As I sit here feverishly refreshing the MSDN Subscriber Downloads page, waiting for the RTM release of Windows 7 to become available. I thought I’d take a moment to shoot a brief update.

Since starting my new job, I’ve really let my Cisco training slip. I’ve been bouncing around, going back and forth in my studies. One day it will be SCOM, the next ITIL. Then one day I’ll spend researching Powershell. Basically a lot of work without getting a whole lot accomplished.

That’s not to say I’m not learning anything. However, I’m not exactly keeping my promise to myself to acquire one new certification per Quarter.

However! I have just been asked to sell upper management on adopting ITIL Best Practices, and coming up with a strategy to implement it here at AAFES.

This will actually prove to be a very exciting opportunity.

Certification, Cisco, ITIL, jobs, MSDN, training, Window 7

I took the test over a month ago, and the results are in.
I passed!
(I did say quick update!)

If you are like me, you were both excited and surprised to see Windows Storage Server 2008 available for download from the MSDN Subscriber Site.

And if you are like me, you rushed to install it only to find that upon logon, unlike other Windows 2008 Server installations, Storage Server never asks you to create an Administrator password.

So you are stuck at a login prompt with no idea on how to login.

Well, I’ve done the scouring for you and the default password is “wSS2008!”

Hopefully that helps someone out!

*UPDATE*
Ok, glad to see I’m not the only one with this problem.  I see in my stats page that I got six hits from Google with in the first 15 minutes of this post for people searching for the Storage Server default password.

Windows Storage Server

So, today is the day that the Windows 7 was released to the public.  If you haven’t already, I highly recommend giving it a shot!

I recently signed up for the Windows 7 Beta Exam, 71-680, which pretty much forced my hand to install Windows 7.  In fact, I went as far as to completely abandon my normal day to day machine, and make Windows 7 my primary workstation.

So far, I’m liking what I’m seeing!  I was able to download the MSDN version on April 30th, so I’ve only had a few days to evaluate the product.  But the buzz phrase everyone seems to be using is “Vista Done Right”, and I tend to agree.  I have to warn you, the task bar will come as a major shock.  And when I was building a Windows 2008 R2 Server lab, one of the first things I did was get rid of the new taskbar, and make it work like older version of Windows.  However, since I’m going to be taking the Windows 7 exam, I’m really approaching Windows 7 as a full blown end user, and enabling and evaluating all of the features with an open mind, but also with the goal of being exam ready.

The OS feels very snappy and polished, and like I mentioned above, the new taskbar is really growing on me.  Expect a video demonstration as soon as I can get around to it.  (Disclaimer:  I’m in the process of completely re-landscaping my house, building a new storage server, re-purposing my old machine as a Hyper-V box, studying for the beta exam, and the CCNA exam, plus I have to get my network completely up and running before Verizon shows up this Saturday to install FIOS)

Here is the design of the new network for the house, which will use several Cisco Switches and routers. And this is just functional portion of the network. I'll be adding a router with a serial WAN link to another router will act as my "lab" portion of the network. :)

CCNA, Cisco, Hyper-V, MSDN, Video, Windows 7

So it’s been a few weeks since I’ve updated the site. I was finally able to crawl out from under this economy and find some work. First of all, a big thank you to a friend of mine that hooked me up with some consulting work. I really thought this was going to get me through a couple more months of job searching. But then, I got a full time job offer. And then, I got another consulting gig. And THEN, I got ANOTHER consulting gig! Needless to say, I’m quite busy.

In addition to that, I’m still trying to find the time to work on the yard, and study for my CCNA. In fact I just purchased my first Cisco router! It’s a SOHO 817W with Advanced IP Services. Basically this thing does just about every single thing the big boys do, just on a smaller scale.

It’s got:

• Switching with VLANs
• WLAN 802.11b/g
• Stateful Inspection Firewall
• IPSec VPNs
• Intrusion Prevention
•  RIP, OSPF, etc…
• Spanning Tree

And the list just goes on and on…  Basically everything I need to study for the CCNA!

Check it out yourself!

