So yesterday i ranted about being unable to register for exam 70-652, and not getting any help from Prometric.

I have to remedy that - when i checked my email this morning, i already got notice from Prometric asking for my MCP and Testing ID - i replied quickly, and got a an answer back in just a few minutes. This is good!

I’ll be going this Friday and see how it was.

I received this nice mail from Microsoft learning:

You are invited to take beta exam 70-652: TS: Windows Server Virtualization, Configuring. You were specifically chosen to participate in this beta because of your current Microsoft Certification status or previous participation with Microsoft Learning. If you pass the beta exam, the exam credit will be added to your transcript and you will not need to take the exam in its released form. The 71-xxx identifier is used for registering for beta versions of MCP exams, when the exam is released in its final form the 70-xxx identifier is used for registration.

By participating in beta exams, you have the opportunity to provide the Microsoft Certification program with feedback about exam content, which is integral to development of exams in their released version. We depend on the contributions of experienced IT professionals and developers as we continually improve exam content and maintain the value of Microsoft certifications.

70-652: TS: Windows Server Virtualization, Configuring counts as credit towards the following certification(s).
• TS: Windows Server Virtualization, Configuration

So i tried to sign up for the exam. But i wasn’t even able to logon to my Prometric account.

Got the following error message:

Duplicate emails. Please call customer service.

So, i tried calling customer services. It’s a toll free Swiss number in a call center located at some other part of the earth. Unfortunately, i wasn’t even able to place a call

The number you’re calling is currently unavailable. Please check the number and dial again

So i mailed Prometric support and i’m hoping for an answer now.

If Prometric won’t fix it, at least i can ask Helmer what was in the exam. If you have a working Prometric account, you can get the invite code for the exam from Trika’s Blog

Microsoft released the Windows Small Business Server 2008 RC0 today.

For those of you who do not know SBS: SBS has traditionally been a single server setup with Exchange, SQL Server and ISA Server. It consolidates all “big” Microsoft technologies on a single server. This contradicts most “Best Practices” published by Microsoft, and as such SBS has always been seen as the red-headed stepchild in the Windows Server Family. SBS 2008 aims to improve several of these points (especially with the Premium Edition shipping with TWO server licenses).

After a 6 hour downloaded that trickled in at a few meager 200kbyte/s, i was finally able to get started with it.

SBS 2008 now demands x64 hardware - so for testing i used an IBM x3650 running Windows Server 2008 Enterprise with the Hyper-V RC1. Hyper-V supports 64bit guests. Other hardware requirements have also gotten steeper - you’ll need 4GB RAM minimum (though i launched the VM with only 2GB). The Premium Edition now comes with licenses for two servers - finally making it possible to have redundant domain controllers even in a Small Business setup without paying for full server licenses.

The first half of the setup is similar to what you know from Windows Server 2008 and Windows Vista - you boot, select the disk, have the chance to enter a product key, and finally start the installation. After that, the WIM image is expanded to the harddrive. The machine reboots after installation, and this is where things get different.

After booting, you’ll land in “Install Windows Small Business Server 2008″ Wizard. This can be mostly automated using an Answer file, which is mandatory when migrating from earlier versions. I will check that out later and proceed with a simple installation without using an Answer file.

I get nagged by a “Insufficient Hardware Screen”, reminding me that my (virtual) machine only has 2GB RAM. After acknowledging the warning, i can setup my date and time. I choose the CEST timezone, and move onwards.

Next, a screen confronts me with the fact that i don’t have a NIC - which is true. The machine is running on Hyper-V RC1, and i wasn’t able to install the integration components yet. Luckily, there is a “Browse” Button, where i can launch the Integration Services setup. Installation of the Integration Components worked fine, the machine rebooted. I hope Microsoft packs the Hyper-V RTM bits into SBS RTM. This would make it easier to install it into a VM, but as you can see, it’s not much of a hassle.

I was back at the beginning, at the start of the SBS Wizard. Luckily, i was now able to use the mouse after installing the Hyper-V IC. Next, i get an Update Dialog, asking me if i want to update my server. I choose yes and have to wait.

Next, i was asked to enter my company information. Next, i was able to name my server and the NETBIOS name of the Domain. I was not able to choose a DNS Name for the Domain (This is only possible if using an Answer File). Interestingly, Dashes “-” were not accepted as part of the server name. I wonder why - our production setup uses dashes extensively in server names, and so does Microsoft (judging from their Mail headers).

