leedesmond.com | November 25, 2006
My updated blog is now live at:
http://www.leedesmond.com/weblog/
Archives will remain accessible here until further notice. Please update your RSS feeds to point to:
http://www.leedesmond.com/weblog/?feed=rss2
If anyone can help me with importing bblog to WordPress (old to new blog) as well as configuring bblog RSS feeds to auto point to the new WordPress RSS feeds, please drop me a line. Appreciate it!
See you there!
Technorati Profile
http://www.leedesmond.com/weblog/
Archives will remain accessible here until further notice. Please update your RSS feeds to point to:
http://www.leedesmond.com/weblog/?feed=rss2
If anyone can help me with importing bblog to WordPress (old to new blog) as well as configuring bblog RSS feeds to auto point to the new WordPress RSS feeds, please drop me a line. Appreciate it!
See you there!
Technorati Profile
leedesmond.com | November 23, 2006
For those that are still working on the VCP-101V covering ESX Server 2.5 and Virtual Center 1, note that this exam is scheduled for retirement on 31 Dec 2006.
Certified candidates on VCP on ESX Server 2 are recommended (but is not mandatory) to attend the VI3: What's New course prior to writing the VI3 exam (VI3 Certification Blueprint).
More information here and FAQ here.
Certified candidates on VCP on ESX Server 2 are recommended (but is not mandatory) to attend the VI3: What's New course prior to writing the VI3 exam (VI3 Certification Blueprint).
More information here and FAQ here.
leedesmond.com | November 21, 2006
Windows Vista RTM has the screen saver enabled after 10 minutes of inactivity but the "On resume, display logon screen" option is not checked by default. As a best practice, it is recommended to turn this on to secure your desktop.
leedesmond.com | November 20, 2006
The updated Windows Vista Security Guide has been released by Microsoft's Solution Accelerator - Security and Compliance (SA-SC) team (information and download).
Check out other security guides as well as Solution Accelerators from the same team.
Check out other security guides as well as Solution Accelerators from the same team.
leedesmond.com | November 20, 2006
VMware Workstation 5.5.3 has been released on 16 Nov 2006 for both Windows and Linux host OS, some 8 days after the official Windows Vista RTM announcement.
Read the release notes available on the same site and you will notice that Windows Vista is still listed as experimental for both 32- and 64-bits guest and/or host OS.
Check it out in case you missed it!
Read the release notes available on the same site and you will notice that Windows Vista is still listed as experimental for both 32- and 64-bits guest and/or host OS.
Check it out in case you missed it!
leedesmond.com | November 19, 2006
leedesmond.com | November 19, 2006
When moving virtual machines between Virtual PC and Virtual Server, one important point to bear in mind is the size of the .vhd. After building the base .vhd image with enterprise applications such as MS Exchange Server 2007 installed, the size could grow exponentially such that it can no longer fit into a standard 4.3GB DVD-R.
You would have thought that using differencing disks would help keep disk usage in check but this is unfortunately not always the case. It has been observed that the child differencing disk .vhd (type dynamic) could end up growing as big or even bigger than its parent disk. It would instead be advisable to simply construct one single .vhd with all the applications you need then work on compacting the file size on the host's physical disk.
This was one of the popular questions that I had the opportunity to discuss with attendees at my lightning demo during the event. You can find some information about this topic which I blogged about briefly here previously.
For example, the lightning demo virtual machine was built with a single dynamic 16GB .vhd attached to a SCSI bus adapter and has Windows Server 2003 Enterprise Edition (default settings) as well as Virtual Machine Additions 13.552 installed. The original .vhd file size on disk was ~1,546,014,720 bytes and it was drastically reduced down by approximately 37% to ~943,984,640 bytes after running it through Invirtus' VM Optimizer 2.5 using only the default settings!
You would have thought that using differencing disks would help keep disk usage in check but this is unfortunately not always the case. It has been observed that the child differencing disk .vhd (type dynamic) could end up growing as big or even bigger than its parent disk. It would instead be advisable to simply construct one single .vhd with all the applications you need then work on compacting the file size on the host's physical disk.
This was one of the popular questions that I had the opportunity to discuss with attendees at my lightning demo during the event. You can find some information about this topic which I blogged about briefly here previously.
For example, the lightning demo virtual machine was built with a single dynamic 16GB .vhd attached to a SCSI bus adapter and has Windows Server 2003 Enterprise Edition (default settings) as well as Virtual Machine Additions 13.552 installed. The original .vhd file size on disk was ~1,546,014,720 bytes and it was drastically reduced down by approximately 37% to ~943,984,640 bytes after running it through Invirtus' VM Optimizer 2.5 using only the default settings!
leedesmond.com | November 17, 2006
IT Forum 2006 17 Nov 2006 (Day 4/4)
Unbelievable but it is that time of the week again where all of us have to bid goodbye to Barcelona after a successful IT Forum 2006 event. Weather was generally fine with only light rain last evening and today. The rest of the week was either sunshine or Seattle-like. You could even walk outside in a light T-shirt without feeling cold (it is technically Winter here in Central Europe).
Not much time left before we also get chased out of the Speaker Lounge since it was only about 5 minutes ago (now almost 1700 hrs CET) that the announcer got all of our attention to leave the conference center.
