“Centro” is built on Windows Server 2008 and provides an integrated server and management system for midsize businesses. The CTP includes many new Windows Server 2008 Beta 3 based components, as well as updates to the server applications that shipped in “Centro” Beta 1 (updated versions of System Center Essentials 2007, Exchange Server 2007 and ISA, as well as new updates to setup, Active Directory domain join functionality and a host of other improvements).
Please take a moment to read through the hardware requirements below. If you meet these requirements, go to
http://connect.microsoft.com, click on Invitations, sign in with your Windows Live ID (Passport ID) and enter the following invite ID;
Extr-GHBC-JCJM .
Kent Compton, Product Manager in Microsoft's Windows Server Solutions Group, writes :
Another milestone for Windows Server code name "Centro" occurred this afternoon with the official signing off of the CTP (5241) build. The CTP builds on the foundation established in Beta 1 while moving into new areas such as enabling legacy Active Directory domain joins, including Windows Server 2008, etc. If you're in the TAP or TechBeta you should be able to download it from connect.microsoft.com within a few hours. Please test it, push it, break it and then file those bugs! We looking forward to hearing from you.
Silect Software, a developer of products that reduce IT ownership costs, is pleased to announce the immediate availability of MP Studio 2007. MP Studio helps offset spiraling IT management costs by giving IT organizations the ability to more effectively leverage IT management knowledge critical to the operation and maintenance of complex IT systems. Working together with Systems Center Operations Manager 2007, the result is a highly tuned service monitoring capability which identifies the slightest deviation in service delivery from defined service levels.
Operations Manager 2007 Management Packs contain rich operational knowledge used to deliver effective service level monitoring. MP Studio 2007 delivers a framework to achieve an efficient, repeatable process for managing the key stages of the Management Pack lifecycle including analysis, reporting, tuning and version control, reducing the cost of using and managing System Center Operations Manager while increasing System Center Operations Manager’s ability to effectively monitor and report on your organization’s IT infrastructure.
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Redmond, June 29th 2007 -- today Microsoft announced that Kirill Tatarinov, currently Corporate Vice President of the Microsoft’s Management and Solutions Division (MSD) within the Microsoft Business Division, will fill the MBS leadership position vacated by Satya Nadella in March. The move will be effective on July 2, 2007. Kirill brings extensive experience in leading R&D and broader business to the MBS leadership role. For the past five years Kirill has led Microsoft’s management business including prioritizing R&D bets, galvanizing the team and delivering high-quality solutions to customers and partners. This has yielded break-through results for Microsoft including a greatly expanded product portfolio and improved brand perception.
Prior to Microsoft, Kirill spent time in both large and small company environments and experienced what it was like to be a Microsoft partner. He was the Senior Vice President and Chief Technology Officer for BMC where he also spent time leading Business Development and running an end-to-end business, and was the founder of his own company, Patrol software, the developer of innovative software solutions for systems and network management. Patrol Software was acquired by BMC in 1994. Kirill has also worked in several systems, networking and consulting companies in Russia, Israel and Australia.
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We got this email from Jalasoft:
Jalasoft wants to proudly announce that Xian Network Manager Io RC2 is now available for download from our website.
Xian Network Manager Io RC2 for Operations Manager 2007
You should check out their offering, because it can extend your OpsMgr 2007 installation by adding detailed network device support and agents for non-Windows platforms like Solaris and VMware! See
screenshots here.
I found an interesting blog with information about how Microsoft have implemented Operations Manager 2007 internally. There is a lot of information on how they have handled hardware design and SQL optimization and redundancy. The info is written by Cory Delamarter, Microsoft.
Here is the link to the "
Monitoring at Microsoft with Operations Manager " blog.
In a
previous post I found out the way to do basic queries to the opsmgr database. I got a request on what to do with two different objects with the same name. For example two SQL servers hosting a database with the same name. There is no way to distinguish them with my previous query.
