Dennis Chung - Windows MVP: References

Developers do Virtualization too

Fri, 22 Feb 2008 05:01:44 GMT

Hey, heard the hype of Virtualization? A lot of people has been asking me about virtualization on Windows Server 2008. There has been so much interest that I hear the term Virtualization almost every day. It can be so tiring for my ears. So I guess, it is time I bring some attention to virtualization in Windows Server 2008, Hyper-V.

If you want to learn about Virtualization in general, visit http://www.microsoft.com/virtualization. Microsoft has the entire end to end solution on Virtualization and has everything to offer. On the above web site, you will learn about the virtualization strategies that everyone has been talking about. To my surprise, a few months back, I read that Terminal Services is also a form of Virtualization (Presentation Virtualization). You get what I mean right? Anyway, lets pull our focus back to Server Virtualization. To see what other virtualization there are, check out link. http://www.microsoft.com/virtualization/solutions.mspx

Well, let me put this Developer in the limelight. He made good use of Server Virtualization and adapted it to a developer’s use of it. Surprise?!?! Virtualization use by a Developer. Interesting isn’t it? His name if Loke Kit Kai, Senior Solution Consultant of NCS (Chief Architect’s Office). Incidentally, he is also a good friend of mine. I was just sitting down with him a few months back and told him about Windows Insiders group which he joined.

He came to learn about virtualization and was interested in it. From there, one thing led to another. It led to him using HyperV for his current work. He was able to discover and make good use of the HyperV to help with his daily work. He got hold of Windows Server 2008 with HyperV. By the way, Windows Server 2008 has RTMed. The 64-bit version of Windows Server 2008, although RTMed, carries only the Beta bit of HyperV. HyperV is slated to be released later in the year.

In his hardware crunched department, he had to make best use of the available hardware resources available to him. He does not have the luxury of using multiple physically hardware machines. He has to simulate, test and create proposals on how solutions can fit together. Other parts of his work requires him to develop as well.

Virtualize multiple machines on 1 set of hardware
Being hardware crunched, Kit Kai had to virtualize multiple operating systems, occasionally, non Windows too, to deliver his work. Using HyperV, he is able to host multiple operating system using 1 set of hardware. That saves him money from having to buy multiple hardware. [In fact, he replaced his 4GB ram with 8GB ram just to make the CPU work harder by hosting more virtual machines]. That reduces maintenance and electrical power consumption. Hey, go GREEN. ;-)

Faster is Better
Kit Kai has been a user of virtualization for quite a while. From Virtual PC to Virtual Server, and the latest HyperV. He believe there are lots of benefits to reap from virtualization. A virtual machine in HyperV loaded approx 3 times faster than Virtual Server 2005, even in the current beta version. Thanks to the architecture change of HyperV, which I will skip for now. But in short, Virtual Machine in HyperV isn’t emulated like Virtual Server 2005. Everything is faster with HyperV.

Out of the box support for virtualization in windows 2008 virtual machine
With Windows Server 2008, HyperV is able to collect enough information during setup of a VM and install Integration Services to the VM immediately. This provides the full experience right from the first boot up! You do not have to install VM Additions or Integration Services after installing your Operating System.

Reverting is snappy
HyperV provides super fast snapshots. Kit Kai was able to make good use of snap shots. He built the Virtual Machine (VM) to a certain stage, and takes a snapshot (BTW, the operating system remains running while the snap shot is taken. Thanks to VSS). At that critical stage, he does his development work and messes up the VM. Instead of recovering the VM, he reverted the snapshot of the VM and got a running copy of the VM in seconds

He feels that virtualization has reached a very good level of maturity and looks forward to full integration with System Center Virtual Machine Manager which delivers more advanced capabilities. He is recommending his customers to seriously look at Windows Server 2008, HyperV offerings.

If you want to try HyperV just like Kit Kai, please let me know. I run a program called IT Pro Momentum and it rewards you for that adventurous side of you. ;-)

/Dennis

ITC Solutions, uses and recommends Terminal Services

Wed, 13 Feb 2008 02:07:41 GMT

Hey, Lunar New Year holidays has just passed, and I took a much deserved break. Well, at least that’s what I think. Alright, back to work. There are so many things I am working with right now. Windows 2008, SQL 2008 and Visual Studio 2008 are products that Microsoft is launching real soon. Saw an email internally mentioning T-16. In another 16 days, Microsoft, we will launch the 3 products... Wow… time flies. In Singapore, we are launching on the 26th Mar 2008.

Anyway, I am not blogging about this launch. Let me put some attention to an IT Pro. He is William Lam, Technical Manager of ITC Solutions. He provides infrastructure advice and consultancy services to many SMBs in Singapore. A huge majority of his customers uses the Windows platform. In a bid to expand their businesses, including his own, he provides remote connectivity infrastructures. He provides the services to source and implement the solutions for his customers.

