Cloud computing is currently the number one hype topic. Many believe that it will replace on-premise computing over the long run. I guess most analysts who make such predictions never managed a server in the cloud. It sounds so easy: Just tell your cloud provider how many virtual servers you need and you are done. Computational power in the cloud is as easy to consume as electrical power. However, after I played for some hours with Amazon Elastic Compute Cloud (Amazon EC2), I came to a different conclusion.

Today I will give an overview of how a Windows server is installed in Amazon’s cloud and in my next I post I will share my opinion about Amazon EC2. The first steps are indeed as simple as many articles describe. You just have to give Amazon your credit card details and you are ready to enter the cloud. However, this is when the real work begins.

(more…)

Low responsiveness is the most common reason why people think that their computer is slow. Usually they blame the operating system, and in particular Vista. However, assuming that the hardware is as modern as the operating system, the real culprit is usually an application that had gone mad. This doesn’t necessarily mean that the program has crashed and is in an endless loop that is consuming all of your processor power. Some applications just misbehave by pushing other programs aside, claiming most of the resources for themselves. Sometimes it can take several seconds for a program that has already been loaded to respond to a mouse click.

(more…)

Do you think that Windows Vista is too fast? Then Cpukiller 3 is the solution to your problem. It helps you to slow down your Windows machine easily. You think, I am kidding? Not really. There are indeed situations when you require artificial processor load.

One typical scenario is that you want to test an application that only shows certain problems if the CPU is under stress. Another typical problem is running a legacy application on a modern computer. Sometimes the old application will run so fast that you are not able to interact with it. Recently, I had such a problem with a new application. I used VMware Workstation on a powerful server, and I wasn’t able to access the BIOS setup of a virtual machine because the “press F2” message was only displayed for a fraction of a second.

(more…)

There are quite a few new features in Windows 7 and Windows Server 2008 R2 that can only be used if both operating systems work together. Microsoft markets these features as better-together-features. They did something similar with Windows Vista and Windows Server 2008. However, this campaign just listed features that both operating systems have in common. Most of Vista’s new features don’t require Server 2008 and vice versa. This will be different with Windows 7 and Server 2008 R2. It is hard to tell whether this is for technical reasons or if it is only about marketing. Perhaps it is a little of both.

I wonder if this is the reason why Ballmer “recommended” skipping Vista recently. Maybe that was just a Freudian slip. It is also possible that Microsoft will change its attitude later when customers who just migrated to Vista start complaining that they can’t use the Server 2008 R2 features.

(more…)

• Total Network Monitor, a new tool from Softinventive Lab. Supported probes: ICMP, TCP,  HTTP, FTP, SMTP, POP3, IMAP, Event Log, Service State, Registry State, File Existence, File Size,  File Compare, File Count, Disk Space.
• Paul Thurrott predicts Windows 7 will be made broadly available in June 2009 – Ed Bott agrees
• Download Vista/Server 2008 SP2 Beta: ISO -  x86 – x64 -  ia64
• Licensing Windows Server 2008 Terminal Services – Short Microsoft paper
• Microsoft Online Subscription Program Licensing and Policy Guide for Customers – 13 pages
• System Center Virtual Machine Manager 2008 Configuration Analyzer – VMMCA is a diagnostic tool for computers with VMM
• Expanded Control with Group Policy Preferences – This Technet article gives a good overview.
• Gartner: By 2012, the majority of x86 server workloads will be running in virtual machines. That’s in 3 years! I doubt it.
• Windows worm swells new mega-botnet – 500,000 machines. Scary!
• A plea to the Windows team: Don’t make Windows 7 too Mac-like – I can’t agree more!

If you’ve read your RSS feeds yesterday, you probably noticed that Vista SP2 Beta is now available for Technet Plus and MSN subscribers. Quite a few news sites mentioned that Hyper-V is included in Service Pack 2 for Vista. Some sites corrected this mistake today. Of course, Hyper-V RTM is only included in SP2 for Windows Server 2008. There are two things I find remarkable about this incident.

When I first read that SP2 includes Hyper-V for Vista I was quite perplexed. I have been testing SP2, and there was no Hyper-V. So could it be possible that Microsoft really waited for the Beta for such an important change? Even more puzzling was that all of sites I’ve read just mentioned it in passing. Thus, my first thought was that it has been generally known already for some time that SP2 would include Hyper-V for Vista and I somehow missed this important information.

(more…)

With Windows Server 2008, Microsoft introduced the most important changes regarding administration. The role model and the new Server Manager were the main changes. Also in Windows Server 2008, R2 componentization is a bit more fine-grained and Server Manager supports remote administration. Other highlights are the new power management features, the PowerShell support for Server Core, and DHCP Failover.

Management tools

• Server Manager now supports remote administration of servers
• Better integration of management consoles in Server Manager
• Active Directory Administrative Center and IIS have a task-driven user interface and their administrative capabilities are based on PowerShell cmdlets

(more…)

Have you ever had a local print job hang and were not able to cancel it in the print job queue? I have experienced this problem several times recently. It is quite annoying because usually one can’t print as long as the erroneous job is in the queue. I am guessing that your helpdesk often receives similar requests about this issue.

