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 Just wanted to give everyone an Heads-Up that I have been updating the original post regarding Cities, Dates and Registration Links for the Now In Progress Virtualization Reality Tour. You’ll notice that now the far West has been completed, mid west and central have been ADDED.
You can choose to go there and register – or click on the links below: In case you’ve been sleeping under a rock someplace – this is the community driven session that walks you thought the complete build of a highly available clustered Hyper-V virtualization solution using the new FREE iSCSI software. Great opportunity to learn how to build your own clustering and LiveMigration lab AND throw in some System Center Virtual Machine Manager love in there as well. The full write up can be found in this blog post. BUT WAIT… You might have missed the note at the bottom of the blog post. 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
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As Pierre Roman pointed out on April 5th, Microsoft released its Software iSCSI Target to the Download Center (The Microsoft iSCSI Software Target is now free). I call it The Great Equalizer. Let me explain:
There are two ways of creating shared storage.
- Network Attached Storage (NAS) is file-level storage that you create by formatting a volume on a server (or workstation or NAS device), and then enabling Sharing. Depending on the type of share you can assign different types of permissions to different users and groups. You access a share by using a Share Name (formerly called User Principal Name – UPN) such as \\servername\sharename. If the share was created on a Windows server (or client) you could access the same directory by navigating to the shared location in Windows Explorer.
- Storage Area Networks (SANs) are a block-level shared storage, which means they are accessed very differently. The SAN device is an array of disks that is ‘sliced’ into Logical Unit Numbers (LUNs). Each LUN is in effect its own hard drive, which is assigned a drive letter (i.e.: M:\) and can be formatted by the computer accessing it (using an iSCSI Initiator). This gives us options that we could never have with shares… such as NTFS permissions and actually booting servers from a LUN (diskless boot).
There are actually two different SAN technologies in play:
iSCSI (Internet SCSI), which uses familiar RJ-45 cables and communicates over standard TCI/IP networks. As such all of what we know from basic networking applies, and although it is usually recommended that the storage network be segregated from the production networks, this is often done by using VLAN tags rather than separate NICs (actually referred to as HBAs (Host Bus Adapters) and cables. By default (for those of you implementing or simply studying for an exam), iSCSI traffic is transmitted on TCP Port 3260.
Fibre Channel (FC) uses proprietary ports, cables, and switches. Although it essentially speaks the same language (SCSI protocol) it is encapsulated in Fibre Channel packets. Fibre Channel is usually the more expensive of the two options.
The problem is that neither of these technologies is cheap. While the investment for an organization has obvious benefits and the ROI is apparent, neither technology is really prevalent in small business because of the cost. It is very rare that an individual – even an enthusiast – would have a SAN at home.
Does this really affect anyone? You bet it does.
- It affects the guys trying to get into the industry who don’t enrol in a school, but rather try to learn on their own. They can read all about clustering in books, but until they get their hands on it they will never really know it… and without a SAN they will never really know it.
- It affects the IT Pro who have been pigeon-holed in a role and see no possibility for advancement in their organization, and want to take a few certification exams before they update their CV.
- It affects the small business IT Pro whose organization hasn’t invested in SANs, but wants to grow into the ‘Enterprise.’
- It affects anyone who wants to learn virtualization and pass the MCTS exam for Windows Server Virtualization.
- If you don’t have a SAN that you can play with, it affects you!
Microsoft iSCSI Software Target 3.3 changes all of this.
- It allows an IT Pro – anyone, really – can install it on Windows Server 2008 R2 and create a software iSCSI target – essentially a simulated SAN.
- It is going to allow us to create clusters in our basements, without investing heavily in hardware.
- It means that the youngsters of the industry – our future – can implement and learn Clustering, Live Migration, and all of the other great tools that Windows Server 2008 R2 offers.
- Because it is now a supported product from Microsoft, it means that smaller organizations that are interested in virtualization, but scared that it means they are creating a single point of failure if they aren’t able to invest heavily in a SAN device.
In fact, the product is not new… it was released with Windows Storage Server 2008 R2, which was only available through the OEM channel. Prior to that it was only available internally. Now that it is being made available widely, it is be supported for (smaller) production environments.
So what are you waiting for? Go forth and cluster!
(In my next article I will take you through the step-by-step implementation of the iSCSI Software Target… stay tuned to this space in the next a couple of days!)