I found the following query would do the trick;
SELECT MEG.[Displayname] AS Object, LEFT(MEG.[PATH], CASE WHEN charindex(';' , MEG.[PATH]) > 0 THEN charindex(';' , MEG.[PATH]) ELSE 1 END - 1) AS Server, TMV.[Name] AS MonitoringClass, MEG.[Healthstate] FROM dbo.ManagedEntityGenericView AS MEG
INNER JOIN dbo.[ManagedTypeView] AS TMV
ON TMV.[id] = MEG.[MonitoringClassId]
WHERE MEG.[Displayname] = '
'3CX today released the Enterprise edition of its new product 3CX Phone System, a Windows-based IP PBX that completely replaces a proprietary PABX. 3CX Phone System is based on the open SIP standard and interoperates with a wide range of popular SIP phones, VOIP Gateways and SIP-based providers. The Enterprise edition of 3CX Phone System implements enterprise telephony features such as Call Queuing and Exchange 2007 integration . It has been independently tested and certified for Microsoft Windows 2003.(more)
https://www.microsoftelearning.com/eLearning/courseDetail.aspx?courseId=78337 Title: Clinic 7045 - What's New in Microsoft® SQL Server™ 2008Course Type: Self-paced CourseAvailable Offline: YesEstimated Time of Completion: 2 HoursLanguage: EnglishDescription: In this clinic, you will learn about the new and enhanced features included in SQL Server 2008. You will explore the new data types and the data management features. Additionally, you will learn about the enhanced Integration Services, Analysis Services, and Reporting Services included in SQL Server 2008. This online clinic is composed of a rich multimedia experience.Objectives: At the end of the course, students will be able to: Describe the features of SQL Server 2008 and their benefits. Describe the features of enterprise data platform that help you to secure data in applications. Describe the dynamic development features that facilitate the development of database applications. Describe the features of SQL Server 2008 that provide data storage solutions beyond relational databases. Describe the enhanced features in SSIS that help you to integrate data effectively. Describe the enhanced features in SSAS that help you to improve the BI infrastructure. Describe the enhanced features in SSRS that help you to improve the scalability of the reporting engine.
Arlindo Alves writes: "One of my colleagues developed a tool called VMRC Plus which is an improved version of the VMRC client that is deployed together with Virtual Server 2005." What does VMRCplus offer? Direct control of local or remote instances of the Virtual Server service. IIS and IE browser are no longer required! Tabbed interface to quickly jump between Virtual Server hosts and guest VMRC sessions. Reusable saved states: this feature allows users to preserve a particular saved state and return to that state at any time. Multiple guest selection supported for startup/shutdown/save/display. (more)
Exchange Server 2003 supported a utility called WinRoute which allowed an administrator to connect to the Routing Engine Service on port 691, query it, and retrieve a view of the Routing Topology as seen by the server. The Routing Log Viewer in Exchange Server 2007 provides a similar function to WinRoute but for Exchange Server 2007 Hub Transport and Edge Transport roles.continue at source Windows Server 2008 that adds options for installing Microsoft’s newest Web server.continue at source Terminal Services , the demand for a real Load Balancing solution has been present. Up until now one would have to turn to third-party software to get a decent Load Balancing product. Citrix Presentation Server is the most well-known example of this. At But at BriForum 2007 In Chicago, Microsoft shocked the SBC world by announcing that Windows Server 2008 will be able to do real Load Balancing. Session Broker Load Balancing “ in Windows Server 2008? What does it do? What can’t it do? Is it any good? Can I get rid of Citrix? Well, in this article we’re going to take a closer look at “Session Broker Load Balancing“ in Windows Server 2008 and see if we can answer these questions.(continue at source security report about the Security Vulnerabilities found in Windows Vista during the first 6 months. His analysis shows that Windows Vista has less High severity vulnerabilities in the first 6 months compared to Windows XP and other Operating Systems.
Matt McSpirit writes:In the video, you'll see Jeff Woolsey, Senior Program Manager for Windows Server Virtualisation (WSV), demo a number of different areas of the technology, and in particular, Jeff highlights 8-core Virtual Machines, Hot-Adding of hardware and Live Migration of Virtual Machines, none of which will make it into the first release of WSV.
A brief architecture overview of VMware ESX, XEN and MS Viridian ", and a snippet is below:It is my feeling that there has been a bit of confusion lately around how hypervisors are being positioned by the various vendors. I am specifically referring to the three major technologies that seem to be the most relevant strategically going forward:
VMware ESX is the VMware flagship hypervisor product: it's the basis for the Virtual Infrastructure version 3 framework.
