In late 2010, Microsoft introduced Windows Small Business Server (SBS) 2011 Essentials as an ideal first server for small businesses with up to 25 users. SBS 2011 Essentials provided on-premise functionality with cloud integration with solutions like Office 365.  

Recently, Microsoft elevated Essentials to a core edition of the Windows Server 2012 family.

What has changed for SBS 2011 Essentials customers?

Per Microsoft, this change was done to more clearly communicate how this product is positioned in the market relative to the other Windows Server editions.  Microsoft wanted to simplify their messaging to customers and partners and increase the level of visibility for the product and highlight its unique value for the small business market.

What does this mean for Dell small business customers?

Conforming to Microsoft’s strategy, Windows SBS 2011 Essentials is no longer available for purchase.  Any Dell customer looking for Small business server essentials edition will be provided with Windows Server 2012 Essentials edition. There is no Premium Add-on available for WS2012 Essentials.

In Windows Server 2012 Essentials Edition you will get many new features in addition to the SBS 2011 Essential  features mentioned above. The Dell version of WS2012 Essentials provides you with a few in-built add-ins and USB client restore media for quick recovery of your client machines.

To know more about Dell + Windows Server 2012 Essentials, refer to our Windows Server Essentials Client Restore wiki on Dell TechCenter.

For More information about Windows Server 2012 Essentials visit http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/jj200119.aspx

For information about migrating to Windows Server 2012 Essentials or Windows SBS 2011 Standard, see this link on Microsoft TechNet: Migrate Windows Small Business Server to Window Server 2012 Essentials

New enterprise products can be challenging to integrate into any IT environment. You want to maximize the performance of your new systems while minimizing business interruptions and costs. Dell’s comprehensive suite of deployment services will get you from purchase order to production faster than they ever thought possible.

 (Please visit the site to view this video)

• Dell performs thousands of Server, Storage and Network deployment projects per month.
• Over 20 years of experience globally across major market segments
• Experts in heterogeneous hardware & software integration.

What Dell brings:

• Expert Solution Design - Let Dell help Design and Document your solution – while you focus on your strategic business initiatives
• Factory Customization - Provisioning servers with ImageDirect eliminates the base configuration work stream which saves, on average, up to 64% of total. This is new technology coming soon, however customers can leverage server configuration in our factory today.
• Deployment Options – Dell offers a suite of deployment options including, remote, cloud and onsite
• Project Management - Sit back while Dell installs your hardware and executes the design
• Knowledge Transfer - Once the solution is installed – you can arrange your staff to review the completed Solution with the Dell Engineer.
• We configure storage systems for maximum capacity and performance
• Server Integration provides quick installation and provisioning of new servers
• Network Integration optimizes switches and routers
• Project Management: Dell experts supervise every phase of deployment
• We analyze the IT environment and identify the full scope of the project
• We test the overall functionality and production readiness of the solution
• Product orientation to help customers understand the new storage solution

Hi Community, here is my compilation of the most interesting technical blog posts written by members of the Microsoft MVP Community. The number of MVPs is growing well, I hope you enjoy their posts. @all MVPs If you’d like me to add your blog posts to my weekly compilation, please send me an email (Florian_Klaffenbach@Dell.com) or reach out to me via Twitter (@FloKlaffenbach). Thanks!

Featured Posts of the Week!

Videointerview with Ben Armstrong about Hyper-V by Carsten Rachfahl

Videointerview: James van den Berg MVP SCCDM Office 365 for Education by Kerstin Rachfahl

Unable to Deploy DPM 2012 SP1 Agent to Target Server by Kristian Nese

Error Failed to Create or Launch Virtual Machine Settings dialog for Virtual Machine Using Failover Cluster Manager snap-in. by Lai Yoong Seng

Azure

Windows Azure Services for Windows Server 2012 – We’re getting there! by Kristian Nese

#Microsoft Windows Azure Services on Windows Server (WASWS) samples for Service Providers #winserv #WindowsAzure #SPF by James van den Berg

#Microsoft Service Bus 1.0 for Windows Server #WindowsAzure #Cloud #Winserv #Powershell by James van den Berg

Exchange

Using Kemp loadbalancers to load balance Exchange 2013 by Johan Veldhuis

Events

Contest–Need a Free Pass to Tech-Ed 2013 by Lai Yoong Seng

Office 365 Virtual Launch Event by Aidan Finn

Hyper-V

Videointerview with Ben Armstrong about Hyper-V by Carsten Rachfahl

Hyper-V Features erklährt: Shared Nothing Live Migration in German by Carsten Rachfahl

Error Failed to Create or Launch Virtual Machine Settings dialog for Virtual Machine Using Failover Cluster Manager snap-in. by Lai Yoong Seng

My Hyper-V Wishlist of 2011 by Hans Vredevoort

PowerShell: Monitoring DrainStatus of a Hyper-V Host & The Time Limited Value of Information In Beta & RC Era Blogsby Didier van Hoye

Unveil Of Cisco Nexus 1000V Distributed Switch For Windows Server 2012 Hyper-V by Aidan Finn

Office 365

Dienstupgrade für die bestehenden Office 365 Kunden in German by Kerstin Rachfahl

Videointerview: James van den Berg MVP SCCDM Office 365 for Education by Kerstin Rachfahl

PowerShell

PowerShell Deep Dive Authors at the PowerShell Summit by Jeffery Hicks

System Center Core

System Center 2012 SP1 Configuration Analyzer by Thomas Maurer

Whitepaper: AD gegen Pass-the-Hash absichern in German by Nils Kaczenski

System Center Configuration Manager

New SCOM Management Pack for Windows Server 2012 and 2012 SCCM SP1 by Marcelo Sinic

System Center Dataprotection Manager

Unable to Deploy DPM 2012 SP1 Agent to Target Server by Kristian Nese

Windows Client

Windows 8: Outlook-Elemente suchen in German by Nils Kaczenski

Windows Server Core

Book Review – Learn Active Directory Management in a Month of Lunches by Jeff Wouters

