~¥~| Nirmal Madhawa |~¥~

System Center Virtual Machine Manager Self-Service Portal 2.0 SP1 Beta

2011-03-06T05:00:00Z

System Center Team has release a new beta service pack for System Center Virtual Machine Manager Self Service Manager Portal 2.0. This is now available via connect as a Public Beta. You can use below mentioned link to download this beta version of the service pack

https://connect.microsoft.com/site1044/InvitationUse.aspx?ProgramID=5055&InvitationID=DIT-DKPH-BWTH

there are few notable changes which gets added with this services pack. Before evaluating this service pack in my test lab, I thought of providing a general overview of new features which gets added

1) Set Expiry of Virtual Machine -> this is a new capability which gets added after applying SP1 Beta. This feature will allow administrators to set expiry on a virtual machine, and the virtual machine will automatically get deleted after a specified time period.

2) Notifications for Administrators -> it’s now possible to notify Business Unit Administrator or Datacenter Administrators regarding various events

3) Move Infrastructure between different business units -> this features provides capability to move infrastructure from one business unit to another

4) Import Virtual Machines -> Datacenter Administrators can import machines which were created using VMM and also re-import machines which were removed from self-service portal

I will be evaluating this beta and hoping to provide more details in my future blog posts.

References:

http://blogs.technet.com/b/systemcenter/archive/2011/03/05/system-center-virtual-machine-manager-2-0-sp1-beta-is-now-available.aspx

Step by Step Guide to Implementing a TWO NODE Failover Cluster – Part 02

2011-03-04T12:07:00Z

As I have demonstrated how we prepare Cluster nodes for a two node failover cluster, in this post let’s have a look at how we can use Cluster Validation Tool to generate a report. I will be using Windows Server 2008 for this demonstration and before moving any further let’s have a look at what tests are performed using Cluster Validation Tool.

Cluster Validation tool is a wizard found on Failover Cluster Management Console. Following tests are carried out when you perform cluster Validation Tool

· Inventory Validation

· Network Validation

· Storage Validation

· System Configuration

We will look at what are exact components or sub-tests that takes place during validation testing in another post.

First we need to go to administrative tools and then open Failover Cluster Management Console

After selecting Failover Cluster Management option, it will open Failover Cluster Management Console

We can right click on Failover Cluster Management and then select “Validate a configuration” option to initiate Cluster validation wizard

As you can see below, first screen provides us with a description relating to Cluster validation wizard.

Next we need to add what are the NODEs which we need to validate.

I will add my Cluster NODE01 and Cluster NODE02

After I select both NODEs, it gets added to my Cluster validation wizard

Next, we need to decide, whether are running all tests, or whether we are going to run a selective test. For this demonstration, I will be running all tests to validate NODE01 and NODE02

Next we have a confirmation summary screen. We can review what are the tests which will be performed against NODE01 and NODE02

After I select next, validation wizard will start validation my cluster configuration

once this is completed, it’s possible for us to view a report

We can open this report as a web page and we can see results.

In my next post, we will create a cluster and let’s see how we can configure it

Step by Step Guide to Implementing a TWO NODE Failover Cluster – Part 01

2011-03-03T04:16:00Z

In this blog post I will be demonstrating how we can create a TWO NODE failover cluster using Windows Server 2008 Failover cluster capabilities. First part of my blog post will contain information on how we can prepare both nodes before creating a cluster.

First we need to look at basic requirements which need to prepare a Failover Cluster.

Make storage available to all nodes
Configure Network adapters on all nodes
Cluster components to be “Certified for Windows Server 2008”

I have configured two networks for Public network and also Private Network.

Let’s look at Public and Private network configuration

Public Adapter -> we configure with IP Address, Subnet Mask ,Default Gateway and DNS

Public Adapter -> I will only provide IP Address and Subnet Mask

Next let’s proceed and configure Storage Connectivity. I will be connecting to my storage using the build-in iSCSI initiator

After selecting iSCSI Initiator, first it will prompt you to start iSCSI service, which is set to start manually by default on Windows Server 2008 / Windows Server 2008 R2.

