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Jose Barreto Profile |
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SNIA’s Storage Developer Conference - SDC 2011 content (slides and videos) now available for download, including SMB 2.2 details
Jose Barreto
The Storage Networking Industry Association (SNIA) hosted the 8th Storage Developer Conference (SDC) in the Hyatt Regency in beautiful Santa Clara, CA (Silicon Valley) earlier this year. As usual, Microsoft was the underwriter of the CIFS/SMB/SMB2 PlugFest, which was co-located with the SDC event.
For developers working with storage-related technologies, this event gathers a unique crowd and includes a rich agenda. Key industry players were represented and offered presentations. It’s a [read].
Posted: Fri, Dec 16th '11 |
Links to //build/ sessions on Storage, Networking and Hyper-V
Jose Barreto
Last month at the //Build/ conference we had a large number of presentations delivered and made available to download and stream. Several Microsoft Partners and Developers that are focused on Storage, Networking or Hyper-V have asked me for a list of links to help them find the Widows Server 8 sessions more closely related to those topics. Here is my attempt to create that list:
Sessions related to Continuous Availability:
Keynote #2 – Building Continuous Services
973 - Windows Server [read].
Posted: Wed, Oct 19th '11 |
I will be speaking at the //build/ conference next month
Jose Barreto
Just a short post to share that I will be speaking at the BUILD conference next month. The conference will happen in Anaheim-CA, from 9/13 to 9/16. You can read more at the official site: http://www.buildwindows.com. The full agenda is not published yet, but you will be able to see details (like title and abstract) when it does become public. I can guarantee you it will be interesting :-)
If you’re registered to attend, I look forward to meeting you there in person. The event is sold o [read].
Posted: Wed, Aug 17th '11 |
TechEd 2011 demo install step-by-step (Hyper-V, AD, DNS, iSCSI Target, File Server Cluster, SQL Server over SMB2)
Jose Barreto
1. Introduction
1.1. Overview
As I explained in a previous blog post, I delivered a presentation this week as part of the Microsoft TechEd 2011 event. The presentation was titled “Windows Server 2008 R2 File Services Consolidation - Technology Update”. It included two demos that showed several Windows Server 2008 R2 features and also a little SQL Server 2008 R2. You can listen to a recording of this presentation at http://channel9.msdn.com/Events/TechEd/NorthAmerica/2011/WSV [read].
Posted: Thu, May 19th '11 |
File Server Team sessions at TechEd 2011 this week
Jose Barreto
If you're attending TechEd 2011 this week, here are sessions from the File Server team:
WSV313 - Microsoft iSCSI Software Target 3.3 for Application Storage, Diskless Boot, and More! Speaker(s): Jian (Jane) Yan Tuesday, May 17 at 5:00 PM, room: B101 http://northamerica.msteched.com/topic/details/WSV313
WSV317 - Windows Server 2008 R2 File Services Consolidation: Technology Update Speaker: Jose Barreto Wednesday, 5/18 at 10:15am, room: Georgia Ballrm 3 http://northamerica.msteched.com/topic/deta [read].
Posted: Mon, May 16th '11 |
TechEd 2011 Session WSV317: Windows Server 2008 R2 File Services Consolidation - Technology Update
Jose Barreto
This week at TechEd 2011 I will be delivering a presentation about “Windows Server 2008 R2 File Services Consolidation - Technology Update”.
If you’re attending the conference in Atlanta-GA, this is session WSV317 on Wednesday at 10:15 AM, plus a repeat on Thursday also at 10:15 AM.
The presentation is divided into 5 main topics:
Overview of the main advances in File Services in Windows Server 2008 R2, compared to Windows Server 2003/2008
Examination of 3 interes [read].
Posted: Mon, May 16th '11 |
Diskless server boot using the Microsoft iSCSI Software Target and a regular network card
Jose Barreto
The new Microsoft iSCSI Software Target 3.3 is commonly deployed to provide data storage for servers that boot from a local hard drive. However, there are interesting cost savings and management advantages in deploying servers that have no local disk at all and get their syste and boot volumes from the iSCSI target. The iSCSI Target team has worked closely with the Windows HPC Server team to enable this specific solution, common in HPC environments.
Jian Yan, the Program Manager for the iSCSI So [read].
Posted: Tue, May 3rd '11 |
Using 4k sector and advanced format drives in Windows. HotFix and support info for Windows Server 2008 R2 and Windows 7
Jose Barreto
If you work with storage, you probably already heard about the “4K Sector Drives”, “Advanced Format Drives” and “512e drives”. These new “4K sector drives” abandon the traditional use of 512 bytes per sector in favor of a new structure that uses 4096 bytes. The migration to the new formats is eased by the use of 4K drives that simulate the old format, known as “512 Emulation Drives” or “ [read].
Posted: Tue, Apr 26th '11 |
FSCT test results detail the performance of Windows Server 2008 R2 File Server configurations - 23,000 users with 192 spindles
Jose Barreto
1. Introduction
The File Server Capacity Tool (FSCT) is a free download from Microsoft that helps you determine the capacity of a specific file server configuration (running Windows or any operating system that implements the SMB or SMB2 protocols). It simulates a specific set of operations (the “Home Folders” workload) being executed by a large number of users against the file server, confirming the ability of that file server to perform the specified operations in a timely [read].
Posted: Fri, Apr 8th '11 |
Updated iSCSI Initiator Users Guide for Windows 7 and Windows Server 2008 R2
Jose Barreto
We just got an updated version of the “iSCSI Initiator Users Guide for Windows 7 and Windows Server 2008 R2“ posted on the Microsoft Download Center by Bruce Langworthy, the iSCSI Initiator PM.
Here’s a summary of the contents of this 82-page Word document:
· Microsoft iSCSI Initiator Step-by-Step Guide
· Understanding Microsoft iSCSI Initiator Features and Components
- What’s new in Microsoft iSCSI Initi [read].
Posted: Tue, Apr 5th '11 |
Microsoft iSCSI Software Target 3.3 for Windows Server 2008 R2 available for public download
Jose Barreto
Introduction
For the last few years, I’ve been blogging about the Microsoft iSCSI Software Target and its many uses related to Windows Server Failover Clustering, Hyper-V and other server scenarios. Today, Microsoft has made this software publicly available to all users of Windows Server 2008 R2.
The Microsoft iSCSI Software Target has been available for production use as part of Windows Storage Server since early 2007. It has also been available for development and test use by MSDN an [read].
Posted: Mon, Apr 4th '11 |
File Server improvements from Windows Server 2003 to Windows Server 2008 R2. 8 items for 8 years…
Jose Barreto
Introduction
The File Server team often talks to customers about file server migration and file server consolidation projects. Many times, these are customers running Windows Server 2003 that can point to a number of issues they wanted fixed. In most cases, those issues have been identified and corrected in Windows Server 2008 and Windows Server 2008 R2. Here are 8 of these issues (just to name a few) from recent conversations with customers:
1. CHKDSK Time
Windows Server 2003 problem:
CHKDSK t [read].
Posted: Fri, Feb 25th '11 |
SQL over SMB2 - One of the top 10 hidden gems in SQL Server 2008 R2
Jose Barreto
Introduction
The SQL CAT team has posted a blog last year about the "Top 10 hidden gems in SQL Server 2008 R2", which included the support for placing SQL database files on an SMB network file share. This works even better if you use the SMB2 version of the protocol, which is included in Windows Server 2008 and Windows Server 2008 R2. In a recent presentation about the performance, scalability and availability improvements in the Windows Server 2008 R2 file services, I used this "SQL over SMB2" [read].
Posted: Thu, Feb 24th '11 |
New white paper providing guidance for sizing NTFS volumes
Jose Barreto
A new white paper covering "NTFS CHKDSK Best Practices and Performance" was posted today at microsoft.com/downloads, covering the CHKDSK improvement in Windows 7 and Windows Server 2008 R2.
This was first highlighted in a blog post by Claus Joergensen in the Filecab blog. Claus mentioned: "Today, Microsoft released a new white paper discussing best practices and guidance for sizing NTFS volumes and some details on CHKDSK execution times on Windows Server 2008 R2. When planning Windows File Serve [read].
Posted: Tue, Feb 22nd '11 |
Ranking the SMB rules in the File Services Best Practices Analyzer tool (BPA)
Jose Barreto
As you probably know, the File Services team provides a Best Practices Analyzer tool (BPA). It includes several rules for the configuration, operation, performance and security of the SMB, NFS, DFS-N, DFS-R and FSRM.
I was recently looking at the pageview statistics for each of the rules for the SMB component and found how how the rules rank in terms of popularity. Here's that list (from most popular to least popular), with the links to TechNet documentation:
SMB: Short file name creation shou [read].
Posted: Sat, Feb 19th '11 |
Great SQL Server Storage advice from a team deploying SQL with LOB apps
Jose Barreto
During an internal conference this week I came across a group at Microsoft Services that works directly with customers that are deploying SQL Server to support line-of-business applications like like SAP and JD Edwards. They pointed me to their recent blog (started in September 2010) which already produced excellent technical and business content. Out of the 36 posts so far (that’s over 4 a month!) I was most impressed with the quality technical content around SQL Server as it relates [read].
Posted: Fri, Feb 18th '11 |
New white paper: Windows Storage Server 2008 R2 Architecture and Deployment
Jose Barreto
A new white paper about Windows Storage Server 2008 R2 Architecture and Deployment (including the Microsoft iSCSI Software Target 3.3) has just been published. Here's an outline of this content:
Introduction
Windows Storage Server 2008 R2 Overview
Comparing Windows Server Operating System Storage Offerings
Comparing Windows Storage Server with Windows Server
Identifying Windows Storage Server Features
What’s New in Windows Storage Server 2008 R2
Comparing Windows Stora [read].
Posted: Thu, Feb 17th '11 |
Simple SQL Server script to create a database and generate activity for a demo
Jose Barreto
I am doing a little demo this week and it includes a simple SQL Server script to generate activity on the network while I demo SMB2 durability.
First, the database is created:
USE [Master] GO
CREATE DATABASE [Sales] ON PRIMARY ( NAME = N'Sales', FILENAME = N'\\FSA\SQLDB\Sales.mdf' , SIZE = 2GB , MAXSIZE = 8GB, FILEGROWTH = 1GB ) LOG ON ( NAME = N'Sales_log', FILENAME = N'\\FSA\SQLDB\Sales_log.ldf' , SIZE = 1GB , MAXSIZE = 2GB , FILEGROWTH = 10%) GO
USE [Sales] GO
CREATE TABLE [dbo].[Pro [read].
Posted: Wed, Feb 16th '11 |
Currently available hotfixes for SMB and SMB2 File Server components in Windows Server 2008 and Windows Server 2008 R2
Jose Barreto
If you’re installing a Windows Server 2008 or Windows Server 2008 R2 file server, we always recommend getting the latest hotfixes from Windows Update. That will include all security updates and updates that are considered important enough to be delivered to all Windows Server users. However, there is a class of hotfixes there not pushed via Windows Update. Typically, you won’t get those hotfixes until in the next Service Pack or if you run into the specific issues they addres [read].
Posted: Tue, Feb 1st '11 |
Lessons learned creating BingMatrix in ASP.NET and Azure (goals, http requests, threads, progress message and postbacks)
Jose Barreto
I have spent my last few weekends building an ASP.NET web application that sends multiple queries to Bing and displays the results in a table. I called it BingMatrix and you can read more about what it does and how it works in the blog post titled “BingMatrix – A Windows Azure application that provides a fun way to mine data from Bing”. While doing that, I continued to learn a few tricks for ASP.NET and about the Azure environment in particular. This post summarizes [read].
Posted: Sun, Jan 2nd '11 |
Programming Windows Phone 7 by Charles Petzold - Download free PDF and start developing your WP7 Apps
Jose Barreto
I just discovered this interesting book on "Programming Windows Phone 7", by Charles Petzold (yes, that's the author of the famous "Programming Windows" series of books). This Microsoft Press title is available as a free PDF download and is over 1,000 pages long.
Here's the table of contents:
Part 1: The Basics
Chapter 1: Hello, Windows Phone 7
Chapter 2: Getting Oriented
Chapter 3: An Introduction to Touch
Chapter 4: Bitmaps, Also Known as Textures
Chapter 5: Sensors and Services
Chapter 6: I [read].
Posted: Sun, Jan 2nd '11 |
BingMatrix updated to get parameters directly in the URL
Jose Barreto
In a previous blog post, I described the BingMatrix search tool: http://blogs.technet.com/b/josebda/archive/2010/12/21/bingmatrix-a-windows-azure-application-that-provides-a-fun-way-to-mine-data-from-bing.aspx
I have now updated it to allow you to pass the parameters directly in the URL. The updated version is already uploaded to Azure.
For example, here are direct links to the 8 demo queries provided as samples in the main page of the site:
Kinect games
Windows Phone 7 models
Famous movie ser [read].
Posted: Thu, Dec 23rd '10 |
BingMatrix – A Windows Azure application that provides a fun way to mine data from Bing
Jose Barreto
I wanted to share a little application I put together using Windows Azure. It uses Bing queries to find out how the popularity of a specific set of keywords on a specific set of sites. I actually created this for my own use while researching how frequently some registry keys are mentioned on Microsoft support, on TechNet blogs or on the TechNet forums.
To get started, you fill the three sets of input:
List of keyword
List of web sites
Additional keywords
Here’s a sample screenshot, w [read].
Posted: Thu, Dec 9th '10 |
The Basics of SMB Signing (covering both SMB1 and SMB2)
Jose Barreto
SMB Signing Overview
Server Message Block (SMB) is the file protocol most commonly used by Windows. SMB Signing is a feature through which communications using SMB can be digitally signed at the packet level. Digitally signing the packets enables the recipient of the packets to confirm their point of origination and their authenticity. This security mechanism in the SMB protocol helps avoid issues like tampering of packets and “man in the middle” attacks.
SMB signing is avail [read].
Posted: Tue, Nov 30th '10 |
First impressions on Windows Phone 7 and the Samsung Focus
Jose Barreto
Well, I have been using my new Samsung Focus (one of the Windows Phone 7 options for AT&T) for about a week now. I saw a number of reviews of the Windows Phone 7 software and the many hardware options available on different providers. However, I wanted to add a few of my own first impressions.
Overall, I am very happy with the phone. I had a chance to experience with the main features like making calls, using e-mail, browsing the web, playing content (music, videos, podcasts), taking picture [read].
Posted: Sat, Nov 27th '10 |
Two new blog posts on Windows Storage Server 2008 R2
Jose Barreto
Scott M. Johnson has published two new blogs post on the Windows Storage Server blog:
The first post is a compilation of links covering all kinds of Windows Storage Server 2008 R2 content. http://blogs.technet.com/b/storageserver/archive/2010/11/16/windows-storage-server-2008-r2-references.aspx
The second post introduces the two new offerings from HP (X1000 G2 and X3000 G2) that were introduced during the recent TechEd Europe event, which run the new Windows Storage Server 2008 R2. http://blogs [read].