WSUS clients not showing up in management console by Jeff Wouters

Tools

Trustworthy Computing–#Cloud Cloud #Security #Readiness #Tool by Robert Smit

Other MVPs I follow

James van den Berg - MVP for SCCDM System Center Cloud and DataCenter Management
Kristian Nese - MVP for System Center Cloud and Datacenter Management
Ravikanth Chaganti - MVP for PowerShell
Jan Egil Ring - MVP for PowerShell
Jeffery Hicks - MVP for PowerShell
Keith Hill - MVP for PowerShell
David Moravec - MVP for PowerShell
Aleksandar Nikolic - MVP for PowerShell
Shay Levy - MVP for PowerShell
Adam Driscoll - MVP for PowerShell
Marcelo Vighi - MVP for Exchange
Johan Veldhuis - MVP for Exchange
Lai Yoong Seng - MVP for Virtual Machine
Rob McShinsky - MVP for Virtual Machine
Hans Vredevoort - MVP for Virtual Machine
Leandro Carvalho - MVP for Virtual Machine
Didier van Hoye - MVP for Virtual Machine
Romeo Mlinar - MVP for Virtual Machine
Aidan Finn - MVP for Virtual Machine
Carsten Rachfahl - MVP for Virtual Machine
Thomas Maurer - MVP for Virtual Machine
Alessandro Cardoso - MVP for Virtual Machine
Steve Jain - MVP for Virtual Machine
Robert Smit - MVP for Cluster
Marcelo Sinic - MVP Windows Expert-IT Pro
Ulf B. Simon-Weidner - MVP for Windows Server – Directory Services
Meinolf Weber - MVP for Windows Server – Directory Services
Nils Kaczenski - MVP for Windows Server – Directory Services
Kerstin Rachfahl - MVP for Office 365
Matthias Wolf - MVP Group Policy
Robert Mühsig - MVP ASP.NET/IIS

No MVP but he should be one

Jeff Wouters - PowerShell

If you are an IT administrator and manage your corporate data center with SANs, you may need to setup Fiber Channel over Ethernet (FCoE) boot for different network cards

Traditionally, the following is what you do to set up FCoE boot.

• Reboot server
• Press F2, browse to LegacyBootProto and select the correct value, which is FCoE, move to next attribute, such as ConnectFirstFCoETarget, and set its value to Enabled, then next attribute…, until the all attributes have been set to the correct values
• Then go to the next machine and repeat the procedure for each server you want to set up for FCoE boot

This traditional method is tedious, not automatic, error prone, and need physical access to the servers.  It soon becomes stressful repeating the same procedure many times for each server.  Besides, you don’t always have physical access.  You want automatically and programmatically way to avoid error.  Therefore, you always wonder if there is a better way.

The answer is yes.

The remote API exposed by Dell LifeCycle Controller capability of Dell’s 12^th generation servers provides the capability of remotely and programmatically set up FCoE boot.  The software is here to rescue and alleviate the pain and can easily get out all the mess helping you to programmatically, automatically, and remotely configure a network controller card for FCoE boot.

Dell has published a white paper FCoE Boot Configuration Setup on Broadcom using Lifecycle Controller

The white paper provides you with detail steps to set up FCoE boot for Broadcom card and boot to FCoE Target with WSMAN / winrm commands.

Here is a summary of the workflow to setup FCoE boot for Broadcom:

1. Fully Qualified device descriptor (FQDD) selection
2. Device enablement
3. FQDD check
4. NIC partition check
5. Link Status check
6. FCoE boot enablement check and configuration
   1. LegacyBootProto=FCoE
   2. ConnectFirstFCoETarget=Enabled
   3. FCoEOffloadMode=Enabled
   4. FCoETgtBoot=Enabled
   5. VirtWWPN=your WWPN address
   6. FirstFCoEWWPNTarget=your FirstFCoEWWPNTarget address
   7. FirstFCoEBootTargetLUN=your FirstFCoEBootTargetLUN value
7. Boot order check

Using WSMAN/winrm command and following the steps in the white paper, FCoE boot on Broadcom card can be setup.

See the full article in this whitepaper:

 FCoE Boot Configuration Setup on Broadcom using Lifecycle Controller

iDRAC with Lifecycle Controller Technical Learning Series, Lifecycle Controller Home : iDRAC7 Home

Authored by Naveen Iyengar, Dell Database Solutions Engineer

Dell’s Fluid Cache for Direct Attached Storage (DAS) software is a host caching software that uses Dell PowerEdge Express Flash PCIe SSDs installed on supported Dell systems to provide a read and write cache pool. The cache pool is used to accelerate response times with significant improvements in input/output operations per second (IOPS). On paper, this feature should definitely benefit an online transaction processing (OLTP) database environment and hence we conducted a study in the Dell solutions lab to evaluate the same.

Figure 1 shows the test bed that was setup to conduct the study. Dell PowerEdge R720 was setup as a single node database server. The server is directly-attached to four fully populated Dell PowerVault MD1220 storage arrays using the Dell PERC H810 external RAID controller. Eight RAID10 virtual disks (VDs) were used for datafiles and four RAID5 VDs were used for backup logs. Fluid Cache cache pool was setup using two 350GB Dell Express Flash PCIe SSDs and the VDs used for the datafiles were enabled for caching in write-back mode.

Figure 1 Dell Fluid Cache for DAS architecture with OLTP database

Dell Quest Benchmark Factory (BMF) was used as the standard benchmarking tool. It was used to create a TPC-C database schema and to generate the OLTP workload. The OLTP benchmark was first run on a baseline configuration that comprised of the same hardware and software configuration that was used for the Fluid Cache test bed, except that it did not use the PCIe SSDs and the Fluid Cache software. Later the same OLTP benchmark was run on the Fluid Cache test bed. Two seconds was used as the maximum accepted average response time (ART) and any performance result past that ART was discarded.

The graph in Figure 2 plots the comparative transactions per second (TPS) performance of the baseline configuration (BC) and the Dell Fluid Cache (DFC) test beds.

Figure 2 Baseline configuration vs. Dell Fluid Cache TPS performance

The graph in Figure 3 plots the comparative average response time (ART) performance of the baseline configuration (BC) and the Dell Fluid Cache (DFC) test beds.

Figure 3 Baseline configuration vs. Dell Fluid Cache ART performance

Below is a summary of the performance improvement of the OLTP database with Fluid Cache over the baseline configuration based on the results captured:

· Fluid Cache delivered approximately 60% more TPS compared to the baseline configuration

· Fluid Cache delivered approximately 95% better average response time over the baseline at 3100 user load

· Fluid Cache delivered approximately 34% more user load compared to the baseline.

Based on the results we can conclude that OLTP users looking for a boost in TPS performance while keeping a very low latency can greatly benefit with Dell’s Fluid Cache for DAS caching solution.

Be on the lookout for a detailed technical whitepaper about the same study coming out soon on www.dell.com

Before deploying end user systems, companies need to load their corporate image comprising of software, applications and Operating System on to these machines. Due to frequent changes in platform and hardware configurations, organizations end up using multiple corporate images, leading to complexities of creating and maintaining them.

This is where Dell Configuration Service steps in. By providing factory imaging solutions, Dell helps you in various ways:

• Simplifies large deployments by reducing downtime and improving end user experience.
• Helps standardize images used by companies, automating management of a single image that works across multiple platforms and departments, thereby saving cost.
• The repeatable production process ensures consistent configurations in the environment. Also helps in meeting licensing and compliance requirements.
• Saves time and effort of IT staff by reducing post deployment support calls.