MS Viridian is the next generation hypervisor that Microsoft is going to use in the Longhorn time frame and that is currently being developed. It's basically the successor of Microsoft Virtual Server.
Xen is an opensource hypervisor that is being integrated by a number of players which include RedHat, Suse, XenSource and Virtual Iron. (more) Big News! Microsoft is planning to release a Community Technology Preview (CTP) of Windows Server Code Name "Centro" in the next few weeks. We look forward to your continued participation with Windows Server "Centro" and are really excited to receive your feedback on the upcoming CTP.
Technet Live: System Center en DSI (Maarten Goet)
Mark Minasi speak, in this case it was about "Living the Longhorn Live", Mark is a great speaker which can bring the story with lots of humour, if you have the chance you should really visit one of his sessions. Also much appriciation for Maarten and his talk about System Center, i noticed that Maarten has developed some real good presentation skills, something i want/need to work on myself. Maarten's presentation on System Center will be put on Techlog very soon.
http://www.kbshortcuts.com/ . The website gives you the opportunity to search for keyboard shortcuts for all kinds of applications running on the Windows Platform. I personally don't use keyboard shortcuts that much, but i know they can save you a lot of time when doing certain tasks. I will give it another try from now on.Visit Keyboard Shortcuts, Save a mouse, use a keyboard
We have just release some new resources for Virtualization . Check them out below: Stefan Stranger , Arie de Haan and myself are already some time busy with setting up a Dutch System Center User Group (SCUG.nl ) and on Monday we finally launch SCUG.nl at the Dutch TechNet Live Event in the RAI Amsterdam.SCUG.nl if you can read Dutch (more)
http://download.microsoft.com/download/7/4/d/74deff5e-449f-4a6b-91dd-ffbc117869a2/OpsMgr2007_DesignGuid.doc
Autopatcher . Updated list of Vista pre-SP1 hotfixes, sorted by category
continue at source Thanks to Edwin van Veltom for sending this in: Dell Management Pack for Operations Manager 2007
One thing which really annoys me about the Vista desktop is the size of the icons. Perhaps I’m too used to Windows XP, but the icon size on XP seemed perfect.
MUI packages: LIP packages provide the desktop user with an approximately 80% localized user experience. In addition, LIP doesn't allow users to switch languages. Once a LIP is installed, all users using that machine will have the same User Interface (UI) language. LIP relies on the same resource-loading technology MUI is built upon, and installs on top of the English version.Guide to Windows Vista Multilingual User Interface How do I get additional language files? Installing Language Interface Packs
Virtual Server 2005 R2 Service Pack 1 (more)
System Center Operations Manager 2007 Technical Walkthrough
keynote was not that good, besides a really cool Back to the Future movie with Christopher Lloyd live on stage. But the week had some great sessions on Windows Server 2008 , Windows Server Virtualization and other 2008 products.International Roundtable with Andy Lees, the bloggers breakfast with Microsoft security guru's and an exclusive conversation with Eric Berg on the acquistion of Engyro.Windows Connected , Tom Warren from Neowin , Pete Zerger from System Center Forum and other dutchies like Raymond Comvalius . The party on thursday was fantastic; Microsoft really going to the max by renting Universal's Islands of Adventure exclusively for Teched attendees! Tonight we're going to watch the Space Shuttle launch at Kennedy Space Center and tomorrow were heading home. this week and thanks to Microsoft for having Techlog as official bloggers / media reporters to the event. We'll pick up the normal Microsoft news coverage next monday, when life returns to normal and the day job continues. can comment on the areas of focus for studying for this exam (right, Trika ?). If you will be taking this exam in the near future, learn about the details in these areas:Terminal Services - the different roles, the new features, etc IIS 7 - the new command line tools, new features, etc Server Core - ofcourse, know your way with all the cmdline tooling that you can use Virtualization - be sure to study on how Virtual Server 2005 works Active Directory - the new features, but also AD in general beta 3 and have a go yourself with the installation and configuration. The new Server Manager is fantastisc and nothing beats some first hand experience on the product. In 8 tot 12 weeks time we will be getting the scores. Good luck to whoever is taking a shot also!
