Starting up the Lync Test Drive VM Farm

I wrote recently about the Lync 2013 Test Drive set of Virtual Machines. These are pretty neat, although they are a large download, and expand to a very large size. But worth it for the ease of use. In testing it, I found it uses a lot of RAM, so if you want to run all of the VMs at once, I found I needed 32 GB of RAM. But even then, starting up 7 VMs even on my Precision 7400 box takes a lot of time.

If you just start all the VMs at once, they all grind very slowly to life. It seems to take 15-20 minutes to get it all started – I usually start the VMs and go off and make coffee! A big downside to this approach, and one I regularly confront in the classroom, is that Exchange, Lync and the Certificate Services sometimes do not start or start fully. It tends to be the Lync and Exchange services that fail to start. And while the AD Certificate Services starts up OK, it can end up unable to issue a certificate if requested by Lync’s installation package.

Now this is NOT new. I’ve been seeing it in my classrooms since OCS 2007 days. There are a couple of simple solutions to this problem (and probably more):

First, just start VMs up more slowly – waiting a few minutes between starting each one. If you wait until you can login to the DC, for example, before starting anything else, issues like authentication from remote machines (e.g. the remote machines wants to take advantage of the DC before the DC’s netlogon service is fully up and able to  accommodate) just go away. Sufficient staggering of the startup of each VM eliminates the risks of services not starting.

Second, you could create a simple start-up script for each machine that slept for, say 10-15 minutes, then started any un-started  services. Once you create the script you could then apply it using local group policy. That way when the three systems start, they wait (till the server calms down a little after boot) and just start any services that do not run. This is more effort than the first.  I’ll post that script in another blog post.

So here’s my script that starts up the VM farm:

# Script to start the Lync Test-Drive VMs
Write-Host " Starting Lync Test Drive Farm on $(hostname) at: $(Get-date)"
Ipmo Hyper-V

# First start up Dc, and wait for 90 seconds

Write-Host "Starting DC1 at $(get-date)"
Start-VM -name '2013-DC'
Start-Sleep 90

# Now startup Lync FE and wait 7 minutes then start the mgt service
# and wait 4 more minutes
Write-Host "Starting Lync-FE at $(get-date)"
Start-VM -Name '2013-Lync-FE'
Start-sleep 300

Write-Host "Starting Lync-Mgt at $(get-date)"
Start-VM -Name '2013-Lync-MGT'
Start-sleep 240

# Startup Exchange and wait 5 minutes
Write-Host "Starting Exchange at $(get-date)"
Start-VM -Name '2013-Exchange'
Start-sleep 300

# Startup TS then SharePoint and wait 2 minutes
Write-Host "Starting ts at $(get-date)"
Start-VM -Name '2013-TS'
Start-sleep 120

Write-Host "Starting Sharepoint at $(get-date)"
Start-VM -Name '2013-SharePoint'
Start-sleep 120

# Lastly Startup WAC
Write-Host "Starting Wac at $(get-date)"
Start-VM -Name '2013-WAC'

# All done
"-" * 50

Get-VM -Name 2013*

# and where are we?
$Username   = "Contoso\administrator"
$Password   = 'Jasmine1'
$PasswordSS = ConvertTo-SecureString  -String $Password -AsPlainText -Force
$CredC      = New-Object -Typename System.Management.Automation.PSCredential `
             -Argumentlist $Username,$PasswordSS

Get-WMIObject -Class Win32_Service -computer 2013-Lync-FE -Credential $CredC |
    where {($_.startmode -EQ 'Auto') -AND ($_.Name -Match "rtc")} | ft -AutoSize

Get-WMIObject -Class Win32_Service -computer 2013-Exchange -Credential $CredC |
    where {$_.startmode -EQ 'Auto'  -And $_.Name -match 'MSExchange'} | ft -Auto

 

The results of running this script, which takes around 20 minutes, look like this:

PSH [C:\foo]: C:\builds\Dropbox\Lync Test Drive scripts\Start-TestLab.ps1
Starting Lync Test Drive Farm on Cookham12 at: 10/25/2013 20:51:32
Starting DC1 at 10/25/2013 20:51:32
Starting Lync-FE at 10/25/2013 20:53:03
Starting Lync-Mgt at 10/25/2013 20:58:05
Starting Exchange at 10/25/2013 21:02:06
Starting ts at 10/25/2013 21:07:08
Starting Sharepoint at 10/25/2013 21:09:10
Starting Wac at 10/25/2013 21:11:13
--------------------------------------------------

Name            State   CPUUsage(%) MemoryAssigned(M) Uptime   Status           
----            -----   ----------- ----------------- ------   ------           
2013-WAC        Running 1           1024              00:00:00 Operating normally
2013-TS         Running 1           2048              00:04:10 Operating normally
2013-SHAREPOINT Running 0           2048              00:02:07 Operating normally
2013-LYNC-MGT   Running 0           564               00:13:14 Operating normally
2013-LYNC-FE    Running 3           4096              00:18:15 Operating normally
2013-EXCHANGE   Running 1           4096              00:09:12 Operating normally
2013-DC         Running 0           1174              00:19:47 Operating normally

ExitCode Name           ProcessId StartMode State   Status
-------- ----           --------- --------- -----   ------
       0 MSSQL$RTC           1648 Auto      Running OK   
       0 MSSQL$RTCLOCAL      1760 Auto      Running OK   
       0 RTCASMCU            2728 Auto      Running OK   
       0 RTCATS               692 Auto      Running OK   
       0 RTCAVMCU            1200 Auto      Running OK   
       0 RTCCAA              4028 Auto      Running OK   
       0 RTCCAS              4252 Auto      Running OK   
       0 RTCCHAT             4504 Auto      Running OK   
       0 RTCCHATCOMPL        4556 Auto      Running OK   
       0 RTCCLSAGT           4612 Auto      Running OK   
       0 RTCCPS              4828 Auto      Running OK   
       0 RTCDATAMCU          4184 Auto      Running OK   
       0 RTCIMMCU            5288 Auto      Running OK   
       0 RTCMEDSRV           5784 Auto      Running OK   
       0 RTCPDPAUTH          6160 Auto      Running OK   
       0 RTCPDPCORE          7384 Auto      Running OK   
       0 RTCRGS              6424 Auto      Running OK   
       0 RtcSrv              6756 Auto      Running OK   
       0 RTCXMPPTGW          6616 Auto      Running OK   

ExitCode Name                         ProcessId StartMode State   Status
-------- ----                         --------- --------- -----   ------
       0 MSExchangeADTopology              2756 Auto      Running OK   
       0 MSExchangeAntispamUpdate          2956 Auto      Running OK   
       0 MSExchangeDelivery                3020 Auto      Running OK   
       0 MSExchangeDiagnostics             1380 Auto      Running OK   
       0 MSExchangeEdgeSync                3116 Auto      Running OK   
       0 MSExchangeFastSearch              3192 Auto      Running OK   
       0 MSExchangeFrontEndTransport       3352 Auto      Running OK   
       0 MSExchangeHM                      1600 Auto      Running OK   
       0 MSExchangeIS                      3504 Auto      Running OK   
       0 MSExchangeMailboxAssistants       3612 Auto      Running OK   
       0 MSExchangeMailboxReplication      4080 Auto      Running OK   
       0 MSExchangeRepl                    2712 Auto      Running OK   
       0 MSExchangeRPC                     3708 Auto      Running OK   
       0 MSExchangeServiceHost             4148 Auto      Running OK   
       0 MSExchangeSubmission              4300 Auto      Running OK   
       0 MSExchangeThrottling              4516 Auto      Running OK   
       0 MSExchangeTransport               6392 Auto      Running OK   
       0 MSExchangeTransportLogSearch      4660 Auto      Running OK   
       0 MSExchangeUM                         0 Auto      Stopped OK   
       0 MSExchangeUMCR                    2928 Auto      Running OK   

The use of this script does mean it takes 20 minutes to start up the farm, but that’s time I’d probably spend any way waiting for the VMs to start up and then troubleshoot things to fix what is not working. Since I tend to work with these VMs for several hours at a time, the overhead of the script is minor, and I can easily work around the 20 minutes it takes!

