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In the battle between price and performance, who wins?To find out, turn the page.
NOVEMBER 2012 VOL. 18 NO. 11 REDMONDMAG.COM
1112red_CoverTip.indd 1 10/12/12 3:19 PM
With HP ProLiant Gen8 servers, you do.
The new HP ProLiant Gen8 servers, powered by AMD OpteronTM 6200 Series processors, let you deploy servers 3X faster with 45% fewer steps—all for 15% less per server.*
The power of HP Converged Infrastructure is here.
To learn more, see the ad on page 15 or visit hp.com/go/gen8bladeserver6
*For details on claim substantiation, visit hp.com/go/gen8bladeserver6
© Copyright 2012 Hewlett-Packard Development Company, L.P. The information contained herein is subject to change without notice. The only warranties for HP products and services are set forth in the express warranty statements accompanying such products and services. Nothing herein should be construed as constituting an additional warranty. HP shall not be liable for technical or editorial errors or omissions contained herein.
AMD, the AMD Arrow logo, AMD Opteron, and combinations thereof, are trademarks of AMD.
HP ProLiant Gen8 servers
1112red_CoverTip.indd 2 10/12/12 3:19 PM
Foley: What Comes After Windows 8?
NOVEMBER 2012 VOL. 18 NO. 11 REDMONDMAG.COM
Redmondspotlights21 keyMicrosoft technologypartners.
ndndhtshts
oft oft ogyogys.s. +
Special Report: Virtualizing Microsoft Exchange Server• The Ultimate VM • How VMware
Virtualizes Exchange
Inside Microsoft System Center Confi guration Manager 2012
Twice the virtualization. Lower management costs. None of the compromises.
1 Based on IBM testing and documented in IBM System x® Virtualization Server Consolidation sizing methodology. IBM Flex System x240 supports 2.7X more Peak Utilization Virtual Machines (VMs) than previous generation BladeCenter® HS22V.
2 Based on IDC white paper “The Economics of Virtualization: Moving Toward an Application-Based Cost Model,” Michelle Bailey, November 2009, http://www.vmware.com/fi les/pdf/Virtualization-application-based-cost-model-WP-EN.pdf
Optional IBM Flex System storage node available fourth quarter 2012.
IBM, the IBM logo, System x, BladeCenter, PureFlex, IBM Flex System Manager and IBM Flex System are trademarks or registered trademarks of International Business Machines Corporation, registered in many jurisdictions worldwide. Other product and service names might be trademarks of IBM or other companies. For a current list of IBM trademarks, see www.ibm.com/legal/copytrade.shtml. Intel, the Intel logo, Xeon, and Xeon Inside are trademarks or registered trademarks of Intel Corporation in the U.S. and/or other countries. ©International Business Machines Corporation 2012. All rights reserved.
You’ve been looking for IT solutions that meet the increasingly sophisticated demands on your infrastructure. IBM Flex System,™ featuring Intel® Xeon® processors, provides simplicity, flexibility and control in a system that doesn’t require compromise.
It supports up to twice the number of virtual machines as the previous generation of blade servers.1 And IBM Flex System Manager™ can help reduce management costs by providing visibility and control of all physical and virtual assets from a single vantage point.2
You can select individual elements and integrate them yourself or with the support of an IBM Business Partner. Or you can choose an IBM PureFlex™ System and leverage IBM’s expert integration for an even simpler experience. Learn more at ibm.com/systems/no_compromise
Learn why Clabby Analytics says IBM Flex System is the best blade offering in the market. Download the paper at ibm.com/systems/no_compromise
Untitled-3 3 10/1/12 12:44 PM
COVE R STORY R E DMON D R E PORT10 Windows 8 Faces
Audience of Skeptics Now that it has released its most radically revamped OS yet, Microsoft aims to generate enthusiasm for its post-PC platform.
TECH N ET PR ACTICAL APP14 Virtual Desktops
Done Your WayYou have many options for deploying a virtual infrastructure running Windows 7, depending on your needs and environment.
COLU M N S6 Barney’s Rubble:
Doug BarneyOld and New
36 Decision Maker: Don Jones To SharePoint or Not to SharePoint?
38 Windows Insider: Greg Shields Do-It-Yourself OS Refresh with Confi guration Manager 2012
40 Foley on Microsoft: Mary Jo FoleyAfter Windows 8, What’s Next in thePipeline from Microsoft?
ALSO IN THIS ISSUE 4 Redmondmag.com | 8 [email protected]
The Independent Voice of the Microsoft IT CommunityRedmond
ContentsNOVEMBER 2012
Third parties are the lifeblood of the Microsoft market. Redmond honors 21 of the best third-party vendors in our inaugural Third-Party All-Star Awards.
Page 18
F E ATU R E S
28 The Ultimate Virtualized Machine: Exchange Server
Virtualizing the Microsoft e-mail platform can yield infrastructure savings, and it’s not as risky as some IT pros fear—if done right.
R EVI EWS
Product Review 12 GFI Takes Systems Management
to the Cloud as a Service IT pros can quickly deploy GFI Cloud,
which includes such apps as Vipre Business and Network Server Monitor, as a subscription service.
Classroom Monitoring for Mac & Linux
Classroom Management for Windows
Desktop Security
Powerful Desktop Alerting
Remote Control for any Platform
Web-based Servicedesk
IT Asset ManagementNetSupport is delighted to be named a winner in the 2012 Redmond Third-Party All Star Awards.
Each day, NetSupport’s remote control and desktop management technology helps IT teams worldwide support in excess of 10.5 million systems. From powerful IT asset management to best-of-breed multi-platform remote control and more, the NetSupport range is guaranteed to deliver the tools any busy service desk needs to provide an efficient and cost-effective service and improve customer confidence.
Download a free trial and watch a product tour at www.netsupport-inc.com.
w: www.netsupport-inc.com | e: [email protected] | t: 1-888-665-0808 (toll free)
Award-winning Remote Management Tools for the 21st Century Service Desk
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Take a product tour - Scan the QR code with your smartphone
Untitled-2 1 10/2/12 11:55 AM
Privacy Settings Under FireThe Do Not Track (DNT) feature in Internet Explorer 10
has stirred up criticism from the Association of National Advertisers (ANA). Internet Explorer 10, which was expected to ship with Windows 8 in October, has DNT enabled as the default setting. Microsoft claims it’s the fi rst browser-maker company to feature such a default. Gladys Rama reports:
“According to the ANA, the Internet Explorer 10 DNT setting will adversely hurt the quality and quantity of Internet content … In a letter sent to Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer and other Redmond executives, the ANA board warned that the Internet Explorer 10 default DNT setting ‘will undercut the eff ectiveness of our members’ advertising and, as a result, drastically damage the online experience by reducing the Internet content and off erings that such advertising supports.’” Redmondmag.com/Rama100412
Big Blue CloudIn a mid-October announcement, IBM Corp. and
AT&T unveiled their new cloud partnership. Jeff rey Schwartz writes:
“IBM and AT&T are getting together to off er their shared customers cloud services that use IBM compute and storage infrastructure, with network connectivity provided by AT&T. Both companies will jointly sell the combined off ering to their respective enterprise customers—it’s targeted at giants in the Fortune 1,000—as an alternative to traditional [IaaS] cloud services, which often use standard Internet connections.”
Find out more about the new cloud off ering and its cutting-edge technology. Redmondmag.com/Schwartz091012
4 | November 2012 | Redmond | Redmondmag.com |
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What we once called FindIT codes are now easy URLs. You’ll see these embedded throughout Redmond so you can access any additional information quickly. Simply type in Redmondmag.com/ followed by the FindIT code into your URL address fi eld. (Note that all URLs do not have any spaces, and they are not case-sensitive.)
What AreFindIT Codes?
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IMAGES FROM SHUTTERSTOCK.COM
The inaugural Live! 360 conference will take place Dec. 10-14 in Orlando, Fla. This event is comprised of four co-located conferences, so you can mix and match your sessions as you like:■ Cloud & Virtualization Live! offers sessions covering today’s virtualization and cloud technologies. Develop your skill sets in evaluating, deploying and optimizing virtual and cloud-based environments.■ SharePoint Live! provides information and training for IT pros who must customize, deploy and maintain SharePoint Server and the SharePoint Foundation Web collaboration platform.■ SQL Server Live! includes educational sessions and knowledge sharing for SQL Server database management, performance tuning and troubleshooting.■ Visual Studio Live! will teach you how to maximize the development capabilities of Visual Studio and .NET from industry experts and Microsoft insiders.
Geared toward both the IT and developer communities, this new event will offer knowledge transfer, networking and leading-edge training to keep you up-to-date on current technologies with a look to the future.
Check out the agenda at Live360Events.com.
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6 | November 2012 | Redmond | Redmondmag.com |
I don’t know how many young gals’ and guys’ eyes have glazed over in years past when I waxed on about how much faster the 8086 processor was than the 8088, or told the joke about how many DIP switches it took to screw in a graphics card.