(more…)

Some days ago, the IT forum published a presentation from Jason Buffington, Senior Technical Product Manager for storage solutions at Microsoft, about the new features of Data Protection Manager 2007 Service Pack 1. The video also introduces DPM 2007 and the recently released Feature Pack. The most interesting part is certainly about the enhancement that SP1 will bring. I copied here the main parts of the presentation:

SQL Server backup

• SQL Server 2008 Protection for mirrored databases now includes backup on failover
• Ability to backup databases in parallel within same instance

(more…)

• Microsoft’s new TMG firewall (ISA Server successor) is now available
• Microsoft System Center Service Manager Vision and Planned Capabilities Whitepaper – 12 pages. Interesting stuff!
• Operations Manager 2007 R2 Beta Available! New: cross-platform monitoring, service-level tracking, new monitor templates
• Update Rollup 5 for Exchange 2007 SP1 is now released – Only bug fixes.
• New version: Active Directory Change Reporter – I blogged about this free tool a while back. New: support for Windows Server 2008, reporting of AD object security changes, several critical performance and reliability improvements.
• Filling up Active Directory (AD) with some test data – This script can be useful, if you have to run some tests.
• Microsoft Exploring Windows 8 Exclusively 64-Bit Scenario – I heard the same story already for Windows 7.
• The free Microsoft Offline Virtual Machine Servicing Tool 2.0 is now available – Helps to keep offline VMs up-to-date.
• Microsoft warns of new Windows attacks – This Conficker.a worm seems to be a serious threat. Check your firewall!
• The “Big Four” Cloud Offerings – This post compares Amazon AWS, Google App Engine, Microsoft Azure, Salesforce.
• Vista SP2 RC in February, RTM in April 2009

Internet Information Services (IIS) have some interesting new features in Windows Server 2008 R2, which justifies the new version number, i.e. IIS 7.5. Most noteworthy  is that you can now run ASP.Net applications on Server Core. Of course, it will reduce security if you install .NET on Server Core, but IIS without .NET doesn’t make much sense either. The performance-related improvements are not very exciting in my opinion. However, support for 256 logical processor cores makes Windows an interesting server OS for cloud computing.

(more…)

Active Directory Domain Services in Windows Server 2008 R2 support a new forest functional level. I am not sure if all of the features described here require the R2 functional level. I will try to find out more about this issue soon. The better PowerShell support is probably the most important enhancement. However, my favorite new feature is the new Recycle Bin.

Powershell Cmdlets

They replace the current Active Directory command line tools. There are about 85 Active Directory-related PowerShell cmdlets

(more…)

This is the first post in my series about the new features in Windows Server 2008 R2. As in my series about the new features of Windows 7, I will update the articles when I learn about new features. I will discuss some of the new features in more detail soon.

Essentially, the term “virtualization” covers three different technologies in Windows Server 2008 R2: Server Virtualization, Desktop Virtualization, and Presentation Virtualization. Server Virtualization is based on Hyper-V 2.0, which will get quite a few interesting new features. The virtualization technology behind Desktop virtualization, i.e., Virtual Desktop Infrastructure (VDI), is also Hyper-V.

This is probably the most important new feature in Windows Server 2008 R2. Presentation Virtualization is nothing but the good old Terminal Server. Technically, I find it a bit odd to use the term “virtualization” in this context, but from a marketer’s point of view, it probably makes a lot of sense. Note that Microsoft renamed the “Terminal Services” as “Remote Desktop Services” in Windows Server 2008 R2.

(more…)

There are quite a few enhancements in Windows 7 that directly address the work of system administrators. In particular, OS deployment will be improved. However, there is no wow feature like the new imaging capabilities of Windows Vista. Also noteworthy is the support of VHD files. This demonstrates that virtualization technology is moving more and more from the server to the desktop. The new PowerShell features are certainly nice, too. It has yet to be seen which of these will also be available on Vista and XP.

VHD image management and deployment

• Virtual Hard Disk (VHD) files can be deployed using Windows Deployment Services
• VHD files can be managed using DISM (see below)
• Boot from a VHD file: This feature allows the reuse of the same master image for virtual desktops (VDI) and physical desktops

(more…)

• GFI released LANguard 9. GFI LANguard allows you to scan, detect, assess and rectify vulnerabilities in your network.
• MaxPowerSoft released Active Directory Reports 4.1.1.1 Quite a few new features!
• Free Microsoft eBook – “Windows Server 2008 Networking and Network Access Protection (NAP)
• Microsoft’s Exchange Online (starting from $10 per user per month) and SharePoint Online ($7.25 per user) are available.
• Microsoft Live OneCare will be replaced with a new free anti-malware solution (code-name Morro). In my view, malware protection is an essential part of an operating system.
• Update Rollup 5 for Exchange Server 2007 SP1 is almost out-the-door

(more…)