WMUG

Monitoring SQL 2K5 in low privilege environments

Steve — Sun, 05 Oct 2008 22:58:00 GMT

If you're following good security practise and planning to limit SCOM access to monitored SQL server instances watch out for a gotcha in the SQL management pack documentation. The documentation states (page 14) that the agent action account used for monitoring SQL objects only requires DBO privilege, however after trying this and having difficulty getting some monitoring data I found that the agent action account actually needs sysadmin role privilege over the entire instance. If you just grant 'DBO' as per the guide you will find some monitoring doesn't work, e.g. SQL agent jobs, DB size etc.

After some testing and talking to MS they confirmed this behavior, but I'm not sure if they're going to update the guide. Bit surprised not to have seen more cases where people have run into this but a lot of sites will just leave Builtin/administrators in the Sysadmin role so perhaps not that many people have run into this yet.

Steve

Free version of Hyper-V released

scambler — Fri, 03 Oct 2008 09:31:00 GMT

No surprise here, after VMWare release ESXi for free download, you can now get a free version of Hyper-V - which one to use - decisions, decisions, decisions

http://www.microsoft.com/servers/hyper-v-server/default.mspx

http://www.microsoft.com/servers/hyper-v-server/how-to-get.mspx

Microsoft® Hyper-V™ Server 2008 is a stand-alone product that provides a simplified, reliable, cost-effective and optimised visualisation solution enabling organisations to improve server utilisation and reduce costs. It allows organisations to consolidate workloads onto a single physical server and is a good solution for organisations who want a basic and simplified visualisation solution for consolidating servers as well as for development and test environments. Low utilisation infrastructure workloads, departmental applications and simple branch office workloads are also candidates to virtualise using Hyper-V Server 2008.

Hyper-V Server 2008 is a cost-effective solution that is convenient because it plugs into existing IT infrastructures enabling companies to reduce costs, improve utilisation and provision new servers. It allows IT professionals to leverage existing patching, provisioning, management and support tools and processes. IT Professionals can continue to leverage their individual skills and the collective knowledge of Microsoft tools, minimising the learning curve to manage Microsoft Hyper-V Server 2008. In addition, with Microsoft providing comprehensive support for Microsoft applications and heterogeneous guest operating systems support, customers can virtualise with confidence and peace of mind.

What's that box i'm holding? - The Answer!

Rob — Thu, 02 Oct 2008 15:31:00 GMT

Well, only one person came back with the correct answer to what i'm holding in my profile picture ... Steve Thompson who guessed it was an SMS 1.0 retail box!

I was tempted to tear the plastic seal on the box and load it on to WinNT, but, the realisation that i'd probably stop laughing and getting warm goofy retro feelings within 10 minutes of loading WinNT has put me off, so it's still sealed and probably will be forever!

Congratulations Steve Thompson (profile) you're the proud owner of a few pens that flash when you click them!!! Very classy, and totally invaluable for true flashing pen mobility that easily slip in to any shirt pocket! Will put them in the post soon ... who's the SMS daddy!

I'll knock some more stuff up for laughs, and we'll do another competition but call it ... "can you guess what it is yet?"

Extending Schema for ConfigMgr and 'A Referral was returned from the server'

scambler — Thu, 02 Oct 2008 13:35:00 GMT

I know this has been covered on a number of sites, but I had not seen this error before.

I have always said that the best way to extend the schema was to use an LDIF file (LDAP Data Interchange Format)

I prefer it as 'you are in more control' of the schema extension, and can see what changes are going to be made.

The only down side is that you have to modify the LDIF file before hand. The file in question is ConfigMgr_ad_schema.ldf, the modifications in question are changing all instances of DC=x to specific entries for your domain, more precisely the full name of the domain to be extended. For example for domain.com you would change DC=x to DC=domain, DC=com.

