Entries for yung

Windows 7 DirectAccess Explained

yung — Fri, 20 Nov 2009 08:01:00 GMT

The Windows® 7 and Windows Server® 2008 R2 operating systems introduce DirectAccess, a new solution that provides users with the same experience working remotely as they would have when working in the office.

With DirectAccess, remote users can access corporate file shares, Web sites, and applications without connecting to a virtual private network (VPN), as shown in Windows 7 DirectAccess User Experience. Further, DirectAccess separates intranet traffic from Internet traffic, as shown on the left, and reduces unnecessary traffic on the corporate network.

DirectAccess requirements include:

DirectAccess Server: This is a Windows Server 2008 R2 server with the server feature, DirectAccess Management Console, added. A DirectAccess server must be joined to an Active Directory® domain and cannot be behind a Network Address Translation, or NAT, device. In addition, a DirectAccess server must have two network adapters: one connected to the Intranet, and the other to the Internet with at least two, consecutive, public, IPv4 addresses.
DirectAccess Client: Windows 7 is the supported client OS.
At least one domain controller and Domain Name System (DNS) server is Windows Server 2008 SP2 or Windows Server 2008 R2.
A Public Key Infrastructure (PKI) for issuing computer certificates, smart card certificates, and, for Network Access Protection (NAP), health certificates
IPsec policies to specify protection for traffic
IPv6 transition technologies, i.e. ISATAP (RFC 4214), Teredo (RFC 4380), and 6to4 (RFC 3056), for DirectAccess server
Optionally, a non-Microsoft NAT-PT (RFC 2766) device to provide access to IPv4-only resources for DirectAccess clients

Here’s how DirectAccess works:

A DirectAccess client computer boots and detects a network connection.
The DirectAccess client computer attempts to connect to an intranet-only web site specified in DirectAccess configuration. If the web site is available, the DirectAccess client determines that it is connected to the intranet, and the DirectAccess connection process stops. The effective DNS Name Resolution Policy revealed by the command, netsh name show effectivepolicy, should indicate DirectAccess is turned off, if the client is in the intranet. On the other hand, if the Web site is not available, the DirectAccess client determines that it is connected to the Internet and the DirectAccess connection process continues. The DirectAccess client computer connects to the DirectAccess server using IPv6 and IPsec. If a native IPv6 network isn’t available, the client establishes an IPv6-over-IPv4 tunnel using 6to4 or Teredo. If a firewall or proxy server prevents the client computer using 6to4 or Teredo from connecting to the DirectAccess server, the client automatically attempts to connect using the IP-HTTPS protocol, which uses a Secure Sockets Layer (SSL) connection to ensure connectivity as shown below.
As part of establishing the IPsec session, the DirectAccess client and server authenticate each other using computer certificates for authentication. Two types of IPsec protection: end-to-end and end-to-edge are available for a DirectAccess client to connect to intranet resources.
By validating Active Directory® group memberships, the DirectAccess server verifies that the computer is authorized to connect with DirectAccess. To mitigate the risk of denial of service (DoS) attacks, IPsec on the DirectAccess server de-prioritizes key negotiation traffic using Differentiated Services Code Points (DSCPs).
If Network Access Protection (NAP) is enabled and configured for health validation, the DirectAccess client obtains a health certificate from a Health Registration Authority (HRA), located on the Internet, prior to connecting to the DirectAccess server. The HRA forwards the DirectAccess client’s health status information to a NAP health policy server. The NAP health policy server processes the policies defined within the Network Policy Server (NPS) and determines whether the client is compliant with system health requirements. If so, the HRA obtains a health certificate for the DirectAccess client. When the DirectAccess client connects to the DirectAccess server, it submits its health certificate for authentication.
The DirectAccess server begins forwarding traffic from the DirectAccess client to the intranet resources to which the user has been granted access.

Notice the DirectAccess connection process happens automatically once a DirectAccess client boots up without requiring a user to log on.

Windows 7 DirectAccess User Experience

yung — Thu, 19 Nov 2009 02:50:00 GMT

This is a follow-up posting with Windows 7 DirectAccess Explained. Here, I configured a simple infrastructure with my Hyper-V-enabled laptop to demonstrate the user's experience in accessing corporate resources with DirectAccess including:

dc.contoso.com

DC/DNS/DHCP/CA

da.contoso.com

DirectAccess server with 2 network adapters and 2 consecutive Ipv4 addresses assigned to the one connected to the Internet

app.contoso.com

An internal only application server

win7-client.contoso.com

A Windows 7 machine configured as a DirectAccess client

The demonstration shows with DirectAccess a user can securely access authorized corporate resources with the same experience working remotely without connecting to a virtual private network (VPN) as one would have when working in the office.

Windows 7 XP Mode Explained

yung — Thu, 29 Oct 2009 15:22:00 GMT

Since the last month, while delivering Windows 7 Launch Events, I have realized how strong the interests on Windows XP Mode (XP Mode) is out there, how much IT Pro want to know more about it, and how many questions are being asked again and again. So I thought to put together something concise and you can get most of your questions answered in a short read.

Designed primarily with small businesses in mind, XP Mode for Windows 7 enables a user to install and run Windows XP applications directly from a Windows 7-based PC. With Windows Virtual PC (not the same with Virtual PC 2007,) XP Mode works in Windows 7 Professional and Ultimate, and provides a 32-bit Windows XP Professional Service Pack 3 (XPSP3) environment pre-loaded on a virtual hard disk. Notice running XP Mode requires turning on hardware virtualization with AMD-V™, Intel® VT, or VIA® VT processor, which may not be available in all PCs. For Enterprise customers, Microsoft Enterprise Desktop Virtualization (MED-V,) part of Microsoft Desktop Optimization Pack (MDOP) and available in Software Assurance, is a management solution for deploying Windows XP Mode and local virtualization solutions in an enterprise setting. While MED-V 1.0 SP1 to be available in the first quarter of 2010 with host support for Windows 7, notice that both MED-V 1.0, MED-V 1.0 SP1 will leverage Microsoft Virtual PC 2007 which does not required hardware assisted virtualization.

To enable XP Mode after installing Windows 7, a local administrator can click “Windows XP Mode” from “All Programs/Windows Virtual PC,” as shown, to access the online download page. Follow the instructions to install Windows Virtual PC and XP Mode. A virtual machine will be automatically initialized with Windows XP SP3. The user will be prompted and can choose to cache the built-in service’s account’s credentials to automatically start the Windows XP SP3 virtual machine.

