Todd's Blog

Windows 7, Windows Server 2008 R2, Exchange 2010

posted on October 23, 2009

All three of these products have launched over the past few days.

I had the opportunity on Wednesday to head up to Toronto for the launch. Steve Balmer was on hand to do a keynote speech and had a few interesting points.

He was asked when Microsoft was going to force customers to upgrade to Windows 7. He countered that they have customers who are still running Windows NT.

Another question was around the 32 bit edition of Windows. When was Microsoft going to stop making a 32 bit edition of Windows. Steve’s reply was that they would let Intel dictate that as right now the Atom processor is popular and doesn’t support 64bit operating systems. As long as Intel was making a 32 bit processor, Microsoft would make a 32 bit edition of Windows.

I also had a chance to hop on a touch screen PC and see how they worked. We use some touch screens for our Kiosk computer and I wanted to see what type of improvements I could expect.

Also launching was Windows Server 2008 R2. There are a few new improvements in R2, most notably, the ability to use Direct Access, Branch Cache and improvements to Windows Deployment Services (WDS). I’ll take some time and cover these topics in more depth in the next while.

The last product that launched was Exchange 2010. Storage is something that is supposed to be improved in this version. I haven’t looked at the beta bits or RTM bits yet, but I will sometime later this fall, after my sessions at TechDays Ottawa.

October 15th Evening SQL Server DBA Event: Disaster Recovery

posted on October 14, 2009

October 15^th Evening SQL Server DBA Event: Disaster Recovery – Edwin Sarmiento, MVP for SQL Server

Speaker: Edwin M. Sarmiento, MVP for SQL Server

Date: Thursday, October 15^th, 2009

Time: 6:00 PM to 8:30 PM

Venue: Microsoft Ottawa Office

RSVP: http://www.clicktoattend.com/?id=142063

Session 1 (6:00 PM to 7:10 PM): Understanding and communicating business-orientated disaster recovery concepts and objectives

So you have a database maintenance plan that does a backup of your databases and you’re pretty sure that it works fine. But is that really enough? Are you sure that you will be able to meet your service level agreements if and when disaster strikes? This session will explain the need for understanding and communicating business-orientated disaster recovery concepts and objectives to the business stakeholders. This will include defining your RPO and RTO and how it affects your disaster recovery plan.

Session 2 (7:20 to 8:30 PM): Disaster Recovery for the Paranoid DBA

In the first session, much have been said about disaster recovery in general. In this session, we will look at bringing the concepts down to SQL Server. This session will focus on dealing with a recovery situation for a SQL Server 2005/2008 database, an instance or an entire server. Topics covered will be backup schemes, partial backups and piecemeal restores, page-level recovery and a thorough understanding of how to troubleshoot a “Suspect” database.

Speaker Bio:

Edwin M. Sarmiento (MVP for SQL Server) works as a Senior SQL Server DBA/Systems Engineer for The Pythian Group in Ottawa, Canada. He is very passionate about technology but has interests in music, professional and organizational development, leadership and management matters when not working with databases. He lives up to his primary mission statement – “To help people grow and develop their full potential as God has planned for them.”.

Refreshments:

Pizza and pop will be provided.

Note: No one will be admitted by building security after 5:55 PM, and the event will start promptly at 6:00 PM.

OttawaSQL.net is a community group of Ottawa area developers and IT professionals. We share an interest in Microsoft’s data technologies especially: SQL Server, SharePoint, PerformancePoint, Workflow Foundations, LINQ, ADO.NET and Entity Framework.

TechDays Canada 2009

posted on October 1, 2009

TechDays is now in full swing. Vancouver and Toronto have both been completed and have gone well. The remaining cities are coming along in November and December.

I will be presenting three sessions in Ottawa this year. Two sessions are part of the Windows Client track on Day 1 and one is in the Servers, Security and Management track on Day 2.

Windows Client Track

Session 1: Microsoft Deployment Toolkit 2010: The Next Generation
Windows 7 is finally out and the wait to deploy is over. Now what? How do you get Windows installed on 10 or 100 or 1000 desktops with all the drivers and applications required? Attend this session and get ahead of the curve and be prepared to walk through installation, image creation, and deployment scenarios.

Session 2: A Geek’s Guide to Windows User State Migration Tool 4.0
Maintaining user profiles and data is critical to a successful deployment of Windows. This session shows how Windows User State Migration Tool (USMT) 4.0 can be used as an integral part of a fully automated deployment environment. The session covers advanced techniques for migrating user files and settings, including modifying and troubleshooting user state migration.

Servers, Security and Management

Session 4: Best Practices in Architecting and Implementing Windows Server Update Services (WSUS)
You’re using WSUS, but are you using it to its fullest extent? In this tips and tricks session, learn the best ways to architect and implement WSUS for the improved security of your organization. Learn the best ways to manage your updates on both servers and clients for high-reliability application. Plus, learn a few tricks to speed up the update installation process, as well as ways to enforce that updates are installed to computers in your environment.

Be sure to sign up and come out to the TechDays event in your area. I think you will find the information being presented useful, and you will be able to take what you have learned at TechDays and use it back in your own environment.