tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-53101888849807368722024-02-21T04:14:36.218-07:00Statera Infrastructure BlogStatera’s Infrastructure Services are designed to arm your organization with the latest proven technology solutions. By leveraging Statera’s Infrastructure Services, you can improve service levels, enhance customer satisfaction, increase system reliability and availability, and deliver more predictable services all while positioning your company for rapid growth and greater adaptability.
Visit www.statera.com for more informationSean McNeillhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07861045543198818869noreply@blogger.comBlogger61125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5310188884980736872.post-58443198176119170472011-04-04T18:21:00.003-06:002011-04-04T18:24:54.353-06:00Microsoft Offers iSCSI Target as a Free DownloadMicrosoft is making it's iSCSI Target Software for Windows Server 2008 R2 a free download! Now you can create shared storage for production or test deployments of Hyper-V servers to have Live Migration and High Availability without the need to deploy a NAS or SAN in your envirornment. Read more about it here: <a href="http://blogs.technet.com/b/virtualization/archive/2011/04/04/free-microsoft-iscsi-target.aspx">http://blogs.technet.com/b/virtualization/archive/2011/04/04/free-microsoft-iscsi-target.aspx</a>Sean McNeillhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07861045543198818869noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5310188884980736872.post-39317839363615528772011-03-27T20:27:00.004-06:002011-03-27T20:45:22.119-06:00Random thoughts on a Sunday night<div>Microsoft Management Summit (MMS) was in Vegas this past week and while I did not attend, Statera was represented by three of our employees learning what is new in the management space. I will work to get one or more of them to make a more detailed post here. But for me one of the announcements was big, SCVMM 2008 R2 Sp1 was released. This provides support for Dynamic Memory and RemoteFX via VMM, <a href="http://technet.microsoft.com/en-US/evalcenter/cc793138.aspx">http://technet.microsoft.com/en-US/evalcenter/cc793138.aspx</a>. One thing to mention with this is the download listed is a full SP1 integrated download, not just SP1 but the entire VMM 2008 R2 with SP1. I have already updated in my lab and while the download is large, the upgrade from 2008 R2 goes rather quickly.</div><div> </div><div>Much more news from MMS was around the entire vNext products. This is where I run into a grey area and hope my teammates will elaborate more! SCCM 2010 Beta 2 was released, <a href="http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/evalcenter/ff657840.aspx">http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/evalcenter/ff657840.aspx</a></div><div> </div><div>Windows Phone 7 News - I am a little disappointed how Microsoft has been handling the update process for the phone! I still love my Samsung Focus and the platform but the fact that updates that have been promised and even committed to by Balmer are yet to flow out! An apologize from the head of the team helps and I hope that by acknowledging the frustration from the users it helps get the update released to those of us that have adopted the platform; read more about it here: <a href="http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/evalcenter/ff657840.aspx">http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/evalcenter/ff657840.aspx</a></div><div> </div><div>Office 365 - Microsoft is pushing Office 365, and I am with them. This new Online platform is basically night and day compared to the current BPOS platform. Statera is a strong partner with Microsoft in the Cloud arena and as such we are being offered numerous opportunities to work with and assist clients who are wanting to move to Office 365. We are in two programs, one is the next wave of Beta for Office 365 and we were assigned numerous clients to help facilitate their beta program in Office 365. The second is a program where we can nominate larger customers for a full "production" beta of Exchange online within Office 365. Both are going well and I am looking forward to working with these clients to show them the value and functionality of Office 365.</div><div> </div><div>Side Note - My Men's NCAA bracket is completely dead! Do not have a single team left alive in the final 4! Guessing there are many of you out there in the same position.</div><div> </div><div>Good Night!