Microsoft: W2K8 "Documentation Survival guide"

Microsoft has created a nice link to all info concerning Windows Server 2008 on technet. It's called the Documentation Survival Guide. Jump to it here

Learn

• Windows Server 2008 product information: http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkId=90853
• Windows Server 2008 TechCenter: http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkID=86041

Evaluate

• Changes in Functionality from Windows Server 2003 with SP1 to Windows Server 2008: http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkID=90854
• Windows Server 2008 TechNet Virtual Labs: http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkId=90855
• Windows Server 2008 Step-by-Step Guides: http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkID=90856

Troubleshoot

• Windows Server 2008 Troubleshooting: http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkId=90857
• TechNet Troubleshooting and Support: http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkId=90728

Connect with Community

• Windows Server 2008 Forums: http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkId=90920
• Windows Server 2008 Podcasts: http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkId=90919
• Windows Server 2008 Chats: http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkId=90918

Additional Resources

Security

What can you do to secure your systems? These links to prescriptive security guidance resources, virus alerts, and security bulletins will help you find the security information that you need.

• TechNet Security Center: http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkID=29482
• TechNet Security Virus Alerts: http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?linkid=26702
• Microsoft Security Bulletin Search: http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?linkid=24822

Downloads, Help and Support, TechNet Technologies, and Scripting

Need to find the latest product downloads or other technical information? These links will help you keep your systems current and learn about the latest Microsoft technologies.

• Microsoft Download Center: http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkID=63637
• Microsoft Help and Support: http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?linkid=7588
• TechNet Products and Technologies: http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?linkid=26708
• Script Center: http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkID=63080

Windows Server 2008 Technical Library

Need to learn more about what’s new for key Windows Server 2008 technologies and where to get additional information? These links to the Windows Server 2008 Technical Library will provide you with introductory and technical overviews and other resources.

•Active Directory Certificate Services: http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkID=48545
•Active Directory Domain Services: http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkId=48547
•Active Directory Federation Services: http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkId=48542
•Active Directory Rights Management Services: http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkId=48554
•Application Server: http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkId=48544
•Availability and Scalability: http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkId=90922
•DNS Server: http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkId=48548
•File Services: http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkId=48550
•Group Policy: http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkId=90923
•Network Policy and Access Services: http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkId=48552
•Performance and Reliability: http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkId=90924
•Print Services: http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkId=48553
•Security and Protection: http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkId=90925
•Server Manager: http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkId=48541
•Streaming Media Services: http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkId=48551
•Terminal Services: http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?linkid=48555
•Web Server: http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkId=48558
•Windows Deployment Services: http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkId=48559
•Windows SharePoint Services: http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkId=48560

Microsoft: Vista Performance, Compatibility & reliability packs

Microsoft just released some important updates for people using Vista and suffering from (amongs others) slow file copies.

938979 Vista Performance and Reliability Pack
This update resolves a number of individual issues which may be affecting some computers running Windows Vista. These issues have been reported by customers using the Error Reporting service, product support, or other means. Installing this update will improve the performance and responsiveness for some scenarios and improves reliability of Windows Vista in a variety of scenarios.

938194 Vista Compatibility and Reliability Pack
This update resolves a number of individual issues which may be affecting some computers running Windows Vista. These issues have been reported by customers using the Error Reporting service, product support, or other means. Installing this update will improve the reliability and hardware compatibility of Windows Vista in a variety of scenarios.

938828 XP Explorer.exe Reliability Pack
This is a reliability update. Install this update to improve the stability of computers running Windows XP. This update prevents crashes in explorer.exe.

These packs (actually, they are hotfixes) are downloadable via http://connect.microsoft.com/ or via the source http://www.neowin.net/index.php?act=view&id=41691

Virtualization: A brief architecture overview of VMware ESX, XEN and MS Viridian

Massimo Re Ferrè has written a nice overview article on hypervisor architecture:

It is my feeling that there has been a bit of confusion lately around how hypervisors are being positioned by the various vendors. I am specifically referring to the three major technologies that seem to be the most relevant strategically going forward:

• VMware ESX
• Microsoft Viridian
• Xen

VMware ESX is the VMware flagship hypervisor product: it's the basis for the Virtual Infrastructure version 3 framework.