Using the RC versions of Windows Server 2008, he implemented Terminal Server. He was able to implement Terminal Services Remote Applications. Using a HP Proliant DL380G5 Server (Intel Xeon Dual-Core CPU, 4GB of ram), he provided a remote application infrastructure providing MS Office 2003, Adobe Reader Version 8 and several custom applications. To make the solution more secure, he placed the server behind an ISA2006 firewall and loaded up Terminal Services Gateway. In combination, he offered his customers and users Terminal Services Web Access.

He used Vista with SP1 and Windows XP with SP3, to remotely connect in from anywhere on the Internet through HTTPS. Through a browser, he accesses the TS Web Access page and launched the offered applications. Not only was the access smooth, it was hassle free. No longer do users have to figure out which is the real desktop and which is a terminal services desktop. ;-) No data handled by the Remote applications launched, ever leaves the corporate network, which improves security.

William, his users and customers are so impressed with the functionality and performance of Terminal Services in Windows Server 2008, they plan to extend their tests and roll out TS RemoteApp with their other custom applications such as Supply chain management software and ERP software. So impressed are they that they unanimously believe that it is the perfect solution to their remote access requirements. Through the Terminal Services deployed in his office, he is also using the same to do Proof of Concepts. In the past, William mentioned he could only recommend Citrix solutions, which is costly, and SSL VPN solutions. But now, he said he will drop all those and strongly recommend Terminal Services in Windows 2008.

If you would like to contact William for a discussion, you may email him at itcss@singnet.com.sg.

BTW, WS2008 bits has RTMed (Released to Manufacturing)

/Dennis

Terminal Services Remote App solved lots of problem for O2Micro

Wed, 02 Jan 2008 09:27:48 GMT

If you have been a member of Singapore Windows Group, you will probably have heard of this special interest group, known as the Windows Insiders. Members of the Insiders have been meeting up regularly since July 07 to talk about Windows 2008. Just last week, I caught up with an Insider, Bernard Lai. Having heard about the Terminal Services features in Windows 2008, made him really interested in implementing and piloting it.

Bernard works with O2 Micro as Assistant IT Manager. His company deals with mobility solutions and has 13 offices worldwide. He is located in the Singapore office and he believes innovation and staying up-to-date plays a crucial role in his company’s success. With this believe, he was selected to join the Insiders group.

Whilst in the group, he learnt about the IT Pro Momentum program which provides him access to managed forum, early bits, TechNet plus subscription and support calls to support him in his exploration into Windows 2008. As a heavy user of Terminal Services, he looks forward to solve the many problems his company is facing with current version of Terminal Services (Windows 2003).

As a regular user of Terminal Services, he had encountered problems, providing, supporting Terminal Services in his corporate environment. After his exploration into Terminal Services in Windows 2008, he made this statement, “As we use Terminal Services a lot, Terminal Services RemoteApps resolve our many issues.”

So convinced is he in his exploration for Terminal Services in Windows 2008, he traveled to his various offices and told them about Terminal Services for Windows 2008. He received very positive responses and are eager to upgrade their Terminal Services when Windows 2008 becomes available.

In Windows 2008, Terminal Services had changed tremendously. Offering various capabilities and extends a powerful concept of “Software Anywhere”, "Software without Installing on Clients"... To name some of the new roles of Terminal Services; TS Gateway, TS RemoteApp, TS Session Broker, TS Web Access, TS Licensing…

To know more about Terminal Services in Windows 2008, check out this Technical Library. As for Bernard, he has commenced his next adventure, Virtualization. If you would like to be evaluating Windows 2008 and doing something with it to solve your problems, like Bernard did, drop me an email i-dchung@microsoft.com with subject “IT Pro momentum”.

I have attached a screen shot to the right, can you tell which is Wordpad from RemoteApp and which is WordPad from within Vista? (Clue: RemoteApp doesn't show you the nice vista Aero/Border)

Lastly, let me say, Happy New Year…

/Dennis

Teck Sin on 802.1x NAP

Tue, 13 Nov 2007 01:43:02 GMT

Last friday, I had the privilege of meeting 2 members of the Windows Insiders Group. Teck Sin and Yong Teck, at their nice office off the sunny West Coast of Singapore. Just a short walk away from West Coast park. Yup, nice place to work right? Just minutes to the sea side. Imagine you are so frustrated with work, you could just walk to the seaside and jump in. Just kidding.. ;-)

Teck Sin works for a Process Control company (cannot be named to ensure privacy. Hey !! Respect that.) He is in a team of 5 which provides IT Infrastructure support to about 1000 users. I’ve just visited his office on Friday afternoon. Wow, awesome work the company does. His company does process control for customers and produces precision control equipment and stuff like that. That wide variety of IT infrastructure support is just awesome and looks like a lot of fun.

Anyway, I was meeting Teck Sin to see the good work he has done around Network Access Protection. Teck Sin has implemented a pilot of Windows Server 2008’s Network Access protection through 802.1x. He implemented that with CISCO Catalyst 3560.

He found that NAP is able to enforce a base level of protection for clients when network access is required. That protects the clients from virus and worm issues that mobile workforce may bring along back to office and spreads around. NAP is able to enforce that you have Firewall turn on (if its not, NAP can be set to turn it on), Antivirus installed and up to date, and the clients have up-to-date software updates.

