Concurrency Blog

Monitoring Hyper-V Replica in Windows 8

Nathan Lasnoski — Fri, 03 Feb 2012 15:46:20 +0000

Hyper-V Replica is an awesome technology in Windows 8 that allows for virtual machines to be replicated from one Hyper-V host environment to another. This includes replication to and from clusters and/or standalone hosts. The technology also provides a mechanism for roll-back to previous states and configuration of failover properties, such as IP addresses. In this post, we’ll discuss how we can monitor the replicas to validate replication is occurring as we expect.

The replication properties can be found through a variety of means. These include the console:

From the console you’ll get information on:

Replication cycles
Replication cycles missed
Replication errors
Average replication latency
Average replication size

You can also export to CSV so you can view the data in a report. I’m thinking a cool example would be to plug the report automatically into a SharePoint scorecard using PerformancePoint. I’ll have to try that…

From PowerShell:

PS C:\Windows\system32> Get-VMReplication | fl

ReplicaServerPort : 80

CertificateThumbprint :

AuthenticationType : Integrated

AutoResynchronizeEnabled : False

AutoResynchronizeIntervalStart : 18:30:00

AutoResynchronizeIntervalEnd : 06:00:00

ResynchronizeStartTime :

TestReplicationStartTime :

CompressionEnabled : True

VSSSnapshotReplicationEnabled : False

VSSSnapshotFrequency : 0

RecoveryHistory : 2

InitialReplicationStartTime :

ExcludedDisks : {}

ComputerName : CNCYVSVR20

PrimaryServerName : cncyvsvr20.concurrency.com

CurrentReplicaServerName : cncyvsvr21.concurrency.com

ReplicaServerName : cncyvsvr21.concurrency.com

ReplicationState : Replicating

ReplicationHealth : Normal

ReplicationMode : Primary

LastReplicationTime : 1/31/2012 10:53:55 AM

ReplicatedDisks : {Hard Drive on IDE controller number 0 at location 0}

SecurityTag :

TestVirtualMachine :

VMId : 9c90cfe3-bd97-4fb2-9286-cc34895ef75a

VMName : CNCYRDCB03

IsDeleted : False

You can also view replication health via perfmon, which would also bubble up into System Center tools like Operations Manager. You can also use these in baselining and estimating WAN saturation.

I hope this helps everyone see where Hyper-V replica will provide a cost effective and manageable replication solution that also provides visibility into the replication channel and its impact on the Hyper-V host or cluster.

Nathan Lasnoski

FEP 2010: Uninstalling Competitive Antivirus Solutions

Jesse Garcia — Wed, 01 Feb 2012 20:57:12 +0000

With Forefront Endpoint Protection 2010 (FEP) becoming more and more popular, many of my customers are looking at ways to migrate from their current Antivirus (AV) solution to FEP 2010. FEP 2010 includes a competitive uninstall of various AV solutions including:

Symantec Endpoint Protection version 11
Symantec Corporate Edition version 10
McAfee VirusScan Enterprise version 8.5 and version 8.7 and its agent
Forefront Client Security version 1 and the Operations Manager agent
TrendMicro OfficeScan version 8 and version 10

In practice, I have had very good luck with the above pieces of software being uninstalled cleanly by the FEP 2010 install. But what happens if your current AV doesn’t fall into this list? One of my customers was using ESET’s NOD32 and while determining our best course of action, I stumbled across a handy knowledgebase article that gives a list of AV tools and various ways to uninstall those tools. Here is the link:

http://kb.eset.com/esetkb/index?page=content&id=SOLN146

Various AV products offer different challenges but I have found the above link to be extremely helpful and I wanted to share it. I hope others find this link useful!

RECAP: Microsoft Marketing Automation Event (Milwaukee)

Benjamin Bishop — Tue, 31 Jan 2012 21:11:25 +0000

Consider the implications of the following words: “It no longer makes economic sense to send an advertising message to the many in hopes of persuading the few.” That’s from M. Lawrence Light, former Chief Marketing Officer for McDonalds Corporation. If Mr. Light is correct, what does that mean for your business? Do you have tightly integrated tools (both sales and marketing) for seamless campaigns you can measure?

