IT Pro Tips

January 2008 - Posts

• Addressing Five Windows Vista Gotchas

  By Michael K. Campbell With rumors now swirling that Vista SP1 will be released sometime around February 15th (no idea if those rumors are true though), it’s likely that many organizations will now get more serious about adoption. In Five Windows Vista Adoption “Gotchas” and How to Get Beyond Them, Microsoft addresses some of the biggest concerns that enterprises have had when transitioning to Windows Vista. The best thing about this article is that it doesn’t sugar coat the content. Yes, Microsoft wants people to adopt Vista – but we all know that. The purpose of this article is therefore to help with that adoption process by outlining some of the key problem points that early adopters encountered with their transition to Vista. Gotcha #1: Hardware Compatibility This section starts with a frank acknowledgement that Vista requires decent hardware, and then provides a link and some information about downloading, installing, and using the Windows Vista Upgrade Advisor. Though I’ve already installed Vista on my own hardware in the past, I found the Upgrade Advisor easy to use, and pretty thorough in terms of the feedback it provided about my software and hardware. In addition to providing a bit of information and background on how to use the Upgrade Advisor, the remedy for this gotcha also describes some rollout strategies and prioritization efforts that organizations can use to transition into Vista adoption. Gotcha #2: Business Applications Again, with a frankness that I really enjoyed (i.e., instead of typical marketing), this section acknowledged that application functionality is one of the biggest impediments that many organizations will have in transitioning to Vista. Accordingly, it outlines how to use the Application Compatibility Toolkit, which offers application analysis, prioritization of potential problems or concerns, along with a database of known work-arounds. This section also makes mention of the Application Compatibility Factory and outlines ideas around leveraging virtualization in order to address difficult problems with application compatibility. Gotcha #3: In House Applications This section outlines the importance of educating in-house developers and making them aware of the architectural and security changes in Vista. TIP: Gotcha #3 explains how the Application Compatibility Toolkit can be used by developers to help test setup packages, websites and applications for Vista compatibility. Gotcha #4: User Account Control This section starts by admitting that Microsoft has taken a lot of flack over UAC, going so far as even to mention that Apple made fun of it in one of their commercials. With that in mind, this section then describes the rationale behind UAC and how it benefits organizations and end-users. It also lays out ways to educate end-users about how to successfully use UAC and provides information about configuring applications for successful deployment when UAC is involved. Gotcha #5: End-User Preparation The final gotcha in this article discusses the very real problem that many organizations will face in terms of how end-users will end up coping with a new environment. Not too surprisingly, this article points to the need to proactively educate users before any transition – in order to ensure the least amount of end-user disruptions. But this section of the article also talks about using the Enterprise Learning Framework to help enterprises prioritize the most relevant topics and coordinate curriculum that helps end-users during the transition. If you’re serious about deploying Vista within your organization and either don’t know where to start, or have identified some actual hurdles, Five Windows Vista Adoption “Gotchas” and How to Get Beyond Them is a frank and honest look at the best way to address some of the more common "gotchas" – and hopefully we’ll see additional, no-nonsense, articles like this in the future. Posted Jan 31 2008, 12:01 AM by itprotipsadmin with 2 comment(s) Filed under: Vista

• Microsoft System Center for Server Infrastructure Optimization

  By Mark Burnett I haven’t had a chance to get to use any System Center yet, but after watching the TechNet webcast Microsoft System Center for Server Infrastructure Optimization, I’m anxious to get it up and running. This webcast, given by four different presenters, covers System Center Configuration Manager, Virtual Machine Manager, Operations Manager, and Data Protection Manager. The webcast starts by explaining the role of each of these System Center components and how they all work together to manage your infrastructure. The first part of the presentation covers System Center Configuration Manager, which is the predecessor to SMS 2003. The webcast doesn’t have any live demos, but does include dozens of screenshots which I found easier to follow. In this screenshot, the webcast shows all the many ways you can configure and deploy Windows. The second part of the webcast covered the new System Center Virtual Machine Manager for managing physical and virtual environments. The webcast then covered all of the cool new features of Systems Center Operations Manager, the predecessor to MOM. TIP: Use Operations Manager to monitor an Exchange Server, the Exchange service, or even a single mailbox.   Finally, the webcast covers System Center Data Protection Manager, a tool that provides continuous data protection for applications. The webcast doesn’t go into too much depth on how to do specific things on these products, but it does walk through the screens enough to get a good feel for each one. I actually watched this webcast as I built the machines I would be installing System Center on, and after watching, I was anxious to get these applications up and running. You can view the webcast at Microsoft System Center for Server Infrastructure Optimization Posted Jan 30 2008, 12:01 AM by itprotipsadmin with 2 comment(s) Filed under: System Center

