Network Administration & Consulting Services

Windows Server 2008 Documentation Essentials

These links will help you get started with Windows Server 2008.

Learn

• Windows Server 2008 product information: http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkId=90853
• Windows Server 2008 TechCenter: http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkID=86041

Evaluate

• Changes in Functionality from Windows Server 2003 with SP1 to Windows Server 2008: http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkID=90854
• Windows Server 2008 TechNet Virtual Labs: http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkId=90855
• Windows Server 2008 Step-by-Step Guides: http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkID=90856

Troubleshoot

• Windows Server 2008 Troubleshooting: http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkId=90857
• TechNet Troubleshooting and Support: http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkId=90728

Connect with Windows Server 2008 Community

• Windows Server 2008 Forums: http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkId=90920
• Windows Server 2008 Podcasts: http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkId=90919
• Windows Server 2008 Chats: http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkId=90918

Windows Server 2008 Technical Library

Need to learn more about what’s new for key Windows Server 2008 technologies and where to get additional information? These links to the Windows Server 2008 Technical Library will provide you with introductory and technical overviews and other resources.

• Active Directory Certificate Services: http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkID=48545
• Active Directory Domain Services: http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkId=48547
• Active Directory Federation Services: http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkId=48542
• Active Directory Rights Management Services: http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkId=48554
• Application Server: http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkId=48544
• Availability and Scalability: http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkId=90922
• DNS Server: http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkId=48548
• File Services: http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkId=48550
• Group Policy: http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkId=90923
• Network Policy and Access Services: http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkId=48552
• Performance and Reliability: http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkId=90924
• Print Services: http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkId=48553
• Security and Protection: http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkId=90925
• Server Manager: http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkId=48541
• Streaming Media Services: http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkId=48551
• Terminal Services: http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?linkid=48555
• Web Server: http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkId=48558
• Windows Deployment Services: http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkId=48559

As you probably already know, VMware ESX is an enterprise grade virtualization product by VMware. Unlike VMware Server, VMware ESX does not require an underlying operating system to be loaded first. What this means is that you get the highest virtualization performance that is possible when using VMware ESX Server.

So what is VMware Infrastructure (VI)? VI, is really just a product suite. Keep that in mind. There is really no application called "VMware Infrastructure". VI is a bundle of VMware products...

Since I've published article "PXE, aka Pre-Execution Environment - Part 1" I've got a lot of emails with the same question - 'Where is a Part 2?". So, here it is.

I know many Network Administrators who work with Acronis products and i also sometime work with those good products. This week i did a project for one of my clients in Seattle, WA. The main idea was to deploy an Acronis image on new servers and configure those servers according to system requirements. So, again, those servers came without floppy drive and CD/DVD :) and as all of you know, to restore Acronis image on a new machine we have to use Bootable Rescue Media, aka Bootable CD with Acronis on it. Yes, I know, that Acronis provides a products with PXE integrated, but i don't have it :) and I've used my own PXE server.

The first step I did was create Bootable Rescue Media. Then I took 2 files, kernel.dat and ramdisk.dat  from Acronis's directory and put them into C:\PXEServer\TFTPRoot\Boot directory. Well, now was the time to make a small changes to our "default" file (default file located in C:\PXEServer\TFTPRoot\Boot\pxelinux.cfg\ directory). After all those changes my "default" file now looks as follow:

The next steps were pretty simple ;), Boot, Select Acronis from the menu, Select Image for recovery and.....

Thanks to time PXE saved me I was able to spend some time in very beautiful city Seattle.


Relaited Articles
PXE, aka Pre-Execution Environment - Part 1

The Exchange Server documentation team is pleased to announce the following Exchange Server 2007 content.

• Service Pack 1 Highlights
• Common Criteria

You can see these articles and other Exchange Server documentation content in the Microsoft Exchange Server TechCenter.

To see what content has changed for Exchange Server 2007 with Service Pack 1, take a look at What's New in Exchange Server 2007 SP1.

The following downloads are also now available for SP1 content:

• Microsoft Exchange Server 2007 Service Pack 1 Help
• Microsoft Exchange Server 2007 Service Pack 1 Shell Help

During normal operation or in Safe mode, your computer may play "Fur Elise" or "It's a Small, Small World" seemingly at random. This is an indication sent to the PC speaker from the computer's BIOS that the CPU fan is failing or has failed, or that the power supply voltages have drifted out of tolerance. This is a design feature of a detection circuit and system BIOSes developed by Award/Unicore from 1997 on. 