</div>Sean McNeillhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07861045543198818869noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5310188884980736872.post-9857540307648667352011-03-16T14:36:00.002-06:002011-03-16T14:43:00.963-06:00BPOS and Office 365 going to get free Blackberry service<div>Microsoft came out today announcing that the Blackberry Enterprise Service provided with thier Exchange Online services will now be at no charge. This is a big deal as up until now it cost companies $10 per month per user to enable them to sync their Blackberry device with Exchange online. </div><div> </div><div>Read more about it here: <a href="http://community.office365.com/enus/office365/b/microsoft_office_365_blog/archive/2011/03/16/office-365-and-blackberry.aspx">http://community.office365.com/enus/office365/b/microsoft_office_365_blog/archive/2011/03/16/office-365-and-blackberry.aspx</a></div>Sean McNeillhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07861045543198818869noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5310188884980736872.post-13578183511392522722011-03-07T20:36:00.002-07:002011-03-07T21:02:43.745-07:00Windows Phone 7So I have had the Samsung Focus from AT&T since the US launch on November 8, 2010. I went to a launch party at the Microsoft Store in Lone Tree, Co that day and bought by phone. Overall I love it! I like the ability to control my start screen with applications and contacts I use frequently. So after 5 full months tomorrow what do I think are the hits and misses? read on and find out.<br />Hits:<br />Customizable start screen:<br />This is one great feature I think over the iPhone. Able to pin applications and contacts I use regularly to my start screen. I have my calendar, various email accounts, my family contacts and a few applications on my start screen. I also have the Gaming hub, Picture Hub, Music Hub (Zune pass member) as well as a few other on the start screen. Live Tiles makes this great, especially for new emails and weather info!.<br /><br />Likes:<br />Applications:<br />As of this post the Marketplace has over 9000 apps! I have the Weather.com app pinned to my start screen for updates as well as Seesmic for Twitter and Chatter.com feeds. I also have a couple apps for my four year old daughter to quickly access (and she can easily find everything on my phone as well). ScoreMobile is also pinned as I am a big sports fan (would love to see Live Tile updates for my favorite teams!)<br />I also love the gaming features with WP7, XBox live integration is great and have grown my gaming points with XBox live integrated games.<br /><br />People Hub:<br />Love that I can combined many different contacts from various email and Facebook into a single entry. This is nice to consolidate my friends and not see multiple entries for the same person. Also the Facebook integration is great, get a quick glance to see the latest info from my friends. Looking forward to Twitter integration with the People Hub.<br /><br />Email:<br />Love that I can have multiple Exchange Activesync accounts configured on the phone. As I am a consultant and do numerous Exchange projects I found myself wiping my work email and then configuring the clients test account with my phone during each engagement. Now I just add an account to my phone to test without affecting my work account. I actually have 3 ActiveSync accounts configured right now, my primary work email, my Microsoft.com VTSP account and my Beta Office 365 account.<br /><br />Overall:<br />Great phone and love that I can customize the start screen and all the applications that are available for the phone.<br /><br />Needs:<br />Cut and Paste - didn't think I would miss this but have and can't wait for the update that will include this.<br />Email Conversation View - got use to this with Outlook 2010 and really want it to be on my phone as well<br />SMS Text integration with Outlook 2010 - again didn't think I needed this but while on Outlook 2010 and Mobile 6.5 got use to it and liked the ability to create and reply to SMS messages from Outlook 2010<br />Marketplace Search Improvements - hate that a search in the marketplace returns songs and apps, would like to search just for apps or music; think this is coming in the next update<br />Camera Settings - hate that the camera settings revert to the default each time I launch it. Read that this is a feature because of the quick camera feature, which is cool, but should be a setting to allow my custom camera settings to become the default.<br /><br />Overall a great platform and with the Microsoft/Nokia partnership and the CDMA phones coming online it will only grow. I think Microsoft is in it for the long haul and I fully support the platform and evangelize it any opportunity I can. Talked to a few co-workers who have switched to WP& and they love it as well! Just need to convince people to try it and it will grow!Sean McNeillhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07861045543198818869noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5310188884980736872.post-57370899498973790832011-03-07T20:09:00.002-07:002011-03-07T20:18:20.089-07:00Still Here!I have neglected posting to this blog for several months! Reasons for it are many but mostly due to being extremely busy at work, a good thing for a consultant, and some laziness. <br />So I am making a point to add an entry to this blog at least once a week!<br /><br />So what has happened in this void that has had no posts? a lot:<br />1. Got my Windows Phone 7 Samsung Focus, Loving it!