Hello folks,

We know by experience and through conversations with IT Pros that getting your hands on the bits, having hands-on experience and having access to knowledge that you and your team need to take advantage of, is key to leveraging the value that the platform offers.

Through this contest, you have the chance to win an XBOX bundle.

The bundle includes:

• Xbox 360 4GB Kinect bundle (includes Xbox 360 Console and Kinect)
• Xbox Live Gold Subscription for 3 months
• Xbox 360 Branded Call of Duty Wireless Controller,
• Fable: The Journey game, Dance Central 3 game, Kinect Sports 2 game and Halo: Combat Evolved Anniversary game

(Approximate retail value of $500)

And don’t forget, you can still complete additional TechNet evaluations, take selected Microsoft Virtual Academy courses and register for the guided labs to enhance your learning experience.

Entering this contest is easy.

Downloading the Private Cloud Evaluation, which consists of System Center 2012 SP1 and Windows Server 2012 (software trial) located here – http://technet.microsoft.com/en-CA/evalcenter/hh505660.aspx between June 14^th and June 30^th 2013 and that’s it you’re entered!!

Official terms and condition can be found here.

Good Luck!

Check out the official release article at http://blogs.office.com/b/office-news/archive/2013/06/14/office-mobile-for-the-iphone-is-now-available-for-office-365-subscribers.aspx.

Now for the bad news… it is only available for US subscribers.  Yes, my fellow Canadians, if you are using iPhones you are going to have to wait… it will be available in several markets and languages soon, but unless you are a US user you should still look to your cell phone provider to upgrade you to a Windows Phone 8 device

Yes, i am excited too, but please remember that while these are both going to be great new versions, the announcement of them should not stop you from deploying the most current available versions, namely Windows Server 2012 and System Center 2012 SP1.  Both are currently available, there is training for them, there are case studies for them, and you will not go wrong by deploying them.

With that being said, if you are looking forward to the R2 releases, you are many months away; they are scheduled to be released near the end of this calendar year, with the next version of SQL Server scheduled for release shortly after that.

If you want to simply see the new versions, play with the pre-release software in a lab and get to know them so that you are ready to hit the ground running, then you still have a few weeks to wait… however nowhere near as long.  According to the people in the know, preview software for Windows Server 2012 R2, System Center 2012 R2 and SQL Server 2014 will be available for evaluation in the coming weeks.  Keep your eyes open for the announcements!

Yeah I want them NOW too… but in Taekwondo we teach the importance of patience… consider this a practical exercise in that lesson!

of course the first step is to download the software; you need Windows Server 2012 to install it on, and you need System Center 2012 SP1.  Download Windows Server 2012 and System Center 2012 by clicking on the appropriate links.

As everything I do is in the virtual world I like to keep my ISOs organized so I know where to find them.  On the data drive for each of my virtualization hosts I have a directory called d:\ISOs\System Center 2012 SP1.  I know where to find everything when I need it… now or later (and later will come, in case you think you are done with the ISOs once they are installed!)

I have installed Windows Server 2012 onto a virtual machine called OpsMgr, and joined it to my domain.  Its FQDN is swmi-OpsMgr.swmi.ca.  I then attach the ISO for OpsMgr to it, which is called en_system_center_2012_operations_manager_with_sp1_x86_x64_dvd_1347175.  Do not be alarmed by the ridiculous name, nor if yours is slightly different; depending on how you downloaded it the filename may differ, but you will definitely see that it is Operations Manager, and you will see the sp1.

Don’t worry if your Operations Manager installer does not auto-start… there is a setup.exe file in the root directory which will launch the setup screen.  As you see, you have the option to install Local agent, Audit collection services, Gateway management server, and Audit Collection Services for UNIX/Linux.  As well there are several additional resources that you can click on that will take you to notes, guidance, product documentation, and the on-line Operations Manager forums (communities).  However the star of this show is the big blue Install button right in the middle of the screen, under the words Service Pack 1.  Remember, these words are important because the RTM of System Center 2012 does not support Windows Server 2012.  Click on the Install button.

On the next screen you will have four choices to install: the Management server, the Operations console,m the Web console, and the Reporting server.  Each one of these has its own prerequisites, and before you proceed you will need to make sure you have met these.  For We will be installing all but the Reporting Services.

On the Select installation location screen I tend to install to the default location (C:\Program Files\System Center 2012\Operatons Manager).  If for some reason you prefer to install elsewhere make sure you document it properly… in your lab environment you will simply forget, and in a production environment your team (or replacement) will need to know where things are.

HOLD UP – WAIT A MINUTE! STOP WHERE YOU ARE!

I did mention that each component has prerequisites, nearly none of which we have mitigated yet.  If you proceed now they you will see a screen that says The Setup wizard cannot continue.  it will list all of the components that you are missing, and tell you how to go about fixing it.

for the Operations console you will need the Report Viewer controls.  these are a free download from Microsoft, and if you click the arrow next to the error it provides you the link to download them from.

FRUSTRATION NOTE: It may take you several goes to get all of the prerequisites for OpsMgr installed properly.  I always seem to have an issue with the ISAPI and CGI Restrictions because nowhere is it written that you must reboot, and even if you click ‘Reboot if required’ it does not do so.  If this is your last stumbling block then simply reboot the OpsMgr VM and you should be ready to continue.

Back to installing OpsMgr, you should now see the Specify an installation option screen.  If this is your first OpsMgr install in your environment you should select the radio button next to Create the first Management server in a new management group.  Enter a name for your new Management group (I picked SWMI-Mgmt per my regular naming conventions) and click Next.

Accept all licenses and click next.

In the Configure the operational database screen enter the name of your SQL server box and instance.  The default port is 1433; you can change this if you want, but in a lab or test environment I see no real need.  The default database name is OperationsManager.  I seldom change it, but you can.  Additionally you can change the Data file and Log file folders.  Click Next.