XP Mode is an integrated environment with a number of productivity features including:

Folder integration to allow accessing the hosting Windows 7 disk drives within XP Mode
Seamless applications to access XP Mode application in the All Programs menu from the hosting Windows 7 machine
USB support for XP Mode
Clipboard sharing between a hosting Windows 7 machine and XP Mode
Printer redirection for XP Mode

The XPSP3 virtual machine running in XP Mode is by default networked with the hosting Windows 7 machine using Network Address Translation. This network and additional virtual machine settings of the XP Mode are customizable. After all, XP Mode is desktop virtualization and a virtual machine. Most settings applicable to a virtual machine are applicable to XP Mode as well. Also keep in mind when it comes to desktop management, XP Mode or a virtual machine should be managed like a physical machine. In other words, a virtual machine in production needs to be secured, patched, and monitored just like a physical machine since at a logical level a virtual machine can be targeted and attacked just like a physical machine.

With Windows 7, there's never been a better time to be a PC. [With Windows 7, there's never been a better time to be a PC. ]

yung — Mon, 26 Oct 2009 07:01:00 GMT

This is it! We had waited and waited, and it's finally here. Windows 7 is now generally available. There are new technologies, new solutions, and a new dimension of capabilities for IT. With Windows 7, there's never been a better time to be a PC. There's never been a better time to be a Windows user. For all you IT Professionals out there, let me highlight the 3 key deliveries:

Making people productive anywhere
Managing risks through enhanced security and control
Reducing cost by streamlining PC management

and innovations introduced in Windows 7, and making pertinent information readily available for you here.

Making people productive anywhere

Making people productive is not that hard. In your office plugged into the company’s network with a laptop loaded with apps, you can be productive. Making people productive “anywhere”, on the other hand, is a very challenging effort for IT, while facing the massive amount of mobile devices, in an increasingly complex network computing environment. The growing number of people in the mobile workforce and branch offices are simultaneously demanding corporate resources to be seamlessly available, regardless of infrastructure requirements and organizational boundaries. Two Windows 7 solutions which facilitate remote access are BranchCache and DirectAccess.

Managing risks through enhanced security and control

Security is nothing we need to justify the need for in today’s network computing environment. It is critical, imperative, and all too often costly. From Windows Vista, Windows Vista SP1, to Windows 7, BitLocker has been expanded from a single drive, to multiple drives, and now to portable media. Windows 7 offers security enhancements enabling a user to secure data from unauthorized access very easily with BitLocker-to-Go, for example. In Windows 7 Explorer, highlight a portable drive, right-click to turn on BitLocker-to-Go. It is that readily available, easy to do, and readable with Windows XP. There is really no reason not to do it since there is so little to do, yet with so much control and so strong protection on data. As a memory stick is now available with 32 GB and more capacity, BitLocker-to-Go is one, very cost-effective way to protect data from unauthorized access. For a large company, BitLocker technology with group policies offers a software-based enterprise solution of hard disk encryption. You don’t need to look for a solution and end up with a second-class solution. It is in Microsoft Vista and it is greatly enhanced in Microsoft Windows 7.

In an enterprise environment, software restriction is one of the most difficult enforcements. It not only requires a mature infrastructure to provide software inventories, metering, and on-going monitoring, but it requires the skills to develop, test, and manage those software restriction policies. These are hard to find, take years to develop, and come at very high costs. Windows 7 and Windows Server 2008 R2 together present AppLocker as a vehicle with which a system administrator can provision a policy to deny/allow execution, installation, or usage of a target application. This is based on the application's digital signature, by deriving a publisher rule defined and enforced with a Group Policy Object, and without programming. A complex requirement, for instance, which allows task workers to access Office 2007 and later, but not PowerPoint when accessed by contractors, can be implemented with AppLocker in a few mouse clicks, without any scripting.

Reducing cost by streamlining PC management

Many thought that without a direct migration path, (i.e. in-place upgrade), from Windows XP to Windows 7, the deployment of Windows 7 must be tedious and tricky. In fact, Windows 7 offers a number of vehicles making the migration an intuitive and straightforward process. For consumers and small businesses, Easy Transfer makes migrating from Windows XP to Windows 7 absolutely “easy” and, in my view, fun actually. Scanstate and Loadstate, two key utilities in USMT (User State Migration Tools) make the migration process very logical and easy to understand. Hard-Link Migration leaves and remaps data in place, and significantly reduces the time needed to place a large amount of user data in a typical PC refresh scenario.

In the past two years, with Microsoft’s introduction of virtualization strategies and solutions, there are many options in resolving compatibility issues at an application or OS level while reducing TCO and increasing flexibility in deploying and managing IT resources in the long run. Specific to Windows XP compatibility issues, Windows 7 Professional and above offer Windows XP Mode (via a free download) with a local virtualization of a Windows XP SP3 machine. So those applications developed specifically for Windows XP can now essentially run in a Windows 7 environment, with a few steps used to set up a virtualized Windows XP SP3 run-time environment to host those Windows XP-specific applications. Further, an application running in Widows XP Mode can be seamlessly integrated into the Start/All Programs menu of a host Windows 7 machine. Notice Windows XP Mode alone is designed for a relatively small deployment since there is basically no built-in system management function. For a large scale deployment, MED-V or Microsoft Enterprise Desktop Virtualization, one of the six offerings that come with MDOP, (or Microsoft Desktop Optimization Pack available through Software Assurance program), is the solution to manage local desktop virtualization. It has the ability to provision a MED-V workspace policy to deploy XP Mode with standardized settings and a consistent user experience, etc. While MED-V 1.0 SP1 is to be available in the first quarter of 2010 with host support for Windows 7, notice that both MED-V 1.0, and MED-V 1.0 SP1 will leverage Microsoft Virtual PC 2007, which does not require hardware-assisted virtualization.

in reply to With Windows 7, there's never been a better time to be a PC.

Concept of Desktop Virtualization

yung — Wed, 21 Oct 2009 21:21:00 GMT

The traditional desktop computing model, as shown in Fig. 1, has been one where the operating system, applications, and user data and settings are bonded to a single computer. We will buy a computer either with OS and some applications pre-installed, or apply a hard disk image with targeted OS and selected applications to the computer hardware. Once a computer is deployed, a user can then log in the system, customize the environment, run applications, change settings, create data and files. This model is straightforward and easy to understand. With respect to desktop deployment, this means that the OS, application execution/presentation and user data are all self-contained within a single device. This model has the advantage of simplicity because it leverages well understood technologies that ship with Windows. In addition, because a PC with this model is configured to be completely self-sufficient, this solution is well-suited to mobile use. However, the tight binding between the various layers may not be a preference for all scenarios. This model has its limitations.

The tight couplings between each layer provide efficiency; they also introduce dependencies, hence complexities. And these complexities make it difficult for users to move the applications, settings, and files from one PC to another in case of upgrades or a lost or stolen laptop. When exemplified by thousands of desktops and laptops, as many enterprises do, the management of these laptops and desktops becomes a major concern. As mobile work force and the number of branch offices continue to grow with the proliferation of Internet and the advancement of networking technology, the work environment and data access patterns of information workers have become dynamic and been rapidly evolving. The long term maintenance associated with computing resources based on the traditional computing model is becoming cost-prohibitive for many companies, while impairing the IT’s ability to quickly prepare for or respond to a business opportunity.

