AnilDesai.net

Cloud Computing, Virtualization, .NET / SQL Server Development

Austin Code Camp 2012

May 5

Posted by Anil Desai in Databases / SQL Server, Development, Presentations | 1 Comment

The Austin .NET User Group (ADNUG) is again holding it’s annual Austin Code Camp 2012 event.  The date is Saturday, June 9th, 2012 at the St. Edward’s Professional Education Center (PEC) (the same location as the last few years).  The event runs all day, and attendees can pick which sessions are most interesting to them.  Visit http://austincodecamp2012.com/ for more information about the event.

The event features speakers that focus on development-related topics with a focus on real demonstrations (rather than marketing information).  All sessions are free to attendees, and volunteers in the community are invited to speak.  Organizer John Teague states it a little better:

All of the content in community driven, presented by members of the community.   I would encourage you to come and talk about whatever is interesting in the world of software development.  While the event is organized by the Austin .Net Users group, it is not limited to discussions about .Net.   It is an excellent opportunity to gain public speaking experience.

If you’re planning to attend, please be sure to register on the Austin Code Camp 2012 Eventbrite page. That will help the planners determine how much space (and food!) they’ll need.

I have presented at the conference every year since 2008, and it has been a great experience!  The number of attendees is always impressive (I think 2011’s event included more than 250 IT pros and developers).  I’m planning to give two presentations this year:

Practical SQL Server Performance Monitoring & Optimization

Developers can dramatically improve performance by monitoring and analyzing real world queries.  This session covers SQL Server monitoring at various levels to the most impactful performance improvements.  The presentation will start with an overview of different optimization tools and techniques and will be based on practical examples of real-world performance monitoring and troubleshooting.  Details include the use of server monitoring tools, SQL Profiler, the Database Tuning Advisor, and analyzing query plans, Dynamic Management Views, and related methods.  The overall emphasis will be on solving practical, real-world database performance problems.

SQL Server Reporting Services: Develop & Deploy Reports

This session will begin with a brief architectural overview of Reporting Services and details on getting up and running with Reporting Services.  Then, we will look at demonstrations of creating new reports by building connections and data sets using Report Builder and Visual Studio.  Reporting design features including parameterization, dynamic drill-downs, matrix reports, charts, and sorting will be provided. 

Next, we’ll look at deployment details, including scheduling reports, configuring caching, creating snapshots, and managing security.  The presentation will also include details about new reporting and BI features in SQL Server 2012

Those topics are updated versions of presentations I’ve done in the past.  I’m still trying to decide whether they’d work best as one-hour or two-hour sessions.  Feel free to leave comments below if you have any opinion.

Microsoft Virtual Labs

May 4

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

Evaluating and learning about complex server-side software can be quite a challenge for the busy IT pro.  Often, you’re just trying to work with a feature or two for evaluation purposes, but you find yourself spending significant time just trying to setup the pre-requisites for the environment.  Add in hassles related to licensing, and it can so much effort that many of us don’t end up taking the time. 

While the widespread adoption of virtualization has made the process of provisioning a test environment and installing software simpler, free, online Microsoft Virtual Labs make the process even easier.  Basically, all that’s required is a web browser on the client side.  When you choose to launch a Virtual Lab, a server cloud will spin up  a new VM, create a browser-based RDP connection, and will include all the necessary software.  To make the process even simpler, you’ll see a sidebar that includes downloadable, step-by-step evaluation details and guides.  The following screenshot shows an example of a SQL Server MSDN Virtual Lab that I spun up to learn more about configuring the new PowerView feature.

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TechNet Virtual Labs

imageMicrosoft TechNet Virtual Labs are focused on providing IT professionals (such as systems administrators and data center administrators) with pre-built evaluation environments that showcase various features and technology.  At the time of this writing, there are numerous labs focused on Windows Server 2008 R2 features, the System Center suite of products, Forefront, and (my personal favorite) Private Cloud guides.

imageMSDN Virtual Labs

Architects and developers haven’t been left out either: MSDN Virtual Labs include a long list of software development-focused labs, including ones for Visual Studio, Office Applications, SQL Server 2012, SharePoint, Team Foundation Server, Windows Azure, and many more related technologies.