Do the same thing for the Configure the data warehouse database as you did in the preceding paragraph.  The default database name is OperationsManagerDW.  Click Next.

The next page is the Specify a web site for use with the Web console.  For lab purposes we will select the Default Web Site.  In a production environment you would want to select the checkbox to Enable SSL.  However this would require SSL configuration on the website, which I will not go into for this article.  Click Next.

Now we have the credentials page, or the Select an authentication mode for use with the Web console screen.  I prefer Mixed Authentication, which allows the user to authenticate using their current Windows credentials.  Click next.

As you probably know by now I much prefer using Domain accounts to Local accounts for nearly everything.  For the Configure Operations Manager accounts I have created three separate accounts in Active Directory: One Management server action account (swmi\OM_MSAA), one Data Reader account (swmi\OM_DRA) and one Data Writer account (swmi\OM_DWA).  You can find guidance on these accounts and requirements on the Operations Manager deployment documentation.  For each of these I enter the user names and credentials into the appropriate spots and click Next.

You can opt in or out of the Customer Experience Improvement Program and Error Reporting on the next screen and click Next.

On the next screen choose whether to include Operations Manager in the normal Microsoft Update schedule.  Click Next.

On the Installation Summary screen you can review your choices and then click Install.

The installation will take several minutes, but as with everything in the Microsoft world Green is good, Red is bad.  As long as your progress is all green then you are okay.  Fortunately the prerequisite checks throughout should ensure that your installation proceed as normal.

This is what success looks like… several green check marks and the option to launch Microsoft Update, as well as start the Operations Manager Console.  However you should note that there are four links to documentation and sites on the right side of the wizard… including Release Notes, Installation Guide, Documentation, and the System Center Online.  You can take note of these links so that in case you ever do need help (spoiler alert… YOU WILL) you will know where to go.

You are ready to rock… well, not quite.  However you are ready to launch the Operations Manager console and begin preparing your organization.  More on that later.  The installation added three icons to your Start screen… the Internet Information Services, the Operations Console, and the Operations Manager Shell (PowerShell).  At the beginning you should get to know the Operations Console before you move to the more advanced (and powerful) PowerShell.

I usually recommend running Microsoft Update before going ahead… just to make sure you are patched and ready.

At this point you are done!  You should be able to run the Operations Console and get the following screen:

Notice in the middle you have the Required Configuration Tasks, of which four are listed.  Each of these will open a wizard by clicking on them.  While we are not covering these today, I do encourage you to start playing and who knows… before you know it you will be a veritable OpsMgr wiz!

A clarification over the OEM/Upgrade media issue:

A OEM installed OS (typical in most laptop purchases) by license can’t be installed on different hardware (some exceptions with regards to repairs). You will be required to change the Product Key for the VM instance away from the OEM SKU to for a product SKU that you (in addition) legally own. A MSDN or TechNet subscription can definitely come in handy in these circumstances, but note that these offerings also set restrictions regarding usage/purpose of the OS installation.

All of these are really good points.  In my article I neglected to address licensing at all.  If your OS license is OEM then you are not allowed to virtualize it… or rather, you can do it, but you have to make sure that you have a legitimate license to attach to the VM, and yes you will have to re-activate the installation.

Your reference to "Upgrade" media has similar considerations with regards to licensing, since it is permanently tied to the OS license/SKU/Product Key that it was used to upgrade(and it typically that is an OEM SKU).

When I refer to Upgrade Media you are right, it is permanently tied to the OS license that it was used to upgrade, but I do not agree with your statement that it would necessarily or even probably be OEM.

I confess, it has been a decade since I delved into these issues, but back then (which is on target because of our discussion of Windows XP) you were able to install Windows XP on top of Windows XP, and it would fix a lot of issues but your applications would still work.  The reason I referred to OEM media is because with OEM you could still install on top of, but it would clean you out – no applications, no user profile.  It wouldn’t delete them, it would just put them into a directory called Windows.old.

Notwithstanding these licensing caveats, OEM and vendor specific Upgrade media, as you mention, is, generally, very hardware specific and usually will not install successfully on "foreign" hardware.

Not only will most OEM and vendor-specific OEM software not install on most ‘foreign’ systems, it is a violation of the EULA to try to do it.  OEM software is married to the motherboard of the system with which it was purchased, and there is no acceptable ‘repurposing’ of that license… for any reason.  If the motherboard dies, when you replace it you must also buy another OEM license.

Off-the-shelf, "Full-Package-Product" (FPP), which can be use as "upgrade" media, is a SKU which can be moved (not copied) from device to device.

*** So the question arises: if you are migrating an image of OEM licensed OS away from failing hardware and onto, say, a virtualized system, would that be seen as an acceptable reuse of the OEM license? ***

OEM software may not be virtualized.  In the event of Windows Server and Hyper-V, there are exceptions to this.  However on the client-side there are no “acceptable reuse” scenarios.

Hint: Typically I upgrade my laptop’s OS with a MSDN/TechNet version since the OEM versions typically are "Home", limited feature set, SKU’s. To aid installing a new OS, I do usually copy over the "%windir%\System32\DriverStore\" of the active OEM installation onto a USB stick so as to resolve "unknown" device issues (use the scan folder option in updating these under device manager). Subsequent Windows Update may upgrade these, but it usually goes over easier once they are "known" devices requiring, perhaps, an upgrade.

Here is where your in-depth understanding of licenses falters my friend; MSDN/TechNet licenses are not to be used on production machines… period.  They are for test/dev only.  As such I am reasonably sure that by installing the OS from that source onto your laptop you are violating the EULA.  It is a very common misunderstanding that many people make, but in short MSDN and TechNet are not meant to be ways of getting all of your production software cheap, they are meant for you to use exclusively for testing purposes.