After that we need to allow iSCSI to communicate through Windows Firewall. This will be automatically configured for you when you select Yes

After this step, you will find iSCSI initiator properties.

Navigate to discovery tab and select “Add Portal” option for us to connect with our shared storage

We need to provide with an IP Address or DNS name for iSCSI target

Once we enter required information, we can proceed

Next we need to navigate to Targets TAB which will allow us to connect with the storage. Select Log on option

We need to allow following options when connecting with the storage

- Automatically restore this connection the computer starts

After completing this step, we have now successfully configured our storage connectivity.

Let’s go ahead and prepare disks using DISK Management utility

After accessing DISK management console, we can notice that there’s a new DISK added .

We need to right click on the DISK and bring it ONLINE

After we bring this DISK online, we can then go ahead and initialize this disk

We need to select which disk, we need to initialize so that it can be access by Logical Disk Manager. We will configure this disk as a MBR style partition disk

Now that we can access this disk, we will go ahead and create a volume

In this window, we will be specifying the size of the disk

Next we need to select a drive letter

Next, we need to change the volume label, and also select “Perform a quick format” option

Now that we have already configured, it’s possible for us to view this disk from Disk Management console

Now let’s move to NODE 02, on NODE 02 we need to bring DISK 1 online, which we have already configured on NODE 01

After refreshing disk management console, we can see that it’s no more in unallocated state, so we only need to bring it online now

Since we have completed configuring both disks, Next we will proceed and run validation using Failover Cluster Management console. Before proceeding, we need to go to Server Manager on both servers and install Failover Clustering which is located under features section.

In my next blog post I will publish how we can run Failover Cluster Validation Tool and validate configuration.

Windows 7 SP1 / Windows Server 2008 R2 SP1–General Availability

2011-02-22T05:29:15Z

Microsoft recently released a new Service pack for Windows 7 and Windows Server 2008 R2. It was released on 16th for TECHNET/MSDN subscribers and I was lucky enough to get it downloaded on the same day for evaluation. Now that I’m already on SP1 I would like to share my experience before General Availability which is on 22nd. Apart from updated Hotfixes are no major changes if you apply SP1 on Windows 7, but there are two new features added with SP1 when you apply it on top of Windows Server 2008 R2. My post will be an introduction to these changes which is applicable for Windows Server 2008 R2 with SP1.

First Feature, that has been added is called Dynamic Memory.This feature allows you to pool all memory available on a physical host between virtual machines as required depending on the workload.

Other feature which was introduced is called Remote FX which allows a virtualized Graphical Processing Unit on the server side to deliver rich media and 3D user experience for VDI Solutions. Users will be able to experience Windows Aero desktop environments and also watch videos within a Virtual Machine environment.

Windows Server 2008 R2 SP1/Windows 7 SP1 will be available on Windows Update today (22-02-2011). I will post more on Dynamic Memory as well as Remote FX in my future posts.

Installing Forefront Endpoint Protection 2010

2011-01-01T07:13:00Z

After researching about Endpoint Protection, I thought of downloading and evaluating the product. first of all, size of the ISO is only 76MB and that didn’t take a long time for me to download it

after downloading, I managed to mount it using my image mounting tool and since I’m not having SCCM in my environment I navigated to “Client” folder and run “FEPInstall.exe”

I select Next option to proceed with the installation wizard which gave me a brief introduction about Forefront Endpoint Protection.