So the process I follow is

Backup the schema master domain controller’s system state using the NTBACKUP utility.
Disconnect the schema master domain controller from the network.
Edit the ConfigMgr_ad_schema.ldf file, located in the \SMSSETUP\BIN\I386 directory of the Configuration Manager 2007 installation files, as show above.
Use the LDIFDE command-line utility to import the contents of the modified ConfigMgr_ad_schema.ldf file.

For example, this command line will import the schema extensions into Active Directory, turn on verbose logging, and create a log file during the import process:
ldifde –i –f ConfigMgr_ad_schema.ldf –v –j <location to store log file>.

Seems simple.....

However I had a phone call from a site today saying it had not worked, and they had received the following error 'A Referral was returned from the server', add error on line 56.

Line 56 is where it updates the MS-SMS-Management-Point class, I couldn't see anything wrong there - and then it hit me. Their domain was domain.co.uk, they had changed DC=x to DC=domain, DC=co.uk - not good, it needs to be DC=domain, DC=co, DC=uk

Missing Services in Windows Service MP Template

David Allen MVP — Thu, 02 Oct 2008 11:11:00 GMT

Using the Windows Service Management Pack Template in OpsMgr you will notice that not all your services are available for selection, this is because only services created with SERVICE_WIN32_OWN_PROCESS appear. If you wish to monitor services that were created with SERVICE_WIN32_SHARE_PROCESS you will need to create a unit monitor. What's the difference you may ask, well...

SERVICE_WIN32_OWN_PROCESS - A Win32-based service that runs in its own process

SERVICE_WIN32_SHARE_PROCESS - A Win32-based service that shares a process with other services

So bottom line is, if you have a service that shares it process with one or more other services you'll need to create your service monitors/rules etc manually.

I would presume this will be exactly the same for 64bit services but unfortunately I don't have a 64bit test rig to confirm this.

David.

MVP

David Allen MVP — Wed, 01 Oct 2008 19:07:00 GMT

Today I received the follwoing mail......

Dear David Allen,

Congratulations! We are pleased to present you with the 2009 Microsoft® MVP Award! This award is given to exceptional technical community leaders who actively share their high quality, real world expertise with others.

...

The Microsoft MVP Award provides us the unique opportunity to celebrate and honor your significant contributions and say "Thank you for your technical leadership."

Toby Richards
General Manager
Community Support Services

Thank you to everyone that helped me with this achievement :-)

David.

Randy Roffey braves a cold to demo Silect's MP Studio

Susan Smith — Wed, 01 Oct 2008 09:47:00 GMT

Randy did a great job on the Silect webinar yesterday, showcasing Silect's MP Studio whilst braving a cold. And he didn't even mention the 'flu' word once !

Silect excel in not just giving you the tools for the job but also providing the processes around your MP tuning activity.

MP Studio helps you to document your Management Pack Tuning and to handle the changes in a controlled manner. This is especially important if there's more than one OpsMgr administrator - allowing you to collaborate effectively. One of my favourite features is the Resultant set of alerts, where you can pre-stage your proposed changes against a subset of servers and you will see the exact impact of the changes if they were applied. This is particularly useful as part of a Change Control process so you can add this as proof that your proposed changes won't create an alert storm. Another cool feature is the bulk override - which will save you loads of time.

Find out more at http://www.silect.com/

Whats that box i'm holding?

Rob — Tue, 30 Sep 2008 10:09:00 GMT

I thought i'd raffle something, not sure what it is yet, but hey i've got some goodies and not letting on what!

So, first 5 people to ping me a private email with the answer win! You can email me by visiting this URL and then clicking on Send an Email

Now, the question: In my profile picture, what box am I holding? Visit here for my profile picture

No generalisations please! Correct answers not only identify the weight of the box (hehe only kidding) but the product and version ;-)

If you are outside the UK but want to email, by all means do I'd love to hear your guesses!

[ConfigMgr] Does ConfigMgr support SQL 2008?