Desktop Virtualization is the process of separating, or more precisely isolating, out these individual components, and managing each one separately. Fig. 2 shows by isolating these components, we can now abstract and virtualize the computing resources. Each layer can then reference a resource in other layers based in the abstraction or virtualization boundary and without specifying the specifics of how a referenced resource is configured within its host layer. Over all this reduces complexity and improves PC and application management.

When it comes to virtualization, not all solutions are equal. Microsoft has developed a number of virtualization solutions to address specific issues as depicted in Fig. 3. There are times a virtualization solution may not be cost-effective while offering deployment flexibility. It is crucial to recognize that and architect a virtualization solution accordingly to produce maximal business benefits.

Microsoft Vista Desktop Infrastructure (VDI) Licensing and Windows Virtual Enterprise Centralized Desktops (VECD)

yung — Tue, 08 Sep 2009 22:31:00 GMT

In TechNet Game-On Tour currently being delivered in the US east coast, I talked about Remote Desktop Services (RDS) and Virtual Desktop Infrastructure (VDI) and got very overwhelming response. It’s indeed an exciting feeling when witnessing desktop virtualization works in a predictable way and behaves as designed. In my conversations with the attendees, one of the frequently asked questions has been the licensing of VDI and I thought to point out some pertinent information here.

The basic Windows Original Equipment Manufacturer (OEM) license with traditional desktops is not designed for use in VDI, since it is bound to the OEM hardware device, with no reassignment rights.

Software Assurance (SA) provides organizations with additional values including the ability to reassign a license after 90 days, upgrading or downgrading to latest versions of the OS, and accessing to desktop virtualization technology in the Microsoft Desktop Optimization Pack (MDOP). Still it does not provide the ability to create desktops dynamically or move desktops across different hardware and storage platforms, etc., i.e. a level of flexibility that a VDI solution needs.

Windows Vista Enterprise Centralized Desktops (VECD) is a new type of license designed to help customers license virtual copies of Windows. It is a device-based subscription, which means the total number of licenses is equal to the total number of devices that access the virtual environment. VECD is an annual subscription, following the SA model. Additional information on Licensing Microsoft Windows for virtual environments is available. Or simply download the VDI Licensing brochure.

VECD:

Allows customers to make as many copies of the OS image as they like, which is helpful when creating dynamic desktops.
Allows customers to move the image onto any combination of servers and storage devices.
Comes bundled with work at home rights.
Comes bundled with Software Assurance benefits.

Building Sandbox for Evaluating RDS and VDI [Building Sandbox for Evaluating RDS and VDI]

yung — Wed, 05 Aug 2009 19:01:00 GMT

I have just finished developing the content of RDS and VDI to be soon delivered in the Session 3 of the upcoming TechNet events. To minimize the required hardware, both the RDS and VDI demos are to be carried out using one laptop. In this screencast I briefly described how my demo laptop was set up. In upcoming screencasts, I will walk through the steps to manage applications for remote access, integrate RDS components for VDI, and via a browser access a personal or pooled Virtual Machine running in data center without VPN.

in reply to Building Sandbox for Evaluating RDS and VDI

TechNet Event Content: Cloud Computing with Software + Services (2 of 3) [TechNet Event Content: Cloud Computing with Software + Services (2 of 3)]

yung — Fri, 26 Jun 2009 23:40:00 GMT

In part 1, I talked about what is Cloud Computing, what is Software + Services, and why IT Pros should care. Here in part 2, I focused on Microsoft’s efforts and offerings relevant to Cloud Computing, and introduced Microsoft Online Services with the following demos:

Acquiring Microsoft Online Services
Creating users
Managing SharePoint
Managing Exchange

So what are Microsoft Online Services? Very simply, they are enterprise solutions delivered through the cloud with subscription services hosted by Microsoft. Specifically, Business Productivity Online Suite (BPOS) includes Exchange Online, SharePoint Online, Office Communications Online and Office Live Meeting. With BPOS, Microsoft Online Services offer business the capabilities of Microsoft Exchange Server, Microsoft Office SharePoint Server, Microsoft Office Communications Server, and Microsoft Office Live Meeting quickly, easily, and without the upfront costs of an on-premise deployment by hosting these solutions online. The best way to understand it is to try it out.

Case Study: Ingersoll Rand Increases Business Agility with Microsoft Online Services

in reply to TechNet Event Content: Cloud Computing with Software + Services (2 of 3)

TechNet Event Content: Cloud Computing with Software + Services (1 of 3) [TechNet Event Content: Cloud Computing with Software + Services (1 of 3)]

yung — Fri, 19 Jun 2009 20:19:00 GMT

Recently there have been active discussions on Cloud Computing and Microsoft also has brought in a new IT service delivery model called "Software + Services." This series highlights Microsoft’s strategies and efforts in extending the Windows experience to the cloud, and talks about how to take advantages of what cloud computing is offering by extending and transitioning existing IT infrastructure into the so-called “Software + Services” model. Here in Part 1, let's take a 50,000 foot view and get a perspective on what has happened in the past two decades and appreciate:

What is Cloud computing?
What is Software + Services? And how did we get here?
As IT Pros, why should we care? What are the opportunities and what’s in for IT Pros?

To continue the discussion, in Part 2 we will walk through the process of acquiring Microsoft Online Services and basic administration including creating users, configuring SharePoint Online, and managing Exchange Online. Finally we will conclude the series in Part 3 with demos of migrating selected on-premise Active Directory users and Exchange mailboxes to Microsoft Online Services.

in reply to TechNet Event Content: Cloud Computing with Software + Services (1 of 3)

MED-V Addresses the Bottom Line

yung — Wed, 10 Jun 2009 02:51:00 GMT

Directly form a just published MED-V case study:

Without MED-V, TÜV NORD employees in India would have had to connect to the company’s Terminal Services system in Germany, which would have required significantly more bandwidth (4MB instead of 500KB) at an additional annual cost of approximately U.S.$585,000.

“It’s much cheaper to install a MED-V image on a client than to give an inspector in India a separate computer and Internet connection,” Boerger explains. “Moving forward, we anticipate that offices in some countries won’t need complete, local IT infrastructures. With MED-V, we’ll be able to provide what they need at a fraction of the cost.”

To find out more about MED-V, start with the home page at http://www.microsoft.com/medv. I have also published Mad About MED-V screencast series to help you get a quick technical overview of MED-V. And notice all Microsoft published case studies are available at http://ww.mircosoft.com/casestudies/

Mad About MED-V Part 2 of 4, User Experience [Mad About MED-V Part 2 of 4, User Experience]

yung — Fri, 17 Apr 2009 17:42:00 GMT

This is the part 2 of a 4-part Mad About MED-V series. This screencast presents the user experience of running MED-V applications by going through essential user operations. The Mad About MED-V series includes the following screencasts and each link will be updated once the associated screencast is published.