Next I need to accept Software License Terms

Next, I decided that I wont be participating for the customer experience improvement program and proceed with the installation

after above step, I was provided with an option to select, whether I want to enable my firewall(which is recommended), but I decided that I will leave my firewall in it’s current state and proceed

next we will proceed and install the product

below you will see a screen capture of the installation progress

after awhile you will notice that the installation has completed successfully

first time when you run the application, it will say that the computer is at risk, that is because we don’t have current definitions.First thing which I did was to up date endpoint protection with latest definitions

after completing definition update it’s possible for us to see information relating to definitions version and the date.Also you will notice that the color theme has now changed to GREEN from RED

as the application is now up to date I thought of initiating a scan

after completing the scan we can see statistics

next, I thought of using an infected pen drive to evaluate my detection capabilities. as soon as the pen drive was plugged in to the system, I was given a notification to take an action against a potential threat. looking at the alert level which is “Severe” I decided to go ahead and remove it.

after applying actions which I selected, cleaning process began

after few seconds, Endpoint Protection was successful in removing a severe infection

this is now visible in the history tab

this is a quick overview on installation of Endpoint Security and basic set of features and capabilities of the product.

Windows Server 2008 R2 Released to TECHNET/MSDN

2009-08-15T08:53:51Z

After releasing Windows 7 RTM to Technet/MSDN subscribers on the 6th August, Microsoft released Windows Server 2008 R2 and Hyper-V Server 2008 R2 to Technet/MSDN subscribers on the 14th August.

All Technet/MSDN subscribers can now download by accessing the subscriber downloads page

Windows 7 RTM released to TECHNET/MSDN

2009-08-10T11:13:41Z

Microsoft released Windows 7 to all TECHNET/MSDN subscribers on the 6th August. Downloads were available around 11PM Sri Lankan time, and i made a choice to download Windows 7 Enterprise X64 Edition. According to the comparisons online, there were no feature differences between Windows 7 Enterprise Edition compared to the Ultimate Edition. only difference is that the Enterprise Edition is available for Software Assurance customers and the Ultimate Edition is a retail edition.

i was using the previous RC1 edition (Build 7100) at that time, and decided to format the computer and to install a fresh copy of Windows 7 Enterprise. but the downloading was slow as expected due to the high number of downloads. so it took me two days to download the iso image. Finally managed to burn it to a DVD and installed it on my HP Pavilion DV6775TX laptop.

i was earlier under the wrong impression that both Windows 7 and Windows Server 2008 R2 will get released on the same day, but Microsoft blogs confirms that they will be releasing Windows Server 2008 R2 on the 14th of August.

Now it’s time for me to install all my applications and fine tune my system…

Recover deleted IE8 RSS Feeds

2009-07-19T15:51:30Z

I wanted to reinstall my operating system, and I was thinking for awhile whether to install Windows 7 or Windows Server 2008 R2. I was comparing advantages and disadvantages and then I finally decided to install Windows Server 2008 R2 so that I will be able to use Hyper-V as an added advantage over installing Windows 7

On previous occasions I used "Windows Easy Transfer" tool which easily backed up my profile and I was able to restore it back on the new operating system without any hazel

But this time I thought, I will backup my self :). Without using Easy Transfer, since I was anyway not sure how compatible it will be from Windows 7 to Windows Server 2008 R2. I backed up everything on to my D: drive after creating a folder called laptopbackup.

After that I took the next big step of inserting the windows server 2008 R2 build 7100 DVD on to my DVD rom and rebooted my pc. I booted from the DVD and did a clean installation of Windows Server 2008 R2 on to my laptop.

First time I logged in I noticed that most of my hardware devices were not detected. so I thought of doing a "Windows Update" and then while doing that I started coping files from my backup

After awhile I managed to install almost all drivers except for my bluetooth driver. Bluetooth on my HP Pavilion DV6775TX doesn’t seems to support. But this was not the only problem that I was facing :)

I opened my IE8 and noticed that I don’t have any of my RSS Feeds. I had a collection of RSS feeds which I collected for almost 3,4 years and these feeds helped me a lot to be up to date of most of the new activities relating to IT. And now they are all gone :(

But I'm lucky I took a copy of my entire profile before I formatted.

I managed to find the path where IE saves all Feeds by default

%userprofile%\AppData\Local\Microsoft\Feeds

I copied all content located in the feeds folder and pasted back in to my new profile. Closed IE and opened again. It worked !!!!

