The EXPTA {blog}

Tools of the Trade

2009-07-04T16:57:00.000-07:00

There are various tools, utilities, and applications that we use during the Imagine Cup IT Challenge.

The image above displays a network traffic matrix for all network communication in the IT Challenge. Each line in "The Eye of Sauron" represents network traffic between two hosts. This is captured on the judge's Microsoft ISA 2006 server since it's the focal point for the network.

Other tools we use are network packet sniffers, protocol analyzers, and network packet regeneration tools. We use these tools so we can verify that the competitors' builds are working properly, as well as monitor and troubleshoot network issues.

Hello from the Imagine Cup IT Challenge!

2009-07-04T11:59:00.000-07:00

Head judge and captain of the Imagine Cup IT Challenge, Rand Morimoto, is keeping a running blog on the IT Challenge here in Cairo, Egypt.

You can read his blog here.

The competition is half over at this point. Just 12 more grueling hours to go. Then, after a full 24 hours of configuring, the 10 competitors will each face half an hour of judging. That means we'll all finally get some sleep after 30 hours.

The Intercontinental Cairo City Stars is a fabulous hotel. Really first rate for this kind of competition and shows off all the hard work that the teams have been putting in. We haven't had many of the power issues that have faced the Imagine Cup IT Challenge competitions in years past.

Tomorrow we will all get some sleep after the judging completes. Monday is the Imagine Cup Cultural Day, where we will all go the Giza to take in the pyramids. Here's a picture that was taken of the stage being built for the cultural day ceremonies.

It will be interesting, for sure!

Welcome from Cairo!

2009-07-02T12:24:00.000-07:00

I'm visiting Cairo as a judge for the Imagine Cup 2009 competition. We arrived on June 30 and entered the blast furnace that is Cairo. It's a dry heat, as opposed to Florida, so even though it may be 104F it's tolerable (don't ask my wife or kids, though).

The first two days we spent touring Cairo with a guide. Day one we took a city tour and visited the Egyptian Museum, Coptic Cairo, the Citadel, and the Kahn El Kalili bazaar. Day two we visited Giza to view the pyramids. Both days were amazing!

Today, I started to prep for the Imagine Cup IT Challenge. I met the two captains, Rand Morimoto and Chris Amaris, in the IT Challenge room. Rand is the owner of CCO (the company I work for) and Chris is the CTO. Valÿ Greavu is the other judge from Romania and is arriving tonight. The four of us will be administering and judging the 24 hour competition. 5 hours of judging happens after the 24 hour competition, so the competitors and judges will have been up for 29 hours.

Upgrade to Windows 7 for $49.99!

2009-06-27T12:01:00.000-07:00

Today, Microsoft announced a fantastic deal for current Microsoft customers. You can now pre-order Windows 7 Home Premium Upgrade for $49.99 or Windows 7 Professional Upgrade for $99.99 from select retail partners. The offer ends July 11th in the U.S. and Canada, and on July 5th for Japan or while supplies last

As a way of saying thank you to our loyal Windows customers, we are excited to introduce a special time limited offer! We will offer people in select markets the opportunity to pre-order Windows 7 at a more than 50% discount. In the US, this will mean you can pre-order Windows 7 Home Premium for USD $49.99 or Windows 7 Professional for USD $99.99. You can take advantage of this special offer online via select retail partners such as Best Buy or Amazon, or the online Microsoft Store (in participating markets).

This is a great deal for this fantastic operating system. Take advantage of it!

Windows 7 Pricing and Upgrade Program Information Released

2009-06-25T07:37:00.000-07:00

Today, Microsoft released its pricing model for Windows 7, the much anticipated operating system that will replace Windows Vista.

The estimated retail prices for upgrade packaged retail product of Windows 7 in the U.S. are:
Windows 7 Home Premium (Upgrade): $119.99
Windows 7 Professional (Upgrade): $199.99
Windows 7 Ultimate (Upgrade): $219.99
And the estimated retail prices for full packaged retail product of Windows 7 in the U.S. are:
Windows 7 Home Premium (Full): $199.99
Windows 7 Professional (Full): $299.99
Windows 7 Ultimate (Full): $319.99
This means that Windows 7 Home Premium full retail product is $40.00 less than Windows Vista Home Premium today.

