Microsoft Assessment and Planning Toolkit (MAP) 6.0 has been released and it can be downloaded from here:

• Download the MAP Toolkit 6.0

As I wrote in one of my previous articles, MAP is powerful inventory, assessment and reporting tool that can securely assess IT environments for various platform migrations and virtualization capabilities. This tool is now especially beneficial for organizations planning a move to cloud. Microsoft Assessment and Planning (MAP) Toolkit 6.0 includes assessment capabilities to evaluate workloads for both public and private cloud platforms. With MAP 6.0, organizations now have the ability to identify workloads and estimate the infrastructure size and resources needed for both Windows Azure and Hyper-V Cloud Fast Track. Also, new to MAP 6.0, is an Office 365 client assessment, enhanced VMware inventory, and Oracle schema discovery and reporting. Expanded assessment and discovery capabilities from MAP help organizations simplify planning for their next migration project.

Anyhow, MAP 6.0 includes many new features and benefits:

• Windows Azure migration portfolio analysis
• Hyper-V Fast Track on boarding
• Expanded heterogeneous server environment inventory
• Office 365 readiness
• Windows Internet Explorer 9 migration assessment
• Oracle schema discovery

Analyze application portfolios for a move to the Windows Azure Platform.

For organizations considering a move to the public cloud, the application evaluation process for migration involves many tools and considerations. The MAP 6.0 Windows Azure migration portfolio analysis feature makes the process easier by providing the ability to quantify and label applications and services in an organization’s IT environment for Windows Azure migration consideration.

The Windows Azure migration portfolio analysis helps organizations:

• Catalog all of the applications in their environment
• Estimate the needed capacity to run their applications on the Windows Azure platform
• Evaluate applications based on migration difficulty
• Stack rank applications in terms of migration suitability
• Obtain a TCO-ROI analysis for the application

Accelerate private cloud planning with Hyper-V Cloud Fast Track on boarding.

Organizations can plan their private cloud with Hyper-V Cloud Fast Track on boarding, a new assessment available with MAP 6.0.This assessment provides consolidation guidance and validated configurations with preconfigured Hyper-V Fast Track infrastructures, including computing power, network and storage architectures. Get a quick analysis of server consolidation on Hyper-V Cloud Fast Track infrastructures to help accelerate planning of physical to virtual (“P2V”) migration to Hyper-V Cloud Fast Track. Each assessment also provides guidance on the next steps forward in using Hyper-V Cloud Fast Track.

Identify migration opportunities with heterogeneous server environment inventory.

MAP has expanded its heterogeneous server environment inventory to include VMware Server, vSphere and VMware vCenter. Inventory and reporting of the number of servers and guests deployed and managed by VMware infrastructure helps organizations identify migration opportunities and accelerates the migration planning process. Because SQL Server, SharePoint and Exchange run better on Hyper-V, MAP 6.0 has the added capability of identifying Microsoft workloads deployed on VMware guests.

Assess client environments for Office 365 readiness.

For organizations considering a move to the cloud with Microsoft’s award-winning business productivity solutions, MAP 6.0 can help make the planning process easier and faster. MAP 6.0 includes an Office 365 client assessment which evaluates the compatibility of Office suites deployed in their environment with Office 365, via a hardware and software readiness assessment. This assessment helps organizations quickly determine which client computers in their environment are ready to use Office 365. The tool obtains machine level detail about why a given computer is not capable of using Office 365, and identifies whether the Office suites currently being used in your environment are compatible with Office 365.

Determine readiness for migration to Windows 7 and Windows Internet Explorer 9.

Organizations can simplify their migration to Windows 7 and Windows Internet Explorer 9 with MAP 6.0. The MAP Internet Explorer migration assessment—now updated for Internet Explorer 9 migration—inventories an organization’s environment and reports on deployed web browsers, Microsoft ActiveX controls, and add-ons, and then generates a migration assessment report and proposal for easier migration to Windows 7 and Internet Explorer 9.

Discover heterogeneous database instances for migration to SQL Server.

MAP 5.5 included heterogeneous database inventory and reporting capability to help organizations accelerate migration to SQL Server from MySQL, Oracle, and Sybase instances. MAP 6.0 adds to this capability with Oracle schema discovery and reporting of the size and use of each schema. Reporting also provides an estimate of the complexity of migration and suggests candidates for migration to SQL Server. Organizations can use this information to determine the total cost of ownership in maintaining Oracle and the potential ROI from switching to SQL Server.

Download the MAP Toolkit 6.0

When Windows 7 was  first released its share started growing day after day, so it was just a matter of time when it will be the most used operating system. Now in US Windows 7 has passed Windows XP usage share. According  to data from an Irish Web analytics company, Windows 7′s average daily share in April was 32.2%, besting XP’s average of 30.7%. However, on worldwide level, stats are a bit different: Windows 7 is on second place with share around 30% and Windows XP is still on first place with share around 40%.