• Disaster Recovery in Exchange Server 2007

  By David Chernicoff With the TechNet Webcast: Disaster Recovery in Exchange Server 2007 new Administrators of Exchange 2007 deployments, or those considering deploying Exchange 2007, get a good overview and demonstration of the product features that can be used to provide data protection and improved availability of their mail servers. The webcast takes a really practical approach; it focuses on the various roles in which Exchange Server can be deployed and uses the role requirements as the basis for explaining the details of how to protect the data for that role. Don’t have a server in the role being discussed? Skip forward to the appropriate role coverage. TIP: I suggest you go through the topology introduction that is provided to get the most from the webcast.     Local Continuous Replication and Continuous Cluster Replication are two of the more interesting and compelling features of Exchange Server 2007. Getting a good, clear description of the two technologies is worth the price of admission. There is a tendency when doing a presentation like this to focus only on the software side of the issue. I was happy to see that the presenter took a much broader view of the topic and touched on other issues that the Exchange Administrator should be aware of. After such a detailed, text-based presentation, the webcast wraps it all together with the presenter doing a demo of replication configuration, making it clear that it’s not as complex as it sounds to get working correctly. For Exchange Administrators that haven’t made the move to Exchange 2007, the webcast gives them an excellent explanation and demonstration of a few reasons why they should consider the migration. The presenter also makes himself available for direct questions and answers via his blog here. TechNet Webcast: Disaster Recovery in Exchange Server 2007 Posted Jan 29 2008, 12:01 AM by itprotipsadmin with no comments Filed under: Exchange Server 2007

• Deploying and Upgrading to System Center Configuration Manager

  By Mark Burnett I am currently in the process of planning a Systems Center Configuration Manager deployment, so I was excited to find a new TechNet Webcast Deploying and Upgrading to System Center Configuration Manager. It is a level 300 webcast so it provides a great level of depth. If you already have experience with products such as SMS 2003, and are considering an upgrade to System Center Configuration Manger, this webcast is an excellent way to get started. Although I did have some basic understanding of Systems Center Configuration Manager features, this webcast gives a very detailed description of the differences between SMS 2003 and SCCM and describes the upgrade process with detailed demos. The first part of the webcast covers many of the new performance and security features and how they differ from SMS 2003. The webcast goes into detail on the upgrade paths, requirements, and interoperability with SMS 2003, which is all important as you plan your upgrade strategy. Of course planning an upgrade strategy is crucial for a Systems Center Configuration Manager deployment, and the presenter walks through and explains the different strategies needed for different configurations and server roles. Like all webcasts, this one is full of live demos and goes through the entire process of installing and upgrading to System Center Configuration Manager. One thing I found particularly useful is that the presenter went through the actual setup process and talks about the choices you must make as you go through the installation process. This is very useful because he gives you the information you need to make the best choices up front so you don’t discover configuration mistakes and problems down the road. TIP: When you watch the webcast, be sure to use the Live Meeting Replay Format (which requires IE6) rather than just the wmv because you will want to jump back and refer to the setup process when it comes time to do your own upgrade.   You can view the webcast at Deploying and Upgrading to System Center Configuration Manager. Posted Jan 28 2008, 12:01 AM by itprotipsadmin with no comments Filed under: System Center