MS Viridian is the next generation hypervisor that Microsoft is going to use in the Longhorn time frame and that is currently being developed. It's basically the successor of Microsoft Virtual Server.

Xen is an opensource hypervisor that is being integrated by a number of players which include RedHat, Suse, XenSource and Virtual Iron.

Read the article here

Microsoft: Its all about Virtualization now...

Yesterday, I attended the TechNet Webcast: Windows Server 2008: Server Virtualization Solution Scenario. It was quite interesting (although not as technical as I had hoped).

To summarize, Microsoft’s virtualization strategy is divided in 4 types of “virtualization”:

1. Desktop virtualization: desktops/servers can be virtualized on your local desktop using Virtual PC technology. Nothing new here.
2. Application virtualization: Microsoft bought Softricity a few months ago, one of the leading companies for applications virtualization. They are now selling Softgrid as their application virtualization solution (and a good one I might add). Softgrid 4.1 is now the current version, and version 4.2 will be released soon. Zerotouch (a web portal front end) was dropped.
3. Presentation virtualization: this one is quite funny (and the most surprising). As you might know, Server 2008 will have a bunch of new “Citrix-like” features for Terminal Services like load balancing, TS Web Access, TS gateway (SSL tunnel), remote (published) apps and UPD (called “easy print”). So now, Terminal Services is looked upon as being “presentation virtualization”. BTW, Citrix already uses the term “application virtualization” for its Metaframe Presentation Server solution.
4. Server virtualization: Oh yes, the combination of Virtual Server 2005 R2 (SP1) and/or Windows Server 2008 virtualization (“Viridian”) and System Center Virtual Machine Manager (now in Beta 2). SC VMM version 1.0 will be released in 2007, mainly to manage VS 2005 R2. A new release of SCVMM 2.0 will be released as soon as Viridian is ready (stripped of some features or not ;)) in 2008. So stay tuned!

During the presentation, a comparison was made between VMware ESX server and Windows Server 2008 with Windows Server Virtualization. The thing to note here is that VMware uses drivers in its hypervisor model, while WSV uses no drivers in their hypervisor. Instead, they deploy drivers directly in Virtual Machine instances. I can’t wait to compare it (even with hot-add & live-migration features stripped) to ESX!

Microsoft: WTS Step-By-Step guides in upcoming Win2K8

Microsoft has released some very interesting step-by-step guides related to (amongst others) Terminal Services:

• Windows Server Longhorn Beta 3 Release TS Gateway Server Step-By-Step Setup Guide.doc
• Windows Server Longhorn Beta 3 Release TS Licensing Step-By-Step Setup Guide.doc
• Windows Server Longhorn Beta 3 Terminal Services RemoteApp Step-By-Step Guide.doc
• What's New in Terminal Services for Microsoft Windows Server Code Name Longhorn.doc

Download them here

Microsoft: Multiple Password "Policies" in Longhorn Server

Geert Baeke has posted an interesting article on how to deploy multiple password "policies" with Longhorn April CTP build. Check it out here

Microsoft: Hypervisor - Windows Server Virtualization Demo

For those who can't wait to see MS Server Virtualization in action, check out this little demo movie on Arlindo's blog (MSFT Belgium). If they can do what they promise (hot add almost all components, etc.), then VMware has some catching up to do :)

Microsoft: Virtualization licensing round-up

For those who are not aware: I decided to post a short round-up list on MS "virtualization" licensing.

• Windows 2003 R2 Datacenter edition: unlimited number of VMs with Windows 2003 Datacenter edition can be deployed on 1 physical host.
• Windows 2003 R2 Enterprise Edition: up to 4 instances/ Virtual Machines can be used with 1 single Enterprise license on 1 physical host
• SQL Server 2005 Enterprise Edition SP2: an unlimited number of virtual instances can be run on servers that are fully licensed for SQL Server 2005 Enterprise Edition.
• Virtual Server 2005 R2: free (SP1 coming up shortly)
• Windows Vista Enterprise Edition (?): up to 4 VM instances with 1 license (not yet confirmed). This would be great for VDI!

The main question here is: in a world where we use VMotion (and soon: Live Migration for Windows Server Virtualization) to do hot migrations between different physical hosts, how can we keep track of these "free" instances? Is it still useful to look at the (single) physical host level? Should we buy a separate datacenter/SQL/Enterprise license per server? IMHO, this is nearly impossible to maintain and not intuitive...

