Announcement: 431

MDOP Asset Inventory Service - Announcements announcements

  • Link
    Important information About Your AIS Agent Installation Package
    Paul Bourgeau

    Overview

    =======

    Every Asset Inventory Service (AIS) agent installation package contains a certificate that identifies the account of the AIS subscriber. This certificate is used to ensure that inventory reported by an agent is associated with the correct account when it is received at the AIS web service.

    This certificate has a lifetime of 3 years. After this time, the installation package cannot be used to successfully enroll new agents, although existing agents will continue to function just fine. A notification will be displayed in the console for those accounts that are approaching the 3 year threshold (approximately 60 days before the certificate expires). The systems administrator of the AIS account should then download their new agent installation package which is available from the normal download page in the AIS console.

    The AIS service supports multiple agent installation packages per account. This means that the original package and the new package can both be used to install new agents. This allows a transition period where an organization can change their procedures to use the new installation package. Eventually, however, the certificate in the original installation package will expire, after which time only the new package should be used.

    Frequently Asked Questions

    =======================

    What do I do if I see the following announcement on my home page:

    “Your original AIS agent installation package expires on <expiry date>. Please download your new agent installation package and use it for all future installations. [Computers that had the original agent installation package installed before <expiry date> do not have to be updated.]”

    This means that your original agent installation package is going to expire soon, and you need to download a new one and use that for agent installations. The message will typically be shown 60 days before the package expires. You can continue using the original installation package until the date in the announcement but it is recommended that you start using the new one as soon as possible.

    When I go to the client deployment area, there’s no option to download a new installation package

    If you see the expiry announcement on the home page, the service will have generated a new installation package for your account. You download it the same way you downloaded the original package by visiting the Client Deployment area of the Management and Support workspace and click on the link that says “Download Client Here”. You can verify that you have downloaded the latest package by viewing the properties of downloaded file as follows:

    ·         Select the file and display the property page

    ·         Select the Digital Signatures Tab and view Signature List

    ·         Locate “Microsoft Corporation” in the list and double-click it

    ·         The Signing Time on the displayed property page should be Nov 2010.

    What happens if I carry on using the original installation package?

    If the announcement is shown on the home page and you continue to use the original installation package after the date shown in the message, you will not be able to successfully enroll agents into the AIS service. The installation will be successful, but when the agent attempts to enroll in the service, it will be rejected. The only way to correct this situation is to download the new installation package from the service and install that on the affected machines. [see below: How do I correct a failed installation?]

    What do I do if I see the following announcement on my home page?

    “Your original AIS agent installation package expired on <expiry date>. Please download your new agent installation package and use it for all future installations. [Computers that had the original agent installation package installed before <expiry date> do not have to be updated.]”

    This means that your original agent installation package has expired. If you obtained a new installation package and phased out using the old package before the date of expiry, then you have no further actions. If, however, you have been attempting to deploy agents using your original agent installation package then you need to take the following action:

    -          Stop using the original installation package

    -          Download a new agent installation package from the AIS console by visiting the Client Deployment area of the Management and Support workspace and click on the link that says “Download Client Here”

    -          Start using the new installation package for all future installations

    -          Identify the machines where an attempt was made to install the AIS agent with the expired installation package.

    o   These will be machines where the agent was recently installed, but are not displayed in the console.

    o   For these machines, re-run the install with the new package [see below: How do I correct a failed installation?]

    How do I correct a failed installation?

    If you identify a machine where an attempt was made to install an AIS agent, but the enrollment failed because the agent installation package had expired, proceed as follows:

    -          Option #1

    o   Uninstall the AIS agent

    §   Asset Inventory Service Tips and Troubleshooting

    ·         Tip: How to remove the AIS client software

    o   Run the installation using the new agent installation package

     

    -          Option #2

    o   Run the installation using the following MSI flags: REINSTALLMODE=vomus

    §  For example:  msiexec /I  <path to new .msi file> REINSTALLMODE=vomus

    Note: if you simply run the new agent install on the failed machine (without following either of these options) it will not successfully update the agent configuration and enroll with the service.

    How do I know when my agent installation package will expire?

    The following steps describe how to determine when an agent installation package was signed. If the current date is less than 3 years from this date, the package can still be used to install and enroll an agent :

    ·         Locate the agent installation package

    ·         Select the installation package file and display the property page

    ·         Select the Digital Signatures Tab and view Signature List

    ·         Locate “Microsoft Corporation” in the list and double-click it

    ·         If the Signing Time on the displayed property page is less than 3 years ago, then the package can still be used to install and enroll an agent.

    Why does the certificate in the agent installation package expire after 3 years?

    Certificates have an expiry date to reduce the time period available to an attacker. Three years was adopted as a reasonable balance between renewing the agent installation packages and providing acceptable security for user accounts.

     

Power View announcements

  • Link
    Welcome to the Power View Forum!
    Sandy Rivas

    We are happy to announce that Power View for Office / Office 365 has it's own forum!  Power View allows you to analyze and create stunning interactive visualizations that uncover hidden insights to share and collaborate from anywhere, on any device!  As you do that - you may have questions / feedback / tips to share.  Please utilize this forum to share/gain knowledge and expertise in Power View.

    We look forward to hearing how you are using Power View and what challenges and suggestions you may have. The more you share, the more the forum can help you get the most out of Power View now and you can influence the next version!

    The Power View Team

Forums Redesign - Q&A / Discussions announcements

  • Link
    How to share your feedback on the new design
    Bryant Hawthorne - MSFT

    Thank you everyone who has provided feedback into this forum so far. We appreciate the feedback and are actively prioritizing it accordingly. We are monitoring the suggestions and bugs and are currently working to make improvements based on feedback that has already been provided.

    In order to help us make further improvements to this new design, please take the following action:

    • If you have a suggestion for the redesigned Forums please post these to Suggestions and Feedback for the Forums. Please limit one suggestion per post and we encourage users to vote up suggestions to bring attention to the Forums team.
    • If you encounter bugs please continue to post bugs in the Forums Issues forum.
    • If you have additional questions or comments about the redesign, this forum is the place to post.

    Again, thank you for your feedback and know that your voice is being heard.

App-V General Sequencing announcements

  • Link
    How to ask a question efficiently in the TechNet forums
    Aaron.Parker
    Thank you for posting in TechNet forum. Online problem solving can be relatively time consuming because it may demand several messages back and force to fully understand the symptom and background, especially at the very beginning. Here are a few suggestions that can help you get the best answer to your question as quickly as possible.
     
    When You Ask
    1. Selecting a good title which summarizes the specific problem you have. It will be the one of the main driving forces for others to want to actually read your item. Choosing a badly-formatted title will drive people away, thinking that since the title is so badly written, so must be the information and the question within the thread.
    2. Provide all the necessary information in your initial post. The following information would be very helpful:
    - Symptom description: Detailed description of the problem. If you receive any error messages, please let us know the exact error WORD BY WORD.
    - Environment: The system environment, such as your OS/application version, your network topology, and your domain environment, etc.
    - Any recent relevant configuration change(s): If the issue started to occur after installing any application/updates or changing the configuration, please let us know.
    - Any additional information. Tell what you have done prior to asking your question. This will help us understand that you've done so far.
    3. Write in a clear language. Avoiding spelling mistakes or grammatical errors. Don't type IN ALL CAPS, which in most cases is read as shouting and considered rude.
    4. Keep within the same thread. Do not refer to a post you made last year, and above all, Please come back. There are hundreds and thousands of posts where we have seen people given great and wonderfully long answers yet no reply from the original poster.
    5. Be courteous to reply, even if it's to say. "I've given up" or thanks that worked. (This helps the whole community when you do this, and gives the people who donate their time, warm and fuzzies.)
     
    When answered
    Give Positive Feedback. Once you've received a correct answer to your question, either from a Microsoft employee, an MVP, or the community in general, pleases replies that the issue or question has been answered. And if possible mark the solution as answered: This step is important, since it lets other people benefit from your posts.
    Please remember to click “Mark as Answer” on the post that helps you, and to click “Unmark as Answer” if a marked post does not actually answer your question. This can be beneficial to other community members reading the thread.

Learning Manager Bugs and Feedback announcements

  • Link
    Please read before posting questions to this forum.
    FJ2008
    Dear Forum User:

    This forum is dedicated only to customers who are using Microsoft E-Learning products. So please post questions only which are related to Microsoft E-Learning Products/issues/information request only.
    Thanks,
    Sidharth lala
  • Link
    Report a Learning Manager Bug
    Alicia Cales

    Did you find a Bug in Learning Manager? Log it here!

    In your post, please include:

    • Course name or number of where the issue is occurring with
    • URL where you are experiencing the problem/issue
    • Detailed reproduction steps of what you did in order to get the problem/problem. If there is an error message, please obtain a copy of the error message.



Surface Hardware Units announcements

App-V Server and Management announcements

  • Link
    The Great App-V Survey Project
    Tim Mangan

    I am asking for some help here in filling our an anonumous survey about App-V usage.

    Traditionally, Microsoft is the only one that has any information regarding App-V usage out there, and basically Microsoft doesn't share that info (unless someone is bragging).  So I am trying to gather some information to share with the community using an un-scientific survey.  The survey is very short (10 questions), and does not ask you to identify yourself or your company.  You can see all of the questions before you even start.  It is just some basic questions to "get a feel" for what people are doing. 

    Let me be clear that this is not a Microsoft santioned survery and they have nothing to do with it.  My company is requesting this information and will only use it to provide information back to the technical community. Any information gathered will only be used in aggregate form.

    Please fill out the survey at this link: http://www.tmurgent.com/AppVSurvey.aspx

    Thank You!

    Tim Mangan

  • Link
    How to ask a question efficiently in the TechNet forums
    Aaron.Parker
    Thank you for posting in TechNet forum. Online problem solving can be relatively time consuming because it may demand several messages back and force to fully understand the symptom and background, especially at the very beginning. Here are a few suggestions that can help you get the best answer to your question as quickly as possible.
     
    When You Ask
    1. Selecting a good title which summarizes the specific problem you have. It will be the one of the main driving forces for others to want to actually read your item. Choosing a badly-formatted title will drive people away, thinking that since the title is so badly written, so must be the information and the question within the thread.
    2. Provide all the necessary information in your initial post. The following information would be very helpful:
    - Symptom description: Detailed description of the problem. If you receive any error messages, please let us know the exact error WORD BY WORD.
    - Environment: The system environment, such as your OS/application version, your network topology, and your domain environment, etc.
    - Any recent relevant configuration change(s): If the issue started to occur after installing any application/updates or changing the configuration, please let us know.
    - Any additional information. Tell what you have done prior to asking your question. This will help us understand that you've done so far.
    3. Write in a clear language. Avoiding spelling mistakes or grammatical errors. Don't type IN ALL CAPS, which in most cases is read as shouting and considered rude.
    4. Keep within the same thread. Do not refer to a post you made last year, and above all, Please come back. There are hundreds and thousands of posts where we have seen people given great and wonderfully long answers yet no reply from the original poster.
    5. Be courteous to reply, even if it's to say. "I've given up" or thanks that worked. (This helps the whole community when you do this, and gives the people who donate their time, warm and fuzzies.)
     
    When answered
    Give Positive Feedback. Once you've received a correct answer to your question, either from a Microsoft employee, an MVP, or the community in general, pleases replies that the issue or question has been answered. And if possible mark the solution as answered: This step is important, since it lets other people benefit from your posts.
    Please remember to click “Mark as Answer” on the post that helps you, and to click “Unmark as Answer” if a marked post does not actually answer your question. This can be beneficial to other community members reading the thread.

Windows Vista IE announcements

Surface Applications announcements

App-V Clients announcements

  • Link
    How to ask a question efficiently in the TechNet forums
    Aaron.Parker
    Thank you for posting in TechNet forum. Online problem solving can be relatively time consuming because it may demand several messages back and force to fully understand the symptom and background, especially at the very beginning. Here are a few suggestions that can help you get the best answer to your question as quickly as possible.
     
    When You Ask
    1. Selecting a good title which summarizes the specific problem you have. It will be the one of the main driving forces for others to want to actually read your item. Choosing a badly-formatted title will drive people away, thinking that since the title is so badly written, so must be the information and the question within the thread.
    2. Provide all the necessary information in your initial post. The following information would be very helpful:
    - Symptom description: Detailed description of the problem. If you receive any error messages, please let us know the exact error WORD BY WORD.
    - Environment: The system environment, such as your OS/application version, your network topology, and your domain environment, etc.
    - Any recent relevant configuration change(s): If the issue started to occur after installing any application/updates or changing the configuration, please let us know.
    - Any additional information. Tell what you have done prior to asking your question. This will help us understand that you've done so far.
    3. Write in a clear language. Avoiding spelling mistakes or grammatical errors. Don't type IN ALL CAPS, which in most cases is read as shouting and considered rude.
    4. Keep within the same thread. Do not refer to a post you made last year, and above all, Please come back. There are hundreds and thousands of posts where we have seen people given great and wonderfully long answers yet no reply from the original poster.
    5. Be courteous to reply, even if it's to say. "I've given up" or thanks that worked. (This helps the whole community when you do this, and gives the people who donate their time, warm and fuzzies.)
     
    When answered
    Give Positive Feedback. Once you've received a correct answer to your question, either from a Microsoft employee, an MVP, or the community in general, pleases replies that the issue or question has been answered. And if possible mark the solution as answered: This step is important, since it lets other people benefit from your posts.
    Please remember to click “Mark as Answer” on the post that helps you, and to click “Unmark as Answer” if a marked post does not actually answer your question. This can be beneficial to other community members reading the thread.

App-V Documentation announcements

  • Link
    How to ask a question efficiently in the TechNet forums
    Aaron.Parker
    Thank you for posting in TechNet forum. Online problem solving can be relatively time consuming because it may demand several messages back and force to fully understand the symptom and background, especially at the very beginning. Here are a few suggestions that can help you get the best answer to your question as quickly as possible.
     
    When You Ask
    1. Selecting a good title which summarizes the specific problem you have. It will be the one of the main driving forces for others to want to actually read your item. Choosing a badly-formatted title will drive people away, thinking that since the title is so badly written, so must be the information and the question within the thread.
    2. Provide all the necessary information in your initial post. The following information would be very helpful:
    - Symptom description: Detailed description of the problem. If you receive any error messages, please let us know the exact error WORD BY WORD.
    - Environment: The system environment, such as your OS/application version, your network topology, and your domain environment, etc.
    - Any recent relevant configuration change(s): If the issue started to occur after installing any application/updates or changing the configuration, please let us know.
    - Any additional information. Tell what you have done prior to asking your question. This will help us understand that you've done so far.
    3. Write in a clear language. Avoiding spelling mistakes or grammatical errors. Don't type IN ALL CAPS, which in most cases is read as shouting and considered rude.
    4. Keep within the same thread. Do not refer to a post you made last year, and above all, Please come back. There are hundreds and thousands of posts where we have seen people given great and wonderfully long answers yet no reply from the original poster.
    5. Be courteous to reply, even if it's to say. "I've given up" or thanks that worked. (This helps the whole community when you do this, and gives the people who donate their time, warm and fuzzies.)
     
    When answered
    Give Positive Feedback. Once you've received a correct answer to your question, either from a Microsoft employee, an MVP, or the community in general, pleases replies that the issue or question has been answered. And if possible mark the solution as answered: This step is important, since it lets other people benefit from your posts.
    Please remember to click “Mark as Answer” on the post that helps you, and to click “Unmark as Answer” if a marked post does not actually answer your question. This can be beneficial to other community members reading the thread.

App-V Add-ons announcements

  • Link
    How to ask a question efficiently in the TechNet forums
    Aaron.Parker
    Thank you for posting in TechNet forum. Online problem solving can be relatively time consuming because it may demand several messages back and force to fully understand the symptom and background, especially at the very beginning. Here are a few suggestions that can help you get the best answer to your question as quickly as possible.
     
    When You Ask
    1. Selecting a good title which summarizes the specific problem you have. It will be the one of the main driving forces for others to want to actually read your item. Choosing a badly-formatted title will drive people away, thinking that since the title is so badly written, so must be the information and the question within the thread.
    2. Provide all the necessary information in your initial post. The following information would be very helpful:
    - Symptom description: Detailed description of the problem. If you receive any error messages, please let us know the exact error WORD BY WORD.
    - Environment: The system environment, such as your OS/application version, your network topology, and your domain environment, etc.
    - Any recent relevant configuration change(s): If the issue started to occur after installing any application/updates or changing the configuration, please let us know.
    - Any additional information. Tell what you have done prior to asking your question. This will help us understand that you've done so far.
    3. Write in a clear language. Avoiding spelling mistakes or grammatical errors. Don't type IN ALL CAPS, which in most cases is read as shouting and considered rude.
    4. Keep within the same thread. Do not refer to a post you made last year, and above all, Please come back. There are hundreds and thousands of posts where we have seen people given great and wonderfully long answers yet no reply from the original poster.
    5. Be courteous to reply, even if it's to say. "I've given up" or thanks that worked. (This helps the whole community when you do this, and gives the people who donate their time, warm and fuzzies.)
     
    When answered
    Give Positive Feedback. Once you've received a correct answer to your question, either from a Microsoft employee, an MVP, or the community in general, pleases replies that the issue or question has been answered. And if possible mark the solution as answered: This step is important, since it lets other people benefit from your posts.
    Please remember to click “Mark as Answer” on the post that helps you, and to click “Unmark as Answer” if a marked post does not actually answer your question. This can be beneficial to other community members reading the thread.
  • Link
    Welcome to the AppV Add-Ons forum
    Cholione

    Hello and welcome to the Application Virtualization Add-Ons forum

     

    This forum provides you an avenue where you can share knowledge, get questions answered, and learn from others with IT environments similar to yours who use the Resource Kit tools and other Add-ons to get the most out of their AppV deployments.

     

    If you have any suggestions or feedback to the AppV product Add-ons like the resource kit tools, ADM template and so on, please feel free to post in this forum.

Power BI Dashboard Preview announcements

Azure Active Directory announcements

  • Link
    AADSync is available as a customer technology preview (CTP)
    Markus Vilcinskas

    For more details, click here.

    Cheers,
    Markus

  • Link
    Introduction to the Wiki Toolbox
    Markus Vilcinskas

    Link

    Cheers,
    Markus

  • Link
    Who should use this Windows Azure AD forum?
    Nick Pierson [MSFT]

    This Windows Azure Active Directory (Windows Azure AD) TechNet forum is intended to provide community support for IT Professionals who use the Windows Azure AD Portal or that manage and/or troubleshoot identity-related issues with any of the following Microsoft cloud services:

    • Office 365
    • Windows Azure
    • Windows Intune

    Members from the Windows Azure AD team will occasionally monitor this forum to help answer questions. However, participation by identity MVPs and other IT Pro community members is strongly encouraged to provide quick replies to those who need answers.

    If you are a Developer looking for support related to Windows Azure AD, please use the Windows Azure AD MSDN forum instead.

    Thanks!

    Nick Pierson

    Windows Azure AD - Senior Writer

    Looking for Windows Azure AD content but not sure where to start? Check out the new Windows Azure AD Content Map wiki page to find helpful links to Azure AD content that may reside anywhere on the Internet. Please contribute to this page and add links!



SQL Server 2012 Setup and Installation (Pre-Release) announcements

SQL Server 2012 PowerPivot for Excel (Pre-Release) announcements

SQL Server 2012 Integration Services (Pre-Release) announcements

Windows 7 Optimized Desktop Deployment Proof of Concept announcements

  • Link
    PoC 2.0 released
    Anthony_Mann

    The Desktop POC Kit v2.0 is a customer focused offering available as free download via the Microsoft download center (http://go.microsoft.com/?linkid=9728107). The kit enables customers to drive an accelerated desktop deployment by providing a ready to run deployment server with the full suite of Microsoft desktop deployment tools installed and ready to use.

    The Desktop POC Kit v2.0 provides enhancements and new products to the POC kit. This version of the POC kit introduces 2 new technical modules. These new modules are “Managing Desktop Policies” which features the Security Compliance Manager tool and product security baselines to drive rapid implementation of Microsoft recommended group policy settings. The other new module is the “Zero Touch Deployment” module which features deployment using the zero touch deployment method using System Center Configuration Manager.

    The updated version of the POC also brings additional products to the deployed desktops. The following products are now included in the POC kit:

    ·         Visio Premium 2010

    ·         Forefront

    ·         Project Professional 2010

    The kit provides new features increasing the value of the kit. These features include:

    ·         Visio deployment dashboard – single view of all deployment tools and deployment progress

    ·         Office 365 Readiness – the deployed image requires the required elements to prepare the deployed desktop for connection to the Office 365 beta services

    ·         Expanded image build & customization

    The existing Desktop POC v2 content has been updated to provide increased understanding of the deployment process. This includes improvements in the technical execution guidance providing deeper explanations and providing improved explanations of why the actions are required. The technical tools are also updated to the latest available versions.

    The following recaps what is delivered on the POC deployment server:

    ·         Assessment/Compat Tools

    o   Microsoft Assessment & Planning Toolkit 5.5

    o   Application Compatibility Toolkit 5.6

    o   Office Migration Planning Manager 2010 Update 1 Beta

    o   Office Environment Assessment Tool 2010 Update 1 Beta

    o   Office Compatibility Code Inspector 2010 Update 1 Beta

    ·         Image Build

    o    Security Compliance Manager

    o   Microsoft Deployment Toolkit 2010 Update 1

    o   Office Customization Tool & Config.xml

    ·         Image Deployment

    o   Microsoft Deployment Toolkit 2010 Update 1

    o   System Center Configuration Manager 2007 R3

    ·         Supporting products

    o   Windows Server 2008 R2

    o   SQL Server 2008 R2

    o   Forefront Server

    o   Microsoft Office 2010

    o   Visio Premium 2010

    o   Custom Visio deployment dashboard

    ·         The Desktop POC provides and is ready to the deploy the following components to connected clients in the POC environment

    ·         Windows 7 Enterprise

    o   Language Packs

    o   Custom drivers

    ·         Office Pro Plus 2010

    o   Customized feature installation

    o   Custom help solution template

    o   Customized ribbon

    o   Office 365 required updates

    ·         App-V 4.6

    o   Office 2010 sequenced package

    o   DSC Office Add-ins: PowerPivot

    ·         Visio Premium 2010

    o   Deployment dashboard

    ·         Project Professional 2010

    ·         Forefront client security

    ·         Microsoft Online Services Sign-in Assistant (365 Readiness)

    ·         Silverlight

    ·         Office 2010 Interactive Ribbon guide: Word

    ·         Office Excel Add-in: PowerPivot

    The Desktop POC v2 delivers enhanced technical guidance divided into 14 technical modules. These modules include:

    1.  Setup Guide

    2.  Benefits of an Optimized Desktop

    3.  Justify the Upgrade

    4.  Evaluate Hardware Readiness

    5.  Windows Compat

    6.  Office Compat

    7.  Application Virtualization

    8.  Manage Desktop Policies

    9.  Image Build

    10.  Deploy: Lite Touch

    11.  Deploy: Zero Touch

    12.  Test Windows

    13.  Test Office

    14.  Next Steps

Service Pack 1 RC for Windows 7 and Windows Server 2008 R2 announcements

  • Link
    This forum is now read-only
    Anthony_Mann
    Now that Windows 7 and Windows Server 2008 R2 SP1 has been released, this forum is now marked read-only. This enables users to search, but not post. If you have any questions, please ask your questions in the other Windows 7 or Windows Server 2008 forums.

SQL Server 2012 High Availability and Disaster Recovery (Pre-Release) announcements

SQL Server 2012 Spatial (Pre-Release) announcements

SQL Server 2012 Analysis Services (Pre-Release) announcements

SQL Server 2012 PowerPivot for SharePoint (Pre-Release) announcements

SQL Server 2012 Reporting Services (Pre-Release) announcements

SQL Server 2012 Master Data Services (Pre-Release) announcements

Read Only - Forefront Threat Management Gateway announcements

Windows Server 2008 R2 General - Read Only announcements

Windows Server 2008 R2 Remote Desktop Services - Read Only announcements

Windows Server 2008 R2 Networking - Read Only announcements

Windows Server 2008 R2 Management - Read Only announcements

Windows Server 2008 R2 Web Technologies - Read Only announcements

Live Meeting - Rollout/Deployment Programs announcements

  • Link
    Welcome to Office Live Meeting Forums
    IrfanS - msft

    Welcome to Office Live Meeting forums.   This is home to comprehensive set of forums designed to cover various aspects of Microsoft Office Live Meeting. I am starting with few forums but will be adding some more as we go along. 

    Detailed technical topics should be posted into their respective forums if one is available. Other post can be done in the General section.  Please note however, it is important for a topic to be posted to the correct forum because different groups e.g. Support and Product Group teams and MVPs monitor different forums.  As moderators review the posts they may also move posts to another topic area per relevance.  Our ultimate goal here is to provide a useful response to every question within a reasonable amount of time.  We are targeting 2-3 business days, however being new initiative we are ramping up, so please bear with us on delays.

    Please also consider the following :

    This posting on forums is provided "AS IS" with no warranties, and confers no rights.

    These forums are not an official channel for product support. If you have an urgent or business critical issue, you should contact Microsoft Support Services

    Live Meeting Support for Technical and Billing Issues:
           Web Ticket: http://www.livemeeting.com/ask  

    Phone 1-866-493-2835 toll free (US and Canada Only) or refer to  http://support.microsoft.com/kb/939099/en-us  for additional support options.

     

    While much thought and planning was put into the creation of the forums, there is always room for improvement. I encourage you to please post your ideas and feedback in "General Discussion" forum or email them directly to me Irfan.Soomro@microsoft.com.

    Thank you for being a part of the Live Meeting community.

    Irfan Soomro
    Senior Program Manager

    Microsoft Office Live Meeting

Opalis v5 / v6 General announcements

AVICode 5.7 announcements

Microsoft Office 2010 Volume Activation (to be retired) announcements

  • Link
    Welcome to the Volume Activation forum!
    Ted Way

    This forum is for questions, feedback, or anything else related to volume activation for Microsoft Office 2010.  Volume products include the Office 2010 Professional Plus suite, and the volume editions of Microsoft Project and Microsoft Visio.

    Please visit the Office 2010 volume activation resource center:

    http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/office/ee691939.aspx

    If you have any questions, please feel free to post!

    Ted Way [MSFT]
    Program Manager, Microsoft Office PLEX
    Enterprise Licensing, Group Policy, and 64-bit Office

Active Directory Federation Services announcements

Opalis v4 General announcements

Opalis Quick Integration Kit announcements

Opalis Integrations announcements

Security announcements

SQL Server PowerPivot for SharePoint announcements

Hybrid Auditing announcements

Networking announcements

Virtual Machine Manager (VMware) announcements

Azure Storage announcements

  • Link
    Azure Ultra disks GA
    DiegoRamirez-MSFT

    With general availability of Microsoft Azure Ultra Disks Storage today, we are delivering the next generation of our highly performant Azure Managed Disk, for data intensive workloads migrating to or running in the cloud. Azure Ultra Disk will help you get maximum extremely scalable performance and sub-millisecond latency for applications and databases like SAP HANA, Microsoft SQL Server, MongoDB, Cassandra, Oracle DB, Postgre SQL, NoSQL, MySQL and many more.

    Azure Ultra Disks will give you access to the best in class IOPS, throughput and latency in the cloud. You can now:

    • Choose from a range of different disks sizes ranging from 4 GiB up to 64 TiB with granular increments
    • Scale performance up to 160K IOPS and 2 GB/s per disk with zero downtime using our flexible innovative design
    • Achieve the optimal performance you need per disk even at low storage capacities 

    Our preview customers have benefited by achieving new levels of performance and scale on Azure for their Virtual Machine and Container workloads. Get started today with Azure Ultra Disk Storage.  Please refer to our how-to-guidefor a deep dive and learn more at https://aka.ms/UltraDiskBlog.


  • Link
    Archived Windows Azure Storage Forum Content
    Brad Calder

    When the forums moved into specialized areas, the original forum content for Windows Azure was left archived at this link:

     

    http://social.msdn.microsoft.com/Forums/en-GB/windowsazure/

     

     

  • Link
    Windows Azure Storage Team Blog
    Brad Calder

    Please see the Windows Azure Storage Team Blog for more information on Windows Azure Storage

     

    http://blogs.msdn.com/b/windowsazurestorage/

     

Cloud Services (Web and Worker Roles) announcements

Windows Multipoint Server announcements

  • Link
    Forum closed
    Sandra Aldana - MSFT
    This forum is now closed. Thank you for your participation.
  • Link
    What to do when Dashboard cannot be used in WS 2016?
    Eva Seydl

    If you are running into an issue where the WMS Dashboard is in an unusable state the security certificate might be expired which the Dashboard needs to connect to the webservice on the Server. Please use the following steps to identify if you are running into the same issue and apply the solution provided in this article: 

    1. Run "c:\Program Files\Windows MultiPoint Server\LogCollector.exe".  Click "Collect Data" and then "View Logs" in MultiPoint Log Collector 
    2. "View Logs" will open a folder with some zip files.  Open the latest zip file, and then open "Microsoft-Windows-WMS-Trace.csv" from inside the zip file (use notepad)
    3. Search for SecurityNegotiationException in the logs.

     

    If you see this error to run the following command in PowerShell as administrator:

    net stop wms; $hostname = (Get-WmiObject -Class Win32_ComputerSystem -Property Name).Name; Get-ChildItem -Path 'Cert:\localmachine\MultiPoint Services Certificates\' | ForEach-Object {if ($_.Subject -like ('*'+$hostname+'*')) {Write-Host ('Removing '+$_.Thumbprint); Remove-Item -Path ('Cert:\localmachine\MultiPoint Services Certificates\'+$_.Thumbprint)}}; net start wms

    The certificate can also be manually deleted but the process to do that is complex, so either way should work.

    If you want to try to manually remove the certificate, follow these steps:

    1. You will need your local host name.  If you don't know that, you can run the command "hostname" from a command prompt and it will tell you the computer's host name.
    2. From a command prompt run “Net stop wms”.  You will need to be running in an elevated command prompt as an administrator.
    3. From a command prompt run “mmc.exe”.  You will also need to be running in an elevated command prompt as an administrator.
    4. CTRL+M to add a new snap-in
    5. From the list of available snap-ins on the left, choose certificates, then add it to the list.  There will be a popup dialog.  Choose computer account from the three options, then choose local computer
    6. Find “MultiPoint Services Certificates” in the list of  certificates for the local computer.  Delete all the certificates where “Issued By” is the local host name.
    7. Now run “net start wms”.  When the MultiPoint service starts, it will create a new certificate for you.  This should fix the problem.

    An update is work in progress and will be shipped in one of the upcoming releases.

  • Link
    Testdrive MultiPoint Services Role as part of Windows Server 2016
    Eva Seydl

    Download the latest technical preview for Windows Server 2016 and test-drive Multipoint Services role: https://aka.ms/ws2016-eval 

    If you are running into issues let us know here on the TechNet forum.

    Are you missing features? Let us know on UserVoice: aka.ms/uservoice-wms

Streaming Media Services announcements

Microsoft Online: Announcements announcements

MDOP Asset Inventory Service - General Discussion announcements

  • Link
    AIS Discussion Forums - Important Notice
    Paul Bourgeau
     

    Welcome to The Asset Inventory Service technical forums, brought to you by the System Center Online team!

    These forums are a venue for you to post questions, comments, and feedback about your experiences with the Asset Inventory Service.  The goal of these forums is to promote discussion among users of AIS, and foster a community of AIS users.

    Before posting a technical question, be sure to review our technical documentation and troubleshooting guides. They contain important information that may help you resolve your issue.  If you don’t find the information you need in the documentation, please post your issue. It is easier for us to give correct guidance if your log files are included.

    The log collection tool is used to gather the following information:

    ·         SCOnlineClient.log from %Windir%

    ·         System Event Logs

    ·         System Center Online Registry Settings

    ·         System Center Online Scheduled Tasks

     

    To run the log collector tool, navigate via command line to c:\program files\Microsoft System Center Online Client\Diagnostic Tools and run "cscript logcollector.vbs"

    After the Log Collection Tool script is complete, the resulting set of files is located in the same directory.

     

    Please note: The log collector files may contain personally identifiable information.  You may choose to review the contents of these files and alter them file to hide any information before posting it in these forums.

     

    We welcome your input and participation!

Systems Management Server 2003 announcements

  • Link
    Welcome to the SMS 2003 Forum!
    Wally (no longer at Microsoft)

    Welcome to the SMS 2003 forum. As you have heard, Microsoft is moving from the public newsgroups to forums. This is the one location for you to ask questions on SMS 2003.

    Please do not ask questions on Configuration Manager here (there are other forums specifically for Configuration Manager at: http://social.technet.microsoft.com/Forums/en-US/category/configurationmanager/). And please don't ask SMS 2003 questions on the Configuration Manager forums :-)

    There will be community presence here to help you with your questions on SMS 2003, however, be aware, that just like in the newsgroups, responses/answers are never guaranteed. You may need to go to Customer Support Services (CSS) to have questions resolved. We'll do our best to help here when possible.

    Thanks, and enjoy,

    Wally

Configuration Manager (Current Branch) – Mobile Device Management announcements

Configuration Manager Servicing announcements

  • Link
    Cumulative Update 1 Now Available
    Brian Huneycutt [MSFT]

    We are pleased to announce that Cumulative Update 1 for System Center 2012 Configuration Manager is now available for download via KB 2717295.

    For additional information on the cumulative update model, see our team blog. Installation instructions are covered in the “Update System Center 2012 Configuration Manager” documentation on TechNet.

  • Link
    Welcome to the Configuration Manager Servicing Forum
    Yvette O'Meally

    The Servicing forum is for discussing the servicing releases for the Configuration Manager family of products and sharing community knowledge about keeping Configuration Manager environments updated.  This includes questions about hotfixes, cumulative updates/rollups, service packs and serviceability best practices.  Questions on or troubleshooting for other product features should still take place in the appropriate forum for the feature.

    For an overview of hotfix installation for Configuration Manager 2007 please see the following article:

    KB 2477182 System Center Configuration Manager 2007 Hotfix Installation Guidance

    Before posting we would ask that you check for solutions that have already been published or posted:

    ·In posts already in the forums - often someone has already hit your issue and posted a solution (see searching below)

    ·In the documentation library HERE

    ·On other Technet resources or blogs – links below


    Tips for keyword searches:
    Sometimes it's just a difference in a keyword, but you can find a lot of answers with the correct ones.
    Search in Technet or your favorite search engine:
    Keywords: always use 'Configuration Manager' then narrow to specific terms that you find in error messages, component names or logs.
    You might be surprised how often the answer is in the top 10 results returned.

    Still didn't find what you are looking for?
    Great, create a post and provide enough information so you can get a useful answer quickly. The more information you provide, the faster someone can recognize your issue and get you the best solution.

    ·        Look through the forums to locate the category that most closely matches the feature or operation you are attempting.

    ·        Include the version of the product - Config Mgr 2007 SP1, SP2 or R2 and the KB number of the hotfix if applicable.

    ·        Describe relevant details about your environment (operating systems, SQL, AD, accounts, site settings) and what you are attempting to accomplish.

    ·        If there is an error or problem, include sections of relevant logs and/or exact error messages.

    ·        Describe what remedies you have tried already.

    ·        Check back on your post often, many are answered the same day!

    Other Useful Links:

    System Center Configuration Manager

    Main Product Page

    Community Page

    Product Team Blog

    Support Team Blog

    Configuration Manager 2012 Documentation Library

    Configuration Manager 2007 Documentation Library

    Configuration Manager 2007 Lifecycle Dates

    Configuration Manager Support Announcements


     

    Systems Management Server 2003

    TechCenter

    System Management Server 2003 Lifecycle Dates

Configuration Manager 2007 General announcements

  • Link
    All ConfigMgr 2007 forums are consolidated
    Kerim Hanif [MSFT]

    We consolidated and merged all threads of the Configuration Manager 2007 forums to Configuration Manager 2007 General.

    Please post all of your questions regarding ConfigMgr 2007 (no matter which area) to Configuration Manager 2007 General.

    Thank you.

  • Link
    ConfigMgr 2007 Superflows
    Robert Marshall - MVP

    Check out the Microsoft System Center Configuration Manager 2007 Superflows

    The SuperFlow interactive content model provides a structured and interactive interface for viewing documentation. Each SuperFlow includes comprehensive information about a specific Configuration Manager 2007 dataflow, workflow, or process. Depending on the focus of the SuperFlow, you will find overview information, steps that include detailed information, procedures, sample log entries, best practices, real-world scenarios, troubleshooting information, security information, animations, and more. Each SuperFlow also includes links to relevant resources, such as Web sites or local files that are copied to your computer when you install the SuperFlow.

    http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ff385001.aspx

  • Link
    Reporting forum is now live
    Stan White [MSFT]

    This is the home for reporting related questions including using SQL Reporting Services with Configuration Manager.

    Existing posts related to reporting are being moved there.

  • Link
    !!! Read before posting to the Configuration Manager forums !!!
    Stan White [MSFT]

    Welcome to the Configuration Manager community!

    The Configuration Manager forums are a great way to get expert help when you are not finding what you need in documentation or other online publications or if you have further clarifying questions.  There are lots of feature experts from the community ready to help - people like you who work with the product every day and have to solve the very same issues you are working though, and of course some of the folks from Microsoft that design, build, test and support the product. 

    First of all these forums are for System Center Configuration Manager 2007 releases only. 
    For the latest information see our Product Page
    Posts about other products will be moved or deleted to keep the search indexing accurate.
    For help with SMS 2003 please see the ‘other links’ at the bottom of this announcement.
    For help on Beta products use the Connect site at https://connect.microsoft.com/


    Before posting we would ask that you make a reasonable effort to find a solution that has already been published or posted:

    ·          In posts already in the forums - often someone has already hit your issue and posted a solution (see searching below)

    ·          In the documentation library HERE

    ·          On other Technet resources or blogs – links below


    Tips for keyword searches:
    Sometimes it's just a difference in a keyword, but you can find a lot of answers with the correct ones.
    Search in Technet or your favorite search engine:
    Keywords:  always use  'Configuration Manager'  then narrow to specific terms that you find in error messages, component names or logs.
    You might be surprised how often the answer is in the top 10 results returned.

    Still didn't find what you are looking for? 
    Great, create a post and provide enough information so you can get a useful answer quickly.  The more information you provide, the faster someone can recognize your issue and get you the best solution.

    ·          Look through the forums to locate the category that most closely matches the feature or operation you are attempting.

    ·          Include the version of the product - Config Mgr 2007 SP1, SP2 or R2.

    ·          Describe relevant details about your environment (operating systems, SQL, AD, accounts, site settings) and what you are attempting to accomplish.

    ·          If there is an error or problem include sections of relevant logs and/or exact error messages.

    ·          Describe what remedies you have tried already.

    ·          Check back on your post often, many are answered the same day!

     

    Other Useful Links:

     

    System Center Configuration Manager 2007

    Main Product Page

    Community Page

    Product Team Blog

    Support Team Blog

     

     

    Systems Management Server  2003

     

    TechCenter

     

    Community Support Newsgroups

    SMS Admin

    SMS Installer

    SMS Inventory

    SMS Miscellaneous

    SMS Setup

    SMS Site Communications

    SMS Software Distribution

    SMS Tools

    SMS Software Update Services

Microsoft Intune announcements

  • Link
    New MDM Forum in the Configuration Manager TechNet forums
    Shakti Prasad Mishra

    Hi Intune Admins,

    We would like to share a new resource for admins using System Center Configuration Manager with Microsoft Intune on TechNet.

    http://social.technet.microsoft.com/Forums/systemcenter/en-us/home?forum=configmanagermdm

    If you have questions about Mobile Device Management with System Center Configuration Manager + Microsoft Intune please feel free to post questions in either forum.

    Thanks,

    The Microsoft Intune Team

Office 2016 for Mac announcements

  • Link
    Welcome !
    Matt Seybold

    Office 2016 for Mac is available for Office 365 and Volume Licensing customers. The new versions of Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Outlook and OneNote provide the best of both worlds for Mac users: the familiar Office experience paired with the best of Mac. Volume License customers can download it from their Volume Licensing Service Center starting today, August 5, 2015.

    Thank you.

Visio General Questions and Answers for IT Professionals announcements

  • Link
    About the Visio 2010 forum
    Fred Diggs

    Welcome to the Visio 2010 Forum. This forum provides a place for you to discuss all topics related to Visio such as questions you may have about the product or tips & tricks you have learned and want to share with others.

Backup – Windows and Windows Server announcements

  • Link
    Old Threads
    Sushil.Baid [MSFT]
    Folks - Some of the old threads has been marked as general discussion based on inactivity on them for a longer duration. If the issue is not resolved, please start a new thread.
  • Link
    Vista Backup and Recovery - common causes and solution
    Christine Fok
    We've created a solution table on our blog for some issues we've seen while troubleshooting Vista backup\recovery (including System Restore) issues with some customers. We encourage you to visit the blog and see if it addresses your issue.

    http://blogs.technet.com/filecab/archive/2008/03/12/common-causes-and-solutions-to-backup-system-restore-and-complete-pc-backup-problems-updated.aspx

    Regards,
    Christine
  • Link
    Welcome to Windows and Windows Server Backup Forums!
    Malu Menezes

    Windows Backup forums provide you an opportunity to join a community of Windows customers where you can share knowledge on windows backup, get questions answered, and learn from others with backup needs similar to yours. Start by posting Windows Backup related questions and leverage the knowledge available in your new forum community.

     

    This forum supports Backup questions for Windows and Windows Server.

     

    Also, visit our blog for fresh information on Microsoft Storage and Windows Backup:

    http://blogs.technet.com/filecab

Remote Desktop clients announcements

High Availability (Clustering) announcements

Windows Server 2012 Essentials announcements

File Services and Storage announcements

  • Link
    New white paper providing guidance for sizing NTFS volumes
    JoseBarreto

    Microsoft released a new white paper, available here, discussing best practices and guidance for sizing NTFS volumes and some details on CHKDSK execution times on Windows Server 2008 R2. When planning Windows Server deployments, we are often asked questions such as “How large can I make my volumes?” or “How long will it take to repair a volume?”. This white paper helps answer these questions.

Hyper-V announcements

  • Link
    How to ask a question efficiently in TechNet forum
    BrianEh

    Thank you for posting in TechNet forum. The online problem solving can be relatively time consuming because it may demand several messages back and force to fully understand the symptom and background, especially at the very beginning. Here are a few suggestions that help you get the best answer to your question as quickly as possible.

     

    When You Ask

    1. Selecting a good title which summarizes the specific problem you have. It will be the one of the main driving forces for others to want to actually read your item. Choosing a badly-formatted title will drive people away, thinking that since the title is so badly written, so must be the information and the question within the thread.

    2. Provide all the necessary information in your initial post. The following information would be very helpful:

    - Symptom description: Detailed description of the problem. If you receive any error messages, please let us know the exact error WORD BY WORD.

    - Environment: The system environment, such as your OS/application version, your network topology, and your domain environment, etc.

    - Any recent relevant configuration change(s): If the issue started to occur after installing any application/updates or changing the configuration, please let us know.

    - Any additional information. Tell what you have done prior to asking your question. This will help us understand that you've done so far.

    3. Write in a clear language. Avoiding spelling mistakes or grammatical errors. Don't type IN ALL CAPS, which in most cases is read as shouting and considered rude.

    4. Keep with the same thread. Do not refer to a post you made last year, and above all, Please come back. There are hundreds and thousands of posts where we have seen people given great and wonderfully long answers yet no reply from the original poster.

    5. Be courteous to reply, even if it's to say. "I've given up" or thanks that worked. (This helps the whole community when you do this, and makes the people who donate time, warm and fuzzies.)

     

    When answered

    Give Positive Feedback. Once you've received a correct answer to your question, either from a Microsoft employee, an MVP, or the community in general, pleases replies that the issue or question has been answered. And if possible mark the solution as answered: This step is important, since it lets other people benefit from your posts.

    The content of this post was borrowed from: http://social.technet.microsoft.com/Forums/windowsserver/en-US/33d4bcfd-9a20-437c-8a5a-26d0deb01131/how-to-ask-a-question-efficiently-in-technet-forum?forum=winservergen

  • Link
    Managing Server 2012 Hyper-V Remotely
    BrianEh

    This has been a popular question lately, here are the details:

    Remote Server Admin Tools: 

    (please note that there is a client and server combination here.  AFAIK there is not (yet) a tool release to manage Server 2012 from Win 7 clients)

    Remote Server Administration Tools for Windows 8: http://www.microsoft.com/en-us/download/details.aspx?id=28972

    http://social.technet.microsoft.com/wiki/contents/articles/2202.remote-server-administration-tools-rsat-for-windows-vista-windows-7-windows-8-windows-server-2008-windows-server-2008-r2-and-windows-server-2012-dsforum2wiki.aspx

    Manage Hyper-V Server 2012 Remotely:

    http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/jj647785.aspx

    (there are domain member and non-domain member instructions in there)

IPAM, DHCP, DNS announcements

Network Access Protection announcements

Setup Deployment announcements

  • Link
    Known Issue: After applying KB 953230 WDS stops working
    Jez Sadler - MS
    On  7/8/2008, a security patch was released for DNS by Microsoft and other DNS server vendors. The Microsoft patch was tracked as KB953230 - the documentation on it is here.

    As part of the patch, DNS now reserves 2500 UDP ports - including the ports from 64000 to 65000 that WDS uses by default. Because of this, if DNS and WDS are running on the same server, WDS cannot access those ports and so is unable to perform TFTP (required for PXE boot) or Multicast.

    To work around this, open the WDS MMC, select your server, and go to Server Properties from the right-click menu or the Action menu. Then on the Network Settings page, set a different range of UDP ports. The best range to choose will depend on what else you are running on your server - you want to pick ports that other server roles and applications are not using. The dynamically allocated ports start from 49152, so your Start port should be at least that.

Remote Desktop Services (Terminal Services) announcements

Windows PowerShell announcements

Small Business Server announcements

  • Link
    Looking for the Windows Server 2012 Essentials Beta Forums?
    Cris Hanna
    http://social.technet.microsoft.com/Forums/en-US/winserveressentials/threads
  • Link
    SBS Best Practices Analyzer
    Kevin Weilbacher [SBS MVP]

    In troubleshooting SBS issues, we will often ask whether you have run the SBS (2003/2008) Best Practices Analyzer (BPA).

    BPA examines a server that is running Windows Small Business Server and then presents a list of information and errors, which are sorted by severity, that you should review. The list describes each issue, and it provides a recommendation about what you should do to resolve the issue. The recommendations are developed by the product support organization for Windows SBS.

    Download SBS 2003 BPA

    Download SBS 2008 BPA

     

    Edit by Nick Whittome 04/09/2011
    For SBS 2011, there is a requirement to install

    the Microsoft Baseline Configuration Analyzer 2.0 and then the Windows Server Solutions Best Practices Analyzer 1.0

  • Link
    How to use your own NNTP News Reader instead of the web, to access SBS Forum:
    Russ Grover - SBITS.Biz

    For any of you struggling with the Web interface, and
    users who prefer to use an NNTP (newsgroup) reader to participate in the
    newsgroups community.

    Microsoft has developed a solution called the NNTP Bridge
    which allows a user to connect a variety of supported NNTP readers to the
    forums they would like to participate in and continue having the NTTP reader
    functionality.  You can find instructions on how to download and set up the

    Microsoft NNTP Bridge
    http://connect.microsoft.com/MicrosoftForums


    Another "Non Microsoft" supported NNTP Bridge can be found here
    http://communitybridge.codeplex.com/

    This SBS Forum is group: Technet.en-US.smallbusinessserver

    Note: The drawback to using these NNTP Bridges are that you are not able to VOTE posts as Helpfull or mark your post as Answered.
    (We still urge you to reply to if the solution worked for  you however, this benefits everyone.)

  • Link
    How to Successfully Post a Question to SBS Forum:
    Russ Grover - SBITS.Biz

    Here are a few suggestions that make it sure you get the best answer to your question as quickly as possible:

    1. Search the Forum for your question  -- Quite possibly  someone may have already answered your question, and you won't have to spend time waiting for it to be answered again.

    2. If Possible Run SBS Best Practices Analyzer. (It often can help you fix problems on your own.)

    SBS2011     Best Practices Analyzer     Standard download from Here Link http://www.microsoft.com/download/en/details.aspx?id=15556
    Note In addition for SBS2011 y    ou'll also need to download Microsoft Baseline Configuration Analyzer 2.0 Here Link     http://www.microsoft.com/download/en/details.aspx?displaylang=en&id=16475  

    SBS2008     Best Practices Analyzer     Download from Here Link     http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkId=130639

    SBS2003     Best Practices Analyzer     Download from Here     Link http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyId=3874527A-DE19-49BB-800F-352F3B6F2922&displaylang=en

    3. Make sure your posting Subject or  "title" summarizes the specific problem you have -- 
    A question with a title of "Urgent! Help needed!" is not as likely to get
    answered as quickly a question with a title of "How to configure my firewall to open port 80". 
    A more specific, detailed title is far more likely to get a better response than a general one.

    4. Post what version of SBS you have. and service Packs, This helps people know where you are at.
    We can tell what version of Exchange you are using etc and sharepoint. (If different please tell.)
    (Not all details are necessary, but try to include any relevant information.)

    5. Avoid if possible "Me Too" Posts!  I'm guilty of this also, but unless it's exactly the same thing and you have some "Added information" you distract from the original post.  If you question if your issue is different Please make a new post. 

    6. Keep with the same thread. do not refer to a post you made last year, and above all, Please come back. There are hundreds and thousands of posts where I've seen people given great and wonderfully long answers yet no reply from the original poster.

    7. If you do post a question, be courteous to reply even if it's to say. "I've given up" or thanks that worked.
    (This helps the whole community when you do this, and makes the people who donate time, warm and fuzzies.)

    8. Give details about your problem --  rather than " It won't work, please  help!", provide some details like Error Codes, statements like, "Program starts, it gets to a part to install xxx and 2/3rds of the way and then does this.",  Links to Screen Shots and images also help.  Also search for any error
    messages in logs etc.  Other basic things like it was working before I did this, or it stopped working after I installed this. also helps.

    9. Give Positive FeedBack: Once you've received a correct answer to your question, either from a Microsoft employee, an MVP, or the community in general, please reply that the issue or question  has been answered. And if possible mark the solution as answered:  This step is important, since it lets other people benefit from your posts.

    In addition Please Vote as "helpful" replies that contribute to the answer or lead to resolution of the issue. 

    Reminder most answers are from volunteers. MVP's do not get paid by Microsoft.
    Many of them have REAL jobs and answer questions for FREE!

    Thank You and I hope you take the pay it forward philosophy that has made this forum a success.

    Russ Grover  SBSMVP July 2009 - July 2011

     

     

Small Business Server 2011 Essentials and Windows Storage Server 2008 R2 Essentials announcements

  • Link
    Welcome to the forum for Small Business Server 2011 Essentials and Windows Storage Server 2008 R2 Essentials!
    Ning Kuang

    Welcome to the forum for SBS 2011 Essentials and Windows Storage Server 2008 R2 Essentials!

     

    SBS 2011 Essentials and WSS 2008 R2 Essentials are both build on top of Windows Server 2008 R2 platform, and share the technologies from Windows Server Solutions product family.

    Customers will benefit from enhanced technical expertise when the two communities are combined together.

    Note, there are still major differences between these two products, It will be helpful to call out the product name when ask questions, following are some of the examples:

    1. SBS 2011 Essentials must be a Domain Controller; WSS 2008 R2 Essentials can be a standalone server.

    2. SBS 2011 Essentials does not include Media Feature.

    3. WSS 2008 R2 Essentials are offered via OEM channel as devices,  the “headless recovery” method for server recovery is used, where a server recovery DVD and a USB key are needed. For details, refer to the OEM manufactory’s user manual.

    For manuafactory related quesions and issues, you can reference your manuafactory's support and community site, for example: http://community.wdc.com/t5/WD-Sentinel-DX4000/bd-p/sentinel

  • Link
    How to use your own NNTP News Reader instead of the web, to access SBS Essentials Forum:
    Russ Grover - SBITS.Biz

    For any of you struggling with the Web interface, and
    users who prefer to use an NNTP (newsgroup) reader to participate in the
    newsgroups community.

    Microsoft has developed a solution called the NNTP Bridge
    which allows a user to connect a variety of supported NNTP readers to the
    forums they would like to participate in and continue having the NTTP reader
    functionality.  You can find instructions on how to download and set up the

    Microsoft NNTP Bridge
    http://connect.microsoft.com/MicrosoftForums/

    Another "Non Microsoft" supported NNTP Bridge can be found here
    http://communitybridge.codeplex.com/

    This SBS Essentails Forum is group: Technet.en-US.smallbusinessserver2011essentials

    Note: The drawback to using these NNTP Bridges are that you are not able to VOTE posts as Helpfull or mark your post as Answered.
    (We still urge you to reply to if the solution worked for  you however, this benefits everyone.)

    Remember to pay it forward, your knowledge is great for the community :)

    Thank You
    Russ Grover - SBS MVP

     

  • Link
    How to Successfully Post a Question to SBS Essentials Forum:
    Russ Grover - SBITS.Biz

    Here are a few suggestions that make it sure you get the best answer to your question as quickly as possible:

    1. Search the Forum for your question  -- Quite possibly  someone may have already answered your question, and you won't have to spend time waiting for it to be answered again.

    2. Make sure your posting Subject or  "title" summarizes the specific problem you have -- 
    A question with a title of "Urgent! Help needed!" is not as likely to get
    answered as quickly a question with a title of "How to configure my firewall to open port 80". 
    A more specific, detailed title is far more likely to get a better response than a general one.

    3. Post what service Packs or additional programs you have added, This helps people know where you are at.
    (Not all details are necessary, but try to include any relevant information, but if you think it may be an AV related issue mention what AV you are using.)

    5. Avoid if possible "Me Too" Posts!  I'm guilty of this also, but unless it's "Exactly" the same thing
    and you have some "Added information" you distract from the original post. 
    If you question if your issue is different, Please make a new post. 

    6. Keep with the same thread. Do not refer to a post you made last year, and above all, 
    Please come back. There are hundreds and thousands of posts where I've seen people given great and wonderfully long answers yet no reply from the original poster.

    7. If you do post a question, be courteous to reply even if it's to say. "I've given up" or thanks that worked.
    (This helps the whole community when you do this, and makes the people who donate time, warm and fuzzies.)

    8. Give details about your problem --  rather than " It won't work, please  help!", provide some details like Error Codes, statements like, "Program starts, it gets to a part to install xxx and 2/3rds of the way and then does this.",  Links to Screen Shots and images also help.  Also search for any error
    messages in logs etc.  Other basic things like it was working before I did this, or it stopped working after I installed this. also helps.

    9. Give Positive FeedBack: Once you've received a correct answer to your question, either from a Microsoft employee, an MVP, or the community in general, please reply that the issue or question  has been answered. And if possible mark the solution as answered:  This step is important, since it lets other people benefit from your posts.

    Lastly Please Vote as "helpful" replies that contribute to the answer or lead to resolution of the issue. 

    Reminder most answers are from volunteers. MVP's do not get paid by Microsoft.
    Many of them have REAL jobs and answer questions for FREE!

    Thank You and I hope you take the pay it forward philosophy that has made this forum a success.

    Russ Grover  SBSMVP July 2009 - July 2011

Configuration Manager (Current Branch) – Application Management announcements

Configuration Manager (Current Branch) – General announcements

Configuration Manager (Current Branch) – Operating System Deployment announcements

Configuration Manager (Current Branch) – Security, Updates and Compliance announcements

Configuration Manager (Current Branch) – Site and Client Deployment announcements

Configuration Manager (Current Branch) – Migration announcements

Configuration Manager (Current Branch) – SDK and PowerShell announcements

Service Manager - Customization Using the SDK and Authoring Tool announcements

Database Design announcements

  • Link
    Database Design Resources
    Arnie Rowland

    The following list of database design resources is not intended to be exhaustive or ‘the correct list’. Items are included simply because one of the Moderators knew the material and offered it as a suggestion. If you wish to offer suggestions for inclusion, please do so.

     

    Books

     

    A Developer's Guide to Data Modeling for SQL Server: Covering SQL Server 2005 and 2008

    Eric Johnson and Joshua Jones

    An Introduction to Database Systems

    Chris Date

    Applied Mathematics for Database Professionals

    Lex de Haan, Toon Koppelaars

    Architecting Regulatory-Compliant Architectures
    Mike Walker, Microsoft

    Data Modeling Essential

    Graeme Simsion and Graham Witt

    Database Modeling and Design: Logical Design

    Toby Teorey

    Information Modeling and Relational Databases

    Terry Halpin

    Practical Issues in Database Management: A Reference for the Thinking Practitioner

    Fabian Pascal

    Pro SQL Server 2008 Relational Database Design and Implementation

    Louis Davidson, Kevin Kline, et al

     

    Online Resources

     

    A Simple Guide to Five Normal forms and Relational Database Theory
    http://www.bkent.net/Doc/simple5.htm

    Data Modeling vs. Database Design
    http://www.aisintl.com/case/library/R-Theory_vs_ER/r-theory_vs_er.html

    Data Models
    http://www.databaseanswers.org/data_models/index.htm

    Database Design - Ten Common Database Design Mistakes, Louis Davidson
    http://www.simple-talk.com/sql/database-administration/ten-common-database-design-mistakes/

    Database Design Issues -EAV Model Discussion (Querying an EAV Table)
    http://tinyurl.com/yks8hu

    Database Design Issues –EAV and OTLT
    http://tonyandrews.blogspot.com/2004/10/otlt-and-eav-two-big-design-mistakes.html

    Database Design ROI by Paul Nielsen
    http://www.sqlserverbible.com/files/databasedesignroi.pdf

    Introduction to the Unified Dimensional Model (UDM)
    http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ms345143(SQL.90).aspx

    Library of database models
    http://www.databaseanswers.org/data_models/

    On Normalization and Repeating Groups by Fabian Pascal
    http://www.dbdebunk.com/page/page/622318.htm

    ORM white paper
    http://www.orm.net/pdf/ORMwhitePaper.pdf

    Overview of the Relational Model
    http://www.utexas.edu/its/archive/windows/database/datamodeling/rm/overview.html   

    Understanding Data Model Quality, Graeme Simsion
    http://www.tdan.com/view-articles/5100

     

  • Link
    Please READ before Posting or Replying to Posts
    Arnie Rowland

     


    Out of Scope
     

    Some topics are out of scope for this forum.

    1. Bugs, Product Decisions, and Feedback: The purpose of this forum is not to ask the product team why decisions were made and to ask them to make other changes. That feedback belongs in Connect. The purpose of this forum is to help you out with specific issues, if possible. Please post your feedback via Connect:

    https://connect.microsoft.com/SQLServer

      

    Rules of Conduct

    ·         Relevance to Topics: We encourage you to keep your postings as close to the subject as possible.

    ·         Respect: Please be respectful of other participants, and their contributions; avoiding insults, demeaning remarks and slurs.

    ·         Tolerance: Please don’t assume someone’s curtness was meant to insult, slur, or demean you.

    ·         Confidentiality: Confidential information should not be posted. This is a publicly available forum.

    ·         Appropriate Language: Please keep the conversation on a professional level, avoiding any hint of profanity in your interactions.

    ·         Advertising/Solicitation: Advertisements should not be posted, and will be removed.

    Forum Moderators may, at their discretion, edit posts for clarity, readability and inappropriate language; split post into separate threads when appropriate; and delete post that do not positively contribute to the thread. Failure to comply with these 'Rules of Conduct' may result in your posts being edited to remove the offending comments, censure, or expulsion from participating in the Forums. The bottom line is: this Forum should feel like a ‘safe’ place to ask hard questions that invoke passionate responses.

    Marking Answers

    By their very nature, many database design questions will not have a easily decernible 'answer'. You are encouraged to give folks 'credit' for helping you when appropriate. If someone's response was 'Helpful', use the 'Vote as Helpful' button. If a response answered some part of your question, or provided you one or more clues that led you to a solution, then use the 'Mark as Answer' option. Just as a thread may evolve into multiple questions, it may also have more than one 'Answer'.

    Welcome to the Database Design Forum

    This is a Forum for questions and discussions about database designs for Microsoft technologies, including: SQL Server, Access, SQL Azure, SQL Express, SQL Compact, etc. Often Database Designs will be generic and can be ported to any vendor's technology. Design problems that are best solved with other technologies will be welcomed and addressed to the best of our knowledge and ability.

    We ask that you recognize that database design is a mixture of art and science. You may receive conflicting suggestions, for there can be multiple paths to a workable solution. You will have to use your own judgment and knowledge of your business requirements to determine the best solution for your particular problem. The 'right' design is compounded by many factors, including business, regulatory, hardware/software requirements, as well as staff expertise. We also encourage you to share your experiences with a particular design issue if it will serve to help others encountering similar problems.

    In order to receive useful responses, please spend some time and properly present your scenario. Attempts to 'save time and effort' by cutting out parts of the scenario will often lead to wasted time and effort as the suggestions have to be discarded because they don't work with other parts of the unseen puzzle.


    But there are limits to what you can expect from volunteers through a disconnected medium. The questions most likely to receive a good and targeted answer, are those that present a small problem, that give a very clear description of that problem within its context, and that are placed by people with a fair understanding of the subject who need help getting over a few nasty bumps. The questions that are almost impossible to answer satisfactorily are those that present a huge problem, with no clear description, and asked by someone totally new to the subject matter.

    We hope that you will understand when we say that most of us that volunteer our time on this Forum do so in order to help folks learn. We will be pleased if you find the Forum to be useful. However, it is difficult or impossible for us to engage with folks privately. We don't have time to do both, and our commitment is help folks using the Forums.

    Do not hesitate to read all of the threads, join in the discussions, offer your own experiences and information, and ask questions to increase your knowlege. Seek out blogs from those who write in a manner that you appreciate, and consider reviewing the Database Design Resources for additional guidance and help.

     

Service Manager - Data Warehouse, Reporting and Dashboards announcements

Microsoft Advanced Threat Analytics announcements

Lync 2010 and OCS - Mobility announcements

Lync 2010 and OCS - Planning and Deployment announcements

Operations Manager - Authoring announcements

  • Link
    Welcome
    Justin Incarnato [MSFT]

    System Center Operations Manager forums provide you an opportunity to join a community of Operations Manager customers where you can share knowledge, get questions answered, and learn from others with IT environments similar to yours. Start by posting Operations Manager related questions in the forum corresponding to your topic of interest and leverage the knowledge available in your new forum community.

    If you have any suggestions or feedback on the System Center Operations Manager product, please feel free to post in our forums.

Operations Manager - Deployment announcements

Operations Manager - Extensibility announcements

  • Link
    Welcome
    Justin Incarnato [MSFT]

    System Center Operations Manager forums provide you an opportunity to join a community of Operations Manager customers where you can share knowledge, get questions answered, and learn from others with IT environments similar to yours. Start by posting Operations Manager related questions in the forum corresponding to your topic of interest and leverage the knowledge available in your new forum community.

    If you have any suggestions or feedback on the System Center Operations Manager product, please feel free to post in our forums.

Operations Manager - General announcements

Operations Manager - Management Packs announcements

Operations Manager - Reporting announcements

Operations Manager - Unix and Linux announcements

System Center Orchestrator - Third-Party Integrations announcements

  • Link
    FAQ: Frequently-Asked Questions About the Forum
    Robert_Hearn
    Welcome to the System Center Orchestrator forum! This forum is designed to help you find answers to questions about System Center Orchestrator (formerly Opalis Integration Server).

    Please note that this forum relates only System Center Orchestrator 2012.

    If you have questions about Opalis, please visit the Opalis forums here:     http://social.technet.microsoft.com/Forums/en-US/category/scinterop


    Q: Where can I find more information about the products, technical information and troubleshooting?

