May, 2009

Windows 7 and Virtual PC and XP Mode Beta Part 2

Well I didn’t find a program that don’t run on Vista or Win7 but I did install Connectwise within the XP Mode Beta and then launched the shortcut off my Start Menu and had the application run on my Win7 laptop seamlessly with no problems. I like the idea of how this works and the possibilities it opens up for customers and IT alike. This all ties in with the Windows 2008 R2 and how they are integrating or getting TS and HyperV to play nicely together and complement each other with the Published Desktop Pool and other options.

Til later just Roger

Windows 7 and Virtual PC and XP Mode Beta

Have you downloaded the Virtual PC and XP Mode Beta yet? Well now that the big weekend is winding down and my family got done with everything they thought I needed to do because I had been gone all week. I have time to play with this and I like what I see so far. Basically the premises is that if you have a program that will not run on Vista or Windows 7 but XP you can install the program onto the XP Virtual and the application will be published to the start menu of the the Windows 7 machine and run as part of the desktop on the Windows 7 machine. So far so good as I got this setup and will be finding a application that has issues running on a Vista machine and will see how it works. More to come

Til later just Roger

Using Microsoft Office Communicator 2007 R2 for Remote Management Part 2

Well we got this installed and working Internally and then we did the test of the remote desktop sharing. This is what the client is wanting to do so we will be making this available to the outside world and the customer will have his remote management. Plus if they want to integrate it with the Exchange 2007 Server they will be able to but the main focus is the ability to see what a user is seeing on their desktop and to be able to provide remote support. I am not sure this was a option that MS was thinking but this works for this customer. So if you have a customer thinking of the Microsoft Office Communicator and is spread out across a few locations this could be a selling point also.

Til later just Roger

HP Train Part 2

Well it has been a crazy last week and a half. I went to the HP Train Event in Houston but before I got started on the Wednesday evening before I left my wife’s second oldest son was in a car wreck. He made it through the wreck banged up and a couple of cuts but ok. His car not so much much but he is ok that is the main thing. So that took up much of Wednesday and Thursday. I left for Houston on Sunday morning and it was a nice pleasant drive down. I know why drive well I don’t fly and do my flying in a car. I actually enjoy driving so it was good.

The Course I was in at the HP Train event was on MSA 2000 series devices and EVA’s. I have some MSA 2012’s out already but this was a good what am I missing class and also to look at the Fiber MSA’s. The ones I have out are the iSCSI version. I also got my first look at EVA’s and what you can do with them and how they are setup. They are not so bad now that they have a Smart Start Utility for this and it is pretty straight forward. I guess the next step will be is the couple of tests that relate to this course. Oh Boy I love tests so much. But that finished up Friday and it was a nice pleasent trip home which i was ready for. I have some projects coming down the pike but more on that wehn I can talk about them.

Til later just Roger

HP Train

Well next week I get to go to Houston and have a week long training event at the HP Train Event. I will be going on the Storage Track and this will cover MSA and EVA type of solutions. I already ahve some customers using the MSA devices but I am sure there is tips and tricks to do on some of these devices that me learning on the fly has not covered yet. So this should be a nice fun relaxing time of learning. I know kind of sick isn’t it me thinking something like this would be relaxing.

Til Later just Roger

10 years Ago Today on a Planet Not Far Away

I started working full time for the company I currently work for. I had Interned the year before that but full time started today. This is really only the second job I have ever had, well if you don’t count raising my youngest son on my own and helping my wife Deb with her children and all the associated madness that comes with all of this as not a job I can say second Full time job how about that. This is more of a adventure than a job and I also don’t think of what I do now a job but a adventure as everyday is something different and something new to learn and do either at work or home who knows what lurks around the next corner.

I got a email from my boss Arlin this morning ( you know the one that enjoys putting me into those positions that Introverts do not like to be in, in front of people talking or something like that) that it had been another year. Well it was actually 10 years ( not that I am counting) today that I have been getting these emails every year at this time and you know they make me smile every time I get one because it makes me think back to what I went through to get to this position and all the hard work to get here.I just didn’t show up and do my 8 hours I took it upon myself to go those extra steps when at home setting up a test network and learning all I could learn when not working so I could get better.

 I worked 22 years for my parents company well actually it was more before this but that don’t count guess I had to pay my way at home also but then 2 years of school and now 10 years of this. WOW you add that all up and my how time has flown by when your having fun. That is the main thing now days have fun enjoy what you do and help the people you are supporting and make a maybe not so good day for them be better from what you do for them. When you do all of that sometimes they even bring food for you. Double Bonus Points…..

Til later just Roger

Using Microsoft Office Communicator 2007 R2 for Remote Management

I had a customer who keeps continually adding locations to the business and management of the workstations and laptops is becoming a pain for the IT guy. Especially when you are talking about 180 users. We have looked into the System center Stuff and that seems to be more than they want or need. He just needed a simple way to connect to the desktop and look at a problem the user is having either in the domain or outside the domain. I told him I would check into this and see what else I can do here for a solution.

