Unitek Microsoft Training Blog

“And Now for Something Completely Different”
- Monty Python’s Flying Circus

The new (as of Aug ’08) type of Microsoft certification questions are not completely different (emulation versus simulation), but different enough that we need to prepare in a new way.

Just as we began to adjust to the end of Microsoft’s MCSA and MCSE certifications, which has been replaced by the new MCTS/MCITP model - Microsoft is throwing us another twist.

IT professionals complained to Microsoft for years that they hated the multiple choice (e.g. A, B, C, D) style questions on certification exams. Over the years the questions had evolved into a “reading comprehension” challenge with the questions getting longer and longer (mind-numbing). Plus, if American English is not a examinee’s first language, it was a serious handicap.

The common feedback was, “Give me a system and I’ll show you that I know what to do.”

But we all know that you should be careful what you ask for, as you just might get it. Starting with the updated Windows Server 2003 exams (70-290 and 70-291), Microsoft had added a new style of question – the Simulation. During the exam, an examinee was dropped into a standard Microsoft desktop (with just a Start button) and challenged with, “Configure a Server for the following multiple features/functions”…

The “simulation” was almost what people were asking for, but with “sims” being based on VB scripts, there were limited, sometimes one way to do something. If you pick two or more people at random, they will each have a different way to use the interface – there are about six ways, on a normal system, to launch the “Task Manager”.

As of August ’08, Microsoft has a Pilot (Beta) for exam 70-113, which includes a new question style:

http://blogs.msdn.com/trika

“The Performance Based testing method we are piloting is an exam which emulates a Windows Server 2008 infrastructure. In this infrastructure you will be tasked with completing a series of tasks. Once complete, the system will evaluate each tasks end-state to determine if the tasks have been completed and correctly implemented. This process is different from simulations because you will have every tool and path available that you would normally have in a real world scenario. Simulations restrict you to a small number of expected paths, whereas emulations allow for any path, as long as the end result is correct.”

This Pilot is scheduled to run until mid September, then, who knows what an examinee might encounter during Microsoft Server 2008 Certification testing – maybe something completely different…

Hey All!

I’ve got more good news for MCTS (exchange 2007) and other exchange administrators, specifically in the form of the features of Microsoft Exchange 2007 with the new sp1.

A new administration user interface has been added to the Exchange Management Console for the POP3 and IMAP4 protocols. This administration user interface enables you to configure the following settings for POP3 and IMAP4 for your individual Client Access server: Port Settings, Authentication Settings, Connection Settings, and Message and Calendar settings.

Not only that, but Public folder management is also possible by using the Exchange Management Console. So now we can relax and handle it from the console rather than using Shell…

…Sweet.

Hey All!  Quick tidbit:  There is a revised book for exchange 2007 for the MCTS exchange 2007 Class.  It also talks about the new features with SP1.  And guess what?  It has the Virtual server images where Exchange 2007 is on Server 2008.

I just hope the exam (70-236) is the same as I feel the exam might change slightly because of the new questions on sp1.  We shall have to wait and see, but I will be certain to let you all know as soon as I do!

And now for the final pieces and a symphony…

Microsoft announced the RTM of Hyper-V™ on June 26th ‘08. They had promised it would be ready within six months of the RTM of Server 2008, which would have been August ‘08. At TechEd in early June, Microsoft announced that they were ahead of schedule for Hyper-V. They’d already gone into production, within Microsoft, with Hyper-V, for several months (e.g., all of the TechNet and MSDN web sites) with no significant (near zero) problems. So the quality is there - with the next question being, what about the performance? They wanted to get close to VMWARE with v1 of a major new architecture. The initial testing has exceeded their expectations - they were at or above VMWARE performance, even before release - credit the Microsoft Hyper-V VMBus and its “Synthetic” devices.

Hyper-V is the piece that will trigger customers moving to Server 2008. Hyper-V requires, but comes free with Server 2008. Installation is painless - it doesn’t require any complex training or complex steps. You start with a simple, normal, quick Server 2008 install - 2008 installs faster than ever, with all the distracting questions deferred to the post install - ICT, Initial Configuration Tasks.

