investigating production solutions that fit the SharePoint development path. Our intranet is now being redesigned and will be deployed in small pieces over the next couple of years based on MOSS. This allows us to take advantage of the content management, document management and workflows native to MOSS 2007 to enhance the user experience. Our first production solution based on MOSS was deployed in December; it took student applications submitted from our external facing website via a form and through a SharePoint timer process, grabs them and moves them to SharePoint for internal review. Here is a brief view of what we accomplished: - Created an ASP.NET application to accept new student applications.
- Created a WCF JobApplication service using the Web Services Software Factory that:
- Accepts new job applications and stores them into a SQLServer 2005 database
- Returns all job applications that have been submitted as of a certain date/time. The reason for having an intermediate SQLServer is due to a one-way-trust relationship between the web domain and internal corporate domain
- Created a MOSS job applicant document library within a Human Resources portal complete with custom views so that staffing advisors can quickly discover eligible job applicants, and organize applications by experience level, interest, and diversity candidates.
- Created custom content type for the job application library.
- Created a MOSS timer job that requests job application data from the JobApplication service and stores the data in the document library.
- Created a WCF service proxy used by both the ASP.NET and MOSS timer job further providing reuse between tiers.
- Used Enterprise Services security and logging code blocks in the WCF service, ASP.NET, and MOSS applications.
- Created a MOSS solution package to easily deploy the portal, library and timer job to dev, test, and production. This was key, especially during testing when there were a lot of changes taking place.
- Use MSF4ASD and Visual Studio Team System 2005 and MS Project 2007 as the philosophy and toolsets for running the project.
This was the first time SaskEnergy deployed all of these technologies into production. Elapsed time took about 2 months. I'd guess that if we were to condense all of the development and testing time, we'd be able to say that a team of 3 guys took 3 weeks. Not bad considering we also had to come up with a bunch of our development process and toolsets. The XML data architecture, service layer, and MOSS pieces will be easily reused as HR expands their need from student job applications to general job applications. The driving approach to the design was trying to keep as much SOA thinking as possible. There's not a way we could have created this solution in that time frame with our 'old' toolsets - not even close. What was the driving force (technically) for deploying MOSS 2007? The driving force for us technically is the quickness to delivery SharePoint provides in developing and delivering solutions. In a common and repeatable interface we are able to deliver so many different functional features that allow portals to be delivered any number of initiatives. From a development perspective this is a very big thing for us as we have standardized around building .net applications and this just becomes another tool in the box for us. The great thing from a technical perspective is the ease of implementation. We have put in a farmed solution in separate environments (DEV, UAT, and PRD) all on a virtual platform (VMWare). What were some challenges you faced before deploying MOSS 2007 and how were they addressed? In the creation of the DEV environment, we experienced issues around the establishment of the farm. Specifically the issues were around Security, Kerberos, and the certificate server within the SharePoint environment. We worked through many of these issues with the aid of the SharePoint Administrators Guide written by Bill English as we refined out Architecture in an iterative fashion until we were satisfied it was working correctly. After implementing the certificates and the certificate server, we were not able to pass the tokens back and forth as some of the services would not start or stop. We engaged Microsoft through the Premier Support area to help us resolve this issue. We provided them all the information on the issue, documentation and etc and they provided various product experts as we rebuilt the environment with their input as this error had never been seen given the architecture was following the Microsoft best practices. During the installation and configuration of the Microsoft Office SharePoint Server 2007 platform at SaskEnergy, a couple major problems arose. Because SharePoint 2007 is a very new product, there was little or no Microsoft documentation or tools available to troubleshoot the problems we were having. The Microsoft website had no solutions for the problems and a search of popular SharePoint blogs showed that other people in the world were running into the same issues. In order to learn more about SharePoint, Jereme Watts (SaskEnergy’s SharePoint Admin onsite through Solvera Solutions) attended a SharePoint conference in Las Vegas. While there, he learned that our SharePoint architecture at SaskEnergy was considered to be excellent and far more advanced in comparison to many other installations. Unfortunately, he was not able to determine the reasons for the problems being experienced with SaskEnergy’s multi-server SharePoint environment. After returning, Vance Petriew (SaskEnergy DEV Network Support and SQL Admin onsite through EDS Canada) and Jereme Watts spent many hours narrowing down the issues and documenting the test procedures. Progress was made but no solutions were found. In the mean time, SaskEnergy called upon Microsoft and utilized a Premier Support call to help speed up resolution to our problems. Upon being contacted by Microsoft within a day of placing the call, we were asked to provide our server documentation and troubleshooting steps used to arrive at our analysis of the problem. The Microsoft consultants were very impressed with our thorough documentation and methodical testing procedures. Because they could easily see that we had done our homework, they did not hesitate to bring in the real Microsoft Engineers who wrote SharePoint, Kerberos and Windows Server to help find us a solution. During the 20+ hours on the phone with the various Microsoft Engineers, we methodically worked through the different divisions in Microsoft responsible for certain aspects of their products. We gathered many network traces to analyze how each server request and response was being handled between the different products. During the troubleshooting with the Microsoft engineers we learned a few key points that are not written in any book or documentation. These points were key factors in finding a solution. When one Service Principal Name is configured to point at two service accounts, Kerberos authentication reverts back to NTLM authentication.
