Linux vendor Red Hat also has a strong virtualization package. Red Hat Enterprise Virtualization (RHEV) 3.0 beta was just released. RHEV is unique in the virtualization space in that it has a single console to manage both desktop virtualization and server virtualization. That simplicity has won over many fans including the likes of IBM. However, RHEV has always been weighed down by its dependence upon Windows Server. The 3.0 version severs this tie once and for all.

RHEV 3.0 and Windows Sever

As a strong player in the open-source arena, RHEV’s reliance on Microsoft’s proprietary server technologies has been a bit of an embarrassment, not to mention a driver of additional cost. RHEV’s management required a Windows Server to run, as well as Microsoft SQL Server, and for many features, even an Active Directory installation. In a primarily Windows environment, these servers already exist, but for an enterprise looking to bring in a new virtualization environment, the extra layer of licensing and Microsoft involvement is not welcome.

Furthermore, RHEV scripting uses Microsoft’s PowerShell. While PowerShell is a powerful scripting language, most Linux administrators prefer to run commands directly from the Linux command-line interface.

There is little doubt that Red Hat, with its massive open-source street credibility, would have built it’s enterprise-level virtualization offering on top of Microsoft’s flagship server offering and database server. However, Red Hat built the platform up after acquiring it from Qumranent, an entity that will not be missed by those who have the need to spell or pronounce company names. Since RHEV 2 was released, Red Hat has been diligently working to remove those unusual ties to Microsoft sever products.

RHEV 3.0 eliminates these dependencies on Windows Server and Microsoft SQL Server. RHEV 3.0 uses the open-source PostGres database instead of requiring MS SQL Server, and Linux admins will rejoice at version 3.0′s support for executing commands via the traditional Linux command-line.

RHEV 3.0 Features

Of course, there is more to releasing an enterprise-level virtualization product than just eliminating ties to Microsoft, and Red Hat’s Enterprise Virtualization package brings plenty of features to the table.

RHEV 3.0 brings more support for bigger scale implementations. It now supports 64 virtual CPUs and 2 terabytes of memory for hosts, up from the limit of 16 virtual CPUs and 256 gigabytes of memory in the previous version. Unlike previous .NET versions, Red Hat Enterprise Virtualization Manager 3.0 is a full Java application running on the JBoss Enterprise Application Platform. The KVM hypervisor has been updated and is now based on Red Hat Enterprise Linux 6.

Along with improved scalability, RHEV 3.0 beta promises improved administration capabilities. RHEV no longer requires Microsoft’s Active Directory. Users and administrators can be defined directly with the Linux Enterprise IPA. However, because there is widespread implementation of Active Directory among many companies, RHEV 3.0 still fully supports using Active Directory to manage and implement security and policies.

Additionally, a new multi-level administration scheme allows enterprises to enable more granular control for various systems administrators without giving full-scale access to admins who typically only handle specific tasks. In addition, a Java based graphical user interface portal allows users to provision and manage hypervisors and virtual machines without access to the back-end infrastructure, allowing routine matters to be pushed from under the umbrella of higher-level administrators.

Another improvement is that RHEV 3.0 beta can now be used with local storage disks. Earlier versions required either a Fiber Channel storage area network or iSCSI array. This is an important improvement as many SMBs are reluctant to implement shared storage for virtualization.

The Red Hat Enterprise Virtualization Manager 3.0 beta is available now. The company hopes the final version will ship sometime before the end of 2011.

The Linux Mint 12 download can be found here.

Ironically, Mint is built on top of Ubuntu and the Linux 3.0 kernel. In fact, the entire Mint distribution cycle is built around trying to release a new version of Mint one month after a Ubuntu release. While Mint is built on the Ubuntu code base, it has deliberately not taken on the new shell, which accounts for its recent surge in popularity. Linux Mint is at its heart Ubuntu, but without the new shell that is unpopular with some users.

Linux Mint 12 Shell

The increased popularity of Linux Mint makes its latest offering, Linux Mint 12 – formerly codenamed Lisa – big news in the Linux world. For users who fled Ubuntu for Mint the most important question is what shell Linux Mint 12 uses. The answer suggests that Mint has heeded the angst directed at the Unity shell while acknowledging the need to move forward.

Mint 12 comes with GNOME 3 installed by default. While Ubuntu has taken plenty of lumps for moving to its Unity shell, GNOME 3 is by no means universally loved in the Linux community either.

However, having seen the trouble Ubuntu had with its new shell offering, Mint also comes installed with Mint GNOME Shell Extensions, or MGSE, on top of the GNOME 3 shell. The MGSE act as a sort of training wheels for the new GNOME shell by allowing users to customize and remove custom elements and use those elements that are more familiar or user friendly rather than force a wholesale transition to the GNOME 3 shell.

MGSE is composed of a bottom panel, application menu, window list, system tray and a “task-centric desktop.”  These MGSE elements are at the core of this release’s promise of “usability.”

Linux Mint 12 also comes with another option called MATE which is a fork of the familiar GNOME 2 desktop shell. The idea is that users who don’t want GNOME 3, even with the helping hand of MGSE, can switch on MATE on use a desktop that looks like GNOME 2. However, MATE is NOT GNOME 2, it just looks like it. MATE is on the DVD edition of Linux Mint 12, but wasn’t squeezed onto the CD. CD users can install MATE via the mint-meta-mate package.

The MGSE features can also be turned off by users. Thus, Mint 12 comes with three desktop options: GNOME 3 with MGSE, GNOME 3 without MGSE, and MATE, which looks like GNOME 2. Keep in mind that no matter which option is installed, it is still Mint. Applications can be launched from the bottom left and the window list and keyboard shortcuts still swtich between apps. The notifications from the GNOME 3 desktop are similar, though not exact replicas, of the “activities” users are used to in Mint.

Linux Mint 12 New Features

The creators of Mint didn’t just stop with shell updates. New features and updates to existing features bring a different variety of usability to this version of Mint.

Firefox is still the default web browser in Mint 12. The open-source version of Chrome, Chromium, is also available within the distribution. Curiously, the default search engine for the browser is Duck Duck Go. If you aren’t familiar with Duck Duck Go, it is actually a search aggregator that pulls its results from other search engines. The reason Mint made this choice is, apparently, privacy. Duck Duck Go does not gather user information, nor place tracking cookies on user’s systems. As a result, searches are both anonymous and are not “personalized” to the user the way searches on Google and Bing are.

Above and beyond the ultruistic goal of protecting user privacy, the new search engine also will be sharing revenue generated by Linux Mint users with the developers providing “a new business model” for Linux Mint.

Another noticeable change in this release is the improved artwork. Two new themes, Mint-Z and Mint-Z-Dark come featured in the newest version. The themes are based on Mint-X and Zukitwo, respectively. There is also a new 3-D Linux Mint logo for the standard background. Numerous other high-quality photographic wallpapers are, of course, available as well.

The overlay scrollbars were removed from Mint in this version, although they can be added back by dedicated users (if there are any).

Finally, Mint continues to arrive with useful software ready to go. Although some in the open-source community disparage the inclusion of non-open source software such as Adobe Flash and some MP3 codecs, the fact is that many users use these items, and forcing them to find and download them in the name of purity flies in the face of Mint’s commitment to ease of use. Of course, piles of useful open-source software are also included, like Firefox (browser), Thunderbird (email), LibreOffice (office suite) and GIMP (image editing). Another inclusion is a movie player called Totem. A clean looking Software Manager provides easy installs and uninstalls of applications.

Like all versions of Mint, this one is extremely customizable allowing users to remove or add almost any element they desire. In addition, Mint is well known for its stability and conservative approach to updates. There is no reason to suspect that Mint will be any different.

Mint’s system requirements are an easy to stomach 512 MB of RAM, with 1 GB recommended, a mere 5 GB of disk space and a graphics card capable of 800×600 resolution.

Linux Mint Future Releases

The interesting thing to watch with Mint will be how it moves forward. As the Unbuntu release it is based upon embraces and integrates the Unity shell into its core, will Mint continue to strip out all features, or will it adopt some of them? If so, how will that integration occur?

Finally, the world of touch screens is coming and the switch to Unity is one of Canonical’s ways to position Ubuntu to be ready when and if that world comes to Linux. The new Gnome 3 shell and its MSGE tools seems a great fit for today, but will Mint succeed in migrating them to a touch friendly world when the time comes?

For now, Linux Mint 12 is a very friendly and high configurable version of Linux that should satisfy the needs of most users.

The quick turnaround on this latest release of Intune demonstrates Microsoft’s new commitment to rapidly iterating its software, particularly those that compete in the fast moving world of cloud-computing.

Windows Intune 2 Features

Windows Intune now supports offline installation. That means that systems can be imaged and installed without having to be configured for network access prior to installing Intune.

Windows Intune 2 expands on the features offered by Windows Intune 1. One of the biggest updates is that Intune 2 allows software distribution of any software. Previously, Intune 1 only offered a way to distribute Microsoft’s own software, effectively limiting Intune’s use to updating Windows, Office, Security Essentials and assorted Microsoft clients. Now, companies can theoretically manage their entire software update and upgrade schedule via Intune, including pushing new in-house applications to company PCs.

Almost any software with an .EXE, .MSI or .MSP file that supports a silent installation mode can be distributed via Intune. Of course, customers will have to build and test their own software distribution packages for third-party applications, although tools help streamline the process. The software files themselves are stored on Microsoft’s cloud Windows Azure storage space.

Another updated feature is the ability to perform remote tasks. Right clicking on a single PC brings up a context menu that offers several possible actions, including running a full or quick malware scan, updating malware definitions or restarting the computer.

Microsoft has also added the ability to track licensing beyond Microsoft’s Volume Licensing. Businesses can now include licenses purchased at retail, OEM licensing and even third-party licenses. Licenses can be tagged to specific machines or used to generate reports that can show whether there are enough licenses to go around the number of machines inventoried.

New reports are also available with Intune 2. Hardware based filters can be used to generate reports that include available disk space, memory installed, CPU speed as well as the computer manufacturer and chassis type. For example, an administrator can now run a report to get a list of all computers without enough RAM to handle an upcoming upgrade and plan accordingly. Hardware filters can also be used to help target software distributions.

Along with new reports, come new customizable alerts and a console that shows alerts in grouped, color coded areas allowing administrators to better separate the noise from the issues. Also, administrators can now choose which columns are displayed, allowing admins to focus on the items that they need and remove the clutter caused by those they don’t need to see.

One new feature that can broaden the reach of Intune’s usefulness is Read-Only access. With Intune 2, administrators can be granted read-only access so that they can view all of a machine’s information in the Intune Administration Console, without having the ability to distribute software or perform remote actions on the system. Companies may find this functionality particularly useful for call-in help desks where admins may want to ensure via Intune that there is enough free hard disk space, for example, without handing over the keys to full access to make sweeping changes on the systems.

As a cloud-based software service, users of Intune don’t have to do anything to upgrade to the new version. Microsoft will simply roll out the new version on its end and users will start seeing the new features right away.

Intune Cost and Features

The cost of Intune 2 is unchanged from the earlier Intune version. The cost is $11 per month per seat. Customers can get the Microsoft Desktop Optimization Pack (MDOP) for an additional $1 per month. The MDOP includes Microsoft Bitlocker Administration and Monitoring (MBAM), Microsoft Diagnostics and Recovery Toolset (DaRT), Advanced Group Policy Management (AGPM), Application Virtualization (APP-V), Microsoft Enterprise Desktop Virtualization (MED-V) and System Center Desktop Error Monitoring (DEM).

