Not as easy as that

So, as John points out in a comment to my last post, I have discovered that Microsoft Virtual PC 2007 doesn’t support guest 64 bit operating systems even if it is running on a 64 bit system. Bugger! Ok, so I’ve learnt something today.

It seems that Sun has something called Virtual Box which appears to support 64 bit guest operating systems and seems to be all the rage with the Linux crowd. I think perhaps I’ll try VM Server which is also free and appears to be more supported at least in the Windows world.

So now I gotta get VM Server running on 64 bit Vista (which I must say runs really well so far) and then get SBS 2008 running on VM Server.

Hey, I’ve got plenty of time, I’ve only just completed the download of the second SBS 2008 ISO DVD. You do need something to do during these long downloads don’t you? Maybe like get a life as my mother would say!

A brave new world

I now have a new machine onto which I will be launching into the 64 bit world. The first step is to install Windows Vista Business x64 as the base operating system. Why? You well ask. Well, the plan is to run multiple Virtual PC’s and initially I think that I should start with the latest and greatest client operating system and see where that leads me. Now sure, I could have installed Windows XP, Windows Server 2003 or Windows Server 2008 but I’m really interested to see whether Windows Vista 64 bit is any better than normal Vista or XP. Besides, in my experience the only way to learn is to try it yourself, although I know that I’m bound to waste a heap of time going through the process.

Hopefully I won’t have too much trouble at least getting the base operating system running. After doing all the updates, the next step will be the installation of the 64 bit version of Microsoft Virtual PC 2007. Then I’ll be interested to see whether any of my existing Virtual PC images work or whether I have to create “dedicated” 64 bit versions from scratch (a real pain if that is the case). Then I’ll be installing SBS 2008 to give it a run through.

Hopefully along the way I’ll be able to give you a run down of my experiences in the 64 bit world and whether it does in fact make things run “better”. Time will tell.

Wish me luck as you wave me goodbye. Cheerio, here I go on my way….

Hey, what about SharePoint migration in SBS 2008?

There’s a whole heap of information now coming out about SBS 2008 (since it has gone RC0). There is also information about migrating to SBS 2008 (see here). Now call me bias but what about Sharepoint migration?

SBS 2003 comes with Sharepoint v2 by default and I suspect that most customers using Sharepoint are using this version. Now you can also install Sharepoint V3 on a SBS 2003 server but when you migrate to SBS 2008 how is this data going to be migrated? A migration from an installation in Sharepoint v3 on SBS 2003 is going to be easier since SBS 2008 comes with Sharepoint V3 but what about from the good ol’ Sharepoint V2? You can’t simply back Sharepoint V2 data up and restore it to Sharepoint V3!

I don’t think people have stopped to consider that Sharepoint migration from SBS 2003 may be a little more difficult that they think. If people are using Sharepoint V2 on SBS 2003 big time then they are going to want their data migrated, no question. Now, I’ll admit I haven’t run up SBS 2008 yet (soon, real soon) so I can’t fully comment on how Sharepoint V3 works on SBS 2008 but I’ll bet a few bucks that any migration from Sharepoint V2 hasn’t been given a lot of thought.

Luckily I know somewhere that is already giving in depth consideration to the problem and will soon have something available to assist with Sharepoint migrations. Look up in the sky. Is it a bird? Is it a plane? No, it’s the Saturn Alliance Windows Sharepoint Operations Guide to the rescue:

http://wssops.saturnalliance.com.au

So stay tuned to this blog ladies and gentlemen for further updates on Sharepoint migration in SBS 2008.

100,000 views and climbing

I am very proud to announce that my videos on YouTube have now surpassed a total of 100,000 views! Truly amazing I must say as I never thought they would even get past 10,000, but hey I’m happy to be wrong again.

I’m currently working on a new video that will hopefully go up over the weekend. I’m planning to do some SBS2008 videos but I need a 64 bit operating system somewhere so I can run SBS 2008. I’m just scouting for a suitable piece of hardware now that can be dedicated to this. So hopefully in the near future I can start uploading some videos of SBS2008 as well.

Until then I’d like to take this opportunity to thanks all those people who have viewed my online videos, provided feedback and subscribed. It is because of people like you that I’ve been able to achieve this level and I will do my best to keep them coming. Don’t forget to contact me if you have any feedback or requests for content.

Next milestone = 1,000,000 views!

Turning the frown upside down

I’m a ‘glass half empty’ kinda guy. Well really I’m a ‘who the hell made this glass twice as big as it needed to be‘ type of guy but for the purposes of this let’s just stick to the half empty metaphor.