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announced during the Teched 2007 keynote that IIS7 will be implemented as a role on Windows Server 2008 "Server Core". James O'Neill has some more technical details on how that will be implemented:We've been taking some flak about the IIS7 on Core situation. For background IIS 7 needs the .NET framework, and when you choose to install Windows Server in it's "Core" form there's no .NET framework. (In case you weren't aware we will have standard, Enterprise and Datacenter versions of Server each of which can be installed as "Full" or "Core". If you want to switch from one to the other you re-install.). No .NET framework also means no PowerShell on Core installations. The IIS situation Making it worse is some bright spark tried running Apache on core and having no special windows dependencies it works. Now Apache working isn't a bad thing - customers using the LAMP stack (Linux, Apache, MySQL, PHP) don't want to switch to an all Microsoft "WISA" one (Windows, IIS, SQL server, ASP) so they can have a "WAMP" stack.
There has been talk of a minimal .NET framework for IIS, but that's not what's been done here. Over on the IIS.net blog
Bill Staples writes :
"Currently the .NET Framework is not on Server Core, which means ASP.NET is currently not available. This is something the .NET team wants to add and we're working on adding it as soon as possible. Classic ASP works just fine, and with the new FastCGI support, PHP also runs great on Server Core." .
So the question that will naturally get asked is when will we be able to get this ? The smart money is on it being in an the interim post-beta 3 build of Server 2008 before we get to RC-1. I've been told what the planned date for the first of these is, but plans change so I'm going to leave it to the product group to make the announcement. The intervals between builds won't be any surprise if you remember what the intervals were for these builds with Vista.
(more) Ben Armstrong presented a session on Virtualization with Microsoft solutions. He touched briefly on the licensing changes. Things you should remember in this area is that Windows Server (2003 / 2008) enterprise edition will allow for 4 virtual machines. Datacenter edition will even allow for an unlimited number of virtual machines.Windows Server Virtualization . The main differences are that WSV (formerly "Viridian") will support up to 4 core CPU's, more than 32 Gb RAM per VM, 1 TB of RAM on the phyiscal host. Ofcouse, WSV will support 64-bit guests natively, uses MMC 3.0 and supports MS clustering.last 32-bit version of the server operating system. However, Mark commented that there will be at least one more 32-bit version of the client operating system , after Vista. Here's a short summary of the great new (kernel) features that Windows Server 2008 delivers:Dynamic Partitioning - which allows hot adding of resources Windows Hardware Error Architecture (WHEA) - a new common error reporting infrastructure Hypervisor - basis for Windows Server Virtualization Time Accounting - better allocating of cpu ressources to processes Self-healing NTFS - worker thread does background checks SMB2 - 30x-40x more throughput IO Completion Port - efficient IO completion IO Prioritization - background processes can run with less priority announced that they were acquiring a license for using the EMC S.M.A.R.T.S. technology and would integrate that in the next major version of Operations Manager, currently codenamed MOMv4 (hinted to be named Operations Manager 2007 R2) . Marie-Pierre Belanger presented a session on Teched 2007 today, about EMC S.M.A.R.T.S. and Operations Manager 2007. Here is a short summary:(more)
WSV: MMC snap-in WSV: OS build information WSV: Build information WSV: Hypervisor "missing" WSV: Virtual Network properties WSV: Virtual Machine properties WSV: Powershell
AEM feature in Operations Manager 2007 is next step from CER 2.0 . A training video is available here .Client Monitoring which in its current state also emcompasses other features like Customer Experience Improvement Program (CEIP). A white paper on Client Monitoring can be read here .Operations Manager SDK contains helper classes for programming with AEM under Microsoft.EnterpriseManagement.Monitoring.ClientMonitoring namespace .here ) and so the next few blogs on AEM would focus on how you can customize AEM as per your needs.