Unfortunately for the folks I bore with stories, I think it’s cool to remember the old times. Heck, I think it’s cool to remember just about anything.
The young have their own version of cool, and here I don’t quite keep up.
Here are some other signs I’m a bit of a computer fogie:
I still believe in printing, and actually use printing as a form of backup for key documents. (Tree huggers, I feel your pain, but I’ve also seen stories go completely poof!—and Word had no memory of their existence).
I’ve used a BlackBerry for far too long. Two years ago I dunked my phone in the ocean and got a free one, which locked me in for two more years. Now that I’m free from that obligation I’ll get an actual modern phone—I just haven’t decided which one.
I hang onto old machines—like Windows XP laptops—too long, and I bought an obsolete Mac iBook because it was so cheap. Too bad I can’t even load a modern browser.
Although I had a ton of Best Buy gift certifi cates from my kids, it took me years to break down and buy an iPad, which serves mainly as the family camera.
I use Hotmail (now Outlook.com) not Gmail (though with Google privacy that’s probably the cool way to go).
I actually use e-mail, not text. Until recently I thought the Mac was
more important than the iPhone. I don’t use hip apps such as the
FourSquare location service—and actually fi nd it kinda creepy.
I don’t use my phone for search, social networking or taking pictures.
This is probably because it’s still a BlackBerry.
I still think a laptop needs a CD drive, though I never use the drive.
I haven’t thrown out my LPs, cassettes, CDs or 8-track tapes.
But I also have a modern streak:I use Windows 7 but am jonesin’ for
Windows 8.I’m used to the Ribbon.I got the fi rst Video Toaster ever
built (look it up, it’s cool!). I use cloud backup and cloud fi le share.As editor in chief of Redmond
magazine, I get to see and hear about everything fi rst.
I have 3 iPods.I no longer read print newspapers.What are your most- and least-
modern traits? Let me know at [email protected].
Old and Newn the world of presidents, 51 years old is relatively young, though not so shocking these days. In the world of high tech, 51 is getting up there. And, yes, that’s
exactly how old I am.
by Doug BarneyBarney’sRubble
I
Redmond THE INDEPENDENT VOICE OF THE MICROSOFT IT COMMUNITY
R E D M O N D M AG .CO M
N OV E M B E R 2 0 1 2 ■ VO L . 1 8 ■ N O. 1 1
Editorial Staff
Editor in Chief Doug Barney Executive Editor Jeff rey Schwartz Group Managing Editor Wendy Hernandez Associate Managing Editor Katrina Carrasco
Contributing Editors
Mary Jo FoleyDon Jones
Greg Shields
Art Staff
Creative Director,
Media and Events Scott Shultz Art Director Brad Zerbel Senior Graphic Designer Alan Tao
Production Staff
Director, Print Production Jenny Hernandez-Asandas Print Production Coordinator Anna Lyn Bayaua
Online/Digital Media
Online News Editor Kurt Mackie Executive Editor, New Media Michael Domingo Senior Director,
Online Media & Events Becky Nagel Associate Web Editor Chris Paoli Site Administrator Shane Lee Designer Rodrigo Muñoz
Advertising and Sales
Group Publisher Dan LaBianca Associate Publisher,
Eastern Regional Sales Manager JD Holzgrefe Western Regional Bruce Halldorson Sales Manager
Microsoft Account Manager Danna Vedder Certifi cation & Training Al Tiano Advertising Sales Associate Tanya Egenolf
President Henry Allain Vice President,
New Content Initiatives Doug Barney Senior Director of Marketing
and Audience Engagement Michele Imgrund Director of Online Marketing Tracy Cook
President & Neal Vitale Chief Executive Offi cer
Senior Vice President & Richard Vitale Chief Financial Offi cer
Executive Vice President Michael J. Valenti
Vice President, Finance & Christopher M. Coates Administration
Vice President, Erik A. Lindgren Information Technology &
Application Development
Vice President, David F. Myers Event Operations
Chairman of the Board Jeff rey S. Klein
Reaching the Staff Staff may be reached via e-mail, telephone, fax, or mail.A list of editors and contact information is also available
online at Redmondmag.com. E-mail: To e-mail any member of the staff , please use the
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The opinions expressed within the articles and other contentsherein do not necessarily express those of the publisher.
ILLUSTRATION BY ALAN TAO
Top-10 Freeware Tools for IT Pros: Summer 2012
1. Active Directory Change ReporterThe tool that keeps tabs on what's going on inside your Active Directory, tracks changes to users, groups, OUs, and all other types of AD objects and lls ajor gaps found in native icrosoft tools This is the newly updated freeware edition with enhanced reporting capabilities g now the odi cation events indicate before and after values for all
odi ed settings e g login na e changed fro one value to anotherDownload page: www.url2open.com/8T Redmond review, Mar ‘12: www.url2open.com/8U ; Net-Security review, Jul ’11: www.url2open.com/8V
Active Directory Tools
4. File Server Change Reporter hange auditing tool that detects changes ade to les, folders and
per issions, and tracks newly created and deleted les Auto atically sends daily reports via e ailDownload page: www.url2open.com/8WNet-Security review, Apr ‘11: www.url2open.com/8X
2. Active Directory Object Restore WizardA part of Active Directory Change Reporter, this product provides granular object level and attribute level restore capabilities that allow ad inistrators to rollback unwanted changes e g ,
istakenly deleted users and OUs, odi ed group e berships, etc Does not re uire authoritative restore and involves no do ain controller downti e rovides uch ore capabilities than built in AD Recycle in on indows erver RDownload page: www.url2open.com/8YWinITPro review Mar ’10: www.url2open.com/8Z
5. Password Manageri ple web based self service solution that allows users to reset
forgotten passwords and unlock their accounts ncludes integration with indows logon pro pt window users can reset passwords if can t login assword anager is also a nalist in est of Tech d AwardsDownload page: www.url2open.com/9g Active Directory Tools review Jun ’11: www.url2open.com/90 ; Windows IT Pro review Dec ‘11: www.url2open.com/91
3. Group Policy Change ReporterThis roup olicy auditing tool a referred roduct in Red ond Readers Choice Awards sends daily reports detailing every single change ade to roup olicy con guration, such as changes to O settings, O links, creation and deletion of roup
olicy objects or e a ple, it will show changes in password policy, desktop lockdown settings, user rights and uch ore Download page: www.url2open.com/92WindowsITPro review May ‘10: www.url2open.com/93
6. Event Log Managerreeware event log consolidation, alerting and archiving tool
that collects event logs fro ultiple co puters across the networkAuto atically collects and archives event logs on schedule and i ediately alerts on critical eventsDownload page: www.url2open.com/94
7. Password E piration oti erThis tool auto atically re inds users to change their passwords before they e pire, helping keep busy helpdesk ad inistrators safe fro password reset calls ery useful for , O A and non indows usersDownload page: www.url2open.com/96Sys Admin Tales review Feb ‘09: www.url2open.com/97
8. Inactive Users Tracker This tool tracks down inactive user accounts e g , ter inated e ployees so you can easily disable the , or even re ove the entirely, thus eli inating potential security holes The tool sends reports on a regular schedule, showing what accounts have been inactive for a con gurable period of ti e e g , onths Download page: www.url2open.com/98 MS TechNet Magazine review May ’08: www.url2open.com/9a ; TechRepublic review May ‘10: www.url2open.com/99
9. VMware Change Reporterf you don t know what is being changed by your colleagues in the
ware infrastructure, it s very easy to get lost and iss changes that can a ect things that you are responsible for This and
indows T ro Co unity Choice and ditors est Award winner tracks and reports changes in ware irtual Center settings and per issions, such as newly created virtual achines, containers, alerts and ore Download page: www.url2open.com/9bTechTarget/SearchVirtual Desktop review Mar ‘09: www.url2open.com/9c
10. Non-owner Mailbox Access Reporterfor ExchangeA si ple tool that detects all situations when ad inistrators and other users have gained access to another user's ailbo , such as helpdesk e ployee accessing sensitive data in C O or ailbo esDownload page: www.url2open.com/9d
John Bagley“Independently reviewed by industry experts these free tools
proved to be useful for IT pros.”
Updated list of award-winning tools for IT infrastructure change auditing, security, identity and systems management. Reviewed by industry experts these free tools proved useful for thousands of system administrators, system engineers and other IT professionals all over the world.