As with Intune 1, the cost of all upgrade rights to the latest version of Windows are included in the pricing. That means that a business with an Intune subscription can upgrade their computer systems from Windows XP to Windows 7 for free. When the time comes, some companies can also upgrade to Winodws 8 all with no extra licensing fees or upgrade fees.

This aggressive pricing and included software updates suggest that Windows Intune is a key part of Microsoft’s business strategy going forward. With frequent updates and new features, Windows Intune might just be the service that finally gets IT over the desk-to-desk install and upgrade paradigm.

Used correctly PowerShell 2.0 is a robust tool for system administration, but used incorrectly, it can be a powerful disruptor of an otherwise happy environment.

Testing PowerShell Scripts

Of course, no administrator with more than one day on the job would ever unleash an untested script onto an unsuspecting production environment. Like all system changes, PowerShell scripts should be developed on non-production systems and thoroughly tested before being implemented on real systems.

However, no amount of test environment simulation can replicate the complexities of a full-scale production environment. Worse, even a fully debugged script can contain some nasty surprises lurking to ruin the administrator’s weekend plan.

WhatIf PowerShell Parameter

Fortunately, PowerShell contains a very useful parameter called WhatIf.

The WhatIf switch runs a PowerShell script without actually running it. Rather than actually running the commands, the WhatIf switch only displays what the outcome of running the script would be if it were actually run.

What’s the Point?

Most administrators can’t just watch a script run and know for sure that it is doing what it is supposed to. However, there are plenty of times when watching the output of a running script can tell you that it is NOT running properly. A series of “Not Found” errors scrolling across the screen, for example, is an indicator that something is rotten in PowerScriptville.

Of course, eradicating that kind of error is something that should happen on a test system. It may take a while, but chasing down all the incorrect paths and typos in a non-production environment is a no harm, no foul, type event. But, what about those nightmares-in-waiting that don’t show up in that all-too-isolated testing environment?

There are plenty of ways a script error can slip through even a solid testing environment and create havoc in the production world. One way that constantly seems to impart painful experience and wisdom to even seasoned administrators involves “where” and his cousin “if.”

One of the things that makes PowerShell so useful is that an administrator can write the script so that it only affects desired targets. Examples would include, a script that only applies a

patch to systems without the latest updates, or a script that affects only users in a certain location or other objects with specific attributes. There are many ways to accomplish this including Where and If-Then commands.

The catch to using these commands is that while they may perform perfectly on the non-production test network, they have a way of matching far more than was intended when they get unleashed in a bigger environment.

The little script that was supposed to patch a dozen or so machines ends up inadvertently matching hundreds of systems. This is one of those times when the administrator can see that the script is not running as intended. The admin’s eyes grow wide with horror as the screen fills with the names of systems the script is matching when it was only supposed to apply to a handful of systems. A second later and you can almost hear the slow-motion, “Noooooooooo” as the admin’s hands reach desperately for the keyboard knowing that the damage has already been done.

After the fires have been put out, it will turn out that parameters that were specific enough to keep the script running on only the targeted systems didn’t take into account that in the production environment every machine in Iowa has an IA associated with the system, not just the machines used for internal audits.

Imagine the same scenario above, but with the WhatIf switch activated.

The same administrator will watch the same screen filling up with the names of systems being matched, but with one very important difference. Every line of output will be preceded by “What if:” telling the administrator that his weekend is not ruined and that the out of control script is only testing to see what would happen if the script were run.

Rather than panic, his face will twist into a scowl and the words, “What the << insert favorite epithet >>?” will calmly emerge from his mouth. After stopping the script, he’ll stare at the output for a minute or two and realize that all those machines in Iowa are inadvertently matching his script. He’ll tighten the conditions and re-run the script — with WhatIf enabled again — until everything looks right.

Using WhatIf

To use the WhatIf switch simply add –WhatIf to the end of your command line. Enabling that switch turns everything previously typed into a test, with the results of what would have happened if the commands were actually run appearing on the screen.

Keep in mind that WhatIf output cannot be piped to a file. WhatIf doesn’t actually run the commands so that output is not being generated. What displays on the screen is a direct to console message. However, for in-depth analysis, particularly in instances where a lot of things are happening to a lot of systems there may be a need to catch the data displayed by the WhatIf switch. In these cases, the Start-Transcript / Stop-Transcript cmdlets can be used to capture the information flowing to the screen.

Simply type Start-Transcript before running your WhatIf command and then type End-Transcript afterwards. You can direct the output to a specific file with the –path switch.

To avoid frustration, do NOT (out of habit) add the –WhatIf switch to the Start-Transcript (or End-Transcript) commands or you’ll spend hours chasing your tail trying to find a transcript file that doesn’t exist.

Not that I know anyone who has done anything like that.

What other ways do you use WhatIf? What are your favorite testing tricks?

vSphere 5 comes into a world where server virtualization is the standard in most corporate data centers. vSphere 5 seeks to leverage that transfer by both improving on its top of the line feature as well as making virtualization more accessible to smaller scale operations.

vSphere 5 New Features

As with any major upgrade, improvements to speed, stability and scalability are some of the important “new” features.  Virtual machines can be larger in vSphere 5. Virtual machines with up to one terabyte of memory and up to 32 CPUs are now supported. VMware says that vSphere 5 VMs can handle over one million IOPS. vSphere 5 is also the first version of vSphere to be developed completely on ESXi which is independent from any other operating system. ESXi’s only purpose is to run VMware which means it has a very thin, optimized footprint of less than 100 MB.

However, vSphere 5 is about more than just bigger and faster.  VMware says there are over 200 new features in the latest edition of vSphere.

vSphere 5 supports three new automated functions that form the backbone of an intelligent policy management system. The idea is that administrators can configure policies that enable a “set it and forget it” approach to managing virtualization in the datacenter.

The first of these new features is Auto-Deploy. Auto-Deploy automatically deploys severs on the fly using a PXE boot to turn on the server, install an image and then add the systems resources into an existing pool. Auto-Deploy allows 40 severs to be deployed in 10 minutes instead of 20 hours. Once the servers are running, the Auto-Deploy policy can also automatically patch the installations.

Profile-Driven Storage groups storage according to user-defined policies. When provisioning resources, administrators select the level of service required and vSphere automatically chooses the available resources that best correspond to the selected level.

Finally, Storage DRS automatically manages the placement and balancing for a VM across storage resources according to the storage policy of the virtual machine, eliminating the need for an administrator to monitor and reallocate resources to maintain the necessary level of service.

VMware vSphere Storage Appliance

In an effort to reach the small and medium sized business (SMB) market, VMware also announced the VMware vSphere Storage Appliance.

One of the complexities for SMB enterprises looking to capitalize on the power of VMware server virtualization is the implementation and management of shared storage. The VMware vSphere Storage Appliance seeks to address this concern.  Using the appliance, customers can take advantage of features like High Availability and vMotion without having to implement their own shared storage infrastructure. Instead, the vSphere Storage Appliance integrates with VMware to pool the internal server storage and present it as shared storage to create a virtual pool of storage without the need for external storage. Since the physical storage is spread across numerous physical servers, the storage pool acts and responds in the same manner as an array of external physical storage.

The vSphere Storage Appliance can take full advantage of the new vSphere 5 allowing SMBs without complex shared storage configurations to also benefit from the intelligent policy management that drives the hallmark set it and forget it features of vSphere 5.

New vSphere Pricing Model

With vSphere 5, VMware introduces a new pricing model that is no longer based on the physical server hardware. Instead, vSphere 5 is priced according to the amount of virtual resources allocated. There are now just three pricing tiers, Standard, Enterprise and Enterprise Plus.

The Standard tier allows up to 24 GB of allocated memory to all virtual machines and up to eight virtual CPUs per virtual machine. Enterprise allows 32 GB of virtual memory across all virtual machines and up to eight virtual CPUs per VM. Enterprise Plus allows up to 48 GB across virtual machines and up to 32 virtual CPUs per VM.

The new pricing model hasn’t been warmly received, in part because existing VMware customers purchased hardware to maximize the value under the vSphere 4 licensing model where pricing was based on the number of sockets and cores in the server. In particular, the vSphere 4 Enterprise Plus license allows for unlimited memory. Companies purchased servers with huge amounts of memory tied to just one or two processors with six cores meaning they needed just one or two Enterprise Plus licenses per server.

The higher expense, plus the entrenched success of vSphere 4 in many current installations means that VCAP-4 certification will still be plenty valuable for years to come. But for those who are looking to move to the new version right away, vSphere 5 training will be available in no time.

vSphere 5 is scheduled for availability in the third quarter of 2011.

Companies could do what they usually do and replace existing hardware with thin clients as machines reach the end of their lifecycle. The problem with this approach is that a particular department, for example, would end up with some users on thin clients and some users on fat clients during the transition, a support nightmare.

Windows Thin PC (WinTPC) is Micorsoft’s solution to these realities. WinTPC is a locked down version of Windows 7 that allows companies to take existing computers within the organization and turn them into thin clients. Rather than having to overcome the financial and operational disincentive to replace hundreds or thousands of full-scale PCs already in place, IT management can use WinTPC to take the computers already sitting on everyone’s desk and turn them into thin clients. If thin clients don’t work out, systems can be rebuilt as traditional fat client installs.

WinTPC versus Windows Embedded Standard 7

Windows Thin PC and Windows Embedded Standard (WES7) are similar options available from Microsoft to deliver the thin client experience as a replacement for the traditional desktop PC.

Windows Embedded Standard is only available to hardware manufacturers. These OEMs then build and sell thin client devices loaded and configured with WES7. WinTPC, on the other hand, is only available to business as part of Microsoft Software Assurance (SA) to those with a volume licensing agreement with Microsoft. Neither product can be purchased directly.

Both WinTPC and WES7 aim to deliver a thin client experience. WinTPC comes directly from Microsoft. Enterprise features such as BitLocker, AppLocker and DirectAccess are built into the base image. Businesses download WinTPC and roll it out to existing hardware using a standard image.

WES7 comes from OEMs who customize features based upon their hardware solution and customer desires. Whereas WinTPC uses operating system level security and lockdowns to turn a standard PC into a thin client, WES7 comes directly on hardware that is already designed and locked to provide a thin client environment. OEMs can remove unused components of WES7 to make a smaller image.

What Is WinTPC

Microsoft positions WinTPC as a transitional operating system for organizations moving toward thin client computing. The idea is that an organization can take a subset of existing computers and rebuild them as thin clients using WinTPC without having to buy any new hardware or make any locked-in commitment to thin client computing. If thin clients don’t work out, IT can just reinstall the regular Windows operating system.

The WinTPC strategy is classic Microsoft. The company knows that there is an interest in thin client computing in the business world. However, businesses are leery of jumping all the way into the thin client pool until they know it will work. With WinTPC Microsoft gives businesses a free way to dip their toe into the world of thin clients.

For example, a CIO can green light a move to thin clients for a single department using WinTPC. There is no cost of acquisition. WinTPC is free as part of SA. The hardware already exists within the company because all of the employees already have regular PCs on their desk. Once the IT department is comfortable rolling out and supporting thin clients, they can move onto to other departments. If it doesn’t work out, they format and start over with Windows 7 installed. In this way, CIOs can try Microsoft as a thin client provider without committing to a costly test or transition period.

If the company decides that thin client computing is the way to go, the idea is that they can move on to buying OEM thin clients as systems end their useful lifecycle.

