System Admin Tools

reBlog from Kalil: System Admin Tools

2010-06-08T22:44:00.001-07:00

I found this fascinating quote today:

ForeFront Client Security Definition Updates Publisher's DescriptionInstall the latest Windows Defender definition updatesspaceIf you encounter problems while trying to install definition updates for Windows Defender, you can download the latest definition update for computers running a 32-bit (x86-based) version of Windows using this link:Kalil, System Admin Tools, Sep 2009

You should read the whole article.

ReadyBoost with Windows 7's Performance Monitor

2010-04-01T03:25:00.000-07:00

There are some tasks where the performance gain will be evident, and there are others where it will not. In other words, it is very difficult to be plugging away at some task on your system and just feel it kick in and say to yourself “Wow, there goes ReadyBoost! What a rush!”
To see ReadyBoost in action, you’re going to have to keep tabs on it with Windows 7’s Performance Monitor. In this edition of the Windows Vista and Windows 7 Report, I’ll show you how to do so.

A quick review

In a nutshell, ReadyBoost allows Windows 7’s SuperFetch cache management technology to use flash-based devices to maintain a copy of the disk cache. Once ReadyBoost is enabled, it essentially keeps tabs on hard disk operations and will go into action reading and delivering files from its copy of the cache only when doing so will boost performance.
For example, during sequential read operations, ReadyBoost will sit back and allow SuperFetch to use the cache on the hard disk since the hard disk can outperform a flash-based drive for these types of read operations. During nonsequential read operations, ReadyBoost will jump in and essentially redirect SuperFetch to use the cache on the flash-based drive since a flash-based drive can outperform a hard disk for these types of read operations.
Furthermore, fast hard disks pushing 7200-RPM or higher will in many cases be able to perform some, but not all, nonsequential read operations faster than a flash-based drive. As such, ReadyBoost won’t provide as significant of a performance gain as it would if your hard disk is running 5400-RPM or lower, such as those typically found in laptops. However, even if you have a fast hard disk, there are situations where ReadyBoost can make a big performance contribution. So don’t write off ReadyBoost just yet.

ReadyBoost does NOT equal RAM

And one more thing that I should point out: ReadyBoost does NOT equal RAM. I’ve heard plenty of people comment “Oh, I have 8GB of RAM in my system, I don’t need ReadyBoost. That’s only for systems with 1GB of RAM.” The truth of the matter is that ReadyBoost is about improving hard disk performance, not enhancing or adding RAM to the system.
Sure, a system with only 1GB of RAM can use all the help it can get, but it is important to keep in mind that with ReadyBoost, the performance gain is coming from improved hard disk performance, not from an addition to RAM.
So, again, even if you have 8GB or more of RAM, there are situations where ReadyBoost can make a big performance contribution. So don’t write it off.
(I admit that in some of my previous posts about ReadyBoost, I have inadvertently contributed to this confusion, and I apologize.)

Configuring Performance Monitor

As you may know, Performance Monitor is a visualization tool that allows you to view performance data or counters, both in real time and from log files. You can view performance data in graph, histogram, and report form. To help you monitor ReadyBoost, Performance Monitor provides a special set of counters under the heading ReadyBoost Cache. Let’s take a closer look.
To launch Performance Monitor, click on the Start button, type perfmon in the Start Search box, and press [Enter]. Once the tool launches, expand the Monitoring Tools branch, if it isn’t already, and click on Performance Monitor. When the graph appears, as shown in Figure A, you’ll see that in its default configuration, Performance Monitor is configured to monitor Processor Time. Since we won’t need this for the task at hand, the first order of business is to click the Red X or Delete Key icon.

Figure A

In its default configuration, Performance Monitor is configured to monitor Processor Time.

Now, click the Green + or Add icon. When you see the Add Counters dialog box, locate and select the ReadyBoost Cache header and click the Add button. When the ReadyBoost Cache header appears in the Added Counters section, as shown in Figure B, click OK.

Figure B

When the ReadyBoost Cache counter appears in the Added Counters section, click OK.

When you add the ReadyBoost Cache header to Performance Monitor, you are actually adding a set of 10 counters to the monitor, as shown in Figure C. These counters are listed and described here:

Bytes Cached: The total amount of uncompressed data currently stored in the cache.
Cache Space Used: The total amount of space currently being used by the cache.
Compression Ratio: The actual size of the data in the cache divided by the uncompressed size of the data in the cache.
Total Cache Size Bytes: The total amount of space reserved on the device for the cache.
Cache Reads/Sec: The number of times data is read from the cache per second.
Cache Read Bytes/Sec: The number of bytes read from the cache per second.
Skipped Reads/Sec: The number of read operations skipped per second.
Skipped Read Bytes/Sec: The number of bytes not read from the cache per second.
Total Reads/Sec: The number of read operations directed to ReadyBoost. (Includes both satisfied and skipped read operations.)
Total Read Bytes/Sec: The number of bytes in the read operations directed to ReadyBoost. (Includes both satisfied and skipped read operations.)

Figure C

When you add the ReadyBoost Cache header to Performance Monitor, you are actually adding a set of 10 counters to the monitor.

As you can see, having 10 counters on the monitor at one time can be a bit confusing. Furthermore, these 10 counters monitor the full spectrum of ReadyBoost’s activities and not all of them are pertinent when measuring performance gains. As such, you will want to whittle down the counters to just the ones that give you a good view of what is happening.
For example, what I really want to know is how much the ReadyBoost cache is being used to deliver data, so I chose Cache Reads/Sec and Cache Read Bytes/Sec. These two counters will help you gauge the amount of read activity occurring in the cache and will let you know how much data is being delivered from the cache. To balance this view I also want to know how often ReadyBoost is deferring to the hard disk for reading data from the cache. So, I also chose Skipped Reads/Sec and Skipped Read Bytes/Sec.
I then initiated several large file copy operations involving multiple gigabytes of data and let the monitor run in the background. (I’m using a Western Digital 500GB SATA drive that pushes 7200 RPM.) When I returned to Performance Monitor, I discovered that there was a lot of activity displayed on the graph, as shown in Figure D.

Figure D

After several large file copy operations, the Performance Monitor graph displayed a lot of activity.

If you look closely, you’ll see that the amount of data being read from the ReadyBoost cache is roughly equal to the amount of data being read from the hard disk cache. However, this is but a snapshot of ReadyBoost in action under a specific operation. To really gauge how much and under what circumstances ReadyBoost is actually benefiting your system, you’ll want to configure Performance Monitor to create a log file over a period of time. For instance, you might want to log ReadyBoost activity over a period of a couple hours during which you perform the types of tasks that you regularly use your system to do.

Creating a Data Collector Set

If you want to log ReadyBoost activity over a period of time, you’ll need to create a Data Collector Set. Doing so is pretty easy once you know the steps.
To begin, expand Data Collector Sets branch in the Performance Monitor navigation pane. Then, right-click User Defined, select New, and click Data Collector Set. When the Create New Data Collector Set wizard appears, type a name for your Data Collector Set and select the Create Manually option button, as shown in Figure E.

Figure E

This wizard will walk you through the steps of creating a Data Collector Set.

You’ll then select the Performance Counter check box and on the next page use the Add button to access the Add Counters dialog box where you can individually select the four pertinent counters. These steps are condensed in Figure F.

Figure F

You’ll work through the next two steps in the wizard to add the four pertinent counters to your ReadyBoost Monitor Data Collector Set.

Even though there are other settings, click Finish at this point to complete the wizard.
When you return to the Performance Monitor window, you’ll see your ReadyBoost Monitor Data Collector Set. When you are ready to begin logging ReadyBoost activity, just click the green Play icon, as shown in Figure G.

Figure G

To begin logging ReadyBoost activity, just click the Green Play icon.

When you have used your system for what you would consider a substantial amount of time, you can open you Data Collector Set and view the log. Click the Stop icon, and then select Performance Monitor in the navigation pane. Now, click the View Log Data icon and when the Performance Monitor Properties dialog box appears, click the Add button. You can then locate and select your log file, as shown in Figure H.

Figure H

Click the Add button to locate and select your ReadyBoost Monitor log file.

When you click OK, you’ll see your log file and can determine how ReadyBoost behaved during your test period. During my 15-minute sample test, you can see in Figure I that ReadyBoost made a very minimal contribution to the tasks that I was performing.

Figure I

During this particular test, ReadyBoost made a very minimal contribution.

Remember that you will most likely want to conduct multiple tests under various usage circumstances in order to get a real handle on how much ReadyBoost benefits your particular system. As always, keep in mind that your mileage may vary.

OpenSuse's KDE/Firefox Integration

2009-10-28T14:48:00.000-07:00

Just a quick nod to the OpenSuse team, which looks to have a great looking KDE desktop for their new 11.2 Release. Congratulations!

Now, about those changes to make Firefox integrate better with KDE — you'll be releasing those upstream to KDE for the inclusion to all distros, right? :D

=-=-=-=-=
Powered by Bilbo Blogger

E-mail Attachment | Ubuntu Command Line | Howto

2009-10-27T09:13:00.000-07:00

Here is a very usefull command on sending files as attachement on Linux/Unix command line, this is specifically very usefull when using it in script to send daily report, or just for mailing client certificate directly from the server, there are two ways I know that you can use to send a file as attchemnt using command line, one is using uuencode utility with the "mail" command and the other one using "mutt", I find using mutt command to be much more reliable compared to using uuencodeutility with mail command.

uuencode utility writes an encoded version of the named input file, or standard input if no file is specified, to standard output. The output is encoded using the algorithm described in the STDOUT section and includes the file access permission bits of the input file and the decode_pathname, for re-creation of the file on another system that conforms to this specification.

If you don't have uuencode command on your system, and your running Cent OS or Redhat distribution you can find the uuencode and uudecode on the “sharutils" package.

To send a file attachment using "mail" command
$ uuencode filename.jpg filename.jpg | mail -s 'subject' recipient@email.com

To send a file attachemnt using "mutt" command
$ echo | mutt -a filename.jpg -s 'subject' recipient@email.com

Mutt is a small but very powerful text based program forreading electronic mail under unix operating systems,including support color terminals, MIME, and a threadedsorting mode.

How to Monitor RAID Devices on Linux

2009-10-27T09:12:00.000-07:00

Here is a simple howto on using mdadm to alert you of failing array Linux Software RAID. this is important becasue failed or failing devices needs to be replaces as diffrent RAID level have different capabilities when it comes to dealing with disk failure.

Lets us try to send a test e-mail to make sure that mail is working on your server
$ mdadm --monitor --scan --mail= YourEmailAddress /dev/md0 -t -1

If your mail is working you will receive a test message from your server

Now we set up the monitoring, to check the RAID array every 15 minutes using cron do "crontab -e" to edit cron
*/15 * * * * /sbin/mdadm --monitor --scan --mail= YourEmailAddressHere /dev/md0 -1

Note: /dev/md0 is the RAID array you want to monitor

KDE 4, please integrate 10 Administrative tools!

2009-10-27T08:04:00.000-07:00

I am a big fan of the KDE desktop but their current KDE 4.3.2 release is still missing tools that are required for a 'complete desktop experience', specifically for system administration tasks with a Graphical User Interface.

Reading around the web, there are many requests and suggestions about ways to improve the KDE Desktop. It is very important to note that KDE 3.5.x was years in development to get to the functionality and stability that the 3.5.x release had; KDE 4.3.2 has only been in development for a bit over two years and its capabilities are already very impressive.

KDE 4.3.2 may have an impressive list of capabilities, but the desktop isn't yet complete for those Point-and-Click types. Here is my wish list for the near future of KDE development, to allow full system administration within the GUI of KDE.

1. KDESudo access to saving files

I would love to be prompted for a sudo password when trying to edit a file which I have no write access to, such as if a desktop computer is going to be used for an application like Motion and the user doesn't know various command-line editors. Browsing to /etc/ and opening a file with Kate (or KWrite, or any app) should allow for read-only access, and prompt for a password if the user wants to edit and save that file.

2. Administrative Mode in System Settings

Various parts of System Settings require that the root user makes changes, such as for user auto-logins and for adding printers. I am not sure the status of this. Launching 'kdesudo systemsettings' allows a user to get around this, for now.

3. Printer setup tools

In Debian at least, printers can be added in KDE by launching 'kdesudo systemsettings' and then using the Printer Configuration module, assuming the user has installed the package 'system-config-printer-kde'. Access to this should be tied in with point number two, above. Also, any machine with CUPS (which is likely any Linux machine that prints) can set up printers in http://localhost:631 — but we all knew that one by heart, right?

4. User Account Tools

Adding users to a multi-user system like Linux is important, yet it is missing in KDE's System Settings. The application 'kuser' can be installed and launched with 'kdesudo kuser' but it isn't integrated into the System Settings as far as I can tell.

5. Services and Daemons

There should be an application to start/stop/setup system daemons that happen at boot; there is an addon located here which looks to do the job on Kubuntu, but this should be a standard module within System Settings, to allow a user to stop MySQL or to change when SSH is launched, etc.

6. FUSE File System Setups

The FUSE system is great; it allows users to mount a remote file system on their current setup, without needing root access that a regular filesystem mount needs.

For example, at home my Laptop gets its wireless signal and connects to my big computer's music collection, providing transparent streaming of my music to the laptop without having all of those files on the laptop itself. For someone familiar with the command line and mounting filesystems this is pretty easy; for a computer (or even Linux) newbie it isn't so clear what needs to be done.

I would really like a System Settings module which allows for certain file systems to be mounted at login depending on various conditions. For example, if my wireless access point is 'lefty@home' then my sshfs:/ and fusesmb:/ file systems should mount; if my access point is "corporation-WEP" when I am at work, then FUSE file systems which I have defined for my work needs should mount, etc.

7. Package installation integration

Using some software requires that additional packages are installed to make that first app work properly in certain situations. If I want to open a .doc file, for example, I would need OpenOffice or KOffice or some other application which can read the closed, binary Microsoft document format. If I try to open a .doc file and I have no applicable software available, KDE should offer a list of options and install the needed software (and not limit my options to KDE applications in the process).

