Archive for the ‘Technical’ Category

How to Configure DirectAccess for Windows 7 and Server 2008 R2

News, Technical | Posted by Tom Carpenter
Nov 06 2009

DirectAccess (which is properly spelled as one word and not two, such as Direct Access – even though Microsoft gets it wrong in their website meta tags – though possibly intentional) is one of the most touted new features in Windows 7. Sadly, it’s not really a Windows 7 feature alone. You must deploy Windows Server 2008 R2 in order to take advantage of the DirectAccess feature.

Microsoft has, however, provided a lab demo configuration document here:

http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?displaylang=en&FamilyID=8d47ed5f-d217-4d84-b698-f39360d82fac

You can use this document as a starting point to explore DirectAccess configuration processes even if you don’t have a Server 2008 R2 machine at this time. Now, for some really good news. If you just want to play with WIndows Server 2008 R2, get the evaluation VHD that works in Hyper-V here:

http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?familyid=9040A4BE-C3CF-44A5-9052-A70314452305&displaylang=en

Hopefully this information will help you get started with configuring DirectAccess. Remember, you must configure DirectAccess on the Server 2008 R2 server as well as the Windows 7 clients.

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Hyper-V: How to Upgrade from Hyper-V to Hyper-V R2

Technical | Posted by Tom Carpenter
Oct 20 2009

 

Microsoft has published an excellent overview of the upgrade process used to move from Hyper-V RTM to Hyper-V R2 (Hyper-V RTM is the final release of the original Hyper-V as opposed to the beta). You can find the Microsoft support document here:

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/957256

The key factors I noticed where that snapshots are not fully compatible between Hyper-V and Hyper-V R2 and saved states are completely incompatible. If you have saved states for virtual machines, you will need to power off those virtual machines before an in-place upgrade. Of course, the knowledge base article also covers that export/import method of upgrading and the backup/restore method.

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Hyper-V: How to Run Hyper-V on a Laptop

Technical | Posted by Tom Carpenter
Oct 20 2009

 

Running Hyper-V on a laptop computer provides several advantages. You can use it for testing, training and development. But how do you know if Hyper-V will run on your laptop?

Hyper-V has several requirements. Key among them are:

  • Windows Server 2008 Standard, Enterprise or Datacenter
  • Only 64-bit versions of Windows Server 2008 support it
  • Hardware assisted virtualization (Intel-VT or AMD-V)
  • Hardware DEP

 

The difficulty is in determining if your system meets these last two requirements. The Intel-VT and AMD-V hardware virtualization features are enabled or disabled in a computer’s BIOS. Vendors use different names to refer to the hardware virtualization support as well as hardware DEP. Here’s a great tool that will take the guesswork out of the process for you:

http://www.grc.com/securable.htm

Securable is a simple and free utility that reports on whether your system supports the key requirements of Hyper-V (64-bit, hardware DEP and hardware virtualization support). When you run it, you will see a screen similar to the following:

SecurAble showing no features for Hyper-V

If your screen shows 32 bits as the maximum length and no hardware DEP or virtualization, you cannot run Hyper-V. In fact, if just one of these three shows negative, you cannot run Hyper-V. Depending on the operating system, BIOS settings and the hardware, you may see messages that indicate that something is supported but not enabled. That’s not usually a problem – just turn it on in the BIOS.

When running Hyper-V on a laptop, I encourage you to have a laptop with at least 4 GB of RAM. With 4 GB of RAM you can potentially run to virtual machines at the same time. I am typing this blog on a laptop with 6 GB of RAM and it works great for Hyper-V testing and development – as well as training.

Hopefully, this will help get you started with Hyper-V on a laptop computer. Now days, a laptop isn’t so much different from a desktop – and that can be a really good thing for us IT geeks.

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What does it mean for a certification book to be “official”?

News, Professional Development, Technical | Posted by Tom Carpenter
Oct 01 2009

I’ve had dozens of people email me to ask what it means now that McGraw-Hill is no longer the publisher of the Official CWNP study guides (CWNA, CWSP, CWTS, etc.). I decided to answer this question in a blog post. This way I can just refer the new emails to the post. Here’s the basic benefit of being the official study guide:

  • The CWNP program picks who the author/authors will be. This is a benefit in that the reader can be sure the CWNP program believes in the author.
  • The book gets to be listed as the official book.