How WinTPC Works

WinTPC is a locked down version of Windows 7. As such, it requires the same hardware specification as Windows 7. It can be deployed and managed via System Center Configuration Manager (SCCM) just like the full versions of Windows.

One of the main issues with using traditional desktop hardware as thin clients is that users end up writing data to the local disk. Whether intentional or not, writing to disk defeats many of the benefits of using a thin client including the ability to work on any client, eliminating the need to back up local systems, and security.  WinTPC uses OS level write filters to ensure that no local data is stored by users of the thin client. Additionally, all system level or program generated writes are shunted to a virtual disk that is destroyed at the end of each session ensuring that the system returns to its clean state each time. IT accesses disk writes via administrator tools or Windows Embedded Device Manager (WEDM).

WinTPC supports RemoteFX for enterprises running Windows Server 2008 R2 SP1 with Hyper-V. Over a standard wired network connection, RemoteFX delivers a user interface experience so similar to a standard desktop computer that many users have no idea that they are running a remote desktop.

WinTPC also supports BitLocker and AppLocker.

WinTPC was released to manufacturing in June and is expected for general availability in July 2011.

Meet the Unity Shell

The Unity interface was originally developed for the Ubuntu Netbook Edition. It shipped as the default user environment on version 10.10. From there, Ubuntu developers worked to adapt the shell to the desktop environment.

The idea behind the move to Unity is to improve Ubuntu’s ease of use and visual appeal. Ironically, the same goal was behind the redesign of the GNOME Shell interface that Ubuntu, and most other Linux vendors, used previously.  Canonical may have figured that if users are going to have to adjust to a new environment’s design and feel, they might as well adjust to a new environment developed in-house.

The result is a desktop that moves in the direction of interfaces like MacOS and Windows 7. The launcher bar on the left borrows heavily from Mac OS and the indicator menu bar at the top-right is a condensed version of the familiar Windows notification icons.

For users with powerful enough hardware and available graphics drivers, Unity runs in a satisfying 3D version. For users without the resources, or for whom no usable graphics display drivers can be found, there is a plainer 2D version that works much the same, but is nowhere near as pleasant to look at.

The Unity interface is, by default, at once both more visually appealing, and less cluttered. Its history as a netbook interface, where small screen sizes require maximizing the value of whatever receives precious screen real estate, shows through, as does the developer’s desire to make Ubuntu more accessible to mainstream computer users.

Ubuntu Unity Launcher

The launcher is the first thing most people notice. It has colorful and easy to distinguish icons that launch applications and features with a single click. Mac users will find it similar to the toolbar from that OS.

However, the idea of an always-on toolbar goes against the paradigm of less clutter and making the most of every inch of the display area, which is why the launcher automatically hides itself whenever a window is maximized. The launcher reappears when it would not be taking space away from a full-screen window or whenever the user moves the mouse pointer to the left edge of the screen. In all, the launcher seems to be there when you need it and out of the way when you don’t.

Applications, files and folders can be added or removed to the launcher, similar to Windows 7′s ability to “pin” and “unpin” applications on the task bar. Furthermore, the workspace switcher is incorporated into the launcher eliminating the need for a bottom panel.

Clicking the WorkSpaces icon pops up the active spaces. Switching is as easy as clicking the desired space. The really great thing, however, is that you can use the same screen to drag and drop windows from one space to another, allowing users to just move that needed application into the same space, rather than switching back and forth between WorkSpaces or re-launching the program in the desired space.

Ubuntu Unity Dash

One of the important pieces of the Unity interface isn’t visible until you click the home button. Clicking the home button brings up the dash, short for dashboard. When the dash is running, the launcher is grayed out and the buttons are locked. To get out of the dash quickly, users can just press the Escape key.

The dash is a built-in search interface, as well as a frequently used programs listing. Start typing and the dash updates based upon searches for possibilities that might match what is being entered. As soon as you see what you are looking for, you can stop typing.

Interface Quirks

There are several interesting things about the Unity interface that can make it frustrating or brilliant, depending upon your point of view and how well they end up working in a particular situation. For example, the menus are always displayed in the menu area of the interface, not the application. In other words, instead of a menu at the top of the application, there is a menu at the top of the screen.

Another quirk is that scrollbars appear outside of the application window rather than inside. Even more quirky, they don’t always display unless you put the mouse on the side of the application.

Reaction

As with any major software change, there has been some backlash. Some users have taken to forms and blogs to denounce the Unity interface with vitriol reminiscent of how so many people hated Windows Vista. Perhaps most intriguing are the numbers at DistroWatch, which show Ubuntu out of the number one spot for the first time in a very long time. However, Ubuntu has moved back up to #2 or #3 – depending upon the day — in the one month rankings from as low as #4, suggesting that the furor may have died down and users are coming back. Perhaps, Canonical has achieved their goal and the easier to use Unity interface is bringing new users to Ubuntu and Linux altogether.

One thing users should keep in mind, is that the familiar GNOME 2 interface is also in the past. Many complaints come from long-time users who feel put out that they have to learn how to use a new interface at all. On the other hand, the latest GNOME 3 release is a full departure from previous GNOME versions as well, so one way or another, you’ll be learning a new interface (or switching to a different distribution) sooner or later. However, users  can select the “classic” interface if now is not the time to make that transition.

Chances are that Canonical won’t be going back to GNOME any time soon, but users can be sure that the company is looking at the user community feedback and the features of other interfaces. Unity is likely to get better with each release; the question is whether it will be good enough to satisfy a very demanding user community.

Using a free browser-only version of Microsoft Excel whenever the mood might strike is a wonderful thing. However, sharing still requires either getting everyone together at the same time in a conference room or emailing copies back and forth to everyone. It’s better than having an administrative assistant pass around photocopies, but just barely.

Office 365 combines the power of web apps with a collaboration environment. Now, when Joe creates a new Excel spreadsheet while using web apps from a computer he is using while on the road, he can have Dave take a look at the spreadsheet and make updates while Susan verifies that the numbers add up to an attractive profit margin, even if Dave and Susan are running the web app version of Excel too.

While this scenario is a no-brainer for many corporate environments running Office and a SharePoint server, it’s a tougher setup for your average IT-less small business. Office 365 runs all of the necessary software and applications in the cloud without the need to plant a complicated or expensive server in a corner of the office space.

Setting Up an Office 365 Team

If you are going to be sharing documents out on the cloud, you need to control who has access to them. With Office 365, security is handled by an administrator. Fortunately, administering an Office 365 environment for a small business is straightforward and uncomplicated. Any reasonably technologically savvy employee or owner should be able to figure it out.

The person who first signs up for the Office 365 beta becomes the administrator by default. Other team members need not sign up directly. Instead, the administrator of the team or small business group creates the additional users, which serves both to avoid the headache of getting everyone signed up and to link all the users together as a team.

Additional administrators can be added later if necessary. Administrators have an additional tab at the top of their Office 365 desktop titled Admin. As you might guess, all the necessary administrator functions are here.

Clicking Admin brings up the administrator control panel. The options are limited, and that is a good thing. Office 365 is built to offer powerful collaboration and messaging without the need for a highly-trained computer administrator.

You can add users one at a time by clicking the Add users link at the top of the page. However, unless you only have a handful of team members, that can get old fast.

To add several users quickly, select the Users link under the Management heading in the sidebar. Click New and you’ll find a Bulk add users option. Use the comma-separated file template to populate all of the information necessary and upload it to create a list of users all at once. (If you are logged into your Office 365 account, you can use this link to get the file directly.)

When you’ve finished creating a user, the Office 365 system generates a password and emails it to the new user. The new team member is now ready to log on without having to go through the process of getting setup with Office 365 on their own.

Note that the email passwords are sent in clear text. If that makes you nervous, send the emails to your own account or to a null account. The username and password is displayed on the next page. Copy the credentials and then pass them on to the user in whatever secure way you prefer.

Setting Permissions and Licenses in Office 365

There are not a lot of options and permissions to get lost in with Office 365. There are just two main options. The first is whether or not the user has administrator permissions. An administrator can create new users, delete users and block and unblock users. Most importantly, an administrator can reset the passwords for users who forget them.

If you don’t want to be the only person getting emails and phone calls about password resets, you’ll need at least one other administrator. The other reason to have a second administrator is that they can reset YOUR password if, for some reason, you end up need a little assistance. Of course, only trusted users should be granted administrator access.

The other permission option is simply whether or not the user can currently use the services. Allowing and blocking users can be handy for changing who is involved; however, it is a global setting, so its use is somewhat limited.

Administrators can also determine which Office 365 functions a user can use by assigning licenses. A user without a Lync Online license, for example, cannot use the instant messaging and video conferencing features of Lync. Again, for most users, the choice is likely full access or no access, not allowed to use SharePoint features but not Exchange features. Unless a real need arises, don’t over-think this setting.

Under the More menu are the options to configure Mail and Lync. The most useful feature here is the ability to add additional email addresses for users. For example, a user might have both a direct email address and a generic email address such as support@company.com or widgetusers@company.com. Additional email addresses are added under E-Mail Options.

Another feature to watch here is the size of each user’s email box. Microsoft Office 365 offers 25 GB of storage. While that should be plenty for most users, those who frequently send and receive large attachments might have an issue. The handy usage bar can be let the administrators know when users are approaching the threshold.

Keep in mind that these user settings are only the basic global settings. Further permissions are available for specific needs. For example, users can be assigned different permissions for the Team Site ranging from full control to View Only.

Creating users and getting a team up and running on Office 365 is easy and it shows Microsoft’s commitment to making the online collaboration platform usable by small businesses and groups without full-time IT staffers.

Office 365 is currently in beta and is available at office365.microsoft.com.

Of course, the need for technology, and the people who support it, didn’t disappear, but with a recession in progress and tech-companies shedding professionals faster than anyone else was taking them on led to job losses, lower salaries, and the elimination of raises. Many IT gurus found themselves out of work, and when they found new jobs, they were working for a lower salary than they used to have. Even the short-lived recovery fueled by the housing bubble did little to reverse the stagnation in IT.

Lately, however, it seems that things are looking up for IT professionals. Back then, my colleague’s reply to my concern about the future stability of IT was, “companies will always need technology.” While no one anticipated the long-trough in IT professionals demand, he wasn’t wrong, and it looks like IT pros are on the way up again.

Are IT Salaries Rising in 2011?

The anecdotal evidence of an IT recovery is easy to come by. Google paid out big bonuses and 10 percent raises to keep the likes of Facebook and other Silicon Valley startups from raiding their employees.  What’s more, the company announced that it would hire more workers this year than ever before. Other Valley companies are expanding, buying, and building facilities. LinkedIn updates emails are flooding inboxes. In IT, as Silicon Valley goes, so goes the industry.

Harder numbers come from a slew of recent research and salary surveys.

A recent Information Week cover story about its U.S. IT Salary Survey includes a graphic with a bumper sticker that proclaims, “I Survived The Great Pay Freeze.” It goes on to note that the “hot” skillsets have changed, but the overall demand for IT professionals is picking up, and salaries are slowly picking up.

A recent Dice.com report states that there are more job openings in a single day on the site than there are computer science graduates, a situation it called “America’s Tech Talent Crunch.”

On the ManopwerGroup’s 2011 Talent Shortage Survey IT Professionals now rank as the 8^th most difficult position for employers to fill, after not even making the list in 2010.