JOHN BAGLEY [email protected] an award winning professional writer and independent consultant, who contributes to newspapers and aga ines
Scan this codewith your Smartphoneto get additional info
Untitled-6 1 5/31/12 4:20 PM
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8 | November 2012 | Redmond | Redmondmag.com |
reconsider its intended audience … IT itself.” Readers respond:
I thought this was obvious. Obviously not! Giving tech-savvy users and IT staff a way to spin up a VM, test their new software patch and destroy the VM when they’re done has to be a good thing. Wayne Hoggett
Australia
This article neglects certain aspects that put admins ill at ease. (It isn’t only end users getting access and using it incorrectly that makes us nervous.) My biggest concern—and the one I hear most often from admins—is that users never destroy the VMs, even as they go unused. Moreover, each of these “used” VMs continues to eat up licenses, disk space, compute resources (if left on) and more, with no real way to prevent these excesses. Chargeback systems, if imple-mented properly and rigorously, could limit such excesses, but that’s rarely the case when dealing with private clouds. Departments see VMs as virtual money that doesn’t really cost the company anything. It seems that only when VMs are outsourced with actual payouts does VM resource hogging come into play. Tom
Posted Online
The Name Game Goes OnIn her October Foley on Microsoft column, “Mastering the Microsoft Name Game,” Mary Jo Foley shared her running list of
Microsoft product name changes. A reader makes an additional suggestion:
You could possibly consider Windows Home Server in the Windows Server Essentials rebranding as well—although it’s a bit more than just a rebranding. Jim Wooley
Posted Online
Windows 8: More Than a ‘Dot Release’?In “Beyond the Hype: Why You Should Consider Windows 8” (Decision Maker, October 2012), Don Jones argued that Windows 8 is not a new desktop—instead, he wrote, consider it “a dashboard, not unlike the Windows Sidebar of Windows Vista or the Dashboard in Mac OS X.”
I agree with Jones’ premise, but I dis-agree with a lot of his article. Windows 8 could be considered a dashboard, but even better would be to think of it as a fl at start panel (and it should never have been made full-screen for desktop users). But I disagree with Jones’ assertion that “Windows 8 is very much a ‘dot release’ of Windows 7, in many ways, which was itself a ‘dot release’ of Windows Vista.”
Even without the “hoopla” about the OS that Jones mentions, businesses would still be excited about it. One
huge feature that will make certain businesses and departments drool is the inclusion of a client-side hypervisor. This allows developers to spin up, install, run and destroy full virtual networks without waiting for the infrastructure department to set up the services and servers for them.
Windows PowerShell integration is another big improvement that means admins can create script libraries to manage everything (not unlike batch scripts), and run them on any authenti-cated machine on or off the network. Sure, that was available before, but it needed to be installed previously—something not every user was willing to do if IT didn’t do it for them. Now it’s a non-issue; it’s just there.
There are other improvements as well. All of them make Windows 8 far more than a “dot release,” in my opinion. It’s probably the biggest addition of business functionality in a single release since the release of Windows 2000. It’s too bad the OS is mired in all the bungled advertising about tablet interfaces and social integration that no one in busi-ness particularly cares about—and that consumers will reject unless they fi nd their own reasons to embrace it. Tom
Posted Online
Perils of Self-Service VMs In his October Windows Insider column, “VM Self-Service: Right Feature, Wrong User,” Greg Shields discussed self-service VMs and their capacity to make admins nervous. He wrote: “Self-service needn’t get you sweating when you
It isn’t only end users getting access and using it incorrectly that makes us nervous.
IMAGE FROM SHUTTERSTOCK
PERF FOLD
PERF FOLDUntitled-3 2 10/11/12 4:07 PM
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u551v x6465
10 | November 2012 | Redmond | Redmondmag.com |
RedmondReport
By Jeff rey Schwartz
The post-PC era has offi cially begun for Microsoft and its stakeholders.
Windows 8 marks the launch of the most signifi cant change yet to the look of Windows and how people interact with it, setting the stage for a new crop of systems that function as tablets. Many are traditional PCs or laptops with touch-enabled displays, while others are tablets emulating the form-factors of the Apple iPad, Amazon Kindle Fire and Google Android-based devices.
With the Windows 8 launch celebra-tions now over, the real work for Microsoft has just begun.
Last month, I sat on a panel called “Advances in Mobile Devices: Tech-nologies, Products and Strategies” at the Interop conference and expo in New York, where I asked the audience of about 50 enterprise IT pros how many have iPads in their organiza-tions. About three-quarters raised their hands. When I asked how many plan to procure tablets running Windows 8 or Windows RT, only two or three people raised their hands.
End of an Era?Does such apathy mean that Windows 8 is DOA? Microsoft is intentionally shifting to address future growth in the mobile device space, and the success (or lack thereof) of Windows 8 will take years to play out, but analysts are nonetheless sensing the end of an era.
“Microsoft will not be dominant again, [but] Microsoft will be
relevant,” said Forrester Research Inc. analyst Frank Gillett, in an August podcast. “I think they’re going to drop to 50 percent or less of the operating systems used for work, but I think they’ll be the largest player and they still will be very important.”
Forrester forecasts sales of 350 mil-lion tablets in 2016, bringing the total sold to 750 million. While a healthy chunk of those tablets will be Windows-based, Gillett predicted
Microsoft will be challenged to sup-plant Apple’s lead in tablets—a view shared by most observers.
Longtime Microsoft follower, analyst Rick Sherlund of Nomura Securities, predicted Microsoft will go through a rough patch of negative sentiment this quarter with resistance to Windows 8. But he was bullish that will give way next year to enthusiasm for the new OS along with the forthcoming release next quarter of Office 2013. “There’s a whole new re-platforming going on that will deliver a lot more functionality over the next six to 12 months,” Sherlund told CNBC last month.
The Case for Windows 8Still, Microsoft has to win over enterprise decision makers such as my co-panelist, Brian Katz, head of mobility engineering at the global pharmaceutical giant Sanofi , which has 110,000 employees.
A growing number of employees at Sanofi use iPads, which the company supports. Though Katz said he does get
occasional requests for Windows tablets, it’s less expensive to give an employee an iPad and a lower-cost PC than a high-end Windows 7 tablet or Ultrabook. What will it take for Sanofi to get excited about Windows 8-based tablets?
“I need them to be priced signifi cantly less than an iPad,” Katz warned during the one-hour session. “The second piece is I need to be able to manage them with whatever management system my enterprise has. Microsoft has said,
‘Hey, you use [Windows] InTune.’ Let’s be clear, the enterprise part of me wants it to succeed.”
Katz is well aware that Windows RT and the Microsoft-branded Surface RT tablets won’t connect to Active Direc-tory domains and can’t be managed by Microsoft System Center. That’s an issue for him and most decision makers at large enterprises.
Another make-or-break factor for Windows 8 will be a strong ecosystem of apps that support the “Modern” UI, Katz said. That will mean a Windows Store that’s competitive with the Apple App Store and Google Play (formerly called Android Market).
The fi nal variable centers on the so-called “consumerization of IT” movement, where end users, not tech-nology decision makers, choose the computing devices they’ll use to do their jobs. That’s why Microsoft has to make the case for Windows 8 to consumers, and not just IT pros like Katz. Jeffrey Schwartz is executive editor of Redmond magazine.
Now that it has released its most radically revamped OS yet, Microsoft aims to generate enthusiasm for its post-PC platform.
Windows 8 Faces Audience of Skeptics
GetMoreOnlineFor more coverage of the Windows 8 launch, visit Redmondmag.com.
With the Windows 8 launch celebrations now over, the real work for Microsoft has just begun.
Part of the GFI Software family | Tel: +1 (888) 243-4329 | Fax: +1 (919) 379-3402 email: [email protected] | www.gficloud.com
www.gficloud.com/cldred
All products and company names herein may be trademarks of their respective owners.
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Untitled-2 1 10/2/12 11:06 AM
12 | November 2012 | Redmond | Redmondmag.com |
ProductReview
IT pros can quickly deploy GFI Cloud, which includes such apps as Vipre Business and Network Server Monitor, as a subscription service.
GFI Takes Systems Management to the Cloud as a Service
By Brien M. Posey
Although most software vendors are now providing cloud-based versions of their wares, suppliers
of network management software are making the transition slowly. The most obvious example is Microsoft, whose cloud-based management product—Windows Intune—doesn’t offer anywhere near the capabilities of the company’s on-premises-based System Center management suite.
At the same time, many other providers of systems management and security wares are taking the plunge to the cloud. One such example is GFI Software Development Ltd., which now offers GFI Cloud.
One problem that has long plagued network management software is its complexity. Over the years I’ve tried out a wide variety of network management products, and most take quite a bit of time to deploy, confi gure and begin using. The GFI Cloud Web site claims you can completely transform your IT management in 10 minutes with GFI Cloud. Given my past experience with network management software, I decided to put this claim to the test.
The Setup ProcessFor the purposes of this review, I set up a trial subscription to GFI Cloud. The GFI Cloud Web site contains a free trial link. The signup process con-sisted of working through a relatively simple wizard.
The wizard’s fi rst screen asked for some basic information such as an account name, password and phone number. The next screen asked in which services I was interested. You can choose GFI Vipre Business Online or GFI Network Server Monitor Online. I selected both options. The last step in the process was to down-load the management agent, which was a simple process.
