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May 2011 - Posts

• Temporary Post Used For Theme Detection (73904bf9-027e-49d3-9b95-f88275c103b5 - 3bfe001a-32de-4114-a6b4-4005b770f6d7)

  This is a temporary post that was not deleted. Please delete this manually. (f3fc318a-beee-4ee6-8b0d-945d251e0ca3 - 3bfe001a-32de-4114-a6b4-4005b770f6d7) Posted Saturday, May 28, 2011 6:50 PM from Canadian IT Professionals | 0 Comments

• Virtual Reality Community events Registration Details

  Lots of interest since the post announcing the cities that signed up to host us! Let me help you out and give you a single entry with all the registration details. We’re using our MSEvents registration process to track attendees for numbers as well as being able to gain some more visibility for people that don’t follow us here on the blog or subscribe to the TechNet Flash. Here’s the Skinny on confirmed dates and locations: Victoria – BC, June 1st – Register Here Vancouver – BC, June 2nd – Register Here Sydney – NS, June 6th – Register Here Halifax – NS, June 7th – Register Here Montreal – PQ, June 14th – Register Here In the works – Yup, there are still possibilities we can work something out for these cities… just need some more time and local support. Check back for updated links. Moncton – NB, June 9th – Registration TBD Calgary – AB, June 14th – Registration TBD London / Waterloo – ON, TBD Kingston – ON, TBD In case you missed the earlier blog post with the details: here’s what we’re talking about. There are lots of players out there in the Virtualization Market. All of them have options to help you build a highly available solution to virtualize and protect your servers all with varying costs associated with them. Did you know Microsoft has a solution that you can cut your teeth into even if you are just learning the ropes and don’t have access to high end SAN hardware? Join us for a demo intensive 90 minute session that builds a solution from scratch and gives you the skills to bring this technology into your organization or customer environments for a fraction of the cost of the competitors offerings (you know who we’re talking about). This session will cover the story of an organization looking to enhance their current infrastructure and virtualization solutions. It will start with the requirements, proceed into the build process and demonstrate all of its capabilities including post deployment management. Do you have questions to ask? Are you more familiar with “the other guys” offerings and need to have some clarity on what is actually capable with the Microsoft Virtualization offerings? This session is for you - we’re leaving plenty of time for questions along the way. Technologies covered: Windows Server 2008 R2 Service Pack 1 System Center Virtual Machine Manager Microsoft iSCSI Target software v 3.3 The free Hyper-V Server 2008 R2 SP1 Live Migration Snapshots Objectives: Understand the capabilities of the Microsoft Virtualization offering Install and configure a iSCSI target and create a Clustered resource Configure System Center Virtual Machine Manager to manage 2 virtualization hosts Create a highly available virtual machine and LiveMigrate it between hosts Learn where to get all the software to create your own environment Incentive – you’ve read this far? Plan on attending and have registered to attend at a location ABOVE? do yourself a favour. Check out the Microsoft Virtualization Academy online at www.microsoftvirtualacademy.com get some pre-reading done. Create yourself a profile and check out the courses available online. Heck – if you register AND print off a copy of your dashboard screen (found here when you are logged in) AND bring it to one of the sessions – we’ll give you a little surprise for taking the first steps down the path to learning about virtualization. Can’t wait to get out and see you at the community event. Thanks for registering! IT Pro Team Blog | IT Managers Blog |Twitter | Facebook | LinkedIn Check out my about.me profile! Posted Wednesday, May 25, 2011 10:08 AM from Canadian IT Professionals | 0 Comments Filed under: Communities, Virtualization, System Center, Rick Claus, Hyper-V

• Traveling and eating alone–don’t do it!