However, it isn’t all roses. The 2011 Global Knowledge / TechRepublic salary report concludes that IT is seeing uneven job growth and recovery, with lower average salaries.  ComputerWorld’s 2011 Salary Survey reports an increase in total average compensation, but that increase is low, just 1.4 percent. The report goes on to say that more than half of the respondents said they were “significantly affected” by budget cuts and heavier workloads during 2010.

The uneven growth suggests that the IT industry is at the very beginning of a recovery. Across the board growth doesn’t happen until a full recovery is well underway. It all adds up to a great opportunity for IT professionals to make some forward progress in their careers, IF they have the right skills, that is.

High-Demand IT Skills

One way to make an IT professional more marketable, is moving to one of the areas seeing high demand. The Dice report suggests that California and Texas have the highest imbalance in available IT positions and talent. Of course, all the demand in the world is meaningless, if you don’t have the skills people are looking for.

IT professionals looking to move up to those higher-paying IT jobs need to be sure that their skills are up to date, and in demand. For developers, that means adding new languages and keeping up on the latest advances in their current skills. For systems administrators, it means bolstering traditional client-server support skills with newer skillsets like virtualization, collaboration, and cloud-focused technologies. For database administrators, ensuring that your skills and certifications reflect current versions is paramount.

Getting Back Into IT

The toughest maneuver to pull off these days may be getting a high-level IT job back. Many IT pros have significant periods of lower-level employment or unemployment on their resumes now. The jobs that laid off professionals took to get by during the recent IT drought may actually be hurting their chances at better employment now.

Employers are quick to look at the most recent employment list on a resume and assume that the current job is a logical progression from previous employment. That means, a former senior-level systems engineer at a Fortune 100 company who took a job as an administrator at a local company might not get the look he deserves for a higher-level position.

Updating your IT resume and ensuring that it highlights expert skills rather than job history is one way to help overcome the drag of a couple of place-holder jobs. Another way to highlight top-level skills is by upgrading IT certifications. That MCSE may have been the shiny, new, gold-standard, of Microsoft certification a few years ago, but employers are finally starting to come around to the new Microsoft certifications the company pushed out a while ago. The good news is that many high-level professionals find obtaining sought-after computer certifications is relatively easy with some quality IT training and self-study.

IT professionals willing to put the work and effort into updating not only the quality of their skills, but also how those skills are presented to a potential employer will be the ones to reap the rewards at the beginning of this IT resurgence. For the others, this uneven beginning to what is hopefully a long run of prosperity will have them waiting for at least another year or two.

Here are a few resources to get you started on updating your skills, certifications and resume:

• How to optimize your work history section on your IT resume
• IT certification guides and information for Microsoft, Cisco, VMware and more
• Tutorials and videos to help you update your skills

However, it wasn’t long before computer professionals and plenty of amateurs were in crash courses and “boot camps” to quickly and easily get certified by learning about the test rather than learning the skills. Savvy admins — including yours truly, I’m sorry to say — took it a step further and skipped the training altogether by gathering numerous “brain dumps” from around the Internet and just learning the questions. It wasn’t long before certification and testing was revamped. These days, high-level certifications require hands on experience and comprehensive training.

Computer Training and Certification Test Environment

While the higher level of skills and tougher tests ensure that people really deserve the certifications they are getting, it does create a difficulty for those seeking to improve their skillsets or learn new skills altogether.

An experienced Microsoft Exchange administrator, for example, may have advanced skills and high-level knowledge. However, it is the rare administrator who uses every feature offered in any system. The flexibility and power of server software like Microsoft Exchange comes from the fact that it is extremely customizable and can be tailored specifically to any environment. That leaves even seasoned IT veterans with skills to brush up on before tackling a certification test.

Trying new things out or testing something on a production system is buying a one-way ticket to the unemployment line. Even admins lucky enough to have access to test servers still may not be able to do everything that they would want to do. Those that can already put long hours in on the job. It would sure be nice to do a little extra studying to pass that Microsoft certification at home rather than at work.

On the other hand, computer professionals love their home systems and don’t want to muck them up just to prep for a certification test or to learn a new program or application. Building an entire system just for this purpose seems like overkill.

If only there were a way to put a test environment in the middle of your regular computer without messing up everything else.

Say hello to VMware Player.

VMware Player Testing and Training Environment

VMware Player is a lightweight virtual machine that you can run on your computer. The player runs just like any other program on your system, except that to the applications and operating systems inside of the player, it seems like a whole different machine. You can run virtually operating system or software you want inside of the player with all of the same rules, glitches, and features as on a stand-alone system.

Setting up a VMware Player test environment within your beloved home system is easy, safe and it won’t contaminate your files, configuration or setup.

Best of all, VMware Player is free. Just register, download and you can be running a test Windows Server or Linux web server on your Windows 7 PC in no time. You can download VMware Player from VMware’s website: http://www.vmware.com/products/player/

How To Setup a VMware Player Environment

Setting up a test environment using VMware Player is quick and easy.

Install VMware Player like any other program. If you downloaded it from the VMware website, just double-click the executable and follow the standard setup procedure.

Once you have VMware Player installed, you run it like any other application. On Windows 7, click Start -> VMware -> VMware Player.

To do anything within VMware Player, you need to create a virtual machine. Just click Create Virtual Machine to get started.

In VMware Player, the host system is your regular computer system. The guest system is the virtual machine that runs within your computer. A guest system is just like a computer sitting on your desk with a blank hard drive. It won’t do anything until you install an operating system and some software.

Choose with operating system you want to install on the virtual machine. This is the Guest Operating System. Wizards are available for Windows, Linux, NetWare and Solaris.

For open source software, fully configured virtual machines, called appliances, can be downloaded from the VMware marketplace. For commercial software, you’ll need to supply your own operating system to install. Fortunately, most companies provide evaluation copies. These trial editions are perfect for use in a testing environment, and when the trial period runs out, just delete the virtual machine and start again.

To point the virtual machine at your installation media, use the row of icons at the bottom of the VMware Player window. Click the CD-Rom icon to select the drive or an ISO image of your operating system installation disk. The installation proceeds exactly like on a stand-alone computer. Completion of a Windows Server setup, for example, leads to the same screens as installing on a new server would.

The virtual machine exists in a single window on your computer. Just click inside the window to start sending keystrokes and mouse clicks to the system inside the virtual machine. Press CTRL-ALT to return to your main system.

Once your OS is installed, you can begin using the virtual machine as your test environment. Install additional applications or software without worrying about how well they uninstall. Test out beta versions and crazy configurations without fear. Use it to try out features you don’t know about, or to take your computer training course to the next level. Whenever you are done, or whenever your test environment gets too messy, just delete the virtual machine. You can always create a new one.

The only limit to the number of virtual machines you can create is how much free disk space you have, so you can create a Windows Server with Exchange installed, and another with Windows Server Core Installation, and yet another with a Linux Server running Apache. Just fire up the virtual machine you need when you need it. Every time you close down the player, the VM unloads and disappears ensuring that your new extensive library of virtual machines never interferes with that midnight game of Angry Birds.

VMware Player can be downloaded at vmware.com/products/player

Tactically, the new Office 365 suite of online applications is an attempt to parry any momentum gained by Google’s online productivity suite known as Google Apps. Strategically, however, Office 365 is much more than that.

With Office 365, Microsoft has created a subscription-based software model that does not rely on intermediate resellers. Just as important, the ongoing fees charged by the Office 365 program gives the Redmond software company a way to smooth out its revenues.

Traditionally, Microsoft earnings have come in waves. A new product like Office 2010 is released, and the company’s revenues rise as users move to upgrade to the latest version. However, Microsoft has realized that its products are no longer must-upgrades for many businesses small and large. From large enterprises to small offices, business have been reluctant to be forced off what they currently have installed, particularly with the large number of companies and users that resisted the hated Windows Vista operating system. These users had little reason to upgrade what already worked on their years old installations, so they bought no new software from Microsoft.

The company faces a similar prospect in the future, even as businesses and users move to Windows 7 and Office 2010. Once they learn how to make the new software work for them, it’s likely they’ll refuse to upgrade for the next decade from what already works unless Microsoft develops the ever elusive “killer feature.”

With Office 365, the company has a solution. Now, users do not have to upgrade to new software in order to generate revenue for the company. Rather Microsoft can count on recurring revenue from every user of Office 365 on a regular basis.

Automatic, ongoing upgrades are handled by the company itself on the cloud. Users of Office 365 get access to the new features right away. Since they do not have to pay anything more than what they already are paying, users can take advantage of new features they want and ignore those they don’t. No longer does Microsoft have to justify Office suite upgrades with new and exciting killer features. Just staying one step ahead of the competition is enough.

Office 365 Applications

Microsoft Office 365 comes in two versions, Office 365 for professionals and Office 365 for small businesses. Personal users are theoretically supposed to just stick with Microsoft Office Web Apps, which are free. However, anyone willing to pay the subscription fee (it’s free during beta) can use Office 365 and its added features.

One of the big selling points for Office 365 is that both your data and your applications are stored online and accessible from almost any computer with an Internet connection.

Users have been keeping their documents online for years now, either by emailing themselves at an online email account or by more sophisticated online storage services like Dropbox or Microsoft’s own SkyDrive. What Office 365 brings to the table is anywhere access to not just data, but also current versions of your favorite applications. No more logging on to a temporary workstation only to find yourself in a time warp to Excel 2003 when you’ve gotten so productive using the features and interface improvements of Excel 2010.

The heart of Office 365 is the online version of Microsoft’s Office applications known as Office Web Apps. These online versions of Microsoft Word, Excel, PowerPoint and OneNote have been available via Windows Live for personal use since last year. Office 365 builds on their success.

The Office 365 versions of these web apps, are powered by SharePoint Online and bring many of the collaboration features, including simultaneous editing, to the online versions, as well as integrating with any corporate SharePoint installation already in place.

Email and Calendar on Office 365

The email and calendar features of Office 365 may be the biggest news for small businesses.

Powered by Microsoft Exchange Online, the Office 365 email and scheduling system offers much of the power and flexibility of a traditional Microsoft Outlook and Microsoft Exchange pairing.

The web interface is surprisingly similar to the familiar hard-drive installed version of Microsoft Outlook.  Important features like calendar sharing or seeing free and busy times on someone else’s calendar work just like they would on a corporate network with a full IT staff. The best part is that users with a locally installed copy of Microsoft Outlook can all use the Office 365 email and scheduling system as if it were an Exchange server relieving those businesses who only need an email system of having to install a server at all. (Those who do need an installed server should look at Microsoft Small Business Server 2011.)

Office 365 users each get up to 25-gigabytes of online storage per mailbox. There is a size limitation for sent mail of 25 MB, but most users will find that easy enough to work with.

Microsoft Lync Online

For true road warriors who are never in the office, or even a geographically dispersed team, Office 365 offers the powerful Lync Online tool. Lync provides secure instant messaging, video conferencing, and online meetings. Online meetings can be everything from just a bunch of people looking at webcams while having a meeting to full-scale presentations. Logged in users from remote locations can hear the discussion in the room, as well as see any audio or video presentations, all without installing yet another client software.

Users can even share their desktop with multiple users, perfect for training and technical support, as well as demos.

Office 365 Enterprise

Office 365 Enterprise is aimed at those environments where there is already an installed base of users, servers, and Microsoft products that need to be enhanced by Office 365.

Office 365 Enterprise offers Active Directory integration and email that connects with your existing Exchange Servers, among other things.

Office 365 Beta

The Office 365 Beta is limited to 25 users per account, and the only support offered is via the Microsoft Communities website. Once the beta period ends, users will automatically be migrated to the full-scale production environment. They’ll also have to start paying, but for now, Office 365 Beta is a great way to get a full suite of email and Office applications up and running in the cloud.