Dell Imaging Services provides various levels of image load and management services depending on the complexity involved.

(Please visit the site to view this video)

Dell Custom Image Load– You can provide your static corporate image which gets loaded in the factory on all units purchased by you. This saves time and duplication effort for your IT staff.

Dell ImageDirect– It is a cloud based self-service portal that allows you toproduce a single cross-platform image available for load in Dell factories. You can also manage your system images online and update them as and when required. You can choose a clean OS template available online or upload your own custom image. ImageDirect enables further customization of the OS image, application of patch updates and customization of application settings for various groups of users. Once you validate the final corporate image, it is downloaded to systems in the factory.

There are several benefits of using Dell ImageDirect:

• Saves Time: ImageDirect significantly reduces image build and installation time, making IT staff more productive. High Speed File Transfer minimizes file transfer wait for image upload and downloads.
• Reduces Complexity: Provides a single cross-platform image which can be applied across new platforms and user groups.
• Simplifies Hardware Transitions: Adding new platforms to an existing image is fast and easy, so there is no need to rework images due to new platform releases and transitions.
• Reliability & Consistency: Before deploying the image, we can validate its integrity, that it is virus free and contains the latest security patches and drivers.
• Future Enhancements: Updated images remain available for future enhancements in a secure cloud based environment.
• Secure Data Center Environment: Provides user-specified access levels ensuring data stored in ImageDirect is available only to authorized individuals.

Dell ImageDirect is available in five languages – English, Spanish, French, German and Italian.

Dell X-Image – Dell engineers help you create and maintain a single multi-platform image that can be applied to legacy and new systems, as well as systems from other vendors.

Image Consulting – Dell imaging consultants can help you develop and maintain static images or full custom images for your organization. Incorporating best practices into image management protocol, Dell consultants can improve the technical design of image by applying state of the art technology.

Dell consultants can also help with on-going image maintenance:

• Changes to service pack levels.
• Security-related patches and updates.
• Software updates and changes.
• Addition or removal of software applications.
• Configuration settings and changes.

Images and applications are difficult to configure and maintain. Network bandwidth can also be overwhelmed when deploying large numbers or to branches and remote employees. Dell Imaging Service significantly reduces image build and deployment time. It also simplifies deployment by automating user state migration so that the technician can initiate and complete the final installation tasks by turning on the new system, connecting it to the old system and interacting with the Light-touch Installation Wizard.

With infinite ‘What-if’ capability Dell Imaging Service enables you to experiment with your corporate image until you achieve perfection, so that what you see if what you get.

Cloud-Managed Master Data Management

Date: March 12, 2013
Time: 1:00pm ET/ 10:00am PT
Duration: 60 minutes

Join Dell Boomi for a live webinar featuring an introduction to Dell Boomi MDM – a simple, cost-effective and scalable way to create and manage master data. We’ll show you how to assure data integrity across multiple applications and systems, while retaining data security with next-generation MDM.

Speakers:

Boomi.com registration page 

So Say SMEs in Virtualization & Cloud

Kong Yang and Todd Muirhead discuss VMware PEX 2013 highlights and the NFL Combine. As always, we welcome your thoughts and feedback. 

The VMware VCP / VCAD Exam Discount codes and terms mentioned in the video can be found here.

Please click below to view the video.

(Please visit the site to view this video)

Are you an IT administrator?  Do you manage your corporate data center with SANs?  Do you want flexibility in deployments that need rapid re-configuration of system workloads to another system?  If the answer is yes, you may want to set up IO Identity, which are the following five virtual addresses:

• Virtual MAC Address
• Virtual iSCSI MAC Address
• Virtual FIP MAC Address
• Virtual  WWN
• Virtual  WWPN

IO Identity cannot be set locally by system setup (press F2 to enter) or iDRAC GUI.  It can be set remotely with WSMAN / winrm commands. 

The remote API exposed by Dell LifeCycle Controller capability of Dell’s 12^th generation servers provides the capability of overriding the I/O identity attribute of the card with its virtual attributes.  This provides more flexibility in deployments that need rapid re-configuration of system workloads to another system.

Is this what you want to do, but wonder how to do it?

Dell has published a white paper IO Identity Setup Using Lifecycle Controller.  The white paper tells you in details how to set up IO identity for Intel card, QLogic card and Broadcom card.

The following is a summary of the white paper:

• What is IO identity
• Workflow to set up IO identity for Intel card
• Workflow to set up IO identity for QLogic card
• Workflow to set up IO identity for Broadcom card
• Sample winrm commands to set up IO identity
• Experience and lesson in set up IO identity

See the full article in this whitepaper:

 IO Identity Setup Using Lifecycle Controller

iDRAC with Lifecycle Controller Technical Learning Series, Lifecycle Controller Home : iDRAC7 Home

This week’s OpenStack highlight: “Bring on the Crazy: Zero to Book in Five Days” by Anne Gentle Enjoy!

Hadoop

Datameer: “Discover Big Data with Datameer” - Road Show http://info.datameer.com/Discover-Big-Data-RoadShow.html

Datameer: “Hadoop as a Data Hub: A Sears Case Study” - Webinar http://info.datameer.com/Hadooop-as-Data-Hub-Sears-Case-study.html

Datameer: “Enabling More Access to Big Data Insights” - Analyst Report http://info.datameer.com/Web-EMA-Enabling-Access-to-Big-Data-Insights.html

Pentaho: “Improving Customer Support using Hadoop and Device Data Analytics”
http://blog.pentaho.com/2013/03/06/improving-customer-support-using-hadoop-and-device-data-analytics/

Pentaho: “Is your Hadoop cluster big enough to hold your development team’s ego?”
http://blog.pentaho.com/2013/03/07/is-your-hadoop-cluster-big-enough-to-hold-your-development-teams-ego/

OpenStack

Food Fight Show: “Food Fight 41 - Saving the World With DevOps, Big Data, and HPC”
http://foodfight.libsyn.com/food-fight-41-saving-the-world-with-dev-ops-big-data-and-hpc

Food Fight Show: “Food Fight Show 42 - Chef 11”
http://foodfight.libsyn.com/food-fight-show-42-chef-11

Food Fight Show: “Food Fight Show 43 - Adaptive Fault Detection”
http://foodfight.libsyn.com/food-fight-show-43-adaptive-fault-detection

Canonical: “Ubuntu phone, tablet at Mobile World Congress”
http://blog.canonical.com/2013/02/25/ubuntu-phone-tablet-at-mobile-world-congress/

Cloudscaling: “IBS DataFort Chooses OpenStack-Based Open Cloud System for Public Elastic Cloud Infrastructure Deployment”
http://www.prweb.com/releases/2013/2/prweb10479427.htm