<br />2. Went to the Lync 2010 Ignite training<br />3. Went to the Office 365 Ignite training<br />4. Was named the Director of the year for Statera!<br />5. Began the Beta for Office 365<br />6. Assisted with the upgrade of OCS 2007 R2 to Lync 2010 for Statera<br />7. Hours and hours of consulting for our clients<br /><br />I want to make this a very informative location for all things Infrastructure related, will do my best!Sean McNeillhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07861045543198818869noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5310188884980736872.post-35268128591757745912010-10-20T18:40:00.003-06:002010-10-20T18:43:26.943-06:00Windows Phone 7 In-Depth ReviewGreat in-depth review of Just launch (well in Europe, us in the US must wait until November 8th) of Windows Phone 7! <a href="http://www.winsupersite.com/mobile/wp7.asp">http://www.winsupersite.com/mobile/wp7.asp</a><br /><br />I can't wait until I can get my hands on a Samsung Focus! Went to the Microsoft Store in the Park Meadows Mall here in south Denver and found out they will be opening early on the 8th for an event and I plan on being there at opening time to get a phone!Sean McNeillhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07861045543198818869noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5310188884980736872.post-89219882639690025282010-09-14T10:04:00.002-06:002010-09-14T10:08:52.780-06:00Microsoft Office Communications Server platform renameMicrosoft has re-branded OCS to become Microsoft Lync with the next release, the Release Candidate version is available for download, <a href="http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/en/details.aspx?FamilyID=29366ba5-498f-4d21-bc3e-0b4e8ba58fb1">http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/en/details.aspx?FamilyID=29366ba5-498f-4d21-bc3e-0b4e8ba58fb1</a><br /><br />From the Brief Description on the download page:<br />"<br />Microsoft Lync Server 2010 communications software delivers streamlined communications including software-powered VoIP, presence, enterprise IM, web conferencing, and A/V conferencing. You can implement these capabilities alongside your existing telephony infrastructure, while retaining rich operational control.<br />"Sean McNeillhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07861045543198818869noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5310188884980736872.post-73108893581192586432010-09-01T14:43:00.003-06:002010-09-01T14:46:20.920-06:00Windows Phone 7 has reach RTM StatusCan't wait to get my hands on a Windows Phone 7 device. The stuff I am seeing about the interface and applications being designed for it look awesome! Full Zune Integration as well as XBox Live and Facebook integration!<br /><br />Read about the RTM announcement here: <a href="http://windowsteamblog.com/windows_phone/b/windowsphone/archive/2010/09/01/windows-phone-7-released-to-manufacturing.aspx">http://windowsteamblog.com/windows_phone/b/windowsphone/archive/2010/09/01/windows-phone-7-released-to-manufacturing.aspx</a><br /><br />Now I need AT&T and the device manufactures to get the devices out to the public!Sean McNeillhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07861045543198818869noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5310188884980736872.post-66186960307284362702010-08-31T16:08:00.004-06:002010-08-31T16:33:54.012-06:00SharePoint 2010 and proper NIC teamingHi All,<br /><br />I just wanted to write a quick gotcha I ran into when installing SharePoint 2010 (or any application that relies on DNS, for that matter) onto a server with multiple NICs. Proper teaming is crucial because, if the NICs aren't teamed, they will individually report themselves to DNS as the local machine's host name, an example being, each NIC on a server will report itself as MACHINE.DOMAIN.LOCAL. Not a real problem if the application references resources by IP instead of host name, but, if the application references everything by host name, you're in for a real headache, in terms of troubleshooting. If the computer I am using to connect to MACHINE.DOMAIN.LOCAL from has MACHINE's IP as 10.1.1.1 and the 2nd NIC reports to DNS as 10.1.1.2, my IP query fails, not good for an application that relies on constant communication to SQL. Set up NIC teaming before installing applications that rely on AD DNS and you'll save yourself LOTS of trouble.<br /><br />DuaneDuanehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15054694080919042285noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5310188884980736872.post-46635012368568476702010-08-30T23:17:00.003-06:002010-08-30T23:30:57.609-06:00Hyper-V versus VMware my take on a few topicsA colleague and I were "Discussing" the differences between Hyper-V and VMware Server Virtualization. I think we all know that both Microsoft and VMware have big marketing departments and both are working overtime to to promote their products.<br /><br />This discussion started based on an blast email I sent about <a href="http://staterainfrastructure.blogspot.com/2010/08/hyper-v-pushes-out-vmware-at-fortune.html">Hyper-V taking over at CH2M Hill</a> to my company.