8. Graphics setup configuration

Adding a second monitor to my home computer required setting up an XOrg config file (because Xorg doesn't use those by default any longer) and then defining a Virtual Desktop size that would be equal to, or larger than, the total resolution of my two monitors added together. I had to add this to my Screen section of my /etc/X11/xorg./conf file (completely outside of KDE), and the whole process isn't very intuitive:

SubSection "Display"

Viewport 0 0

Depth 24

Virtual 3048 2048

EndSubSection

KDE would do well to extend the capabilities of KRandR to allow these setups to work with minimal hassle to the end user, as well as to insert various modules into that xorg.conf file to allow for 3D rendering etc, regardless of the driver used (assuming the driver is capable of this with some module modifications). KRandR sits in the Tray of your plasma task bar, but it should be accessible within System Settings. There is a Disp[lay section with information about Multiple Monitors but it doesn't do anything to assist in the setup.

9. Hardware information

In KDE3 I could see my hardware, capabilities, and even the serial number of some of the hardware peripherals installed onto my computer. KDE4 could do this and so much more, but currently the Hardware module in System Settings only discusses software backends for HAL Power Management, for Networking, and for Bluetooth devices. Where is the information about my RAM? About my processor speed? This information is all inside KInfoCenter but there isn't a way to access that from System Settings. Granted, this is information and not something with settings, but it should still be within System Settings.

10. KDE4 Technologies need clarification

Akonadi? Nepomuk? If you're not a KDE user or developer these names mean nothing to you; as a KDE user I am still unsure what these do. They need more descriptive naming in the System Settings to describe what it is I am looking at. Don't call it Anokadi in system Settings; call it Anokadi Data Storage or whatever it does. Even Aaron Seigo, the KDE hacker, puts it this way in a recent post

Jargon Is Bad:

There's a lot more jargon in KDE, though: nepomuk (search service!), krandr (screen settings!), kwin compositing (desktop effects!), akonadi ... If we can keep the jargon out of what we see when using the software, it will help people immensely.

Notice even Aaron didn't tell us what Akonadi is? :D

All and all, I love KDE, its capabilities, its sensible defaults, its configurablity, its beauty, its speed... I just hope to see KDE 4 allow users to control their whole desktop better from an administrative perspective. Give it time, it will happen. The best part about KDE is that it keeps improving, by leaps and bounds.

Any Graphical Administration suggestions that readers can provide? Please, leave a comment, and enjoy your Free Software.

=-=-=-=-=
Powered by Bilbo Blogger

HowTo: VirtualBox on Debian Squeeze (Testing / Sid)

2009-10-21T12:37:00.000-07:00

VirtualBox is the great, Free Software virtual machine software which compares to VMware and others. Unlike the closed-source competitors, VirtualBox has the needed source code 'kernel headers' which allow it to hook into your Linux kernel and do its networking setup, etc.

With a rolling-release distribution (which makes new software available as it gets released) such as Debian Testing or Debian Sid ('Unstable'), new kernels mean that the older apps and drivers which hook into the kernel no longer work. For example, if you have run a working VirtualBox virtual machine in the past but get errors like the following image, there is a good chance that the kernel has changed and you need to recompile the modules (drivers):

Debian has a great tool called "Module Assistant" which easily compiles needed modules (drivers) for various applications, including VirtualBox and some wireless network drivers.

To run VirutalBox successfully, make sure that you have 'module-assistant' and 'virtualbox-ose' installed, and optionally 'virtualbox-ose-qt' if you prefer a more KDE-like graphical interface.

Once those are installed you'll need to work at a command line. As root (or as a regular user with 'sudo' capabilities) run at the command prompt:

shell$ sudo m-a prepare

to get Module Assistant prepared with whatever it needs; likely it will download some kernel headers if you've not used Module Assistant before. Then we're going to 'auto install' (a-i) VirtualBox with Module Assistant:

shell$ sudo m-a a-i virtualbox-ose-source

You'll see some screens like this as Module Assistant is doing its work:

Once that is done, we'll need to load (modprobe) the kernel modules (drivers) that VirtualBox uses; you may want to add these modules to the file at /etc/modules so that they auto load at boot time. Note that because I had the older kernel modules loaded, I am going to remove (-r) them first, and then load in the newly built modules:

shell$ sudo modprobe -r vboxdrv
shell$ sudo modprobe -r vboxnetflt
shell$ sudo modprobe vboxdrv
shell$ sudo modprobe vboxnetflt

In this screenshot, we're getting warnings about an unrelated config file so we're going to ignore it as you may not have these issues on your own setup.

Now, VirtualBox is using the needed kernel modules for its current kernel and VirtualBox, and I am able to load my virtual machines again.

Happy VM'ing!

An open request to rename Ubuntu package formats

2009-10-15T07:31:00.000-07:00

I have a .deb file, where can I install it?

If the software package was compiled for Debian, I can install it on nearly any recent Debian release. Currently I have XTightVNCViewer installed with the Debian package release 1.2.9-21 (from the Stable branch) even though I run a Sid desktop, because this older package has functionality which isn't available in the Sid package at version 1.3.9-5. Other than some dependency resolutions, mixing Debian software branches (Stable, Testing, and Unstable) isn't recommended but it isn't difficult to do, and my experiences with it have been a rather stable setup when it needs to be done. (Let me repeat, this is not recommended nor supported). Debian releases infrequently enough that this mixing probably isn't needed much; if a package is still relevant there will be a new release for it.

Ubuntu came onto the scene a few years ago with the goal to release Debian Sid (Unstable) as a stabilized set of packages. Not to start a flame war, but Ubuntu's success in this has been questionable, depending on who you ask or your own experiences.

The repackaging of Debian was at first welcomed by many in the Debian community, but early into the project the Ubuntu developers forked and changed the way Debian works for their own distribution. This is Free Software and there is nothing wrong with that approach, although there has been much said about Ubuntu's contributions upstream.

With that split from Debian, however, came no split with the package manager or its tools. Ubuntu now requires separate package releases for each OS release; a quick stop at GetDeb.net shows that you have to search for your specific version of Ubuntu to find a package which will work for your setup. These aren't repositories to keep your software up-to-date like Debian is designed for; these are downloadable packages to be installed much like a Windows .exe file would be installed: download and double-click.

When SuSE Linux took the Red Hat package format, RPM, it led to the increase of Dependency Hell for RPM-based distributions. Red Hat, Suse, and Fedora all use RPM files but they're incompatible; without knowing which release and distribution a package was created for, that package is nearly useless and attempting to install it will lead to a failure or massive headaches when trying to resolve its dependencies. O perhaps it will just luckily work, all depending on the software and its complexity.

Ubuntu is doing the same to the .deb package format. Their frequent OS releases means that every package needs to be recompiled for that release. Applications downloaded from GetDeb.net or one of the many other Ubuntu-focused software sites may no longer work when the OS is upgraded; without a repository there is no way to upgrade the 3rd party packages. (Note: These sites provide a valuable service to the Ubuntu community, but seem to disregard Debian completely; the purpose of this Open Request is not to stop or deride these sites at all.)

Debian, on the other hand, has always used .deb files and has encouraged using software repositories for accessing new software and for keeping it up-to-date. While mixing Debian released packages from one OS release to the next isn't recommended or supported, it does work. Downloading individual .deb files for installation works but it isn't the recommended method. Perhaps mixing Ubuntu packages (from one release to the next) would work also, I am not sure.

But the real problem here is that Ubuntu is using the .deb package format and giving it both a bad name (due to dependency breakages), and its packages are named .deb but don't work on Debian, the very system that the packages were designed for.

With Ubuntu's frequent release cycle and with the nature of Free Software, the package management tools that Ubuntu uses (dpkg, apt, aptitude) should be modified to accept packages in a Ubuntu-specific package extension: .ubu files. This could happen at any release; perhaps after this next release it could be worked on, to be ready in time for the next LTR or even the next 'short term' release in order to give time for testing.

While the packages themselves may be internally identical to a .deb file, these .ubu files would specify that the packages are for Ubuntu and not for Debian. SuSE should have done that and didn't; Ubuntu doesn't have to make this same mistake. Debian users wouldn't have to be confused trying to know if a .deb file will work on their system or not. Ubuntu would get the great package management that Debian has but with better branding of their packages and software. Debian would have its branding as well, and perhaps both Debian and Ubuntu could still install one another's packages with unknown results, just as it is now.

The new .ubu files wouldn't impart any release info in their file names as they are; either the name itself could be 'packagename.904.ubu' or maybe the extension should specify the release, for example 'packagename.u904'. I don't have the answers to this, but naming separate distribution packages the same isn't helpful at all.

Ubuntu may be here to stay, but please, keep Debian's package extension .deb for Debian.

=-=-=-=-=
Powered by Bilbo Blogger

Technical Interview Questions – Networking

2009-10-11T11:16:00.000-07:00

What is an IP address?
What is a subnet mask?
What is ARP?
What is ARP Cache Poisoning?
What is the ANDing process?
What is a default gateway? What happens if I don't have one?
Can a workstation computer be configured to browse the Internet and yet NOT have a default gateway?
What is a subnet?
What is APIPA?
What is an RFC? Name a few if possible (not necessarily the numbers, just the ideas behind them)
What is RFC 1918?
What is CIDR?
You have the following Network ID: 192.115.103.64/27. What is the IP range for your network?
You have the following Network ID: 131.112.0.0. You need at least 500 hosts per network. How many networks can you create? What subnet mask will you use?
You need to view at network traffic. What will you use? Name a few tools
How do I know the path that a packet takes to the destination?
What does the ping 192.168.0.1 -l 1000 -n 100 command do?
What is DHCP? What are the benefits and drawbacks of using it?
Describe the steps taken by the client and DHCP server in order to obtain an IP address.
What is the DHCPNACK and when do I get one? Name 2 scenarios.
What ports are used by DHCP and the DHCP clients?
Describe the process of installing a DHCP server in an AD infrastructure.
What is DHCPINFORM?
Describe the integration between DHCP and DNS.
What options in DHCP do you regularly use for an MS network?
What are User Classes and Vendor Classes in DHCP?
How do I configure a client machine to use a specific User Class?
What is the BOOTP protocol used for, where might you find it in Windows network infrastructure?
DNS zones – describe the differences between the 4 types.
DNS record types – describe the most important ones.
Describe the process of working with an external domain name
Describe the importance of DNS to AD.
Describe a few methods of finding an MX record for a remote domain on the Internet.
What does "Disable Recursion" in DNS mean?
What could cause the Forwarders and Root Hints to be grayed out?
What is a "Single Label domain name" and what sort of issues can it cause?
What is the "in-addr.arpa" zone used for?
What are the requirements from DNS to support AD?
How do you manually create SRV records in DNS?
Name 3 benefits of using AD-integrated zones.
What are the benefits of using Windows 2003 DNS when using AD-integrated zones?
You installed a new AD domain and the new (and first) DC has not registered its SRV records in DNS. Name a few possible causes.
What are the benefits and scenarios of using Stub zones?
What are the benefits and scenarios of using Conditional Forwarding?
What are the differences between Windows Clustering, Network Load Balancing and Round Robin, and scenarios for each use?
How do I work with the Host name cache on a client computer?
How do I clear the DNS cache on the DNS server?
What is the 224.0.1.24 address used for?
What is WINS and when do we use it?
Can you have a Microsoft-based network without any WINS server on it? What are the "considerations" regarding not using WINS?
Describe the differences between WINS push and pull replications.
What is the difference between tombstoning a WINS record and simply deleting it?
Name the NetBIOS names you might expect from a Windows 2003 DC that is registered in WINS.
Describe the role of the routing table on a host and on a router.
What are routing protocols? Why do we need them? Name a few.
What are router interfaces? What types can they be?
In Windows 2003 routing, what are the interface filters?
What is NAT?
What is the real difference between NAT and PAT?
How do you configure NAT on Windows 2003?
How do you allow inbound traffic for specific hosts on Windows 2003 NAT?
What is VPN? What types of VPN does Windows 2000 and beyond work with natively?
What is IAS? In what scenarios do we use it?
What's the difference between Mixed mode and Native mode in AD when dealing with RRAS?
What is the "RAS and IAS" group in AD?
What are Conditions and Profile in RRAS Policies?
What types or authentication can a Windows 2003 based RRAS work with?
How does SSL work?
How does IPSec work?
How do I deploy IPSec for a large number of computers?
What types of authentication can IPSec use?
What is PFS (Perfect Forward Secrecy) in IPSec?
How do I monitor IPSec?
Looking at IPSec-encrypted traffic with a sniffer. What packet types do I see?
What can you do with NETSH?
How do I look at the open ports on my machine?

The next article in this series will cover Active Directory questions!

MCSE and System Administrator Job Interview Questions – Part 1 – Networking

2009-10-11T08:16:00.000-07:00

In today's dynamic IT world many people might find themselves in a position where they are now looking to get a new or better job than they had up to that point in time. Getting your foot into the door is hard enough, and for that you need a well-written CV, not to mention the ability to make a good first impression on the potential phone conversation you might get. However, getting the foot in the door is just the first step of actually getting the job. In most cases you should now expect to be interviewed by an experienced IT Professional, perhaps even the same one that you're going to replace, or the one you're going to work under.

