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New StarWind iSCSI – High Availability for SMBs

2009-10-16T00:06:21Z

The new version of StarWind’s iSCSI SAN software is coming soon, and promises to add full high-availability clustering, with fail-over and fail-back support. While I’ve had a look at their video demo , I haven’t had a chance to actually install it or play with it yet, so no full review, obviously. What I like about StarWind has always been that it’s an affordable solution in the small to mid-sized business space, where paying 10’s of thousands for a SAN just isn’t in the cards for most of us, but...(read more)

Moving (and we lost our "skin")

2009-10-12T17:44:00Z

If you noticed that the blog suddenly went back to basic ugly, that was an unfortunate and unanticipated side effect of preparing to move my blogging to a new location . We'll be moving to http://msMVPs.com/blogs/russel shortly, but in the process of getting things configured for that move, we appear to have lost our look and feel a bit. Susan has enough to worry about handling the move, so I'll just wait until she's done before trying to fix the look. So, why am I moving? Because, frankly...(read more)

SBS 2008 – a 64-bit OS to Love

2009-09-10T17:53:17Z

As many of you know, I wrote the book on Windows Small Business Server 2008, as well as earlier editions. It’s an operating system and a good deal more, giving most small businesses (up to 75 users or devices) pretty much all the infrastructure and enterprise environment they need. We’ve run our writing business on SBS for years, and we recently moved our production environment over to SBS 2008. This was the last piece of the puzzle, and we’re fully 64-bit here except for two old workstations that...(read more)

HVRemote Updated

2009-08-09T23:27:20Z

In case you missed it, John Howard has updated his HVRemote utility. This little gem, which keeps getting better and better, can completely configure both the client and the server to enable you to connect to a Hyper-V server from your Vista or Windows 7 desktop. You’ll still need some way to actually manage the server, and that could be the RSAT tools or the PSHyperV project on Codeplex. IAC, grab the new version of HVRemote. John has added even more intelligence and troubleshooting in this...(read more)

StarWind Software iSCSI Target

2009-08-08T23:41:00Z

This is just going to be a quickie. I’m busy working on a new book for Microsoft Press, and as part of that I needed to set up a failover cluster to test Hyper-V’s new Live Migration. Well, the folks at StarWind Software were nice enough to send me an NFR version of their StarWind Enterprise Server to use. I admit, I was a bit concerned, since it can be a daunting task to get most iSCSI SANs up and running, and I wasn’t at all sure how well a purely software solution would do. Well, I must say, I...(read more)

HP ML350 G5 – 26 Months Later (Part 2)

2009-08-08T23:22:08Z

Well, sorry about that. Got a bit distracted after I started writing up my experiences with the ML350 and buried in a project and forgot to get back here. And I’m still a bit buried, so I’ll keep this a bit shorter than I might otherwise. First, the good stuff: Overall, I love this server. It’s quiet (well, as long as the ambient temperature stays under 30 degrees or so), which is a real plus in a small business where the server may well live in a room where people have to work. It’s a workhorse...(read more)

Acer Ferrari Repair

2009-07-29T13:11:00Z

I've had my Acer Ferrari 4000 for four years now, and it has been a great laptop. Yes, I wish I had a dual core. Yes, I wish I had a laptop that had 4 GB or even more. But honestly, the Ferrari was still a quite good little laptop, iwth a great display (1680x1050 on a 14" screen is hard to find!), a perfectly usable keyboard, and the whole thing is a carbon fibre case that looks cool and weighs in at under 6 Lbs. But a few weeks ago, just as we were getting ready to go on vacation, it came...(read more)

HP ML350 G5 – 26 Months Later (Part 1)

2009-05-26T20:33:55Z

I got my HP ML350 G5 just about 26 months ago, and as I was sitting here today, thinking about it and what a difference it has made, I thought it was time to provide a real world look at it's strengths and weaknesses after living with it for over two years. We all see reviews of new hardware, and they're interesting, but it's not often we get a chance to hear how a machine is to live with, day in and day out over an extended period. After all, it's easy to love it during the honeymoon...(read more)

Auto-Publish with VPC7

2009-05-12T19:21:54Z

Windows 7 will support a new version of Virtual PC known as VPC7. The big feature that VPC7 adds is application publishing using RAIL technology. This enables the application to directly integrate into the Win7 desktop and Start menu, running as if the application were local, instead of running on a VM. Cool stuff, and essentially the same technology as used by TS RemoteApps. Win7’s Virtual XP Mode includes a pre-licensed and activated Windows XP SP3 virtual machine that uses the RAIL technology...(read more)

Windows 7 and Virtual PC

2009-04-26T13:48:10Z

A very interesting post on the official Windows Team Blog: Windows XP Mode for Windows 7. If I read this correctly, it looks like we’ll have a virtual Windows XP embedded directly into Windows 7, with the ability to run applications directly from Windows 7. From the description and the screen shot, this sounds like it has the equivalent to TS RemoteApps, but in this case connecting to a locally running virtual Windows XP. Now that would be cool! And a real solution to any lingering application compatibility...(read more)

