Month: October 2009

Platform Update For Vista and Windows Server 2008

Microsoft has announced the release of updates for Windows Vista  and Windows Server 2008 to bring some features of it up to date to take advantage of Windows Server 2008 R2 technologies.

  • Windows Ribbon and Animation Manager Library: contains the Windows Ribbon API, a command framework that enables developers to quickly and easily create rich ribbon experiences in their applications, and the Windows Animation Manager API, an animation framework for managing the scheduling and execution of user interface element animations.
  • Windows Graphics, Imaging, and XPS Library: components for developers to leverage the latest advancements in modern graphics technologies for gaming, multimedia, imaging and printing applications. It includes updates to DirectX to support hardware acceleration for 2D, 3D and text based scenarios; DirectCompute for hardware accelerated parallel computing scenarios; and XPS Library for document printing scenarios.
  • Windows Automation API: allows accessibility tools and test automations to access Windows user interface in a consistent way across operating system versions.
  • Windows Portable Devices Platform: supplies the infrastructure to standardize data transfers between an application and a portable device, such as a mobile phone, digital camera, or portable media player

These updates will be available through Windows Update.

Some Hyper-V Best Practices Webcasts

Want to run SQL, SharePoint or Exchange on Hyper-V?  If so, make sure you tune into some webcasts on how to do this best.

Microsoft Virtualization Best Practices for SQL Server

Thursday, October 29, 2009 10:00 AM Pacific Time (US & Canada)

Virtualising business critical applications will deliver significant customer benefits including cost savings, enhanced business continuity and an agile and efficient management solution.  This session will focus on virtualising SQL Server using Microsoft solutions, the benefits over key competitors such as VMware, and guidance for virtualising SQL server for Production and Test/Dev scenarios focusing on consolidation, scale, load balancing, dynamic provisioning and high availability. We will go into technical details with best practices. Customer evidence and results from lab deployment tests will also be discussed.

Microsoft Virtualization Best Practices for Exchange

Wednesday, November 04, 2009 10:00 AM Pacific Time (US & Canada)

Virtualising business critical applications will deliver significant customer benefits including cost savings, enhanced business continuity and an agile and efficient management solution.  This session will focus on virtualising Exchange using Microsoft solutions, the benefits over key competitors such as VMware, and guidance for virtualising Exchange for various Production scenarios. We will go into technical details with best practices. Customer evidence and results from lab deployment tests will also be discussed.

Microsoft Virtualization Best Practices for SharePoint

(Date/Time TBA) Check here for the original announcement

Virtualising business critical applications will deliver significant customer benefits including cost savings, enhanced business continuity and an agile and efficient management solution.  This session will focus on virtualising SharePoint using Microsoft solutions, the benefits over key competitors such as VMware, and guidance for virtualising SharePoint for Production and Test/Dev scenarios focusing on scale, load balancing, dynamic provisioning and high availability. We will go into technical details with best practices. Customer evidence and results from lab deployment tests will also be discussed.

Nokia Phone Using Ford Bluetooth

I hate phones and everything phone related.  I hate phone people who have to talk about their iPhone or Shineyokia all night long.  They make a hardcore trekkie conference look like an appealing vacation option.  I have a phone only because it’s a required item.  I had to take of the back panel to find out it was a Nokia 6300.  What can it do?  There’s a green button for answering phone calls and a red one for not answering them.  There’s a socket where the power goes and and a power button when I want the world to go away.

I recently bought a 2 year old Ford Focus “Connect”.  It features Bluetooth connectivity for the phone.  It’s a legal requirement here to use a hands free kit while driving.  Get caught and it’s 2 points on your license and your car insurance goes up.  I had tried over the last 5 weeks to make the Bluetooth work.  I read the manual and it only told me what to do with the phone.  There were no car instructions other than turn on the radio.  No matter what I did I got “Bonding Failed” on the radio.

I was about to go buy a €30 headset when I decided to do a search.  A little while into the search I got two contenders:

  1. Make sure Bluetooth is enabled in the car.  Mine was.  Press <Phone> and <Menu>.  The option is in there.
  2. The car can only store 6 phone configurations.  Previous owners may have consumed all of the slots.  That was the case for me.