DNS records for SharePoint sites need to be defined at the root of the DNS tree in order to have SharePoint crawl websites properly. This is due to the way SharePoint handles and truncates DNS entries inside the application. In addition to the undocumented features listed above, there were a few other very useful results we learned during troubleshooting. - The entry point for crawling a site needs to be defined by a wildcard.
- Reliable Kerberos authentication only works when Kerberos is forced to use TCP communications instead of UDP.
- Kerberos Service Principal Names are only defined on IIS Application Pool service accounts.
One of the comments we heard from the Microsoft consultant made us smile. The consultant had tried getting Kerberos authentication to work with his SharePoint installation and couldn’t do it. His configuration kept reverting back to NTLM authentication. This confirmed in our mind that configuring SharePoint 2007 to use Kerberos authentication was a very difficult task which is also echoed across the many SharePoint blogs on the web. SaskEnergy is now one of the few places that have been able to make this work. Overall, working methodically through this issue with Microsoft was beneficial on both sides. They were obviously as interested in our problem as we were since they brought in their highest level engineers to find a solution. During the process, the Microsoft engineers identified a couple items to take back to their teams to improve. On the SaskEnergy side, we learned that our configuration was very close to being correct and that our architecture design is solid. Also of note is how pleasant the Microsoft support team was to work with over the phone. They were always courteous and answered our questions politely even after 20+ hours of collaboration. When we finally figured out the last piece to the puzzle (the DNS issue), Microsoft was very generous in their praise towards our team and confirmed that the solution made sense. The whole experience with the Microsoft premier support was excellent and worthy of very high ratings. What were some issues you faced with the actual deployment and how did you address them? Our deployment to production has been very smooth as we were able to take care of all the issues in the DEV and UAT areas. This speaks to how this methodology works as effectively in the IT Pro world as it does in the Development world. What is the “killer feature” that you found in MOSS 2007? We love all the features of SharePoint, consistent information management, template driven, document management, workflow, enterprise search, the speed to deliver a product but what really is the killer feature is the product suite. We can find many products that do one or two of these things well, but none that covered the entire suite well. I admit that other products are stronger at the niche specifics, but dollar for dollar they do not compare when you are looking at the price for an entire solution. So the killer feature in SharePoint is “SharePoint”…it is the plumbing for the house in a box; you just need to add the fixtures for it to work 
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Sean Kearney, our resident funny guy, poet, songwriter emailed me his latest; a definition of a hero. Enjoy! ------------------------- Those unspoken masses who work through the night
Doing the deed to end the fight
Plodding along until the light {HEROES} Those who answer the angry calls
While terror runs through the halls
And laptops thrown at the walls {HEROES} Those who weave amongst the Code
To prevent a dump and overload
To interlink that hidden node {HEROES} The managers who deal with the blow
Of the problems that always show
Each day they stand and glow {HEROES} The parent with little cash
Rebuilds a system from the trash
To bring a child's eyes that little flash {HEROES} And the rest not be forgotten by
Let us stand up hands held high
And shout out clearly to the sky. WE ARE {HEROES} and HEROES HAPPEN {HERE} 
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 Attention all students! Ever wanted to get your hands on the software you need to work on your technical, development and design skills? I remember being a student and having that challenge and wondering where to get the tools I needed to learn. Well let me introduce you to a brand new program called DreamSpark!
Microsoft DreamSpark ™ is a program that provides no-cost access to Microsoft designer and development tools for verified students around the world, to support and advance their learning and skills through technical design, technology, math, science and engineering activities. This program equips tomorrow’s developers with the professional tools to inspire and create today.
Today, Microsoft DreamSpark is available to university students in Belgium, China, Finland, France, Germany, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, the U.K., the U.S., and right here in Canada. The program will expand in the next six months to college students in many more countries in the Americas, Asia and Europe. Microsoft DreamSpark will be expanded to include high school students by late 2008. Upon launch, students with a valid ISIC (International Student ID Card) will be accepted. These cards can be obtained at 132 ISIC offices across Canada. Students can find a nearby location at www.isic.org. We will be rolling out a number of other verification means over the next 12 months.
