Microsoft TechEd 2011(Australia)- See you there ….

It is TechEd time here in Australia, and I am really looking forward to heading up to the Gold Coast for some Microsoft immersion therapy.  Last year I presented the (always) interesting topic of Exchange 2010 storage design.  This year I will be talking about how to make the most out of running Exchange 2010 on virtualized hardware, without shooting yourself in the virtual foot.

Come along if you want to know more.

And YES, wearing a Penguin or Novell tee-shirt to TechEd is getting a bit clichéd.  Move on.  (just kidding)

 

Time for an upgrade …

Well, it was time for an upgrade.  So I decided that I would upgrade my home server from the original version of Windows Home Server to 2011.  Prior to the upgrade I upgraded the memory to 2GB (a system requirement) and installed a new 2TB low power usage hard disk.  I decided that an in-place upgrade wasn’t a viable option, so I backed up all my files and carried out a new installation.  This was, as with most Microsoft products a very simple exercise and was completed in about 15 minutes.  The initial configuration was also fairly easy, except the Remote Access configuration didn’t like my ADSL modem.  In saying that, the particular modem did require manual configuration with the previous Windows Home Server version and my XBOX 360.  I have since replaced that modem with a Billion 7800N and the UPNP configured without an issue.

The changes are obvious and welcome, with the most obvious being the improved Dashboard (admin interface).  This further simplifies administration activities even further than the previous version and will make it much easier for novice users to get up and going.  The other changed I liked, is how Add-in are installed and accessed, a much easier task.  And usefully the Dashboard indicates if there is an available upgrade. I have installed a number of Add-in, including AWIECO DriveInfo, AWIECO WakeOnLAN, AutoExit 2010, Lights-Out and CloudBerry Backup for Windows Home Server.  All these Add-ins integrate fantastically and provide great functionality.  Cloudberry is an upgraded version specifically for Windows Home Server 2011, and provides additional functionality.  Unfortunately it didn’t seem to understand that my files were already backed in my Azure Storage account by the previous CloudBerry version.  So I decided to delete everything in Azure and started again.

From a performance point of view, I have measured a reasonable increase in disk performance that is very noticeable when moving a large number of files around.  The only down side is the Dashboard, which take minutes to load, and is rather slow to navigate around the different tabs.

With new features like Home Group membership, Media Centre integration and the disk performance improvements plus many more, I recommend that anyone running the original version of Windows Home Server or you just need a simple home server solution the you should serious look at moving to Windows Home Server 2011.

Microsoft Office 365

Last week I was in Sydney attending the Microsoft Office 365 (http://www.office365.com) Ignite training.  It was certainly an interesting and engaging event, that drilled into the technical and non-technical aspects of Office 365 and where it fits in Microsoft cloud strategy.  The biggest takeaway is that I now have a good understanding of what Office 365 is and isn’t.  And therefore feel better prepared to help customers determine if Office 365 is a viable option and how best to implement Office 365 to maximise the value that Office 365 provides.

Another MCP exam done and dusted

I successfully passed the TS: Exchange Server 2010, Configuring (70-662) yesterday.  An interesting exam, as it covers a wide variety of Exchange 2010 components, which I often don’t deal with.  Nevertheless, it made me learn about more aspects of Exchange 2010, which is not a bad thing.

The Home Cloud

I had an interesting ‘cloud’ experience the other day, that you might find interesting.

My home office dipped below the ‘visible carpet’ threshold, so I decided that a spring clean was in order.  During the cleaning process I (re)discovered a large number of external USB disk drives. To my surprise I found that many of these disks contained different copies and backup of all my families important files. I decided that the consequences of losing my wife’s Phd manuscript was sub-optimal, therefore a solution was required.

While seeking a solution, I looked out the window (as I often do) and decided to look to the cloud (pun intended). What I found is an excellent solution that from Cloud Berry Labs that automatically backs files hosted on my Windows Home Server to Microsoft’s Azure Storage. The backed up files are available for direct restoration, from a web browser or a great freeware Windows client from Cloud Berry. Signing up with Azure was very simple, with a side effect of learning more about Azure along the way. The only real issue was the initial backup took a while, because of rubbish ADSL upstream bandwidth.

The overall solution is painless, works super well and at 20 cents a gigabyte/month makes external USB drives look like yesterday’s technology.

The “Home Cloud” is here!