Step by Step – Bitlocker To Go

2009-05-21T13:59:50Z

If you are running on windows 7, then Bitlocker To Go is something you should definitely try out

Let see how we can configure Bitlocker To Go

Requirements

You need to be running on Windows 7 or Windows Server 2008 R2

A USB Pendrive

Step by Step on how to configure

Open My Computer. Right click on the USB device and it should come up with an option “Turn on BitLocker”

Once “turn on Bitlocker” is selected it will open up the Bitlocker drive encryption Window

Once the initial scanning is done, it will provide you with two options. First option is whether to use a password to unlock the device and the other is by using a smart card

I’m going to go ahead by selecting to use a password to unlock the device. Next we should decide how we are going to store the recovery key. Recovery Key is very important incase if you lose the password or have difficulty in remember it, only way to get access to data within the pendrive would be use the recovery key. Recovery Key Storage has two options. You can print it out and store in a safe location or else you can save it as a text file. This is a mandatory step and it’s not possible to go further without selecting an option. I have decided to save as a file

After that it displays a summery. And all you have to do is click on “start Encrypting”

Time taken for the encryption depends on the size of the pendrive

After a while you should receive the following message and you have successfully completed Encrypting your pendrive

Next let’s see what happens when you plug your encrypted device on to Windows 7

As soon as you plug the device it will prompt you to enter the password.

Once you enter the password only you will be able to access data available on the pendrive

Windows 7 RC1 and Windows Server 2008 R2 RC1 Released for Technet and MSDN Subscribers

2009-05-01T17:05:33Z

Yesterday (30-04-2009), Microsoft released the new RC1 build (7100) of Windows 7 and Windows Server 2008 R2 for Technet and MSDN subscribers. However general public release will be on 5th May 2009.

some of the improvements over the Beta version

-DirectAccess User Experience

-User Account Control

-AppLocker

-System Partition Size

-Network Troubleshooting

Download Links for Technet And MSDN Subscribers

MSDN subscribers

TechNet Plus subscribers

Windows 7 Beta Expires on 1st August 2009 and Windows 7 RC will expire on 1st June 2010.

some useful links

Release Notes

Things to Know

Windows 7 Feature Walkthroughs

Service Pack 2 Released for Windows Server 2008 and Windows Vista

2009-05-01T16:28:05Z

Microsoft has released service pack 2 for Windows Server 2008 and Windows Vista

You may visit the link below for notable changes on Service pack 2

http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/dd335036.aspx?ITPID=sprblog

You may download Service Pack 2 via Windows updates or by using Technet/MSDN Subscriptions

Windows Search

2009-03-09T17:49:00Z

Windows Instant search is a very useful feature that comes with windows and also with some applications such as Outlook and OneNote. it really saves alot of time when searching. Those days when we want to search for a while it takes awhile and the results come up with nothing. then we narrow down the search criteria and search again. but now with the instant search, we don't have to wait any more. while we type indexing service will search and show the results. that’s why its called “Instant Search”. i use the instant search feature frequently on outlook to locate my emails. sometimes i use the instant search which is now embedded to Widows explorer to find files. yesterday i did a search on my Windows 7 to find a document, and i was amazed it was able to read the contents inside the files as well. but this is not a unique feature of Windows 7. it’s just that i haven't noticed that something is possible on Windows Vista. Vista also has the same capability but the indexing service has to be turned on. so finally i learned that it’s possible to search within the files through Windows Search. my next question was, why can’t i search within PDF and OneNote. Most of the articles that i have are on OneNote and PDF. but searching within those two file formats are not enabled by default. to enable it, you need to download something called an “ifilter” in other words indexing filter. ifilter works as a plugging for Windows Search and Windows Desktop Search to index content within a document.

initially i thought it’s not possible to index content within PDF and OneNote documents. but then i did a research and found that there are pluggings that we can use to enhance the capabilities of Windows Search.

so i downloaded the Microsoft Ifilter which supports indexing contents for the following file formats

.docx, .docm, .pptx, .pptm, .xlsx, .xlsm, .xlsb, .zip, .one, .vdx, .vsd, .vss, .vst, .vdx, .vsx, and .vtx.