A Few Tips

Using an RDP session (especially, a browser-initiated) one isn’t exactly like having software installed on your own computer.  However, it’s a reasonable trade-off for most of us that want to quickly try out or learn about some new feature.  Here are some additional tips that can help make the experience more user-friendly:

  • Limitations: While it might be tempting to cause havoc on the hosted VMs, most are locked down to prevent such shenanigans.  Operations like changing IP addresses or machine names are restricted, so it’s best to “stick to the script”.
  • RDP Window Resizing: In at least some Virtual Labs, you’ll need to connect to multiple VMs through a secondary RDP connection.  The default resolution and size for this window is quite small.  To get a bigger viewable area, first resize the Remote Desktop Connection Manager window, and then connect (or disconnect and reconnect to the VM).  This way, you should be able to get close to the 1024 x 768 resolution that many applications require.
  • Keyboard Shortcuts: Those of us that rely on keyboard shortcuts for simpler and quicker navigation and administration will often need to resort to the mouse to perform certain commands.  Examples include the use of the Windows key (which will execute locally) and task switching.
  • Screen and Input Lag: I have a solid, fast Internet connection, but I experienced a significant amount of screen lag when connecting to several Virtual Labs.  Perhaps this is unavoidable, but to make the best of it, use the extra time to review the available documentation (or rejoice in the time you saved from having to setup the entire environment yourself). 🙂
  • Time Limits: Virtual sessions have time limits (90 minutes for all of the labs I worked with), so it’s a good idea to set aside some uninterrupted time to finish the lab in one shot.  Of course, you can always revisit the same lab later, though you’ll lose your “progress” and will likely need to repeat steps in the evaluation guides.
  • Software Versions: I noticed that in some labs, earlier versions of server applications were installed (for example, SQL Server 2012 RC0 in the screenshot above).  It takes significant effort to update software and the related lab instructions, so that’s definitely understandable.  I didn’t find any major issues in the labs that I tried out, but it is something to keep in mind.
  • Using RSS to keep up with new Virtual Labs: The list of Virtual Labs appears to be growing quickly.  Both the MSDN and TechNet Virtual Lab sites have RSS feeds that can provide you with a quick and easy way to learn about new labs as they become available.

Windows Server 2012 / Hyper-V 3.0 Component Architecture Poster

May 2

Posted by Anil Desai in Microsoft Hyper-V, Systems Admin, Virtualization, Windows 8, Windows Server | No Comments

imageOK, perhaps it doesn’t get much geekier than decorating your office with large, complicated posters of technical knowledge.  But I’ve always been a fan of Microsoft’s Component Architecture Posters (though I rarely have the opportunity to actually print and display them).  These posters are designed to convey an large volume of information in a way that is easy for readers/viewers to consume and understand.  They’re somewhat like the “infographics” many sites and publishers use to convey information in an easier-to-consume way. 

To download your copy of the posted in PDF format, just visit the Microsoft Download Center page: Windows Server “8” Beta Hyper-V Component Architecture Poster (published March 2012).  The screenshot is a very small screenshot of just one tiny portion of the overall poster.  Just a couple of notes on terminology changes:

  • Windows Server “8” Beta is now officially named Windows Server 2012
  • SMB 2.2 is now officially known as SMB 3.0
  • All information is current as of the “beta” version, and some relatively minor details (like VM CPU and memory limits) might change prior to the official release.

Thanks to John Howard’s post on the Windows Virtualization Team Blog for the information.  I think we can look forward to an updated poster sometime prior to or soon after the general availability of Windows Server 2012.  I’ll update this post if/when that happens.

Cisco AnyConnect VPN Client and Windows 8 Compatibility

May 1

Posted by Anil Desai in Networking, Systems Admin, Windows 8 | 12 Comments

imageMigrating to a new operating system can be tricky, with some special “gotchas” for various applications.  While Microsoft has done a great job in minimizing driver changes that can impact application and hardware compatibility, there are always some exceptions.  One particularly problematic piece of software for me has always been Cisco’s AnyConnect VPN client.  I rely on it for connecting to my clients’ networks and, for the most part, it works well on Windows 7. 

