Dugie’s Pensieve

Ok, so some of you jumped the gun and have asked what the pet project is.  Well the short answer is:  I’m building a Microsoft Home Server, cause I’m at a point in my life where I need the remote access, storage and the backups. 

No before you go "Oh pleeeeaazzzeee!", I’m following Doc Emmett Brown’s advice:  The way I see it, if you’re gonna build a home server , why not do it with some style?  

So my home server "ultimate case mod", is a replica  arcade machine.  Sure it’s not as small and sexy as well blogged Home server prototype, but it’s got other appeal - and it’s an tribute to my interests in virtualization.

Think about it, it’s perfect:  Lot’s of room for drives and big fans for cooling, UPS, and storage of other stuff.  I’ll be spending particular care, to make this machine as silent as possible too.

I’m picking up the wood on the weekend, the arcade controls arrived last week, the 21" monitor is out of storage.

This will be the first post of many, as I’ll be blogging everything as I go along.  I plan need to have it finished by Christmas.  Thanks to mame-arcade for the sample photo of their arcade machine, until mine starts to take shape.

Anyway, there is lots more to do, but I’ll save that for another post.  Now the interesting question is, does anyone know the subtle link between an arcade machine and Windows virtualization — and no, Ben you are not allowed to tell :)

I was reading Long’s blog (and you should too) when I read an interesting snippet about Microsoft’s distinguished engineer Eric Traut, the next version of windows after vista, and hypervisors:

…whilst the presentation is not directly about Windows 7, it does contain a demonstration of MinWin [only ~25Meg] - an internal project to build the most efficient Windows kernel which will in turn be used in Windows 7.

…The whole presentation (WMV) goes for approximately 1 hour and includes a very deep look into hypervisors. I’ve clipped out the 8-minute segment which Eric focuses on Windows 7 specifically to make it easier to watch. Because Eric goes into a lot of detail as well as background information about what is presented, and because it’s 2AM, I won’t regurgitate it. All I’ll say is that if you think Windows at its core is bloated, think again.

I’m currently watching the 8 minute, Long has snipped out, and I’m downloading the whole presentation (140Mb).   I’ll post back when I’ve finished watching the full clip.

UPDATE:  Obviously there is a huge interest, because Long has had to take video’s offline in a cute way.  ..but they’ll be back.

I was looking for some power consumption data, when I came across this article "Linux vs. Windows Power Usage".

In summary they compare 4 operating systems, and how much power the computer draws to run them.  For example, "While idling, Ubuntu 7.10 was consuming the most power with 41 Watts…. Both Windows XP and Vista were consuming 39 Watts while idling.".  Fedora consumed the least amount of power:

Anyway, I though it was interesting, and worth sharing.  Check the original article for the complete story.

If you want to download Windows 2008 RC0 with the Windows Server virtualization preview, the URLs are below:

• Windows Server 2008 RC0 Enterprise - 2.6 Gb
• Windows Server 2008 RC0 Datacenter - 2.6 Gb

Remember to grab the 64 bit version (6001.16659.070916-1443_amd64fre_Server_en-us-KR1SXFRE_EN_DVD.iso) as it is the only version that will run WSv

John Howard has some great install primers in his post , “How to install the Windows Server virtualization role in Windows Server 2008 RC0“, a snippet is below:

• disable the HT (HyperThread) capability in your processor,
• enable Hardware-assisted Virtualization (Intel VT or AMD Pacifica)
• then powerdown the computer completely

cheers!

Ward Ralston over at the Windows Server blog has announce the availability of Windows Server 2008 Release Candidate 0 (with WSv).

You can read more in his post “Windows Server 2008 Rc0 Released!“.  Although Ward mentions the RC0 is ready for download, the links still point to Beta3 - so I guess we’ll have to wait 24 hours for the pages to be refreshed.

So whilst we wait for the links to refresh, check out Alex Hinrichs and Jeff Woolsey Announcing Windows Server 2008 RC0 over at Channel9 — jump straight to 4:30 to hear Jeff talk about the hypervisor. 

Alex Hinrichs runs the Windows Server ship room and Jeff Woolsey is a senior program manager on the Virtualization team.

Once you’ve checked that out head over to Paul Thurrott’s Windows Windows Server Virtualization Preview and if you still need some more WSv goodness check out Keith’s blogcast, the Virtualization 10 Minute Tour.