Posted: Fri, Nov 19th '10 |
File and Storage FAQ in the Microsoft Community Forums
Jose Barreto
As you probably already know, Microsoft maintains a number of community forums divided into categories. The work I do is mostly related to File and Storage, which is one of those categories. You can find the File and Storage forum at http://social.technet.microsoft.com/Forums/en/winserverfiles. You are encouraged to post your questions there and the answers you get might come from Microsoft, from Microsoft MVP,s or from other members of the community. The team working with the forums also main [read].
Posted: Tue, Nov 16th '10 |
Announcing Windows Storage Server 2008 R2 Essentials!
Jose Barreto
Joel Garcia announced from TechEd Europe the release Windows Storage Server 2008 R2 Essentials, a new member of the Storage Server product family. In the blog post, he outlines the main features: Easy to use Backup and Recovery Active Directory Domain Join Management Dashboard Centralized Storage Plug and Play Storage and File Services Remote Web Access Add-ins Read the full blog post with additional details (including a comparison of the four different Windows Storage Server 2008 R2 editio [read].
Posted: Wed, Nov 10th '10 |
How to Handle NTFS Folder Permissions, Security Descriptors and ACLs in PowerShell
Jose Barreto
1. Overview
Some time ago, I was automating a few tasks with PowerShell and needed to set NTFS permissions on a folder. I was tempted to use the good old ICACLS.EXE command line, but I wanted to keep it all within PowerShell. While there are a number of different permissions you could want to set for a folder, my specific case called the following:
- Create a new folder
- Check the default permissions on the new folder
- Turn off inheritance on that folder, remov [read].
Posted: Wed, Nov 10th '10 |
What version of SMB2 am I using on my Windows file server?
Jose Barreto
pI recently talked to a customer that was surprised to hear that their Windows 7 clients were not using the latest version of SMB2 to talk with their Windows Server 2003 file servers./p
pI explained to him that, in order to use SMB2, both sides of the connection have to support it. If not, they will negotiate down to the highest version that both support./p
pI also explained that Windows actually uses 2 different versions of SMB2:/p
ul
liSMB2 (technically SMB2 version 2.002) which is the version [read].
Posted: Tue, Oct 26th '10 |
Using PowerShell and the the iSCSI Target 3.3 WMI classes to create a differencing VHD for OS boot
Jose Barreto
pI recently blogged about the a target="_blank" href="http://blogs.technet.com/b/josebda/archive/2010/09/29/powershell-cmdlets-for-the-microsoft-iscsi-target-3-3-included-in-windows-storage-server-2008-r2.aspx"PowerShell cmdlets included with the Microsoft iSCSI Software Target 3.3/a. That included the details on all the 10 cmdlets available, including the one used to create VHD files, which is New-IscsiVirtualDisk. If yoursquo;re paying close attention to the list of new features in the iSCSI T [read].
Posted: Mon, Oct 4th '10 |
PowerShell cmdlets for the Microsoft iSCSI Target 3.3 (included in Windows Storage Server 2008 R2)
Jose Barreto
pb1. Overview/b/p
blockquote
pOne the new features in the Microsoft iSCSI Software Target 3.3 (included in Windows Storage Server 2008 R2) is the inclusion of PowerShell cmdlets for management. /p
pIn this blog post, we will examine the details of the cmdlets available to manage targets and their associated virtual disks./p
/blockquote
pb2. Modules, Cmdlets and Classes/b/p
blockquote
pThe iSCSI Target PowerShell is provided in a single module called MicrosoftIscsiTarget, which includes 10 cmdlet [read].
Posted: Wed, Sep 29th '10 |
Windows Storage Server 2008 R2 and the Microsoft iSCSI Software Target 3.3 are available on MSDN/TechNet - here's how to install them
Jose Barreto
pbOverview/b/p
blockquote
pYou probably heard that Windows Storage Server 2008 R2 has been Released To Manufacturing (RTM) last week. /p
pThat means that the OEMs will soon deliver a new generation of Windows-based NAS appliances with a file server (SMB2, NFS) and an iSCSI Target (using the Microsoft iSCSI Software Targetnbsp; 3.3)./p
pimg height="99" width="523" src="http://blogs.technet.com/cfs-file.ashx/__key/CommunityServer-Blogs-Components-WeblogFiles/00-00-00-38-13-metablogapi/6087.clip_5F [read].
Posted: Tue, Sep 28th '10 |
Mapping Cluster.exe Commands to Windows PowerShell Cmdlets for Failover Clusters - Extended Edition
Jose Barreto
pWhile many of the Windows Server Failover Cluster (WSFC) administrators have moved from the old CLUSTER.EXE command-line to the new PowerShell interface, I know at least a few holdouts out there. Itrsquo;s probably the fact that they have used the old CLI since the early days of Microsoft Cluster Services (MSCS), combined with the fact that CLUSTER.EXE was not actually removed in Windows Server 2008 or even in Windows Server 2008 R2./p
pTo help with the transition, the Cluster team has publishe [read].
Posted: Thu, Sep 23rd '10 |
Windows Storage Server 2008 R2 is now available!
Jose Barreto
pIt's a pleasure to let you know that Windows Storage Server 2008 R2 (which includes the Microsoft iSCSI Software Target 3.3) has been released to manufacturing (RTM)./p
pScott M. Johnson (Program Manager in the File Server Team) has just shared via a blog post that the product is on its way to the OEMs and included quite a few details, including:/p
ul
liOverview /li
liThree New Editions/li
liKey Scenarios
ul
liFile Server/li
liBranch Office Server/li
liBlock Storage Server/li
liUnified Storage [read].
Posted: Wed, Sep 22nd '10 |
Random Notes from SNIA’s SDC 2010 and CIFS/SMB/SMB2 Plugfest
Jose Barreto
pIf you’re following me on Twitter, you probably noticed I am attending SNIA’s Software Developer’s Conference 2010 (SDC 2010) and the CIFS/SMB/SMB2 PlugFest this week. br /The agenda for the event is published at a href="http://www.snia.org/events/storage-developer2010/agenda2010"http://www.snia.org/events/storage-developer2010/agenda2010/a. br /Here are some random notes from the event, some of them taken from a few earlier tweets (some sessions are just mentioned, others have a few note [read].
Posted: Mon, Sep 20th '10 |
Random notes on Storage IO Performance
Jose Barreto
pHere are some random notes I took during a presentation to Storage IO Performance this morning:/p
ul
liSSDs: Still not a 'solid state' business - a href="http://bit.ly/cdqA1b"http://bit.ly/cdqA1b/a - "False expectations" and why they "won't replace hard drives"nbsp;/li
liA PRAM and NAND Flash Hybrid Architecture for High-Performance Embedded Storage Subsystems - a href="http://bit.ly/95ZY83"http://bit.ly/95ZY83/anbsp;/li
liResistive RAM Gains Ground - Faith in phase-change memory falters (IEEE [read].
Posted: Tue, Sep 7th '10 |
New five-part blog series on DFS Replication
Jose Barreto
p class="MsoNormal"span style="font-size: small;"span style="font-family: Calibri;"Ned Pyle, a Senior Escalation Support Engineer with the Directory Services team at Microsoft, has just started a new blog series focusing on DFS Replication. o:p/o:p/span/span/p
p class="MsoNormal"o:pspan style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: small;"nbsp;/span/o:p/p
p class="MsoNormal"span style="font-size: small;"span style="font-family: Calibri;"Herersquo;s how he introduces it:/span/span/p
p class="MsoNormal" [read].
Posted: Tue, Sep 7th '10 |
Using the multiple NICs of your File Server running Windows Server 2008 (and 2008 R2)
Jose Barreto
pb1 - Overview/b/p
pnbsp;/p
pWhen you set up a File Server, there are advantages to configuring multiple Network Interface Cards (NICs). However, there are many options to consider depending on how your network and services are laid out. Since networking (along with storage) is one of the most common bottlenecks in a file server deployment, this is a topic worth investigating./p
pThroughout this blog post, we will look into different configurations for Windows Server 2008 (and 2008 R2) where a f [read].
Posted: Fri, Sep 3rd '10 |
SNIA’s Storage Developers Conference 2010 is just a few weeks away
Jose Barreto
pThe Storage Networking Industry Association (SNIA) is hosting the 7th Storage Developer Conference (SDC) in the Hyatt Regency in beautiful Santa Clara, CA (Silicon Valley) on the week of September 20th. As usual, Microsoft is underwriting the CIFS/SMB/SMB2 Plugfest, which is co-located with the SDC event./p pFor developers working with storage-related technologies, this event gathers a unique crowd and includes a rich agenda that you can find at a href="http://www.snia.org/events/storage-develo [read].
Posted: Wed, Sep 1st '10 |
Performance Tuning Guidelines for Windows Server 2008 R2
Jose Barreto
pI am often asked about File Server performance. The usual conversation evolves into a discussion on what specific tips or registry settings I would recommend to make a file server work faster./p
pI'm surprised to find that many have not heard that the Windows Performance team has published a guide aimed exactly at that. The Performance Tuning Guide for Windows Server 2008 R2 contains key performance recommendations fornbsp;Server Hardware,nbsp;Networking and Storage. It also contains performanc [read].
Posted: Fri, Aug 27th '10 |
The difference between a 2TB SATA drive and the storage provided by your IT department
Jose Barreto
p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"span style="font-size: small;"span style="font-family: Calibri;"Every once in a while the question comes up. o:p/o:p/span/span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"span style="font-size: small;"span style="font-family: Calibri;"How come my IT department is charging me tens of dollars per gigabyte of storage for my application when I can pay less than 15 cents per gigabyte at Best Buy (where a 2TB drive might cost less than $150)?o:p/o: [read].
Posted: Sat, Jul 31st '10 |
Multiple names for one computer - Consolidate your SMB file servers without breaking UNC paths
Jose Barreto
pstrongspan style="font-size: small;"Overview /span/strong/p
p style="PADDING-LEFT: 30px"span style="font-size: small;"This blog posts covers a few different ways to consolidate multiple SMB file servers and keep exposing the consolidated file shares under the old share paths./span/p
pstrongspan style="font-size: small;"Scenario/span/strong/p
pspan style="font-size: small;"/span/p
p style="padding-left: 30px;"span style="font-size: small;"Letrsquo;s say you currently have 3 file servers named fi [read].
Posted: Fri, Jun 4th '10 |
Where TO find DfSUTIL.EXE for Windows Server 2008 and Windows Server 2008 R2
Jose Barreto
PDFSUTIL.EXE is a command line tool to manage Windows Server DFS Namespaces. /P
PIn Windows Server 2003 and Windows Server 2003 R2, DFSUTIL.EXE was included as part of the “Windows Server Support Tools” in the Windows Server CD. /P
PA common question by DFS administrators upgrading to Windows Server 2008 and Windows Server 2008 R2 is “Where is DFSUTIL.EXE?"/P
PWell, DFSUTIL.EXE can be installed in a few different ways, depending on your situation./P
PSTRONG/STRONG/P
PSTRONG/STRONGnbsp;/P
P [read].
Posted: Mon, May 3rd '10 |
How to rename a Windows Server running DFS Namespaces (DFS-N)
Jose Barreto
PA user asked me recently if there is a prescribed way to STRONGrename an existing DFS-N server/STRONG. More precisely, she asked if simply renaming a server hosting a DFS Namespace would lead to messed up Active Directory pointers, links, link targets, etc. I asked the team and the answer depends on whether you are running a standalone namespace or a domain namespace. Let me explain./P
PIf you are running a STRONGstandalone namespace/STRONG, you can simply rename the computer and DFS-N will con [read].
Posted: Sun, May 2nd '10 |
Microsoft Office Web Applications and http://docs.com
Jose Barreto
pI just got an e-mail informing me that I could now upload and create documents in http:/docs.com, so I went ahead and tried it out./p pFor starters, you don’t need to create usernames or passwords. You just use your facebook credentials. br /If you’re logged to facebook already, it just works and your name shows at the top right of the window./p pI uploaded some PowerPoint files I presented in public conferences in the last few years. br /They were uploaded without any issues and they showe [read].
Posted: Thu, Apr 29th '10 |
Best Practices Analyzer for Windows Server 2008 R2 File Services available for download
Jose Barreto
PQuick blog post to let you know that information about the Best Practices Analyzer (BPA) for Windows Server 2008 R2 File Services has been published.BRIt includes several rules for the configuration, operation, performance and security of the SMB, NFS, DFS-N, DFS-R and FSRM./P
PGet detailed documentationnbsp;at A href="http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ff633443(WS.10).aspx" mce_href="http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ff633443(WS.10).aspx"http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/libr [read].
Posted: Wed, Apr 28th '10 |
Experimenting with Windows Azure - My First Application
Jose Barreto
PBOverview/B/P
PI recently learned how to create, test and deploy a Windows Azure application. BRAs an MSDN subscriber, I got the offer to use Azure included in the package. /P
PPlease note that I am not a member of the Windows Azure team. BRThis post is simply a summary of my experience as user of the service./P
PBTools/B/P
PMy experimentation was made easier by the fact that I have developed ASP.NET applications before. BRI had already installed the final version of Visual Studio 2010 in my Wi [read].
Posted: Mon, Apr 26th '10 |
Examining cmdlet parameters in PowerShell V2
Jose Barreto
POne of the interesting things about PowerShell is how easy it is to discover its cmdlets and parameter. In PowerShell itself or in the ISE, you can just start typing a command and then press the lt;TABgt; key complete it. /P
POne other interesting bit is how you can use the Get-Command cmdlet to discover all others. I covered some of this functionality and the ability to load modules in a previous blog post at A href="http://blogs.technet.com/josebda/archive/2009/08/09/experimenting-with-powers [read].
Posted: Sat, Apr 10th '10 |
Using PowerShell V2 to gather info on free space on the volumes of your remote file server
Jose Barreto
PSTRONGOverview/STRONGnbsp;/P
PIn a previous blog post, I have examined some of PowerShell’s control structures and included an example gathered some information from web. If you haven’t seen it, you can check it at A href="http://blogs.technet.com/josebda/archive/2010/04/04/experimenting-with-powershell-v2-scripting-variables-and-control-structures.aspx" mce_href="http://blogs.technet.com/josebda/archive/2010/04/04/experimenting-with-powershell-v2-scripting-variables-and-control-structures. [read].
Posted: Fri, Apr 9th '10 |
PowerShell v2: Get-Date vs [System.DateTime]::Now - What's the difference?