Note also that we looked into the two known troublemakers and saw that all but UM was up and running. Given I’m not yet played with the UM part of the VMs, I’m OK with this for now. Maybe a bit more tweaking.

If you use the script above, test it out in your environment and adjust the sleep times to reflect how long things take on YOUR hardware.

Technorati Tags: Lync,Lync 2013 Test Drive VMs,Test Drive,Lync 2013

Replace PowerShell with the Command Prompt–But WHY?

I get a customised Google News page which brings up, amongst other things, recent news about PowerShell. This is a nice way of keeping up to date with news specifically about PowerShell and other things I am interested in.

This week, the applet I use to get news brought up an article entitled Replace PowerShell with the Command Prompt. I immediately clicked the hyperlink to discover details on how to change the Win+X Menu in Windows 8.1 back to Cmd.Exe.

WHY??? I felt myself asking! WHY Why anyone actually want to go backwards. A bit like replacing Notepad with a link to Edlin (or VI) if you ask me. Almost all the traditional command line tools work perfectly in PowerShell. You use them with identical syntax and all that even if the output is just text and not objects they function just fine. A few applications use syntax that trips up PowerShell – but with the use of the the –% operator, you can continue to use the older syntax (as I describe in a Blog article titled Taming Wild Console Applications in PowerShell v3.

If you are using Windows 8.1, you should know by now that PowerShell is the future (and present!). Get used to it and learn to love it. And please, resist the temptation to go back!

Technorati Tags: PowerShell

The Root-Servers vs. the RootServers–a DNS mystery

I was working today with Nslookup running against the root servers to see what responses I got, and what the TTL times were for records retrieved were.  When I first tried, I got some really weird results:

This really didn’t make any sense – since when did the responsible person for the root servers on the internet devolved to buydomains.com? Then I noticed the problem. Look carefully at the SOA I was trying to resolve. Retying the command with a strategic adjustment yielded success:

So the mystery was easy – my typing stinks. But if I can make that mistake, no doubt others might.

 

Technorati Tags: DNS

Lync Server Test Drive–Discovering SQL Servers

In a recent blog article, I wrote about the Lync Server Test Drive Virtual Machines that Microsoft had put up for use. This is a huge set of VMs, but it all does work. With the VMs up and running, I can now begin to write some scripts against this VM set.

Today’s script, Get-SQLServer2.ps1 uses the SQL Server SQL Management Objects (SMOs) to discover the SQL instances in use on the network (the subnet used by the Test Drive set). The link points you toward the  actual script which you can download and use!

The core of the script is accomplished by one line:

$SQLservers=
[System.Data.Sql.SqlDataSourceEnumerator]::Instance.GetDataSources()

This statement used the SMOs to enumerate the instances of SQL on the local net. However, $SQLServers is returned not as an array but as a Data Table containing Data Rows (one per instance). So in order to convert this back to being AN array of Data rows, I use this logic:

$Srvs = @()
Foreach ($srv in $SQLServers) {
$srvs += $srv
}

Once I have these instances in an array, I can print them out like this:

"There are {0} SQL Server(s) on the Local Subnet" -f $Srvs.count
$Srvs | Select ServerName, InstanceName, Version | Format-Table -AutoSize

So as you can see from the output, there are a total of 7 instances of SQL server in the Test Drive network.

The joys of PowerShell and SMOs. I’ll be both documenting SMOs more here as well as diving down into the Lync Databases in coming articles.

 

Technorati Tags: SQL,SQL Server,Lync,Lync Server,Lync Server 2013,Lync Server Test Drive

Lync 2013 PowerShell Module–An Overview

In an earlier article, I wrote about the new Lync 2013 Test Drive. This is a set of 7 Virtual Machines that implement Lync for you to play with. These VMs enable you to test out and work with Lync Server 23013. SharePoint is also included in the Test Drive – although that’s probably a subject for a separate blog post or posts.

So what’s the first thing to look at? Well, for me, as a PowerShell guy – the first thing is obviously the Lync module. You can get the Lync Module either by using the Lync Console shortcuts provided when you install Lync. Alternatively, you can use it directly from a PowerShell console running on any system that has the Lync tools loaded.

You import this module by using the Import-Module cmdlet. With PowerShell V3, you do not really need to import the module explicitly, as by using any cmdlet, you get the module auto-loaded for you. And of course, you can turn this auto-load feature off should wish to. The Test Drive VMs all utilise PowerShell V3.

When I load the Lync module, the first thing I do is to look at how many cmdlets are contained in the Module. That was easy, although I was very surprised at the result:

As you can see by following the red arrow – there are 739 cmdlets in the Lync module. Now I’m not sure what YOU think of this, but my immediate reaction is astonishment. That’s a lot of cmdlets to learn. The good news is you can use PowerShell’s discovery features to help.

First, let’s look at the verbs that are used in these cmdlets. I find the verbs give a feeling of what sorts of actions we are expecting the cmdlets to perform. I use a simple one-liner to work out what verbs are used in Lync Cmdlets – which looks like this:

As I count it, that makes for 35 verbs, although 12 verbs are used just once, and 5 are just used twice. Interestingly, just over 3/4 of all the cmdlets use Get, Set, New or Remove which isn’t too surprising.

A more interesting bit of output would be the nouns used in the cmdlets. The nouns represent the different types of objects that you are going to manage with a module. While verbs, in cmdlet names, are generic and standardised, it’s the nouns that are task specific.

In the case of Lync, there are a large number of different nouns:

TWO HUNDRED EIGHTY FOUR nouns. If your jaw dropped with the number of cmdlets, there are 284 separate objects which are used as the target of one or more Lync Cmdlets. This is also a pretty big job in terms of the documentation – since each of these cmdlets and the objects they interact with need documentation.

So how do you get started?  In some coming blog posts, I’ll be taking a look at the various sub-sets of cmdlets and introduce them to you!

Lync Server Test Drive: Pre-Configured Virtual Machines

One of the things, missing until recently, that Lync customers have wanted is a set of demonstration VMs to get a feel for Lync, without the pressure of having to install it themselves. Lync installation is a very complex process and for basic evaluation – in my case just testing small features (PowerShell related of course) would have meant a huge amount of work to get all the bits and bobs loaded and configured. Like so many, I just do not have time.
A recent mail form those very nice people in the Lync product group, I found Microsoft has now released just what I and others were asking for. The Lync Server Test Drive is a set of seven Virtual Machines: A domain controller, and Exchange Server, a Lync FE Server (running Lync SE), a Management Server, a SharePoint server, a WAC server (for conferencing) and finally a system for development. You don’t need all of these VMs, and you can download them in sets. There are three sets:
Set 1 – which you can get from http://www.microsoft.com/en-gb/download/details.aspx?id=40266, contains:

• DC – a configured DC in the Contoso fictional domain
• Exchange – a configured Exchange 2013 server configured with almost 250 accounts!
• Lync Front End – running Lync 2013 Standard Edition
• WAC – for conferencing

Set 2, which you can get from: http://www.microsoft.com/en-us/download/details.aspx?id=40267, contains 

• Lync Management server
• SharePoint Server

Finally, Set 3, which you can get from: http://www.microsoft.com/en-gb/download/details.aspx?id=40265, contains:

• A TS server, which you can used to develop Lync based applications and a bit more!

