September, 2008 | Aidan Finn, IT Pro

Branch (Office) Infrastructure Implementation Solution For Windows Server 2008

Microsoft has just released BIIS for W2008:

"The Branch Infrastructure Implementation Solution provides guidance to design and implement Microsoft’s branch infrastructure solution. This solution, previously known as the Branch Office Infrastructure Solution, has been updated to support the features and functionality in Windows Server 2008 that support branch infrastructure.

Windows Server 2008 includes several enhancements to the base operating system plus powerful new functionalities that make it valuable in a branch office environment. These include:

Mitigated Security Risks: The Read-Only Domain Controller is a powerful new feature that enables organizations provide their remote branch office with local authentication servers, without having to increase security exposure to their Domain Database. The RoDC also provides a read-only copy of the DNS and receives uni-directional updates from the Central Office DataCentre. BitLocker technology provides hardware-based encryption for data on branch office server. The Server Core installation option helps significantly decrease the servers’ surface area of exposure and management overheads by reducing the operating system footprint.
Improved Network Performance: Windows Server 2008 offers several new or improved network technologies that will improve the efficiency of WAN communications. The new TCPIP Stack and the Server Message Block (SMB 2.0) is redesigned for networking environments especially when connecting branch offices. The Distributed File System Replication service (DFSR) is a multi-master replication engine that increases data availability and gives users in remote sites fast, reliable access to files
Improved Deployment and Administration: New management tools like the Server Manager Console provide a single, unified console for managing a server’s configuration and system information, displaying server status, identifying problems with server role configuration, and managing all roles installed on the server.

BIIS provides an understanding of the complex issues that affect branch infrastructure planning and design. This solution was designed using a modular approach that will support future releases and add-on guides to support core as well as extended branch infrastructure services. The service guides that are available with this release focus specifically on key Windows Server 2008 role services. Future releases will present a selection of “extended” services to detail branch infrastructure focused on solutions for roles and products such as Hyper-V, System Center Configuration Manager, and Forefront Client Security. This guidance helps IT Service designers and architects minimize the branch office design and implementation costs and provide the most efficient and effective management possible, while still providing the desired user experience for staff in branch offices."

Microsoft Authorised Refurbisher Program

A good while back, I mentioned an organisation that allowed companies and individuals to donate old or unwanted computers to charity – they’d be refurbished and sent off to a worthy cause.

Microsoft Ireland has mentioned a program in their blog today. Anyone in the Microsoft Authorised Refurbisher program will take an old machine, refurbish it, stick Microsoft software on it and give it to a school, charity or community program. The list of Irish operators is here and the International directory is here. Watch out though; some of them are commercial operations, some are not-for-profit and some are charities.

This way you can have:

A genuinely environmentally friendly program for getting rid of your unwanted hardware – we all suspect that recycled computers just end up in a landfill in China or India anyway!
You get good marketing material.
You might be eligible for tax breaks – I’m not an accountant so consult an expert on that.
Someone worthy who needs a PC will get one.

If you’re worried about data security then wipe it securely using something free like DBAN which will overwrite that data numerous times with junk data. They also have a commercial product for regulatory compliance.

SAP Officially Supports Hyper-V

Possibly the biggest budget black hole in the IT world, SAP, have announced that they now support Hyper-V as a platform. You can now save money by virtualising on Hyper-V so that you can give that money to the plethora of SAP consultants on your site 😉

I wonder if Oracle will respond to this by supporting their products on Hyper-V – or any other non-Oracle virtual platform?

Credit: VolkerW.

SCCM 2007 Supported Configuration Updates

Microsoft has update the list of supported configurations for SCCM 2007:

SQL 2008 is supported. This requires 2 hotfixes.
Hyper-V is supported as a VM platform for site systems.
Windows Mobile 6.1 is supported.
Application Compatiibility Toolkit 5.0.3 is supported.
.NET 3.5 SP1 is supported for the admin MMC and Desired Configuration Management.

HP Blade System Management Pack for OpsMgr 2007

I just deployed the HP Blade System Management Pack for Microsoft System Center Operations Manager 2007 (what a mouth full!). It was relatively easy. I’m assuming you’ve already added the Proliant Server management pack.

Get the IP address of each of the blade chassis’ you have.
Set up a "user" account for OpsMgr and note the password.
Configure SNMP alerts to your OpsMgr server and set up a read string for the OpsMgr Server.
Download and install the exe from HP.
Start the BladeSystem monitor and add your chassis in there using your chassis IP address and OpsMgr user account/password.
Add the blade management pack from the HP Blade Management Pack folder in Program Files.
Discover a network device using the SNMP read string and the chassis IP address.
Deploy agents to your blade servers.

Wait a while, maybe 10-15 minutes.

Come back and you’ll find lots of newly discovered objects and a really cool BladeSystem diagram that drills down to all of the components.

Hyper-V Virtual Switch and HP NC326M

This NIC doesn’t have the same complication as the HP NC373i but there’s still a gotchya to watch out for. Do not use the HP Network Configuration utility to assign a VLAN tag to the NC326M, even for a temporary test. Even if you remove the VLAN tag from the NIC, there’s still something left behind by HP’s utility.

I found that if configure a virtual switch on a clean machine with the NC373M then there were no problems at all – as long as the HP Ethernet virtual connect is wired and configured correctly.

Read All About It: Microsoft Hyper-V Server

We’ve heard little bits of information about Hyper-V Server, the dedicated version of Windows Server 2008 that can only run the Hyper-V role. You can read about it now.

Microsoft says: "Customers who require richer and more robust virtualization features, such as Quick Migration, multi-site clustering, large memory support (greater than 32 GB of RAM), and more than four processers on the host server, should use Windows Server 2008".

Hyper-V server is aimed at branch office server consolidation, VDI (where there is a broker to manage hardware fault tolerance) and test labs.

Month: September 2008