The point of Microsoft’s Small Business Server is to deliver high-quality server software and services without having to hire one of those guys first. Indeed, a solid Small Business Server 2011 training course can get most small businesses up and running.

In order to make SBS 2011 easy to manage and operate, Microsoft provides a lot of tools that are usable by non-elite techies. Installation templates, a single management console, and intuitive interfaces for common tasks, like adding users or devices, are just some of the examples. However, ensuring that an SBS 2011 installation keeps running as well as it can, or ensuring that it is fully optimized in the first place can be trickier.

Fortunately, Microsoft offers the Windows Server Solutions Best Practices Analyzer (BPA).

BPA and Small Business Server 2011

Microsoft’s BPA examines Windows Servers and compares their current state to a list of best practices data points that Microsoft has compiled. When the BPA finds discrepancies between what is happening on your server and what the best practices for a server are, it notifies the administrator and offers recommendations to correct any deficiencies.

(A complete list of parameters checked by the Best Practices Analyzer can be found here.)

The BPA tool gathers information from numerous places including Active Directory, the registry, and Windows Management Instrumentation (WMI) and runs on servers running:

• Windows Small Business Server 2011 Standard Edition
• Windows Small Business Server 2011 Essentials
• Windows Storage Server 2008 R2 Essentials
• Windows MultiPoint Server 2011

Using Best Practices Analyzer with SBS 2011

• Installing BPA

The BPA tool is a free utility from Microsoft. To use the BPA utility, you will also need to install Microsoft Baseline Configuration Analyzer 2.0. Both can be downloaded from Microsoft’s downloads site:

• Windows Server Solutions Best Practices Analyzer 1.0.
• Microsoft Baseline Configuration Analyzer 2.0

Once the baseline configuration analyzer has been installed, you can install the BPA. The first question is whether or not you want to enable remote BPA scans and whether or not you want to integrate BPA with the SBS server console.

Unless you plan to run BPA as a one-time only check, it is a good idea to integrate BPA scan into the server console. That way, the BPA utility is in the same place as all of the other server management tools.

• Enabling remote access scans

Enabling remote scans means that if you want to run the BPA later, you won’t have to login directly to the server. If this is your only server and your server room is just another room in your office, there may be no need to enable remote scanning. However, if you do most of your server administration from another computer, enable the remote scanning feature.

To run a remote scan, you will need to install the Microsoft Baseline Configuration Analyzer 2.0 on the client computer. When you run the analyzer, choose Connect to Another Computer and type in the name or IP address of the sever you wish to run the BPA scan on. Next, choose Connect as another user and then Set User. Enter admin credentials valid for the remote server. Finally, select Windows Server Solutions BPA to run the scan on the remote server.

• Running a local scan

To run a local scan, run the BPA as an administrator and choose which product you want to analyze. Be sure that you get the right version of SBS. You’ll get reports loaded with false positives if you choose Windows Small Business Server 2010 Essentials when you are running Windows Small Business Sever 2010 Standard Edition. Click Start Scan and let the tool go to work.

& bull; Exporting and reviewing a BPA report

Once the scan is complete, review the report. You can choose to view all of the items or only the noncompliant items. Each noncompliant entry lists the category of the noncompliance, the source of the item, a description of what the issue is, and a suggested resolution to fix the issue. Categories include:

• performance
• security
• operation
• policy
• configuration
• pre-deployment
• prerequisite

Pay particular attention to the issue description in the report. What is being affected isn’t always something you use. However, be very careful ignoring any alerts from the Security category. Just because you don’t think it affects your system configuration, doesn’t mean that it can’t be used against your sever anyway.

Finally, export your BPA report and save it. When you run the BPA utility in the future, compare the two reports. If items that were corrected are found again, it may be necessary to examine the root cause to see if something in your configuration is causing certain issues to repeatedly become noncompliant.

The Windows Server Solutions Best Practices Analyzer is just one more tool to keep your Windows Small Business Server 2011 installation up and running and supporting your organization. If you’re interested in learning more about configuring, administering and maintaining SBS 2011, check out Train Signal’s Small Business Server 2011 Training.

Changes to multi-primary site hierarchy and the addition of database replication to simplify administration and reduce overhead are two such improvements.  In addition, SCCM 2012 debuts new Configuration Manager features that both expand the product’s functionality and broaden its scope of use.

System Center Configuration Manager 2012 Site Administration

With Configuration Manager 2007, environments with multiple primary sites designated one of the primary sites to be a central site. The central site functioned not only as a primary site but as the top-level of the SCCM 2007 site hierarchy. In SCCM 2012, a new administration only site, called the central administration site, sits atop the Configuration Manager architecture.

Unlike a central site, the central administration site does not function as a full-featured primary site. Instead, the central administration site is used for facilitating communications between primary sites and for reporting purposes. It does not directly support client assignments or processing client data.

Another key change is how boundaries function. Primary sites are no longer used as the boundary for client agent settings or for security and permissions. Boundaries are now defined once for the entire hierarchy and usable by all sites.

The new central administration site and boundary structure allows for the administration of hierarchy-wide configurations for client agents and discovery. Sites no longer set the administrative boundaries. A new role-based administration security setup allows for security settings to be set and managed centrally rather than on a site by site bases, a design that left many companies duplicating security settings on multiple sites for each administrator.

A new Configuration Manager 2012 console makes it all manageable. The Configuration Manager 2012 console offers some new features to make administering complex environments easier. A new ribbon interface feature provides quicker access to frequently used functions, and a very usable search feature has been integrated throughout the console. Search is especially important for finding those annoying machines with poorly reported failures or glitches that seem to pop up at the worst time.

Image courtesy of Microsoft Technet

For easier everyday management, the console has been broken out into four workspaces: Administration, Software Library, Monitoring and Assets and Compliance. The new workspaces make it easier to focus on specific operations relating to everyday functions, or for administrators to be assigned specific focus over say, monitoring, while other administrators can focus on software distribution.

Configuration Manager 2012 Database Replication

The other big change coming with SCCM 2012 is database replication for site-to-site data transfer and backup and recovery. Extending beyond SCCM 2007′s file-based replication, SCCM 2010 couples replicated databases across sites with the new boundary construction to permit hierarchy-wide administration. Configurations and settings use SQL Server to transfer data and updates from one site’s database to other databases in each site, allowing all sites to share the same information.

Database replication also provides a new layer of backup and recovery. SCCM 2012 leverages database replication to pull data from functioning sites back into the database of a failed site, which provides minimal data loss, even if no backup is available.

Backup and recovery in SCCM 2012 is done via the Configuration Manger 2012 Setup Wizard rather than the Site Repair Wizard used in SCCM 2007. This allows for multiple recovery options following a site failure. You can recover both the site server and the SQL Server, or just the site server. In the event that the database is the issue, you can even recover just the SQL Server, including the ability to move the SQL Server to another machine if necessary.

Configuration Manager Device Management

Enrolling mobile devices is now natively supported in SCCM 2012 with the help of IIS Server and a Microsoft enterprise certification authority. This is good news for environments where users are becoming increasingly dependent upon smart phones and tablets.

A new Exchange Server connector in SCCM 2012 offers a new way to find and manage those mobile devices that aren’t found via Active Directory or that can’t have the client installed. Using the Exchange ActiveSync protocol, mobile devices are managed according to the settings configured in Configuration Manager, rather than by default Exchange ActiveSync mailbox policies.

Also, changes to how member collection data are gathered should reduce the overhead of collection evaluations in SCCM 2012. The new method uses incremental collection member evaluation scanning to frequently scan only for new or changed resources, keeping data up to date without the overhead of a full collection evaluation.

Software and Content Management with SCCM 2012

In Microsoft System Center Configuration Manager 2012, software update groups replace update lists and deployments that were used in SCCM 2007. This should be a more efficient means of creating and maintaining efficient software update and deployment groups. Software can be manually added to software update groups or they can be automatically added to groups using an automatic deployment rule. Rather than using subgroups to control the pace of a rollout, rules are now used to progressively increase the membership of a software update group at the desired pace.

Unlike SCCM 2007, SCCM 2012 provides a single instance store for content files. Before content files are downloaded and copied to distribution points, Configuration Manager checks if the files already exist in the content library. If so, a pointer is added to the existing file without copying the data across the network to the distribution point. This not only reduces network traffic, it also minimizes the overall size of the content library.

There are plenty of other new features and fixes in SCCM 2012 beta, including new roles and the elimination of some old roles. It looks like SCCM 2012 is going to be a very compelling update to a core System Center offering on the heels of System Center Virtual Machine Manager 2008 R2 SP1.

Microsoft System Center Content Manager 2012 Beta is available for download from Microsoft now.

Learn More

If you’re interested in learning more about System Center Configuration Manager 2012 Beta, you can learn more at Microsoft.com:

• Download Microsoft System Center Configuration Manager 2012 Beta
• Join the open beta program

However, the VMM 2008 R2 SP1 also brings some new features and support for the latest features for Hyper-V that were released in Windows Server 2008 R2. VMM 2008 R2 SP 1 works with Virtual Server 2005 R2 and VMware ESX through Virtual Center as before, but now also fully supports the features offered in Windows Server 2008 R2 SP1.

System Center Virtual Machine Manager is a comprehensive management suite for data centers utilizing high-end virtualization. VMM 2008 R2 SP1 brings management of a network of virtual machines to a centralized administrator console.

VMM 2008 R2 SP1 can directly create and manage virtual machines running on Windows Server 2008 R2 SP1 Hyper-V hosts. On servers without Hyper-V enabled, VMM can enable the Hyper-V role on the target server when a virtual machine is created via the console.

Windows Sever 2008 R2 SP1 Hyper-V Feature Support

Windows Sever 2008 R2 SP1 introduced two new features that further extended the performance and scalability of the Hyper-V virtualization platform. Dynamic Memory allows administrators to utilize virtually all of a server’s physical memory across multiple virtual machines. On VMM 2008 R2 all memory is allocated in fixed amounts for virtual machines and hardware profiles.

On VMM 2008 R2 SP1 Dynamic Memory is now fully supported.

With Dynamic Memory enabled, machines demanding more memory are allocated unused memory dynamically from other machines that are not using their allotted memory, which allows higher consolidation and more efficient memory usage. VMM 2008 R2 SP1 now supports continuous reporting on how much memory is currently in use for each VM with Dynamic Memory enabled. The Dynamic Memory settings, priorities and ranges can now be configured through the VMM administrator console. Startup memory, maximum memory, memory buffer percentage and memory priority settings are some of the parameters that can be configured via the VMM administrator console.

To use the Dynamic Memory features both VMM 2008 R2 SP1 and Windows Server 2008 R2 SP1 must be installed.

Another feature that rolled out with SP 1 for Windows Server 2008 was Microsoft RemoteFX. RemoteFX provides a scalable, consistent virtual desktop environment over the network. VMM 2008 R2 SP1 now supports administrators creating and deploying Virtual Machines with RemoteFX enabled onto Windows Server 2008 R2 SP1 Hyper-V hosts.

RemoteFX settings that can be configured through the VMM 2008 R2 SP1 console include the maximum number of monitors and the maximum monitor resolution rate.

VMM 2008 R2 Support for Windows Server 2008 R2

VMM 2008 R2 also continues to enhance support for features offered with the R2 release of Windows Server 2008.