 

No special insights into the exam are provided to the authors of the official book beyond that available to anyone, so no real benefit exists for the reader from the perspective of the "official" label. Giving special insight would be unethical (since the author would always claim to have passed the exam and yet he or she would have been exposed to special information about that exam) and the CWNP program is anything but unethical. In other words, the authors of the official book have no more insight into the exam than the authors of any other book. Anyone who writes a book for the exams – official or not – has access to the same resources:

  • Official classes
  • Objectives
  • CWNP.com

 

That’s really it. Now as far as picking the authors goes. The CWNP program picked me for Wireless#, the first book outsourced to be completely authored by a non-CWNP program employee. They picked myself and two co-authors for the CWSP study guide 2nd edition. They then picked me for the 4th Edition of the official CWNA study guide. They also hand-picked Joel Barrett to help guide the series at that time. Joel is an amazing engineer working with Cisco in wireless implementations on a very large scale. I am a consultant and trainer who implements an average of 4 to 5 wireless LANs each year. I teach from 5-6 week long custom CWNA/CWSP classes each year and I am continually researching the newest in wireless technologies. The point is that they would have picked me to write the official books again if I were available. In fact, I was offered the opportunity to write the official CWTS book for Sybex, but could not due to contractual obligations.

Due to their contractual issues with the CWNP program and nothing at all related to the content or writing style, McGraw-Hill lost the official label to Sybex. Sybex is also a great publisher (I write for them as well on non-overlapping topics) and the authors of the official study guides know their stuff well. Their new official CWNA book is exceptional and I expect their CWSP book will be as well.

I am in the process of writing a CWNA/CWSP All-in-One Guide book for McGraw-Hill that will be amazing because of the books format and intent. It will be a study guide, yes, but it will also be a very practical implementation resource. You will be receiving step-by-step instructions for implementing real hardware. I’m very excited about it. In addition, my CWTS book for McGraw-Hill is done and should hit the shelves in the next four weeks.

I hope this clears up any confusion and let me end by saying this: I work with both McGraw-Hill and Sybex and they are both great companies. I know David Coleman, one of the official authors now, and he is an awesome trainer with excellent knowledge. Finally, I absolutely love the CWNP program and the vendor neutral certifications they offer. Any rumors out there which cast a negative light on any of these three companies (McGraw-Hill, Sybex or Planet3/CWNP) will hopefully cease. Sometimes things don’t work out between companies, but I’m thankful that multiple products exist and the user community gets an excellent set of resources.

Happy modulation!

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Windows 7 FTP Server

Technical | Posted by Tom Carpenter
Aug 21 2009

Can Windows 7 act as an FTP server without any third-party utilities? You bet it can. It’s actually part of the Internet Information Services feature that can be installed after the normal Windows 7 installation is complete.

If you select Programs and Features in the Control Panel, you can then click the link that reads, "Turn Windows features on or off." At this point, you can expand the Internet Information Services node and then expand FTP Server and check FTP Service. You should then expand the Web management tools node and check IIS Management console. Click OK and wait for the service to be installed. You’ll be told that it might take several minutes, but on a decent computer, it should be done in less than one.

Once the Windows 7 ftp service is installed, you should be able to access the IIS management console in the Administrative Tools folder. Now you can configure the FTP service to your liking.

This service depends on Authorization rules. You can enable anonymous users or enforce authorization based on users or groups.

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SQL Server 2008 Book – DBA’s Guide to SQL Server 2008

News, Technical | Posted by Tom Carpenter
Jul 27 2009

 

My new book, the DBA’s Guide to SQL Server 2008 is well under way. The SQL Server 2008 book should be available early next year (2010) and it will include coverage of SQL Server 2008 R2. The book is focused on helping DBA’s effectively implement and support SQL Server 2008 servers and databases. Unlike many books on the market, it does not attempt to be all things to all people. It is not a book for programmers. It is a book for DBA’s and network admins who must support SQL Servers. If you would like to see coverage of specific topics, feel free to comment here and I’ll make sure as many are included as possible; however, I can only include topics provided to me by the end of September.

Back to writing!

