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Help! My free storage cannot be used for an iSCSI Virtual Disk!
I have written at length in the past about both Storage Spaces (Storage Pools: Dive right in!) and Software iSCSI Targets (iSCSI Storage in Windows Server 2012), as well as Failover Clusters (See list). These are all great technologies that IT Professionals should know. Recently I got an e-mail from a reader who had all…
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That Was the Week That Was…
This has been one of those weeks that I love as an IT Professional. I have succeeded in keeping meetings to a minimum, and got to play with a lot of cool technology. If I look back on the week, and this is without reviewing my notes, I have built: Storage Pools iSCSI Targets Failover…
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Distinguished Names for Complex Items
Distinguished Names are pretty simple, right? Well… it depends on several factors. To figure out the DN for swmi.ca it is… dc=swmi,dc=ca. An Organizational Unit is not much harder… Let’s take an OU called Toronto in the swmi.com domain… ou=Toronto,dc=swmi,dc=ca. Simple. But what happens when we add a little complexity to our environment? Say… OUs within…
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Failover Cluster OUs
I recently created a proof of concept for a client that was built into their production environment. The POC required me to create a couple of failover clusters, so I got the names from the customer, and created them… like I’d done a thousand times before. Several weeks went by and the customer called me…
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An Open Letter to Application Developers
Dear Developers, I want to thank you for continuing to build applications and programs and other software that makes my life better. As an Infrastructure Specialist I feel my kind and your kind have developed a nice symbiosis over the years – I build the environments on which your solutions run, and you make my…
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Server Core: Every bit the Full Server as the GUI is!
Microsoft introduced Server Core with Windows Server 2008, which means that it was the same kernel as Windows Vista. Now, nobody is going to stand up and sing the praises of Vista, but Server 2008 was a very solid OS. You may (or may not) remember that there was a campaign around Vista called ‘The WOW starts…
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Where am I? HELP!
My colleague created a virtual machine for me in our datacentre a few weeks ago. (Thanks Michael!) Earlier this week I needed to create a second virtual machine to cluster with it, and I felt that the best way to maximize my resources completely would be to create another virtual machine identical to the first. …
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Step by Step: Building a Scale-Out File Server (SoFS) on Windows Server 2012 R2
In several presentations since Windows Server 2012 was released I have heard Microsofties claim that SAN devices are a thing of the past. I have a hard time getting on board with that, but have nonetheless told many an audience that if they are planning on throwing their SANs out because Microsoft said so then…
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Help! Where is my Client Access Point?
So you are building a Scale Out File Server (SoFS). You are all happy because you read one of my articles (or POSSIBLY someone else’s… but really, why would you hurt me like that?) and you know you are good to go. You have your cluster, you have your drives, and you have created your…
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Stream-lining: A review of my new companion device.
I have always had a deal with the companies that have supported me over the years: If you give me a product to test and I like it, I will write about it. If I don’t like it, I will not write about it. That is why there are so few negative reviews on my…
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My New Word…?
I was driving with a friend over the week-end, and describing the behaviour of someone with whom I recently cut all ties. Part of the reason I did is because she is a master manipulator. “She is a Manipulatrix.” Brad said he loved that word, even though he had never heard it before. I admit,…
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Let’s Spread the Action Around… With NLB! (Part 1)
**AUTHOR’S NOTE: I have written hundreds of articles on this blog over the past decade. Until recently I spent a lot of time taking screen shots of GUI consoles for my how-to articles. For the time being, as I try to force myself into the habit, I will be using Windows PowerShell as much as…
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Help! My Servers Aren’t Being Monitored!
This isn’t right… I have System Center Operations Manager monitoring all of my servers for me, but this morning I noticed that several of my servers are in a warning state, but they are greyed out (which implies that they aren’t reporting in properly). What do I do? This is not uncommon, especially in smaller…
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The Things We Do For Charity…
Over the last few weeks I have done some Facebook reposts about the OMAC Juvenile Arthritis Charity Tournament. One of our students at Master Kim’s Oriental Martial Arts College is a kid named Ayden Soares. As you can imagine, Arthritis is a very painful disease, especially for children. When our school decided to get together…
The World According to Mitch
The day to day ramblings of an IT Professional (and so much more…)