Cliff — Fri, 26 Sep 2008 19:44:34 GMT

Yes it does but you'll need to apply a hotfix depending on which version of ConfigMgr you're running… [Go to article]

Russians smiling right back at ya via Google Maps

Rob — Thu, 25 Sep 2008 12:20:00 GMT

Check this out, that's so cool. I love seeing social events being organised so that they can get a picture taken from satellites in orbit!

(Brazen and Blatant lift from SlashDot)

"Citizens of the Russian town Chelyabinsk calculated when the satellite, QuickBird, which takes images for Google Earth and Google Maps, would cross above their city and used people to make a giant smiley face. A rock concert on the main square attracted many people and everyone got a yellow cape. It looks like someone at Google was quicker than usual to put up the new data. Maybe Google likes the idea of an entire town working hard to get its 15 minutes of fame. The article has a screenshot of Google Maps and images taken directly at the event."

I think we need a geek-fest organised at a Microsoft Campus in time for the Live Maps satellite to pass over and snap a picture or too ;-)

Office Communications Server 2007 Management Pack for Operations Manager 2007 Is Now Released !

GordoDaMom — Wed, 24 Sep 2008 20:32:00 GMT

I have to admit that personally this has been one of the most eagerly anticipated Management Pack releases for some time, not only because OCS is probably THE Hottest technologies coming out of Microsoft at the moment but also because the OCS team gained a couple of true Rock stars from the OpsMgr product teams some time ago in Management Pack specialist Peter Schmatz and Reporting legend Thomas Theiner, when I heard that these two guys had defected the first thing I asked them was "when are we going to see a new OCS MP", with these two guys behind it, this MP was always going to be a giant and these boys have not disappointed.

This is a brand new "native" MP, not a converted one from MOM 2005, which you may have expected from the first version and really does use lots of the new features in OpsMgr unlike many of the existing converted ones.

I questioned Thomas earlier this week on this milestone release.......

"What we did is take a working copy of the Wave 13 (OCS 2007 R2) MP and adapt it in our build tree for OCS 2007 RTM.

We got the starting of the type Infrastructures, the new views, way reduced noise, fixed bugs that nobody complained and found before, etc.

The Wave 13 MP will in some weeks contain some reports, will get synthetic transactions (ST) first for IM/Presence, Knowledge, Tasks, Health rollups based on the STs.

With the next generation MP this functionality will be extended to the entire product.

This is a Management Attack - targeted at getting one of the most complex products in Microsoft a breeze for Administrators to manage."

I have to say first impressions on the pack are extremely good, it has a slightly different, more streamlined look and feel in the monitoring pane, giving you a breakdown of each of the complex areas of the product, along with a very straightforward, no nonsense, alert and performance view rather than the normal deluge of State, diagram and dashboard type views.

Under the covers it does not disappoint either with a very accurate class structure and taking full advantage of many of the different monitor type's available in the product, and really does highlight just how seriously the OCS team is taking management of their very exciting and technology leading platform.

In my opinion this is a very credible first version and with much more promised with the R2 version including the all important reporting element (and as Thomas is the ex-reporting PM for MOM\OpsMgr you can bet these will be top draw), this is a good testament to Microsoft's and in particular Tom Mcleery's (head of the OpsMgr Management Pack team) committment to producing top quality Management Packs moving forward.

Test drive it now on your OCS 2007 implementation.....

http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyId=A1832431-54B7-4070-9B10-14EFB231FF0C&displaylang=en&displaylang=en

[WMUG] Wally Mead at WMUG – 30th October

Cliff — Wed, 24 Sep 2008 07:41:31 GMT

Mark the date in your diaries folks the next WMUG meeting will be on the 30th October where none other than Wally Mead will be presenting who has kindly agreed to stop off at our meeting on his way to Tech Ed.

We’re still still working on the finer details but Wally wants to know what YOU want to hear about so please can you either post your comments here or email me direct at cliff@wmug.co.uk

I’ll update this post with your feedback as I get it.