Cloudscaling: “Simplicity Scales: The Cloudscaling Engineering Blog” by Randy Bias
http://www.cloudscaling.com/blog/cloud-computing/simplicity-scales-the-cloudscaling-engineering-blog/

Cloudscaling: “VMware vs. Amazon … ROUND TWO … FIGHT! — VMW Conceding Impotence?” by Randy Bias
http://www.cloudscaling.com/blog/cloud-computing/vmware-vs-amazon-round-two-fight-vmw-conceding-impotence/

OpenStack Foundation: “Bring on the Crazy: Zero to Book in Five Days” by Anne Gentle
http://www.openstack.org/blog/2013/02/bring-on-the-crazy-zero-to-book-in-five-days/

OpenStack Foundation: “Hyderabad OpenStack Meetup 03-31-2013”
http://www.meetup.com/Indian-OpenStack-User-Group/events/106526922/

Opscode: “ChefConf 2013 - Conference Overview”
http://chefconf.opscode.com/program/

Opscode: “ChefConf 2013 - Register for Conference”
https://chefconf2013.busyconf.com/bookings/new

Opscode: “Announcing #ChefConf 2013 Keynotes, Sponsors, and Awards” by Nathan Harvey
http://www.opscode.com/blog/2013/03/04/announcing-chefconf-2013-keynotes-sponsors-and-awards/

Opscode. “Managing cloud infrastructure is easy when you have the cheat code” by Lucas Welch
http://www.opscode.com/blog/2013/03/06/managing-cloud-infrastructure-is-easy-when-you-have-the-cheat-code/

Mirantis: “OpenStack Cloud and Healthcare” by David Fishman
http://www.mirantis.com/blog/case-study-on-openstack-cloud-in-health-care/

Rackspace DevOps Blog:”How I Learned Ruby on Rails” by Bret McGowen
http://devops.rackspace.com/how-i-learned-ruby-on-rails.html#.UTpmqhzqlv8

Dell

“Crowbar 2 BDD Training 2013-03-01” by Rob Hirschfeld - Personal Youtube Channel
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DBtHheWt04c&feature=youtube_gdata

“Crowbar 2 Planning 2013-02-28” by Rob Hirschfeld - Personal Youtube Channel
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w0p5wqOMQkU&feature=youtube_gdata

“5 things keeping DevOps from playing well with others (Chef, Crowbar and Upstream Patterns by Rob Hirschfeld - Personal Blog
http://robhirschfeld.com/2013/03/08/devops-play-with-others-chef-crowbar-upstream/

Contributors

Please find detailed information on all contributors in our Wiki section.

Contact

Twitter: @RafaelKnuth
Email: rafael_knuth@dellteam.com

Hi Community, here is my compilation of the most interesting technical blog posts written by members of the Microsoft MVP Community. The number of MVPs is growing well, I hope you enjoy their posts. @all MVPs If you’d like me to add your blog posts to my weekly compilation, please send me an email (flo@datacenter-flo.de) or reach out to me via Twitter (@FloKlaffenbach). Thanks!

Featured Posts of the Week!

Hyper-V Cluster Node Pause & Drain fails – Live Migrations fail with “The requested operation cannot be completed because a resource has locked status” by Didier van Hoye

Finding Hotfixes For WS2012 Hyper-V And Failover Clustering by Aidan Finn

Enabled ODX In Hosts With Non-Supporting SAN Can Cause CSV Stability Issues by Aidan Finn

Automatically update help-files for Windows PowerShell by Jan Egil Ring

Azure

Scaling Applications Using Microsoft #WindowsAzure #Cloud Services Poster by James van den Berg

Hyper-V

Hyper-V Cluster Node Pause & Drain fails – Live Migrations fail with “The requested operation cannot be completed because a resource has locked status” by Didier van Hoye

#PSTip Automatic refresh of Hyper-V VM Objects by Ravikanth Chaganti

List of Hyper-V and Failover Cluster Hotfixes for Windows Server 2012 by Thomas Maurer

Finding Hotfixes For WS2012 Hyper-V And Failover Clustering by Aidan Finn

Win A Copy of Windows Server 2012 Hyper-V Installation And Configuration Guide Book by Aidan Finn

Office 

Microsoft Office Series For IT Pros by Aidan Finn

Office 365

Download Now : #Office365 Security White Paper from #Microsoft #Cloud by James van den Berg

PowerShell

#PSTip Invoking methods with New-Object by Shay Levy

#PSTip Decoding WinRM error messages by Shay Levy

#PSTip How to determine if a file is 32-bit or 64-bit by Shay Levy

Get Scheduled Job Results by Jeffery Hicks

Friday Fun Get Beer List by Jeffery Hicks

#PSTip Finding the drive letter of a mounted disk image by Ravikanth Chaganti

Automatically update help-files for Windows PowerShell by Jan Egil Ring

System Center Virtual Machine Manager

Creating A WS2012 Hyper-V CSV Using VMM 2012 SP1 Via SMI-S by Aidan Finn

Using VMM 2012 SP1 Baselines & Compliance To Orchestrate Patching Of Hyper-V Hosts by Aidan Finn

Adding Cluster To VMM Results in 13805 Error by Aidan Finn

Deploying Load Balanced Servers Using VMM 2012 SP1 (And Citrix NetScaler) by Aidan Finn

Windows Server Core

Find all Organizational Units with GPO Inheritance blocked by Jeff Wouters

PowerShell – Find the name and time of the last logged on user by Jeff Wouters

Troublesome KB2799728 (CSV Paused State/Offline Patch) Replaced By KB2813630 by Aidan Finn

Enabled ODX In Hosts With Non-Supporting SAN Can Cause CSV Stability Issues by Aidan Finn

Other MVPs I follow

James van den Berg - MVP for SCCDM System Center Cloud and DataCenter Management
Kristian Nese - MVP for System Center Cloud and Datacenter Management
Ravikanth Chaganti - MVP for PowerShell
Jan Egil Ring - MVP for PowerShell
Jeffery Hicks - MVP for PowerShell
Keith Hill - MVP for PowerShell
David Moravec - MVP for PowerShell
Aleksandar Nikolic - MVP for PowerShell
Shay Levy - MVP for PowerShell
Adam Driscoll - MVP for PowerShell
Marcelo Vighi - MVP for Exchange
Johan Veldhuis - MVP for Exchange
Lai Yoong Seng - MVP for Virtual Machine
Rob McShinsky - MVP for Virtual Machine
Hans Vredevoort - MVP for Virtual Machine
Leandro Carvalho - MVP for Virtual Machine
Didier van Hoye - MVP for Virtual Machine
Romeo Mlinar - MVP for Virtual Machine
Aidan Finn - MVP for Virtual Machine
Carsten Rachfahl - MVP for Virtual Machine
Thomas Maurer - MVP for Virtual Machine
Alessandro Cardoso - MVP for Virtual Machine
Steve Jain - MVP for Virtual Machine
Robert Smit - MVP for Cluster
Marcelo Sinic - MVP Windows Expert-IT Pro
Ulf B. Simon-Weidner - MVP for Windows Server – Directory Services
Meinolf Weber - MVP for Windows Server – Directory Services
Nils Kaczenski - MVP for Windows Server – Directory Services
Kerstin Rachfahl - MVP for Office 365
Matthias Wolf - MVP Group Policy
Robert Mühsig - MVP ASP.NET/IIS