you can download it from the link below

http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyID=60c92a37-719c-4077-b5c6-cac34f4227cc&DisplayLang=en

and also its possible to download the ifilter plugging from Adobe as well for FREE to index PDF documents

http://www.adobe.com/support/downloads/detail.jsp?ftpID=2611

Windows Server Core

2007-12-17T07:21:00Z

Microsoft Windows Server 2008 Code name: Longhorn consists of 8 editions. Each and every edition can be installed in two different ways which is the Server Core and the GUI installation. Server core is the new installation option which is included by Microsoft in this version of windows

Server core installation method can be deployed to support a single role or multiple roles. By using the server core installation it’s possible to optimize performance for the server roles you’re running because by default none of the services or any server roles get installed. After the installation what you basically get is a command prompt, also note that there’s no Graphical User interface installed when the server core installation method is used. Even if you connect to a server core installed server via RDP you will still get only the command prompt. But it’s possible to monitor using the computer management console remotely by using another server. When talking in terms of security which is a very critical aspect of a good network infrastructure, Server core installation will reduce the attack possibility since only certain server roles what is required by the administrators are installed in the server, also there’s no GUI shell

Another benefit of the server core installation is that it reduces the number of patches since only specific roles are running. Also the server core installation will only take 1.5GB of hard disk space but the full installation will take up to 5.5GB from disk space. Also the server core installation doesn’t support any sound adapters, because the audio stack is not included in the server core installation. Also note that it doesn’t contain any of the printer drivers unlike other Server operating systems. When the server core is configured as a print server you need to manually install the printer drivers from the cd

When deploying Windows Server 2008 it comes to a screen where you could choose between the Server core installation and the server installation with the GUI shell. Server core configuration could be done manually or by using an unattended file. The only difference is that you have to mention server core on your unattended file. Other than that it’s similar to an ordinary unattended file. Also note that if you have specified any features which are not available on the server, the unattended setup will not crash. It’ll still get installed but it’ll contain some extra registry keys e.g. - : some security features mentioned for IE 7, since IE7 is not available on the Server Core installation it’ll just get added to the registry

When deploying windows server core you should consider these facts

· Only a fresh new installation is supported
· It’s not possible to upgrade for a previous version of windows
After installation Windows Server Core, it’s not possible to upgrade to the GUI Shell and also vice-versa

Now let’s look at how to do some of the initial configurations

Change Password: - net user administrator *

Activation : slmgr.vbs script can be used. Also it’s possible to activate remotely

Configure IP: - netsh interface ipv4

Join a domain:- Netdom

How to add Server roles

Server roles can only be added by using the command line by using the Ocsetup

Start /w ocsetup %packagename%

Also note that you can’t install active directory using ocsetup command

Only way to promote the domain controller is to use a dcpromo unattended file

Dcpromo /unattended:unattendedfile

When IIS 7 Server roles is installed unlike other roles it runs on reduced functionality. The following functions are not available on the IIS 7 server core installation

· Management Service and the GUI tools
· ASP.Net
· Powershell Cmdlets

These are the server roles available in the server core installation

· Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol
· File
· Print
· Active Directory
· Active Directory Lightweight Directory Services
· Media Services
· Domain Name System
· Internet Information Service 7
· Windows Virtualization Service

Also the following options are also available

· WINS,
· Failover
· Clustering,
· Subsystem for UNIX-based applications,
· Backup,
· Multipath IO
· Removable storage management
· BitlockerDrive Encryption
· SNMP
· Telnet Client
· Qos

Host a Web Server with ADSL

2007-02-09T16:20:00Z

If you have an ADSL connection it is possible to Host a Web Server even though you are not given a static IP address by the Internet Service Provider.