General availability of Windows 7 is scheduled for October 22, 2009 worldwide.

For those who need a new PC now but still want to get Windows 7, the Windows 7 Upgrade Option Program starts tomorrow, June 26th. Anyone who buys a PC from a participating OEM or retailer with Windows Vista Home Premium, Business or Ultimate on it will all receive an upgrade to the corresponding version of Windows 7 at little or no cost. The Windows 7 Upgrade Option Program will be available until January 31, 2010 – and it's global. For more information on taking advantage of the Windows 7 Upgrade Option Program, visit www.windows.com/upgradeoffer.

Imagine Cup 2009 Worldwide Finals

2009-06-24T09:08:00.001-07:00

I'm honored to be one of four judges for the Imagine Cup 2009 Worldwide Finals in Cairo, Egypt. This is the second time I've been a judge, the first being last year in Paris.

This year's finals will run from July 2-9, 2009.

The object of the IT Challenge competition is to highlight the art and science of developing, deploying, and maintaining IT systems that are efficient, functional, robust and secure. IT professionals have a base set of tools and techniques, but still have to work through customer needs and configurations that require an intimate understanding of how the pieces fit together. They also need to know how far the systems can be pushed before they will break, and how to make the systems highly available, so that they are always available.

Competitors will have 24 hours to complete a real-world scenario. The competition will involve almost the entire stack of Microsoft technologies, where competitors will actually implement their solutions.

I'll be blogging about the competition and our travels to Cairo and London here. If you would like to see real-time updates, you can follow me on Twitter. We leave on Sunday and will arrive in Cairo Monday, June 29.

Looking forward to a great time!

Is it down for just me?

2009-06-17T15:46:00.000-07:00

Here's a great tip I got from my friend and co-worker, Pete Handley.

Have you ever gone to a website, found out it was down, and wondered if it was just you? Check out http://www.downforeveryoneorjustme.com. You enter a website to check and it'll tell you if it's down for everyone or just you!

Simple and elegant!

Windows Server 2008 R2 Service Pack Level at RTM

2009-06-15T09:42:00.000-07:00

You may have known that Windows Server 2008 RTM shipped as Service Pack 1. This is because the Windows Server 2008 code base is shared by Windows Vista, and Windows Vista was at SP1 when 2008 shipped. Windows Server 2008 SP2 was released on May 26, 2009 and was the first service pack you can actually apply to Windows Server 2008.

Unlike Windows Server 2003 R2, which was based on the same code base as Windows Server 2003 SP1, Windows Server 2008 R2 is based on an entirely different code base (Windows 7). The Windows 7 code base is derived from Vista, but is actually a seperate kernel. This change in strategy was required to address challenges that 2008 R2 faced, such as hardware platforms with many processor cores and new power saving features that couldn't be addressed by keeping the same kernel as Server 2008.

For this reason, Windows Server 2008 R2 RTM will ship as service pack level SP0, not SP1.

Failure of FSW Causes Cluster Group to Failover

2009-06-12T12:56:00.000-07:00

The following information was written for Exchange 2007 CCR mailbox clusters, but it pertains to any clustering solution that uses the Windows Server 2008 Node and File Share Majority cluster quorum configuration.

How Does Node and File Share Majority Clustering Work?

Exchange 2007 CCR uses two clustered Exchange mailbox nodes, called a Clustered Mailbox Server (CMS). In order for Windows to know which node is active, it utilizes a File Share Witness (FSW) to maintain quorum. The FSW is a network share on a third computer (typically a Hub Transport server in the normally active node's physical site). The active node writes information to files in that share and locks them for writing, preventing the passive node from writing to the FSW and taking quorum. It always take two out of three votes to maintain quorum.

If the active node becomes unavailable, the passive node can write to the FSW and the cluster group fails over. In the case of a total site failure where both the active node and the FSW are offline, both the cluster group and the CMS will fail since there is no quorum (there's only one vote).

What Happens When the FSW Becomes Unavailable?

When the FSW fails, the active CMS node remains active (does not fail over) because there are still two votes (the active and passive nodes). However, the cluster group will fail over to the other node. This is because File Share Witness resource in Windows Server 2008 is configured to fail over the cluster group when the FSW fails, as shown below.