No MVP but he should be one

Jeff Wouters - PowerShell

The Dell Linux Engineering team is proud to announce support for Ubuntu Server on PowerEdge & PowerEdge-C servers by Canonical. Though we have worked with Canonical for years to certify Dell PowerEdge servers and peripherals with the latest Ubuntu releases, we are enhancing our collaboration efforts that will allow us to work closer together on fixing bugs and implementing value-add features for our customers.

This enhanced collaboration effort will also allow Dell and Canonical to work closer together with our hardware partners to ensure improved functionality and support for devices such as storage and network controllers. If you are deploying Ubuntu Server on Dell PowerEdge or PowerEdge-C, you can be confident that Dell and Canonical will be able to effectively support your needs going forward.

For additional information, visit the Dell TechCenter Wiki.

Certified hardware

The Dell Linux engineering team has worked with Canonical to certify all 12^th& 11^th Generation Dell PowerEdge and PowerEdge-C servers with the latest Ubuntu 12.04 LTS (Long-Term Support) release. You can view the Ubuntu Support Matrix or go to the Canonical hardware certification site for additional information, including a list of what specific devices (i.e. chipset, NIC) were certified with each server.

If you don’t see a specific device listed in the hardware certification site, it doesn’t imply it’s not supported. If you have specific certification requirements and you have purchased a support contract, please contact Canonical or your Dell support representative for assistance.

OpenManage

The Dell Linux Engineering team will continue releasing unsupported builds of OpenManage for Ubuntu. Please note that even though we have tested all available OpenManage releases on a wide array of PowerEdge servers without major issues, some features may not be fully functional.

Where to get support

Ubuntu support contracts from Canonical are available from your Dell sales representative or directly from Canonical through the Ubuntu Advantage program. In addition, best-effort support from Dell is available with your Dell ProSupport contract.

Additional help

For questions and general discussion, you can always write to our mailing list Linux-PowerEdge where Dell Linux engineers, support teams and customers discuss Linux issues on PowerEdge servers. We encourage and value your feedback.

Can you explain briefly what Chef is?
Opscode Chef is an open-source systems integration framework built specifically for automating at scale. Using Ruby-based 'recipes' and 'cookbooks' of code commands, Chef makes it easy to deploy servers and scale applications throughout an entire infrastructure. Through a combination of configuration management and service-oriented architectures, Chef makes it easy to create fully automated infrastructure, while simplifying systems management. Chef is available as an open source download, a SaaS subscription, or as software installed behind the user's firewall.

What’s different about Chef compared to other automation solutions such as Puppet?
Puppet provides a declarative model for systems administration. It works well in small, mostly static environments, with low complexity. Opscode Chef provides a more flexible automation framework that allows enterprises to model their current workflow, at any scale, from development through to deployment and operations. Chef is based on primitives that create patterns that can be bent to any workflow/environment. Puppet is based on declaratives that can't be changed.

You recently released Chef 11. What are the major enhancements compared to the previous version?
Chef 11 was re-written from the ground up and leverages best-of-breed infrastructure technologies including the Erlang programming language and PostgreSQL database, delivering a rock-solid automation platform that can easily scale up to 10,000 nodes from a single Chef server – which is far greater than any previous Chef generation. Opscode is also two tiers of commercial support for open source Chef users (who are running Chef 11) covering both live system support and cookbook code troubleshooting. Other enhancements include:

• Comprehensive Testing: Chef 11 features the Pedant Testing Suite, delivering robust testing capabilities that can be executed with a single command, automating more than 2,000 end-to-end tests that ensure the Chef server is installed and working properly.
• Easy Installation: Chef 11 comes packaged with a 'one-click' installer, enabling easy and rapid deployment of Chef regardless of IT environment.
• Enhanced Windows Support: With the Pedant Testing Suite, Chef 11 includes automated testing across seven different versions of Windows, improving functionality and integration within Windows environments.

What resources (blogs, webinars, events) do you provide to get a solid technical understanding of Chef?
The most visible resource is the open source Chef Community, which is an important, active and vibrant online community where users can find recipes and cookbooks for everything from Windows to Hadoop, as well as a wide range of best practices, instruction guides, and more. However, the most important and helpful resource is likely our Documents page, where users can find out everything they need to know about Chef, from getting started, to basic deployments, to advanced use cases, recipes, cookbooks, patches and more. We're working hard to make our Documents page your one-stop-shop for all things Opscode Chef.

Who owns Chef?
Chef is an open source systems integration framework stewarded and licensed by Opscode.

Which language is Chef written in?
The back-end API is written in Erlang. The front-end is Ruby.

How is Chef licensed?
As a free, open source download, a SaaS solution, or as enterprise software installed behind the firewall. The latter two are commercial solutions sold through a subscription model.

How many contributors / commits do you count?
Over 1,000 individual contributors, 170+ corporate contributors and tens of thousands of registered users. Open Source Chef has been downloaded nearly 2 million times in less than four years of availability.

Which functionalities is the community particularly focused on?
That's a tough question to answer because the Chef Community is so diverse, active and large that there are few "core focus" points. That said, ensuring Chef works seamlessly with MySQL, Apache and the many public cloud providers are frequent topics of conversation and code contribution, as is Chef + Windows.

Can you give us examples of typical use cases for Chef?
We call it the "three C's of Chef": Configuration Management of servers in physical data centers, private and public clouds; Continuous Application Delivery in any environment; and Cloud Management for public, private and hybrid clouds. The vast majority of use cases for any of the three flavors of Chef fall into one or more of these categories. We have solution pages on each of these use case available here, as well as a wide range of customer success stories available here.

Which prerequisites should enterprises meet when interested in using Chef?
There are no specific prerequisites needed to use Chef. However, familiarity with Ruby within IT and your Dev teams will be helpful, as is a willingness to deploy infrastructure as code for greater agility and less risk. 

Tell us about your collaboration with Dell and Chef integration in Crowbar – Dell’s deployment mechanism for OpenStack.
We're excited that Dell has embedded Opscode Chef in Crowbar and are very appreciative of the patches and cookbooks Dell has contributed back to the Chef Community. Dell has been a great partner in the OpenStack project and we look forward to more collaboration in the future.

