Dec 19 2008 8:55PM GMT
Posted by: Troy Tate
administration,
hardware,
tools,
Microsoft Windows,
power management,
Monitoring,
DataCenter,
Vista,
design,
environment,
Performance,
facility,
awareness,
XP,
facility management
Microsoft has a special section of their website dedicated to fostering environmental sustainability. To that end, they have released a product called Edison PC Power Management software. The application will work on XP and Windows Vista. According to the Microsoft Environment website features include:
- Scheduling. Identify work and non-work schedules to optimize power schemes based on when your PC is in use or on standby.
- Settings. Choose from among several options for power savings and settings.
- Estimated Savings Reports. Find information that shows how PC power settings correlate to money, kWh and CO2 savings.
- Intuitive User Interface. Drag easy-to-use sliding bars to choose settings and instantly see the power and monetary savings. Clearly marked tabs make the interface easy to navigate.
So… if you want to reduce your carbon footprint in 2009, check this out. I know I will.
Dec 10 2008 2:41PM GMT
Posted by: Troy Tate
administration,
planning,
tools,
Microsoft Windows,
documentation,
IT education,
design,
Microsoft,
howto,
awareness,
education,
toolkit
Microsoft has become much better offering documentation beyond just marketing materials about their products and systems. The Infrastructure Planning and Design (IPD) guides are the next version of Windows Server System Reference Architecture. The guides in this series help clarify and streamline design processes for Microsoft infrastructure technologies, with each guide addressing a unique infrastructure technology or scenario.
The guides available include:
- Exchange Online—Evaluating Software-plus-Services
- Microsoft System Center Configuration Manager 2007 SP1 with R2
- Microsoft Application Virtualization 4.5
- Windows Server 2008 File Services
- Windows Server 2008 Print Services
- Infrastructure Planning and Design Series Introduction
- Internet Information Services 7.0
- Selecting the Right NAP Architecture
- Selecting the Right Virtualization Technology
- System Center Operations Manager 2007
- System Center Virtual Machine Manager 2008
- Windows Deployment Services
- Windows Server 2008 Active Directory Domain Services
- Windows Server 2008 Terminal Services
- Windows Server Virtualization (for Windows Server 2008 Hyper-V and Virtual Server 2005 R2 SP1)
As you see, there is a lot of information here to absorb and make use of in your environment. I’m going to be checking out the Systems Center Operations Manager 2007 implementation guide. It’s gonna be an interesting ride but at least Microsoft is offering some free support assistance in the planning and design phase.
Try some of these guides out. Share with us your thoughts and how effective the guides were in helping your organization meet operational demands.
Dec 4 2008 6:54PM GMT
Posted by: Troy Tate
administration,
hardware,
IBM,
Microsoft Windows,
Linux,
Virtualization,
reporting,
design,
Microsoft
Many IT trade publications are reporting that IBM is launching alternative to Microsoft-centric software and the bloated hardware required by recent operating system releases.
The Virtual Linux Desktop ranges in price from $59 to $289 per user, depending on level of software and service desired, according to the report. IBM estimates that the software package could save corporate customers up to $800 per user, when compared with the cost of maintaining Microsoft’s Vista operating system, Office suite, and collaboration tools, the newspaper said.
For more information see:
Wall Street Journal -IBM Creates ‘Microsoft-Free’ Desktop: Applications for Thin Clients Would Operate From Back-Office Server
VNUNet
Silicon.com
What do you think? Can Big Blue pull it off?
Dec 1 2008 7:40PM GMT
Posted by: Troy Tate
administration,
Networking,
Microsoft Windows,
Monitoring,
IT education,
Policy,
design,
server,
troubleshooting,
Performance,
howto,
education,
analysis
For those of you considering using Microsoft Windows Server 2008, you might want to check out this TechNet Virtual Lab: Managing Network Bandwidth Using Windows Quality of Service (QOS) You will learn about using Windows Server 2008 to control bandwidth usage using protocol definitions as well as control bandwidth for particular applications. In case you have not done any of these Virtual labs, they are an excellent FREE! training resource.
Nov 24 2008 7:43PM GMT
Posted by: Troy Tate
administration,
Networking,
tools,
documentation,
Monitoring,
reporting,
performance monitoring,
design,
troubleshooting,
Performance,
howto,
network analysis,
Metrics,
threshold,
toolkit,
facility management
If you have not begun the process of documenting your network, then please begin as soon as you finish reading my first posting on Tools for documentation - screen marking & screen captures and this posting. These tools will come in real handy in a crunch to identify causes of issues and when you are not around to help with resolution.
The next tool I would like to describe is NeDi - short for network discovery. Take a look at this 4 minute movie about NeDi and what it can do for you.
A week with NeDi
Are you impressed yet? I know I was when I discovered this network tool and how it can be used and extended. Some of the screenshots below may help you with the decision if this tool will work for your environment or not.