    A: You can find a number of Orchestrator-related resources from Microsoft and the community on the Opalis / Orchestrator team blog:
    http://blogs.technet.com/b/opalis/p/opalis_resources.aspx
    Q: Why are some threads locked?

    A: When a thread is marked as answered or was not replied to for a long period of time, new posts in that thread may not get recognized and may not get a response. To ensure that new posts get the visbility they need, we lock threads that are marked as answered or where we cannot get a response from the poster within a reasonable period of time, so that any new replies will be done in a new thread and gain immediate attention.

    If you have the same issue as mentioned in a previous thread, but the answer provided does not solve your problem, post a new question and refer to the existing thread so we can quickly rule out that issue as the cause of your particular problem. That will speed up the process of getting your problem solved.

    Q: How long should I expect to wait for an reply?

    A:     We typically respond to new questions within 24-48 hours (excluding weekends and holidays) depending on when the post occurred. If you need faster response or you have a critical issue, please contact Microsoft Support (http://support.microsoft.com/).

System Center Orchestrator - General announcements

  • Link
    FAQ: Frequently-Asked Questions About the Forum
    Robert_Hearn
    Welcome to the System Center Orchestrator forum! This forum is designed to help you find answers to questions about System Center Orchestrator (formerly Opalis Integration Server).

    Please note that this forum relates only System Center Orchestrator 2012.

    If you have questions about Opalis, please visit the Opalis forums here:     http://social.technet.microsoft.com/Forums/en-US/category/scinterop



    Q: Where can I find more information about the products, technical information and troubleshooting?

    A: You can find a number of Orchestrator-related resources from Microsoft and the community on the Opalis / Orchestrator team blog:
    http://blogs.technet.com/b/opalis/p/opalis_resources.aspx
    Q: Why are some threads locked?

    A: When a thread is marked as answered or was not replied to for a long period of time, new posts in that thread may not get recognized and may not get a response. To ensure that new posts get the visbility they need, we lock threads that are marked as answered or where we cannot get a response from the poster within a reasonable period of time, so that any new replies will be done in a new thread and gain immediate attention.

    If you have the same issue as mentioned in a previous thread, but the answer provided does not solve your problem, post a new question and refer to the existing thread so we can quickly rule out that issue as the cause of your particular problem. That will speed up the process of getting your problem solved.

    Q: How long should I expect to wait for an reply?

    A:     We typically respond to new questions within 24-48 hours (excluding weekends and holidays) depending on when the post occurred. If you need faster response or you have a critical issue, please contact Microsoft Support (http://support.microsoft.com/).

System Center Orchestrator - Quick Integration Kit / SDK Development announcements

  • Link
    FAQ: Frequently-Asked Questions About the Forum
    Robert_Hearn
    Welcome to the System Center Orchestrator forum! This forum is designed to help you find answers to questions about System Center Orchestrator (formerly Opalis Integration Server).

    Please note that this forum relates only System Center Orchestrator 2012.

    If you have questions about Opalis, please visit the Opalis forums here:     http://social.technet.microsoft.com/Forums/en-US/category/scinterop


    Q: Where can I find more information about the products, technical information and troubleshooting?

    A: You can find a number of Orchestrator-related resources from Microsoft and the community on the Opalis / Orchestrator team blog:
    http://blogs.technet.com/b/opalis/p/opalis_resources.aspx
     
    Q: Why are some threads locked?

    A: When a thread is marked as answered or was not replied to for a long period of time, new posts in that thread may not get recognized and may not get a response. To ensure that new posts get the visbility they need, we lock threads that are marked as answered or where we cannot get a response from the poster within a reasonable period of time, so that any new replies will be done in a new thread and gain immediate attention.

    If you have the same issue as mentioned in a previous thread, but the answer provided does not solve your problem, post a new question and refer to the existing thread so we can quickly rule out that issue as the cause of your particular problem. That will speed up the process of getting your problem solved.

    Q: How long should I expect to wait for an reply?

    A:     We typically respond to new questions within 24-48 hours (excluding weekends and holidays) depending on when the post occurred. If you need faster response or you have a critical issue, please contact Microsoft Support (http://support.microsoft.com/).

System Center Orchestrator - System Center Integrations announcements

  • Link
    FAQ: Frequently-Asked Questions About the Forum
    Robert_Hearn
    Welcome to the System Center Orchestrator forum! This forum is designed to help you find answers to questions about System Center Orchestrator (formerly Opalis Integration Server).

    Please note that this forum relates only System Center Orchestrator 2012.

    If you have questions about Opalis, please visit the Opalis forums here:     http://social.technet.microsoft.com/Forums/en-US/category/scinterop


    Q: Where can I find more information about the products, technical information and troubleshooting?

    A: You can find a number of Orchestrator-related resources from Microsoft and the community on the Opalis / Orchestrator team blog:
    http://blogs.technet.com/b/opalis/p/opalis_resources.aspx
    Q: Why are some threads locked?

    A: When a thread is marked as answered or was not replied to for a long period of time, new posts in that thread may not get recognized and may not get a response. To ensure that new posts get the visbility they need, we lock threads that are marked as answered or where we cannot get a response from the poster within a reasonable period of time, so that any new replies will be done in a new thread and gain immediate attention.

    If you have the same issue as mentioned in a previous thread, but the answer provided does not solve your problem, post a new question and refer to the existing thread so we can quickly rule out that issue as the cause of your particular problem. That will speed up the process of getting your problem solved.

    Q: How long should I expect to wait for an reply?

    A:     We typically respond to new questions within 24-48 hours (excluding weekends and holidays) depending on when the post occurred. If you need faster response or you have a critical issue, please contact Microsoft Support (http://support.microsoft.com/).

Virtual Machine Manager - Self-Service Portal 2.0 announcements

  • Link
    Now Available - System Center Virtual Machine Manager Self-Service Portal 2.0 SP1
    mlbriggs

    Using the System Center Virtual Machine Manager Self-Service Portal 2.0 SP1, you can respond more effectively—and at a lower cost—to the rapidly changing needs of your organization. Built on Windows Server 2008 R2, Hyper-V technology, and System Center Virtual Machine Manager, the VMMSSP enables you to offer infrastructure as a service.

    The VMMSSP includes a pre-built, role-based self-service portal for both the datacenter managers and business unit IT consumers to provision infrastructures for their applications and services. The VMMSSP is now localized in three languages: Japanese, Traditional Chinese, and Simplified Chinese. This dynamic self-service portal provides automated workflows to on-board business unit IT departments, and enables partners to expose their unique hardware capabilities through familiar Microsoft scripting technologies.

     

    This new version provides localization for Chinese and Japanese and lets users import virtual machines created outside the self-service portal but managed by VMM and additionally to re-import virtual machines previously removed. Fully supported by Microsoft, the System Center Virtual Machine Manager Self-Service Portal 2.0 SP1 is a partner-extensible solution that enables customers to dynamically pool, allocate, and manage their computer, network, and storage resources to deliver a private cloud platform inside their datacenter.

    Next steps:

     

    System Center Virtual Machine Manager Self-Service Portal 2.0 SP1 features:

    • Import virtual machines. Allows DCIT administrators to re-import virtual machines that were removed from the self-service portal and also import virtual machines created outside the portal but managed by VMM.
    • Set virtual machine expiration dates. This feature lets users set an expiration date for the virtual machines that are being created or imported so that the virtual machines auto-delete after the set date. This feature also provides users the flexibility (through role-based access) to set or change the expiration date for the virtual machine.
    • Define and use custom virtual machine actions. A datacenter administrator can now create up to five custom virtual machine actions and make them available to users on the Virtual Machines tab of the self-service portal. For example, a database administrator can create a Create Checkpoint action and add it to the list of actions on the Virtual Machines tab.
    • Use Opalis policies in virtual machine actions. In a datacenter that includes a deployment of Opalis Integration Server, a datacenter administrator can customize tasks in virtual machine actions to trigger Opalis policies instead of running scripts.
    • Define and use custom virtual machine properties. A datacenter administrator can define custom properties to collect information from users in the Create Virtual Machine wizard, and use these properties in the tasks of the CreateVM virtual machine action. For example, if a datacenter administrator creates the properties RAM and CPU Count, the Create Virtual Machine wizard includes fields for RAM and CPU Count. When a user finishes the wizard, the wizard passes the RAM and CPU Count values that the user entered to the tasks in the CreateVM virtual machine action.
    • Notify administrators. This feature provides functionality to notify BUIT or DCIT administrators via email about various events in the system (for example, Submit request, Approve request, and so on).
    • Move infrastructures between business units. This feature allows DCIT administrators to move an infrastructure from one business unit to another when the system is in Maintenance Mode.
    • VMMSSP Management Pack. This feature allows DCIT administrators to monitor the health of the self-service portal components. Download VMMSSP Management pack.
    • Localization. The VMMSSP is now localized in three languages: Japanese, Traditional Chinese, and Simplified Chinese.
    • Manage virtual machine DVD drives and media. When working with virtual machines that have DVD drives, users can attach media such as ISO images to the virtual machines.
    • Connect to VMware virtual machines. Users can now use the VMMSSP to manage and connect to virtual machines hosted by VMware host servers.
  • Link
    New visitors – Please read before posting
    mlbriggs

    Hello!

    This forum is dedicated to questions about Microsoft System Center Virtual Machine Manager 2008 R2 Self-Service Portal 2.0 (VMMSSP). Please use good judgment to post your question to the relevant subforums.

    If your question is not about this product, please find the correct forum here: http://forums.microsoft.com/TechNet/default.aspx?SiteID=17

     

    When posting a question or an issue, it is helpful to include the product version that you have a question about, your VMM environment, the steps you tried, and any specific error messages you observed.

    Thanks!

  • Link
    Welcome to the VMMSSP v2 TechNet forum
    mlbriggs

    Hello and welcome to the Microsoft System Center Virtual Machine Manager 2008 R2 Self-Service Portal 2.0 forum!

     

    The VMMSSP forum provides you with an opportunity to join a community of VMM 2008 R2 customers where you can share knowledge, get questions answered, and learn from others with IT environments similar to yours. Start by posting questions related to VMMSSP in the forum corresponding to your topic of interest, and leverage the knowledge available in your new forum community.

    If you have any suggestions or feedback regarding VMMSSP, please feel free to post in our forums.

  • Link
    Announcing the release of Microsoft System Center Virtual Machine Manager 2008 R2 Self-Service Portal 2.0
    mlbriggs

    VMMSSP (also referred to as the self-service portal) is a fully supported, partner-extensible solution built on top of Windows Server 2008 R2, Hyper-V, and System Center VMM. You can use it to pool, allocate, and manage resources to offer infrastructure as a service and to deliver the foundation for a private cloud platform inside your datacenter. VMMSSP includes a pre-built web-based user interface that has sectionsfor both the datacenter managers and the business unit IT consumers, with role-based access control. VMMSSP also includes a dynamic provisioning engine. VMMSSP reduces the time needed to provision infrastructures and their components by offering business unit “on-boarding,” infrastructure request and change management. The VMMSSP package also includes detailed guidance on how to implement VMMSSP inside your environment.

    Prerequisites:

    ·         Windows Server 2008 R2 Enterprise Edition or Windows Server 2008 R2 Datacenter Edition.

    ·         Windows Server Internet Information Services (IIS) 7.0

    ·         Virtual Machine Manager 2008 R2.

    ·         SQL Server 2008 Enterprise Edition or Standard Edition.

    ·         .Net Framework 3.5 SP1

    ·         Message Queueing (also known as MSMQ)

    ·         Windows PowerShell 2.0

    Where to get it: Download VMMSSP 2.0

    Benefits of VMMSSP:

    With VMMSSP, you can:

    ·         Allocate datacenter resources. Use VMMSSP to pool datacenter infrastructure resources, such as network, storage, load balancers, virtual machine templates, and domains, and make them available to business units to meet their infrastructure needs. You can also use VMMSSP to establish the costs associated with reserving and using infrastructure resources.

    ·         Simplify business unit on-boarding. Use VMMSSP to simplify the process of enrolling a business unit and provisioning its infrastructure. With VMMSSP, datacenter administrators can register business unit requirements in one central location. After they have registered, business unit administrators can request resources in the organization’s infrastructure pool to host their IT services.

    ·         Validate and provision infrastructures requests. Use VMMSSP to simplify the process that datacenter administrators use to validate and provision a business unit IT administrator’s infrastructure requests. Using VMMSSP, datacenter administrators can provision the requested resources, and assign them to the requesting business unit IT administrator.

    ·         Provide forms for self-service virtual machine provisioning. Use VMMSSP to streamline the business unit IT user’s experience in managing virtual machines.

    ·         Extend and customize virtual machine actions. Use the powerful extensibility features of VMMSSP to work with IHV, ISV, and SI partners to customize different virtual machine actions (create, delete, stop, start, resume, shutdown, pause, store, and deploy).In this way, you can leverage the unique characteristics of your infrastructure.

     

    Note   Like the self-service portal that is currently available as part of Virtual Machine Manager 2008 R2, the new self-service portal offers a web-based user interface for managing virtual machines. But it also differs from the existing self-service portal in many ways. One of the most important differences is that the virtual machine actions are extensible, so datacenter administrators work with hardware vendors and partners to customize the actions to match their own capabilities or requirements. Another difference is that this self-service portal provides standardized workflows that gather data using web-based forms and support both manual and automated steps. This approach reduces the time needed to provision infrastructures and their components, and helps ensure consistency in the resulting infrastructures.

     

    Important   VMMSSP is not an upgrade to the existing VMM 2008 R2 self-service portal. You can choose to deploy and use one or both self-service portals depending on your requirements.

SQL Server Analysis Services announcements

SQL Server Compact announcements

Data Mining announcements

SQL Server Express announcements

Power Pivot announcements

  • Link
    Fix for PowerPivot November CTP Expiration Released
    Kathy MacDonald [MSFT]

    The PowerPivot team is pleased to report that the fix for the November CTP expiration issue has been released. We know many of you have been eagerly awaiting this fix since last week when the PowerPivot for Excel add-in expired. We do sincerely apologize for the inconvenience this may have caused you.

    We have released a new version of the November CTP for the PowerPivot for Excel add-in. This new version is functionally identical to the old one except that it extends the expiration date to end of the year. You can download it from the same locations as in the past:

    Please note that the new version will take some time to replicate across all servers in the Microsoft download center. If you download it from the above links and still get the expiration error message, then try again periodically. It might also help to clear any browser/download caches on your computer.

  • Link
    PowerPivot for Excel 2010 November CTP Expired
    Kathy MacDonald [MSFT]

    If you are running the November 2009 CTP version of the PowerPivot for Excel 2010 add-in, your add-in expired on April 1st. We apologize for any inconvenience this may have caused you.

    The SQL Server team will re-release the November 2009 CTP version of the PowerPivot for Excel 2010 add-in with an extended expiration date very soon. We will post an availability announcement with the download location and installation instructions on the PowerPivot blogs and forums as soon as possible.

    Kathy MacDonald
    SQL Server Analysis Services

  • Link
    PowerPivot Beta will not work with released versions of Excel, Sharepoint 2010 and others. Pls read!!
    Vikram Jayaram


    Summary

    =============================

    If PowerPivot for Excel 2010, Excel 2010, SharePoint 2010, or the Reporting Services Addin for SharePoint 2010 are beta versions, PowerPivot and its related functionality will not work with the Released versions of these components.

     

    More Information

    =============================

    The beta versions of the components listed above are not compatible with the released versions of these components. If the beta versions of the components are installed, they will not function with the released versions. For example, if you have a beta version of the PowerPivot download installed and upgrade to the released version of Excel 2010, the PowerPivot addin will not be available in Excel.

     

    The solution is to upgrade the beta components to their released versions when they become available.

SQL Server Master Data Services announcements

  • Link
    SQL16 CTP2.3 is available for download
    Sherry_Li

    We are excited to share the new features which shipped in SQL CTP2.3 public release.  You can download the product here:http://www.microsoft.com/en-us/download/details.aspx?id=48726, and Excel add-in here: http://www.microsoft.com/en-us/download/details.aspx?id=47343

    In this monthly release, we added a few highly asked features.  Please give it try and look forward to hearing your feedback.

    Manage Business Rules (MDS Add-in for Excel)

    In the Master Data Services Add-in for Excel you can manage Business Rules, such as creating and editing business rules. Business rules are used to validate data. For more information, see Manage Business Rules (MDS Add-in for Excel).

    Many-to-Many Relationships in Derived Hierarchies

    You can now create a Derived Hierarchy that displays  many-to-many relationships. A many-to-many relationship between two entities may be modeled through the use of a third entity that provides a mapping between them. The mapping entity is an entity that has two or more domain-based attributes referencing other entities.

    For example, entity M has a domain-based attribute that references A and a domain-based attribute that references B. You can create a hierarchy from A to B using the mapping entity.

    For more information, see Show Many-to-Many Relationships in Derived Hierarchies (Master Data Services)

    Merge Conflicts

    If you try to publish data that has been changed by another user, the publish will fail with a conflict error. To resolve this error, you can perform merge conflicts and republish the changes. For more information, see Merge Conflicts (Master Data Services) and Merge Conflicts (MDS Add-in for Excel). 

     SQL Master Data Services Team

  • Link
    Master Data Services SQL2016 CTP2.2(July) Release is public available
    Sherry_Li

    Please give it a try and let us know your feedback!

    SQL Server 2016 Community Technology Preview 2.2 is publicly released and the latest bits can be found at http://www.microsoft.com/en-us/evalcenter/evaluate-sql-server-2016

    In CTP2.2 MDS introduced following changes:

    1. Custom Indexes

    You can create a non-clustered index on one attribute (single index) or on a list of attributes (composite index), in an entity, to help improve the query performance. For more information, see Custom Index (Master Data Services).

    2. Entity Sync Relationship

    You can share entity data between different models by creating an entity sync relationship. For more information, see Entity Sync Relationship (Master Data Services).

    3. Member Revision History

    A member revision history is recorded when a member is changed. You can rollback a revision history, as well as view and annotate revisions. Using the Log Retention Days property, you can specify how long historical data is retained. For more information, see Member Revision History (Master Data Services).

  • Link
    New release on MDS Excel add-in available for download
    Sherry_Li

    Hi, we are pleasured to announce the release of MDS Excel add-in. You can download it here:

    http://www.microsoft.com/en-us/download/details.aspx?id=42298

    This release includes a number of performance improvements – most users will see a 4x improvement when loading data from an MDS server, without any additional server or environment changes. For an additional performance increase (2-4x), you can enable Dynamic Content Compression in IIS.

    It works with both SQL12 or SQL14.  The installation will be in place upgrade so the users don't need to uninstall previous installation.  All the MDS connections will be preserved through the installation. 

    Please download the new version of Excel add-in.  Your feedback is welcome!

    Thanks,

    SQL MDS Team

  • Link
    Please Indicate "Mark as Answer" if a Post has Answered the Question
    edhickey

    While reading a reply to your question, you will notice a button with an icon that says "Mark as Answer."   Please select this button when a reply answers your question.

     

    There are several reasons to do this:

     

    • Our search engine weights Answered questions more highly. By marking Answers you increase the chances that others searching this forum will find the answer directly rather than re-posting the question.
    • You give credit to the hard working folks who answer your questions. This is peer to peer support, so recognition is our only reward. (Check out the Top Answerers in 30 Days chart at the bottom of the thread list to see who is currently answering questions.)
    • You help Microsoft to track the health of this forum. Our forum gets 'measured' based on how many unanswered questions are in it at any time and we work hard to keep those numbers to as low a level as possible. By marking answers, others get a more accurate understanding of how well (or badly) things are going on the forum.

     

    You can also vote "Yes" or "No" if the reply was helpful.

     

    Thank you!

     

    Ed Hickey

Machine Learning Services (R announcements

  • Link
    Get started with R analytics on SQL server
    Jitendra Kulshreshtha

    Overview

    The process of building an end to end solution typically consists of obtaining and cleaning data, data exploration and feature engineering, model training and tuning, and finally deployment of the model in production. Development and testing of the actual code is best performed using a dedicated development environment. For R, that might mean RStudio or R Tools for Visual Studio.

    However, after the solution has been created, you can easily deploy it to SQL Server using Transact-SQL stored procedures in the familiar environment of Management Studio.

    In this tutorial, we assume that you have been given all the R code needed for the solution, and focus on building and deploying the solution using SQL Server.

  • Link
    Run machine learning directly on SQL Server !!!
    Jitendra Kulshreshtha

    What is SQL Server Machine Learning Services?

    • THIS TOPIC APPLIES TO: yesSQL Server (Windows only)

    SQL Server Machine Learning Services is an embedded, predictive analytics and data science engine that can execute R and Python code within a SQL Server database as stored procedures, as T-SQL script containing R or Python statements, or as R or Python code containing T-SQL.

    The key value proposition of Machine Learning Services is the power of its proprietary packages to deliver advanced analytics at scale, and the ability to bring calculations and processing to where the data resides, eliminating the need to pull data across the network.

    There are two options for using machine learning capabilities in SQL Server:

    R and Python packages

    Support for each language is through proprietary Microsoft packages used for creating and training models of various types, scoring data, and parallel processing using the underlying system resources.

    Because the proprietary packages are built on open-source R and Python distributions, script or code that you run in SQL Server can also call base functions and use third-party packages compatible with the language version provided in SQL Server (Python 3.5 and recent versions of R, currently 3.3.3).

    RPythonDescription
    RevoScaleRrevoscalepyFunctions in these libraries are among the most widely used. Data transformations and manipulation, statistical summarization, visualization, and many forms of modeling and analyses are found in these libraries. Additionally, functions in these libraries automatically distribute workloads across available cores for parallel processing, with the ability to work on chunks of data that are coordinated and managed by the calculation engine.
    MicrosoftMLmicrosoftmlIndustry-leading machine learning algorithms for image featurization, classification problems, and more.
    olapRnoneBuild or execute an MDX query in R script.
    sqlRUtilsnoneFunctions for putting R scripts into a T-SQL stored procedure, registering a stored procedure with a database, and running the stored procedure from an R development environment.
    mrsdeploynonePrimarily used on a non-SQL installation of Machine Learning Server, such as the (Standalone) version. Use this package to deploy and host web services, build scale-out topologies with dedicated web and compute nodes, toggle between local and remote sessions, run diagnostics, and more. For an (In-Database) installation, use this package in a client capacity: for example, to access a web service on a remote server dedicated to running just Machine Learning Services workloads.

    Portability of your custom R and Python code is addressed through package distribution and interpreters that are built into multiple products. The same packages that ship in SQL Server are also available in several other Microsoft products and services, including a non-SQL version called Microsoft Machine Learning Server. Free clients that include our R and Pyton interpreters include Microsoft R Client and the Python libraries.

.NET Framework inside SQL Server announcements

SQL Server Notification Services announcements

SQL Server Replication announcements

SQL Server Reporting Services, Power View announcements

SQL Server Migration announcements

  • Link
    Welcome to the SQL Server Migration forum
    Keshav Ramarao

    Need help with migration to SQL Server? Have any questions related to SQL Server Migration Assistant (SSMA) products for Oracle/Sybase/MySQL/Access? Feel free to discuss any SQL Server migration related topics or post any questions related to SSMA.

SQL Server Samples and Community Projects announcements

  • Link
    How to Use this Forum - Please Read Before Posting
    Mr. Wharty

    Welcome to the SQL Server Samples and Community Projects Forum.

    This forum is the place to discuss all things "samplish" in the SQL Server community and samples space, whether it's an "official Microsoft sample" or a community project in CodePlex or Code Gallery. This is*not* the place to discussion specific nuances of T-SQL syntax or wage data modeling methodology wars: there are lots of other forums for those purposes. This one is for questions about samples, community projects and conversations between the collaborators that build them.

    Some examples of projects that are open for discussion can be found here: http://www.codeplex.com/SqlServerSamples. It doesn't have to be listed there to be fair game, but it's a good bet that it is fair game if it's already listed there.

    Below are a few guidelines to help you find your answer quickly and also to help the people who answer the questions, answer yours correctly.

    • Is your question about SQL Server Samples and Community Projects . If it's not please locate the correct forum otherwise your question may be moved, closed/locked or deleted.
    • Try searching the forum . Search the forum to see if your question has been asked before and answered.  If you cannot find what you are looking for, please start a new thread rather than adding to an old one as some people do not see answered questions in their forum views so you may not get the assistance you're looking for.
    • Don't be brief . The more information you can give in your question, the better the response will be.
    • Check your alerts . You can subscribe to a question so that you can see any update on it (ReferSetting up your alerts below).
    • No Spam. Spamming will have your thread deleted and may also result in your account being banned.
    • Be polite.  You will get better assistance if you're polite to other members so no flaming or trolling.  If you persist with flaming or trolling, your accountmay get banned.
    • Mark your question answered. If someone answers your question please mark their reply as the answer to your question. You can also mark multiple replies as answers if you think they answered your question.  Marking replies not only assists others with similar questions, it also let's people know that you're grateful for their assistance.

    Dead thread/Answer policy.

    Where possible the moderators will allow sufficient time for the original poster to come back and mark the replies to their questions as answers. The amount of time is at the discretion of the individual moderator but is suggested that it will be declared dead after a week if the original poster does not respond . We will always try to be fair and mark suitable replies as answers.

    Setting up your alerts

    If you are having trouble receiving alerts on the threads you have created or replied to please see thisthread for troubleshooting advice.

  • Link
    Samples bugs and suggestions.
    David Reed (Glacier Peak)
    All of the work items for our community projects and product samples are in TFS on CodePlex. If you want to report a bug, suggest a change for an existing sample or suggest a new sample, create a work item in the appropriate project so that our community team (not just Microsoft employees) can vote on them, help us triage and prioritize them.

    For example, here's the URL for the work items for AdventureWorks: http://www.codeplex.com/MSFTDBProdSamples/WorkItem/AdvancedList.aspx
  • Link
    Welcome aboard! Community & Samples Forum Intro
    David Reed (Glacier Peak)

    This forum is the place to discuss all things "samplish" in the SQL Server community and samples space, whether it's an "official Microsoft sample" or a community project in CodePlex or Code Gallery. This is *not* the place to discussion specific nuances of T-SQL syntax or wage data modeling methodology wars: there are lots of other forums for those purposes. This one is for questions about samples, community projects and conversations between the collaborators that build them.

     

    Some examples of projects that are open for discussion can be found here: http://www.codeplex.com/SqlServerSamples/ It doesn't have to be listed there to be fair game, but it's a good bet that it is fair game if it's already listed there.

     

    Also, please post your project announcements here when you create a new release or a whole new project. If you're looking for people to work on your project or looking for a project to work on, this would be a good place to do both.

     

    Let us know what's missing, let know what could be better and let us know what we're doing right!

SQL Server Setup announcements

System Center Essentials 2010 announcements

  • Link
    Frequently Posted Questions and Answers
    Anshu Agrawal

    Frequently Posted Questions and Answers

    Following list of questions are from SCE 2007 and SCE 2010 forums and answers applies to SCE 2010.
    Document Owner: Anshu Agrawal

     

    Question 1 - How can I create auditing rules in Essentials?

    Question 2 - How do I set up a remote console in a different domain or using local policy?

    Question 3 - How can I discover network devices to manage?

    Question 4: Can I run both Essentials and WSUS in the same domain?

    Question 5: Can I monitor a machine that is in a workgroup?

    Question 6:  My managed computers installed successfully, but still report a status of "unknown" in the computer space.  How can I get them to contact?

    Question 7: How can I create a dynamic deployment group?

    Question 8: I get an error when creating software packages saying verification failed.  How do I resolve the issue?

    Question 9: What would prompt an update to go in “Unknown” category in updates space overviews page?

    Question 10: What steps are required to uninstall Essentials from server A and reinstall on server B on same domain?

    Question 11: Is it possible to upgrade from SQL Express to SQL standard without reinstalling Essentials?

    Question 12: Can Essentials ask for the location of the VM files on the destination during the migration process?

    Question 13: Can a package be redeployed?

    Question 14: If we disable auto-select would it uncheck previously selected products?

    Question 15: Where can I find deployment guide of Essentials 2010?

    Question 16: What is the data retention schedule for reporting in Essentials? 

    Question 17: How can you send files to Microsoft for the Essentials team to review?

    Question 18: How can you verify if the computer (agent) is contactable via network?

    Question 19: What if the computer discovery fails for an agent box?

    Question 20: How can you choose installation path for SQL in Essentials installation process?

    Question 21: Why does running the automatic approval rule for all computers result in unapproved updates?

    Question 22: Can third party updates be approved by auto-approval feature?

    Question 23: What if you see monitoringHost.exe process consuming a lot of CPU?

    Question 24: How to troubleshoot if windows update (WU) and Essentials reports different status for updates?

    Question 25: What are the locations to find common logs to troubleshoot issues in Essentials?

    ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

    Question 1 - How can I create auditing rules in Essentials?

    Answer: In Essentials, you can create custom rules that collect events from the security log. 

    Go to Authoring space -> Management Pack objects -> select Rules -> Create a rule -> Alert Generating Rules/Event Based/NT Event Log.

    Select the Essentials group you want to collect events from. To collect from all computers, select the Agent group.

    Select the Security Log to collect events from. Next you build the Filter Expression.

    The Source will be Security and the Event ID will be the security event you are interested in, for example event 612 is Audit Policy Changed.

    Finally, configure the alert with title and description to match the event, such as "Audit Policy was changed".

    You need to make sure that auditing for the type of event you want to capture is turned on at the domain group policy or local security policy level, otherwise the security events won't be written to the log for Essentials to see them.

     

    Question 2 - How do I set up a remote console in a different domain or using local policy?

    Answer: When in the same domain, the certificates used to connect to Essentials are generally available from the group policy, but for a different domain or local policy, the certificates require manual import on the UI machine.

    The two certificates are available on the Essentials server in the install directory folder titled Certificates.  The WSUSSSLCert.cer should be imported into the local computer's trusted root authority store.  The WSUSCodeSigningCert.cer should be imported into the local computer's trusted root authority, third party publishers and third party root certification authority stores.

    Question 3 - How can I discover network devices to manage?

    Answer: To discover network devices, launch the same wizard used to discover computers (it appears in the administration space of the splash page in Computer and device section with the name "Add new Computer and devices").  In the Discovery type page, chose network devices.

     

    Question 4: Can I run both Essentials and WSUS in the same domain?

    Answer: Individual machines can only report to one WSUS server.  Those machines managed by Essentials should only report to the Essentials server for updates, although users are not prohibited from contacting Microsoft update directly by default.  If not all machines in the domain report to the Essentials server, a second Essentials server can be used to manage just those machines not included in Essentials.

     

    If the current environment is running a WSUS 3.0 server, you can upgrade the current server to be a Essentials server and retain the settings and data currently stored.

     

    Question 5: Can I monitor a machine that is in a workgroup?


    Answer: Yes.  You will require two certificates from a trusted authority for both the Essentials server and the new manual agent.

    For more information on how to create the appropriate certificates, see http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/bb735408.aspx

     

    To import the Essentials server’s certificate on the server machine, use the install directory\tools\MOMCertImport.exe tool. 

    Use the System Center Essentials 2010 media and choose a manual agent install.  You will need the two certificates from the install directory of SCE in a folder called ‘certificates’ (WSUSSSLCert.cer and WSUSCodeSigningCert.cer, as well as the PFX certificate from the trusted authority and the trusted authority .cer certificate.

     

    Question 6:  My managed computers installed successfully, but still report a status of "unknown" in the computer space.  How can I get them to contact?

    Answer:  The out of box experience wizard or configure product features wizard must have been run before computers will report status in this section.  If using group policy, the settings may take some time to update before the clients will contact.  If using local policy, the configure product features wizard must be run before agent deployment.

    If these steps have been completed successfully, check one of the machines that is reporting the "unknown" inventory by running the rsop.msc.  Computer Configuration\Administrative Settings\Windows Components\Windows Update\Specify intranet Microsoft updates location should point to https://sceserver.fqdn:8531.  If this is not the case, check that the computer is a member of the AD security group SCE Managed Computers (SCESERVER_MG) and if so, try relogging into the machine or rebooting to pick up the group membership.

    If the correct server is reported, check the %WINDIR%\WindowsUpdate.log to see if any errors are occurring with contacting the Essentials server.  As always, if the answer is not clear, these forums are here to help!  Including the log file information in your post will aid in quick answer.

     

    Question 7: How can I create a dynamic deployment group?

     Answer: Many dynamic groups are available in Essentials from imported management packs that are not initially update/software deployment groups.  For example, groups already exist for SQL servers, active directory servers, or exchange servers if the management packs have been imported for monitoring.  To make these deployment groups, chose to create a group from an already exiting group in the computers space grouping wizard.  If the group you would like to create does not exist by default, try choosing the option to Specify Criteria.  This will create a dynamic group based on manufacturer, model, operating system, service pack, and/or organizational units.

    The authoring space contains a more complex grouping wizard that can create a dynamic computer group based on computer properties.  Once the group has been created from the wizard, it will be available to become update/software deployment group in the computers space using the “create new groups wizard”.

     

    Question 8: I get an error when creating software packages saying verification failed.  How do I resolve the issue?

     

    Answer: Either the out of box experience wizard or the product configuration wizard must be run before using any of the software packaging features of the product.  If this is a remote UI, ensure that the WSUSSigningCert.cer is imported onto the local UI machines Trusted Root Authorities, Third Party Publishers and Trusted Publishers certificates store.  You can find this certificate on the Essentials server installation directory in a folder called Certificates.

     

    Question 9: What would prompt an update to go in “Unknown” category in updates space overviews page?

    Answer: The Update comes to unknown state if it’s not pending, failed or successful. When an update is not qualified for any other states it will put into unknown state.

    Basically “unknown” state is not an installation status as we have pending, failed and successful. Usually it is because an update is so “new” to Essentials that WSUS hasn’t run the applicability check on that update yet. So WSUS does not even know if the update is applicable to the clients. Not to mention the installation status which is after the applicability check, approval and installation of the update are done. Unknown is usually a transient state.

    The unknown state will not display on the overview page of the updates space in Essentials 2010.

     

    Question 10: What steps are required to uninstall Essentials from server A and reinstall on server B on same domain?

    Answer: You must uninstall Essentials from server A to install it on server B first if both servers are on same domain (Only one copy of Essentials per domain is supported).
    Please follow the following steps:

    1. Uninstall from server A
    2. Check to make sure the AD GPO and Security group objects are gone from AD (The security group is called SCE Managed Computers and the policy objects are named System Center Essentials All Computer Policy and SCE Managed Computer Policy)
    3. Install Essentials on server B.
    NOTE: Please go to administration->agent managed and uninstall all SCE agents prior to reinstalling Essentials.

    Also, uninstall Essentials will also uninstall WSUS.

    Question 11: Is it possible to upgrade from SQL Express to SQL standard without reinstalling Essentials?

    Answer: It is possible to upgrade SQL Express to SQL standard:
    http://www.toddklindt.com/blog/Lists/Posts/Post.aspx?ID=55 

    Question 12: Can Essentials ask for the location of the VM files on the destination during the migration process?

    Answer: On the Migrate Virtual machine page, there is an option to specify the folder location on the destination host. There is also a "Browse..." button to select a different location on the destination host. The virtual machine will be placed on the location specified here.

    Question 13: Can a package be redeployed?

    Answer: If you have successfully deployed your package and try to redeploy it won't fail or give you any errors, it will just not re-deploy it. In other case if you are trying to redeploy a package because it failed before. You can fix the failures on the package and redeploy it and it will deploy it. You can also do:
    1)If the package is based on msi, you just uninstall it on the client and it will be redeployed.
    2) If the package is based on exe, you have to delete the file C:\Windows\SoftwareDistribution\DataStore\DataStore.edb (need to stop the automatic update service before). If you do this, all exe based applications that have been deployed to this machine before will be redeployed.

    Question 14: If we disable auto-select would it uncheck previously selected products?

    Answer: If you disable auto-select it will keep the products selection settings currently chosen but it will not add any or remove any product unless the user selects to manually.

    Question 15: Where can I find deployment guide of Essentials 2010?

    Answer: Deployment Guide

     

    Question 16: What is the data retention schedule for reporting in Essentials? 

    Answer: The data retention value is 37 days for reporting.
    If the retention period is increased on SQL Express you may hit the maximum allowed SQL Express database size.

    Question 17: How can you send files to Microsoft for the Essentials team to review?

    Answer: You can send data like logs, screenshots etc to us for review rather than posting them into a thread post.  This should help keep the posts smaller and easier to read.

    If requested, please send email to SCEData@microsoft.com.  If at all possible, please zip the files before sending.

    Please be sure to match the subject of the email with the subject of the post.

    Question 18: How can you verify if the computer (agent) is contactable via network?

    Answer:

    a.     Use the ping command to try and reach the computer using the same name provided to the discovery wizard.  You can do that by going to computer space -> select the computer -> Ping from task pane.

    b.    b. If the machine responds to a ping command, use the IP address of the computer to run ping with the “-a” switch and the IP address, e.g. “ping –a <IP address>”.  This will display the DNS name of the machine; it should match what was used in the original ping command.

    c.     c. Use “nbstat –a <computer name>” to see the registered NetBIOS name and the domain for the computer.  Use “nbstat –A <IP address>” to accomplish the same task using the IP address of the machine.

    d.    NetBIOS is not enabled by default and your network may not be configured to use it.  To determine NetBIOS status, use “ipconfig /all” from the command-line and look for a NetBIOS entry.

     

    Question 19: What if the computer discovery fails for an agent box?

    Answer:  Open the Event Viewer on Essentials server, check if any error message is logged on the Operations Manager event log with the computer name. You can forward the error message or screenshot at SCEData@microsoft.com

     

    Question 20: How can you choose installation path for SQL in Essentials installation process?

    Answer: Default installation does not allow choosing the SQL installation path. But you can install the SQL manually in the desired location and then try installing the SCE 2010. You can find the SQL 2008 Express bits under the prerequisite\SQL folder. SCE setup will detect the installed SQL instance.

     

    Question 21: Why does running the automatic approval rule for all computers result in unapproved updates?

    Answer: this can happen if EULA for that unapproved update has not been accepted. You can manually accept EULA and approve the update and then re-run your auto-approval rule. You will have to accept a EULA for each product separately.   Still it will save time of not approving all EULA for a single product manually.

     

    Question 22: Can third party updates be approved by the auto-approval feature?

    Answer: In Essentials 2010 you cannot run auto-approval rules to approve third party updates / catalogs.

     

    Question 23: What if you see monitoringHost.exe process consuming a lot of CPU?

    Answer: MonitoringHost.exe uses 100% of CPU is a known issue  - Kevin discusses it here from ops manager:
    http://blogs.technet.com/kevinholman/archive/2009/07/20/do-you-randomly-see-a-monitoringhost-exe-process-consuming-lots-of-cpu.aspx

    You can try restarting your health service for now.

     

    Question 24: How to troubleshoot if windows update (WU) and Essentials report different status for updates?

    Answer: If you are seeing more updates on WU/MU please take one update which is not shown in Essentials as needed and make sure the update is approved to the specific client.

    You can get the information by creating a view with the filter “Unapproved update” , select the specific computer group where your client machine resides. If you see the updates there you need to approve the updates.

    The other way you can achieve this by opening the %windir%/windowsupdate.log and look for the update and see what target group the update is approved to. E.g.

    2009-12-01 10:03:59:928  944 ee0 PT Initializing simple targeting cookie, clientId = d1b466eb-cc3c-43c1-bf48-d93323414e04, target group = , DNS name = sh13.shs.loc

    In the above log the target group is null and therefore the update is not approved.

    If you still see the discrepancy please post your query on Essentials forums.

     

    Question 25: What are the locations to find common logs to troubleshoot issues in SCE?

    Answer: You can find all the locations in the Essentials blog for Essentials 2010 troubleshooting guide:

    http://blogs.technet.com/systemcenteressentials/archive/2009/12/05/essentials-2010-troubleshooting-guide.aspx

    Please let us know if you have any other question along with answer which we can add in this post. 

     

     

    Credit for Answers Provided by:

    Stephanie Drenchen

    Anshu Agrawal

    Ranjith A

    Yog Li

    John Joyner

  • Link
    Frequently Asked Questions for System Center Essentials 2010
    Richard Rundle

    Frequently Asked Questions

    General

    Q. What is System Center Essentials 2010?

    A. Microsoft System Center Essentials 2010 provides IT professionals in mid-sized organizations a unified physical and virtual IT management experience. It enables you to better secure, update, monitor, and troubleshoot from a single console, so you can efficiently and proactively manage your IT environment

     

    Q. When will System Center Essentials 2010 be available?

    A. The evaluation version of Essentials 2010 is available now. Essentials 2010 will be available for purchase from June 1, 2010.

     

    Q. How can I evaluate Essentials 2010?

    A. Download Essentials 2010 (registration required).

     

    Q. How long can I use the trial version of Essentials 2010?

    A. The trial version is valid for 180 days (6 months) from the date of installation.

     

    Q. Can I upgrade from the RC of Essentials 2010 to the final (RTM) version?
    A. Yes. You can upgrade from the RC to the RTM. Download the trial version and run SetupSCE.exe to upgrade.


    Q. Can I upgrade from the Beta of Essentials 2010 to the RC or the RTM?
    A. No. You need to uninstall the Beta and then install the RTM version.

     

    Q. What documentation is available for Essentials 2010?

    A. You can access Release Notes, Deployment Guide, Operations Guide, videos and other documentation from the Essentials 2010 evaluation site.

     

    Features and Specifications

    Q. How many computers can I manage with System Center Essentials 2010 RC?

    A. You can manage up to 50 computers running a Windows Server operating system and up to 500 computers running a Windows client operating system You can also monitor network devices using Essentials.  

     

    Q. What languages is System Center Essentials 2010 available in?

    A. Essentials 2010 is available in Chinese (Simplified), Chinese (Traditional), English, French, German, Italian, Japanese, Korean, Portuguese (Brazil), Russian and Spanish. English is the first language released, and all languages will be available within 90 days of the English language release.

     

    Q. Does System Center Essentials 2010 support Remote Operations Manager?

    A. No. Remote Opertions Manager is only supported for Operations Manager 2007 SP1 and Essentials 2007 SP1.

     

    Q. Can I upgrade from Essentials 2007 to Essentials 2010?

    A. Yes. It is possible to upgrade your existing Essentials 2007 installation to Essentials 2010 using the same server.  Run SetupSCE.exe and your existing installation will be detected and you will have the option to upgrade.

     

    Q. Can I run both Essentials 2007 and Essentials 2010 in the same environment?

    A. Yes, but you must meet the following criteria:

    ·         You cannot monitor the same computers using both Essentials 2007 and Essentials 2010.

    ·         If Essentials 2007 is using domain policy then Essentials 2010 must use local policy.

    More information on domain and local policy configuration is in the Essentials Deployment Guide.
     

    Q. Can I run both Essentials 2010 and Virtual Machine Manager 2008 in the same environment?

    A. Yes. Do not manage the same hosts or virtual machines using both Essentials 2010 and Virtual Machine Manager 2008 R2. Essentials 2010 includes its own functionality for managing virtual machines. You cannot install both the Essentials 2010 and Virtual Machine Manager 2008 R2 on the same computer. 
          

    Pricing and Licensing

    Q. How much does System Center Essentials 2010 cost?

    A. Final pricing and licensing will be available by the end of May 2010. There is currently a limited time offer to purchase Essentials 2007 and Virtual Machine Manager 2008 with one year of Software Assurance which includes a free upgrade to Essentials 2010.

  • Link
    Welcome to System Center Essentials 2010!
    Richard Rundle

    Hello and welcome to the Microsoft System Center Essentials 2010 forum!

    This forum provides you an opportunity to join a community of IT Administrators who are using System Center Essentials 2010. Essentials 2010 is designed for managing IT environments with up to 50 servers and 500 client computers.

    Here you can share knowledge, get questions answered, and learn from others with IT environments similar to yours.

    Microsoft System Center Essentials 2010 is the successor to System Center Essentials 2007. If you have questions on Essentials 2007, please post them in the Essentials 2007 forums.

Service Manager - General announcements

Virtual Machine Manager – General announcements

  • Link
    How to collect SCVMM traces
    Carmen Summers

    For general information about troubleshooting VMM 2012, such as collecting traces and logging information, see VMM 2012 General Troubleshooting Guide (http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkID=211124) on the Microsoft Download Center.  .

    Before Collecting a DebugView Trace

    1.       Install DebugView on the SCVMM server, the host in question, and/or the Web server (for troubleshooting self-service portal issues).

    2.       Save the following code into a text file and name it "odsflags.cmd":

    @echo off

    echo ODS control flags - only trace with set flags will go to ODS

     

    if (%1)==() goto :HELP

    if (%1)==(-?) goto :HELP

    if (%1)==(/?) goto :HELP

     

    echo Setting flag to %1...

    reg ADD "HKLM\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\Tracing\Microsoft\Carmine" /v ODSFLAGS /t REG_DWORD /d %1 /f

    echo Done.

    goto :EXIT

     

    :HELP

    echo Usage: odsflags [flag], where flag is

    echo TRACE_ERROR = 0x2,

    echo TRACE_DBG_NORMAL = 0x4,

    echo TRACE_DBG_VERBOSE = 0x8,

    echo TRACE_PERF = 0x10,

    echo TRACE_TEST_INFO = 0x20,

    echo TRACE_TEST_WARNING = 0x40,

    echo TRACE_TEST_ERROR = 0x80,

     

    :EXIT

    3.       Save the following code into a text file and name it "odson.reg":

    Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00

     

    [HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\Tracing\Microsoft\Carmine]

    "ODS"=dword:00000001

    4.       Save the following code into a text file and name it "odsoff.reg":

    Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00

     

    [HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\Tracing\Microsoft\Carmine]

    "ODS"=dword:00000000

    5.       Copy the three files created above, odsflags.cmd, odson.reg, and odsoff.reg, to the machines that DebugView will be used on.

    6.       Run the following commands at an elevated Command Prompt:

    odson.reg

    odsflags.cmd 255

    (If you need to collect traces for both VMM Server and the host or the Web server, make sure to run these commands on all of these computers).

    Collecting a DebugView Trace

    1.       Open DebugView as an administrator and ensure that both Capture Win32 and Capture Global Win32 are selected on the Capture menu item. You should be able to see tracing from the VMM components showing up in DebugView. (If you need to collect traces for both VMM Server and the host, make sure to do these steps on all of these computers).

    Figure 2: DebugView.exe Capture menu

    2.       Restart the Virtual Machine Manager Service on the SCVMM server by running the following commands at an elevated command prompt:

    net stop vmmservice

    net start vmmservice

    3.       Restart the Virtual Disk Service by running the following commands at an elevated command prompt:

    net stop vds

    net start vds

    4.       Restart the Virtual Machine Manager Agent service on the host by running the following commands at an elevated command prompt:

    net stop vmmagent

    net start vmmagent

    5.       Restart the IIS service on the Web server by running the following command at an elevated command prompt:

     iisreset

    6.       Reproduce the issue.

    7.       After reproducing the issue, save the output from the DebugView to a text file for analysis.

     Important:

    Turn off tracing after collecting the data by running the following command at a Command Prompt:
    odsoff.reg

     

     

    The format of a DebugView trace differs from that of an ETL trace since DebugView captures all Win32 application activity and, if selected, Kernel mode activity. If saved as a text file, it may be opened in other tools such as TextAnalysisTool.net or Trace32.

     

  • Link
    New to VMM Forum? Read before posting a question.
    Carmen Summers

    Hello!

     

    This forum is dedicated to questions about SCVMM (System Center Virtual Machine Manager). Please use good judgement to post your question to the relevant subforums. 

    If your question is not about this product, please find the correct forum here: http://forums.microsoft.com/TechNet/default.aspx?SiteID=17.

     When posting a question or an issue, it is helpful to include the product version you have question about, your VMM setup environment, the steps you tried and specific error message you observed. 

    A few related forums for your ease of reference are:

     

    Thanks!

     

Windows 7 Application Compatibility announcements

Windows 7 Hardware Compatibility announcements

Windows 7 Installation, Setup, and Deployment announcements

Windows 7 Security announcements

Windows 7 User Interface announcements

Windows Virtual PC and XP Mode announcements

Windows 8.1 General announcements

Active Directory Rights Management Service(On premise) announcements

  • Link
    A note about forum support
    Brad Mahugh - (Microsoft)

    Hi folks,

    Just a reminder, TechNet Forums support is intended to offer limited support for common and known issues. Here is where forum support works well and how it was intended to help:

    • If the issue you are experiencing is related to RMS technologies (anything will be moved or possibly deleted)
    • If the issue you are experiencing is one that is well known to community members
    • If the issue you are experiencing has documented solutions or potential solutions for it available through content published on Microsoft Web sites.
    • If the community volunteers (who have a very limited amount of their time to assist other users) can answer your question in a reasonable amount of time.

    Forum users should be aware they will be advised to contact Microsoft product support if any one of the following holds true.

    • If the configuration details they are involved in are wide-ranging and complex.
    • Initial guidance from the forum is unsatisfactory or unable to help you resolve your issue
    • You need urgent or specific support for your support incident.

    Thanks for your cooperation in using the forums.

    Thanks,

    Your RMS Forum moderator(s)


  • Link
    Welcome to the RMS forum!
    Brad Mahugh - (Microsoft)

    Welcome to the Rights Management Services discussion forum. Here you can discuss all matters relating to Windows Rights Management Services (RMS on Windows Server 2003) and Active Directory Rights Management Services (AD RMS) in Windows Server 2008, Windows Server 2008 R2 and Windows Server 2012. We’re providing this forum to give you a place to post questions you might have about RMS, to give you the opportunity to share your valuable experience with others, and to receive your feedback about RMS.

    Because this forum is specifically focused on Rights Management Services in Windows Server, posts that are about other issues will be referred to more appropriate forums and possibly removed altogether. If you’re not sure if this is the right forum for your question, please go to http://www.microsoft.com/communities/newsgroups/default.mspx to see if there’s a forum that more closely matches your needs.

    Thanks!



Microsoft Deployment Toolkit announcements

  • Link
    Welcome to the MDT forum
    Keith Garner

    On behalf of the Microsoft Deployment Toolkit (MDT) team, I would like to welcome you to the MDT forum at Microsoft. This is an open forum where we invite you to ask questions, post answers, and share your insights regarding the operations of MDT.

    Microsoft Deployment Toolkit is the recommended process and toolset for automating desktop and server deployment. This toolkit unifies tools and processes required for desktop and server deployment in a common deployment console and collection of guidance, making deployment effective and easier.

    Please take advantage of this community to share best practices and understand how MDT works.

    To learn more about Microsoft Deployment Toolkit 2012, visit www.microsoft.com/mdt. Or, get the latest news by visiting the Microsoft Deployment Toolkit Team blog.

    Welcome to the MDT conversation!

    Best Regards,

    Shruti Kala
    Product Manager

Power Query announcements

  • Link
    Olá | Salut | Hallo | Hola | Hello | こんにちは
    Miguel.Llopis

    Olá

    O Power BI Preview está disponível em seis idiomas, mas a documentação e o suporte para o fórum estão atualmente disponíveis apenas em inglês. Você pode usar o www.microsofttranslator.com para traduzir o conteúdo do fórum.

    Salut

    Power BI Preview est disponible en 6 langues, mais la documentation et le forum d'assistance sont actuellement seulement disponibles en anglais. Vous pouvez utiliser www.microsofttranslator.com pour traduire le contenu du forum.

    Hallo

    Die Power BI Preview ist in sechs Sprachen verfügbar, aber Dokumentation und  Forumunterstützung sind momentan nur auf Englisch verfügbar. Sie koennen www.microsofttranslator.com verwenden, um den Inhalt des Forums zu übersetzen.

    Hola

    Power BI Preview está disponible en seis idiomas diferentes, pero la documentación y foros de soporte sólo están disponibles en Inglés. Puedes utilizar www.microsofttranslator.com para traducir estos contenidos.

    Hello

    Power BI Preview is available in six different languages, but the documentation and support forums is only available in English. You can use www.microsofttranslator.com to translate this content.

    こんにちは

    Power BI Previewは六カ国語にてご提供させていただいていますが、ヘルプとフォーラムなどのサポートは現在英語のみです。あらかじめご了承ください。ヘルプがご必要な場合はwww.microsofttranslator.comの機械翻訳をお試しください。

Microsoft Identity Manager announcements

  • Link
    FIM 2010 hotfixes - RSS feed
    Peter Geelen

    An compact list of build versions of the entire Identity Management stack is available at Http://aka.ms/idmbuildversions.

    -> The RSS feed is available at: https://blogs.technet.microsoft.com/iamsupport/feed/

    You can find more detailed overview of FIM 2010 (+R2) builds at http://aka.ms/fimbuilds.

    -> The RSS feed : http://social.technet.microsoft.com/wiki/contents/articles/2229.fim-2010-build-overview/rss.aspx

    The MIM 2016 (FIM 2010 vNext) builds have been moved to http://aka.ms/mimbuilds.

    -> RSS: http://social.technet.microsoft.com/wiki/contents/articles/32507.mim-2016-build-overview/rss.aspx

  • Link
    FIM Object Visualizer
    Markus Vilcinskas
    The FIM Object Visualizer is available on Codeplex: http://fimov.codeplex.com/
  • Link
    Current Forefront Identity Manager Resources
    Brjann Brekkan

    Wiki Page: Current Forefront Identity Manager Resources

    Peter Geelen, Mar 15 2010
  • Link
    Read Me First
    Markus Vilcinskas

    Welcome to this forum!

    This forum replaces the NNTP newsgroup for the ILM “2” Connect site at Connect.Microsoft.com.
    The newsgroup will be locked down and the threads will be kept there for reference. 
    If you’ve posted a question there and not received an answer, please post it here.

    As a member of this forum, you are part of a worldwide community that includes experienced subject matter experts as well as interested starters that share one common goal – to help each other using the capabilities of Microsoft’s identity management solution in the best possible manner.

    To get the most out of your participation, you might want to consider following the following guidelines:

    • Start a new thread
    • Be specific
    • Mark questions as answered
    • Select helpful posts
    • Provide detailed feedback

     

    Start a new thread

    Don’t be afraid to start a new thread if you think you have a related problem to a post but aren’t sure. 
    Don’t let your question get lost if someone else’s question got answered but yours didn’t, and people may have stopped responding to the thread.

    Be specific

    Your fellow forum members want to help you!
    The more details you provide about your issue, the higher are the chances for everybody to assist you effectively.
    While precision is often a good idea, there are times where it might be advisable to add more details than initially considered to be necessary.
    This is especially the case, when the information you provide is read by thousands of folks that are distributed across the world, which involves a translation into various different languages.
    To avoid misinterpretations of your message and to leverage the available knowledge in a way that suits your needs, you should determine whether your text contains really all necessary details before posting it.
    Providing a bit too much information in this environment is better than expecting your fellow forum members to make the right assumptions about your intention.

    Mark questions as answered

    Your fellow forum members care about your issue!
    Please treat the willingness to support you with the appropriate courtesy and let others know when your issue has been sufficiently addressed by marking your posting as answered if this is the case. 
    That way, you help create an environment where people mark the answers to their questions, and when you’re looking to see if someone has already answered some question you have, you will benefit by seeing their answer first. 
    You won’t even have to ask.

    Select helpful topics

    Enable your fellow forum members to help you effectively in the future!
    Your feedback is an elementary component of making a forum successful.
    If you run into a post that was helpful to you, please indicate this by selecting it as helpful.
    This enables everybody to learn how information should be presented to address an issue.
    We all learn not only from answers but also from the way answers are packaged.  

    Provide detailed feedback

    While marking postings as answered and selecting posts as helpful is highly appreciated, please consider going the extra mile and provide some more details if you have found useful information.
    This helps everybody to do an even better job assisting you in the future.

Windows Troubleshooting announcements

Windows Internals announcements

Windows Development announcements

Utilities Suggestions announcements

Disk2vhd announcements

PsTools announcements

Process Monitor announcements

Process Explorer announcements

Miscellaneous Utilities announcements

BgInfo announcements

AutoRuns announcements

Exchange Server Development announcements

Azure SQL Database announcements

  • Link
    New service update available for SQL Data Sync!
    Shirley Wang [ADF]

    While it has been 3+ years since we last announced an update to SQL Data Sync service, we have been continuously deploying updates to the backend service to address top customer issues.  We are listening to your feedback, and today we are happy to announce the latest update which includes both service changes and a new SQL Data Sync agent install.  This update includes two main enhancements:

    1. Support for synchronizing tables that have column collations:
      • If the selected sync schema tables do not already exist in your hub or member databases, upon deploying the sync group, SQL Data Sync will automatically create corresponding tables and columns in the empty database with the same collation settings as the select sync schema.
      • If the tables to-be-synced are already created in both hub and member databases, SQL Data Sync requires the primary key columns have the same collation between hub/member databases to successfully deploy the sync group.  There is no collation restriction on the non-primary key columns.
    2. Improvements to performance and resilience:
      • We enhanced batch transfer of serialized changes from source to destination, so you should see faster sync throughput.
      • We improved transient error handling logic when reading from the source or writing to the destination.

    The new version of SQL Data Sync agent in the download center.  Please follow the step-by-step instructions here to install a new Data Sync agent.  If you have an existing agent, you can refer to this MSDN article for detailed upgrade procedures.  A previous version of Data Sync agent will continue to work until it expires on 8/18/2015.

  • Link
    Understand Azure SQL Database and SQL Server in Azure VM
    Vinod Ramakrishna

    Microsoft Azure provides you two options when hosting your SQL Server-based data: Azure SQL Database and SQL Server in Azure Virtual Machine. This new article explains how each option fits into the big picture in Microsoft’s Data Platform, and then discusses the common business motivations that might affect your choice. Please take a look at it!

    http://azure.microsoft.com/en-us/documentation/articles/data-management-azure-sql-database-and-sql-server-iaas/

    Selcin Turkarslan

Suggestions and Feedback for the Forums announcements

  • Link
    What is this forum for? Please read before posting!
    Bryant Hawthorne - MSFT

    What is the purpose of this forum?

    The purpose of this forum is to give users a voice on Forums. Users can give suggestions for improvements or vote up suggestions and know that the Forums team is listening. If you have a specific question regarding Forums please post questions to Forums Redesign – Q&A / Discussions. If you are encountering a Forums bug please post this in the Forums Issues forum.


    Best Practices

    • Only post suggestions
    • Only post one suggestion per thread, this will provide clarity to the suggestion and allow users to know what they are voting up
    • We encourage you to vote! Voting allows the Forums team to know what users want the most
    • Use Questions and not Discussion thread types, this will allow us to “close” suggestions once they are no longer relevant or have been addressed.

    Who reads these suggestions?

    As previously stated this is a place to be heard by directly by the Forums team. Although we may not respond to every post, we are actively reading through each suggestion. We will not implement every suggestion, however, we release once a month and commit to consider suggestions from the community every release. 

MSDN and TechNet Profile and Recognition System Discussions announcements

Announcements for all Forums announcements

  • Link
    Purpose of this forum - please read before posting here
    Pam Sallee
    This is an announcements forum, intended for the forums team to communicate important news to all Forums users. Please do not post here unless you have reason to make an announcement. While we appreciate all of the smoke-testing while these forums are new, we respectfully request that you do that in the Sandbox forums for any of the brands.

    Thanks for using the new Forums!

BizTalk Server General announcements

  • Link
    Updated product roadmap, start of new BizTalk Server vNext project
    Paul Larsen (Microsoft)

    We have some great news to share! We've updated our Microsoft Integration Product Roadmap. See our BizTalk Team Blog, at https://aka.ms/btsblog. We are starting our new BizTalk Server vNext project. Let us know what you want and need in BizTalk Server vNext.

    Paul Larsen [MS]
    Microsoft BizTalk Server Team

     

  • Link
    Updated product roadmap, start of new BizTalk Server vNext project
    Paul Larsen (Microsoft)

    We have some great news to share! We've updated our Microsoft Integration Product Roadmap. See our BizTalk Team Blog, at https://aka.ms/btsblog. We are starting our new BizTalk Server vNext project. Let us know what you want and need in BizTalk Server vNext.

    Paul Larsen [MS]
    Microsoft BizTalk Server Team

     

  • Link
    Announcing the availability of Microsoft BizTalk Server 2016 Feature Pack 3
    Paul Larsen (Microsoft)

    Available now is Microsoft BizTalk Server 2016 Feature Pack 3. This update to BizTalk Server 2016 contains new and improved capabilities for integrating BizTalk Server workloads with Office 365 Outlook Email, Calendar, and Contact resources.

    Office 365 Adapters

    Microsoft Office 365 is a cloud-based subscription service that brings together the best tools for the way people work today. By combining best-in-class apps like Excel and Outlook with powerful cloud services like OneDrive and Microsoft Teams, Office 365 lets anyone create and share anywhere on any device.

    Microsoft BizTalk Server Adapters for Office 365 enable IT professionals and enterprise developers to integrate Outlook mail, contacts, and schedules with new solutions based on BizTalk Server 2016.

    Office 365 Mail Adapter

    Using the BizTalk Adapter for Office 365 Mail, you can read, mark as read or delete, Outlook e-mail messages through one-way BizTalk Server receive locations. Using the Office 365 Mail Adapter, you can write e-mail message, including setting message priority, through one-way static or dynamic BizTalk Server send ports.

    Office 365 Calendar Adapter

    Using the BizTalk Adapter for Office 365 Calendar, you can get future calendar events through one-way BizTalk Server receive locations. Using the Office 365 Calendar Adapter, you can create calendar events, including specifying required and optional attendees, through one-way static or dynamic BizTalk Server send ports.

    Office 365 Contact Adapter

    Using the BizTalk Adapter for Office 365 Contact, you can create contacts, by specifying all settings, through one-way static or dynamic BizTalk Server send ports.

    Licensing

    • Microsoft customers with Software Assurance or Azure Enterprise Agreements are licensed to use Feature Pack 3.
    • BizTalk Server 2016 Feature Pack 3 can be installed on Enterprise and Developer editions only.

    Software

    • BizTalk Server 2016 Feature Pack 3 contains all the functionality of Feature Packs 1 and 2, plus all the fixes in Cumulative Update 5.
    • You can install Feature Pack 3 on BizTalk Server 2016 Enterprise and Developer Edition (retail, CU1, CU2, CU3, CU4, FP1, FP2).
    • Download the software now from the Microsoft Download Center.

    Documentation

    You can learn more about Feature Pack 3 by reading the documentation articles. Please contribute to improving our documentation, by joining our BizTalk Server community on GitHub.

  • Link
    Announcing the availability of BizTalk Server 2016 Cumulative Update 5
    Paul Larsen (Microsoft)
    Microsoft BizTalk Server product team has released Cumulative Update 5 for BizTalk Server 2016. For more information, see Microsoft Knowledgebase Article 4132957, posted to https://support.microsoft.com/help/4132957.
  • Link
    Announcing availability of BizTalk Server 2013 R2 Cumulative Update 8
    Paul Larsen (Microsoft)

    Microsoft BizTalk Server product team has released Cumulative Update 8 for BizTalk Server 2013 R2. For more information, see Microsoft Knowledgebase Article 4052527, posted to https://support.microsoft.com/help/4052527.

    Microsoft BizTalk Server Product Team

  • Link
    Microsoft BizTalk Server 2016 Feature Pack 2
    Paul Larsen (Microsoft)

    Available now is Microsoft BizTalk Server 2016 Feature Pack 2. This update to BizTalk Server 2016 contains new and improved capabilities for modernizing BizTalk Server workloads in the areas of deployment, runtime and analytics.

    Deployment and Administration

    • Application Lifecycle Management with VSTS
      • Using Visual Studio Team Services, you can define multi-server deployments of BizTalk Server 2016, and then maintain those systems throughout the application lifecycle.
    • Backup to Azure Blob Storage
      • When deploying BizTalk Server to Azure VMs, you can backup BizTalk Server databases to Azure blob storage.