Most technical interviews will be related to the job-specific tasks you're supposed to apply for, therefore not all technical interviews are alike. However, applying for a Microsoft-related IT position has some benefits, as most of the information can be found on the Internet (not to mention this website). Needless to say, you should NOT apply for a job you're not qualified to perform, but as we all know, this recommendation is hardly ever followed by people who sometimes falsify their so-called experience and pretend to have knowledge they do not actually have. Here is where the interviewer's role comes into place, and where true knowledge can be placed apart from various wannabes or fakers.
Here is part 1 of Daniel Petri's (long and thorough) MCSE/IT Pro/System Administrator job interview questions sample. Note that this is only a sample of what I might ask a potential candidate, however I think that I've covered most of the basic and non-basic issues. Answering this list in a satisfactory way will give you a pretty good chance to impress your potential interviewer, especially if that person really knows a thing or two about these issues.
This article is in fact targeted at both the interviewer (who needs a pool of valid questions they can ask) and to the candidate (who wants a pool of sample questions they can prepare for). Needless to say, both MUST know what they're talking about. Having an interviewer that knows nothing about the questions they ask should be punishable by law! :)
I did not prepare a passing score chart for my interview questions, as I feel that it is the responsibility of the interviewer to get the "right" feel from the candidate. Passing with a hard coded score of 70% does not qualify you, it's the general feeling I get from asking the questions, looking at the candidate's ability to answer them and the way he or she copes with questions that they cannot answer.
Also, although I consider these questions as a thorough verbal test for the candidate's knowledge, in most cases, when he or she passes this phase, I will also ask them to perform an actual hands-on lab based on my written exercises. I might also include these in a future part of this session.
I have deliberately left out the answers to these questions. I want YOU to research them and take the time to actually learn these topics, if you don't know them already.
Another question that came up from some readers was whether I was not afraid to disclose these questions publicly, as some candidates reading this site will quickly copy the questions and use them to get prepared in advance for the interview. My answer to that is THAT IS EXACTLY THE POINT! I want the candidate to know what they're here for, and the more prepared they are, the better their knowledge is. The "cheating" candidate that will only learn the answers by heart (like "Paper MCSEs" do today) will have no chance of passing my hands-on exam anyway.
Most sub topics start off with relatively easy questions where the candidate is supposed to demonstrate their knowledge on that topic. A few sentences will be enough to show their (lack of) knowledge on the topic.
I know some of these questions might make you feel like I am digging in too deep. Well, although this might be true for some questions, I always proceed with the interview in a dynamic way, which means I will add more questions on a topic or reduce the level of questions based on the candidate's ability to answer previous questions. Much like ADAPTIVE TESTING that was used in some past Microsoft exams. For example, when asking a candidate about DNS he demonstrated very limited knowledge of the basic meaning of the service and what it was used for. There was no point in trying to ask him about Round Robin, knowing that since he did not know what SRV Records were, what was an AD Integrated Zone, what were Zone Transfers and so on, he will probably not know the answers to the more advanced questions. Oh, and in case you wanted to ask – he was not accepted for that specific job…

In part 1 of this article series I will cover Microsoft Networking issues. As always, your comments and feedbacks are more than welcome. Use the "Feedback" form to send them in. If you're using this interview question sample in your own environment please drop me a line telling me how it works for you. Also, placing a link to my site and giving me credit for my work is expected.

Debian Sid: HowTo: Firewire Access

2009-10-06T07:03:00.000-07:00

I had a hell of a time last night trying to capture video in KDEnlive, the great video editor.

It's not KDEnlive's fault that the Firewire stack is such a mess on Linux. My Debian Sid system seems to be using a new Firewire (ieee1394) stack that isn't complete or something. With some work I was able to get the Firewire control and capture working for our Panasonic video camera.

First I plugged in the camera and at a command prompt, ran 'dmesg' to give the recent list of kernel activity:

lefty@bigboi:~$ dmesg

Oct 5 23:48:11 bigboi kernel: firewire_core: rediscovered device fw0

Oct 5 23:48:11 bigboi kernel: firewire_core: phy config: card 0, new root=ffc2, gap_count=7

Oct 5 23:48:11 bigboi kernel: firewire_core: giving up on config rom for node id ffc0

Oct 5 23:48:11 bigboi kernel: firewire_core: skipped bus generations, destroying all nodes

Oct 5 23:48:12 bigboi kernel: firewire_core: rediscovered device fw0

Oct 5 23:48:12 bigboi kernel: firewire_core: phy config: card 0, new root=ffc2, gap_count=7

Oct 5 23:48:12 bigboi kernel: firewire_core: giving up on config rom for node id ffc0

Oct 5 23:48:12 bigboi kernel: firewire_core: skipped bus generations, destroying all nodes

Oct 5 23:48:12 bigboi kernel: firewire_core: giving up on config rom for node id ffc2

Oct 5 23:48:12 bigboi kernel: firewire_core: giving up on config rom for node id ffc0

While my computer recognized the camera, it didn't seem to like it much and I am not sure why exactly. To get Firewire working, first I unloaded the modules (drivers) and then reloaded them:

lefty@bigboi:~$ sudo lsmod |grep fire

firewire_sbp2 14920 0

firewire_net 13728 0

firewire_ohci 23232 0

firewire_core 47360 3 firewire_sbp2,firewire_net,firewire_ohci

crc_itu_t 1884 1 firewire_core

scsi_mod 148496 5 firewire_sbp2,sg,sr_mod,sd_mod,libata

lefty@bigboi:~$ modprobe -r firewire_net

lefty@bigboi:~$ modprobe -r firewire_sbp2

lefty@bigboi:~$ modprobe -r firewire_ohci

lefty@bigboi:~$ modprobe -r firewire-core

lefty@bigboi:~$ modprobe firewire-ohci

lefty@bigboi:~$ modprobe firewire-net

lefty@bigboi:~$ modprobe firewire-sbp2

lefty@bigboi:~$ modprobe firewire-core

Now 'dmesg' has better information:

lefty@bigboi:~$ dmesg

Oct 5 23:49:42 bigboi kernel: firewire_ohci 0000:02:03.0: PCI INT A -> GSI 16 (level, low) -> IRQ 16

Oct 5 23:49:42 bigboi kernel: firewire_ohci: Added fw-ohci device 0000:02:03.0, OHCI version 1.0

Oct 5 23:49:43 bigboi kernel: firewire_core: created device fw0: GUID 0011060000200a4a, S400

Oct 5 23:49:43 bigboi kernel: firewire_core: created device fw1: GUID 008045803173ad59, S100

I knew from the past that video capture in Kino and KDEnlive both use /dev/raw1394 rather than the device created above (/dev/fw0), and I also knew that I needed read access to that file /dev/whatever, so I addedmyself to the video group:

lefty@bigboi:~$ sudo adduser lefty video

The user `lefty' is already a member of `video'.

Had this been a new addition to that group, I would have had to log out and log back in for that change to take effect. Then, I changed the group for that file and gave group-read (and write, why not) permissions:

lefty@bigboi:~$ sudo chown :video /dev/fw0

lefty@bigboi:~$ sudo chmod g+rw /dev/fw0

Finally, I linked the new Firewire device to a location that I knew KDEnlive (which uses the dvgrab program, actually) would look for the video capture, /dev/raw1394 as I had stated:

lefty@bigboi:~$ sudo ln /dev/fw0 /dev/raw1394

Note that the above is *not* a symbolic link (not 'ln -s' ). This is a hard link which points to the exact device that I needed to access.

Now KDEnlive was able to capture fine, finally! Then I noticed that my battery was getting low from all of this work, so I had to unplug the camera to put in a new battery, causing all of the above work to fail. I had to redo it all but now that I knew what to do, it was much easier.

I hope this works for others and enjoy your video editing with KDEnlive!

=-=-=-=-=
Powered by Bilbo Blogger

Ubuntu Server: "Setting locale failed" and a fix

2009-09-29T07:07:00.000-07:00

Yesterday, working remotely to set up a cleanly-installed Ubuntu Jaunty server, every command that I ran would give me errors with Perl and an unset language. For example:

root@dev:/vweb# adduser htomol tracusers

perl: warning: Setting locale failed.

perl: warning: Please check that your locale settings:

LANGUAGE = (unset),

LC_ALL = (unset),

LANG = "en_US.UTF-8"

are supported and installed on your system.

perl: warning: Falling back to the standard locale ("C").

Adding user `htomol' to group `tracusers' ...

Adding user htomol to group tracusers

Done.

root@dev:/vweb#

I tried reconfiguring the locales package and a few others but no fix. The solution was to install the language pack that I wanted to use; I am not sure why this didn't happen at install time (I didn't do the installation). For English, the pack to install was 'language-pack-en' so I needed to run:

root@dev:/vweb# aptitude update

...

root@dev:/vweb# aptitude install language-pack-en

...

root@dev:/vweb#

That seemed to have fixed it; thanks goes out to the irc.Freenode.net people on #ubuntu-server, specifically the user named sub. Another example, in my eyes, of why Ubuntu is not the slick setup that everyone seems to believe that it is; I've never had this issue with Debian.

=-=-=-=-=
Powered by Bilbo Blogger

How can i copy the files in the debug folder to some other directory automatically ?

2009-09-26T09:45:00.002-07:00

Add the following line of code to the Post build event in the project properties,
call copy E:\projectdir\bin\Debug c:\test\

What is the name of the file you need to change to add pre- and post-build functionality into your custom package ?

2009-09-26T09:45:00.001-07:00

Targets file.
It is located in ,
%WINDOWS%\Microsoft.NET\Framework\v2.0.50727\Microsoft.Common.targets

Tell some of the new features of ASP.NET 3.5?

2009-09-26T09:45:00.000-07:00

1. Expression Trees
2. Controls
1. ListView
2. DataPager
3. Support for LINQ, WCF , WPF and WWF

What are the options available on creating a branch?

2009-09-26T09:44:00.000-07:00

There are 5 options available on creating a branch, they are :
1. Changeset
2. Date
3. Label
4. Latest Version
5. Workspace version

How will you check whether automated build is successful and call a custom task on successful build?

2009-09-26T09:43:00.001-07:00

You can do that by providing the following config entry in the MS Build or TFS Build config file,
BuildUri="$(BuildUri)"
Condition=" '$(IsDesktopBuild)' != 'true' ">

What are the new Features in Team Build 2008 ?

2009-09-26T09:43:00.000-07:00

1. Continuous Integration
2. Build Queuing
3. Scheduled Builds
4. Build Agent Management
5. Build Definition Editing GUI
6. Better Build Management
7. Managed object model
8. Improved extensibility

What are the blocks in Enterprise Library?

2009-09-26T09:42:00.001-07:00

1. The Caching Application Block

2. The Cryptography Application Block

3. The Data Access Application Block

4. The Exception Handling Application Block

5. The Logging Application Block

6. The Policy Injection Application Block

7. The Security Application Block

8. The Unity Application Block

9. The Validation Application Block

What are the Predefined bindings in WCF?

2009-09-26T09:42:00.000-07:00

1. BasicHttpBinding
2. WSHttpBinding
3. WSDualHttpBinding
4. NetTcpBinding
5. NetNamedPipeBinding
6. NetMsmqBinding

What is the expansion of TDD?

2009-09-26T09:41:00.001-07:00

Test-Driven-Development .

www.codecollege.NET

What will the deployment retail="true" do when set in a asp.net web.config file?

2009-09-26T09:41:00.000-07:00

It forces the 'debug' attribute in the web.config to false, disables page output tracing, and forces the custom error page to be shown to remote users rather than the actual exception.

What is the Svcutil.exe ?

2009-09-26T09:40:00.001-07:00

Service Model Metadata Utility Tool is used to generate the proxy from the client.

Explain what is a DTO?

2009-09-26T09:40:00.000-07:00

A DTO is a pattern used to transfer data between applications.

www.codecollege.NET

What are the uses of Views?

2009-09-26T09:39:00.001-07:00

1. Views are virtual tables (they dont store data physically) which gives a result
of data by joining tables. So you are not storing redundant data.

2. Views are used to produce reports from data

3. Views can be used to provide security to data by giving access only to views.

What’s the difference between authentication and authorization?

2009-09-26T09:39:00.000-07:00

what is Authentication?

Is a process by which the system decides whether the user is valid to login to the site as a whole.

what is Authorization?

Is a process by which the system decides which are the areas and functionalities the user is allowed to access, at the component level.

What is Serialization ? What are the Types of Serialization and their differences?

2009-09-26T09:38:00.002-07:00

Serialization:
It is the process of converting an object to a form suitable for either making it persistent or tranportable.
Deserialization is the reverse of this and it converts the object from the serialized state to its original state.

Types:
1. Binary
2. XML

Differences:

Sno

Binary

XML

It preserves type fidelity , which is useful for preserving

the state of the object between transportation and invocation.

It doesnt preserves type fidelity and hence state cant be

maintained.

As it is the open standard its widely used

Not that much compared to
Binary.

What is assemblyInfo.cs file? Where can I find it? What is it for?

2009-09-26T09:38:00.001-07:00

What
It consists of all build options for the project,including verison,company name,etc.
Where
It is located in the Properties folder.
Use
It is used to manage the build settings.

What is the name of the class used to read and get details of the files uploaded to asp.net?

2009-09-26T09:38:00.000-07:00

System.Web.HttpPostedFile

What is web.config.? How many web.config files can be allowed to use in an application?

2009-09-26T09:37:00.001-07:00

1.

The Web.Config file is the configuration file for
asp.net web application or a web site. prefix="o" ?>

2.

You can have as many Web.Config files as you want
, but there can be only one web.config file in a single folder.

What are asynchronous callbacks in .net?

2009-09-26T09:37:00.000-07:00

It means that a call is made from a Main Program to a .net Class’s method and the program continues execution. When the callback is made ( means the method has finished its work and returns value) , the Main program handles it.

How to download webpage using asp.net and c# ?

2009-09-26T09:36:00.003-07:00

See the following code,

using System;
using System.Collections.Generic;
using System.Text;
using System.IO;
using System.Net;

namespace DownloadingFile
{
class Program
{
static void Main(string[] args)
{
WebRequest reqFile = WebRequest.Create("http://www.codecollege.net/2009/07/cloud-computing.html");

WebResponse resFile = reqFile.GetResponse();

Stream smFile = resFile.GetResponseStream();
// Output the downloaded stream to the console
StreamReader sr = new StreamReader(smFile);
string line;
while ((line = sr.ReadLine()) != null)
Console.WriteLine(line);
Console.Read();
}
}
}

How to download webpage using asp.net and c# ?