Jose Barreto
PI was trying to figure out why people use the more complicated [System.DateTime]::Now instead of the simple Get-Date./P
PThey do the same thing and they both return an object of type "System.DateTime"./PFONT face="Courier New"
BLOCKQUOTE
PPS C:\gt; Get-DateBRThursday, April 08, 2010 10:46:48 PM/P
PPS C:\gt; [System.DateTime]::NowBRThursday, April 08, 2010 10:46:59 PM/P/BLOCKQUOTE/FONT
PThe only possible different is the performance. Yes, Get-Date is slightly slower, but they both really do the [read].
Posted: Fri, Apr 9th '10 |
Experimenting with PowerShell V2 scripting, variables and control structures
Jose Barreto
PLast week I was testing Visual Studio 2010 to write a C# application to export all my blog posts to a file. I described that in some detail at A href="http://blogs.technet.com/josebda/archive/2010/03/21/experimenting-with-visual-studio-2010-and-backing-up-the-entries-on-my-blog.aspx" mce_href="http://blogs.technet.com/josebda/archive/2010/03/21/experimenting-with-visual-studio-2010-and-backing-up-the-entries-on-my-blog.aspx"http://blogs.technet.com/josebda/archive/2010/03/21/experimenting-with- [read].
Posted: Sun, Apr 4th '10 |
Comparing RPC, WMI and WinRM for remote server management with PowerShell V2
Jose Barreto
P style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 12pt" class=MsoNormalBSPAN style="FONT-SIZE: 14pt"FONT face=Calibri1. Overview?xml:namespace prefix = o ns = "urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:office" /o:p/o:p/FONT/SPAN/B/P
P style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 12pt" class=MsoNormalFONT size=3 face=CalibriIn a recent blog post, I was looking at PowerShell V2 SPAN style="COLOR: #1f497d"r/SPANemoting in Windows Server 2008 R2. BRIf you haven’t seen it, take a look at /FONTA href="http://blogs.technet.com/josebda/archive/2010/03/31/e [read].
Posted: Fri, Apr 2nd '10 |
Why Hyper-V VHD Files Are So Large – And How To Efficiently Copy Them
Jose Barreto
PInteresting blog post covering a tool to copy VHD files.The tool was created by a Microsoft MVP.BRDetails at A href="http://blogs.technet.com/wchomak/archive/2010/03/31/why-hyper-v-vhd-files-are-so-large-and-how-to-efficiently-copy-them.aspx"http://blogs.technet.com/wchomak/archive/2010/03/31/why-hyper-v-vhd-files-are-so-large-and-how-to-efficiently-copy-them.aspx/A/Pimg src="http://blogs.technet.com/aggbug.aspx?PostID=3322414" width="1" height="1" [read].
Posted: Wed, Mar 31st '10 |
Experimenting with PowerShell V2 Remoting
Jose Barreto
PAs I continue to experiment with PowerShell v2 in Windows Server 2008 R2, I will share some of what I learn here on the blog. This time I am focusing on PowerShell Remoting. If you never played with PowerShell before, please start by reading A href="http://blogs.technet.com/josebda/archive/2009/07/25/experimenting-with-powershell.aspx" mce_href="http://blogs.technet.com/josebda/archive/2009/07/25/experimenting-with-powershell.aspx"http://blogs.technet.com/josebda/archive/2009/07/25/experimentin [read].
Posted: Wed, Mar 31st '10 |
How DFS Replication (DFS-R) secures its communication
Jose Barreto
PDuring a recent internal conference, someone asked me about how DFS-R (DFS Replication) in Windows Server 2008 R2 secures its communication. I wasn’t sure at the time, so I talked to a few people that work with DFS-R and spent some time looking into that./P
PIt turns out that DFS-R uses security above and beyond many other file-related protocols, since it was designed from the beginning with WANs in mind. DFS-R uses authenticated encrypted RPC (remote procedure calls) for all replication comm [read].
Posted: Fri, Mar 26th '10 |
Experimenting with Visual Studio 2010 and backing up the entries on my blog
Jose Barreto
PI spent some time today experimenting with the Visual Studio 2010. As I learned a long time ago, the best way to experience a development environment or programming language is to try to implement a solution with it. So I set out to create a small tool to download all my blog posts at A href="http://blogs.technet.com/josebda" mce_href="http://blogs.technet.com/josebda"http://blogs.technet.com/josebda/A. They are 301 posts (not counting this one) and the service I use only shows them in groups o [read].
Posted: Sun, Mar 21st '10 |
Windows Storage Server 2008 and iSCSI Software Target 3.2 documentation on TechNet
Jose Barreto
PI was glad to see that tje TechNet public site was recently updated to include detailed documentation on Windows Storage Server 2008 and iSCSI Software Target 3.2./P
PSee below the main two top items that were posted, along with the topics covered under each one:/P
UL
LIA href="http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/dd573315(WS.10).aspx" mce_href="http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/dd573315(WS.10).aspx"Windows Storage Server 2008/A/LI
UL
LIWindows Storage Server 2008 Getting Started [read].
Posted: Sat, Mar 13th '10 |
FAST'10 Technical Sessions
Jose Barreto
PIf you work with File and Storage, you probably heard of the annual FAST conference. The most recent one was FAST’10 (8th USENIX Conference on File and Storage Technologies), which happened in San Jose, CA on February 23-26./P
PThe content from the FAST'10 Technical Sessions was recently published, including presentations, papers and recordings. Please find below a list of the Technical Sessions, grouped by theme:/P
TABLE border=1
TBODY
TR
TD colSpan=2STRONGOpening Remarks and Keynotes/STRONG [read].
Posted: Wed, Mar 10th '10 |
Unique Document URLs in MOSS 2007 and the new Document ID feature in SharePoint 2010
Jose Barreto
PA few years ago, I was working with a Microsoft customer to deploy a Microsoft Office SharePoint Server (MOSS 2007) solution. SharePoint 2007 had just been released at the time. The customer needed document URLsnbsp;stored in SharePoint to continued to work even after the document was renamed or moved.nbsp;I blogged about the issue and a potential solution atnbsp;A href="http://blogs.technet.com/josebda/archive/2006/12/23/unique-document-urls-in-moss-2007.aspx" mce_href="http://blogs.technet.co [read].
Posted: Tue, Mar 9th '10 |
Random thoughts and links on Storage
Jose Barreto
PIf there was ever a post true to the part of the tagline of my blog that mentions random thoughts, this is it. :-)BRThis post is a compilation of my tweets from today, which cover several different topics related to Storage. /P
UL
LIMicrosoft Research: Dryad Project: Writing parallel and distributed programs to scale from a small cluster to a large data-center A href="http://bit.ly/cbFrJw" mce_href="http://bit.ly/cbFrJw"http://bit.ly/cbFrJw/A /LI
LIMicrosoft Research: SCOPE: Easy and Efficient [read].
Posted: Fri, Feb 26th '10 |
Presentations from Storage Developer Conference 2009 (SDC 2009) are now available for download
Jose Barreto
PThe presentations from SNIA's SDC 2009 are now publicly available for download. This SNIA event happened in Santa Clara, CA last September and the decks are now publicly available, after being restricted to conference attendees for a few months. /P
POut of the dozens of presentations, I wanted to highlight a few that were delivered by people from Microsoft:/P
BLOCKQUOTE
PSTRONGATA Trim/Delete Notification Support in Windows 7BR/STRONGNeal Christiansen BRA href="http://www.snia.org/events/storag [read].
Posted: Wed, Dec 30th '09 |
Windows Server DFS Namespaces (DFS-N) Reference
Jose Barreto
PI get a number of questions regarding reference information for DFS Namespaces (also known as DFS-N). I gathered here the main links that can get you started on the subject:/P
PHere are my own blog posts on DFS Namespaces (all updated for Windows Server 2008 R2 and including domain V2 namespaces):/P
UL
LI
DIV mce_keep="true"A id=ctl00___ctl00___ctl01___Results___postlist___EntryItems_ctl09_PostTitle href="http://blogs.technet.com/josebda/archive/2009/03/10/the-basics-of-the-windows-server-2008- [read].
Posted: Wed, Dec 30th '09 |
Configuring Failover Clusters with Windows Storage Server 2008
Jose Barreto
PThe Windows Storage Server Team just released a new 30-page white paper on "Configuring Failover Clusters with Windows Storage Server 2008". /P
PThis paper will guide you through the process of configuring the networks, domains andnbsp;clustering features, including performance recommendations for a pair of Windows Storage Server 2008 appliances hosting a UFile Server /Uor a UMicrosoft iSCSI Software Target/U in a high availability failover cluster./P
PThe table of contents for this new white p [read].
Posted: Fri, Dec 18th '09 |
Automatically uploading files from File Server to SharePoint using the File Classification Infrastructure (FCI)
Jose Barreto
PWindows Server 2008 R2 introduced a new File Classification Infrastructure (FCI) and the team has been sharing different ways to put it to good use. /P
PThe latest one comes as a blog post that describes how to use the FCI SharePoint Upload PowerShell script in conjunction with the FCI File Management Tasks to automatically upload files from a File Server (running Windows Server 2008 R2) to SharePoint (bothnbsp;SharePoint Server 2007 andnbsp;SharePoint Server 2010 Beta) based on a specific cond [read].
Posted: Mon, Dec 14th '09 |
Six Uses for the Microsoft iSCSI Software Target
Jose Barreto
PScott M. Johnson, a Program Manager in the Windows Storage Server team, has just published a new blog post that might give you some ideas on different ways to use the Microsoft iSCSI Software Target. He outlines six different uses for it:/P
P1) Consolidate storage for multiple application servers.BR2) Test and Development scenarios are endless, especially for Clustering, Live Migration, SAN transfer and Storage Manager for SANs.BR3) Setup an iSCSI SAN for a Windows cluster. BR4) Consolidate ser [read].
Posted: Fri, Dec 11th '09 |
Download for Powershell v2 for Windows 7? No need... It's already there!
Jose Barreto
PA while back, Microsoft announced the release of PowerShell v2 for Windows XP, Windows Server 2003, Windows Vista, and Windows Server 2008 (see A href="http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkID=151321" mce_href="http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkID=151321"http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkID=151321/A)./P
PHowever, it is not clear to everyone that Powershell v2 is already part of Windows 7 and Windows Server 2008 R2. /P
PI have seen people still asking for the link for PowerShell v2 for Windows [read].
Posted: Wed, Nov 25th '09 |
SQL Server 2008 R2 Enterprise Evaluation November CTP available for MSDN/TechNet Subscribers
Jose Barreto
PGreat news following a very busy week for SQL Server with the PASS Community Summit: The new SQL Server 2008 R2 November CTP is now available for MSDN and TechNet subscribers.This download is expected to be available as a general download in a couple of days./P
PSTRONGTitle/STRONG:nbsp;SQL Server 2008 R2 Enterprise Evaluation November CTP (x86, x64, ia64) - DVD (English) BRSTRONGSize/STRONG: 4,011.88 (MB) BRSTRONGFile Name/STRONG: en_sql_server_2008_r2_enterprise_evaluation_november_ctp_x86_x64 [read].
Posted: Mon, Nov 9th '09 |
Mistakes when configuring your Hyper-V environment
Jose Barreto
PI came across some interesting tips on things to consider in a virtualized environment by Greg Shields (Consultant and Microsoft MVP).nbsp;BRThey are non-issues (or settled issues) on physical environments and you might overlook them when making the transition to virtual machines. /P
PHere's a summary to get you interested:/P
UL
LIScreensavers/LI
LIManaging from the console/LI
LIAV on VM disk files/LI
LIPower options/LI
LICluster Failback/LI
LIRAM availability/LI
LIBackup for CSV/LI
LINumber of [read].
Posted: Thu, Nov 5th '09 |
Scary SQL Server stuff: tombstones, phantoms, blobs, ghosts and zombies
Jose Barreto
P style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt" class=MsoNormalFONT size=3FONT face=CalibriThis post mixes the spirit of Halloween and the passion for SQL Server :-)?xml:namespace prefix = o ns = "urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:office" /o:p/o:p/FONT/FONT/P
P style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt" class=MsoNormalo:pFONT size=3 face=Calibrinbsp;/FONT/o:p/P
P style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt" class=MsoNormalFONT size=3FONT face=CalibriHave you noticed how SQL Server has a number of things that seem right out of a horror movie? o:p [read].
Posted: Sat, Oct 31st '09 |
Implementing an End-User Data Centralization Solution with Folder Redirection and Offlines Files
Jose Barreto
There's a new 77-page white paper covering the use of Folder Redirection and Offline Files in a very practical way.
Here's an excerpt:
"The objective of this white paper is to show through a case study how to use different Microsoft products and technologies to put in place a comprehensive solution satisfying the needs of a mid-sized organization around users’ file data management. The study was conducted by the Quality Assurance group of the Storage Solutions Division (SSD) at Microsoft, a d [read].
Posted: Fri, Oct 23rd '09 |
SharePoint 2010 beta in November. Feature details and screenshots available.
Jose Barreto
Jeff Teper (Corporate Vice President, SharePoint Server) and Steve Ballmer (CEO) shared SharePoint Server 2010 feature details and announced the November beta during the SharePoint Conference today in Las Vegas.
Jeff also posted a long and revealing blog, outlining 8 categories and 40 feature areas:
Sites
SharePoint Web Experience
Office Client
SharePoint Workspace
Office Web Apps
SharePoint Mobile Access
Communities
Collaborative Content
Social Feedback and Organization
User Profiles
MySite [read].
Posted: Tue, Oct 20th '09 |
File Server Capacity Tool (FSCT) 1.0 available for download
Jose Barreto
Version 1.0 of the File Server Capacity Tool (FSCT) was announced yesterday during a presentation by Jian Yan and Bartosz Nyczkowski at SNIA’s Storage Developer Conference in Santa Clara, CA. The presentation covered a number of details about FSCT and included a demo running FSCT with the HomeFolders workload.
If you are not familiar with FSCT, the download page offers this overview: “File server capacity planning and performance troubleshooting are critical aspects of high-level network ad [read].
Posted: Wed, Sep 16th '09 |
TI-55-II calculator, the first device I ever programmed
Jose Barreto
I recently bought a used TI-55-II on eBay. This is an old (early 80’s) Texas Instruments calculator, one the first programmable ones. I got it mostly for sentimental value, since I used to own one back in Brazil in 1983, my last year in high school.
Looking back, the fact that I got this specific programmable calculator exactly at that moment in my life was probably an important contributing factor to my choice of Computer Science when I joined the Federal University of Ceara in Brazil in 198 [read].
Posted: Sun, Aug 30th '09 |
Windows Server DFS-Namespaces Performance and Scalability
Jose Barreto
The DFS-N test team has completed some extensive Performance and Scalability testing and we wanted to share some of the results.
It includes results on standalone namespaces, "2000 mode" domain namespaces and "2008 mode" domain namespaces, under Windows Server 2003, Windows Server 2008 and Windows Server 2008 R2.
