From the monthly archives:
September 2010
Episode 15 of the Coalface Tech podcast is now online!
Episode 15 of the Coalface Tech podcast is now online!
In this episode, Steve and I caught up with Johann Kruse, Unified Communications guru with Microsoft Australia, to discuss the Release Candidate of Lync Server, the latest in Microsoft's UC platform.
Lync Server received a huge amount of attention at TechEd 2010, so make sure that you download the slide decks and presentations.
Unified Communications is one of those areas of technology which is rapidly changing business models. The need for office and in-house server infrastructure is diminishing, especially in smaller businesses with mobile, tech-savvy users. Solutions like BPOS take this even further, offering businesses a complete productivity and collaboration platform, which is highly-available and accessible anywhere.
Of course, the cloud is the great enabler, and we all threw our ideas out about what the cloud means to each of us (not in a group therapy sense, of course), but in drawing ...
Renai LeMay says we prefer Internet Explorer ... but that's not entirely true ...
Renai LeMay today posted a feature story on Delimiter - Desktop dictatorship: Corporate Australia still prefers IE.
He attempts to explore why companies in Australia still continue to use the $EVIL Internet Explorer. And he doesn't do a bad job - as far as he goes.
The reality is that corporate Australia has had little alternative if they wanted to keep their desktop and notebook fleet up to date. I'm not talking about companies that are ridiculous enough to continue to run Internet Explorer 6 (or earlier), or those who are slow enough to still be running Internet Explorer 7. I am talking about the companies who pay attention to the security of their predominantly Microsoft infrastructure, and have a rigorous patch management programme that includes testing before release.
Happily, there are plenty of those out there. I have any number of colleagues who conscientiously test and deploy the Microsoft patches regularly. They update to the next ...
A cautionary note on your approach to a DPM 2010 upgrade ...
I've advised a number of people since the DPM 2010 release to look at a migration rather than an upgrade, regardless of the fact that upgrading is supported. It's worth clarifying exactly why I take this position.
The single best platform to run DPM 2010 on is Windows 2008 R2. There is no possible question to this. There's a very good reason for this claim, and that is that it fixes a problem I found relatively early on with DPM and VSS in previous versions of Windows. I'm by no means the only one to find the problem, but I am perhaps the first to have reported it to Microsoft, based on the time it took to acknowledge and escalate it.
Prior to Windows 2008 R2, VSS was limited to 10,000 snapshots. The reason for this is simple, if not exactly sensible. The snapshots are stored in the registry as a 4-byte value, starting from 0000 and going to 9999. If you go over 9999, your backups will stop working properly ... and you'll most likely need to redo your protec ...
Shock! Being in the public eye means you're public! Or do people not entirely realise that?
I have to confess that I'm fed up with hearing the discussion this week about public versus private identity - whether pseudonyms should be revealed by the media - sparked by the Australian's revelation of the identity of Grog's Gamut. Over and over again my Twitter stream has kept coming back to the same arguments.
So what the hell, let's write a post about it. I don't even read the Grog's Gamut blog. I may have started following him on Twitter yesterday, but I do that almost reflexively so I can't be sure. Frankly, I just don't care about it - working as a public servant myself, I've had reason to become disenchanted with all sides of politics, and I've certainly blogged about some of it here. But as a general rule, I don't want to live and breathe politics.
Where this does come into play for me is the discussion about private versus public life. For years, I passively concealed my full identity as "Matt M". I say passively, because I didn't go to any special extents to conceal ...
This post is in reply to Nathanael Boehm’s UX for System Architects.
System Architecture is in many ways similar to traditional Engineering or Architecture.
In both cases the end result is almost always going to be used by somebody (Even if it’s just the maintenance team).
In both cases the client will have a number of explicit requirements – I want a three bedroom, two story house, I only have $400k to spend. There will also be a huge number of implied or hidden requirements ...
This post is in reply to Nathanael Boehm’s UX for System Architects.
System Architecture is in many ways similar to traditional Engineering or Architecture.
In both cases the end result is almost always going to be used by somebody (Even if it’s just the maintenance team).
In both cases the client will have a number of explicit requirements – I want a three bedroom, two story house, I only have $400k to spend. There will also be a huge number of implied or hidden requirements – The external doors need to be on ground level, the roof mustn’t blow off in the first rain storm.
Knowing these requirements lets an Architect produce a design that meets the requirements as best as possible. Sane Architects will include some flexibility into the design – say having stronger joists than absolutely required so another floor can be added later.
Even with the most flexible design, there are some fundamentals that can’t be ...
DPM and the lack of brick-level backup (or item-level recovery, if you like) seems to be a sticking point for some. Let me outline our overall approach, which addresses not only this, but so much more ...
