Month: January 2007

VMware has announced that VMware Converter 3.0 (Starter Edition)  or P2V is now going to be free.  It’s available for download right now.

For anyone who is migrting their physical environment to VMware Server or ESX this will be good news.  There is still an Enterprise Edition which I think must still be paid for.  There is a feature comparison table.

You’re still left with an important question … are you happy with the physical machine’s configuration and health?  If so then a conversion may be suitable.  If not, then a new build is probably the way to go.

Credit: Michael Pietrzak.

Microsoft has released a document on some new network diagnostics/troubleshooting tools and methodologies included in Vista.  They say:

With Windows Vista, Microsoft introduces two new tools designed to make diagnosing network problems easier: the Network System Icon and the Network Diagnostics Framework (NDF). With these tools, users can troubleshoot and resolve common network connectivity issues—such as Internet connectivity, file sharing, wireless networking, and the like—themselves, potentially reducing support costs.

So "users can troubleshoot and resolve common … issues".  Hmm.  As an administrator, I hated "have a go heros".  They caused more damage than the original problem.  If there’s a problem I wanted Helpdesk to know about it.  That way if they or my server team spotted a trend then we could nail the actual cause of the problem … and disembowel the Superman wannabe.

These tools may prove handy for home users and for IT staff, though.

The new scripting language, Windows Powershell 1.0, is finally available for Windows Vista.  You can download the x64 and the x86 editions now. 

Powershell is important because it crosses all of the new enterprise products.  There’s already support for Exchange 2007, there will be support for System Center Operations Manager 2007, System Center Data Protection Manager V2 and System Center Virtual Machine Manager.

The other key feature is that it really makes complex fucntions much more simple.  Anyone familiar with VBS scripting will know that you often have to write libraries of functions just to do simple tasks.  Powershell promises to solve this.

Short answer: NO.

MS really screwed the pooch on this one.  They spent years convincing administrators the world over that we should make full use of group policy and "IntelliMirror".  I’ve succesfully used GPO to deploy Office 2000, XP and upgrade to 2003.  Along comes Office 2007 and we find that in Microsoft’s efforts to make us all users of XML, they’ve forgotten that lots of their customers use GPO to distribute Office.  That functionality got left behind somewhere.  I really hope they come up with a solution because this sends a really bad signal out to those who adopt solutions that are recommended by Microsoft.  You could argue that we should be using SMS, CM 2007 or SCE2007 (latter two in the near future) but not everyone has a budget for those enterprise management poducts.

Darren Mar-Elia has done a lot of work looking at Office 2007 deployment.  He’s the source of my information on GPO deployment no longer working.  It’s well worth checking out.  I did a document early last Summer for my last employer on how to distribute Office 2007 beta with Configuration Manager 2007 beta.

Microsoft has released a set of release notes that details existing known issues in Windows Vista.  I’ve just had a look.  If there’s only 1 known issue (Terminal Services device redirection) then I’m impressed.  My gut tells me that there’s probably more and somebody hasn’t finished their documentation.

Microsoft Windows Vista is now available to all, not just businesses and those with subscriptions.  Microsoft released the product today with lots of fanfare.

The coverage by mainstream press is really making me laugh.  Sky News (UK cable/satellite broadcaster and sister of Fox News) is running a piece by an American broadcaster, CBS.  In it, the "journalist" (and I use that word loosely) interviews a mom who was "1 of 50 test users".  50?  Hmm,  that doesn’t sound right.  If they’d said 50,000 I wouldn’t have questioned it.  Considering that Vista was downloaded in beta and RC by countless thousands of test users and the public, 50 just aint right.  It’s no wonder the US press is the laughing stock of the world.  And Sky is just as bad for playing that piece.  I sure hope people don’t make technology based purchasing decisions based on this sort of mainstream press rubbish.

So Vista is done.  What’s up next?  The next big release and the one of real interest to businesses is Windows Server "Longhorn".  There’s loads of features in Vista that we’re either not aware of or not able to use yet until "Longhorn" is released.  The public beta is coming up soon.  General release is expected at the end of this year or early next year.

According to ENN, AV-Comparatives has just rated Eset NOD32 as the best generally available anti virus product on the market.  If the November 2006 ratings are anything to go by, other big players such as Sinmantec came nowhere close.

I’ve never seen NOD32 in action but some people whose opinions I trust rave about it.  I can’t wait to see how Forefront Client Security rates against the competition.

I’m naming names now.  I have no care or concern for the guilty.

I was promised a call by BT Ireland’s Customer "Care" from a manager called "Liz Byrne".  That was supposed to take place last Monday.  No call was ever received.

I arrived home on Friday to find that I received a bill from Eircom for a landline and broadand subscription.  I never made any contact with them (they’d be the last people I’d use for broadband for price reasons).  So, they either goofed up or someone (probably a door-to-door sales agent) committed a fraudulent act. 

I immediately called Eircom.  Their systems were "down for maintenance" and no one could help.  Maybe I should call back on Monday.

Enough is enough!  I’ve just lodged a formal complaint with ComReg, the telecoms regulator.  Eircom had better get my service returned back to BT with no service interruptions or else:

• My solicitor will be getting a call to start actions for (a) for lost earnings and (b) Eircom entering me into a contract without my knowledge
• I will be calling the Gardai (the police) to report a case of identity fraud that implicates Eircom.

I must dig up contact details for an old housemate.  She’s a journalist now 🙂

I am not one to me messed with.  I will be getting to the bottom of this and the person(s) responsible will face the music, one way or another.

New Releases

Virtual Server 2005 R2 Service Pack 1: February 2007

Virtual PC 2007: March 2007

Virtual Machine Manager: Approximately October 2007

Support

Exchange Server 2003 – Only on Virtual Server 2005 R2 or later (KB 320220)
Certificate Server – Only with Win2003 SP1 or later guest and host (KB 897614)
ISA Server 2006 – Is supported, but not recommended (KB 897613)

KB 897613 – Microsoft supports Windows Server System software running within a Microsoft Virtual Server environment subject to the Microsoft Support Lifecycle policy …

KB 897614 – The following Windows Server System software is not supported within a Microsoft Virtual Server environment: Speech Server, ISA Server 2000/2004, MIIS 2003, Sharepoint Portal Server.

KB 897615 – For Microsoft customers who do not have a Premier-level support agreement,
Microsoft will require the issue to be reproduced independently from the non-Microsoft hardware virtualization software.

KB 917437 – Microsoft support for Linux guest operating systems is currently limited to the following list of qualified and tested operating systems: [9 Linux distributions]