Windows Foundation Server 2008

2009-04-10T16:02:27Z

Microsoft announced last week the release of a new edition of Windows Server 2008, The Windows Foundation Server 2008. This a limited version of Windows Server 2008 that requires no CALs, and is only available from hardware OEMs. You can’t go out and buy a copy without buying the hardware it goes on. And that hardware is going to only be available from folks like HP, Dell, Acer, etc. Your system builder won’t be able to build or sell you a copy, at least not this first go round. Let’s look...(read more)

Connecting Your Zune

2009-03-07T02:45:00Z

A few months ago, I wrote about how to connect your iPod to your TS RemoteApps Server running under Hyper-V , which really simplified my life and made it simpler to keep everything in one place. I made that even easier by running FabulaTech's USB over Ethernet server on my main Windows 7 workstation, so I didn't have to get up and go into the server room to connect my iPod. Well, now that Zune supports Audible books, I took my old version 1 Zune and updated it to the latest software and gave...(read more)

iPods and iTunes with Hyper-V and TS RemoteApps

2009-01-01T01:00:00Z

One of the problems I have working on many different computers and constantly rebuilding even my main workstation for whatever beta build of Windows happens to be available, is having a "stable" environment for some of the little things that make my life work better. One of the ways we do that in the office is to run Windows Small Business Server 2008 Premium Edition. We used the SBS second Server license to virtualize the main SBS server and also a virtual Windows Server 2008 Standard...(read more)

Windows Memory

2008-12-30T19:31:00Z

I ran across an excellent article on Windows memory use today. http://www.gamasutra.com/view/feature/3602/sponsored_feature_ram_vram_and_.php This article covers both the limitations of 32-bit Windows memory models, and the ways to get your applications to work well in x64 Windows. Written primarily for game developers, it's still an excellent read for those who have struggled with understanding why their Windows XP or Vista can't use all of their 4 GB of RAM. Or why they can't have all...(read more)

Windows Home Server Saves Another User

2008-12-09T22:10:00Z

As I was rebuilding my main workstation again (life running pre-beta OS's is always fun), I was very much appreciating the simplicity of Windows Home Server. I have my main workstation set up as an 80 GB OS drive (C:) and data drives of D: and E:. Whenever I install a new build on the computer, I add it to my Windows Home Server list of computers and never think about backups again. If I do something ill-advised (aka, stupid) and blow up the install? Simple, put in the recovery CD, boot from...(read more)

Configuring Hyper-V Server for Remote Management

2008-10-22T20:31:00Z

I've seen folks disabling the Windows Firewall on Hyper-V Server and on Windows Server Core in order to get Remote Management to work correctly. Bad idea, and not necessary. Instead, you should enable the appropriate firewall rules to allow Remote Management to work, without disabling the firewall. I covered this setup in both my Windows Server 2008 Administrator's Companion , and again in my upcoming Windows Small Business Server 2008 Administrator's Companion books, complete with scripts...(read more)

Hyper-V Server Releases to Web

2008-10-01T15:05:00Z

The standalone Hyper-V Server is RTM and should be available for download free from the Microsoft downloads site shortly, if not already. Press Release < URL:http://www.microsoft.com/presspass/press/2008/oct08/10-01HyperVRTM08PR.mspx > Web < URL:http://www.microsoft.com/servers/hyper-v-server/default.mspx > Free Download (pending) < URL:http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyId=5CEACA28-7AC0-4613-9227-D0FA337331FD&displaylang=en > FAQ < URL:http://www.microsoft...(read more)

DQSD 4.1 64-bit Beta Releases to Web!

2008-08-06T14:59:00Z

Old timers here will know that I simply love Dave's Quick Search Deskbar (DQSD). And that there was a semi-custom solution to running it in 64-bit that I used. Well, with a lot of hard work and persistence, we now have 64-bit support built into the mainstream of DQSD. Whenever we build a new version, we'll be building a 64bit version side by side. YIPPEE! The installer is still a batch file that has my hands all over it, though with a lot of excellent suggestions from Kim Gräsman, it is cleaner...(read more)

USB over Network - Update

2008-08-06T13:28:00Z

A few days ago, I wrote about FabulaTech's USB over Network solution . I'd just installed it and started using it, and I was moderately impressed. It solves a very real problem for those of us looking to do more virtualization of our environmets now that Hyper-V is a released product. (And especially since we'll shortly have an RTM version of System Center Virtual Machine Manager, SCVMM, that works with Hyper-V.) Since that initial install, I've had a chance to use USB-over-Ethernet...(read more)

DQSD v4 - With Support for x64

2008-08-04T13:39:00Z

As anyone who has known me for a while will tell you, I can be qute passionate about applications I really like. Well, one of those little gems is an opensource project called "Dave's Quick Search Deskbar" or DQSD as it's commonly known. When I first moved to x64 some three years and more ago, the current version was 3.1.9.1, and it had been the same for quite a long while. Which was fine, it still worked, though there were some annoyances in XP SP2. But i simply didn't work...(read more)