Source: Microsoft 

Critical Security Bulletins

• DirectX 7.0 - 10 including Vista

• Impact: Remote Code Execution

• Windows Media Format Runtime 7.1 - 11 (including Vista)

• Internet Explorer 5.01 - 7.0 including Vista

• Impact: Remote Code Execution

Important Security Bulletins

• Windows Vista

• Windows Vista x64 Edition

• Microsoft Windows 2000 Service Pack 4
• Windows XP Service Pack 2
  

• Windows Vista
• Windows Vista x64 Edition
  

• Windows XP Service Pack 2, Windows Server 2003 Service Pack 2 (also x64)

Impact: Local Elevation of Privileg

Source: www.microsoft.com

5 new technical briefs available on the Windows Home Server web site. They are:

• Remote Access
• Media Sharing
• Drive Extender
• Home Computer Backup
• Home Networking

Today, one of my friends asked me how to get SP3 RC1 for Windows XP. Many of you know that this release available for Beta Testers, but Friend of mine is NOT beta tester. So, you can use a Hack that will allow you to download Windows XP SP3 RC1 directly from Microsoft. Windows XP SP3 will be the final service pack for really good Operating System from Microsoft. SP3 will bring a lot of bug fixes and some new features from Vista. Well, if you can't wait for official release, create a .bat file, let say xpsp3rc1.bat. Copy & Past to xpsp3rc1.bat  following commands:

Get hands-on experience with Server and Domain Isolation, and learn how this cost-effective end-point authentication solution can help you reduce the risk of network-based threats and safeguard sensitive data.

Few month ago I published an article "PXE, aka Pre-Execution Environment - Part 1". In this article, I talked about a problem to use boot disk which created at Windows XP for PXE boot. I'd like to say thanks to Michael Bridge. He found a way to make the Windows XP floppy image of the netbootdisk work.

Under \\pxelinux.cfg\default

append initrd=.IMA raw

(add "raw" after the image name)

According to this http://syslinux.zytor.com/memdisk.php it allows access to protected mode memory. Michael Bridge, told me that he managed to get the solution on this web site:
http://syslinux.zytor.com/archives/2007-July/008918.html 

There is a great post about how to create "split VHDs" (a VHD that is broken into multiple files on the physical computer) with arbitrary sizes here:

http://www.wirwar.com/blog/2007/10/26/splitting-a-virtual-pc-vhd/

NOTE: Be warned though - only Virtual PC supports split VHDs (Virtual Server does not). 

When you have Virtual Machine Additions installed on Virtual PC we will automatically synchronize the virtual machines time with that of the host operating system.  For most people this is a "good thing" - but if this is something you want to disable you need to:

1. Stop the virtual machine in question.
2. Locate the .VMC file for the virtual machine.
3. Open the .VMC file in notepad.
   
   You can use a different editor - but notepad is the safest as it is guaranteed to not change our file format to something that is incompatible with Virtual PC (which other editors have been known to do).
   
   
4. Find the section of the .VMC file that looks like this:
   

   <integration>
       <microsoft>         
   
           <mouse>         
   
               <allow type="boolean">true</allow>         
   
           </mouse>         
   
           
   
   Bunch of other stuff that I am skipping over to save space...         
   
           
   
       </microsoft>         
   
   </integration>
   

5. Change it to look like this:
   

   <integration>          
   
       <microsoft>           
   
           <mouse>           
   
               <allow type="boolean">true</allow>           
   
           </mouse>           
   
           <components>           
   
               <host_time_sync>           
   
                   <enabled type="boolean">false</enabled>           
   
               </host_time_sync>           
   
           </components>           
   
   
   Bunch of other stuff that I am skipping over to save space...           
   
   
   
       </microsoft>           
   
   </integration>   

6. Close notepad and save the .VMC file.
7. Start the virtual machine under Virtual PC.

Note that this will not only disable the time synchronization that happens while the virtual machine is running - it will also disable the time synchronization that occurs when you start the virtual machine.  This means that unless you are using some other method for time synchronization (network server, etc...) time inside the guest operating system will become very incorrect very quickly.