Thank you, Lucas.
You’re welcome, Rafael.

I am a systems engineering in Dell Enterprise Solutions working on database and business intelligence solutions. One of the projects I work on is the Dell Quickstart Data Warehouse Appliance which is packaged with a Boomi subscription. My team has recently started working with Boomi on a proof of concept surrounding US patent office data, Boomi, Quickstart Data Warehouse Appliance, and Toad products that we plan to release as a series of wiki articles on Dell TechCenter near the middle of 2013. With the large array of features and tools available in Boomi it was hard to know where to begin as a new user.

There is a lot of content about Dell Boomi including here in Dell TechCenter and a wide range of training material from the Boomi team located at here Boomi training. However we could not find many videos or guides for new users. With this in mind we created the 2 videos below to help new and potential Dell Boomi users get familiar with the environment.

Video 1 shows you how to install the Boomi Atom

Video 2 demonstrates how to use the atom by creating an environment, building simple process, deploying that process and executing on the atom

We hope this helps you on your journey into the world of Dell Boomi. For more information on the products mentioned above please view the following links:

Quickstart Data Warehouse Appliance

www.Delldatawarehouse.com

Dell Boomi

www.boomi.com, www.DellTechcenter.com/cloud,http://www.youtube.com/user/boomitraining

Dell Quest

www.quest.com, www.DellTechcenter.com/quest, www.toadworld.com/qsdw

In early December 2012, I announced a joint blog series with Mattias Sundling, Dell vKernel Evangelist, “How Better Manage Your Cloud Series” on #DellSolves focusing on a series of excellent white papers from the Dell VKernel team. The blog series has now come to a finish and I wanted to highlight the various blogs should you have missed one.

• Zombie Free Virtualized Storage
• vCPU Sizing Considerations
• Interview with Alex Rosemblat on Foglight vOPS
• Memory Management Metrics for VMware Environments  
• The Ins and Outs of IOPS
• Top 20 VMware Performance Metrics
• Performance and Capacity Planning
• The Science of Capacity Management
• Cloud Capacity Management Challenges

The response to these blogs was well received and I strongly encourage you to learn more about the various Dell vKernel solutions including Foglight vOPS.  

As always, if you have any ideas for a Dell Cloud blog series, please let me know. 

This week’s highlight: “Chef 11: Interview with Lucas Welch, Director of Communications at Opscode”

Can you explain briefly what Chef is?
Opscode Chef is an open-source systems integration framework built specifically for automating at scale. Using Ruby-based 'recipes' and 'cookbooks' of code commands, Chef makes it easy to deploy servers and scale applications throughout an entire infrastructure. Through a combination of configuration management and service-oriented architectures, Chef makes it easy to create fully automated infrastructure, while simplifying systems management. Chef is available as an open source download, a SaaS subscription, or as software installed behind the user's firewall.

What’s different about Chef compared to other automation solutions such as Puppet?
Puppet provides a declarative model for systems administration. It works well in small, mostly static environments, with low complexity. Opscode Chef provides a more flexible automation framework that allows enterprises to model their current workflow, at any scale, from development through to deployment and operations. Chef is based on primitives that create patterns that can be bent to any workflow/environment. Puppet is based on declaratives that can't be changed.

You recently released Chef 11. What are the major enhancements compared to the previous version?
Chef 11 was re-written from the ground up and leverages best-of-breed infrastructure technologies including the Erlang programming language and PostgreSQL database, delivering a rock-solid automation platform that can easily scale up to 10,000 nodes from a single Chef server – which is far greater than any previous Chef generation. Opscode is also two tiers of commercial support for open source Chef users (who are running Chef 11) covering both live system support and cookbook code troubleshooting. Other enhancements include:

• Comprehensive Testing: Chef 11 features the Pedant Testing Suite, delivering robust testing capabilities that can be executed with a single command, automating more than 2,000 end-to-end tests that ensure the Chef server is installed and working properly.
• Easy Installation: Chef 11 comes packaged with a 'one-click' installer, enabling easy and rapid deployment of Chef regardless of IT environment.
• Enhanced Windows Support: With the Pedant Testing Suite, Chef 11 includes automated testing across seven different versions of Windows, improving functionality and integration within Windows environments.

What resources (blogs, webinars, events) do you provide to get a solid technical understanding of Chef?
The most visible resource is the open source Chef Community, which is an important, active and vibrant online community where users can find recipes and cookbooks for everything from Windows to Hadoop, as well as a wide range of best practices, instruction guides, and more. However, the most important and helpful resource is likely our Documents page, where users can find out everything they need to know about Chef, from getting started, to basic deployments, to advanced use cases, recipes, cookbooks, patches and more. We're working hard to make our Documents page your one-stop-shop for all things Opscode Chef.

Who owns Chef?
Chef is an open source systems integration framework stewarded and licensed by Opscode.

Which language is Chef written in?
The back-end API is written in Erlang. The front-end is Ruby.

How is Chef licensed?
As a free, open source download, a SaaS solution, or as enterprise software installed behind the firewall. The latter two are commercial solutions sold through a subscription model.

How many contributors / commits do you count?
Over 1,000 individual contributors, 170+ corporate contributors and tens of thousands of registered users. Open Source Chef has been downloaded nearly 2 million times in less than four years of availability.

Which functionalities is the community particularly focused on?
That's a tough question to answer because the Chef Community is so diverse, active and large that there are few "core focus" points. That said, ensuring Chef works seamlessly with MySQL, Apache and the many public cloud providers are frequent topics of conversation and code contribution, as is Chef + Windows.

Can you give us examples of typical use cases for Chef?
We call it the "three C's of Chef": Configuration Management of servers in physical data centers, private and public clouds; Continuous Application Delivery in any environment; and Cloud Management for public, private and hybrid clouds. The vast majority of use cases for any of the three flavors of Chef fall into one or more of these categories. We have solution pages on each of these use case available here, as well as a wide range of customer success stories available here.

Which prerequisites should enterprises meet when interested in using Chef?
There are no specific prerequisites needed to use Chef. However, familiarity with Ruby within IT and your Dev teams will be helpful, as is a willingness to deploy infrastructure as code for greater agility and less risk.

Tell us about your collaboration with Dell and Chef integration in Crowbar – Dell’s deployment mechanism for OpenStack.
We're excited that Dell has embedded Opscode Chef in Crowbar and are very appreciative of the patches and cookbooks Dell has contributed back to the Chef Community. Dell has been a great partner in the OpenStack project and we look forward to more collaboration in the future.

Thank you, Lucas.
You’re welcome, Rafael.