So what exactly can you get with your DreamSpark account?
Microsoft platform resources. The foundation for development and design platforms, these products deliver a security-enhanced and reliable environment, reliable and manageable environment for students to more quickly turn ideas into reality.
Microsoft developer tools. These professional-grade products provide a security-enhanced and reliable environment, enabling students to program everything from a cell phone to a robot or to create their own Web page. Students will also be able to invent compelling new gaming content and make their dream game a reality by porting their creations to their Xbox 360 console.
Microsoft designer tools. This ultra-versatile suite of tools will enable students to vividly bring their creative visions to life in vibrant new Web site designs and more effective digital content, including animation, imagery and photography.
If you would like to find out more on DreamSpark, including how to sign up check out https://downloads.channel8.msdn.com/ or check out the official press release at Microsoft DreamSpark Helps Ignite the Imaginations, Careers of Today’s Students
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So Vista SP1 has RTM'd for most IT Pros that is the mark to start deploying Vista. As you ramp up with this deployment project wouldn't it be great to talk to experts in the field to hear some best practices and ask questions? Microsoft Technical Fellow and desktop guru Mark Russinovich will be hosting an interactive virtual roundtable—broadcast LIVE over the Internet on Wednesday, March 5th. The subject? Windows Vista adoption and deployment. On the panel with Mark will be independent industry experts and IT pros from organizations that have already deployed Windows Vista—all openly discussing known challenges, solutions and workarounds, and sharing tips & tricks. But this event is really focused on the “virtual” participant—you! Visit http://ms.istreamplanet.com/events at 9:00am Pacific Time on March 5th and ask your questions live during the event. Want to submit your question in advance? You can do that too by e-mailing your question to vrtable@microsoft.com anytime between now and the day of the event. The panel will answer as many questions as they can during the 60-minute event so take advantage of this opportunity to ask the experts and find out what you want to know about Windows Vista adoption. For those of you who don’t know Mark, check out his blog at http://blogs.technet.com/markrussinovich. For additional guidance, resources, tools, and straight-talk articles to help address your Windows Vista adoption questions, visit the Springboard Series for Windows Vista. 
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7 days and counting until the Heroes Happen {Here} tour kicks off in Toronto before heading out with a number events across Canada. Both the IT Pro and Dev teams are working away to get the hardware all set up so we can load up our virtual machines and get the show on the road. And when I say setting up hardware, I mean setting up hardware!!!
So what are we setting up? Well Dell and HP stepped up big time to help us out with some real hardware to run these demos.
3 - Dell Poweredge 2900 - Quad-Quad Core 2.66GHZ CPUs, 16GB RAM, 1.2TB of 15.5K SAS drives
3 - HP Proliant ML370GS - Quad-Quad Core 2.66GHZ CPUs, 32GB RAM, 1.2 TB of 10K SAS drives
Some serious horsepower that will allow us to run our VMs with ease in both Virtual Server 2005 (running on Server 2008) and on Server 2008 with Hyper-V!
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 | | Sam Serajian (Toronto, Ontario, IT Pro) | While being involved these days in writing 70-292, I would like take this chance and to finish my story from previous up to this point where I have landed a job one of the big 5 financial firms in Canada. Back in 2005, Oct when I arrived in Canada, I had no clue how to structure my resume so that it could be read by employers and in known job-search engines such as Monster or Workopolis. By using sample resumes found by Google search and getting help and guidance from my cousin’s and her husband’s resumes, I built up an attractive resume, mostly representing my capabilities and experience which still gets views and return emails from agencies. I started searching and looking for jobs for which I was bringing experience from my country, on the other hand I had no Canadian experience when searching for jobs. By talking to agencies and consultants I noticed that whatever experience I brought form back home can hardly be counted on to give me a job in the same filed. Then I encountered the fact that I didn’t have enough communication skills to challenge and response an interviewer or employer. So I decided to attend the “HRDC employment resources centre” workshops and classes where any person can attend who lives in Canada. These daily classes and workshops helped me to get enough self-confident to face an interviewer/employer and sell my qualifications; classes could include workshops for Self-Marketing, Networking, How To Prepare for an Interview, what they called "soft skills". Besides attending part time HR classes, I was modifying and posting my resumes for different or similar jobs to different companies, posting and posting, about 10 to 12 jobs a day (5 hrs a day for 75 days), if you count the number of jobs I posted, they returned only 7 real interviews which I attend and I got my first job in IT in Canada on my 7th interview. That was a real excitement for such a FOB getting his first job, in IT, after 2.5 months. At first when I started posting resumes although I was looking for the same type of job I was doing back in my country, such as system administration I stopped posting jobs for those high grade jobs, like Network, Firewall, or System Engineers. It was just waist of time!!!- If I am new to Canada (FOB) and have no working experience then the quicksets way to get in to this field is to applying for lower grade jobs such as Technical Support or Help Desk… don’t go for Network or system… they won’t let you in as they don’t know what you did back in your home! Yes, yes, if you know everything then you can be an infrastructure consultant! So for me I should say, 3 big reasons helped my getting an IT spot somewhere in this big sea so quickly were: - Could be that I was lucky the Market start growing in fall 2005 and still is!