Mitch Garvis, MCT | Senior IT Consultant & Trainer | SWMI Consulting
My blog | Twitter | Facebook | LinkedIn | MVP Profile
I'm a PC 
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Hello Folks, I meet a lot of you during the last TechDays season. And a few of you asked me if there were any information or guidelines for “tuning” servers. Well I found out that an old document has been updated and is just as relevant today as it was when it was just published back in June 2009. This guide describes tuning parameters and settings that you can tweak to improve the performance and energy efficiency of your Windows Server 2008 R2 servers. It describes each setting and its potential effect to help you make an informed decision about its relevance to your system, workload, and performance goals. After going through it i figured i have to tell the guys about this document. I know they will be interested. The different workloads discussed in this whitepaper are : - Choosing and Tuning Server Hardware
- Performance Tuning for the Networking Subsystem
- Performance Tuning for the Storage Subsystem
- Performance Tuning for Web Servers
- Performance Tuning for File Servers
- Performance Tuning for Active Directory Servers
- Performance Tuning for Remote Desktop Session Host (formerly Terminal Server)
- Performance Tuning for Remote Desktop Gateway
- Performance Tuning for Virtualization Servers
- Performance Tuning for File Server Workload (NetBench)
- Performance Tuning for File Server Workload (SPECsfs2008)
- Performance Tuning for Network Workload (NTttcp)
- Performance Tuning for Remote Desktop Services Knowledge Worker Workload
- Performance Tuning for SAP Sales and Distribution Two-Tier Workload
- Performance Tuning for TCP-E Workload
download the white paper. Read it, Try the different setting and make that server hmmm like the performance machine it’s meant to be. http://www.microsoft.com/whdc/s.stem/sysperf/Perf_tun_srv-R2.mspx Cheers! Pierre Roman, MCITP, ITIL | Microsoft Canada Co.| Senior Technical Account Manager| pierre.roman@microsoft.com
Twitter | LinkedIn 
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 Sasha Krsmanovic from the MVP team is back with another guest blog post on Microsoft Fix It. I saw this on a KB article a while ago and gave it a whirl and loved the fact that I could run a verified MSI to fix the problem I had rather than editing the registry or making other system changes.
------------------------- Do your family, neighbors or friends consider you their unofficial IT department? I bet you just love to receive those calls, especially now that the summer has finally arrived in Canada. No worries, because help is on the way. You may be able to help them ‘learn how to fish’ and hopefully not spend a lot of time fixing their computer problems. The solution I’d like to tell you about is called “Microsoft FixIT”
You might have seen the FixIT logo in some KB articles, indicating that this KB article has been ‘automated’. What does this mean? Rather than following a long list of steps published in a KB article in order to fix a problem, a user can just “FixIT” (run a code checked MSI file). These KB instructions are often beyond average user capabilities. They may involve modifying the registry to configure Internet Explorer to download more than two files at once or modifying the registry to make sure a new USB device is recognized by Windows XP / Windows Server 2003. Or how about a user friendly error code such as “0x8007000B” when using Windows Update or fixing Runtime Errors in Internet Explorer.
Help make the world a better place. J Educate your not-so-tech-savvy friends on what Microsoft FixIT can do for them. Added bonus: this will save your time too. We’ve had amazing success in partnering with Dell, which saw a 12% increase in its online problem solving. Overall, we have had over a 1,000,000 downloads of the 100+ available FixIT solutions. Our customers are reporting a 95% success rate with these automated solutions. So, it is a safe place to send them to, and it will only get better as we provide more automated solutions.
You can find out more about FixIt solutions here. Feel free connect with me at Twitter and even suggest a KB article to automate! 
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I’ve always had the belief that in order to really understand something you have to break it and then fix it. Well maybe not break it but take it apart at least :) I really believe this when it comes to security. If you don’t know what threats are out there, how can you protect against them? If you don’t understand how hackers get through firewalls, how can you deploy one or manage it?
Have you ever wondered how hackers gain access to your computer? Are you interested in learning about some of the most threatening viruses online? Do you want to learn how to protect yourself? Join industry and Microsoft experts at Hack and Defend Workshop to get a hands-on demonstration of the most current hacking methods and practical ways to protect yourself against them. This is a great opportunity for you to network with your peers, share experiences and learn from experts. We will also give away books, software and related materials at the workshop . There is no cost to attend but seating is limited and will be allocated on a first-come first-serve basis. Choose to attend either the morning of the afternoon session.
Hack and Defend Workshop
Locations:
Vancouver: May 7th Click here to register
Calgary: May 8th Click here to register
Mississauga: May 11th Click here to register
Montreal: May 12th Click here to register
Ottawa: May 13th Click here to register
Times: 9-11:30am OR 1:30-4pm
Cost: There is no cost to attend
I for one am looking forward to taking part in this event as a participant. If you are signing up for the May 11th event in Mississauga, let me know so we can chat, just don’t put your new skills to use on my notebook :)
addthis_pub = 'CDNDPE';
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Hello folks,
Since Windows 7 Beta 1 became available i have been slowly upgrading all my machines. It started with my test box A Dell Latitude D830, followed by my production machine a Dell Latitude E4300. I thought to myself, WOW this rocks!!! so i went one step further and upgraded my Media Center PC. Boom, done working perfectly, no driver issues, simply flawless….