This is a GOLDEN opportunity for you to meet and hear from one of THE SMS/ ConfigMgr experts in the world so give us your thoughts.

Configuration Manager 2007 and DST\WOL issue

Rob — Tue, 23 Sep 2008 14:08:00 GMT

Configuration Manager 2007 RTM\SP1 has a wee bit of an issue dealing with GMT dates that are offset by DST. Essentially if you are in a DST timezone then the DST offset is not factored correctly, resulting in Wake On Lan (WOL) packets arriving at the destination machines one hour earlier than intended\expected.

There is a work-around, but it simply involves shifting the start time for the advertisement forwards one hour ahead of when you plan to deploy. Not an elegent work around, as all you are doing is moving this one hour window forwards.

If you've been struggling with this one for a while, then you're going to have to wade on until after DST finishes for your timezone, unless of course Microsoft releases a hotfix before the next scheduled service pack release ;-)

Here's a handy link to countries that are currently in DST, and when they revert back to normal. Once DST is behind us, problem is gone.

Got a tip for you ... once DST has finished, SERIOUSLY consider performing a Hardware Inventory on those clients that reside within the timezone that has just come out of DST (keep in mind if you're spanning multiple countries ...). If you have a 1 week HINV schedule then these clients will still be considered to be within DST, at least until their HINV is processed and the clients timezone information is updated in the site servers database. You should be able to guess why this speeds things up. Essentially, you could leave things alone and put up with the DST\WOL issue for a short time longer (depends on your HINV schedule frequency), it's just if you want to make sure your clients wake up in time once they come out of DST.

Microsoft's HPC Server 2008 RTM's with Lloyds TSB and Morgan Stanley participating in early feedback programs

Cliff — Mon, 22 Sep 2008 13:51:19 GMT

NEW YORK — Sept. 22, 2008 — Microsoft Corp. today announced it has released to manufacturing its newest server — Windows HPC Server 2008, giving Wall Street firms an easy-to-deploy, cost-effective and scalable high-performance computing (HPC) solution. Today’s event kicks off a series of global launch activities in the coming weeks to support the new product.

During a keynote address at the 2008 High Performance on Wall Street conference, Bill Laing, corporate vice president of Microsoft’s Windows Server and Solutions Division, discussed how financial services firms are increasingly turning to HPC resources to conduct real-time and intra-day risk analysis in response to the turbulent market environment.

“Companies have to be more efficient than ever with IT resources, but need to maintain their position in a competitive marketplace. They require HPC solutions that deploy quickly, integrate in a heterogeneous environment and scale from workstation to cluster,” Laing said. “The launch of Windows HPC Server 2008 is just another step in our vision to drive HPC mainstream.”

In his keynote speech, Laing also noted that the company’s HPC vision goes beyond traditional HPC workloads. Microsoft brings the value of an integrated HPC solution and a productive development environment to customers for whom high-performance computing has been out of reach in the past. By focusing on productivity for users, developers and administrators, Microsoft is positioned to take high-performance computing mainstream.

“IDC research shows that high-performance computing has been one of the highest-growth IT markets over the past five years,” said Earl Joseph, HPC program vice president at IDC. “Microsoft has made significant advancements in its products targeted for the HPC market, especially with the launch of Windows HPC Server 2008.”

Laing also talked about how Windows HPC Server 2008 gives developers the tools to use high-performance computing with the Microsoft products that businesses already own and use every day, including Office Excel and Office SharePoint Server, through a new service-oriented architecture (SOA) within HPC development.