Rodney Fournier presented a 1.5 hour presentation on the new Failover Clustering in Windows Server 2008. He had a top 10 of enhancements list. The room was full of people, interested in the changes. While clustering has come a long way since NT 4.0 "Wolfpack", Windows Server 2008 introduces some nice new improvements. Here are a few highlights:To get a full supported cluster you have to run a validate tool. This tool checks all hardware/software in a cluster if it meet the requirements. This tool only works with Windows Server 2008. Support of multiple quorum models, to remove the single point of failure on the quorum resource. The Cluster Admin tool is gone, it now works with a MMC 3.0 snapin, without the lockups of the gui when moving resources. Graphical configuration of cluster resource dependancies added with bolean functionality. It is possible to make a Cluster over multiple subnets. And the 500ms responsetime between cluster nodes can be adjusted. From a personal view I'm happy with the new MSDTC role wizard, which is a welcome feature. Configuring a cluster in Windows 2003 took 23 steps, in Windows Server 2008 it is just 3. Cameron Fuller has a nice walkthrough on how to generate a report for free disk space on servers monitored by OpsMgr:The easy approach is not to use a report for this, but rather to use the Operations Console directly to provide a graph. This can be done through the Operations Console / Monitoring / Microsoft Windows Server / Performance / Disk Capacity. This view also allows you to specify how long the graph should show data through clicking on the Select Time Range option. The second option I have found is to create a report based upon the built-in Performance report. This is done through: (more)
Windowsconnected.com has a great article about Vista and ad-hoc wireless networks:One of the general annoyances of connecting to the wireless infrastructure at show like TechEd is the number people that seem to be in my general vicinity broadcasting as an ad-hoc connection. Are they trying to get unsuspecting people to connect to them and gleam some information from their laptops? I doubt it, but still annoying. From Techedbloggers.net I found a great tip from Chris Pringle about adding a quick filter to suppress ad-hoc networks. As an admin run the following:netsh wlan add filter permission=denyall networktype=adhoc netsh wlan del filter permission=denyall networktype=adhoc
Andrew Dugdell writes: "I just saw this from Damian over at ozvms.com . It's a new whitepaper for installing ESX server under VMware Workstation 6.0"This paper illustates how to install and configure VMware ESX3 Server to run within VMware Workstation 6. From this, VirtualCenter, VMotion, HA and DRS features can be configured. Although performance is significantly reduced from that of a physical server, this type of environment opens considerable possibilities for portable client demonstrations and is excellent for self training and small lab environments.
This paper assumes the reader has good technical knowledge of VMWare Virtual Infrastructure 3. The paper assumes that you know how to install the VirtualCenter2, License Server and Virtual Infrastructure Client. The hardware used in this whitepaper was an IBM Thinkpad T60P laptop, Core Duo, 3GB memory, 120GB SATA Hard Disk.
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Teched 2007: Microsoft Virtualization Roadmap (full version)
Windows Sever 2008 is the ability to do multicast Windows Vista and Windows Server 2008 deployments. Today at TechEd Senior Program Manager Pat Azzarello gave attendees a glimpse of this as well as lots of useful info for those that might be interested in leveraging WDS Multicast capabilities.
Eric Berg , director of Product Management in the Windows and Enterprise Management Division at Microsoft about the Engyro acquisition. The acquisition was announced yesterday at the Teched 2007 keynote. Engyro produces software that works with System Center products like Operations Manager. Not only do they provide agents for non-windows platforms , they also build connectors that allow for communications between Operations Manager and other vendors like Tivoli and Openview. main reason that they acquired Engyro, were their connectors . Those connectors will be integrated in the next major release of Operations Manager . The Operations Manager agents for non-windows platforms will not come to market ; they were in proof-of-concept phase before the acquisition. Engyro will exist as a seperate entity within Microsoft, similar to the acquisition of Softricity and Softgrid last year. This is unlike the licensing deal they announced during the Microsoft Management Summit in March were they licensed technology from EMC Smarts, allow for integrated and extensive network monitoring in the next major release of Operations Manager.System Center Service Manager release to allow for communications with another platforms like Tivoli and Openview.
www.codeplex.com and www.powergui.org .