If you are a Microsoft Partner, then there are acceptable alternatives.  Certain MPN Partners (I don’t know which) are given a number of licenses of most Microsoft software that they can use in production.  If you are not at that level then you can invest in the Microsoft Action Pack Subscription, which entitles you to use the same licenses on (I think) ten computers… in production.

With regard to the DriverStore directory I confess that I generally follow the advice of an old acquaintance… The drivers installed at the source are likely already out of date, and it is usually just as easy to download the latest version from the manufacturer’s website.  Fortunately for me, Microsoft IT has an image for my laptop including the drivers, so it’s not a concern.  However you might want to take a few minutes to download them… and yes, making sure you have the networking drivers is a good idea before you wipe and re-load!

An Introduction to Microsoft Virtualization and the Private Cloud with System Center 2012 and Hyper-V

The event will be held on Tuesday, June 11, 2013 from 5:30 PM to 9:00 PM (ADT)

WHERE:

Nova Scotia Community College Institute of IT Campus
5685 Leeds Street,
Room D309
Halifax, Nova Scotia B3K 2T3
Canada
View Map

Attend Event  Yes No Maybe

Share this event:

Spend an evening with Mitch Garvis, Virtual Technology Evangelist with Microsoft Canada, getting to know the Microsoft server virtualization story.  Learn not only about Hyper-V, but also the management and Private Cloud scenarios that System Center 2012 SP1 brings to the table,  Learn how to build your cloud, and also how Microsoft sets itself apart from (and ahead of) the competition in the world of virtualization, Private Cloud, and Datacenter Management.

We hope you can make it!

I have been talking to you about it for several months, and am thrilled to tell you that it is now available… RTM for the Cisco Nexus 1000V for Microsoft Hyper-V was announced at Microsoft TechEd North America today.  Here is the complete announcement from the Cisco Nexus 1000V Product Management Team –M

Cisco Cloud Networking and Services Platform team is excited to announce the availability of Cisco Nexus 1000V for Microsoft Hyper-V as a part of our hypervisor-agnostic cloud networking strategy. This represents a major milestone for the Nexus 1000V platform which already has more than 7000 customers.  

We are also shipping Virtual Services Gateway (VSG) and Virtual Network Management Center ( VNMC)  for Hyper-V. With this introduction, enterprise and cloud provider customers will be able to extend Nexus experience to Hyper-V virtual environments. Learn More

Industry Award

Cisco Nexus 1000V for Microsoft Hyper-V Solution Highlights

Features and Functionality

Note: Nexus 1000V feature-set will be consistent across all hypervisors

Pricing and Orderability

Nexus1000V pricing is consistent across hypervisors. Nexus 1000V for Microsoft Hyper-V is available in two editions:

· Essential edition is available at no-cost

· Advanced edition (includes VSG for Hyper-V) is available at $695/CPU

Nexus 1000V for Hyper-V sales qualify for Q4, 2013 Nexus 1000V Sales Incentive Program For ordering assistance, please refer to Cisco Nexus 1000V for Hyper-V Ordering Guide

More Information

We are also planning for a joint Cisco/Microsoft webinar during the week of June 17^th. Please look out for the calendar invites.

Resources

· Cisco Nexus 1000V for Hyper-V internal field portal: 
http://savtg.cisco.com/go/1000vhyper-v/

· Cisco Nexus 1000V for Hyper-V external cisco.com page: 
http://www.cisco.com/go/1000v/hyper-v/

· Cisco Nexus 1000V Public Community: 
https://communities.cisco.com/community/technology/datacenter/nexus1000v/

· Cisco-Microsoft partnership page: 
http://www.cisco.com/go/microsoft/

Mitch, I have been using my Windows 7 laptop for nearly three years.  It has all of my applications on it, and because of the custom dev work that I do a lot of what I have in there simply cannot be recreated – anywhere, let alone on another OS.  I want to upgrade my primary laptop to Windows 8, but cannot afford to lose my customizations and my environment.  What can I do?

I got this question from a peer last week and feel his pain; so many people have customized their desktop environment in ways that (they feel) is a stop-wall to upgrading – either in-place or on new hardware.  Fortunately Microsoft has some great tools that will help you out.

Hyper-V is now included in the Windows 8 desktop client.  You can capture your Windows 7 desktop image to a Virtual Hard Drive (VHD) and then create a new VM on your Windows 8 client and attach it.  But how can you capture that image?

Simple.

Microsoft has a free set of tools called the Sysinternals Suite.  One of those tools is called Disk2vhd.  Download it to your Windows 7 machine and run it – it will transfer your entire hard drive (or drives) to VHD files.  It is agentless and does not require an install – just run it and you can immediately convert every attached volume.

This method will actually work with any supported version of Windows.  That is not to say that it will not work with Windows NT 3.51, but it is not supported and I certainly have not tested it.  So if you want to keep your Windows XP installation as a crutch (you have 307 days left remember!) you can use the same methodology with that OS too.

Of course, when you boot to the VM you may have some issues because the hardware set is completely different.  In newer operating systems you may have to download some of the drivers for it to work properly; for legacy (Windows XP and earlier) OSes you may have to do a full install-in-place; do this carefully because depending on your media your apps may or may not continue to work (do NOT try to use OEM or Upgrade media for this!).

For bonus points, if you have a full Windows Server 2012 system up and running you can create the VM as a VM on that host, and let your Windows 8 use all of its RAM.  However with the amount of RAM in computers these days, coupled with the incredible memory management and compression with Hyper-V, you should be okay.

Questions?  Feel free to ask… and have a great day!

I am not going to guide you through the actual installation of products in these articles.  My reasoning behind that is that the installation process is fairly simple for each component; it is easy to get lost along the way, but by reading the guidance in your error messages you will be able to make it through.  Nonetheless during the next week I will record a series of webcasts guiding you through the actual installation processes.