I liked the registration process. Signing up for the free trial was not overly intrusive. When reviewing cloud-based products I often fi nd vendors will ask for a credit card up front. If you fail to
cancel your trial subscription within the allotted amount of time, you’re billed for a full subscription. Worse yet, some of these vendors make it diffi cult to cancel your trial subscription. The GFI Cloud signup process was like a breath of fresh air. Not only did the company not ask me for a credit-card number, I didn’t even have to provide my address or answer any obnoxious marketing questions.
Getting StartedIt took me roughly three minutes to set up a GFI Cloud trial account. When I logged in for the fi rst time, I was taken to the screen shown in Figure 1. The inter-face is fairly simple. One thing that I liked about it was that GFI doesn’t make you guess about what the next step is. The main screen contains a big button that you can click to add computers to your network.
GFI Cloud$12 per year, per computer, per serviceGFI Software Development Ltd. | 888-243-4329 | gfi cloud.com
Installation/Confi guration: 20% 8.5Features: 20% 9.0Ease of Use: 20% 9.5Administration: 20% 7.0Documentation: 20% 10.0
Overall: 8.8
Key:1: Virtually inoperable or nonexistent5: Average, performs adequately10: Exceptional
RedmondRating
Figure 1. This is the screen users see when logging in to GFI Cloud for the fi rst time.
| Redmondmag.com | Redmond | November 2012 | 13
ProductReview
When you click this button you’re taken to a screen that walks you through the agent deployment process. Unfortunately, this process isn’t automated. The screen instructs you to download an agent and install it onto the computers you want to manage. If you opt for the Advanced Install Option, you’re presented with the option of downloading a Group Policy-based installation package.
The initial setup process requires you to deploy a management agent to the computer from which you created the management account. The manual agent-deployment process that GFI uses is fi ne for small net-works, but may be more challenging for larger organizations. Hopefully a future release will let IT install it from any computer.
I decided to manually deploy the agent to a handful of VMs rather than attempt to create a Group Policy-based distribution. The systems that I chose to test the agent on were running either Windows Server 2012 or the Windows 8 beta. The system from which I set up the GFI Cloud account was running Windows 7 and received an agent as well.
By the time I fi nished installing an agent onto each lab system, the managed computers were already showing up on the main screen of the GFI Cloud interface. At this point I clicked on another computer on my network to see what GFI Cloud had to say about it. I received an error message, indicating that the agent was installed but no services were running because the services had not been licensed.
The license summary screen made it easy to apply a free trial license to all of the lab machines that had been provisioned with GFI Cloud agents. Incidentally, there are separate licenses for Vipre Business and for Network Server Monitor.
When I enabled the Vipre Business licenses, it took me to a page that gave me the option of automatically removing any antivirus software that might exist on the managed computers and automatically rebooting those computers if necessary. As I noted, the computers were not run-ning any antivirus software, but if they had been then the automatic removal process would have been handy.
The antivirus portion of the product worked fl awlessly. After the Vipre Business service had been installed, the computers on the network immediately registered the new antivirus software and began issuing notifi cation updates.
The GFI Cloud console confi rmed my lab computers were protected and the network-monitoring software also worked well. The software immediately detected an issue on one of my lab machines and provided a brief summary of the error.
In this particular case the error was easy to resolve. The Group Policy Client Service was not running on the lab computer. I was able to go to that computer, open the Service Control Manager and start the service. Some text explaining what the error meant and how to resolve it would help improve administration.
Also, GFI’s claims about being able to go from nothing to a fully managed network in 10 minutes are on par—assuming that the network is small. Manually deploying agents takes a couple of minutes for each machine. Deploying the agents via Group Policy would likely make the process a lot more effi cient.
Brien M. Posey is a seven-time Microsoft MVP with more than two decades of IT experience. He’s written thousands of articles and several dozen books on a wide variety of IT topics. Visit his Web site at brienposey.com.
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13. Publication Title: Redmond
14. Issue date for Circulation Data Below: September 2012
15. Extent & Nature of Circulation:
a. Total Number of Copies (Net Press Run) 71,511 60,646
b. Legitimate Paid/and or Requested Distribution 1. Outside County Paid/Requested Mail Subscriptions Stated on PS Form 3541 63,083 53,575 2. In-County Paid/Requested Mail Subscriptions Stated on PS Form 3541 0 0 3. Sales Through Dealers and Carriers, Street Vendors, Counter Sales, and Other Paid or Requested Distribution Outside USPS® 36 26 4. Requested Copies Distributed by Other Mail Classes Through the USPS 0 0
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d. Nonrequested Distribution 1. Outside County Nonrequested Copies Stated on PS Form 3541 7,055 6,647 2. In-County Nonrequested Copies Distribution Stated on PS Form 3541 0 0 3. Nonrequested Copies Distribution Through the USPS by Other Classes of Mail 0 0 4. Nonrequested Copies Distributed Outside the Mail 1,050 141
e. Total Nonrequested Distribution 8,105 6,788
f. Total Distribution 71,224 60,389
g. Copies not Distributed 287 257
h. Total 71,511 60,646
i. Percent paid and/or Requested Circulation 88.62% 88.76%
x Total Circulation includes elections copies. Report circulation on PS Form 3526X worksheet.
16. Publication of Statement of Ownership for a Requester Publication is required and will be printed in the November 2012 issue of this publication.
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If you are using PS Form 3526R and claiming electronic copies complete below:Requested and Paid Electronic Copies 27,499 34,405
Total Requested and Paid Print Copies (Line 15C) + Paid Electronic Copies 90,618 88,006
Total Requested Copy Distribution (Line 15F) + Paid Electronic Copies 98,723 94,794
Percent Paid and/or Requested Circulation (Both Print & Electronic Copies) 91.79% 92.84%
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14 | November 2012 | Redmond | Redmondmag.com |
Adapted from “Microsoft Windows 7 Administrator’s Reference” (Syngress, an imprint of Elsevier)
No two businesses are the same, and no two businesses’ needs and environments are the same.
Fortunately, there’s considerable fl exibility when it comes to virtualization. Windows 7 supports several alternative deployment models for virtual desktops.
VDI or Centralized Virtual DesktopsVirtual Desktop Infrastructure (VDI) is one such alternative desktop deployment model for Windows 7. Instead of run-ning a local copy on each user’s desktop, you create and store a common image on one or more servers in the datacenter. You then deploy this image to a server running a hypervisor.
There are several benefi ts to implementing a VDI: • You can rapidly deploy a common supported desktop
environment by creating a single Windows 7 desktop image. Use that image to deploy virtual machines (VMs) on your server hypervisor. In that way, a single server can support many virtual desktops. Each of these desktops reacts as a standalone Windows 7 desktop. Unlike using Remote Desktop Services (RDS), the users connecting to a virtual desktop can have full access to all features of that VM without impacting the other virtual desktops or the host server. Your users could still use the Remote Desktop Connection client to connect to their virtual desktop.
• You can make centralized updates and changes to Windows 7 by updating the desktop image, then redeploying that updated image to all your users. The next time they log on, they’ll have the updated image with the rest of their settings maintained.
• If there’s a problem with an update that requires a roll-back to a previous version of the desktop image, you can
do that quickly and easily. Save a copy of the previous image before performing the update. That way, you can roll back by redeploying the previous image if needed. When your users log off and log back on, they’ll receive the previous image.
There are some barriers to implementing a VDI. The start-up costs can be high, and the return on investment is longer than on a server virtualization project. This is a business decision that you shouldn’t take lightly. Plan and establish a budget before embarking on the project. Here are some specifi c areas you need to consider:
• VDI may not reduce desktop costs because any savings are typically redirected into server, network and storage infrastructure. You will have to make improvements in desktop management and user management to support large numbers of virtual desktops. Applying Group Policy set-
tings through Active Directory to redirect user folders and implementing roaming profi les will increase the fl exibility of a VDI design. Consider VDI when desktop fl exibility is more important than immediate cost savings.
• A user connected to a virtual desktop requires a constant network connection. Whether this is through a Local Area Network, across a Wide Area Network (WAN) or a remote connection, the user must be connected to the virtual desk-top to be productive. If a user must be able to operate in a disconnected environment, VDI won’t be a suitable solu-tion. If your users are not mobile or only work when they’re connected to the network, this could be a viable solution.
Virtual Desktops Done Your Way
MAGAZINE PracticalApp Content provided by TechNet Magazine, Microsoft’s premier publication for IT Professionals
You have many options for deploying a virtual infrastructure running Windows 7, depending on your needs and environment. By Jorge Orchilles
If there’s a problem with an update that requires a roll-back to a previous version of the desktop image, you can do that quickly and easily.
The new HP ProLiant BL465c Gen8 server blade, powered by AMD OpteronTM 6200 Series processors, offers 150 customer-inspired design innovations and features Intelligent Provisioning so you can deploy servers 3X faster with 45% fewer steps.* All for 15% less per server.* It adds up to more innovation and performance, for less.