After the normal server install, you just log on and add the Hyper-V “Role” using Server Manager - just like you would add “File Server” or “DNS” as a Role. The server then reboots and like magic, “jacks up the O/S” and inserts the “hypervisor” under the O/S - poof! done!…

The initial server installation is moved into a Hyper-V Parent partition. The Parent partition (Host) makes it easy to add/manage the Guest “virtual machines” (VMs) that will run in Child partitions. Hyper-V virtual machine (guests) management can be done using the Server Manager on the Parent – using the same Server Manager that was used to add the Hyper-V Role.

Once you gain experience with Hyper-V and Server 2008, you’ll want to take advantage of the option to install just the “Server Core” in the Parent partition, instead of a full Server install. Server Core being the “windows without windows” Server - perfect for production environments where you want and just need the “core” server - reduced resource requirements, fewer patches, fewer reboots.

We just need a “core” Parent/Host (mainly for its drivers). We can move back to our desktop for the remaining and full day-to-day VM management. Hyper-V doesn’t use the older (less than impressive) web interface console that we had with Virtual Server.

One option to manage the VMs is to use the new RSAT (Remote Server Admin Tools) - next generation “Adminpak” - and its Hyper-V mmc snap-in. Or step up to, and take advantage of, the current and future SC VMM (System Center Virtual Machine Manager) - the new SC VMM 2008 was announced in April and is currently in Beta.

Click Here for the pdf.

…”System Center Virtual Machine Manager 2008 was designed to fully utilize the foundational features and services of Windows Server 2008 and Microsoft Hyper-V™ Server. This includes Hyper-V’s 64-bit architecture, attack hardened security model, and fail-over cluster support.”…

Since SC VMM has the ability to easily “snap-shot” a running, production system and convert it into a VM - P2V (physical to virtual) and then deploy the VM to your new Hyper-V host, it won’t be long before you have a bunch of production servers running as “guests” VMs on one physical host, better known as server consolidation. I’m sure that you bought a really reliable “brand name” server that would provide “availability through reliability”. But what if the hardware does fail or you’d like to step up to the world of HA - High Availability, the world of 99.99% availability, the four 9’s, the less than one hour downtime per year availability.

Server 2008 features a complete redesign of the 2003 Server Cluster option - renamed Failover Clusters. It’s still the HA solution to reduce downtime. But instead of the complex steps of a creating a cluster; then adding file shares or print shares, you can just add the “feature” clustering to an existing file server when you want to increase the uptime.

Even more significant (exciting) - Failover Clusters are fully aware of Virtual Machines, with both Host and Guest clustering options. A VM can be moved (quick migration) to a different Host or all the VMs can failover to a standby host, in the event of a Host failure.

Click here for the PDF.

“…In VMM 2008, creating a high availability virtual machine (HA VM) has never been easier. Gone are the complex multi-step manual processes from before – now, an administrator clicks a simple checkbox which designates a VM as highly available. Behinds the scenes, VMM orchestrates the creation of that HA VA which includes instructing the Intelligent Placement feature of VMM 2008 to recommend only hosts that are part of a host cluster for the newly minted HA VM. “….

So now we have a symphony of:

Server 2008,
Server Manger,
Hyper-V,
Server Core,
Failover Clusters, and
SC VMM…

Hey all!! Deepika again. Guess what? I have good news: if you guys are MCDST, you just need to pass one upgrade exam 70-621 to be a MCITP: Enterprise Support Technician. So dont wait and get certified !!!

Now there are three reasons to attend the Unitek 5-day: Updating Your MCSE / MCSA Windows Server 2003 to Windows Server 2008 Boot Camp.

1. Review of Server 2003 and “What’s new or changed in Server 2008”
2. Get recertified as a Server 2008 MCTS with one “not as challenging as 2003” Server 2008 exam – one exam for a “triple” MCTS.
3. Become an expert with Microsoft acronyms.

Yes folks. It’s all about the acronyms. Before, you were an expert if you knew all the Microsoft acronyms. Now, the experts have to know how many meanings the same acronym has. SUA, for example, has at least three!

Even the Microsoft official TLA (Three Letter Acronym) Resource can’t keep up.

RDC SUA NLA NAS RAP WSS ACT CCS … – all have double (or more) meanings and to understand NAC vs. NAP, one would need to be comfortable with: NAC, NAD, NAS, NAP, NAQ, NAT (plus the NPS/IAS thing) – tough even when some have a single meaning.

Here’s are a few examples of what exactly I’m talking about.