Additionally you do not need to go out and buy the software – you can download the evaluation versions which are good for 180 days by clicking on the following links: Download Windows Server 2012 and System Center 2012. Additionally you will need to download SQL Server; for these demos I used SQL Server 2012, which you can download as an evaluation as well.

A little bit of knowledge will take you a long way; in this article we are going to get you started with three of the components which are central to your private cloud: Virtual Machine Manager (VMM) and Operations Manager (OpsMgr).

I consider Virtual Machine Manager to be the focal point of the Private Cloud; it is the module where we create the Private Cloud, manage the resources, and build and manage the virtual machines.  It does not work in a vacuum of course; but as with most of the components of System Center 2012 it interacts ‘upstream’ and ‘downstream’ with two main components: Orchestrator for scripting and runbooks, and OpsMgr for monitoring, reporting, and intelligent placement.  For today we will focus on the connectivity requirements between VMM and OpsMgr.

The relevant portion of my virtual network is outlined in this diagram.  All of these components are virtual (machines and switches) within one of the primary Hyper-V hosts.

The first step we will take is to prepare the OpsMgr to connect to VMM.  In order to do this we need the following:

Console:

• Operations Manager console must be installed on the VMM Server.

This is easy enough… attach the OpsMgr media to the VMM virtual machine and install only the console.

Credentials:

• An account which is a member of the Operations Manager Administrators user role; and
• An account which is a member of the VMM Administrator user role.

I am a strong believer in the old AGGUDLP philosophy – user Accounts go into Global Groups, which go into Universal Groups, which go into Domain Local Groups, which are then assigned permissions.  As such I have created a Security Group in Active Directory called OpsMgr&VMM which I will assign to these roles.

1. In the Operations Manager Console click on the Administration context.
2. In the Navigation Pane expand Security and click on User Roles.
3. In the User Roles main window double-click Profile: Administrator\Operations Manager Administrators.
4. Click + Add…
5. Type the name of the Active Directory Security Group that you created and click OK.
6. Click OK to close the User Roles Properties window.
7. In the VMM Console window click on the Settings context.
8. In the Navigation Pane expand Security and click on User Roles.
9. In the User Roles main window double-click on Administrator.
10. In the Administrator Properties window click on Members.
11. Click Add…
12. Enter the name of the Active Directory Security Group that you created and click OK.
13. Click OK to close the Administrator Properties window.

Now that I have provided the appropriate credentials, I can move on to the Management Packs.

Management Packs:

Several management packs are required in order to join OpsMgr and VMM, all of which are free and easily downloaded from Microsoft.com, or from within the OpsMgr Console.  They are:

• SQL Server Core Library version 6.0.5000.0 (or later)
• Windows Server Internet Information Services Library version 6.0.5000.0 (or later)
• Windows Server Internet Information Services 2003 version 6.0.5000.0 (or later)
• Windows Server 2008 Internet Information Services 7 version 6.0.6539.0 (or later)

1. From within the OpsMgr Console click on the Administration context.
2. Right-click on Management Packs in the Navigation Pane and click Import Management Packs.
3. In the Select Management Packs window select Add from catalogue from the +Add drop-down menu.
4. Select the management packs listed above, and click Import.

**Note: If your Operations Manager VM is not connected to the Internet you can download the management packs individually and then import them from Disk.

Now that we have laid the groundwork, connecting VMM and OpsMgr is relatively simple.

1. From the VMM Console select the Settings context.
2. In the Navigation Pane select System Center Settings.
3. In the main window right-click Operations Manager Server and click Properties.
4. In the Introduction window click Next.
5. In the Connection to Operations Manager screen enter the OpsMgr server name (SWMI-OpsMgr.swmi.ca).  Ensure the boxes Enable Performance and Resource Optimization (PRO) and Enable maintenance mode integration with Operations Manager are selected and click Next.
6. In the Connection to VMM screen enter the credentials of a user who is assigned Administrator rights on the VMM server (such as one that is a member of the OpsMgr&VMM Security group) and click Next.
7. On the Summary screen click Finish.

PowerShell!

The script to connect the OpsMgr server to the VMM server should look like this:

$vmmCredential = Get-Credential
$opsMgrServerCredential = Get-SCRunAsAccount -Name "RunAdmin" -ID "02f51024-f502-44cd-94c4-87e304124818"
New-SCOpsMgrConnection -EnablePRO $true -EnableMaintenanceModeIntegration $true -OpsMgrServer "swmi-opsmgr" -RunAsynchronously -VMMServerCredential $vmmCredential -OpsMgrServerCredential $opsMgrServerCredential

At this point you are ready to go!  OpsMgr will be monitoring your VMM environment, which means that not only can you begin monitoring the health of your VMM server, but your entire environment, allowing for great features like Performance and Resource Optimization (PRO), and more intelligent patch management using maintenance mode.

We’ll leave it here for now because you now have a lot to play with; start exploring your VMM on your own and see what it’s made of; start generating reports in OpsMgr and see what kind of data you can extract!

In my next article we will introduce another System Center component into play.  Stay tuned for Orchestrator!

Starting tomorrow and for the next few months I will be posting several articles on installing, configuring, and using System Center 2012 for your Private Cloud environment.  During this series I will cover all seven components of the System Center 2012 SP1 bundle: Configuration Manager (ConfigMgr), Operations Manager (OpsMgr), Virtual Machine Manager (VMM), Service Manager (ServMgr), Data Protection Manager (DPM), Orchestrator (Orch), and App Controller.

The articles will be written based on the environment that I am building that will be my demo environment for at least the next fiscal year (FY14 in Microsoft-speak), which means that at any given point you will know what you are looking at based on the articles that have been written to date.  In addition to writing these articles, I will also use the same environment for my lectures and presentations, so if you see me in person or on a webinar this is what you will see.