- Also I aimed and planned to come to CA for only working in IT, in any field related to my experience regardless of the pros and cons of immigration! Does it worth or Not! I Didn’t care! I was just looking to feel the IT in North America and get a job and grow! I came for 128 bit-encryption so to speak!””
- Again as I said my MCSE was one of the main reasons that I believe it helped me survive in my Career. Thanks to Billy!
You know, they could trust everything I said I my resume, and at the end of the day I think they trusted Microsoft and me representing an MCSE skills. Now I believe in getting certified and writing exams! Not only I got certified but I also learned valuable enough hands-on-experiences, competitive skills that affect the employer decision when they are turning a contractor to full-time employee! I know, some big guys are doing only contracts! I am not there yet! And I could indirectly notice that recruiters for even large organizations will ask a copy of applicant’s Certification! I was okay with that! Surprise! Since 2005 when I came to Canada I have changed jobs three times. First a 6th months contract, at OPG, supporting Windows XP after migrated from NT 4.0. Then another 6th month contract, Help Desk, at financial Institute (supporting Towers). This turned into a permanent position at a financial Institute, Middle line- supporting branches in Canada and the US. I still need to get more experience and get to know more people instead of dreaming to become a big boss over night! My tips from what I have learned to those who are new to Canada are: - If you think you can take more and longer steps that what I did, then apply for high level positions jobs in small companies only; chances are you get the jobs faster.
- If you like to stay with one company and gradually upgrading your certifications and knowledge, then it would be great to apply and get a job even in low level grade or position in a large, enterprise network, such as Banks, Government, Service Providers, big hardware software vendors.; you will get well-experiences over time.
- Don’t send the same look and feel resumes to different companies; revise your resume especially when applying for big jobs at well-known organizations or companies.
- Any employer, who reviews the resumes online, will get the first impression by taking a glance at applicant’s resume first time they observe it online, regardless of the changes they applicant will make later! Prepare your resume so that it can be well-noticeable in 1 minutes, which is the average time an employer spends time on each resume they find in Monster or Workoplis job engines, unless a resume truly satisfies the employers requirements.
Not to forget to mention that attending the Microsoft TechNet events, TASK events and joining different community groups will help everyone (including newcomers) to get to know intelligent characters and experienced IT advisors who have been a lots of help to me learning and getting guide and advises form! Thanks to everyone! Sam ------------------------------------------------- Sam Serajian is a Help Desk Analyst at a one of the big five Canadian banks. He moved to Canada from the Middle East in 2005 and has been working on upgrading his skills and moving up the ladder within his organization. His current technology interests are "to learn more about SMS, Exchange, and to strengthen my knowledge in ISA" 
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My buddy Garth asked me to post this up on the Blog to see if we can drive some registration and interest on an upcoming UserGroup meeting here in Ottawa. I've been working with Garth for almost 3 years as he runs the Infrastructure focused OWSUG group. I encourage you to check it out. I also have been working with Todd Lamothe - an avid IT Pro who put our FREE steady state solution to work on his XP workstations at the public library in the county of Lennox & Addington. If you haven't heard of Steady State - it's a cool solution that returns a machine back to it's "frozen" state that it returns to once a user logs off. I chose the word "frozen" for two reasons - it's DARN cold here in Central Canada these days and also because the product is similar in nature to DeepFreeze. Todd has also been playing with the V2 of the solution which works with Vista machines. Check it out! Rick Claus - IT Pro Advisor
Team Blog | Twitter | Facebook | LinkedIn ---------------------------------------------------- February 21st 2008 User Group Meeting Overview of Windows SteadyState, How to give your computer a short term memory Topic: The topic of this presentation will be Microsoft Windows SteadyState, the product formerly known as the Microsoft Windows Shared Computer Toolkit. Through discuss and demonstrations, we will be covering installation and configuration in a standalone & Active Directory Domain environment domain environment. We will discuss common situations and look at how SteadyState can meet these needs. Presenter Bio Todd Lamothe is a member of the Ottawa Windows Server User Group (OWSUG) and its associated study group and is also on the board of the newly formed SQL Pass Ottawa Chapter. Todd is a Microsoft Certified System Administrator and also a Microsoft Certified Trainer. Todd is a Systems Administrator for the County of Lennox & Addington – Information Services Department; supporting their Libraries and Museums and the approximately one hundred computers and servers they have throughout their 12 points of service. He also provides support for the Leeds & Grenville and Prince Edward County public Libraries as well as other departments within the County of Lennox & Addington including Ambulance Services and Property Services. Todd started using Windows SteadyState in the County of Lennox & Addington libraries when the program was in Version 1.1. He was part of the closed beta team for version 2.0 and now is working with 2.5. Agenda: 5:00 p.m. Event registration
5:30 p.m. Presentation
7:30 p.m. Q & A
8:00 p.m. Door Prizes Location:
Microsoft Canada Co.
