Wednesday 29 October 2014

ASP Webinar Today at 1700 MST: Setting up ARR and URL ReWrite for One WAN IP

We've had a number of requests to do a Webinar specifically on how we get things set up for our Small Business Solution (SBS) whereby we only require one WAN IP address for all Internet facing services being published.

At 1700 MST please join me as I walk through a step-by-step of installing and configuring ARR and URL ReWrite.
  • Install ARR and URL ReWrite
  • Configure ARR settings in IIS
  • Configure ARR settings for EAS
  • IIS Sites and settings
  • SSL configuration
  • URL ReWrite rule configuration
  • ReWrite rule testing
By the time we are finished we will have a fully functional setup.

For this Webinar we will be using our three VM Azure based lab running a DC, Exchange 2013, and RDS.

Please do join us if you can and if not the event is being recorded and will be available to subscribers in the ASP Knowledgebase.

Philip Elder
Microsoft Cluster MVP
MPECS Inc.
Co-Author: SBS 2008 Blueprint Book

Chef de partie in the SMBKitchen ASP Project
Find out more at
Third Tier: Enterprise Solutions for Small Business

Thursday 23 October 2014

Azure VMs: A Series Versus D Series

We’ve been working with our Microsoft Partner Azure credit to see just how it all works as we have a client that needs a highly redundant, scalable, and global infrastructure setup.

Here is an A Series VM setup:

image

image

This is the setup for the D Series VM:

image

image

Cost wise the D series would be a bit more but the performance difference is noticeable.

When it comes to evaluating where to place client workloads one definitely needs to keep in mind what grade of VM to be utilizing.

Note that it looks as though one cannot mix A and D VMs in the same Cloud Services container. Please verify as to whether that is the case in your particular Azure Portal.

Philip Elder
Microsoft Cluster MVP
MPECS Inc.
Co-Author: SBS 2008 Blueprint Book

Chef de partie in the SMBKitchen ASP Project
Find out more at
Third Tier: Enterprise Solutions for Small Business

SMB Kitchen Content Posted: Exchange Migration Documentation, Cluster Quotes, and Proposal Template

I’ve published three very significant documents to the ASP SMBKitchen knowledgebase.

Exchange Migration Guide

The following is the product of many Exchange 2003 to Exchange 2013 migrations.

image

The guide walks through all of the necessary steps to migrate from Exchange 2003 and up to Exchange 2013. If migrating from v2003 then a two-step process would be required where we’d migrate to Exchange 2010 and then on to 2013.

We’ve done the two-step process on a number of occasions with small and large Public Folder stores without any real issues. It works quite well

Note that the primary focus of this guide is all of the PowerShell required to configure Exchange, work within the process, and recover from some specific errors that may happen. Everything is there as far as configuring Virtual Directories, the Service Connection Point (SCP), setting quotas, limits on send, and more.

On-Premises Proposal Document

The second document posted is an Excel spreadsheet that allows us to publish a proposal for an on-premises infrastructure deployment. It presents one number including a number for deposit to the end-user.

image

It includes two Intel Server Systems based configurations, which can be changed to Dell or other system, software licensing costs, and a labour section that allows for a detailed scope for us with a brief in the proposal itself.

1U Cluster Quote

The third document is a quote in Excel for the base Scale-Out File Server Cluster setup we would propose for an on-premises infrastructure setup.

It uses the above template with four Intel Server Systems R1208JP4OC 1U single socket servers configured for either the Scale-Out File Server cluster node or the Hyper-V cluster node. It uses a 10GbE backend for SMB traffic via two NETGEAR XS712T 12-Port 10GbE switches.

Philip Elder
Microsoft Cluster MVP
MPECS Inc.
Co-Author: SBS 2008 Blueprint Book

Chef de partie in the SMBKitchen ASP Project
Find out more at
Third Tier: Enterprise Solutions for Small Business

Monday 20 October 2014

How vCPUs Interact With Physical CPUs - Resources

Here are some excellent resources on how a hypervisor such as Hyper-V interacts with the CPU pipeline.

Essentially, having a bit of time while waiting for some things to complete I’ve done a bit of digging to figure out if the premise “All VM threads (vCPUs) must be processed in parallel” still applies to the CPU pipelines and architectures of today.

Check out the conversation I’ve been having with Brian Elhert on his blog with the videos as it seems that the premise no longer holds true.