There really is no reason to fail over the cluster group when the FSW becomes unavailable. It also takes 15 minutes to an hour for the FSW cluster resource to come back online even after the FSW share is available. Here's how to fix this behavior:

Open the Failover Cluster Management console
Add the cluster name, if necessary, and select it
Double-click Cluster Core Resources in the middle pane to expand it
Right-click File Share Witness (\\servername\sharename) and select Properties
Click the Policies tab
Clear the checkbox for, "If restart is unsuccessful, fail over all resources in this service or application"
For optimal restart performance, change the "Period for restarts (mm:ss)" to 1 minute and "If all the restart attempts fail, begin restarting again after the specified period (hh:mm)" to 1 minute, as shown below:

This configuration will cause the cluster group to remain on the currently active node if the FSW resource fails. It will also attempt to bring the FSW resource to online once every minute.

This is my current best practice for configuring the File Share Witness resource failure policy.

How to Verify the AD Schema Level on All Domain Controllers

2009-06-11T12:59:00.000-07:00

Whenever I perform schema extensions in Active Directory, I always want to verify that the new schema attributes have replicated throughout the domain's Domain Controllers. Schema extensions are usually necessary for Exchange installations and upgrades, or to prepare a domain for a new version of Windows.

The following batch file will display the value of the rangeUpper attribute for the ms-Exch-Schema-Version-Pt object on every Domain Controller in the target domain.

@echo off
dsquery server -o rdn >DC.lst
FOR /F "tokens=1" %%i in (DC.lst) do (
echo %%i
dsquery * CN=ms-Exch-Schema-Version-Pt,cn=schema,cn=configuration,dc=yourdomain,dc=com -scope base -attr rangeUpper -server %%i
)

Modify dc=yourdomain,dc=com as necessary for the target domain and save this file as CheckSchemaVersion.bat.

The output will display the name of each Domain Controller and the rangeUpper value. You will know that the schema changes have replicated throughout the domain when each Domain Controller returns the same (highest) value.

Be Aware: Windows Server 2008 SP2 Re-enables Disabled NICs

2009-06-10T09:45:00.001-07:00

Be aware installing Windows Server 2008 Service Pack 2 (SP2) will re-enable any network adapters that were disabled prior to the update. This will also affect computers updated with Windows Vista Service Pack 2.

[Before installing SP2]

[After installing SP2]

This is important for several reasons. It is best practice on Hyper-V servers to disable the virtual NIC assigned to VM guests, so that a host with a dedicated management NIC does not use the NICs assigned to VM guests. SP2 re-enables all these virtual NICs, as well.

Sometimes disabled NICs should only be enabled for disaster recovery purposes. Enabling these NICs at startup could have dire consequences in these rare situations.

It's important to understand that if you're using the Windows Firewall, the server uses the most secure firewall network profile for all NICs. If your domain joined computer has more than one NIC, but only the NIC that is used to connect to the domain is enabled, the Windows Firewall uses the Domain Network profile. However, after installing SP2 the computer will start up with all NICs enabled. If the previously disabled NICs are not connected, the Windows Firewall will use the Public Network profile, which uses much different firewall policies -- potentially causing service interruptions.

My advice is to document your network connections prior to installing Windows Server 2008 SP2, so you can reconfigure them when your done with the update.

Just Bing It

2009-06-04T08:04:00.000-07:00

You know you've got a winner when your name becomes a verb. How many times have you heard, "Just Google it." Well, that parlance is about to change.

Bing, Microsoft's new search portal, debuted this week to rave reviews. Bing is different than other search engines because of what Microsoft calls Bing's Decision Engine. It gives much more useful and relevant information than competitors, without having to enter arcane search terms. Take a look at this example to see a side-by-side comparison of Bing and Google search results.

I especially love the travel results that Bing offers. Microsoft has merged several technologies together to give easy to consume results with truly meaningful information. For example, a search for airline flights on Bing not only returns the best flights, but predicts whether prices are going up or going down, similar to FareCast.

You can also check flight times simply by entering the airline and flight number in the search window, such as "United 9120" or simply "ua 9120".

The image and video results are very cool, too. Image search results are returned on a single scrollable page rather than dozens of pages you have to click through. Video search results actually play in the results window by simply hovering your mouse over the video.