The Problem

While testing the Windows 8 Consumer Preview, though, I ran into some problems.  While the standard x64 installer for the client seemed to work properly, the client would automatically disconnect after authenticating with the VPN server.  I’d receive the following error message:

Secure VPN Connection terminated locally by the Client.

Reason 442: failed to enable Virtual Adapter

The Solution

Thanks to some really helpful posts online (references below), I found that the solution was to make a minor change to the Registry.  First, using RegEdit, find the following Registry path:

KEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\CVirtA

You should see a key called “DisplayName”.  Simply change its value by removing the unnecessary characters at the beginning of the name.  In my case, I was left with “Cisco Systems VPN Adapter for 64-bit Windows”, and everything worked fine when I tried to connect again.  It’s a strange bug (and one that I wish was better documented), but I have been up and running after this change on three different computers. 

If you’re unfamiliar with editing the Registry (and the inherent dangers therein), the below links will provide more details).

Update for Windows 8 Release Preview:

The above Registry path on my most recent installation seems to have changed; on my primary computer, the correct path is:

KEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\vpnva

Fortunately, the DisplayName key change worked fine for me.

Other Options

The Cisco AnyConnect VPN client seems to be aging, and support is difficult to come by unless you have a Cisco support account.  Fortunately, there are other third-party commercial and freeware alternatives. It has been a while since I’ve used any of them, but one that I see mentioned often is the VPN Client for Windows from Shrew.net.  Feel free to post a comment if you’ve had any experiences (good or bad) with VPN alternatives.

References

Troubleshooting Windows Media Center (WMC) and Power Management Issues

Apr 26

Posted by Anil Desai in General, Systems Admin, Windows 7 | No Comments

One of the most annoying Windows desktop-related issues I have run across over the past several years is related to Power Management.  I routinely use sleep mode (with hibernate on my mobile computers), and rarely reboot my computers.  In fact, on my primary computer (which sees a lot of virtualization and development-related action), I tend to reboot the computer weekly, or even less often.  However, power management has not always worked as well as I would have liked.  It seems that there are always applications and device drivers that want to interrupt what you do. 

The Problem

One such offender was Microsoft’s own Windows Media Center in Windows 7.  While I didn’t know it at first, after deploying Windows 7 to my new workstation, my computer was automatically waking up each morning before I did (and I usually wake up pretty early).  I tracked down the issue by running the “powercfg –lastwake” command.  While it doesn’t always provide the most useful information, below is the result I received:

image

C: \Users\Anil>powercfg -lastwake
Wake History Count – 1
Wake History [O]
Wake Source Count – 1
Wake Source [O]
Type: Wake Timer
Owner: [PROCESS] \Device\HarddiskUolume2\Windows\System32\services .exe
Owner Supplied Reason: Windows will execute \Microsoft\Windows\Media Center
\mcupdatescheduled scheduled task that requested waking the computer.

The Solution

Disabling “wake timers” in my power configuration profile didn’t seem to help.  This pointed me to the “Scheduled Tasks” feature, where I was able to drill down to the source task.  I unchecked the option to allow this task to automatically wake the computer, and all went well – no more automatic power-on signals at ~3:00am.  Of course, the same approach could be used to troubleshoot other wake-related issues.

Knowledge of Power

While it’s not always easy to find, Windows OS’s contain a wealth of monitoring information and reports that can help track down various issues.  One example is the built-in “System Diagnostics” report that can give you some insight into how your computer is managing power.

image

Other Issues

Unfortunately, I have still run into other power management-related issues, and nothing I have done has seemed to help.  For example, on two different Windows 7 installations, I have had an issue where the monitors would automatically come out of power-saving mode.  I regularly use three monitors, and want them to go into a low-power mode when I log off the computer.  The monitors power off correctly, but they seem to wake at random times, even when no mouse, keyboard, or other devices are connected (or allowed to wake the computer).  I’ve tested everything from potential Wake-on-LAN issues to installing and reinstalling software to no avail.  I suspect that the issue might be a USB-to-DVI adapter that I have used on both computers, but I do need to use that (and unplugging it and uninstalling the drivers didn’t seem to help).  If anyone has any suggestions, I’d be happy to try them!