Windows HPC Server 2008, the successor to Windows Compute Cluster Server 2003, is based on Windows Server 2008 and is designed to do the following:

Improve productivity of systems administration and cluster interoperability by dramatically simplifying the overall deployment, administration and management over the entire system lifetime while ensuring interoperability with existing systems infrastructure.
Rapid HPC application development through integration with Visual Studio 2008, which provides a comprehensive parallel programming environment. In addition to supporting standard interfaces such as OpenMP, multiprocessor interconnect (MPI) and Web services, Window HPC Server 2008 also supports third-party numerical library providers, performance optimizers, compilers and debugging toolkits.
Seamlessly scale from workstation to cluster by allowing end users to harness the power of distributed computing through a familiar Windows-based desktop environment without requiring specialized skills or training.

Greater Opportunities for Customers and Partners Close to 100 companies in various vertical industries, including Lloyds TSB Bank in financial services, participated in early evaluation and feedback programs during the development of Windows HPC Server 2008.

Morgan Stanley, a leading global financial services firm providing a wide range of investment banking, securities, investment management and wealth management services, has been working closely with Microsoft on the development of Windows HPC Server 2008.

“At Morgan Stanley, we create and develop models and systems designed to enhance our securities and investment banking businesses,” said Jay Dweck, global head of strategies and technology for the Institutional Securities Group (ISG) at Morgan Stanley. In this capacity, Dweck runs Morgan Stanley Innovative Data, Environments, Analytics & Systems (IDEAS). “We are closely evaluating Microsoft’s Windows HPC Server 2008 to provide Morgan Stanley with the ability to maintain our competitive edge.”

For partners, Windows HPC Server 2008 provides a broad platform for ISVs and an expanded playing field for OEMs to enable new innovations in high-performance computing. Microsoft is working with more than 60 partners, including Advanced Micro Devices Inc., Cray Inc., Dawning Technologies Inc., Dell Inc., HP, IBM Corp., Intel Corporation, transtec AG., Verari Systems Inc., Viglen Ltd. and VXTECH, to continue to drive high-performance computing farther into the mainstream.

“We believe that Windows HPC Server 2008 and IBM System x hardware will significantly expand the high-performance computing market,” said Dave Jursik, vice president of HPC Sales for IBM. “The combination of Microsoft’s proven software with IBM’s unique supercomputing tools and solutions gives clients industry-leading productivity and extreme, high-end performance.”

“Milliman is very proud to be the first actuarial system vendor to be integrated with Windows HPC Server 2008,” said Pat Renzi, MG-ALFA product manager at Milliman Inc. “Our recent integration continues our history of success in delivering the speed and capacity of high-performance computing from Microsoft. In addition, MG-ALFA is a highly scalable application that is extremely easy to implement and integrate into the IT infrastructure of our insurance company clients.”

Last week, Microsoft announced a new partnership with supercomputer leader Cray to introduce a new compact supercomputer, the Cray CX1. With prices starting at $25,000 (U.S. estimated retail price (ERP)), the CX1 running Windows HPC Server 2008 is easy to purchase, deploy, operate and upgrade. The solution will enable companies in various industries to unify their Windows-based desktop and server workflows.

Availability and Pricing

Windows HPC Server 2008 evaluation copies are now available for download at http://www.microsoft.com/hpc. Pricing for Windows HPC Server 2008 will be $475 (U.S. ERP) per node. More information is available at http://www.microsoft.com/hpc/howtobuy/pricing/default.mspx.

Founded in 1975, Microsoft (Nasdaq “MSFT”) is the worldwide leader in software, services and solutions that help people and businesses realize their full potential.

Event: UK Microsoft Messaging and Mobility user group meeting - 11th November 2008

Rob — Fri, 19 Sep 2008 14:52:00 GMT

News of an up and coming UK based messaging and mobility event:

November 2008 MMMUG Meeting:

This event will be held in London at the MSFT offices in Cardinal Place near Victoria.

This month we have a topical session led by Clive Watson, Brett Johnson and Julius Davies from Microsoft. We will be discussing the new support statements surround the issue of Virtualising your Exchange environment. Having understood which pieces of Exchange are now supported we will look at some of the key design issues facing those Virtualising Exchange.

The meeting will be held on Tuesday 11th November and starts at 18:30.