Part 1, Concept and Architecture
Part 2, User Experience (this posting)
Part 3, Configuring Workspace Policy
Part 4, Creating Deployment Package

and each link is to be updated once the associated screencast is published. The remainder of this posting highlights some of the content presented in Part 2.

Seamless UI Integration with Host Computer

As discussed in Part 1 of this series, a MED-V workspace policy optionally allows a MED-V application integrated into the All Programs menu of the host computer as shown below, despites the fact that the MED-V application is configured and running in a Virtual PC behind the scene.

Running MED-V Application

To run a MED-V application, the workspace must first be started. A MED-V client can be loaded at Widows startup time if specified in the MED-V Client Settings, in such case a workspace can be also set to start automatically. This ensures the workspace is always in place, should a user require running a MED-V application once the computer has been started. And if the workspace has not been initialized, it will start on demand followed by bringing up the application upon completing the workspace initialization. Once a workspace is started, additional options like locking/restarting/stopping workspace become available when right-clicking the MED-V client icon in the system tray. A user also at this time has the access to utilities like the File Transfer tool as shown below. The Fire Transfer tool enables a user to transfer files between the host computer and the MED-V application running in the Virtual PC in the background.

In MED-V workspace policy, a MED-V administrator can optionally configure a color border to surround a running MED-V application as shown above. The setting of showing a color border can be easily changed or disabled within workspace policy by a MED-V administrator.

Redirecting URL

A MED-V workspace policy can be configured to automatically redirect a request for a target website from the host computer to the browser in the Virtual PC. This allows every request to a target URL with a web application incompatible with the browser installed on the host computer gets redirected to a compatible browser running in the Virtual PC behind the scene. The following screen capture shows a request redirected from the host computer which runs IE7 to the IE6 (with a red border) running in the hidden Virtual PC.

in reply to Mad About MED-V Part 2 of 4, User Experience

Mad About MED-V Part 1 of 4, Concept and Architecture [Mad About MED-V Part 1 of 4, Concept and Architecture]

yung — Tue, 14 Apr 2009 17:37:00 GMT

Microsoft Enterprise Desktop Virtualization, or MED-V, is a desktop virtualization solution providing a self-contained computing environment including the OS, intended applications, and customized settings, if any. Desktop virtualization allows an application to run in a specific OS environment different from the OS running the hosting computer. MED-V uses Microsoft Virtual PC to provide a virtualized and customizable computing environment required by an intended application, yet incompatible or conflicting with that in the hosting computer. In other words, MED-V allows computing environments which are incompatible, conflicting, or with different requirements to run currently in the same physical device. For instance, running a legacy or line-of-business application requiring Windows XP SP2 in a Vista SP1 desktop or deploying a managed computing environment (like a corporate-managed desktop) to a non-managed (like a personal or home) desktop are some of the business challenges MED-V addresses.

MDOP now includes 6 tools and solutions as below and is available to Software Assurance customers.

Diagnostics and Recovery Toolset
Asset Inventory Service (AIS)
Advanced Group Policy Management
System Center Desktop Error Monitoring
Application Virtualization (App-V)
Enterprise Desktop Virtualization (MED-V)

Customers interested in MDOP should review the faq and contact their software vendor or Microsoft for additional information. For a comprehensive guide on Microsoft Virtualization from data center to desktop, download it here. I have produced the 4-part Mad About MED-V screencast series to offer a quick review of MED-V solutions including the following. I will update each link, once the associated screencast is published.

Part 1, Concept and Architecture (this posting)
Part 2, User Experience
Part 3, Configuring Workspace Policy
Part 4, Creating Deployment Package

In the part 1 screencast, I talked about the MED-V fundamentals to establish a baseline for subsequent discussions in the series. The remaining of this post highlights the key concept, architecture, and pertinent information of a MED-V solution.

Desktop and Application Virtualization Concepts

MED-V is probably the least understood piece in Microsoft Virtualization Solutions. A desktop virtualization solution MED-V is as opposed to App-V, an application virtualization. This distinction is an important one since they solve two different areas of business problems. Desktop virtualization addresses the incompatibility between a target application and the host operating system by virtualizing an entire desktop, i.e. a self-contained runtime environment including the operating system and the application. Such that a target application requiring, for instance, Windows XP SP2 and incompatible with Windows Vista can still be deployed to a Vista desktop by running the application in a hidden Virtual PC running Windows XP SP2 while using MED-V to seamlessly make the application accessible from the Start-All Programs menu on the host computer. App-V, on the other hand solves the incompatibility between two applications by offering a virtualized application runtime environment, the so-called bubble, while allowing these applications running on the same operating system instance. The following illustrates the concept.

Conceptually desktop virtualization using Virtual PC is easy to understand. Nevertheless to deploy desktop virtualization to enterprise, system administration and scalability are rather challenging. In essence, a Virtual PC lifecycle management solution is the key to make enterprise desktop virtualization a reality, and this is where MED-V comes in. MED-V makes Virtual PC deployable and saleable with a centralized lifecycle management solution including: image creation, delivery, monitoring, and maintenance.

MED-V Conceptual Model

To run a MED-V application the associated workspace must be first started. And if a user tries to start a MED-V application while the workspace is not in place, the workspace will start on demand and once the workspace is loaded, the application will start. A workspace is a Virtual PC image with a usage policy defined by a MED-V administrator. An administrator will use MED-V management console to configure usage policy which is a set of settings defining how MED-V applications will behave for a target Active Directory users or groups. Notice that the Virtual PC is where a MED-V application is configured, and the Virtual PC is also running in the background. MED-V workspace policy allows a MED-V application to seamlessly integrate into the All Programs menu on the host computer and runs transparently with the locally installed applications. A conceptual model of the integration is shown below.

MED-V Architecture

The high level MED-V architecture as shown below starts with: (1) and (2) to create, test and upload Virtual PC images encapsulating a target computing environment of an OS, applications and optional management and security tools to the image repository by administrator; (3) MED-V Management Server, the brain of the whole system, enabling an administrator to control image repository which is an IIS virtual directory and (4) provision images for targeted Active Directory Users and Groups along with usage policies; and finally (5) delivering the images and usage policies to clients. And a client starts a MED-V application, the client will authenticate against the management server, retrieve the workspace policy, and acquire the workspace image.

Notice a MED-V Management Server also aggregates clients' events, and stores them in an external database (MS SQL) for monitoring and reporting purposes. Also a MED-V client has two functional components – the first connecting to the server and retrieving the usage policy and an associated image form the repository, while the second offering the end-user experience and managing the Virtual PC from user experience and troubleshooting aspects.

System Requirements

The information provided here is as of March of 2009.