There are other VM performance thoughts that we have had since day one that need to be tested or verified based on Brian’s responses.

In our experience the following can have an impact on a VM’s performance:

  • Assigning more vCPUs to a VM than physical cores (threads) available on one CPU
  • Assigning vCPU count to a VM as the number of physical cores (threads) on one CPU
  • Assigning enough vRAM to a VM to force its contents to be split between memory controllers

Hat Tip: @BrianEh (Brian Elhert)

Further reading on tuning Windows Server 2012 R2:

Philip Elder
Microsoft Cluster MVP
MPECS Inc.
Co-Author: SBS 2008 Blueprint Book

Chef de partie in the SMBKitchen ASP Project
Find out more at
Third Tier: Enterprise Solutions for Small Business

Thursday 16 October 2014

2 Node 1 JBOD Hyper-V Cluster Connectivity Guide

Okay, so just how do we wire up that cluster?

image

We connect two SAS cables from each HBA on each node to one expander on the JBOD.

image

We then connect two SAS cables from each HBA on each node to one expander on the JBOD. Note the left/right split between the cable sets to keep things simple and clean.

This gives us two redundant paths between the Hyper-V hosts if setting up an asymmetric cluster (2 nodes 1 JBOD) or redundant paths between SOFS nodes and the JBOD.

The following shows the setup for an Intel Server System R1208JP4OC 1U single socket server:

image

We always try to keep the cables plugged in identically on each node. So, in this case the bottom HBA is plugged into Expander 0 and the top HBA is plugged into Expander 1.

In a Scale-Out File Server cluster where we have three nodes and three JBODs we would be utilizing an LSI SAS HBA with 4 external ports (-16e). In that case we would cable up each node just as we did here between each JBOD giving us the left/right split.

Given the Intel JBOD2224S2DP’s three external ports per expander we would be limited to the three node setup unless we utilized our LSI SAS6160 SAS Switches to scale beyond three nodes and JBODs.

Philip Elder
Microsoft Cluster MVP
MPECS Inc.
Co-Author: SBS 2008 Blueprint Book

Chef de partie in the SMBKitchen ASP Project
Find out more at
Third Tier: Enterprise Solutions for Small Business

Wednesday 15 October 2014

ASP Author’s Chat Now

Sorry folks, been really busy!

We have an ASP Author’s Chat starting right now!

Philip Elder
Microsoft Cluster MVP
MPECS Inc.
Co-Author: SBS 2008 Blueprint Book

Chef de partie in the SMBKitchen ASP Project
Find out more at
Third Tier: Enterprise Solutions for Small Business

Tuesday 7 October 2014

What’s New in Windows v.Next

Here are some resources relative to what may be in the next version of Windows. Note that this list is by far nowhere near complete and rather feature focused.

One can download the Windows 10 TP RSAT here.

Here are some quick snips of Windows Server TP:

image

Okay, so we’ve gone back to a “traditional” Start Menu format.

image

The Start Menu right click options:

image

I’m not convinced. :(

There are a number of us out here that actually _did_ like the Metro style Start Menu.

From what we understand there is a way to toggle between this style and the Metro style but it has not become a priority to figure out yet as we are somewhat buried with projects at the moment.

Here is a PowerShell Get-WindowsFeature output:

Display Name                                            Name                       Install State
------------                                            ----                       -------------
[ ] Active Directory Certificate Services               AD-Certificate                 Available
    [ ] Certification Authority                         ADCS-Cert-Authority            Available
    [ ] Certificate Enrollment Policy Web Service       ADCS-Enroll-Web-Pol            Available
    [ ] Certificate Enrollment Web Service              ADCS-Enroll-Web-Svc            Available
    [ ] Certification Authority Web Enrollment          ADCS-Web-Enrollment            Available
    [ ] Network Device Enrollment Service               ADCS-Device-Enrollment         Available
    [ ] Online Responder                                ADCS-Online-Cert               Available
[X] Active Directory Domain Services                    AD-Domain-Services             Installed
[ ] Active Directory Federation Services                ADFS-Federation                Available
[ ] Active Directory Lightweight Directory Services     ADLDS                          Available
[ ] Active Directory Rights Management Services         ADRMS                          Available
    [ ] Active Directory Rights Management Server       ADRMS-Server                   Available
    [ ] Identity Federation Support                     ADRMS-Identity                 Available
[X] DHCP Server                                         DHCP                           Installed
[X] DNS Server                                          DNS                            Installed
[ ] Fax Server                                          Fax                            Available
[X] File and Storage Services                           FileAndStorage-Services        Installed
    [X] File and iSCSI Services                         File-Services                  Installed
        [X] File Server                                 FS-FileServer                  Installed
        [ ] BranchCache for Network Files               FS-BranchCache                 Available
        [ ] Data Deduplication                          FS-Data-Deduplication          Available
        [ ] DFS Namespaces                              FS-DFS-Namespace               Available
        [ ] DFS Replication                             FS-DFS-Replication             Available
        [ ] File Server Resource Manager                FS-Resource-Manager            Available
        [ ] File Server VSS Agent Service               FS-VSS-Agent                   Available
        [ ] iSCSI Target Server                         FS-iSCSITarget-Server          Available
        [ ] iSCSI Target Storage Provider (VDS and V... iSCSITarget-VSS-VDS            Available
        [ ] Server for NFS                              FS-NFS-Service                 Available
        [ ] Work Folders                                FS-SyncShareService            Available
    [X] Storage Services                                Storage-Services               Installed
[ ] Hyper-V                                             Hyper-V                        Available
[ ] MultiPoint Services                                 MultiPointServerRole           Available
[ ] Network Controller                                  NetworkController              Available

