james kahn’s scratchpad

When using vReplicator to replicate a Windows virtual server from one site to another, you don’t need Microsoft licensing for the target, as it is a powered off image.

Microsoft clarify this here (emphasis mine):

First, we are licensing by running instance, which is to say the number of images, installations and/or copies of the original software stored on a local or storage network. Instead of licensing every inactive or stored virtual instance of a Windows Server System product, customers can now create and store an unlimited number of instances, including those for back-up and recovery, and only pay for the maximum number of running instances at any given time.

I’ve got an HP multifunction printer (Photosmart 3310), with terrible drivers.  It works fine except for one issue - periodically the corresponding services on my PC spin up to 100% CPU, and stay there until I restart the service or reboot my PC.  If this happens when I’m not plugged into power it really eats the battery on my laptop.

Does anyone know of a tool I could use that monitors Windows services and restarts a service if, say, it’s been at 100% CPU for a minute?

I’ve recently become a big fan of the Getting Things Done methodology (GTD for short).  Simon Guest has a great writeup on how to implement GTD with Outlook 2007.

Well, Clariti just seem to keep nailing the Citrix awards.  This year we scooped up Citrix Pacific Partner of the Year at the Citrix Summit.  The third major Citrix award, three years in a row.  Not bad for a Queensland integrator.

I’m looking for some help here - where should I buy a .com.au domain?

I usually use GoDaddy for all my domain registrations, as they’re cheap as.  Unfortunately that don’t seem to do .com.au’s.  I’ve checked MelbourneIT, and they’re bloody expensive.

Can anyone recommend a good, cheap registrar for .com.au domains, that preferably include a basic DNS and email forwarding service in their registration fee?

This past weekend I switched away from Firefox, and started using IE7.  And I’m glad I did.

I’ve been using Firefox for years now - since version 1.0.  I actually got switched on to it by my non-techy wife who started using it around version 0.8 after reading about it on a news website.  And it’s been good.  Pages have loaded, links have been clicked, bookmarks have been saved.  Until the last few updates.

For some reason, Firefox started … stopping.  It didn’t crash, or hang, it would just occasionally stop loading pages on all the computers I loaded it on.  Even after stripping all the extensions I was using out of it, it still misbehaved.

So, lo and behold, I switched.  I was told I needed five reasons (thanks Paul) but one is enough for me.

Internet Explorer is okay in its default installation, but it’s more like a puny wimp of a browser.  IE7 needed some ‘roids for real web surfing!  Plus, I’d become far too familiar with some Firefox features and extensions I couldn’t live without.

After a quick round of googling I discovered the holy grail for IE users - IE7Pro.  Despite the poor grammar on the otherwise slick website, IE7Pro is fantastic.  Ad blocking, download manager, spell checking, inline search, and bookmarks synchronisation between PCs (ala FoxMarks for Firefox, my killer feature for Firefox).  I’m hooked.

Try it.

Just a quick one.

My thoughts on VDI have had a shake up after a few recent presentations from some vendors - it is starting to look very good, with some tangible advantages over Presentation Server in certain scenarios.

Edit: After recent developments in the industry and some re-thinking on my part about the benefits of VDI, I’ve changed my tune on this. VDI is relevant for a significant segment of the market that SBC isn’t. Primary benefits of VDI? User empowerment, desktop customisation and simpler maintenance.

Virtual Desktop Infrastructure - or VDI for short - is one of the latest phenomenons striking the IT industry. If you’re tuned in to the standard IT industry rags, Citrix, and Virtualisation resources, VDI seems to be hailed as the next revolution in desktop delivery. However, that isn’t the case.

For those that aren’t aware, the concept of VDI refers to centrally hosting desktop virtual machines - usually Windows XP or Vista - on a number of servers stored in the data centre. End-users would then use thin-client devices or low-end PCs to connect to and work from these virtualised PCs. The actual operating system and data are all stored centrally in the data centre.

The advantages of doing this include:

• Your data is centralised, so it’s easy to back up and keep it under control.
• You can take advantage of some of the availability features of virtualisation solutions to (perhaps) provide greater uptime.
• Users can have a full “PC” environment when using only a thin client.
• It’s much more hardware and budget-friendly than the terrible blade-PC solutions from HP and IBM. (On a side note: Why anybody would go for a blade PC solution blows my mind. They must have very good sales people).