Then i was asked to create an an administrative account - a good idea. The “Administrator” account shouldn’t be used in a production setup, instead each user with administrative rights should have their own account. SBS enforces this - a very good idea.

After confirming Server name, Domain name and Company name, the installation continued on it’s own. This took a good amount of time, during which the server restarted several times - of course completely unattended. No need to play disc jockey or logon - much better than SBS 2003.

After the installation, i was greeted with a screen that told me that it was unable to install some critical updates. Clicking on that bar revealed an IE7 404. I checked the IP configuration - the server was configured to use 192.168.0.2, and didn’t have a DHCP server installed. There was no default gateway set yet.

Next, i launched the “Connect to the Internet Wizard” which told me that i was already running a DHCP server - which makes sense. After choosing “Postpone”, the Wizard aborted. That wasn’t quite what i was hoping for.

I shut down the VM and reconfigured it to use a private LAN. That way, it wouldn’t have a connection to the internet, but it wouldn’t have to deal with a DHCP Server either. But SBS didn’t like that either - it wanted a router. So i setup a second VM running IPcop (which works flawlessly on Hyper-V using Legacy NICs and a small virtual hard drive).

It was interesting to see using “tcpdump” what SBS did under the covers to detect the router. ARP scanning, IPv6 Discovery, Everything. This seems rather well designed. It was sucessfully able to detect my IPcop VM which didn’t have a DHCP server.

Next, i started the wizard to enable my domain name. It seems that SBS will be able to do some of these things automatically if you live in the US. Here of course we have to do things manually.

So far i don’t like that SBS tells me very very few technical details. But this might be because Microsoft somehow thinks that a Small Business Owner will setup SBS on their own (which just seems a horribly stupid design decision).

Next, it told me that i couldn’t configure my Internet Router properly (my IPcop instance didn’t have UPNP support enabled). It’s interesting to see that it wants to forward port 25 to the server. It looks like the POP3 Connector was finally killed off for good. That’s very good to hear!

I also had to configure outbound email properly, with the ability to configure a smarthost or use direct sending. There is also a wizard to easily create a properly signed official SSL certificate - nicely done and will surely improve the security of the many SBS setups that are out there.

SBS 2008 also ships with OneCare for Servers already preinstalled. You can just activate it with a few clicks. I don’t see this very positively - I’ve made a few bad experiences with ForeFront Client Security, which OneCare is based on. We’ve been using McAfee for the past. So in the future for SBS setups we will have to either remove OneCare from the SBS, or deal with having multiple virus scanners on the network (a management nightmare).

Another interesting tidbit is that UAC is enabled in approval mode, just like on standard Windows Server 2008 installations when not using the Administrator account. This is annoying, IMHO. I don’t have a problem with UAC on my desktop because i usually use my desktop to work and not change settings - but when i’m logged onto a server, i want to change settings all the time.

That’s it for the first impressions. I will have a closer look at SBS 2008 over the following days and will keep you all updated.

Pictures are here:

The past few months have been busy, very busy.

Mergers and acquisitions have always been a big part of what the important people do.

Of course, theoretically, that wouldn’t be my problem. However, one wouldn’t believe on how much work it is to get rid of an old name throughout a whole network.

First comes Active Directory - it uses DNS as a primary means of identification. Renaming an Active Directory domain is purely theoretical, e.G. it doesn’t work and it’s not supported if you’re running Exchange 2007.

Then there’s numerous other stuff that depends on DNS, names and everything. But in the end, i did my part of this deal. It has been an interested time and now i really wonder how big companies like Swissair handled their renames - or are they still running their infrastructure under the old name?

My employer is now called Acommit AG.

Of course, the whole rename proved to be a really good argument to buy new servers and upgrade straight to Windows Server 2008 - that means on my side the renaming thing has worked rather well. I still don’t know a lot about the company we bought (Futura Retail Solution GmbH), but their main market is selling POS related products.

If you need the full details, you can get them here:

Futura Retail Solution GmbH
Acommit AG (soon to be updated)

Outlook Anywhere / Outlook Autodiscovery on Windows 2008 still has some problems.
Read this most excellent post that has all the details.

Long story shorts: Modify the hosts file, remove the IPv6 localhost (::1) and then add hosts entries for your server. I would recommend against disabling IPv6 on the Exchange server, as this is probably not a recommended or supported configuration.

The root cause is that Outlook 2007 can’t contact a DC/Domain Controller using RPC over HTTP/Outlook Anywhere when used on Windows Server 2008.