[ ] Network Policy and Access Services                  NPAS                           Available
[ ] Print and Document Services                         Print-Services                 Available
    [ ] Print Server                                    Print-Server                   Available
    [ ] Distributed Scan Server                         Print-Scan-Server              Available
    [ ] Internet Printing                               Print-Internet                 Available
    [ ] LPD Service                                     Print-LPD-Service              Available
[ ] Remote Access                                       RemoteAccess                   Available
    [ ] DirectAccess and VPN (RAS)                      DirectAccess-VPN               Available
    [ ] Routing                                         Routing                        Available
    [ ] Web Application Proxy                           Web-Application-Proxy          Available
[ ] Remote Desktop Services                             Remote-Desktop-Services        Available
    [ ] Remote Desktop Connection Broker                RDS-Connection-Broker          Available
    [ ] Remote Desktop Gateway                          RDS-Gateway                    Available
    [ ] Remote Desktop Licensing                        RDS-Licensing                  Available
    [ ] Remote Desktop Session Host                     RDS-RD-Server                  Available
    [ ] Remote Desktop Virtualization Host              RDS-Virtualization             Available
    [ ] Remote Desktop Web Access                       RDS-Web-Access                 Available
[ ] Volume Activation Services                          VolumeActivation               Available
[ ] Web Server (IIS)                                    Web-Server                     Available
    [ ] Web Server                                      Web-WebServer                  Available
        [ ] Common HTTP Features                        Web-Common-Http                Available
            [ ] Default Document                        Web-Default-Doc                Available
            [ ] Directory Browsing                      Web-Dir-Browsing               Available
            [ ] HTTP Errors                             Web-Http-Errors                Available
            [ ] Static Content                          Web-Static-Content             Available
            [ ] HTTP Redirection                        Web-Http-Redirect              Available
            [ ] WebDAV Publishing                       Web-DAV-Publishing             Available
        [ ] Health and Diagnostics                      Web-Health                     Available
            [ ] HTTP Logging                            Web-Http-Logging               Available
            [ ] Custom Logging                          Web-Custom-Logging             Available
            [ ] Logging Tools                           Web-Log-Libraries              Available
            [ ] ODBC Logging                            Web-ODBC-Logging               Available
            [ ] Request Monitor                         Web-Request-Monitor            Available
            [ ] Tracing                                 Web-Http-Tracing               Available
        [ ] Performance                                 Web-Performance                Available
            [ ] Static Content Compression              Web-Stat-Compression           Available
            [ ] Dynamic Content Compression             Web-Dyn-Compression            Available
        [ ] Security                                    Web-Security                   Available
            [ ] Request Filtering                       Web-Filtering                  Available
            [ ] Basic Authentication                    Web-Basic-Auth                 Available
            [ ] Centralized SSL Certificate Support     Web-CertProvider               Available
            [ ] Client Certificate Mapping Authentic... Web-Client-Auth                Available
            [ ] Digest Authentication                   Web-Digest-Auth                Available
            [ ] IIS Client Certificate Mapping Authe... Web-Cert-Auth                  Available
            [ ] IP and Domain Restrictions              Web-IP-Security                Available
            [ ] URL Authorization                       Web-Url-Auth                   Available
            [ ] Windows Authentication                  Web-Windows-Auth               Available
        [ ] Application Development                     Web-App-Dev                    Available
            [ ] .NET Extensibility 3.5                  Web-Net-Ext                    Available
            [ ] .NET Extensibility 4.5                  Web-Net-Ext45                  Available
            [ ] Application Initialization              Web-AppInit                    Available
            [ ] ASP                                     Web-ASP                        Available
            [ ] ASP.NET 3.5                             Web-Asp-Net                    Available
            [ ] ASP.NET 4.5                             Web-Asp-Net45                  Available
            [ ] CGI                                     Web-CGI                        Available
            [ ] ISAPI Extensions                        Web-ISAPI-Ext                  Available
            [ ] ISAPI Filters                           Web-ISAPI-Filter               Available
            [ ] Server Side Includes                    Web-Includes                   Available
            [ ] WebSocket Protocol                      Web-WebSockets                 Available
    [ ] FTP Server                                      Web-Ftp-Server                 Available
        [ ] FTP Service                                 Web-Ftp-Service                Available
        [ ] FTP Extensibility                           Web-Ftp-Ext                    Available
    [ ] Management Tools                                Web-Mgmt-Tools                 Available
        [ ] IIS Management Console                      Web-Mgmt-Console               Available
        [ ] IIS 6 Management Compatibility              Web-Mgmt-Compat                Available
            [ ] IIS 6 Metabase Compatibility            Web-Metabase                   Available
            [ ] IIS 6 Management Console                Web-Lgcy-Mgmt-Console          Available
            [ ] IIS 6 Scripting Tools                   Web-Lgcy-Scripting             Available
            [ ] IIS 6 WMI Compatibility                 Web-WMI                        Available
        [ ] IIS Management Scripts and Tools            Web-Scripting-Tools            Available
        [ ] Management Service                          Web-Mgmt-Service               Available
[ ] Windows Deployment Services                         WDS                            Available
    [ ] Deployment Server                               WDS-Deployment                 Available
    [ ] Transport Server                                WDS-Transport                  Available
