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2 months ago I did the Windows 7 beta exam. Today I noticed on my transcript that I’ve passed the exam. Nice timing from Microsoft, cause last 2 weeks I’ve passed every Server 2008 exam for my MCITP Admin and MCITP Enterprise Admin. 
12
06
2009
 
Citrix iForum Benelux – An ImpressionPosted by Elger van der Avoird in General, tags: Citrix, iForum, SBC
On the 9th and 10th of june 2009, I visited the Citrix iForum Benelux 2009: iForum is the event where virtualisation, networking and application delivery meet. The 9th of june offered two workshops of which I attend the one hosted by CDG: ‘Optimizing your datacenter with Citrix and Novell Platespin’. Products covered where Novell Platespin Recon and Migrate, CItrix XenApp, XenServer, XenDesktop and Provisioning Server. The workshop featured a nice package of demo’s on screen. I think a Provisioning Server brings some very nice features to the Citrix productline. The main worry of every Citrix admin (how do I keep my XenApp servers identical? ) isn’t much of a challenge anymore with provisioning server, which streams a single read-only vDisk to every XenApp server via PXE. A major downside is obviously the load on the network at boot time. After the workshop I checked into my hotel and prepared for an interesing evening programm fully loaded with “networkiwork related consumptions… Accompanied by a live performance of the greatest rock band The Netherlands have ever produced: Golden Earring (still going strong despite of being in their sixties).
The 10th of june was the “real” conference day; lots of workshops to choose from. With a very interesing opening keynote by Mark Templeton (CEO Citrix), introduced (in Double Dutch, quite understandable for native dutch speakers) by Rob van der Hoeven (Area Vice President Benelux). Mark Templeton presented his vision on tomorrows workspace and the direction Citrix is heading to provide solutions to the challenges of the (near) future. Introducing Dazzle as an iTunes-like portal where enduser can “shop” their own applicationset which can also incorporate 3rd party webapplications etc. Citrix Reciever for iPhone (windows mobile coming soon) bringing the amount of citrix clients down to (the power of) 1. Futhermore, introducing XenClient: a hypervisor solution for the desktop allowing endusers to switch easily between their own private OS and the controlled environment of the corporate desktop also availble for MAC. This promises to be a very interesting product indeed, especially because of its pricing: FREE Also free of charge is the use of XenServer, which is now the preferred platform for hosting XenApp and incorporated some interesting features like XenMotion (vMotion) at no additional costs… Since results of virualized XenApp environments on other (vmware) products varied, XenServer is definately the way to go! My workshop program for the day:
All in all is has been a very interesting two days with lots to think about.
Mark Templeton announced Citrix Synergy is going to be extended to Europe and split into Synergy Autumn and Spring. So please all pre-register for Synergy Autumn 2010 and keep an eye on the Citrix iForum site and I’ll meet you there!
11
06
2009
Selecting Virtualization Candidates with SCOM 2007 R2Posted by Walter Eikenboom in Operations Manager, System Center, Virtualization, tags: OpsMgr, SCOM 2007 R2OpsMgr is mainly used to get a grip on you server infrastructure and to optimize performance and availability by using best practice, which knowledge provide in the MP’s, and resolve errors with a head start with the provided knowledge. But the next step into monitoring is getting the most out of your infrastructure and Virtualization is one of these things that can help you get there. Currently a lot of organizations want to save money and cut back on hardware and power with the great green IT wave landing in most organizations right now. OpsMgr can help you that. VMM 2008 has the ability to manage and optimize performance, load and availability and cut back on the off hour work by leveraging the heterogenic environment to a single management console in combination with PRO ( Performance and Resource Optimization ) it does give you the insides and tips in your environment. So System Center Operations Manager and Virtual Machine Manager will give you the tools you need the manage it all. But how can i select the best virtualization candidate in my environment to make the first steps in optimizing my infrastructure? The answer is easier than expected. To select the best virtualization candidates just import the System Center Virtual Machine Manager 2008 and the System Center Virtualization Reports 2008 Management pack from the catalog to run the report for virtualization candidate selection, even when you not using VMM 2008 in your environment. This MP is not only for the SCOM 2007 R2 users but can be used in SCOM 2007 SP1 too. Just download the System Center Virtual Machine Manager 2008 Management Pack for System Center Operations Manager 2007 and import the Microsoft.SystemCenter.VirtualMachineManager.2008.mp and the Microsoft.Virtualization.Reports.2008.mp and you can run your reports. Getting into the report go, in the SCOM console, to the reporting area and navigate to the System Center Virtualization reports 2008 and select the Virtualization Candidates report. Now you can define the parameters for you selection of virtualization candidates.
