Adnan Rafik = Adnan Rafique

While I’ve been going through the documentation of Windows Server 2008 R2 I’ve come across few geeky stuff  which you (systems admins) must know. I’m so excited about few of the enhancements.  I’ve compiled them in the form of tips.

Tip#1
Read-Only Domain Controllers
A read-only domain controller (RODC) is a new type of domain controller in the Windows Server® 2008 operating system. With an RODC, organizations can easily deploy a domain controller in locations where physical security cannot be guaranteed. An RODC hosts read-only partitions of the Active Directory® Domain Services (AD DS) database.

 Tip#2
Fine-grained password policies

You can use fine-grained password policies to specify multiple password policies within a single domain. You can use fine-grained password policies to apply different restrictions for password and account lockout policies to different sets of users in a domain.

For example, you can apply stricter settings to privileged accounts and less strict settings to the accounts of other users. In other cases, you might want to apply a special password policy for accounts whose passwords are synchronized with other data sources.

 Tip#3
Restartable Active Directory Domain Services
Administrators can stop and restart Active Directory® Domain Services (AD DS) in the Windows Server® 2008 operating system by using Microsoft Management Console (MMC) snap-ins or the command line.

Restartable AD DS reduces the time that is required to perform certain operations. AD DS can be stopped so that updates can be applied to a domain controller; also, administrators can stop AD DS to perform tasks such as offline defragmentation of the Active Directory database, without restarting the domain controller. Other services that are running on the server and that do not depend on AD DS to function, such as Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol (DHCP), remain available to satisfy client requests while AD DS is stopped.

Tip#4
Active Directory Recycle Bin
Information technology (IT) professionals can use Active Directory Recycle Bin to undo an accidental deletion of an Active Directory object. Accidental object deletion causes business downtime. Deleted users cannot log on or access corporate resources. This is the number one cause of Active Directory recovery scenarios. Active Directory Recycle Bin works for both AD DS and Active Directory Lightweight Directory Services (AD LDS) objects. This feature is enabled in AD DS at the Windows Server 2008 R2 forest functional level. For AD LDS, all replicas must be running in a new “application mode.”

Tip#5
Active Directory module for Windows PowerShell and Windows PowerShell™ cmdlets
The Active Directory module for Windows PowerShell provides command-line scripting for administrative, configuration, and diagnostic tasks, with a consistent vocabulary and syntax. It provides predictable discovery and flexible output formatting. You can easily pipe cmdlets to build complex operations. The Active Directory module enables end-to-end manageability with Exchange Server, Group Policy, and other services.

Tip#6
Active Directory Administrative Center
The Active Directory Administrative Center has a task-oriented administration model, with support for larger datasets. The Active Directory Administrative Center can help increase the productivity of IT professionals by providing a scalable, task-oriented user experience for managing AD DS. In the past, the lack of a task-oriented user interface (UI) could make certain activities, such as resetting user passwords, more difficult than they had to be. The Active Directory Administrative Center enumerates and organizes the activities that you perform when you manage a system. These activities may be maintenance tasks, such as backup; event-driven tasks, such as adding a user; or diagnostic tasks that you perform to correct system failures.

Tip#7
Active Directory Best Practices Analyzer
The Active Directory Best Practices Analyzer (BPA) identifies deviations from best practices to help IT professionals better manage their Active Directory deployments. BPA uses Windows PowerShell cmdlets to gather run-time data. It analyzes Active Directory settings that can cause unexpected behavior. It then makes Active Directory configuration recommendations in the context of your deployment. The Active Directory BPA is available in Server Manager

Tip#9
Active Directory Web Services
Active Directory Web Services (ADWS) provides a Web service interface to Active Directory domains and AD LDS instances, including snapshots, that are running on the same Windows Server 2008 R2 server as ADWS

Tip#10
Authentication mechanism assurance
Authentication mechanism assurance makes it possible for applications to control resource access based on authentication strength and method. Administrators can map various properties, including authentication type and authentication strength, to an identity. Based on information that is obtained during authentication, these identities are added to Kerberos tickets for use by applications. This feature is enabled at the Windows Server 2008 R2domain functional level.
Resource – http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/cc754718(WS.10).aspx

cheers:)

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In Hyper-V 2008 R2 you have three types of virtual networks i.e. External , Internal and Private.

Private- a virtual network between VM-to-VM

Internal- a virtual network between VM-to- Host. Here the virtual network act like as a loopback adapter.

External- a virtual network between VM-to-External or physical access to the network card.

Cheers:)

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Today I did my 2^nd presentation in New York, this time it was for New York Exchange User Group in the New York City (http://nyexug.com). It was a level 300 session where I covered Hyper-V on Windows Server 08 R2 and Hyper-visor R2 (core server). So what did I cover?