Security WS2008 introduces so-called Read Only Domain Controllers Multiple password policies are now possible in a single domain, but can only be applied to users or groups, NOT to Organizational Units Auditing Besides the regular "Who made the change, when, what" you can now see the old AND new values, thereby having a chance to see what was changed Managebility You can now apply Directory Services patches, perform offline defrags, all without a reboot Ability to make snapshots of Active Directory - using NTDSutil - and restore them on a live production server - using dsamain.exe - as a second instance of AD Prevent accidential deletion of OU's using a checkbox called "protect object from accidential deletion", which sets special object rights compatible with Win2003 AD
Service Manager: Asset Management Service Manager: Self-Service Portal Service Manager: Incident Management Service Manager: Change Management
continue at source User Account Control Jeff from Windows Connected suggesting to tie in the Spynet features of Defender to reduce prompting. This way, a similar rating could be established for "known" apps, reducing the prompts.Antispam Group Policies for several different components - most notably Printing, Internet Explorer and Terminal Server. In most environments, the Active Directory administrator handles the design, implementation and maintenance all of the group policies - even if another group is responsible for the technologies affected by the policies. When an issue arises with one of these technologies, often it is the administrator for that system who is trying to troubleshoot the problem - who may not know much about the policies in place. So today we're going to go over some basic Group Policy concepts.continue at source )
Windows Server 2008 (formerly code name "Longhorn"). Windows Server 2008 is the powerful new server technology that helps you increase the flexibility of your server infrastructure while saving time and reducing costs.MCSE ) in Windows Server 2003 can quickly and easily transfer their skills to achieve Microsoft Certified Technology Specialist (MCTS ) accreditation on Windows Server 2008. The MCTS credential enables professionals to target specific technologies and distinguish themselves by demonstrating in-depth knowledge and expertise in those technologies.More info on how you can transfer your MCSE credentials to MCTS
Softgrid application virtualization product and enhanced asset management and desktop monitoring will be available July 1.Software Assurance customers who buy software maintenance contracts. The Windows Vista client has been widely available since early this year.continue at source )
The following Operations Manager 2007 /Essentials 2007 Management packs have released to the Web
Microsoft Print Service Management Pack for Operations Manager 2007 - http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyID=35d1fece-867b-4a0c-8642-57e84e327018&DisplayLang=en
Microsoft Windows File Replication Service 2000/2003 Management Pack for Operations Manager 2007 - http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyID=6f5f8e56-6a35-4909-bb8f-968ee95a8f17&DisplayLang=en
Microsoft Windows Group Policy 2003 Management Pack for Operations Manager 2007 - http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyID=52459150-85bd-4acb-90be-2ee5df18e1a8&DisplayLang=en
Microsoft Windows Server 2000/2003 DHCP Management Pack for Operations Manager 2007 - http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyID=2694e87c-76e0-417b-ad0f-5897e46fff88&DisplayLang=en
Microsoft Office SharePoint Server 2007 Management Pack for Operations Manager 2007 - http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyID=e7bfee42-2d3c-4810-97f8-4d89d7428a5f&DisplayLang=en
icrosoft Windows SharePoint Services 3.0 Management Pack for Operations Manager 2007 - http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyID=6803aa1d-0578-4d7d-bc2f-9600f0440d92&DisplayLang=en
Andy Lees , Corporate Vice President, Server & Tools Marketing and Solutions Group at Microsoft. The meeting had no pre-defined subject, so there was a great opportunity to ask questions. Most part of the time went about Windows Server Virtualization. Here's a short summary:will make it into RTM!Stefan Stranger is reporting that the first beta of System Center Service Manager , formerly known as codename "Service Desk", was released to TAP customers:Beta1 is available on connect. It can be downloaded from http://connect.microsoft.com using your liveid account you used initially to register. Also make sure to download the related documents. The partner resources are planned to be available on connect late this week (will send another mail when they are posted).
neowin.net captured a movie of the Teched 2007 keynote:
Windows Connected and Neowin .
https://connect.microsoft.com/sqlserver?wa=wsignin1.0 http://msevents.microsoft.com/cui/WebCastEventDetails.aspx?EventID=1032341071&EventCategory=2&culture=en-US&CountryCode=US .
Microsoft will be implementing Internet Information Server (IIS) as a role on server core! Microsoft Takes Web Hosting to a New Level with Internet Information Services 7.0 Bill Laing: We announced that the Server Core installation option of Microsoft Windows Server 2008 will now include IIS7. This is a direct result of feedback we received from customers and partners. In fact, it was pretty much the No. 1 request.
Microsoft, Xandros Broad Collaboration Agreement For Xandros, the agreement marks a major milestone in its vision of delivering end-to-end Linux desktop and server solutions as well as Windows® and Linux cross-platform management and interoperability tools.