    Server Runtime

    • Adapter for Service Bus v2
      • When using the Service Bus Adapter, you can utilize Azure Service Bus Premium for enterprise-scale workloads.
    • Transport Layer Security 1.2
      • Securely deploy BizTalk Server using industry-standard TLS 1.2 authentication and encryption.
    • API Management
      • Publish Orchestration endpoints using Azure API Management, enabling organizations to publish APIs to external, partner and internal developers to unlock the potential of their data and services.
    • Event Hubs
      • Using the new Event Hub Adapter, BizTalk Server can send and receive messages with Azure Event Hubs, where BizTalk Server can function as both an event publisher and subscriber, as part of a new Azure cloud-based event-driven application.

    Analytics and Reporting

    • Event Hubs
      • Send BizTalk Server tracking data to Azure Event Hubs, a hyper-scale telemetry ingestion service that collects, transforms, and stores millions of events.
    • Application Insights
      • When preparing BizTalk Server to send tracking data to Application Insights, released in FP1, you can use the new Azure sign-in dialog to simplify configuration and named instances of SQL Server.

    Licensing

    • Microsoft customers with Software Assurance or Azure Enterprise Agreements are licensed to use Feature Pack 2.
    • BizTalk Server 2016 Feature Pack 2 can be installed on Enterprise and Developer editions only.

    Software

    • BizTalk Server 2016 Feature Pack 2 contains all the functionality of Feature Pack 1, plus all the fixes in Cumulative Update 3.
    • You can install Feature Pack 2 on BizTalk Server 2016 Enterprise and Developer Edition (retail, CU1, CU2, CU3, FP1).
    • Download the software now from the Microsoft Download Center.

    Documentation

    You can learn more about FP2 by reading the documentation articles. Please contribute to improving our documentation, by joining our BizTalk Server community on GitHub.

    Feedback

    Contribute to the community by participating in our forum, reading our blog, following us on Twitter (@BizTalk_Server), as well as providing product input using our BizTalk User Voice.

  • Link
    Announcing availability of BizTalk Server 2013 R2 Cumulative Update 7
    Paul Larsen (Microsoft)
    Microsoft BizTalk Server product team has released Cumulative Update 7 for BizTalk Server 2013 R2. For more information, see Microsoft Knowledgebase Article 4038891, posted to https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/help/4038891.

    BizTalk Server Team
  • Link
    Announcing availability of BizTalk Server 2016 Cumulative Update 3
    Paul Larsen (Microsoft)

    Microsoft BizTalk Server product team has released Cumulative Update 3 for BizTalk Server 2016. For more information, see https://support.microsoft.com/help/4039664.

    BizTalk Server Team

  • Link
    BizTalk SalesForce Integration: Login authentication
    Steef-Jan Wiggers
    Sample based on integration with SalesForce using SOAP is available in code gallery through this link.
  • Link
    List of Errors and Warnings, Causes and Solutions on TechNet Wiki
    Sandro Pereira

    This article is intended to be a knowledge base of all Errors and Warnings, Causes and Solutions documented, by community members, in all stages/components of BizTalk: different stages of development, deployment, adapters, runtime, setup and configuration… Read more here

  • Link
    BizTalk Server Resources on the TechNet Wiki
    Steef-Jan Wiggers
    You will find many BizTalk Server related article on TechNet Wiki. Best entry point is BizTalk Server Resources on the TechNet Wiki.
  • Link
    BizTalk Server 2010 - Tools Wiki Article
    Steef-Jan Wiggers
    Through the internet you can find numerous tools that can help you for instance in automating deployment, analyze your BizTalk environment or identify performance issues. You will find these tools on Operating System, Codeplex or Microsoft Download Center. Read more here.

BizTalk Server Adapters and Adapter Pack announcements

BizTalk Server EDI and AS2 announcements

BizTalk Server Host Integration Server announcements

  • Link
    Host Integration Server 2013 Cumulative Update 4 is available
    Valerie Robb (Microsoft)

    We are happy to announce the release of Microsoft Host Integration Server 2013 Cumulative Update 4.

    This cumulative update package contains hotfixes for issues that were resolved after the release of Host Integration Server 2013.

    We recommend that you test the cumulative update before you deploy it in a production environment. Because the builds are cumulative, each new update release contains all the hotfixes and all the security updates that were included in the previous Host Integration Server 2013 cumulative updates. We recommend that you consider applying the most recent Host Integration Server 2013 Cumulative Update to remain current with the product.

    Cumulative update package 4 for Microsoft Host Integration Server 2013:

    • Application Integration - 6 customer issues fixed
    • Data Integration - -12 customer issues fixed
    • Message Integration - 6 customer issues fixed
    • Network Integration - 10 customer issues fixed
    • Session Integration - 10 customer issues fixed

    Information regarding how to download the package and details regarding the specific fixes can be found in the KB article here.

    We encourage you to actively engage with us and propose new features for all BizTalk offerings, including Host Integration Server, through our BizTalk User Voice Page.

  • Link
    The SDK for Host Integration Server 2016 has been released
    Valerie Robb (Microsoft)

    The Host Integration Server 2016 SDK has been released.

    It can be downloaded at https://aka.ms/his2016sdk

    The SDK has been updated with current samples for all features of the product – Network Integration, Data Integration, Application Integration, and MQ Integration. Included with this SDK is a host simulator that allows several of the Application Integration samples to run via TCP/IP and HTTP without the need for a backend host system.

    This SDK can be installed without having HIS 2016 installed in order to view the sample code, however, HIS 2016 must be installed for the samples to run.

    Helpful links to get started with Host Integration Server:

    HIS 2016 RTM downloads:

    HIS 2016 Cumulative Update 1: https://aka.ms/his2016cu1

    CU1 KB Article: https://support.microsoft.com/help/3216544

    Documentation for Installing HIS 2016: https://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/mt736402.aspx

    HIS Blog: https://blogs.msdn.microsoft.com/hostintegrationserver/

    Additional HIS Information: https://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/biztalk/biztalk-hisoverview.aspx

  • Link
    Host Integration Server 2016 Cumulative Update 1 has been released
    Charles Ezzell

    Host Integration Server 2016 Cumulative Update 1 has been released. This Cumulative Update addresses multiple issues found since the release of Host Integration Server 2016.

    The Knowledge Base article can be found here. https://support.microsoft.com/help/3216544

    You can also download Cumulative Update 1 from here:  https://aka.ms/his2016cu1

     Thank You.

  • Link
    Microsoft Host Integration Server Product Feedback survey
    Charles Ezzell

    We want to hear from you!

    Microsoft HIS Team is looking for product feedback. Please take time to complete the Microsoft Host Integration Server Product Feedback survey, posted to https://aka.ms/hisfeedback. Tell us what you are using, how you like it, and what new technologies and tools you want.

    Thank you!

    HIS Team

  • Link
    HIS 2016 Available to MSDN Subscribers
    Valerie Robb (Microsoft)

    The RTM version of HIS 2016 is now available to MSDN Subscribers -

    HIS 2016 Enterprise Edition

    HIS 2016 Developer Edition

  • Link
    Announcing release of Host Integration Server 2016
    Charles Ezzell

    We are pleased to announce the release to manufacturing of Microsoft Host Integration Server 2016.

    This release confirms our commitment to Microsoft enterprise customers and partners, by delivering a set of new technologies, tools, and improvements.

    New Microsoft Client for MQ connecting .NET Framework and BizTalk Server applications to IBM MQ message processing systems, providing simplified administration and improved performance.

    Expanded platform support for latest Microsoft operating systems and development tools, plus support for most popular IBM systems versions, permitting the broadest application support lifecycle for upgraded and new solutions.

    Improved installation and configuration assisting IT administrators to efficiently deploy new clients and servers, reducing operating expenses and total cost of ownership.

    New telemetry for improving technologies and tools, by monitoring and reporting connections, operations, and exceptions.

    New Microsoft Client for DRDA connecting .NET Framework and BizTalk Server applications to IBM DB2 and Informix relational database systems, delivering increased functionality, with improved performance and scalability.

    To get started, visit the Microsoft Developer Network to read more about what’s new and improved in Host Integration Server 2016.

    Host Integration Server Team

    Microsoft Corporation

  • Link
    Announcing Host Integration Server 2016 Community Technology Preview 2
    Charles Ezzell

    We are pleased to announce our public Community Technology Preview 2 (CTP2) for Host Integration Server 2016.

    HIS 2016 offers technologies and tools enabling enterprise IT organizations to efficiently and securely integrate existing IBM host systems, programs, messages and data with new Azure and Windows applications. This release allows you to preview the many new and improved technologies and tools, when compared to HIS 2013, including:

    • Improved installation and configuration assisting IT administrators to efficiently deploy new clients and servers, reducing operating expenses      and total cost of ownership.
    • Expanded platform support for latest Microsoft operating systems and development tools, plus support for most popular IBM systems versions,      permitting the broadest application support lifecycle for upgraded and new solutions.
    • New Microsoft Client for MQ connecting .NET Framework and BizTalk Server applications to IBM MQ message processing systems, providing      simplified administration and improved performance.
    • New telemetry for improving technologies and tools, by monitoring and reporting connections, operations, and exceptions.
    • New Microsoft Client for DRDA connecting .NET Framework and BizTalk Server applications to IBM DB2 and Informix relational database systems,      delivering increased functionality, with improved performance and scalability.

    Join the HIS community to explore, try and learn more about HIS 2016 CTP2. Download, install and configure HIS 2016 CTP today!

    To get started, we invite you to visit the HIS 2016 preview page (https://aka.ms/his2016ctp2) on the Microsoft TechNet Evaluation Center.

    Host Integration Server Team
    Microsoft Corporation

  • Link
    Microsoft Host Integration Server 2016 CTP1
    Charles Ezzell

    Microsoft HIS team has released Host Integration Server 2016 Community Technology Preview 1.

     

    HIS 2016 CTP1 provides professionals and enterprise developers with technologies and tools to deliver a new set of integration solutions. Here are a few of the new capabilities and improvements in HIS 2016 CTP1.

    • Support for Windows Server 10, Windows Server 2016, SQL Server 2016, BizTalk Server 2016, Visual Studio 2013, and .NET Framework 4.6
    • Support for IBM i 7.2, z/OS 2.2, CICS 5.2, IBM MQ 8.0, and DB2 11
    • New Microsoft .NET Client for MQ
    • New ADO.NET provider and BizTalk adapter for Informix
    • Improved data providers and BizTalk adapter for DB2
    • New Telemetry for improving HIS technologies

     

    See full list of improvements and new platforms posted to MSDN, at http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkID=780628.

     

    To distribute the software, we are utilizing the BizTalk Server 2016 CTP1 program on Microsoft Connect. Please go to Connect and register your Microsoft account, at http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkId=784997.

     

    We look forward to your participation in HIS 2016 CTP1.

     

    Host Integration Server Team

    Microsoft Corporation

  • Link
    Host Integration Server 2013 is released to manufactioning
    Stephen_R_Jackson

    We are pleased to announce that Host Integration Server 2013 is released to manufacturing!

    Microsoft Host Integration Server 2013 enables enterprise organizations to integrate existing IBM host systems, programs, messages, and data with Microsoft class leading suite of server applications.

    HIS 2013 is the ninth release and includes these improvements.

    • Deploy on new platforms
      • Windows 8.1, Windows 8, Windows Server 2012 R2, Windows Server 2012,
      • Visual Studio 2012, SQL Server 2012, .NET 4
      • IBM z/OS V1.13, i5/OS V7R1, MQ V7.5, CICS V5.1, IMS V12.1, Informix IDS V12.1, DB2 V10
    • Use latest protocols and formats
      • DB2 client connectivity to SQL Server (DRDA Service)
      • Windows client connectivity to Informix server (OLE DB Provider)
    • Increase enterprise dev and IT pro productivity
      • Transaction Integrator Configuration Tool and Visual Studio code snippets
      • DRDA Service and TI PowerShell modules, XML schemas for app.config and web.config files
      • Managed encoder and trace
      • TN3270 emulator and Host File Transfer Utility
    • Improve performance and scalability
      • Transaction Integrator, MQ channel and host files managed runtimes
      • DB2 client transaction load balancing, bulk copy and bulk insert

    Here are links to the technology and documentation.

    The HIS 2013 BPA (Best Practice Analyzer) and SCOM Management Pack will be available in September.

    The HIS 2013 Enterprise edition will be available for purchase on 1st September, licensed as supplemental technology to BizTalk Server 2013. See the BizTalk website for more information on BTS 2013 licensing.

    The Host Integration Server Team

  • Link
    Host Integration Server 2010 Cumulative Update 6 (CU6) is available
    Stephen_R_Jackson

    The Host Integration Server Product Team has just released the sixth Cumulative Update (CU) for HIS 2010. The cumulative update model is used to package and release product fixes on a more consistent schedule.

    HIS 2010 CU6 includes fixes for HIS 2010 that were fixed after the release of HIS 2010, including all the fixes that are in the previous HIS 2010 cumulative updates. Details on the included fixes can be found in the following Knowledge Base article:

    2752426    Cumulative update package 6 for Host Integration Server 2010   
    http://support.microsoft.com/kb/2752426/EN-US

    You can download HIS 2010 CU6 via the Hotfix Download Available link You would need to download the CU6 package that matches the HIS 2010 version (x86 or x64) that you have installed.

  • Link
    Host Integration Server 2009 Cumulative Update 4 (CU4) is available
    Stephen_R_Jackson

    The Host Integration Server Product Team has just released the fourth Cumulative Update (CU) for HIS 2009. The cumulative update model is used to package and release product fixes on a more consistent schedule.

    HIS 2009 CU4 includes fixes for HIS 2009 that were fixed after the release of HIS 2009, including all the fixes that are in the previous HIS 2009 cumulative updates. Details on the included fixes can be found in the following Knowledge Base article:

    2765212 Cumulative update package 4 for Host Integration Server 2009

    You can download HIS 2009 CU4 via the Hotfix Download Available link in the KB article. You would need to download the CU4 package that matches the HIS 2009 version (x86 or x64) that you have installed.

    Thanks…


  • Link
    Welcome to the Host Integration Server forum
    Stephen_R_Jackson

    Hello and welcome to the Host Integration Server forum!

     

    The Host Integration Server (HIS) forum provide you an opportunity to join a community of Host Integration Server customers where you can share knowledge, get questions answered, and learn from others with IT environments similar to yours. Start by posting Host Integration Server related questions in the forum corresponding to your topic of interest and leverage the knowledge available in your new forum community.

     

    If you have any suggestions or feedbacks to Windows Server products, please feel free to post in our forums.

    Stephen Jackson - MSFT

MSDN and TechNet Search Feedback announcements

TechNet Wiki Discussion announcements

MIMWAL Project announcements

  • Link
    MIM Config Documenter tool now availiable on GitHub
    Nilesh Ghodekar (MSFT)

    Just want to cross post that MIM Configuration Documenter tool is now open sourced on GitHub at:  https://github.com/Microsoft/MIMConfigDocumenter.

    This, among may other benefits listed below, will help you to document and share your MIMWAL workflows easily with the broader community.

    Brief project info:

    MIM configuration documenter is a tool to generate documentation of a MIM / FIM synchronization or service installation.
    The goal of this project is to:
    • Document deployment configuration details for the MIM / FIM solution!
    o Including MIMWAL Workflow definitions
    • Track any configuration changes you have made since a specific baseline!!
    • Build confidence in getting things right when making changes to the deployed solution!!

    You can find the project code, releases, and documentation at:  https://github.com/Microsoft/MIMConfigDocumenter

Microsoft Operations Framework -- MOF 4.0 announcements

  • Link
    New MOF Guide—Now Available for Download
    Jerry Dyer

    The Microsoft Operations Framework team is pleased to announce that the Managing and Operating a Microsoft Private Cloud—How to Apply the Microsoft Operations Framework (MOF) guide is now available for download. To download the new guide, go to http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/cc506049.aspx.

    This guide leads you through the process of how to manage and operate a Microsoft private cloud using the service management processes of the Microsoft Operations Framework (MOF). The guide applies MOF’s IT service management principles to that conceptual architecture and technology stack. It describes how to maximize the potential of MOF’s people, process, and technical capabilities to manage and operate a Microsoft private cloud. Follow this guidance for a private cloud that is better aligned to meet your business needs. Employ MOF’s service management functions (SMFs) to help align IT and business goals, which can enable you to perform private cloud activities effectively and cost-efficiently.

    This guide focuses on the SMFs in the Operate Phase and the Manage Layer of MOF to give IT pros and managers what they need to know about managing and operating a private cloud. Management reviews—internal controls that ensure goals are met to achieve business value—are also included.

    Tell your peers about MOF! Please forward this mail to anyone who wants to learn more about Microsoft Operations Framework guides.

  • Link
    Getting Started with MOF Released to Web
    Jerry Dyer

    Thanks in part to your participation at every stage of its development, a new MOF implementation guide is now available for download.

    The Getting Started with MOF 4.0 guide is the first step to a more efficient MOF implementation. The guide provides role-and situation-specific guidance, focused on helping users understand where to apply MOF and how to get the most from its recommendations.

    This new extension of the MOF core content speaks to three targeted audiences—the CIO/IT director, IT managers, and individual contributors. Tailoring the content to specific roles clarifies responsibilities and leads to improved service delivery in your organization. The guide includes a list of prioritized action items that address both proactive and reactive issues. Ultimately, this guide serves as the primary resource for implementing MOF within your organization.

    Download the Getting Started with MOF 4.0 guide.

    Looking for additional resources to help you get started with MOF 4.0? Download the MOF IT Pro Quick Start Kit.

    Stay tuned: A new series of MOF Reliability Workbooks will soon be available for Beta download. Want the latest MOF updates? Subscribe to our news feed.

  • Link
    Welcome to MOF 4.0 Online
    Jason Osborne [Msft]

    On behalf of the MOF team and the moderator staff, I’d like to personally welcome you to the new MOF Community at Microsoft. Here you will find an open forum for the discussion of all topics related to service management, MOF, and related process-based frameworks throughout the IT lifecycle.  Now that you are part of this community, we hope to see you actively participating and sharing. MOF integrates community generated processes, governance, risk, and compliance activities, and other industry best practices to provide guidance across the IT service lifecycle.  For us to continue to evolve these best practices in the face of ever shifting technology paradigms, we need your continued input and support.

     

    Here at the MOF Community we invite you to post your questions, share your insights, tell us what you like, and by all means, what you disagree with.  If you have a service management problem you’re trying to resolve, share it and see if the community can help.  All we ask is that you remain respectful of everyone’s opinion and promote intelligent and responsible discussion. If you have any questions, problems, or concerns that don’t seem to be getting addressed by the board, feel free to e-mail us, the MOF team, or contact us via our Blog.

     

    Thank you again for joining us here and for taking a look at MOF 4.0.  We look forward to getting to know you.


    Welcome to the conversation!

    Jason Osborne
    MOF Frameworks PM

  • Link
    MOF 4.0 Frequently Asked Questions
    Jason Osborne [Msft]
     Microsoft Operations Framework - Frequently Asked Questions v1.0

    What is MOF 4.0?

    Microsoft® Operations Framework (MOF) 4.0 is a framework that provides practical guidance for managing IT practices and activities throughout the entire IT lifecycle. MOF helps IT professionals establish and implement reliable, cost-effective IT services by integrating

    ·         Tried-and-tested processes for planning, delivering, operating, and managing IT

    ·         Governance, risk, and compliance activities

    ·         Management reviews

    ·         Best practices from Microsoft Solutions Framework (MSF)

    MOF helps IT professionals take advantage of everything Microsoft has to offer, including products and Solution Accelerators.

    What’s new in MOF 4.0?

    The guidance in MOF 4.0 moves beyond Operations to address the entire IT lifecycle. MOF 4.0 introduces a new structure for its service management functions (SMFs)—one that emphasizes outcomes, results, and roles in a format that's easy to reference. Because every group, team, and company is unique, the SMFs are anchored by questions the user must answer. Finally, the MOF community serves as a platform where IT professionals can exchange ideas, contribute their own timely, relevant guidance, and communicate directly with Microsoft about the continued evolution of the framework.

    Why did you develop a new version of MOF?

    MOF 4.0 has been expanded and enhanced to:

    ·         Reflect a single, comprehensive IT lifecycle

    ·         Connect service management theory to every-day tasks and activities

    ·         Align IT with business needs and goals

    ·         Address governance, risk, policy, and compliance

    ·         Support continuous improvement through community involvement

    How much effort will it take to implement MOF 4.0?

    Your goal should not be to implement MOF; it should be to solve problems and promote efficiency in your organization. You can use MOF to drive key decisions, create and manage key policies and risks, clearly define roles and accountabilities, and define and enact processes for your organization—all in an efficient and practical manner. Because the scope of the problem or opportunity you’re facing will determine the amount of effort required. MOF 4.0 has been designed to help overburdened IT professionals quickly access useful, relevant content. It contains practical guidance for everyday tasks and activities—not just theory —to efficiently and effectively address those problems. Its streamlined approach makes it possible for users to either implement the entire framework or simply use one component of the framework to solve a particular problem.

    Will MOF 4.0 work with the framework I’m currently using?

    MOF 4.0 is backward-compatible with all previous versions of MOF, and can easily integrate policies, tasks, or activities based on other frameworks. MOF 4.0 was designed to provide you with a clear picture of how the entire IT lifecycle is interrelated, what decisions are required and what outcomes are vital, yet leaves it up to the IT organization to determine the areas of focus. An organization or IT professional can use all of MOF 4.0 or just one component of the framework to solve a particular problem.

    Why are there so many tables in MOF 4.0?

    The SMFs are anchored by pertinent questions, inputs, outputs, and best practices for each activity, and the tables provide a format that’s concise and easy to follow. The questions help drive decisions that are relevant for your organization. They also help you determine where to focus—or not—which supports organizational maturation.

    How does MOF address governance, risk, and compliance?

    Governance, risk, and compliance are addressed in the Manage Layer, which is the foundation for the phases (Plan, Deliver, and Operate). Governance identifies the decision makers and stakeholders, determines accountability for actions and responsibilities for outcomes, and addresses how expected performance will be evaluated. Risk management occurs throughout the entire IT lifecycle as well; it addresses business decisions, policy adherence, application development, and operational procedures. Risk also determines what business controls need to be in place. Compliance guides behavior throughout the lifecycle to make sure that governance and risk management activities are addressed. The management reviews in each phase show how IT is performing against corporate governance, risk, and compliance objectives.

    How can I contribute to MOF 4.0?

    A central component of MOF 4.0 is its online community—a place where IT professionals can share service management knowledge and best practices, communicating both with each other and with Microsoft. MOF 4.0 provides a platform that integrates contribution sharing, blogs, forums, online training, and feedback to support the community and keep it ahead of ever-shifting IT trends. To visit MOF online, go to www.microsoft.com/MOF.

    How is MOF different from ITIL?

    There are many similarities between MOF and ITIL. Both help IT organizations achieve reliable and cost-effective IT services; each uses the entire IT service lifecycle as the context for work activities. ITIL v3 is a vast compendium of information that addresses the breadth of IT activities by providing considerable detail in a number of areas. ITIL content consists of more than 1300 pages of concepts and models that address how IT organizations can provide valued services.

    Similarly, MOF 4.0 contains core IT service management guidance, but takes a more streamlined approach to meet the needs of the overburdened IT professional. MOF 4.0 presents fundamental IT processes and their associated activities in an easy-to-grasp table format. And because busy IT professionals still have to implement, execute, follow or report IT policies and navigate risks every day, MOF 4.0 includes policy creation in the Plan Phase as well as support for IT governance, risk management, and compliance throughout the entire IT service lifecycle. Risk management and internal controls provide a coherent focus throughout the lifecycle and demonstrate the interconnectedness of all IT activities.

    How will MOF and Microsoft Solutions Framework (MSF) work together?

    MOF 4.0 integrates MSF core principles in the form of SMFs into the IT service lifecycle.  MSF is also available as an independent framework. The current MSF content, training, job aids, and templates—on which those SMFs are based—resides on http://www.microsoft.com/technet/solutionaccelerators/msf/default.mspx.   Enacted MSF guidance also ships in Microsoft Visual Studio Team System 2005 and Microsoft Visual Studio Team System 2008. Customers have given feedback that they would like to see a coherent guidance strategy across development and operations. The two teams are in the process of aligning; the goal is to empower IT professionals and developers with a consistent and coherent set of processes and best practices.

ProClarity - General announcements

Live Meeting - Media Discussion announcements

  • Link
    Welcome to Office Live Meeting Forums
    IrfanS - msft

     

    Welcome to Office Live Meeting forums.   This is home to comprehensive set of forums designed to cover various aspects of Microsoft Office Live Meeting. I am starting with few forums but will be adding some more as we go along. 

    Detailed technical topics should be posted into their respective forums if one is available. Other post can be done in the General section.  Please note however, it is important for a topic to be posted to the correct forum because different groups e.g. Support and Product Group teams and MVPs monitor different forums.  As moderators review the posts they may also move posts to another topic area per relevance.  Our ultimate goal here is to provide a useful response to every question within a reasonable amount of time.  We are targeting 2-3 business days, however being new initiative we are ramping up, so please bear with us on delays.

    Please also consider the following :

    This posting on forums is provided "AS IS" with no warranties, and confers no rights.

    These forums are not an official channel for product support. If you have an urgent or business critical issue, you should contact Microsoft Support Services

    Live Meeting Support for Technical and Billing Issues:
           Web Ticket: http://www.livemeeting.com/ask  

    Phone 1-866-493-2835 toll free (US and Canada Only) or refer to  http://support.microsoft.com/kb/939099/en-us  for additional support options.

     

    While much thought and planning was put into the creation of the forums, there is always room for improvement. I encourage you to please post your ideas and feedback in "General Discussion" forum or email them directly to me Irfan.Soomro@microsoft.com.

    Thank you for being a part of the Live Meeting community.

    Irfan Soomro
    Senior Program Manager

    Microsoft Office Live Meeting

     

Live Meeting - In Meeting Experience, Console and Add-ins announcements

  • Link
    Welcome to Office Live Meeting forums
    IrfanS - msft

     

    Welcome to Office Live Meeting forums.   This is home to comprehensive set of forums designed to cover various aspects of Microsoft Office Live Meeting. I am starting with few forums but will be adding some more as we go along. 

    Detailed technical topics should be posted into their respective forums if one is available. Other post can be done in the General section.  Please note however, it is important for a topic to be posted to the correct forum because different groups e.g. Support and Product Group teams and MVPs monitor different forums.  As moderators review the posts they may also move posts to another topic area per relevance.  Our ultimate goal here is to provide a useful response to every question within a reasonable amount of time.  We are targeting 2-3 business days, however being new initiative we are ramping up, so please bear with us on delays.

    Please also consider the following :

    This posting on forums is provided "AS IS" with no warranties, and confers no rights.

    These forums are not an official channel for product support. If you have an urgent or business critical issue, you should contact Microsoft Support Services

    Live Meeting Support for Technical and Billing Issues:
           Web Ticket: http://www.livemeeting.com/ask  

    Phone 1-866-493-2835 toll free (US and Canada Only) or refer to  http://support.microsoft.com/kb/939099/en-us  for additional support options.

     

    While much thought and planning was put into the creation of the forums, there is always room for improvement. I encourage you to please post your ideas and feedback in "General Discussion" forum or email them directly to me Irfan.Soomro@microsoft.com.

    Thank you for being a part of the Live Meeting community.

    Irfan Soomro
    Senior Program Manager

    Microsoft Office Live Meeting

Live Meeting General Discussion announcements

  • Link
    Welcome To Office Live Meeting Forums
    IrfanS - msft
     

    Welcome to Live Meeting forums.   Here we will have a comprehensive set of forums designed to cover various aspects of Microsoft Office Live Meeting.  I am starting with few forums but will be adding some more as we go along. 

    This particular forum is for general questions and discussions. I will also use the posts on this forum as the basis for creating other specialty forums within Live Meeting.  Detailed technical topics should be posted into their respective forums if one is available. Other post can be done in the General section.  Please note however, it is important for a topic to be posted to the correct forum because different groups e.g. Support and Product Group teams and MVPs monitor different forums.  As moderators review the posts they may also move posts to another topic area per relevance.  Our ultimate goal here is to provide a useful response to every question within a reasonable amount of time.  We are targeting 2-3 business days, however being new initiative we are ramping up, so please bear with us on delays.

    Please also consider the following :

    This posting on forums is provided "AS IS" with no warranties, and confers no rights.

    These forums are not an official channel for product support. If you have an urgent or business critical issue, you should contact Microsoft Support Services

    Live Meeting Support for Technical and Billing Issues:
            Web Ticket: http://www.livemeeting.com/ask  

      Phone 1-866-493-2835 toll free (US and Canada Only) or refer to  http://support.microsoft.com/kb/939099/en-us  for additional support options.

     

    While much thought and planning was put into the creation of the forums, there is always room for improvement. I encourage you to please post your ideas and feedback in this forum or email them directly to me Irfan.Soomro@microsoft.com.

    Thank you for being a part of the Live Meeting community.

    Irfan Soomro
    Senior Program Manager

    Microsoft Office Live Meeting

Training and Certification announcements

  • Link
    New "Microsoft Certified Specialist: Server Virtualization" certification - Free training and exam
    vsopher

    For those who work with virtualization technologies, there is now a single exam specialist certification for you. For a limited time, you can take the exam for free, and prepare for it with free online training.

    Get all the details, including the link to claim your exam 74-409 voucher at http://borntolearn.mslearn.net/btl/b/weblog/archive/2013/12/17/earn-your-microsoft-certified-specialist-server-virtualization-title-with-a-free-exam.aspx .

  • Link
    Second shot is back through 31 May 2014!
    Danny van Dam

    Second Shot is back and available until 31 May 2014!

    Thinking about starting or upgrading your Microsoft certification? Still undecided about scheduling that exam? It’s no secret that it takes time, preparation, and commitment to pass all the required exams to achieve a certification milestone, and we want to help you. That's why we're so excited to bring back Second Shot!

    For those who are newer to our community: the return of Second Shot is great news for MCPs (and aspiring ones) because it means being able to retake an exam for free. Just knowing there's a chance to do-over at no cost can make a big difference on exam day.

    Read the full announcement by Veronica Sopher on the BorntoLearn blog here:

    http://borntolearn.mslearn.net/btl/b/weblog/archive/2013/08/29/free-retake-on-microsoft-technical-exams-through-may-2014.aspx#fbid=pcqL9ijgCLa

  • Link
    Microsoft Learning's Community Site "Born to Learn"
    vsopher

    The following training and certification resources are available on Microsoft Learning's community site, affectionately known as Born to Learn.

    Everyone is welcome to visit the site. To comment and participate in discussions, please register as a user with a Microsoft account (aka Live ID). If you're already an MCP, use the same Microsoft account associated with your MC ID.

    • Blogs - News, announcements and offers from Microsoft Learning
    • Certification Study Groups - Discussion forums and prep wikis, led by Microsoft Certified Trainers and SMEs
    • MCT Central - This MCT-only area provides discussion forums and trainer prep resources available only to current MCTs.             


  • Link
    How to use this forum - Please read before posting
    vsopher

    Welcome to the Training and Certification Forum. The main focus of this forum is Microsoft certifications, exam prep, and training products such Microsoft Press books and Microsoft Official Courseware (MOC).

    The current moderators of this forum are Danny van Dam, Jeff Wharton, Mike Corkery, Michael D. Alligood, Rubel Khan and Niall Merrigan. We wish to thank them for contributing their time and expertise.

    Below are a few guidelines to help everyone get the most out of this forum:

    • Is your question about Microsoft Certification or Training? . If not, please search for a more applicable forum, otherwise your post may be moved, closed/locked or deleted.
    • Try searching the forum . Search the forum to see if your question has been asked before and answered. Of course, if you cannot find what you are looking for, please start a new thread rather than adding to an old one.
    • Don't be brief . The more pertinent information you can give in your question, the better the response will be. If you are asking about specific exams, please indicate experience level, current role, etc. We don't charge by the character or word. :)
    • Check your alerts . You can subscribe to a question so that you can see any update on it. Please use this feature so you can get the answers delivered to your inbox and follow up in a timely manner.
    • No Spam. Spamming will have your thread deleted and possibly your account closed.
    • Be polite . It's just better to be nice :) No flaming or trolling.
    • No braindumps . Asking for braindump materials, suggesting the use of or providing links to them will see your thread deleted or edited at the discretion of the moderators.
    • No copyright material . Please do not ask for or share courseware, book chapters or any other copyright material.
    • Mark your question answered. If someone answers your question, please mark the reply as the answer to your question. You can mark multiple replies as answers. Doing so helps other forum visitors find the best answers. It's also a great way to acknowledge and show appreciation to those who offer assistance.
    • Things we cannot answer . There are certain things about exams which cannot be discussed. Please refer to Microsoft exam policies.
    • Dead thread/Answer policy. Where possible the moderators will allow sufficient time for the original poster to come back and mark the replies to their questions as answers. The amount of time is at the discretion of the individual moderator but is suggested that it will be declared dead after a week if the original poster does not respond. We will always try to be fair and mark suitable replies as answers.
    • Do NOT propose your own answer as the answer. This is an accepted forum etiquette across most if not all of the Microsoft forums. Of course, if you think another response is the answer, please feel free to propose it as the answer.


TechNet Sandbox announcements

  • Link
    Ann_1234
    Forums Administrator
    Testing Replication db.
  • Link
    New Announcement Test Using Automation 70d381d4-8698-4340-8dd5-7ed4abe69a47
    forums moderator123
    ACCEPTANCE OF TERMS. The services that Microsoft provides to you are subject to the following Terms of Use ("TOU"). Microsoft reserves the right to update the TOU at any time without notice to you. The most current version of the TOU can be reviewed by clicking on the "Terms of Use" hypertext link located at the bottom of our Web pages. By accessing or using the CodePlex web site in any way, including using any Services, downloading Materials, contributing to a Project or merely browsing the CodePlex web site, you agree to and are bound by the terms of this TOU. If you do not agree to all of the terms and conditions contained in the TOU, do not access or use the CodePlex web site. 5f41679b-28c1-4b0c-8520-6c76ebd56e62
  • Link
    New Announcement Test Using Automation 773333c1-1e55-4965-bb34-76af7b73f9ab
    forums moderator123
    ACCEPTANCE OF TERMS. The services that Microsoft provides to you are subject to the following Terms of Use ("TOU"). Microsoft reserves the right to update the TOU at any time without notice to you. The most current version of the TOU can be reviewed by clicking on the "Terms of Use" hypertext link located at the bottom of our Web pages. By accessing or using the CodePlex web site in any way, including using any Services, downloading Materials, contributing to a Project or merely browsing the CodePlex web site, you agree to and are bound by the terms of this TOU. If you do not agree to all of the terms and conditions contained in the TOU, do not access or use the CodePlex web site. 4e320a24-f1e9-4c5c-967f-e126abff5d89
  • Link
    TechNet Sanbox Forum TechNet Sanbox Forum TechNet Sanbox Forum TechNet Sanbox Forum TechNet Sanbox Forum TechNet Sanbox Forum
    forums moderator123
    TechNet Sanbox ForumTechNet Sanbox ForumTechNet Sanbox ForumTechNet Sanbox ForumTechNet Sanbox ForumTechNet Sanbox ForumTechNet Sanbox ForumTechNet Sanbox ForumTechNet Sanbox ForumTechNet Sanbox ForumTechNet Sanbox ForumTechNet Sanbox ForumTechNet Sanbox ForumTechNet Sanbox ForumTechNet Sanbox ForumTechNet Sanbox ForumTechNet Sanbox ForumTechNet Sanbox ForumTechNet Sanbox ForumTechNet Sanbox ForumTechNet Sanbox ForumTechNet Sanbox ForumTechNet Sanbox ForumTechNet Sanbox ForumTechNet Sanbox ForumTechNet Sanbox ForumTechNet Sanbox ForumTechNet Sanbox ForumTechNet Sanbox ForumTechNet Sanbox ForumTechNet Sanbox ForumTechNet Sanbox ForumTechNet Sanbox ForumTechNet Sanbox ForumTechNet Sanbox ForumTechNet Sanbox ForumTechNet Sanbox ForumTechNet Sanbox ForumTechNet Sanbox ForumTechNet Sanbox ForumTechNet Sanbox ForumTechNet Sanbox ForumTechNet Sanbox ForumTechNet Sanbox ForumTechNet Sanbox ForumTechNet Sanbox ForumTechNet Sanbox ForumTechNet Sanbox ForumTechNet Sanbox ForumTechNet SanboxmTechNet Sanbox ForumTechNet Sanbox ForumTechNet Sanbox Forum

Windows Performance Toolkit announcements

  • Link
    Please keep your posts specific to performance analysis
    Michael Milirud
    Please keep your posts specific to performance analysis. All unrelated posts will be moved to http://social.msdn.microsoft.com/Forums/en-US/Offtopic/threads, without warning. Repeated off-topic posts will be reported as abuse of this forum. Please use your favorite search engine to find the right forum for your question. If your question isn't about Windows performance, then you shouldn't post here.

    Let's build a performance analysis community here :)

    Cheers,
    Michael
  • Link
    Windows Performance Analysis using WPT Kit video session on the WinHEC 2008 DVD
    Michael Milirud
    FYI, the WinHEC 2008 DVD is now available for purchase at
    http://shop.ecompanystore.com/mseventdvd/MSD_productdetail.asp?EventID=70882&TYPE=WinHEC%202008     (down to just $79 from the standard price of $495!).

    There is a very good session on how to use XPerf on this DVD called Windows Performance Analysis: Using Windows Performance Tools [WinHEC 2008; 5.3 MB]. Slides are available to download for free at the above hyper link.

    Keep on tracing,
    Michael

  • Link
    Welcome to the Windows Performance Toolkit forum!
    Michael Milirud
    Welcome to the Windows Performance Toolkit forum!

    As part of Microsoft's initiative to help its partners and customers improve the performance of their Windows systems, Windows group has released in Feb'08 the Windows Performance Toolkit. Version 4.1 of this toolkit has shipped in the Windows Server 2008 SDK and subsequent v.4.1.1 update has been made available on WHDC at http://www.microsoft.com/whdc/system/sysperf/perftools.mspx.

    This toolkit isn't for everyone - to use it effectively, you need to have a grasp of the basic OS internals such as processes, threads, DPCs (deferred procedure calls), ISRs (interrupt service routines), I/O subsystem, registry, etc. Yet one need not be a system developer to use it either. First level triage (e.g. which component is responsible for system slowdown?, is it a CPU or a disk usage issue?, etc.) can often be done with only the basic understanding of the above mentioned concepts, something people usually cover in an introductory 101 OS course. An expert in that area, can then use the same toolkit to dig deeper into the issue, root-cause it, and work on providing a fix for it. A great reference for understanding OS Internals is the Microsoft Windows Internals (4th edition) book from Mark Russinovich and David Solomon. We highly recommend you get a copy if you plan on using this toolkit routinely.

    You can use this forum to ask questions about the toolkit, as well as share tips and tricks with other users on how you've used it successfully in the past. We are hoping that this forum will help build a vibrant environment of performance analyst hobbists and professionals alike, where you can find support from both the Microsoft team shipping these tools to you as well as the MVPs using it on a daily basis.

    The toolkit comes with MSDN documentation available at http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/aa139734.aspx. We recommend you consult it before asking questions on this forum. We would also like to hear feedback from you on our documentation - what are we missing, is something incorrect in the documentation, etc. You can provide it by sending email to wptkdocf@microsoft.com.

    Happy tracing!
    -WPT Team

FSCT - File Server Capacity Tool announcements

  • Link
    Welcome to the FSCT Forum
    Jian (Jane) Yan[MSFT]

    Hello and welcome to the FSCT Forum!

     

    This forum provides you an opportunity to join a community of FSCT users where you can share knowledge, get questions answered, and raise issues/bugs about FSCT application.

     

    If you have any suggestions or feedbacks to FSCT, please feel free to post in our forums.

     

App-V Sequencing Recipes announcements

  • Link
    Rate the Recipes you are reviewing!
    karrial

    As you are viewing and using the recipes provided by your community experts please make sure to mark the "VOTE AS HELPFUL" link on the upper left corner of the recipe.  This will help us gauge that the recipe is useful beyond just viewing it.

    Thanks for contributing!

    Karri

  • Link
    Guidelines to write efficient prescriptive guidance (recipe) for the applications
    Manita Sharma

    App-V Recipe Template

    The Application Virtualization team has listed down some basic details which should be comprised while authoring a recipe for an application. 

    Please ensure to capture the following data while authoring a recipe for an application. The maximum limit is up to 60,000 characters with html markup.

    *If you are not a Microsoft employee you must identify your name and company affiliation which will be published with the recipe.

    Click on ‘Ask a question’ and select ‘Start a discussion’ to post a recipe

    Title: <Ideas: Give a short description about the application name>

    Body: <Include these fields in your recipe>

    Application Name:

    Application Version:

    Company Name: <Who produces the software>

    Sequencer Version:

    App-V Client Version Tested On: <List the versions of the App-V, you have tested on>

    Operating System Sequenced On: <Enter the operating system>

    Pre-requisites: <List the pre-requisites for the sequencer machine: ex. Install WDS 4.0, .NET 3.0>

    Client Operating Systems Successfully Deployed To: <List the operating systems the application was successfully deployed to>

    Posted by Microsoft Employee: <Please provide your name>

    *Posted by non-Microsoft Employee: <Please provide your name and company affiliation>

    If Posted by Microsoft Employee, the Corresponding KB Article Reference: <Please insert the URL if known or available, or N/A if not posted by Microsoft Employee>

    Steps to Sequence the Application:

    <Step1…>

    <Step2…>

    <Step3…>

    Known Issues/Limitations: <Ex. Application dependencies, Client Operating Systems that this package will not work on with: Windows 7 Client, 32-bit; Windows 7 Client, 64-bit; Windows Vista SP1, 64-bit; Windows Vista SP2, 32-bit; Windows Vista SP2, 64-bit; Windows XP, SP3, 32-bit; Windows Server 2008 R2; Windows Server 2008, 32-bit; Windows Server 2008, 64-bit; Windows Server 2003 R2, 32-bit; Windows Server 2003 R2, 64-bit; Windows Server 2003, 32-bit; Other>                                  

    Approximate Sequencing Time:

    Other (Optional fields)

    App-V friendly copy protection scheme?  <Yes/No: This information is helpful for the packager to virtualize the application>

    Additional Notes/Links: <Reference to additional data, if any>

    Custom scripts to assist in the process: <Reference to scripts, if any>

    Descriptive Tags:

    ·         Applying tags to a thread makes it possible for users to find the thread by using the tag cloud.

    ·         Clicking a tag in the tag cloud returns all threads containing that tag.

    ·         While entering tags, use commas to separate tags.

     

    Remember – This is a public forum so never post private information such as e-mail or phone numbers!

    If you have any questions, please contact the team at appvsite@microsoft.com.

  • Link
    Welcome to the App-V Sequencing forum!
    Manita Sharma

    Most applications can be sequenced using App-V Sequencer without requiring any special steps. However, there are some third-party and Microsoft applications that require special steps in order to be properly sequenced and work with App-V.

     

    In the past, members of the product team would regularly post instructions for sequencing particularly for the difficult applications. Recently we have been receiving requests from our customers to have one common community forum for sharing information.

     

    We’re listening and we are glad that you are talking!  Based on the enormous feedback, we are extremely pleased to announce the launch of a new community driven Recipe Forum on Microsoft TechNet. This forum is intended for App-V IT Pros within the App-V community to share their best practice recipes in an effort to grow everyone’s knowledge, expertise and save each other time by learning together.   This allows our new members to ramp faster and our experts to shine and show their depth of knowledge!

     

    You can now view prescriptive sequencing recipes for more than X applications that have been provided by a few experienced packagers from the App-V community. The Community is only successful if all members are contributing.  We have responded to your request, now we need you to respond to ours!  PLEASE CONTRIBUTE YOUR RECIPES TO THE COMMUNITY!   We hope that even more App-V users will contribute and use the content on the forum to sequence more applications! 

    If you have any questions, please contact the team at appvsite@microsoft.com.
  • Link
    Content posted on this site is provided as-is. You bear the risk of using it. Microsoft gives no express or implied warranties or guarantees. Content contributed by the community has not been tested by Microsoft unless otherwise noted.
    Manita Sharma

    Content posted on this site is provided as-is. You bear the risk of using it. Microsoft gives no express or implied warranties or guarantees.  Content contributed by the community has not been tested by Microsoft unless otherwise noted.

Live Meeting - Creating, Joining Meetings, Configurations and Settings announcements

  • Link
    Welcome to Office Live Meeting forums
    IrfanS - msft
     

    Welcome to Office Live Meeting forums.   This is home to comprehensive set of forums designed to cover various aspects of Microsoft Office Live Meeting. I am starting with few forums but will be adding some more as we go along. 

    Detailed technical topics should be posted into their respective forums if one is available. Other post can be done in the General section.  Please note however, it is important for a topic to be posted to the correct forum because different groups e.g. Support and Product Group teams and MVPs monitor different forums.  As moderators review the posts they may also move posts to another topic area per relevance.  Our ultimate goal here is to provide a useful response to every question within a reasonable amount of time.  We are targeting 2-3 business days, however being new initiative we are ramping up, so please bear with us on delays.

    Please also consider the following :

    This posting on forums is provided "AS IS" with no warranties, and confers no rights.

    These forums are not an official channel for product support. If you have an urgent or business critical issue, you should contact Microsoft Support Services

    Live Meeting Support for Technical and Billing Issues:
            Web Ticket: http://www.livemeeting.com/ask  

      Phone 1-866-493-2835 toll free (US and Canada Only) or refer to  http://support.microsoft.com/kb/939099/en-us  for additional support options.

     

     

    While much thought and planning was put into the creation of the forums, there is always room for improvement. I encourage you to please post your ideas and feedback in "General Discussion" forum or email them directly to me Irfan.Soomro@microsoft.com.

    Thank you for being a part of the Live Meeting community.

    Irfan Soomro
    Senior Program Manager

    Microsoft Office Live Meeting

Interop Connectors for Operations Manager announcements

  • Link
    FAQ: Frequently-Asked Questions about the Forums
    Robert_Hearn
    Welcome to the Interop Connectors for System Center Operations Manager forum! This forum is designed to help you find answers to questions about  our products. 

    Please note that this forum relates only to the Operations Manager connectors (not the connectors for Service Manager, which are discussed in another forum)


    Q: Where can I find more information about the products, technical information and troubleshooting?

    A: See the "Helpful Links" annoucement within this forum.

    Q: Why are some threads locked?

    A: When a thread is marked as answered or was not replied to for a long period of time, new posts in that thread may not get recognized and may not get a response. To ensure that new posts get the visbility they need, we lock threads that are marked as answered or where we cannot get a response from the poster within a reasonable period of time, so that any new replies will be done in a new thread and gain immediate attention.

    If you have the same issue as mentioned in a previous thread, but the answer provided does not solve your problem, post a new question and refer to the existing thread so we can quickly rule out that issue as the cause of your particular problem. That will speed up the process of getting your problem solved.

    Q: How long should I expect to wait for an answer?

    A:     We typically respond to new questions within 24-48 hours (excluding weekends and holidays) depending on when the post occurred. If you need faster response or you have a critical issue, please contact Microsoft Support (http://support.microsoft.com/). You should also visit the support page on the Operations Manager TechCenter.



Microsoft Assessment and Planning Toolkit announcements

MBSA - Microsoft Baseline Security Analyzer announcements

  • Link
    Welcome to the Micosoft Baseline Security Analyzer (MBSA) forums!
    Doug Neal

    This forum is for the Microsoft Baseline Security Analyzer security tool (www.microsoft.com/mbsa). No other security questions can be answered in this forum.

    Welcome to the updated MBSA TechNet forum to discuss the free Microsoft Baseline Security Analyzer security scan tool.

    As a security scan tool based on Microsoft Update, the behavior and results of MBSA are the same as Microsoft Update (not Windows Update that only detects updates for Windows products).  With the exception of WSUS-managed machines where the administrator's approved updates take precedence, MBSA will report exactly what Microsoft Update will report.  Like Systems Management Server (SMS), System Center Configuration Manager (SCCM), WSUS Server, MBSA uses the exact same logic and mechanisms as Microsoft Update to determine update applicability and installed state.

    As a security scan tool, MBSA reports against three classifications of updates: Security Updates, Update Rollups and Service Packs.  Critical (non-security) Updates, Definition Updates and Feature Packs and drivers are not detected by MBSA.

    The majority of issues reported by MBSA users stem from an expected update not being displayed - which is often because the update is not an MSRC security bulletin listed in the Security Bulletin Search (http://www.microsoft.com/technet/security/current.aspx) or is not an update rollup (like a new version of Internet Explorer) or a Service Pack.

    Almost all issues can be easily resolved by reviewing the error message displayed by MBSA, reviewing the System Requirements within the MBSA Help file (installed with MBSA) or the online MBSA Q&A (FAQ) located here: http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/security/cc184922.

    The latest MBSA news and information can be found at www.microsoft.com/mbsa and in the MBSA Q&A (FAQ).

Data Protection Manager - Scripting announcements

The Official Scripting Guys Forum! announcements

  • Link
    Posting Guidelines
    Marco Shaw
    You may have been redirected to this post by a moderator or user.  Thank you for posting to the Scripting Guys Forum.  We are here to help you with your scripting questions.  However, we are not here to write solutions to your scripting questions.  Questions like "I can't get this script to work that I've copied below, and here is the error I'm having" are welcome.  However, questions like "I don't have time to learn this myself, so I need someone to write me a script that does these 10 things" are typically not welcome.  In the latter case, ther eare various "freelance" web sites that you can search for with your favorite search engine full of people that would be willing to write scripts for you and they may charge you a fee.  After reading this, you may want to delete your post, as it may not be answered at all, except for a link being provided to this message.
  • Link
    Moderators' names and brief scripting autobiographies last names N-Z (last Updated August 12, 2013)
    Boe Prox

    This is a running list of all moderators on The Official Scripting Guys Forum! They are listed

    alphabetically by last name. N-Z

    Aaron Nelson (forum user name: SQLvariant)

    Aaron Nelson ( blog | twitter ) is a Senior SQL Server Architect with over 10 years of experience in Architecture, Business Intelligence, Development, and Performance Tuning of SQL Server. He has experience managing enterprise wide data needs in both transactional and data warehouse environments.  Aaron holds certifications for MCITP: Business Intelligence Developer, Database Administrator, Database Developer; as well as MCTS: Windows Server Virtualization, Configuration (meaning Hyper-V).  He is also a Microsoft MVP for SQL Server

    Chris O’Prey (forum user name: cjoprey)

    I’m a self-confessed geek who has been a developer for longer than I care to remember (let’s just say I remember writing BASIC in the 70s). In my latest guise as a developer and tester at Microsoft, I am a heavy user of Windows PowerShell for automation of testing, build, and integration. I use Windows PowerShell on a daily basis, and I have no intention of weaning myself off it!

    Travis Page (forum user name: pagerwho)

    I have been in IT for about 7 years now, the past year has been primarily focused on scripting in Windows PowerShell.  I utilize Windows PowerShell quite a bit to help me in my routine tasks, and have come to be known at my employer as the scripting guy.  In my current role I work with Exchange, Active Directory, Server systems and Desktops and have been working to develop scripts to assist me in troubleshooting faster, and fix problems faster with Windows PowerShell.  I am active in PASS at the local level and can be reached on Twitter via http://twitter.com/pagerwho or on LinkedIn: http://www.linkedin.com/in/travispage

    Thiyagarajan Parthiban (forum user name: Thiyagu14)

    I work for a large Investment Bank, as a Exchange Administrator. I have been scripting for more than 7 years now. I am good at VBscript, but when I first laid my eyes on Powershell, I realized this is the coolest thing ever in scripting. I automate Exchange/AD tasks, am also good at WMI, ADSI and generating reports. I blog at www.myExchangeWorld.com . I have developed custom apps in C# for automation. I love to automate things. Scripting and Exchange Server is really my passion.

    Jason Premo (forum user name: LikeToCode)

    I have been in IT for 12 years. I started with installing and troubleshooting radio and data transmission networks for the government, and then I moved into the private sector as a lead IT project engineer, which is when I was first exposed to VBScript. To me, it was the coolest thing since sliced bread. Now I use VBScript, VB.NET, AutoIT, HTAs, and ORCA to engineer enterprise software deployments and manage Active Directory.

    Rich Prescott (forum user name: Rich Prescott)

    I am currently working as an Infrastructure Architect/Windows Engineer at a large media company, with my main areas of focus being automation and Active Directory.  The automation responsibilities allow me to work with a wide-range of technologies including virtualization, storage and monitoring.  I started learning PowerShell in 2009 while working as a Desktop Engineer and am the lead scripting guy for my organization.

    Blog:     blog.RichPrescott.com
    Twitter: @Rich_Prescott

    Boe Prox (forum user name: Boe Prox)

    I have been working as an IT Pro since 2003 as Senior Windows System Administrator and started into scripting with VBscript in early 2008. I then started getting into Windows PowerShell in early 2009 and haven’t stopped using it since. I use Windows PowerShell on a daily basis at work for automation, reporting and anything else I can think of. My main focus areas are in ADSI and WMI and I am also learning more about .NET to further my Windows PowerShell experience. One of my favorite things about Windows PowerShell no matter what you know, you will always learn something new. My blog is at http://learn-powershell.net

    Mark Schill (forum user name: Meson3902)

    I live in Atlanta, Georgia, where I work as a contractor for the federal government. I began scripting with VBScript in 1999 and now work exclusively with Windows PowerShell.  My current areas of specialization are automated Windows system builds and Citrix environments.  VMWare is also of major interest to me. I work in development on a part-time basis and this has provided ease within the .NET Framework. I also serve as a resident advisor on the #PowerShell IRC channel on freenode.net. You can find me on my blog:  http://www.cmschill.net/stringtheory  .

    Andy Schneider (forum user name: Andy Schneider)

    I am a systems engineer at Avanade, Inc. I am on Avanade’s Internal IT team that works with Compute Utility and Storage infrastructure. I’ve been a professional in the IT industry since 1999. I remember the first time I started playing with VBScript. I ran into by boss’s office exclaiming “Holy Schnikees! Look what we can do with this stuff!” Seeing what I could do with automation, my view of IT changed forever. Now I am pretty much a pure Windows PowerShell fanatic. Windows PowerShell has provided me with a fairly smooth glide path into the world of development with .NET and C#. I’m not a developer, but I have a strong passion for bridging the world of development and systems engineering together by being able to interface with developers and other systems engineers. Learning Windows PowerShell has really given me the tools I need to become more educated about the world of development. You can find my blog at http://get-powershell.com/.

    Marco Shaw (forum user name: Marco Shaw)

    Brandon Shell (forum user name: BSonPosh)

    I have been in the IT industry since 1994. I spent the early years as a PC tech and general fix-it guy for numerous companies. I started a consulting company in 1999 to build, design, and support networks and Windows infrastructure. I offered Microsoft training as well. In 2000 I joined Microsoft as contractor for the Directory Services team (the first of several times). I joined Microsoft in 2002 as a full-time rapid response field engineer doing mostly Directory Service support for companies in the northeast. In 2004 the onsite travel requirement became too much, and I left for a finance firm where I am today.
    Blog:     www.bsonposh.com.

    Bhargav Shukla (forum user name: Bhargav Shukla - MSFT)

    My name is Bhargav Shukla, and I am a premier field engineer (PFE) at Microsoft. Computers always fascinated me. By education I am a civil engineer but my passion for IT lead my way and I became what I am today. As a PFE, I represent Microsoft and provide dedicated support to enterprise customers.

    In my 14 years of IT experience, I have had the opportunity to work on many technologies including messaging, Directory Services, information security, virtualization, and others. As I progressed through my career stages, I also earned industry certifications from Microsoft, VMware, RSA and Citrix. When not working with Enterprise clients, I am leading Exchange User Group in the Philadelphia area, contributing to TechNet forums, and reviewing books. I am one of the reviewers of Roberta Bragg’s Windows Server 2003: A Technical Reference. I also help Clint Huffman on his open source tool Performance Analysis of Logs (PAL) when time permits. Besides my passion for IT and messaging, I love playing chess. You can find me on the Free Internet Chess Server; my handle is “bhargavs”.

    Glenn Sizemore (forum user name: glnsize)

    I have been in IT for the last 8 years, during that time I have held just about every job one could hold. I started scripting early in my career, and had mastered VBScript by the time Windows PowerShell arrived. Being a scripter, I was an early adopter of Windows PowerShell, and have since become a fanatic. Professionally I work as a virtualization administrator, and use VBScript, BAT, and Windows PowerShell to automate all levels of the infrastructure. In my free time, I run www.Get-Admin.com, and contribute to various scripting communities.

    Bill Stewart (forum user name: AbqBill)

    I first began automating computers in 1985 using batch files in MS-DOS 3.0. My first experience with an enhanced command shell was with 4DOS (a Command.com replacement) in 1989, and this whet my appetite for more powerful automation. I studied Pascal programming on my own for several years, and I had a renewed interest in OS automation when I began working with Windows NT 4.0 in 1997. When Windows 2000 came with baked-in WSH, I was hooked. I learned VBScript first, but I came to appreciate JScript's power and flexibility, and I now greatly prefer it to VBScript when writing WSH scripts. I also enjoy using Windows PowerShell and have applied it to numerous automation tasks. I have written numerous articles for Windows IT Pro magazine as well as a number of freeware utilities to help scripters, which you can download from my Web site: http://www.westmesatech.com/. For my day job, I am the systems and network administrator for French Mortuary, in Albuquerque, New Mexico, in the United States.

    Trevor Sullivan (forum user name: Trevor Sullivan)

    I started learning to write scripts back in 2004. I started out as a desktop support person, and quickly realized that an understanding of programming would be essential to pursuing a career in technology. At the time, VBScript was the best cross between ease of learning and scripting power, so I started there. A couple years later, Windows PowerShell came around, and although I was quite keen on it, I didn't adopt it right away. I took some time to study C#/.NET because I wanted to understand programming a little bit deeper. Over the past year, I have picked up Windows PowerShell, largely built on my previous knowledge of the Microsoft .NET platform, and I write primarily in Windows PowerShell today.

    Jakob Svendsen (forum user name: Jakob Svendsen)

    I began my scripting/programming career when I got my first computer, at age 8. Later on I got the C64, and progressed toward writing small games. I studied C++, PHP, HTML, CSS, ASM, and others during my technical education. In the past 2 years, I have worked at Coretech A/S, Denmark (http://blog.coretech.dk) as an IT Consultant and Microsoft Certified Trainer. I spend most of my workdays scripting, programming, or teaching Windows PowerShell, VBScript, and .NET applications (VB or C#).

    Jonathan Tyler (forum user name: Jonathan Tyler)

    Jonathan Tyler is a senior software engineer employed by one of the world’s leading providers of commercial transport solutions. Jonathan has been in the IT industry since 1997. He currently supports the global SharePoint farm for the company’s Internet, extranet, and intranet solutions. Since working as a consultant, Jonathan started working with VBScript to automate tasks. He has done work in Visual Basic, C#, and Windows PowerShell. Check out his blog, PowerShell Reflections.

    Jason Walker  (forum user name: Jason Walker)

    Jason is an active member of the Charlotte PowerShell User’s Group, PowerShell evangelist and lives by the motto “Real admins don’t click them <TAB>”

    Fredrik Wall (forum user name: Fredrik Wall)

    I have been scripting since 1997. Since then I have been scripting with batch files, VBScript, KiXtart and Windows PowerShell. I work with Active Directory, Web servers, SQL servers, Windows Servers and Clients, Deployment, and more. So I script against most of Microsoft’s applications. My blog: http://powershell.se/blog. My Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/walle75. I’m the co-founder of the Scandinavian PowerShell User group.

    Brian Wilhite (forum user name: Brian Wilhite)

    Brian Wilhite works as a Windows System Administrator for a large health care provider in North Carolina.  He has over 15 years of experience in IT.  In his current capacity as a Windows SysAdmin, he leads a team of individuals that have responsibilities for Microsoft Exchange, Windows Server Build, Management and System Performance.  Brian also supports and participates in the Charlotte PowerShell Users Group.  He can be found on twitter.com/bwilhite1979

    Andrew Willett (forum user name: Andrew Willett)

    I am the projects manager for the IT department of a Steinhoff group company. Based in London, I spend most of my time deploying, designing, and developing Microsoft-based architectures.



  • Link
    Moderators' names and brief scripting autobiographies last names A-M (last Updated August 12, 2013)
    IamMred

    This is a running list of all moderators on The Official Scripting Guys Forum! They are listed alphabetically by last name. A-Z

    Andrew Barnes (forum user name: Andrew Barnes)

    I have more than 15 years of experience ranging from desktop support to third line/server specialist. My first program was on the BBC Micro in 1982. I wrote:

    10 PRINT "ANDREW IS COOL!"

    20 GOTO 10.

    I remember thinking, “Wow, Andrew is cool!” I continued scripting in enterprise environments with DOS batch files on a boot floppy, KIX in logon scripts, and then VBScripts in Active Directory. Now as a Microsoft Certified IT Professional, I'm taking on Windows Powershell for today’s automation. I have always used scripting to automate everyday IT tasks, reduce workloads, and resolve technical issues. After all, why do it when you can script it?

    Bartek Bielawski (forum user name: Bartek Bielawski)

    Bartek has been working in IT for more than 10 years for one company, PAREXEL, a global organization with headquarters in the U.S. Before he got a real job, he was big Linux fan and amateur Linux admin, with some bash scripting and all kinds of awking, seding, cutting, and greping. That's why one of his first tasks at work (other than putting out fires all around) was to improve backup scripts (done in cmd back then). That forced him to get to know cmd.exe better. The experience was bad when compared to bashing, but it paid the bills...

    A few years later, he tried to automate some tasks, which required something that cmd could not provide. His options were VBScript or Windows PowerShell. Even though he knows VBScript a bit, he always preferred the interactive Windows PowerShell. In his opinion, Windows PowerShell is the best product from Microsoft.

    Kai Bluesky (forum user name: kai.bluesky)

    VBScript is one of the most powerful tools that I have. I am used to scripting in WMI and ADSI. At the beginning, it just did my boring daily job automatically. Later, more complex tools—such as an inventory system and an application deployment tool—were implemented without costing my boss any money. Now, scripting has enabled me to join a professional team and my job has become more challenging.

    Jaap Brasser (forum user name: Jaap Brasser)

    Jaap is a Senior System Engineer in the Financial Services industry. He focuses on Microsoft and related technologies and has a passion for PowerShell. In his spare time he maintains his Blog, Twitter feed, @Jaap_Brasser, is a board member of the Dutch PowerShell User Group, and contributes on the Official Scripting Guys Forum and Windows PowerShell TechNet forums.

    Uros Cala (forum user name: urkec)

    My first couple of years as a system and DB administrator were really painful. My tasks kept piling up, I kept losing my head, and just when I was about to quit, I stumbled upon the Microsoft Script Center. I made use of a couple of simple scripts I found there, and for the first time I felt I was in control. My second big discovery was WMI—along with VBScript, it completely changed the way I do my job. I am currently exploring the .NET Framework and Windows PowerShell, trying to make my administrator life even easier.

    Rob Campbell (forum user name: mjolinor)

    I work at a medium-to-large corporate financial institution, as an AD and Exchange administrator. I have worked in IT for over 35 years, starting as a night operator on IBM System 3 and 360 series mainframes. I never really got the hang of VB, but love Windows PowerShell. I have done a few large-scale scripts, but most of my scripting work is ad-hoc, on-demand reports and maintenance changes. I do not know that I can lay claim to any particular area of specialization. The nearest I ever came up with for a good job description was “tactical logician”. 

