Virtualization fundamentally changed computing in a way that was unforeseen as recently as five years ago. Every area of the economy that utilizes computing has been impacted, from financial, telecom, and healthcare sectors to retail, manufacturing, media, and government. In addition to improving key data center processes, such as Business Continuity (BC) and High Availability (HA), virtualization provides companies with flexibility, cost savings, and disaster recovery options critical to their success.

As an instructor, I use virtualization as an educational tool. Virtual machines are perfect for training in that a student can experiment knowing that any mistakes can be quickly discarded for another try — the perfect safe environment far away from production systems. Now many production servers are becoming virtual machines providing flexibility, failover, and efficient utilization. Microsoft’s Hyper-V hypervisor claims a “live migration” feature allowing a production VM to switch to new hardware without stopping the service. That’s new in Windows Server 2008 R2. VMWare is still market leader, but watch out for Microsoft!

Virtual desktop infrastructure (VDI) is a very hot topic right now. A VDI can deliver a pre-configured Windows virtual machine with all of the necessary applications on demand. This benefits highly regulated environments like banking and healthcare because they can configure their virtual desktop with precise security settings to comply with current laws. Also, legacy applications that won’t run on Windows 7 can run on a virtual desktop using an older version of Windows.

A common question now is how does Microsoft license SQL Server in the Virtual environment? In the early days of Virtualization SQL Server was not an ideal candidate for consolidation due to the resource intensive nature of its processing. But now with the advent of superior Hardware and the support of Hyper-V and VMWare, many […]

Microsoft has recently released the beta of the eagerly awaited service pack 1 for Windows 7 and Windows Server 2008 R2. This service pack is unusual because it can be applied to either operating system. The service pack includes many new and improved capabilities for Windows Server 2008 R2. On such new feature is Dynamic […]

In part one, we reviewed a bit of background on authorization models including mandatory access control (MAC) and discretionary access control (DAC), and noted that classically speaking, Windows has largely been managed with a DAC model. There’s a new sheriff in town beside good ole DAC. Alongside the classic DAC is role-based access control (RBAC), […]

“What is your name?” crowed the Bridge Keeper of the abyss in Monty Python and the Holy Grail. Invariably, the next question was “What is your quest?” Like the user name and domain name in typical username/password authentication systems, these should be easy, although some days I’ve typed my username or domain incorrectly, and sometimes […]

“Off with his head,” cackled the Red Queen. Had the Red Queen of Alice in Wonderland been an IT admin, perhaps she would say this of every server which offended her as she played croquet in the data center. But then that would be “sever the server,” right? What do servers need a graphical user […]

Recently, we looked at using PowerShell for generating pseudo-random names. The example script provided in that article was intentionally PowerShell version 1.0 and PowerShell version 2.0 compatible. Those of you who know that PowerShell 2.0 is included in Windows 7 and Windows Server 2008 R2 and the foundation for the Exchange Management Shell in Exchange […]

Recently I installed Windows Server 2008 R2 Enterprise Edition on a laptop. My goal was to see how well the laptop could run an operating system that is really intended for server hardware. If the laptop could perform adequately it would be a boon to students, teachers, software developers and salespeople who need a convenient […]