leedesmond’s blog

Attention VMware administrators. Exploit the amazing flexibility and strengths of PowerShell to manage your VI3 virtualization infrastructure from the command line today! You can download the recent official 1.0 release (build 103777) of VMware Infrastructure Toolkit for Windows for free over here.

“Do you think you have what it takes to be the best PowerShell scripter?” - this is VMware ’s challenge to you for a chance to win the top prize of an all expenses paid trip to VMworld Las Vegas. Last submission date is 30 August 2008. More information here.

Technorati tags: VMware, PowerShell

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VMware ESX Server 3i is a mature, enterprise-class, lightweight hypervisor weighing in with a footprint of just 32 MB, giving you a more secure and reliable virtualization platform ideal for deployment scenarios such as server consolidation, automatic load balancing and business continuity.

Registration is required to download and obtain a product license to activate the free ESX 3i for deployment on server hardware with no more than 2 CPU cores. The license includes VMware ESXi, VMware Virtual SMP and VMware VMFS.

Free technical support is not included in this license. This makes it even more important to first consult the Hardware Compatibility List (HCL) to ensure that you have hardware and infrastructure fit for purpose.

Like Microsoft Hyper-V, management software and services cost extra and must be separately procured, and should be covered as part of your planning, design and on-going maintenance tasks.

Technorati tags: Virtualization, VMware, Windows Server Virtualization, HyperV

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You may still be getting the “Outlook Integration Error” message after you successfully sign-in to the Windows domain* and start both OC 2007 and Outlook 2007. This can happen when your primary e-mail address in your Outlook profile does not match the sign-in address provided to Communicator (and vice-versa).
To work around this little annoyance, ensure that both the addresses match or apply the fix described here.

* or separately provide your credentials to Office Communicator 2007 and Outlook 2007 when prompt (if machine is not part of an Active Directory domain).

Technorati tags: LCS/OCS, OCS 2007, Unified Communications, Exchange Server

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With three full days of intensive sessions by experienced SQL experts covering topics such as “SQL Server Performance Marine”, “Mastering MDX in 3 days” and “Advanced BI Concepts based on the MS BI stack”, you will not want to miss the 4th annual PASS Camp scheduled from 2-4 Sep 2008 in Germany.

More information here.

Technorati tags: User Group, SQL Server 200x/2008

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Interested to learn how to deploy PowerShell as part of an Exchange 2003 migration strategy in a complex global Active Directory environment? Want to find out how to extend PowerShell with PowerGadgets to crunch the raw data and transform it into great looking reports, indispensable for managing and monitoring the operational health of the systems?

Then surf right over to edge.technet.com to take a look at how to put this unique combination into real world practice (including demo). This video was recorded a few months ago earlier this year.

You can learn more about this topic by reviewing a number of companion articles that I have written. Look for them on my main web page by clicking on Contributions on the left hand menu pane.

Haben Sie Interesse daran, PowerShell mit Exchange 2003 in einer komplizierten Active Directory Umgebung erfolgreich im Einsatz zu bringen? Wie kann man die Rohdaten bearbeiten, mit dennen als graphische Charts mit PowerGadgets die wichtigsten Informationen darzustellen und die Verwaltung von Systeme zu verbessern?

Gehen sie dann auf edge.technet.com mehr darüber sich zu informieren. Zusätzliche Beiträge über dieses Thema stellen unter meinen haupt Webseite zur Verfügung (einfach auf Contributions am linken Seite anklicken).

Update (11 Aug 2008)
See also:  TechNet Edge Videos aus der Schweiz

Technorati tags: PowerShell, Exchange Server

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Using a hardware-based phone device such as Polycom or Microsoft’s own Tanjay with built-in Office Communicator 2007 client, you may be prevented from signing in even after you supplied valid credentials. The typical error message looks like this:

Your account is not configured to use this service. Please contact your system administrator.

To fix this, fire up the OCS 2007 mmc and drill down all the way to the Users container. Highlight, right mouse click on the OC-enabled user and choose Properties. On the Communications Tab, click on Configure and select the “Enable Enterprise Voice” radio button (default = “Enable PC-to-PC communications only”). In the Line URI field, enter a valid E.164 number in the form “tel:+41441234567″.

Do not forget that in order to enable this and other enterprise features (supported on Standard and Enterprise editions), the appropriate type and number of client access licenses must be separately procured.

See also:
OCS, why are you breaking my heart?

Technorati tags: LCS/OCS, OCS 2007, Unified Communications

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With Mac OS X version 10.4.9 (Tiger) and higher, you can deploy the updated 2.0 version of Remote Desktop Connection for Mac OS X for connecting to a Windows machine. The latter can be running Remote Desktop Services or Terminal Services on Windows XP, Vista, Windows Server 2003 to Windows Server 2008.

Read more and download at source.

Technorati tags: Windows Server 2008, Windows XP, Vista

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For an enterprise voice setup, you cannot directly integrate Cisco Call Manager 6.120 (CCM) and below with OCS 2007. This is because CCM does not have in-built support for the universal E.164 format used natively by OCS. Under the hood, the plus sign (+) represents a wild card character within CCM.

To work around this, you can look at one of the following options:
- at the PRI (TDM) layer, modify configuration settings to match the 2 platforms
- write your own application to normalize each vendor’s use of the + sign (look at the extensive Office Communications Server 2007 Server SDK)
- upgrade to Cisco Unified Communications Manager 7.x which supports the E.164 format internally

Technorati tags: LCS/OCS, Unified Communications, VoIP

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