Now the other day I was really pissed orf about something (if you will excuse my French, but I was). Now the rational part of my brain was saying – ‘Look this is a total waste of time, there ain’t anything you can do about the situation so just forget it!‘. However the emotional part of my brain was saying ‘Yes I know this is a waste of time but I am still pissed orf and need to vent this‘. A classic power struggle, which in most cases results in my rational mind simply stepping aside until the emotional part cries itself out feeling pissed orf.

For some reason my rational mind just could put up with the wasted energy on this occasion and decided to find a solution. What it came up with was pretty clever. Now we all know we have negative feelings that do no good but we are human beings and that is just the facts but imagine if you could redirect that negative energy into something positive? Let’s say that the next time you get pissed orf instead of dwelling on the fact you redirect that energy into accomplishing or thinking something positive.

I agree that it isn’t going to work every time but I have been giving it a try of late and am impressed with the results. Firstly, redirection gets my mind away from the thing that is pissing me orf and secondly I feel much better actually accomplishing or thinking about something positive. Every time I feel my emotions about a situation rising up again I redirect that energy to something far more rewarding.

Don’t get me wrong, you just can’t flick a switch and redirect the emotion it takes a bit of practice and patience but I can see the benefits even after a short period of time. I know that I am not always going to succeed in my aim but I think it is good a solution to at least try. Firstly, my rational mind can take the negative energy and put it towards something more useful and my emotion mind can vent all that it wants since it is being used for good and not bad.

That’s the theory anyway.

Book Review – Beginning Sharepoint 2007 Administration

Beginning SharePoint 2007 Administration: Windows SharePoint Services 3.0 and Microsoft Office SharePoint Server 2007 – Göran Husman

For anyone who is looking for information about administrating Sharepoint (both WSS and MOSS) then this book is a very worthwhile read. Unusually for most Sharepoint books it provides a very good balance between WSS and MOSS as well as covering an extremely wide variety of topics.

The book is easy to read and packed with plenty of examples and ‘how-to’s’. It would also provide a very good reference book that can sit on your shelf for later referral. It covers many topics in a depth that isn’t found in many other books on Sharepoint but is really focused on the professional who’s job it is to install, maintain and support Sharepoint installations.
If you are already working with Sharepoint or planning to then I would commend this book to you. It will get you up to speed very quickly on administrating Sharepoint 2007.

Rating – 8.5 / 10

Awh ma gawd!

Just have a look at what we found when we opened up a prospect’s server recently to take a look:

Notice something outta place? Maybe that hard disk lying on the bottom of the case is a hint? What about the fact that two hard disks actually in the case are disconnected? Now, that’s not all folks. It is an SBS 2003 R2 server with only 1GB of RAM! Apart from SBS 2003 and Anti virus, the server is also running in this 1GB of RAM, a virtual machine that had a linux distro to do the anti-spam (not very well either – hello Intelligent Message Filter).

Strangely enough (well, not really), the old IT person moved interstate and now won’t return any of the client’s phone calls. Strange that eh?

This is the battle we face everyday trying to convince potential customers:

A. All IT companies aren’t trying to rip them off.

B. There is a big difference between IT providers. You get what you pay for basically.

However, I do understand this from a customers point of view. How the hell do they know if an IT person is good or bad? They don’t know IT, that is why they pay someone to do this. It seems today that businesses only understand the difference after they have been burnt! However, it really does give the rest of us that are trying to do the right thing a bad name. Thank goodness that I believe in karma (really nasty payback karma, but karma none the less).

HP ML110G5 Unknown device

Having recently setup a Proliant ML110 G5 Server with Windows 2003 SBS we encountered an unknown device in the Device Manager. The reason for this was that we prefer to blow away the OEM setup and rebuild from scratch. That way we get the server exactly the way we want it. This is a bit of a pain since you need to reload all the drivers manually. Everything seems OK except there is one item in Device Manager with Unknown Device Properties. The details of this item have a Device Instance ID of ACPI\IPI0001\0 and Hardware IDs of ACPI\IPI0001 *IPI0001.

Turns out that this is for the Remote Lights Out board (RILO) even though one isn’t install in the server. Even better, there isn’t a driver listed for the device on the HP drivers page for the ML110G5! Turns out you have to go back to the ML110G4 page where the RILO driver is located. You can also get there directly by clicking here

Boy, they certainly make it hard don’t they?