    Marc Adam Carter (forum user name: marcadamcarter)

    I am currently a senior systems administrator with the Department of the Army.  I started in the IT industry in 1996 with DOS and various flavors of *NIX.  I was introduced to VBScript in 2000 and scripting became a regular obsession sometime in 2005.  In 2008 I made the move to Windows PowerShell and have never looked back.  My daily responsibilities keep me involved with Active Directory, supporting Microsoft Exchange, SharePoint, and various ASP.NETapplications.  In 2011, I founded the Corpus Christi PowerShell User Group and try to help bring others up to speed on PowerShell.

    Ravikanth Chaganti (forum user name: Ravikanth.Chaganti)

    I have 9+ years of experience in IT and mostly in the Windows Server operating system  related areas. My scripting experience dates back to my school days where I used to write DOS batch files to automate a few things on Windows 3.1. I did a lot of VBScripting, and a few popular ones include HVS2008 UI (http://hvs2008ui.codeplex.com), VHDShell Extensions (http://code.msdn.com/VHDShellExt), and a few other scripts on my blog. I primarily work on Hyper-V and SharePoint technologies. I use Windows PowerShell these days to automate a  lot of activities around these two technologies.

    Daniel Cruz (forum user name: Cruz_Daniel)

    In the past five years as an IT Professional, I have focused on Microsoft products and have earned my MCSE 2003 and MCITP: Server Administrator 2008 Certifications. Windows PowerShell is my primary scripting language and I use it on a daily basis with Active Directory, Exchange and for other admin tasks. I mostly use Cmdlets, WMI and .NET in my scripts and have recently been focused on reusable code and automation. I have learned a ton from the Windows PowerShell community and am now doing my best to give some back. You can learn more about me on Twitter or my Blog.

    Jeremy Engel (forum user name: engelj@labcorp.com)

    I started coding at the age of 10, writing games in BASIC for my lightning-fast Commodore 64. From there I ventured into the high-tech world of text-based online gaming, affectionately known as MUDs—specifically EverDark. Later, I made the jump to systems engineering, and it was there that I discovered VBScript. I currently use VBScript for access into all sorts of namespaces and frameworks: WMI, ADSI, SQL, Office, .NET, etc. I also write in HTML and C#, and I am currently casting a wary eye at Windows PowerShell.

    Niklas Goude (forum user name: Niklas Goude)

    I'm from Stockholm, Sweden, where i work at Enfo Zipper, a company that concentrates on client infrastructure. When I started scripting, i mainly focused on HTML and Javascript. Over time i got into PHP and finally VBScript, for managing the Windows environment. When I started at Enfo Zipper, one of the developers handed me a book on Windows PowerShell (PowerShell in Action, Bruce Payette ) and from that day on, I've been living Windows PowerShell. I also run a blog, http://www.powershell.nu,  where I post scripts, ideas, and guides on Windows PowerShell.

    Shane Hoey (forum user name: Shane Hoey)

    My scripting experience started back when Windows XP was the new kid on the block, and I soon found myself scripting on a daily basis with VBScript, WMI, and ADSI. Fast forward to the 2009 Summer Scripting Games, and I finally discovered Windows PowerShell. I’ve been hooked ever since. One of the things I like most about Windows PowerShell is its ability to easily automate, especially my daily repetitive tasks. My background is system and network administration, but at work they just call me the PowerShell Geek these days. By the way, I also run the Powershell Usergroup Brisbane.

    Matt Johnson (forum user name: MWJComputing)

    Matt Johnson (MWJComputing) is a system administrator and founder of the SE Michigan PowerShell Script club. Matt has been scripting for eight years and is proficient in Windows PowerShell, Perl, Python, and several other languages. He currently specializes in WMI, ADSI, and the .NET Framework. You can find Matt on Twitter (@mwjcomputing) and online at http://www.mwjcomputing.com or http://www.michiganpowershell.com.

    Laerte Junior (forum user name: Laerte Junior)

    I started programming computers in clipper. I went through the stage of visual basic and SQL SERVER DBA am 10 years or so. In addition to tuning and development(C#, TSQL), like a lot to automate processes in SQL SERVER. 1 year ago I have been developing scripts in Powershell with SQL Server to facilitate automation.I have a blog in Portuguese www.laertejuniordba.spaces.live.comwhere I put my progress in PowerShell with SQL Server and I am a guest blogger at www.simple-talk.com .

    Sean Kearney (forum user name: ye110wbeard@hotmail.com)

    I am a network administrator, a Microsoft Certified Technology Specialist in Windows Server Virtualization and Configuration, and a Microsoft Certified Systems Engineer. I’m a devoted and passionate computer enthusiast from the early 80s to the present day, having used just about every microcomputer ever. I taught myself computer programming with 65xx machine code, working with many technologies―but primarily Microsoft. I deal with “anything thrown at me,” from gnawed keyboards to recovery of Exchange servers, to networking setups and isolating the realm of the unknown. Currently, I test and deploy just about any new Microsoft Technology; I also deal with users in an enterprise class environment. I love Windows Powershell, Windows 7, and Hyper-V, in that order.

    Tom Lavedas (forum user name: Tom Lavedas)

    I built my first computer in 1980 (a Sinclair, ZedX80) to replace my programmable HP calculator and realized how useful personal computing could be.  I've never held an IT position in my career, though as a staff engineer in a small manufacturing company I was pressed into service for a while.  I worked out the transition from the company's antiquated mini-computer inventory system onto a WinNT file server based system just before Y2K made the mini inoperable.  Rather, I'm an electrical engineer who scripts. Sometimes the scripts handle small engineering computations, but usually I use them to automate redundant desktop management tasks. I'm fluent in a few obsolete languages (or used to be), like FORTRAN, Algol, Pascal and PL1, conversant in C and JScript, but mostly I stick with the command console (aka batch), VBScript and VBA in Excel and PowerPoint. I especially like building user interfaces in HTML/HTA to make my scripts more versatile.

    Thomas Lee (forum user name: Thomas Lee)

    I've been scripting pretty much forever. I used to be pretty hot at JCL on the IBM 360 in the late 1960s, did a ton of shell scripting in the 70s on ICL VME. I learned batch scripting with DOS 2.0. I never really grokked VBS (and never got infected with *ix). But I truly “got” Monad when I first saw it in September 2003 and never looked back. I'm proficient in Windows PowerShell 1.0 and 2.0, and specialize in the .NET and WMI aspects. My one interesting fact is that I was the first person to blog about Monad.

    Shay Levy (forum user name: Shay Levi)

    I'm from Israel. I've been working in IT since 1998 as a system administrator, mostly using Microsoft Server technologies. I started to script HTML pages (JavaScript and ASP) and soon enough I converted Web pages scripting to system scripting using VBScript, WMI, ADSI, etc. Since the first days when PowerShell was introduced, I found myself diving into this new technology and I couldn't stop using it. For quite some time I wondered if one could fall in love with a piece of software. Now I know that's possible! Most of the time I like to hang out in the Windows PowerShell newsgroup and scripting related forums . They provide real world problems where I can help and learn from users alike. I also run a blog at http://blogs.microsoft.co.il/blogs/ScriptFanatic  , so stop by and say hello.

    Oliver Lipkau (forum user name: Oliver Lipkau)

    I have been scripting for more than 10 years. I started with Batch at the age of 13 by modifying the school’s PC. Today my main scripting language is Windows PowerShell. It allows me to automate the majority of my routine management of servers and clients. My specializations are ADSI and WMI.

    I also code in vbs, ahk, html, js, batch, php, and asp . But Windows PowerShell is my favorite. My blog: http://oliver.lipkau.net/blog.

    Salvador Manaois III (forum user name: Salvador Manaois III)

    I have been writing scripts for 10 years in my role as an IT administrator. In my day-to-day work, I extensively make use of VB scripts, with a bit of .NET programming and Windows PowerShell on the side. Being in charge of ensuring compliance to our standard operating environment, I make use of a great deal of WMI, ADSI, and other wsh objects (registry, file streams, etc) to ensure that the majority, if not all, of the machines under my care adhere to our standards.

    Michael Moore (forum user name: lizaoreo)

    My name is Michael Moore; I was born in Greenville, TX and moved to Georgia when I was five because of my dad’s work. I like long walks on the beach and the occasional … oh you didn’t want that did you?

    I live in Calhoun, GA and work at Mohawk Industries, one of the world’s largest flooring manufacturers.  I started working with batch files in 2008 when I started a new job where they had a Batch file that I improved, and then continuously added tasks to. I later moved to Windows PowerShell in 2010 when I started trying to do stuff that just couldn’t be done in Batch and before I even got a handle on VBScript I ran across Windows PowerShell several times in the Hey Scripting Guys Blog.

    I have pretty much been hooked since then.

    Richard Mueller (forum user name: Richard Mueller)

    I worked for a large electric utility for many years where I managed IT budgets, developed mainframe applications, and coded batch files for administrative tasks, including logon scripts, desktop configuration, and tracking computers and users . Now I do consulting and application development for small organizations such as schools. I write programs using ADSI, WMI, ADO, SQL Server, VBScript, classic Visual Basic, and VB.NET. I've been a Microsoft MVP since 2003, first in Windows Server and now Directory Services. My Web site is http://www.rlmueller.net/ and is dedicated to scripts for administering Windows Active Directory networks.

    ·         Laerte's unedited profile:

  • Link
    August 12 2013 Please welcome our new moderators, Jaap Brasser and Jason Walker
    IamMred

    Jaap Brasser (forum user name: Jaap Brasser)

    Jaap is a Senior System Engineer in the Financial Services industry. He focuses on Microsoft and related technologies and has a passion for PowerShell. In his spare time he maintains his Blog, Twitter feed, @Jaap_Brasser, is a board member of the Dutch PowerShell User Group, and contributes on the Official Scripting Guys Forum and Windows PowerShell TechNet forums.

    Jason Walker  (forum user name: Jason Walker)

    Jason is an active member of the Charlotte PowerShell User’s Group, PowerShell evangelist and lives by the motto “Real admins don’t click them <TAB>”

Data Protection Manager - Tape Protection announcements

  • Link
    User Voice Feedback Forum!! - Data Protection Manager
    Andy Nadarewistsch

    Have feedback or a suggestion to improve DPM? We have added DPM and Azure back-up on user voice feedback forum on Azure.  We had piloted this initially with Azure backup and were thrilled with all the feedback/ideas. We have now added SCDPM to it as well. Would love to hear your ideas and feedback.  If you see an idea you like, vote for it ! If you have a new ideas, post it (the search bar will tell you if there is a similar idea so do check that before you post a new idea).

    Go to - http://feedback.azure.com/forums/258995-azure-backup-and-scdpm

  • Link
    DPM 2012 Sp1 / R2 and Windows 2012 / R2 - Virtual Fibre Channel attached tape library support.
    Mike Jacquet

    Both Windows 2012 and Windows 2012 R2 Hyper-V server have support for Virtual Fibre Channel (vFC) which allow you to attach physical fibre channel devices inside a Hyper-V guest running Windows 2012 / R2.

    System Center Data Protection Manager 2012 SP1 and later support running on Windows 2012.  
    System Center Data Protection Manager 2012 R2 is also supported running on Windows 2012 R2.

    When running DPM 2012.. in a Windows 2012 virtual machine, using the synthetic FC to connect to a tape drive / library is not supported because Windows 2012 does not currently offer support for it.

    However, DPM 2012 R2 +Sp3 or later running in Windows 2012 R2 virtual machine does support using the Vfc to connect to a fiber attached tape library

    This is documented in the following TechNet articles.

    Windows: Hyper-V Virtual Fibre Channel Overview

    DPM:  Verifying tape library compatibility  - see the section labeled: Run the compatibility tool for Hyper-V Fibre Channel

  • Link
    Creating and using certifcates for DPM tape backups.
    Mike Jacquet

    Below are quick links for using certificates encrypting DPM tape backups for all versions of DPM.

    How to Create Self-Signed Certificates for Successful Encryptions
    http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ff399364.aspx

    MakeCert.exe is available as part of the Windows SDK, which you can download from one of the below links:

    http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/p/?linkid=84091.
          http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/windows/desktop/aa386968(v=vs.85).aspx

    You can install Windows SDK and select option “Tools” under “.Net Development” and   unchecked everything else for installing makecert.exe only.

    How to Import Certificates into DPMBackupStore
    http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ff399563.aspx


    People who have to have deal with Real Certificate Authorities can use the following information to assist with their requests:
     
    If you are dealing with an organization that uses a Windows CA, have them issue a certificate based on the "Web Server" Template.
    If you are dealing with an organization that uses another vendors CA, request that they issue you a certificate with the following:
     
    Key Usages = Digital Signature, Non-Repudiation, Key Encipherment, Data Encipherment
    Extended Key Usage = Server Authentication
     
    The above match the values of your self generated certificate.

  • Link
    Support for IBM System Storage TS2900 Tape Autoloader Added to DPM 2010 and beyond
    Mike Jacquet

    DPM 2010 now supports the IBM System Storage TS2900 / TS357X Tape Autoloader after installing this DPM 2010 or later Hotfix.

    2465832 Description of the hotfix rollup package for System Center Data Protection Manager 2010: March 2011
    http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-US;2465832

    However, you must also add this registry key before that fix will be implemented.

    Registry Key: HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Microsoft Data Protection Manager\Agent
DWORD: RSMCompatMode
Value: 29 (Decimal)


  • Link
    DPM compatible Tape libraries
    Mike Jacquet

    ·     Windows 2012 no longer has a tape library compatibility certification tests, so NO vendors tape libraries will show as being certified in the Windows catalog.  For that reason the guidance we're giving customers is if the library is listed on the Windows server catalog under the hardware / storage section and shows compatible with Windows 2008 X64 or Windows 2008 R2 x64, then it should work fine with all versions of DPM.  Any driver incompatibilities with Windows 2012 will need to be addressed by the vendor.  
    http://www.windowsservercatalog.com/

    Compatible tape libraries - Applies To: System Center 2012 - Data Protection Manager, System Center 2012 SP1 - Data Protection Manager
    http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/hh916523.aspx


    Also leverage the DPM 2007 compatibility list, anything on this list should work on DPM2010 if they have Windows 2008 X64 drivers.

    System Center Data Protection Manager 2007 Tested Hardware
    http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/dpm/cc678583.aspx

    If you cannot find support for the library, you can download and run the DPMtapeLibraryCompatibilityChecker tool from the following page.

    Verifying tape library compatibility


    For Standalone drive.
    =====================

    Run the following command to list libraries attached to the system.

    DPMLibraryTest.exe /Certify /LL


    Run the following command, where \\.\tape######## is the symbolic name of the tape drive to test from the output of the /LL command.


    DPMLibraryTest.exe /CERTIFY /TL \\.\Tape2147483646 /SA


    For tape library
    ================

    Run the following command to list the libraries attached to the system:

    DPMLibraryTest.exe /Certify /LL

    Run the following command, where \\.\Changer# is the symbolic name of the tape library to test from the output of the /LL command.

    DPMLibraryTest.exe /CERTIFY /TL \\.\Changer0 /ST 1 2 4 5

     

    Description of the tests.

    Test 1: Basic Configuration
    This test will scan your system for attached devices. It will identify the libraries and the stand-alone drives attached to your system and give you a summary of what it finds. For each device, you will see a Device Name, Serial Number, Vendor Name, Product Name, Firmware Revision and SCSI properties.
    At the end of this test, the user must verify whether all the information as seen by the tool. If the information is incorrect, check the following:
    • Check if all the devices are listed in Device Manager.
    • Ensure that the drivers for the devices are up-to-date.
    • If the drive mappings are incorrect, use the DPMDriveMapping.exe to correct the mappings. If you do not have DPM installed on the computer, copy the DPMLA.xml that DPMDriveMapping.exe creates to the folder to which you extracted the Tape Library Certification tool.

    Test 2: Mount/Dismount
    This test will pick a tape from the first available slot and perform a mount/dismount of that tape to/from a drive.

    Test3: Drive Cleaning
    A cleaner cartridge in needed for this test to run. Please read the pre-requisites section for this test. If you are using Firestreamer or a VTL where you cannot remove/change tapes, please use the /ST flag of the tool to skip the cleaner test.

    Test4: I/E Media
    This test will pick up the first available tape and move it to the I/E port and back. If your library/VTL does not have I/E ports the tool will automatically skip the test.

    Test5: I/O
    This test will pick up the first available writable tape and write a few buffers to it and try reading what is written. The purpose of this test is only to check for reading/writing ability.  Any specific/transient errors in any drive have to be inspected using the Advance Mode.
     Warning
    This test will overwrite information in the tape. Ensure that the first available tape does not have important data on it.

    Once complete, for any test failures, review the  LibraryTestTool-*-Curr.errlog files located in the directory you ran the tool from.

    Once the tool passes the tests, then DPM should be able to use the tape library for backups.

     


    NOTE1: DPM does not support Automated Cartridge System Library Software, ACSLS is the software that controls an Automated Cartridge System (ACS). There are no plans to support it.

    NOTE2:  DPM does not support tape libraries that have auto-clean feature enabled. If the library supports auto-clean but that feature cannot be disabled, wo do not recommend using that library with DPM.



Data Protection Manager - General announcements

  • Link
    DPM error: The VHD containing the replica or one of it's snapshots could not be mounted or unmounted. (ID 40002)
    Mike Jacquet

    We have seen DPM 2016 or later servers using Modern Backup Storage (MBS)  experience the below error.   

    The VHD containing the replica or one of it's snapshots could not be mounted or unmounted. (ID 40002)

    This can be caused by a real failure to mount / dismount a replica or snapshot .vhdx file – or most likely the mount / dismount is working but WMI call is failing due to WMI out of memory error.

    NOTE: We have seen some customers experience this problem when using volume mountpoints for modern backup storage (MBS) so it suggested to assign a drive letter to the MBS volume(s) , then refresh the DPM Storage pool so it picks up the drive letter, then remove the mount point.

    To mitigate the WMI memory problem you can implement the below changes.

    1) Add these registry settings. Copy / paste into notepad and save as WMI.REG (no .txt extension) - then right-click the wmi.reg and click merge.

    Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00

    [HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Wbem\CIMOM]
    "High Threshold On Client Objects (B)"="60000000"
    "High Threshold On Events (B)"="60000000"

    2) Follow the below blog and change memory from 512mb to 1GB.

    Memory and Handle Quotas in the WMI Provider Service
    https://techcommunity.microsoft.com/t5/Ask-The-Performance-Team/Memory-and-Handle-Quotas-in-the-WMI-Provider-Service/ba-p/373319

    1.Start “wbemtest” as administrator.
    2.Connect to the “root” namespace (not “root\default”, just “root”)
    3.Click Open Instance. Specify “__ProviderHostQuotaConfiguration=@”
    4.Select Local Only for easier readability. You will see the threshold values.
    5.Increase the MemoryPerHost value to something greater. (For example, double it to 1GB 1073741824)
    6.Save Property
    7.Save Object
    8.Click Exit.

    3) Reboot the DPM Server.

  • Link
    Now available: Microsoft System Center 2019!
    EugeneLeitan
    On March 7, 2019, we shared that System Center 2019 would be coming soon. As of March 14, 2019, we are pleased to let you know that System Center 2019 is generally available. Customers with a valid license of System Center 2019 can download media from the Volume Licensing Service Center (VLSC). We will also have the System Center 2019 evaluation available on the Microsoft Evaluation Center.

    Faster backups with Data Protection Manager 2019

    Data Protection Manager (DPM) 2019 will provide backups optimized in time (faster) and space (consumes less storage).

    • DPM improves performance of your backups with a 75 percent increase in speed and enables monitoring experience for key backup parameters via Log Analytics.
    • DPM further supports backup of VMware VMs to tape. In addition to Windows Server 2019, DPM now provides backups for new workloads such as SharePoint 2019 and Exchange 2019.
  • Link
    DPM 2016 BMR backups fail intermittently - ID 30229 Details: Internal error code: 0x80990ED0
    Mike Jacquet

    ISSUE:  BMR backups fail

    Issue occurs on Data Protection Manager\Microsoft Azure Backup Server 2016 using Modern Backup Storage.  This occurs because windows backup server writers directly to the DPM\MABS share during backup and there could be IO latency greater than the standard SMB timeout of 45-60 seconds.  There are also some general items that should be configured for BMR backups please see Pre-requisites below.

    Pre-Requisites:

    Latest UR patch for Data Protection Manager or Microsoft Azure Backup Server

    Ensure Replica volume is sized correctly – https://blogs.technet.microsoft.com/dpm/2017/04/14/how-to-increase-dpm-2016-replica-when-using-modern-backup-storage-mbs/

    Ensure July CU update or above is applied for REFS - https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/help/4345418/windows-10-update-kb4345418

    Symptoms:

    On DPM server:

    DPM cannot create a backup because Windows Server Backup (WSB) on the protected computer encountered an error (WSB Event ID: 517, WSB Error Code:

     0x6B48C3A0). (ID 30229 Details: Internal error code: 0x80990ED0)

    OR

    You may also encounter an error “The storage involving the current operation could not be read from or written to. (ID 40003)”

    Log Name:      DPM Alerts

    Source:        DPM-EM

    Date:          7/7/2017 11:11:36 AM

    Event ID:      3106

    Task Category: None

    Level:         Error

    Keywords:      Classic

    User:          N/A

    Computer:      <servername>

    Description:

    The replica of Non VSS Datasource Writer on <servername> is inconsistent with the protected data source. All protection activities for data source will fail until the replica is synchronized with consistency check. (ID: 3106)

    The storage involving the current operation could not be read from or written to. (ID: 40003)

    On Protected server:

    Log Name:      Microsoft-Windows-Backup

    Source:        Microsoft-Windows-Backup

    Date:          5/8/2018 10:43:42 AM

    Event ID:      5

    Task Category: None

    Level:         Error

    Keywords:     

    User:          SYSTEM

    Computer:      <Servername>

    Description:

    The backup operation that started at '‎2018‎-‎05‎-‎08T15:17:32.312386000Z' has failed with following error code '0x8078015B' (Windows Backup encountered an error when accessing the remote shared folder. Please retry the operation after making sure that the remote shared folder is available and accessible.). Please review the event details for a solution, and then rerun the backup operation once the issue is resolved.

    And

    Log Name:      Microsoft-Windows-SmbClient/Connectivity

    Source:        Microsoft-Windows-SMBClient

    Date:          5/21/2018 4:23:49 PM

    Event ID:      30809

    Task Category: None

    Level:         Error

    Keywords:      (64)

    User:          N/A

    Computer:      <servername>

    Description:

    A request timed out because there was no response from the server.

    And

    Server name: <Servername>

    Session ID:0x17801D0000031

    Tree ID:0x1

    Message ID:0x4000015

    Command: Flush

    Guidance:

    The server is responding over TCP but not over SMB. Ensure the Server service is running and responsive, and the disks do not have high per-IO latency, which makes the disks appear unresponsive to SMB. Also, ensure the server is responsive overall and not paused; for instance, make sure you can log on to it.

    Log Name:      Microsoft-Windows-SMBServer/Operational

    Source:        Microsoft-Windows-SMBServer

    Date:          5/21/2018 4:25:37 PM

    Event ID:      1020

    Task Category: (1020)

    Level:         Warning

    Keywords:      (8)

    User:          SYSTEM

    Computer:      <ServerName>

    Description:

    File system operation has taken longer than expected.

    Client Name: <IP>

    Client Address: <IP:Port>

    User Name: <Username>

    Session ID: 0x17801D0000031

    Share Name: <sharename>

    File Name: WINDOWSIMAGEBACKUP\<Servername>\<Backupdate>\<GUID>.VHDX

    Command: 7

    Duration (in milliseconds): 353151

    Warning Threshold (in milliseconds): 120000

    Guidance:

    The underlying file system has taken too long to respond to an operation. This typically indicates a problem with the storage and not SMB

    Cause:

    SMB timeout is too short for IO latency for BMR on REFS

    Resolution\Workaround:

    Option 1:

    Set registry and reboot protected server

    1.                      Add the registry key below on the protected server

    reg add HKLM\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\LanmanWorkstation\Parameters /v SessTimeout  /t REG_DWORD /d 1200

    Option 2: If you cannot reboot server (Note:  Ensure you check the list of dependencies for the Lanmanworkstation service as those services will need to be started again too)

    1. Add the registry key      below on the protected server

    reg add HKLM\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\LanmanWorkstation\Parameters /v SessTimeout  /t REG_DWORD /d 1200

    Note:  The 1200 second setting is a 20 minute timeout.  This is not a rigid number but has been tested with success.   Depending on latency you can adjust as needed.  To get suspected latency please review REFS event logs on DPM\MABS server.

    1. Stop/Start      Lanmanworkstation service

    Note: There are some other services that depend on Lanmanworkstation, just start those back.

  • Link
    Enhancing Backup Performance on DPM 2016 Modern Backup Storage.
    Mike Jacquet

    There is one optimization change you can make in DPM 2016 using Modern Backup Storage that “may” help reduce the backup times.  The issue is that DPM tries to get the size of the recovery point by asking ReFs to count the blocks associated with that recovery point so it can update the DPMUI “storage used” in the UI.

    To eliminate that additional calculation that can take a long time and allow the next backup to start you can disable that calculation using the below DPM powershell command.

        Manage-DPMDSStorageSizeUpdate.ps1 -ManageStorageInfo StopSizeAutoUpdate

    As a result, the “storage consumed” for each data source will not be displayed after a new backup is completed.

    The above is covered in the release notes: https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/system-center/dpm/dpm-release-notes

          Section titled: Recovery Points not being pruned, leading to an accumulation of Recovery Points.

    If you need to know the amount used for a data source you can use the associated UpdateSizeForDS command.

  • Link
    How to increase DPM 2016 replica when using Modern Backup Storage (MBS)
    Mike Jacquet

    There may be circumstances where the replica volume for a protected data source is under allocated or a very large increase of protected data results in synchronization or recovery point job failures due to inadequate space on the replica.

    Type:     Recovery point
    Status:  Failed
    Description:        DPM is out of disk space for the replica. (ID 58 Details: There is not enough space on the disk (0x80070070))

    As in previous versions, DPM 2016 has replica auto-grow feature for modern backup storage (MBS) to help increase the replica sizes as the data sources grows.  Under normal use conditions this feature works perfectly fine.  If a job fails due to out of disk space, it will automatically grow the replica volume and schedule a new synchronization or recovery point job to run one hour in the future.  However, if the amount of new data is much larger than the size of the replica after auto-grow, the jobs will continue to fail even as the auto-grow continues to increase the replica size.  After two failures, auto-rerun is no longer triggered by default. In DPM 2012 R2 you had the ability to manually grow the replica volume as large as you wanted by using the “modify disk allocation” wizard, however in the DPM 2016 you do not have the ability to manually grow the replica volume using the same wizard.  This can cause delays in getting good backups again to meet your SLA.   If you know the new size of the protected data or want to grow the replica volume for future data growth in order to prevent future backup failures, you can grow the replica manually.

    The below BLOG contains a DPM PowerShell script to make it easy to manually increase a replica volume to the new desired size.

    How to increase DPM 2016 replica when using Modern Backup Storage (MBS)
    https://techcommunity.microsoft.com/t5/System-Center-Blog/How-to-increase-DPM-2016-replica-when-using-Modern-Backup/ba-p/351818

  • Link
    SystemState / BMR backups consume more space when using DPM 2016 Modern Backup Storage.
    Mike Jacquet

    When using DPM 2016 to protect SystemState / BMR workloads the storage used for those backups will be higher when using DPM Modern Backup Storage (MBS) as compared to using legacy Logical Disk Manager (LDM) based storage used in DPM 2012 R2. 

    When DPM initiates a SystemState or BMR backup, Windows Server Backup is used and overwrites the existing WindowsImagebackup folder with the new backup data.  For SystemState that folder is on the protected server and later transferred to the DPM Server replica.  For BMR, Windows Server Backup overwrites the folder on the Replica volume directly.

    When the replica is located on a LDM based volume, Volume Shadow Copy (VSS) snapshots are used for recovery points.  When the files are overwritten on the replica volume, VSS performs a read for the original file blocks – compares them to what is about to be written  - then either copies the original blocks to the shadow copy (recovery point volume) if different or just lets the write thru if the blocks are identical. This is called Copy On Write (COW).  Between backups a lot of the blocks are the same between the files so the shadow copies were relatively small.

    Modern Backup Storage (MBS) uses ReFs clones for recovery points. There is no copy on write operation like there are when using VSS, all writes are performed but instead of overwriting the original files the new blocks are written to different locations on the MBS volume. This is called allocate on write, so even blocks that are the same will use different free space on the Refs volume.  That results in more storage consumption as each backup will consume the amount of space as a complete SystemState or BMR backup.  IE: If the initial replica size shows 24GB used, then all subsequent backups will come very close to consuming the same amount of space.  If the backups are taken frequently or have a long retention period the storage usage can be significant.

    To mitigate this behavior I would suggest either take fewer BMR / SystemState  recovery points, use a reduced retention period, or just plan on needing more storage for SystemState / BMR backups.

  • Link
    VMWare ILR failing on Windows VM using DPM 2012 R2 UR11
    Mike Jacquet

    System Center Data Protection Manager 2012 R2 UR11 added support for VMware host level backup.  If you attempt to perform an Item Level Recovery (ILR) from the latest recovery point for a Protected Windows VM, you receive an ID: 958 popup error message with the below details.

    IMPORTANT NOTE:  This problem is not present in Microsoft Azure Backup Server (MABS) update rollup 1 (UR1) that also added support for VMWare host level backups.

    WORKAROUND(S)
    ===========

    1) Select an earlier recovery point if the file(s) (version) you want to recover was included in an earlier recovery point.
    2) Restore the entire VM to an alternate location and copy the desired file(s) out of that restored VM.
    3) Create a new AD-HOC recovery point manually.  That will enable ILR to work for all recovery points including the latest one you made manually.  

    UPDATE:  This issue is now fixed in DPM 2012 R2 UR13.  However, you need to consider the following for the fix to work.

    1. For Protection Groups created after applying UR13, Item Level Recovery will work fine.
    2. For older Protection Groups, you need to modify the PGs by adding/removing a small VM or making some configuration changes to the PG for the fix to work.

  • Link
    Introducing DPM 2016 Modern Backup Storage
    EugeneLeitan
    https://blogs.technet.microsoft.com/dpm/2016/10/19/introducing-dpm-2016-modern-backup-storage/
  • Link
    Announcing SC 2016 DPM with Reduced TCO of Backup
    EugeneLeitan
    SC DPM 2016 brings in features that delivers improvements in multiple key areas of backup efficiency, performance, flexibility and security.  With Modern Backup Storage (MBS), DPM 2016 is turning around the way backups are stored by leveraging modern technologies like ReFS Block Cloning, ReFS Allocate On Write and VHDX.  This to 3X faster backups and 50% reduction in storage consumption thus reducing overall backup TCO.

    https://blogs.technet.microsoft.com/dpm/2016/10/19/announcing-sc-dpm-2016-with-modern-backup-storage/
  • Link
    NEW GUIDE FOR DPM 2016 !!!
    EugeneLeitan
    DPM 2016 comes with Modern Backup Storage which delivers 50% storage savings, 3x faster backups, and more efficient storage with Workload-Aware storage. Modern Backup Storage can be used by setting up DPM 2016 on Windows Server 2016.

    Add Storage to DPM 2016
  • Link
    DPM 2012 R2 UR11 adds support for host level WMWare backup
    Mike Jacquet

    Very happy to report the release SC DPM 2012 R2 UR11 that adds protection for VMware host level backup of VMs.  Here are major features of VMware VM Backup.  Here are the few highlights of VMware VM backup.

    • Agentless backup
    • Backup at vCenter or ESXi level
    • Backup VMware VM folders
    • Ability to do ILR
    • Protect large data center using DPM Scale Out
    • Backup to Disk/Cloud

    Here are the blogs and articles that are published.

    BLOG - Implementing Microsoft DPM host level protection of VMware VMs

    BLOG-Announcing VMware VM Backup using System Center Data Protection Manager

    BLOG-Four simple steps to backup VMware VMs using SC DPM

    Technet-Back up and restore VMware

  • Link
    SC DPM 2012 R2 UR9 is now available as an "Important" update on Microsoft Update after getting positive feedback from thousands of customers.
    Anurag Mehrotra [MSFT]

    We have made a bunch of improvements in this update, related to reboot requirements, Enterprise file server backup, online backups and more.

    https://blogs.technet.microsoft.com/dpm/2016/02/25/backup-of-enterprise-data-made-easier-with-system-center-data-protection-manager/

  • Link
    !!! IMPORTANT!!! - Expired Disk Based Recovery Points are not deleted after installing DPM 2012 R2 UR7
    Mike Jacquet

    After you install DPM 2012 R2 UR7 update (KB3065246), DPM cannot delete expired recovery points. This will lead to extra recovery point volume usage.  

    Please download and install the fix for this issue.

    Fix for a known issue with Update Rollup 7 for System Center 2012 R2 Data Protection Manager

    MORE INFORMATION
    ==============

    DPM 2012 R2 UR7 introduced a new switch to the powershell cmdlet Get-RecoveryPoint, it now requires a -Datasource switch as seen below:

    Get-RecoveryPoint -Datasource $ds

     If you have any custom powershell scripts that use that cmdlet, please modify them to use the new -Datasource switch.

  • Link
    Some DPM console troubleshooter and DPMDB maintenance resources
    Mike Jacquet

    Below are some handy links for the DPM Console troubleshooter which can help you resolve console crashes and three DPMDB maintenance blogs.

    Guided Walkthrough for Troubleshooting Data Protection Manager console issues

    DPMDB Maintenance Part 1: Database consistency check and your DPMDB
    DPMDB Maintenance Part 2: Identifying and dealing with fragmentation in your DPMDB
    DPMDB Maintenance Part 3: Dealing with a large DPMDB


  • Link
    How to register a DPM 2012 SP1 or later server to backup to Microsoft Azure
    Mike Jacquet

    Hello - Please find the following BLOG on the new streamlined method of registering a DPM 2012 SP1 or later DPM server to backup to Azure.  There is no longer a requirement to upload a certificate when registering a DPM server for online backups.

    Below are two Blogs on the subject.

    How to register a DPM 2012 SP1 or later server to backup to Microsoft Azure

    Simplified workflow to configure backup to Azure from DPM
  • Link
    Announcing Deduplicating DPM storage whitepaper
    Mike Jacquet

    Please find the following whitepaper detailing how to dedup DPM storage pool to help reduce overall disk storage requirements for disk based backups.  This solution requires Windows 2012 R2 and System Center Data Protection Manager 2012 R2

    Deduplicating DPM Storage

  • Link
    Guided Walkthrough for Troubleshooting Data Protection Manager console issues
    Mike Jacquet

    For DPM Console crash issues, please review this troubleshooter before posting a new question.

    Guided Walkthrough for Troubleshooting Data Protection Manager console issues

  • Link
    DPM 2012 support for Windows Server 2012
    Mike Jacquet

    updated 6-5-13

    Hello Everyone,

    System Center DPM 2012 is not supported running on Windows Server 2012.  We have had reports of DPM 2012 console crashes when navigating to the recovery tab if DPM 2012 is installed on Windows server 2012.  This issue is fixed in System Center 2012 SP1 which supports being installed on Windows 2012 operating system.

    If you are already in this condition,  you have two options:

    A) You can upgrade to System Center 2012 Sp1.

    B) You can backup the DPMDB, rebuild the DPM server using Windows 2008 R2 install DPM 2012, then restore your current database. The process is explained in the below technet article.

    Recovering DPM servers
    http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/jj244606.aspx

    We also do not support protecting Windows Server 2012 workloads using SCS DPM 2012, you must upgrade to DPM 2012 Sp1.   Please do not expect any support for DPM 2012 running on Windows Server 2012, or issues while protecting data sources in Windows Server 2012.






Data Protection Manager - Storage Pool announcements

Data Protection Manager - Setup and Agent management announcements

Data Protection Manager - Hyper-V and CSV Clusters announcements

  • Link
    Free ebook: Microsoft System Center Data Protection for the Hybrid Cloud
    giridharreddy

     Free ebook: Microsoft System Center Data Protection for the Hybrid Cloud

    If you are responsible for architecting and designing the backup strategy for your organization, especially if you're looking for ways to incorporate cloud backup into your business continuity scenarios, this book is for you. With the increasing trends in virtualization as well as the move to the pubic cloud, IT organizations are headed toward a world where data and applications run in on-premises private clouds as well as in the public cloud. This has key implications for data protection strategy, and it is important to choose the solution that provides the same level of data protection you have afforded so far while allowing you to harness the power of the public cloud.

  • Link
    DPM Host level backup of a VM fails with 0x800423F3 when hosting a SQL Always-on secondary db.
    Mike Jacquet

    DPM encountered a retryable VSS error. (ID 30112 Details: VssError:The writer experienced a transient error. If the backup process is retried, the error may not reoccur. (0x800423F3))"

    This is fixed in SQL Server 2012 SP2

    Bugs that are fixed in SQL Server 2012 Service Pack 2
    http://support.microsoft.com/kb/2958429

    -  DPM’s full backup on the server with AlwaysOn secondary will be converted to copy_only backup

    How to obtain the latest service pack for SQL Server 2012
    http://support.microsoft.com/kb/2755533

  • Link
    Application Log truncation does not occur after host level guest backups
    Mike Jacquet


    I would like make you aware of what seems to be change in behavior between Windows 2008 (R2)  / Windows 2012 and Windows 2012 R2 host level backups of guests.  It used to be that when a Guest was backed up by DPM when protecting Windows 2008 (R2) and Windows 2012 hosts - the Hyper-V writer would communicate with the integration components inside the guest and would consider a host level backup as being equivalent of guest level backup for application data like exchange and SQL.  This resulted in the application logs being truncated after every host level backup of the guest.  This was desirable so you didn't need two separate backups, one for the VM guest, and one for application backup to truncate the logs.  If you really wanted to prevent the logs from being truncated so you could perform separate application level backups, you needed to add a registry key to the guest and set it to a value of 1.  This is documented on the following Windows KB article.

    975925 A hotfix is available that addresses the issues that occur when you perform a host-level backup of a Hyper-V VM on a computer that is running Windows Server 2008
    http://support.microsoft.com/kb/975925/en-us


    It appears that the default behavior in Windows 2012 R2 is just the opposite and the logs do not get truncated by default when performing host level backups of guest VM's running applications like exchange and SQL.

    The solution is to add the following registry keys and value as needed inside the Guest and set it to 0 so the application logs do get truncated after host level backups.
    In Registry Editor, locate the following registry subkey:

    HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Virtualization\VssRequestor

    Create a registry entry of the REG_DWORD type.
    Set the name of the registry entry to BackupType.
    Set the value of the registry entry to 0.

  • Link
    DPM is performing "Backup Using Saved State" versus "Backup Using Child Partition" - WHY ?
    Mike Jacquet

    When DPM protects a Hyper-V guest using HOST level protection, the Hyper-V writer on the hyper-V host communicates with the integration components inside the guest and determines if child partition or saved state backup will be performed.  Once DPM adds the guest to a protection group, the description: "Backup using child partition" or "backup using saved state" will not change, even thought the condition that determines the state may change.

    To get a real-time view of how then next backup will be perfomed, you can run the following test.

    To list hyper-V writer captions for guests to see if online or saved state backups can be done:

    From an administrative command prompt:

    a. Type: copy con script.txt and press enter
     b. Type: list writers and press enter
     c. Press CTRL + Z (to save)
     d. Type: diskshadow /s script.txt | find /i "caption: backup using"

    Output will be displayed for each guest.


    Here are the general conditions that make a VM go into a saved state during backup.

    Protecting Hyper-V machines
    http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/hh757866.aspx


    Conditions when DPM fails to back up Hyper-V virtual machines in an online state

    By default, System Center 2012 – Data Protection Manager (DPM) performs a backup of a Hyper-V Virtual Machine (VM) in an online state. However, DPM cannot back up a Hyper-V VM in an online state, if one or more of the following conditions are true:

    •Backup (Volume Snapshot) Integration Service is disabled or not installed.
    •The virtual machine has one or more dynamic disks.
    •The virtual machine has one or more non-NTFS based volumes.
    •The virtual machine Cluster Resource Group in a cluster setup is offline.
    •The virtual machine is not in a running state.
    •A ShadowStorage assignment of a volume inside the virtual machine is explicitly set to a different volume other than itself.
    •An App-V drive is installed on the virtual machine that creates a non-NTFS volume.

    These conditions are set by the Hyper-V writer. In such a case, the VM is put in a saved state before a snapshot of host volumes are taken (except when the VM is turned off) for a backup. The Hyper-V writer adds the VM in the following format:
    •For offline backups: Backup Using Saved State\<VMName>
    •For online backups: Backup Using Child Partition Snapshot\<VMName>

    Additional reason is if there is less than 300MB free space on a volume in the guest.


    If you are using DPM 2010/2012/2012 Sp1 to backup guests running on a Windows 2008 (R2) hyper-v server you may observe that Windows 2012 server / Windows 8 guest VM's only get the option "Backup using saved state". It is also reported that some Windows 2012 server guests transfer the whole VM during backups instead on block level changes. 

    The below resolves both of these issues.

    SOLUTION
    =======

    The Windows 8 or Windows server 2012 guest needs to have scoped VSS snapshots turned off in order to support online backups. This is a new feature apparently in Win8/2012 and the default is enabled.

    Implement this registry key on EACH Windows 8 or Windows 2012 guest to resolve the issue.  You must add a key called SystemRestore, then add a value called ScopeSnapshots as follows.

    HKLM\Software\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\SystemRestore
    REG_DWORD ScopeSnapshots 0x0

    See the additional info on scoped snapshots.

    http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/windows/desktop/aa378941(v=vs.85).aspx



  • Link
    Anouncement: System Center Data Protection Manager CSV Serialization Tool
    Mike Jacquet

    This tool will help serialize DPM backups across multiple Windows 2008 based hyper-v clusters in a unattended way.

    Download the tool from the below KB article.

    System Center Data Protection Manager CSV Serialization Tool
    http://www.microsoft.com/en-us/download/details.aspx?id=36524

    Overview

    With the current approach, if there are multiple clusters managed by DPM, the user needs to run DSConfig.ps1 on one node of each cluster and then XMLs of each cluster needs to be merged and replace the DataSources.xml in %ProgramFiles%\Microsoft System Center 2012\DPM\DPM\Config  directory of the DPM server. And moreover these steps need to be repeated each time any VM is added to the cluster.

    The XML merging/serialization tool will remove many of these manual steps. The tool needs to be run on the DPM server periodically (or scheduled). It will run DSconfig.ps1 on one node of each cluster, merge the XML and replace Datasources.xml in the DPM config directory. 

                                   

    System requirements

    Supported operating systems: Windows Server 2008, Windows Server 2008 R2, Windows Server 2008 R2 SP1

    For DPM: Supported operating systems: 

    • Windows Server 2008
    • Windows Server 2008 R2
    • Windows Server 2008 R2 SP1
    DPM Versions: DPM 2010 with  QFE 3 and above or  DPM 2012
    For CSV Cluster Nodes:
    Windows Server 20008 R2 & Windows Server 2008 R2 SP1
  • Link
    Windows Server 2012 R2 Hyper-V guests are placed in saved (offline) state during DPM backup.
    Mike Jacquet

    Please be aware of the following blog.

    Hyper-V Backup doesn’t interrupt running virtual machines (anymore)

    You are using DPM 2012 R2 to backup Windows Server 2012 R2 hyper-v guests and observe that some VM's only backup using "Offline" state but you want backups to be using "Online " state.

    SOLUTION
    =======
    Ensure the effected guests have a SCSI controller configured in the properties of the Hyper-V guest.   Windows Server 2012 R2 Hyper-V servers require a SCSI controller inside the guests so snapshots created as part of the backup process can be mounted.  IDE controller does not allow this hot-mount operation, so you must install a SCSI controller in the guest.


    The Windows 2012 R2 Hyper-V writer on the hyper-V host communicates with the integration components inside the guest and determines if online or offline backup will be performed.   Be sure the latest integration components are installed in each guest.

    To get a real-time view of how the next backup will be performed, you can run the following test.

    To list Windows 2012 R2 hyper-V writer captions for guests to see if online or offline state backups will be done:

    From an administrative command prompt on the Hyper-V server:

    a. Type: copy con script.txt and press enter
     b. Type: list writers and press enter
     c. Press CTRL + Z + enter (to save)
     d. Type: diskshadow /s script.txt | find /i "caption: O"


    Output will be displayed for each guest as follows.


    C:\temp>diskshadow /s script.txt | find /i "caption: O"
                            - Caption: Online\SQLSERVER
                            - Caption: Offline\WSS-V14

    The Windows 2012 R2 Hyper-V writer adds the VM in the following format:

     For offline backups: Offline\<VMName>
     For online  backups: Online\<VMName>

    NEW NOTE: Windows group just released “Linux Integration Services Version 3.5 for Hyper-V”. The document mentions that some versions of Red Hat and CentOS are now supported to do online backup.

    Live virtual machine backup support
    ======================
    RHEL/CentOS 6.0-6.3
    RHEL/CentOS 5.7-5.8
    RHEL/CentOS 5.5-5.6

    ADDTL NOTES: If there are open file handles during a live virtual machine backup operation, the backed-up virtual hard disks (VHDs) might have to undergo a file system consistency check (fsck) when restored.

    Live backup operations can fail silently if the virtual machine has an attached iSCSI device or a physical disk that is directly attached to a virtual machine (“pass-through disk”).

    NOTE: Anyone wanting online backups on RHEL/Centos 6.4/6.5 should check out Hyper-V Backup Essentials on the LIC GitHub.

    A customer reported this installed without problems and seems to work.


  • Link
    DPM 2012 support for Windows Server 2012
    Mike Jacquet

    System Center DPM 2012 (non-Sp1) is not supported running on Windows Server 2012.  We have had reports of DPM 2012 console crashes when navigating to the recovery tab if DPM 2012 is installed on Windows server 2012.  This issue is fixed in DPM 2012 SP1, so please upgrade to fix the problem.

    We also do not support protecting Windows Server 2012 using SCS DPM 2012 )non-Sp1)   Please do not expect any support for DPM 2012 (non-sp1) running on Windows Server 2012, or issues while protecting data sources in Windows Server 2012.  This includes Hyper-V protection.



Data Protection Manager -SharePoint Protection announcements

  • Link
    DPM 2012 SP1 Protecting Sharepoint using SQL 2012 Always On AG as backend is not currently supported.
    Mike Jacquet

    When you try to protect a Windows SharePoint farm using SQL 2012 Always On AG backend using System Center Data Protection Manager 2012 Sp1, you receive one of the following error messages:

    ERROR
    =====
    DPM cannot protect this SharePoint farm because DPM did not detect any dependent databases to be protected. (ID: 32008) Verify that the appropriate SQL Server VSS writers are enabled on the computers hosting the SharePoint databases.


    This Windows SharePoint Services farm cannot be protected because DPM did not find any dependent databases and search indices to be protected. (ID: 32008) 1) Verify that the appropriate SQL Server VSS Writers on the computers hosting the Windows SharePoint Services databases are enabled. 2) Verify that the Windows SharePoint Services Search VSS Writers are enabled on the computers where the search indices are.

    CAUSE
    =====
    At this time using SQL 2012 availability groups (AG) for Sharepoint back end is not supported by DPM 2012 Sp1.  We will have some public facing content on the limitation shortly.  I cannot say at this time if this will be fixed in a future DPM 2012 rollup, it needs to be investigated by the product group.

Data Protection Manager - Exchange protection announcements

Windows Embedded POSReady announcements

Surface 2.0 Platform and Applications announcements

Surface 1.0 Hardware, Platform and Applications announcements

System Center Essentials - Capacity Planner announcements

Windows Vista Application Compatibility Toolkit announcements

Windows Vista Service Packs/Windows Server 2008 Service Packs announcements

  • Link
    Announcing Service Pack 2 for Windows Vista and Windows Server 2008
    Anthony_Mann
    Today we are proud to announce the Release to Manufacturing of Service Pack 2 for Windows Vista and Windows Server 2008.  Service Pack 2 (SP2) represents the latest step in Microsoft’s commitment to continuous improvement.  It includes all of the updates that have been delivered since SP1, as well as support for new types of hardware and emerging hardware standards.  And since it comes with a single installer for both Windows Vista and Windows Server 2008, SP2 will be easy for IT Pros to manage, deploy, and support.  For an overview of the changes introduced in SP2, check out the notable changes document.

    Business customers with Windows Vista will find that the transition to Windows 7 will be significantly more straightforward due to the high degree of compatibility between Windows Vista and Windows 7.  If your Windows Vista SP1 deployment is already underway we recommend you continue with SP1 as planned.  Then you can deploy SP2 using your systems management infrastructure.  If you are in the early stages of deployment or still planning Windows Vista deployment our best advice is that you plan on testing and deploying Windows Vista SP2.

    More information can be found on the Windows Team Blog.

Windows Vista Announcements announcements

Windows Vista Security announcements

Windows Vista Desktop UI announcements

App Controller - General announcements

  • Link
    Resources for App Controller
    Richard Rundle

    Welcome to the discussion forum for App Controller.

    System Center 2012 - App Controller empowers application owners to easily build, configure, deploy and manage new services through a common self-service experience across private and public clouds by:

    • Presenting a customized view of private and public cloud resources based on the user’s role
    • Offering application owners service-centric administration, including service design and visualization, deployment and configuration.
    • Enabling application owners to deploy and manage services on private clouds and Windows Azure.

    The following additional resources are available to help you with App Controller: 

Cloud Computing: Platform as a Service announcements

  • Link
    Welcome to the Platform as a Service Forum!
    Thomas W Shinder - MSFT

    Welcome Cloud community! This is the Platform as a Service (PaaS) forum on the TechNet forums.

    The purpose of this forum is to provide a place where IT Architects and IT Pros can talk about issues related to PaaS. The goal is to enable the Cloud community to share ideas, architectures, plans, lessons learned, and even opinions about PaaS. While you are welcome to focus on the Microsoft PaaS solutions, the discussion does not need to be limited to Microsoft PaaS offerings. For example, there are many cross-cutting issues in PaaS, such as security and identity management.

    If you have questions about PaaS, this is the place to ask! However, if you have specific questions about products or technologies that participate in a specific PaaS solution, the best place to get those answers will be in the forums for that particular product or technology.

    I'm looking forward to many interesting discussions and lessons to be learned. We just at the beginning of the cloud movement - get in on the ground floor and participate in the Private Cloud community today!

    Thanks!

    Tom

    Tom Shinder
    Principal Knowledge Engineer, SCD iX
    SCD iX Solutions Group – Private Cloud Security
    Follow me on Twitter: http://twitter.com/tshinder
    Be my friend on Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/tshinder

Cloud Computing: Infrastructure as a Service announcements

  • Link
    Welcome to the Infrastructure as a Service Forum!
    Thomas W Shinder - MSFT

    Welcome Cloud community! This is the Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS) forum on the TechNet forums.

    The purpose of this forum is to provide a place where IT Architects and IT Pros can talk about issues related to IaaS. The goal is to enable the Cloud community to share ideas, architectures, plans, lessons learned, and even opinions about IaaS. While you are welcome to focus on the Microsoft IaaS solutions, the discussion does not need to be limited to Microsoft IaaS offerings. For example, there are many cross-cutting issues in IaaS, such as security and identity management.

    If you have questions about IaaS, this is the place to ask! However, if you have specific questions about products or technologies that participate in a specific IaaS solution, the best place to get those answers will be in the forums for that particular product or technology.

    I'm looking forward to many interesting discussions and lessons to be learned. We just at the beginning of the cloud movement - get in on the ground floor and participate in the Private Cloud community today!

    Thanks!

    Tom

    Tom Shinder
    Principal Knowledge Engineer, SCD iX
    SCD iX Solutions Group – Private Cloud Security
    Follow me on Twitter: http://twitter.com/tshinder
    Be my friend on Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/tshinder

Cloud Computing: Software as a Service announcements

  • Link
    Welcome to the Software as a Service Forum
    Thomas W Shinder - MSFT

    Welcome Cloud community! This is the Software as a Service (SaaS) forum on the TechNet forums.

    The purpose of this forum is to provide a place where IT Architects and IT Pros can talk about issues related to SaaS. The goal is to enable the Cloud community to share ideas, architectures, plans, lessons learned, and even opinions about SaaS. While you are welcome to focus on the Microsoft SaaS solutions, the discussion does not need to be limited to Microsoft SaaS offerings. For example, there are many cross-cutting issues in SaaS, such as security and identity management.

    If you have questions about SaaS, this is the place to ask! However, if you have specific questions about products or technologies that participate in a specific SaaS solution, the best place to get those answers will be in the forums for that particular product or technology.

    I'm looking forward to many interesting discussions and lessons to be learned. We just at the beginning of the cloud movement - get in on the ground floor and participate in the Private Cloud community today!

    Thanks!

    Tom

    Tom Shinder
    Principal Knowledge Engineer, SCD iX
    SCD iX Solutions Group – Private Cloud Security
    Follow me on Twitter: http://twitter.com/tshinder
    Be my friend on Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/tshinder

Cloud Computing: Private Cloud announcements

  • Link
    The Private Cloud Solution Hub is LIVE!
    Thomas W Shinder - MSFT

    Private Cloud fans - I wanted to let you know that the Private Cloud Solution Hub is now LIVE!

    At the Private Cloud Solution Hub you can find the latest information on Private Cloud and Private Cloud architecture. At the Private Cloud Solution Hub you'll find the following:

    • Featured articles at the top of the page - we'll rotate articles in and out and provide you a fresh featured article once a week
    • The Library! The library is organized under a collection of tabs. At this time most of the content is focused on Private Cloud architecture. As we get closer to the release of Windows 8 and System Center 2012 wave of products, we'll start to tie together the entire story from business perspective, to architecture, to design and then to deployment - keep a close eye on the library as we'll continue to improve it on a monthly basis
    • The Private Cloud Community section - here you'll find a number of community resources you can use to connect with Microsoft and other people in the community to share you ideas and ask questions about Private Cloud
    • The Private Cloud Blog Roll - here's your "one stop shop" for a list of blogs for products and technologies that power the Microsoft Private Cloud

    We hope that you like the Private Cloud Solution Hub! If you have any suggestions for things that you would like to see in the Private Cloud Solution Hub or have ideas for improvement, let us know! You can write to me at tomsh@microsoft.com and I'll share with my team your ideas and see how we can get them realized in the Hub.

    Thanks!

    Tom Shinder - The Cloud Man

  • Link
    Welcome to the Private Cloud Computing Forum!
    Thomas W Shinder - MSFT

    Welcome Private Cloud community! This is the Private Cloud computing forum on the TechNet forums.

    The purpose of this forum is to provide a place where IT Architects and IT Pros can talk about issues related to Private Cloud. The goal is to enable the Private Cloud community to share ideas, architectures, plans, lessons learned, and even opinions about Private Cloud. While you are welcome to focus on the Microsoft Private Cloud solutions, the discussion does not need to be limited to the Microsoft Private Cloud. For example, there are many cross-cutting issues in Private Cloud, such as security and identity management.

    If you have questions about Private Cloud, this is the place to ask! However, if you have specific questions about products or technologies that participate in your Private Cloud solutions, the best place to get those answers will be in the forums for that particular product or technology.

    I'm looking forward to many interesting discussions and lessons to be learned. We just at the beginning of the cloud movement - get in on the first floor and participate in the Private Cloud community today!

    Thanks!

    Tom

    Tom Shinder
    Principal Knowledge Engineer, SCD iX
    SCD iX Solutions Group – Private Cloud Security
    Follow me on Twitter: http://twitter.com/tshinder
    Be my friend on Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/tshinder

Internet Explorer All Prior Versions announcements

  • Link
    Welcome to the Internet Explorer Forum (All Prior Versions) for IT Pro's
    Mark Feetham [MSFT]

    Hi and welcome to the Windows Internet Explorer Forum for all versions prior to 8 and 9 (Beta).

    We listened to customer requests from IT Professionals for dedicated Internet Explorer forums that you can participate in as community. This is a place where you can share knowledge, ask questions and get them answered and learn from others with IT environments similar to yours. Start by posting your related questions in the forum corresponding to your topic of interest and leverage the knowledge available in your new forum community.  Primary areas of focus are installation, deployment, security, management, group policy, migrations from previous versions.

    If your questions is related to end user experience or you are a home user, we'd definitely recommend heading over to our sister site at Microsoft Answers http://social.answers.microsoft.com/Forums/en-US/InternetExplorer/threads

    For the current version (Internet Explorer 8) or our *NEW* Internet Explorer 9 Beta please visit http://social.technet.microsoft.com/Forums/en/ieitprocurrentver/threads

    Regards
    Mark Feetham
    Product Quality Program Manager | Internet Explorer

Internet Explorer 8, 9, 10, 11 announcements

Windows Server 2012 R2 Application Certification (Logo) program and test tools announcements

PowerPoint 2010 Beta (to be retired) announcements

SharePoint Workspace 2010 Beta (to be retired) announcements

Publisher 2010 Beta (to be retired) announcements

OneNote 2010 Beta (to be retired) announcements

Click-To-Run for Office 2010 Home and Business (to be retired) announcements

  • Link
    Forum Change Announcement
    Nina Ruchirat
    This forum will be retired in May 2010. All existing threads in this forum will be moved to the general Microsoft Office 2010 Beta forum. Please direct all questions and discussions about Microsoft Click-To-Run technology specific to Office 2010 Home and Business to the Microsoft Office 2010 Beta forum.
  • Link
    Update test for Click-to-Run Office 2010 products
    JefferC

    We will be testing the update system for Click-to-Run over the next couple weeks.  If your machine is connected to the internet, it may detect the available update and attempt to get it.  The Click-to-Run update system is designed to run quietly in the background and rarely requires user interaction.

    Click-to-Run Office users who get the update may notice that they are now at version 14.0.4541.1000.  New Click-to-Run Office 2010 downloads will now start with the updated version, instead of the older version 14.0.4536.1000.

    This newer version should not be considered a general Office 2010 Beta refresh.  There are no new features contained in the update.  Rather, it is primarily intended to test our update capability.

    Those who do not want to participate in the update may go to the File tab - Help section of any Office application and disable Click-to-Run updates.

Access 2010 Beta (to be retired) announcements

Office 2010 Application Compatibility announcements

Project Standard and Professional General Questions and Answers announcements

Project Customization and Programming announcements

  • Link
    How to request features, changes or enhancements in the Project family of products?
    Brian Smith - MSFT

    If you want to directly tell the product team, what features, changes or enhancements you want to see in the Project family of products (Project Desktop client, Project Server or Project Online), please submit your ideas (or vote for existing ones) at the Project UserVoice channel.

  • Link
    Project 2013 SDK - March 2013 update
    Jim Corbin

    The Project 2013 SDK download is updated. The conceptual, how-to, and reference documentation in the download closely matches the Project 2013 developer documentation online content published on MSDN.

    The Project2013SDK.msi download file now installs properly on Windows 8 and Windows Server 2012.

    The Project 2013 SDK download contains:

    • The on-premises Reporting database schema reference, ProjectServer2013_ReportingDB.chm, and the OLAP cube schema reference. 
    • Updated VBA Help for local use. Objects such as Chart, Report, Series, and Shape now show correct members tables, properties, and methods topics.
    • Basic reference topics for the JavaScript client-side object model (JSOM), which includes REST endpoints and HTTP request syntax. You can use the JSOM for development of Project Online solutions for cross-browser web apps and for non-Windows platforms.
    • Sixteen complete code solutions, including two task pane apps (with minor updates) for Project, the QuickStatus app sample for Project Server and Project Online, eight client-side object model (CSOM) solutions, two solutions for querying the ProjectData service for reporting, and three updated legacy PSI solutions.
    • DLLs and a license for redistribution of the Project Server CSOM assemblies, JavaScript files for the CSOM, the Microsoft.Office.Project.Server.Library assembly, and the Microsoft.Office.Project.Server.Events.Receivers library for on-premises development.
      Notes:   1. The REDIST.zip file that is attached to the Project_Programmability blog post contains the RTM build
                       15.0.4420.1017 of the Project Server assemblies for redistribution, including the
                       Microsoft.Office.Project.Schema.dll assembly, for developing event handlers.
                   2. Project CSOM solutions also require the redistributable DLLs for the SharePoint 2013 CSOM,
                       which are at SharePoint Server 2013 Client Components SDK.
    • Updated Intellisense files for the PSI and CSOM, source code for creating a PSI proxy assembly, and instructions on how to update the PSI proxy files.
    • XML schemas for the Project client, AppProvisioning, and the Statusing PSI.

    The top-level online landing page for the Project SDK is Project for developers (http://msdn.microsoft.com/project).

    For additional Project-related SDK content, see Office for developers (http://msdn.microsoft.com/office), SharePoint for developers (http://msdn.microsoft.com/sharepoint), and Build apps for Office and SharePoint (http://msdn.microsoft.com/office/apps/). The two articles on Task pane apps for Project are in the Apps for Office and SharePoint SDK, and the JavaScript API for Office reference includes information specific for Project, the ProjectDocument object with eleven methods and three events, and four enumerations for Project.

    Want to try out Project 2013?

    1. Sign up for Project Online and Project Pro for Office 365
    2. Download Project Professional 2013 and Project Server 2013

    --Jim













  • Link
    Please specify the version you are using when you ask your question
    Gary Chefetz, MCITP, MCT, MVP
    It makes a big difference in answering your questions

Project Server - Setup, Upgrade, Administration and Operation announcements

Project Server General Questions and Answers announcements

Project Online General Questions and Answers announcements

HealthVault User announcements

Forefront Client Security announcements

  • Link
    Updates to the Client Security Best Practice Analyzer
    Craig Wiand - MSFT

    We recently published additions to the FCS BPA. The revisions are described in KB976986. These new checks are focused on database related issues including:

    • Database sizing
    • DTS job failures
    • Last backup times
    • Threat metadata problems

    It also contains usability improvements like a start menu shortcut and status bars during scanning.  To test drive the new additions, visit the download center.

     

    Thanks and Happy Analyzing!

Forefront Online Protection for Exchange announcements

  • Link
    Welcome!!
    Jason U - MSFT

    Hello FOPE Users!!!  The Forefront team has been working to give admins the ability to ask questions to the community, provide feedback, and communicate with users just like you.  Please dive in, and let us know if there is anything we can do to make your online experience better.

    Thanks
    Jason - CTS Security

Forefront Edge Security – DirectAccess, UAG and IAG announcements

  • Link
    Welcome to the Direct Access, UAG and IAG forum!
    Erez Benari

    Welcome to the Direct Access, UAG and IAG forum!

    This forum is dedicated to questions, issues, ideas and discussions about Direct Access, as well as Microsoft's SSL-VPN and Reverse-proxy products UAG, IAG and e-Gap. This forum will be moderated by me, Ben Ari from the IAG CSS group, and host many IT & Security professionals, product team and support team members and Microsoft MVPs (Most Valuable Professionals) to answer questions and participate in discussions.

Microsoft Machine Learning Server announcements

General announcements

Mobile Device Management announcements

App-V 4.5 Beta (Retired) announcements

Windows Defender Advanced Threat Protection (ATP) Support announcements

  • Link
    Welcome
    Avi Sagiv
     

    Hi,

     

    Welcome to the Windows Defender Advanced Threat Protection (ATP) Public preview forum.  This forum is designed to give public preview users a way to ask questions and provide feedback

     

    We look forward interacting with you.

     

    Thanks,

    Windows Defender Advanced Threat Protection Team

SharePoint Migration Tool Feedback and Support Forum announcements

TechNet Events announcements

  • Link
    PURPOSE US TechNet Events LAB Assistance ONLY!!!
    Dan Stolts ITProGuru
    Please note, this forum is for questions directly related to TechNet events LAB content (currently Azure and Windows 10) and from United States TechNet Events Attendees. It is only moderated by TechNet event speakers in the US so ONLY English questions directly related to events will be answered.  Please provide the page number and line number  of the lab manual where your question applies.   
Found 2451602 threads
Announcement: 431

MDOP Asset Inventory Service - Announcements announcements

  • Link
    Important information About Your AIS Agent Installation Package
    Paul Bourgeau

    Overview

    =======

    Every Asset Inventory Service (AIS) agent installation package contains a certificate that identifies the account of the AIS subscriber. This certificate is used to ensure that inventory reported by an agent is associated with the correct account when it is received at the AIS web service.