<br />My Colleague found an article that he sent me that talks about how VMware feels that Microsoft is miss-informing information regarding the features of Hyper-V compared to Vsphere/ESX, <a href="http://blogs.vmware.com/virtualreality/2010/03/hyper-v-passes-microsofts-checkmarks-exam-isnt-that-always-the-case.html">http://blogs.vmware.com/virtualreality/2010/03/hyper-v-passes-microsofts-checkmarks-exam-isnt-that-always-the-case.html</a><br />I read the post and then responded with the below email to him around my experiences and information about the posts information: (Items in red below are taken from the above mentioned post)<br /><br /><span style="color:#ff0000;">Unlike vSphere, for example, Hyper-V R2 does not provide VM restart prioritization, which means that there is no easy way for admins to make sure that critical VMs are being restarted first. Incidentally, the lack of VM restart prioritization is one the reasons why Burton Group stated that Hyper-V R2 is not an enterprise production-ready solution<br /></span>This is miss-information, You can control the priority of VMs restart by the delayed start setting. You would set a longer start time for VMs that are not a priority and set the start time for high priority VMs to zero. Read this about this debate, http://www.networkworld.com/news/2010/080910-vmware-microsoft-disaster-recovery.html?fsrc=netflash-rss<br /><br /><span style="color:#ff0000;">In addition because Hyper-V R2 lacks memory overcommit (a feature that is totally missing from Microsoft’s checklist), it can restart VMs only if the failover server has enough spare memory capacity to accommodate the VMs of the failed host.<br /></span>This above statement about Memory overcommit is very comical as it is widely been reported on as a “Big Win for VMware” since Hyper-V entered the market. Before Hyper-V entered and even with Hyper-V in the field VMware has said that Memory overcommit is not recommended or supported for production environments. With Server 2008 R2 SP1 Microsoft is implementing Dynamic Memory, this is not memory overcommit but memory over-allocation. Microsoft has implemented a system whereas the host OS Hyper-V server communicates with the Guest OS VM to determine the memory needs of the guest and then allocates more memory to the guest. This is configured at the admin level by giving the guest a minimum (start up) memory and a maximum memory threshold; so I can configure a Guest to start with 512MB of memory and a maximum of 4GB of memory depending of need. This is fully supported in a production environment. What this enables is admins to configure guest to utilize physical host memory dynamically based on need, but still will not exceed the physical memory available to the host. Configuration also allows priority for this to be set per Guest.<br /><br /><span style="color:#ff0000;">This</span><span style="color:#ff0000;"> checkmark is funny to say the least. If you don’t know what the word “quick” means in Microsoft’s marketing jargon (and believe me I have heard illuminating translations of the term from Microsoft’s own employees), you’d think that Microsoft has a fast Storage VMotion (possibly faster than VMware’s). The reality is that even just talking about Storage VMotion in Hyper-V’s case doesn’t make sense, because Microsoft’s Quick Storage Migration, just like Quick Migration for VMs, cannot migrate VM virtual disks without downtime. VMware Storage VMotion, on the other hand, can migrate virtual disks without any application downtime. </span><br />Not sure what they mean, in the R2 version with Clustered Share Volumes, I have implemented many instances of Live Migrations that do not cause any downtime or interruption for a Guest/VM migration from one host to another.<br /><br /><span style="color:#ff0000;">As Microsoft TechNet shows, SCOM is a very complex product that consumes a considerable amount of servers and databases that – opposite to what Microsoft wants people to believe – are neither free nor included in the cost of SMSD licenses<br /></span>it is true that SCOM is a paid product and requires additional server resources to implement but this is not required for Live Migrations. Plus implementing SCOM in an environment allows a company to not just monitor the virtual environment but all physical servers as well. Single pane of glass for all monitoring regardless of the server hardware solution.Sean McNeillhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07861045543198818869noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5310188884980736872.post-33348849426598252992010-08-30T19:41:00.004-06:002010-08-30T19:46:44.981-06:00Hyper-V pushes out VMWare at fortune 500 companyHyper-V gaining momentum all the time. Here is an article talking about CH2M Hill decision to move from VMWare ESX to Microsoft Hyper-V Virtualization platform, major decision point being a cost savings of over three million dollars over the next three to five years.