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*For details on claim substantiations, visit hp.com/go/gen8bladeserver6
© Copyright 2012 Hewlett-Packard Development Company, L.P. The information contained herein is subject to change without notice. The only warranties for HP products and services are set forth in the express warranty statements accompanying such products and services. Nothing herein should be construed as constituting an additional warranty. HP shall not be liable for technical or editorial errors or omissions contained herein.
AMD, the AMD Arrow logo, AMD Opteron, and combinations thereof, are trademarks of AMD.
If “lowest cost per virtual machine” doesn’t get you, its 150 design innovations will.
HP ProLiant BL465c Gen8 server blade
Untitled-1 1 10/1/12 12:46 PM
16 | November 2012 | Redmond | Redmondmag.com |
• Planning your VDI deployment is critical to the project’s success because it can be complex. It’s also a signifi cant infrastructure investment. Defi ning which users will benefi t the most and outlining the requisite virtualization components is crucial for success.
Distributed Virtual DesktopsA distributed desktop model lets you deploy different desktop images to a specifi c group of users based on their location or job function. This model can be useful if you have a number of different types of users in a single location or users in a variety of locations such as branch offi ces. Each group will have different desktop requirements or might be connected by slow or intermittent links. The remote users may have a fi le server that stores their fi les and information.
Another distributed desktop design could include setting up a pre-execution environment. This method lets you deploy an image to a server with a desktop to download and boot at startup. You can develop and assign several desktop images. When a user starts up his desktop, the image is streamed to the device. Changing a desktop image is as simple as reconfi g-uring the device’s target image and restarting the desktop.
This is a viable design if you must run applications from the local desktop. Some applications require a hardware dongle or a specifi c Media Access Control address for licensing. Applications that require special graphics or additional cards or adapters not supported within a virtual environment are also good candidates for this type of deployment.
The drawbacks and benefi ts are as follows:• You must load the individual images with any applications
or drivers required for your desktops. Unless all desktops are identical, you might need to add different drivers for each type of hardware for which you’re preparing the image.
• You can confi gure a different image to load on a desktop as a shift changes or new updates are confi gured. This is
particularly useful because a new image is loaded each time the desktop is rebooted. Viruses and malware are limited in their effectiveness because the entire desktop image is reloaded each time the desktop is reloaded.
The VDI image is received from the primary datacenter. The management station controls which images are assigned to local and remote users. Local users connect to the image they’re assigned from the VDI server in the datacenter.
Therefore, this model is best used with a local server that holds the desktop images. Loading a desktop image over a WAN is a slow process that will discourage remote users
from rebooting their desktops. In this scenario, consider using either a local VDI or a distributed VDI solution.
You can also distribute desktops using Microsoft System Center Confi guration Manager. You can use this to distribute both applications and desktops to user’s desktops, both local and remote. This model will actually install the desktop OS on the targeted desktop. This is a fairly complex process, so you’ll have to plan and test the solution for optimum success. You can also use this management solution in conjunction with System Center Virtual Machine Manager 2008 to create, deploy and manage desktops in a distributed environment.
When it comes to deploying a user’s desktop, there are several options. One design rarely fi ts all situations. You can see from these different scenarios that you can also use a combination of all these options to meet your specifi c needs.
Jorge Orchilles began his networking career as a network administrator for the small private school he attended. He’s currently a security operating center analyst, and recently completed his Master of Science degree in management information systems at Florida International University.
©2011 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. Printed with permission from Syngress, an imprint of Elsevier. Copyright 2011. “Microsoft Windows 7 Administrator’s Reference” by Jorge Orchilles. For more information on this title and other similar books, please visit elsevierdirect.com.
There are some barriers to implementing a VDI. The start-up costs can be high, and the return on investment is longer than on a server virtualization project.
Loading a desktop image over a WAN is a slow process that will discourage remote users from rebooting their desktops.
RelatedContentGeek of All Trades: Windows 7 Deployment in 7 Easy Steps (bit.ly/dwTkgp)Windows 7: A Modern Guide to Desktop Deployment (bit.ly/9AYOAa)Cloud Computing: Cloud Provisioning and Storage (bit.ly/UttGQk)
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Untitled-2 1 10/12/12 11:30 AM
C O V E R S T O R Y | Third-Party All-Stars
18 | November 2012 | Redmond | Redmondmag.com | IMAGE FROM SHUTTERSTOCK
Third parties are the lifeblood of the Microsoft market.
Redmond honors 21 of the best third-party vendors in
our inaugural Third-Party All-Star Awards.
Redmond magazine presents the fi rst Third-
Party All-Star Awards. In this special report,
we pay tribute to the companies that innovate,
take the risks, and invent the solutions that
make it easier to deploy and manage core
Microsoft technologies. We showcase 21
companies chosen for this honor (listed in
alphabetical order, except for Platform Vendor
of the Year), which is based on overall
technology, business success, product
portfolio and contribution to the Microsoft
ecosystem, rather than any single product.
Th rd part es are the l feblood of the Microsoft marketThird parties are the lifeb ood of the Microsoft market
By Doug Barney and Jeff rey Schwartz
I N A U G U R A L
| Redmondmag.com | Redmond | November 2012 | 19
VMware: Platform Vendor of the YearChoosing VMware Inc. as the Third-Party All-Star Platform Vendor of the Year was tough. System infrastructure providers have made huge leaps in their efforts to redefi ne the datacenter. But VMware, responsible for putting commodity server virtualization on the map, provides the infrastructure for 80 percent of x86-class virtual systems, according to Gartner Inc. And VMware continues to play a key role in setting the agenda for the datacenter and cloud computing.
If you’re wondering why a fi erce Microsoft rival such as VMware is a Third-Party All-Star—much less Platform Vendor of the Year—keep in mind the two companies are also partners. VMware is a member of the Microsoft Server Vir-tualization Validation Program. (Granted, the partnership is out of deference to customers who run their Microsoft sys-tems and applications on VMware infrastructures.)
VMware, which claims 400,000 customers, delivered the ninth version of its VM infrastructure, vSphere 5.1, which supports larger VMs (64 CPUs and 1TB of vRAM) and improved networking, availability, security and automation. The new VM infrastructure is a key component to the new vCloud Suite 5.1, its fi rst-ever bundle, which includes vCloud
Director 5.1, software that creates virtual datacenters enabling vSphere clusters of up to 30,000 VMs; vCloud Networking and Security 5.1, a collection of software-defi ned networking (SDN) features that allows the provisioning of virtual net-works; and vCenter Site Recovery 5.1, providing improved data protection of apps running on the new SDN features.
The company is clearly betting big that virtualizing the entire network fabric is the next logical step in automating the datacenter. VMware has invested $1.26 billion to acquire SDN pioneer Nicira Inc.
New CEO Pat Gelsinger gave his vision for the software-defi ned datacenter in his keynote address at the company’s annual VMworld conference back in August. “All infrastruc-ture is virtualized and delivered as a service,” Gelsinger said. “All that infrastructure is delivered as a service and the auto-mation is entirely done by software.” —J.S.
APC Keeps Windows Servers Up and Cool
Virtualization and cloud computing have changed the way servers are deployed in datacenters. After all, by running apps and systems on distributed VMs rather than on physical machines, organizations are using fewer servers these days.
As a result, many datacenter managers are reconfi guring their datacenters to ensure power and cooling are aligned with the placement of consolidated computing hardware. APC, acquired by Schneider Electric in 2007, is a leading sup-plier of uninterruptible power supplies (UPSes) and cooling systems for datacenters, and has wisely focused on this trend.
For example, through its parent company, Schneider, APC will offer datacenter assessments, review fl oor plans and come
up with recommendations for putting in UPSes and special-ized air conditioning systems that apply what it calls “in-row” cooling. When a specifi c server gets too hot, the cooling system targets that system rather than the entire datacenter.
Organizations that apply these in-row cooling systems can reduce their power costs by 30 percent, says Gordon Lord, director of APC partner programs. “You’re not seeing as many people build out new datacenters, but people are getting more productive and more effi cient,” Lord says.
That’s especially the case for infrastructures running Microsoft Windows Server managed by System Center. IT pros can use System Center to access APC StruxureWare, sophisticated software that monitors all aspects of a datacen-ter’s environmental conditions that could impact its physical security, power and temperature. That tight integration allows administrators to ensure power and cooling systems are aligned with the virtual infrastructure. —J.S.
BDNA Looks to Normalize Data for IT Pros
BDNA Corp. is hoping its recently released Technopedia Community Edition hardware and software catalog will be to IT pros what Apple iTunes is to those who use iPods and iPhones.
Released in June, BDNA Technopedia Community Edition is a catalog of 450,000 hardware and software prod-ucts from more than 11,000 vendors that covers the gamut of service management and enterprise architecture. BDNA says Technopedia Community Edition hosts 19 million various market data points such as end-of-life support dates, license data, power specifi cations and various other support information.