• Automating IIS 7.0 Management

  By Michael K. Campbell More than any product that has come out of Microsoft in awhile, I’m very excited about Windows Server 2008; mostly because of just how great Internet Information Services (IIS) 7.0 is. I’ve been using IIS 7 for a number of years along with ASP.NET, and the new IIS 7 architecture goes leaps and bounds towards making ASP.NET a first-class application, and does the same for PHP and virtually all other web workloads. It also offers a number of really cool and exciting management options – including a completely re-written MMC, and the ability to delegate approved admin functionality to trusted parties. In Automating Internet Information Services 7.0, you can also get a good overview of some of the scripting, automation, and remote management options for IIS 7. Based upon some of the introductory information and abstracts about this webcast, I assumed that much of it would be old news to me as I’ve actually presented on some of the automation and scripting benefits provided by IIS 7 at a few road-shows in the past. And, while much of it was new for me, I found that there were some great “unexpected” tidbits in this webcast as well. So if IIS 7 scripting and management is “old-hat” to you as well, you’ll still find some things worth your while in this webcast. Even better, if IIS 7 automation is something you aren’t familiar with and which you’re contemplating with the upcoming release of Windows Server 2008, then this webcast will give you a great overview of some of the options and possibilities available to you. This webcast quickly gets to work outlining some of the benefits and specifics of an entirely new approach to IIS 7 management with a new managed-code administration API that Microsoft will be releasing this year (known as MWA): The webcast then drops into a couple of demonstrations of how to use this new API from PowerShell: Interestingly enough, the demo actually goes wrong for a second – at least initially. But as much as I hate that when I’m presenting, I usually find that when that happens and I’m observing, I usually learn more – as many of the assumptions that the presenter is making frequently become “unmasked”. That was definitely the case here. TIP: PowerShell requires that the MWA assemblies be explicitly loaded into PowerShell before you can use it - and this webcast shows you (in a couple of places) how to dynamically load CLR assemblies into PowerShell using System.Net.Reflection. Along with showing how to use the new MWA Management Provider from the PowerShell command prompt, this webcast also outlines some tips and best practices for using this up-and-coming management interface. It also provides some high level information about extending MWA as well. At a few points during the demonstration, the presenter quickly moved past some new FTP management instrumentation in the IIS Manager GUI, but then came back to those new points and talked for a few minutes about how FTP is going to be integrated into the release builds – as well as how to get those builds now. I thought this was pretty cool because I’ve just been too busy of late to get out and look at these new FTP improvements in the latest builds – but they’re something that I’ve been definitely interested in given how easy FTP management will end up being under IIS 7. True to the name of this webcast, it also displays some high-level overviews of how to utilize WMI and AppCmd.exe to manage IIS 7. In addition to showing simple demos of how to use these tools from the command line, this presentation also explains some of the pain points that these tools try to address and how they’re intended to improve in the future (specifically WMI and PowerShell2). One part of this presentation that I really liked though was a section detailing how to use batch files with AppCmd: It was nice to see some simple examples of how that’s done and caused me to think about ways that I could leverage batch files (with optional parameters) written against AppCmd to meet my own needs. TIP: AppCmd batch files created on Windows 2008 hosts can be moved onto Server Core deployments and used there to help automate common interactions.  This presentation also touches a good deal on managing Server Core deployments (where there is no GUI), and offers some great insights. Likewise, the presenter also provides some best practices for Server Core Management – including an overview of why you want to use OCList and OCSetup to manage Server Core features instead of using Package Manager. Then, to top everything off, this presentation finishes with some high-level overviews and ideas about how to manage remote deployments – covering specifics about which kinds of operations are supported or not through a handful of remote management scenarios. If you’re new to IIS 7 or scripting automation and remote management, or you want to learn more about the release dates of the new IIS FTP builds or the new and upcoming Web Management APIs, then head over and watch the Automating Internet Information Services 7.0 webcast. Posted Jan 25 2008, 12:01 AM by itprotipsadmin with no comments Filed under: IIS 7.0

• System Center Data Protection Manager 2007 Overview

  By David Chernicoff With the release of Data Protection Manager 2007, Microsoft has an in-house product that is capable of providing real-time data protection to a Windows Server-based enterprise, from operating systems to Microsoft server applications. In the TechNet Webcast: System Center Data Protection Manager 2007 Overview, the viewer gets not only a discussion of what is possible to do with DPM 2007 but also a look at how to protect their major server workloads. Starting with an overview of what is included in DPM 2007 and what workloads can be protected, Jason gives the viewer of the webcast a good background in what DPM2007 can and can’t do before jumping in to demonstrating the product with common workloads. Showing how easy it is to get started with DPM, Jason walks the viewers quickly through the installation of the software. The coverage of features like the prerequisite checker gives the viewer a good idea of what’s needed to use DPM 2007. He also works through some specific configuration details for the major workloads, as well; not just on backing up data but restoring data, too. Too many backup products are strong on backup and weak on restore. Anyone considering the implementation of DPM 2007 in their enterprise would be well served by taking the time to view this webcast. DPM provides a very broad spectrum of coverage and has a wealth of features that are well covered in this overview presentation. System Center Data Protection Manager 2007 Overview Posted Jan 24 2008, 12:01 AM by itprotipsadmin with 1 comment(s) Filed under: data protection manager