[ ] Windows Server Essentials Experience                ServerEssentialsRole           Available
[ ] Windows Server Update Services                      UpdateServices                 Available
    [ ] WID Connectivity                                UpdateServices-WidDB           Available
    [ ] WSUS Services                                   UpdateServices-Services        Available
    [ ] SQL Server Connectivity                         UpdateServices-DB              Available
[ ] .NET Framework 3.5 Features                         NET-Framework-Features         Available
    [ ] .NET Framework 3.5 (includes .NET 2.0 and 3.0)  NET-Framework-Core               Removed
    [ ] HTTP Activation                                 NET-HTTP-Activation            Available
    [ ] Non-HTTP Activation                             NET-Non-HTTP-Activ             Available
[X] .NET Framework 4.5 Features                         NET-Framework-45-Fea...        Installed
    [X] .NET Framework 4.5                              NET-Framework-45-Core          Installed
    [ ] ASP.NET 4.5                                     NET-Framework-45-ASPNET        Available
    [X] WCF Services                                    NET-WCF-Services45             Installed
        [ ] HTTP Activation                             NET-WCF-HTTP-Activat...        Available
        [ ] Message Queuing (MSMQ) Activation           NET-WCF-MSMQ-Activat...        Available
        [ ] Named Pipe Activation                       NET-WCF-Pipe-Activat...        Available
        [ ] TCP Activation                              NET-WCF-TCP-Activati...        Available
        [X] TCP Port Sharing                            NET-WCF-TCP-PortShar...        Installed
[ ] Background Intelligent Transfer Service (BITS)      BITS                           Available
    [ ] IIS Server Extension                            BITS-IIS-Ext                   Available
    [ ] Compact Server                                  BITS-Compact-Server            Available
[ ] BitLocker Drive Encryption                          BitLocker                      Available
[ ] BitLocker Network Unlock                            BitLocker-NetworkUnlock        Available
[ ] BranchCache                                         BranchCache                    Available
[ ] Canary Network Diagnostics                          Canary-Network-Diagn...        Available
[ ] Client for NFS                                      NFS-Client                     Available
[ ] Data Center Bridging                                Data-Center-Bridging           Available
[ ] Direct Play                                         Direct-Play                    Available
[ ] Enhanced Storage                                    EnhancedStorage                Available
[ ] Failover Clustering                                 Failover-Clustering            Available
[X] Group Policy Management                             GPMC                           Installed
[ ] IIS Hostable Web Core                               Web-WHC                        Available
[ ] Ink and Handwriting Services                        InkAndHandwritingSer...        Available
[ ] Internet Printing Client                            Internet-Print-Client          Available
[ ] IP Address Management (IPAM) Server                 IPAM                           Available
[ ] iSNS Server service                                 ISNS                           Available
[ ] LPR Port Monitor                                    LPR-Port-Monitor               Available
[ ] Management OData IIS Extension                      ManagementOdata                Available
[ ] Media Foundation                                    Server-Media-Foundation        Available
[ ] Message Queuing                                     MSMQ                           Available
    [ ] Message Queuing Services                        MSMQ-Services                  Available
        [ ] Message Queuing Server                      MSMQ-Server                    Available
        [ ] Directory Service Integration               MSMQ-Directory                 Available
        [ ] HTTP Support                                MSMQ-HTTP-Support              Available
        [ ] Message Queuing Triggers                    MSMQ-Triggers                  Available
        [ ] Multicasting Support                        MSMQ-Multicasting              Available
        [ ] Routing Service                             MSMQ-Routing                   Available
    [ ] Message Queuing DCOM Proxy                      MSMQ-DCOM                      Available
[ ] Multipath I/O                                       Multipath-IO                   Available
[ ] MultiPoint Connector                                MultiPoint-Connector...        Available
[ ] Network Load Balancing                              NLB                            Available
[ ] Peer Name Resolution Protocol                       PNRP                           Available
[ ] Quality Windows Audio Video Experience              qWave                          Available
[ ] RAS Connection Manager Administration Kit (CMAK)    CMAK                           Available
[ ] Remote Assistance                                   Remote-Assistance              Available
[ ] Remote Differential Compression                     RDC                            Available
[X] Remote Server Administration Tools                  RSAT                           Installed
    [ ] Feature Administration Tools                    RSAT-Feature-Tools             Available
        [ ] SMTP Server Tools                           RSAT-SMTP                      Available
        [ ] BitLocker Drive Encryption Administratio... RSAT-Feature-Tools-B...        Available
            [ ] BitLocker Drive Encryption Tools        RSAT-Feature-Tools-B...        Available
            [ ] BitLocker Recovery Password Viewer      RSAT-Feature-Tools-B...        Available
        [ ] BITS Server Extensions Tools                RSAT-Bits-Server               Available
        [ ] Failover Clustering Tools                   RSAT-Clustering                Available
            [ ] Failover Cluster Management Tools       RSAT-Clustering-Mgmt           Available
            [ ] Failover Cluster Module for Windows ... RSAT-Clustering-Powe...        Available
            [ ] Failover Cluster Automation Server      RSAT-Clustering-Auto...        Available
            [ ] Failover Cluster Command Interface      RSAT-Clustering-CmdI...        Available
        [ ] IP Address Management (IPAM) Client         IPAM-Client-Feature            Available
        [ ] Network Load Balancing Tools                RSAT-NLB                       Available
        [ ] SNMP Tools                                  RSAT-SNMP                      Available
        [ ] WINS Server Tools                           RSAT-WINS                      Available
    [X] Role Administration Tools                       RSAT-Role-Tools                Installed
        [X] AD DS and AD LDS Tools                      RSAT-AD-Tools                  Installed