100 Queen Street Suite 500
Ottawa, ON K1P 1J9 Notes: Pizza and Pop will be served, Please RSVP to help us order enough of both. RSVP: http://www.clicktoattend.com/?id=124678 Garth Jones
Chief Architect www.Enhansoft.com
Enhancing Your Business 
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A while ago I posted a couple of entries related to High Performance Computing (aka HPC). You can read them here (Part 1, Part 2, Part 3) but I wanted to share a real world example of how HPC is being used and how it impacts the mining industry, as well as our lives. A few months ago I got the chance to visit with Paul Ruppert director of strategic research systems for the department of civil engineering at the University of Toronto and tour the University of Toronto’s Lassonde Institute and look at how they are using HPC to make life safer. In 2007 they opened the Rock Fracture Dynamics Laboratory, the first of its kind in the world. The purpose of the lab is to crush rocks; well more accurately they "perform stress tests on rock samples and then use the data collected to perform simulations and get real-time information on the effects of the different types of stress" the "rock crusher" can inflict. This data, once processed, is used to build models and simulations to enhance mine safety. When mines are dug, the removal of earth puts pressure on the surrounding earth. Too much pressure and the mine can collapse. By studying the stress levels that the materials that make up the earth surrounding the mine and knowing their "breaking point" mines can be dug in a much safer manner. 
The tool can exert pressure from multiple angles simultaneously as well as heat/cool the material being tested. All the data is streamed at around 400MB per second to a large 18.4 TB SAN where the data is then processed by the cluster. The cluster is built from 64 Quad Core (256 total cores) x64 Dell servers with a total of 320GB of RAM and runs Windows 2003 Compute Cluster Server operating system. 
Once the data is collected it is processed on the cluster and then simulations can be run. With 256 cores they can submit 256 models and run 256 processing streams at the same time with the same code. More models means more accuracy. 
What is really interesting is that this entire 64 server Windows HPC cluster can dual boot. There are two head nodes to the cluster, one running Windows and one running a RedHat Linux and the rest of the 64 processing nodes can be booted into a Windows or Linux HPC cluster. I asked Paul and his staff why they would go through the added complexity of a dual boot system and part of the reason was backwards compatibility. They have already created a number of jobs and applications to run on the Linux cluster from the days when they used other Linux clusters in the U of T. This lead to my next question on if you were already running it on Linux clusters, why install a Windows cluster? There were a few reasons with the big one being the tools that the students were using. The graduate students all develop their applications in C# and .NET using Visual Studio and then test their code on a multi core computer before running it on the cluster. Having the same tools on both the dev and production side obviously makes sense so they wanted to match what the students were already using and familiar with. The department was already running Windows and Active Directory so the integration into their existing environment was also key as was the ability to use the same management and monitoring tools that were already in place. One of the last reasons to why they went with a Windows cluster lies with visualizations. They found that the visualization capabilities on the Windows cluster were much better than on Linux clusters and allowed for much more detailed, high resolution models. The use of this technology and these models goes far beyond just mining. Roads, highways, bridges, tunnels all are affected by pressures which cause stress on the materials they are made of. By understanding their structure, how they react to these pressures and how that reaction changes due to temperature will make the construction of these traffic ways we all use safer as well. 
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 Anderson Patricio has been working with Microsoft Technologies since 1996. Currently he is working at CMS (www.cms.ca) as an Exchange and Active Directory specialist. Anderson contributes to many activities within the Exchange Community: web casts, presentations, articles, tutorials, some Exchange KBs, and three blogs about the Exchange Server.