VMM 2008 R2 offers both Virtual Machine Queue (VMQ) and TCP Chimney. Coupled with NICs that support VMQ a unique virtual network queue is created for each virtual machine on a host. Packets are then passed directly from hypervisor to the virtual machine. TCP Chimney offloads TCP/IP traffic to the physical NIC on the host computer to relieve the host CPU of that processing overhead.

Live migration through the VMM console enables administrators to move a virtual machine between clustered hosts without any noticeable impact on the end-users connected to the virtual machine. No changes are needed on existing virtual machines to move from Quick Migration to Live Migration if both Windows Server 2008 R2 and VMM 2008 R2 SP1 are running.

Likewise, VMM 2008 R2 supports live hot addition or removal of storage.

Enhanced Disk and Storage Management

Additional disk management support and performance enhancements have been updated from their first appearance in VMM 2008 R2.

Virtual Machines can be migrated into and out of clusters using a SAN transfer so that the virtual machine’s disk does not need to be replicated across the network.

VMM 2008 R2 eliminated the previous restriction where on one LUN could be bound to each iSCSI target. Now, multiple LUNs can be mapped to a single iSCSI target. More hardware and configurations are supported under SP1.

VMM 2008 R2 also brought support for VMware storage vMotion allowing the storage of a VMware VM to be transferred without downtime while the VM stays on the same host.

Upgrading to VMM 2008 R2 SP1 from VMM 2008 R2

Upgrades to VMM 2008 R2 SP1 can only be done from an existing VMM 2008 R2 installation. Upgrades from VMM 2007 and VMM 2008 (non-R2) cannot be performed. Administrators wanting to upgrade those platforms will need to follow the upgrade path through VMM 2008 R2 prior to installing the SP1 for VMM 2008.

In addition to the VMM server, the service pack must be installed on all instances of the VMM Administrator Console and the VMM Self-Service Portal that communicate with the upgraded server. Components that are not upgraded will not connect to a VMM Server running SP1.

Simply finding the right objects and then updating their properties or implementing changes can be a cumbersome process. Many Microsoft systems engineers have developed their own shortcuts and conventions over the years for dealing with the administration of complex Active Directory structures. One tool that has been lacking, however, is the ability to write powerful scripts to manage Active Directory.

The good news is that the arrival of Windows Server 2008 R2 with PowerShell 2.0 and the Active Directory Module changes all of that for the better.

Powershell 2.0 and Active Directory Module

Of the many new features in Windows Server 2008 R2, PowerShell 2.0 is one that may finally be coming into its own. One of the key new features in PowerShell 2.0 is the addition of modules. Modules differ from PowerShell 1.0 snap-ins in that they are self-contained and do not require registration or installation. Rather, modules are imported into the shell via the Import-Module command. Modules can also be offloaded when they are no longer needed.

To use the Active Directory Module, there needs to be at least on Windows Server 2008 R2 Domain Controller running Active Directory Web Services (ADWS) in the domain. As an alternative, the Active Directory Management Gateway Service can be installed on Windows Server 2003 SP2 servers and Windows Server 2008 (non-R2) servers with or without SP2 installed.

For the most powerful configuration of PowerShell 2.0 with the Active Directory Module, you will want to be able to do your scripting remotely from your own computer, or other workstation. This does require Windows 7 in order to install the Remote Server Administration Tools (RSAT).

The Active Directory Module provides a powerful way to manage AD structures even across domains. Part of the AD Module is the PSDrive Provider which allows you to map to an Active Directory domain using whatever credentials are required via the New-PSDrive cmdlet. Users are connected to their current domain by default. The mapped rights persist for the entire shell session, even if it requires using different login credentials for several different AD domains.

Active Directory Scripts In PowerShell 2.0

There are many different commands included in the Active Directory Module. One count places the total number of new commands at 82. The most commonly used commands, however, are those that match up with the most common Windows Server Administrator tasks. The naming convention for Active Directory cmdlets dictates that each cmdlet start with “AD” in order to help separate the Active Directory versions from similar PowerShell cmdlets available in the base PowerShell.

Thanks to this naming convention, obtaining a list of all the Active Directory Module cmdlets can be done by running the Help *-AD* command.

The most difficult part of getting up to speed with Active Directory management via PowerShell 2.0 is mastering all of the parameters available for each cmdlet. In an effort to allow virtually any function that can be performed manually to be scripted, Microsoft had to provide a working parameter for pretty much every setting, checkbox, and field that there is in the GUI. That means that some commands have a mind boggling array of available options. Fortunately, only a small subset of any cmdlet’s parameters are mandatory in order to run the desired command.

As with any new programming language, the key is to focus in the beginning on the basics and most frequently used options and build mastery as you go along. While it may seem daunting at first, one will quickly find that using built-in cmdlets specifically designed for their purpose ends up being much easier to both code and manage than mastering all of the work-arounds and band-aids currently required to perform the same tasks.

Common Active Directory Cmdlets for PowerShell

The most common administrative tasks within Active Directory are those that relate to creating, finding, and changing objects and users. Not surprisingly, these cmdlets make a great place to start learning and using PowerShell 2.0 to manage Active Directory.

Commonly used PowerShell AD cmdlets include:

• New-ADUser
• New-ADGroup
• New-ADComputer
• New-ADOrganization
• New-ADServiceAccount
• Unlock-ADAccount
• Enable-ADAccount
• Disable-ADAccount
• Get-ADUser
• Add-ADGroupMember
• Get-ADGroupMember
• Get-ADForest
• Get-ADDomain
• Get-ADDomainController

Of course, the real power from scripting comes not from typing in a bunch of esoteric computer commands instead of clicking mouse buttons, but from the ability to save useful scripts and use them over and over again. To this end, Active Directory cmdlets support piping information into the cmdlets. For example, to create a couple dozen new users, the administrator could take the Excel Spreadsheet supplied from Human Resources, export it as a CSV file and then pipe the resulting data to the New-ADUser command: Import-CSV c:\neweuserdata\april-new-employees.csv | New-ADUser and let the script take care of all the basic data entry.

Using parts of the same file, the admin can go back through and using the appropriate cmdlets add users to their respective groups and domains and even apply additional group policies to the new users.

Of course, easy, but highly repetitive tasks can be automated as well. Imagine picking up the phone with a call from a panicked user who has locked himself out of his account (again). A tiny shortcut launched directly with minimal typing and clicking requiring nothing more than the user’s login name quickly firing off and unlocking or even re-enabling the account, all without ever having to leave the screen you were already working on when the phone rang.

PowerShell Resources

Even though the Active Directory Module is new with PowerShell 2.0 there are already some great references available for Microsoft server administrators. Check out Jonathan Medd’s Active Directory PowerShell Quick Reference Guide for help getting up to speed and remembering lesser used commands. Microsoft has a general PowerShell Quick Reference guide as well. For those of you lamenting the hours spent mastering VBScripting, check out the VBScript to Windows PowerShell Conversion Guide.

Learning new technology and skills is never easy, but the truth — if we are willing to admit it — is that as high-tech computer administrators, we quickly grow bored with doing the same things over and over again. Not only does PowerShell 2.0 and the Active Directory Module provide some new material for the skills menu, it also provides a way to eliminate far more tedious, repetitive tasks than ever before.

Installing FCI on Server 2008

Although FCI comes with all versions of Server 2008 R2, it is not installed by default in line with Microsoft’s strategy of installing only the necessary services and roles on each server based upon its functionality within the network. FCI is installed as a component of the File Services role, and implemented via the File Server Resource Manager console. Once installed, FCI is at once deceptively easy to use, and at the same time, infinitely complex in its possibilities.

The first step in using File Classification Infrastructure is to define what the tags are. There are no default tags or tagging systems, because FCI is designed to be custom tailored to a particular business environment. One need only think about the difference between what confidential or secret mean to a chain of dry cleaners, versus what they mean to a defense contractor to see why defaults would not be particularly useful in this case.

Tagging files is done by “classifying” them. FCI classification is a two-step process. The first step is to define the classifications. The second step is to apply the classifications to files.

Defining classifications is done within FSRM under Classification Management. Under Classification Management, is Classification Properties, where one creates the classification structure. Here the rules are defined that determine whether or not a file is classified as a particular kind of data. For example, a file might be classified as “confidential” if is stored in the “Confidential” directory of the Legal Department’s file server area. Obviously, more complex criteria are possible. A file might be classified as internal financial data if it is created by a member of the Accounting group, during the first week of the month, and the file name contains the words “monthly report.”

FCI supports classifications based upon date and time, numbers, multiple choice lists, ordered lists, strings, multiple strings, or Boolean criteria. There is no need to stick with generalized classifications like Confidential, Secret, or Internal Use Only, although these can be set as high-level classifications. The real power of FCI comes from more granular classifications, such as classifying all Excel spreadsheets, stored in the project folder “New Products”, created between January and March of 2009, that contain the words “projected internal costs”, as Internal Prototyping Projections.

Using FCI To Improve Security and Better Manage Data

Defining the classifications doesn’t actually do anything. No files are tagged just by defining the components of a classification. In order to do anything with these classifications, the real files must be tagged. Doing so requires creating Classification Rules.

To create a classification rule, one first defines a name and a scope for the rule in the Rule Settings tab. The name is what the tag attached to the file will be called. The scope defines which files to evaluate to determine if they are assigned that classification. The actual rules for classifying files are done in the Classification Tab. Classifying can be done by simply evaluating whether or not a file is within a certain folder (Remember the tag follows the file as it is moved and copied.). It can also be done by checking for certain words or phrases within the documents themselves. Powerful classification can be done using the PowerShell classifier. This limits your ability to evaluate files only by your ability to write a PowerShell script to do what you want.

An analogy can help make the process a little clearer.

Classifications Properties are the things that matter for determining speed limits. For example, how close is the road to a school, is the road an Interstate, is the road two-lanes, three-lanes, four-lanes, etc. Notice that these are just the properties that CAN be evaluated; there is no structure here for how a road is assigned a particular speed limit, only what properties will need to be examined in order to assign a speed.

Classification Rules are like the actual criteria that determines which speed limit a road gets. For example, roads within 100 feet of a school should be classified as 20 MPH roads. At this point, all you have is rules in the city planner’s office. In order to actually implement the speed limits, the possible criteria need to be evaluated against the rules.

At this point, you can actually apply the rules to the roads. Doing so requires choosing which roads to evaluate against which criteria (scope). Based on that evaluation, you can actually “tag” the roads by putting up speed limit signs that say 20 MPH (name).

Finally, the files are classified. However, nothing has actually been done based on those classifications.

To actually DO SOMETHING with all these tagged files, the administrator has several choices. First, both file management and reporting based on the classification tabs are available in FSRM. These tools can be used to move, copy, rename, or delete files, as well as setting more traditional file properties. Just as important, reports can be generated to alert administrators or managers that files tagged as Sensitive or Confidential are residing in insecure locations. Using just these two tools can resolve a lot of headaches, as well as create better processes. No doubt the first time that guy in accounting gets asked why he is saving proprietary budget documents to a public share, he won’t even know he was doing that. (“We’ve always saved them to the G Drive.”)

However, even more powerful management can be achieved using PowerShell. Once classified, the FCI system can be used inside PowerShell scripts in order to perform complex tasks or create additional reporting or alert levels.

Creating an entire file classification system from scratch is a daunting prospect. However, building some basic rules to generate reports is a good starting place. From there, needs and concerns will arise that can be easily solved by using the FCI system. Eventually, a file classification as robust and as well-defined as your Active Directory structure will emerge. After all, you didn’t start out the first day of the Active Directory implementation by creating all the objects you have today.