Antivirus/Backup Software

In order to prevent antivirus activity from affecting the performance of the virtual desktop, it is recommended where possible to exclude the following Virtual Machine file types from any antivirus or backup processing running on the host:

*.VHD
*.VUD
*.VSV
*.CKM
*.VMC
*.INDEX

MED-V Trim Transfer™ Technology

One very interesting piece of MED-V solution is the Trim Transfer technology as illustrated below. Trim Transfer accelerates the download of initial and updated Virtual Machine images over the LAN or WAN, thereby reducing the network bandwidth needed to transport a Workspace Virtual Machine to multiple end-users. It uses existing local data to build the Virtual Machine image, leveraging the fact that in many cases, much of the Virtual Machine (e.g., system and application files) already exists on the end-user's disk. For example, if a Virtual Machine containing Microsoft Windows XP is delivered to a client running a local copy of Windows XP, MED-V will automatically remove the redundant Windows XP elements from the transfer. To ensure a valid and functional Workspace, the MED-V Client cryptographically verifies the integrity of local data before it is utilized, guaranteeing that the local blocks of data are absolutely bit-by-bit identical to those in the desired Virtual Machine image. Blocks that do not match are not used.

The process is bandwidth efficient and transparent, and transfers run in the background, utilizing unused network and CPU resources. When updating to a new image version (e.g., when administrators want to distribute a new application or patch), only the elements that have changed ("deltas") are downloaded, and not the entire Virtual Machine, significantly reducing the required network bandwidth and delivery time.

You can configure which folders are indexed on the host as part of the Trim Transfer protocol according to the host OS. These setting are configured in the ClientSettings.xml file which can be found in the Servers\Configuration Server\ folder.

in reply to Mad About MED-V Part 1 of 4, Concept and Architecture

SCVMM Self-Service Portal with Laptop Part 4 of 4: Running Self-Service Portal, Rapid-Prototyping of [SCVMM Self-Service Portal with Laptop Part 4 of 4: Running Self-Service Portal, Rapid-Prototyping of]

yung — Sat, 28 Mar 2009 19:16:00 GMT

This screencast walked through the steps to install Self-Service Portal followed by presenting the user experience in creating a VM using an assigned template and operating the created VM via Self-Service Portal UI.

The demo environment included MYHOST (my laptop running Windows Server 2008 Enterprise with Hyper-V Server Role) and 2 running virtual machines were APEX (the domain controller of contoso.corp) and SC (a member server with SCVMM installed) while MYHOST also joined the domain.

The following screencasts present the user experience and walk through the operations carried out from steps 5 to 11:

in reply to SCVMM Self-Service Portal with Laptop Part 4 of 4: Running Self-Service Portal, Rapid-Prototyping of

SCVMM Self-Service Portal with Laptop Part 3 of 4: Adding Library Server, Rapid-Prototyping of [SCVMM Self-Service Portal with Laptop Part 3 of 4: Adding Library Server, Rapid-Prototyping of]

yung — Sat, 28 Mar 2009 19:15:00 GMT

This screencast walked through the steps to add MYHOST into the SCVMM as a Library Server and the processes to create profiles, templates, and User Roles.

The following screencasts present the user experience and walk through the operations carried out from steps 5 to 11:

in reply to SCVMM Self-Service Portal with Laptop Part 3 of 4: Adding Library Server, Rapid-Prototyping of

SCVMM Self-Service Portal with Laptop Part 2 of 4: Adding Host, Rapid-Prototyping of [SCVMM Self-Service Portal with Laptop Part 2 of 4: Adding Host, Rapid-Prototyping of]

yung — Sun, 22 Mar 2009 00:15:00 GMT

This screencast walked through the steps to add MYHOST into the SCVMM as a host.

The following screencasts present the user experience and walk through the operations carried out from steps 5 to 11:

in reply to SCVMM Self-Service Portal with Laptop Part 2 of 4: Adding Host, Rapid-Prototyping of

SCVMM Self-Service Portal with Laptop Part 1 of 4: Overview, Rapid-Prototyping of [SCVMM Self-Service Portal with Laptop Part 1 of 4: Overview, Rapid-Prototyping of]

yung — Sun, 22 Mar 2009 00:14:00 GMT

A Self-Service Portal is basically a Web site to be installed on a web server with ASP.NET, IIS6 Metabase Compatibility, and IIS6 WMI Compatibility Server Role Services. By accessing the Self-Service Portal, authorized users can create and operate their own virtual machines (VMs) as permitted by each user's User Roles, while the created VMs are placed in a Library Server managed by the System Center Virtual Machine Manager, or SCVMM. A User Role here is essentially a policy with membership, authorized hardware and software profiles, allowed scope of operations, and assigned templates applicable for creating and manageing VMs using Self-Service Portal. In a Self-Service Portal session, an authorized user sees only those virtual machines that the user owns or is authorized to operate upon. And as a VM is created or deleted by a user, the user's quota points are subtracted or regained with the amount of quota points that the VM is assigned in an employed template. Once a user has quota points fewer than what are needed for creating a new VM, the user has reached the maximal number of VMs allowable for the applicable User Role to create.

Virtual Machine Host System Requirements

VMM Library Server System Requirements

VMM Self-Service Portal System Requirements

To prototype a Self-Service Portal using a laptop, here are the steps:

Install Windows Server 2008 in a laptop and enable Hyper-V Server Role
Create VMs and construct a domain environment
Install SCVMM on a target VM in the domain
Optionally join the laptop into the domain
In SCVMM admin console, add the laptop as a host in the Active Directory Domain
In laptop, create a network share for later sharing VM resources like sysprep generalized images, iso files, disks, etc.
In SCVMM admin console, add the laptop as a Library Server with the network share
In SCVMM admin console, create hardware/software profiles and template, as needed
In SCVMM admin console, create User Roles and add members
Install Self-Service Portal from SCVMM media on a target web server and associate the Self-Service Portal with the SCVMM (this step may be included in step 3 if both SCVMM and Self-Service Portal are to be placed on the same server)
Log in Self-Service Portal as a Self-Service Portal User and start creating and managing VMs as permitted by the user’s User Roles

The following screencasts present the user experience and walk through the operations carried out from steps 5 to 11:

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One Way to Add Sidebar to Windows Server 2008 R2 Beta Desktop [One Way to Add Sidebar to Windows Server 2008 R2 Beta Desktop]

yung — Tue, 27 Jan 2009 08:01:00 GMT

The steps I followed to add the sidebar to Windows Server 2008 R2 Beta (R2Beta) desktop as shown left are very similar to those documented in Adding Vista Sidebar and Aero to Windows Server 2008 Desktop. There were however some changes needed.

On step 1, the document has Vista x64 code copied into Windows Server 2008. Here I copied Windows 7 x64 code into R2Beta. This should be obvious.

On step 5, running sidebar.exe in R2Beta did not bring up the sidebar. And unlike Windows 7 Beta, right-clicking the mouse on R2Beta desktop does not offer a Gadgets option to lead to the sidebar. To bring up the sidebar on R2Beta desktop at this time, one can install a saved gadget file if it is readily available. If not, first go to online Vista Gadget Gallery, download a gadget, not to install since that will fail with the error message below, but to save it to a local folder.

