David Tesar writes:If you read the only two places where ISA is compared to IAG, it doesn't really give a simple and clear comparison. I hope to do so now in this post. Please post comments if you find other comparison information out there.
They two comparisons I found are:
Secure Remote Access
IAG Frequently Asked Questions
To compare the two products, I am going to break it down into 3 major functionality categories: Forward Proxy, Reverse Proxy / Publishing, and VPN. Please keep in mind that you can run ISA and IAG independently or together in the same environment.
Virtual Machine Manager Help for Beta 2 (in the Virtual Machine Manager Administrator Console) includes a topic called “How to Convert a Physical Server to a Virtual Machine,” which tells how to perform a P2V conversion. The Help for the Windows PowerShell - Virtual Machine Manager command shell also provides an explanation, including two examples (shown below) of how to perform the conversion by using Windows PowerShell cmdlets. The following operating systems are supported on source machines for P2V conversions: What are the Reporting requirements? To view and use reporting in Virtual Machine Manager Beta 2 you must deploy the Virtualization Management Pack for System Center Operations Manager 2007 and set up reporting in SCVMM. 
Let's get started by explaining what exactly the registry is. The registry is a hierarchical database that contains the value of variables in Windows and in the applications and services that run on Windows. During the setup of the Operating System, the Registry is built from template files. The Operating System and application programs store the following system configuration and user data in the registry:
| 25 Apr '07 - 07:23 | kenneth van surksum | 
no comments | news source ~ Windows Server Performance Team Greetings from Virtual Machine Manager team, thank you for your continuous support on our product. We are happy to announce that SCVMM Beta 2 is ready for download! This latest version of Virtual Machine Manager - Beta 2 - represents a major step forward in providing IT administrators with a fully featured, easy-to-use and integrated suite of management tools to tackle even the most distributed and complex virtualization migrations. While the improvements in Beta 2 are too long to list, here is a preview of the major upgrades in this release:
Download: System Center Virtual Machine Manager - Beta 2 (registration required)
Andrew Dugdell writes: "This one caught me by surprise, but it makes perfect sense I guess. Virtual Server is to to be added into WSUS. I'm not sure if this will be in readiness for the upcoming service pack, or include the updated additions. Both would be great, but we will have to wait a day or two and find out. Nate (Program Manager for Microsoft Update) has more details in the post "New Product Family, Virtual Server, a snippet is below:""Virtual Server" will be added in the next one or two days. This new product family allows updates to be offered to Virtual Server components. Different categories offered under “Virtual Server” may have a different range of supported platforms. Security updates can be released through this category periodically. Due to the variety of applications/components that can reside under this product family, subscribing to this product family is recommended. To find out more about the Virtual Server product check out the Virtual Server site.
n this article we will take an early look at the new Public Folder Management console, which is included in the new Exchange Server 2007 Service Pack 1 Beta, which was recently released to TechNet Plus and MSDN subscribers. Currently there are no plans about making this early beta version available to the general public, so your organization needs to have either a TechNet Plus or MSDN subscription in order to obtain a copy.
Windows Home Server Build 06.00.1371 has officially been signed off by the team and we are now making this build available to all Beta Participants. The download packages are available from download from MS Connect now.
[H]ard|OCP has filtered and sorted through the hundreds of Vista hints and tweaks to find the ones that they think the most readers will find useful. While Vista still feels new, these hints and tweaks might help you settle into your OS.
Top 12 Vista Tweaks
Virtual private network, also referred to as VPN, is a network that is constructed with the use of public wires to join nodes, enabling the user to create networks for the transfer of data. The systems use encryption and various other security measures to ensure that the data is not intercepted by unauthorized users. For years VPN has been used successfully but has recently become problematic due to the increase in the number of organizations encouraging roaming user access. Alternative measures have been looked at to enable this type of access. Many organizations have begun to utilize IPSec and SSL VPN as an alternative. The other new alternative being SSTP, also referred to as ‘Microsoft’s SSL VPN’.