    This certificate has a lifetime of 3 years. After this time, the installation package cannot be used to successfully enroll new agents, although existing agents will continue to function just fine. A notification will be displayed in the console for those accounts that are approaching the 3 year threshold (approximately 60 days before the certificate expires). The systems administrator of the AIS account should then download their new agent installation package which is available from the normal download page in the AIS console.

    The AIS service supports multiple agent installation packages per account. This means that the original package and the new package can both be used to install new agents. This allows a transition period where an organization can change their procedures to use the new installation package. Eventually, however, the certificate in the original installation package will expire, after which time only the new package should be used.

    Frequently Asked Questions

    =======================

    What do I do if I see the following announcement on my home page:

    “Your original AIS agent installation package expires on <expiry date>. Please download your new agent installation package and use it for all future installations. [Computers that had the original agent installation package installed before <expiry date> do not have to be updated.]”

    This means that your original agent installation package is going to expire soon, and you need to download a new one and use that for agent installations. The message will typically be shown 60 days before the package expires. You can continue using the original installation package until the date in the announcement but it is recommended that you start using the new one as soon as possible.

    When I go to the client deployment area, there’s no option to download a new installation package

    If you see the expiry announcement on the home page, the service will have generated a new installation package for your account. You download it the same way you downloaded the original package by visiting the Client Deployment area of the Management and Support workspace and click on the link that says “Download Client Here”. You can verify that you have downloaded the latest package by viewing the properties of downloaded file as follows:

    ·         Select the file and display the property page

    ·         Select the Digital Signatures Tab and view Signature List

    ·         Locate “Microsoft Corporation” in the list and double-click it

    ·         The Signing Time on the displayed property page should be Nov 2010.

    What happens if I carry on using the original installation package?

    If the announcement is shown on the home page and you continue to use the original installation package after the date shown in the message, you will not be able to successfully enroll agents into the AIS service. The installation will be successful, but when the agent attempts to enroll in the service, it will be rejected. The only way to correct this situation is to download the new installation package from the service and install that on the affected machines. [see below: How do I correct a failed installation?]

    What do I do if I see the following announcement on my home page?

    “Your original AIS agent installation package expired on <expiry date>. Please download your new agent installation package and use it for all future installations. [Computers that had the original agent installation package installed before <expiry date> do not have to be updated.]”

    This means that your original agent installation package has expired. If you obtained a new installation package and phased out using the old package before the date of expiry, then you have no further actions. If, however, you have been attempting to deploy agents using your original agent installation package then you need to take the following action:

    -          Stop using the original installation package

    -          Download a new agent installation package from the AIS console by visiting the Client Deployment area of the Management and Support workspace and click on the link that says “Download Client Here”

    -          Start using the new installation package for all future installations

    -          Identify the machines where an attempt was made to install the AIS agent with the expired installation package.

    o   These will be machines where the agent was recently installed, but are not displayed in the console.

    o   For these machines, re-run the install with the new package [see below: How do I correct a failed installation?]

    How do I correct a failed installation?

    If you identify a machine where an attempt was made to install an AIS agent, but the enrollment failed because the agent installation package had expired, proceed as follows:

    -          Option #1

    o   Uninstall the AIS agent

    §   Asset Inventory Service Tips and Troubleshooting

    ·         Tip: How to remove the AIS client software

    o   Run the installation using the new agent installation package

     

    -          Option #2

    o   Run the installation using the following MSI flags: REINSTALLMODE=vomus

    §  For example:  msiexec /I  <path to new .msi file> REINSTALLMODE=vomus

    Note: if you simply run the new agent install on the failed machine (without following either of these options) it will not successfully update the agent configuration and enroll with the service.

    How do I know when my agent installation package will expire?

    The following steps describe how to determine when an agent installation package was signed. If the current date is less than 3 years from this date, the package can still be used to install and enroll an agent :

    ·         Locate the agent installation package

    ·         Select the installation package file and display the property page

    ·         Select the Digital Signatures Tab and view Signature List

    ·         Locate “Microsoft Corporation” in the list and double-click it

    ·         If the Signing Time on the displayed property page is less than 3 years ago, then the package can still be used to install and enroll an agent.

    Why does the certificate in the agent installation package expire after 3 years?

    Certificates have an expiry date to reduce the time period available to an attacker. Three years was adopted as a reasonable balance between renewing the agent installation packages and providing acceptable security for user accounts.

     

Power View announcements

  • Link
    Welcome to the Power View Forum!
    Sandy Rivas

    We are happy to announce that Power View for Office / Office 365 has it's own forum!  Power View allows you to analyze and create stunning interactive visualizations that uncover hidden insights to share and collaborate from anywhere, on any device!  As you do that - you may have questions / feedback / tips to share.  Please utilize this forum to share/gain knowledge and expertise in Power View.

    We look forward to hearing how you are using Power View and what challenges and suggestions you may have. The more you share, the more the forum can help you get the most out of Power View now and you can influence the next version!

    The Power View Team

Forums Redesign - Q&A / Discussions announcements

  • Link
    How to share your feedback on the new design
    Bryant Hawthorne - MSFT

    Thank you everyone who has provided feedback into this forum so far. We appreciate the feedback and are actively prioritizing it accordingly. We are monitoring the suggestions and bugs and are currently working to make improvements based on feedback that has already been provided.

    In order to help us make further improvements to this new design, please take the following action:

    • If you have a suggestion for the redesigned Forums please post these to Suggestions and Feedback for the Forums. Please limit one suggestion per post and we encourage users to vote up suggestions to bring attention to the Forums team.
    • If you encounter bugs please continue to post bugs in the Forums Issues forum.
    • If you have additional questions or comments about the redesign, this forum is the place to post.

    Again, thank you for your feedback and know that your voice is being heard.

App-V General Sequencing announcements

  • Link
    How to ask a question efficiently in the TechNet forums
    Aaron.Parker
    Thank you for posting in TechNet forum. Online problem solving can be relatively time consuming because it may demand several messages back and force to fully understand the symptom and background, especially at the very beginning. Here are a few suggestions that can help you get the best answer to your question as quickly as possible.
     
    When You Ask
    1. Selecting a good title which summarizes the specific problem you have. It will be the one of the main driving forces for others to want to actually read your item. Choosing a badly-formatted title will drive people away, thinking that since the title is so badly written, so must be the information and the question within the thread.
    2. Provide all the necessary information in your initial post. The following information would be very helpful:
    - Symptom description: Detailed description of the problem. If you receive any error messages, please let us know the exact error WORD BY WORD.
    - Environment: The system environment, such as your OS/application version, your network topology, and your domain environment, etc.
    - Any recent relevant configuration change(s): If the issue started to occur after installing any application/updates or changing the configuration, please let us know.
    - Any additional information. Tell what you have done prior to asking your question. This will help us understand that you've done so far.
    3. Write in a clear language. Avoiding spelling mistakes or grammatical errors. Don't type IN ALL CAPS, which in most cases is read as shouting and considered rude.
    4. Keep within the same thread. Do not refer to a post you made last year, and above all, Please come back. There are hundreds and thousands of posts where we have seen people given great and wonderfully long answers yet no reply from the original poster.
    5. Be courteous to reply, even if it's to say. "I've given up" or thanks that worked. (This helps the whole community when you do this, and gives the people who donate their time, warm and fuzzies.)
     
    When answered
    Give Positive Feedback. Once you've received a correct answer to your question, either from a Microsoft employee, an MVP, or the community in general, pleases replies that the issue or question has been answered. And if possible mark the solution as answered: This step is important, since it lets other people benefit from your posts.
    Please remember to click “Mark as Answer” on the post that helps you, and to click “Unmark as Answer” if a marked post does not actually answer your question. This can be beneficial to other community members reading the thread.

Learning Manager Bugs and Feedback announcements

  • Link
    Please read before posting questions to this forum.
    FJ2008
    Dear Forum User:

    This forum is dedicated only to customers who are using Microsoft E-Learning products. So please post questions only which are related to Microsoft E-Learning Products/issues/information request only.
    Thanks,
    Sidharth lala
  • Link
    Report a Learning Manager Bug
    Alicia Cales

    Did you find a Bug in Learning Manager? Log it here!

    In your post, please include:

    • Course name or number of where the issue is occurring with
    • URL where you are experiencing the problem/issue
    • Detailed reproduction steps of what you did in order to get the problem/problem. If there is an error message, please obtain a copy of the error message.



Surface Hardware Units announcements

App-V Server and Management announcements

  • Link
    The Great App-V Survey Project
    Tim Mangan

    I am asking for some help here in filling our an anonumous survey about App-V usage.

    Traditionally, Microsoft is the only one that has any information regarding App-V usage out there, and basically Microsoft doesn't share that info (unless someone is bragging).  So I am trying to gather some information to share with the community using an un-scientific survey.  The survey is very short (10 questions), and does not ask you to identify yourself or your company.  You can see all of the questions before you even start.  It is just some basic questions to "get a feel" for what people are doing. 

    Let me be clear that this is not a Microsoft santioned survery and they have nothing to do with it.  My company is requesting this information and will only use it to provide information back to the technical community. Any information gathered will only be used in aggregate form.

    Please fill out the survey at this link: http://www.tmurgent.com/AppVSurvey.aspx

    Thank You!

    Tim Mangan

  • Link
    How to ask a question efficiently in the TechNet forums
    Aaron.Parker
    Thank you for posting in TechNet forum. Online problem solving can be relatively time consuming because it may demand several messages back and force to fully understand the symptom and background, especially at the very beginning. Here are a few suggestions that can help you get the best answer to your question as quickly as possible.
     
    When You Ask
    1. Selecting a good title which summarizes the specific problem you have. It will be the one of the main driving forces for others to want to actually read your item. Choosing a badly-formatted title will drive people away, thinking that since the title is so badly written, so must be the information and the question within the thread.
    2. Provide all the necessary information in your initial post. The following information would be very helpful:
    - Symptom description: Detailed description of the problem. If you receive any error messages, please let us know the exact error WORD BY WORD.
    - Environment: The system environment, such as your OS/application version, your network topology, and your domain environment, etc.
    - Any recent relevant configuration change(s): If the issue started to occur after installing any application/updates or changing the configuration, please let us know.
    - Any additional information. Tell what you have done prior to asking your question. This will help us understand that you've done so far.
    3. Write in a clear language. Avoiding spelling mistakes or grammatical errors. Don't type IN ALL CAPS, which in most cases is read as shouting and considered rude.
    4. Keep within the same thread. Do not refer to a post you made last year, and above all, Please come back. There are hundreds and thousands of posts where we have seen people given great and wonderfully long answers yet no reply from the original poster.
    5. Be courteous to reply, even if it's to say. "I've given up" or thanks that worked. (This helps the whole community when you do this, and gives the people who donate their time, warm and fuzzies.)
     
    When answered
    Give Positive Feedback. Once you've received a correct answer to your question, either from a Microsoft employee, an MVP, or the community in general, pleases replies that the issue or question has been answered. And if possible mark the solution as answered: This step is important, since it lets other people benefit from your posts.
    Please remember to click “Mark as Answer” on the post that helps you, and to click “Unmark as Answer” if a marked post does not actually answer your question. This can be beneficial to other community members reading the thread.

Windows Vista IE announcements

Surface Applications announcements

App-V Clients announcements

  • Link
    How to ask a question efficiently in the TechNet forums
    Aaron.Parker
    Thank you for posting in TechNet forum. Online problem solving can be relatively time consuming because it may demand several messages back and force to fully understand the symptom and background, especially at the very beginning. Here are a few suggestions that can help you get the best answer to your question as quickly as possible.
     
    When You Ask
    1. Selecting a good title which summarizes the specific problem you have. It will be the one of the main driving forces for others to want to actually read your item. Choosing a badly-formatted title will drive people away, thinking that since the title is so badly written, so must be the information and the question within the thread.
    2. Provide all the necessary information in your initial post. The following information would be very helpful:
    - Symptom description: Detailed description of the problem. If you receive any error messages, please let us know the exact error WORD BY WORD.
    - Environment: The system environment, such as your OS/application version, your network topology, and your domain environment, etc.
    - Any recent relevant configuration change(s): If the issue started to occur after installing any application/updates or changing the configuration, please let us know.
    - Any additional information. Tell what you have done prior to asking your question. This will help us understand that you've done so far.
    3. Write in a clear language. Avoiding spelling mistakes or grammatical errors. Don't type IN ALL CAPS, which in most cases is read as shouting and considered rude.
    4. Keep within the same thread. Do not refer to a post you made last year, and above all, Please come back. There are hundreds and thousands of posts where we have seen people given great and wonderfully long answers yet no reply from the original poster.
    5. Be courteous to reply, even if it's to say. "I've given up" or thanks that worked. (This helps the whole community when you do this, and gives the people who donate their time, warm and fuzzies.)
     
    When answered
    Give Positive Feedback. Once you've received a correct answer to your question, either from a Microsoft employee, an MVP, or the community in general, pleases replies that the issue or question has been answered. And if possible mark the solution as answered: This step is important, since it lets other people benefit from your posts.
    Please remember to click “Mark as Answer” on the post that helps you, and to click “Unmark as Answer” if a marked post does not actually answer your question. This can be beneficial to other community members reading the thread.

App-V Documentation announcements

  • Link
    How to ask a question efficiently in the TechNet forums
    Aaron.Parker
    Thank you for posting in TechNet forum. Online problem solving can be relatively time consuming because it may demand several messages back and force to fully understand the symptom and background, especially at the very beginning. Here are a few suggestions that can help you get the best answer to your question as quickly as possible.
     
    When You Ask
    1. Selecting a good title which summarizes the specific problem you have. It will be the one of the main driving forces for others to want to actually read your item. Choosing a badly-formatted title will drive people away, thinking that since the title is so badly written, so must be the information and the question within the thread.
    2. Provide all the necessary information in your initial post. The following information would be very helpful:
    - Symptom description: Detailed description of the problem. If you receive any error messages, please let us know the exact error WORD BY WORD.
    - Environment: The system environment, such as your OS/application version, your network topology, and your domain environment, etc.
    - Any recent relevant configuration change(s): If the issue started to occur after installing any application/updates or changing the configuration, please let us know.
    - Any additional information. Tell what you have done prior to asking your question. This will help us understand that you've done so far.
    3. Write in a clear language. Avoiding spelling mistakes or grammatical errors. Don't type IN ALL CAPS, which in most cases is read as shouting and considered rude.
    4. Keep within the same thread. Do not refer to a post you made last year, and above all, Please come back. There are hundreds and thousands of posts where we have seen people given great and wonderfully long answers yet no reply from the original poster.
    5. Be courteous to reply, even if it's to say. "I've given up" or thanks that worked. (This helps the whole community when you do this, and gives the people who donate their time, warm and fuzzies.)
     
    When answered
    Give Positive Feedback. Once you've received a correct answer to your question, either from a Microsoft employee, an MVP, or the community in general, pleases replies that the issue or question has been answered. And if possible mark the solution as answered: This step is important, since it lets other people benefit from your posts.
    Please remember to click “Mark as Answer” on the post that helps you, and to click “Unmark as Answer” if a marked post does not actually answer your question. This can be beneficial to other community members reading the thread.

App-V Add-ons announcements

  • Link
    How to ask a question efficiently in the TechNet forums
    Aaron.Parker
    Thank you for posting in TechNet forum. Online problem solving can be relatively time consuming because it may demand several messages back and force to fully understand the symptom and background, especially at the very beginning. Here are a few suggestions that can help you get the best answer to your question as quickly as possible.
     
    When You Ask
    1. Selecting a good title which summarizes the specific problem you have. It will be the one of the main driving forces for others to want to actually read your item. Choosing a badly-formatted title will drive people away, thinking that since the title is so badly written, so must be the information and the question within the thread.
    2. Provide all the necessary information in your initial post. The following information would be very helpful:
    - Symptom description: Detailed description of the problem. If you receive any error messages, please let us know the exact error WORD BY WORD.
    - Environment: The system environment, such as your OS/application version, your network topology, and your domain environment, etc.
    - Any recent relevant configuration change(s): If the issue started to occur after installing any application/updates or changing the configuration, please let us know.
    - Any additional information. Tell what you have done prior to asking your question. This will help us understand that you've done so far.
    3. Write in a clear language. Avoiding spelling mistakes or grammatical errors. Don't type IN ALL CAPS, which in most cases is read as shouting and considered rude.
    4. Keep within the same thread. Do not refer to a post you made last year, and above all, Please come back. There are hundreds and thousands of posts where we have seen people given great and wonderfully long answers yet no reply from the original poster.
    5. Be courteous to reply, even if it's to say. "I've given up" or thanks that worked. (This helps the whole community when you do this, and gives the people who donate their time, warm and fuzzies.)
     
    When answered
    Give Positive Feedback. Once you've received a correct answer to your question, either from a Microsoft employee, an MVP, or the community in general, pleases replies that the issue or question has been answered. And if possible mark the solution as answered: This step is important, since it lets other people benefit from your posts.
    Please remember to click “Mark as Answer” on the post that helps you, and to click “Unmark as Answer” if a marked post does not actually answer your question. This can be beneficial to other community members reading the thread.
  • Link
    Welcome to the AppV Add-Ons forum
    Cholione

    Hello and welcome to the Application Virtualization Add-Ons forum

     

    This forum provides you an avenue where you can share knowledge, get questions answered, and learn from others with IT environments similar to yours who use the Resource Kit tools and other Add-ons to get the most out of their AppV deployments.

     

    If you have any suggestions or feedback to the AppV product Add-ons like the resource kit tools, ADM template and so on, please feel free to post in this forum.

Power BI Dashboard Preview announcements

Azure Active Directory announcements

  • Link
    AADSync is available as a customer technology preview (CTP)
    Markus Vilcinskas

    For more details, click here.

    Cheers,
    Markus

  • Link
    Introduction to the Wiki Toolbox
    Markus Vilcinskas

    Link

    Cheers,
    Markus

  • Link
    Who should use this Windows Azure AD forum?
    Nick Pierson [MSFT]

    This Windows Azure Active Directory (Windows Azure AD) TechNet forum is intended to provide community support for IT Professionals who use the Windows Azure AD Portal or that manage and/or troubleshoot identity-related issues with any of the following Microsoft cloud services:

    • Office 365
    • Windows Azure
    • Windows Intune

    Members from the Windows Azure AD team will occasionally monitor this forum to help answer questions. However, participation by identity MVPs and other IT Pro community members is strongly encouraged to provide quick replies to those who need answers.

    If you are a Developer looking for support related to Windows Azure AD, please use the Windows Azure AD MSDN forum instead.

    Thanks!

    Nick Pierson

    Windows Azure AD - Senior Writer

    Looking for Windows Azure AD content but not sure where to start? Check out the new Windows Azure AD Content Map wiki page to find helpful links to Azure AD content that may reside anywhere on the Internet. Please contribute to this page and add links!



SQL Server 2012 Setup and Installation (Pre-Release) announcements

SQL Server 2012 PowerPivot for Excel (Pre-Release) announcements

SQL Server 2012 Integration Services (Pre-Release) announcements

Windows 7 Optimized Desktop Deployment Proof of Concept announcements

  • Link
    PoC 2.0 released
    Anthony_Mann

    The Desktop POC Kit v2.0 is a customer focused offering available as free download via the Microsoft download center (http://go.microsoft.com/?linkid=9728107). The kit enables customers to drive an accelerated desktop deployment by providing a ready to run deployment server with the full suite of Microsoft desktop deployment tools installed and ready to use.

    The Desktop POC Kit v2.0 provides enhancements and new products to the POC kit. This version of the POC kit introduces 2 new technical modules. These new modules are “Managing Desktop Policies” which features the Security Compliance Manager tool and product security baselines to drive rapid implementation of Microsoft recommended group policy settings. The other new module is the “Zero Touch Deployment” module which features deployment using the zero touch deployment method using System Center Configuration Manager.

    The updated version of the POC also brings additional products to the deployed desktops. The following products are now included in the POC kit:

    ·         Visio Premium 2010

    ·         Forefront

    ·         Project Professional 2010

    The kit provides new features increasing the value of the kit. These features include:

    ·         Visio deployment dashboard – single view of all deployment tools and deployment progress

    ·         Office 365 Readiness – the deployed image requires the required elements to prepare the deployed desktop for connection to the Office 365 beta services

    ·         Expanded image build & customization

    The existing Desktop POC v2 content has been updated to provide increased understanding of the deployment process. This includes improvements in the technical execution guidance providing deeper explanations and providing improved explanations of why the actions are required. The technical tools are also updated to the latest available versions.

    The following recaps what is delivered on the POC deployment server:

    ·         Assessment/Compat Tools

    o   Microsoft Assessment & Planning Toolkit 5.5

    o   Application Compatibility Toolkit 5.6

    o   Office Migration Planning Manager 2010 Update 1 Beta

    o   Office Environment Assessment Tool 2010 Update 1 Beta

    o   Office Compatibility Code Inspector 2010 Update 1 Beta

    ·         Image Build

    o    Security Compliance Manager

    o   Microsoft Deployment Toolkit 2010 Update 1

    o   Office Customization Tool & Config.xml

    ·         Image Deployment

    o   Microsoft Deployment Toolkit 2010 Update 1

    o   System Center Configuration Manager 2007 R3

    ·         Supporting products

    o   Windows Server 2008 R2

    o   SQL Server 2008 R2

    o   Forefront Server

    o   Microsoft Office 2010

    o   Visio Premium 2010

    o   Custom Visio deployment dashboard

    ·         The Desktop POC provides and is ready to the deploy the following components to connected clients in the POC environment

    ·         Windows 7 Enterprise

    o   Language Packs

    o   Custom drivers

    ·         Office Pro Plus 2010

    o   Customized feature installation

    o   Custom help solution template

    o   Customized ribbon

    o   Office 365 required updates

    ·         App-V 4.6

    o   Office 2010 sequenced package

    o   DSC Office Add-ins: PowerPivot

    ·         Visio Premium 2010

    o   Deployment dashboard

    ·         Project Professional 2010

    ·         Forefront client security

    ·         Microsoft Online Services Sign-in Assistant (365 Readiness)

    ·         Silverlight

    ·         Office 2010 Interactive Ribbon guide: Word

    ·         Office Excel Add-in: PowerPivot

    The Desktop POC v2 delivers enhanced technical guidance divided into 14 technical modules. These modules include:

    1.  Setup Guide

    2.  Benefits of an Optimized Desktop

    3.  Justify the Upgrade

    4.  Evaluate Hardware Readiness

    5.  Windows Compat

    6.  Office Compat

    7.  Application Virtualization

    8.  Manage Desktop Policies

    9.  Image Build

    10.  Deploy: Lite Touch

    11.  Deploy: Zero Touch

    12.  Test Windows

    13.  Test Office

    14.  Next Steps

Service Pack 1 RC for Windows 7 and Windows Server 2008 R2 announcements

  • Link
    This forum is now read-only
    Anthony_Mann
    Now that Windows 7 and Windows Server 2008 R2 SP1 has been released, this forum is now marked read-only. This enables users to search, but not post. If you have any questions, please ask your questions in the other Windows 7 or Windows Server 2008 forums.

SQL Server 2012 High Availability and Disaster Recovery (Pre-Release) announcements

SQL Server 2012 Spatial (Pre-Release) announcements

SQL Server 2012 Analysis Services (Pre-Release) announcements

SQL Server 2012 PowerPivot for SharePoint (Pre-Release) announcements

SQL Server 2012 Reporting Services (Pre-Release) announcements

SQL Server 2012 Master Data Services (Pre-Release) announcements

Read Only - Forefront Threat Management Gateway announcements

Windows Server 2008 R2 General - Read Only announcements

Windows Server 2008 R2 Remote Desktop Services - Read Only announcements

Windows Server 2008 R2 Networking - Read Only announcements

Windows Server 2008 R2 Management - Read Only announcements

Windows Server 2008 R2 Web Technologies - Read Only announcements

Live Meeting - Rollout/Deployment Programs announcements

  • Link
    Welcome to Office Live Meeting Forums
    IrfanS - msft

    Welcome to Office Live Meeting forums.   This is home to comprehensive set of forums designed to cover various aspects of Microsoft Office Live Meeting. I am starting with few forums but will be adding some more as we go along. 

    Detailed technical topics should be posted into their respective forums if one is available. Other post can be done in the General section.  Please note however, it is important for a topic to be posted to the correct forum because different groups e.g. Support and Product Group teams and MVPs monitor different forums.  As moderators review the posts they may also move posts to another topic area per relevance.  Our ultimate goal here is to provide a useful response to every question within a reasonable amount of time.  We are targeting 2-3 business days, however being new initiative we are ramping up, so please bear with us on delays.

    Please also consider the following :

    This posting on forums is provided "AS IS" with no warranties, and confers no rights.

    These forums are not an official channel for product support. If you have an urgent or business critical issue, you should contact Microsoft Support Services

    Live Meeting Support for Technical and Billing Issues:
           Web Ticket: http://www.livemeeting.com/ask  

    Phone 1-866-493-2835 toll free (US and Canada Only) or refer to  http://support.microsoft.com/kb/939099/en-us  for additional support options.

     

    While much thought and planning was put into the creation of the forums, there is always room for improvement. I encourage you to please post your ideas and feedback in "General Discussion" forum or email them directly to me Irfan.Soomro@microsoft.com.

    Thank you for being a part of the Live Meeting community.

    Irfan Soomro
    Senior Program Manager

    Microsoft Office Live Meeting

Opalis v5 / v6 General announcements

AVICode 5.7 announcements

Microsoft Office 2010 Volume Activation (to be retired) announcements

  • Link
    Welcome to the Volume Activation forum!
    Ted Way

    This forum is for questions, feedback, or anything else related to volume activation for Microsoft Office 2010.  Volume products include the Office 2010 Professional Plus suite, and the volume editions of Microsoft Project and Microsoft Visio.

    Please visit the Office 2010 volume activation resource center:

    http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/office/ee691939.aspx

    If you have any questions, please feel free to post!

    Ted Way [MSFT]
    Program Manager, Microsoft Office PLEX
    Enterprise Licensing, Group Policy, and 64-bit Office

Active Directory Federation Services announcements

Opalis v4 General announcements

Opalis Quick Integration Kit announcements

Opalis Integrations announcements

Security announcements

SQL Server PowerPivot for SharePoint announcements

Hybrid Auditing announcements

Networking announcements

Virtual Machine Manager (VMware) announcements

Azure Storage announcements

  • Link
    Azure Ultra disks GA
    DiegoRamirez-MSFT

    With general availability of Microsoft Azure Ultra Disks Storage today, we are delivering the next generation of our highly performant Azure Managed Disk, for data intensive workloads migrating to or running in the cloud. Azure Ultra Disk will help you get maximum extremely scalable performance and sub-millisecond latency for applications and databases like SAP HANA, Microsoft SQL Server, MongoDB, Cassandra, Oracle DB, Postgre SQL, NoSQL, MySQL and many more.

    Azure Ultra Disks will give you access to the best in class IOPS, throughput and latency in the cloud. You can now:

    • Choose from a range of different disks sizes ranging from 4 GiB up to 64 TiB with granular increments
    • Scale performance up to 160K IOPS and 2 GB/s per disk with zero downtime using our flexible innovative design
    • Achieve the optimal performance you need per disk even at low storage capacities 

    Our preview customers have benefited by achieving new levels of performance and scale on Azure for their Virtual Machine and Container workloads. Get started today with Azure Ultra Disk Storage.  Please refer to our how-to-guidefor a deep dive and learn more at https://aka.ms/UltraDiskBlog.


  • Link
    Archived Windows Azure Storage Forum Content
    Brad Calder

    When the forums moved into specialized areas, the original forum content for Windows Azure was left archived at this link:

     

    http://social.msdn.microsoft.com/Forums/en-GB/windowsazure/

     

     

  • Link
    Windows Azure Storage Team Blog
    Brad Calder

    Please see the Windows Azure Storage Team Blog for more information on Windows Azure Storage

     

    http://blogs.msdn.com/b/windowsazurestorage/

     

Cloud Services (Web and Worker Roles) announcements

Windows Multipoint Server announcements

  • Link
    Forum closed
    Sandra Aldana - MSFT
    This forum is now closed. Thank you for your participation.
  • Link
    What to do when Dashboard cannot be used in WS 2016?
    Eva Seydl

    If you are running into an issue where the WMS Dashboard is in an unusable state the security certificate might be expired which the Dashboard needs to connect to the webservice on the Server. Please use the following steps to identify if you are running into the same issue and apply the solution provided in this article: 

    1. Run "c:\Program Files\Windows MultiPoint Server\LogCollector.exe".  Click "Collect Data" and then "View Logs" in MultiPoint Log Collector 
    2. "View Logs" will open a folder with some zip files.  Open the latest zip file, and then open "Microsoft-Windows-WMS-Trace.csv" from inside the zip file (use notepad)
    3. Search for SecurityNegotiationException in the logs.

     

    If you see this error to run the following command in PowerShell as administrator:

    net stop wms; $hostname = (Get-WmiObject -Class Win32_ComputerSystem -Property Name).Name; Get-ChildItem -Path 'Cert:\localmachine\MultiPoint Services Certificates\' | ForEach-Object {if ($_.Subject -like ('*'+$hostname+'*')) {Write-Host ('Removing '+$_.Thumbprint); Remove-Item -Path ('Cert:\localmachine\MultiPoint Services Certificates\'+$_.Thumbprint)}}; net start wms

    The certificate can also be manually deleted but the process to do that is complex, so either way should work.

    If you want to try to manually remove the certificate, follow these steps:

    1. You will need your local host name.  If you don't know that, you can run the command "hostname" from a command prompt and it will tell you the computer's host name.
    2. From a command prompt run “Net stop wms”.  You will need to be running in an elevated command prompt as an administrator.
    3. From a command prompt run “mmc.exe”.  You will also need to be running in an elevated command prompt as an administrator.
    4. CTRL+M to add a new snap-in
    5. From the list of available snap-ins on the left, choose certificates, then add it to the list.  There will be a popup dialog.  Choose computer account from the three options, then choose local computer
    6. Find “MultiPoint Services Certificates” in the list of  certificates for the local computer.  Delete all the certificates where “Issued By” is the local host name.
    7. Now run “net start wms”.  When the MultiPoint service starts, it will create a new certificate for you.  This should fix the problem.

    An update is work in progress and will be shipped in one of the upcoming releases.

  • Link
    Testdrive MultiPoint Services Role as part of Windows Server 2016
    Eva Seydl

    Download the latest technical preview for Windows Server 2016 and test-drive Multipoint Services role: https://aka.ms/ws2016-eval 

    If you are running into issues let us know here on the TechNet forum.

    Are you missing features? Let us know on UserVoice: aka.ms/uservoice-wms

Streaming Media Services announcements

Microsoft Online: Announcements announcements

MDOP Asset Inventory Service - General Discussion announcements

  • Link
    AIS Discussion Forums - Important Notice
    Paul Bourgeau
     

    Welcome to The Asset Inventory Service technical forums, brought to you by the System Center Online team!

    These forums are a venue for you to post questions, comments, and feedback about your experiences with the Asset Inventory Service.  The goal of these forums is to promote discussion among users of AIS, and foster a community of AIS users.

    Before posting a technical question, be sure to review our technical documentation and troubleshooting guides. They contain important information that may help you resolve your issue.  If you don’t find the information you need in the documentation, please post your issue. It is easier for us to give correct guidance if your log files are included.

    The log collection tool is used to gather the following information:

    ·         SCOnlineClient.log from %Windir%

    ·         System Event Logs

    ·         System Center Online Registry Settings

    ·         System Center Online Scheduled Tasks

     

    To run the log collector tool, navigate via command line to c:\program files\Microsoft System Center Online Client\Diagnostic Tools and run "cscript logcollector.vbs"

    After the Log Collection Tool script is complete, the resulting set of files is located in the same directory.

     

    Please note: The log collector files may contain personally identifiable information.  You may choose to review the contents of these files and alter them file to hide any information before posting it in these forums.

     

    We welcome your input and participation!

Systems Management Server 2003 announcements

  • Link
    Welcome to the SMS 2003 Forum!
    Wally (no longer at Microsoft)

    Welcome to the SMS 2003 forum. As you have heard, Microsoft is moving from the public newsgroups to forums. This is the one location for you to ask questions on SMS 2003.

    Please do not ask questions on Configuration Manager here (there are other forums specifically for Configuration Manager at: http://social.technet.microsoft.com/Forums/en-US/category/configurationmanager/). And please don't ask SMS 2003 questions on the Configuration Manager forums :-)

    There will be community presence here to help you with your questions on SMS 2003, however, be aware, that just like in the newsgroups, responses/answers are never guaranteed. You may need to go to Customer Support Services (CSS) to have questions resolved. We'll do our best to help here when possible.

    Thanks, and enjoy,

    Wally

Configuration Manager (Current Branch) – Mobile Device Management announcements

Configuration Manager Servicing announcements

  • Link
    Cumulative Update 1 Now Available
    Brian Huneycutt [MSFT]

    We are pleased to announce that Cumulative Update 1 for System Center 2012 Configuration Manager is now available for download via KB 2717295.

    For additional information on the cumulative update model, see our team blog. Installation instructions are covered in the “Update System Center 2012 Configuration Manager” documentation on TechNet.

  • Link
    Welcome to the Configuration Manager Servicing Forum
    Yvette O'Meally

    The Servicing forum is for discussing the servicing releases for the Configuration Manager family of products and sharing community knowledge about keeping Configuration Manager environments updated.  This includes questions about hotfixes, cumulative updates/rollups, service packs and serviceability best practices.  Questions on or troubleshooting for other product features should still take place in the appropriate forum for the feature.

    For an overview of hotfix installation for Configuration Manager 2007 please see the following article:

    KB 2477182 System Center Configuration Manager 2007 Hotfix Installation Guidance

    Before posting we would ask that you check for solutions that have already been published or posted:

    ·In posts already in the forums - often someone has already hit your issue and posted a solution (see searching below)

    ·In the documentation library HERE

    ·On other Technet resources or blogs – links below


    Tips for keyword searches:
    Sometimes it's just a difference in a keyword, but you can find a lot of answers with the correct ones.
    Search in Technet or your favorite search engine:
    Keywords: always use 'Configuration Manager' then narrow to specific terms that you find in error messages, component names or logs.
    You might be surprised how often the answer is in the top 10 results returned.

    Still didn't find what you are looking for?
    Great, create a post and provide enough information so you can get a useful answer quickly. The more information you provide, the faster someone can recognize your issue and get you the best solution.

    ·        Look through the forums to locate the category that most closely matches the feature or operation you are attempting.

    ·        Include the version of the product - Config Mgr 2007 SP1, SP2 or R2 and the KB number of the hotfix if applicable.

    ·        Describe relevant details about your environment (operating systems, SQL, AD, accounts, site settings) and what you are attempting to accomplish.

    ·        If there is an error or problem, include sections of relevant logs and/or exact error messages.

    ·        Describe what remedies you have tried already.

    ·        Check back on your post often, many are answered the same day!

    Other Useful Links:

    System Center Configuration Manager

    Main Product Page

    Community Page

    Product Team Blog

    Support Team Blog

    Configuration Manager 2012 Documentation Library

    Configuration Manager 2007 Documentation Library

    Configuration Manager 2007 Lifecycle Dates

    Configuration Manager Support Announcements


     

    Systems Management Server 2003

    TechCenter

    System Management Server 2003 Lifecycle Dates

Configuration Manager 2007 General announcements

  • Link
    All ConfigMgr 2007 forums are consolidated
    Kerim Hanif [MSFT]

    We consolidated and merged all threads of the Configuration Manager 2007 forums to Configuration Manager 2007 General.

    Please post all of your questions regarding ConfigMgr 2007 (no matter which area) to Configuration Manager 2007 General.

    Thank you.

  • Link
    ConfigMgr 2007 Superflows
    Robert Marshall - MVP

    Check out the Microsoft System Center Configuration Manager 2007 Superflows

    The SuperFlow interactive content model provides a structured and interactive interface for viewing documentation. Each SuperFlow includes comprehensive information about a specific Configuration Manager 2007 dataflow, workflow, or process. Depending on the focus of the SuperFlow, you will find overview information, steps that include detailed information, procedures, sample log entries, best practices, real-world scenarios, troubleshooting information, security information, animations, and more. Each SuperFlow also includes links to relevant resources, such as Web sites or local files that are copied to your computer when you install the SuperFlow.

    http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ff385001.aspx

  • Link
    Reporting forum is now live
    Stan White [MSFT]

    This is the home for reporting related questions including using SQL Reporting Services with Configuration Manager.

    Existing posts related to reporting are being moved there.

  • Link
    !!! Read before posting to the Configuration Manager forums !!!
    Stan White [MSFT]

    Welcome to the Configuration Manager community!

    The Configuration Manager forums are a great way to get expert help when you are not finding what you need in documentation or other online publications or if you have further clarifying questions.  There are lots of feature experts from the community ready to help - people like you who work with the product every day and have to solve the very same issues you are working though, and of course some of the folks from Microsoft that design, build, test and support the product. 

    First of all these forums are for System Center Configuration Manager 2007 releases only. 
    For the latest information see our Product Page
    Posts about other products will be moved or deleted to keep the search indexing accurate.
    For help with SMS 2003 please see the ‘other links’ at the bottom of this announcement.
    For help on Beta products use the Connect site at https://connect.microsoft.com/


    Before posting we would ask that you make a reasonable effort to find a solution that has already been published or posted:

    ·          In posts already in the forums - often someone has already hit your issue and posted a solution (see searching below)

    ·          In the documentation library HERE

    ·          On other Technet resources or blogs – links below


    Tips for keyword searches:
    Sometimes it's just a difference in a keyword, but you can find a lot of answers with the correct ones.
    Search in Technet or your favorite search engine:
    Keywords:  always use  'Configuration Manager'  then narrow to specific terms that you find in error messages, component names or logs.
    You might be surprised how often the answer is in the top 10 results returned.

    Still didn't find what you are looking for? 
    Great, create a post and provide enough information so you can get a useful answer quickly.  The more information you provide, the faster someone can recognize your issue and get you the best solution.

    ·          Look through the forums to locate the category that most closely matches the feature or operation you are attempting.

    ·          Include the version of the product - Config Mgr 2007 SP1, SP2 or R2.

    ·          Describe relevant details about your environment (operating systems, SQL, AD, accounts, site settings) and what you are attempting to accomplish.

    ·          If there is an error or problem include sections of relevant logs and/or exact error messages.

    ·          Describe what remedies you have tried already.

    ·          Check back on your post often, many are answered the same day!

     

    Other Useful Links:

     

    System Center Configuration Manager 2007

    Main Product Page

    Community Page

    Product Team Blog

    Support Team Blog

     

     

    Systems Management Server  2003

     

    TechCenter

     

    Community Support Newsgroups

    SMS Admin

    SMS Installer

    SMS Inventory

    SMS Miscellaneous

    SMS Setup

    SMS Site Communications

    SMS Software Distribution

    SMS Tools

    SMS Software Update Services

Microsoft Intune announcements

  • Link
    New MDM Forum in the Configuration Manager TechNet forums
    Shakti Prasad Mishra

    Hi Intune Admins,

    We would like to share a new resource for admins using System Center Configuration Manager with Microsoft Intune on TechNet.

    http://social.technet.microsoft.com/Forums/systemcenter/en-us/home?forum=configmanagermdm

    If you have questions about Mobile Device Management with System Center Configuration Manager + Microsoft Intune please feel free to post questions in either forum.

    Thanks,

    The Microsoft Intune Team

Office 2016 for Mac announcements

  • Link
    Welcome !
    Matt Seybold

    Office 2016 for Mac is available for Office 365 and Volume Licensing customers. The new versions of Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Outlook and OneNote provide the best of both worlds for Mac users: the familiar Office experience paired with the best of Mac. Volume License customers can download it from their Volume Licensing Service Center starting today, August 5, 2015.

    Thank you.

Visio General Questions and Answers for IT Professionals announcements

  • Link
    About the Visio 2010 forum
    Fred Diggs

    Welcome to the Visio 2010 Forum. This forum provides a place for you to discuss all topics related to Visio such as questions you may have about the product or tips & tricks you have learned and want to share with others.

Backup – Windows and Windows Server announcements

  • Link
    Old Threads
    Sushil.Baid [MSFT]
    Folks - Some of the old threads has been marked as general discussion based on inactivity on them for a longer duration. If the issue is not resolved, please start a new thread.
  • Link
    Vista Backup and Recovery - common causes and solution
    Christine Fok
    We've created a solution table on our blog for some issues we've seen while troubleshooting Vista backup\recovery (including System Restore) issues with some customers. We encourage you to visit the blog and see if it addresses your issue.

    http://blogs.technet.com/filecab/archive/2008/03/12/common-causes-and-solutions-to-backup-system-restore-and-complete-pc-backup-problems-updated.aspx

    Regards,
    Christine
  • Link
    Welcome to Windows and Windows Server Backup Forums!
    Malu Menezes

    Windows Backup forums provide you an opportunity to join a community of Windows customers where you can share knowledge on windows backup, get questions answered, and learn from others with backup needs similar to yours. Start by posting Windows Backup related questions and leverage the knowledge available in your new forum community.

     

    This forum supports Backup questions for Windows and Windows Server.

     

    Also, visit our blog for fresh information on Microsoft Storage and Windows Backup:

    http://blogs.technet.com/filecab

Remote Desktop clients announcements

High Availability (Clustering) announcements

Windows Server 2012 Essentials announcements

File Services and Storage announcements

  • Link
    New white paper providing guidance for sizing NTFS volumes
    JoseBarreto

    Microsoft released a new white paper, available here, discussing best practices and guidance for sizing NTFS volumes and some details on CHKDSK execution times on Windows Server 2008 R2. When planning Windows Server deployments, we are often asked questions such as “How large can I make my volumes?” or “How long will it take to repair a volume?”. This white paper helps answer these questions.

Hyper-V announcements

  • Link
    How to ask a question efficiently in TechNet forum
    BrianEh

    Thank you for posting in TechNet forum. The online problem solving can be relatively time consuming because it may demand several messages back and force to fully understand the symptom and background, especially at the very beginning. Here are a few suggestions that help you get the best answer to your question as quickly as possible.

     

    When You Ask

    1. Selecting a good title which summarizes the specific problem you have. It will be the one of the main driving forces for others to want to actually read your item. Choosing a badly-formatted title will drive people away, thinking that since the title is so badly written, so must be the information and the question within the thread.

    2. Provide all the necessary information in your initial post. The following information would be very helpful:

    - Symptom description: Detailed description of the problem. If you receive any error messages, please let us know the exact error WORD BY WORD.

    - Environment: The system environment, such as your OS/application version, your network topology, and your domain environment, etc.

    - Any recent relevant configuration change(s): If the issue started to occur after installing any application/updates or changing the configuration, please let us know.

    - Any additional information. Tell what you have done prior to asking your question. This will help us understand that you've done so far.

    3. Write in a clear language. Avoiding spelling mistakes or grammatical errors. Don't type IN ALL CAPS, which in most cases is read as shouting and considered rude.

    4. Keep with the same thread. Do not refer to a post you made last year, and above all, Please come back. There are hundreds and thousands of posts where we have seen people given great and wonderfully long answers yet no reply from the original poster.

    5. Be courteous to reply, even if it's to say. "I've given up" or thanks that worked. (This helps the whole community when you do this, and makes the people who donate time, warm and fuzzies.)

     

    When answered

    Give Positive Feedback. Once you've received a correct answer to your question, either from a Microsoft employee, an MVP, or the community in general, pleases replies that the issue or question has been answered. And if possible mark the solution as answered: This step is important, since it lets other people benefit from your posts.

    The content of this post was borrowed from: http://social.technet.microsoft.com/Forums/windowsserver/en-US/33d4bcfd-9a20-437c-8a5a-26d0deb01131/how-to-ask-a-question-efficiently-in-technet-forum?forum=winservergen

  • Link
    Managing Server 2012 Hyper-V Remotely
    BrianEh

    This has been a popular question lately, here are the details:

    Remote Server Admin Tools: 

    (please note that there is a client and server combination here.  AFAIK there is not (yet) a tool release to manage Server 2012 from Win 7 clients)

    Remote Server Administration Tools for Windows 8: http://www.microsoft.com/en-us/download/details.aspx?id=28972

    http://social.technet.microsoft.com/wiki/contents/articles/2202.remote-server-administration-tools-rsat-for-windows-vista-windows-7-windows-8-windows-server-2008-windows-server-2008-r2-and-windows-server-2012-dsforum2wiki.aspx

    Manage Hyper-V Server 2012 Remotely:

    http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/jj647785.aspx

    (there are domain member and non-domain member instructions in there)

IPAM, DHCP, DNS announcements

Network Access Protection announcements

Setup Deployment announcements

  • Link
    Known Issue: After applying KB 953230 WDS stops working
    Jez Sadler - MS
    On  7/8/2008, a security patch was released for DNS by Microsoft and other DNS server vendors. The Microsoft patch was tracked as KB953230 - the documentation on it is here.

    As part of the patch, DNS now reserves 2500 UDP ports - including the ports from 64000 to 65000 that WDS uses by default. Because of this, if DNS and WDS are running on the same server, WDS cannot access those ports and so is unable to perform TFTP (required for PXE boot) or Multicast.

    To work around this, open the WDS MMC, select your server, and go to Server Properties from the right-click menu or the Action menu. Then on the Network Settings page, set a different range of UDP ports. The best range to choose will depend on what else you are running on your server - you want to pick ports that other server roles and applications are not using. The dynamically allocated ports start from 49152, so your Start port should be at least that.

Remote Desktop Services (Terminal Services) announcements

Windows PowerShell announcements

Small Business Server announcements

  • Link
    Looking for the Windows Server 2012 Essentials Beta Forums?
    Cris Hanna
    http://social.technet.microsoft.com/Forums/en-US/winserveressentials/threads
  • Link
    SBS Best Practices Analyzer
    Kevin Weilbacher [SBS MVP]

    In troubleshooting SBS issues, we will often ask whether you have run the SBS (2003/2008) Best Practices Analyzer (BPA).

    BPA examines a server that is running Windows Small Business Server and then presents a list of information and errors, which are sorted by severity, that you should review. The list describes each issue, and it provides a recommendation about what you should do to resolve the issue. The recommendations are developed by the product support organization for Windows SBS.

    Download SBS 2003 BPA

    Download SBS 2008 BPA

     

    Edit by Nick Whittome 04/09/2011
    For SBS 2011, there is a requirement to install

    the Microsoft Baseline Configuration Analyzer 2.0 and then the Windows Server Solutions Best Practices Analyzer 1.0

  • Link
    How to use your own NNTP News Reader instead of the web, to access SBS Forum:
    Russ Grover - SBITS.Biz

    For any of you struggling with the Web interface, and
    users who prefer to use an NNTP (newsgroup) reader to participate in the
    newsgroups community.

    Microsoft has developed a solution called the NNTP Bridge
    which allows a user to connect a variety of supported NNTP readers to the
    forums they would like to participate in and continue having the NTTP reader
    functionality.  You can find instructions on how to download and set up the

    Microsoft NNTP Bridge
    http://connect.microsoft.com/MicrosoftForums


    Another "Non Microsoft" supported NNTP Bridge can be found here
    http://communitybridge.codeplex.com/

    This SBS Forum is group: Technet.en-US.smallbusinessserver

    Note: The drawback to using these NNTP Bridges are that you are not able to VOTE posts as Helpfull or mark your post as Answered.
    (We still urge you to reply to if the solution worked for  you however, this benefits everyone.)

  • Link
    How to Successfully Post a Question to SBS Forum:
    Russ Grover - SBITS.Biz

    Here are a few suggestions that make it sure you get the best answer to your question as quickly as possible:

    1. Search the Forum for your question  -- Quite possibly  someone may have already answered your question, and you won't have to spend time waiting for it to be answered again.

    2. If Possible Run SBS Best Practices Analyzer. (It often can help you fix problems on your own.)

    SBS2011     Best Practices Analyzer     Standard download from Here Link http://www.microsoft.com/download/en/details.aspx?id=15556
    Note In addition for SBS2011 y    ou'll also need to download Microsoft Baseline Configuration Analyzer 2.0 Here Link     http://www.microsoft.com/download/en/details.aspx?displaylang=en&id=16475  

    SBS2008     Best Practices Analyzer     Download from Here Link     http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkId=130639

    SBS2003     Best Practices Analyzer     Download from Here     Link http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyId=3874527A-DE19-49BB-800F-352F3B6F2922&displaylang=en

    3. Make sure your posting Subject or  "title" summarizes the specific problem you have -- 
    A question with a title of "Urgent! Help needed!" is not as likely to get
    answered as quickly a question with a title of "How to configure my firewall to open port 80". 
    A more specific, detailed title is far more likely to get a better response than a general one.

    4. Post what version of SBS you have. and service Packs, This helps people know where you are at.
    We can tell what version of Exchange you are using etc and sharepoint. (If different please tell.)
    (Not all details are necessary, but try to include any relevant information.)

    5. Avoid if possible "Me Too" Posts!  I'm guilty of this also, but unless it's exactly the same thing and you have some "Added information" you distract from the original post.  If you question if your issue is different Please make a new post. 

    6. Keep with the same thread. do not refer to a post you made last year, and above all, Please come back. There are hundreds and thousands of posts where I've seen people given great and wonderfully long answers yet no reply from the original poster.

    7. If you do post a question, be courteous to reply even if it's to say. "I've given up" or thanks that worked.
    (This helps the whole community when you do this, and makes the people who donate time, warm and fuzzies.)

    8. Give details about your problem --  rather than " It won't work, please  help!", provide some details like Error Codes, statements like, "Program starts, it gets to a part to install xxx and 2/3rds of the way and then does this.",  Links to Screen Shots and images also help.  Also search for any error
    messages in logs etc.  Other basic things like it was working before I did this, or it stopped working after I installed this. also helps.

    9. Give Positive FeedBack: Once you've received a correct answer to your question, either from a Microsoft employee, an MVP, or the community in general, please reply that the issue or question  has been answered. And if possible mark the solution as answered:  This step is important, since it lets other people benefit from your posts.

    In addition Please Vote as "helpful" replies that contribute to the answer or lead to resolution of the issue. 

    Reminder most answers are from volunteers. MVP's do not get paid by Microsoft.
    Many of them have REAL jobs and answer questions for FREE!

    Thank You and I hope you take the pay it forward philosophy that has made this forum a success.

    Russ Grover  SBSMVP July 2009 - July 2011

     

     

Small Business Server 2011 Essentials and Windows Storage Server 2008 R2 Essentials announcements

  • Link
    Welcome to the forum for Small Business Server 2011 Essentials and Windows Storage Server 2008 R2 Essentials!
    Ning Kuang

    Welcome to the forum for SBS 2011 Essentials and Windows Storage Server 2008 R2 Essentials!

     

    SBS 2011 Essentials and WSS 2008 R2 Essentials are both build on top of Windows Server 2008 R2 platform, and share the technologies from Windows Server Solutions product family.

    Customers will benefit from enhanced technical expertise when the two communities are combined together.

    Note, there are still major differences between these two products, It will be helpful to call out the product name when ask questions, following are some of the examples:

    1. SBS 2011 Essentials must be a Domain Controller; WSS 2008 R2 Essentials can be a standalone server.

    2. SBS 2011 Essentials does not include Media Feature.

    3. WSS 2008 R2 Essentials are offered via OEM channel as devices,  the “headless recovery” method for server recovery is used, where a server recovery DVD and a USB key are needed. For details, refer to the OEM manufactory’s user manual.

    For manuafactory related quesions and issues, you can reference your manuafactory's support and community site, for example: http://community.wdc.com/t5/WD-Sentinel-DX4000/bd-p/sentinel

  • Link
    How to use your own NNTP News Reader instead of the web, to access SBS Essentials Forum:
    Russ Grover - SBITS.Biz

    For any of you struggling with the Web interface, and
    users who prefer to use an NNTP (newsgroup) reader to participate in the
    newsgroups community.

    Microsoft has developed a solution called the NNTP Bridge
    which allows a user to connect a variety of supported NNTP readers to the
    forums they would like to participate in and continue having the NTTP reader
    functionality.  You can find instructions on how to download and set up the

    Microsoft NNTP Bridge
    http://connect.microsoft.com/MicrosoftForums/

    Another "Non Microsoft" supported NNTP Bridge can be found here
    http://communitybridge.codeplex.com/

    This SBS Essentails Forum is group: Technet.en-US.smallbusinessserver2011essentials

    Note: The drawback to using these NNTP Bridges are that you are not able to VOTE posts as Helpfull or mark your post as Answered.
    (We still urge you to reply to if the solution worked for  you however, this benefits everyone.)

    Remember to pay it forward, your knowledge is great for the community :)

    Thank You
    Russ Grover - SBS MVP

     

  • Link
    How to Successfully Post a Question to SBS Essentials Forum:
    Russ Grover - SBITS.Biz

    Here are a few suggestions that make it sure you get the best answer to your question as quickly as possible:

    1. Search the Forum for your question  -- Quite possibly  someone may have already answered your question, and you won't have to spend time waiting for it to be answered again.

    2. Make sure your posting Subject or  "title" summarizes the specific problem you have -- 
    A question with a title of "Urgent! Help needed!" is not as likely to get
    answered as quickly a question with a title of "How to configure my firewall to open port 80". 
    A more specific, detailed title is far more likely to get a better response than a general one.

    3. Post what service Packs or additional programs you have added, This helps people know where you are at.
    (Not all details are necessary, but try to include any relevant information, but if you think it may be an AV related issue mention what AV you are using.)

    5. Avoid if possible "Me Too" Posts!  I'm guilty of this also, but unless it's "Exactly" the same thing
    and you have some "Added information" you distract from the original post. 
    If you question if your issue is different, Please make a new post. 

    6. Keep with the same thread. Do not refer to a post you made last year, and above all, 
    Please come back. There are hundreds and thousands of posts where I've seen people given great and wonderfully long answers yet no reply from the original poster.

    7. If you do post a question, be courteous to reply even if it's to say. "I've given up" or thanks that worked.
    (This helps the whole community when you do this, and makes the people who donate time, warm and fuzzies.)

    8. Give details about your problem --  rather than " It won't work, please  help!", provide some details like Error Codes, statements like, "Program starts, it gets to a part to install xxx and 2/3rds of the way and then does this.",  Links to Screen Shots and images also help.  Also search for any error
    messages in logs etc.  Other basic things like it was working before I did this, or it stopped working after I installed this. also helps.

    9. Give Positive FeedBack: Once you've received a correct answer to your question, either from a Microsoft employee, an MVP, or the community in general, please reply that the issue or question  has been answered. And if possible mark the solution as answered:  This step is important, since it lets other people benefit from your posts.

    Lastly Please Vote as "helpful" replies that contribute to the answer or lead to resolution of the issue. 

    Reminder most answers are from volunteers. MVP's do not get paid by Microsoft.
    Many of them have REAL jobs and answer questions for FREE!

    Thank You and I hope you take the pay it forward philosophy that has made this forum a success.

    Russ Grover  SBSMVP July 2009 - July 2011

Configuration Manager (Current Branch) – Application Management announcements

Configuration Manager (Current Branch) – General announcements

Configuration Manager (Current Branch) – Operating System Deployment announcements

Configuration Manager (Current Branch) – Security, Updates and Compliance announcements

Configuration Manager (Current Branch) – Site and Client Deployment announcements

Configuration Manager (Current Branch) – Migration announcements

Configuration Manager (Current Branch) – SDK and PowerShell announcements

Service Manager - Customization Using the SDK and Authoring Tool announcements

Database Design announcements

  • Link
    Database Design Resources
    Arnie Rowland

    The following list of database design resources is not intended to be exhaustive or ‘the correct list’. Items are included simply because one of the Moderators knew the material and offered it as a suggestion. If you wish to offer suggestions for inclusion, please do so.

     

    Books

     

    A Developer's Guide to Data Modeling for SQL Server: Covering SQL Server 2005 and 2008

    Eric Johnson and Joshua Jones

    An Introduction to Database Systems

    Chris Date

    Applied Mathematics for Database Professionals

    Lex de Haan, Toon Koppelaars

    Architecting Regulatory-Compliant Architectures
    Mike Walker, Microsoft

    Data Modeling Essential

    Graeme Simsion and Graham Witt

    Database Modeling and Design: Logical Design

    Toby Teorey

    Information Modeling and Relational Databases

    Terry Halpin

    Practical Issues in Database Management: A Reference for the Thinking Practitioner

    Fabian Pascal

    Pro SQL Server 2008 Relational Database Design and Implementation

    Louis Davidson, Kevin Kline, et al

     

    Online Resources

     

    A Simple Guide to Five Normal forms and Relational Database Theory
    http://www.bkent.net/Doc/simple5.htm

    Data Modeling vs. Database Design
    http://www.aisintl.com/case/library/R-Theory_vs_ER/r-theory_vs_er.html

    Data Models
    http://www.databaseanswers.org/data_models/index.htm

    Database Design - Ten Common Database Design Mistakes, Louis Davidson
    http://www.simple-talk.com/sql/database-administration/ten-common-database-design-mistakes/

    Database Design Issues -EAV Model Discussion (Querying an EAV Table)
    http://tinyurl.com/yks8hu

    Database Design Issues –EAV and OTLT
    http://tonyandrews.blogspot.com/2004/10/otlt-and-eav-two-big-design-mistakes.html

    Database Design ROI by Paul Nielsen
    http://www.sqlserverbible.com/files/databasedesignroi.pdf

    Introduction to the Unified Dimensional Model (UDM)
    http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ms345143(SQL.90).aspx

    Library of database models
    http://www.databaseanswers.org/data_models/

    On Normalization and Repeating Groups by Fabian Pascal
    http://www.dbdebunk.com/page/page/622318.htm

    ORM white paper
    http://www.orm.net/pdf/ORMwhitePaper.pdf

    Overview of the Relational Model
    http://www.utexas.edu/its/archive/windows/database/datamodeling/rm/overview.html   

    Understanding Data Model Quality, Graeme Simsion
    http://www.tdan.com/view-articles/5100

     

  • Link
    Please READ before Posting or Replying to Posts
    Arnie Rowland

     


    Out of Scope
     

    Some topics are out of scope for this forum.

    1. Bugs, Product Decisions, and Feedback: The purpose of this forum is not to ask the product team why decisions were made and to ask them to make other changes. That feedback belongs in Connect. The purpose of this forum is to help you out with specific issues, if possible. Please post your feedback via Connect:

    https://connect.microsoft.com/SQLServer

      

    Rules of Conduct

    ·         Relevance to Topics: We encourage you to keep your postings as close to the subject as possible.

    ·         Respect: Please be respectful of other participants, and their contributions; avoiding insults, demeaning remarks and slurs.

    ·         Tolerance: Please don’t assume someone’s curtness was meant to insult, slur, or demean you.

    ·         Confidentiality: Confidential information should not be posted. This is a publicly available forum.

    ·         Appropriate Language: Please keep the conversation on a professional level, avoiding any hint of profanity in your interactions.

    ·         Advertising/Solicitation: Advertisements should not be posted, and will be removed.

    Forum Moderators may, at their discretion, edit posts for clarity, readability and inappropriate language; split post into separate threads when appropriate; and delete post that do not positively contribute to the thread. Failure to comply with these 'Rules of Conduct' may result in your posts being edited to remove the offending comments, censure, or expulsion from participating in the Forums. The bottom line is: this Forum should feel like a ‘safe’ place to ask hard questions that invoke passionate responses.

    Marking Answers

    By their very nature, many database design questions will not have a easily decernible 'answer'. You are encouraged to give folks 'credit' for helping you when appropriate. If someone's response was 'Helpful', use the 'Vote as Helpful' button. If a response answered some part of your question, or provided you one or more clues that led you to a solution, then use the 'Mark as Answer' option. Just as a thread may evolve into multiple questions, it may also have more than one 'Answer'.

    Welcome to the Database Design Forum

    This is a Forum for questions and discussions about database designs for Microsoft technologies, including: SQL Server, Access, SQL Azure, SQL Express, SQL Compact, etc. Often Database Designs will be generic and can be ported to any vendor's technology. Design problems that are best solved with other technologies will be welcomed and addressed to the best of our knowledge and ability.

    We ask that you recognize that database design is a mixture of art and science. You may receive conflicting suggestions, for there can be multiple paths to a workable solution. You will have to use your own judgment and knowledge of your business requirements to determine the best solution for your particular problem. The 'right' design is compounded by many factors, including business, regulatory, hardware/software requirements, as well as staff expertise. We also encourage you to share your experiences with a particular design issue if it will serve to help others encountering similar problems.

    In order to receive useful responses, please spend some time and properly present your scenario. Attempts to 'save time and effort' by cutting out parts of the scenario will often lead to wasted time and effort as the suggestions have to be discarded because they don't work with other parts of the unseen puzzle.


    But there are limits to what you can expect from volunteers through a disconnected medium. The questions most likely to receive a good and targeted answer, are those that present a small problem, that give a very clear description of that problem within its context, and that are placed by people with a fair understanding of the subject who need help getting over a few nasty bumps. The questions that are almost impossible to answer satisfactorily are those that present a huge problem, with no clear description, and asked by someone totally new to the subject matter.

    We hope that you will understand when we say that most of us that volunteer our time on this Forum do so in order to help folks learn. We will be pleased if you find the Forum to be useful. However, it is difficult or impossible for us to engage with folks privately. We don't have time to do both, and our commitment is help folks using the Forums.

    Do not hesitate to read all of the threads, join in the discussions, offer your own experiences and information, and ask questions to increase your knowlege. Seek out blogs from those who write in a manner that you appreciate, and consider reviewing the Database Design Resources for additional guidance and help.

     

Service Manager - Data Warehouse, Reporting and Dashboards announcements

Microsoft Advanced Threat Analytics announcements

Lync 2010 and OCS - Mobility announcements

Lync 2010 and OCS - Planning and Deployment announcements

Operations Manager - Authoring announcements

  • Link
    Welcome
    Justin Incarnato [MSFT]

    System Center Operations Manager forums provide you an opportunity to join a community of Operations Manager customers where you can share knowledge, get questions answered, and learn from others with IT environments similar to yours. Start by posting Operations Manager related questions in the forum corresponding to your topic of interest and leverage the knowledge available in your new forum community.

    If you have any suggestions or feedback on the System Center Operations Manager product, please feel free to post in our forums.

Operations Manager - Deployment announcements

Operations Manager - Extensibility announcements

  • Link
    Welcome
    Justin Incarnato [MSFT]

    System Center Operations Manager forums provide you an opportunity to join a community of Operations Manager customers where you can share knowledge, get questions answered, and learn from others with IT environments similar to yours. Start by posting Operations Manager related questions in the forum corresponding to your topic of interest and leverage the knowledge available in your new forum community.

    If you have any suggestions or feedback on the System Center Operations Manager product, please feel free to post in our forums.

Operations Manager - General announcements

Operations Manager - Management Packs announcements

Operations Manager - Reporting announcements

Operations Manager - Unix and Linux announcements

System Center Orchestrator - Third-Party Integrations announcements

  • Link
    FAQ: Frequently-Asked Questions About the Forum
    Robert_Hearn
    Welcome to the System Center Orchestrator forum! This forum is designed to help you find answers to questions about System Center Orchestrator (formerly Opalis Integration Server).

    Please note that this forum relates only System Center Orchestrator 2012.

    If you have questions about Opalis, please visit the Opalis forums here:     http://social.technet.microsoft.com/Forums/en-US/category/scinterop


    Q: Where can I find more information about the products, technical information and troubleshooting?

