Microsoft MVP… times 7!

By Tomica Kaniski in Other 0 Comment

A couple of days ago, another achievement was unlocked – Microsoft rewarded me with another MVP award (7th in a row, actually Smile), again for my contributions to the Cloud and Datacenter Management community.

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Thank you, Microsoft! (and also a big “thank you” to all of you who were with me during this wonderful 7 years… thank you for all your support!)

And for the year ahead, I wish myself many “challenging” situations in the cloud and datacenter area… where so many interesting things take place. Smile

Cheers!

Register to attend the Microsoft MVP Virtual Conference

By Tomica Kaniski in Other 0 Comment

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Hi All – I wanted to let you know about a great free event that Microsoft and the MVPs are putting on, May 14th & 15th.  Join Microsoft MVPs from the Americas’ region as they share their knowledge and real-world expertise during a free event, the MVP Virtual Conference.

The MVP Virtual Conference will showcase 95 sessions of content for IT Pros, Developers and Consumer experts designed to help you navigate life in a mobile-first, cloud-first world.  Microsoft’s Corporate Vice President of Developer Platform, Steve Guggenheimer, will be on hand to deliver the opening Key Note Address.

Why attend MVP V-Conf? The conference will have 5 tracks, IT Pro English, Dev English, Consumer English, Portuguese mixed sessions & Spanish mixed sessions, there is something for everyone! Learn from the best and brightest MVPs in the tech world today and develop some great skills!

Be sure to register quickly to hold your spot and tell your friends & colleagues.

The conference will be widely covered on social media, you can join the conversation by following @MVPAward and using the hashtag #MVPvConf.

Register now and feel the power of community!

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Cheers!

Continue using Windows Server vNext Technical Preview

By Tomica Kaniski in Other 1 Comment

If you have Windows Server vNext Technical Preview installations that are expiring in a day or so, you’ll be pleased to know that Microsoft yesterday addressed this issue and released a patch (as promised). Patch will extend the evaluation period of those installations until the October, 2015.

With the next build just around the corner, maybe you won’t need this patch to last for that long, but… it’s fixed.

You can find the patch on Microsoft Download Center, and find the official announcement here. Just remember to read the install instructions coming with it.

Some of us in the MVP community noticed (and finally resolved it, with support from Microsoft people) that the installation of this update on some machines (Hyper-V hosts, in my case) requires that you also (re)activate your Windows installation. If you don’t do it, it may seem that the patch wasn’t applied. Also, remember that this patch needs a reboot or two to be actually “installed”.

My colleague Nirmal also blogged about, and even recorded the installation process, so check it out.

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Voilà… enjoy your “renewed” Technical Preview (1) machines! Smile

Cheers!

New Hyper-V books

By Tomica Kaniski in Other 0 Comment

If you are in search for something to read – there are two new Hyper-V books, written by my MVP colleagues, that I can recommend.

The first one is called Hyper-V Best Practices, written by Benedict Berger (Microsoft MVP), and it covers… well… best practices with Hyper-V. Smile

By reading this book, you’ll learn:

  • Install Hyper-V and virtual machines automated through PowerShell
  • Create High Availability solutions with failover clustering
  • Protect from disasters with Hyper-V Replica
  • Utilize the performance and scalability of storage virtualization
  • Build a flexible network infrastructure without physical boundaries
  • Design performance measurement and tuning action plans
  • Manage your Hyper-V stack with System Center
  • Move existing virtualization workloads to Hyper-V

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You can find more about this book (and purchase it) here.

The second book is called Hyper-V Security, written by Eric Siron and Andy Syrewicze (Microsoft MVP).

By reading this one, you’ll learn:

  • Defend the network and disk resources that Hyper-V relies on
  • Control access to Hyper-V, both locally and remotely
  • Automate security policies using Group Policy
  • Leverage Hyper-V’s isolation features to protect services while still providing necessary access to resources
  • Combine Hyper-V with external technologies to provide a strong defense-in-depth system
  • Identify and explain security needs to organization officials reluctant to provide proper funding
  • Protect your virtual infrastructure when System Center VMM is present
  • Make management of multiple on-premise private clouds and Azure-based public clouds more secure with App Controller

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You can find more about this book and purchase it here.

