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Archive for January, 2011

Microsoft Assessment and Planning Toolkit new version now available‏

January 18, 2011 1 comment

The latest release from the Microsoft Assessment and Planning (MAP) team provides organizations with more assessments and reporting for simplified IT infrastructure planning.

Download the MAP Toolkit 5.5:
http://www.microsoft.com/map

Simplify planning for migration to the latest Microsoft products and technologies with the Microsoft Assessment and Planning (MAP) Toolkit 5.5. This multifaceted tool is now even better—with assessment for easier migration to theWindows Azure platform,heterogeneous database discovery for SQL Server migration projects, Windows Internet Explorer migration assessment, and much more—MAP 5.5 includes new features to help you streamline planning for your next migration project.

Desktop migration projects are easier with the hardware assessment for Windows 7 and Internet Explorer. The MAP 5.5 Internet Explorer migration assessment inventories and reports on deployed web browsers, Microsoft ActiveX controls, and add-ons—and delivers the findings in a convenient migration assessment report and proposal.

Enhanced server consolidation features help users save time and effort when creating virtualization assessments and proposals. Enhancements include updated hardware libraries with the latest CPU models, data collection and store every five minutes, customized server selection, and greater scalability and reliability requiring less effort and oversight of the data collection process.MAP also helps accelerate SQL Server migration projects with heterogeneous database discovery for MySQL, Oracle, and Sybase instances

Categories: Microsoft, Virtualization Tags: , , , , ,

Queensland IT Flood Relief Program : Help needed

January 14, 2011 2 comments

 

Queensland IT Flood Relief Program

Source : http://www.qlditrelief.org/

The January floods through Queensland have crippled industry throughout the state. With many small/medium business losing valuable equipment getting back up and running is going to be an ominous and expensive task for most.

The Queensland Flood IT relief team is a group of volunteers who are collecting spare PC’s, printers, servers, from companies all across Australia. We will then service, and rebuild them with an aim to send them to people in Queensland who need the support to get started.

If you are a business, sole trader, school, or any other organisation that has lost IT equipment in the flood, please register you interest below and let us know what you need. We will be in touch shortly.

To allow us to succeed we firstly need your help.

If you can donate any of the following please do so ASAP to allow our team time to process the donations:

  • Computers – PC, Macs, Laptops, etc.
  • Servers or networking equipment
  • Spare parts – cases, hard drives, memory, cables, etc.
  • Printers
  • Phones/PBX system
  • Tools (to allow us to do our job)
  • Software
  • Anything else you think will help.

 

Equipment can be sent to:
QLD IT Relief Fund c/o Datacom, Level 7, 120 Sussex St, Sydney, NSW

If you want to contact us please do so via our email address.

We need transport! If you could help us get our refurbished equipment from NSW to the people who need it please get in touch ASAP!

We also need your time. If you work in IT, and can help our team clean/repair/rebuild equipment let us know. Any time you can spare is greatly appreciated.

Please note: The IT Relief Fund will not accept cash or financial support, please donate this directly to the QLD Relief fund , but we will greatly appreciate any other support for our cause.

Categories: Uncategorized Tags: ,

Microsoft Hyper-V Cloud Fast Track with Dell technology

January 10, 2011 Leave a comment

Curious about Cloud ?

  • Should you use public cloud offerings from providers, build your own private cloud, or develop a hybrid of both?
  • What cloud-based services are right for you?
  • What are the best practices and proven process for implementing cloud technologies that minimize risk and maximize success?

Microsoft in partnership with Dell

Microsoft Hyper-V Cloud Fast Track is a reference architecture for building private clouds that combines Dell technology, including servers, networking and storage, with Microsoft software, technical guidance and validated configurations.

Hyper-V Cloud Fast Track solutions offer a turnkey approach to delivering scalable, preconfigured, validated infrastructure platforms for on-premises private cloud implementations. With local control over data and operations, your IT can dynamically pool, allocate, secure and manage resources for agile IaaS. Likewise, business units can deploy line-of-business applications with speed and consistency using self-provisioning and automated data center services in a virtualized environment.

Hyper-V Cloud Fast Track solutions offer:

  • Faster deployment — Rich features and support make private clouds easy to deploy.
  • Reduced risk — Validated configurations mean you can implement with confidence.
  • Dell advantage — Dell provides business-ready configurations for virtualization that are optimized for Microsoft Hyper-V. 

Dell Business-Ready Configurations for Microsoft Hyper-V Cloud Fast Track

Dell offers a range of pre-engineered, business-ready configurations that conform to Microsoft’s Hyper-V Fast Track reference architecture:


Categories: Dell, Microsoft, Virtualization Tags: , , , , , , , , , ,

Hotfix to improve and help prevent corruption of the WMI repository for W2003 and XP

January 5, 2011 Leave a comment

A hotfix is available for Windows Management Instrumentation (WMI) in Microsoft Windows Server 2003. This hotfix improves the stability of the WMI repository. The hotfix includes many of the improvements that are available in WMI in Windows Vista.

The WMI improvements that Windows Vista includes have been ported to Windows XP and to Microsoft Windows Server 2003. You can use the hotfix that is mentioned in this article to improve the stability of the repository on computers that are running Windows Server 2003. This hotfix helps increase the probability that the repository remains stable if you experience an unexpected problem in Windows.