Windows 7 Dynamic Themes (Bing)

Apr 20

Posted by Anil Desai in Fun Stuff, General, Windows 7 | No Comments

imageWhile I can’t say that I’m overly partial to any one search engine, I tend to use Bing more often than I use Google.  I like the overall format of the results more, and I especially like seeing the daily images on the home page.  I wasn’t aware that I could get something similar for my desktop, as well (and without installing Bing Desktop or anything else that tends to want to take over your browser and OS). 

As part of it’s Windows 7 Themes page, Microsoft provides a section called “RSS dynamic themes” (it’s cleverly hidden in the list on the left).  Unlike other (non-dynamic) themes, the actual download is just a small file that allows Windows 7 machines to download images using RSS.  It may take a few minutes for your first images to appear, but after that everything seems to work properly.  For example, I can right-click on the desktop and choose “Next desktop background” if I want to move on to something else.  Overall, it’s free and seems to work well (even in the Windows 8 Consumer Preview’s Desktop mode). 

Of course, there’s also a huge list of collections of other desktop wallpaper options if the dynamic ones don’t work well for you.  Perhaps when it comes to “interior decorating” for desktop machines, it’s the little things that matter.

MVP Award for 2012

Apr 13

Posted by Anil Desai in General, Virtualization | No Comments

MVP Award - 2012 (Small)I’m honored to again have received the Microsoft Most Valuable Professional (MVP) Award for the area of Windows Server – Virtualization!  Among the many benefits of the award is the opportunity to interact with virtualization-related experts online and at various conferences.  While I missed the opportunity to attend the MVP Summit this year, I have been trying to keep up with writing, speaking, and other opportunities, as they come up.  I’ll try to keep the details on this blog current.

Thanks to my MVP Lead, Michelle Campbell, and to everyone at the Microsoft MVP program!

Virtualization and Storage Presentations at TEC 2012

Feb 10

Posted by Anil Desai in Cloud Computing, Management, Microsoft Hyper-V, Presentations, Storage, Virtualization, Windows 8 | 1 Comment

It’s still a few months away, but I’ll be presenting at two storage-related presentations in the Virtualization and Cloud track at The Experts Conference (TEC) 2012 in San Diego, CA.  Below are the abstracts.  For more information about the conference, please visit the TEC 2012 Conference web site.

image

Storage Improvements in Windows Server 8 / Hyper-V 3.0

Virtualization architects and administrators have long sought quicker, simpler and more cost effective ways to scale and manage storage in their data centers. Microsoft has made many significant improvements in the architecture and storage features of Hyper-V 3.0 and the Windows Server 8 platform. Examples include support for SMB-based virtual disks, management UI improvements, network stack improvements, Hyper-V Replicas, NTFS reliability improvements, incremental VHD backups, storage de-duplication, offloaded data transfer, SMB protocol improvements, and Storage Spaces. These features can help improve storage management for many different types of virtualization deployments and can help bring the idea of cloud-based automation closer to reality.

This session will focus on technical details and demonstrations of new features in the Windows Server 8 platform and in Hyper-V 3.0. The focus will be on practical suggestions for how and when the new features should be used to reduce costs, simplify administration, and increase performance.

Designing Storage for Virtual Environments

One of the most common issues related to virtual infrastructure design is related to planning for and managing the storage environment. Successful SAN, NAS, and local storage deployments require the provisioning of highly-reliable, high-performance, cost-effective solutions to meet business and technical needs. The challenge for IT is in consolidating and optimizing infrastructures while staying within budgets. The primary concerns – including storage capacity, performance, and reliability – can drive the success or failure of virtualized deployments.

This presentation begins with recommendations for designing a storage environment based on requirements, starting with a solid understanding of application workload characteristics. Strategies for collecting storage statistics through historical and real-time performance monitoring can provide valuable insight into real requirements. Based on this data, IT departments can compare different storage approaches, including centralized network-based storage, and cloud-based options. Important features to consider include file- and block-level de-duplication, thin provisioning, high-availability, clustering, and disaster recovery. Attendees will learn methods by which they can best plan for, implement, manage, and monitor storage for virtualization in their own environments.