Although Windows Vista is generally compatible with applications written for Windows XP, Windows Server 2003 and their associated service packs, some compatibility issues are inevitable due to new innovations, security tightening, and increased reliability. Getting some older applications running on a new OS can be challenging at the best of times and completely frustrating at other times. And of course, life becomes a lot worse for the administrator when the problem occurs in production. We always recommend thoroughly testing for application compatibility when considering the deployment of a new OS, but it's surprising how often something gets missed! So we thought we'd provide a quick overview of some basic application compatibility testing - our 30 minute checklist for testing individual applications when you're planning your Windows Vista deployment ...(continue at source)
Silverlight (codename WPF/E) is Microsoft’s answer to Adobe’s Flash (estimated to be running rich web based experiences on 95% of the world’s PCs and Macs). The goal is to provide the most natural and seamless method with which to design and build rich applications that transcend both desktop and web platforms. With innovative designer tools (Expression) that work easily with proven developer tools and technologies (Visual Studio and .NET) we are providing a compelling reason to develop using our tools and on our platform. 
With Windows Server Codename "Longhorn" Beta 3 just around the corner, I thought it would be an apt time to take a quick look at one of the new deployment options in Longhorn Server, namely, Server Core. 
Mike Neil writes:As the person who oversees the development plans, teams and strategy for Microsoft’s virtualization software on desktops and servers, I want to update everyone on the timing of our server virtualization offerings. I know that many of our customers and partners will hear of these changes from their usual Microsoft contacts, but I wanted to personally explain some of the reasons behind the new schedule for Windows Server virtualization (codename Viridian) and Virtual Server 2005 R2 service pack 1. But first, here’s where we stand today:
The public beta of Windows Server virtualization will ship in the second half of 2007, not in the first half as previously disclosed.
The final version of Virtual Server 2005 R2 service pack 1 now will be available in Q2, not Q1 as previously stated. In the interim, customers and partners can download a Release Candidate (RC) version later this month - this is code complete and an update to the current beta 2.
Up front, it’s important to know that Windows Server “Longhorn” remains on schedule for beta 3 will be this half and RTM in the second half. Iain McDonald and team are doing a great job delivering the next-generation Windows Server OS, which includes in-demand features like TS Gateway, Server Core, Network Access Protection, IIS 7.0, new server manager and failover clustering improvements … to name a few. All the work being done here is designed to deliver a safer, more secure infrastructure and simplify admin tasks. This work will help make customers’ experiences with Windows Server virtualization even better. (more)
Terminal Services Licensing in Longhorn Beta 3 has several new features that will enable better deployment and management of Licensing environments. We addressed several customer requests in this new release of Longhorn such as per-user tracking and reporting, manual revocation of licenses, better diagnostics and support for WMI providers. | 12 Apr '07 - 06:50 | kenneth van surksum | no comments | news source ~ Windows Terminal Services Team Blog 
Andy Malone writes:Basically MACs run V1 and Windows Server 2003, Longhorn & Vista run V2. To fix this small issue follow the following steps:Upon teaching a recent Longhorn Server MasterClass, one of my delegates asked if it was possible to connect a MAC to a Widows Longhorn Server / Vista based network. Initially it appeared that the MAC would not connect, even though it had a unique IP address etc. After much soul searching we discovered that in order for the MAC to participate we would have to downgrade to a lower level of NTLM authentication.
The never-ending two-step defragmenting process of Vista can soon become a thing of the past. With certain tools, we were able to cut defragmentation time of 25 GBs of files with Vista Ultimate from 82 minutes to 6 minutes!!! That is defragmenting 10X faster than the built-in Vista defragmenter! The tutorial also works with Windows 2000 and XP.
The Windows Installer Powershell Extensions exposes Windows Installer functionality to PowerShell, providing means to query installed product and patch information and to query views on packages. Visit the Windows Installer PowerShell Extensions website @ Codeplex
In order for RPC over Http to work you must have a Trusted CA Root Certificate installed and configured. In a situation where you are using a self-signed cert you will need to install the certificate into the Trusted Root Certification Authorities store.The Windows Server Performance Team is doing a series of posts on Windows Architecture:
Today we're starting a new series of posts focused on understanding the Windows System Architecture itself. In our first post, we're going to quickly review some basic Windows concepts and terms including a brief overview of the Windows API, Services and the difference between a Process and a Thread. Think of this as laying the groundwork for our future posts which will cover topics such as the Registry, Session Space and Desktop Heap. So, without further ado - let's start with an introduction to the Windows API ...