For more information and to sign up please see the link below:

Messaging and Mobility user group - http://www.mmmug.co.uk/forums/thread/23926.aspx

Configuring rules to run when you want them to...

David Allen MVP — Fri, 19 Sep 2008 10:22:00 GMT

Boris Yanushpolsky has just published a great article on how to configure rules to only run during times that meet your business needs. So if you're the normal 9-5 business and you only want your rules running between 9-5, then this guide will show how to achieve it in both XML and in the Authoring Console.

http://blogs.msdn.com/boris_yanushpolsky/archive/2008/09/19/configuring-rules-to-run-during-business-hours-only.aspx

It's a very clear article and well worth adding to your favourites :-)

Stanford: Free CS and Robotics courses

Rob — Thu, 18 Sep 2008 12:21:00 GMT

Copy\Paste from the relevent Stanford page:

Stanford University has launched a series of 10 free, online computer science (CS) and electrical engineering courses. The courses span an introduction to computer science and an introduction to artificial intelligence and robotics, among other topics.

Go here to read the full posting

More info on signing up here

Always wanted to do something with Robotics, other than busting a few moves when drunk ;-)

Takes your interest, go check it out!

Microsoft & Cray join at the technical hip to bring ... the CX1!

Rob — Wed, 17 Sep 2008 13:15:00 GMT

Straight from the Windows Server dvision technet blog:

Microsoft and Cray Team up to Bring High Performance Computing Mainstream

For the first time in the two companies history, Microsoft and Cray have teamed up to offer a powerful mix of what each company does best - - the Cray CX1! What is the CX1, you ask? It’s a compact supercomputer running Windows HPC Server 2008, that’s what.

Wow, who would have thought of that, a CRAY running a Windows OS! If ol' Seymour was still around, wonder how he'd handle this news? Wonder what he'd think about CRAY not currently having the fastest super-computers in the world (IBM currently?).

Who is Seymour Cray\CRAY? Don't know your nuts from your bolts when it comes to computing back-history? Wonder no more, follow this link to read about a once leading light, in the pursuit of faster super-computing. Talking of notable IT engineers, another worth checking out would be David Cutler, who is still above ground and working for ... Microsoft!

Do all IT roads eventually lead to Microsoft?

Star Wars: The Force Unleashed - In shops now!

Rob — Tue, 16 Sep 2008 14:12:00 GMT

Lifted straight off the Lucas Arts webby:

LucasArts Unleashes a New Chapter in the Star Wars® Saga With Star Wars®: The Force Unleashed™

SAN FRANCISCO, Calif. - Sept. 16, 2008 - Thirty-one years ago, the first Star Wars movie galvanized audiences around the word, sparking a phenomenon that has spanned generations. With today’s release of Star Wars: The Force Unleashed, one of the most highly anticipated video games of the year, LucasArts proves that the Force is stronger than ever.

http://www.lucasarts.com/company/release/news20080916.html

Can't wait to play this one on my Wii!!!!!!!

Review of the game on the Wii here, and general info on the game here

And yes, you guessed it, i'll play anything that has "Star Wars" in the title ;-)

Oh, and I should add the words "Configuration Manager" to the post, just to make it look like i'm focused on technology, sigh ...

Microsoft patent: State Migration Point explained

Rob — Mon, 15 Sep 2008 16:02:00 GMT

Stumbled in to this somehow

http://www.freepatentsonline.com/y2007/0113226.html

Automated state migration while deploying an operating system

United States Patent 20070113226 Kind Code:A1

Migration of a user state from a source computing device to a destination computing device using a state migration point (SMP) is disclosed. The destination computing device may be the same as the source computing device but with a different operating system. The user state is securely stored by the SMP until the user state is restored on the destination computing device or a predetermined period of time has elapsed. Additional SMPs can be added without an architectural change. SMPs can be used to simultaneously migrate the states of multiple users of the source computing device to multiple destination computing devices. The SMPs can be restricted to migrate only the user states of computing devices with particular IP subnets. The SMPs can retain user states for a period of time after restoration in order to provide a backup, if necessary.