 So anyways, hopefully I’ll get caught up and can work on some more tutorial videos.  In fact, I actually have several things I’d like to share.  Maybe I’ll make a few videos setting up the 871W  :)

871W, CCNA, Cisco, jobs, Video

Just the other day I was complaining about Windows Home Sever not being available to MSDN subscribers.  Well, I suppose someone must have heard my call, because now it is available.

You can find the news here.

So now how about putting NT Server 4 back up for people like me that need to test out legacy applications from time to time!

MSDN

So it’s no secret that since being laid-off, I’ve hit the certification trail again. 8 exams in 5 weeks to be exact. The fact is, certification is supposed to be a confirmation of someone’s skill set. That is what I believed when I got my original MCSE in January of 1999. But over the years, the popularity of “brain-dumps” saturated the market with what most refer to as “The Paper MCSE”, the guy that has his certification, but has no real experience in the market. I think in the US, most employers do a good job at screening out paper MCSE’s. But overseas, in particular India, they seem to hire paper MCSE’s in hoards.

This was visibly noticable at my last job where a lot of our work went to Best Shore teams that were barely capable of patching boxes.  They were not skilled enough to serve on-call rotations, or participate in critical implementations.  Yet they held the same titles as the rest of us.

So what has changed?   Microsoft has!  Or at least they are trying to.  Many of the new Windows 2008 Server exams I’ve taken had questions that seemed much more real world than exams of the past.  This was clearly evident to me as I lined up my exams in order of score from least to greatest.  It truly mirrored the experience.  Exchange 2007 is new to me.  It is something I am self studying.  I have a lab environment setup, I’ve seen it implemented live, I’ve read a few books, but I’ve never been an actual Exchange Administrator.  And to that end, it was the exam I scored the ‘worst’ on.

So what else have they done?  Well, the 70-620 exam is littered with simulations.  Or I should say; Emulations.  More on that later.  So now you click on the a simulation button and are forced to actually perform actions.  Setup user accounts, configure applications, etc…  Usually several tasks; and some involving multiple PC’s, in which you have to switch back and forth.   There is one problem with this though.  The simulations are setup so that you can only click on items actually related to the simulation.  If you try and click on a unrelated area, it will inform you that “This function is not available or required to perform the necessary objectives.” or something like that.   So what happens is that if you click enough, you’ll eventually find what you are looking for.   Imagine being in a room with 100 doors, 99 of which are locked.  So basically it’ll take you some time, but eventually you’ll find the unlocked door.

But here is what is coming.  True lab based simulation testing.  Now while you are sitting at your test cubicle, you will be connected to a live server in Redmond.  You may be given a list of several exam objectives, and it’s completely up to you as to how you achieve them.  So if you are more comfortable using the command line, that’s there.  If you are more comfortable using the GUI, well that’s there to.  Decide that you don’t feel like configuring Active Directory?  Well then play a few quick rounds of Minesweeper instead.  :-)

The point is, these new performance based objectives will finally weed out the people who actually know what they are doing, and will actually simulate real world problem solving skills. From what I’ve heard, even the help system is included!! So going back to my Exchange exam, the questions that gave me the most trouble were the Powershell commands, since I hadn’t really used them, when presented with 4 multiple choice options, I was left to guessing. Now had I been on a live server, 1st of all I could have used the GUI. But even if I had been forced to use Powershell, I could have used the knowledge I do have about Powershell to help complete the commands. If you type “Get-” and begin pressing Tab, Powershell with cycle through the available commands.

So here are the Key Benefits to lab-based testing

• Real-life, hands-on testing format requires individuals to actually execute a task, rather than simply answering questions about it
• Places a higher value on results—how closely a solution meets the requirements—not the path taken to achieve it
• Provides a more accurate assessment of demonstrated actionable skills
• Reproduces work environments that more accurately reflect problem-solving in the real world
• Mirrors the actual job demands made in the workplace to help build confidence
• Transforms preparation and practice for an exam into genuine experience

We aren’t there yet, but it’s coming.

Certification, Exchange, Microsoft

Curses!

OpenFiler was originally introduced to me by Greg Shields (ps, that article is a good read) as part of his training series on VMWare ESX Server, where he demonstrates the VMotion Technology using an OpenFiler IP SAN.  This is what originally gravitated me towards using OpenFiler in my own lab.