            [X] Active Directory module for Windows ... RSAT-AD-PowerShell             Installed
            [X] AD DS Tools                             RSAT-ADDS                      Installed
                [X] Active Directory Administrative ... RSAT-AD-AdminCenter            Installed
                [X] AD DS Snap-Ins and Command-Line ... RSAT-ADDS-Tools                Installed
            [ ] AD LDS Snap-Ins and Command-Line Tools  RSAT-ADLDS                     Available
        [ ] Hyper-V Management Tools                    RSAT-Hyper-V-Tools             Available
            [ ] Hyper-V GUI Management Tools            Hyper-V-Tools                  Available
            [ ] Hyper-V Module for Windows PowerShell   Hyper-V-PowerShell             Available
        [ ] Remote Desktop Services Tools               RSAT-RDS-Tools                 Available
            [ ] Remote Desktop Gateway Tools            RSAT-RDS-Gateway               Available
            [ ] Remote Desktop Licensing Diagnoser T... RSAT-RDS-Licensing-D...        Available
            [ ] Remote Desktop Licensing Tools          RDS-Licensing-UI               Available
        [ ] Windows Server Update Services Tools        UpdateServices-RSAT            Available
            [ ] API and PowerShell cmdlets              UpdateServices-API             Available
            [ ] User Interface Management Console       UpdateServices-UI              Available
        [ ] Active Directory Certificate Services Tools RSAT-ADCS                      Available
            [ ] Certification Authority Management T... RSAT-ADCS-Mgmt                 Available
            [ ] Online Responder Tools                  RSAT-Online-Responder          Available
        [ ] Active Directory Rights Management Servi... RSAT-ADRMS                     Available
        [X] DHCP Server Tools                           RSAT-DHCP                      Installed
        [X] DNS Server Tools                            RSAT-DNS-Server                Installed
        [ ] Fax Server Tools                            RSAT-Fax                       Available
        [ ] File Services Tools                         RSAT-File-Services             Available
            [ ] DFS Management Tools                    RSAT-DFS-Mgmt-Con              Available
            [ ] File Server Resource Manager Tools      RSAT-FSRM-Mgmt                 Available
            [ ] Services for Network File System Man... RSAT-NFS-Admin                 Available
            [ ] Share and Storage Management Tool       RSAT-CoreFile-Mgmt             Available
        [ ] Network Controller Management Tools         RSAT-NetworkController         Available
        [ ] Network Policy and Access Services Tools    RSAT-NPAS                      Available
        [ ] Print and Document Services Tools           RSAT-Print-Services            Available
        [ ] Remote Access Management Tools              RSAT-RemoteAccess              Available
            [ ] Remote Access GUI and Command-Line T... RSAT-RemoteAccess-Mgmt         Available
            [ ] Remote Access module for Windows Pow... RSAT-RemoteAccess-Po...        Available
        [ ] Volume Activation Tools                     RSAT-VA-Tools                  Available
        [ ] Windows Deployment Services Tools           WDS-AdminPack                  Available
[ ] RPC over HTTP Proxy                                 RPC-over-HTTP-Proxy            Available
[ ] Simple TCP/IP Services                              Simple-TCPIP                   Available
[X] SMB 1.0/CIFS File Sharing Support                   FS-SMB1                        Installed
[ ] SMB Bandwidth Limit                                 FS-SMBBW                       Available
[ ] SMTP Server                                         SMTP-Server                    Available
[ ] SNMP Service                                        SNMP-Service                   Available
    [ ] SNMP WMI Provider                               SNMP-WMI-Provider              Available
[ ] Soft Restart                                        Soft-Restart                   Available
[ ] Telnet Client                                       Telnet-Client                  Available
[ ] TFTP Client                                         TFTP-Client                    Available
[X] User Interfaces and Infrastructure                  User-Interfaces-Infra          Installed
    [X] Graphical Management Tools and Infrastructure   Server-Gui-Mgmt-Infra          Installed
    [ ] Desktop Experience                              Desktop-Experience             Available
    [X] Server Graphical Shell                          Server-Gui-Shell               Installed
[ ] Windows Biometric Framework                         Biometric-Framework            Available
[X] Windows Defender                                    Windows-Defender               Installed
    [ ] GUI for Windows Defender                        Windows-Defender-Gui           Available
[ ] Windows Internal Database                           Windows-Internal-Dat...        Available
[X] Windows PowerShell                                  PowerShellRoot                 Installed
    [X] Windows PowerShell 5.0                          PowerShell                     Installed
    [ ] Windows PowerShell 2.0 Engine                   PowerShell-V2                    Removed
    [ ] Windows PowerShell Desired State Configurati... DSC-Service                    Available
    [X] Windows PowerShell ISE                          PowerShell-ISE                 Installed
    [ ] Windows PowerShell Web Access                   WindowsPowerShellWeb...        Available
[ ] Windows Process Activation Service                  WAS                            Available
    [ ] Process Model                                   WAS-Process-Model              Available
    [ ] .NET Environment 3.5                            WAS-NET-Environment            Available
    [ ] Configuration APIs                              WAS-Config-APIs                Available
[ ] Windows Search Service                              Search-Service                 Available
[ ] Windows Server Backup                               Windows-Server-Backup          Available
[ ] Windows Server Migration Tools                      Migration                      Available
[ ] Windows Standards-Based Storage Management          WindowsStorageManage...        Available
[ ] Windows TIFF IFilter                                Windows-TIFF-IFilter           Available
[ ] Windows Volume Replication                          WVR                            Available
[ ] WinRM IIS Extension                                 WinRM-IIS-Ext                  Available
[ ] WINS Server                                         WINS                           Available
[ ] Wireless LAN Service                                Wireless-Networking            Available
[X] WoW64 Support                                       WoW64-Support                  Installed
[ ] XPS Viewer                                          XPS-Viewer                     Available