Hadoop

Datameer: “Getting Started With D3.JS” by Christophe Viau
http://www.datameer.com/blog/howto/getting-started-with-d3-js.html

Pentaho: “Make Your Voice Heard! – 2013 Wisdom of Crowds Business Intelligence Market Study”
http://blog.pentaho.com/2013/03/12/make-your-voice-heard-2013-wisdom-of-crowds-business-intelligence-market-study/

OpenStack

Food Fight Show: “Hangops - Chef 11”
http://foodfight.libsyn.com/hangops-chef-11

Canonical: “Canonical and Dell expand joint PowerEdge Server engineering and support” by David Duffey
http://blog.canonical.com/2013/03/11/dell-poweredge-ubuntu-supported/

Cloudscaling: “OpenStack DIY, Distributions and Systems” by Azmir Mohamed
http://www.cloudscaling.com/blog/cloud-computing/openstack-diy-distributions-and-systems/

OpenStack Foundation: “OpenStack track in Cologne, Germany”
http://www.openstack.org/blog/2013/03/openstack-track-in-cologne-de/

OpenStack Foundation: Upcoming Events

• OpenStack Day Tokyo 2013 Mar 12, 2013 – Tokyo, Japan Details
• OpenStack Italia User Group Mar 14, 2013 – Milano, Italy Details
• PyCon 2013 & Job Fair Mar 14 – 17, 2013 – Santa Clara, CA Details
• OpenStack Meetup Mar 17, 2013 – Bangalore, India Details
• OpenStack Object Storage (Swift) API Sprint at PyCon 2013 Mar 18, 2013 – Santa Clara, CA Details
• OpenStack Paris Meetup Mar 19, 2013 – Paris, France Details
• World Hosting Days 2013 Mar 19 – 21, 2013 – Rust, Germany Details
• OpenStack Presentation at BALUG Mar 19, 2013 – San Francisco, CA RSVP
• OpenStack Developers Meetup Mar 21, 2013 – Atlanta, GA Details
• 1st OpenStack User Group Nordics meetup Apr 03, 2013 – Kista, Sweden Details
• OpenStack Summit April 2013 Apr 15 – 18, 2013 – Portland, OR Details
• OpenStack Israel May 27, 2013 – Tel-Aviv, Israel Coming Soon
• GigaOM Structure Jun 19 – 20, 2013 – San Francisco, CA Details

OpenStack Foundation: “Introducing the OpenStack Operations Guide”
http://www.openstack.org/blog/2013/03/introducing-the-openstack-operations-guide/

OpenStack Foundation: “A Pretty Good Place to Be” by Alan Clark
http://www.openstack.org/blog/2013/03/a-pretty-good-place-to-be/

Opscode: “Chef 11 Server: Up and Running” by Joshua Timberman
http://www.opscode.com/blog/2013/03/11/chef-11-server-up-and-running/

Opscode: “Demo: Continuous App Delivery w/Opscode Chef”
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EUrHpAJhCbU&feature=youtube_gdata

Opscode: “Turn it to 11: Upgrading From Chef 10” by John Keiser
http://www.opscode.com/blog/2013/03/12/5106/

Rackspace DevOps Blog: “Transitioning to LittleChef”
http://devops.rackspace.com/transitioning-to-littlechef.html#.UUGZnRzqlv8

Rackspace DevOps Blog: “Vagrant Now Supports Rackspace Open Cloud” by Tomaz Muraus
http://devops.rackspace.com/vagrant-now-supports-rackspace-open-cloud.html#.UULgQxzqlv8

Rackspace DevOps Blog: “Security on the Open Cloud” by Hart Hoover
http://devops.rackspace.com/security-on-the-open-cloud.html#.UULgQRzqlv8

SUSE: “Moving to Open Development: OpenStack / Crowbar / Chef on SUSE” by Andreas Jaeger
https://www.suse.com/blogs/moving-to-open-development-openstack-crowbar-chef-on-suse/

SUSE: “openSUSE release & openSUSE conference: registration and call for papers” by Marita Werner
https://www.suse.com/blogs/opensuse-release-opensuse-conference-registration-and-call-for-papers/

SwiftStack: “A Closer Look at Software-Defined Storage”
http://swiftstack.com/blog/2013/03/11/software-defined-storage/

Dell

“Crowbar 2 Planning 2013-03-14” by Rob Hirschfeld - Personal Youtube Channel
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ErH0ZJWUy_g&feature=youtube_gdata

Contributors

Please find detailed information on all contributors in our Wiki section.

Contact

Twitter: @RafaelKnuth
Email: rafael_knuth@dellteam.com

Dell TechCenter is pleased to have Rick Ashford from SUSE Linux join us on this Tuesday, March 19th, at 3PM CDT for our Tech Tuesday Chat. Rick has been a Technical Sales Specialist for SUSE Linux since 2008. He has been working with Linux and open-source software since 1998, and currently specializes in the OpenStack cloud platform and the SUSE ecosystem surrounding it. 

Reference:

1. SUSE Studio background read on Dell TechCenter.
2. Dell TechCenter Chat Portal.

Hi Community, here is my compilation of the most interesting technical blog posts written by members of the Microsoft MVP Community. The number of MVPs is growing well, I hope you enjoy their posts. @all MVPs If you'd like me to add your blog posts to my weekly compilation, please send me an email (florian_klaffenbach@dell.com) or reach out to me via Twitter (@FloKlaffenbach). Thanks!

Featured Posts of the Week!

Recommended Practices For Hyper-V by Aidan Finn

#Microsoft System Center 2012 SP1 Configuration Analyzer #sysctr #SCVMM by James van den Berg

VMM 2012 SP1 - Real World Example by Kristian Nese

Add drivers to Windows Server 2012 ISO Image by Thomas Maurer

Azure

Windows Azure Websites – Logging & ErrorHandling in German by Robert Mühsig

Hyper-V

Recommended Practices For Hyper-V by Aidan Finn

KB2806542 – "0x000000D1" Stop Error On A Virtual Machine In Windows Server 2012 by Aidan Finn

KB2795531 – You Cannot Log In To A VM Running Windows 8 Or Windows Server 2012 In A VDI Environment by Aidan Finn

KB2776366 – "0x0000000A" Stop Error On W2008 R2 Hyper-V Host That Has Many Passthrough Disks by Aidan Finn

The Windows Server 2012 Hyper-V Book Release FAQ by Aidan Finn

Checkliste: Best Practice für Hyper-V 2012 in German by Nils Kaczenski

Slow Network Performance When Using NIC Teaming in Windows Server 2012 Hyper-V by Lai Yoong Seng

Office 365

Feedback zu den ersten Umstellungen zum Dienstupgrade von Office 365 in German by Kerstin Rachfahl