Well, I got all of my resources online and ready to go.  I added the Failover feature to each node of the cluster.  I started by creating a new cluster using just a single node.   And then when I tried to add the 2nd node, the cluster validation wizard was showing failed checks related to the shared storage.  I should have taken a screen shot of the exact text.  But the point is, while searching for what might be the cause of the problem, where should I find the answer?  Why Greg Shields of course.  This time in the form of an entry on his Blog entitled “No, OpenFiler Does Not Work with Windows Server 2008 Clustering“.

Apparently there are a few solutions out there that will work, however they are either not free, or are only provided by Microsoft OEM providers in the form of a specialized version of Windows Server called, “Windows Unified Data Storage Server 2003″.

The cause of the problem is that Windows Server 2008 clustering requires support of persistent reservations.  I’d have to say that I’m a fan of persistent reservations, they can prevent some nasty data corruptions that can occur in a shared storage environment, but dang…  I wish I could disable the requirement for my testing.  :(

blog, Cluster, iSCSI, Microsoft, Openfiler, SAN, training, vmware

First, if you haven’t already read completely through my last post, the rest of this post won’t make a whole lot of sense.  In summary, I had complained about the performance I was getting using iSCSI on my network.

I noticed this on the Openfiler administration page today.

Notice the highlighted drop packets on the eth1.

I bonded the two NICs together, and configured them for load balancing, but apparently eth1 is having some problems.  This is probably due to the NICs not being identical.  I’ve gone ahead and removed eth1 from the bond.  Hopefully when I configure the SQL Cluster today, I’ll have better things to say about the iSCSI through-put.

Cluster, iSCSI, Openfiler

I wasn’t very happy with the quality of my last video. I had fun making it, just didn’t like the way Youtube compressed it.
I’m experimenting with trying to host my own videos locally and we’ll see how this turns out. Hopefully the screen text will be much sharper.

The big picture is that I’m wanting to play with the failover and nlb capabilities of Windows Server 2008. I currently have my Hyper-V box online, as well as a domain controller for the march.local domain. I also have a 2nd physical box that I dumped every spare IDE drive I could find lying around into, and installed an opersoure iSCSI Target called OpenFiler. This is really my first time playing with iSCSI or a linux based SMB file server, so it’s been a unique learning experience.

I had already installed Openfiler, and after a little tinkering, I got kerberos authentication working and joined the box to the domain. At that point I brought up my 3rd Windows 2008 server and got an itch to play with Windows Deployment Services. It was the one thing I didn’t experiment with live while studying for the Windows 2008 Server exams. As I was walking through the wizard it prompted me for a place to store all of my images, and rather than creating another .VHD file to store them on a 2nd drive locally, I opted to go for the iSCSI option.

So here is a quick video on setting up iSCSI.

So since setting up iSCSI, I’ve got WDS working. I was able to use a boot.wim to PXE boot a Virtual machine with an attached Legacy adapter and install Windows 2008. After I got the new OS up and running, configured and patched. I was able to then create a capture image on the WDS server, run SYSPREP on the base OS, and PXE boot the capture image to create a new Install image to be used for future deployments. With that said, I will not be deploying using the image I just created.

It was a painfully slow process pulling the image from the iSCSI storage. No doubt because I have 3 Virtual machines all attached to the same physical network adapter, which is also being used to direct the iSCSI traffic. *UPDATE HERE* I may try putting Netmon on the Parent OS and see if I can monitor the network traffic and see exactly how bad the bottle neck is. It also may have something to do with the legacy network adapter booting at fast ethernet speeds, and not properly negotiating it’s duplex settings, since the physical network is all gigabit. I’m not completely clear on how a Virtual Switch would handle that. Getting the network properly segmented is definitely on my to-do list. I have 4 physical adapters in the box, so if I had another switch, or even a layer 2 switch, I would be able to properly subnet my network out.

So, for the future builds, it’s much easier to just run SYSPREP with the shutdown command, and then copy and rename the .VHD file 5 more times.

Oh, and one last note on Windows Deployment Services. I had my server set to only accept known clients, which means you have to pre-stage the machines in Active Directory. The directions to do this are:

To prestage client computers

Yeah, ummmmm, no next button here......

Hyper-V, iSCSI, NLB, Openfiler, Video, wds, Windows Deployment Services