Hmmm… which one do I do next? The only two machines left are the family PC in the kitchen, or my wife’s laptop. That decision was very simple. My wife does not respond well to technological change. and i do not want to change anything on her setup these days since she is in the middle of a very important project at work that cannot be late.
Ok my decision was taken, DVD in hand i make my way to the kitchen…. Turn the machine on, hit the DVD button. It will not open!?!… hit the button again…. Still nothing. Logon to Vista, open explorer and right click the drive select “eject”…. Again, nothing. At that point my daughter walks by and says “oh yeah! That stopped working weeks ago”. After further investigation and interrogation it turns out when you forcibly shove the drive door shut when the PC is turned off, bad things can happen.
Anyway back to the topic at hand. What to do now. Hmm. The machine is fairly recent, it should be able to boot from a USB device. GOT IT! Build a image on a USB key to install Windows 7.
It turns out it was very easy to accomplish. let me show you.
here you have it. Windows 7 on a stick.
go forth and deploy!
Cheers.
Pierre Roman, MCSE, ITIL| Microsoft Canada Co.| IT Pro Advisor | pierre.roman@microsoft.com
phone: 613-212-2370 | mobile: 613-715-2311
IT Pro blog | Twitter | Facebook | LinkedIn 
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Typically the things we chat about on this blog are aimed at the more experienced PC user and most IT Pros know a thing or two about computers. I came across this blog recently and have added it to my RSS feed as it is a great mix of hardware, software, Windows and Linux tips, tricks, reviews and more. The videos are very well done, the articles are easy to follow and the reviews are unbiased and best of all PCWhizKid is Canadian! As an example here is a video PCWhizKid has posted…
Windows Performance – Increase Virtual Memory
If you want to see more I’d suggest heading over to http://pcwizkid.blogspot.com/ and add his RSS feed to your mix. 
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Paul Laberge, aka The Burger, is a member of our team that focuses on web development agencies and wrote a series of posts on surviving the turmoil in the current economy. I asked him if I could post it here as it is some great information and added a follow-up with some IT Pro focused resources as well. This is part 1 and we’ll have part two and three next week.
Rodney
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Without a doubt, most of us are experiencing the most serious economic recession in our lifetimes. There's an awful lot of uncertainty that goes with that; everything from our retirement savings, disposable income and job security.
IT as an industry is certainly not immune to these worries and as professionals in this space, I'm sure the concerns I have are similar to those that you are facing. So, in stressful times like these, what are some of the things you can do to be successful and how can Microsoft help you achieve that success?
Well, to answer that question, let's take a look at it from a few different angles. First, there's the personal angle (i.e.: how do you make yourself more marketable and valuable in recession economy?). Second there's established business angle (i.e.: how can I make the business more efficient with IT?). Third, there's the start-up angle (i.e.: how can I launch a new business and make it successful?). Let's take a look at each of these angles separately through 3 separate yet connected blog post. This post, the first in the series, will focus on Personal Success in a Recession.
Personal Success in a Recession
Everyone in IT knows that it's tough to keep up to speed with all the new technologies that are being released. Once you've learned one technology, another always seems to hit the market and gain buzz.
The trick is to really embrace the idea that learning is a lifelong activity. The reason why this is so important (especially in times such as these) is because with these new skills you are more marketable. When there is momentum behind a new technology, you may be better positioned to hit the ground running with the new technology. A great example of this from the Microsoft perspective is Silverlight. We are seeing a lot of excitement in the marketplace for it and businesses are really seeing value in it for building interactive visualizations. This presents great opportunities to you if you are a developer or a designer to expand your skillset and have knowledge of a new, in-demand technology in your toolbox.
Microsoft provides a number of resources to help you get up to speed more quickly on our platform. Some are local to Canada and some are worldwide. Below are some of these resources:
- TechDays: TechDays is a Microsoft training conference that is held in cities across Canada. It focuses on providing in-depth sessions on Microsoft technologies that you can use today. While the Toronto and Montreal stops of the conference have already past, you can still register for the other cities (Ottawa, Calgary, Winnipeg and Vancouver).
- Developer Training: Through MSDN (Microsoft's primary portal for all things developer on the Microsoft Platform), Microsoft offers a number of Hands-On Labs, webcasts and tutorials for various technologies.
- Technology Portals: There are a number of specific portals for various Web and Software + Services technologies that are part of the Microsoft development platform. Good examples of this include the ASP.NET Portal, the Silverlight Portal and the Windows Client and WPF Portal.
- Open Source: Microsoft is often perceived as anti-open source, which is actually completely wrong. We have a fundamental interoperability strategy that is core to our work. This also includes CodePlex, which is our open source repository where developers can grab applications and code that exist under open source license.