He has a personal web site explaining Exchange Technology for Portuguese users you can reach his site at www.andersonpatricio.org. He also publishes content in English and they can be found in MSExchange.org, WindowsNetworking.com and OutlookExchange.com. 1. What does being an MVP mean to you? It is a recognition about my participation in my community. The MVP, besides being a great award, allows you to deeply learn a specific technology and act as an interface between the product team and your community. If you could ask Steve Ballmer one question about Microsoft, what would it be? Microsoft’s nature is innovation. In this aspect, what are the next steps in the UC (Unified Communications) initiative? Are we going to add more technologies (products/hardware) into the UC environment? What do you think was the best software ever written? Exchange Server has more than 10 years and each version is getting better and better. If you were the manager of Windows Server System – Exchange Server, what would you change? I would add more reporting and feedback tools into the product. What are the best features/improvements of Exchange Server 2007? There is a bunch of new features in Exchange Server 2007 related to three major pillars that are: Anywhere access, built-in protection and operational efficiency. But in my personal opinion, the best improvement is related to the high availability solutions and scenarios in Exchange Server 2007. What was the last book you read? It was Dearly Devoted Dexter. There is also a great TV show based on this book. What music CD do you recommend? I’m an eclectic person but I recommend the Ira Acustivo MTV album. What makes you a great MVP? All MVPs share the same virtue that is to enjoy helping the community and I’m not different. I like to help my peers with articles, tutorials, presentations and contributions in the Technet forums. What is in your computer bag? I bring all resources required to work in any place, so... I have in my bag some stuff, such as: my notebook, external hard disk, mouse, pen drive, and a book to read when my batteries become empty. What is the best thing that has happened since you have become an MVP? The last MVP Summit where I could see a Bill Gates presentation and participate in some technical sessions with the Exchange team at Microsoft headquarters in Seattle. What is your motto? Work hard but save time for your family. Who is your hero? My parents. What does success mean to you? It can be summarized in a single quote from Vince Lombardi: “The dictionary is the only place that success comes before work.” 
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(cross post from  http://blogs.technet.com/cdnitmanagers/archive/2008/02/11/managing-a-smooth-windows-vista-sp1-deployment.aspx)
Earlier this month, both Windows Server 2008 and Windows Vista SP1 were released to manufacturing (RTM), which is great news for IT shops that have been working with beta versions and are eager to get the released code.
However, there has been a bit of extra noise in the blogosphere particularly about the delay between RTM and availability of Windows Vista SP1. Mike Nash has great information on a post on his blog here. In it, he lays out the availability schedule:
"In mid-March, we will release Windows Vista SP1 to Windows Update (in English, French, Spanish, German and Japanese) and to the download center on microsoft.com. Customers who visit Windows Update can choose to install Service Pack 1. If Windows Update determines that the system has one of the drivers we know to be problematic, then Windows Update will not offer SP1. Since we know that some customers may want to update to SP1 anyhow, the download center will allow anyone who wants to install SP1 to do so.
In mid-April, we will begin delivering Windows Vista SP1 to Windows Vista customers who have chosen to have updates downloaded automatically. That said, any system that Windows Update determines has a driver known to not update successfully will not get SP1 automatically. As updates for these drivers become available, they will be installed automatically by Windows Update, which will unblock these systems from getting Service Pack 1. The result is that more and more systems will automatically get SP1, but only when we are confident they will have a good experience.
The remaining languages will RTM in April."
Why is the RTM version not being made available to IT Pros to start kicking the tires sooner than mid-March? We heard your concerns and so it is being made available to you earlier. The latest schedule update has Volume Licensing customers and MSDN / TechNet subscribers getting the released code by the end of February (read more on Mike’s blog here).
Why is there a delay between RTM and when customers, subscribers and the general public will be able to get SP1? This is due to driver issues, which are not updated by Microsoft but by hardware vendors. The extra time will result in more successful experiences for those updating to SP1. While the majority of driver problems can be solved by uninstalling and reinstalling the offending driver and this is a simple task for an individual, it's more daunting for corporations which have many computers to update all at once, as noted by this ComputerWorld article. So hang in there, it’s coming!
For resources to help you deploy Windows Vista, check out the Vista Springboard site which is full of tools, editorials and deployment stories to help you discover, explore, pilot and rollout Vista to your organization. Keep in mind that even if you don't have access to SP1 right now, the underlying architecture of Vista will not changing so testing and piloting without SP1 will still give you valuable information on how Windows Vista will perform in your environment (see a post I wrote earlier about this). 