On January 27, Concurrency and Microsoft sponsored an event titled “Microsoft Marketing Automation” at Microsoft’s Waukesha, Wisconsin offices to help marketing and technology managers integrate their marketing tools in a fast-changing digital environment. The room was packed with attendees interested to see “how the pieces all come together” through best-practices and case studies from actual implementations by Concurrency.

The event comprised the following sections:

Mark Rentmeester, Concurrency Team Lead for Microsoft SharePoint 2010, presented best practices in implementing SharePoint 2010 For Internet Sites (FIS). With the 2010 release, SharePoint’s powerful web content management capabilities are complemented by total visual flexibility. Now if you wish you can recreate your existing internal or external website—pixel for pixel—but with SharePoint serving up content. Why have SharePoint handle your content management? Because consistency across your internal intranet, your public-facing intranet, and your extranet can reduce cost and get the most value from your content.

Marek Wawrzyniak, President and CEO of Glendale, Arizona-based Interactive Web Works, presented the case for inbound marketing and search engine optimization as central elements of your marketing strategy. Gone are the days of spending $30,000 on a glossy print magazine ad without knowing its direct benefit. Here is a new era of understanding the value of every click, lead, and campaign. Marek mapped the lay of the land across social media and Internet search—and then presented specific tactics for intelligent online campaigns, from keyword and website optimization to converting site traffic to qualified leads, and nurturing those leads with an email campaign.
Jason Foerch, Concurrency Team Lead for Microsoft Dynamics CRM 2011, presented the integrated capabilities of Microsoft Dynamics CRM. You can only manage what you can measure. For the first time, companies can integrate their marketing and sales platforms for true 360 degree visibility of leads and campaigns. Too many companies are still struggling with sales and marketing platforms that don’t talk to each other. This new technology now brings everything together—for visibility, consistency, efficiency and, most of all, measurability.

Said Concurrency CEO James Savage, “We were thrilled with this event, which put together the whole package of how companies need to think intelligently about marketing—because their competitors are getting more intelligent, too. Companies need tightly integrated tools in order to manage and deliver the array of content that’s a natural part of campaigns that throw out the old model of blanket-message-delivery for a smarter, measurable approach.”

Concurrency and Microsoft will next make this content available to Chicago business and technology managers at an event to be held February 24, 2012. For other Concurrency events, including recaps of past presentations, visit Concurrency’s Events page.

To contact Concurrency about its practices in Microsoft SharePoint 2010 or Microsoft Dynamics CRM 2011, call 262-364-5800. To contact Marek Wawrzyniak of Interactive Web Works, visit www.iww.ag.

Outlook Rules with Wildcards or “Subject Contains”

Nathan Lasnoski — Tue, 31 Jan 2012 21:08:14 +0000

I was recently asked “hey… you’re an Exchange guy. How do you create an Outlook rule that includes wildcards?” I admitted that I had never been asked that before, but was very interested in in the answer. I started playing with Outlook, trying different wildcard statements, but to no avail. I did find however that right in the interface, I was able to solve the problem. You can configure the rules to look for “text” which was extensive enough to accomplish the goal of having multiple names, or differing content in the subject or email address fields.

Here goes it:

I hope this helps you clean your inbox.

Nathan Lasnoski

Hyper-V PowerShell in Windows 8 CTP

Nathan Lasnoski — Wed, 25 Jan 2012 06:01:13 +0000

The Hyper-V platform in Windows 8 now has PowerShell! This is awesome, as it has enabled both automation opportunities, as well as command line ease of use. I’m certain that the use of PowerShell throughout the Windows 8 platform will make the core installation types much more popular. I’ve done some playing around and provided some information about the upcoming PowerShell commandlets below. I’ve included the full command listing, as well as some common command usages. In this series I’ll also walk through common Hyper-V PowerShell examples that we’ll need for automation.