<br />the article is located here:<br /><a href="http://www.thevarguy.com/2010/08/27/fortune-500-firm-leaving-vmware-for-microsoft-hyper-v/">http://www.thevarguy.com/2010/08/27/fortune-500-firm-leaving-vmware-for-microsoft-hyper-v/</a>Sean McNeillhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07861045543198818869noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5310188884980736872.post-70209138656779013682010-08-25T10:22:00.002-06:002010-08-25T10:25:01.365-06:00Exchange 2010 SP1 is now available!Very cool improvements for Exchange 2010 in the SP1 release<br />Read about the enhancements here:<br /><a href="http://msexchangeteam.com/archive/2010/04/07/454533.aspx">http://msexchangeteam.com/archive/2010/04/07/454533.aspx</a><br /><br />You can download it here: <a href="http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyID=50b32685-4356-49cc-8b37-d9c9d4ea3f5b&displaylang=en">http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyID=50b32685-4356-49cc-8b37-d9c9d4ea3f5b&displaylang=en</a>Sean McNeillhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07861045543198818869noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5310188884980736872.post-14343204302318985702010-08-25T09:46:00.002-06:002010-08-25T09:49:42.717-06:00Hyper-V Change DVD ISO Image from within VMWas directed to this post by a good friend; the author has created a tool that allows a user to change the ISO image for the DVD from within the VM/Guest. Have not had a chance to play with this yet but looks very cool!<br /><br /><a href="http://sqlblogcasts.com/blogs/simons/archive/2010/08/23/guest-tools-for-hyper-v-change-your-dvd-from-within-the-guest.aspx?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed:%20SimonsSqlServerStuff%20(SimonS%20SQL%20Server%20Stuff)">http://sqlblogcasts.com/blogs/simons/archive/2010/08/23/guest-tools-for-hyper-v-change-your-dvd-from-within-the-guest.aspx?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed:%20SimonsSqlServerStuff%20(SimonS%20SQL%20Server%20Stuff)</a>Sean McNeillhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07861045543198818869noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5310188884980736872.post-12838412372892899782010-08-25T07:45:00.001-06:002010-08-25T07:48:24.998-06:00Hyper-V R2 Rollup Patch releasedA rollup patch for Hyper-V R2 has been released that fixes three different issues, <a href="http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-US;2264080">http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-US;2264080</a>Sean McNeillhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07861045543198818869noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5310188884980736872.post-33744535102584109262010-04-19T13:11:00.002-06:002010-04-19T13:13:26.726-06:00PowerShell help with Bing Visual SearchMicrosoft announced today that you can now use Bing Visual Search for information on PowerShell cmdlets. Check it out, looks pretty cool, <a href="http://www.bing.com/visualsearch?g=powershell_cmdlets&FORM=Z9GE48#">http://www.bing.com/visualsearch?g=powershell_cmdlets&FORM=Z9GE48#</a>#Sean McNeillhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07861045543198818869noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5310188884980736872.post-1928317963620178772010-03-25T08:50:00.000-06:002010-03-25T08:51:22.955-06:00Microsoft Scripting Games<a href="http://blogs.technet.com/heyscriptingguy/archive/tags/2010+Scripting+Games/default.aspx"><img style="MARGIN: 0px auto; DISPLAY: block" alt="2010 Scripting Games" src="http://img.microsoft.com/library/media/1033/technet/images/scriptcenter/qanda/2010scriptinggames/badges/2010_scriptgames_badge1.png" /></a><br /><p style="TEXT-ALIGN: center; MARGIN: 0px; FONT-SIZE: 80%"><a title="2010 Scripting Games--Grab this badge here!" href="http://blogs.technet.com/heyscriptingguy/archive/2010/03/25/grab-the-2010-scripting-games-badge.aspx">Grab this badge here!</a></p>Sean McNeillhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07861045543198818869noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5310188884980736872.post-39545184946307373332010-03-18T10:40:00.003-06:002010-03-18T10:48:21.355-06:00SP1 announced for Server 2008 R2 and Windows 7SP1 plans have been released for Server 2008 R2 and Windows 7, <a href="http://blogs.technet.com/windowsserver/archive/2010/03/18/announcing-windows-server-2008-r2-and-windows-7-service-pack-1.aspx">http://blogs.technet.com/windowsserver/archive/2010/03/18/announcing-windows-server-2008-r2-and-windows-7-service-pack-1.aspx</a><br /><br />Two big features that will be included primarily benefit Hyper-V; Dynamic memory and RemoteFX. RemoteFX allows VMs to have richer content and visual experience.