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On the Windows Server Division blog, Ward Ralston, Group Product Manager of Windows Server Marketing, announced that Windows Server 2008 R2 will be released and available the same time of Windows 7.
This means both client and server operating systems will be released togeather at the same time (first time since the release of Windows 2000 server and workstation).

When Microsoft released Windows 2008, Microsoft decided to include just a beta version of the hypervisor (Hyper-V) within Windows, subsequently an update (RTM) was released via the Windows Update service.
This time Hyper-V version 2 will be RTM and part of the final release!! (All publicy available on October the 22nd 2009!!)

The only edition of Hyper-V 2.0 that will be delayed is the stand-alone platform Hyper-V Server 2008 R2, which Microsoft will release within 30 days the release of Windows Server 2008 R2.

Microsoft partners will have access to Hyper-V 2.0 starting the second half of July, through MSDN and TechNet software subscriptions.

Blog, Virtualization, Windows virtualization, hyper-v, windows 2008 r2

This man is a blogging machine, check out this good overview of Windows 7 DirectAccess (SSL VPN)

http://onehundredwatt.wordpress.com/2009/05/31/windows-7-directaccess-overview/

Blog, Virtualization windows7

Something I had always looked for, for my own information and from a marketing perspective was a solid performance comparison between what could be considered the big 3 hypervisors.

There are a number of these “lab tests” out there (and most look to be dated) but this is current and covers most of the points I was interesting in reading about.

I recommend having a look at the following post and I also recommend looking around the rest of the site. virtualizationreview.com has a ton of virtualisation related information and is usually presented in a complete and unbias fashion.

http://virtualizationreview.com/articles/2009/03/02/lab-experiment-hypervisors.aspx

Blog, Citrix, Virtualization, Windows virtualization, esx, xenserver, hyper-v

Blog, Virtualization, Windows virtualization, hyper-v

This is Microsoft’s entry into the Service Desk market, and aims to provide services to the broader Service Desk market by providing services addressing Incident, problem, change, asset and configuration management. Microsoft aims to provide technology flexible enough to meet the demands of the most demanding Service Desk and deliver where other service desk applications fail.

SCSM looks to integrate across other system management tools (System Centre tools?) and makes use of the System Centre Configuration Manager database, SCSM is designed to deliver process optimisation and best practice approaches. Being that I read a Gartner report recently stating that most dynamic service delivery companies are doing away with “best practice” and breaking the traditional moulds I can only sit here an wonder when is that right time to stop reading all these whitepapers on the Internet.

Microsoft’s release is CTP2 or community technology preview 2 and they have provide a live internet enabled VM for you to play with http://www.microsoft.com/systemcenter/en/us/service-manager.aspx

System Centre (or Center for our foreign friends) Service Manager is scheduled for release in 2010 and will probably be a good edition to the System Centre suite of applications and servers but probably only for the enterprise.

Interesting insightful blog post here on SCSM
http://timvanderkooi.wordpress.com/2008/12/05/service-managergreat-product-but-has-microsoft-missed-the-mid-sized-boat-again/

Microsoft’s official site here
http://www.microsoft.com/systemcenter/en/us/service-manager.aspx

Blog, Virtualization scsm

… and so should you!

Microsoft announced (5th May) that the Windows 7 release candidate (RC) is now available to the general public.

The download, (I recommend a good book or movie during the download), can be accessed here. The RC will be available through July 2009, according to Microsoft, and unlike the beta release of Windows 7, Microsoft isn't limiting the number of product keys for the RC. An RC of Windows Server 2008 R2 is also available for download by the general public.

The hardware requirements for Windows 7 RC are similar to those of Windows Vista. However, Microsoft's FAQ adds a caveat, stating that "some product features of Windows 7, such as the ability to watch and record live TV or navigation through the use of 'touch,' may require advanced or additional hardware." The FAQ doesn't elaborate, except to say that the listed hardware requirements represent running "average computing tasks, such as Web browsing and word processing."

Microsoft recommends backing up your data before installing Windows 7 RC. You can do an upgrade to Windows 7 RC from Vista, but the company recommends doing a clean install when migrating from Windows XP or Windows 7 beta. IT pros can use Microsoft's User State Migration Tool to move over old files, according to this demo.

Microsoft also has a Windows Easy Transfer tool for consumers to help restore files after a clean installation. It's typically used to move files from an old PC to a new one, but it requires a special USB cable.

Now what are you waiting for! (Stay turned for a future blog outlining my experiences so far)

Blog, Virtualization windows7

As of writing this blog Microsoft has not updated the base or RTM media install package for Forefront client security 1.0. While for some this will not create an issue as the client post install will be updated via WSUS/SCE or Microsoft update, for others such as myself I was unable to deploy the client side application on Windows 7 x64 (RC1 build 7100) as “Windows Installer” completed with a very unhelpful error.

To gain access to a updated client install browse to the following location
http://catalog.update.microsoft.com/v7/site/home.aspx

And search for “forefront client security”

You will be presented with a list of available downloads and as of 04/09 the following update contains client version 1.5.1958.0 (original install is 1.0.1703.0)

Download “Update for Microsoft Forefront Client Security (KB956280)” to a temporary location.

For x64 run the following followed by a /extract
“all-fcsam-kb956280-x64-enu_1dfb1029721f86ea98674400ffcb5cba629d0bc8”

For x86 run the following followed by a /extract
”en-fcsam-kb956280-x86-enu_36a7446704e0c16131f4db930663feaff3858c7f”

Extract the contents of the file(s) to a temporary location, the following will be extracted

mp_ambits.msi is the updated client this can be copied to your installation source overwriting the existing files. For a quick single user install simply run fcsinstall.exe as this installed a standalone copy of the client software in about 4 seconds flat! 

  Great success!

Blog, Virtualization forefront

“This operation has been cancelled due to restrictions in effect on this computer. Please contact your system administrator”

There are a number of policies or settings that can produce this error, relating to locking down a user desktop at a workstation or server level effecting Remote Desktop or XenApp users for example.
In my situation I was trying to add a printer with the “Add Printer” option in “Printers and Faxes” of a XenApp installed environment running Windows 2003 server. No Group Policies had been applied that would effect this, you can check this by looking here.

User Configuration –> (Policies W2K8) –>Administrative Templates –> Control Panel –> Printers –> Prevent addition of printers

You can easily check this by running “rsop.msc” on the workstation or server and checking the path above.

Tracing this using the GPO “Prevent addition of printers” - it makes changes to a registry key “NoAddPrinter.” While I was unable to find this in an user hive it was incorrectly set in
“HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\…\
\CurrentVersion\Policies\Explorer”

(Incorrect setting)
NoAddPrinter    REG_DWORD    0x00000000 (1)
(Also set)
NoDeletePrinter     REG_DWORD     0x00000000 (1)

Change the values to both be “0”.

Reboot, problem solved

Blog, Citrix, Virtualization printing, xenapp