Jalasoft has posted some more information about their upcoming Xian IO product for Operations Manager 2007 on their website:Extending the Monitoring of Distributed Applications with System Center Operations Manager 2007 to Heterogeneous Environments.
Determining the origin of performance problems in distributed systems requires end-to-end monitoring of all components, since a bottleneck or problem may occur in any of the elements of the data flows. Extending the new Distributed Applications feature of Ops Mgr 2007 to network devices and UNIX servers makes Xian Network Manager a powerful and unique tool which enables system administrators to grasp control of their infrastructure.
Monitoring Distributed Applications withXian Network Manager Io
Xian Network Manager Io is not just another MOM “management pack”or add-on. Xian Io offers an out of the box integration between OpsMgr 07, network devices, Unix servers and applications. An intelligentdesign enables Xian Io to guarantee the scalability of the system. Xian Io’s Network Scan Server, scans your whole network and starts monitoring immediately according to a predefined, but customizableset of rules. Our new smart Management pack Generator lets youcreate smart management packs for Xian Io and Ops Mgr 07 in a snap.Finally, Integration with Ops Mgr 07 provides you with a single console.
Sean writes:If you designed websites (even for a club or small business) in the mid-90's, you recall the experience of working with tables and invisible GIFs for layout, proprietary HTML tags (ie: marquee), scrolling banners, and the popularity of the starfield as a webpage background. The Heaven's Gate Cult followed these design principles, and as you can see in the pictorial history below, it appears that we did so at Microsoft as well. Enjoy the progression!
History of microsoft.com (1994-2007)
My good friend Pete Zerger has posted an excellent article about the "Unknown Health State" in Operations Manager 2007:Pete Zerger: “What is the logic moving status for an uncommunicative agent to the grey(unknown) status in representing object state, rather than simply assuming a down state and moving state to red?”
Jakub Olesky: “We actually do go red and do generate an alert, just not for the computer directly. We have a notion of a health service watcher that is monitoring the availability of the health services. If a health service fails to heartbeat for 3 consecutive intervals, that health service and anything monitored by it (including the computer) goes grey (i.e. unavailable)."
Continue to the article:
System Center Operations Manager 2007 is next version of Microsoft’s award winning event and performance monitoring solution Microsoft Operations Manager. System Center Operations Manager 2007 Webcasts (.WMV)
Thank you for your participation in the Windows Vista Hardware Assessment Beta Program earlier this year. The V1.0 release has been well received but we're not done. The Microsoft Solution Accelerators Team is now designing the V2.0 release with more robust and scalable features to make it even easier for businesses around the world to determine their Windows Vista readiness network-wide. Neale Brown, author for systemcenterforum.org writes:Ever wanted an easy way to export a certain number of alerts (depending on the search criteria) for use later? Well, Operations Manager 2007 gives us that power using its Powershell provider. To use this functionality, you will need to use the Command Shell that is group with Operations Manager 2007 in the Start Menu. You can also invoke Command Shell from within the UI through the Monitoring Pane. Well, to get a list of all alerts from your management group, just run the following command:
PS Monitoring:\NOCRMS01.noc.momresources.org > Get-Alert
Exporting open OpsMgr 2007 alerts to HTML through Powershell
HP delivers new management packs that complement and extend Microsoft Systems Center Operations Manager (SCOM)2007, integrating alert processing and state monitoring for HP StorageWorks products. HP StorageWorks MP for Operations Manager 2007 Issue: After running the "Feature Configuration Wizard" it may take up to 24 before computers are properly configured to be discovered. The Computer Discovery Wizard may not successfully discover some computers because they do not have the proper policies yet applied via Group Policy. Working on a System Center Operations Manager 2007 installation? Microsoft has released several knowledgebase articles the past days, which could be helpful: When using System Center Operations Manager 2007 RTM, sometimes you'll notice that in the "Computers" state view in the Monitoring pane, contain computernames will show up as "Not Monitored" while you did not install an agent on them. This only occurs if you've got Agentless Exception Monitoring enabled and (Dr.Watson) clients reporting to the management server. The MOM product team commented that this behavior is "by design". Computers that report an application crash or blue screen, are added to the list of the "Computers" state view.