Full List of Hyper-V Commands

PS C:\Windows\system32> Get-Command -Module Hyper-V

CommandType Name ModuleName Definition

———– —- ———- ———-

Cmdlet Add-VMDvdDrive Hyper-V …

Cmdlet Add-VMFibreChannelHba Hyper-V …

Cmdlet Add-VMHardDiskDrive Hyper-V …

Cmdlet Add-VMMigrationNetwork Hyper-V …

Cmdlet Add-VMNetworkAdapter Hyper-V …

Cmdlet Add-VMNetworkAdapterAcl Hyper-V …

Cmdlet Add-VMRemoteFx3dVideoAdapter Hyper-V …

Cmdlet Add-VMScsiController Hyper-V …

Cmdlet Add-VMStoragePath Hyper-V …

Cmdlet Add-VMSwitch Hyper-V …

Cmdlet Add-VMSwitchExtensionFeature Hyper-V …

Cmdlet Checkpoint-VM Hyper-V …

Cmdlet Compare-VM Hyper-V …

Cmdlet Complete-VMFailover Hyper-V …

Cmdlet Connect-VMNetworkAdapter Hyper-V …

Cmdlet Connect-VMSan Hyper-V …

Cmdlet Convert-VHD Hyper-V …

Cmdlet Disable-VMIntegrationService Hyper-V …

Cmdlet Disable-VMMigration Hyper-V …

Cmdlet Disable-VMResourceMetering Hyper-V …

Cmdlet Disable-VMSwitchExtension Hyper-V …

Cmdlet Disconnect-VMNetworkAdapter Hyper-V …

Cmdlet Disconnect-VMSan Hyper-V …

Cmdlet Dismount-VHD Hyper-V …

Cmdlet Enable-VMIntegrationService Hyper-V …

Cmdlet Enable-VMMigration Hyper-V …

Cmdlet Enable-VMResourceMetering Hyper-V …

Cmdlet Enable-VMSwitchExtension Hyper-V …

Cmdlet Export-VM Hyper-V …

Cmdlet Export-VMSnapshot Hyper-V …

Cmdlet Get-VHD Hyper-V …

Cmdlet Get-VM Hyper-V …

Cmdlet Get-VMBios Hyper-V …

Cmdlet Get-VMComPort Hyper-V …

Cmdlet Get-VMConnectAccess Hyper-V …

Cmdlet Get-VMDvdDrive Hyper-V …

Cmdlet Get-VMFibreChannelHba Hyper-V …

Cmdlet Get-VMFloppyDiskDrive Hyper-V …

Cmdlet Get-VMHardDiskDrive Hyper-V …

Cmdlet Get-VMHost Hyper-V …

Cmdlet Get-VMHostNumaNode Hyper-V …

Cmdlet Get-VMHostNumaNodeStatus Hyper-V …

Cmdlet Get-VMIdeController Hyper-V …

Cmdlet Get-VMIntegrationService Hyper-V …

Cmdlet Get-VMMemory Hyper-V …

Cmdlet Get-VMMigrationNetwork Hyper-V …

Cmdlet Get-VMNetworkAdapter Hyper-V …

Cmdlet Get-VMNetworkAdapterAcl Hyper-V …

Cmdlet Get-VMNetworkAdapterFailoverCon… Hyper-V …

Cmdlet Get-VMNetworkAdapterVlan Hyper-V …

Cmdlet Get-VMProcessor Hyper-V …

Cmdlet Get-VMRemoteFx3dVideoAdapter Hyper-V …

Cmdlet Get-VMReplication Hyper-V …

Cmdlet Get-VMReplicationAuthorizationE… Hyper-V …

Cmdlet Get-VMReplicationServer Hyper-V …

Cmdlet Get-VMResourcePool Hyper-V …

Cmdlet Get-VMSan Hyper-V …

Cmdlet Get-VMScsiController Hyper-V …

Cmdlet Get-VMSnapshot Hyper-V …

Cmdlet Get-VMStoragePath Hyper-V …

Cmdlet Get-VMSwitch Hyper-V …

Cmdlet Get-VMSwitchExtension Hyper-V …

Cmdlet Get-VMSwitchExtensionFeature Hyper-V …

Cmdlet Get-VMSystemSwitchExtension Hyper-V …

Cmdlet Get-VMSystemSwitchExtensionFeature Hyper-V …

Cmdlet Grant-VMConnectAccess Hyper-V …

Cmdlet Import-VM Hyper-V …

Cmdlet Import-VMInitialReplication Hyper-V …

Cmdlet Measure-VM Hyper-V …