It seems that administrators are still addicted to brick level backups, or other, even less standard ways of accessing individual mailbox backups. Let's be clear here - Recovery Storage Groups are the supported method of recovery as far as Microsoft goes.
I've seen admins complain that it's a waste of space to have a dedicated RSG LUN. Perhaps, but it's much less painful than trying to find one in a hurry when you need to do an RSG restore, or even an offline defrag. This is probably one of the more common stalling points when it comes to DPM, though.
System Center Data Protection Manager implements only the supported methods of recovery for each Microsoft workload it protects. That means Recovery Storage Groups are the go for Exchange backups .. but it also means no "tax" for additional agents, you simply pay for the DPM Enterprise Management License to cover both file and Exchange for that server, which makes it rather cheap. Especially since you don't pay for a ...
Snom, OCS / Lync, and Snomtastic might just change the game ... perspective from an early adopter!
It was very cool to see that Snom is now officially compatible with OCS 2007 R2 and the upcoming Lync Server (Communications Server 14). You might remember that we - as in my workplace - put our faith in Snom for our PBX replacement project. We've run it for over a year now all up, and our rollout has been overall a great success - with staff genuinely using the OCS capabilities while continuing to have the 'comfort' of their desk phone they're so used to.
The unit listed for compatibility is the Snom 300, which is the entry level device. The cool thing about this is that all devices in the 3xx series have an essentially common firmware, and the 8xx mirrors (and expands on) this functionality. We've seen a lot of revisions of the firmware over the past year, and some of the functionality now included is fabulous - like being able to manage your OCS call forwarding from the handset, including choosing from your OCS contacts or voicemail.
Given the Microsoft tic ...
In which I compare Parallels Desktop 6 and VMWare Fusion 3.1 under Mac OS X, as a virtualisation platform for Microsoft Windows Server operating systems. In this, Part 2 of the review, I install Windows Server 2008 R2 under VMware Fusion 3.1.
We start this entry with a nice clean profile and a fresh install of VMWare Fusion 3.1.1. If you'd like to catch up with where we've been, take a look at Part 1 of the review.
Part 2 - Using VMware Fusion to Easy Install Windows Server 2008 R2 Enterprise
You can't help but notice that Parallels and VMware might have been looking at how each others product operates, because many of the processes for creating Virtual Machines are very similar. Nice easy installation steps - just like Mac people want/need.
After selecting Continue at the 'Create New Virtual Machine' window (Fusion had detected my Windows Server 2008 R2 disc), you get to use the Windows Easy Install feature. This allows you to enter an account name, password, and Windows Product Key for your Windows version. This will then automatically install drivers, product key and tools. You can also choose to allow the VM to have access to your Mac ...
If Twitter is the answer, who the hell cares what the question was?!
[This is cross-posted at http://www.gnomeangel.com/ as a guest post there]
When @GnomeAngel asked me to write about Twitter, I thought it would be really simple. As I pondered what it meant, I was very wrong.
Then, I saw a tweet from one of my favouritest humans ever:
Perspective. From a man who has been known for most of his life having his first name prefixed with the word "Weird".
I signed up for my first account 4 July 2007. 29,000+ tweets later (on that account alone), it's a fair call to say that I'm very close to being addicted and needing my own 12-step program. I now have 3 personal accounts (split to reflect the content & so as to not sully one stream of followers with info & views that may not be of interest to them); 1 account I set up for my team at work to share & connect with those we deal with; 1 parody account (which is a little ignored, but is there to u ...
In which I compare Parallels Desktop 6 and VMWare Fusion 3.1 under Mac OS X, as a virtualisation platform for Microsoft Windows Server operating systems. In this, Part 1 of the review, I install Windows Server 2008 R2 under Parallels Desktop 6.
There have been many reviews on the internet performing competitive comparisons between Mac virtualisation tools, but they generally compare features and performance with consumer based OSs like Windows 7, and gaming performance.
I'm not really interested in one-off VMs, and if I want to run games I'll reboot under Bootcamp or use a PC. But what I do want to do is run up a few Windows Server machines to mess about with different tools, such as Exchange, OCS, SQL, Forefront, etc. Normally you'd configure a PC to run Hyper-V or ESXi and sit it in the corner somewhere.
Being a Mac person, I don't have spare PC hardware laying about and can't justify going out and buying equipment to build a PC that will do justice to a decent virtualisation platform. However I do have a Mac, and TechNet subscription so why not use virtualisation software for OS X for the same job!
Parallels and VMWare have generously provide me with 'Not-For-Resale' serial numbers for their respective ...
Note: Cross-posted from my personal blog.
The creation of the internet has ushered in the era of the true global marketplace. It has expanded the reach of business beyond what anyone in history could have imagined. It has given consumers the opportunity to not only shop locally or nationally but also now globally.