Each of these sets comes as several compressed files, which are huge. The 62 files that make up the raw download take up just under 46GB of disk space. Expanded and running, the VMs take up a whopping 175 GB. That’s over 220GB of disk space. You could download a bit, expand the downloads then delete the downloads if you were on the short side for disk storage – but you’ll still need 175 GB of disk for the vms themselves.
Here’s what I see after importing the VMs:

The VMs also require a pretty hefty Hyper-V host, particularly given the Memory needs.  In order to get these running, I upgraded my Precision w7500 server box to 32 gb of ram. I would have bought more, but the 8GB sticks of Ram are pretty pricey – and besides, 32 GB if 4 times the largest ram I’ve ever installed
In operation these VMs are not what I’d call fast. If nothing else, this confirms that to really run Enterprise software like Lync  you need RAM, processing power and fast disks! As in most classroom scenarios, starting the VMs all at once means a lot of services do not start cleanly – but it’s nothing that a bit of PowerShell can’t quickly remedy. Having said that, once it’s all up and running, things seem to work well.
It’s great to have a fully working set of VMs I can now play with! I hope to generate some more cool scripts soon!

Learning More About PowerShell at PowerCamp–Oct19/20

I’ve written before about the upcoming PowerShell PowerCamp event, being held Oct 19tyh and 20th 2013 at Microsoft’s Cardinal Place Offices in London. To summarise, PowerCamp is 2 action-packed days of PowerShell – taking you from 0 to as fast YOU can go in two days. It’s a great way to get over that basic learning curve.

Each time I run one of these events, some of the wider PowerShell community kick in and I get some extra goodies for the attendees. So far, I have two offers for you:

First my good friends at Pluralsight are offering each attendee a free 30-day trial of Pluralsight's full online training portfolio. For you IT Pros, this is more relevant than ever since Pluralsight has now bought Train Signal, leaders in the IT Pro online training space. There is an awesome amount of content, PowerShell and non-PowerShell in the combined catalog.

Secondly, those very nice people over at MVP Systems have donated some cash which will pay for at least some of the coffee at the event. I’ll be handing out Costa gift cards thanks to MVP Systems, which will get you a couple of Lattes – which you may need in order to stay focused!

I am still looking at having a special guest to add some value – I’ll be able to announce that soon.

So if you think it’s time to FINALLY learn PowerShell – sign up to day. The cost and sign up details are here: http://www.tfl09.blogspot.co.uk/2013/07/powershell-powercamp-2013-coming-soon.html.

I look forward to seeing you there.

 

Technorati Tags: PowerShell,Learn PowerShell,PowerCamp

Pluralsight is Expanding!

I’ve been working for a couple of years as a course author for Pluralsight and have several courses in their library. They’ve been a fantastic company to work with – the people are great and the processes work very smoothly. Writing courses for them has been a joy.

In the past week, however, they’ve gone from strength to strength with two amazing acquisitions. First, as announced very recently, Pluralsight has acquired Peepcode, a market leader in open source software training. So if you have used Peepcode for training in Ruby, Javascript, Ruby on Rails, Node, Git, etc., you can not get that training from Pluralsight.

But the biggest announcement, for me at least, happened to day, when Pluralsight announced it had acquired TrainSignal, the world top online training resource for IT professionals. You can read about the purchase over on the Pluralsight blog: http://blog.pluralsight.com/2013/08/05/pluralsight-acquires-trainsignal/

As a Pluralsight author, I am utterly delighted at these two acquisitions. First, it should drive a lot more customers our way, and therefore increase the author income – and that’s a good thing. But second, with the acquisition of TrainSignal, Pluralsight is now moving into IT Pro training, which is where my own history lies. I think that’s a really, really great thing! And as I’m just finishing up my latest Pluralsight course, Managing Windows Server DHCP with PowerShell, the timing could not have been better.

Congrats to Pluralsight!

Technorati Tags: Pluralsight

PowerShell PowerCamp 2013 Coming Soon!

I’m getting quite excited about the next PowerShell PowerCamp. This is being held at Microsoft’s London offices over the weekend of October 19/20 2013.

I’ve been working a lot recently with a number of the new PowerShell modules in Server 2012, specially to deploy and test DHCP. But there are so many aspects of Windows Server that you can now manage with PowerShell, it’s really time you learned how to unleash the potential of PowerShell.

I speak to a lot of really smart IT Pros, and there is a reluctance to learn PowerShell or to embrace it. I can understand that (especially from the perspective of the last two weeks of my ‘day job’ ). PowerShell can look like long convoluted text you have to type and it’s got no sense of humour. The ‘red ink syndrome’ as I call it.

PowerShell really is a lot easier, once you get over the learning curve. Really! But there is a need to shift gears a little. Command line admin seems tedious, but tab-completion really does help minimise the pain. Combine this with intellisense built into the ISE, then life really is a lot simpler.

The PowerCamp events are designed to take you from the start to as far as we can take you in 2 days. The feedback on previous camps has been great and I think it fair to say we’ve all learned a lot.

I also try to add some value to each event, and I am negotiating for a guest speaker on the Sunday! More to be revealed once he confirms! I’ll also be hitting up the various vendors to see what swag I can leverage.

So what are you waiting for? See the PowerShell PowerCamp blog posting and book today.

Windows 8.1 Can’t Import VMs Exported from earlier OSs.

Like many, I’ve been experimenting with Windows 8.1. It’s a nice improvement in many ways to Windows 8, but there are still some bugs. Unfortunately, as I have discovered, MS is no longer planning to ship this OS when it’s ready. Instead, they plan ship it when they ship it – warts an all. This post documents another example of that.

Like a lot of Microsoft Certified trainers, I have a huge library of training course related sets of Hyper-V VMs. These are issued by Microsoft Learning (MSL) and are an important part of the classroom experience. Some of these sets are huge (over 20 VMs with a few courses with even more). The VMs are delivered in an ‘exported’ state – the user (the MCT or training centre) just unpacks them, moves the files to the right place then imports the VM into Hyper-V.

In playing with Windows 8.1 Preview, I discovered something pretty nasty with this new OS: you can not import an existing Windows 8/Server 2012 (or earlier) VM that was exported from an earlier OS. This is a nasty bug for many, particularly MCTs and CPLSs (Microsoft’s partners for learning).

The basic issue is that you cannot import an old (exported) VM into 8.1/2012R2. The reason is that there is no support for it – even after this weakness was discovered. The "technical" reason for this is that the MOC VM export files (exp files) use the Hyper-V WMI v1 namespace. In Win8.1 and Win2012 R2, the Hyper-V WMI v1 namespace is no longer present, only the Hyper-V WMI v2 namespace - and the product does not contain a conversion option. Thus you can not import VMs.

The work around is to create all new VMs and use the existing VHDx(s). That sounds ok in principal, but there is a significant legal problem here: namely Microsoft partners are contractually prohibited from ‘fixing’ any of the VMs shipped by Microsoft Learning. Of course, folks can and do do this all time to fix the bugs which MSL cannot and do not fix. But it’s against the CPLS contract. This means that every Hyper-V VM shipped by MSL today can not be run under Windows 8.1, and Server 2012 R2.

I filed a bug on this. You can see it at: https://connect.microsoft.com/WindowsServer/feedback/details/794215/windows-8-1-can-not-import-older-hyper-v-vms#tabs although not everyone has access to this part of connect. The answer posted by Microsoft was “it would not be possible to make this change in the product. Our only option right now is to reach the MS learning teams and explain the situation and escalate it in their levels to get this content re-issued. The teams here are backing me for escalation with MS learning.”