Let’s start with the physical environment.  The vast majority of the Microsoft-based workloads will be hosted on two HP ProLiant DL380 Gen 8 servers with 128GB of RAM each.  For the time being my storage is all based on 10K RPM SAS disks in these servers, along with Windows Storage Pools and Software iSCSI Target in Windows Server 2012 (although that may change).  The switches are also HP. 

From time to time I will mention and leverage technologies such as iLO (HP’s Integrated Lights Out backplane software).  I will try to include an article at some point that will also cover DRAC (Dell’s equivalent backplane technology); however these articles are being done primarily on HP hardware for several reasons:

1. HP is my server vendor of choice; in addition to these two servers I currently have four other HP ProLiant servers in my environment;
2. HP is cooperating with me on these articles by providing assistance and guidance when needed;
3. HP has supplied some hardware for this project, although certainly not all of it.
4. I happen to have a great relationship with several people at HP, having worked with them in the past on community tours as well as on international projects as a consultant.  As such I am glad to work with them.

During the course of this series I will start to bring in other platforms, including VMware and Citrix and Dell and who knows what else.  However let’s face it: if you know me, you know that I am Microsoft focused; I am a Virtual Technology Evangelist with Microsoft Canada, and in addition to being a Microsoft Certified Trainer (MCT) I hold dozens of Microsoft certifications, including the Microsoft Certified Solutions Expert: Private Cloud.  I have worked with Microsoft on scores of projects over the past decade, and that is where my primary focus is.

With that being said, I am not a one trick pony.  I am a VMware Certified Professional (VCP 4/5) as well as a Certified Virtualization Expert (CVE 4/5).  I have worked with Citrix virtualization as well, and intend to include all of these technologies in my lab – and as such in these articles.  However I do not pretend to know everything, and for some of the components that I will be writing about I will be learning as I go.  It should be a fun project for me, as well as an educational one.

As for you, if there are any components that you would like to see I would love to hear from you.  While I have a general roadmap in my head (and on paper) it is not written in stone.  I always say that I write this blog for you, so although I make no promises, if there is something you would like to hear about just let me know… I’ll be glad to try to include it… IF it makes sense to me!

I do not live in Toronto; I live in Oakville, a city about 30 minutes west of Toronto where our mayor, Mr. Rob Burton, is a very well respected man whom I am proud to have voted for not because he is a casual friend, but because he is good for Oakville.  He is likeable, he knows how to work with others, and he has been successful in his position.  During the next municipal elections I will vote for him again, and not for Rob Ford, for the simple reason of geography.

With that being said, the spectacle of the past seventeen days has been a real show; Mayor Ford seems to feel picked on by the media – originally by the Toronto Star (a feud that did not start two weeks ago but rather during his mayoral campaign), and now by the media at large.  During his press conferences he absolutely refuses to address any question pertaining to anything outside the subject of the specific conference, and has been quoted calling the media ‘a bunch of maggots’ while refusing to speak to them on matters of obvious public interest.

There are many who are calling on Mayor Ford to step down, either temporarily (if he has a drug habit and is willing to deal with it) or permanently.  As I said before as a resident of Oakville I do not have a vote, so I will not offer an opinion on this matter.

Mayor Ford and his brother (Councilor Doug Ford) host a weekly radio show on News Talk 1010 radio, the largest (not verified, but it seems pretty big) AM radio station in the region.  The station’s signal can be heard as far east as Kingston and as far west as Brantford, as well as southwest into Niagara Falls (both Canadian and American sides).  I have been a listener to that station since I moved from Montreal six years ago (before which I was a listener of its sister station, CJAD 800).  The show, called The City, airs Sundays from 1-3pm.

I respect News Talk 1010 and their management and most of the shows, even though I do not agree with many of the hosts.  There are times that I tune it out, but usually only when a particularly annoying commercial or that offensive person who does the restaurant reviews for dine.to comes on.  As such I assume that they made a conscious decision to give Mayor and Councilor Ford their own show.  I even respect the fact that they did not jump to any hasty kneejerk reactions as this scandal has unfolded.  However it has gone on long enough… it is time to show their merit.

If the media is a bunch of maggots and the Mayor refuses to answer their questions – truly the questions of the citizens – then it is time to take his bully pulpit away.  It is time for News Talk 1010 to take the Mayor off the air.  They should not do it because of any scandal – and there have been plenty during his short tenure.  They should do it because of the obvious disrespect he holds for the media.  He refuses to answer their questions and yet News Talk 1010 turns around and gives him two hours of air time every week in which he controls the mic – the message, the callers he puts on the air, the whole ball of wax. 

I admit that I do not listen to his show – I never had, and not because I like him or don’t like him.  Many of you will remember that a year ago I posted a piece called Leave Mayor Ford Alone.  I honestly feel that there are forces out to get him and who have been trying to sully his name for the last couple of years.  I don’t listen because I don’t find it interesting radio.  However I do listen to the rest of the station for at least ten hours every week, and am sick of hearing newscasts with him refusing to talk to the media, and then commercials for his show on the same media he refuses to address.

I do feel sorry for Mayor Ford – he has had a fight with both the media and with others since he took office and before, and has oftentimes not been treated well.  However he chose a public life, and as such has a responsibility to the public which he must fulfill through the media.  I cannot be the first person to observe that he has not been blameless in these fights.  He just does not seem to know how to get along with others, does not seem to know the word compromise, and seems to think that his record can stand on its own.  Well I have news for Mayor Ford, his record will be the least of his concerns if he truly does make an enemy of the entire media – what is the point of a successful record if nobody is willing to talk about it.