Active Directory is one of the most critical services in a Windows network. To avoid downtime and loss of productivity, it’s essential that you have effective disaster recovery plans in place for problems related to Active Directory. This point may sound obvious, but it’s amazing how many administrators don’t have a plan for one of the most common Active Directory® failure scenarios: accidental deletion of data.DEP (Data Execution Prevention) is a slightly overloaded term that refers to a set of hardware and software technologies that we have implemented (with support from Intel / AMD) to make it harder to exploit security vulnerabilities on Windows. On Vista - if your processor supports hardware enforced 'no execute' or 'execute disable' bits (i.e. 'NX' on AMD and 'XD' on Intel CPU's) you will have hardware DEP enabled by default for most Windows applications with a few notable exceptions. If your processor does not support the 'no execute' bit - you'll only get software DEP protections which is still better than nothing but not as good as hardware DEP and easier to bypass / defeat. (NOTE: This is essentially the same behavior that was introduced on XP Service Pack 2). Windows Update has no knowledge of Embedded as an OS platform, therefore there is no built-in logic to assess what features (and files) are present on the runtime. This means that Windows Update would blindly push down all security updates that were not already present on the runtime, whether they were appropriate or not. There are a number of reasons why this is a scary scenario:
Many customers have asked us about when Protected Mode feature is turned on or off for Internet Explorer in Windows Vista.The Protected Mode feature is available only in Windows Vista. By default, Protected Mode is enabled for Internet, Intranet and Restricted zones while disabled for the Trusted Sites and Local Machine zone. To enable or disable Protected Mode for a zone go to: Internet Options > Security tab > Select the appropriate zone> Check/uncheck the “Enable Protected Mode” checkbox. The status of Protected Mode can be monitored by looking at the “Protected Mode: On” text in bottom right corner of the IE status bar. However, at times you may notice the text in the status bar says “Protected Mode: Off” even when the Internet Options dialog says Protected Mode is enabled. There are a few exceptions that could potentially turn off Protected Mode. They are as follows:
There seems to be a problem when installing System Center Operations Manager 2007 RTM on a Windows Server 2003 with Service Pack 2 (SP2). When selecting the Management Server role during the setup, the prerequisite checkers alerts about an .NET Interop Assembly problem which was solved by a hotfix reference in Knowledgebase article 915786. When you try to install that hotfix on a W2003 SP2 box, the installers tells you that it was already included in SP2 and therefore does not install. This will actually prevent you from starting the OpsMgr installation.%windir%\system32\azrlreg.exe register %windir%\Microsoft.NET\AuthMan\1.2\Microsoft.Interop.Security.AzRoles.dll
At least once a week, someone on the Performance team will get a customer call concerning hangs or resource depletion on their file server. The file server in question is used for user home folder storage and users are accessing Outlook Personal Storage (.pst) files stored on the server from their client. The issue will manifest as either a server hang, or PagedPool depletion (Event ID 2020). Oftentimes the issue will occur first thing in the morning - when users are logging on and launching Outlook. In especially severe cases, the issue occurs several times daily. Sometimes the server will hang for a few minutes and then continue operating for a few minutes - and then hang again. Rinse & repeat. The users are frustrated because of slow access to their data, the server administrators are frustrated because they are tasked with fixing the problem, and upper management is frustrated because everyone else is frustrated. | 04 Apr '07 - 07:04 | kenneth van surksum | no comments | news source ~ Windows Server Performance Team It may seem like an easy task but have you thought about how you're going to reset your password on a server running Longhorn's Server Core? Right after you install Server Core you are prompted to log on. It is a bit confusing since the user that shows up is called "Other". Once you click (yes the mouse is still there) on that user (which is really the local Administrator) you enter a blank password. One of the first things you should be thinking about is "How the hell do I change that password?"I've found two ways to change the password.