BrightTALK Webcast: Managing VM Sprawl: [Re]gaining Control of Your Data Center

Jan 4

Posted by Anil Desai in Best Practices, Cloud Computing, Management, Presentations, Virtualization, Webcasts | No Comments

imageI hope the New Year is off to a good start for everyone!  For many data center administrators, the tasks related to supporting a wide variety of virtual machines and related infrastructure is going to take a lot of time and resources.  To help address some of the chaos, I’ll be presenting a free webcast titled Managing VM Sprawl: [Re]gaining Control of Your Data Center at the upcoming BrightTALK Virtualization Conference.  The presentation will take place on January 11, 2012.  Here’s an overview of the topic:

As virtual machines have become the default method of deploying new applications and services many organizations have found that they’re encountering the problem of “VM Sprawl” – the rapid proliferation of VMs that make management difficult.

In this presentation, you’ll learn:

  • Common causes of VM sprawl and how to address them
  • Specific technical administration issues that are unique to virtual machines
  • Methods of managing a VM’s “life cycle”, from initial deployment to retirement
  • Ways to maintain control of data center resources while also allowing for end-user self-service
  • Ways in which automation can help manage the major causes of VM sprawl

This online conference provides a wide variety of different presentations, so be sure to check out information about the Virtualization Summit and register for the event.

Note: To access the recording of this session (and all of my past BrightTALK webinars), please search using https://www.brighttalk.com/search?q=Anil+Desai.

TechNet Radio Community Corner: Virtualization with Microsoft MVP Anil Desai

Nov 16

Posted by Anil Desai in Cloud Computing, General, Microsoft Hyper-V, Presentations, Virtualization, Webcasts | No Comments

I often enjoy talking with other technical professionals about the path of IT (in general) and about new or upcoming technology (the geeky details).  I’m happy to have had the opportunity to appear as a guest on a recent TechNet Radio Community Corner.  In the ~15-minute conversation, we discussed information about supporting the IT community, the current and future state of virtualization (including directions of Hyper-V and System Center Virtual Machine Manager (SCVMM)). 

Here’s some brief information about this episode, titled TechNet Radio Community Corner: Virtualization with Microsoft MVP Anil Desai:

In today’s Community Corner, Sr. IT Pro Evangelist John Weston interviews Microsoft Virtualization MVP, Anil Desai to the show. Tune in as they discuss cloud computing’s impact to IT, System Center Virtual Machine Manager 2012, as well as the relationship between Virtualization and Private Cloud solutions.

image

Special thanks to Chris Caldwell and John Weston for inviting me and for a fun conversation!  For more shows and episodes of related shows, visit the TechNet Edge web site.

SQL Server Presentations on UserGroup.tv

Nov 16

Posted by Anil Desai in Databases / SQL Server, Presentations, Webcasts | No Comments

imageA couple of months ago, I delivered a couple of SQL Server presentations at Austin Code Camp 2011.  I think the sessions went well and were well-attended.  I also got a lot of good questions and comments during and after the presentations.  If you missed the presentations (or couldn’t get enough the first time), UserGroup.tv has recorded them and has made them available for free online. 

Here are the links to the recorded presentations:

Thanks to Shawn Weisfeld for attending, producing, and posting the presentations.  I hope you find the content to be useful!

Focus Webcast: Migrating to Exchange Server 2010

Nov 3

Posted by Anil Desai in Microsoft Exchange Server, Presentations, Webcasts | No Comments

imageOn Tuesday, November 15th, I’ll be joining a group of presenters to discuss the benefits of moving to the latest version of Microsoft’s messaging platform, Exchange Server 2010.  Exchange 2010 provides many advantages in the areas of availability, reliability, messaging management, and the user experience.  Here are the details from the Focus.com web site:

Tuesday, November 15, 2011
10:00AM PST / 1:00PM EST

imageAre you considering a migration to Microsoft Exchange 2010?  Are you currently using Exchange, but want to upgrade and optimize your current platform?  If you answered yes to either of these questions, this webinar is the right one for you! The discussion will focus on your top concerns including business performance, operational efficiency, stability, and need for high performance.

Learn more about Exchange benefits and features such as:

  • Lower costs with more flexible deployment and management options
  • Protected information and meeting compliance requirements with the new e-mail archive
  • Improved user productivity with the ultimate inbox experience

In addition, we will cover best in class advice on all aspects of a customers’ email & calendaring platforms, best practices in moving platforms to the cloud, and the critical steps of the Exchange migration and upgrade process, from understanding your unique pain points to designing and implementing a solution that is right for you and your business needs.