I'd like to find a way to create a custom portal page that allows me to dashboard the information I'm interested in, such as news, market reports and RSS feeds. I'm still learning all the cool things Bing does, but so far I'm very impressed. I recommend you Bing it to find out for yourself.

Bing. It's not your father's search page.

Fix for having to supply credentials when connecting to a Hyper-V guest

2009-06-03T12:56:00.000-07:00

One of my customers complained that he was getting the following prompt for credentials whenever he connected to a Hyper-V guest from the host.

Your credentials did not work
Your system administrator does not allow the use of default credentials to log on to the remote computer (computer name) because its identity is not fully verified. Please enter new credentials.

The host Hyper-V server is in a workgroup and the guests are in either a domain or workgroup.

The fix is to allow saved credentials with NTLM-only server authentication on the Hyper-V host. You can do this in the Local Group Policy Editor.

Run GPEDIT.MSC on the Hyper-V host
Expand Local Computer Policy > Computer Configuration > Administrative Templates > System > Credentials Delegation
Double-click Allow Saved Credentials with NTLM-only Server Authentication
Enable the policy
Add servers to the list by clicking the Show button and adding your Hyper-V hostname
Click OK twice and close Local Group Policy Editor

Now run GPUPDATE on the Hyper-V host to apply the new settings.

Connect to one of the Hyper-V guests, enter your username and password, and check the Remember my credentials checkbox. Hyper-V will no longer prompt for credentials when connecting to any of the guest VMs.

What's New with Exchange 2010 ActiveSync and Outlook Mobile

2009-06-02T16:06:00.000-07:00

Some great new changes are coming with Exchange Server 2010 ActiveSync.

Many more partners beyond Windows Mobile have licensed the ActiveSync protocol for syncing email to your mobile device. Here are just a few:

Architecture-wise, Exchange 2010 ActiveSync has the same connectivity flow as Exchange 2007.

Here are some of the new Exchange Server 2010 ActiveSync features:

Block/Allow/Quarantine List
You can setup a single list to block/allow mobile devices as needed. You can also quarantine devices such as new untested devices, etc.

Over the Air Update ModeYou can now push new Outlook Mobile updates and/or new versions to Windows Mobile 6.1 and above. This is really nice since you no longer have to wait for a new Windows Mobile OS version to obtain a new version of Outlook Mobile.

SMS SyncThe ability to send SMS text messages through Exchange and Exchange ActiveSync is used to sync SMS messages with a user’s mobile device. Benefits of SMS sync:

User can use OWA, Outlook, and Outlook Mobile to respond
SMS messages are backed up on the server
Recipients can respond to messages
User can switch “screens” while still seeing all their messages

IMAP/POP3 Service DiscoveryYou can now autodiscover/autoconfigure the IMAP/POP3 settings from your mobile device by just specifying your email address, just like you can now with Outlook 2007.

Here are some of the new Outlook Mobile features:

Conversation ViewConversation view is invaluable. This allows you to have a nicer mobile email experience when trying to skim through the onslaught of emails. This is the same experience you will have in Exchange 2010 OWA and Outlook 2010, but really makes a huge difference on a mobile device.

Reply State
You can now see which emails you have replied to or forwarded.

Conversation Actions
You can now ignore threads, move entire threads to folders, etc. from your mobile device.

Nickname Cache
Very nice that your nicknames follow you now. Especially useful for external recipients you email often.

Voice Card
You no longer have to download an attached voicemail before you can play it. You just hit play and hear the voicemail. Another cool feature is the ability to see a written transcription of the voicemail in the body of the message. Very useful for meetings and noisy airports, where you can't play the voicemail.

Get Free/Busy
I love this feature. You can now easily check someone's Free/Busy times at a glance from your phone instead of breaking out the laptop, etc.

As you can see, there are some very useful features coming to Exchange Server 2010 ActiveSync and the new Outlook Mobile.

Well, that was fun...

2009-05-27T20:07:00.000-07:00

Being that Windows Server 2008 Service Pack 2 was released today, you just know I had to load it up on my production machines. So confident in the build quality, I am, I decided to install it on all my physical and virtual servers over an RDP connection.

The installs went perfectly. So good, in fact, that I even ran the CompCln.exe utility that's included in SP2 that deletes all the backup files created during the SP2 installation process. No turning back now, and why would I? Everything installed just fine.