I pressed <Phone> and <Menu> and <Menu>.  From here I could delete the phone bindings.  Now I could follow the car manual instructions.  I enabled Bluetooth on the phone and searched for nearby devices.  I selected the found “Ford Audio” and entered “0000” as the code.  The bonding worked.

I tested it out.  The car microphone worked nicely and the car radio volume allowed me to adjust the speaker volume of the call.  The sound was clear.  Now the phone picks up the car Bluetooth hands free kit once I get in and turn on the radio.  Perfect.

Use OpsMgr 2007 To Monitor …

Ask an IT Pro what’s the most important thing at work.  Servers?  SAN?  Exchange?  Active Directory?  Not even close.  It’s the coffee pot.  And no one likes and empty one.

Wilbour Craddock just sent me a link to an article with a demo video.  In the video one of the authors of the Operations Manager 2007 management pack created a solution to visually monitor a coffee pot using a digital camera.  It alarms on empty, below warning threshold and below error threshold.  It automatically changes to a healthy state using a monitor.  Superb!

2 Existing HotFixes For W2008 R2 Hyper-V

I noticed I hadn’t done a good job blogging about 2 patches that MS has released since the RTM of Windows Server 2008 R2 Hyper-V.  Both are pretty important and I was peeved I couldn’t find them on my own blog (my virtual notebook).  This blog post should rectify that.

KB974598 – You receive a "Stop 0x0000007E" error on the first restart after you enable Hyper-V on a Windows Server 2008 R2-based computer

Assume that you enable the Hyper-V role on a computer that is running Windows Server 2008 R2. You restart the computer after you enable the Hyper-V role. However, you receive the following Stop error message during the restart operation:

Stop 0x0000007E (ffffffffc0000096, parameter2, parameter3, parameter4) SYSTEM_THREAD_EXCEPTION_NOT_HANDLED

This problem occurs because the system uses a C-state that is supported by the processor. However, the C-state is not supported by Hyper-V.

Fix: To resolve this problem, follow these steps:

  1. Disable Processor Virtualization in the BIOS.
  2. Start the computer normally.
  3. Apply this hotfix and then restart the computer.

My note: I suspect MS forgot to mention re-enabling Processor Virtualisation in the BIOS.  Otherwise the Hyper-V role will fail to start during boot up.

Workaround: This section, method, or task contains steps that tell you how to modify the registry. However, serious problems might occur if you modify the registry incorrectly. Therefore, make sure that you follow these steps carefully. For added protection, back up the registry before you modify it. Then, you can restore the registry if a problem occurs. For more information about how to back up and restore the registry, click the following article number to view the article in the Microsoft Knowledge Base.

To work around this problem, follow these steps:

  1. Disable Processor Virtualization in the BIOS.
  2. Start the computer normally.
  3. Open an elevated command prompt, and then run the following command: reg add HKLMSystemCurrentControlSetControlProcessor /v Capabilities /t REG_DWORD /d 0x0007E06
  4. Restart the computer.

This workaround adds a registry entry that disables the C2 state and the C3 state.

KB975530 – Stop error message on an Intel Xeon 5500 series processor-based computer that is running Windows Server 2008 R2 and that has the Hyper-V role installed: "0x00000101 – CLOCK_WATCHDOG_TIMEOUT"

Consider the following scenario:

A computer is running Windows Server 2008 R2 and has the Hyper-V role installed.   This computer has one or more Intel Xeon processors (code-named Nehalem) of the 5500 series installed.

In this scenario, you receive the following Stop error message:

0x00000101 (parameter1, 0000000000000000, parameter3, 000000000000000c) CLOCK_WATCHDOG_TIMEOUT

This problem occurs because spurious interrupts are generated on the computer that uses Intel Xeon 5500 series processors. These interrupts are caused by a known erratum that is described in the Intel document number 321324. To view this Intel document, click the following link.

Microsoft provides third-party contact information to help you find technical support. This contact information may change without notice. Microsoft does not guarantee the accuracy of this third-party contact information.

This hotfix pertains only to computers that have Intel processors installed.