Enterprise customers who want real-time updates can sub-scribe to the paid versions. BDNA says it releases 1,000 daily updates. Moreover, BDNA recently released Technopedia Normalize, which allows IT pros to apply a common and accurate nomenclature for all products that might be in an organization’s repositories, such as Microsoft System Center Confi guration Manager.
BDNA CEO Constantin Delivanis gives the example of Windows 7, noting companies may have it catalogued as Win7, MS Windows 7 or MS7. Technopedia Normalize applies the correct name—for instance, Microsoft Windows 7—within the various silos. “What Normalize does is very simple. It [examines and repairs] the DLLs and you give it the right name, Microsoft Windows 7,” Delivanis says.
Delivanis would like to see Technopedia Community Edition become the de facto industry standard. “We want to create the standard nomenclature in the industry,” he says. —J.S.
“All infrastructure is virtualized and delivered as a service.”
Pat Gelsinger, CEO, VMware Inc.
“You’re not seeing as many people build out new datacenters, but people are getting more productive and more effi cient.”
Gordon Lord, Director of Partner Programs, APC
C O V E R S T O R Y | Third-Party All-Stars
20 | November 2012 | Redmond | Redmondmag.com |
BeyondTrust Looks Beyond
Privilege Management
BeyondTrust Software Inc. started off 25 years ago as a com-pany called Symark, which provided software for Digital Equipment Corp. VAX/VMS environments. Windows users may recognize the more-recent acquisition of a company called AutoProf, which changed its name to Desktop Standard. BeyondTrust acquired a chunk of that outfi t in 2009—the Windows chunk—the same year it changed its name from Symark to BeyondTrust.
Now BeyondTrust calls itself “the global leader in securing the perimeter within to mitigate internal threat and the misuse of privileges.” Most of its business revolves around privilege management, with the company claiming that most large companies today use BeyondTrust software.
There’s more to BeyondTrust than privilege management. “The thing we’re most proud of at BeyondTrust is the work we’ve done—and continue to do—on bringing technologies from multiple security disciplines together into one cohesive platform to solve complex security challenges in a way that a single good feature or element simply cannot,” says Marc Maiffret, BeyondTrust CTO. —D.B.
Centrify Brings Mobile Devices to Active Directory
Centrify Corp. loves Active Directory and Windows as a base to manage heterogeneous machines. And, most recently, it has embraced cloud and mobile devices.
The core of the Centrify business is using Active Directory to manage Linux, Unix and Mac computers. “Our technology spans from mobile devices to mainframes and from on-premises to the cloud, and we span more than 400-plus different oper-ating systems,” says co-founder and CEO Tom Kemp.
The Centrify product line handles authentication, role-based authorization, compliance reporting and tracking, data encryption, and system isolation. Centrify has recently begun supporting smartphones and tablets via its cloud-based DirectControl for Mobile. This cloud service can manage, secure and enroll mobile devices without them being attached to the enterprise network. It extends Active Directory to mobile devices, letting IT join them to an Active Directory domain, apply Group Policies, support Active Directory-based mobile authentication and more, according to Kemp.
Centrify has plenty in the works, including “more neat stuff in the mobile and cloud/SaaS [Software as a Service] space,” Kemp says. “We’ve doubled the size of our engineering orga-nization in the last two years, and have been working on some products for more than two years that are about to be released.”
—D.B.
Citrix Plays a Key Role in Virtualization
When it comes to the history of virtualization, Citrix Systems Inc. tends to get short shrift. True afi cionados know that IBM Corp. pioneered virtualization on its System/360 Model 67 mainframe. However, since VMware launched in the late 1990s, VMware has often been credited with inventing x86-style server and PC virtualization.
But back in 1989, Citrix was already serving desktop applica-tions to dumb clients and PCs. This was based on the IBM
OS/2 OS, and marks the year that Citrix and Microsoft began a long-term relationship that’s still in force today.
What began as a simple technology—Independent Com-puting Architecture, used in products such as WinFrame and later MetaFrame, which delivered access to server-based apps to PC-based clients—has grown into a full and complete system addressing all aspects of virtual client computing.
Along the way Citrix acquired XenSource, and now main-tains a hypervisor critical for Linux and Unix shops in the form of XenServer.
Much of the product set now rolls up into the Citrix Delivery Center, with which the company aims to simplify IT infra-structure through virtualization. Fully implemented, your shop can have one copy of Windows, one copy of the applica-tion, one password for each individual, one instance of the data and one image of the workload. —D.B.
With New Name, Condusiv Broadens Scope
Founded in 1981, Condusiv Technologies Corp. is now more than 30 years old, having started in the old VAX/VMS market. But in some ways the company is still a baby. That’s because it reinvented itself in September of last year, changing its name from Diskeeper to Condusiv.
That’s when Jerry Baldwin took over as CEO and did a top-to-bottom reshape. In Baldwin’s mind, a great company had done things the same way for too long. Instead of focusing 100 percent on one product, Diskeeper, Baldwin widened the company’s mission to include hardware longevity and opera-tional effi ciency.
With a broader product line, which product is Baldwin most proud of? While he takes pride in all of them, Baldwin gives a nod to the recently released Diskeeper 12. “Diskeeper remains our fl agship product,” he says. “Diskeeper 12 features a new, fresh, easy-to-use UI redesign that’s getting strong customer reviews. Today, Diskeeper remains the primary solution to I/O bottlenecks, and optimizing and maintaining application operation effi ciency and equipment longevity throughout the entire IT ecosystem.”
Looking ahead, Condusiv aims to expand its optimization story to new areas. “We’re myopically focused on optimizing performance,” Baldwin says. —D.B.
Next Step for GFI: The Cloud
Walter Scott, GFI Software president and CEO, is an entre-preneurs’ entrepreneur. He was CEO of Imceda, for which Quest paid $61 million.
Later, Scott took Acronis International GmbH from $20 million in revenue to $120 million, where it was when he left. The Maine native later took over GFI, where he engineered the acquisition of Sunbelt Software with its popular Vipre line of security software.
GFI itself, founded in 1992, has two main product lines. The GFI line that existed before the Sunbelt deal still includes
“We’re myopically focused on optimizing performance.”
Jerry Baldwin, CEO, Condusiv Technologies Corp.
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22 | November 2012 | Redmond | Redmondmag.com |
networking and security tools such as GFI Network Server Monitor, GFI EndPointSecurity, GFI LanGuard and GFI EventsManager. On the Web and mail security side, there’s GFI WebMonitor and GFI MailEssentials (security that includes spam protection). And for archiving, fax and backup there’s GFI MailArchiver and GFI FaxMaker.
The Sunbelt line, now under the GFI brand, includes Vipre Antivirus and Vipre Mobile Security. The company also has tools for service providers, OEMs and developers.
The cloud is the next frontier. The company recently debuted GFI Cloud, which includes Vipre for anti-malware and GFI Network Server Monitor Online. This software installs and gets to work in minutes (see this month’s product review, “GFI Takes Systems Management to the Cloud as a Service,” p. 12).
Scott has a clear plan for the future, which includes “more and more services on the GFI Cloud platform; consolidation and innovation of our existing on-premises products; the intro-duction of new technologies and services through internal development; and, where necessary, acquisition.” —D.B.
Kemp’s New Load-Balancing Act
Kemp Technologies Inc. has prospered by offering its load-balancing appliances to Microsoft Exchange shops. Kemp is now looking to expand the use of its load-balancing software—also known as app delivery controllers, or ADCs—to other key components in the Microsoft stack, as well as expand into infrastructure from Oracle Corp. and VMware.
“We’re working on a number of initiatives,” says executive vice president and co-founder Peter Melerud. The push to expand is the result of a $16 million investment in the com-pany led by Edison Ventures, joined by Kennet Partners and ORIX Venture Finance. The investment will help Kemp, based in Yaphank, N.Y., compete with rivals F5 Networks Inc., Cisco Systems Inc. and Citrix, among others.
On the product side, Kemp recently added global traffi c management and load balancing to its GEO LoadMaster product, which is optimized for various Microsoft workloads, notably Exchange Server. —J.S.
LinkTek Takes on Data Migration
When LinkTek Corp. launched its fi rst product a decade ago, it tackled a key pain point for webmasters: broken links. The company’s debut product, introduced at the now-defunct InternetWorld show in New York, was called LinkFixer Plus, an app that automatically fi xed broken links in HTML fi les.
The Clearwater, Fla.-based company has come a long way in the past 10 years. While it still offers the software to fi x broken Web links, the focus these days is on data migration. As enterprises picked up the pace in rolling out upgrades to Mi-crosoft Offi ce, customers experienced the same issues as-sociated with broken Web links: links in fi les were broken when users shared them with different versions of the suite.
Later releases took it up a notch, helping organizations ensure the portability of Word and Excel macros across Offi ce versions. Today LinkTek covers a variety of apps including AutoCAD, Adobe Acrobat, PageMaker and InDesign.