So the Sinofksy approach of ignoring the reported bugs and shipping on time no matter what seems to live on. This is really gong to bite a lot of CPLSs – and I can honestly imagine a law suit here. It’ll also make a total mockery out of MSL’s “you can’t change shipped VMs no matter what’ stance.

All things considered, I’d prefer Windows 8.1 and Server 2012 R2 to ship when it’s ready and to ship a set of features that contain good upwards compatibility. Sadly, that is not what MS will ship. This summer is really turning out to show Microsoft in a bad light. First, scrapping TechNet subscriptions and now making my life as a trainer just that much more difficult.

Microsoft Planning to End TechNet Subscription

As has been widely reported, Microsoft recently announced that they were planning to cease the TechNet subscription service with effect from the end of August. This has to be about the daftest thing I’ve seen from Redmond in decades – arguably even worse than Bob, the Kin phone and Vista combined!

The TechNet subscription allowed subscribers to download ISO (or Exe) images of just about all the software Microsoft ships, albeit with some notable gaps like no developer tools (Visual Studio). You also get licenses that allow you to install this software and do long term testing and evaluation. I have used the  subscription for over 15 years (I was one of the very first TechNet subscribers in the UK – although in the early days, there was no software just lots of information that later transferred to the web).

With the TechNet subscription, I get an affordable way to obtain non-crippled software and could install it and use it. I could test things out and learn more about the products and how they interoperate. I know hundreds of others value this ability, which Microsoft has now decided to do away with. The only alternative way of getting this software would be via an MSDN subscription – but MSDN is significantly more expensive and I’ve heard that this cost is going up significantly.

Microsoft is staying that rather than use full use software, we should use evaluation software. That simply doesn’t work since if nothing else there is a much more restrictive time span on the software. Projects lasting a year for example would be scuppered as most evaluation products time out after 6 months.

Frankly, without this sort of low cost source of legitimate and legal software, I’m certain that many will just turn to the black market – it’s about as easy to find boot leg keys as to log onto the TechNet site and get the legal keys! Now let’s be clear – I do not condone pirating of software. But with the removal of a low cost option, piracy, and casual piracy, will only increase. And, for a company that is concerned with what people thing, this move will only make Redmond appear greedy and unhelpful towards the legions of IT Pros that advocate and deploy Microsoft software.

Almost as bad was the cynical way the announcement was made. It was issued at the start of the week of July 4th when a lot of Americans and a lot of management in Redmond, was out on holiday, and the week before the Partner conference. The timing was great – get the bad news out when no one was around to react in Redmond (except with canned statements about how IT Trends and business dynamics have changed’. I can’t help feeling some marketing bod decided to send the announcement like this meant most folks would be away and would not notice till it was too late. Microsoft should know better than to act like this – even the UK’s Labour party found out this approach generates a lot of negativity.

Speaking personally, I mailed Steve Ballmer to complain and have urged others to do so. Frankly, he’s about the only person with the ability to stop the stupidity. A US chap, Cody Skidmore, has created an online petition: https://www.change.org/petitions/continue-technet-or-create-an-affordable-alternative-to-msdn.

If you care about this – and all IT Pros really should, then can you do three things:

1. Email SteveB@Microsoft and ask him to abort the service’s demise.

2. Sign the petition. As of the time this article is being written, the petition has attracted over 5000 signatures and is getting more every minute. Please add your name to this list.

3. Talk to any journalists you know and ask them to talk up the issue and talk up reinstating the subscription.

This is about the dumbest thing I’ve seen from Redmond since Joe Lindstrom tried to kill the MVP programme. I hope the outcome here is the same (we still have MVPs). But please – get involved and act now before it is too late.

Finally: Please Steve, rethink this. Do the right thing and reinstate the programmne. If you need more email to make that decision, just say the word. If email is what it takes, the community can provide that.

Technorati Tags: Bad Microsoft decisions,cynical tining of Microsoft annoucement,End of TechNet Subscription

A Tale of Two Surfaces–Surface RT/Surface Pro

At TechEd Madrid, as happened at Teched US and at the WWPC, Microsoft sold Surface devices to all attendees at knock-down prices. The RT, the 64GB version, went for a mere £70 and that included the basic keyboard. At those prices, I could not resist and bought both devices. I attended TechEd courtesy of Microsoft and my most excellent MVP Lead Claire Smyth and was able to buy both devices at cheap prices (which I snapped up).

The devices were orderable on the company store, via a voucher code on vouchers that each conference attendee received. I saw several folks selling their vouchers for pretty good money – others were clearly desperate for multiple devices at this very cheap price. I ordered mine online on the Monday night and they were delivered to my home before I got back from Conference.

I note today that Microsoft has reduced the prices by 30% (see http://www.itpro.co.uk/desktop-replacements/20196/microsoft-cuts-surface-rt-price-30-cent?_mout=1&utm_campaign=itpro_newsletter&utm_medium=email&utm_source=newsletter). Speaking personally, and knowing what I do now, even a 30% cut is not enough. At the price I paid, the RT was a bargain – but at a list of nearly $300, it’s too expensive and it’s why I held off buying either surface system.

Like Apple packaging, the Surface packaging was pretty, albeit pretty minimal. A tiny manual, a charger and the device was all that came in the box. It was easy to get started, as both devices had enough battery charge to get through the OOBE (out of the box experience) and get me to the start screen on both devices.

Now that I have had the devices for a while – I find (surprisingly to me and others) I prefer the RT. It’s a lot lighter, the battery life is great, and is comfortable to use. The pro version, on the other hand, runs pretty hot – not a great laptop companion for a long flight for example due to the heat, and the battery life is a lot shorter (showing the difference between the I5 and Atom chips!).

This week, I am running some training across 3 continents – I have a morning session with attendees from India and UK, with an afternoon session with attendees from UK and from US/Canada. The class uses Cisco’s WebEx conferencing platform and an excellent set of labs provided in the cloud by Virsoft, an Amsterdam based firm. The platform is working great: here’s what it looks like from where I am:

  

As you can see in the picture, I have the laptop open, with the RT device (far left) being used to browse, and the Pro device which is shadowing my on-line environment. And being old-fashioned, I also have my printed training  book open to the lecture I am giving.

All things considered, I am pretty happy with the RT device, especially at the price. The Pro device, on the other hand, has still not proven its worth to me yet. I need to travel a bit with the pro to see the value. For me, anyway, the Pro is too much like a laptop (short battery life, high heat) and not enough like an iPad (long battery life, light weight, etc). It’s not powerful enough for all my needs (I’d want 500GB of storage, an i7 chip and 16gb of ram (for VMs) or more.