The opportunities are there for business as well. Just as consumers are shop from any number of online stores, businesses can also sell their products and services to a person regardless o ...
Note: Cross-posted from my personal blog.
The creation of the internet has ushered in the era of the true global marketplace. It has expanded the reach of business beyond what anyone in history could have imagined. It has given consumers the opportunity to not only shop locally or nationally but also now globally.
The opportunities are there for business as well. Just as consumers are shop from any number of online stores, businesses can also sell their products and services to a person regardless of which corner of the world they reside in. The ability for a business to be able to compete, and potentially profit – from a global marketplace has never been greater.
Sadly, what we're seeing is that this 21st century opportunity is being crippled by 20th century protectionism.
The problem stems from the fact that instead of treating the internet like the single, global market that it is they continue to try and force people into their geography-based ...
I’ve been listening to Run As Radio for some time now and I found episode 167 thought provoking and wanted to share these thoughts. A bit of background.. Run As Radio is run by Richard Campbell and Greg Hughes. Some of you many know Richard from Dot NET Rocks his other podcast, others may have heard the episode of Coal Face Tech we recorded this year at Tech.Ed Australia where Richard was a guest.
Episode 167 featured Mark Minasi an IT trainer, consultant and author of well over 25 boo ...
I’ve been listening to Run As Radio for some time now and I found episode 167 thought provoking and wanted to share these thoughts. A bit of background.. Run As Radio is run by Richard Campbell and Greg Hughes. Some of you many know Richard from Dot NET Rocks his other podcast, others may have heard the episode of Coal Face Tech we recorded this year at Tech.Ed Australia where Richard was a guest.
Episode 167 featured Mark Minasi an IT trainer, consultant and author of well over 25 books based in the US. Ep167 featured a discussion around current server environments that both Richard and Mark have and thoughts on features that they would like to see in Windows 8.
Firstly the big point to note for both Mark and Richard they are both still running Windows Server 2003 for their web servers. By far the most complex servers in their respective environments. I found this an interesting point, certainly I tend not to muck around too much with my sit ...
Evaluating a work package can be an interesting past time. Are you only focusing on the money?
Note - Cross posted from my personal blog
Looking at friends and colleages who have been in the work market in years past, it's interesting to note that the evaluation of the package tends to focus on the pay packet plus super. That's important, certainly, in an age where totally disconnected executives make decisions on interest rates that make you scrape from week to week.
But let's say you get a job which pays the bills (even if it's only just). What about the rest?
Do they have a generous leave allowance? 4 weeks per annum is fairly standard for Australia, but for example in Government, there's often a "flex" leave program in place, which adds anywhere up to 20 or so days to this. Or perhaps they allow work from home periodically without penalty - that tends to acknowledge that you may not be working all the time you're at home, with an understanding that you will still be productive. I've seen studies which suggest that t ...
Two lucky AuTechHeads members have already won TechNet Professional subscriptions - will you be next?
Thanks to the guys at Microsoft, we've already given away two TechNet Professional subscriptions to a couple of lucky AuTechHeads members!
All they had to do was turn up to the most excellent 1st birthday party on the Gold Coast, enjoy some drinks and walk away with the prizes, but to win the next two subscriptions, you have to do a little bit more work :-)
As September is Windows 7 Deployment month for Microsoft Australia, the TechNet Professional subscriptions will be awarded to the IT professionals who provide us with the best short posts about their Windows 7 deployment efforts so far. You can write about your current plans to deploy Windows 7, experiences if you have already deployed it, tips and tricks based on real-life scenarios, feedback from customers, anything you like. All the entries will be judged and the best two will win!
Of course, there are rules, but not too many:
Please submit your entry as a response to this blog ...
Episode 14 of Coalface Tech is online! Windows 7 deployment, mobility and cloud (and prizes!)
Episode 14 of the Coalface Tech podcast is now online at AuTechHeads.
In this episode, I caught up with Jeff Alexander, IT Pro Evangelist with Microsoft Australia at TechEd 2010 to discuss what's going on in September 2010, which is Deployment Month. Windows 7 has been out for a year now, and many businesses have their deployment plans underway. Microsoft are keen to make sure that everyone has a smooth upgrade path, and in addition to the range of free tools and online resources, will be running Deployment labs (like the free Virtualisation labs run earlier this year).
There's also a mention of more TechNet Professional subscriptions to be won!
I also had a chat with Roger Lawrence, previously head of the Developer Platform Evangelist group at Microsoft Australia, and now Product Marketing Manager with Readify. We had a wide-ranging discussion covering the business impact of mobility and how it is influencing infrastructure specialists, how the cloud is making ...
Every organisation has its approach to deployment. We have recently reworked ours, so I thought I'd give you an example of one approach that, for us, is working well and will support our full rollout of Windows 7.