Check the post by Marcello Hasegawa at http://blogs.technet.com/filecab/archive/2009/08/22/windows-server-dfs-namespaces-performance-and-scalability.aspx. [read].
Posted: Sat, Aug 22nd '09 |
Three ways to design your DFS Namespaces
Jose Barreto
Introduction
In this blog post, we’ll showcase the flexibility you have with DFS-N by showing three distinct ways that you could design a namespace.
Note: If you’re not familiar with DFS-N, please read this blog post first: http://blogs.technet.com/josebda/archive/2009/03/10/the-basics-of-the-windows-server-2008-distributed-file-system-dfs.aspx
Scenario
The scenario here is simple: you have three file servers in different locations: S1 is in New York, S2 is in Amsterdam and S3 is in Hong [read].
Posted: Fri, Aug 21st '09 |
Experimenting with PowerShell Cmdlets, Snap-ins and Modules
Jose Barreto
As I continue to experiment with PowerShell v2 in Windows Server 2008 R2, I will share some of what I learn here on the blog. This time I am focusing on Cmdlets, Snap-ins and Modules.
Cmdlets
Windows PowerShell introduced the notion of a “cmdlet” (you pronounce it “commandlet”). These are like tools or commands that are typically very simple and to the point (although most have properties or parameters). For instance, there is one to restart a computer (Restart-Computer), one to list th [read].
Posted: Mon, Aug 10th '09 |
SNIA’s Storage Developers Conference 2009 in Santa Clara, CA is coming – Plan to be there on the week of September 14th
Jose Barreto
The Storage Networking Industry Association (SNIA) is hosting the 6th Storage Developer Conference (SDC) in the Hyatt Regency in beautiful Santa Clara, CA (Silicon Valley) on the week of September 14th. This event is also co-located with the CIFS/SMB/SMB2 Plugfest. For those working with storage technologies, this event gathers a unique crowd and includes a rich agenda that you can find at http://www.snia.org/events/storage-developer2009/agenda2009.
Looking at the agenda, you can see it includes [read].
Posted: Sat, Aug 8th '09 |
The good old days of CP/M 2.2 on a TRS-80 with an 8-bit Z80 CPU
Jose Barreto
I was reading the news on the release of Windows 7 and stopped to think of the early days of my IT career and what an OS looked like then. I thought way back to one of the first microcomputer disk operating systems I ever used: CP/M. I actually remembered the few resident commands we had back then in CP/M: DIR, ERA, REN, TYPE, SAVE and USER. I remember that clearly because, back in the 1980s, I taught some classes on CP/M (while still attending college) and even wrote a little booklet (in Portug [read].
Posted: Sat, Aug 8th '09 |
Strings, Arrays and Functions in PowerShell v2 (and some sample code that speaks for itself :-)
Jose Barreto
I spent some more time experimenting with PowerShell v2 and here goes my second post about it.
This time around I am focusing on how to define variables, use expressions and create functions.
The "problem" we're solving :-)
To make it fun, I decided to create a little script that creates some random syllables, words and sentences using a set of rules. This will come out as some nonsense sentences, but they should be pronounceable. I wrote this little program in several languages before and [read].
Posted: Mon, Aug 3rd '09 |
Changes in Roles, Role Services and Features from Windows Server 2008 to Windows Server 2008 R2
Jose Barreto
Introduction
This blog post covers the changes in Roles, Role Services and Features from Windows Server 2008 (with Service Pack 2) to Windows Server 2008 R2 (used the latest RC build available to me).
To create the tables and lists below, I installed both operating systems, used the "ServerManagerCmd -query" command and did some editing of the resulting text to provide a side-by-side comparison.
Please note that I based the "New", "Renamed" or "Removed" marks based on the output of the comman [read].
Posted: Sun, Jul 19th '09 |
Worldwide Partner Conference (WPC 09) provides a snapshot of what Microsoft is up to (keynotes available for review)
Jose Barreto
Earlier this week Microsoft hosted the 2009 edition of the Worldwide Partner Conference (WPC 2009) in New Orleans.Thousands of partners joined to understand where Microsoft is going and how they can work together with Microsoft.The keynotes were streamed live (a bit too early on the Pacific side, but it certainly was very interesting).The entire keynotes were recorded and are now available at http://digitalwpc.com.
Highlights
Windows 7 and Windows Server 2008 R2 were obviously a main topic of th [read].
Posted: Fri, Jul 17th '09 |
Five ways to check your DFS-Namespaces (DFS-N) configuration with the DFSDIAG.EXE tool
Jose Barreto
Introduction
The Distributed File System Namespaces (DFS-N) service is a role service of the File Service role for Windows Server.For a basic description of DFS-N, start with http://blogs.technet.com/josebda/archive/2009/03/10/the-basics-of-the-windows-server-2008-distributed-file-system-dfs.aspx
DFS-N, as the name implies, is a distributed system and it involves a number of components running on a set of computers (Active Directory domain controllers, DFS-N namespace servers, SMB file server [read].
Posted: Thu, Jul 16th '09 |
Micro-blogging on Twitter: a few thoughts and tips
Jose Barreto
As I posted a few days ago, I’m now micro-blogging on twitter as well as regular-blogging here. One week or so into the experience, I can tell you that it looks a lot different from inside :-)
Angles
First of all, there are many angles on micro-blogging. Some use twitter just as new kind of IM, sharing messages that are meaningless without a specific context and probably too personal to be posted publicly. Others will be able to provide interesting, self-contained insights in their 140-chara [read].
Posted: Sun, Jul 12th '09 |
Proud to be a Microsoft Certified Master: Microsoft SQL Server 2008
Jose Barreto
Earlier this year (or last fiscal year :-), I participated in a grueling three-week training and passed four exams (one of them a lab exam) to become one of just a dozen Microsoft Certified Masters on SQL Server 2008 worldwide.
This was certainly the most demanding IT certification I ever attempted and a great learning experience. Even more important, I met a few remarkable people in the process, both instructors and fellow padawans.
Read the blog post announcing the new batch of SQL MCMs at ht [read].
Posted: Sat, Jul 11th '09 |
File Server Capacity Tool (FSCT) Release Candidate available for download
Jose Barreto
The File Server Capacity Tool (FSCT) is a capacity planning software for CIFS/SMB/SMB2 file servers. It’s also useful for identifying performance bottlenecks. FSCT results include the maximum number of users for a file server configuration, throughput for that configuration and performance counters for the server and clients used.
This is a command line tool and the target audience is IT Professionals and Storage Solution Providers. It is not a GUI tool for end users. You will also need a few [read].
Posted: Wed, Jul 8th '09 |
Experimenting with PowerShell
Jose Barreto
Powershell is a command line interface for Windows that offers a very powerful and flexible mode.In this post, I show some sample command that can help you understand some of the basic features and also some more complex ones. If you never played with it before, try running some commands in a PowerShell prompt.
Shows a list of commands:
Get-Command
Shows the help overview:
Get-Help
Show the help for “Dir”:
Get-Help Dir
Let's use the Dir command now (actually an alias for Get-ChildItem) [read].
Posted: Fri, Jul 3rd '09 |
I am now on Twitter (and more active on Facebook)
Jose Barreto
It started posting articles electronically back in the BBS days in the late 1980s.I create a web page with my own domain name in 1998 (back in Brazil with a ".br" domain name that I no longer own).I moved to a US domain when I moved to the United States in 2000 (it’s still there at http://www.barreto.us and it hasn't changed much in years).In July 2004 (around five years ago, almost to the day), I started blogging here at http://blogs.technet.com/josebda.It’s actually kind of fun to go back [read].
Posted: Tue, Jun 30th '09 |
Microsoft File Server Migration Toolkit 1.2 available as a free download
Jose Barreto
Microsoft released the File Server Migration Toolkit version 1.2 (FSMT 1.2), which will help you migrate file shares from computers running Windows NT 4.0 Server, Windows 2000 Server, Windows 2003 Server, Windows Server 2008 and Windows Storage Server 2008 to computers running Windows 2003 Server, Windows Server 2008 and Windows Storage Server 2008. You can use it to consolidate multiple file servers or simply to migrate files between servers.
This is an update to the previous FSMT 1.1 that fixe [read].
Posted: Tue, Jun 30th '09 |
How many DFS-N namespace servers do you need?
Jose Barreto
Introduction
Whenever you’re deploying Windows Server DFS-Namespaces, you will need to figure out how many servers will be required. Since I moved to the role of DFS-N PM, I noticed that the specific information on how many namespace servers you need is something that isn’t clearly posted anywhere. Although we never really had any problems with performance of the namespace server themselves, the question of where to place them is quite common.Hopefully, this blog post will help clarify the [read].
Posted: Fri, Jun 26th '09 |
TechEd 2009 session today on Windows Server 2008 R2 File Classification Infrastructure (FCI)
Jose Barreto
If you are attending the Microsoft TechEd 2009 conference in Los Angeles and you're looking forward to a deep dive into the new File Classification Infrastructure (FCI) in Windows Server 2008 R2, there will be a session today including a walkthrough of FCI with never-before-seen demos of partner solutions and how you can use PowerShell to extend FCI. Don't miss it!
Session
WSV329
Title
Windows Server 2008 R2 File Classification Infrastructure: Managing Cost and Mitigating Risk on File Serv [read].
Posted: Thu, May 14th '09 |
Windows Storage Server 2008 with the Microsoft iSCSI Software Target 3.2 available to MSDN and TechNet Plus subscribers
Jose Barreto
Overview
I am glad to share that Windows Storage Server 2008 (WSS 2008) with the Microsoft iSCSI Software Target 3.2 is now available to all MSDN and TechNet Plus subscribers. This Microsoft product is offered typically via our OEM partners, but a version for evaluation (TechNet Plus or MSDN), demonstration (MSDN), development (MSDN) or test (MSDN) is now being provided to MSDN and TechNet Plus subscribers for the first time. This opens the door for a number of interesting scenarios, especially [read].
Posted: Tue, May 12th '09 |
Windows Server 2008 R2 File Classification Infrastructure (FCI) at TechEd 2009
Jose Barreto
I wanted to call your attention to four new blog posts this morning from Nir Ben Zvi (Senior Program Manager Lead, Microsoft File Server Team) and Matthias Wollnik (Program Manager, Microsoft File Server Team) introducing the Windows Server 2008 R2 File Classification Infrastructure (FCI). This new Windows feature, highlighted in today's keynote during TechEd 2009, allows you to define classification properties, automatically classify files, automate file management tasks (like file expiration) [read].
Posted: Mon, May 11th '09 |
Windows Storage Server 2008 and the Microsoft iSCSI Software Target 3.2
Jose Barreto
I am glad to share that Windows Storage Server 2008 (WSS 2008) and the Microsoft iSCSI Software Target 3.2 have been released to the Microsoft OEM partners.
This is the successor to Windows Storage Server 2003 (WSS 2003) and Windows Unified Data Storage Server 2003 (WUDSS 2003). I have been working closely with some of the OEM partners for the last few quarters and they will be announcing their Windows Storage Server 2008 appliances over the next several weeks.
In this release, a number of impo [read].
Posted: Wed, May 6th '09 |
Using the Windows Server 2008 DFSUTIL.EXE command line to manage DFS-Namespaces
Jose Barreto
The most common administration activities related to DFS-Namespaces can be performed using the “DFS Management” MMC. This will show up under “Administrative Tools” after you add the DFS role service in Server Manager. You can also add just the MMC for remote management of a DFS namespace server. You will find that in Server Manager, under Add Feature, Remote Server Administration Tools (RSAT), Role Administration Tools, File Services Tools.
Another way to manage DFS-N is to use DFSUTIL.E [read].
Posted: Fri, May 1st '09 |
RC for Windows Server 2008 R2 and Windows 7 released to TechNet Plus and MSDN (includes filenames and sizes)
Jose Barreto
If you are a TechNet Plus or an MSDN subscriber, you can now download the Release Candidate (RC) for Windows Server 2008 R2 and Windows 7.
There are different files for each client architecture (x64, x86) and server architecture (x64, ia64). Additional files include the language packs for each one, plus the WAIK (Windows Automated Installation Kit), Windows SDK (Software Development Kit) and WDK (Windows Driver Kit).
See a list of files and sizes in the table below:
NameFilename
Size
Windows [read].
Posted: Thu, Apr 30th '09 |
Microsoft Management Summit 2009 keynotes available
Jose Barreto
The Microsoft Management Summit 2009 has started, touching on interesting themes like Virtualization, Dynamic IT and Private Clouds. He also described new features of Hyper-V in Windows Server 2008 R2 and Virtual Machine Manager 2008 R2. For those not fortunate enough to be in Las Vegas attending in person, you can watch the keynotes on domand. The first one, delivered earlier today by Bob Kelly (Microsoft Corporate VP for Microsoft Infrastructure Server Marketing), started the series. You can w [read].
Posted: Wed, Apr 29th '09 |
Microsoft keynote at the RSA Conference 2009: End to End Trust
Jose Barreto
Microsoft's Corporate VP of Trustworthy Computing (Scott Charney) delivered an interesting keynote as part of this year's RSA Conference about End to End Trust, following up on Craig Mundie's keynote last year.
End to End Trust is described as "Microsoft’s vision for a safer, more trusted Internet that can only be achieved through broad cross industry collaboration and alignment".
Check this and other keynotes from the conference at http://media.omediaweb.com/rsa2009/keynote_catalog.htm [read].
Posted: Mon, Apr 27th '09 |
Final version of Network Monitor 3.3 available for download
Jose Barreto
NetMon 3.3 has just been released, with a number of new features. One of my favorites this time around is the ability to add comments to a frame.
Also, keep in mind that protocols are evolving and having the latest NetMon can help. For instance, only the more recent versions of NetMon include an SMB2 protocol parser that can properly show more complex frames like compound SMB2 requests and responses.
Get all the details, including a complete list of new features, a download link and a picture of [read].
Posted: Thu, Apr 23rd '09 |
An Open Source NFS Client for Windows
Jose Barreto
Microsoft is sponsoring research at the University of Michigan's Center for Information Technology Integration (CITI) to develop an open source NFS client for Windows. CITI developed the open source Linux-based reference implementation of NFSv4 that is already included in all Linux distributions. Details were shared by Bob Muglia, president of the Server and Tools Business (STB) at Microsoft.
Check the announcement at http://port25.technet.com/archive/2009/04/22/an-open-source-network-file-syste [read].
Posted: Thu, Apr 23rd '09 |
Understanding Windows Server 2008 DFS-N by analyzing network traces
Jose Barreto
1 – Overview
This blog post details the behavior of Windows Server 2008 DFS-N (Distributed File System - Namespaces) clients by looking at network traces. The main goal here is to show the interaction between a DFS-N client, a domain controller, a namespace server and a file server.These traces were taken using Network Monitor 3.3 beta from a set of isolated computers in a domain.To understand this post, you need some familiarity with common protocols like ARP, ICMP, TCP and DNS.At least a b [read].