Technorati Tags: Surface,Surface RT,Surface Pro

PowerShell V4 PowerCamp–Next Session 19/20 October 2013

Now that the summer is (nearly) over, it’s time to get back to what mattes. With the imminent arrival of both Server 2012 R2 and Windows 8.1 to general availability, learning PowerShell is now, more than ever, something every IT Pro needs to do! One great way to get up to speed is via my PowerShell PowerCamp event!
What is A PowerShell PowerCamp?
PowerCamp is a fast paced weekend training event that covers all the basic aspects of Windows PowerShell 4 - from the command line to writing production-oriented scripts. We start with the basics including configuration, formatting and providers and remoting and jobs. Then, on day 2, we look at scripting, work flows, managing script libraries using modules, WMI/CIM,  using objects, and finishing with the PowerShell features added into Windows including Desired State Configuration. The event concludes with a short look at PowerShell in the cloud and a quick call out to all the things  we just can’t cover in two days.
The PowerCamp event is a combination of lecture, demonstrations plus Q&A, with the opportunity to type along with the tutor. There are no formal labs. But I do provide the key demos, all the slides, plus a wealth of other add on material on a memory stick you get at the start of day 1. So bring along your laptop, and type away.
What is the Agenda?
Day 1 – The Basics
• PowerShell Fundamentals – starting with the key elements of PowerShell (Cmdlets, Objects and the Pipeline) plus installation, setup, and profiles
• What’s new in v3/v3 – this looks at the things specifically added into PowerShell v3 and v4
• Formatting – how to format output nicely – both by default and using hash tables and display XML
• Providers – getting into underlying OS data stores (certificate store, AD, registry, etc.) via providers
• Remoting and jobs– working with jobs plus working with remote systems using PowerShell’s remoting capabilities
Day 2 – Diving Deeper
• Scripting Concepts – automating everyday tasks including PowerShell’s language constructs, error handling and debugging and workflows
• Modules – managing PowerShell script libraries in the enterprise
• WMI and CIM – we look at the WMI and CIM components, including the new CIM cmdlets
• Using .NET and COM Objects – working with native objects
• PowerShell in Windows 2012 and Windows 8 – a look at what’s there and how you can leverage the huge number of new cmdlets
• PowerShell and the cloud – this module looks at PowerShell in the cloud and how you can use PowerShell to manage cloud computing.
• PowerShell Desired State Configuration

What does it cost?
The cost is £200 (+VAT at the prevailing rate) for the weekend. Meals and accommodation are not covered.
Where is the event going to take place?
The PowerShell PowerCamp is being held at Microsoft Cardinal Place, 100 Victoria Street in Victoria on the weekend of October 19/20 2013. Each day starts promptly at 09:00 and finishes up by 16:45. We’ll also take short breaks throughout the day, including a 1-hour lunch break
PowerDrinks? After Saturday’s session, attendees are invited to a small nearby public house for some lovely English ale, etc. The beer is pretty good there, although the place is on the small size. Previous PowerCamps have invaded the place to the amusement of all.
Who is the tutor?
The PowerShell Weekend PowerCamp is delivered by Thomas Lee. Thomas is a veteran PowerShell MVP who has been involved in the PowerShell community since the very beginning. He provides training and consultancy around a range of Microsoft products, with a recent focus on PowerShell and Lync Server. Thomas runs PowerShell training courses around the world, and has been a speaker at conferences across the world for the past decade. In his spare time, he lives with his wife, daughter, wine cellar, and Grateful Dead live recordings archive in a small cottage in the English countryside. His Twitter handle is @DoctorDNS and he maintains two blogs (Under the Stairs at http://tfl09.blogspot.com and PowerShell Scripts Blog at http://pshscripts.blogspot.com).

What do I need to bring
You need to bring a laptop with PowerShell v4 loaded. That can be either native or in a virtual machine. I suggest you have at least two VMs pre-configured – one a Server 2012 R2 installation the other a Windows 8.1 installation. The virtualisation software is not of concern – but you need 64-bit guest OS support for Server 2012! Thus you can use Hyper-V, VMware Workstation or Oracle’s Virtual Box. Heck, run it in a VM on a Mac or Linux PC if you want. Just bring along PowerShell v4!
How do I book?
Contact DoctorDNS@Gmail.com to book a place and to arrange for the invoice to be paid. Payment must be in cash, cheque or bank transfer – we don’t take credit cards.
More Details
Watch this blog for any hot breaking news on the event.
Technorati Tags: PowerShell,PowerCamp,London,PowerShell Training

PowerShell Help Information–how to report bugs/issues

As many readers of this blog know, I really value the excellent PowerShell Help information provided both in the box and on the web. With the thousands of cmdlets, providers and the large number of conceptual help topics (help about some aspect of PowerShell), there is a lot of document and a lot of documentation to co-ordinate. It’s a large task and, as is sadly inevitable when publishing such large amounts of information, errors and issues do sometimes creep in. I’ve been doing writing gigs for over 20 years, and it amazes me just how easy it is for simple errors to manifest themselves, despite rigorous checking. I used to get upset when I saw things like in my own writing, but these days, with documentation being electronic, I just look at errors as an opportunity to improve the help text.

I’ve been chatting to the PowerShell documentation team (a great bunch of folks, in case of ANY doubt!), and looking for good ways to ensure errors are resolved. If (when?) you find an error, the best thing to do is to send mail to write-help@microsoft.com. Mail sent to that address goes straight to the writers responsible for PowerShell content. It doesn’t matter where the error is (so long as it’s on a Microsoft site!!!), if you see an error, please report it.

If you find an error, then report it using the Email address above. Ensure that Microsoft knows about the error and make sure that the error is one that can get fixed. The bottom line is that once published, there is a tacit assumption that it’s correct – thus if YOU don’t report it, it WILL NOT get fixed (unless, of course someone else reports it first!).

When you do report a bug, please give sufficient details to enable the team to find and resolve the issue. Reporting bugs with text like “the help text is broken” is not much help, so please report the specific location, the specific issue and where possible, provide corrected text. The easier you make it on the WSIX team, the faster the error can be corrected.

Please help to make the PowerShell help information even better!

Technorati Tags: PowerShell,help

Server 2012 R2 is coming–read all about it

As announced recently, the next version of Windows Server, Server 2012 R2, is coming. Last week at TechEd Madrid, Microsoft rolled out a lot of information about this new OS version. There are some really cool features, including PowerShell V4.

In a departure from previous practice, MS is now rolling out key information about this new OS version via a series of blog posts.  Each week on Wednesdays, Brad Anderson, intends to publish a high level blog post on the In the Cloud blog about a part of the overall WS/SC 2012 R2. Brad is unlikely to be doing much actual writing – but should have “guest” content from some of the leaders across the WS/SC engineering team.  To some degree, this is a continuation of the approach Steven Sinofksy took to Windows 8.

Each blog post is intended to link to other more detailed content that describes the technical features that support that scenario.  Such additional, detailed content is planned to reside in various places such as our TechNet blogs (SC, SCSM, SCVMM, SCO, SCOM, WS, PS, etc.), TechNet wiki, Microsoft Virtual Academy and so on. Although the ability of Microsoft to create up to date information on TechNet has not been outstanding.

For the next 2 months at least, the technical information related to WS/SC 2012 R2 will only come from these blog posts and the related content that is released with them.  Microsoft believe that this approach should ensure a coordinated, smooth rollout of technical information regarding R2 instead of just having each individual team randomly posting information about their particular area of the product.

As you will read in the attached post, which is the first in the series, we are aligning everything we do from planning to development/test to release across WS/SC and that extends to include our go-to-market technical communication plan.

The first post in this series is now up. See http://blogs.technet.com/b/in_the_cloud/archive/2013/07/03/what-s-new-in-2012-r2-beginning-and-ending-with-customer-specific-scenarios.aspx.

This is an interesting departure but should serve to centralise the information in a useful way. It also stops teams randomly telling their story and provides a much more controlled approach. I just hope the Windows engineering team listens and hears the comments that these posts will undoubtedly generate. I hope they do a better job than Sinofsky did – indeed had he listened in the first place, the whole Start button thing would never have been an issue. I get the feeling, after meeting Brad, that he indeed is already doing a better job of listening – and that’s a good thing!

Technorati Tags: Server 2012 R2

PowerShell V4 Beta is available

The beta of PowerShell’s next version has been released. PowerShell version 4 will ship as part of the Windows Management Framework components built into Windows 8.1 and Server 2012 R2. WMF4 will also be made available for some down-level OSs, including Windows 8, Server 2008, Server 2008 R2 and Server 2012.