RDC
Remote Desktop Connection
Remote Differential Compression, part of DFS

SUA
Standard User Account
Subsystem for UNIX-based Applications
Standard User Analyzer tool, part of ACT (either Application Compatibility Toolkit or Application Center Test)

NLA
Network Level Authentication
Network Location Awareness

NAS
Network Access Server
Network Attached Storage

RAP
Resource Allocation Policy
Resource Authorization Policy

WSS
Windows Storage Server
Windows SharePoint Services

ACT
Application Compatibility Toolkit
Application Center Test

CCS
Computer Cluster Server
Current Control Set

It’s worth attending just to find out that a BLOB isn’t really a Binary Large OBject, as you’ve been taught.
And be one of the first to learn the answer to: What’s a Vocsproot (clue: vOCSProot)? - correctly pronounced with a German accent…

Hey all! Deepika again.  I just wanted to you all to check out this new feature in SQL 2005.  I think it’s pretty cool!

If you are an MCTS on SQL 2005, chances are you will already know it for sure, but for everyone else, I wanted share a really great improvement. 

The two main tools used to troubleshoot SQL are Perfmon and SQl Profiler.  We can now use these two tools at the same time and also, their outputs can be compared by opening the trace file and og file(which has all the counters monitored over a period of time) in SQL Profiler together.

So it no longer takes a long time to decide which stored procedure or query is eating up most of the resources.

Go ahead, give it a try, and let me know how it works!

You can feel the excitement as all the pieces are coming together. It all started with the first release of Vista, not the real release, but the first. This was our first NT v6, code named Longhorn, to replace the older NT5 with its 5.1 and 5.2 - being Windows 2000, Windows XP, and Windows Server 2003. Longhorn has architectural changes, to improve security. Vista in Nov of ‘06 was when Longhorn (Longhorn Client) got started with its unique security features such as UAC and IE in Protected Mode.

Then it got more exciting with the Beta 3 of Longhorn Server (LHS) in Apr ‘07. The product was basically “feature complete” in its Beta 3, and because of that, Microsoft surprised everyone by allowing recertification on LHS in October ‘07 - before the product RTMed. LHS received its formal name in June ‘07 as Windows Server 2008. We didn’t know if it was going to be 2007 or 2008.

Then take it up a notch with the RTM of LHS (Windows Server 2008) in February of this year (2008) - February 4th was the date for history. LHS is significant, primarily because of the unique Longhorn (NT6) architectural security features – mentioned above, and as a bonus: Server Core, Server Manager, RODCs, BitLocker, major new Terminal Services, etc… One of the most exciting features is the newly named Hyper-V (was named WSv) – the next generation Virtualization from Microsoft. Final release of Hyper-V is promised within 6 months of the Feb RTM. The pleasant surprise is that a Beta Hyper-V shipped with the product and can easily be upgraded to the current RC0 of Hyper-V.

Plus, we now have the “real” Vista - Vista SP1. - the Vista that goes with Server 2008, like the matched pair of XP SP2 and Server 2003 SP1.

It’s always been recommended that you manage the environment (Desktops, Servers, and DCs) from a Desktop, not from the Server consoles. With XP SP2, you just installed the Administration Tools (ADMINPAK.msi) from any Server’s ADMIN$ or downloaded the latest Tools from Microsoft. But then with Vista as the latest Desktop, we had a problem: do not install ADMINPAK on Vista - so now what?

As I mentioned at the start, you can feel the excitement as the pieces are coming together. With Vista SP1, you can now download and install, RSAT - the new Remote Server Admin Tools to replace ADMINPAK. And, [drum roll], the final piece……… You can add the Hyper-V console to the RSAT on Vista SP1.

Hey Everyone!

I’m going to have the chance to share some really interesting stuff with you guys in the near future, so thought it’d be appropriate to take a moment to first introduce myself to you all.

I’m Deepika and I have 9 years of experience in teaching and consulting Microsoft Technologies.  I am a Microsoft MCSE on NT 4, 2000, 2003, MCSA, MCDBA, MCTS and MCITP on SQL 2005 & Exchange 2007.

Get ready for some quick Microsoft Certification and Microsoft Exam tips as well as notes about really cool features with various Microsoft Technologies.

I’ll check back in with you all soon, but for now, just as a quick tip: www.google.com/microsoft will be your best resource for help on Microsoft Stuff.