...until I got home to my server and found that the display, keyboard and mouse were unresponsive. I RDP'd into the server and restarted it. Fail. Started in Safe Mode. Fail. Last Known Good. Fail. Fail. Fail.

Not relishing having to rebuild my main Hyper-V server, I gave it one last shot by starting up in Safe Mode Command Prompt Only mode. I suspected it was the VGA driver, so I changed to the Windows\System32\Drivers folder, renamed the ATI video driver (aitkmdag.sys) and restarted. Success! The server started up normally using the Standard VGA Graphics Adapter. Crisis averted.

I can't blame SP2 for this mess. I attibute it to the buggy beta ATI drivers I had installed. In any event, I'm glad I got the server up and running without having to rebuild it all.

Windows Server 2008 and Vista Service Pack 2 Released

2009-05-27T07:04:00.000-07:00

Today, Microsoft released Service Pack 2 for Windows Server 2008 and Windows Vista.

Service Pack 2 (SP2) for Windows Server 2008 and Windows Vista is an update to Windows Vista and Windows Server 2008. It provides customer and partner feedback-driven fixes into a single service pack, minimizing deployment and testing complexity. In addition to all previously released updates since SP1, SP2 supports new types of hardware, and adds support for several emerging standards.

Details and download links can be found at http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/dd767623.aspx?ITPID=wtcfeed.

Notable changes in Windows Server 2008 SP2 and Windows Vista SP2 can be viewed from this link.

Along with all the other fixes and rollups that are currently available through hotfixes and rollups, it includes improved power management and new Group Policy settings.

PowerShell Script to get Exchange Version, Build and Rollup

2009-05-22T12:50:00.000-07:00

It's not easy to tell which version and build is installed on Exchange 2007.

I wanted to find a way to display the Exchange version, build number and which Update Rollup is installed on all servers in the organization. I found the perfect script written by Paul Faherty to do just that. I modified the script slightly to work better in Exchange 2003 / 2007 mixed environments.

Download Get-ExchangeServerVersion.ps1 here: Get-ExchangeServerVersion.zip

When you run it from the Exchange Management Shell prompt you will see output similar to the following screen:

The output displays the server name, Exchange roles installed, version (Standard or Enterprise), version number, and the Update Rollups installed and their installation dates.

For you code monkeys, here's the Powershell code:

#Get-ExchangeServerPlus.ps1
#v1.1, 05/20/2009
#Written By Paul Flaherty, blogs.flaphead.com
#Modified by Jeff Guillet, www.expta.com

#Get a list of Exchange servers in the Org excluding Edge servers
$MsxServers = Get-ExchangeServer where {$_.ServerRole -ne "Edge"} sort Name
#Loop through each Exchange server that is found
ForEach ($MsxServer in $MsxServers)
{
#Get Exchange server version
$MsxVersion = $MsxServer.ExchangeVersion
#Create "header" string for output
# Servername [Role] [Edition] Version Number
$txt1 = $MsxServer.Name + " [" + $MsxServer.ServerRole + "] [" + $MsxServer.Edition + "] " + $MsxVersion.ExchangeBuild.toString()
write-host $txt1
#Connect to the Server's remote registry and enumerate all subkeys listed under "Patches"
$Srv = $MsxServer.Name
$key = "SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Installer\UserData\S-1-5-18\Products\461C2B4266EDEF444B864AD6D9E5B613\Patches\"
$type = [Microsoft.Win32.RegistryHive]::LocalMachine
$regKey = [Microsoft.Win32.RegistryKey]::OpenRemoteBaseKey($type, $Srv)
$regKey = $regKey.OpenSubKey($key)
#Loop each of the subkeys (Patches) and gather the Installed date and Displayname of the Exchange 2007 patch
$ErrorActionPreference = "SilentlyContinue"
ForEach($sub in $regKey.GetSubKeyNames())
{
Write-Host "- " -nonewline
$SUBkey = $key + $Sub
$SUBregKey = [Microsoft.Win32.RegistryKey]::OpenRemoteBaseKey($type, $Srv)
$SUBregKey = $SUBregKey.OpenSubKey($SUBkey)
ForEach($SubX in $SUBRegkey.GetValueNames())
{
# Display Installed date and Displayname of the Exchange 2007 patch
IF ($Subx -eq "Installed") {
$d = $SUBRegkey.GetValue($SubX)
$d = $d.substring(4,2) + "/" + $d.substring(4,2) + "/" + $d.substring(0,4)
write-Host $d -NoNewLine
}
IF ($Subx -eq "DisplayName") {write-Host ": "$SUBRegkey.GetValue($SubX)}
}
}
write-host ""
}

Twitter Client Twikini is Released

2009-05-20T08:48:00.000-07:00

I became a Twitter convert at this year's TechEd North America. It really was the best way to communicate and send status among friends and colleagues about session information, locations for swag, and "Let's meet outside the TLC" messages.