  I tried something last night– I was getting hungry and starting to dread finding someplace to get takeout. I happened to be paying attention to the twitter stream for #msteched (all attendees) and one I created called #cdncrew (Canadians at TechEd) to find someone else who was hungry and wanted to eat. I hate eating alone on the road. Didn’t take long to stumble across and reply to the following: One of the things that I really enjoy about this job is that I get to meet lots of great people from all over.  But I’ve got a secret to share. Believe it or not – I actually lean more towards the introverted side of the equation when it comes to personalities. Don’t get me wrong – I love giving presentations in front of hundreds or thousands of people and showing things off on stage / performing in my house band – I’m cool with that.  BUT – put me in a room with lots of people and tell me to make one on one small talk or go out and meet 10 new people – my stomach knots up. I’m far more comfortable with someone ELSE coming over and engaging me in conversation. It’s why I’m comfortable wearing my GreenHat so that when people see me/it from a distance, they’ll want to come over and say “hi” – which breaks the ice. Long story short – Had a great dinner with Henry (@Boschkobi on twitter) an IT guy from Edmonton. What better place to have dinner then a wood fired microbrew pub – we’re Canadian, so anything with Lagers in the name has to be good, right?   Henry opted for an order of Onion Rings – I couldn’t resist the Lamb sliders. Beer Selection was nice – I’d recommend the “Hopsplosion!!! IPA” myself. Henry opted for the Ribs. I went for the planked porkchop. We thought we were done, then Connie our waitress convinced us to get the deep fried cheesecake. Hey – she said it was good – and she was right. Moral of the story – simple really. When you get the opportunity to get out of your comfort zone – do it. It gets easier every time and something that I’ve been talking about for a while is constantly trying to grow your professional network. Can’t think of a better way to do it while at a conference. I got to meet Henry face to face, instead of just online. He taught me some tricks that his company is doing with SCCM and Windows 7 deployment that I wouldn’t have thought of myself (what? use SCCM completely and not use MDT at all?). I met another great Canadian Technology professional and we both got the chance to geek out over dinner – without having to eat alone. Thanks Henry – I appreciate you taking the time to have dinner the other night!   IT Pro Team Blog | IT Managers Blog |Twitter | Facebook | LinkedIn Check out my about.me profile! Posted Sunday, May 15, 2011 10:31 AM from Canadian IT Professionals | 0 Comments Filed under: Rick Claus, TechEd 2011

• T-2 TechEd 2011 in Atlanta – A Cannuck view

  (Might look a little blurry, since I had not had my Starbucks or Timmies as of yet) I’ve made the trek to TechEd 2011 in Atlanta Georgia VERY early this morning. The Team is heading down to gather up content to use as a seed for content to be repurpose back on Canadian soil in the form of TechDays sometime in the Fall. We’re helped by a number of friends and contacts who we use as “advisors” to scout out what’s good, what’s relevant to the Canadian environment and also what’s on everyone’s mind with regards to technology coming down the pipe or what they currently use in their workplace. As you can see from the clock in the corner – I had a REALLY early flight to Toronto before connecting to Atlanta. Our plan is to have a list of proposed topics that YOU can voice your opinion on what should make an appearance at TechDays – more on that later. Besides attending sessions – I also have a couple of other roles to play. I’ll be connecting with fellow Cannucks that are down here for TechEd as well – spread the good cheer and make new networking connections with them. I usually walk around with a big Canadian flag attached to my backpack – but this time it was confiscated by security at the airport because I forgot to put it in my CHECKED luggage instead of my carryon (it was early – ok?). Don’t worry – it wasn’t the flag that was confiscated, only the collapsible flagpole/tent pole I used. I will also be helping out the folks at http://edge.technet.com with some interviews and social media stuff throughout the week – always fun! oh yeah – and I will be presenting a new session as a follow up to my WSV330 – Turbo Charge your Active Directory presentation last year.  It’s called “Get Out Of Dodge: Upgrading to x64” (WSV310) and addresses the issues that people asked me about after they completed their AD migration. It’s a demo heavy session that handles both native tools and powershell cmdlets methods of migrating File/Print, DHCP, Certificate Services and more. My hotel infrastructure is setup. My Travel technology is recharging. I’ve reviewed and built my schedule at TechEd for what content I’m interested in seeing. I’m all set to go! I’ll do my best to keep up with posts throughout the week for ya here on the blog. IT Pro Team Blog | IT Managers Blog |Twitter | Facebook | LinkedIn Check out my about.me profile! Posted Saturday, May 14, 2011 1:37 PM from Canadian IT Professionals | 0 Comments Filed under: Rick Claus, TechEd 2011

• Security Bulletins for the Regular IT Guy #30, May 2011

  Over pints Pierre Roman, Bruce Cowper and Rick Claus decided they would put together a concise and timely podcast each “Update Tuesday”. The object is to keep it simple by letting you know in plain non technical language what the updates are, what they resolve and why you should care. As always - if you have suggestions on making it better - please pass on your comments. Mail Rick directly  – rick.claus@microsoft.com Direct Download: Subscribe to the podcast: (so you don't miss an episode)   Disclaimer: This podcast was produced with the best information available to us at the time of recording. Your primary source for all things Security Bulletin related should always be the Microsoft Security Response Center blog. Bulletins discussed for May 10th, 2011: MS11-035 - Vulnerability in WINS Could Allow Remote Code Execution (2524426) MS11-036 - Vulnerabilities in Microsoft PowerPoint Could Allow Remote Code Execution (2545814) Podcast Participants: Rick Claus, Pierre Roman Additional Technical Show Notes: Recorded in Pierre’s Basement home office. PodSafe music from PodSafe Music Network @ http://music.podshow.com/. Artist: Derek K Miller, song - “You’re the Big Sky - rock guitar instrumental” IT Pro Team Blog | IT Managers Blog |Twitter | Facebook | LinkedIn Posted Tuesday, May 10, 2011 12:23 PM from Canadian IT Professionals | 0 Comments Filed under: Security, Podcast, Rick Claus, Pierre Roman, Security Bulletins Podcast

