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Archive for category Systems Admin

Microsoft Assessment and Planning (MAP) Solution Accelerator (Beta)

Dec 18

Posted by Anil Desai in Management, Systems Admin, Virtualization | No Comments

The goal of the Microsoft Solution Accelerator team is to ease the design and deployment of infrastructures based on Microsoft products.  Earlier this year, I authored guides in their Infrastructure Planning and Design Series (see Microsoft Infrastructure Planning and Design (IPD) Guides Available for details).

In keeping with the same goal, a new beta version of the Microsoft Assessment and Planning Solution Accelerator is available for download from Microsoft Connect.  The description from the download site:

The Microsoft Assessment and Planning (MAP) Solution Accelerator is an integrated platform with tools and guidance that make it easier for you to assess your current IT infrastructure and determine the right Microsoft technologies for your IT needs. It offers easy inventory, powerful assessment and actionable recommendations for Windows Server 2008, Windows Server Hyper-V, Virtual Server 2005 R2, Terminal Services, SoftGrid, System Center Virtual Machine Manager, Windows Vista, and 2007 Microsoft Office. The popular Windows Vista Hardware Assessment readiness tool will be integrated into this platform.
…

Target Audience

  • Customers: IT Architects, Infrastructure Specialists and Desktop/Application Administrators.
  • Partners: System Integrators, Value-Added Partners and IT Consultants in the Enterprise and Midmarket

Key Benefits

  • Quick Assessment of Your Existing infrastructure and assets
  • Adaptive Guidance and Actionable Proposals that provide specific recommendations that will help simplify your planning and deployment of Microsoft technologies
  • One-Stop Shop for All Your Planning (or Pre-Sales) Needs

The good news is that this is a completely agent-less method of automatically analyzing your entire environment.  The product generates detailed reports that would be tedious and error-prone to create manually.

Overall, the idea is to help organizations determine how best to deploy Microsoft’s virtualization technologies.  If you’re currently considering an expanded virtualization deployment, this tool can help you make better decisions about your infrastructure needs.  Give it a shot, and send feedback to the development team to improve the final version!

Remote Administration in Windows Server 2008

Dec 18

Posted by Anil Desai in IT Tips, Systems Admin | No Comments

Perhaps one of the most-used features in the Windows Server platform is the Remote Desktop Protocol (RDP).  Just about every administrator relies on it to perform configuration changes, add software, and make other related changes to the system.  By default, new remote connections created with the Remote Desktop Connection (RDC) application are created as additional user logons.  This usually meets the needs, as up to two remote connections are allowed to be active at a time. 

However, a somewhat common requirement in some situations is to actually log on to the "console" session.  This type of connection allows you to connect to the system remotely utilizing a session that runs in "Ring 0".  It’s necessary to troubleshoot potential issues with installing applications, and some particularly picky applications that don’t behave as expected.  Effectively, this is the same thing as logging on to the computer at the physical console.  The bottom line is that it’s like "being there".  In "current" versions of the RDC application, you can use the /console switch to connect to the the console session using RDP.

This behavior is actually deprecated (i.e., retired from future use) in Windows Vista SP1 and Windows Server 2008.  The Terminal Services Team Blog describes the changes (and the reasons for them) in an in-depth posting titled Changes to Remote Administration in Windows Server 2008.  Without getting too deep into the details, the following portion of the article describes the new /admin switch:

Behavior of the /admin switch

You can start the RDC 6.1 client (mstsc.exe) with the /admin switch to remotely administer a Windows Server 2008-based server (with or without Terminal Server installed). However, if you are connecting to remotely administer a Windows Server 2008-based server that does not have the Terminal Server role service installed, you do not have to specify the /admin switch. (In this case, the same connection behavior occurs with or without the /admin switch.) At any point in time, there can be two active remote administration sessions. To start a remote administration session, you must be a member of the Administrators group on the server to which you are connecting.

Overall, for most routine administration, this won’t make a huge difference.  But, eliminating (or at least reducing) the need to connect to the console session is a big step forward.

About this Blog

Jan 1

Posted by Anil Desai in Fun Stuff, Systems Admin | No Comments

AnilDesai01

I have created this blog to share with readers my thoughts on specific technology and related topics.  That’s overly-broad on purpose, as I hope to post about topics ranging from IT-related issues to gaming.  Of course, audience participation is encouraged.

I’m an independent IT consultant based in Austin, TX.  I do a wide variety of different things, ranging from IT architecture consulting to database and applications development.  I’m also a writer of books and online articles.  My technical focus is fairly broad, but it includes virtualization, Microsoft .NET, SQL Server, and the Windows Server platform.  For more information about me and for technical information, see my web site at http://AnilDesai.net.  And, you can e-mail me at Anil@AnilDesail.net.