I'd been thinking of doing an "approach" post this week on Windows 7 deployment. As one of those happy coincidences, this week's Coalface Tech features an interview with Jeff Alexander (@jeffa36), one of the Microsoft evangelists who I've talked with and met a number of times. Jeff does a lot of work in the community, and is obviously passionate about deployment technologies - which makes it fun for me to listen since it's one of my own passions. The coincidence means that for once, my post is timely and relevant!
In my workplace, I take the role of our enterprise architect. Partly because it's one area as an IT Manager that I continue to be "allowed" to stay involved, but also because I've done it for so long. I design all our rollouts, be it for desktops, notebooks, servers, or mobile devices. One of my favourite tools for deployment is System Center Configuration Manager 2007 - SCCM, or ConfigMgr. I've blogged on ConfigMgr a few times, because it's an essential enabler for my IT team. I ...
It would stand to reason that I would have observed substantial improvements in the approach to security, and especially malware prevention, over my years in IT. Sadly, nothing could be further from the truth. It seems people are still falling for the same old traps.
If you'd asked me 10 years ago what the most common attack vectors were for malware, I'd have answered email and removable media.
If you ask me today, you'll get the same answer. Why is that the case? Because it still succeeds - and I would argue, more so than any other - so there's no real imperative to find alernative vectors. A lot of attention is given to self-replicating worms that exploit weaknesses, like Conficker and older worms; and arguably they do have quite a good success rate. But the real business still seems to be in email and removable media.
You might dispute that - but think about phishing (or spearphishing) attacks. Something which tends to actively require the victim's participation, and which is primarily initiated via email. They don't even send any malware in the email - they could well download malware to your computer as part of the attack, but it's not a pre-requisite to succeed. They're typically looking to dupe users of their password, bank details, an ...
DPM 2010 introduces auto-protect for SQL databases (at last!) but there's a couple of catches and caveats that you might want to know about ...
I think anyone who deals with DPM would agree that it's a different kind of backup product from a Backup Exec or a Commvault. Given past experience with those products, I'd be prepared to offer that this is a good thing; in fact even in an infrastructure with another long-term backup product, I'd be looking to implement DPM for the Microsoft workloads. It's simply that good.
One of the greatest additions to DPM 2010 is the auto-protect feature for SQL Server. Previously in DPM 2007, you had to manually add any and all databases to your protection group, and it was all too easy to forget to add a new database. This seemed like a bit of a strange oversight given that backup products have long had the ability to protect new databases as they're added. But that's sorted out now, thankfully.
The autoprotect feature does have its drawbacks. For example, in a smaller environment you may have test and training databases on the same server as your production SQL. It's one of the tradeoffs ...
Hello,
For the last few weeks, I've been working on Microsoft's latest addition to the Systems Center suite, Systems Center Service ManagerYes I'm spelling Center the American way, because it's the product name :)
For those who haven't been keeping up, here's what products come under the suite so far: http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/systemcenter/default.aspx
It ends up being a lot of initialisms and acronyms (learn the difference, SCOM is an acronym, SCSM is an initialism) that are all similar and ...
Hello,
For the last few weeks, I've been working on Microsoft's latest addition to the Systems Center suite, Systems Center Service ManagerYes I'm spelling Center the American way, because it's the product name :)
For those who haven't been keeping up, here's what products come under the suite so far: http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/systemcenter/default.aspx
It ends up being a lot of initialisms and acronyms (learn the difference, SCOM is an acronym, SCSM is an initialism) that are all similar and confusing. So today, we are discussing SCSM.
SCSM http://www.microsoft.com/systemcenter/en/us/service-manager.aspx is Microsoft's offering for a helpdesk which follows ITIL and MOS (acronyms ;) ). It will also integrate with SCCM for your assets and software, and SCOM for alerts and monitoring. It's more of a framework than an out of the box working helpdesk system.
You want some docs? Here you go http://blogs.technet.com/b/servicemanager/arc ...
What can philosophy teach IT Professionals about the art of Systems Administration? According to author and Microsoft Security MVP Orin Thomas, lots.
Note - this is a cross-post from my blog, Demonic Talking Skull
Systems administration is both an art and a science. Philosophy by its very nature, seeks to examine and understand human methodologies – why we think the way we do, why we do things the way we do. Following the guiding principle of enquiry and investigation, philosophy is in essence the mother of science and the scientific process – something which all IT professionals engage in at some level, whether consciously or not. How? Because as administrators we have to regularly assess and troubleshoot complex problems – problems which require a broad-ranging understanding of technology, business workflow and most importantly, context. These are skills which have little to do with technical training or certification, and everything to do with how we deal with information and evidence.
Most sysadmins like to think that they take a logical, measured approach to ...