Interestingly, WMF4/PowerShell V4 will not ship for Windows 8. For reasons I’m not quite clear, Microsoft believe that Windows 8 and 8.1 are interchangeable in all environment (thus anyone running 8 now will very quickly upgrade to 8.1 and anyone planning to roll 8 out now can simply reset their plans for 8.1). I can’t quite work out why they believe it, but I’m sure they have loads of paid volunteers willing to tell them that.

The new WMF had 5 key features:

• Windows PowerShell  Version 4
• Windows PowerShell Integrated Scripting Environment (ISE) Version 4
• Windows PowerShell Web Services (Management OData IIS Extension)
• Windows Remote Management (WinRM) and PS Remoting V2.2
• Windows Management Infrastructure (WMI) (Windows Management Instrumentation appears to have a new name AND some new features).

You can read more details on the PowerShell Team Blog: http://blogs.msdn.com/b/powershell/archive/2013/07/02/windows-management-framework-4-0-preview-now-available.aspx

Technorati Tags: PowerShell V4

Moving to a Windows Phone–Part 4 –A month On

Some time ago, I got an incentive to get a new Windows Phone – I’ve written a few articles about this ( here, here, here and here). The long and short of it is that I got enough clicks to earn me a new phone so long as I used it solely for 3 months.

It’s now been over a month since I moved over from my older iPhone to a new Lumia 820 Windows Phone (with WP8). It’s taken time to get used to a new device, a new device OS and a new device/OS ecosystem. I’m sure it’s no surprised that one’s reaction to a new phone is a mixture of one’s reactions to all three of these!

The Phone

The phone itself, the Lumia 820 is a step down in quality from the iPhone. It’s nice enough, but the screen resolution is not as good. Having said that, the phone in bright sunlight (like we had today!) is pretty good – better than the iPhone. The phone has a plastic back cover just feels rather like, well, plastic. The Lumia feels ok in the hand while the iPhone, on the other hand, felt great.

The telephone functions (SMS text and PSTN calling) works great so far. As we know, it sucks at home a bit, but that’s O2’s fault as the reception here is sub-optimal. The reception across northern Europe has been good.

The device as a smartphone is excellent. I can do mail, surf the web, play on twitter fairly easily. The wireless aspect is pretty smooth – connection seems easier than in the iPhone across the many Wi-Fi sites I access in my travels.

The phone’s controls are on the side and I find I often turn off the screen when holding it. I am kind of getting used to it though – but I prefer the controls on the top of the phone.

The phone’s back is a hard plastic shell. The Lumia has several striking colours on offer and mine was white. It looked awesome, at first, but the whiteness is fading a bit. It, and the plastic controls, make the phone feel cheap.

The worst aspect of the phone is the screen resolution. It’s just not as good as the iPhone. And that would keep me from buying or recommending the phone.

The OS

The WP8 OS has been quite interesting to get used to – and I quite like it. It’s very different to the IOS/Android. With WP8 there are, in effect just two screens: the first is the start screen with tiles etc. and the second, a full alphabetical list of all the apps on the phone. The former lets you organise how you view all the goodness on your phone while the latter helps you find it all.

This new paradigm has taken me some time to get used to.  But as I use the device more, I am slowly honing in on tiles I need for the 80-90% case and leaving everything the else to the flickable a-z list. It works, but it takes a lot of work to get it all setup. I found the time to get all the applications up and running was longer than for both iPhone and Android.

The Applications

The application ecosystem lags far behind the iPhone and Android.  There are just far fewer applications and applications that exist are often not as good than for the iPhone of Android. There’s no native app for my bank (First Direct)-and although I can use the web site, I really like the iPhone app. There’s also no Drop box application, no decent BBC or Iplayer application either. Sure I can, like my bank use the main web sites for some of these, it’s not as convenient.

Summary

The Nokia 820 is an OK phone, with a pretty good OS and a poor application ecosystem. The 820 suffers compared to it’s bigger brother (the 925) particularly in terms of resolution. The WP8 OS works well enough to not be a hindrance but the application ecosystem needs a great deal of improving.

If I had to buy a new phone today, I’d not buy this particular model, but would consider a 925 mainly due to the better screen resolution. The OS is not an issue – if there was a great phone, having WP8 on it would not be an issue.

So thanks to Microsoft for letting me have the phone. If it’s OK by them, I’ll keep it a little while longer (beyond the three months I originally agreed!).

Technorati Tags: WIndows Phone,Nokia Lumia 820

RIP Douglas Engelbard

While his name may be uppermost in your minds, Douglas Engelbard was a computer pioneer – he invented the mouse for example. He died on Tuesday and may be missed for those three of us who recall his name. Another great pioneer – his vision of the future of human/machine interaction was instrumental in shaping what was to become the Internet we all know today. Certainly, his demonstrations and ideas were ahead of their time, but they were valuable nevertheless.

PowerShell V3 Modules–Updated Help information

PowerShell V3 comes with a key feature: Updateable help. There is virtually no help shipped, ‘in the box’, but with the Update-Help cmdlet, you can download help for PowerShell core and for any module you have loaded on your system. This approach enables Microsoft to update help information without users having to wait for the next release of PowerShell. Not shipping Help in the box was always, to me, a daft way of going about it, but it was the only way we could get updateable help.

That’s the good news. The bad news is that in the recent past, there was a bug in the team’s build tools that led to all the data types of parameters to be missing from the Syntax block at the top of the Get-Help output. This information was still listed in the parameter descriptions shown by Get-Help -Full and Get-Help –Detailed. This may not have been a huge issue but for those of us who teach the discoverability aspects of PowerShell, it was yet another bug to work around.

Thankfully those nice folks at WSIX have found and fixed the bug and have rolled out new Help Information as of today. In all, 12 modules have had updated help published: CimCmdlet, Hyper-V, IScsi, Microsoft.PowerShell.Core, Microsoft.PowerShell.Management, Microsoft.PowerShell.Utility, MMAgent, PSScheduledJob, PSWorkflow, PSWorkflowUtility, ServerManager, and WindowsServerBackup.

At the time of writing, help for Windows Server Essentials 2012 and the pre-release modules for Server 2012 R2, Windows 8.1 and PowerShell v4 has not been updated, although Microsoft are working hard to get the fixes out. Hopefully by the time you read this, these modules too will be fixed.

Updateable help has proved it’s worth this time around. And while the error is certainly regrettable, such things do happen and thankfully, we now have a way to get this information fixed before the next version of Windows!

Technorati Tags: PowerShell V4,Updateable Help

Farewell Sarah Lamb–TechNet/MSDN Consultant Editor

It was sad to hear that Sarah Lamb, of Microsoft UK, has left as of the beginning of the month. For those of you who don’t know her, she was, inter alia the Consultant Editor for the UK’s Microsoft and TechNet newsletters. It was she who gathered twice monthly contributions from folks around the UK (I often provided PowerShell content). It was good stuff.

Sarah was an amazing person – she always knew how to get excellent and relevant content out, and was a joy and pleasure to work with. With her gone – I feel a huge loss. Some call that progress, I call it sad. But it's life and the new folks I'm sure will do a great job.

Thanks Sarah for the great work you did. I miss you already.

[Later]
I've edited this, both to remove a typo and to clarify.

Recorded Concerts–an interesting approach from Mark Knopfler

My wife and I go up to London’s Royal Albert Hall whenever we can get tickets for acts we like. We don’t go often, but in recent times we’ve seen Jackson Browne, Eric Clapton and most recently Mark Knopfler. After the Eric Clapton gig, we both would have just loved a CD from the show – we both thought it was about the best Clapton gig we’d been too (and I’ve seen him a lot over the decades).