Driving demand these days is the call for moving all these document types into Microsoft SharePoint or other
document-management systems, says Ed Clark, LinkTek president and COO. The other key driver is companies virtu-alizing their server environments, Clark says.
“When they fi rst make the move, it’s very normal for there to be a lot of broken links,” Clark says. “Virtualization is just another way that companies will have broken links that we can help them fi x, even hundreds or thousands at a time.”
The company just rolled out a new version of its suite, now called LinkFixer Advanced. —J.S.
LogMeIn Eyes Extended Cloud Footprint
Two years after releasing its join.me screen-sharing and col-laboration tool, join.me has become the fastest-growing product for LogMeIn Inc.
More than 50 million people use join.me, but most of them use the free version. That’s fi ne by LogMeIn CEO Michael Simon, who says those who use the premium service offset the cost of offering the free version.
LogMeIn, which has roots as a remote PC access service, is now a full-fl edged cloud SaaS provider. In addition to screen
sharing and conferencing, LogMeIn offers SaaS-based data protection and security, and it’s jumping into the fi le storage service with the launch of Cubby, currently in beta.
Simon is confi dent that the Bring Your Own Device (BYOD) trend will propel demand for his company’s services. Though he and all LogMeIn employees use Apple iPads, Simon believes Windows 8 and Windows RT will ultimately extend the use of tablets. “I think there’s a tremendous gap in the market when it comes to devices and content creation,” Simon says. “Time will tell whether Microsoft has solved it.” —J.S.
Metalogix Rides SharePoint and Cloud Wave
As enterprises look to consolidate their SharePoint stores and utilize the various cloud options for the collaboration platform, Metalogix Software is seeing demand soar. The company is micro-focused on helping organizations manage their Microsoft Exchange and SharePoint environments on-premises and in the cloud. Its tools support the various iterations of SharePoint, including Offi ce 365, and the company stands to benefi t from the forthcoming release of SharePoint 2013 and its ability to run instances on Microsoft Windows Azure VM roles.
The company’s key business is focused on SharePoint manage-ment, migration, storage, archiving and protection. Earlier this year, Metalogix acquired the Syntergy Inc. SharePoint portfolio. The move gave Metalogix a key SharePoint-replication tool, allowing organizations to synchronize their SharePoint content between data farms.
The company has experienced meteoric growth—799 per-cent over the last three years—landing it on the Inc. 500
“There’s a tremendous gap in the market when it comes to devices and content creation. Time will tell whether Microsoft has solved it.”
Michael Simon, CEO, LogMeIn Inc.
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annual list of fastest-growing companies. Inc. reported the 11-year-old venture-backed company grew from $2.8 million in revenues in 2008 with just 40 employees to $25.2 million last year and a staff of 135.
Metalogix CEO Steven Murphy says the growth of SharePoint and the numerous emerging options for leveraging the cloud are fueling his company’s expansion.
“It’s getting to the point where customers are looking for a better way to store, optimize and to generally manage their SharePoint environments to reduce their storage costs and improve the service delivery,” Murphy says. —J.S.
NetApp Boosts the Microsoft
Private Cloud Strategy
It’s no surprise Microsoft works closely with all of the major storage hardware vendors, but its relationship with NetApp stood out back in June when NetApp was named the Microsoft Private Cloud Partner of the Year. The award wasn’t just one of those gratuitous accolades that gave NetApp an excuse to put out a press release. Rather, it underscored the tight integra-tion between Microsoft’s 2012 releases of SQL Server, System Center and the recently launched Windows Server with the NetApp Data OnTap storage OS.
Phil Brotherton, vice president, Enterprise Software Eco-system at NetApp, says the company has placed great emphasis on the integration of Windows Server and System Center with Data OnTap to ensure it’s fl exible, multi-tenant, and capable of automation and orchestration. The Microsoft award gave NetApp an opportunity to draw attention to the work it has done with Redmond, while also letting it showcase some key private cloud implementations.
Meanwhile, the release this year of SQL Server 2012 and support for Microsoft Server Message Block 2.1 is enabling NetApp to help customers build private clouds, which organizations can use to deploy systems that let them incor-porate big data for business intelligence and analytics. Says Brotherton, “Basically it’s cranking up performance of the storage tier to support more read-oriented use cases.” —J.S.
NetSupport Jumps on the BYOD Bandwagon
During the economic downturn in 2008, business plateaued for NetSupport Inc. This was unusual for the otherwise-growing company that has sold 12 million licenses of its fl agship NetSupport Manager, which is used to manage desktops and notebook PCs. Fortunately, an improved economy and the BYOD movement have NetSupport back on a growth trajectory.
“A lot of our customer base has been asking for mobile sup-port,” says Marcus Kingsley, NetSupport CEO. “Up until this point, support for remote devices was something they wanted, but they didn’t know how to integrate it and use it. We looked at the limitations mobile devices have and we took a little bit of time to come to market, but now we have some-thing that mirrors as much as it can the Windows version.”
For enterprises, NetSupport has a broad range of products, including desktop and device support, security and notifi cation. Now NetSupport plans to ride the mobile wave, thanks to the addition of iOS, Android and Windows 8 support. “BYOD is
gaining pace,” Kingsley says. “We want to try and add extra functionality within the existing solution set.” —J.S.
NetWrix Micro-Focused on
Change Management
NetWrix Corp., now in its sixth year, is almost 100 percent focused on change management and auditing. And in these days of more and more compliance requirements—not to mention the constant need for security—tracking changes to your environment is more critical than ever.
The NetWrix line has a Windows leaning, but goes well beyond Microsoft. It can track changes in Exchange Server, Active Directory and Group Policy, Windows Server, SQL Server and SharePoint. It can also handle network gear such as that from Check Point Software Technologies Inc. and Cisco; storage devices from the likes of EMC and NetApp; and virtual infrastructure such as System Center Virtual Machine Manager and VMware.
For those on a tight budget or just looking to evaluate, nearly all NetWrix tools have free versions, and these don’t expire. NetWrix prides itself on close customer relations, an approach that also drives product development. —D.B.
Quest, We Hardly Knew Ye
Quest Software is arguably one of Microsoft’s most impor-tant software partners. Many IT pros have used its wares for Exchange, Active Directory, data protection, systems man-agement and, more recently, cloud migrations. That alone makes Quest an important member of this list.
But after 15 years as one of the largest third-party tools pro-viders for Microsoft infrastructure, Quest was snapped up by Dell Inc. for $2.4 billion. The deal came after months of uncertainty about whether Quest, which put itself up for sale, would become part of a larger player or be bought out by pri-vate equity fi rms. After a bidding war, Dell came out on top.
Steve Dixon, senior vice president for the Quest Server Management Group, joined the company 14 years ago when it was still in startup mode. In an interview a day before the deal closed, Dixon said he was looking forward to joining Dell. “I think it’s going to be a great next step for Quest Software,” Dixon said. “It’s especially good for the Windows ecosystem. We’re already a top partner for Microsoft, as is Dell. I think we’ll get a chance to leverage that three-way partnership between Dell, Microsoft and Quest.” —J.S.
SolarWinds Branches Out
SolarWinds is best known for its network management software used by enterprises of all sizes, but a spate of acquisitions and new products has given the company a broader portfolio
“We’re already a top partner for Microsoft, as is Dell. I think we’ll get a chance to leverage that three-way partnership.”
Steve Dixon, Senior Vice President, Server Management Group, Quest Software
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and scope. The company now offers a range of solutions aimed at extending its footprint in the enterprise to include security, mobile management, help desk, patch management, and systems and applications management, explains Sanjay Castelino, SolarWinds VP and market leader.
Business remains strong for SolarWinds, which continues to see solid sales growth. For its second fi scal quarter, revenues increased some 40 percent year-over-year to $61.5 million, while non-Generally Accepted Accounting Principles (GAAP) earnings increased 50 percent. The company also ranked 76 on Fortune’s annual Fastest-Growing Companies list this year. The SolarWinds stock price has more than dou-bled during the last 12 months.
SolarWinds services a wide swath of midsize and large enterprises that have anywhere from 50 devices to 100,000 network elements, Castelino says. The company has 75,000 paying customers and many more that use its free tools. “We serve everyone from the small end to the mid-market all the way up to the enterprise and federal government. It’s a pretty broad footprint,” Castelino says. —J.S.
Data Protection Is Common Denominator for
Diverse Symantec Portfolio
With $6.7 billion in sales for its 2012 fi scal year ended March 30, Symantec Corp. is clearly the biggest of our Third-Party All-Stars. Symantec is in many ways the sum of its acquisi-tions. And some retain their brand identity, something the company pledged to do when it bought Peter Norton Computing way back in 1990. Altiris, Brightmail, Clearwell, Veritas, PC Tools and VeriSign are just a few of the outfi ts Symantec has bought. Altiris, Brightmail, Clearwell and Veritas still exist to some extent as independent brands.
So what is this amalgam of acquisitions now all about? Well, a quick count of Symantec products reveals some 144 products in 19 families. The company is focused on certain themes. Peter Norton drives consumer security and utilities, and the overall consumer side is about one-third of company revenues. —D.B.