When I was in the office last week and talking to my favorite Network Admin Randy I mentioned this problem to him. He suggested I checkout the new Microsoft Office Communicator R2 as it has a function in it for sharing the desktop. He had just rolled this out in our office and upgraded from the previous version. I have worked with this program very little installed it at a school and the location that was needing help was in the MS Phone system beta and had used the previous version their also but we had backed up the servers and removed them and used that hardware.

Well I had to restore the Communicator server and of course I had used my Favorite Backup and Restore tool Shadow Protect to do this. 15 minutes and I had the server restored and deactivated the previous version and then removed this from the server and AD. This is one of my hyperV environments so I installed 2008 64 bit in a VS Session and then installed the Communicator 2007 R2 on the server. It did find the users setup on the old version so I went through the steps to bring them into the new one. I got 2 users working and tested the Communicator Client and after some fixing of the DNS records we had this part working. We will be doing a prof of concept test on Monday for the Remote Desktop Sharing to see if this will work for him for management. If this looks like a go then we will get the outside access setup and then test that. If that is all a go then we will roll it out to the rest of the 180 machines or whatever they are up to now. More on this later and of course this was the short version of all that happened but setup did not take that long and the key is to have your DNS Setup correctly.

Til later just Roger

Windows Server 2008 R2 and Published Apps and Virtual Desktops P4

Takes note to self don’t be so self involved in projects and take time to write posts as you go here. That way not so much to spew in one sitting. Yea right as if that will happen. Mean while back at the ranch

Ok had everything configure like I thought it should be now and still not seeing my workstations in the RemoteApps Web Page or in the Programs list on my Windows 7 laptop. That is a cool feature of Windows 7 where you just point to a URL and it brings in your Published Apps and Desktop Pool. You configure this by going into Control Panel on your Windows 7 computer and then clicking on the RemoteApps and Desktop piece in there. So I logged into the Web Access and noticed that under configuration that it was still referring to Localhost so I changed this to my Connection Brokers Internal NetBios name and saved it and boom there was my Desktop Pool now showing in the Web Access. COOL!!!!!! Sorry moment of excitment there but I then went to my Windows 7 machine and went into the RemoteApps piece and hit update and bam there it was there also. Double dang COOL!!!!!!!!!! now I am cooking. Clicked on the piece and logged in and waited for the Virtual Desktop to spin up and start and waited and waited. Double Dang now what is happening so I went back to the document and read it again and found on the workstations I had to set a registry key for the remote connection to be made to it. Bingo did that and now they launch. WHEW!!!! finally I have it all functional. Another note to self read all doc don’t skim. There was more than that to this but I hate to type also so my words of wisdom is get the document and follow along that helps a lot.

Til later just Roger

Windows Server 2008 R2 and Published Apps and Virtual Desktops P3

Well momentary pause for head banging here as what did I do now to break the stuff. Time to read and I went searching and finally found a document called Deploying RemoteApp and Desktop connection Step by Step guide from MS. http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyID=2F5B9705-BC09-466E-882B-7227CBB39183&displaylang=en This helped, you can not install the Remote Desktop Connection broker on the same server as the Remote Desktop Session and Remote Desktop Virtualization Service and Remote Desktop Web.

So I spun up a Virtual Server in our HyperV Environment and installed 2008 R2 RC on it and installed the Broker and Remote Desktop Session Service for Redirection  on this server. I uninstalled the Broker from my host machine for the Remote App and Web Access and TS Gateway and the Virtualization service. Followed the document for setting up the broker and away I went the pieces I broke came back online and worked correctly now. Duh…… Takes note to self maybe read next time but then again where is the fun in that.

When I installed the Virtualization service it also will add HyperV but I had already configured and installed HyperV so I was good there and on the server so I installed 2 Windows 7 workstations into the HyperV on the TS Gateway, RemoteApps and Virtualization Server. One was a 32 bit machine and one was a 64 bit machine. I installed Office 2007 and the Live Communicator 2007 R2 onto the machines. These will be going into the Desktop Pool as they call this and the workstations all have to have the same software on them as this basically runs in a Pool as they say you might not login to the same machine each time.

Til Later Just Roger

I can not believe Arlin had done that to me.

I was going through some old email looking for one I had from a few years ago and came across one that I had with a person from MS. I was thanking them for the opportunity of meeting with his group. Which made me think back to how that happened. I don’t like standing in front of people and talking and my boss Arlin knows this and uses every chance he gets or tries to anyways of making that happen. I like to think of myself as the person not seen just heard from works better that way for me or as I refer to myself as a mushroom keep in the dark and buried in well never mind.

We was out there for some part of the Longhorn/2008 Beta we was involved in and Arlin setup a meeting with the TS Group. He had me in mushroom mode up until the point he mentioned to come up front with him. Well I got to stand up there in front of the whole TS Devolpers Group with my boss as he presented to them and I got to answer any questions they had. I have never been the same since, marked for life I am thinking. 4 years ago this last week it happened. Until he did the same thing to me again at the SBS 2008 thing in Tx last year I am finally recovering or still in the process of healing from that. I have to watch him more closely I am thinking.

Til later just Roger