    A: You can find a number of Orchestrator-related resources from Microsoft and the community on the Opalis / Orchestrator team blog:
    http://blogs.technet.com/b/opalis/p/opalis_resources.aspx
    Q: Why are some threads locked?

    A: When a thread is marked as answered or was not replied to for a long period of time, new posts in that thread may not get recognized and may not get a response. To ensure that new posts get the visbility they need, we lock threads that are marked as answered or where we cannot get a response from the poster within a reasonable period of time, so that any new replies will be done in a new thread and gain immediate attention.

    If you have the same issue as mentioned in a previous thread, but the answer provided does not solve your problem, post a new question and refer to the existing thread so we can quickly rule out that issue as the cause of your particular problem. That will speed up the process of getting your problem solved.

    Q: How long should I expect to wait for an reply?

    A:     We typically respond to new questions within 24-48 hours (excluding weekends and holidays) depending on when the post occurred. If you need faster response or you have a critical issue, please contact Microsoft Support (http://support.microsoft.com/).

System Center Orchestrator - General announcements

  • Link
    FAQ: Frequently-Asked Questions About the Forum
    Robert_Hearn
    Welcome to the System Center Orchestrator forum! This forum is designed to help you find answers to questions about System Center Orchestrator (formerly Opalis Integration Server).

    Please note that this forum relates only System Center Orchestrator 2012.

    If you have questions about Opalis, please visit the Opalis forums here:     http://social.technet.microsoft.com/Forums/en-US/category/scinterop



    Q: Where can I find more information about the products, technical information and troubleshooting?

    A: You can find a number of Orchestrator-related resources from Microsoft and the community on the Opalis / Orchestrator team blog:
    http://blogs.technet.com/b/opalis/p/opalis_resources.aspx
    Q: Why are some threads locked?

    A: When a thread is marked as answered or was not replied to for a long period of time, new posts in that thread may not get recognized and may not get a response. To ensure that new posts get the visbility they need, we lock threads that are marked as answered or where we cannot get a response from the poster within a reasonable period of time, so that any new replies will be done in a new thread and gain immediate attention.

    If you have the same issue as mentioned in a previous thread, but the answer provided does not solve your problem, post a new question and refer to the existing thread so we can quickly rule out that issue as the cause of your particular problem. That will speed up the process of getting your problem solved.

    Q: How long should I expect to wait for an reply?

    A:     We typically respond to new questions within 24-48 hours (excluding weekends and holidays) depending on when the post occurred. If you need faster response or you have a critical issue, please contact Microsoft Support (http://support.microsoft.com/).

System Center Orchestrator - Quick Integration Kit / SDK Development announcements

  • Link
    FAQ: Frequently-Asked Questions About the Forum
    Robert_Hearn
    Welcome to the System Center Orchestrator forum! This forum is designed to help you find answers to questions about System Center Orchestrator (formerly Opalis Integration Server).

    Please note that this forum relates only System Center Orchestrator 2012.

    If you have questions about Opalis, please visit the Opalis forums here:     http://social.technet.microsoft.com/Forums/en-US/category/scinterop


    Q: Where can I find more information about the products, technical information and troubleshooting?

    A: You can find a number of Orchestrator-related resources from Microsoft and the community on the Opalis / Orchestrator team blog:
    http://blogs.technet.com/b/opalis/p/opalis_resources.aspx
     
    Q: Why are some threads locked?

    A: When a thread is marked as answered or was not replied to for a long period of time, new posts in that thread may not get recognized and may not get a response. To ensure that new posts get the visbility they need, we lock threads that are marked as answered or where we cannot get a response from the poster within a reasonable period of time, so that any new replies will be done in a new thread and gain immediate attention.

    If you have the same issue as mentioned in a previous thread, but the answer provided does not solve your problem, post a new question and refer to the existing thread so we can quickly rule out that issue as the cause of your particular problem. That will speed up the process of getting your problem solved.

    Q: How long should I expect to wait for an reply?

    A:     We typically respond to new questions within 24-48 hours (excluding weekends and holidays) depending on when the post occurred. If you need faster response or you have a critical issue, please contact Microsoft Support (http://support.microsoft.com/).

System Center Orchestrator - System Center Integrations announcements

  • Link
    FAQ: Frequently-Asked Questions About the Forum
    Robert_Hearn
    Welcome to the System Center Orchestrator forum! This forum is designed to help you find answers to questions about System Center Orchestrator (formerly Opalis Integration Server).

    Please note that this forum relates only System Center Orchestrator 2012.

    If you have questions about Opalis, please visit the Opalis forums here:     http://social.technet.microsoft.com/Forums/en-US/category/scinterop


    Q: Where can I find more information about the products, technical information and troubleshooting?

    A: You can find a number of Orchestrator-related resources from Microsoft and the community on the Opalis / Orchestrator team blog:
    http://blogs.technet.com/b/opalis/p/opalis_resources.aspx
    Q: Why are some threads locked?

    A: When a thread is marked as answered or was not replied to for a long period of time, new posts in that thread may not get recognized and may not get a response. To ensure that new posts get the visbility they need, we lock threads that are marked as answered or where we cannot get a response from the poster within a reasonable period of time, so that any new replies will be done in a new thread and gain immediate attention.

    If you have the same issue as mentioned in a previous thread, but the answer provided does not solve your problem, post a new question and refer to the existing thread so we can quickly rule out that issue as the cause of your particular problem. That will speed up the process of getting your problem solved.

    Q: How long should I expect to wait for an reply?

    A:     We typically respond to new questions within 24-48 hours (excluding weekends and holidays) depending on when the post occurred. If you need faster response or you have a critical issue, please contact Microsoft Support (http://support.microsoft.com/).

Virtual Machine Manager - Self-Service Portal 2.0 announcements

  • Link
    Now Available - System Center Virtual Machine Manager Self-Service Portal 2.0 SP1
    mlbriggs

    Using the System Center Virtual Machine Manager Self-Service Portal 2.0 SP1, you can respond more effectively—and at a lower cost—to the rapidly changing needs of your organization. Built on Windows Server 2008 R2, Hyper-V technology, and System Center Virtual Machine Manager, the VMMSSP enables you to offer infrastructure as a service.

    The VMMSSP includes a pre-built, role-based self-service portal for both the datacenter managers and business unit IT consumers to provision infrastructures for their applications and services. The VMMSSP is now localized in three languages: Japanese, Traditional Chinese, and Simplified Chinese. This dynamic self-service portal provides automated workflows to on-board business unit IT departments, and enables partners to expose their unique hardware capabilities through familiar Microsoft scripting technologies.

     

    This new version provides localization for Chinese and Japanese and lets users import virtual machines created outside the self-service portal but managed by VMM and additionally to re-import virtual machines previously removed. Fully supported by Microsoft, the System Center Virtual Machine Manager Self-Service Portal 2.0 SP1 is a partner-extensible solution that enables customers to dynamically pool, allocate, and manage their computer, network, and storage resources to deliver a private cloud platform inside their datacenter.

    Next steps:

     

    System Center Virtual Machine Manager Self-Service Portal 2.0 SP1 features:

    • Import virtual machines. Allows DCIT administrators to re-import virtual machines that were removed from the self-service portal and also import virtual machines created outside the portal but managed by VMM.
    • Set virtual machine expiration dates. This feature lets users set an expiration date for the virtual machines that are being created or imported so that the virtual machines auto-delete after the set date. This feature also provides users the flexibility (through role-based access) to set or change the expiration date for the virtual machine.
    • Define and use custom virtual machine actions. A datacenter administrator can now create up to five custom virtual machine actions and make them available to users on the Virtual Machines tab of the self-service portal. For example, a database administrator can create a Create Checkpoint action and add it to the list of actions on the Virtual Machines tab.
    • Use Opalis policies in virtual machine actions. In a datacenter that includes a deployment of Opalis Integration Server, a datacenter administrator can customize tasks in virtual machine actions to trigger Opalis policies instead of running scripts.
    • Define and use custom virtual machine properties. A datacenter administrator can define custom properties to collect information from users in the Create Virtual Machine wizard, and use these properties in the tasks of the CreateVM virtual machine action. For example, if a datacenter administrator creates the properties RAM and CPU Count, the Create Virtual Machine wizard includes fields for RAM and CPU Count. When a user finishes the wizard, the wizard passes the RAM and CPU Count values that the user entered to the tasks in the CreateVM virtual machine action.
    • Notify administrators. This feature provides functionality to notify BUIT or DCIT administrators via email about various events in the system (for example, Submit request, Approve request, and so on).
    • Move infrastructures between business units. This feature allows DCIT administrators to move an infrastructure from one business unit to another when the system is in Maintenance Mode.
    • VMMSSP Management Pack. This feature allows DCIT administrators to monitor the health of the self-service portal components. Download VMMSSP Management pack.
    • Localization. The VMMSSP is now localized in three languages: Japanese, Traditional Chinese, and Simplified Chinese.
    • Manage virtual machine DVD drives and media. When working with virtual machines that have DVD drives, users can attach media such as ISO images to the virtual machines.
    • Connect to VMware virtual machines. Users can now use the VMMSSP to manage and connect to virtual machines hosted by VMware host servers.
  • Link
    New visitors – Please read before posting
    mlbriggs

    Hello!

    This forum is dedicated to questions about Microsoft System Center Virtual Machine Manager 2008 R2 Self-Service Portal 2.0 (VMMSSP). Please use good judgment to post your question to the relevant subforums.

    If your question is not about this product, please find the correct forum here: http://forums.microsoft.com/TechNet/default.aspx?SiteID=17

     

    When posting a question or an issue, it is helpful to include the product version that you have a question about, your VMM environment, the steps you tried, and any specific error messages you observed.

    Thanks!

  • Link
    Welcome to the VMMSSP v2 TechNet forum
    mlbriggs

    Hello and welcome to the Microsoft System Center Virtual Machine Manager 2008 R2 Self-Service Portal 2.0 forum!

     

    The VMMSSP forum provides you with an opportunity to join a community of VMM 2008 R2 customers where you can share knowledge, get questions answered, and learn from others with IT environments similar to yours. Start by posting questions related to VMMSSP in the forum corresponding to your topic of interest, and leverage the knowledge available in your new forum community.

    If you have any suggestions or feedback regarding VMMSSP, please feel free to post in our forums.

  • Link
    Announcing the release of Microsoft System Center Virtual Machine Manager 2008 R2 Self-Service Portal 2.0
    mlbriggs

    VMMSSP (also referred to as the self-service portal) is a fully supported, partner-extensible solution built on top of Windows Server 2008 R2, Hyper-V, and System Center VMM. You can use it to pool, allocate, and manage resources to offer infrastructure as a service and to deliver the foundation for a private cloud platform inside your datacenter. VMMSSP includes a pre-built web-based user interface that has sectionsfor both the datacenter managers and the business unit IT consumers, with role-based access control. VMMSSP also includes a dynamic provisioning engine. VMMSSP reduces the time needed to provision infrastructures and their components by offering business unit “on-boarding,” infrastructure request and change management. The VMMSSP package also includes detailed guidance on how to implement VMMSSP inside your environment.

    Prerequisites:

    ·         Windows Server 2008 R2 Enterprise Edition or Windows Server 2008 R2 Datacenter Edition.

    ·         Windows Server Internet Information Services (IIS) 7.0

    ·         Virtual Machine Manager 2008 R2.

    ·         SQL Server 2008 Enterprise Edition or Standard Edition.

    ·         .Net Framework 3.5 SP1

    ·         Message Queueing (also known as MSMQ)

    ·         Windows PowerShell 2.0

    Where to get it: Download VMMSSP 2.0

    Benefits of VMMSSP:

    With VMMSSP, you can:

    ·         Allocate datacenter resources. Use VMMSSP to pool datacenter infrastructure resources, such as network, storage, load balancers, virtual machine templates, and domains, and make them available to business units to meet their infrastructure needs. You can also use VMMSSP to establish the costs associated with reserving and using infrastructure resources.

    ·         Simplify business unit on-boarding. Use VMMSSP to simplify the process of enrolling a business unit and provisioning its infrastructure. With VMMSSP, datacenter administrators can register business unit requirements in one central location. After they have registered, business unit administrators can request resources in the organization’s infrastructure pool to host their IT services.

    ·         Validate and provision infrastructures requests. Use VMMSSP to simplify the process that datacenter administrators use to validate and provision a business unit IT administrator’s infrastructure requests. Using VMMSSP, datacenter administrators can provision the requested resources, and assign them to the requesting business unit IT administrator.

    ·         Provide forms for self-service virtual machine provisioning. Use VMMSSP to streamline the business unit IT user’s experience in managing virtual machines.

    ·         Extend and customize virtual machine actions. Use the powerful extensibility features of VMMSSP to work with IHV, ISV, and SI partners to customize different virtual machine actions (create, delete, stop, start, resume, shutdown, pause, store, and deploy).In this way, you can leverage the unique characteristics of your infrastructure.

     

    Note   Like the self-service portal that is currently available as part of Virtual Machine Manager 2008 R2, the new self-service portal offers a web-based user interface for managing virtual machines. But it also differs from the existing self-service portal in many ways. One of the most important differences is that the virtual machine actions are extensible, so datacenter administrators work with hardware vendors and partners to customize the actions to match their own capabilities or requirements. Another difference is that this self-service portal provides standardized workflows that gather data using web-based forms and support both manual and automated steps. This approach reduces the time needed to provision infrastructures and their components, and helps ensure consistency in the resulting infrastructures.

     

    Important   VMMSSP is not an upgrade to the existing VMM 2008 R2 self-service portal. You can choose to deploy and use one or both self-service portals depending on your requirements.

SQL Server Analysis Services announcements

SQL Server Compact announcements

Data Mining announcements

SQL Server Express announcements

Power Pivot announcements

  • Link
    Fix for PowerPivot November CTP Expiration Released
    Kathy MacDonald [MSFT]

    The PowerPivot team is pleased to report that the fix for the November CTP expiration issue has been released. We know many of you have been eagerly awaiting this fix since last week when the PowerPivot for Excel add-in expired. We do sincerely apologize for the inconvenience this may have caused you.

    We have released a new version of the November CTP for the PowerPivot for Excel add-in. This new version is functionally identical to the old one except that it extends the expiration date to end of the year. You can download it from the same locations as in the past:

    Please note that the new version will take some time to replicate across all servers in the Microsoft download center. If you download it from the above links and still get the expiration error message, then try again periodically. It might also help to clear any browser/download caches on your computer.

  • Link
    PowerPivot for Excel 2010 November CTP Expired
    Kathy MacDonald [MSFT]

    If you are running the November 2009 CTP version of the PowerPivot for Excel 2010 add-in, your add-in expired on April 1st. We apologize for any inconvenience this may have caused you.

    The SQL Server team will re-release the November 2009 CTP version of the PowerPivot for Excel 2010 add-in with an extended expiration date very soon. We will post an availability announcement with the download location and installation instructions on the PowerPivot blogs and forums as soon as possible.

    Kathy MacDonald
    SQL Server Analysis Services

  • Link
    PowerPivot Beta will not work with released versions of Excel, Sharepoint 2010 and others. Pls read!!
    Vikram Jayaram


    Summary

    =============================

    If PowerPivot for Excel 2010, Excel 2010, SharePoint 2010, or the Reporting Services Addin for SharePoint 2010 are beta versions, PowerPivot and its related functionality will not work with the Released versions of these components.

     

    More Information

    =============================

    The beta versions of the components listed above are not compatible with the released versions of these components. If the beta versions of the components are installed, they will not function with the released versions. For example, if you have a beta version of the PowerPivot download installed and upgrade to the released version of Excel 2010, the PowerPivot addin will not be available in Excel.

     

    The solution is to upgrade the beta components to their released versions when they become available.

SQL Server Master Data Services announcements

  • Link
    SQL16 CTP2.3 is available for download
    Sherry_Li

    We are excited to share the new features which shipped in SQL CTP2.3 public release.  You can download the product here:http://www.microsoft.com/en-us/download/details.aspx?id=48726, and Excel add-in here: http://www.microsoft.com/en-us/download/details.aspx?id=47343

    In this monthly release, we added a few highly asked features.  Please give it try and look forward to hearing your feedback.

    Manage Business Rules (MDS Add-in for Excel)

    In the Master Data Services Add-in for Excel you can manage Business Rules, such as creating and editing business rules. Business rules are used to validate data. For more information, see Manage Business Rules (MDS Add-in for Excel).

    Many-to-Many Relationships in Derived Hierarchies

    You can now create a Derived Hierarchy that displays  many-to-many relationships. A many-to-many relationship between two entities may be modeled through the use of a third entity that provides a mapping between them. The mapping entity is an entity that has two or more domain-based attributes referencing other entities.

    For example, entity M has a domain-based attribute that references A and a domain-based attribute that references B. You can create a hierarchy from A to B using the mapping entity.

    For more information, see Show Many-to-Many Relationships in Derived Hierarchies (Master Data Services)

    Merge Conflicts

    If you try to publish data that has been changed by another user, the publish will fail with a conflict error. To resolve this error, you can perform merge conflicts and republish the changes. For more information, see Merge Conflicts (Master Data Services) and Merge Conflicts (MDS Add-in for Excel). 

     SQL Master Data Services Team

  • Link
    Master Data Services SQL2016 CTP2.2(July) Release is public available
    Sherry_Li

    Please give it a try and let us know your feedback!

    SQL Server 2016 Community Technology Preview 2.2 is publicly released and the latest bits can be found at http://www.microsoft.com/en-us/evalcenter/evaluate-sql-server-2016

    In CTP2.2 MDS introduced following changes:

    1. Custom Indexes

    You can create a non-clustered index on one attribute (single index) or on a list of attributes (composite index), in an entity, to help improve the query performance. For more information, see Custom Index (Master Data Services).

    2. Entity Sync Relationship

    You can share entity data between different models by creating an entity sync relationship. For more information, see Entity Sync Relationship (Master Data Services).

    3. Member Revision History

    A member revision history is recorded when a member is changed. You can rollback a revision history, as well as view and annotate revisions. Using the Log Retention Days property, you can specify how long historical data is retained. For more information, see Member Revision History (Master Data Services).

  • Link
    New release on MDS Excel add-in available for download
    Sherry_Li

    Hi, we are pleasured to announce the release of MDS Excel add-in. You can download it here:

    http://www.microsoft.com/en-us/download/details.aspx?id=42298

    This release includes a number of performance improvements – most users will see a 4x improvement when loading data from an MDS server, without any additional server or environment changes. For an additional performance increase (2-4x), you can enable Dynamic Content Compression in IIS.

    It works with both SQL12 or SQL14.  The installation will be in place upgrade so the users don't need to uninstall previous installation.  All the MDS connections will be preserved through the installation. 

    Please download the new version of Excel add-in.  Your feedback is welcome!

    Thanks,

    SQL MDS Team

  • Link
    Please Indicate "Mark as Answer" if a Post has Answered the Question
    edhickey

    While reading a reply to your question, you will notice a button with an icon that says "Mark as Answer."   Please select this button when a reply answers your question.

     

    There are several reasons to do this:

     

    • Our search engine weights Answered questions more highly. By marking Answers you increase the chances that others searching this forum will find the answer directly rather than re-posting the question.
    • You give credit to the hard working folks who answer your questions. This is peer to peer support, so recognition is our only reward. (Check out the Top Answerers in 30 Days chart at the bottom of the thread list to see who is currently answering questions.)
    • You help Microsoft to track the health of this forum. Our forum gets 'measured' based on how many unanswered questions are in it at any time and we work hard to keep those numbers to as low a level as possible. By marking answers, others get a more accurate understanding of how well (or badly) things are going on the forum.

     

    You can also vote "Yes" or "No" if the reply was helpful.

     

    Thank you!

     

    Ed Hickey

Machine Learning Services (R announcements

  • Link
    Get started with R analytics on SQL server
    Jitendra Kulshreshtha

    Overview

    The process of building an end to end solution typically consists of obtaining and cleaning data, data exploration and feature engineering, model training and tuning, and finally deployment of the model in production. Development and testing of the actual code is best performed using a dedicated development environment. For R, that might mean RStudio or R Tools for Visual Studio.

    However, after the solution has been created, you can easily deploy it to SQL Server using Transact-SQL stored procedures in the familiar environment of Management Studio.

    In this tutorial, we assume that you have been given all the R code needed for the solution, and focus on building and deploying the solution using SQL Server.

  • Link
    Run machine learning directly on SQL Server !!!
    Jitendra Kulshreshtha

    What is SQL Server Machine Learning Services?

    • THIS TOPIC APPLIES TO: yesSQL Server (Windows only)

    SQL Server Machine Learning Services is an embedded, predictive analytics and data science engine that can execute R and Python code within a SQL Server database as stored procedures, as T-SQL script containing R or Python statements, or as R or Python code containing T-SQL.

    The key value proposition of Machine Learning Services is the power of its proprietary packages to deliver advanced analytics at scale, and the ability to bring calculations and processing to where the data resides, eliminating the need to pull data across the network.

    There are two options for using machine learning capabilities in SQL Server:

    R and Python packages

    Support for each language is through proprietary Microsoft packages used for creating and training models of various types, scoring data, and parallel processing using the underlying system resources.

    Because the proprietary packages are built on open-source R and Python distributions, script or code that you run in SQL Server can also call base functions and use third-party packages compatible with the language version provided in SQL Server (Python 3.5 and recent versions of R, currently 3.3.3).

    RPythonDescription
    RevoScaleRrevoscalepyFunctions in these libraries are among the most widely used. Data transformations and manipulation, statistical summarization, visualization, and many forms of modeling and analyses are found in these libraries. Additionally, functions in these libraries automatically distribute workloads across available cores for parallel processing, with the ability to work on chunks of data that are coordinated and managed by the calculation engine.
    MicrosoftMLmicrosoftmlIndustry-leading machine learning algorithms for image featurization, classification problems, and more.
    olapRnoneBuild or execute an MDX query in R script.
    sqlRUtilsnoneFunctions for putting R scripts into a T-SQL stored procedure, registering a stored procedure with a database, and running the stored procedure from an R development environment.
    mrsdeploynonePrimarily used on a non-SQL installation of Machine Learning Server, such as the (Standalone) version. Use this package to deploy and host web services, build scale-out topologies with dedicated web and compute nodes, toggle between local and remote sessions, run diagnostics, and more. For an (In-Database) installation, use this package in a client capacity: for example, to access a web service on a remote server dedicated to running just Machine Learning Services workloads.

    Portability of your custom R and Python code is addressed through package distribution and interpreters that are built into multiple products. The same packages that ship in SQL Server are also available in several other Microsoft products and services, including a non-SQL version called Microsoft Machine Learning Server. Free clients that include our R and Pyton interpreters include Microsoft R Client and the Python libraries.

.NET Framework inside SQL Server announcements

SQL Server Notification Services announcements

SQL Server Replication announcements

SQL Server Reporting Services, Power View announcements

SQL Server Migration announcements

  • Link
    Welcome to the SQL Server Migration forum
    Keshav Ramarao

    Need help with migration to SQL Server? Have any questions related to SQL Server Migration Assistant (SSMA) products for Oracle/Sybase/MySQL/Access? Feel free to discuss any SQL Server migration related topics or post any questions related to SSMA.

SQL Server Samples and Community Projects announcements

  • Link
    How to Use this Forum - Please Read Before Posting
    Mr. Wharty

    Welcome to the SQL Server Samples and Community Projects Forum.

    This forum is the place to discuss all things "samplish" in the SQL Server community and samples space, whether it's an "official Microsoft sample" or a community project in CodePlex or Code Gallery. This is*not* the place to discussion specific nuances of T-SQL syntax or wage data modeling methodology wars: there are lots of other forums for those purposes. This one is for questions about samples, community projects and conversations between the collaborators that build them.

    Some examples of projects that are open for discussion can be found here: http://www.codeplex.com/SqlServerSamples. It doesn't have to be listed there to be fair game, but it's a good bet that it is fair game if it's already listed there.

    Below are a few guidelines to help you find your answer quickly and also to help the people who answer the questions, answer yours correctly.

    • Is your question about SQL Server Samples and Community Projects . If it's not please locate the correct forum otherwise your question may be moved, closed/locked or deleted.
    • Try searching the forum . Search the forum to see if your question has been asked before and answered.  If you cannot find what you are looking for, please start a new thread rather than adding to an old one as some people do not see answered questions in their forum views so you may not get the assistance you're looking for.
    • Don't be brief . The more information you can give in your question, the better the response will be.
    • Check your alerts . You can subscribe to a question so that you can see any update on it (ReferSetting up your alerts below).
    • No Spam. Spamming will have your thread deleted and may also result in your account being banned.
    • Be polite.  You will get better assistance if you're polite to other members so no flaming or trolling.  If you persist with flaming or trolling, your accountmay get banned.
    • Mark your question answered. If someone answers your question please mark their reply as the answer to your question. You can also mark multiple replies as answers if you think they answered your question.  Marking replies not only assists others with similar questions, it also let's people know that you're grateful for their assistance.

    Dead thread/Answer policy.

    Where possible the moderators will allow sufficient time for the original poster to come back and mark the replies to their questions as answers. The amount of time is at the discretion of the individual moderator but is suggested that it will be declared dead after a week if the original poster does not respond . We will always try to be fair and mark suitable replies as answers.

    Setting up your alerts

    If you are having trouble receiving alerts on the threads you have created or replied to please see thisthread for troubleshooting advice.

  • Link
    Samples bugs and suggestions.
    David Reed (Glacier Peak)
    All of the work items for our community projects and product samples are in TFS on CodePlex. If you want to report a bug, suggest a change for an existing sample or suggest a new sample, create a work item in the appropriate project so that our community team (not just Microsoft employees) can vote on them, help us triage and prioritize them.

    For example, here's the URL for the work items for AdventureWorks: http://www.codeplex.com/MSFTDBProdSamples/WorkItem/AdvancedList.aspx
  • Link
    Welcome aboard! Community & Samples Forum Intro
    David Reed (Glacier Peak)

    This forum is the place to discuss all things "samplish" in the SQL Server community and samples space, whether it's an "official Microsoft sample" or a community project in CodePlex or Code Gallery. This is *not* the place to discussion specific nuances of T-SQL syntax or wage data modeling methodology wars: there are lots of other forums for those purposes. This one is for questions about samples, community projects and conversations between the collaborators that build them.

     

    Some examples of projects that are open for discussion can be found here: http://www.codeplex.com/SqlServerSamples/ It doesn't have to be listed there to be fair game, but it's a good bet that it is fair game if it's already listed there.

     

    Also, please post your project announcements here when you create a new release or a whole new project. If you're looking for people to work on your project or looking for a project to work on, this would be a good place to do both.

     

    Let us know what's missing, let know what could be better and let us know what we're doing right!

SQL Server Setup announcements

System Center Essentials 2010 announcements

  • Link
    Frequently Posted Questions and Answers
    Anshu Agrawal

    Frequently Posted Questions and Answers

    Following list of questions are from SCE 2007 and SCE 2010 forums and answers applies to SCE 2010.
    Document Owner: Anshu Agrawal

     

    Question 1 - How can I create auditing rules in Essentials?

    Question 2 - How do I set up a remote console in a different domain or using local policy?

    Question 3 - How can I discover network devices to manage?

    Question 4: Can I run both Essentials and WSUS in the same domain?

    Question 5: Can I monitor a machine that is in a workgroup?

    Question 6:  My managed computers installed successfully, but still report a status of "unknown" in the computer space.  How can I get them to contact?

    Question 7: How can I create a dynamic deployment group?

    Question 8: I get an error when creating software packages saying verification failed.  How do I resolve the issue?

    Question 9: What would prompt an update to go in “Unknown” category in updates space overviews page?

    Question 10: What steps are required to uninstall Essentials from server A and reinstall on server B on same domain?

    Question 11: Is it possible to upgrade from SQL Express to SQL standard without reinstalling Essentials?

    Question 12: Can Essentials ask for the location of the VM files on the destination during the migration process?

    Question 13: Can a package be redeployed?

    Question 14: If we disable auto-select would it uncheck previously selected products?

    Question 15: Where can I find deployment guide of Essentials 2010?

    Question 16: What is the data retention schedule for reporting in Essentials? 

    Question 17: How can you send files to Microsoft for the Essentials team to review?

    Question 18: How can you verify if the computer (agent) is contactable via network?

    Question 19: What if the computer discovery fails for an agent box?

    Question 20: How can you choose installation path for SQL in Essentials installation process?

    Question 21: Why does running the automatic approval rule for all computers result in unapproved updates?

    Question 22: Can third party updates be approved by auto-approval feature?

    Question 23: What if you see monitoringHost.exe process consuming a lot of CPU?

    Question 24: How to troubleshoot if windows update (WU) and Essentials reports different status for updates?

    Question 25: What are the locations to find common logs to troubleshoot issues in Essentials?

    ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

    Question 1 - How can I create auditing rules in Essentials?

    Answer: In Essentials, you can create custom rules that collect events from the security log. 

    Go to Authoring space -> Management Pack objects -> select Rules -> Create a rule -> Alert Generating Rules/Event Based/NT Event Log.

    Select the Essentials group you want to collect events from. To collect from all computers, select the Agent group.

    Select the Security Log to collect events from. Next you build the Filter Expression.

    The Source will be Security and the Event ID will be the security event you are interested in, for example event 612 is Audit Policy Changed.

    Finally, configure the alert with title and description to match the event, such as "Audit Policy was changed".

    You need to make sure that auditing for the type of event you want to capture is turned on at the domain group policy or local security policy level, otherwise the security events won't be written to the log for Essentials to see them.

     

    Question 2 - How do I set up a remote console in a different domain or using local policy?

    Answer: When in the same domain, the certificates used to connect to Essentials are generally available from the group policy, but for a different domain or local policy, the certificates require manual import on the UI machine.

    The two certificates are available on the Essentials server in the install directory folder titled Certificates.  The WSUSSSLCert.cer should be imported into the local computer's trusted root authority store.  The WSUSCodeSigningCert.cer should be imported into the local computer's trusted root authority, third party publishers and third party root certification authority stores.

    Question 3 - How can I discover network devices to manage?

    Answer: To discover network devices, launch the same wizard used to discover computers (it appears in the administration space of the splash page in Computer and device section with the name "Add new Computer and devices").  In the Discovery type page, chose network devices.

     

    Question 4: Can I run both Essentials and WSUS in the same domain?

    Answer: Individual machines can only report to one WSUS server.  Those machines managed by Essentials should only report to the Essentials server for updates, although users are not prohibited from contacting Microsoft update directly by default.  If not all machines in the domain report to the Essentials server, a second Essentials server can be used to manage just those machines not included in Essentials.

     

    If the current environment is running a WSUS 3.0 server, you can upgrade the current server to be a Essentials server and retain the settings and data currently stored.

     

    Question 5: Can I monitor a machine that is in a workgroup?


    Answer: Yes.  You will require two certificates from a trusted authority for both the Essentials server and the new manual agent.

    For more information on how to create the appropriate certificates, see http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/bb735408.aspx

     

    To import the Essentials server’s certificate on the server machine, use the install directory\tools\MOMCertImport.exe tool. 

    Use the System Center Essentials 2010 media and choose a manual agent install.  You will need the two certificates from the install directory of SCE in a folder called ‘certificates’ (WSUSSSLCert.cer and WSUSCodeSigningCert.cer, as well as the PFX certificate from the trusted authority and the trusted authority .cer certificate.

     

    Question 6:  My managed computers installed successfully, but still report a status of "unknown" in the computer space.  How can I get them to contact?

    Answer:  The out of box experience wizard or configure product features wizard must have been run before computers will report status in this section.  If using group policy, the settings may take some time to update before the clients will contact.  If using local policy, the configure product features wizard must be run before agent deployment.

    If these steps have been completed successfully, check one of the machines that is reporting the "unknown" inventory by running the rsop.msc.  Computer Configuration\Administrative Settings\Windows Components\Windows Update\Specify intranet Microsoft updates location should point to https://sceserver.fqdn:8531.  If this is not the case, check that the computer is a member of the AD security group SCE Managed Computers (SCESERVER_MG) and if so, try relogging into the machine or rebooting to pick up the group membership.

    If the correct server is reported, check the %WINDIR%\WindowsUpdate.log to see if any errors are occurring with contacting the Essentials server.  As always, if the answer is not clear, these forums are here to help!  Including the log file information in your post will aid in quick answer.

     

    Question 7: How can I create a dynamic deployment group?

     Answer: Many dynamic groups are available in Essentials from imported management packs that are not initially update/software deployment groups.  For example, groups already exist for SQL servers, active directory servers, or exchange servers if the management packs have been imported for monitoring.  To make these deployment groups, chose to create a group from an already exiting group in the computers space grouping wizard.  If the group you would like to create does not exist by default, try choosing the option to Specify Criteria.  This will create a dynamic group based on manufacturer, model, operating system, service pack, and/or organizational units.

    The authoring space contains a more complex grouping wizard that can create a dynamic computer group based on computer properties.  Once the group has been created from the wizard, it will be available to become update/software deployment group in the computers space using the “create new groups wizard”.

     

    Question 8: I get an error when creating software packages saying verification failed.  How do I resolve the issue?

     

    Answer: Either the out of box experience wizard or the product configuration wizard must be run before using any of the software packaging features of the product.  If this is a remote UI, ensure that the WSUSSigningCert.cer is imported onto the local UI machines Trusted Root Authorities, Third Party Publishers and Trusted Publishers certificates store.  You can find this certificate on the Essentials server installation directory in a folder called Certificates.

     

    Question 9: What would prompt an update to go in “Unknown” category in updates space overviews page?

    Answer: The Update comes to unknown state if it’s not pending, failed or successful. When an update is not qualified for any other states it will put into unknown state.

    Basically “unknown” state is not an installation status as we have pending, failed and successful. Usually it is because an update is so “new” to Essentials that WSUS hasn’t run the applicability check on that update yet. So WSUS does not even know if the update is applicable to the clients. Not to mention the installation status which is after the applicability check, approval and installation of the update are done. Unknown is usually a transient state.

    The unknown state will not display on the overview page of the updates space in Essentials 2010.

     

    Question 10: What steps are required to uninstall Essentials from server A and reinstall on server B on same domain?

    Answer: You must uninstall Essentials from server A to install it on server B first if both servers are on same domain (Only one copy of Essentials per domain is supported).
    Please follow the following steps:

    1. Uninstall from server A
    2. Check to make sure the AD GPO and Security group objects are gone from AD (The security group is called SCE Managed Computers and the policy objects are named System Center Essentials All Computer Policy and SCE Managed Computer Policy)
    3. Install Essentials on server B.
    NOTE: Please go to administration->agent managed and uninstall all SCE agents prior to reinstalling Essentials.

    Also, uninstall Essentials will also uninstall WSUS.

    Question 11: Is it possible to upgrade from SQL Express to SQL standard without reinstalling Essentials?

    Answer: It is possible to upgrade SQL Express to SQL standard:
    http://www.toddklindt.com/blog/Lists/Posts/Post.aspx?ID=55 

    Question 12: Can Essentials ask for the location of the VM files on the destination during the migration process?

    Answer: On the Migrate Virtual machine page, there is an option to specify the folder location on the destination host. There is also a "Browse..." button to select a different location on the destination host. The virtual machine will be placed on the location specified here.

    Question 13: Can a package be redeployed?

    Answer: If you have successfully deployed your package and try to redeploy it won't fail or give you any errors, it will just not re-deploy it. In other case if you are trying to redeploy a package because it failed before. You can fix the failures on the package and redeploy it and it will deploy it. You can also do:
    1)If the package is based on msi, you just uninstall it on the client and it will be redeployed.
    2) If the package is based on exe, you have to delete the file C:\Windows\SoftwareDistribution\DataStore\DataStore.edb (need to stop the automatic update service before). If you do this, all exe based applications that have been deployed to this machine before will be redeployed.

    Question 14: If we disable auto-select would it uncheck previously selected products?

    Answer: If you disable auto-select it will keep the products selection settings currently chosen but it will not add any or remove any product unless the user selects to manually.

    Question 15: Where can I find deployment guide of Essentials 2010?

    Answer: Deployment Guide

     

    Question 16: What is the data retention schedule for reporting in Essentials? 

    Answer: The data retention value is 37 days for reporting.
    If the retention period is increased on SQL Express you may hit the maximum allowed SQL Express database size.

    Question 17: How can you send files to Microsoft for the Essentials team to review?

    Answer: You can send data like logs, screenshots etc to us for review rather than posting them into a thread post.  This should help keep the posts smaller and easier to read.

    If requested, please send email to SCEData@microsoft.com.  If at all possible, please zip the files before sending.

    Please be sure to match the subject of the email with the subject of the post.

    Question 18: How can you verify if the computer (agent) is contactable via network?

    Answer:

    a.     Use the ping command to try and reach the computer using the same name provided to the discovery wizard.  You can do that by going to computer space -> select the computer -> Ping from task pane.

    b.    b. If the machine responds to a ping command, use the IP address of the computer to run ping with the “-a” switch and the IP address, e.g. “ping –a <IP address>”.  This will display the DNS name of the machine; it should match what was used in the original ping command.

    c.     c. Use “nbstat –a <computer name>” to see the registered NetBIOS name and the domain for the computer.  Use “nbstat –A <IP address>” to accomplish the same task using the IP address of the machine.

    d.    NetBIOS is not enabled by default and your network may not be configured to use it.  To determine NetBIOS status, use “ipconfig /all” from the command-line and look for a NetBIOS entry.

     

    Question 19: What if the computer discovery fails for an agent box?

    Answer:  Open the Event Viewer on Essentials server, check if any error message is logged on the Operations Manager event log with the computer name. You can forward the error message or screenshot at SCEData@microsoft.com

     

    Question 20: How can you choose installation path for SQL in Essentials installation process?

    Answer: Default installation does not allow choosing the SQL installation path. But you can install the SQL manually in the desired location and then try installing the SCE 2010. You can find the SQL 2008 Express bits under the prerequisite\SQL folder. SCE setup will detect the installed SQL instance.

     

    Question 21: Why does running the automatic approval rule for all computers result in unapproved updates?

    Answer: this can happen if EULA for that unapproved update has not been accepted. You can manually accept EULA and approve the update and then re-run your auto-approval rule. You will have to accept a EULA for each product separately.   Still it will save time of not approving all EULA for a single product manually.

     

    Question 22: Can third party updates be approved by the auto-approval feature?

    Answer: In Essentials 2010 you cannot run auto-approval rules to approve third party updates / catalogs.

     

    Question 23: What if you see monitoringHost.exe process consuming a lot of CPU?

    Answer: MonitoringHost.exe uses 100% of CPU is a known issue  - Kevin discusses it here from ops manager:
    http://blogs.technet.com/kevinholman/archive/2009/07/20/do-you-randomly-see-a-monitoringhost-exe-process-consuming-lots-of-cpu.aspx

    You can try restarting your health service for now.

     

    Question 24: How to troubleshoot if windows update (WU) and Essentials report different status for updates?

    Answer: If you are seeing more updates on WU/MU please take one update which is not shown in Essentials as needed and make sure the update is approved to the specific client.

    You can get the information by creating a view with the filter “Unapproved update” , select the specific computer group where your client machine resides. If you see the updates there you need to approve the updates.

    The other way you can achieve this by opening the %windir%/windowsupdate.log and look for the update and see what target group the update is approved to. E.g.

    2009-12-01 10:03:59:928  944 ee0 PT Initializing simple targeting cookie, clientId = d1b466eb-cc3c-43c1-bf48-d93323414e04, target group = , DNS name = sh13.shs.loc

    In the above log the target group is null and therefore the update is not approved.

    If you still see the discrepancy please post your query on Essentials forums.

     

    Question 25: What are the locations to find common logs to troubleshoot issues in SCE?

    Answer: You can find all the locations in the Essentials blog for Essentials 2010 troubleshooting guide:

    http://blogs.technet.com/systemcenteressentials/archive/2009/12/05/essentials-2010-troubleshooting-guide.aspx

    Please let us know if you have any other question along with answer which we can add in this post. 

     

     

    Credit for Answers Provided by:

    Stephanie Drenchen

    Anshu Agrawal

    Ranjith A

    Yog Li

    John Joyner

  • Link
    Frequently Asked Questions for System Center Essentials 2010
    Richard Rundle

    Frequently Asked Questions

    General

    Q. What is System Center Essentials 2010?

    A. Microsoft System Center Essentials 2010 provides IT professionals in mid-sized organizations a unified physical and virtual IT management experience. It enables you to better secure, update, monitor, and troubleshoot from a single console, so you can efficiently and proactively manage your IT environment

     

    Q. When will System Center Essentials 2010 be available?

    A. The evaluation version of Essentials 2010 is available now. Essentials 2010 will be available for purchase from June 1, 2010.

     

    Q. How can I evaluate Essentials 2010?

    A. Download Essentials 2010 (registration required).

     

    Q. How long can I use the trial version of Essentials 2010?

    A. The trial version is valid for 180 days (6 months) from the date of installation.

     

    Q. Can I upgrade from the RC of Essentials 2010 to the final (RTM) version?
    A. Yes. You can upgrade from the RC to the RTM. Download the trial version and run SetupSCE.exe to upgrade.


    Q. Can I upgrade from the Beta of Essentials 2010 to the RC or the RTM?
    A. No. You need to uninstall the Beta and then install the RTM version.

     

    Q. What documentation is available for Essentials 2010?

    A. You can access Release Notes, Deployment Guide, Operations Guide, videos and other documentation from the Essentials 2010 evaluation site.

     

    Features and Specifications

    Q. How many computers can I manage with System Center Essentials 2010 RC?

    A. You can manage up to 50 computers running a Windows Server operating system and up to 500 computers running a Windows client operating system You can also monitor network devices using Essentials.  

     

    Q. What languages is System Center Essentials 2010 available in?

    A. Essentials 2010 is available in Chinese (Simplified), Chinese (Traditional), English, French, German, Italian, Japanese, Korean, Portuguese (Brazil), Russian and Spanish. English is the first language released, and all languages will be available within 90 days of the English language release.

     

    Q. Does System Center Essentials 2010 support Remote Operations Manager?

    A. No. Remote Opertions Manager is only supported for Operations Manager 2007 SP1 and Essentials 2007 SP1.

     

    Q. Can I upgrade from Essentials 2007 to Essentials 2010?

    A. Yes. It is possible to upgrade your existing Essentials 2007 installation to Essentials 2010 using the same server.  Run SetupSCE.exe and your existing installation will be detected and you will have the option to upgrade.

     

    Q. Can I run both Essentials 2007 and Essentials 2010 in the same environment?

    A. Yes, but you must meet the following criteria:

    ·         You cannot monitor the same computers using both Essentials 2007 and Essentials 2010.

    ·         If Essentials 2007 is using domain policy then Essentials 2010 must use local policy.

    More information on domain and local policy configuration is in the Essentials Deployment Guide.
     

    Q. Can I run both Essentials 2010 and Virtual Machine Manager 2008 in the same environment?

    A. Yes. Do not manage the same hosts or virtual machines using both Essentials 2010 and Virtual Machine Manager 2008 R2. Essentials 2010 includes its own functionality for managing virtual machines. You cannot install both the Essentials 2010 and Virtual Machine Manager 2008 R2 on the same computer. 
          

    Pricing and Licensing

    Q. How much does System Center Essentials 2010 cost?

    A. Final pricing and licensing will be available by the end of May 2010. There is currently a limited time offer to purchase Essentials 2007 and Virtual Machine Manager 2008 with one year of Software Assurance which includes a free upgrade to Essentials 2010.

  • Link
    Welcome to System Center Essentials 2010!
    Richard Rundle

    Hello and welcome to the Microsoft System Center Essentials 2010 forum!

    This forum provides you an opportunity to join a community of IT Administrators who are using System Center Essentials 2010. Essentials 2010 is designed for managing IT environments with up to 50 servers and 500 client computers.

    Here you can share knowledge, get questions answered, and learn from others with IT environments similar to yours.

    Microsoft System Center Essentials 2010 is the successor to System Center Essentials 2007. If you have questions on Essentials 2007, please post them in the Essentials 2007 forums.

Service Manager - General announcements

Virtual Machine Manager – General announcements

  • Link
    How to collect SCVMM traces
    Carmen Summers

    For general information about troubleshooting VMM 2012, such as collecting traces and logging information, see VMM 2012 General Troubleshooting Guide (http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkID=211124) on the Microsoft Download Center.  .

    Before Collecting a DebugView Trace

    1.       Install DebugView on the SCVMM server, the host in question, and/or the Web server (for troubleshooting self-service portal issues).

    2.       Save the following code into a text file and name it "odsflags.cmd":

    @echo off

    echo ODS control flags - only trace with set flags will go to ODS

     

    if (%1)==() goto :HELP

    if (%1)==(-?) goto :HELP

    if (%1)==(/?) goto :HELP

     

    echo Setting flag to %1...

    reg ADD "HKLM\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\Tracing\Microsoft\Carmine" /v ODSFLAGS /t REG_DWORD /d %1 /f

    echo Done.

    goto :EXIT

     

    :HELP

    echo Usage: odsflags [flag], where flag is

    echo TRACE_ERROR = 0x2,

    echo TRACE_DBG_NORMAL = 0x4,

    echo TRACE_DBG_VERBOSE = 0x8,

    echo TRACE_PERF = 0x10,

    echo TRACE_TEST_INFO = 0x20,

    echo TRACE_TEST_WARNING = 0x40,

    echo TRACE_TEST_ERROR = 0x80,

     

    :EXIT

    3.       Save the following code into a text file and name it "odson.reg":

    Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00

     

    [HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\Tracing\Microsoft\Carmine]

    "ODS"=dword:00000001

    4.       Save the following code into a text file and name it "odsoff.reg":

    Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00

     

    [HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\Tracing\Microsoft\Carmine]

    "ODS"=dword:00000000

    5.       Copy the three files created above, odsflags.cmd, odson.reg, and odsoff.reg, to the machines that DebugView will be used on.

    6.       Run the following commands at an elevated Command Prompt:

    odson.reg

    odsflags.cmd 255

    (If you need to collect traces for both VMM Server and the host or the Web server, make sure to run these commands on all of these computers).

    Collecting a DebugView Trace

    1.       Open DebugView as an administrator and ensure that both Capture Win32 and Capture Global Win32 are selected on the Capture menu item. You should be able to see tracing from the VMM components showing up in DebugView. (If you need to collect traces for both VMM Server and the host, make sure to do these steps on all of these computers).

    Figure 2: DebugView.exe Capture menu

    2.       Restart the Virtual Machine Manager Service on the SCVMM server by running the following commands at an elevated command prompt:

    net stop vmmservice

    net start vmmservice

    3.       Restart the Virtual Disk Service by running the following commands at an elevated command prompt:

    net stop vds

    net start vds

    4.       Restart the Virtual Machine Manager Agent service on the host by running the following commands at an elevated command prompt:

    net stop vmmagent

    net start vmmagent

    5.       Restart the IIS service on the Web server by running the following command at an elevated command prompt:

     iisreset

    6.       Reproduce the issue.

    7.       After reproducing the issue, save the output from the DebugView to a text file for analysis.

     Important:

    Turn off tracing after collecting the data by running the following command at a Command Prompt:
    odsoff.reg

     

     

    The format of a DebugView trace differs from that of an ETL trace since DebugView captures all Win32 application activity and, if selected, Kernel mode activity. If saved as a text file, it may be opened in other tools such as TextAnalysisTool.net or Trace32.

     

  • Link
    New to VMM Forum? Read before posting a question.
    Carmen Summers

    Hello!

     

    This forum is dedicated to questions about SCVMM (System Center Virtual Machine Manager). Please use good judgement to post your question to the relevant subforums. 

    If your question is not about this product, please find the correct forum here: http://forums.microsoft.com/TechNet/default.aspx?SiteID=17.

     When posting a question or an issue, it is helpful to include the product version you have question about, your VMM setup environment, the steps you tried and specific error message you observed. 

    A few related forums for your ease of reference are:

     

    Thanks!

     

Windows 7 Application Compatibility announcements

Windows 7 Hardware Compatibility announcements

Windows 7 Installation, Setup, and Deployment announcements

Windows 7 Security announcements

Windows 7 User Interface announcements

Windows Virtual PC and XP Mode announcements

Windows 8.1 General announcements

Active Directory Rights Management Service(On premise) announcements

  • Link
    A note about forum support
    Brad Mahugh - (Microsoft)

    Hi folks,

    Just a reminder, TechNet Forums support is intended to offer limited support for common and known issues. Here is where forum support works well and how it was intended to help:

    • If the issue you are experiencing is related to RMS technologies (anything will be moved or possibly deleted)
    • If the issue you are experiencing is one that is well known to community members
    • If the issue you are experiencing has documented solutions or potential solutions for it available through content published on Microsoft Web sites.
    • If the community volunteers (who have a very limited amount of their time to assist other users) can answer your question in a reasonable amount of time.

    Forum users should be aware they will be advised to contact Microsoft product support if any one of the following holds true.

    • If the configuration details they are involved in are wide-ranging and complex.
    • Initial guidance from the forum is unsatisfactory or unable to help you resolve your issue
    • You need urgent or specific support for your support incident.

    Thanks for your cooperation in using the forums.

    Thanks,

    Your RMS Forum moderator(s)


  • Link
    Welcome to the RMS forum!
    Brad Mahugh - (Microsoft)

    Welcome to the Rights Management Services discussion forum. Here you can discuss all matters relating to Windows Rights Management Services (RMS on Windows Server 2003) and Active Directory Rights Management Services (AD RMS) in Windows Server 2008, Windows Server 2008 R2 and Windows Server 2012. We’re providing this forum to give you a place to post questions you might have about RMS, to give you the opportunity to share your valuable experience with others, and to receive your feedback about RMS.

    Because this forum is specifically focused on Rights Management Services in Windows Server, posts that are about other issues will be referred to more appropriate forums and possibly removed altogether. If you’re not sure if this is the right forum for your question, please go to http://www.microsoft.com/communities/newsgroups/default.mspx to see if there’s a forum that more closely matches your needs.

    Thanks!



Microsoft Deployment Toolkit announcements

  • Link
    Welcome to the MDT forum
    Keith Garner

    On behalf of the Microsoft Deployment Toolkit (MDT) team, I would like to welcome you to the MDT forum at Microsoft. This is an open forum where we invite you to ask questions, post answers, and share your insights regarding the operations of MDT.

    Microsoft Deployment Toolkit is the recommended process and toolset for automating desktop and server deployment. This toolkit unifies tools and processes required for desktop and server deployment in a common deployment console and collection of guidance, making deployment effective and easier.

    Please take advantage of this community to share best practices and understand how MDT works.

    To learn more about Microsoft Deployment Toolkit 2012, visit www.microsoft.com/mdt. Or, get the latest news by visiting the Microsoft Deployment Toolkit Team blog.

    Welcome to the MDT conversation!

    Best Regards,

    Shruti Kala
    Product Manager

Power Query announcements

  • Link
    Olá | Salut | Hallo | Hola | Hello | こんにちは
    Miguel.Llopis

    Olá

    O Power BI Preview está disponível em seis idiomas, mas a documentação e o suporte para o fórum estão atualmente disponíveis apenas em inglês. Você pode usar o www.microsofttranslator.com para traduzir o conteúdo do fórum.

    Salut

    Power BI Preview est disponible en 6 langues, mais la documentation et le forum d'assistance sont actuellement seulement disponibles en anglais. Vous pouvez utiliser www.microsofttranslator.com pour traduire le contenu du forum.

    Hallo

    Die Power BI Preview ist in sechs Sprachen verfügbar, aber Dokumentation und  Forumunterstützung sind momentan nur auf Englisch verfügbar. Sie koennen www.microsofttranslator.com verwenden, um den Inhalt des Forums zu übersetzen.

    Hola

    Power BI Preview está disponible en seis idiomas diferentes, pero la documentación y foros de soporte sólo están disponibles en Inglés. Puedes utilizar www.microsofttranslator.com para traducir estos contenidos.

    Hello

    Power BI Preview is available in six different languages, but the documentation and support forums is only available in English. You can use www.microsofttranslator.com to translate this content.

    こんにちは

    Power BI Previewは六カ国語にてご提供させていただいていますが、ヘルプとフォーラムなどのサポートは現在英語のみです。あらかじめご了承ください。ヘルプがご必要な場合はwww.microsofttranslator.comの機械翻訳をお試しください。

Microsoft Identity Manager announcements

  • Link
    FIM 2010 hotfixes - RSS feed
    Peter Geelen

    An compact list of build versions of the entire Identity Management stack is available at Http://aka.ms/idmbuildversions.

    -> The RSS feed is available at: https://blogs.technet.microsoft.com/iamsupport/feed/

    You can find more detailed overview of FIM 2010 (+R2) builds at http://aka.ms/fimbuilds.

    -> The RSS feed : http://social.technet.microsoft.com/wiki/contents/articles/2229.fim-2010-build-overview/rss.aspx

    The MIM 2016 (FIM 2010 vNext) builds have been moved to http://aka.ms/mimbuilds.

    -> RSS: http://social.technet.microsoft.com/wiki/contents/articles/32507.mim-2016-build-overview/rss.aspx

  • Link
    FIM Object Visualizer
    Markus Vilcinskas
    The FIM Object Visualizer is available on Codeplex: http://fimov.codeplex.com/
  • Link
    Current Forefront Identity Manager Resources
    Brjann Brekkan

    Wiki Page: Current Forefront Identity Manager Resources

    Peter Geelen, Mar 15 2010
  • Link
    Read Me First
    Markus Vilcinskas

    Welcome to this forum!

    This forum replaces the NNTP newsgroup for the ILM “2” Connect site at Connect.Microsoft.com.
    The newsgroup will be locked down and the threads will be kept there for reference. 
    If you’ve posted a question there and not received an answer, please post it here.

    As a member of this forum, you are part of a worldwide community that includes experienced subject matter experts as well as interested starters that share one common goal – to help each other using the capabilities of Microsoft’s identity management solution in the best possible manner.

    To get the most out of your participation, you might want to consider following the following guidelines:

    • Start a new thread
    • Be specific
    • Mark questions as answered
    • Select helpful posts
    • Provide detailed feedback

     

    Start a new thread

    Don’t be afraid to start a new thread if you think you have a related problem to a post but aren’t sure. 
    Don’t let your question get lost if someone else’s question got answered but yours didn’t, and people may have stopped responding to the thread.

    Be specific

    Your fellow forum members want to help you!
    The more details you provide about your issue, the higher are the chances for everybody to assist you effectively.
    While precision is often a good idea, there are times where it might be advisable to add more details than initially considered to be necessary.
    This is especially the case, when the information you provide is read by thousands of folks that are distributed across the world, which involves a translation into various different languages.
    To avoid misinterpretations of your message and to leverage the available knowledge in a way that suits your needs, you should determine whether your text contains really all necessary details before posting it.
    Providing a bit too much information in this environment is better than expecting your fellow forum members to make the right assumptions about your intention.

    Mark questions as answered

    Your fellow forum members care about your issue!
    Please treat the willingness to support you with the appropriate courtesy and let others know when your issue has been sufficiently addressed by marking your posting as answered if this is the case. 
    That way, you help create an environment where people mark the answers to their questions, and when you’re looking to see if someone has already answered some question you have, you will benefit by seeing their answer first. 
    You won’t even have to ask.

    Select helpful topics

    Enable your fellow forum members to help you effectively in the future!
    Your feedback is an elementary component of making a forum successful.
    If you run into a post that was helpful to you, please indicate this by selecting it as helpful.
    This enables everybody to learn how information should be presented to address an issue.
    We all learn not only from answers but also from the way answers are packaged.  

    Provide detailed feedback

    While marking postings as answered and selecting posts as helpful is highly appreciated, please consider going the extra mile and provide some more details if you have found useful information.
    This helps everybody to do an even better job assisting you in the future.

Windows Troubleshooting announcements

Windows Internals announcements

Windows Development announcements

Utilities Suggestions announcements

Disk2vhd announcements

PsTools announcements

Process Monitor announcements

Process Explorer announcements

Miscellaneous Utilities announcements

BgInfo announcements

AutoRuns announcements

Exchange Server Development announcements

Azure SQL Database announcements

  • Link
    New service update available for SQL Data Sync!
    Shirley Wang [ADF]

    While it has been 3+ years since we last announced an update to SQL Data Sync service, we have been continuously deploying updates to the backend service to address top customer issues.  We are listening to your feedback, and today we are happy to announce the latest update which includes both service changes and a new SQL Data Sync agent install.  This update includes two main enhancements:

    1. Support for synchronizing tables that have column collations:
      • If the selected sync schema tables do not already exist in your hub or member databases, upon deploying the sync group, SQL Data Sync will automatically create corresponding tables and columns in the empty database with the same collation settings as the select sync schema.
      • If the tables to-be-synced are already created in both hub and member databases, SQL Data Sync requires the primary key columns have the same collation between hub/member databases to successfully deploy the sync group.  There is no collation restriction on the non-primary key columns.
    2. Improvements to performance and resilience:
      • We enhanced batch transfer of serialized changes from source to destination, so you should see faster sync throughput.
      • We improved transient error handling logic when reading from the source or writing to the destination.

    The new version of SQL Data Sync agent in the download center.  Please follow the step-by-step instructions here to install a new Data Sync agent.  If you have an existing agent, you can refer to this MSDN article for detailed upgrade procedures.  A previous version of Data Sync agent will continue to work until it expires on 8/18/2015.

  • Link
    Understand Azure SQL Database and SQL Server in Azure VM
    Vinod Ramakrishna

    Microsoft Azure provides you two options when hosting your SQL Server-based data: Azure SQL Database and SQL Server in Azure Virtual Machine. This new article explains how each option fits into the big picture in Microsoft’s Data Platform, and then discusses the common business motivations that might affect your choice. Please take a look at it!

    http://azure.microsoft.com/en-us/documentation/articles/data-management-azure-sql-database-and-sql-server-iaas/

    Selcin Turkarslan

Suggestions and Feedback for the Forums announcements

  • Link
    What is this forum for? Please read before posting!
    Bryant Hawthorne - MSFT

    What is the purpose of this forum?

    The purpose of this forum is to give users a voice on Forums. Users can give suggestions for improvements or vote up suggestions and know that the Forums team is listening. If you have a specific question regarding Forums please post questions to Forums Redesign – Q&A / Discussions. If you are encountering a Forums bug please post this in the Forums Issues forum.


    Best Practices

    • Only post suggestions
    • Only post one suggestion per thread, this will provide clarity to the suggestion and allow users to know what they are voting up
    • We encourage you to vote! Voting allows the Forums team to know what users want the most
    • Use Questions and not Discussion thread types, this will allow us to “close” suggestions once they are no longer relevant or have been addressed.

    Who reads these suggestions?

    As previously stated this is a place to be heard by directly by the Forums team. Although we may not respond to every post, we are actively reading through each suggestion. We will not implement every suggestion, however, we release once a month and commit to consider suggestions from the community every release. 

MSDN and TechNet Profile and Recognition System Discussions announcements

Announcements for all Forums announcements

  • Link
    Purpose of this forum - please read before posting here
    Pam Sallee
    This is an announcements forum, intended for the forums team to communicate important news to all Forums users. Please do not post here unless you have reason to make an announcement. While we appreciate all of the smoke-testing while these forums are new, we respectfully request that you do that in the Sandbox forums for any of the brands.

    Thanks for using the new Forums!

BizTalk Server General announcements

  • Link
    Updated product roadmap, start of new BizTalk Server vNext project
    Paul Larsen (Microsoft)

    We have some great news to share! We've updated our Microsoft Integration Product Roadmap. See our BizTalk Team Blog, at https://aka.ms/btsblog. We are starting our new BizTalk Server vNext project. Let us know what you want and need in BizTalk Server vNext.

    Paul Larsen [MS]
    Microsoft BizTalk Server Team

     

  • Link
    Updated product roadmap, start of new BizTalk Server vNext project
    Paul Larsen (Microsoft)

    We have some great news to share! We've updated our Microsoft Integration Product Roadmap. See our BizTalk Team Blog, at https://aka.ms/btsblog. We are starting our new BizTalk Server vNext project. Let us know what you want and need in BizTalk Server vNext.

    Paul Larsen [MS]
    Microsoft BizTalk Server Team

     

  • Link
    Announcing the availability of Microsoft BizTalk Server 2016 Feature Pack 3
    Paul Larsen (Microsoft)

    Available now is Microsoft BizTalk Server 2016 Feature Pack 3. This update to BizTalk Server 2016 contains new and improved capabilities for integrating BizTalk Server workloads with Office 365 Outlook Email, Calendar, and Contact resources.

    Office 365 Adapters

    Microsoft Office 365 is a cloud-based subscription service that brings together the best tools for the way people work today. By combining best-in-class apps like Excel and Outlook with powerful cloud services like OneDrive and Microsoft Teams, Office 365 lets anyone create and share anywhere on any device.

    Microsoft BizTalk Server Adapters for Office 365 enable IT professionals and enterprise developers to integrate Outlook mail, contacts, and schedules with new solutions based on BizTalk Server 2016.

    Office 365 Mail Adapter

    Using the BizTalk Adapter for Office 365 Mail, you can read, mark as read or delete, Outlook e-mail messages through one-way BizTalk Server receive locations. Using the Office 365 Mail Adapter, you can write e-mail message, including setting message priority, through one-way static or dynamic BizTalk Server send ports.

    Office 365 Calendar Adapter

    Using the BizTalk Adapter for Office 365 Calendar, you can get future calendar events through one-way BizTalk Server receive locations. Using the Office 365 Calendar Adapter, you can create calendar events, including specifying required and optional attendees, through one-way static or dynamic BizTalk Server send ports.

    Office 365 Contact Adapter

    Using the BizTalk Adapter for Office 365 Contact, you can create contacts, by specifying all settings, through one-way static or dynamic BizTalk Server send ports.

    Licensing

    • Microsoft customers with Software Assurance or Azure Enterprise Agreements are licensed to use Feature Pack 3.
    • BizTalk Server 2016 Feature Pack 3 can be installed on Enterprise and Developer editions only.

    Software

    • BizTalk Server 2016 Feature Pack 3 contains all the functionality of Feature Packs 1 and 2, plus all the fixes in Cumulative Update 5.
    • You can install Feature Pack 3 on BizTalk Server 2016 Enterprise and Developer Edition (retail, CU1, CU2, CU3, CU4, FP1, FP2).
    • Download the software now from the Microsoft Download Center.

    Documentation

    You can learn more about Feature Pack 3 by reading the documentation articles. Please contribute to improving our documentation, by joining our BizTalk Server community on GitHub.

  • Link
    Announcing the availability of BizTalk Server 2016 Cumulative Update 5
    Paul Larsen (Microsoft)
    Microsoft BizTalk Server product team has released Cumulative Update 5 for BizTalk Server 2016. For more information, see Microsoft Knowledgebase Article 4132957, posted to https://support.microsoft.com/help/4132957.
  • Link
    Announcing availability of BizTalk Server 2013 R2 Cumulative Update 8
    Paul Larsen (Microsoft)

    Microsoft BizTalk Server product team has released Cumulative Update 8 for BizTalk Server 2013 R2. For more information, see Microsoft Knowledgebase Article 4052527, posted to https://support.microsoft.com/help/4052527.

    Microsoft BizTalk Server Product Team

  • Link
    Microsoft BizTalk Server 2016 Feature Pack 2
    Paul Larsen (Microsoft)

    Available now is Microsoft BizTalk Server 2016 Feature Pack 2. This update to BizTalk Server 2016 contains new and improved capabilities for modernizing BizTalk Server workloads in the areas of deployment, runtime and analytics.

    Deployment and Administration

    • Application Lifecycle Management with VSTS
      • Using Visual Studio Team Services, you can define multi-server deployments of BizTalk Server 2016, and then maintain those systems throughout the application lifecycle.
    • Backup to Azure Blob Storage
      • When deploying BizTalk Server to Azure VMs, you can backup BizTalk Server databases to Azure blob storage.