Of course it’s just a matter of time when Windows will come to the throne on worldwide level.

Just a quick and short post about this warning and what are possible solutions to get rid of it. So the warning happens sometimes when you setup SSL for example on Windows Sharepoint Services (WSS) site. After that, anytime you open the site,  or navigate back and forth this warning pop-out.

Cause

This happens because some of links on your site point to http instead to https. So if you have some links, pictures or something else that is having http in link you have that warning. Also, what I personally experienced is that this error happened because of using specific Windows Sharepoint Services theme (Basic theme).

How to solve the problem?

Change Sharepoint theme. Go to Site actions> Site settings > Look and feel > Site theme  and change theme to default.

Check if anything (links, pics…) on your site is still using http links. Change those to https or start using relative path instead of absolute. Absolute link is –> http://example.com/img.jpg and relative (in Sharepoint)  is –> _layouts/images/  or //www.example.com/img.jpg

Change browser settings:

1. Tools > Internet options
2. Security tab > Custom level
3. Scroll down to “Display mixed content” and select Enable
4. Click Yes on  Security warning pop-up

Hope that solves your problem.

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Microsoft Assessment and Planning Toolkit 5.5 is available and can be downloaded from Microsoft site. It is really great, and free tool from Microsoft.

It is a powerful inventory, assessment and reporting tool that can securely assess IT environments for various platform migrations and virtualization without the use of any software agents.

Ok, for which scenarios can this tool be useful?

In many, many, many scenarios. Let’s see:

Agentless inventory - tool collects system resources and device information from computers in your environment. Tool doesn’t require installation of any kind of agent on computers. MAP uses technologies already available such as WMI, Remote Registry Service, Active Directory Domain Services and Computer Browser service.

Compatibility and readiness analysis – it performs analysis of hardware and device compatibility for Windows 7, Windows Server 2008 R2, SQL Server 2008 R2 and Microsoft Office 2010. It also provides database and web application readiness for Windows Azure and SQL Azure.

Virtualization consolidation recommendation – MAP analyses servers which you plan to virtualize (P2V) and compare those results with results it collected from potential Hyper-V hosts. Based on those comparison and analysis it identifies right candidates for virtualization and suggests placing of virtual machines on physical servers.

And what’s new in version 5.5?

• Windows Azure platform assessment for easier migration to the cloud
• Heterogeneous database discovery for accelerated migration to SQL Server
• Microsoft Internet Explorer migration assessment for migration to Windows 7 compatible versions
• Enhanced server consolidation capabilities help save time and effort when creating virtualization assessments and proposals

To conclude MAP is free, very useful tool which has many great functions, and just some of them were described here. For more information see Technet.

Yes Internet Explorer 6 is still used worldwide!

Actually I was writing about similar topic (IE6 on Windows 7 using XP mode) once before because a lot of enterprises today are running their line-of-business (LOB) web applications on Internet Explorer 6. In other words those applications can’t run or they do not behave normally on Internet Explorer 8. Also we all know that migrating on Windows 7 causes that you can’t use Internet Explorer 6 anymore. Of course you can use XP mode or Microsoft Enterprise Desktop Virtualization (MED-V), but what if you don’t have the possibility to use virtualization technologies. Anyway obviously, compatibility issues of line of business applications with new Internet Explorer 8 (or 9 when it RTM’s) is a major showstopper for many companies today.

According to Gartner Research, IE6 compatibility problems will cause 1-in-5 organizations to take longer than expected or spend more than they budgeted for their Windows 7 migration projects. Problem is that approximately 40 percent of the Web applications used by companies still running IE6 won’t work on IE8 – the browser bundled with Windows 7

Ok so what’s the solution?

Luckily there is one great add-on to IE 8 which allows you to run complete IE6 engine inside IE8 tab. In that way you can easily without any fear migrate to Windows 7, migrate to new Internet Explorer and still use your older LOB web applications. Company that developed that product is called Browsium, and product is called UniBrows. As they say Unibrows is:

an innovative new product that removes a key impediment to enterprise upgrades by enabling millions of IE6-based line-of-business web applications to run unmodified on Windows 7 or on IE8 on Windows XP (and IE9 when it is released). UniBrows is an IE add-on that runs the complete IE6 rendering engine and web-application platform inside an IE8 tab. UniBrows is not virtualization, does not run a separate instance of IE, and does not change the default browser or normal browsing behavior. By installing UniBrows on client PCs running Windows 7 or Windows XP with IE8, organizations can upgrade their OS and browser platforms organization-wide immediately and then rewrite or replace legacy applications on an independent schedule.