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| | Graham Jones (Surrey, British Columbia, IT Pro) | I have been enthused about WHS ever since it became available as a beta program. As an MVP we enjoy the privilege of MVP beta programs where, because we are under a NDA with Microsoft, we get a little closer to the “action” which perhaps adds some expectations but is kind of “cool”. At a VANTUG meeting back in November 2007 I asked how many people had heard of WHS and knew what it was. To my surprise it was very few. So I got to thinking about how could we do something about that. I saw great potential for WHS and knew that for the word to spread we had to get the technical community better informed. WHS is largely proffered as a consumer product (more on that later) and the typical consumer, when unsure about a product or what it does, will seek out someone that they know who is technically savvy to ask about it. So step one is to “get to” the technically savvy community and get them better informed and enthused about WHS. Although there are MVP’s local to the Vancouver area, such as Charlie Russel and Dana Epp, who are very knowledgeable about WHS I figured that we needed to get Redmond involved. So I invited Kevin Beares (WHS Community Lead in Redmond) to come and make a presentation on WHS. To do that I obviously needed a “hook”. A product like WHS cuts right across a wide range of interests and so I approached all of the local MSFT UG’s about supporting and promoting such an event. I stuck my neck out and told Kevin that I figured that we could get an attendance of between 150 and 200 to make it worth his while. As it happens on Monday, February 4th we managed to get 220 people to turn out (300 were registered – a high % turnout rate), which I would like to think demonstrated the level of interest in WHS having applied a little promotional education leading up to the event. It turns out that one of the local computer hardware suppliers, NCIX.COM, is the largest OEM reseller of WHS in Canada. So I figured getting them involved might provide some sponsorship and potential future involvement in local WHS activities. Their Product Manager and one of their Directors attended the event. So much for the background but what about the presentation itself. Kevin brought along what can only be described as a “super cool” WHS for his demos. He demoed the AOpen WHS which is about the size of a 5.25” drive bay in a desktop PC! 
WHS is a big topic to cover in a couple of hours especially when there are lots of questions, which showed a high level of interest. I expect to have Kevin’s slide deck in the near future and it will be posted on the VANTUG website. By way of demonstration he showed how to join the server from the client, how to backup a PC and how to backup the server, which is a feature of Power Pack 1 due out later this year as a free download. He also connected to his own family WHS, Charlie Russel’s WHS and mine via the internet to demonstrate the remote access features. He didn’t demonstrate the remote desktop feature which I find very useful when away from home. There is significant interest in learning more about how to write add-ins for WHS which I will be pursuing with Kevin and Medhat Elmasry who runs the .netBC UG. Other clear topics of interest are extensions to home entertainment and home automation capabilities. There is a lot of 3rd party activity in the background which cannot be announced just yet. Earlier I mentioned WHS being a consumer product. Whilst that is true, and the simplicity of usage is designed around that, it is gaining considerable popularity in the small business world, either as a server for a few users and/or as a backup device for SBS (this feature is not currently officially supported) but is being used in a production environment in a number of places. Several people in the audience stated a clear intention to use it in the business environment and had attended with that purpose in mind. It is early days but the popularity of WHS would seem to be set to really take off for the consumer, and possibly small business, when the packaged products, such as the HP MediaSmart Server (just appeared locally), become more readily available and there is a clear understanding of what the “value proposition” is. For the enthusiast there is always the “roll your own” route and I am sure that will represent the majority in the near term. WHS is something of a unique product in that it has the potential to span a very wide range of technical interests. With that in mind the local community is discussing how best to follow-up on this very successful event. For those of you would like to take a look at a few photos of the event (and the AOpen WHS) you can use the following link to my WHS: http://jonesfamily.homeserver.com/WHSVanEvent. Incidentally the photo gallery was put together using a great WHS ad-in called Whiist which won the Code2Fame first prize of $10K. It literally took me less than 15 seconds to put it together from photos stored in the Photos share on my WHS! Since this was a multi-person effort I would like to thank Kevin Beares for having faith in us, Microsoft Canada, BCIT (event location) and NCIX for sponsoring the event, and the following UG Leaders for helping to promote the event: Medhat Elmasry (.netBC), Jasminder Rai (VanSBS), Richard Baumet (Vancouver PASS Chapter) and Chris Van-Sepp (CIPS Vancouver). Multi-UG events are particularly satisfying since it demonstrates how the community can come together for everyone to benefit. Graham Jones President, VANTUG 
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Well the US elections are still a way off (and we can't vote anyway) and our own elections are no where in sight we are still trying to mobilize and get people out to vote for the TechNet Innovation Awards. With over 100 team and individual submissions we are happy to announce the finalists for the third annual award (drum roll please).
The TechNet Innovation Awards Finalists in each category are:
TEAM
1. Sharon Miller (team leader)
2. Lizet Pena de Sola (team leader)
3. Jacques Vandrey (team leader)
4. Vicki Mains (team leader)
5. Yong Hu (team leader)
INDIVIDUAL
1. Paul Adams
2. Aaron Fleming
3. Mark Erlenmayer
4. Lyle Ralph
5. Kurtis Krill
For further submission details, please visit the online voting page at www.microsoft.ca/technet/innovationawards to read the finalists complete story!
IT’S TIME FOR YOU TO VOTE!