I simply downloaded a few gadgets and saved them in C:\Program Files\Windows Sidebar\Shared Gadgets. I then double-clicked the saved files to install the gadgets. This loaded the sidebar to the desktop. Once the sidebar was brought up, I then customized the installed gadgets like how it’s done in Vista.

There was still some loose end. After a reboot, the sidebar would not show up on the R2Beta desktop. I rebooted a few times and the sidebar simply would not show up. I realized reloading a gadget would refresh the sidebar. So using the Task Manager I set up a task as shown on the right to run at logon time to reload a gadget, this should then bring up the sidebar every time I log on. And it worked as expected.

My objective was simple, to get the sidebar loaded with my frequently used gadgets to show up on R2Beta desktop. I am not sure this is the optimal way to add the sidebar to R2Beta, and I prefer not to run a task at logon time to bring up the sidebar automatically, nevertheless it gets the job done. If anyone out there knows a better way to do this, I would really love to hear it.

Finally, sidebar depending on what gadgets you install upon does consume some CPU cycles. Check the utilizaiton of sidebar.exe in Task Manager and make sure you don't install a poorly written one.

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20-Part Webcast Series on Microsoft Virtualization Solutions [20-Part Webcast Series on Microsoft Virtualization Solutions]

yung — Tue, 20 Jan 2009 20:01:00 GMT

Our team of IT Pro Evangelists including: Kevin Remde, Matt Hester, Chris Avis, Chris Henley, and Yung Chou is getting ready to start delivering a 20-part webcast series on Microsoft Virtualization Solutions on January 14, 2009. The objectives of this series are not only to help you develop technical depth on various Microsoft virtualization solutions with level 300 sessions, but to appreciate the essentials of a typical virtualization project in a real world implementation.

The following is a list of the sessions with links to the event registration pages. What a great opportunity to get yourself well informed on the trends, the technologies, the solutions, and how to get your IT environment strategically aligned and integrated with virtualization. At same time, if you need to develop a business case for proposing your virtualization project, reference the virtualization ROI tool to realize the business values. To help you accelerating your deployment of Microsoft virtualization technologies, there are developed methodology and readily available tools in Microsoft Virtualization Solution Accelerators. And a free eBook, Understanding Microsoft Virtualization Solutions, by Mitch Tulloch is also available and highly recommended. The download informaiton is here.

Session List

01/14/2009, TechNet Webcast: Virtualization in a Nutshell
01/16/2009, TechNet Webcast: Selecting the Right Candidates for Virtualization
01/21/2009, TechNet Webcast: Virtualizing Test and Development Environments for a Quick Return on Investment
01/23/2009, TechNet Webcast: Managing the Virtualized Test and Development Environment
01/28/2009, TechNet Webcast: If I Virtualize It, How Do I Manage It?
01/29/2009, TechNet Webcast: Consolidation and Rapid Provisioning
02/04/2009, TechNet Webcast: Building on Your Existing Virtual Environment
02/06/2009, TechNet Webcast: Virtualization Solutions for High Availability
02/11/2009, TechNet Webcast: Client-Side Virtualization
02/13/2009, TechNet Webcast: Using Presentation Virtualization
02/18/2009, TechNet Webcast: Scaling Terminal Services Out (1/2)
02/20/2009, TechNet Webcast: Scaling Terminal Services Out (2/2)
02/25/2009, TechNet Webcast: Running Legacy Applications with Virtualization (1/2)
02/27/2009, TechNet Webcast: Running Legacy Applications with Virtualization (2/2)
03/04/2009, TechNet Webcast: Creating a Virtual Desktop Infrastructure
03/06/2009, TechNet Webcast: Securing the Virtual Environments
03/11/2009, TechNet Webcast: Virtualization with Centralized, Policy-Based Management
03/13/2009, TechNet Webcast: Virtualization Solutions in Branch Offices
03/20/2009, TechNet Webcast: Road Map for the Future of Virtualization
03/24/2009, TechNet Webcast: Managing Virtual Solutions

Regardless your role and responsibilities, session 1 TechNet Webcast: Virtualization in a Nutshell on 01/14/2009 is the one you absolutely do not want to miss. This session gives you an overview of all Microsoft virtualization solutions, so you get the big picture and know the context of a solution. You will know “Why virtualize?” and “Why Microsoft?” This session is to advance and facilitate your understanding on virtualization in general, and help you recognizing a virtualization opportunity when it presents itself.

Above all, register early, join us, and take this opportunity to ramp up your skill set with virtualization. We look forward to meeting you all in the air.

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An Introduction of Upcoming TechNet Live Event Content [An Introduction of Upcoming TechNet Live Event Content]

yung — Tue, 20 Jan 2009 18:45:00 GMT

The TechNet live events of this quarter are just about to start. For IT Pro track, a team of IT Evangelists will be making a contact and delivering content to various IT Pro communities in cities throughout the U.S. starting late January as the following:

Session 1: Where the Web meets local software: Cloud computing with Software-plus-Services
Session 2: Master your environment with System Center Configuration Manager 2007
Session 3: Microsoft System Center Virtual Machine Manager 2008 – A Technical Overview

These terms: Cloud Computing, Software as a Service (SaaS), Software-plus-Services (S+S), Microsoft Online Services, Microsoft Azure Service platform, Microsoft Business Productivity Office Suite (BPOS) can be sometimes confusing. Exactly what is Cloud Computing? Is apps accessible through clouds Cloud Computing? What do SaaS and S+S really mean to IT Pros? Session 1 will bring clarity to you in a 30-minute discussion on how these concepts complement one another, and demo how the architectural components integrate and work together to give a user an integrated experience on "connect, communicate, and collaborate with anywhere access."

Recently virtualization has been coming with a big wave and bringing IT with much momentum and excitements. Some virtualization solutions provide not only the ability to run applications, but also with deployment mechanisms. And as an IT Pro, one must recognize it is so critical now to have a system management solution in place. And any IT infrastructure projects going forward should include considerations on how to manage and integrate newly introduced resources, physical and virtualized, with existing ones in a transparent and systematic way. System management is an area that IT Pros must keep their skill up to date and not to overlook. Session 2 offers an operational aspect on System Center Configuration Manager 2007 on deploying and managing resources as well as Network Access Protection (NAP). In 90 minutes, the scenario-based demos will give you a realistic view with insights of enterprise configuration management. Get a pen and a notebook ready, there is so much included in this session.