So key characteristics to remember here are:

• UniBrows allows you to run your IE6 LOB web applications normally on IE8 and IE9 when it will be released.
• UniBrows is simple to deploy
• It does not require any changing in applications or in your current IE8 browser.
• It can be configured (with Group Policy) to automatically know which web sites to open with UniBrows add-on.

If you are interested in this solution find out more here.

These days you can find tons of information on Internet regarding Private Cloud. What is it, how it can be used, how can you benefit from it – all those scenarios and hundreds more are explained everywhere. My intention is not to detaily describe Private Cloud or Cloud Computing. My intention is to describe private cloud as easy as it gets, preferably with „real“ world comparison. Also, keep in mind that there are a few Private Cloud „offerings“, and that herby I’m talking about IAAS – Infrastructure as a Service.

Ok first what does that (IAAS) mean? Let’s analyze those two words; infrastructure and service. In IT world infrastructure is actually combination of following resources: memory, CPU, storage, networking,operating system etc.. Ok now we have also a service which can be defined as „ providing something to someone“. So it’s clear that IAAS is actually a model where someone provides infrastructure services to someone else. Keyword here is someone, because if this someone is public company providing services to some other company – then this can be „normal Public Cloud“. On the other hand if for example one company provides infrastructure as a service to departments in that same company – then that can be called „Private Cloud“.

If we compare that to some plastic real world example it could be something like Rent a Car model. So, in the world there are a lot of Rent a Car companies in which you decide to go if you’d like some services [a Car]. You also decide that this particular car needs to have some amount of horse power, CCM, needs to have 4WD etc. Then you pay for all that and you get that car as a service, exactly as you wanted, and fast too. That could be compared to Public Cloud because some public company „host“ services (e.g. car) for you or your company. On the other hand, your company can have maybe dozen cars available for you and for other employees to use. You then explain why you need a car, when you need it and what kind of car you need. Your company provides you with that car so in that case you’d also get car as a service, but now this service is private.

Ok, now after that comparison, let’s see how can that Private IAAS Cloud be achieved in IT world. Of course, here virtualization (among other stuff) comes in place. Why? Well because of some main characteristics of cloud (whether public or private) :

• Scalability
• Automatism
• Elasticity
• …

In other words, when you or your department need Windows Server 2008 R2 with 4 GB of RAM, 2 CPU’s, 100 GB disk and Active Directory Services role installed, you need that fast and without much intervention (you don’t want to configure everything by yourself). In other other words, if you’d need that same Windows Server 2008 R2, and if it can only be served to you in a physical manner (a.k.a real metal physical server), you would probably not get it in that same automatic, fast and „elastic“ way.

So yeah, that’s about it in high level and without mentioning actual technologies used for building private cloud solution. My way of demystified Private Cloud and IAAS.

P.S. In some of my future post I will cover actual Microsoft Private Cloud Offerings and technologies included – so stay tuned.

These days it is hard to find useful information, especially if you want to find a lot materials in one place. That’s why I spent some time searching through the web to find interesting and useful information regarding virtualization. So I hope you will find useful my list of free virtualization related books.

To summarize, in my list there are 8 free books (with download links included):

1. Understanding Microsoft Virtualization Solutions, Second Edition
2. Introducing Windows Server 2008 R2
3. Virtualization for Dummies – HP special edition
4. The Definitive Guide to Virtual Platform Management
5. The Essentials Series: Virtualization and Disaster Recovery
6. The Shortcut Guide to Virtualization and Service Automation
7. The Shortcut Guide to Selecting the Right Virtualization Solution
8. Windows Server 2008 Hyper-V: Insider’s Guide to Microsoft’s Hypervisor (this book was free for few weeks and now you can read it on Google)

Ok, so let’s see brief introduction to all books:

Understanding Microsoft Virtualization Solutions, Second Edition

This is the book for IT professionals who want to learn more about the latest Microsoft virtualization technologies, including Hyper-V and Remote Desktop Services in Windows Server 2008 R2, Microsoft Virtual Desktop Infrastructure, Microsoft Application Virtualization 4.5, Microsoft Enterprise Desktop Virtualization, Windows Virtual PC and Windows XP Mode, System Center Virtual Machine Manager 2008, and Microsoft’s private and public cloud computing platforms including Windows Azure.

Introducing Windows Server 2008 R2

This book is targeted primarily at Windows server administrators who are responsible for hands-on deployment and day-to-day management of Windows-based servers for large organizations. Windows server administrators manage file and print servers, network infrastructure servers, Web servers, and IT application servers. Book contains Chapter about Hyper-V, RDS and VDI.

Virtualization for Dummies – HP special edition

The purpose of this book is to provide you with an introduction to the subject so that you can understand its promise and perils — and create an action plan to decide whether virtualization is right for you, as well as how to move forward with implementing it should you decide it is right for you. This book will help you sort out the hope from the hype and give you tools to feel confident in making your virtualization decisions.