Tell us who you think deserves the title this year! Voting is now open and will remain open until March 31. You can vote by browsing over to the Innovation Awards page, read up on the great submissions and place your vote. We even have prizes for those who are placing votes! Vote today and you have the chance to win a copy of Halo 3! It’s our simple way of saying “thank you” to the community for voting. Get out and vote today and remember you can vote as many times as you like but only your last vote counts :)
Congratulations to all the finalists! 
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So this morning at 5:50AM PST Vista SP1 and Windows Server 2008 were released to manufacturing. Over the next few weeks and months you will see them become available through OEM and Volume license channels, retail channels and Windows Update (SP1 only). Our team will be out on the road soon with the Heroes Happen Here launch event where we will discuss and demo how to start using some of the new technologies today, in your current environment. Now with the RTM, the big question you might have is where can I get it NOW! It is exciting anytime a new OS is released and I have some good news! If you are a TechNet or MSDN you can download it right now. Just login to the subscriber downloads section and start downloading. In an effort to keep the servers online and responsive they are staging the publishing. If you recall the RTM of Vista going up on those sites the servers had difficulty keeping up with demand so this time it is being staged. As of right now you can download the Windows Server 2008 Standard/Enterprise/Datacenter (including Core Server) x64 from the TechNet and MSDN subscriber portal. There is also a document outlining the publishing timetable for the x86 and Itanium builds. Don't have TechNet? Well you can still get it and you can even still take advantage of the 20% offer we posted a while ago. Get downloading and share your experiences! We would love to hear from you, how your testing is going and what you are using it for! 
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We've been getting a number of inquiries as to "What the heck is this event?", "Why should I bother going?" and "What's in it for me?". I thought I'd spend a little time on this post to elaborate what's going on and really help expose the diamond in the rough. I'm stoked about these events as part of our launch activities - they are something we've never done before and something that we feel will bring a lot of value to the communities we visit.
First off... they are being put on as a partnership with User Communities / Professional Associations that serve as LOCAL resources to you. This includes CIPS, ICTC and UserGroups that we work with like WITPRO, VANTUG or SQLPASS. This is a social event (i.e. FUN) that will allow you to connect to other IT Professionals (Dev, IT Pro, Specialists, PMP, CISSP - etc) to establish new relationships and nurture existing ones. We've opened the doors to anyone to come in, from any group or any background - regardless of your affiliation to or opinion of Microsoft. The only requirement is that you come to the event prepared to share your experiences and engage in conversation.
Besides being a social event (I mentioned fun, right?) there will be some actual work going on during the evening as well. Our plans are facilitate an interactive discussion to gain insight and share experiences on changes that are affecting us all in the ICT industry in Canada. How are we going to do that? Well, let me share the details of the actual evening flow:
- Intros - welcome and overview of the night.
- State of the industry - perspective from CIPS (Canadian Information Processing Society) & ICTC (Information & Communications Technology Council).
- Technology Demo - showing some high value pieces of new technology and how they could be implemented into your environment with minimal change.
- Community story - perspective on the impact that participating actively in your LOCAL community and the rewards it brings.
- Learning Circles - a "vote with your feet" concept of discussing 5 topics with a facilitator and bringing back the groups findings to the larger group.
- Social Networking - meet other experts and LOCAL resources to strengthen your support infrastructure LOCAL to you - in your community.
The cool factor - besides meeting your local experts and IT community - are the learning circles. Picture it - we're discussing the 5 topics across 14 geographies with IT professionals and bringing all the learning's together in order to share them back across Canada. Talk about a picture / heat map of issues facing IT professionals in Canada accompanied with possible community driven resolutions / observations. You get to have your say and input into your solution for addressing these challenges and we're going to take it public for all to benefit. Cool indeed!
What are the resources you're getting by participating in this?
- A workshop Workbook that will be used as a guide in the discussion and as a resource after the event.
- Blog Posts / Podcasts taken during the events where members of the community team will be talking / interviewing members from the workshop and sharing their observations throughout the process.
- A growing resource page that will summarize the collective insight after the final event concludes as well as ongoing interviews/podcasts that have been recorded during the sessions. Anyone can have their content submitted for inclusion - provided it's relevant. :)
- In cities where there are no Technical Readiness Events - we're working to secure the funding to include resource kits. This would be for Victoria, Regina, Saskatoon, Kitchener-Waterloo, London and Halifax. What's in side the resource Kits? stay tuned. :)
This evening event is really a celebration of being involved in the ICT profession and a forum for us to get together to discuss issues that affect our daily lives and take the time to think proactively about what we can do to impact change for the better of the profession and ourselves.
I urge you to sign up as soon as possible! Space is limited. Forward the blog post link for details to others in your community who might not be actively engaged with the Community Team - remember - all are welcome.
Rick Claus | IT Pro Advisor | Microsoft Canada
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