Archive | 2012

New Stuff in Microsoft Windows Server 2012

13 Jun

I found this TechNet link that talks about all the latest Improvements in Windows Server 2012.

Link: http://technet.microsoft.com/library/hh831769

Short Summary of things that I like personally: (Direct Hyperlinks)

What’s new in Active Directory Domain Services (AD DS)
Active Directory Domain Services (AD DS) in Windows Server 2012 includes new features that make it simpler and faster to deploy domain controllers (both on-premises and in the cloud), more flexible and easier to both audit and authorize access to files, and easier to perform administrative tasks at scale, either locally or remotely, through consistent graphical and scripted management experiences.

What’s New in Failover Clustering
Failover clusters provide high availability and scalability to many server workloads. These include file share storage for server applications such as Hyper-V and Microsoft SQL Server, and server applications that run on physical servers or virtual machines.

What’s New in Remote Desktop Services
The Remote Desktop Services server role in Windows Server 2012 provides technologies that enable users to connect to virtual desktops, RemoteApp programs, and session-based desktops. With Remote Desktop Services, users can access remote connections from within a corporate network or from the Internet.

What’s New in Hyper-V
The Hyper-V role enables you to create and manage a virtualized computing environment by using virtualization technology that is built in to Windows Server 2012. Hyper-V virtualizes hardware to provide an environment in which you can run multiple operating systems at the same time on one physical computer, by running each operating system in its own virtual machine.

I am sure this will come handy in making decisions moving forward to Win 2012

Best Regards,
Aresh Sarkari

Free Training for Microsoft Certification 70-659 (Hyper-V)

1 Jun

Microsoft & BangaloreITPro jointly have come up with this initiative where group leader veterans would be delivering sessions on Microsoft Hyper-V which will help the community members to prepare themselves to take up the Microsoft Virtualization exam 70-659.

15 members would be selected during the session and will be given free examination vouchers for 70-659 Windows 2008 R2 Server Virtualization

Date: 2nd June 2012

Time: 9.30AM to 6.00PMVenue: Microsoft MTC, Signature Building, Bangalore

Agenda
TimeSpeakerTopics
9.30AM – 10.00AMRegistrations
10.00AM – 11.45AMAresh Sarkari, Technical Architect at Unisys.Windows Server 2008 Virtualization – Part 1
(Hyper-V Fundamentals, Planning, Configurations & Management)
11.45AM – 12.00PMTea Break
12.00PM – 01.30PMGaurav Anand, Microsoft MVPWindows Server 2008 Virtualization – Part II
(Hyper-V Architectures, Networking, Storage, Backup & Restore)
01.30PM – 02.15 PM Lunch Break
02.15PM – 04.00PMPrecheta / MS Anand, Microsoft IndiaWindows Server 2008 Virtualization – Part III
(Hyper-V Security, Best Practices)
04.00PM – 04.30PMTea Break
04.30PM – 05.45PMChalk Talk with Industry Expert to clear the Exam-70-659Quiz, Q&A, Exam Tips & Tricks
05.45PM – 06.00PMUG LeadsClosing Note

Be there as I will be taking up the stage for the Hyper-V Planning, Configuration & Management Topics + Live Demo

Best Regards,
Aresh Sarkari

My learning’s from Citrix Executive Briefing @ Bangalore, India

17 Apr

Recently, I attended a Citrix Executive Briefing at ITC Gardenia, Bangalore on 12th April 2012 and learnt a couple of new things over and above our normal XenApp & XenDesktop which I would like to share as follows:

XenApp Mobility Pack: This piece of software when installed on the XenApp server enhances the desktop or icons which are easy to touch and maneuver within the Windows 7 desktop. Like the traditional Windows Icons and menus it can really get difficult to click/touch on your tablet like devices that are 7” or 10” inches. See the below mentioned screenshot for the before and after experience.

Before: (Screenshot of a Shared Desktop)

clip_image001

After1: (With Mobility Pack)

clip_image002

After2: (With Mobility Pack)

clip_image003

Video:

This mobility pack works in general for the Windows 7 OS and Office, Adobe applications etc. out of the box. It would be advisable to check, if it works on custom applications or/else developers would require to use the XenApp Mobility Pack SDK to further customize their applications.