Posted: Thu, Apr 16th '09 |
SQL Server 2008 - Summary of Training Sessions
Jose Barreto
I took some advanced SQL Server 2008 classes recently and shared my notes in a series of blog posts.
Here's a summary of all those posts, in alphabetical order:
SQL Server 2008 Auditing
SQL Server 2008 Backup and Restore
SQL Server 2008 Change Tracking (CT) and Change Data Capture (CDC)
SQL Server 2008 Client Design
SQL Server 2008 Data Compression
SQL Server 2008 Database Checking
SQL Server 2008 Database Compression
SQL Server 2008 Database Mirroring
SQL Server 2008 Database Snapshots
SQL Se [read].
Posted: Mon, Apr 13th '09 |
SQL Server 2008 Tempdb
Jose Barreto
Here are some notes on “SQL Server 2008 Tempdb” I took while attending an advanced class on SQL Server taught by Greg Low (from http://sqlblog.com/blogs/greg_low/ and http://www.sqldownunder.com/).
Please note that, although these notes were taken during the class, I might have added some of my own (mis)interpretation :-). Always check your facts on Books Online (I try to provide links when applicable). As with anything else you get from a blog, never use any of this in production before you [read].
Posted: Sat, Apr 4th '09 |
SQL Server 2008 Integration Services (SSIS)
Jose Barreto
Here are some notes on “SQL Server 2008 Integration Services (SSIS)” I took while attending an advanced class on SQL Server taught by Greg Low (from http://sqlblog.com/blogs/greg_low/ and http://www.sqldownunder.com/).
Please note that, although these notes were taken during the class, I might have added some of my own (mis)interpretation :-). Always check your facts on Books Online (I try to provide links when applicable). As with anything else you get from a blog, never use any of this in [read].
Posted: Sat, Apr 4th '09 |
SQL Server 2008 Database Snapshots
Jose Barreto
Here are some notes on “SQL Server 2008 Database Snapshots” I took while attending an advanced class on SQL Server taught by Greg Low (from http://sqlblog.com/blogs/greg_low/ and http://www.sqldownunder.com/).
Please note that, although these notes were taken during the class, I might have added some of my own (mis)interpretation :-). Always check your facts on Books Online (I try to provide links when applicable). As with anything else you get from a blog, never use any of this in productio [read].
Posted: Fri, Apr 3rd '09 |
SQL Server 2008 Log Shipping
Jose Barreto
Here are some notes on “SQL Server 2008 Log Shipping” I took while attending an advanced class on SQL Server taught by Greg Low (from http://sqlblog.com/blogs/greg_low/ and http://www.sqldownunder.com/).
Please note that, although these notes were taken during the class, I might have added some of my own (mis)interpretation :-). Always check your facts on Books Online (I try to provide links when applicable). As with anything else you get from a blog, never use any of this in production befo [read].
Posted: Fri, Apr 3rd '09 |
SQL Server 2008 Database Mirroring
Jose Barreto
Here are some notes on “SQL Server 2008 Database Mirroring” I took while attending an advanced class on SQL Server taught by Greg Low (from http://sqlblog.com/blogs/greg_low/ and http://www.sqldownunder.com/).
Please note that, although these notes were taken during the class, I might have added some of my own (mis)interpretation :-). Always check your facts on Books Online (I try to provide links when applicable). As with anything else you get from a blog, never use any of this in productio [read].
Posted: Thu, Apr 2nd '09 |
SQL Server 2008 Failover Clustering
Jose Barreto
Here are some notes on “SQL Server 2008 Failover Clustering” I took while attending an advanced class on SQL Server taught by Greg Low (from http://sqlblog.com/blogs/greg_low/ and http://www.sqldownunder.com/).
Please note that, although these notes were taken during the class, I might have added some of my own (mis)interpretation :-). Always check your facts on Books Online (I try to provide links when applicable). As with anything else you get from a blog, never use any of this in producti [read].
Posted: Thu, Apr 2nd '09 |
SQL Server 2008 Encryption
Jose Barreto
Here are some notes on “SQL Server 2008 Encryption” I took while attending an advanced class on SQL Server taught by Greg Low (from http://sqlblog.com/blogs/greg_low/ and http://www.sqldownunder.com/).
Please note that, although these notes were taken during the class, I might have added some of my own (mis)interpretation :-). Always check your facts on Books Online (I try to provide links when applicable). As with anything else you get from a blog, never use any of this in production before [read].
Posted: Wed, Apr 1st '09 |
SQL Server 2008 Transparent Data Encryption (TDE)
Jose Barreto
Here are some notes on “SQL Server 2008 Transparent Data Encryption (TDE)” I took while attending an advanced class on SQL Server taught by Greg Low (from http://sqlblog.com/blogs/greg_low/ and http://www.sqldownunder.com/).
Please note that, although these notes were taken during the class, I might have added some of my own (mis)interpretation :-). Always check your facts on Books Online (I try to provide links when applicable). As with anything else you get from a blog, never use any of th [read].
Posted: Wed, Apr 1st '09 |
SQL Server 2008 Auditing
Jose Barreto
Here are some notes on “SQL Server 2008 Auditing” I took while attending an advanced class on SQL Server taught by Greg Low (from http://sqlblog.com/blogs/greg_low/ and http://www.sqldownunder.com/).
Please note that, although these notes were taken during the class, I might have added some of my own (mis)interpretation :-). Always check your facts on Books Online (I try to provide links when applicable). As with anything else you get from a blog, never use any of this in production before y [read].
Posted: Wed, Apr 1st '09 |
SQL Server 2008 Security
Jose Barreto
Here are some notes on “SQL Server 2008 Security” I took while attending an advanced class on SQL Server taught by Greg Low (from http://sqlblog.com/blogs/greg_low/ and http://www.sqldownunder.com/).
Please note that, although these notes were taken during the class, I might have added some of my own (mis)interpretation :-). Always check your facts on Books Online (I try to provide links when applicable). As with anything else you get from a blog, never use any of this in production before y [read].
Posted: Wed, Apr 1st '09 |
SQL Server 2008 I/O Performance
Jose Barreto
Here are some notes on “SQL Server 2008 I/O Performance” I took while attending an advanced class on SQL Server taught by Greg Low (from http://sqlblog.com/blogs/greg_low/ and http://www.sqldownunder.com/).
Please note that, although these notes were taken during the class, I might have added some of my own (mis)interpretation :-). Always check your facts on Books Online (I try to provide links when applicable). As with anything else you get from a blog, never use any of this in production b [read].
Posted: Wed, Apr 1st '09 |
SQL Server 2008 Service Broker
Jose Barreto
Here are some notes on “SQL Server 2008 Service Broker” I took while attending an advanced class on SQL Server taught by Greg Low (from http://sqlblog.com/blogs/greg_low/ and http://www.sqldownunder.com/).
Please note that, although these notes were taken during the class, I might have added some of my own (mis)interpretation :-). Always check your facts on Books Online (I try to provide links when applicable). As with anything else you get from a blog, never use any of this in production b [read].
Posted: Tue, Mar 31st '09 |
SQL Server 2008 Database Compression
Jose Barreto
Here are some notes on “SQL Server 2008 Database Compression” I took while attending an advanced class on SQL Server taught by Greg Low (from http://sqlblog.com/blogs/greg_low/ and http://www.sqldownunder.com/).
Please note that, although these notes were taken during the class, I might have added some of my own (mis)interpretation :-). Always check your facts on Books Online (I try to provide links when applicable). As with anything else you get from a blog, never use any of this in produ [read].
Posted: Tue, Mar 31st '09 |
SQL Server 2008 SQLOS
Jose Barreto
Here are some notes on “SQL Server 2008 SQLOS” I took while attending an advanced class on SQL Server taught by Gert Drapers (from http://dbproj.com/ and http://blogs.msdn.com/gertd/).
Please note that, although these notes were taken during the class, I might have added some of my own (mis)interpretation :-). Always check your facts on Books Online (I try to provide links when applicable). As with anything else you get from a blog, never use any of this in production before you thoroughly v [read].
Posted: Tue, Mar 31st '09 |
SQL Server 2008 Merge Replication
Jose Barreto
Here are some notes on “SQL Server 2008 Merge Replication” I took while attending an advanced class on SQL Server taught by Greg Low (from http://sqlblog.com/blogs/greg_low/ and http://www.sqldownunder.com/).
Please note that, although these notes were taken during class, I might have added some of my own interpretation. Always check your facts on Books Online (I try to provide links when applicable). As with anything else you get from a blog, never use any of this in production before you t [read].
Posted: Sun, Mar 29th '09 |
SQL Server 2008 Storage
Jose Barreto
Here are some notes on “SQL Server 2008 Storage” I took while attending an advanced class on SQL Server taught by Greg Low (from http://sqlblog.com/blogs/greg_low/ and http://www.sqldownunder.com/).
Please note that, although these notes were taken during the class, I might have added some of my own (mis)interpretation :-). Always check your facts on Books Online (I try to provide links when applicable). As with anything else you get from a blog, never use any of this in production before yo [read].
Posted: Sat, Mar 28th '09 |
SQL Server 2008 Policy-based Management
Jose Barreto
Here are some notes on “SQL Server 2008 Policy-based Management” I took while attending an advanced class on SQL Server taught by Greg Low (from http://sqlblog.com/blogs/greg_low/ and http://www.sqldownunder.com/). Please keep in mind that some of those will be hard to follow without the right context. Reading them in sequence might help (a little :-).
Scenarios
Manage a large number of SQL Server, in the thousands
Manage situations where some servers are working and some aren’t
Server [read].
Posted: Fri, Mar 27th '09 |
SQL Server 2008 Replication Overview
Jose Barreto
Here are some notes on “SQL Server 2008 Replication Overview” I took while attending an advanced class on SQL Server taught by Greg Low (from http://sqlblog.com/blogs/greg_low/ and http://www.sqldownunder.com/). Please keep in mind that some of those will be hard to follow without the right context. Reading them in sequence might help (a little :-).
Replication
Can copy data and objects
Synchronize copies to maintain consistency
Can be seen as a data distribution technology
See http://msd [read].
Posted: Thu, Mar 26th '09 |
SQL Server 2008 Transactional Replication
Jose Barreto
Here are some notes on “SQL Server 2008 Transactional Replication” I took while attending an advanced class on SQL Server taught by Greg Low (from http://sqlblog.com/blogs/greg_low/ and http://www.sqldownunder.com/). Please keep in mind that some of those will be hard to follow without the right context. Reading them in sequence might help (a little :-).
Transactional Replication
Agents: Snapshot, Log Reader (like CDC), Distribution
Incremental flow: Into distribution DB, reliable store/f [read].
Posted: Thu, Mar 26th '09 |
SQL Server 2008 Spatial Data
Jose Barreto
Here are some notes on “SQL Server 2008 Spatial Data” I took while attending an advanced class on SQL Server taught by Greg Low (from http://sqlblog.com/blogs/greg_low/ and http://www.sqldownunder.com/). Please keep in mind that some of those will be hard to follow without the right context. Reading them in sequence might help (a little :-).
Spatial Data
Most applications can make use of spatial data, not just mapping and CAD
Types: Vector vs. Raster, 2D vs 3D vs 4D, Flat Earth vs. Round [read].
Posted: Thu, Mar 26th '09 |
SQL Server 2008 Resource Governor
Jose Barreto
Here are some notes on “SQL Server 2008 Resource Governor” I took while attending an advanced class on SQL Server taught by Greg Low (from http://sqlblog.com/blogs/greg_low/ and http://www.sqldownunder.com/). Please keep in mind that some of those will be hard to follow without the right context. Reading them in sequence might help (a little :-).
Nasty queries
Case: “Query from hell” takes all resources
Case: Controlling users that connect using Excel, Access
SQL Server 2005: Single r [read].
Posted: Thu, Mar 26th '09 |
SQL Server 2008 DR, Testing and Waits
Jose Barreto
Here are some notes on “SQL Server 2008 DR, Testing, Waits” I took while attending an advanced class on SQL Server taught by Ron Talmage (from http://www.solidq.com/na/MentorDetail.aspx?Id=38). Please keep in mind that some of those will be hard to follow without the right context. Reading them in sequence might help (a little :-).
Disaster Recovery
RTO (Recovery Time Objective), RPO (Recovery Point Objective), RTA (Recovery Time Actual)
Backup Media (disk/tape) and Location (local, remot [read].
Posted: Wed, Mar 25th '09 |
SQL Server 2008 Change Tracking (CT) and Change Data Capture (CDC)
Jose Barreto
Here are some notes on SQL Server 2008 Change Tracking (CT) and Change Data Capture (CDC) I took while attending an advanced class on SQL Server taught by Paul Nielsen (from http://www.sqlserverbible.com). Please keep in mind that some of those will be hard to follow without the right context. Reading them in sequence might help (a little :-).
Auditing and Monitoring
Before SQL Server 2000: Profiler/Trace, after triggers, sysmon/perfmon, error log
SQL Server 2000 and later: C2Audit, Security [read].
Posted: Tue, Mar 24th '09 |
SQL Server 2008 New Date and Time Types
Jose Barreto
Here are some notes on SQL Server 2008 New date and time types I took while attending an advanced class on SQL Server taught by Paul Nielsen (from http://www.sqlserverbible.com). Please keep in mind that some of those will be hard to follow without the right context. Reading them in sequence might help (a little :-).
New date and time types
Date – 3 bytes, accurate to day
Time [0-7] – 3 to 5 bytes, accurate to 100 nanoseconds
DateTime2 [0-7] – 6 to 8 bytes, accurate to 100 nanoseconds
Dat [read].
Posted: Tue, Mar 24th '09 |
SQL Server 2008 Hierarchies and HierarchyID
Jose Barreto
Here are some notes on SQL Server 2008 Hierarchies and HierarchyID I took while attending an advanced class on SQL Server taught by Paul Nielsen (from http://www.sqlserverbible.com). Please keep in mind that some of those will be hard to follow without the right context. Reading them in sequence might help (a little :-).
Hierarchies
Use cases: Hierarchy, graphs (many to many), XML indexing
Adjacency Lists: Species trees, directory folders, simple org charts
Dual parent adjacency list: Genea [read].
Posted: Tue, Mar 24th '09 |
SQL Server 2008 Merge
Jose Barreto
Here are some notes on SQL Server 2008 Merge I took while attending an advanced class on SQL Server taught by Paul Nielsen (from http://www.sqlserverbible.com). Please keep in mind that some of those will be hard to follow without the right context. Reading them in sequence might help (a little :-).
Merge
MERGE is like INSERT, UPDATE or DELETE all in one (UPSERT plus DELETE)
MERGE INTO target USING source ON condition WHEN…
3 different types of when, use as many as you need:
- WHEN MATCHED [A [read].