Difference between the 2 Hypervisor
New features and enhancement in R2 of Hypervisor
Better management of Hypervisor using Hyper-V Manager and RSAT tool
Initial setup and configuration of Windows Server R2 Hyper-V
Initial setup and configuration of Hyper-V Core Server
Setting up the network , joining to the domain and enabling remote desktop on Hyper-V Core Server
Setting up Firewall Rules on the Hyper-V Core to enable Remote Management
Accessing the Hyper-V Core Server from the remote client (Hyper-V Manager or RSAT on Windows 7 )
Device Management, Disk Management, Event Viewer, Firewall Management, Service etc of the  Core Server from the Remote Client i.e. Windows 7
Command Line configuration of Hyper-V Server Core firewall and remote managment.

Hyper-V_Final_1 - Presentation Slides

Resources
www.microsoft.com/Hyperv
http://blogs.msdn.com/virtual_pc_guy
http://edge.technet.com
http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ee344828(WS.10).aspx

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October 12-14 is almost here. Don’t forget to register for the biggest Architecture event to hit New York, ever! See the event description. The event is filling up fast.

On that date in New York The International Association of Software Architect (IASA) will hold the biggest IT Architect Regional Conference (ITARC) ever held, perhaps the biggest IT Architecture conference ever held anywhere. Although it is billed as a regional conference it will bring together most of the leading architects of our generation, people like Grady Booch, John Zackman, Eric Evans, Bill Inmon, Len Bass, etc. This is the first time that all these industry though-leaders have ever assembled in one place.

In addition to hearing keynotes about the state of architecture today from these thought-leaders you will also hear from many other local and national architects in five parallel breakout tracks and have the option to attend a one day training pre-conference as well.

Please attend the conference. Furthermore, whether you can attend or, not please post the conference announcement prominently where you work and pass it on to all other senior developers, architects, CTOs, and CIOs in your company. Also please pass it on to your peers in other companies and post it on any social networks that you use like Face book, Twitter and LinkedIn.

In order to stimulate attendance we are offering a 10% discount off the listed registration fee to anyone who registers using the special user group registration code: chapter2346. Also, for every company that registers three attendees they will get a fourth attendee from that company in free!

The event will be held at an incredible new facility in New York, Lighthouse International, at 111 East 59th Street (between Lexington and Park Avenue, close to many subway lines) Our venue committee has posted a screen show of the facility.

For more details on the event please see the event description here. 

Please help us make New York the Architecture capital of the world in October!

Sincerely

Bill

Bill Zack, President, IASA New York

http://blogs.msdn.com/billzack (Blog)
646 225-4904 (Work phone)
203 545-2339 (Mobile phone)

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In my last post I’ve mentioned that I was unable to configure the Ethernet Card and the Wireless network card.  Someone was following me on the twitter and he responsded me with the solution. So I’m thankful to him for helping me out and you can follow him @EvilEmoufDoom.

Problem # 1 – How-to disable power saving on the ethernet to avoid network card issue on Windows Server 2008 R2

Problem# 2- How to enable Wireless network working on Windows Server 2008 R2

Solution #1 Right click the network card —properties — Power managemnet- remove the checkbox.

Solution #2 - Go to Server management, add features — enable Wireless LAN services.

cheers

but still I need to find how-to disable the power option in Hypervisor Core.

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I’ve been looking for such information where I can links of the entire user group in the neighboring states since there are many user group and all of them are very active. So if you want to connect to a user group if is difficult to find one of them but now I’ve come across this link and it is very helpful – You can find most of the user groups here

http://blogs.msdn.com/peterlau/archive/2009/05/05/may-2009-area-user-group-meetings.aspx

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Is virtualization all hype or can it reduce costs, make an admin’s life easier, & save the planet.

Come and join us on coming tuesday to see two falvors of virtualization at the same time.  I’ll be doing the demo of Q4 release of Microsoft Hyper-V and the Hypervisor and in additon how-to do the remote managment of Hypervisor.

The other session will be conducted by Ben (NY Exchange UG ). Ben is the UG leader for NYEXUG and he will share his expeirnce running exchnge in the VM. So do join us as we can accomodate max 30 person.

Click Here for details

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Finally I’m done with my very first presentation in New York at New York Enterprise Windows User Group.  We talked about how Hypervisor is different from windows server hyper-v and what’s in it for you and why would you consider it or not. We looked into the new features and the USB support in the virtualization.

Here are the rouses for this presentation

My Hyper-V presentation

TechNet Edge Videos

Hyper-V Website

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I’ve been wondering why my Dell D630 does not support virtualization though i bought it last year with 4 GB RAM. I ve tried to check the BIOS to enable the virtualization feature but I was unsuccessful.

Today I did the Windows 7 installation on the same machine and during updating the drivers from Dell support website i foud a BIOS update to run under Vista 32-bit since there no Win 7 drivers available from Dell.

Undecided to upgrade the BIOS and it is upgraded from BIOS A09 to BIOS A16 which makes this laptop to make the use of Intel VT.

I’m super excited now

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