I tried a lot of Twitter clients for my Windows Mobile device, but by far the best was Twikini by Trinket Software. The application is fast, lightweight, and highly customizable. Even better, it integrates well with other online apps like TwitPic.

Trinket Software released the non-beta version of Twikini this week. If you're a Twitter user, I highly recommend you check it out.

Exchange 2007 SP2 due Q3 2007

2009-05-19T09:08:00.001-07:00

On May 11, Microsoft announced that Exchange Server 2007 Service Pack 2 will be released in the third quarter of this year. SP2 extends the feature set of Exchange 2007 to include more functionality and sets the foundation for migrating to Exchange 2010.

Key new features of Exchange Server 2007 SP2 include:

Enhanced Auditing - New Exchange auditing events and audit log repository enable Exchange administrators to more easily audit the activities occurring on their Exchange servers. It allows the right balance of granularity, performance, and easy access to audited events via a dedicated audit log repository. This simplifies the auditing process and makes review of audited events easier by segregating audited events in a dedicated location.
Exchange Volume Snapshot Backup Functionality - A new backup plug-in has been added to the product that will enable customers to create Exchange backups when a backup is invoked through the Windows Server 2008 Backup tool. Exchange Server 2007 didn't have this capability on Windows Server 2008 and additional solutions were required to perform this task.
Dynamic Active Directory Schema Update and Validation - The dynamic AD schema update and validation feature allows for future schema updates to be dynamic deployed as well as proactively preventing conflicts whenever a new property is added to the AD schema. Once this capability is deployed it will enable easier management of future schema updates and will prevent support issues when adding properties that don't exist in the AD schema.
Public Folder Quota Management - SP2 enables a consistent way to manage quotas by improving the current PowerShell cmdlets to perform quota management tasks.
Centralized Organizational Settings - SP2 introduces new PowerShell option that enable centralized management of many of the Exchange organization settings.
Named Properties cmdlets - SP2 enables Exchange administrators to monitor their named property usage per database.
New User Interface for Managing Diagnostic Logging- SP2 enables Exchange administrators to easily configure and manage diagnostic logging from within the Exchange Management Console.

Exchange SP2 will be a free download to all Microsoft Exchange Server 2007 customers. It will be a requirement to migrate to Exchange Server 2010.

TechEd 2009: Day Five. And so it ends...

2009-05-15T15:29:00.000-07:00

The last day of Teched 2009. It always feels a little weird and sad to see things getting packed up and crated off.

I attended a pretty good session on VDI and Remote Desktop in Windows Server 2008 R2. Cracked me up when the presenter told us that RemoteApp uses "something technical called Forms Based Authentication" and at one point asked the audience if they were familiar with Computer Objects in Active Directory.

I then attended an awesome session on Windows Crash Dump Analysis, presented by David Solomon of SysInternals. This one was so cool, even Mark Russonivich attended it. Lots of good technical stuff.

After a brief lunch, it was off to LAX to grab my flight home. Luckily, I only have an hour and a half flight back. Unluckily, the flight is oversold and delayed. Looks like I'll be home after dark now.

The technical content of TechEd 2009 was excellent, as usual. Logistically, I'd have to say I like Orlando much better. The venue layout suits TechEd very well and they have larger rooms. I can only imagine how many more sessions would have been booked to capacity if attendance had been normal.

Pros: Great technical content (especially for Exchange 2010 and Windows 7),easy access to experts in the TLC, fewer people in attendance meant it was easier to navigate, and lots of great vendor and Microsoft product team parties.

Cons: Getting shut out of a couple of sessions, the LA Convention Center layout was weird and confusing, most of the escalators were broken or running the wrong way, and the epic fail of the "Jam on IT Party."