With the employment of virtualization, deploying and managing virtual machines is a topic with much visibility. To increase ROI and reduce TCO of a virtualization solution, in addition to virtualizing resources, the management of a virtualization solutions (such as requesting, configuring, deploying, patching, and revoking virtual machines) must be implemented with minimal impact upon and maximal integration with and applicability to IT resources already put in place. This is also why Microsoft System Center Virtual Machine Manager (SCVMM) 2008 has become such an essential component to realize the benefits of a virtualization solution. Session 3 is 90 minutes packed with demos of SCVMM 2008 and walks through various scenarios on managing Microsoft and non-Microsoft virtual machines with a consistent user experience and your already developed Windows skills.

Notice the slide decks are soon to be released, then they can be downloaded from TechNet Event resource page.

So are you ready to be a rock, and not to roll? Come, join us.

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Identifying Opportunities to Reduce TCO with Cost Savings Analysis and Optimization Self-Assessment Tools [Identifying Opportunities to Reduce TCO with Cost Savings Analysis and Optimization Self-Assessment Tools]

yung — Wed, 31 Dec 2008 18:39:00 GMT

Current economic downturn confronts us with a tremendous impact and unfavorable trend on worldwide IT budget and spending as shown on the chart and discussed in Simple Savvy Savings - 9 ideas to make anyone a Cost Cutting Hero by Tom Pisello, CEO, Alinean, Inc. More than ever companies are now looking for every opportunity to further cut costs and maintain competitiveness during these times of global economic instability. Nevertheless, the adversity also presents a very opportunity for us to accelerate and transform IT into a more mature, better managed, and highly optimized settings. Optimization is more than just delivering more with less. It is about managing complexities. It's about capabilities, responsiveness, and enablement. Defined optimization models and recommendations, and findings of average annual IT labor costs per PC, per year substantiate the claim of transforming IT from a cost-center burden into a strategic asset. (Reference: pages 8, 11, and 17 of this report, Taking the Lead: Gaining a Competitive Advantage Through Infrastructure and Platform Optimization) And in addition to the methodology and case studies, there are tools are to help us get started the transformation.

This cost savings analysis tool examines IT infrastructure and platform to identify cost savings opportunities focusing on:

Virtualization
Database Consolidation
Systems Management
Desktop Management /Standardization
Unified Communications
Collaboration

The tool generates a report with specific project recommendations that can be implemented to generate high-impact costs savings with minimal investment.The results can be refined to match specific details of the IT environment and local currency. The calculation is based on research by IDC, Forrester, WiPro and Alinean and the results include recommendations to projects which can be implemented to generate high-impact cost savings with minimal investment.

The Optimization Self-Assessment Tool on the other hand derives optimization score, peer comparison, and value assessment for your organization on core infrastructure, business productivity infrastructure, and application platform. The tool generates a comprehensive report that can serve as an actionable roadmap and incentive for optimizing your IT infrastructure and platform.

The passage is clear. Identify your goal, find out where you stand, make an informed decision, and thrive on the challenges. Above all, the time to start the process is now.

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Realizing the ROI of Microsoft Virtualization Solutions and How to Start [Realizing the ROI of Microsoft Virtualization Solutions and How to Start]

yung — Wed, 10 Dec 2008 08:01:00 GMT

Ref: Microsoft virtualization cost saving whitepaper, the ROI tool and training

The referenced whitepaper presents case studies of Microsoft customers including:

	Dartmouth-Hitchcock Medical Center	Costco Wholesale Corp
	Saint Raphael Healthcare System	Slough Borough Council
	Saxo Bank	WorleyParsons
	TALX	AspenTech
	HotSchedules	Banverket ICT
	Slough Borough Council	Maxol
	MaximumASP	Mantrac
	Kentucky Department of Education	Hostbasket
	Banque de Luxembourg	The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
	California State University	Jackson Energy Authority
	Kent School District	Bouygues Construction
	Volusia County Schools	Mamut

and examines how virtualization technology simplifies their IT infrastructure, streamlines IT processes, and ultimately reduces the total cost of ownership. Also included is information based on Microsoft's experience as below:

In my view, strategies in general to relatively quickly reduce IT infrastructure and support costs with virtualization solutions are, not in a particular order, to:

To transition existing IT into a hybrid environment mixed with physical and virtualized computing resources, server virtualization (i.e. server consolidation) often is where it starts. Running multiple instances in a single physical machine is not a new concept and many of us have already experienced with some host virtualization solutions like Virtual PC and Virtual Server.

To realize what your organization can benefit from Microsoft virtualization solutions,

Download the Microsoft Assessment and Planning Solution Accelerator to identify your best candidates for server consolidation.
Determine the reductions you can achieve in kilowatts, money and CO2 emissions with the Microsoft HyperGreen Tool.
Use the Microsoft Integrated Virtualization ROI Calculator to estimate your return on investment in Microsoft virtualization tools.

Essentially, first identify your best candidates for server consolidation with this free downloadable tool, Microsoft Assessment and Planning (MAP) Solution Accelerator. With its agent-less inventory, performance data gathering, and auto-generated proposal and report generation capabilities, MAP lets you conduct network-wide readiness assessments so you can quickly and efficiently determine the right servers to target for Hyper-V. After determined how many servers to consolidate, you can use the free Microsoft HyperGreen Tool to figure out how much energy you’ll save and the environmental impact of those savings. Simply plug in the number of servers you are going to consolidate, and HyperGreen generates a report detailing your reductions in kilowatts, money and CO2 emissions. And use the Microsoft Integrated Virtualization ROI Tool to estimate your return on investment in Microsoft virtualization solutions, including server, desktop and management. As our customers have shown, the results can be transformational.

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Active Directory Group Policy Object (GPO) Delegation and Approval Workflow With AGPM 3.0 in MDOP 2008 R2 [Active Directory Group Policy Object (GPO) Delegation and Approval Workflow With AGPM 3.0 in MDOP 2008 R2]

yung — Mon, 01 Dec 2008 08:01:00 GMT

In the TechNet Webcast: Microsoft Solutions for Windows Vista Management (Level 300), I will demo a number of capabilities includnig Microsoft Advanced Group Policy Management (AGPM) 3.0 for managing Vista desktops and Windows environment in general. AGPM 3.0 is one of the 5 components in Microsoft Desktop Optimization Pack for Software Assurance (MDOP) 2008 R2. AGPM enables the change-approval workflow of Group Policy Objects (GPOs) and is something I thought worth a special introduction here. Meanwhile I am also developing a screencast and will publish it here soon.

AGPM is to help customers better manage GPOs, particularly those with complex information technology (IT) environments. A robust delegation model, role-based administration, and change-request approval provide granular administrative control as described in the overview whitepaper and shown below.

For example, you can delegate Reviewer, Editor, and Approver roles to other administrators — even administrators who do not have access to production GPOs. The Editor role can edit GPOs but not deploy them; the Approver role can deploy GPO changes. AGPM also helps reduce the risk of widespread failures. You can use AGPM to edit GPOs offline, outside of the production environment, and then audit changes and easily find differences between GPO versions. In addition, AGPM supports effective change control by providing version tracking, history capture, and quick rollback of deployed GPO changes. It also supports a management workflow by allowing you to create GPO template libraries and send GPO change e-mail notifications. Step-by-Step and Operations Guides of AGM 3.0 are also readily available.