Cmdlet Measure-VMReplication Hyper-V …

Cmdlet Measure-VMResourcePool Hyper-V …

Cmdlet Merge-VHD Hyper-V …

Cmdlet Mount-VHD Hyper-V …

Cmdlet Move-VM Hyper-V …

Cmdlet Move-VMStorage Hyper-V …

Cmdlet New-VFD Hyper-V …

Cmdlet New-VHD Hyper-V …

Cmdlet New-VM Hyper-V …

Cmdlet New-VMReplicationAuthorizationE… Hyper-V …

Cmdlet New-VMResourcePool Hyper-V …

Cmdlet New-VMSan Hyper-V …

Cmdlet New-VMSwitch Hyper-V …

Cmdlet Optimize-VHD Hyper-V …

Cmdlet Remove-VM Hyper-V …

Cmdlet Remove-VMDvdDrive Hyper-V …

Cmdlet Remove-VMFibreChannelHba Hyper-V …

Cmdlet Remove-VMHardDiskDrive Hyper-V …

Cmdlet Remove-VMMigrationNetwork Hyper-V …

Cmdlet Remove-VMNetworkAdapter Hyper-V …

Cmdlet Remove-VMNetworkAdapterAcl Hyper-V …

Cmdlet Remove-VMRemoteFx3dVideoAdapter Hyper-V …

Cmdlet Remove-VMReplication Hyper-V …

Cmdlet Remove-VMReplicationAuthorizati… Hyper-V …

Cmdlet Remove-VMResourcePool Hyper-V …

Cmdlet Remove-VMSan Hyper-V …

Cmdlet Remove-VMSavedState Hyper-V …

Cmdlet Remove-VMScsiController Hyper-V …

Cmdlet Remove-VMSnapshot Hyper-V …

Cmdlet Remove-VMStoragePath Hyper-V …

Cmdlet Remove-VMSwitch Hyper-V …

Cmdlet Remove-VMSwitchExtensionFeature Hyper-V …

Cmdlet Rename-VM Hyper-V …

Cmdlet Rename-VMResourcePool Hyper-V …

Cmdlet Rename-VMSan Hyper-V …

Cmdlet Rename-VMSnapshot Hyper-V …

Cmdlet Rename-VMSwitch Hyper-V …

Cmdlet Repair-VM Hyper-V …

Cmdlet Reset-VMResourceMetering Hyper-V …

Cmdlet Resize-VHD Hyper-V …

Cmdlet Restart-VM Hyper-V …

Cmdlet Restore-VMSnapshot Hyper-V …

Cmdlet Resume-VM Hyper-V …

Cmdlet Resume-VMReplication Hyper-V …

Cmdlet Revoke-VMConnectAccess Hyper-V …

Cmdlet Save-VM Hyper-V …

Cmdlet Set-VHD Hyper-V …

Cmdlet Set-VM Hyper-V …

Cmdlet Set-VMBios Hyper-V …

Cmdlet Set-VMComPort Hyper-V …

Cmdlet Set-VMDvdDrive Hyper-V …

Cmdlet Set-VMFibreChannelHba Hyper-V …

Cmdlet Set-VMFloppyDiskDrive Hyper-V …

Cmdlet Set-VMHardDiskDrive Hyper-V …

Cmdlet Set-VMHost Hyper-V …

Cmdlet Set-VMMemory Hyper-V …

Cmdlet Set-VMMigrationNetwork Hyper-V …

Cmdlet Set-VMNetworkAdapter Hyper-V …

Cmdlet Set-VMNetworkAdapterFailoverCon… Hyper-V …

Cmdlet Set-VMNetworkAdapterVlan Hyper-V …

Cmdlet Set-VMProcessor Hyper-V …

Cmdlet Set-VMRemoteFx3dVideoAdapter Hyper-V …

Cmdlet Set-VMReplication Hyper-V …

Cmdlet Set-VMReplicationAuthorizationE… Hyper-V …

Cmdlet Set-VMReplicationServer Hyper-V …

Cmdlet Set-VMResourcePool Hyper-V …

Cmdlet Set-VMSan Hyper-V …

Cmdlet Set-VMSwitch Hyper-V …

Cmdlet Start-VM Hyper-V …

Cmdlet Start-VMFailover Hyper-V …

Cmdlet Start-VMInitialReplication Hyper-V …

Cmdlet Stop-VM Hyper-V …

Cmdlet Stop-VMFailover Hyper-V …

Cmdlet Stop-VMInitialReplication Hyper-V …

Cmdlet Stop-VMReplication Hyper-V …

Cmdlet Suspend-VM Hyper-V …

Cmdlet Suspend-VMReplication Hyper-V …

Cmdlet Test-VHD Hyper-V …