Of course the pros greatly outway the cons, and I'm really looking forward to TechEd 2010 in New Orleans next year. Put it on your calendar, the dates are June 7-11, 2010.

TechEd 2009: Day Four

2009-05-15T01:13:00.000-07:00

I'm not quite sure what to write about today.

The sessions were great, as usual. I started the day at Mark Minasi's excellent and entertaining talk about Windows UAC, followed by Mark Russinovich's session on improvements to Hyper-V V2 in Windows Server 2008 R2. I also saw two sessions on Exchange 2010 and got to sit in a chalk talk with Evan Douds of the Exchange Management Shell Team.

Thursday evening is traditionally the famous Microsoft Attendee Party. This usually entails a fun-filled evening at a venue such as Universal Studios or Sea World, where the park is open solely to TechEd attendees. Attendees are free to wander the park and partake of free food and drink throughout the evening. It's a great way to unwind after an intense week of training sessions and hands on labs. Attendees also have the option of purchasing additional passes for family members, so they can enjoy the same experience.

This year Microsoft decided to scale back the attendee party and did so in a huge way. The Jam On IT "social gathering" was held in the same venue we've been in all week, the LA Convention Center. Attendees were limited to two drink tickets each and were not allowed the option of buying passes for guests. There was no entertainment, other than a DJ playing music and the "jam sessions" where anyone who wanted to can try to play instruments on stage. The general consensus I heard from attendees was that this was an epic failure.

Now, I can understand why Microsoft did this. Attendance is way down - estimates are more than 40% of last year - and it's really hard to justify spending the same amount of money for that fewer number of people. But the attendee party was cancelled more than two months after registration opened for TechEd 2009, leaving those who already booked their tickets and travel with a sour taste. Microsoft didn't offer any refund or reduced cost because of the cancellation. People have an expectation based on the events that happened in years past, and to replace the traditional attendee party with a DJ and two drink tickets is terrible.

When you got a good thing going, keep doing it. Don't mess with tradition.

TechEd 2009: Day Three

2009-05-14T00:21:00.000-07:00

Today turned out to be Exchange day, where most all of my sessions were around Exchange 2010. I gotta tell you, Exchange 2010 is really, really impressive. All the Exchange sessions this year are packed with attendees and I think Exchange 2010 is going to be the big take-away from TechEd this year.

I organized an Exchange Roundtable tonight for anyone who wanted to talk about Exchange, share their challenges, and bounce ideas around. We met at the Yard House bar just across from the LACC venue. I also invited Scott Schnoll from the Exchange Team to drop by.

I was surprised when Scott showed up with the entire Exchange product group here at TechEd, along with Paul Bowden, Product Release Manager for Exchange Server. We ended up having about 30 people. I had a fascinating conversation with Paul about how Microsoft uses Exchange 2010 in their production datacenter. Very impressive. There were other lively conversations and mass quantities of beer was consumed.

In the end, Paul picked up the check for everyone. It turned out we had an Exchange Server party this year after all. Thank you very much, Paul and the Exchange 2010 Team!

TechEd 2009: Day Two

2009-05-13T00:47:00.000-07:00

There are about 7,800 attendees, by my calculations, at this year's TechEd. Down from about 13,000 from last year. Those ~7,800 attendees got their money's worth on day two of TechEd, with a heavy dose of Exchange 2010 sessions, developer sessions, and other Microsoft technologies.

I arrived on-time for one of the most popular sessions, the Exchange 2010 Migration Deep Dive, only to find that the session was already filled beyond fire marshal capacity. People continued to stream to the session, only to be turned away. It's obvious that Microsoft has a lot of customers interested in Exchange 2010, and this will transfer to an increased number of implementations and migrations in the near term. I, along with many others, will have to wait to see the session as it's streamed from Microsoft in the next 24 hours.

Mark Minasi was in excellent form during his Security session, taking the gauntlet of former Microsoft Employee Steve Riley. As usual, his session was as entertaining as it was useful. I was particularly pleased when Mark stood on a chair in the first row and asked the audience, "Where is Steve Riley?" There's an enormous amount of support for Steve, both within and outside the Microsoft community.

I attended two excellent sessions, one for Microsoft Windows 7 and Windows Server 2008 R2 Direct Access and Remote Desktop (formerly Terminal Services) and the other for Exchange 2010 archiving and retention. There's a lot of HUGE advances being made in this area, and I'm really excited to see this.