Should be step down as mayor of Toronto? I truly have no opinion, and I do consider it irresponsible journalism to report on a video that you cannot produce.  Should he step down as a talk show host? Absolutely and immediately… and it can either be his choice or their choice, but he should have hosted his final show.

With that being said, we make it look impressive, but it is just something we are trained to do.  The following video falls well outside of that training… at least, for – ANY OF US!

Ernie Torres is a skydiving instructor, a Black Belt in Karate, and a member of the United States Navy.  Mr. Torres recently combined two of his passions – skydiving and karate – to break the record for boards broken in a free fall (yes, such a record exists, and now sits at 14).  I give him full credit… I wouldn’t do it!

Have a great week-end folks! –M

I met Ms. Anita Kanwar and her family a little over four years ago.  She had just joined our Taekwondo school (OMAC Canada) with her daughter and son.  I remember helping her out with some of her early patterns – I was only a few belts ahead of her, but that is how it works in Taekwondo – and how eager she was, and how willing she was to learn how to do things the right way.  The day she tested for her Black Belt (in December, 2010 – six months after I did) I was so proud that I was literally gushing.

Last week Ms. Anita was qualified (pre-tested) by Grandmaster Kim, and has been cleared to test for her Second Degree Black Belt this month.  Next Saturday, June 8th, will be her big day.  I call it that because there are very few experiences to rival a Black Belt testing… and very few things that can cause such singular focus.

It is difficult to put an exact date on when someone starts training for a Black Belt test.  Some say it is the day you first join Martial Arts, but I do not agree with that at all.  Others say that it is your first class after you achieve Black Belt Excellence, and while that is closer, I am still not convinced… most of us were so focused in the weeks and months leading up to that test that we take a bit of a break – we may or may not continue to train, but it is in no way at the level of the weeks leading up to the test.

In my experience I made the decision to test for my Second Degree Black Belt in January – five months before the testing.  For those of you who read my blog at that time, and for those of you who were in my life, you will know that my focus over those months was so intense that it was impossible to miss.  The closer that day came the more intense the focus was.  In the two weeks leading up to the test I may have gone to work and all, but I ate, drank, slept, rested, and was Taekwondo focused.  My blogs were about Taekwondo because my thoughts were.

If I know my friend, student, peer Ms. Anita, she is as focused on next Saturday’s test as she is on anything else.  It will never be far from the front of her mind.  I spoke with her last night and can see it in her eyes… she is ready physically, but the mental preparation is something that doesn’t come, it just continues to build.  Right now she is precisely eight days from being ready… of course in her mind she is ready, but we learn and teach patience in Taekwondo, so she has eight more days to prepare and she will use every one of them… to prepare mentally, and of course to continue to prepare physically.

I am so proud of Ms. Anita for how far she has come.  She continues to amaze me at every class.  I look forward to congratulating her after the test – we do that with a handshake, a punch to the shoulder, and some congratulatory words – and then starting to train for our Third Degree Black Belt.

Ms. Anita will not be thinking of anything in the last paragraph this week… True students of Taekwondo do not try to see beyond a Black Belt testing; Ms. Anita right now is focused only on her patterns, her knife-defense sparring, and those bricks.  For her, there is nothing beyond those… until she breaks them, which she will.  However until that happens I know that she is focused on her goal.  Good luck to you Ms. Anita!

Mitch Garvis

2nd Degree Black Belt (Kukkiwon)

Although usually I would show my Hyper-V demos on a Server, for today’s fun I want to remind you that you can still use Hyper-V on a Windows 8 desktop so I am using my Microsoft Surface Pro.  I have a virtual machine on this system called Windows 7 which obviously runs my Windows 7 Enterprise image.  I am calling this disk Windows 7.vhdx.  I want to try to install a piece of software that I am told might corrupt my Windows installation, and I don’t want to have to reinstall.  Instead I am going to create a Differencing Disk that will reference the original VHDX file, but will not make any changes to it.

I open the settings for my virtual machine and navigate to the boot Hard Drive.

1. I select the hard disk (or disks) from the Hardware list. 

2. I click New, having noted the name and location of the original disk.

3. I create a new disk, going through the wizard selecting the file type (VHD or VHDX).

4. In the Choose Disk Type screen I select Differencing instead of either Fixed size or Dynamically expanding.

5. A screen that you might not have seen comes after you name your disk. In the Configure Disk screen browse for the parent disk – the disk that you are ‘replacing’.  Click Finish.

**Note: Remember that if your VM has multiple virtual hard disks you may have to perform these steps on each one.

At this point your Parent Disk will no longer be written to by your VM – all of the changes within your virtual machine will be written to the Differencing Disk that you just created.  It is useless without the Parent Disk, but the two together work great.

There are a few caveats you should be aware of:

1) Your Differencing Disk is not simply reliant on a disk called… When created it ‘connects’ itself to the Configure VHDX file; if that reference file is changed in any way then your Differencing Disk will no longer work.

2) You can chain Differencing Disks simply by selecting another Differencing Disk as the Configure Disk.  When doing so make sure you document it well, because at any point if something gets corrupted along the way you had better know what you did in order to fix it!

3) Notice that you were not asked to select a size of your Differencing Disk; that is because the size was set on the Configure Disk, and that is your limit.  Simple, right?  Wrong.  Remember that a single Configure Disk can be the parent of as many Differencing Disks as you want, and all of those Differencing Disks can add up quick, so make sure you keep an eye on your free space!

There are no limitations on the Configure Disks – they can be either VHD or VHDX, Fixed size or Dynamically expanding.  As mentioned, your Configure Disk can even be another Differencing Disk.

Differencing Disks are not new; the steps outlined in this article will work just as well in Windows Server 2008 R2 as they will in Windows Server 2012 or in Windows 8.