The addition of Windows Defender as a regular part of the install leaves us a bit of cause for pause. We generally do _not_ put A/V endpoint clients on servers since the endpoints actively working with the data are the weak links in the chain. Plus, we sanitize all incoming mail to further reduce attack vectors.

We shall see if we run into a situation where servers go offline after an update due to the A/V client eating its own. We’ve seen A/V vendors of all stripes go through this problem thus reaffirming our position.

There’s a lot to learn folks. No doubt. There are most certainly new bits within the various Roles and Features as mentioned in the initial and very incomplete bullet list.

This time around we are being buoyed up by a wave of enthusiasm and support from within Microsoft itself. So, ride the wave and get to know the OS our solution sets will be built on soon!

Oh, and one more thing. We are working with really early release bits. That means that everything above may be wiped out in a single stroke of the pen/keyboard. Just because it’s there now does not mean that it will be there in the next release bits we see or in RTM for that matter!

Philip Elder
Microsoft Cluster MVP
MPECS Inc.
Co-Author: SBS 2008 Blueprint Book

Chef de partie in the SMBKitchen ASP Project
Find out more at
Third Tier: Enterprise Solutions for Small Business

Monday 6 October 2014

Microsoft: Excitement Rekindled

Back in the day, heh ;) , I was privileged to work with the SBS team both prior and post MVP award.

Many of us in SBS Land can remember just how active the team was around SBS 2003 RTM/R2, SBS 2008 Standard/Premium, and finally SBS 2011 Standard.

By the latter product release much of the old guard had moved on but the new team and us SBS MVPs had a strong business relationship.

The key here is in the relationships and communication levels we were experiencing with the teams.

For must of us both within the MVP realms but also in the public that came to a full-stop when development of the then Windows Server 2012 pre-release cycle became better known.

We were all held in the dark. This situation continued with the 2012 R2 development cycle.

Silence. Dead Silence *insert sound of crickets here*

For those of us both within the MVP community and outside the MVP community that are truly passionate about the clients we serve, the products we work with, and just all-around geeking out about tech the silence was deafening and deadening.

Tie that into the seemingly endless “Death to the IT Pro” messages coming out of Microsoft over the last number of years and there were a lot of flames snuffed out these last two product release cycles.

Change for the Good

One thing is for certain: Something has changed at Microsoft.

While I most certainly cannot provide “insight” into Microsoft’s motivations for the recent change I can most certainly say that the change is welcome. Big Time!

We now have a public release of Windows vNext bits. We have forums to discuss these bits.

For many of us MVPs we have, and I can’t say “unprecedented” given previous experience, an amazing amount of information flowing from our product teams.

The conversations we’ve been having with the team(s) lately have been refreshing. Yes, they’ve been listening to us.

And, I’ll make no bones about it, I feel very excited about this upcoming product release like I had been with the then new versions of SBS Standard!

So, hat’s off to you in Microsoft whoever you are that allowed the floodgates of communication, shared tech passion, and business relationships to happen again!

And thanks to the Microsoft Teams that have been sharing your product excitement. It is refreshing and invigorating for us to experience and work with!

We both stand to benefit greatly from this “new” openness from Microsoft.

Oh, and Cluster is definitely key to our company’s future. ;)

Philip Elder
Microsoft Cluster MVP
MPECS Inc.
Co-Author: SBS 2008 Blueprint Book

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