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/933061
Note : You will need to restart the computer after you apply this hotfix

For more information about a version of this hotfix for 32-bit versions of Windows XP : 933062  (http://support.microsoft.com/kb/933062/ ) A hotfix is available that improves the stability of the Windows Management Instrumentation repository in Windows XP

Categories: Uncategorized

Hotfixes for SCVMM 2008 R2

January 4, 2011 1 comment

Hi

Here is the recommended hotfixes for System Center Virtual Machine Manager 2008 R2

Recommended updates for the Virtual Machine Manager (VMM) Server and Admin Console

2308590 (http://support.microsoft.com/kb/2308590) Description of the System Center Virtual Machine Manager 2008 R2 hotfix rollup package: September 14, 2010

982523 (http://support.microsoft.com/kb/982523)   Description of the System Center Virtual Machine Manager 2008 R2 Admin Console hotfix rollup package: June 8, 2010

Windows Server 2008 – Recommended updates for Microsoft Hyper-V Server and for the VMM server

The following list applies only to systems that are running Windows Server 2008 Service Pack 1

954563 (http://support.microsoft.com/kb/954563)   Memory corruption may occur with the Windows Management Instrumentation (WMI) service on a computer that is running Windows Server 2008 or Windows Vista Service Pack 1

955805 (http://support.microsoft.com/kb/955805)   Certain applications become very slow on a Windows Server 2008-based or Windows Vista SP1-based computer when a certificate with the SIA extension is installed

956774 (http://support.microsoft.com/kb/956774)   A Background Intelligent Transfer Service (BITS) client cannot handle files that have paths that contain the volume GUID in Windows Server 2008 or in Windows Vista

958124 (http://support.microsoft.com/kb/958124)   A wmiprvse.exe process may leak memory when a WMI notification query is used heavily on a Windows Server 2008-based or Windows Vista-based computer

The following list applies to systems that are running Windows Server 2008 Service Pack 1 or Windows Server 2008 Service Pack 2

968936 (http://support.microsoft.com/kb/968936)   A rollup hotfix package for Windows Server 2008 Failover Clustering WMI provider

970520 (http://support.microsoft.com/kb/970520)   The Wmiprvse.exe process creates a memory leak on a computer that is running Windows Server 2008 if you remotely monitor this process by using the WMI interface on a computer that is running Windows Server 2003 or Windows XP

971244 (http://support.microsoft.com/kb/971244)   Windows Remote Management (WinRM) does not accept HTTP authorization requests that are larger than 16 KB on a computer that is running Windows Server 2008 or Windows Vista

971403 (http://support.microsoft.com/kb/971403)   The “Win32_share” WMI class cannot enumerate file shares or create file shares on a node in a Windows Server 2008 failover cluster

To see a list of recommended Hyper-V updates for Windows Server 2008 and for Microsoft Hyper-V Server 2008, visit the following Microsoft TechNet website: http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/dd430893(WS.10).aspx (http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/dd430893(WS.10).aspx)

Windows Server 2008 – Recommended updates for Hyper-V Failover Cluster nodes

957311 (http://support.microsoft.com/kb/957311)   Recommended hotfixes for Windows Server 2008-based server clusters

Windows Server 2008 R2 – Recommended updates for Microsoft Hyper-V Server and for the VMM server

981314 (http://support.microsoft.com/kb/981314)   The “Win32_Service” WMI class leaks memory in Windows Server 2008 R2 and in Windows 7

981845 (http://support.microsoft.com/kb/981845)   The Windows Remote Management service stops responding in Windows 7 or in Windows Server 2008 R2

To see a list of recommended Hyper-V updates for Windows Server 2008 R2 and for Microsoft Hyper-V Server 2008 R2, visit the following Microsoft TechNet website: http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ff394763(WS.10).aspx (http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ff394763(WS.10).aspx)

Windows Server 2008 R2 – Recommended updates for Hyper-V Failover Cluster nodes

974930 (http://support.microsoft.com/kb/974930)   An application or service that queries information about a failover cluster by using the WMI provider may experience low performance or a time-out exception

980054 (http://support.microsoft.com/kb/980054)   Recommended hotfixes and updates for Windows Server 2008 R2-based server clusters

Recommended updates for Windows Server 2003 systems that have Virtual Server installed

936059 (http://support.microsoft.com/kb/936059)   An update is available for the Windows Remote Management feature in Windows Server 2003 and in Windows XP

Recommended updates that should be applied to Windows 2000 systems before a P2V is performed

834010 (http://support.microsoft.com/kb/834010)   A deadlock occurs when a program that uses WMI calls the LoadLibrary() or the FreeLibrary() function in Windows 2000

843527 (http://support.microsoft.com/kb/843527)   The Win32_SCSIController WMI class cannot obtain SCSI controller information after you install the MS04-011 security update

892294 (http://support.microsoft.com/kb/892294)   A WMI event notification query does not detect a user permissions change on Windows 2000 or Windows Server 2003

More info : http://support.microsoft.com/kb/2397711

Categories: Microsoft, Virtualization Tags: , , , , ,

Microsoft MVP Award 2011

January 2, 2011 Leave a comment

It’s just amazing start a new year with that kind of news:

For the 3rd year in a row a got award by Microsoft : Most Valuable Professional in Virtual machine expertise : https://mvp.support.microsoft.com/profile/Alessandro 

Microsoft Letter: “Congratulations! We are pleased to present you with the 2011 Microsoft® MVP Award! This award is given to exceptional technical community leaders who actively share their high quality, real world expertise with others. We appreciate your outstanding contributions in Virtual Machine technical communities during the past year.”

I would like to thank the Microsoft Virtualization Team in Redmond led by Ben Armstrong  for the credit and support and also my MVP Lead Nick Ellery and specially to my wife and kids for the unconditional support.

It’s really amazing to be recognized for something you do by pleasure! Being part of the community, sharing knowledge and experience, writing in blogs, helping in forums and speaking in events it’s for real!!!! You can’t imagine how much I learn from doing this!!

Again thank you all for the support 

Happy 2011!

Categories: Uncategorized Tags: , , ,