For more information on this free live webcast, details on the list of speakers, and to register to attend, please see Focus Webcast: Benefits of Migrating to Microsoft Exchange 2010 to Optimize your Current Platform.

Windows 8 Developer Preview: Virtualization Options (VMware Workstation)

Sep 14

Posted by Anil Desai in Desktop Virtualization / VDI, Development, Microsoft Hyper-V, Virtualization, VMware, Windows 8 | 1 Comment

imageFor those of us developers that are itching to get our hands (and fingers) on the recently release Windows 8 Developer Preview, you might hit an unexpected snag.  If you’re like me, the first thing you tried after downloading the bits was to create a new virtual machine in your favorite desktop virtualization platform (most likely Microsoft Windows Virtual PC or VMware Workstation).  However, after creating and booting the VM and attaching an ISO, I encountered the following error:

VMware Workstation internal monitor error

vcpu-O:NOT_IMPLEMENTED vmcore/vmm/intr/apic.c:1903

image

Unfortunately, it looks like VMware Workstation 7.x platform (and, reportedly, VirtualPC, though I haven’t tested it myself), does not yet support Windows 8.  Perhaps I should have realized that a lot of the undercover boot and CPU optimizations would require an architectural shift to support the required CPU commands.

Options That Should Work

Though this might not be ideal for all users, there are several options to get the Developer Preview of Windows 8 running in a virtual machine:

  • Use Microsoft’s Hyper-V: If you have a Windows Server 2008 or 2008 R2 installation (or the stand-alone Hyper-V Server), you should be able to spin up a new Windows 8 VM quickly and easily.  It’s not desktop virtualization, but if you have a spare machine that supports Hyper-V’s CPU requirements, you should be all set.
  • Wait for the release of VMware Workstation 8.  While I haven’t yet tried it myself, there are reports of people having success with the beta of the upcoming release of VMware’s Workstation production.  A beta virtualization stack with a Developer Preview OS – How’s that for living on the edge?  It looks like the product is officially available from VMware now and you can request a VMware Workstation 8 Evaluation online (registration required).
    • Update: I downloaded a 30-day evaluation version of VMware Workstation 8, and the Windows 8 Developer Preview installed without one minor catch: Don’t use the VMware "Easy Install" option, as it’s based on the automatic install procedures for Windows 7.  Other than that, I’m up and running!
  • VirtualBox apparently supports the WIndows 8 Developer Preview (again, I haven’t yet tried it myself).  The application is available for free download.  The Windows 7 Hacker site has a walkthrough titled Install Windows 8 Developer Preview on VirtualBox.

Dual-Boot / Clean Install

Of course, you could skip virtualization altogether and install Windows 8 directly on your hardware.  That would give the best overall performance and the best experience with the new Metro UI.  You could install The Windows 8 Dev Preview alongside your current OS (though you might need to repartition), or you can just pop a spare hard drive in your computer to avoid any messy boot complications.  In general, this approach has worked great for me in the past.

Another option is to Boot to VHD.  That’s a significantly more complicated process, but the blog post Installing Windows 8 on Bare Metal with VHD-Boot should help.

A Note About the Developer Preview

While we’re all itching to try the new UI and functionality in Windows 8, there are a couple of things to keep in mind.  First, this version is not yet a “beta”.  It’s an earlier release that is designed to get developers up and running.  The official build number is Build 8102 M3.  Even if you’re like me and you’re willing to live on the bleeding edge with software, you probably don’t want to install this build as your primary OS.  Furthermore, Microsoft has mentioned that several features are not included in this build (though I haven’t yet run into anything that’s a showstopper for me).

On the brighter side, this build does not require product activation.  Coupled with the easy accessibility of the download from the Windows 8 Developer Preview site, that effectively means everyone will have easy access to this preview release.  Downloads are also available for MSDN Subscribers.

For More Information…

In case you missed it, Microsoft’s BUILD Conference keynotes are available at the BUILD Conference Web Site.  The Day 1 Keynote covered dozens of really exciting features, presented by Steven Sinofsky and several other Microsoft Program Managers.  I’m just getting started with my testing/development, and I’ll try to post more here once I have something of value.