• Backup and Restore in Windows Vista

  By Mark Burnett Today I watched a terrific TechNet webcast: Improving Desktop Security and Deployment: Backup and Restore in Windows Vista. What I liked about the webcast is that it covers in detail the new backup and restore features of Windows Vista. File backup and restore in Vista uses Volume Shadow Copy (VSS) as the core technology to facilitate simple backups. The webcast explains how each component works together in the backup and restore process. Shadow copies are snapshots of files that Windows stores in a special location on the hard drive. Vista stores file changes at the block level so that users can restore any version of their files. Windows uses up to 15% of a disk for shadow copies that it can use in the backup and restore process. The webcast explains and demos complete PC backup, which is a Windows Vista feature that performs block-level backups that you can store on another hard disk or DVD. More than half of this webcast consists of actual demos so you can see exactly how the process works. The presenter walks through the process of doing both file-based backups and complete PC backup, then later restoring backup files. The webcast also goes into great detail on the Windows Recovery Environment and the various repair options available to users. Finally, the webcast demonstrates how to do a system restore from a system restore point. Restore points, created at the block level, represent daily system configurations, or the state of a system before installing applications or drivers. TIP: A system restore is reversible so you can undo and return back to where you were before the restore. This webcast definitely was interesting and shows how much you can do with nothing more than the built-in backup and restore features. Understanding these features could mean the difference between recovering from a problem and having to reinstall the OS from scratch. You can watch the webcast at Improving Desktop Security and Deployment: Backup and Restore in Windows Vista Posted Jan 23 2008, 12:01 AM by itprotipsadmin with no comments Filed under: Vista

• Strategic Planning and Scorecarding with PerformancePoint Server 2007

  By Michael K. Campbell As someone who spends a lot of my time interacting with SQL Server, I’ve started to take an interest in PerformancePoint Server 2007. Designed to help organizations take Business Intelligence to the "next level", PerformancePoint Server provides a powerful range of easy-to-use tools that let companies take advantage of existing skills, infrastructure, and solutions in order to implement Business Performance Mangement, or BPM. With my background in SQL Server, I "get" much of the underlying technology, but I’ve been wrestling a fair degree with the need for the technology. I was therefore happy to bump into a webcast showing how to use PerformancePoint Server in day-to-day strategic planning and reporting: Strategic Planning and Scorecarding with PerformancePoint Server 2007. If you’re new to PerformancePoint Server, or Business Performance Management in general, this webcast starts off with an overview of BPM and a high-level introduction to PerformancePoint Server 2007. It also provides an overview of previous webcasts in this series in order to give you an idea of other aspects of PerformancePoint Server that you can learn about as well. If you’re somewhat familiar with BPM or PerformancePoint Server, you’ll be able to jump into this webcast pretty easily without having to watch the previous webcasts first. What I really enjoyed about this webcast was being able to see strategic planning in action. As a SQL consultant (and former DBA / SQL Developer) I really don’t have much of an appreciation for what analysts and business users will typically do with something like PerformancePoint Server. But, after a great refresher course in BPM and PerformancePoint Server during the first few minutes of this webcast, it quickly turned to the main focus: a detailed, hands-on, series of demos. The first demo (which took up the bulk of the webcast) was an end-to-end scenario that showcased how to use the Business Modeler: But more than just clicking on design surfaces and turning levers and knobs, this webcast finally helped me understand why there’s so much focus in PerformancePoint Server on allowing typical-end users to supply data. Being of a typical ‘BI’ mind-set, I’ve found myself a bit muddled by that in the past. (After all, doesn’t data for analysis and scorecarding come from the database, and from cubes? Wasn’t that the purpose of creating data marts/warehouses and populating them with data from the entire enterprise?) By showcasing a number of "day-in-the-life" scenarios where typical information workers or business end-users connected to PerformancePoint Server business models via Excel, in the form of assignments, I was able to finally "get" that unlike BI, BPM really is heavily focused on top-down planning. Yeah, I know the literature says that over and over, but I never really got that until seeing it in action with this webcast. In other words, it’s not about an analysis of data "after the fact". Business Performance Management’s purpose is really to plan, forecast, or budget for real-life business trends, and then see how those anticipations work out in reality. This, of course, is the whole purpose of scorecarding – to keep tabs on how well budgets, forecasts, and expectations measure up against tangible, measurable, performance that’s typically (but not necessarily) aggregated by data-marts, cubes, and so forth. But for me, that didn’t really "click" until this webcast that covered KPIs and strategic plans from a business perspective, as well as from a tooling perspective. TIP: When engaged in strategic planning, you should only use a limited number of priorities or KPIs.  The webcast does a great job of explaining why, but the primary reason is that if you're planning too many priorities, then you're not doing a good job of planning a strategy.  With that background in place, the webcast then went on to show how analysts or designers can create associations, entities, and full-blown business models. It then proceeded to showcase how to create reports, and strategic maps – which are much cooler (and easier to create) than I would have initially thought. From there it was a quick jaunt over to creating actual dashboards and showing how they could be used by typical end-users for easy analysis of how business is performing according to an overall business plan. What I really liked though was finally seeing some of these dashboard "widgets" and "gears" translated into contextually beneficial instrumentation. I’ve read a good deal on PerformancePoint Server and BPM up to this point in my quest to try and understand it, but one of the things that’s always been has been some background on why examples and tutorials always assume that you’d want to build indicators and KPIs in the way that examples and tutorials always seem to do. In other words, it wasn’t until I watched someone create a full-blown sample environment while talking about simple things like budgets, market analysis, trends, and other things that I began to really "get" what makes PerformancePoint Server so great. The primary demo also took a bit of a view into how well-crafted reports could provide end-users with not only the ability to slice and dice data on the fly, but to address business "corrections" in relative real-time as well. In fact, what’s so cool about PerformancePoint Server is that updating the data model to address strategic decisions will actually end up being easier for most executives than actually making the "real" business changes that correspond to data model changes. That’s something I don’t think I ever would have figured out without having watched this webcast. Amazingly, though, this webcast had more to offer. Once the "end-to-end" sample was done, the webcast switched to another demo showing a more polished, and fully-implemented environment. This is typically what I’ve encountered in other samples and demos, and don’t find them to be too beneficial as they assume that you know a lot about what was created in the first place. But contrasted with the information provided in the previous portion of this webcast, this section of the demo really helped show off just what can be possible with PerformancePoint Server – including things like mapping strategic maps right on top of geographical maps that can then be bound to dashboards: Happily, this webcast answered some long-standing, and lingering, questions that I’ve had about how PerformancePoint Server really works. Better yet, it answered those questions really well by showing me how strategic planning and reporting on that planning is supposed to work on a day-to-day basis. I plan on watching the other webcasts in this series over the next few weeks. But if you’re interested in seeing how PerformancePoint Server works from a BUSINESS standpoint, then I can highly recommend this webcast and encourage you to go take a look at Strategic Planning and Scorecarding with Performance Point Server 2007. Posted Jan 22 2008, 12:01 AM by itprotipsadmin with no comments Filed under: PerformancePoint Server 2007

