~¥~| Nirmal Madhawa |~¥~

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Host a Web Server with ADSL

Hiding a User Account from the Welcome Screen

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..