For the Mark Knopfler gig, there was a flier on each seat advertising the show on USB. I took the flier, not really thinking about it till I got home. The flier just pointed off to http://www.markknopfler-live.com/ – and to my surprise, it was not just the London show that was being offered, but a separate stick for nearly every show on the tour. The cost was £26 plus shipping!

Ten days later, I’m sitting here listening to the show. Sadly, the recording is done with a lossy codec (MP3) versus a loss-less codec. But despite that, the quality is excellent – just enough crowd nose to give it a live feel but the music shines through where it should. The stick arrived this morning and we’ve played it three times already!

This may be all the rage these days – but it was the first time I’d seen it. It seems to me to combine the ability for the fans to enjoy what they heard with ensuring the artist enjoys some revenue from the sale. A few bands, like the Grateful Dead, have encouraged fan trading of their shows for decades, but all too many artists dislike it intensely. I once had a discussion with Jimmy Page about this – like Van Morrison and others, his views were fairly strident. The week before our conversation, Page had been in Scotland testifying against a bootlegger, who on some shows probably made more money our of the bootlegging than Page did for playing!

So while, like any MP3, these will almost be traded illegally. Despite that, it’s really nice to be able to enjoy the music we heard – it’ll keep the memories a bit more alive. I just wish and hope more artists do this!

Technorati Tags: Music

TechEd Europe 2013 - Surface Offer (I’m Buying)

I’ve long held out from buying a table device. We bought my daughter one and I enjoy playing with it (when I’m allowed), but for me a tablet is a device too many. I have my phone and laptop – why do I need a tablet TOO.  Just another device to feed and to lose.

I travel a great deal and lately, as I look around the planes/trains/lounges/etc., folks with laptops are almost non-existent. Everyone seems to be using tables. I have, over the past few weeks, been considering a purchase – but the full list price seemed to me to just be too high for something I don’t really need.

What price would I pay is a fair question. If I was to have a tablet, I’d probably prefer an iPad fondleslab, but mainly due to the apps and the wonderfulness of it’s design/build. However, having seen a few Surface devices, I am really swayed. While the Apple device has the benefit of the eco-system (3rd party add ons plus the sheer number of application). But as I thought, there are going to be times when I simply don’t need the weight of the laptop – I just need a device to do mail, and a bit of writing that I really can’t do on the phone.

So what WOULD I be willing to pay? Obviously, if the device were free, I’d have it now. But back in the real world, and given I really don’t need a tablet, I could be persuaded to pay up to around £75 for a Surface RT 64, and maybe up to £350 for a Surface Pro 128. Whilst that may seem cheep (and it would be!), that’s the point where it could be worth it to me. Again, this is a device I don’t' really want, and would be worried about losing!

Well imagine my surprise when I read this blog article this morning: Special Surface Offer for TechEd Europe 2013 Attendees. I had to refresh the page a couple of times, and check to see if this really was an offer coming from Microsoft. I guess that they did a similar offer at TechEd US, Microsoft needed to so the same here in Europe. Well Done Microsoft – and THANKS.

So, I am definitely getting a Windows Surface device. Now the key question: which one? Or do I do seriously greedy and go for both.

 

 

Technorati Tags: TechEd Europe 2013,Surface,Surface Pro,Surface RT

TechEd Europe 2013–I’m Going!!!

Back in February I got a challenge by Microsoft UK to help to drive up clicks on some Microsoft Sites. One of the prizes in the challenge was a free pass to TechEd, assuming I got enough clicks. Well, I’m happy to say that thanks to all you nice folks (and your friends, etc.), I WON THE PASS! A lot of you clicked a whole heck of a lot!!

So in just over a week, I’ll be heading down to Madrid. I’m going to attend the MCT Day Zero, where I’m running session on PowerShell. Then a day off, Monday, where I’ll probably just do some sightseeing followed by 4 days of hard core TechEd. I’m particularly keen to see all the new features coming in Windows 2012 R2. And of course hang out with a bunch of people!

See you there!

 

                   

Technorati Tags: TechEd 2013,Teched Europe,Getting Me a Surface!

Windows 8 Rock and Roll with Joey Snow

The UK Windows User Group is throwing an event in a fortnight's time – featuring both Joey Snow and Rick Claus from Microsoft Redmond. The event is on Wednesday 19 June starting at 17:45 and finishing up at 21:00. Tickets are free, but if you wish to pay a bit extra, you can also order VIP tickets for 20 pounds a seat. The event is to be held in York (UK).

To sign up, go here: http://windowsug1.eventbrite.co.uk/#

If you are anywhere in the area – this would be worth going to. I’ve known Joey for a very long time and his talks are always worth attending. I just wish I was gong to be in the area.

Technorati Tags: Windows,Joey Snow,Windows 8

Moving to a Windows Phone–Part 3–The Move Over

As many of you will know, I engaged in a contest to get you all to click, click, and click. If enough of you clicked, the story was that Microsoft would give me a new Windows Phone. I accepted that challenge and promised that in return for the phone, I’d cease using my iPhone and use this new Windows phone for 3 months. I love my iPhone, and was somewhat nervous over the deal – but I’m willing to try it.

Well, the first part of the challenge was a success, and I duly headed over to Microsoft to pick up the new phone. It’s a Nokia Lumia 820. I arrived at Microsoft and was given the phone by Claire Smyth, our most excellent MVP Lead. We had a nice chat and I was quite excited to open the box.

First Impressions

As I opened it, the packaging was nice and very Apple like with a nicely designed box. The phone it self felt good in my hand and felt heavy enough to be real – and the battery even had nearly a full charge! Some of the newer phones I’ve held recently felt cheap and plasticy (Is that a word – all plastic like), in other words cheap and cheerful (maybe). By comparison, it was heavy enough to feel good, and could pretty instantly be used.

First impressions, thus, were good. The phone looked good, the white plastic back looked cool. It was stylish, but practical. So far so good.

Getting into the new phone

Back home, I immediately started playing. The phone booted smoothly and I was immediately able to get wireless connectivity going. My first task was to get mail working and this was surprisingly easy. I just typed in my credentials and the Exchange Server name and away it went. The Email client, at first sight looks OK, compared to the iPhone.

Getting the phone to work as a phone was also snap – I just had to find the iPhone tool to retrieve my SIM and pop it into the phone. As someone with non-existent finger nails, I did find getting into the new phone was quite difficult. As I’m not likely to have to get into the innards very often, this is probably no bad thing, but in the end, I had to get my wife, with her longer nails, to help. But once I popped the old SIM into the new phone, immediately it worked! The overall phone quality from home is sucky, but that’s O2’s issue, not the phone. But I could make calls in the UK. I’ve yet to try calls when abroad but I’ll post any issues or success that arises.

I also started playing around with the Windows Phone 8 UI – the new version Windows 8 with it’s tile based front end. And I also started searching for apps. As I posted, I have a bunch of apps I wanted and needed on the new phone so time was spent in the Store. In my last article on this topic, I set out what my needs and expectations were with regard to apps. While I knew that, at least, some the apps in a given category might be different (like they are between Android and iPhone). I can live with that to a degree.

Good stuff

Moving over to the phone for all my KEY needs has been pretty painless. Email was up in a snap, wireless and mobile data were a breeze to setup. Props to the Phone OS – when I went to setup the wireless data, rather than having to call O2 to find out the password etc., the Lumia displayed an option to just use the O2 settings and hey presto. Sweet! Mail is quick, the phone works in the local area and some of the key apps are up and working.