Happy reading!

Hyper-V reporting script

By Tomica Kaniski in Other 5 Comments

There’s something nice for all you Hyper-V admins out there – don’t know if you’ve seen it already, but Serhat Akinci (my MVP colleague) made a great script for reporting the health of your Hyper-V hosts, called Get-HyperVReport.

You can use it on local or remote Hyper-V hosts and clusters, schedule and e-mail the reports (something to read while enjoying the morning coffee… or tea Smile), and they look like this:

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Highlights (from TechNet page):

  • More than 2600+ lines of PowerShell, HTML and CSS code examples
  • Creates a plain but detailed and user-friendly HTML report which is compatible with all modern browsers
  • Provides more detailed information via tooltips in the HTML report. (cells with asteriks and highlighted)
  • Checks and installs required runtime environment prerequisites like Hyper-V and Clustering PowerShell
  • Collects information by using standard Hyper-V and Clustering PowerShell cmdlets and custom WMI queries
  • Shows alerts in the report for certain situations (utilizations, VM checkpoints, replication status, etc.)
  • Can be used directly from command-line or as a scheduled Windows task
  • Supports report delivery via e-mail with advanced options. (authentication, TLS/SSL, multiple recipients)
  • Includes a mode that reports only alerts in the Hyper-V environment. (aka HighlightsOnly mode)
  • Advanced error handling and logging. (Console messages and log file)

Download of this script, and more information about it, is available at TechNet Gallery. And remember – don’t let your Hyper-V hosts run all by themselves! Smile

Cheers!

The “One ring”

By Tomica Kaniski in Other 0 Comment

It’s here! Finally!

As I’ve got the Microsoft MVP award for another year (beginning October), today I’ve received the (special) “blue ring” – my fifth year of being an MVP.

It has been a long road… full of excitements, events, friendships, travels, real-world issues… but it was fun!

Once again, I want to thank my girlfriend, my family, my fellow MVPs, my mentors, my colleagues (past and present), wonderful Microsoft people and everyone else who backed me up along this path – THANK YOU, you are the real MVPs, and this award is yours as well!

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Now… let’s face the new “challenges”! Smile

Cheers!

Microsoft System Center Configuration Manager: High availability and performance tuning

By Tomica Kaniski in Other, Review 0 Comment

Not so long ago, I’ve got yet another book from Packt Publishing – “Microsoft System Center Configuration Manager: High availability and performance tuning“, written by a fellow MVP, Marius Sandbu.

As someone who is not an Configuration Manager expert, I’ve really enjoyed reading this book.

Why? Because it provides great reference list of all the things that make Configuration Manager deployment highly available (from Active Directory and SQL to the Configuration Manager components), packed in a great format (not too long, about 150 pages), and well-written. It also provides, from my perspective, high-level steps that can be taken to fine-tune your deployment – an aspect of the deployment which is usually forgotten.

I would recommend this book to anyone that needs to learn about the principles of high availability and performance tuning of Configuration Manager – it’s not a long read, it will save you some time and certainly help you get started right away! However, if you need deep-down information about specific component, in a “Bible” format, you’ll need to grab at least one additional book…

You can order this book here.

Microsoft MVP for another year…

By Tomica Kaniski in Other 0 Comment

So… I’m Microsoft MVP for another year – for 3 years in a row (and counting Smile).
This year I’ve also changed my expertise, and now I’m part of “Virtual Machine” MVPs.

Thanks to everyone that constantly supports me in my “IT adventures” (special thanks goes to my family – without them nothing of this would be even remote possible!).

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Microsoft MVP for another year…

By Tomica Kaniski in Other 6 Comments

mvp_logoOn October, 1st 2010, I was introduced to the worldwide Microsoft MVP community as MVP for Management Infrastructure. That was a great driver in the past year. Today I received another e-mail stating that my MVP title is renewed… I’m proud for being the part of this community, and will put together all my efforts to justify this.

Big thanks to all the people included in this decision, and thanks to all that support me every day!