• Group Policy in Windows Vista

  By Mark Burnett As a security professional, dealing with group policy is a big part of my job, so I was anxious to watch the webcast TechNet Webcast: Group Policy in Windows Vista that covers the many new Group Policy enhancements and improvements in Windows Vista and Windows Server 2008. With nearly 1,300 new settings, Microsoft has definitely put some effort in this area. The one thing I liked the most is that the webcast acknowledges the common customer pain points, which can be significant in some scenarios. The fact that they recognize these problems is a good indicator that they are working to fix them. The webcast does a great demo of how you prepare Active Directory for the new policies, walking through each of the prep tools you need to run. Windows Vista and Windows 2008 both include the Group Policy Management Console (GPMC) and the webcast has informative demos on using the GPMC. What’s interesting is that administrative templates now use an XML format and also have support for multiple languages. For example, in the webcast, the presenter shows how you can create an administrative template in English and edit the settings in another language, in this case French. With 3000 new Group Policy settings, the presenter obviously couldn’t cover all settings, but he did cover some of the biggest changes, such as firewall settings, shell configuration, QoS, printers, and device installation policy. I found the new device installation policy settings most interesting because you can know precisely which devices or device classes users can install. This is particularly useful in organizations where it is important to keep data from walking out the door. According to the presenter, this was one of the most requested features for Windows Vista. TIP: Use the new Group Policy settings to prevent users from connecting removable drives, MP3 players, and cameras but still allow any necessary peripherals. This helps keep sensitive data from leaving and viruses and other malware from entering the network.  If you work with Group Policy, take the time to watch the webcast TechNet Webcast: Group Policy in Windows Vista . There are some significant changes in Group Policy and it would be well worth your time to get up to speed. Posted Jan 21 2008, 12:01 AM by itprotipsadmin with 4 comment(s) Filed under: Vista