The night ended with two FABULOUS parties brought by our friends at Double-Take Software and the Windows Embedded Group. The Double-Take ClusterFunk Party takes us all back to what TechEd parties were all about: Good music, good food, good drinks and most of all, good fun. Nothing beats a good live band and ClusterFunk delivers! We thank Double-Take Software for their continued support and engagement of the TechEd community!

The Windows Embeded Group also had a party at the Lucky Strikes Bowling Alley next door to the ClusterFunk party and across from Staples Center, where the Lakers were in playoff game. I honestly can't tell you who one because I was having so much fun at both of these parties. Bowling, booze and good ol' rock and roll make a great combination!

Here's to a great set of sessions tomorrow.

TechEd 2009: Day One

2009-05-12T02:23:00.000-07:00

After breakfast at the LA Convention Center (LACC), I attended the keynote session, presented by Bill Veghte, Vice President of Windows Business. The venue had five high-definition screens for our viewing pleasure.

Bill's topics included the pain points of the economy, doing more with less, and the need to connect to business data from anywhere.

Microsoft has made significant investments in training (over 1 million trainings over the web last year and over 1 million Springboard trainings per month) and will continue its R&D investments over the coming years. Dynamic IT will enable IT pros and developers across the IT lifecycle, and Bill predicts that Software as a Service (SaaS) will be huge.

Anywhere access is one of the key themes in Win7 and Windows Server 2008 R2. This is something I predicted over two years ago. A lot of investments have been made in these technologies.

Several announcements were made at the keynote, but none with much excitement, other than Windows 7 will ship "by holiday," aka Christmas 2009. This is expected to include Windows Server 2008 R2.

Demos were performed by Mark Russinovich (Windows 7) and Iain McDonald (Windows Server 2008 R2), which were very engaging and demonstrated the advances of both operating systems.

This is all wonderful and what we expect Microsoft to feed us during the keynote. It sets the tone for the week and lets us know what the emphasis is and where to direct our attention for the next 12-18 months. But what was more interesting to me is what happened behind the scenes.

Tracy McElroy is an IT professional from Louisiana who had the opportunity to meet Bill Veghte on a stairwell at the LACC and told Bill thanks for the information in the keynote. Bill asked Tracy what Microsoft was doing right and what they were doing wrong. He was genuinely interested in what Tracy had to say and had a frank discussion with him for over 20 minutes. Bill even took out a notepad to take notes. It was clear to Tracy that his input was valued and was impressed that a executive at Bill's level would take the time and effort to listen to him.

This is the value proposition that TechEd brings to each and every attendee. You may get the opportunity to spend 20 minutes voicing your opinions with a vice president, but each and every one of the talented program managers and product team members are here at TechEd, waiting to hear your opinions and pain points. Together, we can make business easier and more productive for everyone.

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On the entertainment front, the Krewe met up at the vendor exposition where mass quantities of swag was collected and a few beers were consumed. After that, we all headed over to the epic Springboard Party at the Standard Hotel's rooftop pool and bar. Suffice to say, we all had an outstanding time and didn't get back to our hotels until the wee hours of the morning.

TechEd 2009: And so it begins...

2009-05-11T08:50:00.000-07:00

I arrived yesterday to check in and attend a Microsoft MVP meeting at the LA Convention Center. The bag is nice -- Good quality, durable zippers, lots of pockets and a decent size, if not a little big. I think this one's a keeper.

The LACC was really quiet when checking in yesterday. A long line of greeters and registration people all vying to register me. My sense is that attendance is way down. I've heard that attendance last year was around 13,000 and this year is around 6,000.

Last night the Krewe got together at the Bonaventure Brewing Company (BBC) to warm up before Party with Palermo. The beer and food were good at both locations, but after we used our one drink ticket at PWP we moved back upstairs to the BBC. Being told, "that'll be $9.50" for a Corona will do that to a party.

This morning's breakfast scores about a 2. Probably the best parts are the grapes and Apple Jacks cereal. The "cheese omelet" was Egg Beaters and Cheese Whiz. Yum.

The keynote is this morning at 10:00am. This will be a good gauge of attendance, since the room is huge and is usually packed. I'll give my comments after the break...