Now here’s the fun part: PowerShell.  Yes, you can create your Differencing Disks in PowerShell just the same as in the GUI.  The cmdlet is actually pretty simple:

New-VHD –Path “C:\VHDs\Windows 7 Diff.VHDX” –ParentPath “C:\VHDs\Windows 7.VHDX” –Differencing

The outcome should look a little like this:

Notice though that you have a file that is 100GB (maximum file sixe).  That is because the base disk is 100GB.

Now that you know how to do it, go play with Hyper-V… and know the Difference!

By the way, even though I did this on Windows 8, you are much better off doing it on Windows Server 2012.  Download Windows Server 2012 and System Center 2012.

Unlike Skype, which is a completely cloud-based service, Lync can be installed on-site, and is proprietary to an individual company.  While that company has the option of connecting its Lync to the outside world, it can be secure in the knowledge that its information is proprietary and stored securely.

None of that is going to change, but today Lync has been given the ability to talk to Skype.  So now the Enterprise richness of Lync has the global reach of Skype without surrendering its control.

Is it mandatory?

Of course not… for this to happen your Lync administrator needs to actively enable Lync-Skype connectivity.  You still have the option of staying private.  Once they have done that, your Lync users can connect to Skype from either Lync 2013 or Lync 2010, including any of the 2013 mobile clients.

As for Skype users, they will need the latest Skype client, available from www.skype.com.  As of launch this connectivity will be supported from the Window sand Mac desktop clients, but other options will be made available as other clients are updated.

So what are you waiting for folks?  Lync up!

For full details from the product team, read the blog article here.

After my presentation and demos in Toronto my friend and local (well… Guelph) SMB-guru Sharon Bennett came to speak to me in the Microsoft booth, and told me that she was surprised by a lot of the features I was able to demonstrate with the new software and SAAS (Software As A Service) offerings from Microsoft.  We had a good discussion during which she confided that she had been a loyal GMail user for years, but based on my demos she was going to try out Office 365.

Like most of you, I get a lot of ‘interesting’ titles in my Inbox, although my spam filter does a great job of keeping most of them out of sight.  So when I saw one this morning with the title ‘50 Shades of Grey’ I was surprised.  When I saw that Sharon’s name was attached to it I decided to investigate… and sure enough, it was a legitimate article from my favorite SMB Blogger

E-Mail Affairs: My  Version of ‘”50 Shades of Grey” is a very interesting read about a relationship that many of us have – this almost sordid affair with our e-mail provider; how we are expected to be fiercely loyal, but how when we veer from that path it can be exciting and such.  As with real-life affairs it can even lead to an eventual break-up.

I am always happy to read Sharon’s writings, and hope one day to be able to attend one of her sessions.  If you are interested in SMB IT from a fresh and fun perspective I suggest you give her a read!

Last week I got my new computer, complete with Windows 8.  Of course I am not new to Windows 8 – it has been my primary platform for nearly two years now – and I am certainly not a novice.  As I am sick and stuck in a hotel room for a couple of days (by the way, any Montreal peeps who want to bring my chicken soup will get a prize – don’t know what) I decided to get blogging.

I usually blog from Windows Live Writer.  I have been using it for years, and have never seen a good reason to change.  However I have been hoping since the release of Windows 8 that they would come out with a modern version, and barring that would have tried a different blogging platform if I found a really good one.

I installed and configured the WordPress app, and it dutifully found my blog and all that rot.  I then remembered a colleague mentioning that he had used that app to actually write his articles, and it wasn’t bad.  I decided to try it out.

I started writing, and it seemed pretty intuitive, with some features that even the newest Live Writer doesn’t have (autocorrect).  I was getting into it, but someone pinged me on Lync and I tabbed to that conversation.  When I was done chatting I went bac…. huh?  It’s gone?  It’s not there?  Whatchu talkin bout Willis?  It was simply… gone.  No auto-save, nothing.  It was as if I had never sat down at the computer.

I think we are in dire need of a better app, and until we get one I am back to Windows Live Writer… from which I am happy to say I have tabbed away from several times during the writing of this rant and it has not been lost even once.

Here’s how they work: I create my virtual machine and configure it to where I will want the users to start – I install the operating system, join it to the domain (or create a domain controller), and install whatever extra software I would need.  I then shut down the virtual machine and create my ‘child VHD’ file as a reference (or Differencing) disk to the ‘Parent’ disk.  At that point I can literally reset the labs to that point in time by simply resetting the differencing disk.

I have been working with the DPE team at Microsoft Canada delivering IT Boot Camps across the country for over a year.  At the end of each class we had an entire set of instructions to reset each set of machines, which essentially involved replacing the VHDX files from our backup.  Resetting the computers (22 of them) took upwards of three hours, and often enough the students discovered our Backup repository and made a mess of things, requiring us to restore that too from external media.  For our most recent camp, which we are calling Windows Server 2012 v2.0, we have altered things a bit, instead using VM snapshots – we can revert to the base snapshot very quickly – less than 5 minutes per computer, and we are usually done within 30 minutes… a substantial improvement to be sure. 

The decision to use this technology instead of Base/Differencing Disks was not wrong; it is just a different way of doing things.  Having written and delivered several courses over the past decade (including several on virtualization) it has been my experience that while snapshots work well, there are a few ways that they can go wrong; it is usually human error that causes this, but they go wrong nonetheless.

***

For my course From Virtualization to the Private Cloud I decided to go the other route – Base/Differencing Disks – because I felt that with so much focus on virtualization we might end up using snapshots occasionally, and although Hyper-V definitely supports long trees of snapshots, it is vital that they be properly documented, and it is just as easy to revert to the wrong one.