Posted: Tue, Mar 24th '09 |
SQL Server 2008 T-SQL Improvements
Jose Barreto
Here are some notes on SQL Server 2008 T-SQL Improvements I took while attending an advanced class on SQL Server taught by Paul Nielsen (from http://www.sqlserverbible.com). Please keep in mind that some of those will be hard to follow without the right context. Reading them in sequence might help (a little :-).
T-SQL Variables
Initialize when declaring : DECLARE @x INT = 1
Incrementing : SET @X += 1 (also with other operators)
TVP
How to send 100 rows from a client to the sql server as one [read].
Posted: Tue, Mar 24th '09 |
SQL Server 2008 XML Indexing
Jose Barreto
Here are some notes on SQL Server 2008 XML Indexing I took while attending an advanced class on SQL Server taught by Adam Machanic (http://sqlblog.com/blogs/adam_machanic/default.aspx). Please keep in mind that some of those will be hard to follow without the right context. Reading them in sequence might help (a little :-).
XML Indexing
Engine needs to XML in order to process it
Solution: XML Indexes – pre-parsed representation of XML data
Include tages, values, path from the XML instance, tu [read].
Posted: Tue, Mar 24th '09 |
SQL Server 2008 Client Design
Jose Barreto
Here are some notes on SQL Server 2008 Client Design I took while attending an advanced class on SQL Server taught by Adam Machanic (http://sqlblog.com/blogs/adam_machanic/default.aspx). Please keep in mind that some of those will be hard to follow without the right context. Reading them in sequence might help (a little :-).
Talking about code
ADO.NET SqlClient, SQLXML and SQLCLR
Could you write a small ADO.NET in a few hours
Could you write a few queries and return tables
Is XML developer te [read].
Posted: Tue, Mar 24th '09 |
SQL Server 2008 Checking Databases
Jose Barreto
Here are some notes on SQL Server Checking Databases I took while attending an advanced class on SQL Server taught by Paul Randal (http://sqlskills.com/AboutPaulSRandal.asp). Please keep in mind that some of those will be hard to follow without the right context. Reading them in sequence might help (a little :-).
Checking databases
Why check for corruption?
What to do when corruption happens?
Many people don't prepare for it and panic.
Monitor with agent alerts
IO Errors
823 - hard I/O err [read].
Posted: Sat, Mar 21st '09 |
SQL Server 2008 Backup and Restore
Jose Barreto
Here are some notes on SQL Server Backup and Restore I took while attending an advanced class on SQL Server taught by Paul Randal http://sqlskills.com/AboutPaulSRandal.asp). Please keep in mind that some of those will be hard to follow without the right context. Reading them in sequence might help (a little :-).
Overview
Full, log and diff backups most used
File and File Group backups less used
Many different ways to do backups - TSQL, UI, SMO
Don't have a backup strategy, have a restore stra [read].
Posted: Sat, Mar 21st '09 |
SQL Server 2008 Fragmentation
Jose Barreto
Here are some notes on SQL Server Fragmentation I took while attending an advanced class on SQL Server taught by Paul Randal http://sqlskills.com/AboutPaulSRandal.asp). Please keep in mind that some of those will be hard to follow without the right context. Reading them in sequence might help (a little :-).
Types of searches
Full scans
Binary searches
Linear interpolation - fixed record size, monotonely increasing key
Singleton Lookup
Index Seek / Clustered Index Seek
Find record using ind [read].
Posted: Fri, Mar 20th '09 |
SQL Server 2008 Locking
Jose Barreto
Here are some notes on SQL Server Locking I took while attending an advanced class on SQL Server taught by Kimberly Tripp (http://sqlskills.com/AboutKimberlyLTripp.asp). Please keep in mind that some of those will be hard to follow without the right context. Reading them in sequence might help (a little :-).
You have more locks than you think
You have a shared database lock every time you connect
This helps someone from making the database read only while you're on
One update on one row will [read].
Posted: Thu, Mar 19th '09 |
SQL Server 2008 Partitioning
Jose Barreto
Here are some notes on SQL Server Partitioning I took while attending an advanced class on SQL Server taught by Kimberly Tripp (http://sqlskills.com/AboutKimberlyLTripp.asp). Please keep in mind that some of those will be hard to follow without the right context. Reading them in sequence might help (a little :-).
Partitioning misconceptions
It's not all about speeding up for parallelism
It's not all about scaling out databases for performance
It's not all about very large and slow databases
I [read].
Posted: Thu, Mar 19th '09 |
Book Chapter on Improving SQL Server Performance
Jose Barreto
I stumbled upon a great document on how to improve SQL Server performance. It's actually a chapther in a book on "Improving .NET Application Performance and Scalability" from a "Patterns and Practices" prescriptive guidance. Here's a summary of what it covers:
SQL: Scale Up vs. Scale Out
Optimize the application before scaling up or scaling out.
Address historical and reporting data
Scale up for most applications.
Scale out when scaling up does not suffice or is cost-prohibitive.
Schema
De [read].
Posted: Thu, Mar 19th '09 |
'Optimize for Ad Hoc Workloads' in SQL Server 2008
Jose Barreto
SQL Server will create a plan for each batch you execute. If that plan is deemed to be "safe", it's stored in the plan cache for re-use. However, you use a lot of ad hoc queries only once, you will end up with a lot of cached plans that are really never re-used and just waste memory. Considering that plans have a higher priority in the cache, this could be relevant.
SQL Server 2008 has a new option to improve on that. It basically will only cache an ad hoc query on the second use. On the first r [read].
Posted: Thu, Mar 19th '09 |
SQL Server Statistics
Jose Barreto
Here are some notes on SQL Server Statistics I took while attending an advanced class on SQL Server taught by Kimberly Tripp (http://sqlskills.com/AboutKimberlyLTripp.asp). Please keep in mind that some of those will be hard to follow without the right context. Reading them in sequence might help (a little :-).
Understanding the job of the cost estimator
Table Scan (always an option)
Useful Indexes (look at WHERE, JOIN, GROUP BY, ORDER BY, covering)
Other options?
Statistics
Statistics = de [read].
Posted: Thu, Mar 19th '09 |
Understanding SQL Server Graphical Execution Plans
Jose Barreto
I'm attending a SQL training and looking at indexing closely. One thing that becomes important is understanding how SQL executes queries. Understanding the graphical execution plans becomes extremely important. While looking for a good reference, I found it in books online:
Graphical Execution Plan Icons (SQL Server Management Studio)http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ms175913.aspx
As usual, Books Online is a great reference but it does help you understand them and there are no details and [read].
Posted: Wed, Mar 18th '09 |
Indexing for JOINs in SQL Server
Jose Barreto
Here are some notes on indexing for JOINs from a SQL Server class I attended taught by Kimberly Tripp (http://sqlskills.com/AboutKimberlyLTripp.asp). Please keep in mind that some of those will be hard to follow without the right context. Reading them in sequence might help (a little :-).
Tables per select
Old limit of 16 tables per select (before SQL Server 7) went up to 256
Lots of people needing large join worked around using temp tables
The limit is gone, but people still do it, sometim [read].
Posted: Wed, Mar 18th '09 |
Indexing Best Practices for SQL Server 2008
Jose Barreto
Here are some additional notes I took while attending an advanced class on SQL Server taught by Kimberly Tripp (http://sqlskills.com/AboutKimberlyLTripp.asp). Please keep in mind that some of those will be hard to follow without the right context. Reading them in sequence might help (a little :-).
The best index
There's a best index for every query
You don't want to do that for every query, though
You would end up with too many indexes
You need to select a good set of base indexes
Find a ba [read].
Posted: Tue, Mar 17th '09 |
Thoughts and ideas about SQL Server 2008 indexing
Jose Barreto
Here are some I took while taking an advanced class on SQL Server taught by Kimberly Tripp (http://sqlskills.com/AboutKimberlyLTripp.asp). Please keep in mind that some of those will be hard to follow without the right context. Reading them in sequence might help (a little :-).
General
Good database design is necessary
SQL Server does not "automatically take care of everything"
Just throwing hardware at the problem is not a good strategy
Good design will give you orders of magnitude improvem [read].
Posted: Tue, Mar 17th '09 |
SQL Server 2008 file-related optimizations
Jose Barreto
While attending training today, I learned some file-related optimizations for SQL Server 2008. Some of those will also apply to previous versions of SQL Server.
1) No performance gain in multiple log files
There is a common misconception that having multiple log files per database would help performance. That is not true. Even if you add another log file, SQL will still have to write (append) sequentially to only one of the log files. Adding another log file makes sense if your first log file is [read].
Posted: Tue, Mar 17th '09 |
To BLOB or Not To BLOB: Large Object Storage in a Database or a Filesystem
Jose Barreto
While attending a class on SQL Server, I was introduced to a paper from Microsoft Research (authors are Russell Sears, Catharine Van Ingen and Jim Gray) that discusses whether to store large objects in a filesystem or in a database, depending on the size of the object in question.
White Paper Title: To BLOB or Not To BLOB: Large Object Storage in a Database or a Filesystem
Abstract: Application designers often face the question of whether to store large objects in a filesystem or in a database. [read].
Posted: Mon, Mar 16th '09 |
SQL Server 2008 Data Compression
Jose Barreto
SQL Server 2008 introduced a new feature to compress data stored in tables, indexes and indexed views. It basically uses a few different techniques to save space when storing data. You can set compression to NONE, ROW or PAGE (page includes ROW-level compression).
There are a lot of small details that are relevant here. Here is an incomplete list of those details:
This feature is targeted at Data Warehouses
It is only available for SQL Server 2008 Enterprise and Developer editions
You cannot u [read].
Posted: Mon, Mar 16th '09 |
What's really inside a SQL Server database file
Jose Barreto
I'm taking a class on SQL Server and the instructor (Paul Randal) has shared lots of details about how the data is actually stored inside the database data files (MDF files). That included the different types of 8KB pages in a database file and how to use the DBCC IND and DBCC PAGE commands to look inside them.
All pages include a header section (first 96 bytes) and a slot array (also known as the offset table) growing from the end of the page. The actual data sits between them. There are many [read].
Posted: Mon, Mar 16th '09 |
New White Paper on Hyper-V and SQL Server Consolidation at Microsoft
Jose Barreto
A new white paper on how Microsoft IT is combining Hyper-V and SQL Server has just been published. This comes from a team that provides thousands of SQL Server instances for internal applications. It includes a lot of interesting new information, including results of specific tests they performed to evaluate their options. This is something that I first saw on an internal-only presentation a few weeks back and I'm glad they posted it publicly.
Here's are the topics covered in this 26-page whit [read].
Posted: Wed, Mar 11th '09 |
The Basics of the Windows Server 2008 Distributed File System (DFS)
Jose Barreto
Overview
In this blog post, we’ll cover the basics of the Distributed File System (DFS) in Windows Server 2008, which offers users simplified access to a set of file shares and helps administrators easily maintain the file server infrastructure behind those file shares, including options for load sharing, replication and site awareness.
Many File Servers and File Shares
It’s a common scenario. Over time, a company ends up with a large number of file servers that were created at different ti [read].
Posted: Wed, Mar 11th '09 |
Microsoft Partners: nominate your solution for a global award!
Jose Barreto
The 2009 Worldwide Partner Conference is coming later in the year (July 13–16 in New Orleans), but the WPC Awards program is already opened for nomination.
If you are a Microsoft Partner with an awesome solution built on Microsoft technologies, it's time to start writing something up. Submissions for the Global Awards are open until April 2nd.
It is a great way to to showcase a solution and drive new business opportunities. Winners and finalists will get increased press coverage and market re [read].
Posted: Thu, Mar 5th '09 |
Technical Articles and White Papers on SQL Server
Jose Barreto
I will be attending an advanced SQL Server training in a couple of weeks and the instructors recommended some pre-reading. I'm sharing here a subset of those recommendations that point to articles and white papers published by Microsoft, grouped by category:
Database Storage
TechNet Library Whitepaper: Physical Database Storage Design
RAID Levels and SQL Server
Books Online: Files and Filegroups Architecture
SQL Server 2005 Technical Article: Partitioned Tables and Indexes in SQL Server 2005
[read].
Posted: Wed, Mar 4th '09 |
IT Administrator scripts, WMI samples and witty comments
Jose Barreto
Microsoft keeps a number of scripting examples at the Technet Scripting Center. These are mostly focused at administrators that need to write code every once in a while, as opposed to the MSDN references, focused mostly at full-time developers.
If you are an IT Administrator and you have exhausted your ability to type one-liners to handle repeating tasks, it's time to start working with scripts. These can many times go beyond simple .CMD files at times. The most interesting ones use VBScript, Ja [read].
Posted: Sun, Mar 1st '09 |
Free eBook on Microsoft Virtualization Solutions
Jose Barreto
There is a new book on "Understanding Microsoft Virtualization Solutions" by Mitch Tulloch with the Microsoft Virtualization Teams,available from Microsoft Press as a download.
At 400 pages and 15MB, this PDF file covers Server Virtualization (Hyper-V), Virtual Machine Manager (VMM), Presentation Virtualization (Terminal Services), Application Virtualization (App-V), Desktop Virtualization (MED-V), Virtual Desktop Infrastructure (VDI) and User State Virtualization (Roaming Profiles, Folder Re [read].
Posted: Mon, Feb 9th '09 |
Can you convert an MBR disk to GPT?
Jose Barreto
I got a question today: Can you convert an existing MBR disk to GPT?
This is about the partitioning style of a disk, with MBR being the older one (limited to 2TB) and GPT being the newer one (going up to 18EB). Keep in mind that the GPT partitioning style is not recognized by all previous versions of Windows.
The answer to the question is yes, you can convert an MBR disk to GPT, but only if your disk is unpartitioned. If there are no partitions on the disk, the option to "Convert to GPT disk" wi [read].
Posted: Sat, Feb 7th '09 |
Step-by-step: Using the Microsoft iSCSI Software Target with Hyper-V (Standalone, Full, VHD)
Jose Barreto
Overview
In this post, I will show all the steps required to run Windows Server 2008 Hyper-V with the Microsoft iSCSI Software Target. We will cover the specific scenario of a standalone Windows Server 2008 server (as opposed to a clustered one) on a full install (as opposed to a core install) and using a VHD file (as opposed a pass-through disk).
In order to follow these instructions you will need at least two computers. One computer will run a full install of Windows Server 2008 with the Hype [read].
Posted: Sun, Feb 1st '09 |
Using a SAN with DPM 2007
Jose Barreto
Data Protection Manager 2007 is a Microsoft solution that can protect the data in your servers. Combining VSS technologies with DPM-specific code, it provides an easy way to create consistent snapshots of your server’s data at regular intervals. You can later easily restore that data to any of those points in time. DPM understand different types of Windows Server data like file shares, Hyper-V virtual machines, SQL Server databases, Exchange Server mailboxes and SharePoint farms, making it eas [read].