Also note that NTLM Authentification for Outlook 2007/Outlook Anywhere is broken on Windows Server 2008.

I’ve participated at a game at the TechDays Switzerland, and didn’t win an X-Box.

Well, at least i got my picture and story published on the Microsoft Learning Website.

(Still happy, still not better than you)

Well, not really. But exam results are still a good ego boost

Thanks to Trika and her Microsoft Learning Team.

UPDATE:

The Microsoft transcript has already been updated, and you can order your Welcome Kits and downloads the logos:

Today i’ve tried to setup a new LPAR on our 9407-515. A small test LPAR, with a minimum amount of resources a allocated. Just a disk controller for the OS, and one for the optical drive to do installations. It all went smooth, booted from the optical drive, and then i’ve tried to install the LIC.

It failed with the following error message:

                  Install Licensed Internal Code - Error

Error:
   A device could not be selected to be the load source.

   Return to Dedicated Service Tools and run diagnostics
   to determine why a device could not be selected.
   Correct the problem and install the Licensed Internal Code
   again.

I checked the LPAR Configuration, checked the System Plan, recreated config in the System Planning tool, but all of them said it should work. I checked the disks inside the very limited pre-paging DST, but didn’t find anything wrong.

I posted to the Midrange-L, describing my problem. Not having much experience with LPARs, i expected myself to have set some silly flag wrong.

After a bit discussion with a few helpful repliers, it seemed that there wasn’t anything obviously wrong with my configuration. I checked the schematics again, and digged deeper into the limited DST, but still didn’t find anything. I called IBM hardware support, and he guided me through the limited DST again - then i suddenly saw it: “IO Bus: 1″. The disks were attached to the second channel of the SCSI RAID controller, rendering them unbootable but otherwise completely healthy.

I deactivated the partition, moved the machine out on the drawer and checked the cabling. Yep, it was definitively in the wrong SCSI Port of the adapter. I replugged it, moved the machine back and actived the partition. After a bit of waiting i was able to install the LIC.

Today and yesterday went by pretty well. We’ve spent a lot of time working on the exams and the only bad thing about it is that i can’t write about all the juicy details here (NDA).

One of the really good parts about it was that you could hook up with other people that also have A LOT of knowledge about and enthusiasm about their work.

Especially when talking about Microsoft technologies, nobody at my company wants to argue with me. This was different here, and i really enjoyed that.

It’s also great to see that Microsoft exams are a lot of hard work and a huge investment by Microsoft in order to provide up to date and accurate tests.

Keep in mind that when you make a Comment at a Beta Exam / Exam that they’ll be read by real people - they DO make a difference. So whenever you do not like a question for any reason, make a comment. It counts.

So, what now? It’s 1500 here right now, so i’ll try to find a few fun things to do before going to sleep. The same goes for tomorrow morning, my flight leaves at tomorrow 1600. And i’ll be back in Switzerland on Sunday 1200.

So it appears that i’ve survived my 16 hour trip from Zurich to Seattle, and i was even able to enter the US. Which is a good thing.

So, now i’ve spent a day at the Microsoft Campus and have worked on one of the exams. Unfortunately, i can’t tell write about the juicy details, but one thing is clear:

Microsoft Learning really makes a big effort in order to ensure that the quality of the exams is as high as possible. Much care is being taken to ensure that exam content is accurate, up to date and clear.

There were seven other people there with me, most of them know a lot more about this stuff than I do (which, I think, is rather good for my Ego).

So, if you ever sit in front of and Exam and think that a question is stupid and can’t be answered, it’s probably a good idea to think again - it probably makes sense, and you missed something (read carefully!).

So, what else to say?

• I’ve got a really nice rental car
• The hotel room is nice, big, comfortable bathroom, etc. everything you could ever wish for
• Americans have really strange ideas what “Breakfast” is - not that i don’t like it, it is just strange
• Transatlantic flights suck if you’re obese
• ZRH-SEA jetlag isn’t that bad. The other way around will probably be a lot worse
• My spoken English isn’t as bad as i thought
• Microsoft still uses CRTs
• AVIS in Seattle still has System i Twinax Screens in operation
• Cups and dishes made from Polystyrene (essentially Styrofoam) are popular here(?)
• Burger King has french fries boxy-thingies that fit into a cars cup holder
• There is such a thing as a Microsoft Dining Services eCoupon

It’s certainly interesting here. Hope the next two days turn out as well.