    Server Runtime

    • Adapter for Service Bus v2
      • When using the Service Bus Adapter, you can utilize Azure Service Bus Premium for enterprise-scale workloads.
    • Transport Layer Security 1.2
      • Securely deploy BizTalk Server using industry-standard TLS 1.2 authentication and encryption.
    • API Management
      • Publish Orchestration endpoints using Azure API Management, enabling organizations to publish APIs to external, partner and internal developers to unlock the potential of their data and services.
    • Event Hubs
      • Using the new Event Hub Adapter, BizTalk Server can send and receive messages with Azure Event Hubs, where BizTalk Server can function as both an event publisher and subscriber, as part of a new Azure cloud-based event-driven application.

    Analytics and Reporting

    • Event Hubs
      • Send BizTalk Server tracking data to Azure Event Hubs, a hyper-scale telemetry ingestion service that collects, transforms, and stores millions of events.
    • Application Insights
      • When preparing BizTalk Server to send tracking data to Application Insights, released in FP1, you can use the new Azure sign-in dialog to simplify configuration and named instances of SQL Server.

    Licensing

    • Microsoft customers with Software Assurance or Azure Enterprise Agreements are licensed to use Feature Pack 2.
    • BizTalk Server 2016 Feature Pack 2 can be installed on Enterprise and Developer editions only.

    Software

    • BizTalk Server 2016 Feature Pack 2 contains all the functionality of Feature Pack 1, plus all the fixes in Cumulative Update 3.
    • You can install Feature Pack 2 on BizTalk Server 2016 Enterprise and Developer Edition (retail, CU1, CU2, CU3, FP1).
    • Download the software now from the Microsoft Download Center.

    Documentation

    You can learn more about FP2 by reading the documentation articles. Please contribute to improving our documentation, by joining our BizTalk Server community on GitHub.

    Feedback

    Contribute to the community by participating in our forum, reading our blog, following us on Twitter (@BizTalk_Server), as well as providing product input using our BizTalk User Voice.

  • Link
    Announcing availability of BizTalk Server 2013 R2 Cumulative Update 7
    Paul Larsen (Microsoft)
    Microsoft BizTalk Server product team has released Cumulative Update 7 for BizTalk Server 2013 R2. For more information, see Microsoft Knowledgebase Article 4038891, posted to https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/help/4038891.

    BizTalk Server Team
  • Link
    Announcing availability of BizTalk Server 2016 Cumulative Update 3
    Paul Larsen (Microsoft)

    Microsoft BizTalk Server product team has released Cumulative Update 3 for BizTalk Server 2016. For more information, see https://support.microsoft.com/help/4039664.

    BizTalk Server Team

  • Link
    BizTalk SalesForce Integration: Login authentication
    Steef-Jan Wiggers
    Sample based on integration with SalesForce using SOAP is available in code gallery through this link.
  • Link
    List of Errors and Warnings, Causes and Solutions on TechNet Wiki
    Sandro Pereira

    This article is intended to be a knowledge base of all Errors and Warnings, Causes and Solutions documented, by community members, in all stages/components of BizTalk: different stages of development, deployment, adapters, runtime, setup and configuration… Read more here

  • Link
    BizTalk Server Resources on the TechNet Wiki
    Steef-Jan Wiggers
    You will find many BizTalk Server related article on TechNet Wiki. Best entry point is BizTalk Server Resources on the TechNet Wiki.
  • Link
    BizTalk Server 2010 - Tools Wiki Article
    Steef-Jan Wiggers
    Through the internet you can find numerous tools that can help you for instance in automating deployment, analyze your BizTalk environment or identify performance issues. You will find these tools on Operating System, Codeplex or Microsoft Download Center. Read more here.

BizTalk Server Adapters and Adapter Pack announcements

BizTalk Server EDI and AS2 announcements

BizTalk Server Host Integration Server announcements

  • Link
    Host Integration Server 2013 Cumulative Update 4 is available
    Valerie Robb (Microsoft)

    We are happy to announce the release of Microsoft Host Integration Server 2013 Cumulative Update 4.

    This cumulative update package contains hotfixes for issues that were resolved after the release of Host Integration Server 2013.

    We recommend that you test the cumulative update before you deploy it in a production environment. Because the builds are cumulative, each new update release contains all the hotfixes and all the security updates that were included in the previous Host Integration Server 2013 cumulative updates. We recommend that you consider applying the most recent Host Integration Server 2013 Cumulative Update to remain current with the product.

    Cumulative update package 4 for Microsoft Host Integration Server 2013:

    • Application Integration - 6 customer issues fixed
    • Data Integration - -12 customer issues fixed
    • Message Integration - 6 customer issues fixed
    • Network Integration - 10 customer issues fixed
    • Session Integration - 10 customer issues fixed

    Information regarding how to download the package and details regarding the specific fixes can be found in the KB article here.

    We encourage you to actively engage with us and propose new features for all BizTalk offerings, including Host Integration Server, through our BizTalk User Voice Page.

  • Link
    The SDK for Host Integration Server 2016 has been released
    Valerie Robb (Microsoft)

    The Host Integration Server 2016 SDK has been released.

    It can be downloaded at https://aka.ms/his2016sdk

    The SDK has been updated with current samples for all features of the product – Network Integration, Data Integration, Application Integration, and MQ Integration. Included with this SDK is a host simulator that allows several of the Application Integration samples to run via TCP/IP and HTTP without the need for a backend host system.

    This SDK can be installed without having HIS 2016 installed in order to view the sample code, however, HIS 2016 must be installed for the samples to run.

    Helpful links to get started with Host Integration Server:

    HIS 2016 RTM downloads:

    HIS 2016 Cumulative Update 1: https://aka.ms/his2016cu1

    CU1 KB Article: https://support.microsoft.com/help/3216544

    Documentation for Installing HIS 2016: https://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/mt736402.aspx

    HIS Blog: https://blogs.msdn.microsoft.com/hostintegrationserver/

    Additional HIS Information: https://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/biztalk/biztalk-hisoverview.aspx

  • Link
    Host Integration Server 2016 Cumulative Update 1 has been released
    Charles Ezzell

    Host Integration Server 2016 Cumulative Update 1 has been released. This Cumulative Update addresses multiple issues found since the release of Host Integration Server 2016.

    The Knowledge Base article can be found here. https://support.microsoft.com/help/3216544

    You can also download Cumulative Update 1 from here:  https://aka.ms/his2016cu1

     Thank You.

  • Link
    Microsoft Host Integration Server Product Feedback survey
    Charles Ezzell

    We want to hear from you!

    Microsoft HIS Team is looking for product feedback. Please take time to complete the Microsoft Host Integration Server Product Feedback survey, posted to https://aka.ms/hisfeedback. Tell us what you are using, how you like it, and what new technologies and tools you want.

    Thank you!

    HIS Team

  • Link
    HIS 2016 Available to MSDN Subscribers
    Valerie Robb (Microsoft)

    The RTM version of HIS 2016 is now available to MSDN Subscribers -

    HIS 2016 Enterprise Edition

    HIS 2016 Developer Edition

  • Link
    Announcing release of Host Integration Server 2016
    Charles Ezzell

    We are pleased to announce the release to manufacturing of Microsoft Host Integration Server 2016.

    This release confirms our commitment to Microsoft enterprise customers and partners, by delivering a set of new technologies, tools, and improvements.

    New Microsoft Client for MQ connecting .NET Framework and BizTalk Server applications to IBM MQ message processing systems, providing simplified administration and improved performance.

    Expanded platform support for latest Microsoft operating systems and development tools, plus support for most popular IBM systems versions, permitting the broadest application support lifecycle for upgraded and new solutions.

    Improved installation and configuration assisting IT administrators to efficiently deploy new clients and servers, reducing operating expenses and total cost of ownership.

    New telemetry for improving technologies and tools, by monitoring and reporting connections, operations, and exceptions.

    New Microsoft Client for DRDA connecting .NET Framework and BizTalk Server applications to IBM DB2 and Informix relational database systems, delivering increased functionality, with improved performance and scalability.

    To get started, visit the Microsoft Developer Network to read more about what’s new and improved in Host Integration Server 2016.

    Host Integration Server Team

    Microsoft Corporation

  • Link
    Announcing Host Integration Server 2016 Community Technology Preview 2
    Charles Ezzell

    We are pleased to announce our public Community Technology Preview 2 (CTP2) for Host Integration Server 2016.

    HIS 2016 offers technologies and tools enabling enterprise IT organizations to efficiently and securely integrate existing IBM host systems, programs, messages and data with new Azure and Windows applications. This release allows you to preview the many new and improved technologies and tools, when compared to HIS 2013, including:

    • Improved installation and configuration assisting IT administrators to efficiently deploy new clients and servers, reducing operating expenses      and total cost of ownership.
    • Expanded platform support for latest Microsoft operating systems and development tools, plus support for most popular IBM systems versions,      permitting the broadest application support lifecycle for upgraded and new solutions.
    • New Microsoft Client for MQ connecting .NET Framework and BizTalk Server applications to IBM MQ message processing systems, providing      simplified administration and improved performance.
    • New telemetry for improving technologies and tools, by monitoring and reporting connections, operations, and exceptions.
    • New Microsoft Client for DRDA connecting .NET Framework and BizTalk Server applications to IBM DB2 and Informix relational database systems,      delivering increased functionality, with improved performance and scalability.

    Join the HIS community to explore, try and learn more about HIS 2016 CTP2. Download, install and configure HIS 2016 CTP today!

    To get started, we invite you to visit the HIS 2016 preview page (https://aka.ms/his2016ctp2) on the Microsoft TechNet Evaluation Center.

    Host Integration Server Team
    Microsoft Corporation

  • Link
    Microsoft Host Integration Server 2016 CTP1
    Charles Ezzell

    Microsoft HIS team has released Host Integration Server 2016 Community Technology Preview 1.

     

    HIS 2016 CTP1 provides professionals and enterprise developers with technologies and tools to deliver a new set of integration solutions. Here are a few of the new capabilities and improvements in HIS 2016 CTP1.

    • Support for Windows Server 10, Windows Server 2016, SQL Server 2016, BizTalk Server 2016, Visual Studio 2013, and .NET Framework 4.6
    • Support for IBM i 7.2, z/OS 2.2, CICS 5.2, IBM MQ 8.0, and DB2 11
    • New Microsoft .NET Client for MQ
    • New ADO.NET provider and BizTalk adapter for Informix
    • Improved data providers and BizTalk adapter for DB2
    • New Telemetry for improving HIS technologies

     

    See full list of improvements and new platforms posted to MSDN, at http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkID=780628.

     

    To distribute the software, we are utilizing the BizTalk Server 2016 CTP1 program on Microsoft Connect. Please go to Connect and register your Microsoft account, at http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkId=784997.

     

    We look forward to your participation in HIS 2016 CTP1.

     

    Host Integration Server Team

    Microsoft Corporation

  • Link
    Host Integration Server 2013 is released to manufactioning
    Stephen_R_Jackson

    We are pleased to announce that Host Integration Server 2013 is released to manufacturing!

    Microsoft Host Integration Server 2013 enables enterprise organizations to integrate existing IBM host systems, programs, messages, and data with Microsoft class leading suite of server applications.

    HIS 2013 is the ninth release and includes these improvements.

    • Deploy on new platforms
      • Windows 8.1, Windows 8, Windows Server 2012 R2, Windows Server 2012,
      • Visual Studio 2012, SQL Server 2012, .NET 4
      • IBM z/OS V1.13, i5/OS V7R1, MQ V7.5, CICS V5.1, IMS V12.1, Informix IDS V12.1, DB2 V10
    • Use latest protocols and formats
      • DB2 client connectivity to SQL Server (DRDA Service)
      • Windows client connectivity to Informix server (OLE DB Provider)
    • Increase enterprise dev and IT pro productivity
      • Transaction Integrator Configuration Tool and Visual Studio code snippets
      • DRDA Service and TI PowerShell modules, XML schemas for app.config and web.config files
      • Managed encoder and trace
      • TN3270 emulator and Host File Transfer Utility
    • Improve performance and scalability
      • Transaction Integrator, MQ channel and host files managed runtimes
      • DB2 client transaction load balancing, bulk copy and bulk insert

    Here are links to the technology and documentation.

    The HIS 2013 BPA (Best Practice Analyzer) and SCOM Management Pack will be available in September.

    The HIS 2013 Enterprise edition will be available for purchase on 1st September, licensed as supplemental technology to BizTalk Server 2013. See the BizTalk website for more information on BTS 2013 licensing.

    The Host Integration Server Team

  • Link
    Host Integration Server 2010 Cumulative Update 6 (CU6) is available
    Stephen_R_Jackson

    The Host Integration Server Product Team has just released the sixth Cumulative Update (CU) for HIS 2010. The cumulative update model is used to package and release product fixes on a more consistent schedule.

    HIS 2010 CU6 includes fixes for HIS 2010 that were fixed after the release of HIS 2010, including all the fixes that are in the previous HIS 2010 cumulative updates. Details on the included fixes can be found in the following Knowledge Base article:

    2752426    Cumulative update package 6 for Host Integration Server 2010   
    http://support.microsoft.com/kb/2752426/EN-US

    You can download HIS 2010 CU6 via the Hotfix Download Available link You would need to download the CU6 package that matches the HIS 2010 version (x86 or x64) that you have installed.

  • Link
    Host Integration Server 2009 Cumulative Update 4 (CU4) is available
    Stephen_R_Jackson

    The Host Integration Server Product Team has just released the fourth Cumulative Update (CU) for HIS 2009. The cumulative update model is used to package and release product fixes on a more consistent schedule.

    HIS 2009 CU4 includes fixes for HIS 2009 that were fixed after the release of HIS 2009, including all the fixes that are in the previous HIS 2009 cumulative updates. Details on the included fixes can be found in the following Knowledge Base article:

    2765212 Cumulative update package 4 for Host Integration Server 2009

    You can download HIS 2009 CU4 via the Hotfix Download Available link in the KB article. You would need to download the CU4 package that matches the HIS 2009 version (x86 or x64) that you have installed.

    Thanks…


  • Link
    Welcome to the Host Integration Server forum
    Stephen_R_Jackson

    Hello and welcome to the Host Integration Server forum!

     

    The Host Integration Server (HIS) forum provide you an opportunity to join a community of Host Integration Server customers where you can share knowledge, get questions answered, and learn from others with IT environments similar to yours. Start by posting Host Integration Server related questions in the forum corresponding to your topic of interest and leverage the knowledge available in your new forum community.

     

    If you have any suggestions or feedbacks to Windows Server products, please feel free to post in our forums.

    Stephen Jackson - MSFT

MSDN and TechNet Search Feedback announcements

TechNet Wiki Discussion announcements

MIMWAL Project announcements

  • Link
    MIM Config Documenter tool now availiable on GitHub
    Nilesh Ghodekar (MSFT)

    Just want to cross post that MIM Configuration Documenter tool is now open sourced on GitHub at:  https://github.com/Microsoft/MIMConfigDocumenter.

    This, among may other benefits listed below, will help you to document and share your MIMWAL workflows easily with the broader community.

    Brief project info:

    MIM configuration documenter is a tool to generate documentation of a MIM / FIM synchronization or service installation.
    The goal of this project is to:
    • Document deployment configuration details for the MIM / FIM solution!
    o Including MIMWAL Workflow definitions
    • Track any configuration changes you have made since a specific baseline!!
    • Build confidence in getting things right when making changes to the deployed solution!!

    You can find the project code, releases, and documentation at:  https://github.com/Microsoft/MIMConfigDocumenter

Microsoft Operations Framework -- MOF 4.0 announcements

  • Link
    New MOF Guide—Now Available for Download
    Jerry Dyer

    The Microsoft Operations Framework team is pleased to announce that the Managing and Operating a Microsoft Private Cloud—How to Apply the Microsoft Operations Framework (MOF) guide is now available for download. To download the new guide, go to http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/cc506049.aspx.

    This guide leads you through the process of how to manage and operate a Microsoft private cloud using the service management processes of the Microsoft Operations Framework (MOF). The guide applies MOF’s IT service management principles to that conceptual architecture and technology stack. It describes how to maximize the potential of MOF’s people, process, and technical capabilities to manage and operate a Microsoft private cloud. Follow this guidance for a private cloud that is better aligned to meet your business needs. Employ MOF’s service management functions (SMFs) to help align IT and business goals, which can enable you to perform private cloud activities effectively and cost-efficiently.

    This guide focuses on the SMFs in the Operate Phase and the Manage Layer of MOF to give IT pros and managers what they need to know about managing and operating a private cloud. Management reviews—internal controls that ensure goals are met to achieve business value—are also included.

    Tell your peers about MOF! Please forward this mail to anyone who wants to learn more about Microsoft Operations Framework guides.

  • Link
    Getting Started with MOF Released to Web
    Jerry Dyer

    Thanks in part to your participation at every stage of its development, a new MOF implementation guide is now available for download.

    The Getting Started with MOF 4.0 guide is the first step to a more efficient MOF implementation. The guide provides role-and situation-specific guidance, focused on helping users understand where to apply MOF and how to get the most from its recommendations.

    This new extension of the MOF core content speaks to three targeted audiences—the CIO/IT director, IT managers, and individual contributors. Tailoring the content to specific roles clarifies responsibilities and leads to improved service delivery in your organization. The guide includes a list of prioritized action items that address both proactive and reactive issues. Ultimately, this guide serves as the primary resource for implementing MOF within your organization.

    Download the Getting Started with MOF 4.0 guide.

    Looking for additional resources to help you get started with MOF 4.0? Download the MOF IT Pro Quick Start Kit.

    Stay tuned: A new series of MOF Reliability Workbooks will soon be available for Beta download. Want the latest MOF updates? Subscribe to our news feed.

  • Link
    Welcome to MOF 4.0 Online
    Jason Osborne [Msft]

    On behalf of the MOF team and the moderator staff, I’d like to personally welcome you to the new MOF Community at Microsoft. Here you will find an open forum for the discussion of all topics related to service management, MOF, and related process-based frameworks throughout the IT lifecycle.  Now that you are part of this community, we hope to see you actively participating and sharing. MOF integrates community generated processes, governance, risk, and compliance activities, and other industry best practices to provide guidance across the IT service lifecycle.  For us to continue to evolve these best practices in the face of ever shifting technology paradigms, we need your continued input and support.

     

    Here at the MOF Community we invite you to post your questions, share your insights, tell us what you like, and by all means, what you disagree with.  If you have a service management problem you’re trying to resolve, share it and see if the community can help.  All we ask is that you remain respectful of everyone’s opinion and promote intelligent and responsible discussion. If you have any questions, problems, or concerns that don’t seem to be getting addressed by the board, feel free to e-mail us, the MOF team, or contact us via our Blog.

     

    Thank you again for joining us here and for taking a look at MOF 4.0.  We look forward to getting to know you.


    Welcome to the conversation!

    Jason Osborne
    MOF Frameworks PM

  • Link
    MOF 4.0 Frequently Asked Questions
    Jason Osborne [Msft]
     Microsoft Operations Framework - Frequently Asked Questions v1.0

    What is MOF 4.0?

    Microsoft® Operations Framework (MOF) 4.0 is a framework that provides practical guidance for managing IT practices and activities throughout the entire IT lifecycle. MOF helps IT professionals establish and implement reliable, cost-effective IT services by integrating

    ·         Tried-and-tested processes for planning, delivering, operating, and managing IT

    ·         Governance, risk, and compliance activities

    ·         Management reviews

    ·         Best practices from Microsoft Solutions Framework (MSF)

    MOF helps IT professionals take advantage of everything Microsoft has to offer, including products and Solution Accelerators.

    What’s new in MOF 4.0?

    The guidance in MOF 4.0 moves beyond Operations to address the entire IT lifecycle. MOF 4.0 introduces a new structure for its service management functions (SMFs)—one that emphasizes outcomes, results, and roles in a format that's easy to reference. Because every group, team, and company is unique, the SMFs are anchored by questions the user must answer. Finally, the MOF community serves as a platform where IT professionals can exchange ideas, contribute their own timely, relevant guidance, and communicate directly with Microsoft about the continued evolution of the framework.

    Why did you develop a new version of MOF?

    MOF 4.0 has been expanded and enhanced to:

    ·         Reflect a single, comprehensive IT lifecycle

    ·         Connect service management theory to every-day tasks and activities

    ·         Align IT with business needs and goals

    ·         Address governance, risk, policy, and compliance

    ·         Support continuous improvement through community involvement

    How much effort will it take to implement MOF 4.0?

    Your goal should not be to implement MOF; it should be to solve problems and promote efficiency in your organization. You can use MOF to drive key decisions, create and manage key policies and risks, clearly define roles and accountabilities, and define and enact processes for your organization—all in an efficient and practical manner. Because the scope of the problem or opportunity you’re facing will determine the amount of effort required. MOF 4.0 has been designed to help overburdened IT professionals quickly access useful, relevant content. It contains practical guidance for everyday tasks and activities—not just theory —to efficiently and effectively address those problems. Its streamlined approach makes it possible for users to either implement the entire framework or simply use one component of the framework to solve a particular problem.

    Will MOF 4.0 work with the framework I’m currently using?

    MOF 4.0 is backward-compatible with all previous versions of MOF, and can easily integrate policies, tasks, or activities based on other frameworks. MOF 4.0 was designed to provide you with a clear picture of how the entire IT lifecycle is interrelated, what decisions are required and what outcomes are vital, yet leaves it up to the IT organization to determine the areas of focus. An organization or IT professional can use all of MOF 4.0 or just one component of the framework to solve a particular problem.

    Why are there so many tables in MOF 4.0?

    The SMFs are anchored by pertinent questions, inputs, outputs, and best practices for each activity, and the tables provide a format that’s concise and easy to follow. The questions help drive decisions that are relevant for your organization. They also help you determine where to focus—or not—which supports organizational maturation.

    How does MOF address governance, risk, and compliance?

    Governance, risk, and compliance are addressed in the Manage Layer, which is the foundation for the phases (Plan, Deliver, and Operate). Governance identifies the decision makers and stakeholders, determines accountability for actions and responsibilities for outcomes, and addresses how expected performance will be evaluated. Risk management occurs throughout the entire IT lifecycle as well; it addresses business decisions, policy adherence, application development, and operational procedures. Risk also determines what business controls need to be in place. Compliance guides behavior throughout the lifecycle to make sure that governance and risk management activities are addressed. The management reviews in each phase show how IT is performing against corporate governance, risk, and compliance objectives.

    How can I contribute to MOF 4.0?

    A central component of MOF 4.0 is its online community—a place where IT professionals can share service management knowledge and best practices, communicating both with each other and with Microsoft. MOF 4.0 provides a platform that integrates contribution sharing, blogs, forums, online training, and feedback to support the community and keep it ahead of ever-shifting IT trends. To visit MOF online, go to www.microsoft.com/MOF.

    How is MOF different from ITIL?

    There are many similarities between MOF and ITIL. Both help IT organizations achieve reliable and cost-effective IT services; each uses the entire IT service lifecycle as the context for work activities. ITIL v3 is a vast compendium of information that addresses the breadth of IT activities by providing considerable detail in a number of areas. ITIL content consists of more than 1300 pages of concepts and models that address how IT organizations can provide valued services.

    Similarly, MOF 4.0 contains core IT service management guidance, but takes a more streamlined approach to meet the needs of the overburdened IT professional. MOF 4.0 presents fundamental IT processes and their associated activities in an easy-to-grasp table format. And because busy IT professionals still have to implement, execute, follow or report IT policies and navigate risks every day, MOF 4.0 includes policy creation in the Plan Phase as well as support for IT governance, risk management, and compliance throughout the entire IT service lifecycle. Risk management and internal controls provide a coherent focus throughout the lifecycle and demonstrate the interconnectedness of all IT activities.

    How will MOF and Microsoft Solutions Framework (MSF) work together?

    MOF 4.0 integrates MSF core principles in the form of SMFs into the IT service lifecycle.  MSF is also available as an independent framework. The current MSF content, training, job aids, and templates—on which those SMFs are based—resides on http://www.microsoft.com/technet/solutionaccelerators/msf/default.mspx.   Enacted MSF guidance also ships in Microsoft Visual Studio Team System 2005 and Microsoft Visual Studio Team System 2008. Customers have given feedback that they would like to see a coherent guidance strategy across development and operations. The two teams are in the process of aligning; the goal is to empower IT professionals and developers with a consistent and coherent set of processes and best practices.

ProClarity - General announcements

Live Meeting - Media Discussion announcements

  • Link
    Welcome to Office Live Meeting Forums
    IrfanS - msft

     

    Welcome to Office Live Meeting forums.   This is home to comprehensive set of forums designed to cover various aspects of Microsoft Office Live Meeting. I am starting with few forums but will be adding some more as we go along. 

    Detailed technical topics should be posted into their respective forums if one is available. Other post can be done in the General section.  Please note however, it is important for a topic to be posted to the correct forum because different groups e.g. Support and Product Group teams and MVPs monitor different forums.  As moderators review the posts they may also move posts to another topic area per relevance.  Our ultimate goal here is to provide a useful response to every question within a reasonable amount of time.  We are targeting 2-3 business days, however being new initiative we are ramping up, so please bear with us on delays.

    Please also consider the following :

    This posting on forums is provided "AS IS" with no warranties, and confers no rights.

    These forums are not an official channel for product support. If you have an urgent or business critical issue, you should contact Microsoft Support Services

    Live Meeting Support for Technical and Billing Issues:
           Web Ticket: http://www.livemeeting.com/ask  

    Phone 1-866-493-2835 toll free (US and Canada Only) or refer to  http://support.microsoft.com/kb/939099/en-us  for additional support options.

     

    While much thought and planning was put into the creation of the forums, there is always room for improvement. I encourage you to please post your ideas and feedback in "General Discussion" forum or email them directly to me Irfan.Soomro@microsoft.com.

    Thank you for being a part of the Live Meeting community.

    Irfan Soomro
    Senior Program Manager

    Microsoft Office Live Meeting

     

Live Meeting - In Meeting Experience, Console and Add-ins announcements

  • Link
    Welcome to Office Live Meeting forums
    IrfanS - msft

     

    Welcome to Office Live Meeting forums.   This is home to comprehensive set of forums designed to cover various aspects of Microsoft Office Live Meeting. I am starting with few forums but will be adding some more as we go along. 

    Detailed technical topics should be posted into their respective forums if one is available. Other post can be done in the General section.  Please note however, it is important for a topic to be posted to the correct forum because different groups e.g. Support and Product Group teams and MVPs monitor different forums.  As moderators review the posts they may also move posts to another topic area per relevance.  Our ultimate goal here is to provide a useful response to every question within a reasonable amount of time.  We are targeting 2-3 business days, however being new initiative we are ramping up, so please bear with us on delays.

    Please also consider the following :

    This posting on forums is provided "AS IS" with no warranties, and confers no rights.

    These forums are not an official channel for product support. If you have an urgent or business critical issue, you should contact Microsoft Support Services

    Live Meeting Support for Technical and Billing Issues:
           Web Ticket: http://www.livemeeting.com/ask  

    Phone 1-866-493-2835 toll free (US and Canada Only) or refer to  http://support.microsoft.com/kb/939099/en-us  for additional support options.

     

    While much thought and planning was put into the creation of the forums, there is always room for improvement. I encourage you to please post your ideas and feedback in "General Discussion" forum or email them directly to me Irfan.Soomro@microsoft.com.

    Thank you for being a part of the Live Meeting community.

    Irfan Soomro
    Senior Program Manager

    Microsoft Office Live Meeting

Live Meeting General Discussion announcements

  • Link
    Welcome To Office Live Meeting Forums
    IrfanS - msft
     

    Welcome to Live Meeting forums.   Here we will have a comprehensive set of forums designed to cover various aspects of Microsoft Office Live Meeting.  I am starting with few forums but will be adding some more as we go along. 

    This particular forum is for general questions and discussions. I will also use the posts on this forum as the basis for creating other specialty forums within Live Meeting.  Detailed technical topics should be posted into their respective forums if one is available. Other post can be done in the General section.  Please note however, it is important for a topic to be posted to the correct forum because different groups e.g. Support and Product Group teams and MVPs monitor different forums.  As moderators review the posts they may also move posts to another topic area per relevance.  Our ultimate goal here is to provide a useful response to every question within a reasonable amount of time.  We are targeting 2-3 business days, however being new initiative we are ramping up, so please bear with us on delays.

    Please also consider the following :

    This posting on forums is provided "AS IS" with no warranties, and confers no rights.

    These forums are not an official channel for product support. If you have an urgent or business critical issue, you should contact Microsoft Support Services

    Live Meeting Support for Technical and Billing Issues:
            Web Ticket: http://www.livemeeting.com/ask  

      Phone 1-866-493-2835 toll free (US and Canada Only) or refer to  http://support.microsoft.com/kb/939099/en-us  for additional support options.

     

    While much thought and planning was put into the creation of the forums, there is always room for improvement. I encourage you to please post your ideas and feedback in this forum or email them directly to me Irfan.Soomro@microsoft.com.

    Thank you for being a part of the Live Meeting community.

    Irfan Soomro
    Senior Program Manager

    Microsoft Office Live Meeting

Training and Certification announcements

  • Link
    New "Microsoft Certified Specialist: Server Virtualization" certification - Free training and exam
    vsopher

    For those who work with virtualization technologies, there is now a single exam specialist certification for you. For a limited time, you can take the exam for free, and prepare for it with free online training.

    Get all the details, including the link to claim your exam 74-409 voucher at http://borntolearn.mslearn.net/btl/b/weblog/archive/2013/12/17/earn-your-microsoft-certified-specialist-server-virtualization-title-with-a-free-exam.aspx .

  • Link
    Second shot is back through 31 May 2014!
    Danny van Dam

    Second Shot is back and available until 31 May 2014!

    Thinking about starting or upgrading your Microsoft certification? Still undecided about scheduling that exam? It’s no secret that it takes time, preparation, and commitment to pass all the required exams to achieve a certification milestone, and we want to help you. That's why we're so excited to bring back Second Shot!

    For those who are newer to our community: the return of Second Shot is great news for MCPs (and aspiring ones) because it means being able to retake an exam for free. Just knowing there's a chance to do-over at no cost can make a big difference on exam day.

    Read the full announcement by Veronica Sopher on the BorntoLearn blog here:

    http://borntolearn.mslearn.net/btl/b/weblog/archive/2013/08/29/free-retake-on-microsoft-technical-exams-through-may-2014.aspx#fbid=pcqL9ijgCLa

  • Link
    Microsoft Learning's Community Site "Born to Learn"
    vsopher

    The following training and certification resources are available on Microsoft Learning's community site, affectionately known as Born to Learn.

    Everyone is welcome to visit the site. To comment and participate in discussions, please register as a user with a Microsoft account (aka Live ID). If you're already an MCP, use the same Microsoft account associated with your MC ID.

    • Blogs - News, announcements and offers from Microsoft Learning
    • Certification Study Groups - Discussion forums and prep wikis, led by Microsoft Certified Trainers and SMEs
    • MCT Central - This MCT-only area provides discussion forums and trainer prep resources available only to current MCTs.             


  • Link
    How to use this forum - Please read before posting
    vsopher

    Welcome to the Training and Certification Forum. The main focus of this forum is Microsoft certifications, exam prep, and training products such Microsoft Press books and Microsoft Official Courseware (MOC).

    The current moderators of this forum are Danny van Dam, Jeff Wharton, Mike Corkery, Michael D. Alligood, Rubel Khan and Niall Merrigan. We wish to thank them for contributing their time and expertise.

    Below are a few guidelines to help everyone get the most out of this forum:

    • Is your question about Microsoft Certification or Training? . If not, please search for a more applicable forum, otherwise your post may be moved, closed/locked or deleted.
    • Try searching the forum . Search the forum to see if your question has been asked before and answered. Of course, if you cannot find what you are looking for, please start a new thread rather than adding to an old one.
    • Don't be brief . The more pertinent information you can give in your question, the better the response will be. If you are asking about specific exams, please indicate experience level, current role, etc. We don't charge by the character or word. :)
    • Check your alerts . You can subscribe to a question so that you can see any update on it. Please use this feature so you can get the answers delivered to your inbox and follow up in a timely manner.
    • No Spam. Spamming will have your thread deleted and possibly your account closed.
    • Be polite . It's just better to be nice :) No flaming or trolling.
    • No braindumps . Asking for braindump materials, suggesting the use of or providing links to them will see your thread deleted or edited at the discretion of the moderators.
    • No copyright material . Please do not ask for or share courseware, book chapters or any other copyright material.
    • Mark your question answered. If someone answers your question, please mark the reply as the answer to your question. You can mark multiple replies as answers. Doing so helps other forum visitors find the best answers. It's also a great way to acknowledge and show appreciation to those who offer assistance.
    • Things we cannot answer . There are certain things about exams which cannot be discussed. Please refer to Microsoft exam policies.
    • Dead thread/Answer policy. Where possible the moderators will allow sufficient time for the original poster to come back and mark the replies to their questions as answers. The amount of time is at the discretion of the individual moderator but is suggested that it will be declared dead after a week if the original poster does not respond. We will always try to be fair and mark suitable replies as answers.
    • Do NOT propose your own answer as the answer. This is an accepted forum etiquette across most if not all of the Microsoft forums. Of course, if you think another response is the answer, please feel free to propose it as the answer.


TechNet Sandbox announcements

  • Link
    Ann_1234
    Forums Administrator
    Testing Replication db.
  • Link
    New Announcement Test Using Automation 70d381d4-8698-4340-8dd5-7ed4abe69a47
    forums moderator123
    ACCEPTANCE OF TERMS. The services that Microsoft provides to you are subject to the following Terms of Use ("TOU"). Microsoft reserves the right to update the TOU at any time without notice to you. The most current version of the TOU can be reviewed by clicking on the "Terms of Use" hypertext link located at the bottom of our Web pages. By accessing or using the CodePlex web site in any way, including using any Services, downloading Materials, contributing to a Project or merely browsing the CodePlex web site, you agree to and are bound by the terms of this TOU. If you do not agree to all of the terms and conditions contained in the TOU, do not access or use the CodePlex web site. 5f41679b-28c1-4b0c-8520-6c76ebd56e62
  • Link
    New Announcement Test Using Automation 773333c1-1e55-4965-bb34-76af7b73f9ab
    forums moderator123
    ACCEPTANCE OF TERMS. The services that Microsoft provides to you are subject to the following Terms of Use ("TOU"). Microsoft reserves the right to update the TOU at any time without notice to you. The most current version of the TOU can be reviewed by clicking on the "Terms of Use" hypertext link located at the bottom of our Web pages. By accessing or using the CodePlex web site in any way, including using any Services, downloading Materials, contributing to a Project or merely browsing the CodePlex web site, you agree to and are bound by the terms of this TOU. If you do not agree to all of the terms and conditions contained in the TOU, do not access or use the CodePlex web site. 4e320a24-f1e9-4c5c-967f-e126abff5d89
  • Link
    TechNet Sanbox Forum TechNet Sanbox Forum TechNet Sanbox Forum TechNet Sanbox Forum TechNet Sanbox Forum TechNet Sanbox Forum
    forums moderator123
    TechNet Sanbox ForumTechNet Sanbox ForumTechNet Sanbox ForumTechNet Sanbox ForumTechNet Sanbox ForumTechNet Sanbox ForumTechNet Sanbox ForumTechNet Sanbox ForumTechNet Sanbox ForumTechNet Sanbox ForumTechNet Sanbox ForumTechNet Sanbox ForumTechNet Sanbox ForumTechNet Sanbox ForumTechNet Sanbox ForumTechNet Sanbox ForumTechNet Sanbox ForumTechNet Sanbox ForumTechNet Sanbox ForumTechNet Sanbox ForumTechNet Sanbox ForumTechNet Sanbox ForumTechNet Sanbox ForumTechNet Sanbox ForumTechNet Sanbox ForumTechNet Sanbox ForumTechNet Sanbox ForumTechNet Sanbox ForumTechNet Sanbox ForumTechNet Sanbox ForumTechNet Sanbox ForumTechNet Sanbox ForumTechNet Sanbox ForumTechNet Sanbox ForumTechNet Sanbox ForumTechNet Sanbox ForumTechNet Sanbox ForumTechNet Sanbox ForumTechNet Sanbox ForumTechNet Sanbox ForumTechNet Sanbox ForumTechNet Sanbox ForumTechNet Sanbox ForumTechNet Sanbox ForumTechNet Sanbox ForumTechNet Sanbox ForumTechNet Sanbox ForumTechNet Sanbox ForumTechNet Sanbox ForumTechNet SanboxmTechNet Sanbox ForumTechNet Sanbox ForumTechNet Sanbox Forum

Windows Performance Toolkit announcements

  • Link
    Please keep your posts specific to performance analysis
    Michael Milirud
    Please keep your posts specific to performance analysis. All unrelated posts will be moved to http://social.msdn.microsoft.com/Forums/en-US/Offtopic/threads, without warning. Repeated off-topic posts will be reported as abuse of this forum. Please use your favorite search engine to find the right forum for your question. If your question isn't about Windows performance, then you shouldn't post here.

    Let's build a performance analysis community here :)

    Cheers,
    Michael
  • Link
    Windows Performance Analysis using WPT Kit video session on the WinHEC 2008 DVD
    Michael Milirud
    FYI, the WinHEC 2008 DVD is now available for purchase at
    http://shop.ecompanystore.com/mseventdvd/MSD_productdetail.asp?EventID=70882&TYPE=WinHEC%202008     (down to just $79 from the standard price of $495!).

    There is a very good session on how to use XPerf on this DVD called Windows Performance Analysis: Using Windows Performance Tools [WinHEC 2008; 5.3 MB]. Slides are available to download for free at the above hyper link.

    Keep on tracing,
    Michael

  • Link
    Welcome to the Windows Performance Toolkit forum!
    Michael Milirud
    Welcome to the Windows Performance Toolkit forum!

    As part of Microsoft's initiative to help its partners and customers improve the performance of their Windows systems, Windows group has released in Feb'08 the Windows Performance Toolkit. Version 4.1 of this toolkit has shipped in the Windows Server 2008 SDK and subsequent v.4.1.1 update has been made available on WHDC at http://www.microsoft.com/whdc/system/sysperf/perftools.mspx.

    This toolkit isn't for everyone - to use it effectively, you need to have a grasp of the basic OS internals such as processes, threads, DPCs (deferred procedure calls), ISRs (interrupt service routines), I/O subsystem, registry, etc. Yet one need not be a system developer to use it either. First level triage (e.g. which component is responsible for system slowdown?, is it a CPU or a disk usage issue?, etc.) can often be done with only the basic understanding of the above mentioned concepts, something people usually cover in an introductory 101 OS course. An expert in that area, can then use the same toolkit to dig deeper into the issue, root-cause it, and work on providing a fix for it. A great reference for understanding OS Internals is the Microsoft Windows Internals (4th edition) book from Mark Russinovich and David Solomon. We highly recommend you get a copy if you plan on using this toolkit routinely.

    You can use this forum to ask questions about the toolkit, as well as share tips and tricks with other users on how you've used it successfully in the past. We are hoping that this forum will help build a vibrant environment of performance analyst hobbists and professionals alike, where you can find support from both the Microsoft team shipping these tools to you as well as the MVPs using it on a daily basis.

    The toolkit comes with MSDN documentation available at http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/aa139734.aspx. We recommend you consult it before asking questions on this forum. We would also like to hear feedback from you on our documentation - what are we missing, is something incorrect in the documentation, etc. You can provide it by sending email to wptkdocf@microsoft.com.

    Happy tracing!
    -WPT Team

FSCT - File Server Capacity Tool announcements

  • Link
    Welcome to the FSCT Forum
    Jian (Jane) Yan[MSFT]

    Hello and welcome to the FSCT Forum!

     

    This forum provides you an opportunity to join a community of FSCT users where you can share knowledge, get questions answered, and raise issues/bugs about FSCT application.

     

    If you have any suggestions or feedbacks to FSCT, please feel free to post in our forums.

     

App-V Sequencing Recipes announcements

  • Link
    Rate the Recipes you are reviewing!
    karrial

    As you are viewing and using the recipes provided by your community experts please make sure to mark the "VOTE AS HELPFUL" link on the upper left corner of the recipe.  This will help us gauge that the recipe is useful beyond just viewing it.

    Thanks for contributing!

    Karri

  • Link
    Guidelines to write efficient prescriptive guidance (recipe) for the applications
    Manita Sharma

    App-V Recipe Template

    The Application Virtualization team has listed down some basic details which should be comprised while authoring a recipe for an application. 

    Please ensure to capture the following data while authoring a recipe for an application. The maximum limit is up to 60,000 characters with html markup.

    *If you are not a Microsoft employee you must identify your name and company affiliation which will be published with the recipe.

    Click on ‘Ask a question’ and select ‘Start a discussion’ to post a recipe

    Title: <Ideas: Give a short description about the application name>

    Body: <Include these fields in your recipe>

    Application Name:

    Application Version:

    Company Name: <Who produces the software>

    Sequencer Version:

    App-V Client Version Tested On: <List the versions of the App-V, you have tested on>

    Operating System Sequenced On: <Enter the operating system>

    Pre-requisites: <List the pre-requisites for the sequencer machine: ex. Install WDS 4.0, .NET 3.0>

    Client Operating Systems Successfully Deployed To: <List the operating systems the application was successfully deployed to>

    Posted by Microsoft Employee: <Please provide your name>

    *Posted by non-Microsoft Employee: <Please provide your name and company affiliation>

    If Posted by Microsoft Employee, the Corresponding KB Article Reference: <Please insert the URL if known or available, or N/A if not posted by Microsoft Employee>

    Steps to Sequence the Application:

    <Step1…>

    <Step2…>

    <Step3…>

    Known Issues/Limitations: <Ex. Application dependencies, Client Operating Systems that this package will not work on with: Windows 7 Client, 32-bit; Windows 7 Client, 64-bit; Windows Vista SP1, 64-bit; Windows Vista SP2, 32-bit; Windows Vista SP2, 64-bit; Windows XP, SP3, 32-bit; Windows Server 2008 R2; Windows Server 2008, 32-bit; Windows Server 2008, 64-bit; Windows Server 2003 R2, 32-bit; Windows Server 2003 R2, 64-bit; Windows Server 2003, 32-bit; Other>                                  

    Approximate Sequencing Time:

    Other (Optional fields)

    App-V friendly copy protection scheme?  <Yes/No: This information is helpful for the packager to virtualize the application>

    Additional Notes/Links: <Reference to additional data, if any>

    Custom scripts to assist in the process: <Reference to scripts, if any>

    Descriptive Tags:

    ·         Applying tags to a thread makes it possible for users to find the thread by using the tag cloud.

    ·         Clicking a tag in the tag cloud returns all threads containing that tag.

    ·         While entering tags, use commas to separate tags.

     

    Remember – This is a public forum so never post private information such as e-mail or phone numbers!

    If you have any questions, please contact the team at appvsite@microsoft.com.

  • Link
    Welcome to the App-V Sequencing forum!
    Manita Sharma

    Most applications can be sequenced using App-V Sequencer without requiring any special steps. However, there are some third-party and Microsoft applications that require special steps in order to be properly sequenced and work with App-V.

     

    In the past, members of the product team would regularly post instructions for sequencing particularly for the difficult applications. Recently we have been receiving requests from our customers to have one common community forum for sharing information.

     

    We’re listening and we are glad that you are talking!  Based on the enormous feedback, we are extremely pleased to announce the launch of a new community driven Recipe Forum on Microsoft TechNet. This forum is intended for App-V IT Pros within the App-V community to share their best practice recipes in an effort to grow everyone’s knowledge, expertise and save each other time by learning together.   This allows our new members to ramp faster and our experts to shine and show their depth of knowledge!

     

    You can now view prescriptive sequencing recipes for more than X applications that have been provided by a few experienced packagers from the App-V community. The Community is only successful if all members are contributing.  We have responded to your request, now we need you to respond to ours!  PLEASE CONTRIBUTE YOUR RECIPES TO THE COMMUNITY!   We hope that even more App-V users will contribute and use the content on the forum to sequence more applications! 

    If you have any questions, please contact the team at appvsite@microsoft.com.
  • Link
    Content posted on this site is provided as-is. You bear the risk of using it. Microsoft gives no express or implied warranties or guarantees. Content contributed by the community has not been tested by Microsoft unless otherwise noted.
    Manita Sharma

    Content posted on this site is provided as-is. You bear the risk of using it. Microsoft gives no express or implied warranties or guarantees.  Content contributed by the community has not been tested by Microsoft unless otherwise noted.

Live Meeting - Creating, Joining Meetings, Configurations and Settings announcements

  • Link
    Welcome to Office Live Meeting forums
    IrfanS - msft
     

    Welcome to Office Live Meeting forums.   This is home to comprehensive set of forums designed to cover various aspects of Microsoft Office Live Meeting. I am starting with few forums but will be adding some more as we go along. 

    Detailed technical topics should be posted into their respective forums if one is available. Other post can be done in the General section.  Please note however, it is important for a topic to be posted to the correct forum because different groups e.g. Support and Product Group teams and MVPs monitor different forums.  As moderators review the posts they may also move posts to another topic area per relevance.  Our ultimate goal here is to provide a useful response to every question within a reasonable amount of time.  We are targeting 2-3 business days, however being new initiative we are ramping up, so please bear with us on delays.

    Please also consider the following :

    This posting on forums is provided "AS IS" with no warranties, and confers no rights.

    These forums are not an official channel for product support. If you have an urgent or business critical issue, you should contact Microsoft Support Services

    Live Meeting Support for Technical and Billing Issues:
            Web Ticket: http://www.livemeeting.com/ask  

      Phone 1-866-493-2835 toll free (US and Canada Only) or refer to  http://support.microsoft.com/kb/939099/en-us  for additional support options.

     

     

    While much thought and planning was put into the creation of the forums, there is always room for improvement. I encourage you to please post your ideas and feedback in "General Discussion" forum or email them directly to me Irfan.Soomro@microsoft.com.

    Thank you for being a part of the Live Meeting community.

    Irfan Soomro
    Senior Program Manager

    Microsoft Office Live Meeting

Interop Connectors for Operations Manager announcements

  • Link
    FAQ: Frequently-Asked Questions about the Forums
    Robert_Hearn
    Welcome to the Interop Connectors for System Center Operations Manager forum! This forum is designed to help you find answers to questions about  our products. 

    Please note that this forum relates only to the Operations Manager connectors (not the connectors for Service Manager, which are discussed in another forum)


    Q: Where can I find more information about the products, technical information and troubleshooting?

    A: See the "Helpful Links" annoucement within this forum.

    Q: Why are some threads locked?

    A: When a thread is marked as answered or was not replied to for a long period of time, new posts in that thread may not get recognized and may not get a response. To ensure that new posts get the visbility they need, we lock threads that are marked as answered or where we cannot get a response from the poster within a reasonable period of time, so that any new replies will be done in a new thread and gain immediate attention.

    If you have the same issue as mentioned in a previous thread, but the answer provided does not solve your problem, post a new question and refer to the existing thread so we can quickly rule out that issue as the cause of your particular problem. That will speed up the process of getting your problem solved.

    Q: How long should I expect to wait for an answer?

    A:     We typically respond to new questions within 24-48 hours (excluding weekends and holidays) depending on when the post occurred. If you need faster response or you have a critical issue, please contact Microsoft Support (http://support.microsoft.com/). You should also visit the support page on the Operations Manager TechCenter.



Microsoft Assessment and Planning Toolkit announcements

MBSA - Microsoft Baseline Security Analyzer announcements

  • Link
    Welcome to the Micosoft Baseline Security Analyzer (MBSA) forums!
    Doug Neal

    This forum is for the Microsoft Baseline Security Analyzer security tool (www.microsoft.com/mbsa). No other security questions can be answered in this forum.

    Welcome to the updated MBSA TechNet forum to discuss the free Microsoft Baseline Security Analyzer security scan tool.

    As a security scan tool based on Microsoft Update, the behavior and results of MBSA are the same as Microsoft Update (not Windows Update that only detects updates for Windows products).  With the exception of WSUS-managed machines where the administrator's approved updates take precedence, MBSA will report exactly what Microsoft Update will report.  Like Systems Management Server (SMS), System Center Configuration Manager (SCCM), WSUS Server, MBSA uses the exact same logic and mechanisms as Microsoft Update to determine update applicability and installed state.

    As a security scan tool, MBSA reports against three classifications of updates: Security Updates, Update Rollups and Service Packs.  Critical (non-security) Updates, Definition Updates and Feature Packs and drivers are not detected by MBSA.

    The majority of issues reported by MBSA users stem from an expected update not being displayed - which is often because the update is not an MSRC security bulletin listed in the Security Bulletin Search (http://www.microsoft.com/technet/security/current.aspx) or is not an update rollup (like a new version of Internet Explorer) or a Service Pack.

    Almost all issues can be easily resolved by reviewing the error message displayed by MBSA, reviewing the System Requirements within the MBSA Help file (installed with MBSA) or the online MBSA Q&A (FAQ) located here: http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/security/cc184922.

    The latest MBSA news and information can be found at www.microsoft.com/mbsa and in the MBSA Q&A (FAQ).

Data Protection Manager - Scripting announcements

The Official Scripting Guys Forum! announcements

  • Link
    Posting Guidelines
    Marco Shaw
    You may have been redirected to this post by a moderator or user.  Thank you for posting to the Scripting Guys Forum.  We are here to help you with your scripting questions.  However, we are not here to write solutions to your scripting questions.  Questions like "I can't get this script to work that I've copied below, and here is the error I'm having" are welcome.  However, questions like "I don't have time to learn this myself, so I need someone to write me a script that does these 10 things" are typically not welcome.  In the latter case, ther eare various "freelance" web sites that you can search for with your favorite search engine full of people that would be willing to write scripts for you and they may charge you a fee.  After reading this, you may want to delete your post, as it may not be answered at all, except for a link being provided to this message.
  • Link
    Moderators' names and brief scripting autobiographies last names N-Z (last Updated August 12, 2013)
    Boe Prox

    This is a running list of all moderators on The Official Scripting Guys Forum! They are listed

    alphabetically by last name. N-Z

    Aaron Nelson (forum user name: SQLvariant)

    Aaron Nelson ( blog | twitter ) is a Senior SQL Server Architect with over 10 years of experience in Architecture, Business Intelligence, Development, and Performance Tuning of SQL Server. He has experience managing enterprise wide data needs in both transactional and data warehouse environments.  Aaron holds certifications for MCITP: Business Intelligence Developer, Database Administrator, Database Developer; as well as MCTS: Windows Server Virtualization, Configuration (meaning Hyper-V).  He is also a Microsoft MVP for SQL Server

    Chris O’Prey (forum user name: cjoprey)

    I’m a self-confessed geek who has been a developer for longer than I care to remember (let’s just say I remember writing BASIC in the 70s). In my latest guise as a developer and tester at Microsoft, I am a heavy user of Windows PowerShell for automation of testing, build, and integration. I use Windows PowerShell on a daily basis, and I have no intention of weaning myself off it!

    Travis Page (forum user name: pagerwho)

    I have been in IT for about 7 years now, the past year has been primarily focused on scripting in Windows PowerShell.  I utilize Windows PowerShell quite a bit to help me in my routine tasks, and have come to be known at my employer as the scripting guy.  In my current role I work with Exchange, Active Directory, Server systems and Desktops and have been working to develop scripts to assist me in troubleshooting faster, and fix problems faster with Windows PowerShell.  I am active in PASS at the local level and can be reached on Twitter via http://twitter.com/pagerwho or on LinkedIn: http://www.linkedin.com/in/travispage

    Thiyagarajan Parthiban (forum user name: Thiyagu14)

    I work for a large Investment Bank, as a Exchange Administrator. I have been scripting for more than 7 years now. I am good at VBscript, but when I first laid my eyes on Powershell, I realized this is the coolest thing ever in scripting. I automate Exchange/AD tasks, am also good at WMI, ADSI and generating reports. I blog at www.myExchangeWorld.com . I have developed custom apps in C# for automation. I love to automate things. Scripting and Exchange Server is really my passion.

    Jason Premo (forum user name: LikeToCode)

    I have been in IT for 12 years. I started with installing and troubleshooting radio and data transmission networks for the government, and then I moved into the private sector as a lead IT project engineer, which is when I was first exposed to VBScript. To me, it was the coolest thing since sliced bread. Now I use VBScript, VB.NET, AutoIT, HTAs, and ORCA to engineer enterprise software deployments and manage Active Directory.

    Rich Prescott (forum user name: Rich Prescott)

    I am currently working as an Infrastructure Architect/Windows Engineer at a large media company, with my main areas of focus being automation and Active Directory.  The automation responsibilities allow me to work with a wide-range of technologies including virtualization, storage and monitoring.  I started learning PowerShell in 2009 while working as a Desktop Engineer and am the lead scripting guy for my organization.

    Blog:     blog.RichPrescott.com
    Twitter: @Rich_Prescott

    Boe Prox (forum user name: Boe Prox)

    I have been working as an IT Pro since 2003 as Senior Windows System Administrator and started into scripting with VBscript in early 2008. I then started getting into Windows PowerShell in early 2009 and haven’t stopped using it since. I use Windows PowerShell on a daily basis at work for automation, reporting and anything else I can think of. My main focus areas are in ADSI and WMI and I am also learning more about .NET to further my Windows PowerShell experience. One of my favorite things about Windows PowerShell no matter what you know, you will always learn something new. My blog is at http://learn-powershell.net

    Mark Schill (forum user name: Meson3902)

    I live in Atlanta, Georgia, where I work as a contractor for the federal government. I began scripting with VBScript in 1999 and now work exclusively with Windows PowerShell.  My current areas of specialization are automated Windows system builds and Citrix environments.  VMWare is also of major interest to me. I work in development on a part-time basis and this has provided ease within the .NET Framework. I also serve as a resident advisor on the #PowerShell IRC channel on freenode.net. You can find me on my blog:  http://www.cmschill.net/stringtheory  .

    Andy Schneider (forum user name: Andy Schneider)

    I am a systems engineer at Avanade, Inc. I am on Avanade’s Internal IT team that works with Compute Utility and Storage infrastructure. I’ve been a professional in the IT industry since 1999. I remember the first time I started playing with VBScript. I ran into by boss’s office exclaiming “Holy Schnikees! Look what we can do with this stuff!” Seeing what I could do with automation, my view of IT changed forever. Now I am pretty much a pure Windows PowerShell fanatic. Windows PowerShell has provided me with a fairly smooth glide path into the world of development with .NET and C#. I’m not a developer, but I have a strong passion for bridging the world of development and systems engineering together by being able to interface with developers and other systems engineers. Learning Windows PowerShell has really given me the tools I need to become more educated about the world of development. You can find my blog at http://get-powershell.com/.

    Marco Shaw (forum user name: Marco Shaw)

    Brandon Shell (forum user name: BSonPosh)

    I have been in the IT industry since 1994. I spent the early years as a PC tech and general fix-it guy for numerous companies. I started a consulting company in 1999 to build, design, and support networks and Windows infrastructure. I offered Microsoft training as well. In 2000 I joined Microsoft as contractor for the Directory Services team (the first of several times). I joined Microsoft in 2002 as a full-time rapid response field engineer doing mostly Directory Service support for companies in the northeast. In 2004 the onsite travel requirement became too much, and I left for a finance firm where I am today.
    Blog:     www.bsonposh.com.

    Bhargav Shukla (forum user name: Bhargav Shukla - MSFT)

    My name is Bhargav Shukla, and I am a premier field engineer (PFE) at Microsoft. Computers always fascinated me. By education I am a civil engineer but my passion for IT lead my way and I became what I am today. As a PFE, I represent Microsoft and provide dedicated support to enterprise customers.

    In my 14 years of IT experience, I have had the opportunity to work on many technologies including messaging, Directory Services, information security, virtualization, and others. As I progressed through my career stages, I also earned industry certifications from Microsoft, VMware, RSA and Citrix. When not working with Enterprise clients, I am leading Exchange User Group in the Philadelphia area, contributing to TechNet forums, and reviewing books. I am one of the reviewers of Roberta Bragg’s Windows Server 2003: A Technical Reference. I also help Clint Huffman on his open source tool Performance Analysis of Logs (PAL) when time permits. Besides my passion for IT and messaging, I love playing chess. You can find me on the Free Internet Chess Server; my handle is “bhargavs”.

    Glenn Sizemore (forum user name: glnsize)

    I have been in IT for the last 8 years, during that time I have held just about every job one could hold. I started scripting early in my career, and had mastered VBScript by the time Windows PowerShell arrived. Being a scripter, I was an early adopter of Windows PowerShell, and have since become a fanatic. Professionally I work as a virtualization administrator, and use VBScript, BAT, and Windows PowerShell to automate all levels of the infrastructure. In my free time, I run www.Get-Admin.com, and contribute to various scripting communities.

    Bill Stewart (forum user name: AbqBill)

    I first began automating computers in 1985 using batch files in MS-DOS 3.0. My first experience with an enhanced command shell was with 4DOS (a Command.com replacement) in 1989, and this whet my appetite for more powerful automation. I studied Pascal programming on my own for several years, and I had a renewed interest in OS automation when I began working with Windows NT 4.0 in 1997. When Windows 2000 came with baked-in WSH, I was hooked. I learned VBScript first, but I came to appreciate JScript's power and flexibility, and I now greatly prefer it to VBScript when writing WSH scripts. I also enjoy using Windows PowerShell and have applied it to numerous automation tasks. I have written numerous articles for Windows IT Pro magazine as well as a number of freeware utilities to help scripters, which you can download from my Web site: http://www.westmesatech.com/. For my day job, I am the systems and network administrator for French Mortuary, in Albuquerque, New Mexico, in the United States.

    Trevor Sullivan (forum user name: Trevor Sullivan)

    I started learning to write scripts back in 2004. I started out as a desktop support person, and quickly realized that an understanding of programming would be essential to pursuing a career in technology. At the time, VBScript was the best cross between ease of learning and scripting power, so I started there. A couple years later, Windows PowerShell came around, and although I was quite keen on it, I didn't adopt it right away. I took some time to study C#/.NET because I wanted to understand programming a little bit deeper. Over the past year, I have picked up Windows PowerShell, largely built on my previous knowledge of the Microsoft .NET platform, and I write primarily in Windows PowerShell today.

    Jakob Svendsen (forum user name: Jakob Svendsen)

    I began my scripting/programming career when I got my first computer, at age 8. Later on I got the C64, and progressed toward writing small games. I studied C++, PHP, HTML, CSS, ASM, and others during my technical education. In the past 2 years, I have worked at Coretech A/S, Denmark (http://blog.coretech.dk) as an IT Consultant and Microsoft Certified Trainer. I spend most of my workdays scripting, programming, or teaching Windows PowerShell, VBScript, and .NET applications (VB or C#).

    Jonathan Tyler (forum user name: Jonathan Tyler)

    Jonathan Tyler is a senior software engineer employed by one of the world’s leading providers of commercial transport solutions. Jonathan has been in the IT industry since 1997. He currently supports the global SharePoint farm for the company’s Internet, extranet, and intranet solutions. Since working as a consultant, Jonathan started working with VBScript to automate tasks. He has done work in Visual Basic, C#, and Windows PowerShell. Check out his blog, PowerShell Reflections.

    Jason Walker  (forum user name: Jason Walker)

    Jason is an active member of the Charlotte PowerShell User’s Group, PowerShell evangelist and lives by the motto “Real admins don’t click them <TAB>”

    Fredrik Wall (forum user name: Fredrik Wall)

    I have been scripting since 1997. Since then I have been scripting with batch files, VBScript, KiXtart and Windows PowerShell. I work with Active Directory, Web servers, SQL servers, Windows Servers and Clients, Deployment, and more. So I script against most of Microsoft’s applications. My blog: http://powershell.se/blog. My Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/walle75. I’m the co-founder of the Scandinavian PowerShell User group.

    Brian Wilhite (forum user name: Brian Wilhite)

    Brian Wilhite works as a Windows System Administrator for a large health care provider in North Carolina.  He has over 15 years of experience in IT.  In his current capacity as a Windows SysAdmin, he leads a team of individuals that have responsibilities for Microsoft Exchange, Windows Server Build, Management and System Performance.  Brian also supports and participates in the Charlotte PowerShell Users Group.  He can be found on twitter.com/bwilhite1979

    Andrew Willett (forum user name: Andrew Willett)

    I am the projects manager for the IT department of a Steinhoff group company. Based in London, I spend most of my time deploying, designing, and developing Microsoft-based architectures.



  • Link
    Moderators' names and brief scripting autobiographies last names A-M (last Updated August 12, 2013)
    IamMred

    This is a running list of all moderators on The Official Scripting Guys Forum! They are listed alphabetically by last name. A-Z

    Andrew Barnes (forum user name: Andrew Barnes)

    I have more than 15 years of experience ranging from desktop support to third line/server specialist. My first program was on the BBC Micro in 1982. I wrote:

    10 PRINT "ANDREW IS COOL!"

    20 GOTO 10.

    I remember thinking, “Wow, Andrew is cool!” I continued scripting in enterprise environments with DOS batch files on a boot floppy, KIX in logon scripts, and then VBScripts in Active Directory. Now as a Microsoft Certified IT Professional, I'm taking on Windows Powershell for today’s automation. I have always used scripting to automate everyday IT tasks, reduce workloads, and resolve technical issues. After all, why do it when you can script it?

    Bartek Bielawski (forum user name: Bartek Bielawski)

    Bartek has been working in IT for more than 10 years for one company, PAREXEL, a global organization with headquarters in the U.S. Before he got a real job, he was big Linux fan and amateur Linux admin, with some bash scripting and all kinds of awking, seding, cutting, and greping. That's why one of his first tasks at work (other than putting out fires all around) was to improve backup scripts (done in cmd back then). That forced him to get to know cmd.exe better. The experience was bad when compared to bashing, but it paid the bills...

    A few years later, he tried to automate some tasks, which required something that cmd could not provide. His options were VBScript or Windows PowerShell. Even though he knows VBScript a bit, he always preferred the interactive Windows PowerShell. In his opinion, Windows PowerShell is the best product from Microsoft.

    Kai Bluesky (forum user name: kai.bluesky)

    VBScript is one of the most powerful tools that I have. I am used to scripting in WMI and ADSI. At the beginning, it just did my boring daily job automatically. Later, more complex tools—such as an inventory system and an application deployment tool—were implemented without costing my boss any money. Now, scripting has enabled me to join a professional team and my job has become more challenging.

    Jaap Brasser (forum user name: Jaap Brasser)

    Jaap is a Senior System Engineer in the Financial Services industry. He focuses on Microsoft and related technologies and has a passion for PowerShell. In his spare time he maintains his Blog, Twitter feed, @Jaap_Brasser, is a board member of the Dutch PowerShell User Group, and contributes on the Official Scripting Guys Forum and Windows PowerShell TechNet forums.

    Uros Cala (forum user name: urkec)

    My first couple of years as a system and DB administrator were really painful. My tasks kept piling up, I kept losing my head, and just when I was about to quit, I stumbled upon the Microsoft Script Center. I made use of a couple of simple scripts I found there, and for the first time I felt I was in control. My second big discovery was WMI—along with VBScript, it completely changed the way I do my job. I am currently exploring the .NET Framework and Windows PowerShell, trying to make my administrator life even easier.

    Rob Campbell (forum user name: mjolinor)

    I work at a medium-to-large corporate financial institution, as an AD and Exchange administrator. I have worked in IT for over 35 years, starting as a night operator on IBM System 3 and 360 series mainframes. I never really got the hang of VB, but love Windows PowerShell. I have done a few large-scale scripts, but most of my scripting work is ad-hoc, on-demand reports and maintenance changes. I do not know that I can lay claim to any particular area of specialization. The nearest I ever came up with for a good job description was “tactical logician”. 