Check it out, i've never steered in to a patent before, when searching for documentation etc ...

[WMUG] Many thanks for last night (11/09/08)…

Cliff — Fri, 12 Sep 2008 14:24:05 GMT

I just wanted to say a big thankyou to everyone that attended our latest meeting last night. A very impressive turn out with two fantastic speakers (both of whom I learnt a lot on from and I know I’m not alone).

Many thanks to all the folks at Microsoft without whose help this event would not have been possible.

Off to start planning the next event so stay tuned…

Cumulative update package 9 for SQL Server 2005 Service Pack 2

scambler — Fri, 12 Sep 2008 09:42:00 GMT

Microsoft SQL Server 2005 hotfixes are created for specific SQL Server service packs. You must apply a SQL Server 2005 Service Pack 2 hotfix to an installation of SQL Server 2005 Service Pack 2. By default, any hotfix that is provided in a SQL Server service pack is included in the next SQL Server service pack.

Cumulative Update 9 contains hotfixes for SQL Server 2005 issues that have been fixed since the release of Service Pack 2.

Note This build of the cumulative update package is also known as build 3282.

Microsoft recommend that you test hotfixes before you deploy them in a production environment. Because the builds are cumulative, each new fix release contains all the hotfixes and all the security fixes that were included with the previous SQL Server 2005 fix release. Microsoft recommend that you consider applying the most recent fix release that contains this hotfix. For more information, click the following article number to view the article in the Microsoft Knowledge Base:
937137 The SQL Server 2005 builds that were released after SQL Server 2005 Service Pack 2 was released

Important notes about the cumulative update package

SQL Server 2005 hotfixes are now Multilanguage. Therefore, there is only one cumulative hotfix package for all languages.
One cumulative hotfix package includes all the component packages. The cumulative update package updates only those components that are installed on the system.
You must enable the SQL Server Management Object (SMO) extended stored procedures and the SQL Server Distributed Management Object (SQL-DMO) extended stored procedures before you apply the cumulative update package. For more information about the SMO and DMO XPs option, see SQL Server 2005 Books Online.

Note SQL Server 2005 Books Online notes that the default setting of these stored procedures is 0 (off). However, this value is incorrect. By default, the setting is 1 (on).

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/953752/

[Misc] Take a moment to remember and think about…

Cliff — Thu, 11 Sep 2008 11:50:28 GMT

Of course today being September 11th is going to make a lot of people remember what happened on this date 7 years ago. Of course this was a terrible thing but let us also take a moment to remember ALL unnecessary loss of human life be it through terrorism, war, man made disaster whatever.

Also remember that in the majority of cases there are two “sides” affected, both of which will have endured suffering, a fact that often gets overlooked or forgotten.

Microsoft Windows Server 2008 Hyper-V Linux Integration Components RTM

David Allen MVP — Wed, 10 Sep 2008 18:02:00 GMT

The final build of the Hyper-V Linux Integration Components has been released today !! Yippee.

Follow the steps below to download:

1. Sign into the Microsoft® Connect (https://connect.microsoft.com)
2. Click on Connection Directory
3. Leave Categories as ALL and Sort By Connection Name (A-Z)
4. Scroll down to Linux Integration Components for Microsoft Hyper-V and add to your Connections

Enjoy.

Retro computing magazine scans Circa 80's

Rob — Wed, 10 Sep 2008 13:23:00 GMT

Retrogeek found a mother-lode of magazines recently, and decided to scan them in and prop up on his blog for us all to see!

Some of these scans pre-date my tinkerings with computers, some I just never saw, and others such as the Load Runner magazine and WH-Smiths brought back memories of a different era in computing!

Look at this for an answering machine!

Keep scanning and posting RetroGeek ... I love this stuff!