The Windows 8 tiles seem pretty cool. At first sight. It took me a month or two on both my last Android and iPhone to get a layout that worked and this is certainly going to be true for the Windows phone. The tiles are easy to access, easy to move around and easy to re-size. The application the tile represents can change the display – and this I find better than the iPhone’s method of displaying pushed changes.

Adding storage via a MicroSD chip is trivial and not very expensive. It was trivial to buy off the net, and a breeze to install (with the proviso that getting the back of the phone off so I could insert the chip was not easy). But after inserting it, replacing the cover and rebooting the phone - it just worked! Of course, filling it is not be a problem! I wish the iPhone had had the ability to use a MicroSD chip. Lack of on-phone memory was for me a limiting factor to the iPhone – so well done Nokia. Any chance of adding in a 2nd or 3rd slot next time – I have a lot of Grateful Deal to move onto the phone! Trying to take my 3.5TB worth of shows and fit into a mere 64GB is not easy – but that’s my problem to deal with.

Issues Arising So Far

While the initial honeymoon period was nice, it wasn’t perfect and there are a few issues I’ve noted. The first issue is the resolution of the screen. When I open an Email message, the resolution of the text is just not as crisp or as clear as on the iPhone. The iPhone is much better despite 2 year older technology. That said, I can live with it – but it feels cheap. This is a Nokia fault, really, not Windows.

The second issue, which is really quite a mild one, is the difficulty of getting into the phone’s innards. As I mentioned earlier, I don’t have adequate finger nails to pry off the cover. I suppose this is a good-news/bad-news thing – it’s difficult to get the cover off, meaning the cover won’t come off easily. And as I hopefully won’t need to pop the cover off very often, this is a minor thing.

The third issue is apps, or should I say lack thereof. After a week, I’ve not managed to duplicate the full richness of my previous iPhone environment. The Windows shop reminds me of visiting East Berlin and the USSR in the early 1980’s and going into a shop there. I’ll report more on my quest for apps in the next article.

Summary after a Week

Overall, it’s a nice phone. The display quality is somewhat disappointing – I expected iPhone 4 quality and better. The OS is solid, and the core apps I’m using so far all work OK. But several apps are still unfound and some don’t yet work for me. I’ll return in a week or two with further commentary.

Technorati Tags: replacing an iPhone,Nokia,Lumia 820

Unified Remote Access and Deployment

I’ve just finished looking at a recently published book: Windows Server 2010 Unified Remote Access Planning and Deployment written by Erez Ben-Ari and Bala Natarajan. Erez has written several books related to this subject for Packt and is a PSS engineer at Microsoft. Bala is a Program Manager in Windows networking team – so these guys should be in the know as to this technology.

Unified Remote Access is the new name for the Direct Access feature added to Windows in Windows 7 and Server 2008 R2. With Direct Access/URA, a client is able to access internal resources on an internal network via encrypted IPv6 tunnels. While URA is a pretty technical subject – and potentially difficult to setup, the book takes you through the key planning, setup and management topics. It’s worth noting that while setting up URA is complex and potentially disastrous if setup badly, Microsoft has put a lot of effort into making the installation wizard doing most of the hard work.

The book also looks more deeply at both Group Policy and PKI which are fundamental technologies used with URA. The final chapter of the book is a good look at troubleshooting. Given the complexity of URA, I almost think this content could go earlier if only as a warning to the unwary.

All in all, it looks a good book to have if you are planning to deploy URA in your organisation.

Technorati Tags: URA,Unified Remote Access

Moving to a Windows Phone–Part 2

As I recently posted, I’ve won a Nokia Lumia 820 from our good friends at Microsoft – now I have to use it (for at least 3 months). As I flew back home yesterday from a training gig, I pondered on what I actually needed in a phone. I’d had the iPhone for a couple of years and about the only weaknesses are the inevitable scratches, the slowly diminishing battery life and the reality that I needed more storage on the device. Otherwise, I really like the iPhone – it does what I want, I can have some fun (I will probably never conquer Plants v Zombies), listen to an extensive collection of Grateful Dead shows – plus it makes phone calls.

So what does the phone need to do for me? What features are really important – and a literally deal breakers, which were nice to have and which were things I’d not miss. Having thought about it, here’s my key features.

• It’s got to have decent radios – it’s got to be a decent world usable telephone and must do wireless. Sort of a no-brainer, but it has to get/receive calls and SMS via my carrier (O2). O2 reception in my home office is poor, but is fine everywhere else. A new phone must be as good, and preferably better. It’s also got to do all the various phone standards and has to do wireless.
• It’s got to do email – I need to have my main mailbox (hosted in the cloud) so I need active sync to sync my mail to the phone.
• It’s got to be secure. That means login screen, a remote wipe ability and a ‘find my phone’ feature.
• It’s got to do decent music. I have a good pair of headphones and want to hear music at the same quality as on the iPhone. This includes a good on-device Player and a good desktop tool to manage the content. To some degree, I’d be happy with just files/folders and manage the device’s data via Explorer on the desktop, but a better app would be nice. The old Zune app would be OK. Anything better than the current version of our fruity themed company’s offering - which I think is suboptimal.
• It’s got to get RSS Podcasts that I can listen to. I subscribe to The Deadpod (http://deadshow.blogspot.co.uk/) and want to continue to listen to it. On the iPhone, I subscribe and it just automatically downloads via the apple desktop app.
• It’s got to be expandable at a reasonable price. I have a lot of music that I like to play and the 16GB limit on the iPhone is too small for me! So I want more and preferably removable.
• It’s got to have decent Linked-In and Twitter applications. I spend time on these two social networks and want to carry on doing so. I also want other apps but these two are MUST haves.
• It has to have a decent web browser that is as industry standard as possible. Via mail and SM as well as by Search Engine - I get a lot of links to look at and I want a good browser. I’d like to have Firefox's Ad Block feature – to know out the flashing and obnoxious ads (and reduce my bandwidth usage).
• It’s GOT to have Google maps. I’ve used others – and I know what I want.
• It’s got to have a reasonable camera. I have taken a lot of pictures with the iPhone and it’s good enough – but I’d like better. I’d also like to be able to remove/replace the lens easily. My current lens got scratched during a recent trip and the pictures now are fuzzy as a result.
• It should have a Skype and Lync client. I like using these for the obvious reasons, but on the road I can tolerate using the phone – or using those apps via my laptop.
• I’d like some decent games. I currently enjoy Solitaire, lane splitter and Plants v Zombies. All are somewhat addictive.
• It should have as many apps as possible to communicate with various on-line entities. This includes apps for: O2 (myO2), BBC News, BBC iPlayer, Tweet Deck, Google+, The Register, Kindle, First Direct (bank), Stock tracker, Tech Eye, the Register, Pluralsight, Amazon shopping, Pedometer, LogMeIn. YouTube, GPSForTHeSoul, Angry Birds, Paper Toss, would be nice too. And FilmonTV would be awesome. I’d prefer all these to be free, but I’d be willing to pay a bit for some of the games, and for good productivity apps.
• It really should have non-proprietary charging cables (e.g. micro USB). I’m really tired of apple’s walled garden here. A docking station and a Bose-like docking station would be nice.
• I’d like a replaceable battery. Given how much music I listen too, and how active I can be on email and social media, I need a decent battery life from the get go, but I am realistic about the technology in today’s batteries. EVERY phone I’ve ever owned has had the batteries die off over time and I’m not expecting any change. The ability to replace the battery rather than needing a whole new phone is sort of important.

Well – that’s my list. At least for now – I’ll give this more thought and reserve the right to change this list at any time!

My next post will cover first impressions of the new phone.

Technorati Tags: Windows Phone