ShareFile:

This company was recently bought by Citrix. It provides cloud based storage solution on all platform like Android, iOS, Windows Phone and Blackberry. During the demo they showcased the capabilities like once you are logged into your VDI based desktop using the Citrix Receiver, whenever you create a file it can be directly saved onto your cloud storage drive. You can also retrieve the files from the internet (follow-me-data) that you had previously stored. It’s more like a mapped drive sitting in the cloud with all the necessary security measures.

This cloud storage integration with Citrix Receiver can help customers to follow-their-data wherever they go. It can be used as an additional storage on the go.

Don’t forget to leave your valuable comments.

Best Regards,
Aresh Sarkari

Having best of both worlds Windows 7 and Android Apps and Games

31 Mar

Did you every imagine!! what if you could get the best of both the worlds Windows 7 Desktop and Android Apps & Games?? Yes guys its possible!! I know it’s a late discovery however, I got excited the moment I installed the app on my Windows 7 PC and the very first app I downloaded was “Angry Birds Space” works like a charm.

Big thanks to BlueStack App: www.bluestacks.com Simply Download the package and it will install the bits onto your computer.

BlueStack Download

You need to enter the following details:

– Language
– Cloud Connect Sync option if you have a Android based phone – (I don’t have one Smile)
– Enter your email address for all the correspondence

Screen Shot: (Downloading Angry Bird on my desktop )

AngryBirds Download

Beauty of the App:

Suppose if you have a Android based phone you can download the applications onto your desktop under the BlueStacks App Player for Windows (Beta-1). The Cloud Connect Sync options will automatically sync all the Apps & Games with your phone.

Memory Usage:

When I was playing games in the BlueStacks App I noticed the memory utilization is approx. 270 – 500 MB depending on the Game/App you are playing inside.

Alternates:

I know people will say we can install the Android Operating System into a Virtual Machine and then download the apps & games from the application store. However, I have noticed that doing so involves technical expertise & even after managing to run the Android OS into the VM’s still there are issues related to Sound and Mouse movement within the VM.

I bet this is the best application cum player I have ever seen for running the Android Apps & Games for Windows 7. I hope you will enjoy this post as much as I did after exploring this software.

Best Regards,
Aresh Sarkari

Building a home lab a.k.a Monster Machine in Bangalore, India–Purpose Virtualization

27 Mar

The last time I spent Rs. 64,000/- on a laptop HP DV9830us was back in 2007 (Fry’s Store, in Texas) on which my original plan was to run virtual machine and utilize it for personal use (Gaming, movies, surfing etc.). Back in 2007, I got a very decent configuration of  Intel Duo Core 1.8 Ghz, 4 GB RAM, 512 NVidia Dedicated Graphics, Blue-ray player and hi-definition 17” screen. The whole purpose of the laptop got defeated when I returned back to India and figured out that BIOS is locked down by HP and doesn’t have the feature of Intel-VT and Intel-XD and cannot utilize the potential of this machine. (It is definitely me to blame as I got carried away in the store and made the purchase without doing research)

Recently, I started getting this feeling of building a home machine, so that I can test all the latest products from Microsoft, Citrix and Quest and learn all the new stuff along with creating a lot of useful material for myself and other techies. Though our companies would invest a lot of money in buying machine for building POC however, it always involves a lot of complexity (multiple RDP sessions just to get into the server and mother of all latency issues) in accessing and utilizing the machines Sad smile.

What do I plan to build on this Machine?

I plan to install Windows 2008 R2 Enterprise Edition for starters then later on move to Windows 8 Server Beta using Hyper-V 3.0 or even try Windows 8 Client with Hyper-V and then create a lot of VM’s of various technologies. At all point in time my setup would have at least 6-8 VM’s running so there is going to be a lot of CPU and Memory utilization on the machine.

How about going with a OEM Manufacturer?

I thought rather than investing my time in building the ideal configuration why not buy something out of the box like a Dell or HP Workstation but to my surprise all of the OEM are super expensive nothing less than 1.75 to 2 lacs. All the OEM in the Workstation series typically have the machines starting from the price range of Rs. 85,000/- however, the moment you start adding more RAM, better processor and HDD space the prices shoots up.