Thank you for the opportunity to work with each and every one of you, and it was absolutely great to be meeting old friends, colleagues and establish new ones. Take care and a safe trip home to one and all!
Unbelievable but it is that time of the week again where all of us have to bid goodbye to Barcelona after a successful IT Forum 2006 event. Weather was generally fine with only light rain last evening and today. The rest of the week was either sunshine or Seattle-like. You could even walk outside in a light T-shirt without feeling cold (it is technically Winter here in Central Europe).
Not much time left before we also get chased out of the Speaker Lounge since it was only about 5 minutes ago (now almost 1700 hrs CET) that the announcer got all of our attention to leave the conference center.
Thank you for the opportunity to work with each and every one of you, and it was absolutely great to be meeting old friends, colleagues and establish new ones. Take care and a safe trip home to one and all!
leedesmond.com | November 16, 2006
IT Forum 2006 16 Nov 2006 (Day 3/4)
The last session just ended here in the auditorium and another long day attending sessions on virtualization, Exchange and security, as well as volunteering at the ATE booths is over. The 2 security sessions covered:
- WCL305: Windows Vista Firewall and IPSec Enhancements
- SEC304: Networking without Wires or Worries: Wireless Security
and were presented by Steve Riley (without his long time stage partner Jasper) from Microsoft, a popular speaker that likes to dance around (or in-front of) the stage to entertain, and use slides with hilarious photos to send a message or two.
Again, there is no conference party that has been a tradition on Thursday, although some product teams did take advantage of this to hold separate parties by invitation only. So unless you know about them, you as an individual conference attendee will be pretty much left alone. Perhaps high-time to wind down towards the last day of the event tomorrow?
Took some photos of the conference floor and will post them soon.
The last session just ended here in the auditorium and another long day attending sessions on virtualization, Exchange and security, as well as volunteering at the ATE booths is over. The 2 security sessions covered:
- WCL305: Windows Vista Firewall and IPSec Enhancements
- SEC304: Networking without Wires or Worries: Wireless Security
and were presented by Steve Riley (without his long time stage partner Jasper) from Microsoft, a popular speaker that likes to dance around (or in-front of) the stage to entertain, and use slides with hilarious photos to send a message or two.
Again, there is no conference party that has been a tradition on Thursday, although some product teams did take advantage of this to hold separate parties by invitation only. So unless you know about them, you as an individual conference attendee will be pretty much left alone. Perhaps high-time to wind down towards the last day of the event tomorrow?
Took some photos of the conference floor and will post them soon.
leedesmond.com | November 15, 2006
IT Forum 2006 15 Nov 2006 (Day 2/4)
A pretty busy day attending several different hot sessions. In particular, Powershell sessions were very popular and many attendees that asked questions were given free T-shirts, even though the sessions were already way overtime. A number of Microsoft partners such as SAPIEN Technologies, Full Armour, etc. were invited and demonstrated how their products leverage the capability within Powershell. I got to meet Don Jones, owner of www.scriptinganswers.com but forgot to ask for a foto :(
A few really useful Exchange sessions talked about the changes and impact of 2007 on storage needs, high availability and clustering in comparison with Exchange 2003. Something all Exchange administrators should carefully plan for in the critical design phase.
The traditional country drink in the evening brought together Germany, Austria and Switzerland conference attendees and MS IT Pro team under one roof at La Pomodora. As Germany and Switzerland were playing in the football league the same night, it was really nice of the organization team to book a room in a nearby hotel to allow fans to watch the matches live. At both venues, food and drinks were great and more than enough to go around, compared to the rather bad situation last year. Only "problem" was that there are only 2 toilets at the venue and it was indeed unusual to see men queuing up for their turn :)
I also took the opportunity to meet and personally spoke with several Swiss IT Pros at the country drink, and encouraged them to sign-up at the independent Swiss IT Pro User Group. Overall a great, wonderful but tiring day that was well worth it!
A pretty busy day attending several different hot sessions. In particular, Powershell sessions were very popular and many attendees that asked questions were given free T-shirts, even though the sessions were already way overtime. A number of Microsoft partners such as SAPIEN Technologies, Full Armour, etc. were invited and demonstrated how their products leverage the capability within Powershell. I got to meet Don Jones, owner of www.scriptinganswers.com but forgot to ask for a foto :(
A few really useful Exchange sessions talked about the changes and impact of 2007 on storage needs, high availability and clustering in comparison with Exchange 2003. Something all Exchange administrators should carefully plan for in the critical design phase.
The traditional country drink in the evening brought together Germany, Austria and Switzerland conference attendees and MS IT Pro team under one roof at La Pomodora. As Germany and Switzerland were playing in the football league the same night, it was really nice of the organization team to book a room in a nearby hotel to allow fans to watch the matches live. At both venues, food and drinks were great and more than enough to go around, compared to the rather bad situation last year. Only "problem" was that there are only 2 toilets at the venue and it was indeed unusual to see men queuing up for their turn :)
I also took the opportunity to meet and personally spoke with several Swiss IT Pros at the country drink, and encouraged them to sign-up at the independent Swiss IT Pro User Group. Overall a great, wonderful but tiring day that was well worth it!
