Author Archives: workinghardinit

Legacy Apps Preventing Your Move From Windows XP to Windows 8.1?

Posted on by
4

Are old applications holding you back getting rid of Windows XP? It’s A reason we hear a lot and these apps do exist. But often it’s because the effort to make it work isn’t considered worth the cost. Year after year. So some people today are stuck on a Windows Server 2000/2003 & XP infrastructure. How does that cost compare now to the cost of dealing with the application? Was it worth not moving the application & have an out of date infrastructure holding your ENTIRE company down?

image

While some things can’t be fixed, putting in some effort could have prevented you of being in this mess. Yes it would have cost you a decent penny but nothing compared to where you are at now with your infrastructure “challenges”.

Here’s a little example for you. Over a period of 13 years we’ve moved an old application (using a Borland database engine & ISAPI DLLs in IIS). It ran on Windows Server 2000. It was P2V’d to VMware Server. Over the years the data base swapped from Informix to SQL Server 2000, 2005, 2008, 2008 R2. We upgraded the VM to Windows Server 2003(x86), moved to Hyper-V, upgraded to Windows 2008(x86) & final now put on W2K12R2(x64). So what do you mean you can’t get rid of XP? We’ve moved the client app for that VM to x64 with Vista in 2007.  We were not to let that app block our way to the future and Windows 7(x64) and Windows 8 & 8.1(x64). In 2014 you should be able to move to or you need to reconsider your approach to IT as you have totally painted the organization into a corner. We did not have installers for anything. We extracted registry entries & bits form installed systems and build installers ourselves with the free NSIS installer. We used  Windows SysInternals tools to figure out where the application wrote & read, what permissions where needed and add those to the installer to make sure it did not need local admin rights. It gave the business over a decade to get a grip on application live cycle management & replace the app. They failed twice, and while that’s bad and we do not like it, it was not deadly as they haven’t let the rest of the company suffer for it. Never, ever let your infrastructure get stuck in the past. But wait you say, what you did is not supported. That’s right. That’s one app, that works, and it beats being left with an unsupportable infrastructure blocking progress Winking smile

You might need some help and here’s a great place to start helping yourself The App Compat Guy. Read and view (TechEd presentations) anything Chris Jackson is offering on this subject and you’ll be on your way. Need a helping hand? Here’s a good place to start if your in Belgium: Microsoft Extended Experts Team (MEET). Chances are some of them known some one who knows how to get it done or are the person to talk to.

DELL World 2013 – Tour Of the Acoustic & Storage Testing Labs & Presenting at the Dell TechCenter User Group

Posted on by
3

While at Dell World 2013, a group of us had the opportunity to visit the Dell offices as part of the Trends in Data Center Technology Think Tank. We saw advancements in fresh air cooling, a hot house,

image

the storage lab and, new to me, the acoustic labs. Below is a picture of Chris Peterson, the acoustic Architect (he was involved in the design of the DELL VRTX, which is a unique solution and achievement in the industry). Like wise the also have thermal engineers and both of these expertises are closely related.

I will never look at acoustic / thermal engineering for servers & storage in the same way I used to and I have way more respect for the effort and a better understanding of what efforts go in to this research and why.

For some more information on the acoustic lab read this white paper Dell Enterprise Acoustics and watch these videos:

Dell thermal & acoustic engineers discussing the VRTX
Chris Peterson on Dell PowerEdge Generation 12 Server acoustics

Next to all that I attended briefings, had one to one conversations with network, storage & server managers & engineers. I had a lot of information, questions & request to share from our Microsoft MVP Community in regards to our needs & wishes for the best possible support for Windows Server 2012 R2, Hyper-V, ODX, UNMAP, SMB Direct, SOFS, Management & cloud. I even jumped into an open source breakfast discussion on * cloud computing. Last but not least we joined fellow Rock Stars Jonathan Copeland (@VirtSecurity), Rasmus Haslund (@haslund) & Dell Tech Center’s community manager Jeff Sullivan (@JeffSullivan) to discuss what community & social media means to us.

image

I also shared our experiences with Windows Server 2012 R2, Hyper-V, DVMQ, vRSS & ODX at the Dell Tech Center User Group during Dell World 2013.

image

Want to talk and demo DVMQ & vRSS? Start with the basics: RSS Smile 

To all my community buddies a very festive end of the year and a great 2014! If you want to know even more about how rewarding being part of a community can be, check out this blog Mindset of the community by Marc van Eijk (@_marcvaneijk)

Linux Integration Services Version 3.5 for Hyper-V Available For Download

Posted on by
3

Yesterday, December 19th 2013, Microsoft made the Linux Integration Services Version 3.5 for Hyper-V available for download.

The Linux Integration Services (LIS) package downloaded from Microsoft  is meant to deliver support older Linux distros. In the most recent Linux distros the KVP component is to be included, as are the other Hyper-V related drivers. In these distros these drivers and components are to be part of the upstream Linux kernel, and as such are included in Linux distros releases. So you should not need this download if you run these newer distros that has the LIS built-in. The list of supported distros is slowly growing.

image

If you are running (or need to run) older versions of Linux in your VMs and leverage the 100% fully featured Hyper-v Server 2012 R2 that is also 100% free of charge this is your way to leverage all those features. The aim is that you’re never a left behind when running Hyper-V (within the limits of supportability, DOS 6.0, NT 4.0 or Windows 2000 is not an acceptable OS today).

In Microsoft speak:

Hyper-V supports both emulated (“legacy”) and Hyper-V-specific (“synthetic”) devices for Linux virtual machines. When a Linux virtual machine is running with emulated devices, no additional software is required to be installed. However, emulated devices do not provide high performance and cannot leverage the rich virtual machine management infrastructure that the Hyper-V technology offers.

To make full use of all benefits that Hyper-V provides, it is best to use Hyper-V-
specific devices for Linux. The collection of drivers that are required to run Hyper-V-specific devices is known as Linux Integration Services (LIS).
 
For certain older Linux distributions, Microsoft provides an ISO file containing installable LIS drivers for Linux virtual machines. For newer Linux distributions, LIS is built into the Linux operating system, and no separate download or installation is required. This guide discusses the installation and functionality of LIS drivers on older Linux distributions.

For some extra info an tips see Enabling Linux Support on Windows Server 2012 R2 Hyper-V

TechNet Top Support Solutions From Microsoft Support Blog

Posted on by
Reply

As this year comes to an end I’d like to draw your attention to Microsoft’s new Top Support Solutions blog on TechNet. It was created this as part of their continuous efforts to keep the various  technical communities informed about the most relevant answers to the top questions or issues experienced with their products. They identify these top issues by analyzing the question in their forums and their other support channels.

image

So if you need to find answers for your self or your customers go take a look at the "Top Solutions Content" blog. Changes are you’ll find valuable information about the Microsoft top support solutions for several of their popular products in Server and Tools. It might save you and your clients or manager a lot of time, effort and money. It’s also a great resource to make your colleagues, community, user group or clients aware of.