Cmdlet Update-VMSwitchExtensionFeature Hyper-V …

Get VM Listing

PS C:\Windows\system32> Get-VM

Name State CPU(%) AssignedMemory(M) MemoryDemand(M) MemoryStatus Uptime Status ReplicationStat

—- —– —— —————– ————— ———— —— —— —————

CNCYREPLICATEST Off 0 0 00:00:00 Operating normally Disabled

Get-VM Information for Specific VM

PS C:\Windows\system32> Get-VM “CNCYREPLICATEST”

Name State CPU(%) AssignedMemory(M) MemoryDemand(M) MemoryStatus Uptime Status ReplicationStat

—- —– —— —————– ————— ———— —— —— —————

CNCYREPLICATEST Off 0 0 00:00:00 Operating normally Disabled

Get All VM Information for Specific VM

PS C:\Windows\system32> Get-VM “CNCYREPLICATEST” | fl

Name : CNCYREPLICATEST

State : Off

CpuUsage : 0

AssignedMemory :

MemoryDemand : 0

MemoryStatus :

Uptime : 00:00:00

Status : Operating normally

ReplicationState : Disabled

Get VM Host Information

PS C:\Windows\system32> Get-VMHost

DefaultVirtualHardDiskLocation : C:\Hyper-V

DefaultVirtualMachineLocation : C:\Hyper-V

FullyQualifiedDomainName : concurrency.com

Name : CNCYVSVR14

MinimumMacAddress : 00155D496500

MaximumMacAddress : 00155D4965FF

MaximumSimultaneousStorageMigrations : 2

MaximumSimultaneousLiveMigrations : 2

InboundVirtualMachineMigrationEnabled : False

FibreChannelWorldWideNodeName : C0:03:FF:00:00:FF:FF:00

FibreChannelWorldWidePortNameMaximum : C0:03:FF:3D:2D:2C:FF:FF

FibreChannelWorldWidePortNameMinimum : C0:03:FF:3D:2D:2C:00:00

LogicalProcessorCount : 4

MemoryCapacity : 8415461376

ResourceMeteringSaveInterval : 01:00:00

NumaSpanningEnabled : True

HostNumaStatus :

NumaStatus :

InternalNetworkAdapters : {}

New VM Creation

PS C:\Windows\system32> New-VM -?

NAME

New-VM

SYNTAX

New-VM [[-Name] ] [[-MemoryStartupBytes] ] [-BootDevice ] [-NoVHD] [-SwitchName

[-Path ] [-AsJob] [-ComputerName ] [-WhatIf] [-Confirm] []

New-VM [[-Name] ] [[-MemoryStartupBytes] ] [-BootDevice ] [-SwitchName ] -N

-NewVHDSize [-Path ] [-AsJob] [-ComputerName ] [-WhatIf] [-Confirm]

[]

New-VM [[-Name] ] [[-MemoryStartupBytes] ] [-BootDevice ] [-SwitchName ] -V

[-Path ] [-AsJob] [-ComputerName ] [-WhatIf] [-Confirm] []

I’m excited to work more with VM automation. Stay tuned for some cool examples!

Nathan Lasnoski

System Center 2012 Licensing Changes and Products

Nathan Lasnoski — Thu, 19 Jan 2012 05:56:24 +0000

Microsoft has announced some great changes to the licensing and deployment model of the System Center suite. The System Center is a fully integrated suite of tools which manage all aspects of delivering IT services. They are licensed together to provide a single integrated set of capabilities, similar to how Microsoft is licensing Office vs. Word, Excel, and PowerPoint separately. The tools are powerful individually, but together they create integration that is unmatched.