- Designers: Historically, designers were not part of our ecosystem because Microsoft did not have tools that could legitimately support their work. With the advent of Silverlight and WPF, we introduced Expression Studio 2 years ago to give designers the ability to create truly interactive applications on the web and on Windows. Accompanying this is our Expression portal which provides great information on the Expression suite of tools as well as tutorials, forums and online training.
- Free Tools: In addition to training materials and information, we also offer some great free tools that are good to help you learn our platform as well as the ability to create software solutions that are royalty-free from a Microsoft perspective. These tools, known as the Express set of tools include Visual Web Developer 2008 Express (for building ASP.NET websites and Silverlight applications), Visual C# 2008 Express (for building desktop applications with C# as well as C# class libraries), Visual Basic 2008 Express (for building desktop applications in VB as well as VB class libraries), Visual C++ 2008 Express (for building managed and non-managed desktop applications as well as C++ class libraries) and SQL Server 2008 Express (our free version of the SQL Server 2008 database system)
- IT Pros: In addition to TechDays and the developer focused training mentioned above there are some great IT Pro focused resources as well. The first has to be TechNet.com which is the primary resource for technical content. The TechNet Library is filled with resources, technical guidance, and how to videos and documentation for almost every infrastructure related technology from Microsoft. The TechNet Plus subscription (of which a 6 month subscription is part of your TechDays learning kit) is also great not only for access to non-time bombed software for use in your lab but e-learning as well. And don’t forget the VHD downloads, virtual labs, eval centre and beta downloads as well!
-Paul 
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A short while ago, I meet with a friend who is responsible for the management of a testing lab. The federal department he works for, setup a lab to allow each business unit owners to come and test their Line of Business applications against the standard desktop configuration. I thought to myself, "This is cool." It's a great way of dealing with a problem that is in a lot of cases been ignored until an application fails... At which point the Business Unit owner always ends up in your office asking you why your OS broke his application. Am I right? I know in my days as an IT Pro I saw all kinds of setups for managing labs like that. It came down to 2 major methods. First, the drive imaging way and second the automated deployment way. Of course today we have a third. Virtual labs where once your done your testing you can just discard the changes and still have a pristine workstation OS configuration... But that's for another blog post. So, as I was saying, the 2 major ways of managing test workstations have been drive imaging or automated deployment. Both have pros and cons. For example, the drive imaging is fast to restore, but it could requires more management of the number of images. The automated deployment can minimize the number of images to 1, thus a lot less management activities But on the other hand it's a little slower to re-image a workstation. My absolute favorite... You don't have to go through the reboot dance. Install Vista, reboot, Install IE8 reboot, and so on.... . Anyway, since IE8 beta 2 was released on Wednesday August 27th 2008 (get your copy here), I suggested in my previous post that you should go out and "get your sites ready". I then started to think "what do you need to do in a lab setting to automate the deployment of IE8 with Vista SP1". You got it, I am taking about Slipstreaming IE8 in a Vista SP1 image. Unfortunately for those looking to slipstream IE8 into Windows XP or Windows Server 2003, I'm sorry it's not supported. IT Pros have been asking for Internet Explorer Slipstreaming for a long time and now it's possible. All you need are a few tools that are freely accessible such as: - Windows Automated Install Kit. The WAIK is a tool designed to help IT professionals customize and deploy Windows Vista and Windows Server 2008 family of operation systems. By using Windows AIK, you can perform unattended Windows installations, capture Windows images with ImageX, and create Windows PE images.
- The appropriate Internet Explorer 8 beta 2 bits. Go here to select and download the bits
- And the Windows Vista CD/DVD.
- Some spare HDD space
- And a little time.
What you get in return is control and the certainty that all your machines are deployed the same way, every time, all the time. Your next decision you need to take is how to deploy that customized image.... How about CD\DVD? No problem. How about System Center Configuration Manager or SMS? absolutely. MDT? (Microsoft Deployment Toolkit), WDS? (Windows Deployment services) ..... It does not matter. "One image to deploy with whatever tool you want even our competitor's products." :) YOU have the control! I could go on an on about the detailed steps to perform the slipstreaming but I'd rather share a screencast created by a colleague of mine who did a great job, Matt Hester Double click the video above to make it full Screen. There you go. You have the know-how and the tools to start simplifying your deployments and managing images. The next step would be to decide what to do with this image. We will look at how we further automate, customize and deploy the image we just built in future posts. Better yet, if you want more in depth technical training, check us out at TechDays '08. I don't know if you noticed but I'm passionate about operations, and with years of work in services and support, I have seen a lot of great, and not so great practices. I'd love to know how you're operating your environment. If you have "best practices" you'd like to share, contact me. I'd love to learn about them. Cheers! 
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