• Windows Vista Built-in Diagnostics

  By Richard Lane Help! Windows Vista crashed. This TechNet Virtual Lab on Windows Vista Built-in Diagnostics shows how Vista’s Reliability and Performance Monitor can help to uncover the source of the problem, showing failure information and software installation history at a glance. A Virtual Lab gives you actual hands-on experience but over a remote connection. This concise, introductory exercise only takes a few minutes to run through, but could save hours of frustration. A key point is that another Vista feature, Remote Assistance, means that technicians can often accomplish what is needed from their own desks. If you are like me, you hate having to complete lengthy forms and registration procedures just to view some web content. This is great: one simple form and you are in. I took a short break while TechNet built the lab. Behind the scenes a new virtual machine is being prepared, since I will be working with a real Vista installation. While I was waiting, I downloaded the lab's manual and took a quick read through. TIP: While the manual is open, save it to your hard drive. The steps will be useful in future troubleshooting. I hit Start Your Lab to open the Virtual Labs console, a separate browser window which contains the virtual machine and the exercises. On the left of the console is the Virtual Machine. It is very smooth and works just like a local installation of Vista, except a little more slowly. Over on the righthand side are the instructions for completing the exercise. This lab has only one exercise – I said it would not take long to complete! The first task is to run a batch file to set up the lab. It is not really part of the diagnostics, but it got me familiar with working in the virtual machine. The lab got me to use Vista’s instant search to find and run the Reliability Monitor. I liked that, as search is one of Vista’s best features. Next, the Reliability Monitor starts, and the exercise guided me through clicking on the various incident types, including warnings, information, and crash reports. I had not previously realized that all this information is so close at hand on every Vista desktop. The final step is to check the detail for each incident and to use common sense to work out what has most likely gone wrong and how to fix it. In this case, you luckily don’t need to look up any of those hex codes under Failure Detail; otherwise it would be a much longer lab! There wasn’t a lot of deep technical detail in this lab, but in a way, that is the point.  A few minutes glancing at this diagnostic tool, perhaps from the comfort of a remote connection, is often all it takes to get a user up-and-running with a reliable machine again. TechNet Virtual Lab Express: Windows Vista Built-in Diagnostics. Posted Jan 18 2008, 12:01 AM by itprotipsadmin with 3 comment(s) Filed under: Vista

• IIS-Core Server

  By Will Kelly I was drawn to the IIS-Core Server virtual lab after poking around the IIS 7.0 specifications and began to wonder about the development options including .NET and Native C/C++ modules. However, I needed a “sandbox” to play in since my dev environment was devoted to a client project and a lab manual that was detailed enough to serve as a reference down the road. Download the lab manual and print it out because it contains the lab exercises. It can also be a useful reference to you later on. The lab starts off with an introduction that sets the stage for the lab and a section that offers a useful review about Basic Authentication. After the introductory and refresher material about Basic Authentication, the lab delves into its first task—Developing a Module with .NET. The lab takes the time to first examine the development of a basic authentication module that supports the http1.1 basic authentication scheme. This module uses the standard ASP.NET module pattern that has been available since ASP.NET v1.0 and the very same pattern is used to build ASP.NET modules that extend the IIS7 server. This direct approach into IIS7 Server development was most helpful to me. After creating the class, the lab wastes no time and walks you through implementation of the Init method with registering the module for one or more request pipeline events. Next the lab tackles how to create the AuthenticateUser method. This is an important step because at the end of this processing, if the module was successfully able to obtain and validate the user credentials, it will produce an authenticated user principal that other modules and application codes can later use in access control decisions. After creating the AuthenticateUser method, it’s time to implement the IssueAuthenticationChallenge method following the lab’s methodical approach to module development. The final element of the first task takes you through how to create utility methods. The second task of the lab walks through deploying the module to the application by first presenting the options you have for deploying the module to the application. Deployment in a production environment leaves no room for experimentation so I enjoyed being able to test out various module deployment methods within the lab’s “sandbox” because I was able to play to my heart’s content. Source code is a must have in programming labs, and the lab finishes off with appendices including the Basic Authentication Module Source Code and other supplementary information that can help fuel more ideas and show you the true power of developing for the IIS environment. You can walk through the lab yourself here: IIS 7.0 -Core Server Virtual Lab Posted Jan 17 2008, 12:01 AM by itprotipsadmin with no comments Filed under: IIS 7.0