Posted: Wed, Jan 28th '09 |
New Tolly Group report on the performance of SMB2
Jose Barreto
The Tolly Group, Inc. has just released a new 39-page report on the SMB2 performance improvements in Windows Vista and Windows Server 2008.
Title: Enhanced Network Performance with Microsoft Windows Vista and Windows Server 2008 - Update
Abstract: With the release of the Windows Vista client operating system and Windows Server 2008 network managers face the prospect of integrating these next-generation operating systems into their current networks alongside computers running Windows XP and Wi [read].
Posted: Tue, Jan 27th '09 |
We have the tools to do <it>
Jose Barreto
Everyone is talking about and we have the tools for .
Microsoft Windows, for instance, does via Updates, which are also known as hotfixes or QFEs. If is critical and urgent, Windows Updates can deliver automatically. Large amounts of can be put together in a Service Pack. When major amount of is needed, you might need an entire new release, but you can usually upgrade from a previous version to carry your configuration forward and minimize the impact of . At times your old hardware can [read].
Posted: Tue, Jan 20th '09 |
Windows Server 2008 File and Storage Solutions webcast - recording now available
Jose Barreto
I had the pleasure to deliver yesterday a TechNet Webcast on "Windows Server 2008 File and Storage Solutions", which also included details on the upcoming Windows Server 2008 R2.
That webcast is now available on-demand (for streaming or download), via http://msevents.microsoft.com/CUI/EventDetail.aspx?EventID=1032399197&Culture=en-US.
Here's a quick summary of what was covered:
Windows Server 2008 File and Storage Solutions (Level 300)Windows Server 2008 contains many changes to core file [read].
Posted: Thu, Jan 15th '09 |
Webcast Series on Microsoft Virtualization
Jose Barreto
The IT Pro Evangelists team is working on a series of webcasts covering topics related to Microsoft Virtualization starting this week.These will be 300 level sessions, so they will offer technical depth on several items related to virtualization, including Hyper-V and SCVMM:
Virtualization in a Nutshell
In this webcast, we introduce the virtualization world, laying the ground work for the other webcasts in this series. We cover both the Microsoft products and solutions available to create a vi [read].
Posted: Tue, Jan 13th '09 |
Windows 7 beta 1 announced during CES keynote - includes links
Jose Barreto
Steve Ballmer announced during his CES keynote the immediate availability of the Windows 7 beta to TechNet Plus and MSDN subscribers.The keynote also included demos of how Windows 7 is faster, more reliable, and makes it easier to do what you want. Steve also mentioned that an open download of the beta will become available this Friday.
Relevant links:
Keynote videos, including demos: http://www.microsoft.com/presspass/events/ces/
Details on Windows 7: http://www.microsoft.com/windows/window [read].
Posted: Thu, Jan 8th '09 |
Upcoming TechNet Webcast: Windows Server 2008 File and Storage Solutions
Jose Barreto
If you were unable to attend my presentation on "Windows Server 2008 File and Storage Solutions" during TechEd 2008 EMEA, I will be delivering it again as a TechNet Webcast:
Title: Windows Server 2008 File and Storage Solutions (Level 300) Event ID: 1032399197Language: English. Product: Windows Server 2008. Audience: IT Professional.Date: Wednesday, January 14, 2009 1:00 PM Pacific Time (US & Canada) Duration: 90 Minutes Presenter: Jose Barreto, Senior Technical Evangelist, Microsof [read].
Posted: Fri, Dec 19th '08 |
IPD Guide for DPM 2007 SP1 available for download
Jose Barreto
Jason Buffington just blogged about the release of the Infrastructure Planning and Design (IPD) Guide for Data Protection Manager 2007 Service Pack 1 (DPM 2007 SP1):
"We are just a few days away from releasing Service Pack 1 for DPM 2007, and part of the release is updating our existing content and adding new materials. The DPM Team has been working with the Microsoft Solution Accelerators group to develop this IPD, which goes into beta this week - so please tell us what you think! This guide l [read].
Posted: Wed, Dec 10th '08 |
SMB2, a complete redesign of the main remote file protocol for Windows
Jose Barreto
Introduction
SMB (Server Message Block) is a remote file protocol commonly used by Microsoft Windows clients and servers that dates back to 1980’s. Back when it was first used, LANs speeds were typically 10Mbps or less, WAN use was very limited and there were no Wireless LANs. Network security concerns like preventing man-in-the-middle attacks were non-existent at that time. Obviously, things have changed a lot since then. SMB did evolve over time, but it did so incrementally and with great c [read].
Posted: Sat, Dec 6th '08 |
Apply these Windows Server 2008 hotfixes to avoid known Hyper-V issues
Jose Barreto
If you are building a Windows Server 2008 Hyper-V server from scratch, you will need a few updates to get the latest fixes in your server.
One of these is the KB950050 update, which brings the Hyper-V code from the beta version to the released (RTM) version.
That Hyper-V RTM update is on Windows Update already, so you will certainly get it as soon as you get your server updated (which you always should).
However, there are a few updates that won’t come down that way, since they apply only to s [read].
Posted: Thu, Dec 4th '08 |
Windows Server 2008 R2 - three new documents available for download
Jose Barreto
Three documents providing some details about Windows Server 2008 R2 have been posted on the microsoft.com website. These documents provide some insight into this upcoming release of Windows Server. A pre-release version was also shared with partners and customers during a few recent public conferences (including the PDC 2008 and WinHEC 2008).
Here is some additional information on these three documents:
Top 10 Reasons to Upgrade to Windows Server 2008 R2
Document outline:
Powerful Hardware a [read].
Posted: Thu, Nov 20th '08 |
File Server performance improvements with the SMB2 protocol in Windows Server 2008
Jose Barreto
SMB (Server Message Block) is the main protocol used in Windows for file sharing and it has been significantly improved from Windows Server 2003/Windows XP to Windows Server 2008/Windows Vista. During my TechEd 2008 ITForum presentation on “Windows Server 2008 – File and Storage Solutions”, I covered some details on SMB2 and showed a demo of the improvement in file copy performance from SMB1 to SMB2.
The presentation highlighted the main changes in the new version of the protocol, includin [read].
Posted: Thu, Nov 6th '08 |
TechEd 2008 ITForum, Windows Server 2008 and Windows Server 2008 R2
Jose Barreto
I am in Barcelona this week to participate in the TechEd 2008 ITForum.
I will deliver two sessions during this event. Here are the code, title and abstract for each one:
SVR310 - Windows Server 2008 - File and Storage Solutions (Tuesday, Nov 4, 09:00 AM to 10:15 AM)Windows Server 2008 contains lots of changes to core file services components that increase availability, scalability and performance. Some of these components are new, others have been significantly enhanced. In this session, we cov [read].
Posted: Mon, Nov 3rd '08 |
Microsoft File Server Migration Toolkit 1.1 available as a free download
Jose Barreto
Microsoft just announced the release of Microsoft File Server Migration Toolkit 1.1, which will help you migrate file shares from computers running Windows NT 4.0 Server, Windows 2000 Server, Windows 2003 Server and Windows Server 2008 to computers running Windows 2003 Server and Windows Server 2008. You can use it to consolidate multiple file servers or simply to migrate files between servers.
Here are the main benefits of FSMT:
Simplifies the complex and error-prone migration process
Maintain [read].
Posted: Thu, Oct 30th '08 |
Watch the PDC keynote on Microsoft Windows 7 and Web applications for Office
Jose Barreto
Watch the keynote delivered on the second day of the PDC, covering Microsoft Windows 7 and Web applications for Office:
For details, check http://www.microsoft.com/presspass/press/2008/oct08/10-28PDCDay2PR.mspx [read].
Posted: Tue, Oct 28th '08 |
Watch the PDC keynote on Microsoft Azure, the new cloud-based service foundation
Jose Barreto
Watch Ray Ozzie's PDC keynote on the new cloud-based service foundation called Microsoft Azure:
For more details, check http://www.microsoft.com/presspass/events/pdc [read].
Posted: Tue, Oct 28th '08 |
Microsoft Security Bulletin MS08-067 – Critical
Jose Barreto
I wanted to call your attention to a critical, out-of-band Microsoft Security Bulletin released today. Here's an excerpt from it (the emphasis is mine):
This security update resolves a privately reported vulnerability in the Server service. The vulnerability could allow remote code execution if an affected system received a specially crafted RPC request. On Microsoft Windows 2000, Windows XP, and Windows Server 2003 systems, an attacker could exploit this vulnerability without authentication to [read].
Posted: Thu, Oct 23rd '08 |
Data Protection Manager Partner Hero
Jose Barreto
If you are a Microsoft Partner in the United States, there is a new campaign focused on System Center Data Protection Manager 2007 (DPM).This campaign is designed for partners that already work with Microsoft applications protected by DPM, like SQL Server, Exchange Server and SharePoint Server.You can become a DPM hero by simply learning about DPM solutions and how to share them with your customers.
To get started, visit the http://www.dpmpartner.com site. You need to be a Microsoft partner in o [read].
Posted: Thu, Oct 16th '08 |
Free e-learning on Windows Server 2008 Hyper-V and Virtual Machine Manager 2008
Jose Barreto
Microsoft Learning has two free e-learning offers covering Windows Server 2008 Hyper-V and SCVMM 2008.
These self-paced introductory clinics include hours of interactive content, including text, videos, demonstrations and self-tests.
Clinic 5935 - Introducing Hyper-V in Windows Server 2008
This 2-hour online clinic provides IT Professionals experienced in Windows 2000 Server or Windows Server 2003 with the knowledge and skills to implement and manage Hyper-V in an IT environment.
Topics covere [read].
Posted: Mon, Oct 13th '08 |
Adding Storage Management abilities to your Windows application using VDS (Virtual Disk Service)
Jose Barreto
If you’re writing a Windows application that needs to do storage management, you should look into the VDS (Virtual Disk Services) API.VDS storage management includes abilities like enumerating all HBAs on a system, creating a LUN, setting a disk online, formatting a volume or adding a drive letter to it.
For those not familiar with VDS, start by looking at an overview I posted at http://blogs.technet.com/josebda/archive/2007/10/25/the-basics-of-the-virtual-disk-services-vds.aspx.To understand [read].
Posted: Tue, Oct 7th '08 |
“FSCT” - A CIFS/SMB/SMB2 File Server Tool for Capacity Planning and Performance Troubleshooting
Jose Barreto
Overview
A recent presentation during SNIA’s Storage Developer Conference described an upcoming tool called “FSCT”.“FSCT” (which stands for “File Server Capacity Tool”) was created by Microsoft after analyzing the workload of production file servers used to store user’s home folders.The tool can simulate that typical file server workload (and potentially others) in a lab environment.
What is “FSCT”?
“FSCT” is a tool for CIFS/SMB/SMB2 File Servers focused on capacity plann [read].
Posted: Tue, Oct 7th '08 |
"Windows 7" and "Cloud Services" are the most frequent subjects for the PDC 2008
Jose Barreto
An updated list of the 180 sessions planned for the upcoming Microsoft Professional Developers Conference is out, along with additional details about this major conference.
Looking at the keywords used by each session, you can clearly see that "Windows 7" is one of the hottest topics this time around. Windows 7 will also be a highlight of Steven Sinofsky's keynote on October 28, which will reveal details on the upcoming OS. If that's not enough, attendees will each receive a pre-beta release of [read].
Posted: Thu, Oct 2nd '08 |
October issue of Technet Magazine focuses on Virtualization
Jose Barreto
The latest issue of TechNet Magazine has just been published and it focuses on Virtualization.
Articles include:
Virtualization: An Introduction to Hyper-V in Windows Server 2008 The introduction of Hyper-V makes virtualization an even more compelling solution for IT environments. Get an overview of today’s virtualization market and see how Hyper-V improves the manageability, reliability, and security of virtualization. By Rajiv Arunkundram.
Virtualization: Manage Your Virtual Environments w [read].
Posted: Fri, Sep 19th '08 |
Microsoft at the SNIA Storage Developer Conference
Jose Barreto
The SNIA Storage Developer Conference is happening next week in Santa Clara, CA. Microsoft is participating in the CIFS/SMB/SMB2 track of the SDC, delivering 9 of the 18 sessions in this track.Microsoft is also underwriting the CIFS/SMB/SMB2 Plugfest at the SDC and many of Microsoft’s SMB2 architects, developers, and testers will be there. They will working hard to help other participants test their interoperable CIFS/SMB/SMB2 implementations on non-Windows platforms. The Plugfest promises to [read].
Posted: Mon, Sep 15th '08 |
Storage Developer Conference presentation next week
Jose Barreto
Next week I will be delivering a presentation on “A CIFS/SMB/SMBV2 File Server Tool for Capacity Planning and Performance Troubleshooting” during SNIA’s Storage Developer Conference in Santa Clara, CA.You can see the agenda and some additional details in the public event agenda at http://www.snia.org/events/storage-developer2008/agenda2008. I can’t disclose any additional information before the event, but the slide deck will eventually be posted on the SNIA web site (first to attendees o [read].
Posted: Mon, Sep 15th '08 |
The Basics of Windows Server 2008 FSRM (File Server Resource Manager)
Jose Barreto
Overview
FSRM (File Server Resource Manager) is a service of the File Services role in Windows Server 2008. You can use FSRM to enhance your ability to manage and monitor storage activities on your file server.
The main capabilities of FSRM include:
Folder Quotas
File Screening
Storage Reports
Event Log Integration
E-mail Notifications
Automated Scripts
For example, you can use FSRM to perform the following tasks:
Limit the size of a folder to 2GB and log an event when the Quota limit is reac [read].
Posted: Wed, Aug 20th '08 |
Requirements for production deployment of Exchange Server 2007 with Windows Server 2008 Hyper-V
Jose Barreto
A new article has been posted on TechNet covering “Microsoft Support Policies and Recommendations for Exchange Servers in Hardware Virtualization Environments”. This article, posted this week, marks the first time that I have seen details on the requirements for a supported Exchange Server 2007 implementation with Windows Server 2008 Hyper-V in production.
In short, for a production deployment of Exchange Server 2007 with Windows Server 2008 Hyper-V, you will need:
Exchange Server 2007 SP1 [read].
Posted: Wed, Aug 20th '08 |
Windows 7 blog and PDC 2008 sessions
Jose Barreto
I was glad to see the first bits of info about the upcoming “Windows 7” product being shared through this new blog by Jon DeVaan and Steven Sinofsky. Jon and Steven are two senior engineering managers for the “Windows 7” team and the blog, called “Engineering Windows 7 blog” or simply “E7”, is located at http://blogs.msdn.com/e7/. This seems to be a big hit, with hundreds of comments to their initial post.
If you read it carefully, you will notice they point to the PDC 2008 (Prof [read].