    Marc Adam Carter (forum user name: marcadamcarter)

    I am currently a senior systems administrator with the Department of the Army.  I started in the IT industry in 1996 with DOS and various flavors of *NIX.  I was introduced to VBScript in 2000 and scripting became a regular obsession sometime in 2005.  In 2008 I made the move to Windows PowerShell and have never looked back.  My daily responsibilities keep me involved with Active Directory, supporting Microsoft Exchange, SharePoint, and various ASP.NETapplications.  In 2011, I founded the Corpus Christi PowerShell User Group and try to help bring others up to speed on PowerShell.

    Ravikanth Chaganti (forum user name: Ravikanth.Chaganti)

    I have 9+ years of experience in IT and mostly in the Windows Server operating system  related areas. My scripting experience dates back to my school days where I used to write DOS batch files to automate a few things on Windows 3.1. I did a lot of VBScripting, and a few popular ones include HVS2008 UI (http://hvs2008ui.codeplex.com), VHDShell Extensions (http://code.msdn.com/VHDShellExt), and a few other scripts on my blog. I primarily work on Hyper-V and SharePoint technologies. I use Windows PowerShell these days to automate a  lot of activities around these two technologies.

    Daniel Cruz (forum user name: Cruz_Daniel)

    In the past five years as an IT Professional, I have focused on Microsoft products and have earned my MCSE 2003 and MCITP: Server Administrator 2008 Certifications. Windows PowerShell is my primary scripting language and I use it on a daily basis with Active Directory, Exchange and for other admin tasks. I mostly use Cmdlets, WMI and .NET in my scripts and have recently been focused on reusable code and automation. I have learned a ton from the Windows PowerShell community and am now doing my best to give some back. You can learn more about me on Twitter or my Blog.

    Jeremy Engel (forum user name: engelj@labcorp.com)

    I started coding at the age of 10, writing games in BASIC for my lightning-fast Commodore 64. From there I ventured into the high-tech world of text-based online gaming, affectionately known as MUDs—specifically EverDark. Later, I made the jump to systems engineering, and it was there that I discovered VBScript. I currently use VBScript for access into all sorts of namespaces and frameworks: WMI, ADSI, SQL, Office, .NET, etc. I also write in HTML and C#, and I am currently casting a wary eye at Windows PowerShell.

    Niklas Goude (forum user name: Niklas Goude)

    I'm from Stockholm, Sweden, where i work at Enfo Zipper, a company that concentrates on client infrastructure. When I started scripting, i mainly focused on HTML and Javascript. Over time i got into PHP and finally VBScript, for managing the Windows environment. When I started at Enfo Zipper, one of the developers handed me a book on Windows PowerShell (PowerShell in Action, Bruce Payette ) and from that day on, I've been living Windows PowerShell. I also run a blog, http://www.powershell.nu,  where I post scripts, ideas, and guides on Windows PowerShell.

    Shane Hoey (forum user name: Shane Hoey)

    My scripting experience started back when Windows XP was the new kid on the block, and I soon found myself scripting on a daily basis with VBScript, WMI, and ADSI. Fast forward to the 2009 Summer Scripting Games, and I finally discovered Windows PowerShell. I’ve been hooked ever since. One of the things I like most about Windows PowerShell is its ability to easily automate, especially my daily repetitive tasks. My background is system and network administration, but at work they just call me the PowerShell Geek these days. By the way, I also run the Powershell Usergroup Brisbane.

    Matt Johnson (forum user name: MWJComputing)

    Matt Johnson (MWJComputing) is a system administrator and founder of the SE Michigan PowerShell Script club. Matt has been scripting for eight years and is proficient in Windows PowerShell, Perl, Python, and several other languages. He currently specializes in WMI, ADSI, and the .NET Framework. You can find Matt on Twitter (@mwjcomputing) and online at http://www.mwjcomputing.com or http://www.michiganpowershell.com.

    Laerte Junior (forum user name: Laerte Junior)

    I started programming computers in clipper. I went through the stage of visual basic and SQL SERVER DBA am 10 years or so. In addition to tuning and development(C#, TSQL), like a lot to automate processes in SQL SERVER. 1 year ago I have been developing scripts in Powershell with SQL Server to facilitate automation.I have a blog in Portuguese www.laertejuniordba.spaces.live.comwhere I put my progress in PowerShell with SQL Server and I am a guest blogger at www.simple-talk.com .

    Sean Kearney (forum user name: ye110wbeard@hotmail.com)

    I am a network administrator, a Microsoft Certified Technology Specialist in Windows Server Virtualization and Configuration, and a Microsoft Certified Systems Engineer. I’m a devoted and passionate computer enthusiast from the early 80s to the present day, having used just about every microcomputer ever. I taught myself computer programming with 65xx machine code, working with many technologies―but primarily Microsoft. I deal with “anything thrown at me,” from gnawed keyboards to recovery of Exchange servers, to networking setups and isolating the realm of the unknown. Currently, I test and deploy just about any new Microsoft Technology; I also deal with users in an enterprise class environment. I love Windows Powershell, Windows 7, and Hyper-V, in that order.

    Tom Lavedas (forum user name: Tom Lavedas)

    I built my first computer in 1980 (a Sinclair, ZedX80) to replace my programmable HP calculator and realized how useful personal computing could be.  I've never held an IT position in my career, though as a staff engineer in a small manufacturing company I was pressed into service for a while.  I worked out the transition from the company's antiquated mini-computer inventory system onto a WinNT file server based system just before Y2K made the mini inoperable.  Rather, I'm an electrical engineer who scripts. Sometimes the scripts handle small engineering computations, but usually I use them to automate redundant desktop management tasks. I'm fluent in a few obsolete languages (or used to be), like FORTRAN, Algol, Pascal and PL1, conversant in C and JScript, but mostly I stick with the command console (aka batch), VBScript and VBA in Excel and PowerPoint. I especially like building user interfaces in HTML/HTA to make my scripts more versatile.

    Thomas Lee (forum user name: Thomas Lee)

    I've been scripting pretty much forever. I used to be pretty hot at JCL on the IBM 360 in the late 1960s, did a ton of shell scripting in the 70s on ICL VME. I learned batch scripting with DOS 2.0. I never really grokked VBS (and never got infected with *ix). But I truly “got” Monad when I first saw it in September 2003 and never looked back. I'm proficient in Windows PowerShell 1.0 and 2.0, and specialize in the .NET and WMI aspects. My one interesting fact is that I was the first person to blog about Monad.

    Shay Levy (forum user name: Shay Levi)

    I'm from Israel. I've been working in IT since 1998 as a system administrator, mostly using Microsoft Server technologies. I started to script HTML pages (JavaScript and ASP) and soon enough I converted Web pages scripting to system scripting using VBScript, WMI, ADSI, etc. Since the first days when PowerShell was introduced, I found myself diving into this new technology and I couldn't stop using it. For quite some time I wondered if one could fall in love with a piece of software. Now I know that's possible! Most of the time I like to hang out in the Windows PowerShell newsgroup and scripting related forums . They provide real world problems where I can help and learn from users alike. I also run a blog at http://blogs.microsoft.co.il/blogs/ScriptFanatic  , so stop by and say hello.

    Oliver Lipkau (forum user name: Oliver Lipkau)

    I have been scripting for more than 10 years. I started with Batch at the age of 13 by modifying the school’s PC. Today my main scripting language is Windows PowerShell. It allows me to automate the majority of my routine management of servers and clients. My specializations are ADSI and WMI.

    I also code in vbs, ahk, html, js, batch, php, and asp . But Windows PowerShell is my favorite. My blog: http://oliver.lipkau.net/blog.

    Salvador Manaois III (forum user name: Salvador Manaois III)

    I have been writing scripts for 10 years in my role as an IT administrator. In my day-to-day work, I extensively make use of VB scripts, with a bit of .NET programming and Windows PowerShell on the side. Being in charge of ensuring compliance to our standard operating environment, I make use of a great deal of WMI, ADSI, and other wsh objects (registry, file streams, etc) to ensure that the majority, if not all, of the machines under my care adhere to our standards.

    Michael Moore (forum user name: lizaoreo)

    My name is Michael Moore; I was born in Greenville, TX and moved to Georgia when I was five because of my dad’s work. I like long walks on the beach and the occasional … oh you didn’t want that did you?

    I live in Calhoun, GA and work at Mohawk Industries, one of the world’s largest flooring manufacturers.  I started working with batch files in 2008 when I started a new job where they had a Batch file that I improved, and then continuously added tasks to. I later moved to Windows PowerShell in 2010 when I started trying to do stuff that just couldn’t be done in Batch and before I even got a handle on VBScript I ran across Windows PowerShell several times in the Hey Scripting Guys Blog.

    I have pretty much been hooked since then.

    Richard Mueller (forum user name: Richard Mueller)

    I worked for a large electric utility for many years where I managed IT budgets, developed mainframe applications, and coded batch files for administrative tasks, including logon scripts, desktop configuration, and tracking computers and users . Now I do consulting and application development for small organizations such as schools. I write programs using ADSI, WMI, ADO, SQL Server, VBScript, classic Visual Basic, and VB.NET. I've been a Microsoft MVP since 2003, first in Windows Server and now Directory Services. My Web site is http://www.rlmueller.net/ and is dedicated to scripts for administering Windows Active Directory networks.

    ·         Laerte's unedited profile:

  • Link
    August 12 2013 Please welcome our new moderators, Jaap Brasser and Jason Walker
    IamMred

    Jaap Brasser (forum user name: Jaap Brasser)

    Jaap is a Senior System Engineer in the Financial Services industry. He focuses on Microsoft and related technologies and has a passion for PowerShell. In his spare time he maintains his Blog, Twitter feed, @Jaap_Brasser, is a board member of the Dutch PowerShell User Group, and contributes on the Official Scripting Guys Forum and Windows PowerShell TechNet forums.

    Jason Walker  (forum user name: Jason Walker)

    Jason is an active member of the Charlotte PowerShell User’s Group, PowerShell evangelist and lives by the motto “Real admins don’t click them <TAB>”

Data Protection Manager - Tape Protection announcements

  • Link
    User Voice Feedback Forum!! - Data Protection Manager
    Andy Nadarewistsch

    Have feedback or a suggestion to improve DPM? We have added DPM and Azure back-up on user voice feedback forum on Azure.  We had piloted this initially with Azure backup and were thrilled with all the feedback/ideas. We have now added SCDPM to it as well. Would love to hear your ideas and feedback.  If you see an idea you like, vote for it ! If you have a new ideas, post it (the search bar will tell you if there is a similar idea so do check that before you post a new idea).

    Go to - http://feedback.azure.com/forums/258995-azure-backup-and-scdpm

  • Link
    DPM 2012 Sp1 / R2 and Windows 2012 / R2 - Virtual Fibre Channel attached tape library support.
    Mike Jacquet

    Both Windows 2012 and Windows 2012 R2 Hyper-V server have support for Virtual Fibre Channel (vFC) which allow you to attach physical fibre channel devices inside a Hyper-V guest running Windows 2012 / R2.

    System Center Data Protection Manager 2012 SP1 and later support running on Windows 2012.  
    System Center Data Protection Manager 2012 R2 is also supported running on Windows 2012 R2.

    When running DPM 2012.. in a Windows 2012 virtual machine, using the synthetic FC to connect to a tape drive / library is not supported because Windows 2012 does not currently offer support for it.

    However, DPM 2012 R2 +Sp3 or later running in Windows 2012 R2 virtual machine does support using the Vfc to connect to a fiber attached tape library

    This is documented in the following TechNet articles.

    Windows: Hyper-V Virtual Fibre Channel Overview

    DPM:  Verifying tape library compatibility  - see the section labeled: Run the compatibility tool for Hyper-V Fibre Channel

  • Link
    Creating and using certifcates for DPM tape backups.
    Mike Jacquet

    Below are quick links for using certificates encrypting DPM tape backups for all versions of DPM.

    How to Create Self-Signed Certificates for Successful Encryptions
    http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ff399364.aspx

    MakeCert.exe is available as part of the Windows SDK, which you can download from one of the below links:

    http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/p/?linkid=84091.
          http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/windows/desktop/aa386968(v=vs.85).aspx

    You can install Windows SDK and select option “Tools” under “.Net Development” and   unchecked everything else for installing makecert.exe only.

    How to Import Certificates into DPMBackupStore
    http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ff399563.aspx


    People who have to have deal with Real Certificate Authorities can use the following information to assist with their requests:
     
    If you are dealing with an organization that uses a Windows CA, have them issue a certificate based on the "Web Server" Template.
    If you are dealing with an organization that uses another vendors CA, request that they issue you a certificate with the following:
     
    Key Usages = Digital Signature, Non-Repudiation, Key Encipherment, Data Encipherment
    Extended Key Usage = Server Authentication
     
    The above match the values of your self generated certificate.

  • Link
    Support for IBM System Storage TS2900 Tape Autoloader Added to DPM 2010 and beyond
    Mike Jacquet

    DPM 2010 now supports the IBM System Storage TS2900 / TS357X Tape Autoloader after installing this DPM 2010 or later Hotfix.

    2465832 Description of the hotfix rollup package for System Center Data Protection Manager 2010: March 2011
    http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-US;2465832

    However, you must also add this registry key before that fix will be implemented.

    Registry Key: HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Microsoft Data Protection Manager\Agent
DWORD: RSMCompatMode
Value: 29 (Decimal)


  • Link
    DPM compatible Tape libraries
    Mike Jacquet

    ·     Windows 2012 no longer has a tape library compatibility certification tests, so NO vendors tape libraries will show as being certified in the Windows catalog.  For that reason the guidance we're giving customers is if the library is listed on the Windows server catalog under the hardware / storage section and shows compatible with Windows 2008 X64 or Windows 2008 R2 x64, then it should work fine with all versions of DPM.  Any driver incompatibilities with Windows 2012 will need to be addressed by the vendor.  
    http://www.windowsservercatalog.com/

    Compatible tape libraries - Applies To: System Center 2012 - Data Protection Manager, System Center 2012 SP1 - Data Protection Manager
    http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/hh916523.aspx


    Also leverage the DPM 2007 compatibility list, anything on this list should work on DPM2010 if they have Windows 2008 X64 drivers.

    System Center Data Protection Manager 2007 Tested Hardware
    http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/dpm/cc678583.aspx

    If you cannot find support for the library, you can download and run the DPMtapeLibraryCompatibilityChecker tool from the following page.

    Verifying tape library compatibility


    For Standalone drive.
    =====================

    Run the following command to list libraries attached to the system.

    DPMLibraryTest.exe /Certify /LL


    Run the following command, where \\.\tape######## is the symbolic name of the tape drive to test from the output of the /LL command.


    DPMLibraryTest.exe /CERTIFY /TL \\.\Tape2147483646 /SA


    For tape library
    ================

    Run the following command to list the libraries attached to the system:

    DPMLibraryTest.exe /Certify /LL

    Run the following command, where \\.\Changer# is the symbolic name of the tape library to test from the output of the /LL command.

    DPMLibraryTest.exe /CERTIFY /TL \\.\Changer0 /ST 1 2 4 5

     

    Description of the tests.

    Test 1: Basic Configuration
    This test will scan your system for attached devices. It will identify the libraries and the stand-alone drives attached to your system and give you a summary of what it finds. For each device, you will see a Device Name, Serial Number, Vendor Name, Product Name, Firmware Revision and SCSI properties.
    At the end of this test, the user must verify whether all the information as seen by the tool. If the information is incorrect, check the following:
    • Check if all the devices are listed in Device Manager.
    • Ensure that the drivers for the devices are up-to-date.
    • If the drive mappings are incorrect, use the DPMDriveMapping.exe to correct the mappings. If you do not have DPM installed on the computer, copy the DPMLA.xml that DPMDriveMapping.exe creates to the folder to which you extracted the Tape Library Certification tool.

    Test 2: Mount/Dismount
    This test will pick a tape from the first available slot and perform a mount/dismount of that tape to/from a drive.

    Test3: Drive Cleaning
    A cleaner cartridge in needed for this test to run. Please read the pre-requisites section for this test. If you are using Firestreamer or a VTL where you cannot remove/change tapes, please use the /ST flag of the tool to skip the cleaner test.

    Test4: I/E Media
    This test will pick up the first available tape and move it to the I/E port and back. If your library/VTL does not have I/E ports the tool will automatically skip the test.

    Test5: I/O
    This test will pick up the first available writable tape and write a few buffers to it and try reading what is written. The purpose of this test is only to check for reading/writing ability.  Any specific/transient errors in any drive have to be inspected using the Advance Mode.
     Warning
    This test will overwrite information in the tape. Ensure that the first available tape does not have important data on it.

    Once complete, for any test failures, review the  LibraryTestTool-*-Curr.errlog files located in the directory you ran the tool from.

    Once the tool passes the tests, then DPM should be able to use the tape library for backups.

     


    NOTE1: DPM does not support Automated Cartridge System Library Software, ACSLS is the software that controls an Automated Cartridge System (ACS). There are no plans to support it.

    NOTE2:  DPM does not support tape libraries that have auto-clean feature enabled. If the library supports auto-clean but that feature cannot be disabled, wo do not recommend using that library with DPM.



Data Protection Manager - General announcements

  • Link
    DPM error: The VHD containing the replica or one of it's snapshots could not be mounted or unmounted. (ID 40002)
    Mike Jacquet

    We have seen DPM 2016 or later servers using Modern Backup Storage (MBS)  experience the below error.   

    The VHD containing the replica or one of it's snapshots could not be mounted or unmounted. (ID 40002)

    This can be caused by a real failure to mount / dismount a replica or snapshot .vhdx file – or most likely the mount / dismount is working but WMI call is failing due to WMI out of memory error.

    NOTE: We have seen some customers experience this problem when using volume mountpoints for modern backup storage (MBS) so it suggested to assign a drive letter to the MBS volume(s) , then refresh the DPM Storage pool so it picks up the drive letter, then remove the mount point.

    To mitigate the WMI memory problem you can implement the below changes.

    1) Add these registry settings. Copy / paste into notepad and save as WMI.REG (no .txt extension) - then right-click the wmi.reg and click merge.

    Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00

    [HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Wbem\CIMOM]
    "High Threshold On Client Objects (B)"="60000000"
    "High Threshold On Events (B)"="60000000"

    2) Follow the below blog and change memory from 512mb to 1GB.

    Memory and Handle Quotas in the WMI Provider Service
    https://techcommunity.microsoft.com/t5/Ask-The-Performance-Team/Memory-and-Handle-Quotas-in-the-WMI-Provider-Service/ba-p/373319

    1.Start “wbemtest” as administrator.
    2.Connect to the “root” namespace (not “root\default”, just “root”)
    3.Click Open Instance. Specify “__ProviderHostQuotaConfiguration=@”
    4.Select Local Only for easier readability. You will see the threshold values.
    5.Increase the MemoryPerHost value to something greater. (For example, double it to 1GB 1073741824)
    6.Save Property
    7.Save Object
    8.Click Exit.

    3) Reboot the DPM Server.

  • Link
    Now available: Microsoft System Center 2019!
    EugeneLeitan
    On March 7, 2019, we shared that System Center 2019 would be coming soon. As of March 14, 2019, we are pleased to let you know that System Center 2019 is generally available. Customers with a valid license of System Center 2019 can download media from the Volume Licensing Service Center (VLSC). We will also have the System Center 2019 evaluation available on the Microsoft Evaluation Center.

    Faster backups with Data Protection Manager 2019

    Data Protection Manager (DPM) 2019 will provide backups optimized in time (faster) and space (consumes less storage).

    • DPM improves performance of your backups with a 75 percent increase in speed and enables monitoring experience for key backup parameters via Log Analytics.
    • DPM further supports backup of VMware VMs to tape. In addition to Windows Server 2019, DPM now provides backups for new workloads such as SharePoint 2019 and Exchange 2019.
  • Link
    DPM 2016 BMR backups fail intermittently - ID 30229 Details: Internal error code: 0x80990ED0
    Mike Jacquet

    ISSUE:  BMR backups fail

    Issue occurs on Data Protection Manager\Microsoft Azure Backup Server 2016 using Modern Backup Storage.  This occurs because windows backup server writers directly to the DPM\MABS share during backup and there could be IO latency greater than the standard SMB timeout of 45-60 seconds.  There are also some general items that should be configured for BMR backups please see Pre-requisites below.

    Pre-Requisites:

    Latest UR patch for Data Protection Manager or Microsoft Azure Backup Server

    Ensure Replica volume is sized correctly – https://blogs.technet.microsoft.com/dpm/2017/04/14/how-to-increase-dpm-2016-replica-when-using-modern-backup-storage-mbs/

    Ensure July CU update or above is applied for REFS - https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/help/4345418/windows-10-update-kb4345418

    Symptoms:

    On DPM server:

    DPM cannot create a backup because Windows Server Backup (WSB) on the protected computer encountered an error (WSB Event ID: 517, WSB Error Code:

     0x6B48C3A0). (ID 30229 Details: Internal error code: 0x80990ED0)

    OR

    You may also encounter an error “The storage involving the current operation could not be read from or written to. (ID 40003)”

    Log Name:      DPM Alerts

    Source:        DPM-EM

    Date:          7/7/2017 11:11:36 AM

    Event ID:      3106

    Task Category: None

    Level:         Error

    Keywords:      Classic

    User:          N/A

    Computer:      <servername>

    Description:

    The replica of Non VSS Datasource Writer on <servername> is inconsistent with the protected data source. All protection activities for data source will fail until the replica is synchronized with consistency check. (ID: 3106)

    The storage involving the current operation could not be read from or written to. (ID: 40003)

    On Protected server:

    Log Name:      Microsoft-Windows-Backup

    Source:        Microsoft-Windows-Backup

    Date:          5/8/2018 10:43:42 AM

    Event ID:      5

    Task Category: None

    Level:         Error

    Keywords:     

    User:          SYSTEM

    Computer:      <Servername>

    Description:

    The backup operation that started at '‎2018‎-‎05‎-‎08T15:17:32.312386000Z' has failed with following error code '0x8078015B' (Windows Backup encountered an error when accessing the remote shared folder. Please retry the operation after making sure that the remote shared folder is available and accessible.). Please review the event details for a solution, and then rerun the backup operation once the issue is resolved.

    And

    Log Name:      Microsoft-Windows-SmbClient/Connectivity

    Source:        Microsoft-Windows-SMBClient

    Date:          5/21/2018 4:23:49 PM

    Event ID:      30809

    Task Category: None

    Level:         Error

    Keywords:      (64)

    User:          N/A

    Computer:      <servername>

    Description:

    A request timed out because there was no response from the server.

    And

    Server name: <Servername>

    Session ID:0x17801D0000031

    Tree ID:0x1

    Message ID:0x4000015

    Command: Flush

    Guidance:

    The server is responding over TCP but not over SMB. Ensure the Server service is running and responsive, and the disks do not have high per-IO latency, which makes the disks appear unresponsive to SMB. Also, ensure the server is responsive overall and not paused; for instance, make sure you can log on to it.

    Log Name:      Microsoft-Windows-SMBServer/Operational

    Source:        Microsoft-Windows-SMBServer

    Date:          5/21/2018 4:25:37 PM

    Event ID:      1020

    Task Category: (1020)

    Level:         Warning

    Keywords:      (8)

    User:          SYSTEM

    Computer:      <ServerName>

    Description:

    File system operation has taken longer than expected.

    Client Name: <IP>

    Client Address: <IP:Port>

    User Name: <Username>

    Session ID: 0x17801D0000031

    Share Name: <sharename>

    File Name: WINDOWSIMAGEBACKUP\<Servername>\<Backupdate>\<GUID>.VHDX

    Command: 7

    Duration (in milliseconds): 353151

    Warning Threshold (in milliseconds): 120000

    Guidance:

    The underlying file system has taken too long to respond to an operation. This typically indicates a problem with the storage and not SMB

    Cause:

    SMB timeout is too short for IO latency for BMR on REFS

    Resolution\Workaround:

    Option 1:

    Set registry and reboot protected server

    1.                      Add the registry key below on the protected server

    reg add HKLM\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\LanmanWorkstation\Parameters /v SessTimeout  /t REG_DWORD /d 1200

    Option 2: If you cannot reboot server (Note:  Ensure you check the list of dependencies for the Lanmanworkstation service as those services will need to be started again too)

    1. Add the registry key      below on the protected server

    reg add HKLM\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\LanmanWorkstation\Parameters /v SessTimeout  /t REG_DWORD /d 1200

    Note:  The 1200 second setting is a 20 minute timeout.  This is not a rigid number but has been tested with success.   Depending on latency you can adjust as needed.  To get suspected latency please review REFS event logs on DPM\MABS server.

    1. Stop/Start      Lanmanworkstation service

    Note: There are some other services that depend on Lanmanworkstation, just start those back.

  • Link
    Enhancing Backup Performance on DPM 2016 Modern Backup Storage.
    Mike Jacquet

    There is one optimization change you can make in DPM 2016 using Modern Backup Storage that “may” help reduce the backup times.  The issue is that DPM tries to get the size of the recovery point by asking ReFs to count the blocks associated with that recovery point so it can update the DPMUI “storage used” in the UI.

    To eliminate that additional calculation that can take a long time and allow the next backup to start you can disable that calculation using the below DPM powershell command.

        Manage-DPMDSStorageSizeUpdate.ps1 -ManageStorageInfo StopSizeAutoUpdate

    As a result, the “storage consumed” for each data source will not be displayed after a new backup is completed.

    The above is covered in the release notes: https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/system-center/dpm/dpm-release-notes

          Section titled: Recovery Points not being pruned, leading to an accumulation of Recovery Points.

    If you need to know the amount used for a data source you can use the associated UpdateSizeForDS command.

  • Link
    How to increase DPM 2016 replica when using Modern Backup Storage (MBS)
    Mike Jacquet

    There may be circumstances where the replica volume for a protected data source is under allocated or a very large increase of protected data results in synchronization or recovery point job failures due to inadequate space on the replica.

    Type:     Recovery point
    Status:  Failed
    Description:        DPM is out of disk space for the replica. (ID 58 Details: There is not enough space on the disk (0x80070070))

    As in previous versions, DPM 2016 has replica auto-grow feature for modern backup storage (MBS) to help increase the replica sizes as the data sources grows.  Under normal use conditions this feature works perfectly fine.  If a job fails due to out of disk space, it will automatically grow the replica volume and schedule a new synchronization or recovery point job to run one hour in the future.  However, if the amount of new data is much larger than the size of the replica after auto-grow, the jobs will continue to fail even as the auto-grow continues to increase the replica size.  After two failures, auto-rerun is no longer triggered by default. In DPM 2012 R2 you had the ability to manually grow the replica volume as large as you wanted by using the “modify disk allocation” wizard, however in the DPM 2016 you do not have the ability to manually grow the replica volume using the same wizard.  This can cause delays in getting good backups again to meet your SLA.   If you know the new size of the protected data or want to grow the replica volume for future data growth in order to prevent future backup failures, you can grow the replica manually.

    The below BLOG contains a DPM PowerShell script to make it easy to manually increase a replica volume to the new desired size.

    How to increase DPM 2016 replica when using Modern Backup Storage (MBS)
    https://techcommunity.microsoft.com/t5/System-Center-Blog/How-to-increase-DPM-2016-replica-when-using-Modern-Backup/ba-p/351818

  • Link
    SystemState / BMR backups consume more space when using DPM 2016 Modern Backup Storage.
    Mike Jacquet

    When using DPM 2016 to protect SystemState / BMR workloads the storage used for those backups will be higher when using DPM Modern Backup Storage (MBS) as compared to using legacy Logical Disk Manager (LDM) based storage used in DPM 2012 R2. 

    When DPM initiates a SystemState or BMR backup, Windows Server Backup is used and overwrites the existing WindowsImagebackup folder with the new backup data.  For SystemState that folder is on the protected server and later transferred to the DPM Server replica.  For BMR, Windows Server Backup overwrites the folder on the Replica volume directly.

    When the replica is located on a LDM based volume, Volume Shadow Copy (VSS) snapshots are used for recovery points.  When the files are overwritten on the replica volume, VSS performs a read for the original file blocks – compares them to what is about to be written  - then either copies the original blocks to the shadow copy (recovery point volume) if different or just lets the write thru if the blocks are identical. This is called Copy On Write (COW).  Between backups a lot of the blocks are the same between the files so the shadow copies were relatively small.

    Modern Backup Storage (MBS) uses ReFs clones for recovery points. There is no copy on write operation like there are when using VSS, all writes are performed but instead of overwriting the original files the new blocks are written to different locations on the MBS volume. This is called allocate on write, so even blocks that are the same will use different free space on the Refs volume.  That results in more storage consumption as each backup will consume the amount of space as a complete SystemState or BMR backup.  IE: If the initial replica size shows 24GB used, then all subsequent backups will come very close to consuming the same amount of space.  If the backups are taken frequently or have a long retention period the storage usage can be significant.

    To mitigate this behavior I would suggest either take fewer BMR / SystemState  recovery points, use a reduced retention period, or just plan on needing more storage for SystemState / BMR backups.

  • Link
    VMWare ILR failing on Windows VM using DPM 2012 R2 UR11
    Mike Jacquet

    System Center Data Protection Manager 2012 R2 UR11 added support for VMware host level backup.  If you attempt to perform an Item Level Recovery (ILR) from the latest recovery point for a Protected Windows VM, you receive an ID: 958 popup error message with the below details.

    IMPORTANT NOTE:  This problem is not present in Microsoft Azure Backup Server (MABS) update rollup 1 (UR1) that also added support for VMWare host level backups.

    WORKAROUND(S)
    ===========

    1) Select an earlier recovery point if the file(s) (version) you want to recover was included in an earlier recovery point.
    2) Restore the entire VM to an alternate location and copy the desired file(s) out of that restored VM.
    3) Create a new AD-HOC recovery point manually.  That will enable ILR to work for all recovery points including the latest one you made manually.  

    UPDATE:  This issue is now fixed in DPM 2012 R2 UR13.  However, you need to consider the following for the fix to work.

    1. For Protection Groups created after applying UR13, Item Level Recovery will work fine.
    2. For older Protection Groups, you need to modify the PGs by adding/removing a small VM or making some configuration changes to the PG for the fix to work.

  • Link
    Introducing DPM 2016 Modern Backup Storage
    EugeneLeitan
    https://blogs.technet.microsoft.com/dpm/2016/10/19/introducing-dpm-2016-modern-backup-storage/
  • Link
    Announcing SC 2016 DPM with Reduced TCO of Backup
    EugeneLeitan
    SC DPM 2016 brings in features that delivers improvements in multiple key areas of backup efficiency, performance, flexibility and security.  With Modern Backup Storage (MBS), DPM 2016 is turning around the way backups are stored by leveraging modern technologies like ReFS Block Cloning, ReFS Allocate On Write and VHDX.  This to 3X faster backups and 50% reduction in storage consumption thus reducing overall backup TCO.

    https://blogs.technet.microsoft.com/dpm/2016/10/19/announcing-sc-dpm-2016-with-modern-backup-storage/
  • Link
    NEW GUIDE FOR DPM 2016 !!!
    EugeneLeitan
    DPM 2016 comes with Modern Backup Storage which delivers 50% storage savings, 3x faster backups, and more efficient storage with Workload-Aware storage. Modern Backup Storage can be used by setting up DPM 2016 on Windows Server 2016.

    Add Storage to DPM 2016
  • Link
    DPM 2012 R2 UR11 adds support for host level WMWare backup
    Mike Jacquet

    Very happy to report the release SC DPM 2012 R2 UR11 that adds protection for VMware host level backup of VMs.  Here are major features of VMware VM Backup.  Here are the few highlights of VMware VM backup.

    • Agentless backup
    • Backup at vCenter or ESXi level
    • Backup VMware VM folders
    • Ability to do ILR
    • Protect large data center using DPM Scale Out
    • Backup to Disk/Cloud

    Here are the blogs and articles that are published.

    BLOG - Implementing Microsoft DPM host level protection of VMware VMs

    BLOG-Announcing VMware VM Backup using System Center Data Protection Manager

    BLOG-Four simple steps to backup VMware VMs using SC DPM

    Technet-Back up and restore VMware

  • Link
    SC DPM 2012 R2 UR9 is now available as an "Important" update on Microsoft Update after getting positive feedback from thousands of customers.
    Anurag Mehrotra [MSFT]

    We have made a bunch of improvements in this update, related to reboot requirements, Enterprise file server backup, online backups and more.

    https://blogs.technet.microsoft.com/dpm/2016/02/25/backup-of-enterprise-data-made-easier-with-system-center-data-protection-manager/

  • Link
    !!! IMPORTANT!!! - Expired Disk Based Recovery Points are not deleted after installing DPM 2012 R2 UR7
    Mike Jacquet

    After you install DPM 2012 R2 UR7 update (KB3065246), DPM cannot delete expired recovery points. This will lead to extra recovery point volume usage.  

    Please download and install the fix for this issue.

    Fix for a known issue with Update Rollup 7 for System Center 2012 R2 Data Protection Manager

    MORE INFORMATION
    ==============

    DPM 2012 R2 UR7 introduced a new switch to the powershell cmdlet Get-RecoveryPoint, it now requires a -Datasource switch as seen below:

    Get-RecoveryPoint -Datasource $ds

     If you have any custom powershell scripts that use that cmdlet, please modify them to use the new -Datasource switch.

  • Link
    Some DPM console troubleshooter and DPMDB maintenance resources
    Mike Jacquet

    Below are some handy links for the DPM Console troubleshooter which can help you resolve console crashes and three DPMDB maintenance blogs.

    Guided Walkthrough for Troubleshooting Data Protection Manager console issues

    DPMDB Maintenance Part 1: Database consistency check and your DPMDB
    DPMDB Maintenance Part 2: Identifying and dealing with fragmentation in your DPMDB
    DPMDB Maintenance Part 3: Dealing with a large DPMDB


  • Link
    How to register a DPM 2012 SP1 or later server to backup to Microsoft Azure
    Mike Jacquet

    Hello - Please find the following BLOG on the new streamlined method of registering a DPM 2012 SP1 or later DPM server to backup to Azure.  There is no longer a requirement to upload a certificate when registering a DPM server for online backups.

    Below are two Blogs on the subject.

    How to register a DPM 2012 SP1 or later server to backup to Microsoft Azure

    Simplified workflow to configure backup to Azure from DPM
  • Link
    Announcing Deduplicating DPM storage whitepaper
    Mike Jacquet

    Please find the following whitepaper detailing how to dedup DPM storage pool to help reduce overall disk storage requirements for disk based backups.  This solution requires Windows 2012 R2 and System Center Data Protection Manager 2012 R2

    Deduplicating DPM Storage

  • Link
    Guided Walkthrough for Troubleshooting Data Protection Manager console issues
    Mike Jacquet

    For DPM Console crash issues, please review this troubleshooter before posting a new question.

    Guided Walkthrough for Troubleshooting Data Protection Manager console issues

  • Link
    DPM 2012 support for Windows Server 2012
    Mike Jacquet

    updated 6-5-13

    Hello Everyone,

    System Center DPM 2012 is not supported running on Windows Server 2012.  We have had reports of DPM 2012 console crashes when navigating to the recovery tab if DPM 2012 is installed on Windows server 2012.  This issue is fixed in System Center 2012 SP1 which supports being installed on Windows 2012 operating system.

    If you are already in this condition,  you have two options:

    A) You can upgrade to System Center 2012 Sp1.

    B) You can backup the DPMDB, rebuild the DPM server using Windows 2008 R2 install DPM 2012, then restore your current database. The process is explained in the below technet article.

    Recovering DPM servers
    http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/jj244606.aspx

    We also do not support protecting Windows Server 2012 workloads using SCS DPM 2012, you must upgrade to DPM 2012 Sp1.   Please do not expect any support for DPM 2012 running on Windows Server 2012, or issues while protecting data sources in Windows Server 2012.






Data Protection Manager - Storage Pool announcements

Data Protection Manager - Setup and Agent management announcements

Data Protection Manager - Hyper-V and CSV Clusters announcements

  • Link
    Free ebook: Microsoft System Center Data Protection for the Hybrid Cloud
    giridharreddy

     Free ebook: Microsoft System Center Data Protection for the Hybrid Cloud

    If you are responsible for architecting and designing the backup strategy for your organization, especially if you're looking for ways to incorporate cloud backup into your business continuity scenarios, this book is for you. With the increasing trends in virtualization as well as the move to the pubic cloud, IT organizations are headed toward a world where data and applications run in on-premises private clouds as well as in the public cloud. This has key implications for data protection strategy, and it is important to choose the solution that provides the same level of data protection you have afforded so far while allowing you to harness the power of the public cloud.

  • Link
    DPM Host level backup of a VM fails with 0x800423F3 when hosting a SQL Always-on secondary db.
    Mike Jacquet

    DPM encountered a retryable VSS error. (ID 30112 Details: VssError:The writer experienced a transient error. If the backup process is retried, the error may not reoccur. (0x800423F3))"

    This is fixed in SQL Server 2012 SP2

    Bugs that are fixed in SQL Server 2012 Service Pack 2
    http://support.microsoft.com/kb/2958429

    -  DPM’s full backup on the server with AlwaysOn secondary will be converted to copy_only backup

    How to obtain the latest service pack for SQL Server 2012
    http://support.microsoft.com/kb/2755533

  • Link
    Application Log truncation does not occur after host level guest backups
    Mike Jacquet


    I would like make you aware of what seems to be change in behavior between Windows 2008 (R2)  / Windows 2012 and Windows 2012 R2 host level backups of guests.  It used to be that when a Guest was backed up by DPM when protecting Windows 2008 (R2) and Windows 2012 hosts - the Hyper-V writer would communicate with the integration components inside the guest and would consider a host level backup as being equivalent of guest level backup for application data like exchange and SQL.  This resulted in the application logs being truncated after every host level backup of the guest.  This was desirable so you didn't need two separate backups, one for the VM guest, and one for application backup to truncate the logs.  If you really wanted to prevent the logs from being truncated so you could perform separate application level backups, you needed to add a registry key to the guest and set it to a value of 1.  This is documented on the following Windows KB article.

    975925 A hotfix is available that addresses the issues that occur when you perform a host-level backup of a Hyper-V VM on a computer that is running Windows Server 2008
    http://support.microsoft.com/kb/975925/en-us


    It appears that the default behavior in Windows 2012 R2 is just the opposite and the logs do not get truncated by default when performing host level backups of guest VM's running applications like exchange and SQL.

    The solution is to add the following registry keys and value as needed inside the Guest and set it to 0 so the application logs do get truncated after host level backups.
    In Registry Editor, locate the following registry subkey:

    HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Virtualization\VssRequestor

    Create a registry entry of the REG_DWORD type.
    Set the name of the registry entry to BackupType.
    Set the value of the registry entry to 0.

  • Link
    DPM is performing "Backup Using Saved State" versus "Backup Using Child Partition" - WHY ?
    Mike Jacquet

    When DPM protects a Hyper-V guest using HOST level protection, the Hyper-V writer on the hyper-V host communicates with the integration components inside the guest and determines if child partition or saved state backup will be performed.  Once DPM adds the guest to a protection group, the description: "Backup using child partition" or "backup using saved state" will not change, even thought the condition that determines the state may change.

    To get a real-time view of how then next backup will be perfomed, you can run the following test.

    To list hyper-V writer captions for guests to see if online or saved state backups can be done:

    From an administrative command prompt:

    a. Type: copy con script.txt and press enter
     b. Type: list writers and press enter
     c. Press CTRL + Z (to save)
     d. Type: diskshadow /s script.txt | find /i "caption: backup using"

    Output will be displayed for each guest.


    Here are the general conditions that make a VM go into a saved state during backup.

    Protecting Hyper-V machines
    http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/hh757866.aspx


    Conditions when DPM fails to back up Hyper-V virtual machines in an online state

    By default, System Center 2012 – Data Protection Manager (DPM) performs a backup of a Hyper-V Virtual Machine (VM) in an online state. However, DPM cannot back up a Hyper-V VM in an online state, if one or more of the following conditions are true:

    •Backup (Volume Snapshot) Integration Service is disabled or not installed.
    •The virtual machine has one or more dynamic disks.
    •The virtual machine has one or more non-NTFS based volumes.
    •The virtual machine Cluster Resource Group in a cluster setup is offline.
    •The virtual machine is not in a running state.
    •A ShadowStorage assignment of a volume inside the virtual machine is explicitly set to a different volume other than itself.
    •An App-V drive is installed on the virtual machine that creates a non-NTFS volume.

    These conditions are set by the Hyper-V writer. In such a case, the VM is put in a saved state before a snapshot of host volumes are taken (except when the VM is turned off) for a backup. The Hyper-V writer adds the VM in the following format:
    •For offline backups: Backup Using Saved State\<VMName>
    •For online backups: Backup Using Child Partition Snapshot\<VMName>

    Additional reason is if there is less than 300MB free space on a volume in the guest.


    If you are using DPM 2010/2012/2012 Sp1 to backup guests running on a Windows 2008 (R2) hyper-v server you may observe that Windows 2012 server / Windows 8 guest VM's only get the option "Backup using saved state". It is also reported that some Windows 2012 server guests transfer the whole VM during backups instead on block level changes. 

    The below resolves both of these issues.

    SOLUTION
    =======

    The Windows 8 or Windows server 2012 guest needs to have scoped VSS snapshots turned off in order to support online backups. This is a new feature apparently in Win8/2012 and the default is enabled.

    Implement this registry key on EACH Windows 8 or Windows 2012 guest to resolve the issue.  You must add a key called SystemRestore, then add a value called ScopeSnapshots as follows.

    HKLM\Software\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\SystemRestore
    REG_DWORD ScopeSnapshots 0x0

    See the additional info on scoped snapshots.

    http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/windows/desktop/aa378941(v=vs.85).aspx



  • Link
    Anouncement: System Center Data Protection Manager CSV Serialization Tool
    Mike Jacquet

    This tool will help serialize DPM backups across multiple Windows 2008 based hyper-v clusters in a unattended way.

    Download the tool from the below KB article.

    System Center Data Protection Manager CSV Serialization Tool
    http://www.microsoft.com/en-us/download/details.aspx?id=36524

    Overview

    With the current approach, if there are multiple clusters managed by DPM, the user needs to run DSConfig.ps1 on one node of each cluster and then XMLs of each cluster needs to be merged and replace the DataSources.xml in %ProgramFiles%\Microsoft System Center 2012\DPM\DPM\Config  directory of the DPM server. And moreover these steps need to be repeated each time any VM is added to the cluster.

    The XML merging/serialization tool will remove many of these manual steps. The tool needs to be run on the DPM server periodically (or scheduled). It will run DSconfig.ps1 on one node of each cluster, merge the XML and replace Datasources.xml in the DPM config directory. 

                                   

    System requirements

    Supported operating systems: Windows Server 2008, Windows Server 2008 R2, Windows Server 2008 R2 SP1

    For DPM: Supported operating systems: 

    • Windows Server 2008
    • Windows Server 2008 R2
    • Windows Server 2008 R2 SP1
    DPM Versions: DPM 2010 with  QFE 3 and above or  DPM 2012
    For CSV Cluster Nodes:
    Windows Server 20008 R2 & Windows Server 2008 R2 SP1
  • Link
    Windows Server 2012 R2 Hyper-V guests are placed in saved (offline) state during DPM backup.
    Mike Jacquet

    Please be aware of the following blog.

    Hyper-V Backup doesn’t interrupt running virtual machines (anymore)

    You are using DPM 2012 R2 to backup Windows Server 2012 R2 hyper-v guests and observe that some VM's only backup using "Offline" state but you want backups to be using "Online " state.

    SOLUTION
    =======
    Ensure the effected guests have a SCSI controller configured in the properties of the Hyper-V guest.   Windows Server 2012 R2 Hyper-V servers require a SCSI controller inside the guests so snapshots created as part of the backup process can be mounted.  IDE controller does not allow this hot-mount operation, so you must install a SCSI controller in the guest.


    The Windows 2012 R2 Hyper-V writer on the hyper-V host communicates with the integration components inside the guest and determines if online or offline backup will be performed.   Be sure the latest integration components are installed in each guest.

    To get a real-time view of how the next backup will be performed, you can run the following test.

    To list Windows 2012 R2 hyper-V writer captions for guests to see if online or offline state backups will be done:

    From an administrative command prompt on the Hyper-V server:

    a. Type: copy con script.txt and press enter
     b. Type: list writers and press enter
     c. Press CTRL + Z + enter (to save)
     d. Type: diskshadow /s script.txt | find /i "caption: O"


    Output will be displayed for each guest as follows.


    C:\temp>diskshadow /s script.txt | find /i "caption: O"
                            - Caption: Online\SQLSERVER
                            - Caption: Offline\WSS-V14

    The Windows 2012 R2 Hyper-V writer adds the VM in the following format:

     For offline backups: Offline\<VMName>
     For online  backups: Online\<VMName>

    NEW NOTE: Windows group just released “Linux Integration Services Version 3.5 for Hyper-V”. The document mentions that some versions of Red Hat and CentOS are now supported to do online backup.

    Live virtual machine backup support
    ======================
    RHEL/CentOS 6.0-6.3
    RHEL/CentOS 5.7-5.8
    RHEL/CentOS 5.5-5.6

    ADDTL NOTES: If there are open file handles during a live virtual machine backup operation, the backed-up virtual hard disks (VHDs) might have to undergo a file system consistency check (fsck) when restored.

    Live backup operations can fail silently if the virtual machine has an attached iSCSI device or a physical disk that is directly attached to a virtual machine (“pass-through disk”).

    NOTE: Anyone wanting online backups on RHEL/Centos 6.4/6.5 should check out Hyper-V Backup Essentials on the LIC GitHub.

    A customer reported this installed without problems and seems to work.


  • Link
    DPM 2012 support for Windows Server 2012
    Mike Jacquet

    System Center DPM 2012 (non-Sp1) is not supported running on Windows Server 2012.  We have had reports of DPM 2012 console crashes when navigating to the recovery tab if DPM 2012 is installed on Windows server 2012.  This issue is fixed in DPM 2012 SP1, so please upgrade to fix the problem.

    We also do not support protecting Windows Server 2012 using SCS DPM 2012 )non-Sp1)   Please do not expect any support for DPM 2012 (non-sp1) running on Windows Server 2012, or issues while protecting data sources in Windows Server 2012.  This includes Hyper-V protection.



Data Protection Manager -SharePoint Protection announcements

  • Link
    DPM 2012 SP1 Protecting Sharepoint using SQL 2012 Always On AG as backend is not currently supported.
    Mike Jacquet

    When you try to protect a Windows SharePoint farm using SQL 2012 Always On AG backend using System Center Data Protection Manager 2012 Sp1, you receive one of the following error messages:

    ERROR
    =====
    DPM cannot protect this SharePoint farm because DPM did not detect any dependent databases to be protected. (ID: 32008) Verify that the appropriate SQL Server VSS writers are enabled on the computers hosting the SharePoint databases.


    This Windows SharePoint Services farm cannot be protected because DPM did not find any dependent databases and search indices to be protected. (ID: 32008) 1) Verify that the appropriate SQL Server VSS Writers on the computers hosting the Windows SharePoint Services databases are enabled. 2) Verify that the Windows SharePoint Services Search VSS Writers are enabled on the computers where the search indices are.

    CAUSE
    =====
    At this time using SQL 2012 availability groups (AG) for Sharepoint back end is not supported by DPM 2012 Sp1.  We will have some public facing content on the limitation shortly.  I cannot say at this time if this will be fixed in a future DPM 2012 rollup, it needs to be investigated by the product group.

Data Protection Manager - Exchange protection announcements

Windows Embedded POSReady announcements

Surface 2.0 Platform and Applications announcements

Surface 1.0 Hardware, Platform and Applications announcements

System Center Essentials - Capacity Planner announcements

Windows Vista Application Compatibility Toolkit announcements

Windows Vista Service Packs/Windows Server 2008 Service Packs announcements

  • Link
    Announcing Service Pack 2 for Windows Vista and Windows Server 2008
    Anthony_Mann
    Today we are proud to announce the Release to Manufacturing of Service Pack 2 for Windows Vista and Windows Server 2008.  Service Pack 2 (SP2) represents the latest step in Microsoft’s commitment to continuous improvement.  It includes all of the updates that have been delivered since SP1, as well as support for new types of hardware and emerging hardware standards.  And since it comes with a single installer for both Windows Vista and Windows Server 2008, SP2 will be easy for IT Pros to manage, deploy, and support.  For an overview of the changes introduced in SP2, check out the notable changes document.

    Business customers with Windows Vista will find that the transition to Windows 7 will be significantly more straightforward due to the high degree of compatibility between Windows Vista and Windows 7.  If your Windows Vista SP1 deployment is already underway we recommend you continue with SP1 as planned.  Then you can deploy SP2 using your systems management infrastructure.  If you are in the early stages of deployment or still planning Windows Vista deployment our best advice is that you plan on testing and deploying Windows Vista SP2.

    More information can be found on the Windows Team Blog.

Windows Vista Announcements announcements

Windows Vista Security announcements

Windows Vista Desktop UI announcements

App Controller - General announcements

  • Link
    Resources for App Controller
    Richard Rundle

    Welcome to the discussion forum for App Controller.

    System Center 2012 - App Controller empowers application owners to easily build, configure, deploy and manage new services through a common self-service experience across private and public clouds by:

    • Presenting a customized view of private and public cloud resources based on the user’s role
    • Offering application owners service-centric administration, including service design and visualization, deployment and configuration.
    • Enabling application owners to deploy and manage services on private clouds and Windows Azure.

    The following additional resources are available to help you with App Controller: 

Cloud Computing: Platform as a Service announcements

  • Link
    Welcome to the Platform as a Service Forum!
    Thomas W Shinder - MSFT

    Welcome Cloud community! This is the Platform as a Service (PaaS) forum on the TechNet forums.

    The purpose of this forum is to provide a place where IT Architects and IT Pros can talk about issues related to PaaS. The goal is to enable the Cloud community to share ideas, architectures, plans, lessons learned, and even opinions about PaaS. While you are welcome to focus on the Microsoft PaaS solutions, the discussion does not need to be limited to Microsoft PaaS offerings. For example, there are many cross-cutting issues in PaaS, such as security and identity management.

    If you have questions about PaaS, this is the place to ask! However, if you have specific questions about products or technologies that participate in a specific PaaS solution, the best place to get those answers will be in the forums for that particular product or technology.

    I'm looking forward to many interesting discussions and lessons to be learned. We just at the beginning of the cloud movement - get in on the ground floor and participate in the Private Cloud community today!

    Thanks!

    Tom

    Tom Shinder
    Principal Knowledge Engineer, SCD iX
    SCD iX Solutions Group – Private Cloud Security
    Follow me on Twitter: http://twitter.com/tshinder
    Be my friend on Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/tshinder

Cloud Computing: Infrastructure as a Service announcements

  • Link
    Welcome to the Infrastructure as a Service Forum!
    Thomas W Shinder - MSFT

    Welcome Cloud community! This is the Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS) forum on the TechNet forums.

    The purpose of this forum is to provide a place where IT Architects and IT Pros can talk about issues related to IaaS. The goal is to enable the Cloud community to share ideas, architectures, plans, lessons learned, and even opinions about IaaS. While you are welcome to focus on the Microsoft IaaS solutions, the discussion does not need to be limited to Microsoft IaaS offerings. For example, there are many cross-cutting issues in IaaS, such as security and identity management.

    If you have questions about IaaS, this is the place to ask! However, if you have specific questions about products or technologies that participate in a specific IaaS solution, the best place to get those answers will be in the forums for that particular product or technology.

    I'm looking forward to many interesting discussions and lessons to be learned. We just at the beginning of the cloud movement - get in on the ground floor and participate in the Private Cloud community today!

    Thanks!

    Tom

    Tom Shinder
    Principal Knowledge Engineer, SCD iX
    SCD iX Solutions Group – Private Cloud Security
    Follow me on Twitter: http://twitter.com/tshinder
    Be my friend on Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/tshinder

Cloud Computing: Software as a Service announcements

  • Link
    Welcome to the Software as a Service Forum
    Thomas W Shinder - MSFT

    Welcome Cloud community! This is the Software as a Service (SaaS) forum on the TechNet forums.

    The purpose of this forum is to provide a place where IT Architects and IT Pros can talk about issues related to SaaS. The goal is to enable the Cloud community to share ideas, architectures, plans, lessons learned, and even opinions about SaaS. While you are welcome to focus on the Microsoft SaaS solutions, the discussion does not need to be limited to Microsoft SaaS offerings. For example, there are many cross-cutting issues in SaaS, such as security and identity management.

    If you have questions about SaaS, this is the place to ask! However, if you have specific questions about products or technologies that participate in a specific SaaS solution, the best place to get those answers will be in the forums for that particular product or technology.

    I'm looking forward to many interesting discussions and lessons to be learned. We just at the beginning of the cloud movement - get in on the ground floor and participate in the Private Cloud community today!

    Thanks!

    Tom

    Tom Shinder
    Principal Knowledge Engineer, SCD iX
    SCD iX Solutions Group – Private Cloud Security
    Follow me on Twitter: http://twitter.com/tshinder
    Be my friend on Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/tshinder

Cloud Computing: Private Cloud announcements

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    The Private Cloud Solution Hub is LIVE!
    Thomas W Shinder - MSFT

    Private Cloud fans - I wanted to let you know that the Private Cloud Solution Hub is now LIVE!

    At the Private Cloud Solution Hub you can find the latest information on Private Cloud and Private Cloud architecture. At the Private Cloud Solution Hub you'll find the following:

    • Featured articles at the top of the page - we'll rotate articles in and out and provide you a fresh featured article once a week
    • The Library! The library is organized under a collection of tabs. At this time most of the content is focused on Private Cloud architecture. As we get closer to the release of Windows 8 and System Center 2012 wave of products, we'll start to tie together the entire story from business perspective, to architecture, to design and then to deployment - keep a close eye on the library as we'll continue to improve it on a monthly basis
    • The Private Cloud Community section - here you'll find a number of community resources you can use to connect with Microsoft and other people in the community to share you ideas and ask questions about Private Cloud
    • The Private Cloud Blog Roll - here's your "one stop shop" for a list of blogs for products and technologies that power the Microsoft Private Cloud

    We hope that you like the Private Cloud Solution Hub! If you have any suggestions for things that you would like to see in the Private Cloud Solution Hub or have ideas for improvement, let us know! You can write to me at tomsh@microsoft.com and I'll share with my team your ideas and see how we can get them realized in the Hub.

    Thanks!

    Tom Shinder - The Cloud Man

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    Welcome to the Private Cloud Computing Forum!
    Thomas W Shinder - MSFT

    Welcome Private Cloud community! This is the Private Cloud computing forum on the TechNet forums.

    The purpose of this forum is to provide a place where IT Architects and IT Pros can talk about issues related to Private Cloud. The goal is to enable the Private Cloud community to share ideas, architectures, plans, lessons learned, and even opinions about Private Cloud. While you are welcome to focus on the Microsoft Private Cloud solutions, the discussion does not need to be limited to the Microsoft Private Cloud. For example, there are many cross-cutting issues in Private Cloud, such as security and identity management.

    If you have questions about Private Cloud, this is the place to ask! However, if you have specific questions about products or technologies that participate in your Private Cloud solutions, the best place to get those answers will be in the forums for that particular product or technology.

    I'm looking forward to many interesting discussions and lessons to be learned. We just at the beginning of the cloud movement - get in on the first floor and participate in the Private Cloud community today!

    Thanks!

    Tom

    Tom Shinder
    Principal Knowledge Engineer, SCD iX
    SCD iX Solutions Group – Private Cloud Security
    Follow me on Twitter: http://twitter.com/tshinder
    Be my friend on Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/tshinder

Internet Explorer All Prior Versions announcements

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    Welcome to the Internet Explorer Forum (All Prior Versions) for IT Pro's
    Mark Feetham [MSFT]

    Hi and welcome to the Windows Internet Explorer Forum for all versions prior to 8 and 9 (Beta).

    We listened to customer requests from IT Professionals for dedicated Internet Explorer forums that you can participate in as community. This is a place where you can share knowledge, ask questions and get them answered and learn from others with IT environments similar to yours. Start by posting your related questions in the forum corresponding to your topic of interest and leverage the knowledge available in your new forum community.  Primary areas of focus are installation, deployment, security, management, group policy, migrations from previous versions.

    If your questions is related to end user experience or you are a home user, we'd definitely recommend heading over to our sister site at Microsoft Answers http://social.answers.microsoft.com/Forums/en-US/InternetExplorer/threads

    For the current version (Internet Explorer 8) or our *NEW* Internet Explorer 9 Beta please visit http://social.technet.microsoft.com/Forums/en/ieitprocurrentver/threads

    Regards
    Mark Feetham
    Product Quality Program Manager | Internet Explorer

Internet Explorer 8, 9, 10, 11 announcements

Windows Server 2012 R2 Application Certification (Logo) program and test tools announcements

PowerPoint 2010 Beta (to be retired) announcements

SharePoint Workspace 2010 Beta (to be retired) announcements

Publisher 2010 Beta (to be retired) announcements

OneNote 2010 Beta (to be retired) announcements

Click-To-Run for Office 2010 Home and Business (to be retired) announcements

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    Forum Change Announcement
    Nina Ruchirat
    This forum will be retired in May 2010. All existing threads in this forum will be moved to the general Microsoft Office 2010 Beta forum. Please direct all questions and discussions about Microsoft Click-To-Run technology specific to Office 2010 Home and Business to the Microsoft Office 2010 Beta forum.
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    Update test for Click-to-Run Office 2010 products
    JefferC

    We will be testing the update system for Click-to-Run over the next couple weeks.  If your machine is connected to the internet, it may detect the available update and attempt to get it.  The Click-to-Run update system is designed to run quietly in the background and rarely requires user interaction.

    Click-to-Run Office users who get the update may notice that they are now at version 14.0.4541.1000.  New Click-to-Run Office 2010 downloads will now start with the updated version, instead of the older version 14.0.4536.1000.

    This newer version should not be considered a general Office 2010 Beta refresh.  There are no new features contained in the update.  Rather, it is primarily intended to test our update capability.

    Those who do not want to participate in the update may go to the File tab - Help section of any Office application and disable Click-to-Run updates.

Access 2010 Beta (to be retired) announcements

Office 2010 Application Compatibility announcements

Project Standard and Professional General Questions and Answers announcements

Project Customization and Programming announcements

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    How to request features, changes or enhancements in the Project family of products?
    Brian Smith - MSFT

    If you want to directly tell the product team, what features, changes or enhancements you want to see in the Project family of products (Project Desktop client, Project Server or Project Online), please submit your ideas (or vote for existing ones) at the Project UserVoice channel.

  • Link
    Project 2013 SDK - March 2013 update
    Jim Corbin

    The Project 2013 SDK download is updated. The conceptual, how-to, and reference documentation in the download closely matches the Project 2013 developer documentation online content published on MSDN.

    The Project2013SDK.msi download file now installs properly on Windows 8 and Windows Server 2012.

    The Project 2013 SDK download contains:

    • The on-premises Reporting database schema reference, ProjectServer2013_ReportingDB.chm, and the OLAP cube schema reference. 
    • Updated VBA Help for local use. Objects such as Chart, Report, Series, and Shape now show correct members tables, properties, and methods topics.
    • Basic reference topics for the JavaScript client-side object model (JSOM), which includes REST endpoints and HTTP request syntax. You can use the JSOM for development of Project Online solutions for cross-browser web apps and for non-Windows platforms.
    • Sixteen complete code solutions, including two task pane apps (with minor updates) for Project, the QuickStatus app sample for Project Server and Project Online, eight client-side object model (CSOM) solutions, two solutions for querying the ProjectData service for reporting, and three updated legacy PSI solutions.
    • DLLs and a license for redistribution of the Project Server CSOM assemblies, JavaScript files for the CSOM, the Microsoft.Office.Project.Server.Library assembly, and the Microsoft.Office.Project.Server.Events.Receivers library for on-premises development.
      Notes:   1. The REDIST.zip file that is attached to the Project_Programmability blog post contains the RTM build
                       15.0.4420.1017 of the Project Server assemblies for redistribution, including the
                       Microsoft.Office.Project.Schema.dll assembly, for developing event handlers.
                   2. Project CSOM solutions also require the redistributable DLLs for the SharePoint 2013 CSOM,
                       which are at SharePoint Server 2013 Client Components SDK.
    • Updated Intellisense files for the PSI and CSOM, source code for creating a PSI proxy assembly, and instructions on how to update the PSI proxy files.
    • XML schemas for the Project client, AppProvisioning, and the Statusing PSI.

    The top-level online landing page for the Project SDK is Project for developers (http://msdn.microsoft.com/project).

    For additional Project-related SDK content, see Office for developers (http://msdn.microsoft.com/office), SharePoint for developers (http://msdn.microsoft.com/sharepoint), and Build apps for Office and SharePoint (http://msdn.microsoft.com/office/apps/). The two articles on Task pane apps for Project are in the Apps for Office and SharePoint SDK, and the JavaScript API for Office reference includes information specific for Project, the ProjectDocument object with eleven methods and three events, and four enumerations for Project.

    Want to try out Project 2013?

    1. Sign up for Project Online and Project Pro for Office 365
    2. Download Project Professional 2013 and Project Server 2013

    --Jim













  • Link
    Please specify the version you are using when you ask your question
    Gary Chefetz, MCITP, MCT, MVP
    It makes a big difference in answering your questions

Project Server - Setup, Upgrade, Administration and Operation announcements

Project Server General Questions and Answers announcements

Project Online General Questions and Answers announcements

HealthVault User announcements

Forefront Client Security announcements

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    Updates to the Client Security Best Practice Analyzer
    Craig Wiand - MSFT

    We recently published additions to the FCS BPA. The revisions are described in KB976986. These new checks are focused on database related issues including:

    • Database sizing
    • DTS job failures
    • Last backup times
    • Threat metadata problems

    It also contains usability improvements like a start menu shortcut and status bars during scanning.  To test drive the new additions, visit the download center.

     

    Thanks and Happy Analyzing!

Forefront Online Protection for Exchange announcements

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    Welcome!!
    Jason U - MSFT

    Hello FOPE Users!!!  The Forefront team has been working to give admins the ability to ask questions to the community, provide feedback, and communicate with users just like you.  Please dive in, and let us know if there is anything we can do to make your online experience better.

    Thanks
    Jason - CTS Security

Forefront Edge Security – DirectAccess, UAG and IAG announcements

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    Welcome to the Direct Access, UAG and IAG forum!
    Erez Benari

    Welcome to the Direct Access, UAG and IAG forum!

    This forum is dedicated to questions, issues, ideas and discussions about Direct Access, as well as Microsoft's SSL-VPN and Reverse-proxy products UAG, IAG and e-Gap. This forum will be moderated by me, Ben Ari from the IAG CSS group, and host many IT & Security professionals, product team and support team members and Microsoft MVPs (Most Valuable Professionals) to answer questions and participate in discussions.

Microsoft Machine Learning Server announcements

General announcements

Mobile Device Management announcements

App-V 4.5 Beta (Retired) announcements

Windows Defender Advanced Threat Protection (ATP) Support announcements

  • Link
    Welcome
    Avi Sagiv
     

    Hi,

     

    Welcome to the Windows Defender Advanced Threat Protection (ATP) Public preview forum.  This forum is designed to give public preview users a way to ask questions and provide feedback

     

    We look forward interacting with you.

     

    Thanks,

    Windows Defender Advanced Threat Protection Team

SharePoint Migration Tool Feedback and Support Forum announcements

TechNet Events announcements

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    PURPOSE US TechNet Events LAB Assistance ONLY!!!
    Dan Stolts ITProGuru
    Please note, this forum is for questions directly related to TechNet events LAB content (currently Azure and Windows 10) and from United States TechNet Events Attendees. It is only moderated by TechNet event speakers in the US so ONLY English questions directly related to events will be answered.  Please provide the page number and line number  of the lab manual where your question applies.