Barry shortly noted that SQL Server "Katmai" will indeed be SQL Server 2008.
Microsoft Acquires Engyro Corporation
"Doc" from the Back to the Future movies . The main message from this was that Microsoft will deliver practical solutions rather than only talking about visions. (more)
Sander and myself will be flying to Orlando this afternoon to attend Teched 2007 . doing extensive coverage of the event, starting with the Keynote on monday, which is hinted to show more off Windows Server Virtualization .Virtual Teched , which will have free live and on-demand webcasts, virtual labs, and podcasts. Also, keep a close eye on Techlog , for the latest information on and from the event!
(more) Data Protection Manager 2007 Beta 2 (x86) Data Protection Manager 2007 Beta 2 (x64)
Softgrid 4.2 Tech Preview , the download page shows:... As a reminder, the tech preview is a non-supported release and cannot be used in a production environment. Microsoft recommends updating to the full production version of 4.2 once it becomes available in July 2007 as part of the Microsoft Desktop Optimization Pack for SA 2007 release ...
(more)
Patrick has some interesting hints about the Teched 2007 keynote, next monday:For those of you amongst the 14,000 attending TechEd 2007 next week in Orlando, expect to see and learn alot about virtualization.
It all starts with Bob Muglia's keynote on Monday where Jeff Woolsey will reprise his role of virtualization demo dude. Jeff will demo Windows Server 2008 server core installation running an
IDS build of Windows Server virtualization , managed by both MOM and System Center Virtual Machine Manager. I'd expect to see VM creation, interop and network load balancing with limited disruption of service. I'm hoping to
see V-to-V conversion, from ESX Server to Windows Server virtualization . I'll be watching on Monday, and I expect the webcast to be available from
here .
If you're looking for 300-level fun, I'd recommend attending the
first-ever, public hands-on lab for Windows Server virtualization . You won't walk away with code (it's not public yet) from this HOL, but you'll walk away with the ability to: configure Windows Server virtualization, create and manage VHDs, create and manage virtual network switches and VMs.
extensive live coverage of the event, so stay tuned!
“Centro” is built on Windows Server 2008 and provides an integrated server and management system for midsize businesses. The CTP includes many new Windows Server 2008 Beta 3 based components, as well as updates to the server applications that shipped in “Centro” Beta 1 (updated versions of System Center Essentials 2007, Exchange Server 2007 and ISA, as well as new updates to setup, Active Directory domain join functionality and a host of other improvements). 
Redmond, June 29th 2007 -- today Microsoft announced that Kirill Tatarinov, currently Corporate Vice President of the Microsoft’s Management and Solutions Division (MSD) within the Microsoft Business Division, will fill the MBS leadership position vacated by Satya Nadella in March. The move will be effective on July 2, 2007. Kirill brings extensive experience in leading R&D and broader business to the MBS leadership role. For the past five years Kirill has led Microsoft’s management business including prioritizing R&D bets, galvanizing the team and delivering high-quality solutions to customers and partners. This has yielded break-through results for Microsoft including a greatly expanded product portfolio and improved brand perception. 
We got this email from Jalasoft:
Xian Network Manager Io RC2 for Operations Manager 2007
I found an interesting blog with information about how Microsoft have implemented Operations Manager 2007 internally. There is a lot of information on how they have handled hardware design and SQL optimization and redundancy. The info is written by Cory Delamarter, Microsoft.
Miami, Florida - 26 June 2007 - 3CX today released the Enterprise edition of its new product 3CX Phone System, a Windows-based IP PBX that completely replaces a proprietary PABX. 3CX Phone System is based on the open SIP standard and interoperates with a wide range of popular SIP phones, VOIP Gateways and SIP-based providers. The Enterprise edition of 3CX Phone System implements enterprise telephony features such as Call Queuing and Exchange 2007 integration. It has been independently tested and certified for Microsoft Windows 2003.
you can now attend a free e-learning on SQL Server 2008 at this URL :
Arlindo Alves writes: "One of my colleagues developed a tool called VMRC Plus which is an improved version of the VMRC client that is deployed together with Virtual Server 2005."
Kevin Remde links to a screencast which shows off for the first time support for an 8 core virtual machine.