The two new licensing models are the System Center Standard and Datacenter. The System Center Datacenter license provides unlimited “Operating System Environments” (OSEs). The System Center Standard license provides the suite for two OSEs and is intended for physical, or lightly virtualized branch environments.

Overview of the System Center Licensing Models:

Microsoft System Center 2012 Details

System Center 2012 solutions provide complete management from the desktop to the datacenter.

Using integrated and automated management solutions, you can capture and aggregate knowledge about systems, policies, processes, and best practices so that you can optimize your infrastructure to reduce costs, improve application availability, and enhance service delivery.

Here is an overview of the new features in the System Center suite!

Configuration Manager 2012

Enhanced mobile device management (cross-platform)
User centric management
New integrated console
Software portal
Automated remediation
Conditional delivery

Service Manager 2012

Fully customizable rich end-user portal, powered by SharePoint
Integrated and IT customizable service request forms (ex. new user, password reset, etc.)
Enhanced process management
New release management capability
ITIL conformance

Orchestrator 2012 (formerly Opalis)

End-to-end IT process automation toolset (ex. user account provisioning/permissioning, user account decommissioning, VM provisioning, server application provisioning)
Fully integrated into SCSM self-service portal
GUI-driven, IT administrator built, workflow engine

Operations Manager 2012

Enhanced service-centric management model
New full-network device support (esp. routers, switches, firewalls)
Completely revised new dashboard-based interface
Avicode integration

Virtual Machine Manager 2012

Manages VMWare, Xen and Hyper-V
Service-centric provisioning model (app components are built out within provisioning model)
Bare-metal host deployment
Application-centric configuration of storage, networking and load-balancer settings

Data Protection Manager 2012

Centralized management tool
Enhanced tape library management
Generic data source protection
Direct recovery into SharePoint in minutes

Advisor 2012

Cloud-based system health management tool
Analyze the configurations of SQL Server and Windows Server deployments
Identify potential issues and data corruption, and provide more information about systems to make problem resolution faster and more efficient

App Controller 2012

Public and private cloud management interface
Access resources across multiple VMM Servers
Register and consume capacity from multiple Windows Azure subscriptions
Deploy and manage Services and virtual machines on private clouds created within VMM 2012 and on Windows Azure
Enable multiple users authenticated through Active Directory to access a single Windows Azure subscription

More information:

Microsoft Private Cloud Site: http://www.microsoft.com/en-us/server-cloud/new.aspx
Come check it out at MMS: http://www.mms-2012.com/
Download the Private Cloud overview: http://www.microsoft.com/click/services/Redirect2.ashx?CR_EAC=300035806

Happy managing!

Nathan Lasnoski

iPad, Tablets and Office, oh my…

Kirk Poser — Tue, 17 Jan 2012 19:32:01 +0000

Intro to Productivity Apps

We all know that Microsoft Office is the most widely known and used suite in the Enterprise. Those of you who may have ventured into Open Source products quickly realized that sometimes you get what you pay for. Sure, it does a lot of the functionality that Office does, but weigh that against user acceptance and support costs and you quickly realize that there is no free lunch out there.
I have also used the Apple products: Pages, Numbers and Keynote. Although very eloquent with some awesome features, again, the user acceptance and learning curve were steep. Before I get slammed by the Apple fanboys, let me state I think it is crazy to have to choose a camp. I use Microsoft products and Apple products. There are a lot of things I think Windows 7 does better. There are a lot of things I think Apple does better. Why do I have to choose?

Working with Word files

Working with Word files on an iPad can be a challenge. Not an insurmountable challenge, but really just a different way of thinking than in the Windows world. First, is getting documents into your iPad to work with. For individual files, you can use iTunes and synch those files into your iPad. If you need to work on multiple files, I would suggest the free service called Dropbox. This is a “Cloud-Based” storage that integrate wonderfully with an I-device, and offers a free App for you to use. Now you can work on files in the cloud, and when you save them, they are in your Dropbox account safe and sound. Dropbox files can also synch to multiple computers so you can access the document at home as well as at work. There are many other offerings out there, but Dropbox by far is my favorite.