UPDATE:  Download instructions are her,  http://blog.windowsvirtualization.com/wss/urls-for-windows-2008-rc0-and-wsv

Yesterday I got hammered with heaps of emails on where people could download Viridian.  Looks like I wasn’t the only one =)

Canadian IT Pro blogger, Rick Claus has come through in fine form and knows where to hook you up with ‘the guys’ who can.  This way you can be first in line when it’s available.

So for more information, check out Rick’s post “Wanna get your hands on Windows Server Virtualization (Viridian)“, and a snippet is below:

YOU will be able to get a chance to try it out. Just make sure you have the necessary pre-requisites (which I will detail here on the blog in a future post when it’s live).

How do you get hooked up with the RC0 of Windows Server 2008? That’s easy - head over to BetaCentral and register to get all the resources for current Beta 3 and register to be notified of RC0’s availability. Virtualization

NOTE: WSV is not in the current build of Beta3 - it will be in the next release called RC0. Stay tuned on the blog for more info on RC0 when it drops!

So what are you doing still reading this, get over to BetaCentral and register!

Last week more or less marks the 12th anniversary that Windows 95 was shrink-wrapped and released to the world.  Old timers might even remember the cleverly formatted ‘DMF’ floppy disks used before CD-Roms were mainstream. (For some perspective, the DVD format was announced ~ 1 month later, and NT 4.0 only ~10 months after that)

Strangely enough, one of my favourite scotches was probably coming out of the still and into casks at about the same time that 95 launched:  Glenfiddich 12 years

I’m sure if you look hard enough, you can find traces of both of them around.  Hopefully (but not always) you’ll only find the latter in a VM.

Anyway, I’ll be celebrating tonight with a wee dram, and reflecting on how far we’ve come in 12 years.

…Let’s not go overboard though because a bottle of Glenlivet aged 21 Years, would take us back to MS-DOS 3.2 with support for 3.5″ 720 kB floppies — not sure I’m ready to reflect that far :)

Yesterday, a sad thing happened, AutoPatcher.com was requested by Microsoft to remove the download page for AutoPatcher.

AutoPatcher is was a nifty tool for patching Windows without the need to connect to Windows Update or use a WSUS server.  I found this tool invaluable for patching test VMs [off the wire].

Sadly, I must say this decision has left me scratching my head.  I admit AutoPatcher wasn’t an Enterprise solution — but it was an excellent and portable tool for environments where there was no other alternative.

With that, I’ll end my commentary there.

Microsoft just released the 2x two “Lonhorn Component Posters” from the July TechNet Magazine (thanks to Keith Combs for the heads up).

Anyway, you can download both the Windows Server 2008 Component Posters from Microsoft Downloads, but you will find Virtualization in the bottom left hand corner of the “Feature Components” poster.

They are both in PDF format, so I have screen-scrapped a snippet for you.  You’ll need to click on it to enlarge the view. 

(Check out the cool looking Server Core icon — I do hope WSV gets a cool logo like Exchange does)

TechED sessions are up …and it’s kid in a candy store time.  My first initial picks would have to be:

• ARC304 - Architecting Next Generation Business Applications w/ Mike Walker
• BOF04 - Microsoft Innovation Centre - Next Generation Workplace w/ Marty Gnanananthan
• CLI304 - System Center Service Manager: Overview w/ Werner Kasselman
• CLI317 - Windows Vista: The Top 10 Reasons to deploy now (or why change what works for me now?) w/ Kyle Rosenthal,
• CON309 - Advanced Microsoft BizTalk 2006 R2 Concepts w/ Mick Badran
• DEV316 - Build Server Virtualization Presentation w/ Mitch Denny?
• SEC302 - Making the Tradeoff: Be Secure or Get Work Done w/ Steve Riley
• SVR304 - Branch Office Solutions in Microsoft Windows Server 2008 w/ David Lowe
• SVR310 - Up-close and personal with Virtual Machines and SCVMM  w/ Me!
• SVR311 - Microsoft Windows Server Network Policy Server Fundamentals: Implementing NAP w/ Michael Kleef
• SVR314 - High Availability for physical and virtual environments with Windows Server 2008 w/ Ben Armstrong
• SVR318 - Microsoft Server Virtualization Architecture and Directions w/ Ben Armstrong
• UNC305 - Microsoft Exchange Server 2007 Deployment Planning and High Availability in SP1 w/ Eileen Brown

I’ll need to think about this a little more though, but whilst I do that, I’ll let you pick your own sessions :)