2009-09-26T09:36:00.002-07:00

How to read and write from a text file using c#.net ?

2009-09-26T09:36:00.001-07:00

See the following sample,

using System;
using System.Collections.Generic;
using System.Text;
using System.IO;

namespace ReadWriteFromTxt
{
class Program
{
static void readFile()
{
FileStream fsEmp = new FileStream("c:\\Emp.html", FileMode.Open, FileAccess.Read);
StreamReader srEmp = new StreamReader(fsEmp);
string s;
while ((s = srEmp.ReadLine()) != null)
{
Console.WriteLine(s);
Console.Read();
}
srEmp.Close();
fsEmp.Close();
}

static void writeFile()
{
FileStream fsEmp = new FileStream("c:\\Emp.html", FileMode.Open, FileAccess.Write );
StreamWriter swEmp = new StreamWriter(fsEmp );

string s="Have you seen god? Is there anything else to see";
swEmp.WriteLine(s);
swEmp.Close();
fsEmp.Close();

}

static void Main(string[] args)
{
writeFile();
readFile();
}
}
}

what are the Differences between Abstract Class and Interface ?

2009-09-26T09:36:00.000-07:00

Sno	Abstract Class	Interface
1	Can have implemented Methods	Cant
2	A class can inherit only one abstract class	A Class can implement any number of Interfaces.
3	We go for Abstract classes on such situations where we need to give common functionality for group of related classes	We go for Interface on such situations where we need to give common functionality for group of un-related classes
4	If you add a new method, then you can provide a default implementation and so no need to make any change to existing work.	If you add a new method, then you need to change all the existing work.
5	Static and Instance constants are possible.	Only Static constants are possible.

How can you tell the application to look for assemblies at the locations other than its installed location?

2009-09-26T09:35:00.001-07:00

You can do that by adding the following entry in the web.config file,

How to read and write from a text file using c#.net ?

2009-09-26T09:35:00.000-07:00

What are the different Debugging tools which come with .NET ?

2009-09-26T09:34:00.001-07:00

Two debugging tools come with .NET, they are :

1. CorDBG
– command-line debugger

2. DbgCLR – graphic debugger.

What are the differences between const and readonly ?

2009-09-26T09:34:00.000-07:00

Sno	const	readonly
1	Can't be static.	Can be instance level or static
2	evaluated at design time	evaluated at run time
3	Initialized at declaration	Initialized at declaration and in constructor
4	must be of integral type or enumeration	In addition it can have complex types with new keyword and enumerations are not allowed

How to call a base class constructor from a derived class?

2009-09-26T09:33:00.002-07:00

How to call a base class constructor from a derived class?

using System;
using System.Collections.Generic;
using System.Text;

namespace OOPTest7
{
class A
{
public A()
{
Console.Out.Write("base A");
}
public A(string s)
{
Console.Out.Write(s);
}

}

class B : A
{

public B() : base("base cons called from Derived")
{
Console.Out.Write("B");
}

}

class Program
{
static void Main(string[] args)
{
B b= new B();
Console.In.Read();
}
}
}

what does '()' denote in the object creation statement

2009-09-26T09:33:00.001-07:00

what does '()' denote in the object creation statement?

It denotes the constructor.

What are test cases you should go through in unit testing?

2009-09-26T09:33:00.000-07:00

You need to check 3 test cases, which are the following,

1. Positive test cases (correct data, correct output)

2. Negative test cases (broken or missing data, proper handling)

3. Exception test cases (exceptions are thrown and caught properly)

If A is the base class and B inherits B and C inherits B and an object is created for C , whats order of constructor

2009-09-26T09:32:00.001-07:00

If A is the base class and B inherits B and C inherits B and an object is created for C , then what will be the order of
the constructor being called?

A then B then C.

using System;
using System.Collections.Generic;
using System.Text;

namespace OopTest5
{
class A
{
public A()
{
Console.Out.Write("A");
}

}

class B : A
{
public B()
{
Console.Out.Write("B");
}

}

class C : B
{
public C()
{
Console.Out.Write("C");
}

}

class Program
{
static void Main(string[] args)
{
C c = new C();
Console.In.Read();
}
}
}

interface ,the class which implemented it and its object, with interface in left hand side during creation

2009-09-26T09:32:00.000-07:00

If a class IA is implementing an interface I which is having a method a, then
can is the following allowed? Will that have all the methods of IA apart from that of interface I?

I a = new IA();

Yes. always the base class or interface can contain derived class, but it will have
only those of the base. So it will not have members of IA which are not from interface I.

using System;
using System.Collections.Generic;
using System.Text;

namespace OOPTest6
{
interface I
{
void a();
}

class IA : I
{
public void a()
{
Console.Out.Write("a");
}
public void nonintfacemeth()
{
Console.Out.Write("nonintfacemeth");
}

}

class Program
{
static void Main(string[] args)
{
I i = new IA();
i.a();

}
}
}

Does C# (.NET) support partial implementation?

2009-09-26T09:31:00.001-07:00

Does C# (.NET) support partial implementation?
No.

the following program will throw an error.

using System;
using System.Collections.Generic;
using System.Text;

namespace OPPTest3
{
interface IA
{
void x();
void y();
}

class IAClass : IA
{
public void x()
{
Console.Out.Write("test x");
}

}
class Program
{
static void Main(string[] args)
{
IAClass m = new IAClass();
m.x();
m.y();
}
}
}

how to implement a pure virtual function in c#?

2009-09-26T09:31:00.000-07:00

how to implement a pure virtual function in c#?

using System;
using System.Collections.Generic;
using System.Text;

namespace OppTest4
{
abstract class abTest
{
public abstract void a();

}

class UsesabTest : abTest
{
public override void a()
{
Console.Out.Write("a");
}

public void x()
{
Console.Out.Write("x");
}
}

class Program
{
static void Main(string[] args)
{
UsesabTest mn = new UsesabTest();
mn.a();
}
}
}

Class implementing Interface

2009-09-26T09:30:00.002-07:00

using System;
using System.Collections.Generic;
using System.Text;

namespace OppTest2
{
interface IA
{
void x();
void y();
}

class IAClass : IA
{
public void x()
{
Console.Out.Write("test x");
}
public void y()
{
Console.Out.Write("test y");
}
}
class Program
{
static void Main(string[] args)
{
IAClass m = new IAClass();
m.x();
m.y();
}
}
}

Can we leave a virtual function in an abstract class without implementing in the derived class

2009-09-26T09:30:00.001-07:00

Does c# support pure virtual function?
No.
Instead you can use abstract function which is also called as a pure virtual function.
abstract class abTest
{
public abstract void a();

}

Can we leave a virtual function in an abstract class without implementing in the derived class ?
No. It will throw an error.

using System;
using System.Collections.Generic;
using System.Text;

namespace OppTest4
{
abstract class abTest
{
public abstract void a();

}

class UsesabTest : abTest
{
//public override void a()
//{
// Console.Out.Write("a");
//}

public void x()
{
Console.Out.Write("x");
}
}

class Program
{
static void Main(string[] args)
{
}
}
}

Does C# (.NET) support partial implementation?

2009-09-26T09:30:00.000-07:00

Which Authentication methods are based on cookies?

2009-09-26T09:29:00.002-07:00

1. Forms
2. Passport

Which Authentication method require Active Directory?

2009-09-26T09:29:00.001-07:00

Digest.

What area the differences between Global.asax and Web.Config?

2009-09-26T09:29:00.000-07:00

Sno	global.asax	web.config
1	Class File	Its an XML file
2	There can be only one for an application	there can be many if under different sub-folders
3	Can have Application and Session events	Can't
4	Need to be recompiled when changes are made	No need to compile when changes are

How will you kill a user's session variable explicitly?

2009-09-26T09:28:00.001-07:00

Session.Abandon()

What base class do all Web Forms inherit from?

2009-09-26T09:28:00.000-07:00

System.web.UI.Page class.

Differences between Dataset and DataReader

2009-09-26T09:27:00.001-07:00

Sno	Dataset	DataReader
1	Disconnected Mode	Connected Mode
2	Can navigate back and forth	Can navigate forward only
3	Data is editable	Data is Readonly
4	Can contain more than one table and relationships	Can contain only one row at a time.
5	Slower as having more overhead	Faster when compared with dataset.

What are the differences between value and reference types

2009-09-26T09:27:00.000-07:00

Sno	Value Types	Reference Types
1	They contain their data directly	They store a reference to their value’s memory
2	They are allocated for storage either in stack or inline in structure..	They are allocated for storage in heap
3	can be built-in (implemented by the runtime), user-defined, or enumerations	self-describing types, pointer types, or interface types.

What is Serialization ? What are the Types of Serialization and their differences?

2009-09-26T09:26:00.000-07:00

Sno

Binary

XML

It preserves type fidelity , which is useful for preserving

the state of the object between transportation and invocation.

It doesnt preserves type fidelity and hence state cant be

maintained.

As it is the open standard its widely used

Not that much compared to
Binary.

What are the differences between Trace and Debug?

2009-09-26T09:25:00.002-07:00

Sno	Trace	Debug
1	Works in both Debug and Release mode	Works only in Debug mode.
2	Trace is enabled by default in visual studio	Debug is not enabled. You can manually do that.

What is the difference between a custom control and a user control ?

2009-09-26T09:25:00.001-07:00

Sno	User Control	Custom Control
1	Is a file with the .ascx extension	Is a file with the .dll extension
2	Can be only used with the application	Can be used in any number of applications
3	Language dependent.	They are language independent, a control created in c# can be used in vb.net
4	Can’t be added to Visual studio Toolbox	Can be added to Visual studio Toolbox
5	Inherits from Server controls and easy to create.	You have to develop from scratch , so comparatively difficult.
6	Generally used for static content	Used when dynamic content is required

What is the difference between CCW and RCW ?

2009-09-26T09:25:00.000-07:00

Sno	CCW	RCW
1	COM to .NET communication happens through COM Callable Wrapper	.NET to COM Communication happens through Remote Callable Wrappter

What are the differences between value and reference types

2009-09-26T09:24:00.001-07:00

Sno	Value Types	Reference Types
1	They contain their data directly	They store a reference to their value’s memory
2	They are allocated for storage either in stack or inline in structure..	They are allocated for storage in heap
3	can be built-in (implemented by the runtime), user-defined, or enumerations	self-describing types, pointer types, or interface types.

What are the differences between machine.config and web.config files?

2009-09-26T09:24:00.000-07:00

Sno	Web.config	Machine.config
1	It is a config file for a single application.	It is a config file which is common for all the applications in a machine
2	It will be available in the application folder.	It is available in the Microsoft.NET\Framework\{version}\CONFIG Folder.
3	The settings in the web.config overrides that of Machine.config	Cant do.
4	Automatically installed when visual studio .net is installed	This is automatically created when you create an asp.ne website

What are the Differences between Server.Transfer and Response.Redirect ?

2009-09-26T09:22:00.000-07:00

Difference between Server.Transfer and Response.Redirect

Sno	Server.Transfer	Response.Redirect
1	The navigation happens on the server-side ,so client history is not updated	The navigation happens on the client-side ,so client history is updated
2	Data can be persist accros the pages using Context.Item collection	Context.Items loses the persisitance.
3	No Round-trips	Makes a Round-trip
4	Has Good encapsulation	No

Active Directory Domain Migration Checklist

2009-09-19T20:21:00.000-07:00

Before beginning an Active Directory migration, a number of mandatory requirements are needed to be in place in order to complete the migration successfully. These requirements are standards to meet both the requirements for Microsoft Windows migration and the Winzero Active Directory Migrator.

Download the Domain Migration Checklist

Windows 7 Application Compatibility Document

2009-09-19T20:20:00.000-07:00

“Understand the impact of application compatibility on your environment and how you can address application compatibility concerns.

This document can help you understand the impact of application compatibility on your environment and how you can address application compatibility concerns.”

Some Useful Online Content For OS Deployment

2009-09-19T20:19:00.001-07:00

Johan Arwidmark (deployment MVP) has some online content you might want to check out:

A free CD called Resources for deploying a Windows Environment.
A free webinar at www.windows7summit.com on October 7th at 1PM (probably American EST).

Windows Server 2008 R2 Windows Deployment Services (WDS)

2009-09-19T20:19:00.000-07:00

As you may have noticed, I’ve been doing some lab work on Windows 7 deployment recently. Last night I upgraded the MDT 2010 build to an RC. Within 15 minutes I was in a position where I was able to deploy a clean build Windows 7 machine and do an upgrade from XP to Windows 7 while conserving the user’s state on the machine.

Ben Armstrong (the Virtual PC Guy) blogged overnight about his experience with WDS on Windows Server 2008 R2. That was my next step: I want to get the LiteTouch.ISO mounted on there so I can run it on the network.

My MDT lab is 4 virtual machines running on Windows Server 2008 R2:

Domain controller with DHCP/DNS.
MDT server, MDT-SVR
Virtual PC 1: Windows 7
Virtual PC 2: Windows XP with a user state and a snapshot I can restore after Windows 7 upgrades

I loaded WDS (Windows Deployment Services) onto MDT-SVR in Server Manager. It’s pretty simple from there:

I configured the role.
I added the Windows 7 images from the mounted ISO.
I used the discovered boot image to create a capture image and loaded it.
I’d previously extracted the x86 Integration Components (drivers) for Hyper-V. I added those as a package called Hyper-V.
I added the drivers to both boot images.

No using DISM or command prompt yet.

Now I booted up a VM with PXE Boot (F12). I changed the boot order of the VM to get that working reliably. Wait .. PXE in Hyper-V? Yes, you CAN do it.

Next thing you know, the VM has loaded the pre-boot environment discovered via BOOTP/DHCP. I picked a boot image and deployed Windows 7.

Time taken? 10 minutes. OK, I had already extracted the drivers and I knew WDS from W2008/W2003. But it was pretty easy!

EDIT #1: I’d say it was less than 15 minutes later before I could log into the new Windows 7 VM running on Windows Server 2008 R2 Hyper-V.