• Windows Server 2008 Beta 2 Server Core

  By Richard Lane Can you imagine Windows Server without its graphical desktop? Now with this Virtual Lab, Windows Server 2008 Beta 2 Server Core, you can try it out. Windows Server 2008 Server Core is a new installation option. Rather than installing a full desktop, Server Core is a minimal environment designed to be managed from the command line or remotely, for lower maintenance and a reduced attack surface. It is quite a culture shock for admins who have always worked through a GUI. This is an ideal way to get the feel of this new way of working.  There is not much to see in the Virtual Lab, but that is exactly the point. This Lab is all about managing a server from the command line. The lab walks through how to join a domain, enable a firewall, and add server roles including DNS and DHCP. TIP: I was puzzled about why the password I entered did not work. I discovered it because it contained an @ symbol, and my keyboard layout was not standard US. You can get round this by using “Send @ Key” from the Action menu, or just checking what your keyboard is actually typing. The lab walks through how to add roles to the server from the command line. I made a couple of typing errors, but that does not matter; just try again. Occasionally you get a restart dialog, but the manual says it is OK to save time by choosing No. A cool feature of this lab is that you use several different virtual servers and switch between them. You actually get to manage an entire virtual network! One of the virtual machines is Windows Server 2008 with a full GUI. Working from the command line is neat, but it felt good to get back to a familiar GUI and check some of my work using tools like Active Directory Users and Computers. TIP: When working in a Virtual Lab, the mouse pointer is trapped in the virtual PC. Press Alt + Gr to release the mouse back to your desktop. The walkthrough continues with a number of optional components. In some ways that’s misleading: most things are optional with Server Core. It does demonstrate that “Core” does not mean “Limited”. You get the core plus exactly what you need. A neat thing about this lab is that although there are some guided tasks, you can also explore your Virtual Server. I thought it would be fun to look at Task Manager and see what was running. I was glad to see that Notepad is available in Server Core. What would I do without one of the oldest applications in Windows? The lab closes with a look at all the ways you can manage a Server Core machine. WinRS (WIndows Remote Shell) is one particularly powerful option for remote management. After completing this lab I had a good understanding of what a Server Core installation really means. That will help a lot as I get to grips with real-world installs. TechNet Virtual Lab: Windows Server 2008 Beta 2 Server Core . Posted Jan 16 2008, 12:01 AM by itprotipsadmin with 1 comment(s) Filed under: Windows Server 2008

• A 360 View Inside the Virtual World (Level 200)

  By Will Kelly Virtualization has been a real hot topic in some professional circles I run in, thus I wanted to come up to speed with the new features in Microsoft System Center Operations Manager 2007 and wanted to get an overview of Microsoft’s approach to Server virtualization. Enter the Technet Webcast: A 360 View Inside the Virtual World presented by Adam Bogobowicz, a senior product manager for Microsoft Corporation. I find briefings and presentations from Microsoft product managers like Bogobowicz because the information is coming directly from the source responsible for leading product development. Tip:  Download the presentation and you can play it from any Windows Media compatible player at your leisure. The Webcast starts out with a refresher on server virtualization including the technologies, economics, and security drivers that make a server virtualization solution a must have for your organization. The coverage of Microsoft’s Dynamic System Initiative also helped bring home Microsoft’s virtualization strategy for me. His coverage of Microsoft’s virtualization roadmap also illuminated a picture of their strategy and how they plan to keep pace in the white hot virtualization market. After breaking down the concepts underlying Microsoft’s virtualization strategy, he walks through a common usage scenario of application migration and server consolidation with an eye on conserving IT costs. The Bogobowicz fires up Microsoft System Center Operations Manager 2007 and walks through some common virtualization scenarios that should ring true for IT managers seeking to leverage the benefits of server virtualization. Desktop deployments can be a pain point and Bogobowicz uses an Office 2003 deployment and demonstrates the ease of deploying the Office suite through Microsoft System Center Operations Manager 2007: Next, the Webcast takes on the features of the TS RemoteApp Manager with Bogobowicz’s expert introduction to this important management tool: Once Bogobowicz finishes with the TS RemoteApp Manager he delves expertly into the Virtual Machine Manager Overview – a valuable management tool for managing virtual servers: Managing virtual hosts is integral to a virtualization solution like Microsoft System Center Operations Manager 2007 and Bogobowicz walks through the host management options: His attention and smooth pace walking through the Wizard step by step for configuring a virtual server makes it look easy for even new users: He also walks through the Systems Center Operations Manager console, the core management console for the product with its clean interface: The Webcast ends with Bogobowicz covering disaster recovery and summarizing the Webcast plus benefits of virtualization with Microsoft System Center Operations Manager 2007. He also drives home the benefits of server virtualization one last time making you want to learn more about Microsoft System Center Operations Manager 2007 above and beyond this well done Webcast. You can view the Webcast yourself here: A 360 View Inside the Virtual World Posted Jan 15 2008, 12:01 AM by itprotipsadmin with no comments Filed under: virtualization