<br />Dynamic memory has been requested since Hyper-V first launched. Microsoft talks about that with Dynamic Memory companies can get for VDI workstations on Hyper-V hosts.Sean McNeillhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07861045543198818869noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5310188884980736872.post-41039774529949592702010-02-27T19:04:00.004-07:002010-03-01T10:40:08.655-07:00Rocky Mountain Tech Tri-Fecta Exchange 2010 PresentationToday was the Rocky Mountain Tech Tri-Fecta at the Auraria campus in downtown Denver. I did a presentation on Exchange 2010, I thought it went well. I only had eight attendees in my session, would have like more but felt everyone attending took some good information from the presentation. I want to thank those eight people for attending, hopefully you had fun and learned something, and please do not hesitate to contact me with any followup questions or need additional information at sean dot mcneill at statera dot com. If you would not mind I would also appreciate you email me any feedback you had about the session, both content and my presentation, thanks.<br />I promised the attendees I would post the slide deck here, but when I said that I was unaware that blogger does not allow any file upload. I have already sent the presentation to Statera.com's webmaster to get it posted there and once completed I will post the link on this blog.<br /><br />Update: Got my presentation uploaded and it can be accessed here, <a href="http://www.statera.com/Documents/MicrosoftExchange2010Overview.pptx">http://www.statera.com/Documents/MicrosoftExchange2010Overview.pptx</a>Sean McNeillhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07861045543198818869noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5310188884980736872.post-41301681622309206052010-02-17T19:35:00.003-07:002010-02-17T20:04:47.181-07:00Server 2008 R2 Hyper-V and Intel Xeon 5500 Series Processor ProblemSo I have been helping our internal IT implement Hyper-V to consolidate our server infrastructure. We implemented a two node Server 2008 R2 Hyper-V cluster on Dell R710 servers. Everything was going pretty good until this past Sunday. Our IT Manager converted the second of two SQL Servers to be a VM using SCVMM 2008 R2 P2V process. The conversion went pretty good. On Monday, all our consultants are required to submit their timesheet for the previous week, and custom application developed and located on SharePoint. This puts a little bit of a load on the Front End and SQL backend servers in the morning as everyone is trying to submit thier timesheets and our internal workers are pulling reports and getting invoices ready to be sent out (Need to get paid for the great work we all do!)<br />Well this Monday became challenging as now the entire SharePoint Environment plus, Exchange, and several other servers are hosted VMs on the cluster. The challenge came from the fact that our Hyper-V Host servers began to crash and reboot, failing the cluster and all VMs running on them. Initially it appeared to be a network problem. So we decided to move the last SQL box converted to a dedicated VSwitch and Physical NIC (We have a three NIC team setup to a single VSwitch for all of the VMs on both Hosts) This one done thinking that the network errors we were seeing on the Hosts were caused by the newly added SQL server. This did not solve the problem. We also saw some storage issues and reviewed everything to ensure that it was sound (Fiber Attached Storage on the Hosts; most VMs OS Drive is provided a couple Clustered Shared Volumes, CSV, thru the fiber connections with thier data drives utilizing Pass-Thru disks).<br />So with the problem still being sporadic we looked to VMM and removed the cluster from VMM and rebooted the Hosts separately to check things out. This seemed to solve the problem a bit (Tuesday no issues) . Today we had crashes again, our IT Manager walked thru the crash dumps with a fine tune comb and found the culprit: 0x00000101 - CLOCK_WATCHDOG_TIMEOUT error message. Didn't take him long to find this KB article documenting the problem, <a href="http://support.microsoft.com/kb/975530">http://support.microsoft.com/kb/975530</a><br />There is a know issue with Intel Xeon 5500 Nehalem Processors. The problem happens sporadically so initial identification of the problem is a little tough. Their is a hotfix for this as well as some work around documented in the KB article.<br />This problem is only with the new Nehalem processors and Server 2008 R2 with Hyper-V role installed. The problem is documented by Intel as well here: <a href="http://www.intel.com/assets/pdf/specupdate/321324.pdf">http://www.intel.com/assets/pdf/specupdate/321324.pdf</a><br /><br />Hope this information helps. Would be very interested to see who else has experienced this problem.Sean McNeillhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07861045543198818869noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5310188884980736872.post-10679186648591405182010-02-15T15:45:00.002-07:002010-02-15T15:47:56.919-07:00Microsoft Road Show Event this weekI posted yesterday about a Road Show Event sponsored by Microsoft and would let you know if registration was still available. Sadly it is not, the event is full.