Ironically, these data breaches were seldom the fault of corporate IT professionals who were properly performing their duties of keeping the company file servers up and running, and secure behind firewalls and security protocols. However, when a problem with computers or data arises, everyone turns to IT for answers. Fortunately, Microsoft Windows Server 2008 R2 comes with a free data management tool that can help IT be more proactive in managing data.

File Classification Infrastructure (FCI) in Server 2008 R2

File Classification Infrastructure, or FCI, was released with Server 2008 R2. Although FCI comes bundled for free with all editions of Server 2008 R2, it is not enabled by default. FCI is primarily a function of file servers.

To install FCI, the administrator must first install the File Server Resource Manager (FSRM) role service to the File Services role. All FCI functions, reporting, and configuration are handled from inside of the FSRM console.

Understanding FCI

Understanding the potential power of FCI is done best through example. Consider the following scenario.

Our intrepid hero this episode is a Microsoft Certified Systems Engineer (MCSE) named Clyde. Clyde works for a company that processes third-party transactions of all types (including financial transactions for some clients) for both businesses and customers.

As is the case at most well run corporate IT departments, the server and network infrastructure is housed in secure data centers behind an assortment of firewalls, security protocols, and monitoring systems. Getting at the company’s data by coming in the front door (or the backdoor, sidedoor, or windows) is difficult at best, and impossible for all but the most skilled intruders.

However, the company continues to have embarrassing incidents where confidential, proprietary, or personal information has been unintentionally disclosed in a variety of ways. None of these breaches has been the result of a hacker penetrating the company’s security, but rather mishaps ranging from sensitive data being left on a public share, to files with confidential information being passed on to clients, customers, or in one very embarrassing incident, directly to the media. In each case, internal investigations revealed that all IT systems functioned correctly.

How did sensitive information end up being exposed to the public?

The answer lies at the heart of what FCI can do for making data management easier, less expensive, and more secure.

What is the Point of FCI?

From our example above, we know that Clyde is a competent systems administrator. Like most admins, he has several responsibilities. He manages all of these different functions by utilizing power tools and utilities that allow him to automate as much as possible, and to monitor everything else.

Unfortunately, one critical tool is missing from his arsenal. While Clyde knows that financial reports are confidential, he has no way of knowing which files ARE financial reports, or which ones contain financial data.

Clyde has done what most IT administrators have done. He created specific places for the Accounting Department to store financial reports and other sensitive financial information. Access is locked down and restricted to certain members of the accounting team via several mechanisms including setting carefully configured permissions on servers, desktops, and laptops. Procedures are in place to require notification of any member of the accounting team leaving the company, and access is frequently audited. Security is monitored by both the security team and the administrators both manually and via detection systems. Accessing the financial data stored in these locations is virtually impossible for all but the most capable hackers.

Unfortunately, for Clyde, the Executive Vice President of Operations, who is preparing for a very important presentation to the Board of Directors on Friday, requested a few years worth of financial data. For a presentation like this one, the high-level numbers presented to the public, and even most people within the company, are not sufficient. This presentation requires details like exactly how much revenue comes from each client, and how much profit that generates, and so on.

The accounting team provided the VP with the data he needed. The executive is no dummy; he knows that this information is very sensitive and that its disclosure could hurt the company’s relationships with very important clients. Therefore, he keeps the data safe by storing it in secure locations he has access to on the network and on the encrypted hard drive of his laptop. Every system has worked perfectly and only authorized personnel have accessed the data.

Four months later, with the Board of Directors presentation long since left in the rear view mirror, a new crisis has erupted. The VP is travelling abroad and an issue is blowing up back at home. If the right people don’t get what they need fast, heads are going to roll. A fully authorized user, acting in a proper manner, accesses the backups of the server location where the necessary information is properly stored. He quickly copies all the files from April, encrypts them, and sends them on to the right people. Since almost all of the information required is confidential or sensitive in some manner, even if the file was in a directory called Confidential, there is no reason to single out a particular file.

The day is saved, but the right people to be getting all of the other April files are the wrong people to be looking at one particular spreadsheet from April. The spreadsheet used for the Board presentation that the VP kept just in case a board member came back later with questions about the data. The VP didn’t forget about it; he kept it a few weeks just in case someone came back with questions about the data, and then deleted the file.

How FCI Helps Manage Data Better, Reduces Costs, and Improves Security

The problem in this scenario would eventually be called “employee error” if investigated fully. However, that is a disingenuous conclusion since no one actually acted improperly.

The VP stored a confidential file in a secure manner. The employee retrieving the data was authorized to do so and can’t realistically be expected to examine every file to see what is in it. In fact, that could be a bigger security risk.

The real issue is that there is no practical way for data to be marked as sensitive (or important, or from a certain project, or …) in such a way that the tag follows the data through its lifespan. Even if the original file had been tagged somehow, the new one created by the VP would not have the same tag.

This is where the new File Classification Infrastructure comes in.

With FCI, data can be tagged in exactly this manner. The original spreadsheet from accounting could have been tagged not just as confidential, but as internal financial data, as well, based on where the file was stored originally. Even the new file created by the VP would be tagged in this manner, not because of where the VP saves the file, but rather based upon being part of a particular project. The off-site backup of the project data would retain the file’s tags because tags are retained within the NTFS properties of the file no matter where it is moved in the enterprise. Finally, even if the data were to somehow lose its tagged status, it could be re-tagged properly based upon its content.

These tags can be used by Clyde to monitor for sensitive files in the wrong places, if the file were copied to the web server, for example. The tags can also be used to manipulate how the file is treated. Files tagged like this one, might never be backed up as part of the regular backups. The tags could even be used to prevent the file from being displayed or included in the subsequent copy because the data tagged like this file are considered expired after a certain amount of time.

For the first time, the right tool is available to Clyde without implementing yet another big infrastructure project, without buying even more tools and utilities, and best of all, without implementing another round of company-wide security procedures. All he has to do is set it up.

From Microsoft Office Home and Student 2010 to Office Professional Plus 2010, Excel, along with Word, PowerPoint, and relative newcomer OneNote, is one of the Office apps that users will have installed regardless of what Office upgrade or new Office software package they buy. How much Excel actually gets used by those users depends a lot on just who uses that computer.

Most computer users are familiar with Microsoft Excel, even if the vast majority only make use of its most basic features. Technical support professionals from around the world can tell stories of watching as employees that they support using a calculator to add up a column of numbers in an Excel spreadsheet so that they can type the answer into the appropriate cell.

Fortunately, for most users, Excel has outgrown those days when its only utility to most was getting numbers lined up in rows and columns. Today, experts use Excel for so many complex functions that the big news of the Excel 2007 upgrade was that the spreadsheet could support even larger sizes of spreadsheets, up to 16,384 columns and over 1 million rows!

What does Microsoft Excel 2010 bring to the table for computer owners and businesses today? More usability, more functionality, and more speed and power.

New Excel 2010 Features from Microsoft Office 2010

Like Microsoft Word, Microsoft Excel 2007 was delivered with the new Ribbon interface. While the main purpose of the Ribbon in MS Word was helping users discover and use functions that might be useful, most users of Excel already knew what the program could do.

While a MS Word user might never even wonder if the word processor could do a three-column layout that wraps around a centered image, users of Excel need specific functions in order to perform the calculations they need.

And while certain features may have been hidden from obvious view, an accountant building a spreadsheet knew before he even looked that the function to create an amortization table, or calculate the present value of money, or the future value of money, based on certain variables, was there in Excel. All they had to do was go find it.

While the Ribbon interface may not have exposed any, “I didn’t know I could do that,” features to spreadsheet users, it did make using those features much easier. The Ribbon decreased the number of clicks required to access virtually any function, graph, or sorting feature.

The real power of the Ribbon interface for Excel users, however, was the ability to make customizations. That way, a user who relies on Excel for its financial calculations and features can have those front and center, while another user whose primary requirement of Excel is generating meaningful statistics from large amounts of raw data, can have the statistical formulas positioned just one click away.

For users who did not upgrade to Office 2007, the redesigned Ribbon interface will be the biggest change in the new Excel version. However, users upgrading from Excel 2007, will notice some nice touches that have made the Ribbon even easier to read and use.

Under the hood, Excel gets more power and higher performance. Excel 2010 supports 64-bit environments. Microsoft claims that “strategic” improvements in Excel 2007’s multi-threaded architecture will bring even more benefit from increasingly common multicore processors. While no hard ceiling has been provided by Microsoft, the company states that Excel 2010 can handle file sizes larger than the previous 2-gigabyte limit.

Excel 2010 Sparklines

The biggest new feature in Excel 2010 that is getting a lot of buzz and promotion is something called Sparklines. Sparklines are small charts that fit inside of a single cell.

At first blush, this seems to be a rather meaningless feature, but a closer look reveals the ability to present data that has more impact and power than ever before. What may be the most overlooked power of Sparklines is the ability to subtly include an extra bit of data that provides a level of explanation and detail that is seldom reviewed in certain quarters (Senior Management, for example?)

Consider for example, this typical spreadsheet being used in a meeting with upper management. Somewhere during the presentation, the Executive Senior Vice President (or is it Senior Executive Vice President) of whatever, suddenly asks if these department sales numbers are higher than last year.

The presenter may or may not have this data. It might be in an index, or even on a later page, but the reality is that whatever the presenter says or whatever page or chart he directs everyone’s attention to next, only a small yes/no, higher/lower, number is likely to be absorbed and retained by attendees.

Expanding the current table to include more data is one option, but everyone knows that only so much can be absorbed at once, and large tables and complicated graphs tend to make people’s eyes glaze over.

Now, consider the same chart using Sparklines.

In this case, Sparklines were inserted for each department showing the historical sales numbers. These small charts add very little data, size, or complexity to the table. The value of these Sparkline charts is that now, when the same question is asked, although now there might not be a need to even ask the question, it becomes easier to convey more complicated answers such as, “The numbers for Patio & Garden are lower this year, however, they are still up considerably over the last few …”

The Sparklines make it more likely that more than “No” gets through to the audience.

Excel 2010 PivotCharts and PivotTables

Excel’s other flashy feature upgrades come from improvements to PivotCharts and PivotTables. While both have been in Excel in some form since Office 2003, new tools and add-ins make them both easier to user and easier to understand so that their power can be harnessed by more users.

Chief among these tools is The Slicer feature which allows PivotTables to be dynamically segmented via an easier to follow graphical interface.

Many of Excel 2010’s newest features revolve around Microsoft’s strategy to increase how users can work together as well as access documents from anywhere, as a means to blunt Google’s continuing efforts in this area. In this arena, Excel adds the “Excel Web App” which allows multiple users to edit the same spreadsheet simultaneously.

Excel also gains better integration with Microsoft SharePoint via SharePoint Server 2010 and Excel Services. Finally, like all of the Office 2010 applications a mobile version for cellphones. Excel Mobile 2010 will make spreadsheet data not only readable on your smartphone, but also provide both the ability to edit and create graphs from the data.

Power users and corporate users implementing Excel 2010 mobile and collaboration features are likely the only users to really notice much of a difference between Excel 2007 and Excel 2010. But, users coming from Excel 2003 and earlier will be in for a treat, and since Excel comes with every version of Office 2010, chances are good that most users will just take Excel along for the upgrade ride anyway.

Microsoft OneNote is a brilliant addition to Microsoft Office. It was originally introduced in Office 2003, but really became a stand out application in Office 2007.