PowerShell

#PSTip How to configure International settings in PowerShell 3.0 by Shay Levy

#PSTip Getting Enum values in PowerShell 3.0 by Shay Levy

Friday Fun PowerShell Puzzlers by Jeffery Hicks

PoshInternals: PoshExec by Adam Driscoll

System Center Core

System Center 2012 SP1 Update Rollup 2 Date by Aidan Finn

System Center Virtual Machine Manager

#Microsoft System Center 2012 SP1 Configuration Analyzer #sysctr #SCVMM by James van den Berg

VMM 2012 SP1 - Real World Example by Kristian Nese

 SQL Server

#PSTip Change SQL Server default backup folder location by Ravikanth Chaganti

Windows Client

Windows 8 Deployment Resources by Aidan Finn

Windows Server Core

PowerShell – Remove the WSUS client settings from the registry by Jeff Wouters

#PSTip Set Windows Firewall status in Windows Server 2012 and Windows 8 by Ravikanth Chaganti

Why Are You Still Deploying Windows Server 2003? by Aidan Finn

Huge Patch Rollup (KB2775511) Released For Windows 7 SP1 and Windows Server 2008 R2 SP1 by Aidan Finn

KB2793908–Leaving WS2012 Server Manager Open Can Cause A Memory Leak by Aidan Finn

KB2814923 – "0x0000009E" Stop Error & Volumes Can’t Be Brought Online On W2008 R2 Cluster by Aidan Finn

Unable to Add…/Edit…/Delete Domain Controllers computer set on TMG/ISA by Romeo Mlinar

Add drivers to Windows Server 2012 ISO Image by Thomas Maurer

IIS & Powershell: New-Website failed with “Index was outside the bounds of the array” in German by Robert Mühsig

Tools

Saying Goodbye To Old Hardware Responsibly by Didier van Hoye

Other MVPs I follow

James van den Berg - MVP for SCCDM System Center Cloud and DataCenter Management
Kristian Nese - MVP for System Center Cloud and Datacenter Management
Ravikanth Chaganti - MVP for PowerShell
Jan Egil Ring - MVP for PowerShell
Jeffery Hicks - MVP for PowerShell
Keith Hill - MVP for PowerShell
David Moravec - MVP for PowerShell
Aleksandar Nikolic - MVP for PowerShell
Shay Levy - MVP for PowerShell
Adam Driscoll - MVP for PowerShell
Marcelo Vighi - MVP for Exchange
Johan Veldhuis - MVP for Exchange
Lai Yoong Seng - MVP for Virtual Machine
Rob McShinsky - MVP for Virtual Machine
Hans Vredevoort - MVP for Virtual Machine
Leandro Carvalho - MVP for Virtual Machine
Didier van Hoye - MVP for Virtual Machine
Romeo Mlinar - MVP for Virtual Machine
Aidan Finn - MVP for Virtual Machine
Carsten Rachfahl - MVP for Virtual Machine
Thomas Maurer - MVP for Virtual Machine
Alessandro Cardoso - MVP for Virtual Machine
Steve Jain - MVP for Virtual Machine
Robert Smit - MVP for Cluster
Marcelo Sinic - MVP Windows Expert-IT Pro
Ulf B. Simon-Weidner - MVP for Windows Server - Directory Services
Meinolf Weber - MVP for Windows Server - Directory Services
Nils Kaczenski - MVP for Windows Server - Directory Services
Kerstin Rachfahl - MVP for Office 365
Matthias Wolf - MVP Group Policy
Robert Mühsig - MVP ASP.NET/IIS

No MVP but he should be one

Jeff Wouters - PowerShell

This blog post has been written by Dave Collier and Ananthanarayanan AK from iDRAC team.

When using the iDRAC7 virtual Console, you may find that many of the macros you’ve become accustomed to using have disappeared. Where did they go?

 With the release of the iDRAC7 1.30.30 firmwareor later, many of the macros have been eliminated. They’ve been replaced by an enhanced Pass all keystrokes to server feature, which is now enabled by default. With this new design, in most cases, rather than having to break your normal workflow by going to the virtual Console Macros menu, you can now just use your keyboard as if you were working directly on the server. The Macro keys are now only required when your client operating system would intercept the keystrokes instead of allowing them to pass. Since different client operating systems intercept different keystrokes, the virtual Console Macro menu is now client OS context sensitive, listing only the keystroke combinations that the client OS will intercept and act on. For example the Macros menu for all clients will show the <Ctrl><Alt><Del> and <Alt><SysRq>b key combinations. Linux clients add a cascade menu for <Ctrl><Alt><Fn> keys. Mac OS clients have the two standard key combinations plus 5 others.

The Pass all keystrokes to server feature can be disabled by going to the Tools menu, selecting Session Options and clearing the feature checkbox.

Note that, even if the Pass all keystrokes to server feature is disabled in this manner, when the virtual Console window is put in full-screen mode, all keystrokes will be passed to the server (temporarily re-enabling the feature). Also note that the state of the Pass all keystrokes to server feature is not persistent; each time virtual Console is launched, the feature will be defaulted to on.

We at Dell hope you find this enhanced and refined key combinations and Pass all keystrokes to server feature to streamline your server management processes. Please give us feedback on how we’re doing and what new features you’d like to see.

Additional Information

More information on iDRAC

This blog post has been written by Dave Collier from the iDRAC team.

With the release of iDRAC7 1.30.30 and later firmware for iDRAC7 on the 12th generation PowerEdge Servers, you no longer have to use the F9 key to exit Single Cursor mode. In fact, the Escape key is now the default to exit Single Cursor mode, but this is configurable.

 For those unfamiliar with Single Cursor Mode, depending on your Virtual Console’s mouse acceleration and your host system’s operating system (and configuration), there may be times when two mouse cursors are displayed on the Virtual Console. A quick and easy way to address this is to switch to Single Cursor Mode in the Virtual Console. To switch to Single Cursor mode, go to the Virtual Console’s Tools menu and select Single Cursor. Once in single cursor mode, the client cursor will be hidden;  only the managed host’s cursor will be displayed, and that cursor will be captured within the boundaries of the Virtual Console window. In order to reactivate the client’s cursor (to work outside the boundaries of the Virtual Console window) you’ll need to exit Single Cursor mode.

 As explained above, the Escape key is now the default for exiting Single Cursor mode. You may decide that the Escape key is not the best choice for the way you work… If that’s the case and you want to change the key, here’s how to do it: In Virtual Console, open the Tools menu and select Session Options. Click on the Mouse tab, and in the Termination Key field, select the key you want to use, then click Apply.

We at Dell hope you find that this feature enhancement helps streamline your server management processes. Please give us feedback on how we’re doing and what new features and enhancements you’d like to see.

Additional Information

More information on iDRAC