While at first glance VDI appears to be a compelling and potentially beneficial architecture for running your business on - the truth is a little different. VDI would be a great technology if it existed in a vacuum. Unfortunately, it doesn’t, and there are a number of solutions that already solve many of the problems that VDI does, and they do it in a more cost-effective, manageable way. If you’re investigating VDI, there are two other technologies you should be considering that will probably provide a better solution in the end: Citrix Presentation Server/Terminal Services, or a Managed Desktop Environment.

A Citrix Presentation Server environment involves setting up a farm of Windows Server-based terminal servers, and hosting your user’s applications and desktop environment on these in a classic multi-user fashion. Depending on the applications and server configuration, you can usually get between 50 and 80 users on each standard specification server. To compare Presentation Server with VDI:

• Your data is centralised with either solution.
• Presentation Server/Terminal Services usually has a greater user density, resulting in a higher number of users per physical server, and reduced licensing costs for operating systems when compared to VDI.
• Both have built-in load balancing/availability characteristics, although VDI’s is more seamless if hosted under VMware.
• Presentation Server provides a management platform to manage your user farm, whereas VDI management tools do not solve the platform and application management problems (more on this later).
• While you can give people free reign with VDI, you generally want your Presentation Servers to be controlled to provide a stable user environment.
• Both have inadequacies and are unable to smoothly provide rich, graphically intensive applications.

In short, Presentation Server is generally a cheaper, more manageable solution than VDI for the main VDI use case - hosting the data and applications centrally.

A Managed Desktop Environment is a controlled desktop platform hosted on standard desktop computers. A tool like Altiris’ Client Management Suite, Microsoft SMS/SCCM, or Microsoft System Center Essentials (for smaller environments) provides a standard operating system build, standard application installation packages, configuration management and remote support capabilities. You can give your users as much or as little freedom over their own computers as you like, based on your requirements. When compared with VDI:

• VDI centralises the workstation and data environment to the datacenter; a Managed Desktop Environment doesn’t centralise the workstation platform, but can centralise or replicate the data.
• There aren’t any built in availability characteristics in a single workstation, but if it fails only one user is down for a short time while another machine is automatically built.
• Costs can be similar to VDI, when all hardware and software is accounted for, including capable, thin clients for the VDI solution.
• A Managed Desktop Environment performs well with all types of applications, including graphically intensive ones.

A Managed Desktop Environment needs a management platform (e.g. Microsoft SMS), which has a cost associated with it. However, in order to provide a standard operating platform, a VDI solution also needs a management platform. VDI only addresses the question of where the operating system is run from, and not the desktop environment management system.

Most businesses - I would go as far as to say 99% of the businesses I deal with - would reap more benefit at lower cost from a Citrix Presentation Server solution or Managed Desktop Environment for their core operating environment than with VDI.

VDI is a very neat technology, and it does have it’s place. There are some very specific situations where you might use VDI, for example:

• An outsourced developer (in say, India), that needs to use a Windows desktop environment where they can install applications, don’t use graphically intensive applications, and where you want to protect the data by storing it centrally; and,
• Other development “sandbox” style environments.

VDI, like many other technologies, will find it’s niche in the long term as a point solution, but won’t become a major game changer.

Thanks to BrianMadden.com for their series of articles on VDI.

Edit: Please note that I’m not saying VDI has no uses. I believe that it’s useful in it’s niche, but is not anything to get terribly excited about.

System Center Forum have a very insightful article on when to deploy Systems Center Essentials, and when you shouldn’t.

The only caveat I have with the article is in regards to Operating System deployment - Microsoft Windows Deployment Services will suit the typical SCE environment for OS deployment.

Microsoft Operations Manager 2005 Management Packs can be converted to native Systems Center Operations Manager 2007 Management Packs using two tools, MP2XML and MPConvert.exe. Microsoft have instructions in SCOM 2007 help, as well as on the web.

Keep in mind that in order to do this you will need a MOM 2005 Management Server from which to run MP2XML. If you’re upgrading an existing MOM environment, keep your MOM 2005 management server around until you’ve converted all of your management packs. If you don’t have a MOM 2005 environment but need to use MOM 2005 management packs, you’ll need to set it up in a test environment to do the conversion.