RDP 7.0 Coming To Vista and XP

2009-09-19T20:18:00.002-07:00

Microsoft announced that they will release the RDP 7.0 client in Q4. This will mean those legacy clients can take advantage of new features like media streaming.

How To Deploy VPN/RAS Connections Using Scripting and GPO

2009-09-19T20:18:00.001-07:00

This download documents how to use PowerShell and Group Policy to configure RAS/VPN connections on Windows clients if you are using the native technologies for RAS/VPN.

“This article describes how to use Group Policy, Powershell and the Remote Access Service (RAS) application programming interfaces (APIs) to configure and deploy VPN connection settings to client computers ready for use by users. The solution also describes how the Task Scheduler service can be used to configure scripts or programs that are run whenever a VPN connection is made to the VPN server. The advantage of this solution is that it is not platform specific, and can be used on all of the currently supported versions of Windows.”

Windows 7 Language Packs Available

2009-09-19T20:18:00.000-07:00

This was posted by MS yesterday. Note that you need software assurance on the desktop to avail of Windows 7 Enterprise Edition.

“As of this morning, August 25^th, the following language packs are available for download from Windows Update. Please note Traditional Chinese –Taiwan will be released at a later date.

These language packs are available to our enterprise customers running Windows 7 Enterprise and Windows 7 Ultimate RTM versions only. Customers on the Windows 7 Release Candidate are not eligible for these language packs.

For information on the general availability of Windows 7 Ultimate and all other version, please refer to Brandon’s post here.

Languages:

Arabic
Brazilian Portuguese
Bulgarian
Chinese – Simplified
Chinese – Traditional – Hong Kong
Croatian
Czech
Danish
Dutch
English
Estonian
Finnish
French
German
Greek
Hebrew
Hindi
Hungarian
Italian
Japanese
Korean
Lithuanian
Norwegian
Polish
Portuguese
Romanian
Russian
Serbian Latin
Slovak
Slovenian
Spanish
Swedish
Thai
Turkish
Ukrainian”

Windows 7 Enterprise Edition 90 Day Trial

2009-09-19T20:17:00.000-07:00

Stephen Rose has announced a highly desired trial program where you can get your hands on a 90 day evaluation copy of Windows 7 Enterprise. This means you can check out the really uber-cool features that are only found in the Enterprise and Ultimate editions. Enterprise is only available to those who have software assurance for the desktop (or MSDN/TechNet) so it’s been a bit of a chicken and egg situation on getting to play with it. Thanks to Springboard, you get it for free and can use that trial in your decision making process on Software Assurance.

And it’s going to be really handy for anyone doing certification who doesn’t have TechNet or MSDN.

Please read the full post by Stephen. There will be only so many downloads. The eval lasts for 90 days. You will have to wipe the system at the end of the 90 days. Please only use this eval in a lab environment.

Microsoft Ireland Windows 7 & Windows Server 2008 R2 Launch Events

2009-09-19T20:16:00.001-07:00

Microsoft Ireland has announced the launch events for Windows 7 and W2008 R2. Like with the TechDays tour earlier this year, there will be events in Galway, Cork, Belfast and Dublin. The day is split into two events: a technical session aimed at the business during the afternoon and an event in the evening aimed at using Windows 7 at home. You have to register for each event if you want to go to both.

Each attendee will receive a free copy of Windows 7 Ultimate. It’s a legit copy you’ll be able to use. Seats are limited and demand will be great. That’s why Microsoft has set up a lottery for the tickets instead of the usual first-come, first-served approach. Anyone who is already a member of the Windows user Group in Ireland will have gotten a special registration code in their mail in the last few minutes. That will give them a better chance to get a seat because community members have a reserved allocation of seats.

I’ve been a part of the planning of the events. I can promise that the focus is demo, demo, demo. No one will die from allergic shock to PowerPoint. There is a huge effort to squeeze as much as possible into the events as possible. The Windows User Group will be trying to follow up these events in the coming months to add more detail and to cover functionality that couldn’t get squeezed into the time available at the launch events.

Here is the communication from Microsoft:

“Join us at the Windows 7 Technical Community Launch and be part of Windows history! Windows 7 is launching all over the world in the coming weeks and Microsoft Ireland are offering IT Professionals and Developers in your area, a chance to see the operating system uncovered.

Click the links below to go the event page, where you can *register your interest.

Windows 7 Technical Community – General Launch Session
Galway 28th September
Cork 30th September
Belfast 13th October
Dublin 15th October

Microsoft @ Home with Windows 7
Galway 28th September
Cork 30th September
Belfast 13th October
Dublin 15th October

*Places allocated on lottery basis one week before each event.”

I have to add that Wilbour, Dave, Enda and Ronnie and a huge crowd of others are busting their butts to make this an amazing event. They deserve a lot of credit.

Microsoft Deployment Tool Kit 2010 Released

2009-09-19T20:16:00.000-07:00

MDT 2010 has been released overnight. This is the free OS image deployment product that will find its way onto a lot of networks to help people migrate to Windows 7 and Windows Server 2008 R2. You can also deploy older operating systems. It uses task sequences to allow you to graphically program the process of not only deploying an operating system but also drivers, patches, applications, etc. Out of the box, the sequence templates are very powerful, e.g. you can migrate from XP to Windows 7 while restoring data, you can do clean builds and you can capture sysprepped builds.

I’ve done some documentation on MDT 2010 to help you get started.

According to the Springboard blog:

“Michael Niehaus did a great series of blog posts on most of the new features of MDT 2010. You can review those posts here.

Please make sure you review the release notes for instructions on how to upgrade from MDT 2008 or one of the beta releases of MDT 2010 here”.

Want Your Staff To Learn About Windows 7 and Server 2008 R2?

2009-09-19T20:15:00.000-07:00

I got an interesting email from a major software publisher the other day. They develop, sell and support solutions that run on the Windows platform. Their integration with Microsoft is pretty tight and it’s important for their support staff to know about Windows Server Active Directory.

The Irish Windows User Group is running a session on Windows Server 2008 R2 Active Directory on September 25th at 09:30GMT. The presenter is Microsoft Ireland’s Wilbour Craddock. We’ll be running it as an in-person event but there will also be a live webcast.

The leader of this company’s EMEA support team asked if it would be OK to set our LiveMeeting webcast on a projector and speakers. He had a team of 30+ staff that he wanted to attend the session so they could start learning about the new functionality. He also said he was thinking of getting other support teams in other regions to do the same thing. What an absolutely brilliant idea! He asked if this was OK? Absolutely. If one person on his site managed the keyboard to ask questions our moderator would read them out to the presenter so they could be answered. Now this company’s support staff could virtually attend the session without a massive road trip and abandoning the office.

So if you want to do something similar:

Set up a PC with LiveMeeting installed on it in a meeting room and tune into the web cast.
Set up a projector and decent external speakers for the PC.
Assign one person to locally moderate questions and type them into the LiveMeeting client.

It’s a simple and cheap way to start the education process for your staff.

Zune HD is on its way…

2009-09-19T20:14:00.001-07:00

So it will be here in a little over a month from now and I’m looking forward to it! I still have an original Zune and I’ve enjoyed it. I’m on my second battery, so I’m looking forward to upgrading to the latest model.

The HD stands for the HD radio that is included in the device. I’ve been surprised at how often I’ve used the radio in my Zune, so I’m looking forward to the new radio. I haven’t experimented with HD radio at all… yet.

I’ve got the 30 GB Zune, so I’ll probably go with the 32 GB device, but I’d love to know if / when we’ll release a 64 GB model.

There are a lot of reviews out there on the device, but I’m the kind of guy that learns more by taking things apart than reading the manual; thank you FCC!

The FCC took the device apart and CNet was nice enough to post the photos. Check it out.

Zune HD hits FCC in 16GB and 32GB

I’ll keep waiting patiently until it ships, but did you know you could pre-order it?

Pre-order here.

How do you measure big? How do you measure footprint?

2009-09-19T20:14:00.000-07:00

I’ve presented a number of sessions on Hyper-V and there are always people in the groups that have had more exposure to VMware than Hyper-V; so I usually end up drawing parallels between VMware and Hyper-V. I’m OK with that because I’m one of those people that learn better when I can relate new content to something I already know. My discussions are actually fairly predictable at this point because for some people, virtualization has become religion. I learned a long time ago that as soon as you start a discussion around religion, people become very polarized and set in their ways. In fact, once I realize that we’re having a religious discussion, I just remind myself that people are still killed for their religious beliefs, so I try to back off a bit on the competitive part of the discussion and focus more on the facts.

The majority of the people attending my sessions want to learn about other virtualization options, they want to learn about the competition and if the “other guy” can do a better job, or save them money. Some people in my sessions just try to find a sound bite or two that they can take out of context to prove the “other guy” is better. I’ve had the opportunity to stand in front of large and small audiences and I always try to take questions. The one thing about questions is that while you can predict the majority of the questions you receive, sometimes a question or two catches you by surprise. A while back someone asked me “How could Hyper-V be more secure if it’s almost 3 GB in size?”. I asked for more detail on the question and come to find out, VMware had posted an article that talked about the fact that EXSi is only 32MB in size and the disk footprint of Server 2008 with Hyper-V was almost 3 GB in size.

Hmmm… I’m pretty good at thinking on my feet, so we were able to have a good discussion, but I felt like the topic needed some additional research. Along comes Jeff Woolsey and the “additional research”. I don’t point you to many blog postings, I don’t want to just regurgitate the same information again, but Jeff did a bang up job in clearing the air and I wanted to make sure you had a chance to give it a look. Please check out part 1 of Jeff’s series on the disk footprint.

Hypervisor Footprint Debate Part 1: Microsoft Hyper-V Server 2008 & VMware ESXi 3.5

We’ll talk more about this over the next few months, if you have any questions, feel free to send them my way.

What happened to Terminal Services? What’s Remote Desktop Services??

2009-09-19T20:13:00.000-07:00

Remember Terminal Server? And then Terminal Services? We’ve now renamed it to Remote Desktop Services (RDS). The core functionality of Terminal Services is now included in the new RDS functionality. We renamed it because it now encompasses more than just Terminal Services. It now also supports VDI and our Remote Applications (RemoteApp) functionality. Not only have we enhanced the feature set, but we also improved the fidelity of the remote desktop experience. Our Remote Desktop sessions now support Aero graphics and even VOIP.

I think one of the biggest things we added in R2 to RDS is the Desktop Gateway Services. Desktop Gateway Services allow access to not only the traditional Terminal Servers, but they also allow connections to VDI solutions. This is cool because you can connect to multiple solutions via a unified gateway interface.

We need start to start with Getting Started with Remote Desktop Services this will give you a good overview of what’s new and how to get the most out of RDS.

How do you set this stuff up? We have a number of step-by-step guides. The first one talks about how to setup the initial infrastructure.

Installing Remote Desktop Session Host Step-by-Step Guide

Once we get the Remote Desktop Session Hosts configured, we can then look at the Remote Desktop Gateway Services. This allows us to securely publish our Remote Desktop Services to anyone that has an internet connection.

Deploying Remote Desktop Gateway Step-by-Step Guide

Before you can take this solution into production, you need to be sure to get the licensing server setup. Here’s the licensing server setup guide:

Deploying Remote Desktop Licensing Step-by-Step Guide

So I’ve told you about the technical solution, but how do you license it properly?? What if you already own Terminal Server CALs? Do they have to be upgraded to R2? NO! Check out the overview below, but the great part is that existing TS CALs will work for the new Remote Desktop Services in R2. Please check out the overview below for the important details.

Windows Server 2008 R2 Licensing Overview

I’m going to spend more time with the new Remote Desktop Services and I’ll share more as I build it out.

Tags: Terminal Services,Terminal Server,Remote Desktop Services,Windows Server 2008 R2

Windows Server 2008 R2 Upgrade Paths

2009-09-19T20:12:00.001-07:00

I ran across this article today while I was looking for something else :) and thought I would share it with you.

Windows Server 2008 R2 Upgrade Paths

A couple things to note. You cannot upgrade from a Server 2008 Core installation to a Server 2008 R2 full install. Core to Core upgrades only.

Moving from Server 2003 requires SP2 for 2003.

Upgrading from x86 to x64 is not supported. No surprise here, but just a reminder.

I’ve upgraded some of my Server 2008 servers to Server 2008 R2 without issue, it took considerably longer than a fresh installation, but I did get to keep my configuration settings by doing the upgrade.

One last thing to keep in mind: Server 2008 R2 is only 64 bit, so none of your 32 bit installations have an upgrade path to R2. If you have a 32 bit installation on 64 bit hardware, you’ll still need to do a fresh install.

Tags: Windows Server 2008 R2 Upgrade path,Windows Server 2008 Upgrade,Windows Server 2003 Upgrade

An Overview of System Center Virtual Machine Manager 2008 R2

2009-09-19T20:12:00.000-07:00

I wanted to continue my discussion on Hyper-V so I decided to show you some of the additional tools that will help with your Hyper-V deployments. First up is my overview of System Center Virtual Machine Manager 2008 R2 (SCVMM R2).

If the Video Playback window does not appear below, you will need to install Microsoft Silverlight.

This session is one part of a series of screen casts around Hyper-V, you can go this link to access the whole series.

Tags: Screen cast,System Center Virtual Machine Manager 2008 R2,Hyper-VMware,Windows Server 2008 R2

What is CLUSTER-INVARIANT??

2009-09-19T20:11:00.000-07:00

I’ve been using SCVMM for a couple of years now and I really appreciate all of the time and effort it has saved me, but it has this annoying quirk and it recently annoyed me enough that I started looking for answers. What has really gotten under my skin is the fact that SCVMM adds #CLUSTER-INVARIANT# to the notes field in each of my VMs. You can’t see this addition within SCVMM, but if you look at the settings of a VM within Hyper-V manager, you can see it and it just annoys me. Why do they need to mess with my notes?