Hotfix information

A supported hotfix is available from Microsoft. However, this hotfix is intended to correct only the problem that is described in this article. Apply this hotfix only to systems that are experiencing the problem described in this article. This hotfix might receive additional testing. Therefore, if you are not severely affected by this problem, we recommend that you wait for the next software update that contains this hotfix.

If the hotfix is available for download, there is a "Hotfix download available" section at the top of this Knowledge Base article. If this section does not appear, contact Microsoft Customer Service and Support to obtain the hotfix.

Note: If additional issues occur or if any troubleshooting is required, you might have to create a separate service request. The usual support costs will apply to additional support questions and issues that do not qualify for this specific hotfix. For a complete list of Microsoft Customer Service and Support telephone numbers or to create a separate service request, visit the Microsoft Web site.

Note: The "Hotfix download available" form displays the languages for which the hotfix is available. If you do not see your language, it is because a hotfix is not available for that language.

For more information about how to install the Windows Server 2008 service pack, click the following article number to view the article in the Microsoft Knowledge Base.

Restart requirement

You have to restart the computer after you apply this hotfix.

Hotfix replacement information

This hotfix does not replace any other hotfix.

File information

The English version of this hotfix has the file attributes (or later file attributes) that are listed in the following table. The dates and times for these files are listed in Coordinated Universal Time (UTC). When you view the file information, it is converted to

local time. To find the difference between UTC and local time, use the Time Zone tab in the Date and Time item in Control Panel.

Windows Server 2008 R2 file information note

The MANIFEST files (.manifest) and the MUM files (.mum) that are installed for each environment are listed separately. MUM

and MANIFEST files, and the associated security catalog (.cat) files, are critical to maintaining the state of the updated component. The security catalog files (attributes not listed) are signed with a Microsoft digital signature.

For all supported x64-based versions of Windows Server 2008 R2

File name File version File size Date Time Platform
Hvax64.exe 6.1.7600.20527 643,072 15-Sep-2009 02:29 x64
Hvboot.sys 6.1.7600.16385 118,864 14-Jul-2009 01:48 x64
Hvix64.exe 6.1.7600.20527 707,072 15-Sep-2009 02:29 x64

Operations Manager 2007 SP1 Management Pack

Microsoft has released a updated MP for OpsMgr 2007 Service Pack 1. 

“The Operations Manager 2007 SP1 Management Pack alerts you to problems with components such as agents, management servers, the Operations Manager database, agents, modules used by workflows and services so that you can continue to monitor the servers and clients that your business depends on.
The management pack includes tasks that you can automate to get easy access to common diagnostic tools, such as restarting a health service or reloading an agent configuration.

The Operations Manager 2007 SP1 Management Packs includes the following features:

Local and Remote Monitoring of an Agent’s Health

  • Operations Manager agents monitor themselves for events and performance indicators that signal an issue with the agent’s health.
  • Management servers also maintain an external perspective of an agent’s health via the Health Service Watcher.
  • The ‘Agent Health State’ view provides a side-by-side dashboard of both perspectives on the agent.

Optional, Automatic Agent Remediation Capabilities

  • If the Health Service Watcher determines that an agent is unhealthy, a series of diagnostics and recoveries can be enabled to further diagnose the problem and event take actions to attempt to fix the problem (e.g. Ping the server to see if it is completely offline, start a stopped agent, trigger a reinstall, etc.). Refer to the management pack guide for more details.
  • Agents are monitoring their own process to ensure that memory utilization is not sustained at unacceptable levels. If this condition is detected then the agent will automatically restart itself to force the freeing up of memory.

Detection of Problems and Misconfigurations with Run As Accounts and Profiles

  • Checks are run on a regular basis to detect if any of the management group’s “Windows” type Run As Accounts have credentials which are about to expire. Alerts will be raised, and where possible this will be done in advance of the credentials expiring to avoid outages.
  • Alerts will be raised if any errors are encountered during the distribution of Run As Accounts.

Monitoring of problems with Running Workflows in Management Packs

  • Numerous rules are provided to detect if workflows within management packs are failing. Examples of workflows include discoveries, rules, monitors, etc. Failures can range from bad configurations on the workflows themselves, script failures, permissions problems, etc.”