Microsoft Exchange Server 2007 Service Pack 1 (SP1) has been designed specifically to help meet the challenges of any business and the needs of all the different groups with a stake in the messaging system. Exchange Server 2007 SP1 is a mission-critical communications tool that enables employees to be more productive and access their information anywhere and anytime while providing a messaging system that enables rich, efficient access to e-mail, calendar items, voice mail, and contacts. For the administrator, Exchange Server 2007 SP1 provides advanced protection options against e-mail security threats, such as spam and viruses, as well as the tools to help manage internal compliance and high availability needs.

In Exchange Server 2007 SP1, several new features and improvements will extend the Anywhere Access capabilities of Exchange Server 2007 to help make employees more productive on whatever device they’re using, provide additional Operational Efficiency tools for administrators seeking a streamlined management and deployment experience, and enable advanced Built-in Protection for more robust high availability and compliance scenarios.

Improvements in Exchange Server 2007 SP1 include:
Anywhere Access
• Integrated Exchange Unified Messaging functionality with Microsoft Office Communicator 2007 and Microsoft Office Communications Server 2007.
• Outlook Web Access additions, including public folder access, S/MIME support, personal distribution lists, and mailbox rules editor.
• Webready document viewer supports Microsoft Office 2007 documents in addition to Microsoft Office 2003 documents.
• Extended language support in Outlook Web Access with Arabic and Korean spell checking.
Operational Efficiency
• Support for Windows Server 2008 deployments, including benefits in flexible clustering, native virtualization, advanced networking, and simplified management.
• Additional tools in the Exchange Management Console, including public folder management and configuration options for clustering and POP/IMAP access.
• Improvements to the Exchange Management Shell syntax and import-export PST in the move-mailbox command.
• Wider variety of web services for application development, including public folder access, delegate management, and folder level permissions.
Built-in Protection
• Addition of Standby Continuous Replication (SCR) for site resilient high availability deployments.
• Extended Exchange ActiveSync policies for mobile policy enforcement.
• Information rights management pre-licensing by the Hub Transport role.
• Secure Real Time Protocol (SRTP) support in the Unified Messaging role.
• Support for IPv6 when using Windows Server 2008.

Microsoft acquired DesktopStandard and obtained GPOVault and most of the PolicyMaker family.  GPOVault has been updated and released as Advanced Group Policy Management (AGPM), part of the Microsoft Desktop Optimization Pack for Software Assurance (MDOP).  PolicyMaker Standard Edition and PolicyMaker Share Manager will be available to Microsoft customers in two ways as "Group Policy Preferences" and will be integrated into the Group Policy Management Console (GPMC) in:

• Windows Server 2008 (starting with November CTP)
• Remote Server Administration Tools (RSAT) for Windows Vista SP1

Windows Server 2008 includes the new Group Policy Preferences built-in to the Group Policy Management Console (GPMC). Additionally, administrators can configure preferences by installing the Remote Server Administration Tools (RSAT) on a computer running Windows Vista Service Pack 1 (SP1).

"Group Policy Preferences" extend more than 20 Group Policy categories within a Group Policy Object (GPO) and enable IT professionals to configure, deploy, and manage operating system and application settings including mapped drives, scheduled tasks, power options, files and/or folders, printers, folder options and Start menu settings for Windows Server 2008, Windows Vista, Windows Server 2003, and Windows XP systems.

"Group Policy Preferences" do not require you to install any services or components onto your servers.  Windows Server 2008 includes Group Policy Preferences by default as part of the Group Policy Management Console (GPMC).  Administrators will also be able to configure and deploy Group Policy preferences in a Windows Server 2003 environment by installing the Remote Server Administration Tools (RSAT) on a computer running Windows Vista with SP1.  Both RSAT and Windows Vista SP1 will be available in the first quarter of 2008.

Although you don’t have to install any services to create GPOs (Group Policy Objects) that contain Group Policy Preferences, you must deploy the Group Policy Preferences client-side extension (CSE) to any client computer to which you want to deploy these preferences.  The CSE will be available as a separate download from Microsoft and will support the following Windows versions:

• Windows XP with SP2
• Windows Vista
• Windows Server 2003 with SP1
• Windows Server 2008 already includes the CSE.