Below is a screen shot from Hyper-V manager.

Here is a screen shot from SCVMM 2008 R2. It’s nice enough to hide the #CLUSTER-INVARIANT# from my view.

I bing’d this situation and found the following blog from the virtualization team.

http://social.technet.microsoft.com/forums/en-US/virtualmachinemanager/thread/41dec6b5-ff14-4e21-b661-59f064ec9db1/

It makes sense to me because I’m able to make changes to my virtual machines from within SCVMM and outside of SCVMM via Hyper-V manager and even PowerShell. SCVMM has to have a way of keeping up with changes that are made by these other tools. I like the fact that I don’t have to use SCVMM to manage my VMs, but I love what SCVMM gives me.

I think I’ll let them continue to modify the notes section of my VMs, it’s a small price to pay (and hidden in SCVMM) for the power and flexibility SCVMM provides.

Tags: CLUSTER-INVARIANT,Scvmm 2008 R2,Hyper-V manager

What is the Windows Server 2008 R2 / Windows 7 System Reserved Partition?

2009-09-19T20:10:00.001-07:00

When you install Server 2008 R2 (or Windows 7) to a fresh partition, sometimes you’ll receive the following message:

Then, after installation, when you inspect the disk configuration in Disk Management, you see this partition named System Reserved. It’s 100MB in size and it doesn’t have a drive letter. This 100MB partition is where the Windows boot loader resides. This is needed if you’re going to implement Bitlocker. Installation now by default, prepares the installation for Bitlocker. This has changed from the Windows Vista / Server 2008 configuration where you have to prepare a drive to support Bitlocker. The installation does not install Bitlocker, it just configures the server in the event you want to enable Bitlocker. This is a much better plan than before.

The guidance for Vista, Windows Server 2008 was to create a 1.5GB drive to support the boot loader. In Windows 7 and R2, this drive now only needs to be 100MB. Please do not mess with this partition unless you know what your doing (really). Messing this up will render your OS unbootable. The good news is that the repair tools in the install media can usually detect when the System Reserved partition has been damaged and will repair it. If you’re not going to use Bitlocker, don’t worry, it’s only 100MB, and it is still beneficial in separating the boot loader from the OS.

Did you notice how warning during setup says Windows might create additional partitions? If you’re not installing Server 2008 R2 (or Windows 7) on the boot partition, the install will probably not create the 100MB partition, it will probably put the boot loader on the boot partition. Say you are setting up a dual boot between Windows Server 2003 and Server 2008 R2. If Server 2003 is installed on Disk 0 of your server and you’re going to install R2 on Disk 1 of the machine, R2 will install the boot loader on the Server 2003 partition and setup a dual boot scenario during the install process.

Tags: Windows Server 2008 R2,System Reserved,To ensure that all Windows features work correctly,Windows might create additional partitions for system files

SCVMM 2008 R2 and the Power of Templates

2009-09-19T20:10:00.000-07:00

As you’ve read, I’ve been using SCVMM for a while and I still learn new things about it. I mentioned templates in my first screen cast and told you that I would talk more about them, so here they are. Templates let you create a standard virtual machine image and store it in your SCVMM library. The cool part about the template is that during the template process, the virtual machine is sysprepped so it’s ready to quickly be deployed to your environment. I’ve created a short screen cast to walk through the process. I start with my standard image, including my anti-virus and other server customizations, I then ensure the machine is fully patched from Windows Update, and then I start the template process. Once I have the template created, I then walk through deploying a new virtual machine based upon the template.

If the Video Playback window does not appear below, you will need to install Microsoft Silverlight.

This session is one part of a series of screen casts around Hyper-V, you can go to this link to access the whole series.

Here’s the home page for SCVMM 2008 R2.

Here’s the link to the Eval copy of SCVMM 2008 R2 (rtm).

Tags: System Center Virtual Machine Manager 2008 R2,Creating a SCVMM template,quick provisioning

The Hyper-V NIC teaming debate

2009-09-19T20:09:00.000-07:00

I’ve seen a lot of back and forth on the NIC teaming discussion and I decided to check it first hand. We have this stated policy here, but seeing is believing so I decided to take a look. I have two dual port Intel NICs so I slapped them both into the same machine, installed the driver and gave it a whirl.

If the Video Playback window does not appear below, you will need to install Microsoft Silverlight.

This session is one part of a series of screen casts around Hyper-V, you can go to this link to access the whole series.

My host Machine is my Dell Precision 490 running Server 2008 R2 with Hyper-V. I know my video isn’t that long, setting up NIC teaming is not that hard. Please let me know if you have any questions.

Tags: Windows Server 2008 R2,Virtualization,NIC teaming,Hyper-V,screen cast

Windows Server 2008 R2 Licensing

2009-09-19T20:07:00.001-07:00

We have a good page that discusses the licensing updates we made for Windows Server 2008 R2 here. Here are the high points:

If you have Software Assurance (SA) on your Windows Server 2008 servers, you already own R2 .
If you don’t have SA on your Servers, you must purchase a new R2 Server License, but you don’t have to buy new CALs (check out item 3).
There are no new CALs required for R2. If you have Server 2008 CALs, you already have CALs for R2 too !
Terminal Services has been renamed to Remote Desktop Services, but you do not have to upgrade your TS CALs. Your TS CALs cover the new RDS services in R2.
Virtual Use rights have not changed for R2. I just had to throw this one in .

The CALs: Most of the people I’ve talked to say that the CALs are the most expensive part of the upgrade, the good news with R2 is that you don’t have to upgrade your CALs.

Like always, these items are subject to change, please consult the Microsoft Licensing site if you have any questions or confusion.

Tags: Windows Server 2008 R2,Windows Server 2008 R2 Licensing,Software Assurance

Aero Glass on Remote Desktop Services?

2009-09-19T20:07:00.000-07:00

we’ve renamed Terminal Services to Remote Desktop Services (RDS) in Windows Server 2008 R2. RDS also gives us the ability to leverage Aero Glass from a Remote Desktop Connection. This is a multi-step process, but there are really two phases. Phase I is enabling the Desktop Experience functionality on a Server 2008 R2. Phase II is enabling the Remote Desktop Services functionality on the server. While an Administrator is able to have one RDP connection to a server, Aero functionality is not enabled until the Remote Desktop Host role is enabled. I’ve provided a lot of screen shots and narrative as I walk through the process of enabling RDS and the Aero Glass functionality.

Phase I

Install the desktop experience by adding the Desktop Experience feature.

As you go through this wizard, when you choose the Desktop Experience it will ask you to confirm the installation of the Ink and Handwriting Services as well. This is required, just choose Add Required Features and move on.

During the installation of the Desktop Experience feature, the server will require a reboot. Once the server is rebooted and you log back in, you’ll be presented with the Installation Results screen.

Now that you’ve installed the Desktop Experience feature, you need to enable the Themes service. Go into your services and now this Themes service shows up, but it’s disabled. Set it to Automatic and then go ahead and start the service.

At this stage, you’ll have the Windows Desktop experience installed on the server. To take advantage of it from a Remote Desktop Connection, you need to ensure that you’ve enabled 32 bit colors and the Desktop Experience functionality in your RDP connection, as shown below.

Under Colors, choose Highest Quality (32 bit)

Take note that Aero over RDP is bandwidth intensive, so I’d suggest that you not try to use this functionality over a WAN.

Phase II – Enabling Remote Desktop Service Role (RDS).

You have to enable RDS on your server anyway if your providing Remote Desktop Services to your users. You also need RDS to be installed if you want to use Aero Glass.

Install the Remote Desktop Services Role

Now you get to choose the detailed functionality in RDS that you want to leverage.

You need to enable Remote Desktop Session Host if you want Aero Glass, and then we will configure the additional services to be delivered, including the Client Experience. This is where we get to define the detail of the client experience.

Once everything is configured you can confirm that Aero Glass is now enabled on your server in a few different ways. The first is the obvious, check out the transparent windows in your Remote Desktop connection. The second way is that the Windows Color screen on the Personalization menu is now “different” than it was prior to the installation of the client experience.

Here’s a shot of the new Windows Color screen that now includes the Enable transparency check box.

Below is a shot of the old screen, before Aero Glass is enabled. Take note: this “old screen” is still available after the Aero installation, it’s accessed by choosing Advanced appearance settings… from the Windows Color and Appearance window (above).

Now that we have everything enabled, let me show you a screen shot of the Windows Server 2008 R2 desktop with Aero Glass enabled.

Here’s a shot of Aero Peek on the same Server 2008 R2 server.

I hope this helps you setup your remote desktop connections with the same desktop experience as a Windows 7 Desktop. Remember that with Aero over a Remote Desktop connection, bandwidth is critical. A LAN connection will provide a much better experience than a WAN connection.

Windows Server 2008 R2 Schema Extensions

2009-09-19T20:06:00.001-07:00

Windows Server 2008 R2 includes new features that require a schema upgrade. You do not have to upgrade your schema if you want to run Windows Server 2008 R2 in your environment, but you do need to upgrade your schema if you want to leverage the new functionality included in 2008 R2. What new features do you get when you upgrade your schema?

Here is a great article that talks about the features available at each domain and forest functional level. Note that once you upgrade a domain functional level you cannot roll back. There is one exception and the article discusses it, but just plan on each upgrade being a one way trip… OK?

Take note that there are actually multiple steps to the schema upgrade process. The first step is to upgrade each domain in your forest to the new functional level. Once your domain is upgraded to 2008 R2, you will now be able to leverage the following feature for the upgraded domain.

Authentication mechanism assurance, which packages information about the type of logon method (smart card or user name/password) that is used to authenticate domain users inside each user’s Kerberos token. When this feature is enabled in a network environment that has deployed a federated identity management infrastructure, such as Active Directory Federation Services (AD FS), the information in the token can then be extracted whenever a user attempts to access any claims-aware application that has been developed to determine authorization based on a user’s logon method.

OK, I’m not that impressed with this domain feature, but once you upgrade the forest to 2008 R2, you get the AD Recycle Bin! To me, the AD Recycle Bin is worth its weight in gold!

Once all of your domains are upgraded to 2008 R2, we can upgrade the forest to 2008 R2. Remember I said this is a multi-step process? All of your domains have to be upgraded to Server 2008 R2 before you can upgrade the forest.

Once we get our forest upgrade to 2008 R2, will are now able to take advantage of the new Active Directory Recycle Bin. Here’s what it does for you:

Active Directory Recycle Bin, which provides the ability to restore deleted objects in their entirety while Active Directory Domain Services (AD DS) is running. Here’s more detail on what the recycle bin gives you.

So how do you upgrade each domain and then the forest to 2008 R2? This article will walk you through the upgrade process.

Tags: Windows Server 2008 R2,Schema Upgrade,Domain Functional Level,Forest Functional Level,adprep,domainprep,forestprep,gpprep

Windows Server 2008 R2 Hyper-V Supported Guest OS

2009-09-19T20:06:00.000-07:00

We have a page that lists our supported OS’ under Hyper-V here. This is where I need to explain the difference between supported and Yes it works. Supported means that we will help troubleshoot and maybe even provide fixes if there are issues with a guest OS on Hyper-V. While Operating Systems like Windows NT Server 4.0 are no longer supported, they still run just fine on Hyper-V. Yes I’ve installed NT 4.0 Server on my Hyper-V server just to prove it still works. While it works, it is not supported in the sense that Microsoft will provide a fix to NT 4.0 or Hyper-V, if there is an issue identified with NT 4.0 is running on Hyper-V.

But VMWare says they support Windows NT on ESX… Right? Well they say NT 4.0 will run, but I took this statement directly from their site:

Operating Systems That the Operating System Vendor No Longer Supports

For operating systems listed in this guide that the operating system vendor no longer supports, VMware may, at its sole discretion, provide support and fixes to VMware products to address problems that are exposed by running such operating systems on a VMware virtual machine. VMware is not responsible for resolving problems with, or providing support or fixes to, the operating system itself.

To me, this reads like they may fix their hypervisor if there’s some bug identified, but no guarantees. The reality at this point though is that there shouldn’t really be any new bugs discovered around NT 4.0 SP6a, which is the version VMware says it supports. And yes, we feel you should be running NT 4.0 SP61 on Hyper-V as well. While I hope you still don’t have to run NT 4.0 in your environment, if you are running it, moving it to a virtual environment will probably make it run a whole lot faster, and give you the ability to run the NT 4.0 workload on a current generation server.

Tags: Windows Server 2008 R2,Hyper-V,NT 4.0 on Hyper-V

How long does it take your customer to deploy a new server based business application?

2009-09-19T20:04:00.000-07:00

As you know, I really like Hyper-V, but that’s technical. Where’s the value to our customers?

Back to my original question: “How long does it take your customer to deploy a new server based business application?”. Think about it, two or three years ago when your customer would say, how long would it take to deploy a new application to my infrastructure, you’d start with the following list of items you had to accomplish first:

Let’s size the hardware needed to support the new server based application?
Now that we know what we need, let’s get it ordered.
Wait a week or two until the new hardware arrives.
Rack the new hardware and get it physically setup to connect to the networking infrastructure.
Install the OS and other IT specific applications like management, monitoring, and AV.
Now install the new business application on the new server.

I agree that this is a simple list, it can get a lot more detailed, but you get my point. How long would this typically take? I’ve heard a number of partners tell me that it would take two weeks if you’re lucky and usually closer to a month to deploy the solution.

Let’s look at the same scenario in a well planned virtual environment:

How many servers are needed to support your business application?
Use SCVMM to leverage your standard server template to deploy these images to your Hyper-V farm. Remember:

SCVMM can deploy the image to your Hyper-V servers, add the machine name and even join them to the domain.
Your template can automatically be kept up to date with any pertinent patches between the initial creation of the template and the deployment to your Hyper-V hosts.

Install the new business application on your running images.

How long does it take to make all this happen in a virtual environment? The deployment of your template to your Hyper-V servers can be started right after you decide on the server requirements, and the deployment can be completed with an hour or two. Yes, I said hours not days! Of course it depends on the size of your image, but if you're using gigabit networks, even a 20 GB VM will take less than an hour to deploy to a Hyper-V server.