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VMware and Windows Update Error number: 0xC80003FB

Technical | Posted by Tom Carpenter
Jun 08 2009

If you receive Error number: 0xC80003FB when trying to use Windows Update or Microsoft Update from within VMware Workstation 6.5 (and possibly other versions of VMware), here is a quick fix:

To force Windows Update or Microsoft Update to work in VMware Workstation 6.5, perform the following steps in the Windows VM:

  1. Launch a command prompt
  2. Execute the following commands:
    1. net stop wuauserv
    2. regsvr32 c:\windows\system32\wups2.dll
    3. net start wuauserv
  3. Exit the command prompt
  4. Run Windows Update or Microsoft Update again

NOTE: These commands assume Windows is installed to C:\Windows.

This is not a fix all. Normal Windows Update problems may still occur. This is a specific fix for running XP, Server 2003 or Server 2003 R2 in VMware Workstation 6.5.

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System Center Online Desktop Manager and Your Security

IT Theory, Technical | Posted by Tom Carpenter
May 03 2009

Microsoft, this last Wednesday, revealed a new service called System Center Online Desktop Manager (SCODM). In case you don’t know, they have provided a product for years that provides the same functionality, but must be installed within a company’s network. SCODM is provided as an online service and it allows companies to centrally manage the configuration set of their desktops. Organizations can control what software may be installed on the machines and how the web browser must be configured – as just a couple of examples.

Here’s the problem: How do we deal with HIPAA (Health Insurance Portability and Privacy Act), which places the responsibility on the organization to ensure they are in compliance? And HIPAA is just one concern; we must additionally be concerned about PCI-DSS (a payment card processing guideline) compliance and other more niche regulations as well. Will Microsoft reveal how they are communicating with the machine and the machine with SCODM so that we can be sure we are in compliance? I’m not sure, but these things must be considered.

The service may be beneficial to small and medium-sized businesses, but large organizations will likely choke on the thought of losing control. I think it was stated well by Jake Muszynski, an analyst at Nationwide Children’s Hospital in Columbus, when he said, “I don’t know that I want to store data about my machines and their vulnerabilities in the cloud.”

Is this just an issue for techies? Well, sort of. It also acts as a reminder for any business owner. Is your data secured? Have you thought about it lately? And this brings me to an important tip: watch what you blog and tweet about. You can reveal sensitive information that will make it easier to penetrate your network. This is the very issue of concern to Mr. Muszynski; he did not want information about his system configurations floating around in the cloud.

I teach computer security classes and one course I teach is on the topic of ethical hacking. Now, for those uninitiated, ethical hacking is the process of discovering vulnerabilities in networks and systems with permission. Of course, unethical hacking is doing the same without the permission. In these courses, one of the methods that students learn about is information gathering. One of the primary tools we use for information gathering is blogs and tweets by company employees. For example, imagine a company employee has the following set of tweets:

  • Upgrading my computer to Windows Vista
  • Planned to install service pack 1, but ran out of time… will finish tomorrow

Now, this is a very simple example, but I now know that a Vista machine without the most recent updates may be on the network. I’ve seen far worse blogs and tweets, but I won’t post them here because you can still search and find them through Google and other engines. The point is simple; Microsoft has reminded us about the dangers of online content by announcing a new online service. The service may be valuable to many small and medium-sized businesses, but – regardless of size – we must be very careful about the content we place online through managed services and even social networks. I love social networking, but we must use caution when creating content.

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What is Hyper-V Server 2008?

Technical | Posted by Tom Carpenter
Apr 28 2009

Hyper-V Server 2008 is not the same thing as Windows Server 2008 running Hyper-V. It’s important that you understand the distinction between these two when selecting the best solution for your deployments.

Hyper-V can be deployed in two basic ways: as an add-on to Windows Server 2008 or as a stand-alone product. Hyper-V Server 2008 is a stand-alone product that only provides virtualization. There is not support for extra services such as DHCP, DNS or Internet Information Servers. Now, don’t misunderstand me; you can install virtual machines that provide all of these services, but the services do not run "on the Windows Server" in the same way that you may be used to. Of course, and most don’t realize this, even with Hyper-V running on Windows Server 2008, your extra services are running in a virtual machine, Microsoft just likes to call it the "parent partition".