• Tour Stops for VirtualReality community tour

  I thought I should update you on the progress of the community tour called “VirtualReality: The Truth about Microsoft’s Interoperable Virtualization Stack”. After only a week or so of Tweets and emails – We’ve got a number of confirmations as well as some tentative requests still requiring some more details. So where are we going? So far – we’ve worked out a schedule with the local community groups that are interested in having us come on down to their neck of the woods.   Sydney NS (Yes – Sydney Nova Scotia) June 6th. Halifax NS – June 8th Victoria BC – June 1st Vancouver BC – June 2nd Montreal PQ – Week of June 13th Ottawa ON – June – Date TBD. NOTE: Things are being finalized on the venues and times. I’ll update this post with more accurate dates and agenda information as well as REGISTRATION links to attend these free events. There are still options available for us to come out, connect with your community and user group members and talk “No Bull S**t, no FUD” about the Microsoft interoperable Virtualization stack including Hyper V 2008 R2, System Center Virtual Machine Manager, iSCSI and more. To get more information on the topic – refer back to this blog post announcing the availability. To see if we can schedule something in – send me an email rick.claus@microsoft.com.  Love to come out and talk with ya! IT Pro Team Blog | IT Managers Blog |Twitter | Facebook | LinkedIn Check out my about.me profile! Posted Tuesday, May 10, 2011 12:08 PM from Canadian IT Professionals | 0 Comments Filed under: Virtualization, System Center, Rick Claus, Hyper-V

• Virtual Reality: The truth about Microsoft’s Interoperable Virtualization Stack

  It started off as an idea a couple of months back. That idea was around getting the soup to nuts details on the Hyper-V / SCVMM / iSCSI solution into an entertaining session that could be delivered in person, online or by a group of individuals across Canada. Well – it’s ready. With the help of Mitch Garvis from SWMI consulting group, David Kawula from TriconTS, myself and more to come – we’ve built some great resources and engaging content to take on the road (both in the real world and online) for all those interested. Here’s the official blurb: There are lots of players out there in the Virtualization Market. All of them have options to help you build a highly available solution to virtualize and protect your servers all with varying costs associated with them. Did you know Microsoft has a solution that you can cut your teeth into even if you are just learning the ropes and don’t have access to high end SAN hardware? Join us for a demo intensive 90 minute session that builds a solution from scratch and gives you the skills to bring this technology into your organization or customer environments for a fraction of the cost of the competitors offerings (you know who we’re talking about). This session will cover the story of an organization looking to enhance their current infrastructure and virtualization solutions. It will start with the requirements, proceed into the build process and demonstrate all of its capabilities including post deployment management. Do you have questions to ask? Are you more familiar with “the other guys” offerings and need to have some clarity on what is actually capable with the Microsoft Virtualization offerings? This session is for you  - we’re leaving plenty of time for questions along the way. Technologies covered: Windows Server 2008 R2 Service Pack 1 System Center Virtual Machine Manager Microsoft iSCSI Target software v 3.3 The free Hyper-V Server 2008 R2 SP1 Live Migration Snapshots Objectives: Understand the capabilities of the Microsoft Virtualization offering Install and configure a iSCSI target and create a Clustered resource Configure System Center Virtual Machine Manager to manage 2 virtualization hosts Create a highly available virtual machine and LiveMigrate it between hosts Learn where to get all the software to create your own environment I threw out the offer on Twitter for any and all to stick up their hand for a visit and possible delivery of something like this in their neck of the woods and so far I have quite a few takers… Halifax, Cape Bretton, Montreal, Victoria, Ottawa… The list is growing. Are you interested in having us come out and talk “no-bs-corporate-speak-no-FUD” about Virtualization and how it can be a game changer in your organization – EVEN IF you’ve already committed $$$$ to “the other guys”? Send me an email (rick.claus@microsoft.com) or drop me a comment here on the blog. I’d love the opportunity to head out your way and see what’s possible. This is open to any and ALL user groups or professional associations. Don’t HAVE a user group in your neck of the woods? Maybe this is an opportunity to set something up!  WE CAN HELP. Not up for a long term commitment of running a group just yet – why not help us out with this event to get your feet wet! IT Pro Team Blog | IT Managers Blog |Twitter | Facebook | LinkedIn Check out my about.me profile! Posted Wednesday, May 04, 2011 11:49 AM from Canadian IT Professionals | 0 Comments Filed under: Virtualization, System Center, Rick Claus, Hyper-V