Network Health
Device Listing
Network Map
Node Status
Device Write
I’m sure you have other tools and processes you use. Please feel free to share them with the others here and help make someone else’s life easier. Enjoy the movie above. I think the guy has a very good sense of humor and knows his movies!
Nov 18 2008 1:15PM GMT
Posted by: Troy Tate
administration,
tools,
Microsoft Windows,
Development,
CIO,
DataCenter,
email,
Exchange 2007,
Exchange,
design,
Microsoft,
howto
New Infrastructure Planning and Design Guide-Now Available for Download
Exchange Online — Evaluating Software-plus-Services
The Infrastructure Planning and Design team has released a new guide, Exchange Online — Evaluating Software-plus-Services. Download the guide here.
In addition to the continuously growing collection of IPD guides focusing on architectural design configurations, Microsoft is now introducing a variation of these guides. This new type of guide is designed to help you make decisions about what’s best for your organization from both a business and a technology point of view.
Considering an online solution for your organization’s e-mail services? The Exchange Online — Evaluating Software-plus-Services guide provides a clear comparison of e-mail technologies across on-premises, standard hosting, and dedicated hosting scenarios. Use the guide as a framework for evaluating the technical feasibility of Microsoft Exchange Online. An overall scoring assessment is provided for each option, identifying key mail services and requirements for your organization. Understand the impact of adopting software-plus-services, weigh the importance of each topic to your organization, and learn which offering will serve you best.
Find other Infrastructure Planning and Design guides.
Nov 17 2008 7:44PM GMT
Posted by: Troy Tate
administration,
Cisco,
VoIP,
unified communications,
IP telephony,
DataCenter,
PSTN,
design,
risk,
diagnostics,
vulnerability
As you may have seen in some of my previous posts the company I work for has implemented VOIP/IP telephony at some of our locations.
VOIP - IPT - QOS - COS on and on - Oh My!
CampIT Enterprise VOIP conference
VOIP virtual panel discussion
Recently we had a phone system outage at the largest of these sites. This was a site with a clustered Cisco CallManager solution. This outage lasted 4+ hours. We were definitely surprised that both members of the cluster failed at the same time and how long it took to recover. Since that time we obviously are working with our support vendor to find a better method of providing uptime to the phone system at this site. I am also looking at making sure my other sites are prepared in the event of a similar outage.
The solution for providing a backup to the CallManager cluster is called Survivable Remote System Telephony (SRST). Think of this as CallManager light. A limited number of the phones still have connectivity and can make/receive calls. I say “limited” because the SRST function is dependent on the PSTN gateway hardware. A larger gateway can support more users. The current gateway we had was a Cisco 2821 series router. This would support 96 users. A Cisco 3825 will support 175 users.
One thing I understand though is that you cannot necessarily specify which phones will get serviced by SRST. The phones are serviced on a first-come-first-served basis. This could be an issue if there are phones that should be serviced and an outage is occurring. Unneeded phones would need to be disconnected from the network to provide capacity to support the critical phones.
Hopefully this will be the last of 4+ hour outage for the phone systems at this site and none will happen at my others. The Cisco solution has been very good for my organization and so far has been very reliable with the exception reported here.
Thanks for continuing to read my blog and hope you have a great day on the technology frontier wherever that may be for you!
Nov 11 2008 4:07PM GMT
Posted by: Troy Tate
administration,
Networking,
tools,
Microsoft Windows,
Monitoring,
Development,
reporting,
internet,
WAN,
LAN,
debugging,
performance monitoring,
SharePoint,
design,
MOSS,
troubleshooting,
Performance,
howto,
network analysis,
Metrics,
awareness,
diagnostics,
toolkit,
analysis
Many organizations are finding value in the Microsoft SharePoint technologies. Whether you use the free Windows SharePoint Services or the Microsoft Office SharePoint Server, your organization will gain a lot of value from using these services. To enhance your ability to manage these technologies, there is a project on Codeplex called the SharePoint Toolbox. Per the website, the purpose of this project is as follows:
This project includes powerful and useful tools and add-ons for SharePoint that help developers and IT pros implement SharePoint based solutions more quickly and managed them more effectively. Contributions will come from the Microsoft SharePoint Product Group, Microsoft SharePoint Online Services Group, Microsoft Information Technology Group, and Microsoft Consulting Services Group.
I have personally used the CopyTimer utility to measure throughput from remote sites to a SharePoint server. It worked well and helped gather some excellent data about the site and global network performance.
Enjoy using these tools and give me some feedback on what you find useful and how SharePoint provides value to your organization.
Nov 11 2008 3:58PM GMT
Posted by: Troy Tate
administration,
Microsoft Windows,
Virtualization,
Development,
RSS,
blogging,
design,
server,
awareness,
blog
For those of you who are fans of Microsoft Windows Virtualization, this blog from the Microsoft Windows Virtualization Products Group might be of interest to you. Keep informed and provide feedback to the team as this useful technology becomes more widespread.