Hyper-V Server 2008 is completely, totally and without exception free; however, you still have to pay for the licenses to run the needed OS within each virtual machine. If you want to play with Hyper-V as a Linux server virtual host, you can built everything without a single license fee. Hyper-V "running on" Windows Server 2008 requires that you first purchase Windows Server 2008 licenses. Here’s a great tool that Microsoft has released to help you calculate the cost of implementing Windows Server 2008 running Hyper-V (NOTE: This tool does not provide support for cost calculations related to Hyper-V Server 2008): http://www.microsoft.com/windowsserver2003/howtobuy/licensing/calculator.mspx

In summary, just one more time, two basic products exist: Hyper-V Server 2008 (free) and Windows Server 2008 "running Hyper-V" (not free no matter how you slice it because you have to buy Windows Server). And there you have it.

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Tom Carpenter’s VMware and Hyper-V Comparison for Small Businesses

Technical | Posted by Tom Carpenter
Apr 14 2009

When I prepared the LearnKey virtualization course, I had to look very deep into VMware. In the process, two things became clear: the enterprise-class features of VMware are amazing and Hyper-V is better than I thought it was. Don’t get me wrong. I really liked Hyper-V before, but after mastering the VMware solutions, which I had only implemented in smaller organizations before this time, it became clear that Hyper-V is positioned to be a strong competitor.

You’ll read a lot of articles and blogs stating that Hyper-V is not really free and they are right when referencing the version that comes with Windows Server 2008; however, they don’t bother to point out that even though you have to buy Windows Server 2008, it is still frequently cheaper than VMware ESX 3.5. Additionally, the Windows Server 2008 installation that runs Hyper-V can also run many other things. It can act as a native SQL Server, Exchange server, DNS server, DHCP server, remote access server, VPN endpoint, router, Terminal Services server, and more. It can do all this, if sufficiently powerful, while still running two or more virtual servers in addition to the parent partition (the original install of Windows Server 2008 before enabling Hyper-V). For a true VMware versus Hyper-V comparison, this fact must be considered.
 
Can any current commercial deployment of VMware do this other than VMWare workstation? The answer is no, at least not without hacking the service console. Yes, you can run all of these services in virtual machines, but this is not the same thing. The parent partition runs faster than the other VMs – at least in my tests.
 
In my tests, running a Windows Server 2008 server with native DNS, DHCP and file and print in the parent partition while running a virtual server for SQL Server 2005 Standard Edition and another virtual server for Exchange Server 2003 Standard Edition outperformed ESX 3.5 on the exact same hardware using three virtual machines (one for the DNS, DHCP and file and print and two others for SQL Server and Exchange Server respectively). Why? Because the infrastructure services – DNS and DHCP – and the file and print services are in the parent partition without the massive bloat of a full extra virtual machine or an increased hypervisor size (VMware’s hypervisor is about 32 megabytes while Hyper-V’s is about 260-270 kilobytes).
 
Now, I know someone is going to say, “Wait a minute Tom. You need to compare apples to apples.” I believe I am. My VMware and Hyper-V comparison is based on the following premise: VMware ESX 3.5 cannot run extra services in the management partition while Windows Server 2008 Hyper-V can. To me, this is a huge comparison point. I work with many small businesses that need to do exactly that. For the cost, I can give them a Windows Server 2008 Hyper-V deployment for about half the license fee of a VMware deployment at the same performance level.
 
In large enterprises, I won’t even begin to compare the two. VMware’s SAN, failover and centralized management features (even though they require a Window machine to operate) are way ahead of what Microsoft is doing with Hyper-v (though this may change with Hyper-V R2). In small businesses, I really see Hyper-V as the winner. Of course, there is always the exception: the small business that wants a free solution with absolutely no centralized management. In that case, VMware ESXi wins hands down in my book. Of course, this VMware and Hyper-V comparison is based on the available solutions now. We’ll have to see how Hyper-V Server 2008 R2 stacks up. Most people don’t even know about this completely free standalone version of Hyper-V server.
 
The truth: only time will tell. Can Microsoft beat VMware at their own game? Not in the next few years, but we’ll see about the next decade. Microsoft is, in my opinion, losing ground in a lot of areas; however, I see big progress in two arenas: database servers and virtualization. I’ll keep watching.

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