Microsoft SharePoint, Office 365 and others

Microsoft SharePoint and Office 365 also work very well to store documents in your Enterprise structure and open them from within I-devices (We will delve more into this at a later time)
Once you have access to your documents, you will need a program that allows you to work with office documents. (Remember, iPads and Office documents are two different worlds)
I have tried quite a few Apps on my iPad to find the one I like the best, and so far it is QuickOffice HD. Here is their product description: “Create, edit, & share Microsoft® Office documents, spreadsheets, and presentations, as well as view PDF files, on the go with the most connected office suite for iPad. Our Connected File Manager enables you to access, transfer, and manage files on your iPad and through Evernote, Dropbox, Google Docs, Box, Huddle, SugarSync, Egnyte, and Catch. Sharing features allow you to publish your content using e-mail, Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Yammer, Slideshare, Scribd, and Docstoc”.

Check it out yourself and see! Here are some other “Office” options:

Documents 2
Documents To Go
iWork apps (Pages, Numbers, and Keynote)
Office2 HD
Quickoffice Pro HD
Smart Office

Keep in mind that working on documents on an iPad is a lot different concept than doing ALL your work on an iPad. Even if you pair a Bluetooth keyboard up to it, it still will be a challenge to do extensive work. I prefer to look at my iPad as a way to make edits or review documents for minor changes, but I still prefer to work on a Windows 7 machine. (Note, I didn’t say MAC, because my definite preference is Office 2010 to Office 2011 for MAC-later discussion) As hard as I try to carry just one device, I actually carry two now: iPad 2 and Asus EP121 with Windows 7. Again, why do I have to choose when I can use the best of both worlds?

“Techy” Apps

If you border on the “techy” side, there are two new players that are trying to change it up on using Office: OnLive Desktop and CloudOn. CloudOn brings to the iPad a similar experience to Microsoft’s web apps. The app opens up with a version of the ribbon and familiar commands, and allows you to work on your documents in their native location. OnLive desktop takes a totally different view of working with Office files. Once you sign up for the free account, when you open the app, it appears to push down to your iPad a virtual Windows 7 desktop loaded with office. Very cool concept, it’s free, but one of the challenges I have uncovered so far is that I have to upload document to their server in order to work on them. Both of these products are fairly new, so I expect to see many more enhancements as they mature.

Devices

If you want to work within Office but still maintain a tablet form factor, then take a look at the Asus EP121. Mine is Windows 7 64-bit, 4 GB RAM and a 64 GB SSD hard drive that rocks. This is probably one of the best tablet devices out there, and I will be switching it to Windows 8 probably on the next update to test it out. This tablet has:

Ultra-performance tablet with an Intel® Core™ i5 processor.
Multiple data input options (Digital Pen, Bluetooth keyboard, fingers) for increased productivity.
12.1″ screen with a wide viewing angle and built-in high quality speakers for an excellent entertainment experience.

SALES NOTE: This is not an inexpensive tablet, but the OneNote capabilities are Awesome for taking client notes and synching it back to my office desktop.

In Summary and other things to note:

The iPad can work with Office documents in a variety of ways, but in my opinion, a limited version, not completely taking over my desktop computer chores.
It can be an effective tool to do One on One PowerPoint presentations or product videos (I love this ability)
It can be a great place to store documents that I need to read, or maybe an easy way to carry product manuals
Applications to work with Microsoft Office are relatively inexpensive, but not meant to replace the office suite on your desktop.
On the downside, iPad can be a challenge for IT to support in the field. Not impossible, but a challenge. This support challenge will also be a topic of discussion down the road.
OneNote is available on the iPad now!
Lync is available on iPad now too!

As always, your comments are welcome, as well as sharing what works best for you. No matter what we sell, the basic concepts are the same, and using technology to solve our challenges is the direction this blog is intended for!

Sales: In the Trenches with an iPad and other Technologies

Kirk Poser — Thu, 12 Jan 2012 15:59:51 +0000

iPad and other technologies in the Enterprise.
As more and more C-level Executives embrace the iPad in the Enterprise, (they seem to sneak in the doors usually starting with the CEO) that adoption is beginning to rapidly flow down to the sales force. It may be in conversation only right now, but you can bet the tablet (iPad currently dominating, but Windows 8 can catch up) will be a topic of discussion in quite a few enterprises this year.