There’s a mechanism called Dynamic DNS where your IP Address is mapped to DNS and updated in short intervals so that it won’t loose track of your IP, providing you with something similar to a static IP

First of all you need to have these pre requisites

An ADSL connection
ADSL router or a Modem with access to configure
IIS

Creating a DynDNS Account

Let’s see how to create a DynDNS account. You can select NO-IP or DynDNS. In my case I have selected DynDNS because it gives more functionality than NO-IP. Open your browser and go to http://www.dyndns.com and click on Create account. Enter the required details and click on create account. Then your DynDNS account will be created and you have to check your emails to activate the account. Once you have activated the account you can go to DynDNS and click on “Account” and login to the system, then click on “My Services”. Under the “My Services” tab you will see “My Hosts”. Under that there’s a link called “Add Host Services” click on that. Then click on “Add Dynamic DNS Host”

Give a host name that you like and select a domain name. Keep the default IP address. And click on “Add Host”. Now your are done creating the Host

Configure DynDNS in the Router

Now you have to check whether you have an option in your router to configure dynamic DNS to automatically update when your ISP gives you a new IP.im using a USR 9107 Router which gives a special option to configure DynDNS to map the IP address with DNS from the router.

Even if you don’t have this functionality in your router you don’t have to worry at all. All you have to do is to download the IP update client and install it to your computer. You can download it from the following link

Dynamic DNS Updater

Once you have installed it’s very easy to configure. Just follow the wizard and enter your DynDNS account details then the system will automatically synchronize with the DynDNS and map your IP address with your domain

Configure the Router for Port Forwarding

This is only applicable if you’re using a router. Because a router uses NAT it shares one IP address to all the computers connected to them when they access to the internet.

This is one of the most important things to do .That is to configure your router to forward port 80 in to your web server. Check your router manual for port forwarding facility. In my router there’s an option called “Virtual Server” where I can assign various ports to forward to my Server IP address.

After going to “Virtual Server” page which you can locate in the Security menu. Click on “add” and you will see this “Add Virtual Server” page. In that Select the Server as “Web Server (HTTP)” and enter your Server IP address after that click on apply

Now you are almost done

Next step is to configure your HOST file

Edit HOST file

If you want to test these things in your computer you need to Configure your HOST file

Go to %systemroot%\system32\drivers\etc then edit the host file

At the end of the file enter your IP address (IP address of your server) and then keep a space and enter your website address

Eg :- 192.168.1.2 nirmal.homeip.net

Configuring IIS

First go to “run” and type “inetmgr” and check whether you have IIS installed. Once you click ok IIS manager should open if it doesn’t open that means that your IIS is not installed. If that’s the case then go to Add/Remove programs and install IIS

Expand your Local Computer then expand Web Service Extensions. Click on that folder and

make sure that all your Web Extensions are running because by default in Windows 2003 Server Asp.Net functionality is disabled.

Now u can create a website and copy it to %systemdrive%\Inetpub\wwwroot

If it’s a public website you have to enable “Anonymous access” otherwise when ever some tries to login to the website they will require a username and a password. You can do this by going to IIS manager then expand local computer expand Websites then right click on Default Website go to properties click on the Directory Security Tab under Authentication and access control click Edit button then tick on “Enable anonymous access” and untick “Integrated Windows authentication”

Share one of your Folders to others over the Web

This is also another thing that you can do. You can share your folders and give a link to remotely access them and download.

Open my computer and go to the folder that you want to share right click on the folder and click properties click on the web sharing tab then click on “Share this Folder”. Make sure that you give Directory Browsing access. Then click ok. Go to IIS manager and set Anonymous permissions now your friends can access it via “http://yoursubdomainname.dyndnsdomain/aliasname”

Hiding a User Account from the Welcome Screen

2006-06-08T01:28:00Z

When a user account is created in a Windows Xp machine it usually appears in the Windows Welcome Screen and in User Accounts Control panel….in some cases we need to hide our user account from other uses…this is the way to do it…it’s a very simply thing u have to do…

Go to run and type regedit and open the registry

Go to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE,SOFTWARE,Microsoft,WindowsNt,CurrentVersion,WinLogon,Speical Accounts,UserList

To add an account just right click and select New DWORD value…when the user account is created enter the name of the account u want to hide…it’s simple as that..