BTW: Exchange Server 2007 (= x64 only) is not yet supported in a VM, so no "free" virtual licenses (yet).

Microsoft: Vista Enterprise released

Microsoft has released the Enterprise version of Vista (x86 and x64 version). It makes use of the new VA 2.0/MAK (Volume Activation 2.0/Multiple Activation Key) as Volume License Key system.

Gone are the days where you could install XP on VMware Workstation and test/snapshot/copy/delete/play/etc. with it. You have to activate this one :). Only a number of activations is allowed. I'm assuming they will use the same Licensing mechanism for Windows Server 2007 (Longhorn).

Download (and activate ;)) it now on http://www.microsoft.com/technet

Softgrid: Illustrated OSD tool

Tim has released an updated version of his Illustrated OSD tool:

This small tool allows you to explore the xml syntax of the OSD file in an interactive way. Place mouse over items in the OSD file below for a description of the item.

What's an OSD file? Open Software Description: a standard format created by Microsoft as part of an obscure project to database software applications using XML. This format was discovered by Softricity long before their Microsoft relationship began. Softricity used this as a base and extended the DTD to meet their needs. A OSD formatted file is now used by SoftGrid as the shortcut description to a SoftGrid client on how to access a SoftGrid enabled application. These files use names that end in ".OSD" as the extension. In addition to this tool you may be interested in the updated SoftGridOSD Schema file in the Tools section of the website.

Don't forget to check out his video garden (Advanced Sequencing)!

Microsoft: password policy limitations

I sometimes get asked what the limitations are for the default password policy in a Windows AD domain. Here goes:

• You can only enforce one password policy per domain
• Password Never Expires: If selected, the password for this account never expires. This setting overrides the domain account policy. Generally, it's not a good idea to set a password so it doesn't expire because this defeats the purpose of having passwords in the first place. But it is useful in combination with service accounts
• Should be applied on the ROOT domain container

Microsoft: Windows Virtualization Session

Baeke had a sneak preview on the new Longhorn virtualization ESX wannabee. All in all, it looks very promising! Check his post here

Announcing Process Monitor v1.0

The sysinternal guys released a new tool: Process Monitor.

Process Monitor is an advanced monitoring tool for Windows that shows real-time file system, Registry and process/thread activity. It combines the features of two legacy Sysinternals utilities, Filemon and Regmon, and adds an extensive list of enhancements including rich and non-destructive filtering, comprehensive event properties such session IDs and user names, reliable process information, full thread stacks with integrated symbol support for each operation, simultaneous logging to a file, and much more. Its uniquely powerful features will make Process Monitor a core utility in your system troubleshooting and malware hunting toolkit.

Process Monitor runs on Windows 2000 SP4 with Update Rollup 1, Windows XP SP2, Windows Server 2003, and Windows Vista as well as x64 versions of Windows XP, Windows Server 2003 and Windows Vista.

Check it out here

Softricity: Softgrid 4.1 released!

SoftGrid 4.1 is the first post-acquisition product release and represents a significant milestone in the Softricity roadmap. This release aligns SoftGrid with other Microsoft technologies and practices.

Key enhancements in SoftGrid 4.1

• New server management console: upgraded to MMC 3.0


• New reporting engine, based on the Report Viewer of SQL Server Reporting Service (and deprecated the previous reporting engine based on Crystal Reports)


• Enhanced logging to enable server monitoring via Windows event logger (and deprecated the old monitoring solution based on SNMP agent)


• Removed license key requirement from the server to align with Microsoft standards


• Multiple bug fixes

WTS: Longhorn server enhancements for Terminal Services

Windows Server "Longhorn" introduces new functionality in Terminal Services to connect to remote computers and applications. Terminal Services Remote Programs completely integrates applications running on a remote terminal with users’ desktops such that they behave as if they were running on an individual user's local computer; users can run programs from a remote location side-by-side with their local programs.

Terminal Services Web Access permits this same flexibility of remote application access via Web browser, granting an even wider variety of ways user can access and use programs running on remote terminals. And Terminal Services Gateway allows user to access remote terminals and remote terminal programs in a firewall-friendly manner.

Sys/Winternals on the way to Microsoft!

Mark & his world-famous free tools (regmon, filemon, handle, etc.) have been acquired by Microsoft! See this link for more info.