In case you did not have a change to read the Exchange management pack guide yet; there has been a new version released of the Microsoft Exchange Server Management Pack Configuration Wizard. It has version 06.05.7903 and is intended to work in conjunction with the RTM version of the Exchange Management Pack, build 6.0.5000.0. It provides a graphical user interface to configure Exchange 2000 and Exchange 2003 Management Pack, including test mailboxes, message tracking, and monitoring services. You can download it here: Microsoft Exchange Server Management Pack Configuration Wizard As you probably know by now, Operations Manager 2007 is RTM. I am currently in the process of upgrading my lab environment from RC2 to RTM, using the procedure from this document. I did a backup of the database, but also exported the Management Packs to disk using this procedure. Here are my upgrade experiences so far: Andrew Dugdell writes:You can read the full PressPass article "Microsoft Enables New Ways to Deploy Windows Vista", but 2 interesting snippets are below:
...The availability of a subscription license called Windows Vista Enterprise Centralized Desktops (VECD) which allows customers to use Windows in virtual machines centralized on server hardware.
Some of our larger, more highly managed and heavily regulated customers have been asking us for more new Windows Vista deployment models and licensing so they can see how well nascent architectures based on virtualization and fast networking function within their environments. We are responding by adding two more options to the numerous ways customers can deploy and manage Windows Vista Enterprise. These two new options will enable our customers to begin testing centralized desktops and diskless PCs in their production environments alongside their existing deployment model and determine which combination provides the right mix of centralized IT control and end-user flexibility for their respective businesses.
...but this raises a burning question. How do I connect to my virtualized Vista? Well there are a variety of ways, but until today I never thought of this:
...Windows Server “Longhorn” also will include Terminal Services Gateway - a feature that will enable customers to access both their TS and VECD desktops remotely. (more)
Exchange allows administrators to configure who has access to OWA and OMA/ActiveSync through the gui. Those features can be turned on or off at will on an individual basis. But what if you want to restrict who has access to RPC over HTTP? There is nothing built into the GUI to restrict that feature, not even in Exchange 2007 (definitely a feature request for SP1). Although access to this feature is not configurable in Exchange, it can be done using Active Directory groups and ISA. I recently had the opportunity to set this up, and this article will detail the steps I took to isolate the use of this feature. 
If you have a problem with the Windows Installer or an MSI package you're installing, it's a sure bet that you will be told by some smart person to "enable logging". Keith Combs writes:Thanks to all of you for coming to the sessions I delivered today in Orlando, Florida. Go Gators. As promised, I have posted the following slide decks:
Windows Server code name "Longhorn" Tech Overview Part 1
Windows Server code name "Longhorn" Tech Overview Part 2
Windows Server code name "Longhorn" Network Access Protection (NAP)
Windows Deployment Services
I had fun today and I hope you found the sessions and demos valuable. For those of you unable to attend, no worries, I'll be capturing a slew of demos on the Beta 3 release milestone just as soon as I can.
You may need to alter or change Microsoft Office 2007 (aka 2007 Microsoft Office System programs and suites) product license key or volume license key (VLK) which also known as serial number or CD key. You can modify or change product key for 2007 Microsoft Office programs or suites by first uninstall or remove Microsoft Office and then reinstalling the business productivity suite. However, you can follow the following steps in order to reset and change the Microsoft Office 2007 product serial key without the need to uninstall or reinstall 2007 Office system suites. (more)
The Microsoft Management Summit has ended. It was great week. Operations Manager 2007 is now RTM. There was news about Configuration Manager 2007 SP1 and about Pre-sequenced Microsoft Apps for Softgrid. During the Keynote on day one Bob Muglia told about the successor to SQL 2005 will come in the beginning of 2008, Windows Server Virtualization (WSV) as being the final naming for codename "Veridian" (Longhorn Hypervisor), Cisco and EMC partnering to deliver network monitoring in Operations Manager 2007 R2 and announcing that System Center Service Manager is the final name for codename "Service Desk".
I had a wonderful meeting last tuesday with Brad Anderson, general manager of the Windows Server division and Eric Berg, Director of Product Management for the Windows Management division. Me and a few other bloggers were invited to an intimate roundtable discussion about how Microsoft should interact with leading communities and we had an opportunity to ask question about the future of the System Center product family.