So what is this Blog and who is it for? The questions you may have from either a Sales Manager perspective, from a CIO or an IT Administrator, or simply from an “In the Trenches” sales person will all be addressed here on a weekly basis.

So what are my credentials to talk about these topics? Well, first and foremost I am in sales, and I use technology to the extreme. I also hold a MCSA certification and other technical certs so I am not just someone who has no idea what the “real World” of sales is all about, but I do understand the tech-eze. I also know how to teach people how best to use technology, as I live it day in and day out in my job. So whether you sell widgets or cars, services or software, my weekly series will address these topics from an Enterprise perspective of knowing the technology and what it can do to a sales person’s perspective of how to make this work for you.

I am planning on covering topics such as:

Using an iPad for presentations
Using the iPad to sign contracts
Keeping up with emails
Company research
Sales automation
Tablet PC versus iPad
Getting Things Done with an iPhone or iPad
Are i-devices really ready for sales?
Technical adoption with a mature workforce
Can I do real work on an iPad or Tablet?
Tablet PC versus Laptop
Remote access and the iPad
Meeting documentation and remembering everything said in the meeting
What does the Cloud mean to Sales?

I will also entertain specific topics that you may want me to address, so visit my Blog frequently and comment. Disclosure: I am not an expert, but I play one on a TV. But what I am is a sales guy just like you trying to make sense of technology and generating sales revenue. You interested? Leave me a post on what you would like me to address as I lay out my schedule of topics!

Offline Address Book Fails to Download in Exchange 2010

Nathan Lasnoski — Thu, 12 Jan 2012 05:40:43 +0000

I ran into an interesting issue where the Exchange 2010 OAB failed to download to Outlook 2010, 2007, and 2003 clients. This started after configuring Outlook Web Access redirection using the IIS HTTP redirect capability (sending “/” to “/OWA”). In testing the issue, I attempted to browse to the OAB xml file manually through my web browser. I noticed that I received a HTTP 500 internal server error instead of receiving the OAB xml output.

I found that this was caused by the configuration of the redirect changing the security permissions on the web.config file within the OAB virtual directory. To fix the problem, browse to the OAB virtual directory and re-add the authenticated users group to “read” and “read and execute” permissions on the web.config file.

Here are the corrected permissions:

I hope this helps everyone out!

Nathan Lasnoski

Configure Hyper-V Replica in Windows 8

Nathan Lasnoski — Wed, 11 Jan 2012 06:02:45 +0000

I’d say that one of the features I’m most excited about in Windows 8 is Hyper-V replica. Microsoft may not be the first to create every technology, but they certainly have a habit of commoditizing technologies that people used to need to purchase separately. Hyper-V replica is another example of this, since Microsoft is including in their free hypervisor a cross-site replication tool. The best part is that Hyper-V replica is really easy to setup. This guide gives you a walkthrough of those steps:

TARGET HOST

You will need to start by configuring the target Hyper-V host to allow itself to be a replication target. Start by selecting to view the Hyper-V settings on the server.

You will then configure the replication section with the replication authentication type, the port for the connection, certificate (if used), and the “allow list”. You can select that any authenticated source can replicate to the host as well.

SOURCE HOST

Find the virtual machine you’d like to replicate. This can be either a clustered virtual machine or a standalone virtual machine. Select the virtual machine and choose to “enable replication”.

Find the virtual machine to replicate, right click, and select “Enable Replication”.

Start the wizard and select “Next” to continue.

Configure the replication target on the same port and security type of the destination server.

Select the VHDs to replicate to the target. This is typically all of the VHDs for the virtual machine.

Now… comes an awesome feature called recover history. This allows the target system to maintain older copies of the VM that you can recover to. Select the number of intervals you want to retain on disk at the target location.

Configure the seeding of the target server. You can either replicate the VM to the failover site, or move it with offline media.

AFTER CONFIGURATION

After configuration you can configure failover features, such as IP addresses and can also initiate failover. I’ll cover those in the next blog post.

I hope you are as excited about this feature as I am. Happy replicating!

Nathan Lasnoski