While we can all talk about the value of virtualization when we look at server consolidation, even in conjunction with disaster recovery, have you considered the value the agility truly gives you? Being able to deploy a business solution in a matter of days instead of weeks, may make a huge impact on on the business’ ability to quickly respond to new opportunities.

Next time you have to wait on the purchase of new hardware, ask yourself if a virtual environment could improve your agility.

Tags: Windows Server 2008 R2,Hyper-V,Business Agility,SCVMM 2008 R2

Active Directory Management Gateway Service

2009-09-19T20:03:00.000-07:00

Microsoft has released the AD Management Gateway Service AKA the Active Directory Web Service for Windows Server 2003 and Windows Server 2008.

Windows Server 2008 R2 includes a new role called the Active Directory Web Service. This is an interface for MS native PowerShell based tools to it interact with and manage Active Directory, i.e. Active Directory Administrative Center (ADAC) and the PowerShell module for Active Directory. Obviously you need to locate installations of this service close to your AD administrators. What if they are running legacy domain controllers? What’s where the Active Directory Management Gateway Service comes in. Here’s what MS says in the download page:

“The Active Directory® Management Gateway Service provides a Web service interface to Active Directory domains and instances of Active Directory Lightweight Directory Services (AD LDS) or Active Directory Application Mode (ADAM) that are running on the same server as the Active Directory Management Gateway Service.

You can download and install the Active Directory Management Gateway Service on servers and domain controllers running the following operating systems:

Windows Server® 2003 R2 with Service Pack 2 (SP2)
Windows Server 2003 SP2
Windows Server 2008
Windows Server 2008 SP2

Note: You can install the Active Directory Management Gateway Service on writable domain controllers as well as Read-only domain controllers that are running Windows Server 2008 or Windows Server 2008 SP2.

After it is installed on any of these operating systems, the Active Directory Management Gateway Service runs as the Windows Server 2008 R2 Active Directory Web Services (ADWS) service and provides the same functionality. For more information about ADWS, see What's New in AD DS: Active Directory Web Services.

Note: The Active Directory Management Gateway Service does not support instances of the Active Directory Database Mounting Tool running on Windows Server 2008–based servers.

The Active Directory Management Gateway Service enables administrators to use the Active Directory module for Windows PowerShell and the Active Directory Administrative Center running on Windows Server 2008 R2 or Windows 7 to access or manage directory service instances that are running on Windows Server 2008 or Windows Server 2003 operating systems in the previous list.

Note: Installing the Active Directory Management Gateway Service on your Windows Server 2008–based or Windows Server 2003–based servers does not make it possible for you to install the Active Directory module or the Active Directory Administrative Center (which is available only on Windows Server 2008 R2 or Windows 7 operating systems) on these servers.

If the Active Directory Management Gateway Service on your Windows Server 2008 or Windows Server 2003 server is stopped or disabled, client applications, such as the Active Directory module or the Active Directory Administrative Center will not be able to access or manage any directory service instances that are running on this server.”

CMake: How to define where to build a package

2009-09-16T09:53:00.000-07:00

I just build Bilbo Blogger, a KDE blogging client that I have recently read about.

KDE apps now use 'cmake' instead of 'configure' when building a package from source; it seems to work about the same but it does have a different syntax. So for my own reference, and others who search for it, if you want to require a directory prefix with cmake here is the proper syntax:

shell:/home/username/package/$ mkdir build

shell:/home/username/package/$ cd build

shell:/home/username/package/build/$ cmake .. -DCMAKE_INSTALL_PREFIX=/usr/local

shell:/home/username/package/build/$ make

shell:/home/username/package/build/$ sudo checkinstall

That last part allows you to create a fake, bad Debian package.deb. Its not the best package and it cannot really be shared with others (due to dependency checking mostly, I think), but it does allow it to install and run and be removed from your computer using aptitude or dpkg.

This is my first post with Bilbo, we'll see how it turns out!

=-=-=-=-=
Powered by Bilbo Blogger

Access More Samba shares in KDE

2009-09-14T09:37:00.000-07:00

In KDE's file browser Dolphin, you can view available Windows network share workgroups and computers (and anything else that uses Samba, like your own Linux computer for example) with the KIO-Slave 'smb:/'. Just as websites are data that are accessed with http:/ and file servers can be accessed with ftp:/ , so too can Samba shares be accessed with smb:/ . (Note that usually we see http://www.xyz.com/ — in true Unix fashion the protocol part is the http:/ and the path of the remote server is /www.xyz.com/ )

For example, opening Dolphin we see our own files in /home/username/ as this image show:

Entering smb:/ into our address bar we get:

But what if you know there are other workgroups out there, such as MSHOME or OFFICE? We have two options. You can either enter the protocol and path such as smb://mshome/ (the name of a specific workgroup), or you can edit the file /etc/samba/smb.conf to not put yourself into any workgroup.

If we go with this second route and edit /etc/samba/smb.conf and change our workgroup from whatever we have now, to a * , we can suddenly see many more workgroups!

First, edit our file and replace "workgroup = workgroup" and make it read "workgroup = *" as we see here:

Then, restart Samba networking (note, we cannot share files with the Samba protocol without being in a workgroup!); on Debian we restart it like this (or a reboot, or I am sure there is a graphical way to do this also)

Notice that smbd failed to restart, because we're not in a workgroup.

Now, with Dolphin's address bar of smb:/ we can see all of the workgroups in our local network!

Enjoy your newfound access to network shares!

Computer Mouse

2009-09-06T09:44:00.001-07:00

Years before personal computers and desktop information processing became commonplace or even practicable, Douglas Engelbart had invented a number of interactive, user-friendly information access systems that we take for granted today: the computer mouse was one of his inventions. At the Fall Joint Computer Conference in San Francisco in 1968, Engelbart astonished his colleagues by demonstrating the aforementioned systems---using an utterly primitive 192 kilobyte mainframe computer located 25 miles away! Engelbart has earned nearly two dozen patents, the most memorable being perhaps for his "X-Y Position Indicator for a Display System": the prototype of the computer "mouse" whose convenience has revolutionized personal computing.

Old Mouse

New Blue Track Technology Mouse

Mouse (computer), a common pointing device, popularized by its inclusion as standard equipment with the Apple Macintosh. With the rise in popularity of graphical user interfaces in MS-DOS; UNIX, and OS/2, use of mice is growing throughout the personal computer and workstation worlds. The basic features of a mouse are a casing with a flat bottom, designed to be gripped by one hand; one or more buttons on the top; a multidirectional detection device (usually a ball) on the bottom; and a cable connecting the mouse to the computer. By moving the mouse on a surface (such as a desk), the user typically controls an on-screen cursor. A mouse is a relative pointing device because there are no defined limits to the mouse's movement and because its placement on a surface does not map directly to a specific screen location. To select items or choose commands on the screen, the user presses one of the mouse's buttons, producing a "mouse click."

Mouse Connectors

Mouse Patent # 3,541,541 issued 11/17/70 for X-Y Position Indicator For A Display System
Douglas Engelbart's patent for the mouse is only a representation of his pioneering work in the design of modern interactive computer environments.

The invention of the computer keyboard

2009-09-06T09:44:00.000-07:00

The invention of the modern computer keyboard began with the invention of the typewriter. Christopher Latham Sholes patented the typewriter that we commonly use today in 1868. The Remington Company mass marketed the first typewriters starting in 1877.
New Keyboard

Old Keyboard

Inventions Leading to the Computer Keyboard

A few key technological developments created the transition of the typewriter into the computer keyboard. The teletype machine, introduced in the 1930s, combined the technology of the typewriter (used as an input and a printing device) with the telegraph. Elsewhere, punched card systems were combined with typewriters to create what was called keypunches. Keypunches were the basis of early adding machines and IBM was selling over one million dollars worth of adding machines in 1931.

Early computer keyboards were first adapted from the punch card and teletype technologies. In 1946, the Eniac computer used a punched card reader as its input and output device. In 1948, the Binac computer used an electromechanically controlled typewriter to both input data directly onto magnetic tape (for feeding the computer data) and to print results. The emerging electric typewriter further improved the technological marriage between the typewriter and the computer.

Video Display Terminals

By 1964, MIT, Bell Laboratories and General Electric had collaborated to create a computer system called Multics; a time sharing, multi-user system. Multics encouraged the development of a new user interface, the video display terminal. The video display terminals (VDT) combined the technology of the cathode ray tube used in televisions and electric typewriters. Computer users could now see what text they were typing on their display screens making text easier to create, edit and delete, and computers easier to program and use.

Computer Keyboards Send Direct Electronic Impulses

Earlier computer keyboards had been based either on teletype machines or keypunches. There were many electromechanical steps in transmitting data between the keyboard and the computer that slowed things down. With VDT technology and electric keyboards, the keyboard's keys could now send electronic impulses directly to the computer and save time. By the late ‘70s and early ‘80s, all computers used electronic keyboards and VDTs. Nevertheless, the layout of the computer keyboard still owes its origin to the inventor of the first typewriter, Christopher Latham Sholes who also invented the QWERTY layout. However, the computer keyboard does have a few extra function keys.

RAM - Random Access Memory

2009-09-06T09:43:00.001-07:00

Drum memory, an early form of computer memory that actualy did use a drum as a working part with data loaded to the drum. The drum was a metal cylinder coated with recordable ferromagnetic material. The drum also had a row of read-write heads that wrote and then read the recorded data.

Very Old RAM

Magnetic core memory (ferrite-core memory) is another early form of computer memory. Magnetic ceramic rings called cores, stored information using the polarity of a magnetic field.

DDR

SD RAM

DDR II RAM

Semiconductor memory is computer memory we are all familiar with, computer memory on a intergrated circuit or chip. Referered to as random-access memory or RAM, it allowed data to be accessed randomly, not just in the sequence it was recorded.

Dynamic random access memory (DRAM) is the most common kind of random access memory (RAM) for personal computers. The data the DRAM chip holds has to be periodicaly refreshed. Static random access memory or SRAM doesn't need to be refreshed.

Laptop RAM

Latest China DDR RAM

Timeline of Computer Memory

1834
Charles Babbage begins build his "Analytical Engine", precursor to the computer. It uses read-only memory in the form of punch cards.
1932
Gustav Tauschek invents drum memory in Austria.
1936
Konrad Zuse applies for a patent for his mechanical memory to be used in his computer. This computer memory is based on sliding metal parts.

1939
Helmut Schreyer invents a prototype memory using neon lamps.

1942
The Atanasoff-Berry Computer has 60 50-bit words of memory in the form of capacitors mounted on two revolving drums. For secondary memory it uses punch cards.
1947
Frederick Viehe of Los Angeles, applies for a patent for an invention that uses magnetic core memory. Magnetic drum memory is independently invented by several people.
* An Wang
An Wang invented the magnetic pulse controlling device, the principle upon which magnetic core memory is based.

* Kenneth Olsen
Kenneth Olsen invented vital computer components, best known for "Magnetic Core Memory" Patent No. 3,161,861 and as being the cofounder of Digital Equipment Corporation.
* Jay Forrester
Jay Forrester was a pioneer in early digital computer development and invented random-access, coincident-current magnetic storage.
1949
Jay Forrester conceives the idea of magnetic core memory as it is to become commonly used, with a grid of wires used to address the cores. The first practical form manifests in 1952-53 and renders obsolete previous types of computer memory.

1950
Ferranti Ltd. completes the first commercial computer with 256 40-bit words of main memory and 16K words of drum memory. Only eight were sold.
1951
Jay Forrester files a patent for matrix core memory.

1952
The EDVAC computer is completed with 1024 44-bit words of ultrasonic memory. A core memory module is added to the ENIAC computer.
1955
An Wang was issued U.S. patent #2,708,722 with 34 claims for magnetic memory core.
1966
Hewlett-Packard releases their HP2116A real-time computer with 8K of memory. The newly formed Intel starts sell a semiconductor chip with 2,000 bits of memory.

1968
USPTO grants patent 3,387,286 to IBM's Robert Dennard for a one-transistor DRAM cell. DRAM stands for Dynamic RAM (Random Access Memory) or Dynamic Random Access Memory. DRAM will become the standard memory chip for personal computers replacing magnetic core memory.
1969
Intel begin as chip designers and produce a 1 KB RAM chip, the largest memory chip todate. Intel soon switch to being notable designers of computer microprocessors.
1970
Intel releases the 1103 chip, the first generally available DRAM memory chip.
1971
Intel releases the 1101 chip, a 256-bit programmable memory, and the 1701 chip, a 256-byte erasable read-only memory (EROM).
1974
Intel receives a U.S. patent for a "memory system for a multichip digital computer".
1975
Personal consumer computer Altair released, it uses Intel's 8-bit 8080 processor and includes 1 KB of memory. Later in the same year, Bob Marsh manufacturers the first Processor Technology's 4 kB memory boards for the Altair.
1984
Apple Computers releases the Macintosh personal compututer. It is the first computer that came with 128KB of memory. The one-megabyte memory chip is developed.

Computer Monitor - Visual Display Unit

2009-09-06T09:43:00.000-07:00

A visual display unit, often called simply a monitor or display, is a piece of electrical equipment which displays images generated from the video output of devices such as computers, without producing a permanent record. Most newer monitors typically consist of a TFT LCD, with older monitors based around a cathode ray tube (CRT). The monitor comprises the display device, simple circuitry to generate and format a picture from video sent by the signals source, and usually an enclosure. Within the signal source, either as an integral section or a modular component, there is a display adapter to generate video in a format compatible with the monitor.

Mono Monitor

Imaging technologies
19" inch (48.3 cm tube, 45.9 cm viewable) ViewSonic CRT computer monitor.