Start identifying you virtualization candidates and building your dynamic datacenter, have fun with it! Update: The selection process for virtual candidates relays on the “Virtual machine” property “IsVirtualMachine” to be FALSE for selecting the physical machines in your environment. The downside to that property is that VMWare virtual machines are not detected so the generated reports will show the physical machines you want to see and the virtual VMWare machines. The solution to that problem is the following Management pack made by Pete Zerger of the System Center Central. Thanks Pete! Virtual Machine Discovery MP for OpsMgr 2007 This MP extends existing discovery of virtual machines by Operations Manager and Essentials to include VMware guests. The MP will update the “IsVirtualMachine” property of the Windows Computer object to TRUE for VMware guests. Also disables and replaces the existing discovery rule that sets this value to false for non-MS VMs. Regards,
As a System Center Operations Manager Specialist I’m happy to tell you all that SCOM 2007 R2 has hit Release to Manufacturing today. The Operations Manager Team has worked for two years to get this version out there. Thank for that! The SCOM 2007 R2 is a solid piece of work with numerous new and improved features to make it easier to do your daily task in getting a better an more cost effective infrastructure. In this article I will discuss a few of the new improvements and features in R2. One of the big eye catchers is the cross platform functionality that OpsMgr 2007 R2 provides out of the box. OpsMgr 2007 R2 will integrated touch and feel for both Windows and Unix/Linux based clients. With this integration you can watch your environments health through a single pane of glass. The SCOM 2007 R2 supported cross platform operating systems are:
When Service levels are in place the access and security to these IT services becomes more and more interesting. Audit Collection Services ACS gives the insight IT organizations need to drive compliance and investigate un-trusted and unwanted access to there services. ACS provides an integrated solution and with SCOM 2007 R2 the ability to use ACS on no windows systems will broaden de scope as a complete solution for compliancy. Ease of operations is always a nice to have but in these times when application updates and product renewal is a day to day operations the ease of use and ease to operate is key for any product. SCOM 2007 R2 even made it a bit easier. A full upgrade from the SCOM 2007 SP1 is supported and all tuning and configuration you have done over the last two years will stay in place. Notifications where simplified and the the latest Management packs will provide reports with easier object selection. Enormous performance increate in console usage, which was a big down side in SCOM 2007 and SCOM 2007 SP1. Even the show updated management pack function as was used in MOM 2005 is back in SCOM 2007 R2. Not as an alert but when importing Management packs from the online catalog you can select the option to show update Management pack which you have installed in your environment.  If you want to tryout all these features in the new version download the System Center Operations Manager 2007 R2 evaluation edition. I will get in more detail about some of the new features in some upcoming articles.
Regards, Hi there, Today I took the Windows 7 beta exam TS: Windows 7, Configuring and had to let you know my findings. I have more then a year experience working with Windows 7 as my employer is a TAP participant in the Windows 7 TAP, currently we have more then 300 Windows 7 machines deployed in our environment. So I tought ‘why not try the exam’ The exam lenght is 180 minutes, but I only needed 45 minutes for the 75 questions. This is not cause of the exam, but somehow I allways manages to do an exam within the hour. I wont give you any questions and/or answers cause the exam is under NDA, but I can give you the subjects that I’ve got in my exam. The Windows 7 exam is a real ‘new technolgy’ exam, maybe there are 5 questions that I could ansfer from my experience with XP and Vista the other question are all about new technology. If you need to take this exam or if you are planning for 070-680 (the number after this exam goes live) be prepared to answer questions on the following technology : * BranchCache Also know how to make a bootable USB Windows 7 installation stick and try to study on how Windows 7 works in a HomeGroup (not all questions are Enterprise related but also home-use related) The exam is currently in beta so no score report, after 8 weeks I will know if I passed or failed the exam. If you take this exam, ‘Good Luck’ Regards, Erik |
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