The idea behind Microsoft OneNote is to create an electronic version of a notebook, and potentially, replace them altogether.

And in Microsoft Office 2010, OneNote does a bang up job.

Disclaimer: The author of this article LOVES OneNote! His objectivity has been shattered by an application that can find sources he used a year ago in seconds, that records his voice notes on the same page as his written notes, and has made the 60 lbs. of notebooks threatening a home office shelf less necessary. Oh, yeah, it also catalogs his PAPER-BASED notebooks.

Whether or not OneNote could replace paper notebooks is open to debate. Most writers, for example, have an ongoing love affair with notebooks of all kinds, so replacing them electronically is not an option. However, OneNote provides many wonderful features for anyone who fills notebooks with notes, information, data, snippets, quotes, appointments, and anything else that can be scribbled down onto a piece of paper.

What Is OneNote from Microsoft Office?

Let’s start at the beginning. Many users never tried OneNote, they may have never even installed it. The way Microsoft put together previous editions of Microsoft Office, you may have never seen the product before.

For example, in Office 2007, OneNote is included in the Office 2007 Home and Student and in Office 2007 Ultimate editions, but not in any of the more ubiquitous business editions. So, if you needed Outlook with your Office Suite (which is absent from Home & Office version), you have probably never seen OneNote before.

It looks like Microsoft has noticed that not just students take notes. According to the Microsoft Office 2010 website, OneNote 2010 is included not just in Office Home and Business 2010, but also in Office Professional 2010, and Office Professional Plus 2010.

So, what is OneNote?

The first question most people have when they see OneNote is why they shouldn’t just use something else for notes. Some people keep text files, others keep Word documents, some people (like me) send emails to themselves as a way to take and keep notes. While these solutions may work “good enough,” none of them is actually designed to keep and organize notes, which makes them clunky solutions at best, and electronic versions of the huge pile on the corner of the desk that has everything in it “somewhere.”

At first glance, OneNote can seem like a glorified word processor, but jump into the program’s features, and you’ll see that this isn’t just Microsoft Word with some extra buttons.

Using Microsoft Office OneNote to Organize, Store, and Create Notes

Perhaps no application benefitted more from the MS Office Ribbon Interface than Microsoft OneNote. OneNote 2007 was an example of what would happen if toolbars became self-aware and started replicating buttons without limit. While functions could still be accessed from the familiar nested menus, OneNote also offered a vast array of toolbars filled with tiny icons.

In fact, OneNote 2007 is an example of what Office applications might look like without the new ribbon design — tiny icons everywhere that only the most intrepid of users would ever find or fully understand.

Fortunately, OneNote 2010, like all the other Office 2010 applications, gets the full Ribbon style interface. The Ribbon provides easy access to some of the “little things” that makes OneNote such a powerful tool. The various drawing tools, as well as the audio and video tools, stay out of the way, but very accessible when the user needs them.

At its core, OneNote is a way to create and store words and text. In this way, it is a lot like Microsoft Word. However, what makes OneNote so powerful is its versatility. Freed from the constraints that the final output be able to occur as a paper printout, OneNote, like a paper notebook, can be kept as neat or as messy as the user desires.

Ignoring margins, inserting large graphics or hand-drawn doodles, and then resizing, moving, or erasing them is easy. Text can be kept neatly in rows and columns, or stuffed into the “margins” or even crammed between main elements. Users are given a free-form interface where there is no end of the page and individual items can be as big or as little as desired.

While this concept is not new, it has historically also not been easy to use. Typically, users had to create some sort of frame or box for whatever it was they wanted to input first. Clicking on an icon to create a text box, placing it in the right location, and then dragging around borders to what you hoped would be approximately the right size, all before typing in a single word, made such applications too cumbersome for all but the most dedicated to bother using for anything other than big important notes. The thing about notes, however, is that you never know which notes will end up being important.

OneNote solves this issue by just assuming that if you are typing, you want that text in a text box. It creates the frame on the fly on the current page. If you are pasting an image, the image is placed onto the page instantly. Any frame that is necessary is created automatically by OneNote. Providing a carte blanche interface like this usually leads to either a messy chaos, or a situation in which once something is created, it cannot be edited again. Neither is true with OneNote.

Each entry on a page gets an electronic box around it. This boundary disappears until the user activates it by moving the mouse over it, allowing for a clean look that duplicates the boxless layout of a real notebook with text written in or pictures drawn on the page.

Users can even choose to have ruled (lined) note pages or not. The boxes with information can be dragged and dropped anywhere on the page. They can be resized by a little or by a lot. If there is text inside, the text adjusts to the size of the box, word wrapping in new places with ease. Best of all, the box, or just some of its contents, can be selected for copying and pasting elsewhere.

While duplicating the ability to put stuff in a notebook is great, the real power of OneNote comes from all of the things it can do that a regular notebook cannot. The most obvious functionality in this regard is searching.

OneNote indexes every word of every note you take no matter how big or how small. That means that if you put the directions to Frank Smith’s house in your OneNote notebook and then don’t see him for four years, when you type frank smith house into a OneNote search, you’ll find those directions. Try that with a regular notebook, even if you are fastidious enough to organize them by date and subject matter.

Of course, almost everything can be searched these days thanks to Google Desktop Search and Windows 7 search and indexing features (unless you are one of those people that turns them off to save resources. Seriously, if you want to save RAM and disk space, uninstall Adobe Reader instead. You’ll come out ahead.). Fortunately, OneNote arrives with more power than just a search function.

What if you have a screenshot, or a photograph, or a graphic from a website pasted into OneNote as an image? How about some free, fast, and reasonably accurate (assuming normal, legible, lettering) text recognition? This recent screenshot from a website was taken with Screenshot Captor, resized, and then saved as a JPG file. When pasted into OneNote, it takes its rightful place as an image file in a notebook.

However, right click on the same graphic and an option to Copy Text from Image appears. When pasted to the right of the image, you can see how well OneNote does at this. Sure, there are a couple of typos, and it chokes on the ads and navigation around the text, but it sure beats typing it back into Word or something to get the text.

All this, and we haven’t even scratched the surface of how much OneNote can do. Draw freehand with your mouse or tablet and pen right onto any notebook page, even to circle or annotate an image or graphic. OneNote will also gladly add audio or video files to your notebook pages. It can even record the same right into a page!

Put your meeting notes or class notes into OneNote, and then record those extras things that you remembered but didn’t get down in your written notes.

Give OneNote a try and you’ll find plenty to like. The first time you go back into the application thinking, “I’m pretty sure I saved something about that somewhere,” you’ll be hooked.

PowerShell 1.0 gave systems administrators around the world a new administration tool when it was introduced with Windows Server 2003.

For years, Microsoft has worked to develop a graphical user interface, or GUI, that would make system administration and user administration easier and more user friendly.

In many ways, the company succeeded admirably.

Most admins know at least one or two people who have managed to create a user in a very small Windows Server environment through User Manager and think that they should become a Windows Administrator because they already understand “how to do it.”

However, for administrators in environments where users exceed the number of people it takes to field a couple softball teams, things  are more complicated. In fact, one of the difficulties of properly administering a networked operating system and its servers is keeping all the “little things” consistent across the enterprise. Forgetting a check-box here, and a radio button there, can add up to a security nightmare waiting to happen, or perhaps, a very angry Vice President unable to remotely connect at a critical time.

The solution to some of these problems has been scripting. By writing scripts, Windows system engineers could ensure that repetitive tasks happened correctly and with far less effort than doing them manually. Everything from creating new user accounts, to installing software and upgrades, to basic login scripts has been coded somewhere along the way by a savvy systems admin looking to avoid headaches and spend a little less time on repetitive tasks.

Eventually, new Windows Server features and enhancements began to outstrip the capabilities of the DOS-based scripting that server administrators had been cobbling together. Fortunately, new tools and utilities were also developed that helped reduce some of the reliance on login scripts. For example, User and Group profiles have long since made mapping drive letters via login script obsolete. However, administrators still needed a more powerful scripting environment.

PowerShell 2.0 Upgrades Features and Capabilities

PowerShell has been slightly underrated within the administrator community. One reason is that in order for PowerShell to really perform throughout the enterprise, it needs to be usable on the servers and all the desktops.

Fortunately, Windows 7 comes ready to execute PowerShell scripts. Windows 7 SP1 is set to ship in the near future, which sounds the bell for many long-time IT professionals who live by the rule to always wait for SP1 before upgrading, and Server 2008 R2 comes with PowerShell 2.0 installed by default. As Windows 7 is installed in the enterprise, PowerShell 2.0 will grow even more useful.

Another reason PowerShell has not gotten its fair share of affection from systems administrators is that there were a few nagging things about how PowerShell worked conspiring to make it seem less powerful than it actually was. However, Microsoft has addressed many of these issues and thrown in a few new features as well.

Let’s take a look at some of these new features now.

Remoting

Nothing has been a bigger thorn in the side of PowerShell than Remoting. Remoting is the ability to run commands via PowerShell on remote computers. Technically, some remoting was possible in PowerShell one, but it was limited to the Get-WMIObject cmdlet within Windows Management Instrumentation (WMI). Even worse, WMI required RPC connections which meant having to go to the networking guys to get ports opened and firewall exceptions allowed. Not fun.

PowerShell 2.0 allows administrators to run commands on remote computers using the WS-Man (WS-Management) protocols which establish secure connections to remote computers using ports 80 and 443 by default. In many environments these ports will already be open, and in those that they are not, they’ll be a much easier sell to the networking team.

There is one little catch to remoting in PowerShell 2.0. In order to use remoting, it must be enabled on both machines. However, this only needs to be done once. Once enabled, remoting can be used on multiple machines at the same time allowing the administrator to execute the same commands on several computers at once. The applications for this ability are limited only by the admin’s ability (and the availability of the right cmdlet).

New cmdlets

Speaking of cmdlets, PowerShell 2.0 comes with over 100 built-in cmdlets. While this covers a lot of ground, there is no doubt that Microsoft Server administrators will quickly find functions and tasks that require other commands. Fortunately, Microsoft has implemented a way to handle this eventuality as well.

Modules are also new to PowerShell 2.0 and allow script developers to organize code into self-contained reusable units. This functionality has already been used to create a PowerShell 2.0 Active Directory Module which brings more possibilities to managing Active Directory via PowerShell.

Run Background Jobs in PowerShell

Another big addition to the PowerShell feature set is the ability to run background jobs. This means that those PowerShell scripts that take a long time to run can continue to perform in the background while the command prompt returns control immediately to the console.

An admin performing numerous tasks late at night can get them all running right away instead of having to wait until 2:00 AM to run that last command. This is especially useful while remoting multiple machines, especially when those machines are separated by various network connection speeds.

System Events Integration

PowerShell 2.0 now offers the ability to monitor and act on system events which can allow for more proactive scripting.

PowerShell ISE GUI

The most curious edition to PowerShell 2.0 is the PowerShell GUI, which, on the surface, appears to defeat the whole point of PowerShell. However, the GUI is really more of a basic script editor complete with color coded syntax, partial execution, stepping, and graphic debugging. The GUI also includes context sensitive help which can save admins from scanning through the verbose output of some help commands.

With Windows 7 coming to many businesses in the near future and the upcoming release of Windows Server 2008 R2 SP1, PowerShell 2.0 will be already waiting to go for enterprise-wide control and administration. The time is now for Microsoft systems engineers and administrators to learn how to take advantage of PowerShell 2.0.

PowerShell 2.0 Demonstration

Take a look at the video below to see a short demo of PowerShell 2.0.