My Research & Aresh’s Configuration or Plan for 2012:

My quest begins to research on building a decent performance machine. Remember, I missed this step last time during my laptop purchase Smile. I shortlisted on certain brands and products as follows:

CPU: Undoubtedly the Intel CPU came to my mind just that I am very comfortable and implemented a lot of Intel based implementations

Intel® Core™ i7-3930K Processor  (12M Cache, up to 3.80 GHz) = Rs. 33,000/-

Intel® Core™ i7-2700K Processor (8M Cache, up to 3.90 GHz)

Note: I have to purchase the CPU fan extra as it doesn’t come along with the original Intel Processor Kit. My choice for the fan is CoolMaster – X6

Motherboard: The mother of all choke-ups, bottlenecks & F****-ups if not selected by doing proper research. I shortlisted on ASUS industry leader in building robust and non-failure prone motherboards

ASUS P9X79 DELUXE – Rs. 25,000/-

Memory: Now comes the turn of buying RAM and my choice was Corsair

Vengeance® — 24GB Triple Channel DDR3 Memory Kit (CMZ24GX3M6A1600C9) = Rs. 15000/- to 18,000/-

HDD: A lot of options in this space however, being budget handicapped I selected a single HDD. I am surely aware a single HDD means a single point of failure but I have a couple of portable drives that I might use to backup and keep information. I don’t care if the HDD dies and have to rebuilt the lab Smile 

Seagate Barracuda® XT Desktop Hard Drives (2 TB) = Rs. 10,000/-

Even  if I plan to create a RAID 1 mirror my cost is going to double. Which I don’t think I can afford at this point in time.

Cabinet: Best in the class CoolMaster cabinets however, haven’t shortlisted the model yet.

S.No

Product

Price

1

Intel® Core™ i7-3930K Processor (12M Cache, up to 3.80 GHz)

33.000

2

ASUS P9X79 DELUXE

25,000

3

Vengeance® — 24GB Triple Channel DDR3 Memory Kit

18,000

4

Seagate Barracuda® XT Desktop Hard Drives (2 TB)

10,000

5

Cool Master Cabinet

7,000

6

Cool Master X6 CPU Fan

4,000

Taxes Misc. On all products

5,000

Total

1,02,000

Now, when seeing the total cost of the entire Monster Machine I was thrown flat on my face to the ground after seeing the money that is involved in building this machine. I am open to all types of charity and hope soon I can afford this machine.

Best Regards,

Aresh Sarkari

Few of my all time favorite Future Innovation Videos

19 Mar

I wanted to publish few of my all time favorite innovation videos into a single blog post. I am sure you all will love these mind blowing innovations!!!

Corning A Day made of glass 1:

Corning A Day made of glass 2:

Future of you Car Glass Windows:

Future of Microsoft Office:

Future of Electricity Bloom Box 1: (Alternate Energy)

Windows 8 Consumer Preview VS iPad 2 iOS 5

16 Mar

With the release of Windows 8 it finally brings Microsoft into the Tablet Wars and a comparison video was inevitable. My 2 cents are it would be unfair to compare a product (iPad) that has been into the market for 3 years with a new launch of Windows 8. Though, I understand all eyes would be on Microsoft to beat Apple feature by feature. Looking at the video Windows 8 looks quite promising, I hope they get the Office Suite/Applications accustom to Metro UI where there are big buttons/icons/ribbon doing a lot of work in the background rather than small icons which are difficult to press and hover around.

 

I am  noticing that a lot of Hardware Manufactures like Nokia, Acer, Dell, HP, Toshiba and HCL are building Tablets for Windows 8. By end of Q4 2012 markets are going to get flooded with Tablets devices and the War would be full on Smile

Best Regards,
Aresh Sarkari

Source: Josh, from The Verge

Awesome Tool to compare Hyper-V with VMware – Private Cloud Economic Tool

16 Mar

Recently, I came across this Microsoft Private Cloud Economic Tool which comes in handy when you are responding to RFP and RFI and you want to sit back and compare the solution pricing on two best virtualization platforms available in the market

Assessment Tool

Enter the value into the above mentioned fields and get a detailed comparison of Hyper-V and VMware

I am sure there is a lot of stuff available on the internet however, I am sure this tool along with the below mentioned feature comparison will come in very handy

Feature Comparison between Hyper-V 3.0, Hyper-V 2.0, vSphere 5 Standard and vSphere 5 Enterprise: http://up2v.files.wordpress.com/2012/02/full-overview-vsphere5-versus-hyper-v3-0.jpg

Best Regards,
Aresh Sarkari

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