For those who are interested in finding more, MDOP 2008 R2 was RTM in September of 2008. Here are demos, more demos, and FAQ. Subscribers can download MDOP 2008 R2 from the TechNet and MSDN subscription sites. The availability of the components is as follows through Microsoft Volume Licensing Service (MVLS):

The official MDOP blog is the channel to get the latest.

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Microsoft Office Groove 2007 Workspace Replication Upon Acceptance of Invitation [Microsoft Office Groove 2007 Workspace Replication Upon Acceptance of Invitation]

yung — Tue, 25 Nov 2008 16:04:00 GMT

This blog explains how a Groove 2007 client behaves differently from a Groove 3.x client on the replication of a workspace.

Upon a client's acceptance of a Groove workspace invitation, the current content of the workspace is replicated via a Groove cloud to the client's end. I am here referring a Groove cloud as the network infrastructure required to establish Groove connectivity between two Groove clients either directly or with Groove Server Relay. This is when every workspace member gets an initial copy of a workspace replicated to ones local Groove device when first joining a workspace. Where a new workspace member to acquire an initial copy of a workspace in Groove 2007 is different form that in Groove 3.x however.

Groove 2007 has a flexible scheme of workspace replication. (See the Groove 2007 protocol slide.) All the members who were online at the time when a workspace invitation was created can carry out workspace replication. For instance, let's assume when Alice created a workspace invitation using Groove 2007 both Bob and Chuck were online as well. Alice subsequently sent the invitation to Dee via Groove infrastructure as show in the screen capture. In this scenario, when Dee accepts the workspace invitation sent from Alice, either one of the three (namely Alice, Bob, and Chuck) can carry out the workspace replication to Dee's Groove device since all 3 were online when the invitation was created. In other words, after sent out the invitation, if Alice becomes offline, the replication can still proceed with a connection between Bob and Dee, or Chuck and Dee if available. When Bob or Chuck is sending a copy of the workspace to Dee, a Groove alert will appear on the sending Groove device indicating a workspace is being sent on Alice's behalf. Notice the invitation needs to be sent via Groove infrastructure. In other words, one who is invited has a Groove identity already (so the invited's public key is readily available), also the invitation must not require confirmation so no user intervention is necessary and all operations can be fully automated. From Groove PKI's perspective, these requirements make sense and are obvious.

In Groove 3.x, on the other hand, a client upon accepting an invitation will acquire a copy of the workspace from the workspace member who created the invitation. (See the Groove v.3 protocol slide.) Consider the scenario. If Peter created a workspace invitation using Groove v3.x and sent the invitation to Rita. Peter's copy of the workspace becomes the source of the content to be replicated to Rita's Groove device once Rita accepts the invitation. If Peter is offline when the invitation is processed by Rita, Groove can not proceed with the workspace replication since the source of the content (i.e. the local copy of workspace associated with an invitation, here Peter's copy) is not available.

Notice there are triggers to default the workspace replication behaviors back to those in Groove v.3 . Some are briefly discussed earlier. Sending an invitation as a (grv) file, inviting via email, inviting to a v3.x workspace, and requiring acceptance confirmation are among those.

Groove is a highly integrated solution and understanding the fundamentals is essential to appreciate how and oftentimes why Groove works in a particular way. For those who are interested, there is much readily available information included in my Groove resource page and some previous postings.

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An Invitation to Upcoming Microsoft SharePoint and Groove Usability Studies [An Invitation to Upcoming Microsoft SharePoint and Groove Usability Studies]

yung — Mon, 17 Nov 2008 08:01:00 GMT

Announcement

Do you use SharePoint and work with Groove? Microsoft's User Research Group is conducting series of studies for SharePoint products and technologies at the Microsoft campus in Redmond, WA, and is looking for participants in the Puget Sound area.

The research team is looking for individuals who use SharePoint at least twice a week and have experience working with Groove. Each participant will receive a gift item they select from a list of some of Microsoft's most popular hardware and software titles.

If you are interested please email itusable@microsoft.com with your name phone number and insert Groove into the subject line.

Microsoft User Research focuses on how people interact with hardware and software products; the information and feedback gathered is translated directly into product design improvements.

Designers take all the research and insight gathered in order to discern whether the product does, or does not do, what people expect and how it can be improved upon. Past participants have enjoyed these studies; finding them to be unique and informative by meeting with Microsoft product development teams and being directly involved with a product development process.

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System Center Virtual Machine Manager (SCVMM) 2008 Rapid Prototyping [System Center Virtual Machine Manager (SCVMM) 2008 Rapid Prototyping]

yung — Mon, 10 Nov 2008 12:32:00 GMT

This is a follow-up on Keith Combs' posting, Setting up your laptop to run SCVMM 2008. I have a demo environment configured with working Application Virtualization (App-V) 4.5 and Presentation Virtualization (i.e. Terminal Services) solutions. Now with SCVMM added, I can demo the management of IT infrastructure with physical and virtual computing resources, which is in my view the most critical piece of a virtualization solution.

Here's how I did it. My Lenovo T61P expanded with 8 GB RAM was installed with Windows Server 2008 with Hyper-V enabled. In Hyper-V Manager, I have already had a demo environment, contoso.corp, with a number of virtual machines (VMs) in place. I added to the domain a VM running Windows Server 2008, and installed SCVMM 2008 Server and Admin Console in the VM. I then joined the parent partition to the contoso domain. At this point, there were two options to add the parent partition in SCVMM 2008:

As a Windows-server based host on an Active Directory Domain
As a Windows-server based host on a perimeter network

Notice if the host is to be added as one on a perimeter network, install SCVMM local agent on the parent partition and create a security file for encryption. The security file needs accessible from SCVMM admin console. I tried both and in either way, once my parent partition had been added as a host, all VMs running on the parent partition including the VM running SCVMM became manageable from SCVMM Admin Console. In essence, SCVMM was on a child partition while managing the Hyper-V parent (or root) partition in my laptop. Very interesting configuration, it is indeed.

Notice I made no additional effort in optimizing the performance or hardening the security. My objective here is to realize the capabilities with minimal operational requirements. Below I have documented the screenflows and will probably do a screencast later on this as well.

SCVMM 2008 Server and Admin Console installation screenflows
Adding A Host into SCVMM 2008 Admin Console
User Experience

Very straightforward processes and uneventful operations, I consider these installations are. Understanding the architecture is perhaps much more pertinent for prototyping this solution. Basically, run Hyper-V in the laptop and SCVMM in a VM. Join the parent partition to the domain where SCVMM is in. Install SCVMM local agent on the parent partition and from SCVMM admin console add the parent partition as a host in perimeter. Here want to thank Keith sine his posting saved me some research time.

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