Posted: Tue, Aug 19th '08 |
Hotfix improves how Windows Server 2008 Failover Cluster works with Hyper-V
Jose Barreto
If you work with Windows Server 2008 Hyper-V and Windows Server 2008 Failover Clustering, you should check a new update called "Increased functionality and virtual machine control in the Windows Server 2008 Failover Cluster Management console for the Hyper-V role". This hotfix includes a few key improvements on the way Windows Server 2008 Failover Cluster Management makes your Hyper-V virtual machines highly available, including:
Changes to the virtual machine view
Changes to virtual machine ac [read].
Posted: Thu, Aug 7th '08 |
SQL Server Remote Blob Store (RBS) available as part of the Feature Pack RC0 for Microsoft SQL Server 2008
Jose Barreto
As I mentioned in a previous blog post at http://blogs.technet.com/josebda/archive/2008/03/17/sql-server-2008-and-unstructured-data.aspx, SQL Server 2008 introduces new options to store unstructured data, in addition to the current BLOB support we have in SQL Server 2005.
One of those options is the new SQL Server Remote Blob Store, a method for storing blobs of unstructured data in a remote server, external to SQL Server. RBS is part of the add-on feature pack for SQL Server 2008. With RBS, yo [read].
Posted: Tue, Jul 29th '08 |
Failover Clustering for Windows Server 2008 Hyper-V with File Server Storage
Jose Barreto
Overview
In a previous blog post, I described 5 different ways to implement Windows Server Failover Clustering with Windows Server 2008 Hyper-V. Those options included: Parent-based Failover Clustering with two physical servers, Child-based Failover Clustering with two physical servers, Mixed Physical/Virtual Failover Clustering, Failover Clustering with two child partitions on one physical server and Standalone demo laptop with Virtual iSCSI SAN. If you missed that one, check http://blogs.tech [read].
Posted: Wed, Jul 16th '08 |
Using Constrained Delegation to remotely manage a server running Hyper-V that uses CIFS/SMB file shares
Jose Barreto
As explained in my previous blog post at http://blogs.technet.com/josebda/archive/2008/06/24/storing-windows-server-2008-hyper-v-files-on-an-cifs-smb-file-share.aspx, you can store your Windows Server 2008 Hyper-V files in a CIFS/SMB file share. This additional storage option can be used for the VM configuration, VHDs, snapshots and ISOs. That post explains the required permissions, describes in detail how to do it and also offers some performance tips.
In specific cases, however, additional co [read].
Posted: Sat, Jun 28th '08 |
Windows Server 2008 Hyper-V released today! (includes a list of main Hyper-V related links)
Jose Barreto
Hyper-V is here!
As you can confirm on the press release linked below, the final release of Windows Server 2008 Hyper-V was just announced.You can download the final version (number 18016) immediately from the Microsoft download web site. This version will also go to Windows Update on July 8th.
Below you will find a collection of links about Hyper-V.
Windows Server 2008 Hyper-V RTM information
Press release on Windows Server 2008 Hyper-V RTMhttp://www.microsoft.com/presspass/features/2008/j [read].
Posted: Thu, Jun 26th '08 |
Storing Windows Server 2008 Hyper-V files on an CIFS/SMB file share
Jose Barreto
Overview
I previously covered the storage options for Hyper-V and described the many choices between directly attached or SAN storage, fibre channel or iSCSI, passthrough or VHD, Virtual SCSI or Virtual IDE, etc. If you missed that one, check it out at http://blogs.technet.com/josebda/archive/2008/02/14/storage-options-for-windows-server-2008-s-hyper-v.aspx
However, I failed to mention in that post the option to store your VHD files in a CIFS/SMB file server share. This works fine with Hyper-V, [read].
Posted: Wed, Jun 25th '08 |
Deep Dive into Windows Server 2008 File Services (Upcoming Level 300 Webcast)
Jose Barreto
Heads up for an upcoming webcast on the new file service features in Windows Server 2008 by Drew McDaniel, a Senior Program Manager with the Microsoft Storage Solutions Division (SSD).
Here's a short description: "The Windows Server 2008 operating system contains a lot of changes to core file services components that dramatically increase availability, scalability, and performance. Some of these components are new, others are significantly enhanced. In this webcast, we provide an overview of the [read].
Posted: Mon, Jun 23rd '08 |
Windows Server 2008 Hyper-V Failover Clustering Options
Jose Barreto
There are many ways to implement Windows Server Failover Clustering with Hyper-V. I could actually find five unique methods to do it. Some of them will actually not give you a fully fault-tolerant solution, but most of them actually make sense in specific scenarios (even if only for demonstrations). In any case, just trying to understand and differentiate them will probably be a good exercise.
1 – Parent-based Failover Clustering with two physical servers
In this first scenario, probably th [read].
Posted: Tue, Jun 17th '08 |
Windows Storage Server (and WUDSS) History at the Windows Storage Server blog
Jose Barreto
Scott Johnson added another post to the Storage Server blog, this time focusing on the History of the Windows Storage Server, all the way up to the Windows Unified Data Storage Server 2003 Refresh, released in August of 2007. Did you know, for instance, that the WUDSS 2003 Refresh introduced support for iSCSI dual-active clustering, 16 Terabyte iSCSI LUNs, OOBE customization and Software RAID support?
He also did a great job of describing all the different editions of Windows Server 2003 and Win [read].
Posted: Thu, Jun 12th '08 |
TechEd 2008 - IT Professionals
Jose Barreto
I am spending this week in Orlando, Florida, working at the TechEd 2008 - IT Professionals conference. I am at the System Center Data Protection Manager 2007 booth in the TLC (Technical Learning Center). I will be showing DPM's ability to protect Windows Server, SQL Server, Exchange Server, SharePoint Server and Virtualization workloads. If you are attending the conference, feel free to drop by and chat about DPM or any other topic of interest to you. Below is a map of the TLC area and where you [read].
Posted: Tue, Jun 10th '08 |
New Storage Server Blog
Jose Barreto
Scott Johnson (Program Manager for the Windows Storage Server product line) has just added the the first post on a brand new blog on Windows Storage Server.
This first post is a comprehensive list of all the key features of Windows Storage Server and Windows Unified Data Storage Server.
Check it out at http://blogs.technet.com/storageserver/archive/2008/06/04/welcome-to-the-new-windows-storage-server-blog.aspx [read].
Posted: Wed, Jun 4th '08 |
Installing the VSS Hardware Provider for the Microsoft iSCSI Software Target on Windows Server 2008
Jose Barreto
Overview
In this article, we’ll describe the process to install the VSS Hardware Provider (and, incidentally, the VDS Hardware Provider) for the Microsoft iSCSI Software Target, which is part of Windows Unified Data Storage Server 2003 (WUDSS 2003).
This package, referred to as “Microsoft iSCSI Software Target Client” supports both Windows Server 2003 and Windows Server 2008. We’ll show the Windows Server 2008 screenshots.
We’ll use two servers in this scenario. SERVER0 is the iSCSI [read].
Posted: Thu, May 29th '08 |
Installing the VDS Hardware Provider for the Microsoft iSCSI Software Target on Windows Server 2008
Jose Barreto
Overview
In this article, we’ll describe the process to install the VDS Hardware Provider (and, incidentally, the VSS Hardware Provider) for the Microsoft iSCSI Software Target, which is part of Windows Unified Data Storage Server 2003 (WUDSS 2003).
This package, referred to as “Microsoft iSCSI Software Target Client” supports both Windows Server 2003 and Windows Server 2008. We’ll show the Windows Server 2008 screenshots.
We’ll use two servers in this scenario. Server0 is the iSCSI [read].
Posted: Wed, May 21st '08 |
Exposing native SCSI as virtual IDE in Hyper-V. Should you tell Virginia that there is a SAN?
Jose Barreto
I hear a lot of comments about the fact that Hyper-V can expose SCSI disks (either directly attached SCSI disks or LUNs on SAN) to child partitions (also known as guests) as IDE disks.
Before you go telling little Virginia that, “Yes, there is a SAN”, you might want to consider how abstracting that fact is actually a perfectly fine way to configure your virtual machines.
First of all, virtualization is a lot about shielding the child partition from having to understand certains details of th [read].
Posted: Mon, May 19th '08 |
New instructor-led training on Windows Server 2008 Clustering on its way
Jose Barreto
Microsoft has just published the preliminary syllabus for an upcoming instructor-led training on Windows Server 2008 Clustering.
This will be Course 6423: Implementing and Managing Windows Server 2008 Clustering.
Here’s a list of the modules included:
Module 1: Introduction to Clusters
Module 2: Introduction to Microsoft Windows Server 2008 Failover Clusters
Module 3: Preparing to Install a Failover Cluster
Module 4: Overview of Failover Cluster Storage Requirements
Module 5: Configuring a F [read].
Posted: Fri, May 9th '08 |
The Basics of Windows Server 2008 Storage Explorer
Jose Barreto
1 – What is Storage Explorer
Storage Explorer is a new tool in Windows Server 2008 to help you understand how your server SAN storage is configured.
It provides information about the storage fabrics (Fibre Channel and iSCSI) and also about the configuration of each server.
This new tool can greatly help you understand your server configuration as it relates to SAN storage. It is also a useful troubleshooting tool.
1.1 – Storage Explorer with an FC SAN
When working in a Fibre Channel (FC) [read].
Posted: Thu, May 8th '08 |
RAID configuration options for WUDSS and the Microsoft iSCSI Software Target
Jose Barreto
It’s very common for a server running Windows Unified Data Storage Server and the Microsoft iSCSI Software Target to include a RAID controller and many hard drives in the box. I got a question on exactly how to configure RAID volumes for this kind of setup. The standard “it depends” engineering answer does apply here. However, allow me to elaborate on that :-).
First of all, it helps to understand a few details about the hardware. The main thing here is the types of RAID supported by the c [read].
Posted: Wed, May 7th '08 |
New white paper on the advantages of a Core Install of Windows Server 2008
Jose Barreto
Microsoft IT just published a new technical case study called “Enhancing Availability with a Server Core Installation of Windows Server 2008”. It talks about how they deployed this new install option, which removes applications and components typically associated with client installs, like Internet Explorer, Windows Explorer, Media Player and Windows Mail.
They listed several benefits of the new Core install option, including:
Reduced management and maintenance
Reduced attack surface
Str [read].
Posted: Wed, Apr 16th '08 |
SNW Demo: Windows Server 2008 Core, Hyper-V and Failover Clustering - with screenshots
Jose Barreto
I spent last week in Orlando, Florida, working at the Microsoft booth in the Storage Networking World. I delivered one of the demos there and my demo included the following technologies:
Windows Unified Data Storage Server 2003 iSCSI Software Target
Windows Server 2008 Core Install
Windows Server 2008 iSCSI Initiator
Windows Server 2008 Hyper-V
Windows Server 2008 Failover Clustering
The main goal of the demo was to show how to configure highly available virtual machines.
Demo Configuration
We [read].
Posted: Mon, Apr 14th '08 |
SNIA Tutorials cover a wealth of Storage knowledge (SNW Spring 2008 Update)
Jose Barreto
I’m always amazed by the vast amount of knowledge being posted online for free download. If you are an IT Professional who deals with Storage (or if you manage one of them), check out the high-quality tutorials just posted online by the Storage Network Industry Association (SNIA). These peer-reviewed, vendor-neutral tutorials, offered by the SNIA Education Committee, cover a variety of very current Storage-related topics. They were delivered live during the recent Storage Networking World conf [read].
Posted: Fri, Apr 11th '08 |
SNW Demo: Windows Server 2008 Core, Hyper-V and Failover Clustering
Jose Barreto
I will be working at the Microsoft booth in the Storage Networking World next week in Orlando, Florida. I will deliver one of the demos there and my demo includes the following technologies:
Windows Unified Data Storage Server 2003 iSCSI Software Target
Windows Server 2008 Core Install
Windows Server 2008 iSCSI Initiator
Windows Server 2008 Hyper-V
Windows Server 2008 Failover Clustering
We'll have two servers running Windows Server 2008 Core, both with the Hyper-V role installed and connected [read].
Posted: Sat, Apr 5th '08 |
SQL Server 2008 and Unstructured Data
Jose Barreto
SQL Server 2008 introduces two new options to store unstructured data, in addition to the current BLOB support we have in SQL Server 2005.
IMAGE
Back in SQL Server 2000 and SQL Server 7 days, we used the IMAGE data type to store binary large objects (a.k.a. BLOBs). Large, by the way, is defined as anything that would not fit a SQL Server data page (around 8,000 bytes). This data type is still present in SQL Server 2005 today, but it should be going away soon. The current recommendation is to [read].
Posted: Mon, Mar 17th '08 |
Complete reference of all STSADM operations (with parameters) in MOSS 2007 SP1
Jose Barreto
This is an update to my complete reference of all STSADM operations in Microsoft Office SharePoint Server 2007, now including the changes in Service Pack 1. I repeated what I did for MOSS 2007 in MOSS 2007 SP1, using a little scripting to get the list of all commands for STSADM, including the options and parameters for each. Items new in SP1 are underlined. Please note that some defaults might be related to the way my server is configured.
stsadm -o activatefeature {-filename | -name | -id } [read].
Posted: Sat, Mar 15th '08 |
SNIA Tutorials cover a wealth of Storage knowledge
Jose Barreto
This blog post has been updated. Check the latest version at http://blogs.technet.com/josebda/archive/2008/04/11/snia-tutorials-cover-a-wealth-of-storage-knowledge-snw-spring-2008-update.aspx
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I’m always amazed by the vast amount of knowledge being posted online for free download. For those in the Storage business, check out the high-quality tutorials offered by the Storage Network Industry Association (SNIA). These peer-reviewed, vendor-neutral tutorials, offered by the SNIA Education Co [read].
Posted: Fri, Mar 7th '08 |
More on Storage Options for Windows Server 2008 Hyper-V
Jose Barreto
As I mentioned in a previous blog post, you can expose storage to a Hyper-V guest in many different ways.
After getting some feedback to that initial post, there are two frequent comments that I wanted to address.
You can boot a Hyper-V guest from an iSCSI LUN
I wanted to highlight that you can boot a Hyper-V child partition (guest) from an iSCSI LUN. To do that, you need to expose that LUN to the parent partition (host), make sure the LUN is set as an offline disk in the host and then use the [read].
Posted: Thu, Mar 6th '08 |
Restart the VDS service after installing a VDS Provider
Jose Barreto
In Windows Server 2003 (RTM, SP1, R2, SP2) and Windows Server 2008, you might run into an issue while trying to install a new VDS Hardware Provider.
If you simply install the new VDS provider and immediately run DISKRAID.EXE, you will get the message telling you that: “DiskRAID was unable to find any VDS hardware providers installed on this computer. At least one VDS hardware provider must be installed for DiskRAID to be functional. Please check the VDS hardware provider installation.”
This [read].
Posted: Fri, Feb 29th '08 |
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