• Customizing Search in Office SharePoint Server 2007

  By Richard Lane  Thanks to the big search engines, it is sometimes easier to find stuff on the Internet than on your own local network, which just seems silly. This is a problem that Microsoft Office SharePoint Server 2007 was born to solve. In this introductory webcast on Customizing Search in Office SharePoint Server 2007, TechNet expert Matt Hester shows how to create customized, targeted search pages that search across databases as well as documents. The webcast is only a little over 20 minutes long and is well worth watching if you manage SharePoint Server 2007 or simply want to know more about how search works within Microsoft’s collaboration server. It is easy to get confused about which SharePoint is which. This webcast is about Microsoft Office SharePoint Server 2007, sometimes known as MOSS, rather than the free SharePoint Services add-on for Windows Server (WSS). Matt Hester explains the relationship between the two, and how they are more consistent with one another in the latest release. Hester’s overview of what’s new in SharePoint Server 2007 reminded me of the scope of the product, from programming platform to search portal. When I saw “Decoupling of content sources from scope” on the slide, I was hoping Hester would fully explain what that meant as it’s real SharePoint jargon. Luckily I was not disappointed, though I had to be patient. Any organization has documents that are private to certain groups. Here’s where we learn how SharePoint handles that, and how it does it much better than the previous version. TIP: SharePoint Server 2007 is less tightly coupled to Active Directory than before, making it easier to support anonymous or external users. In the next and longest part of the webcast, Hester fires up his Virtual PC and walks through customizing search. It all starts with Search Settings in the Administration site, where we learn more about those mysterious content sources. Not having looked at this before, I was impressed by the variety of different sources that SharePoint 2007 can search, including Exchange public folders and databases. TIP: Hester explains how to force a newly-added scope to update immediately so you can check it out more quickly Next we walk through adding scope rules. Hester does a great job of explaining what this is all about. Right within the administration site, Hester shows how to create a new page for custom search. It’s only a few clicks, but the results look totally professional. If you’ve used SharePoint, you’ll know how the user interface is based on tabs. Hester shows how to make a new tab, complete with a tooltip explaining what the tab does. It works! Hester shows us an example search with its results, and then highlights perhaps the coolest feature of the entire presentation – a “best bet” search result which you can see starred on the right of the above screenshot. Creating best bet results is remarkably easy and delivers fantastic value for users. What impressed me most in this webcast was SharePoint Server’s ease of use. Provided you are happy with the built-in templates, you can get good-looking and effective custom search pages using only the SharePoint administration site – no coding required. TechNet Webcast Express: Customizing Search in Office SharePoint Server 2007. Posted Jan 14 2008, 12:01 AM by itprotipsadmin with no comments Filed under: SharePoint

• Prepare Yourself for Windows Server 2008

  By Orin Thomas  In this 70 minute webcast you’ll learn about several great new features of the Windows Server 2008 operating system. The webcast begins with a comprehensive discussion on the functionality of the new Server Manager console. What Windows Server 2003 administrators will find interesting about this console is how server roles, such as IIS, DHCP and DNS can all be managed without switching between Windows. Prepare Yourself for Windows Server 2008 An example shown in the webcast is the tight integration of Active Directory Users and Computers with the Server Manager console. Watching the webcast you really get a good feel for how these new tools work. The webcast further demonstrates the manageability improvements of Windows Server 2008 by showing how simple it is to locate errors that require further investigation. The webcast will teach you how to create a custom event viewer view, which is like a persistent event log view, that allows systems administrators to quickly view. This is a very useful systems administration technique and is definitely worth checking out. The webcast details the RemoteApp process, explaining how this new technology allows the deployment of an application’s screen, without the entire remote desktop window, to a client’s computer. The webcast also details the process of configuring TS-Web Acess, that allows clients to open RemoteApp applications from a shortcut located on a web page. The webcast also provides a significant amount of detail on creating a Terminal Services Gateway Remote Access Policy. This allows you to limit remote access users to specific terminal services resources on your Windows Server 2008 network. This is presented in an informative way that will allow you to use it on your own network. This webcast is the start of a series that introduces administrators to the new features of Windows Server 2008. To access this excellent webcast and to learn more about these interesting new Windows Server 2008 features, click on the following link: Prepare Yourself for Windows Server 2008 Posted Jan 11 2008, 12:01 AM by itprotipsadmin with no comments Filed under: Windows Server 2008