<br /><br />If you are already registered and attend please look for me and say hello. I will be presenting with Mark Matthews in one of the first sessions.Sean McNeillhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07861045543198818869noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5310188884980736872.post-86225172611243123742010-02-14T21:55:00.003-07:002010-02-14T21:57:49.293-07:00Microsoft RoadShow Event in DenverI have been asked by Microsoft to participate in a RoadShow Event in Denver this Thursday. Will be speaking with Mark Matthews on Infrastructure optimization. Doing some prep work this weekend going over the slide deck to prepare myself for the event. Should be a good presentation. I will check to see if customers can still register to attend I will post it here!Sean McNeillhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07861045543198818869noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5310188884980736872.post-64157648186740052082010-02-09T23:40:00.000-07:002010-02-09T23:44:17.615-07:00Rocky Mountain Tech Tri-FectaThe schedule, speaker and session information has now been posted to the website. If you are in the area I encourage you to come down for some free training on February 27th at Metro State College, more info can be found here: <a href="http://rmtechtrifecta.pbworks.com/">http://rmtechtrifecta.pbworks.com/</a>Sean McNeillhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07861045543198818869noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5310188884980736872.post-24223028209084391272010-01-28T23:11:00.000-07:002010-01-28T23:13:18.066-07:00Shameless PlugSo I am big time now....at least I think so. Statera release a press release about me presenting at the Rocky Mountain Tech Tri-Fecta, <a href="http://www.statera.com/news/Pages/Statera%27s%20Sean%20McNeill%20to%20Present%20at%20Rocky%20Mountain%20Tech%20TRI-Fecta%20Event.aspx">http://www.statera.com/news/Pages/Statera%27s%20Sean%20McNeill%20to%20Present%20at%20Rocky%20Mountain%20Tech%20TRI-Fecta%20Event.aspx</a>Sean McNeillhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07861045543198818869noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5310188884980736872.post-71688187414575599732010-01-26T10:46:00.000-07:002010-01-26T12:53:32.441-07:00Windows Server 2008 Core Network Bind toolI have done numerous Server 2008 Core installations, primarily to be the hosts for Hyper-V Virtualization. R2 made some great improvements in manageability as it relates to the Core platform, namely the SCONFIG command and the ability to have the GUI iSCSI initiator tool by running iscsicpl.<br />Well a new tool to help with Network Adapter bindings has just been released. I have used a previous version of this tool and it was helpful. Want to see what this one has. This functionality is really needed! <a href="http://code.msdn.microsoft.com/nvspbind">http://code.msdn.microsoft.com/nvspbind</a><br />Thank You <a href="http://code.msdn.microsoft.com/UserAccount/UserProfile.aspx?UserName=keithmange">KeithMange</a>Sean McNeillhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07861045543198818869noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5310188884980736872.post-12688092904624395782010-01-18T23:27:00.000-07:002010-01-18T23:32:30.319-07:00Rocky Mountain Tech Tri-Fecta 2010I know I have already blogged about this but now it is personal. I will be presenting 2 sessions at the event, below is a quick synopsis of what I will be speaking on. Please if you are in the Denver area or want to come to Denver for a great ski weekend and get some training sign up here, <a href="http://rmtechtrifecta.pbworks.com/">http://rmtechtrifecta.pbworks.com/</a><br /><br />My sessions:<br /><br />Exchange 2010<br />Come learn what Exchange 2010 has to offer for Administrators and end-users. Exchange 2010 is the latest messaging server system from Microsoft, many improvements have been made to this system. Administrators can take advantage of the new Database Availability Group (DAG) function to provide a highly available and fault tolerant system for their environment. Great improvements in administration and replication have been made to Exchange 2010 and this session will explore and explain the new functionality. End users will benefit from the new highly available system and the integration with Outlook 2010. This session is geared towards administrators familiar with Exchange 200x with an emphasis on the improvements to Exchange 2007.<br /><br />Windows Server 2008 R2 Active Directory<br />This session will detail the changes to Active Directory in Server 2008 R2. One of the biggest new features in Active Directory Directory Services (AD DS) is the AD Recycle Bin which allows an administrator to quickly recover a deleted object from AD DS. Powershell now naively supports Active Directory as well and will be discussed. We will also cover the changes made to AD DS in Server 2008. This session will also go over Active Directory Certificate Services (AD CS) and Active Directory Federation Services (AD FS).Sean McNeillhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07861045543198818869noreply@blogger.com0