As with television, many different hardware technologies exist for displaying computer-generated output:

* Liquid crystal display (LCD). TFT LCDs are the most popular display device for new computers.
o Passive LCDs produce poor contrast, slow response, and other image defects. These were used in most laptops until the mid 1990s.
o Thin Film Transistor LCDs give much better picture quality in several respects. Nearly all modern LCD monitors are TFT.

Latest TFT Monitors :

* Cathode ray tube (CRT)
o Raster scan computer monitors, which produce images using pixels. These were the most popular display device for older computers.
o Vector displays, as used on the Vectrex, many scientific and radar applications, and several early arcade machines (notably Asteroids) - always implemented using CRT displays due to requirement for a deflection system, though can be emulated on any raster-based display.
o Television sets were used by most early personal and home computers, connecting composite video to the television set using a modulator. Resolution and image quality were strongly limited by the display capabilities of television.
* Plasma display
* Video projectors use CRT, LCD, DLP, LCoS or many other technologies to send light through the air to a projection screen. Front projectors use screens as reflectors to send light back, while rear projectors use screens as diffusers to refract light forward. Rear projectors are often integrated into the same case as their screen.
* Surface-conduction electron-emitter display (SED)
* Organic light-emitting diode (OLED) display
* Penetron military aircraft displays

Compact Disc or CD

2009-09-06T09:42:00.000-07:00

A compact disk (cd) is a popular form of digital storage media used for computer files, pictures, and music. The plastic platter is read and written to by a laser in a CD drive. It comes in several varieties including CD-ROM, CD-R, and CD-RW.

James Russell invented the compact disk in 1965. James Russell was granted a total of 22 patents for various elements of his compact disk system. However, the compact disk did not become popular until it was mass manufactured by Philips in 1980.

Other CD formats include CD-ROM [ C ompact D isc- R ead O nly M emory], a form of CD that is read (but not written to) by computer using a CD-ROM drive and that can contain computer programs and digitized text, sound, photographs, and video; CD-R [ C ompact D isc- R ecordable] and CD-RW [ C ompact D isc- R e W ritable], which can be written to one time and multiple times, respectively. Interactive CDs (CD-I, CDTV, and other formats) can store video, audio, and data. Photo CD is a format that holds digitized photographs and sound. There are also CD-ROMs that require special players with built-in microcomputers.

Other optical disk formats include digital versatile (or video) discs and videodiscs. A digital versatile disk (DVD) holds far more information than a CD. DVD players are backward compatible to existing technologies, so they can also play a CD (or CD-ROM), but a CD player cannot be used with a DVD (or DVD-ROM). The videodisc , or laser disk system, uses 12-in. (30-cm) disks for video recording. Its technology, unlike that of the CD, is an analog system that uses a laser to read a variable-width track, much like a conventional phonograph record.

Microcomputer - Invention and Evolution

2009-09-06T09:40:00.000-07:00

I. Introduction

Intel’s first microcomputer add appeared in November 1971:

“Announcing a new era in integrated electronics.”

Intel delivered two different microcomputers five months apart: the MCS-4, emphasizing low cost, in November 1971, and the MCS-8, for versatility in April 1972. “The MCS-4 and MCS-8 CPU chip sell in quantity for less than $100 each, and are powerful alternatives to random logic” [1]. These two Micro Computer Systems (MCS) were aimed at two very different markets. One would eventually lead to the under $1 controller, the other would be the engine for a versatile personal computer (PC). By analogy it was like creating the “motorbike” and the “station wagon” at the same time. The advertised prophecy of “a new era” became fulfilled over the subsequent 20 year period.

A. Automobile Analogy

Our challenge was how to scale down a general purpose computer to fit on to a chip. Imagine that the only passenger vehicle in existence is an eight-passenger van costing $50 000. At first it would be difficult to imagine a $1000 version of this vehicle. The specifications would need to be drastically reduced to meet the price goal. Some ideas to consider:

1) reducing capacity by 75%
2) reducing speed by 90%
3) reducing range by 75%

The golf cart might be the result. However, if golf carts are unknown at the time, it is not easy to envision how to scale down a van.

What features of a computer can be scaled down? That depends on what it will be used for. Fortunately for us, our first customer's application was for a desktop calculator; we scaled down the computer's speed and memory size to meet the needs of this particular application. As computers go, the microcomputer was not very capable; some would say that we set the computer industry back 10 years. We thought that we were moving the LSI world ahead by 10 years [2]. I will share some of my recollections of the early days of Intel microprocessors.

Full Information Click Here

Punch Cards - Herman Hollerith

2009-09-06T09:39:00.001-07:00

Modern data processing began with the inventions of American engineer, Herman Hollerith.

In 1881, Herman Hollerith began designing a machine to tabulate census data more efficiently than by traditional hand methods. The U.S. Census Bureau had taken eight years to complete the 1880 census, and it was feared that the 1890 census would take even longer. Herman Hollerith invented and used a punched card device to help analyze the 1890 US census data. Herman Hollerith's great breakthrough was his use of electricity to read, count, and sort punched cards whose holes represented data gathered by the census-takers. His machines were used for the 1890 census and accomplished in one year what would have taken nearly ten years of hand tabulating. In 1896, Herman Hollerith founded the Tabulating Machine Company to sell his invention, the Company became part of IBM in 1924.

Herman Hollerith first got his idea for the punch-card tabulation machine from watching a train conductor punch tickets. For his tabulation machine he used the punchcard invented in the early 1800s, by a French silk weaver called Joseph-Marie Jacquard. Jacquard invented a way of automatically controlling the warp and weft threads on a silk loom by recording patterns of holes in a string of cards.

Hollerith's punch cards and tabulating machines were a step toward automated computation. His device could automatically read information which had been punched onto card. He got the idea and then saw Jacquard's punchcard. Punch card technology was used in computers up until the late 1970s. Computer "punched cards" were read electronically, the cards moved between brass rods, and the holes in the cards, created a electric current where the rods would touch.

Note: A chad is the small piece of paper or cardboard produced in punching paper tape or data cards; also can be called a piece of chad. The term originated in 1947 and is of unknown origin. In laymen's terms chad is the punched out parts of the card - the holes.

Invention of the iPod

2009-09-06T09:39:00.000-07:00

The iPod originated with a business idea dreamed up by Tony Fadell, an independent inventor. Fadell's idea was to take an MP3 player, build a Napster music sale service to complement it, and build a company around it. Apple hired Fadell in early 2001 and assigned him a team of about 30 people, including designers, programmers and hardware engineers.

Invention: iPod in 2001

Function: noun / trademark / Internet Pod (Apple)

Definition: A portable device for downloading audio/video from the internet iTunes Web site Manufactured by Apple Computer, inc.

Patent: 7,054,981 (US) issued May 30, 2006

Inventor: Tony Fadell

Criteria: First to invent. First practical.

Birth: 1969

Nationality: American

Computer Printers Invention

2009-09-06T09:38:00.000-07:00

In 1953, the first high-speed printer was developed by Remington-Rand for use on the Univac computer.

In 1938, Chester Carlson invented a dry printing process called electrophotography commonly called a Xerox, the foundation technology for laser printers to come.

The original laser printer called EARS was developed at the Xerox Palo Alto Research Center beginning in 1969 and completed in November, 1971. Xerox Engineer, Gary Starkweather adapted Xerox copier technology adding a laser beam to it to come up with the laser printer. According to Xerox, "The Xerox 9700 Electronic Printing System, the first xerographic laser printer product, was released in 1977. The 9700, a direct descendent from the original PARC "EARS" printer which pioneered in laser scanning optics, character generation electronics, and page-formatting software, was the first product on the market to be enabled by PARC research."

According to IBM, "the very first IBM 3800 was installed in the central accounting office at F. W. Woolworth’s North American data center in Milwaukee, Wisconsin in 1976." The IBM 3800 Printing System was the industry’s first high-speed, laser printer. A laser printer that operated at speeds of more than 100 impressions-per-minute. It was the first printer to combine laser technology and electrophotography according to IBM.

In 1992, Hewlett-Packard released the popular LaserJet 4, the first 600 by 600 dots per inch resolution laser printer.

In 1976, the inkjet printer was invented, but it took until 1988 for the inkjet to become a home consumer item with Hewlett-Parkard's release of the DeskJet inkjet printer.

System Admin Tools

reBlog from Kalil: System Admin Tools

ReadyBoost with Windows 7's Performance Monitor

A quick review

ReadyBoost does NOT equal RAM

Configuring Performance Monitor

Figure A

In its default configuration, Performance Monitor is configured to monitor Processor Time.

Figure B

When the ReadyBoost Cache counter appears in the Added Counters section, click OK.

Figure C

When you add the ReadyBoost Cache header to Performance Monitor, you are actually adding a set of 10 counters to the monitor.

Figure D

After several large file copy operations, the Performance Monitor graph displayed a lot of activity.

Creating a Data Collector Set

Figure E

This wizard will walk you through the steps of creating a Data Collector Set.

Figure F

You’ll work through the next two steps in the wizard to add the four pertinent counters to your ReadyBoost Monitor Data Collector Set.

Figure G

To begin logging ReadyBoost activity, just click the Green Play icon.

Figure H

Click the Add button to locate and select your ReadyBoost Monitor log file.

Figure I

During this particular test, ReadyBoost made a very minimal contribution.

OpenSuse's KDE/Firefox Integration

E-mail Attachment | Ubuntu Command Line | Howto

How to Monitor RAID Devices on Linux

KDE 4, please integrate 10 Administrative tools!

HowTo: VirtualBox on Debian Squeeze (Testing / Sid)

An open request to rename Ubuntu package formats

Technical Interview Questions – Networking

MCSE and System Administrator Job Interview Questions – Part 1 – Networking

Debian Sid: HowTo: Firewire Access

Ubuntu Server: "Setting locale failed" and a fix

How can i copy the files in the debug folder to some other directory automatically ?

Add the following line of code to the Post build event in the project properties,call copy E:\projectdir\bin\Debug c:\test\

What is the name of the file you need to change to add pre- and post-build functionality into your custom package ?

Targets file.It is located in ,%WINDOWS%\Microsoft.NET\Framework\v2.0.50727\Microsoft.Common.targets

Tell some of the new features of ASP.NET 3.5?

1. Expression Trees2. Controls 1. ListView 2. DataPager3. Support for LINQ, WCF , WPF and WWF

What are the options available on creating a branch?

There are 5 options available on creating a branch, they are : 1. Changeset 2. Date 3. Label 4. Latest Version 5. Workspace version

How will you check whether automated build is successful and call a custom task on successful build?

You can do that by providing the following config entry in the MS Build or TFS Build config file, BuildUri="$(BuildUri)" Condition=" '$(IsDesktopBuild)' != 'true' ">

What are the new Features in Team Build 2008 ?

1. Continuous Integration 2. Build Queuing 3. Scheduled Builds 4. Build Agent Management 5. Build Definition Editing GUI 6. Better Build Management 7. Managed object model 8. Improved extensibility

What are the blocks in Enterprise Library?

What are the Predefined bindings in WCF?

1. BasicHttpBinding 2. WSHttpBinding 3. WSDualHttpBinding 4. NetTcpBinding 5. NetNamedPipeBinding 6. NetMsmqBinding

What is the expansion of TDD?

Test-Driven-Development .

What will the deployment retail="true" do when set in a asp.net web.config file?

It forces the 'debug' attribute in the web.config to false, disables page output tracing, and forces the custom error page to be shown to remote users rather than the actual exception.

What is the Svcutil.exe ?

Service Model Metadata Utility Tool is used to generate the proxy from the client.

Explain what is a DTO?

A DTO is a pattern used to transfer data between applications.

What are the uses of Views?

What’s the difference between authentication and authorization?

What is Serialization ? What are the Types of Serialization and their differences?

What is assemblyInfo.cs file? Where can I find it? What is it for?

What is the name of the class used to read and get details of the files uploaded to asp.net?

What is web.config.? How many web.config files can be allowed to use in an application?

What are asynchronous callbacks in .net?

How to download webpage using asp.net and c# ?

How to download webpage using asp.net and c# ?

How to read and write from a text file using c#.net ?

what are the Differences between Abstract Class and Interface ?

How can you tell the application to look for assemblies at the locations other than its installed location?

How to read and write from a text file using c#.net ?

What are the different Debugging tools which come with .NET ?

What are the differences between const and readonly ?

How to call a base class constructor from a derived class?

what does '()' denote in the object creation statement

What are test cases you should go through in unit testing?

You need to check 3 test cases, which are the following,1. Positive test cases (correct data, correct output)2. Negative test cases (broken or missing data, proper handling)3. Exception test cases (exceptions are thrown and caught properly)

If A is the base class and B inherits B and C inherits B and an object is created for C , whats order of constructor

interface ,the class which implemented it and its object, with interface in left hand side during creation

Does C# (.NET) support partial implementation?

Add the following line of code to the Post build event in the project properties,
call copy E:\projectdir\bin\Debug c:\test\

Targets file.
It is located in ,
%WINDOWS%\Microsoft.NET\Framework\v2.0.50727\Microsoft.Common.targets

1. Expression Trees
2. Controls
1. ListView
2. DataPager
3. Support for LINQ, WCF , WPF and WWF

There are 5 options available on creating a branch, they are :
1. Changeset
2. Date
3. Label
4. Latest Version
5. Workspace version

You can do that by providing the following config entry in the MS Build or TFS Build config file,
BuildUri="$(BuildUri)"
Condition=" '$(IsDesktopBuild)' != 'true' ">

1. Continuous Integration
2. Build Queuing
3. Scheduled Builds
4. Build Agent Management
5. Build Definition Editing GUI
6. Better Build Management
7. Managed object model
8. Improved extensibility

1. BasicHttpBinding
2. WSHttpBinding
3. WSDualHttpBinding
4. NetTcpBinding
5. NetNamedPipeBinding
6. NetMsmqBinding

You need to check 3 test cases, which are the following,

1. Positive test cases (correct data, correct output)

2. Negative test cases (broken or missing data, proper handling)

3. Exception test cases (exceptions are thrown and caught properly)

1. Forms
2. Passport