Within my folder C:\VHDs I have a subdirectory called C:\VHDs\Diff where all of my Differencing Disks are stored.  At the end of the course I make sure the students delete all of the snapshots, and then turn off all of the VMs.  I specify Turn Off because all of the changes you might make are going to get discarded anyways, including the dirty shutdown.  I then go around and delete the AVHD directory, then replace that directory from the backup.  In less than a minute my entire environment (9-12 virtual machines) is reset and ready to perform as new the next day.

However Base/Differencing Disks are not exclusively the purview of courseware.  Imagine having a test/dev environment where you needed to test different versions of the same set of code against the same master image.  Because a single Parent disk can support several Differencing Disks you can install the different versions and compare them to each other side by side.

Imagine a VDI environment where your end users have Pooled VDI machines that needed to be reset at the end of every session.  A single Parent Disk could then support all of your VDI clients, and when the shift is over the Diff Disk simply gets reset and the next user to log on has his clean VM based on the master.

As users begin to experiment and discuss Differencing Disks they are going to come up with several cases where they will be really helpful… I look forward to hearing from you what use cases you come up with, and how your experience with them is!

In my next article you will read the Step-By-Step, how-to create, manage, and use Differencing Disks.  Stay Tuned!

His comment (in full and unedited) reads as follows:

I don’t entirely agree with the advice here. It does sound a little like the person who wrote it has done too much reading and not enough network infrastructure. More than one dc? Really? Are you serious talking of a business of 25 people, running on a tight budget, that they spend 1000 or so on a server just to replicate? And what if the AD database becomes corrupt, this could be months before you notice, replication would have taken place and now you have to rebuild anyway. So no, nice advice, but in the real world, in a small business, one DC with system state backed up will suffice. Only run DC on a server? Are you serious? On the whole domain controllers don’t actually do a lot, they authenticate, replicate, but once the log on/log off process has taken place they sit there, till the next replication. wow! what a waste of resources! contrary to belief dhcp and dns don’t require a lot. And what if you virtualise the other roles anyway? You still have it all running on one system, so whether it’s virtualised or not the effect is the same. Snapshots are great, but if the mainboard fails the system fails – virtual or not.

I recently went in to rebuild a network than had one server running ad, dhcp, dns, file server etc for over 200 people. Not one person ever complained the network was slow – this server was running 4gb of ram! I simply added another server and shared resources. In this example I did replicate, and there’s the problem, I only have two servers both acting as dc’s, I have to put the other roles somewhere! – even if I have a san attached it will still run through the server.

More than one server is great. Replication is great. Virtualisation is great. But budgets come first.

Everything that Andrew says is true… for real-world SMALL businesses.  The problem is with what I call the SBSer Mindset, which I discussed in an article I wrote in 2007 (Why I am not an SBSer).  I can assure you I was not very popular in certain circles for that article, and if I had to rewrite it again today I likely would not.  However the basic premise holds true.

IT Best Practices are almost always deprecated in small- and midsized IT environments to the detriment of security and functionality in exchange for simplicity and usability.  I have been telling small business IT Pros for years that they should learn the enterprise best practices… even if they are not going to always implement them, they should know what they are. 

As silly as it may sound, you should know what the laws are before you break them,  By knowing what Enterprise Beast Practices are and how they benefit the environment you can then make an informed decision when you decide to break one of them… because you understand the reasons and consequences behind them.

I have been telling people for years that Enterprise Best Practices scale down a lot better (and more securely) than Small Business ‘Common Practices’ scale up.  As a small businesses grow it is easier for them to do so properly if the infrastructure was properly planned out… so if you have 200 users and think you might grow to 260 you should not use the standard 192.168.0.0/24 IP range.  Thinking outside the ‘small business’ may not be important for some, but it is if you want growth, security, high availability, and such.

When I said that “Your Domain Controllers should be just that… and not much else!” I was serious, but I also added a compromise in there; DNS and DHCP can easily co-exist on your DCs… especially in smaller organizations, but even in the Enterprise space DNS is a core requirement of Active Directory, and indeed the DNS Server role is installed automatically when you create a Domain Controller.  However by then expanding that to File Server role breaks a huge tenet of Enterprise Best Practice, that the only people who should be able to authenticate to a Domain Controller is a Domain Administrator.  By putting the File Server onto the DC you are automatically letting the entire organization authenticate to it.  Bad Bad Bad.

Andrew is right by the way… “…I recently went in to rebuild a network than had one server running ad, dhcp, dns, file server etc for over 200 people. Not one person ever complained the network was slow – this server was running 4gb of ram!”  I will not argue that the resources discussed will not have any effect on the speed of your network… but you will notice that if you leave all of your doors and windows open it is much quicker for you to get into your house.  Security does not mean speed.

Virtualization, of course, will allow you to solve a lot of these issues.  However he is right, there are replication issues and if you are not monitoring your domain you may not realize that one is down, or that replication is broken.  This is true… but it is also why it I important to have monitoring in place for your organization.  I am not saying that a small business should be implementing a complete System Center environment, but there are definitely monitoring tools available that will allow you to keep an eye on it… starting with the Server Manager Dashboard in Windows Server 2012. 

And what if the AD database becomes corrupt, this could be months before you notice, replication would have taken place and now you have to rebuild anyway.

Monitoring your environment is part and parcel of your job as a system administrator; no IT Pro should ever have to say ‘One component was broken for months and I didn’t notice.’  That should be a true RGE for an IT Pro.  It is a rookie mistake – monitor your environment and you will never have that problem.

Andrew is right… budgets are hugely important, more so to small businesses where every penny spent on IT means money out of the pocket of the business owner.  However balancing the budgets versus potential risks is important, and that is where proper planning comes into play.

It does sound a little like the person who wrote it has done too much reading and not enough network infrastructure.

My IT pedigree is well known, but I do acknowledge that I do much less SMB-IT than I used to, and definitely understand where you are coming from.  I hope that you are willing to acknowledge that at least some of my points are valid