Note** – following 4 books are available to download from same site nexus.realtimepublishers.com on which you can find a lot of free books. You just need to register with them and that’s it (Everything is free)

The Definitive Guide to Virtual Platform Management

The Definitive Guide to Virtual Platform Management is designed to help IT staff better manage the complexity of virtualization. This guide begins with a discussion of the business value of virtualization and how organizations can benefit from this technology. Next, details related to virtualization approaches and challenges related to managing heterogeneous environments will be discussed. Based on these issues, the focus will turn to ways in which IT organizations can address all of these issues. Details include monitoring and optimizing virtualization performance, developing policies and processes, and automating data center operations. Finally, a list of important features is developed that IT organizations should look for in a virtualization management solution.

The Essentials Series: Virtualization and Disaster Recovery

The Essentials Series: Virtualization and Disaster Recovery discusses the benefit of virtualization in providing for business continuity though data replication and protection, allowing a more cost-effective solution for high availability and disaster recovery.

The Shortcut Guide to Virtualization and Service Automation

The intent of this guide is to assist the smart enterprise with understanding virtualization’s fit into the rest of the IT environment. A major part of that fit is in aligning the promise of virtualization technology with the automation benefits associated with virtualization management. What you’ll find in reading this guide is that notwithstanding what technologies and technological improvements virtualization brings to the table, there are a set of management enhancements that also arrive. Those enhancements are a function of the levels of automation that naturally bundles with the move to virtualization.

The Shortcut Guide to Selecting the Right Virtualization Solution

The intent of this guide is to assist the smart enterprise with understanding virtualization’s fit into the rest of the IT environment. A major part of that fit is in aligning the promise of virtualization technology with the automation benefits associated with virtualization management. What you’ll find in reading this guide is that notwithstanding what technologies and technological improvements virtualization brings to the table, there are a set of management enhancements that also arrive. Those enhancements are a function of the levels of automation that naturally bundles with the move to virtualization.

Windows Server 2008 Hyper-V: Insider’s Guide to Microsoft’s Hypervisor

Hyper-V is one of the top virtualization products, and this practical guide focuses on the essentials of Windows Server 2008 Hyper-V. Written by the Microsoft team behind the Hyper-V product, this book shows you how to perform key virtualization scenarios, such as server consolidation, software and development, and a dynamic data center and demonstrates how Hyper-V can be used to reduce cost and eliminate the complexity of a server infrastructure by consolidating workloads to a small number of machines. In addition, the material addresses using DPM, and SCOM with VMM in order to maintain and manage Hyper-V environments.

I hope you’ll find some interesting stuff in those books, and of course, feel free to comment if you know maybe more free virtualization books.

New VHD available from Microsoft – Exchange Server 2010. Download VHD here. As you all probably know new version of Exchange 2010 has a lot of useful and cool features:

• Exchange 2010 is faster because Microsoft reduced I/O load. Hence you can use slower and cheaper disks to get great performance.
• OWA now works great in non-Microsoft browsers and on non-Microsoft platforms
• SMS – users can now send and receive SMS text messages from Microsoft Outlook and Outlook Web App
• Support for IRM in Outlook Web App - IRM-protected messages in Outlook Web App can be accessed through Windows Internet Explorer, Firefox, and Safari (no plug-ins required)
• Voice mail transcription -  Exchange 2010 uses a speech recognition engine to automatically transcribe voice mail messages
• Much much more…

Really, there are a lot exciting features of Exchange 2010, and if you would like to try them go on and download pre-configured virtual machine (13365.4 MB).

If you are developer and would like to try out library that provides a set of functions for emulating a file system and a system registry for an application, ckeck out BoxedApp SDK. It is a great way for creating virtual files, fake registry entries, keys and values.

With BoxedApp SDK you have following features:

If you are wondering when to use this SDK see some examples below:

 -  When an application must run properly even if it doesn’t have the right to write to the system registry and to the file system

 -  When an application uses DLL and files, which are to be kept secure, and because of that you can’t save them to disk

 -  When an application needs ActiveX but doesn’t have an installer because it must run instantly, without the installation (for example, when it’s a portable application that runs from a flash card)

Of course a lot more use cases are available, and if you would like to try it for yourself download the demo here (19 MB)

New VHD available from Microsoft – Forefront Identity Manager 2010 Rc1. This VHD is really useful to get you going with FIM, because clean FIM installation and configuration can take pretty much time. You need to install all FIM components (and believe me, there are a lot of components), configure provisioning etc, etc.   Anyway, now with FIM 2010 VHD available for download, you can try all features:

• Provisioning of users and groups to AD
• Creating new dynamical groups
• Self service password reset
• Integration with office
• And much more…

If you are interested in identity management, grab your VHD here , create Hyper-V Virtual Machine and manage your identities.