Teck Sin finds that NAP is a very compelling technology that should seriously be given some thoughts. It can tremendously elevate and ensure the level of health before clients participate in network access. However, in Teck Sin’s pilot, he wasn’t able to get hold of System Health Validators from his Antivirus vendor and thus, couldn’t put a full testing to it. But he is definitely going to try and get his hands on them and test it again. Meanwhile, he is having fun with his NAP setup.

He also learns how to handle non-802.1x and non-nap clients (print servers and like), and they need to be addressed before general rollout. I encouraged Teck Sin to go further and push the pockets of NAP and exchanged a few ideas. Yong Teck was there too. I learnt quite a bit from the ground. Thanks to Teck Sin and Yong Teck for hosting me.

I think staying ahead of competition and peers is important for the IT Profession. NAP may not hit you right now, but if it hits you, are you ready and confident to implement and handle them? The very difference in being a competent IT Pro is the ability to move ahead and stay abreast of the pack. Teck Sin and Yong Teck displayed that and kudos for staying ahead.

I am here in Microsoft to help IT Pros in Singapore stay ahead and updated with our latest offering (to be released in H1 2008), Windows Server 2008. If you are interested to find out more on how to learn more and get invited into the IT Pro Momentum program (which Teck Sin and Yong Teck are in), drop me an email at i-dchung@microsoft.com For his efforts, Teck Sin is given a 1 year TechNet+ Subscription.

Join the IT Pro Momentum (BTW, its free), or lag behind… Your choice.. May the force be with you!! (Sounds familiar?)

/Dennis

Avantus knows what quick deployment is (WDS)

Wed, 10 Oct 2007 14:00:22 GMT

Do you think deployment of Windows Operating System to many machines are a pain? You’re not alone. I used to come from an environment where I need to have a quick turnaround time for computers. Yes, as you probably have guessed, I was helping to managed computer classrooms. I used to work in such an environment about 2 years back and I can tell you, deployment of operating systems and applications to these classrooms can be a pain in butt. I had to spend like hours a day to setup about 10 machines for a classroom and there are some 10 classrooms to setup. So you can imagine the weekends I had wasted doing such setups.

The pain is now gone:

Since the Windows Server 2003 days, Microsoft released a solution called Windows Deployment Services aka WDS. It has much improved from the days of RIS since Windows 2000. But has evolved so much, that its mature and good to use. However, a big issue still exists, the contention for network bandwidth limits the effectiveness of such a deployment.
If you had an image that is about 5GB in size and you had to deploy to 10 machines, that is 5GB x 10 = 50GB of traffic on the network. For that massive form of transfer, you better have a Gigabit network, else you can forget your weekends again.
Microsoft’s upcoming server, Windows Server 2008, has a new and improved WDS. This time it supports Multicasting. Which means the same 5GB image to 10 Machines means 5GB traffic on the network. Sounds good isn’t it. It is. If you want to learn more about it, here’s a step by step guide.

Avantus Cuts Deployment Time using WDS

For the past couple of weeks, I’ve been following up with Pom Figueroa, Consultant Trainer and System Admin, Avantus Training Pte Ltd, on solving his pain point of managing his classroom turnover. Avantus is a great partner of Microsoft, and for the past four years, they have been awarded the CPLS Partner of the Year award.
Anyway, Avantus has about 10 classrooms which typically are occupied during the office hours. So turnover of the classrooms must take place during the weekends. A huge problem is that the machines must be ready for a new class on Monday. Time is short, pressure mounts on the technician/trainers and the network to have the training images out to the machines in the classroom.
Prior to deploying WDS, they had to stay and waste hours deploying an image for a classroom. That eats into the social life of their technician and trainers. After learning about the capabilities of WDS in Windows Server 2008, Pom decided that Avantus should give WDS a go.
Right now, after the deployment of WDS, Pom finds it so easy to create an image of a reference machine and reuse it for mass deployment. To make it better, the deployment can be fully automated. So what used to be a manual task, is now automated. To tip it further, there is multicasting, traffic on the network isn’t as massive as before and deployment now takes only a fraction of what was needed before.
This is what Pom has to say, “This is my basic principle… If you’re doing a particular task and it is repetitive, there MUST be a way to automate it. All you need to do is take a step back, look into the scenario and try find a solution. For this particular scenario, I see WDS as the perfect solution for addressing our problem.”
WDS isn’t just for Classrooms or Lab. It can be fitted as part of a Business Desktop Deployment aka BDD process. If your organization is doing a mass deployment of an operating system like Vista, WDS may be the answer for you. It will help you reduce deployment cost tremendously. You can deploy Vista in fully automated fashion without intervention. How cool is that?
If you like to learn more about WDS, feel free to ping me at i-dchung@microsoft.com with subject “ITPRO: WDS Deployment”.

Related Resources:
Introduction to Deployment Services
Step by Step for Windows 2003 WDS
Step by Step for Windows 2008 WDS

/Dennis