Category: Server
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Where’s my RSAT?
A close friend and former colleague recently gave me the nickname “Mr. No GUI.” Why? I am big believer in Windows Server Core. I do not believe there should be a GUI on a Windows Server unless it is being used as a desktop. That does not mean that we all have to become command…
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Creating a Lab Domain in PowerShell
I am spending a lot of time in Microsoft 365 these days. Because of my new contract, I found myself needing to build a lab environment from scratch. Yes, I am working in Azure AD, but for my role I realized it would be help to have an on-premise Active Directory Domain Services environment, in…
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The (Solar) WInds of Change…
I used to love System Center. Simply put, if you were a systems administrator / engineer / architect it did… everything. It monitors, automates, protects, virtualizes, scripts, patches, deploys, integrates… everything in your environment. It is, in a word, comprehensive. It is also big. There was a time (prior to System Center 2012) when you…
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The Perils of a Manual Environment
I am not going to lie to you and say that every environment that I manage or have managed is an optimized Secure, Well-Managed IT Environment. It’s just not true. In a secure, well-managed IT environment we monitor to make sure that things are working the way they are supposed to. When we spin up…
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Welcome to What’s Next…
There is irony in the title of this post… What’s next. I posted on Friday that it was my last day working full time at Yakidoo. I really enjoyed my time there, and am glad that my next venture will allow me to stay on there on a limited basis. This afternoon I am meeting…
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Onboard SAN… Issues.
A client of mine is a small business with a couple of physical servers and a couple of virtualization hosts. One of the physical servers, a Lenovo ThinkServer, has been acting as a file server, so it has really been very under-used. It is a good server that has never been used to its potential…
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End Of Days 2003: The End is Nigh!
In a couple of days we will be saying goodbye to 2014 and ringing in the New Year 2015. Simple math should show you that if you are still running Windows Server 2003, it is long since time to upgrade. However here’s more: When I was a Microsoft MVP, and then when I was a…
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Obvious? No…
I learned a lesson today, after I thought I had heard it all. It seems that when there is mould in your server room it is important to specify to everyone involved at every level that the equipment in there – often valued at hundreds of thousands of dollars, not to mention the potential for…
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Vancouver Helping Calgary
The news is ablaze with stories of the terrible flooding in Calgary. As I wrote in an article yesterday (Leaving Calgary…) I got out before the worst of it, but only barely. The rivers are overflowing, entire neighborhoods are under water, and the news is not getting better. At least two dead, and people are…
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Rebuilding SWMI… Not the company, just the infrastructure
I have been talking about rebuilding the domain for my company for several months, and finally sat down to do it this week-end. Because I was essentially destroying the old domain there were a few steps I needed to perform before going ahead. I performed a Backup of all of my data. Nobody in their…
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Windows Server 2012: Roles & Features
A colleague asked me earlier today if I knew off the top of my head how many roles and features there are in Windows Server 2012, and I had to admit that I did not know. As Albert Einstein once said, why memorize what you can reference. However as a quick exercise I decided to…
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Windows Server 2012: More than Virtualization!
Since it was in pre-release I have been evangelizing Windows Server 2012. I have gone from sea to shining sea talking about it at Launch events, at Partner showcases, in IT Camps, at user groups talking about how much better it is than Windows Server 2008, but more importantly I chiefly discuss the improvements to…
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Windows Fever… Catch It!
This morning we in the field of Information Technology awake to a new reality… A virtual reality if you will, but one that is quite real. On July 5th I posted an article in this space called A Response to VMware’s ‘Get the Facts’ page comparing vSphere to Hyper-V and System Center. In the four…
The World According to Mitch 