Update (09/19/2011)

Based on the numbers of hits to this article, I thought this would be a fairly important topic.  On the Building Windows 8 blog, Microsoft has recently published a post titled, Running Windows 8 Developer Preview in a virtual environment.  It includes more details on the pros and cons of running Windows 8 using virtualization and provides the following summary:

Functional:

  • Hyper-V in Windows 8 Developer Preview
  • Hyper-V in Windows Server 2008 R2
  • VMware Workstation 8.0 for Windows
  • VirtualBox 4.1.2 for Windows

Non-functional:

  • Microsoft Virtual PC (all versions)
  • Microsoft Virtual Server (all versions)
  • Windows 7 XP Mode
  • VMWare Workstation 7.x or older

For now, I’m happily running Windows 8 test VMs on an evaluation version of VMware Workstation 8.0 and in Hyper-V on Windows Server 2008 R2 SP1.  Next stop: Running on some fairly recent hardware.

Austin Code Camp 2011

Sep 6

Posted by Anil Desai in Databases / SQL Server, Presentations | 1 Comment

Lest you think that “Back to School” is only for those that are enrolled in school, the 2011 edition of the Austin Code Camp is here!  For those that aren’t familiar with it,  here are some details about the free event:

The Austin .Net User Group is proud to sponsor it’s fifth Annual Code Camp

This is one day FREE conference For The Community, By the community.

The Conference is on September 10, 2011 at St Edward’s Professional Education Center from 8 am to 5 pm. Click the link on the Location Tab for additional information about St Edward

I’ll again be presenting two topics that are focused on SQL Server (details below).  If you live in or near Austin, be sure to register and stop by for some great developer-focused sessions!

SQL Server Reporting Services: Develop & Deploy Reports

This session will begin with a brief architectural overview of Reporting Services and details on getting up and running with Reporting Services. Then, we will look at demonstrations of creating new reports by building connections and data sets using Report Builder and Visual Studio. Reporting design features including parametrization, dynamic drill-downs, matrix reports, charts, and sorting will be provided.

Next, we’ll look at deployment details, including scheduling reports, configuring caching, creating snapshots, and managing security. Time permitting, the presentation will include a demonstration of using Report Viewer controls within ASP.NET and Windows Forms applications. The session is intended for developers that have basic familiarity with report development (in any technology) and a basic understanding of SQL.

Practical SQL Server Performance Monitoring & Optimization

Developers can dramatically improve performance by monitoring and analyzing real world queries. This session covers SQL Server monitoring at various levels to the most impactful performance improvements. The presentation will start with an overview of different optimization tools and techniques and will be based on practical examples of real-world performance monitoring and troubleshooting. Details include the use of server monitoring tools, SQL Profiler, the Database Tuning Advisor, and analyzing query plans, Dynamic Management Views, and related methods. The overall emphasis will be on solving practical, real-world database performance problems.

This session assumes that attendees have basic familiarity with SQL Server and with writing database queries.

Talk TechNet Webcast: Virtualization Q & A

Jun 1

Posted by Anil Desai in Best Practices, Management, Microsoft Hyper-V, Microsoft System Center, Virtualization, Webcasts | No Comments

imageI was recently invited to be a guest in a TechNet Webcast.  The Webcast is scheduled for Friday, June 10th at 11:00am Central time.  You can see more details and register to attend at the following page:

TechNet Webcast: Talk TechNet with Keith Combs and Matt Hester – Episode 36: Virtualization with Anil Desai (Level 200)

Here’s a brief overview of the topic description:

Want to talk about Virtualization?  This is the show for you.  Anil Desai is a Microsoft Windows Server Virtualization MVP so bring your Hyper-V questions. I’m sure Anil will be happy to takes questions on some of the other products like System Center Virtual Machine manager.  Tune in and listen, call in, or send us questions on the web via Live Meeting.  Take advantage of this great opportunity to get your questions answered.

Presenters: Keith Combs, Sr. Program Manager, Microsoft Corporation, Matt Hester, Sr. IT Pro Evangelist, Microsoft Corporation, and Anil Desai, Independent Consultant, Microsoft Windows Server Virtualization MVP

I look forward to answering questions from attendees!