UltraBac Maintains Focus on Data Recovery
UltraBac Software is the creation and vision of Morgan Edwards, who in 1982 launched BEI Corp. to make utility software for minis (BEI today remains the parent company of UltraBac). A bit more than 10 years in, the company saw an opportunity with Windows NT and wrote UltraBac Backup and Disaster Recovery Software for Windows NT/2000, and thus UltraBac the company was also born.
UltraBac pioneered several new technologies—including image-based Windows backup and disaster recovery with bare-metal restore—and later provided physical-to-virtual, virtual-to-virtual and virtual-to-physical server migrations. Its latest offering is a virtual disk utility that can simultane-ously perform image backups and create or update Microsoft or VMware VM fi les.
So what’s next? Edwards says the company will soon release a product called UltraBac Warp, a new backup and disaster recovery technology that provides block-based Continuous Image Protection. Unlike commonly
used Continuous Data Protection, UltraBac Warp protects entire partitions by continuously backing up changed blocks on disk as they occur, Edwards says. —D.B.
Veeam Adds Management and
Protection to Virtualization
In 2006 the industry was abound with virtualization startups. Veeam Software was one in the pack, but soon came to rep-resent pure guts and ambition. Six years later, many of those initial startups have been sold or quietly gone out of business. Veeam still stands tall.
Much of that credit goes to serial entrepreneur Ratmir Timashev. Some 14 years ago, Timashev founded Aelita Software, and sold it to Quest Software for $115 million. After his non-compete expired, Ratmir started Veeam along with longtime business partner Andrei Baronov, a classmate and roommate from the Moscow Institute of Physics and Technology. Their idea was to build virtual backup and storage tools from scratch rather than retrofi tting existing tools aimed at purely physical gear.
So what’s so special about Veeam? “Veeam gets virtualiza-tion,” Timashev says. “From day one, we’ve built modern data protection and management software that’s not only built specifi cally for virtual environments, but that also takes full advantage of virtualization’s potential to provide function-ality that just isn’t feasible within a physical environment.”
To give customers a taste of its wares, Veeam offers freebies. “We give away free versions of all of our products, and they’re not just demos,” Timashev says. “They’re powerful tools in their own right.” —D.B.
Vision Solutions Emphasizes HA
Two years ago, enterprise player Vision Solutions acquired Double-Take, a provider of data protection software for Windows environments. Double-Take products were typically used by small and midsize businesses (SMBs), so the acquisition helped the company move up the food chain into large enterprises, while continuing to offer data protection for SMBs as well.
Vision Solutions is a longtime supplier of data-protection software for IBM Power and iSeries (aka AS/400) environ-ments. At the same time, Vision Solutions was a reseller of the Double-Take namesake software, which provided data pro-tection for the Windows servers running in those same IBM shops, explains CTO Alan Arnold.
“When we acquired them it was very easy to set that roadmap forward and get focused on where we knew the market was headed,” Arnold says.
Since the merger, Vision Solutions has accelerated the release cycles of Double-Take software. At the Microsoft TechEd North America conference in Orlando, Fla., in June, Vision Solutions launched Double-Take 6.0—which, as Arnold points out, has more than a dozen key new features and is better-suited for environments that require high availability, or HA. —J.S. Doug Barney is editor in chief, and Jeffrey Schwartz is executive editor of Redmond.
F E A T U R E | Virtualizing Exchange
28 | November 2012 | Redmond | Redmondmag.com |
Despite the potential for huge cost savings, many IT pros have avoided virtualizing their Microsoft Exchange infrastructures, fearing Exchange would become less reliable. And if
Exchange stops working, the company stops working—and so does the IT person who decided to virtualize it.
Fear not. If Exchange is virtualized properly within Microsoft support guidelines, you have no reason for concern. Do you think the Microsoft Exchange team would go out of its way to sabotage its own success? Exchange is known as one of the most stable solutions and is the most utilized e-mail system globally. Redmond would never give the green light on virtualizing Exchange unless there was a solid way to do so without sacrifi cing reliability and performance.
The fact is many shops are running Exchange and other server applications on hardware that’s underutilized. So they’re running too many boxes with too much CPU and memory. When looking at your infrastructure collectively, the best way to reduce energy and maintenance costs is to combine systems through virtualization. And in the process you typically get all the cool admin features that come from those who deploy private clouds.
When looking at the entire spectrum of servers you might want to virtualize, Exchange should be high on your list, con-sidering how mission-critical it is. To ensure higher availability of Exchange, you need to ensure N+1 redundancy—that is, components (N) have at least one extra (+1)—so you’re looking at multiple Exchange Servers, which can get costly on all those underutilized systems. By virtualizing your Exchange Server roles you can ensure redundancy without excessive costs.
When it comes to virtualizing Exchange, there might be some questions, concerns or myths that keep you up at night, so let’s resolve them.
What server virtualization program is best for Exchange? We could endlessly hash out the performance and feature specs. In the end, you want to know if your solution—such as Microsoft Hyper-V and VMware vSphere, among others—is better than the competitive VM platform. It’s going to
come down to more of a religious battle than anything else. Microsoft has a Server Virtualization Validation Program (bit.ly/gu6IA) that reviews potential vendors and determines if the vendor confi gurations fi t the requirements. All the main ones are listed in the program. There might be differing advice from these vendors on how to virtualize Exchange, however, so in the end it’s best to follow the guidelines Microsoft recommends.
There’s another angle here you might want to consider with regard to virtualizing Exchange and the platform you choose.
You might have VMs for other applications running on the same system, which could affect which virtualization solution you choose. In that scenario, vSphere has additional features when compared to Hyper-V that may make for a better argu-ment (though the cost is typically greater as well). With the new Microsoft Windows Server 2012 we’ll have to revisit virtu-alization features with Exchange—especially when the company releases Exchange Server 2013 next year. Whether or not you plan to move to Exchange Server 2013, it bears noting there will be no direct migration from Exchange Server 2003 to Exchange Server 2013 support, so you’re looking at moving fi rst to Exchange Server 2007 or 2010 and then to 2013.
IMAGES FROM SHUTTERSTOCK
By J. Peter Bruzzese
The UltimateVirtualized Machine:
Virtualizing the Microsoft e-mail platform can yield infrastructure savings, and it’s not as risky as some IT pros fear—if done right.
Exchange Server
Best Practices for Virtualizing Exchange• From a storage perspective, don’t use fi xed virtual
hard disks—go with SCSI pass-through or iSCSI disks for your Mailbox server roles that are virtualized.
• Don’t get caught up in VM sprawl. It’s easy to over-commit your resources to VMs simply because you can, but your environment’s performance will suff er.
• Stay up-to-date on support policy from Microsoft. It’s essential to know what the company will and will not support should you need assistance from it.
• If you’re using Hyper-V, review “Best Practices for Virtualizing Exchange Server 2010 with Windows Server 2008 R2 Hyper V” (bit.ly/SAGsPN), a solid 40-page set of instructions from Microsoft.
F E A T U R E | Virtualizing Exchange
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David Davis, a VMware vExpert and columnist for Redmondsister publication Virtualization Review, believes the debate between vSphere and Hyper-V isn’t religious but more of a logical list of pros and cons. Davis says it comes down to cost, feature set, educational options, third-party support and tools, and the scope of the product line. I’d agree, but in the end we’d still end up in a religious debate because our focus is different. He’s looking at which solution is best overall. I’m willing to concede feature sets and product line scope for a more cost-effective solution, combined with which company I feel has the ability to win the future (Microsoft, in my opinion). For a true cost and feature comparison, check out the “Agnostic Virtualization Comparison” at bit.ly/dTIjv1.
If you do choose Hyper-V, you also need to decide whether to stick with the more widely deployed Hyper-V version 2, which is built into Windows Server 2008 and Windows Server 2008 R2, or to go with the newest version, Hyper-V version 3, which comes in the new Windows Server 2012, released in September. Where the enhancement to Hyper-V version 3 really comes into play is if you use a parent Windows Server 2012 system to host child VMs. Here, running Exchange will be more scalable. The chart at bit.ly/PuTCfn illustrates this point.
Microsoft Technical Evangelist Keith Mayer is bullish on the scalability improve-ments Hyper-V version 3 brings to Exchange. “The increased VM resource densities in Hyper-V [version] 3 of up to 64 virtual processors and 1TB RAM per virtual machine will be a big boost to vir-tualizing mission-critical, heavy-duty workloads like Exchange mailbox server roles and multi-role servers,” Mayer wrote in the late-August blog post, “Best Practices for Virtualizing Microsoft Exchange 2010” (bit.ly/UHQ34S).
Can I virtualize all fi ve server roles: Mailbox, Client Access, Hub Transport, Unifi ed Messaging and Edge Transport? Not too long ago my answer would’ve been, “Yes you can, but Microsoft won’t support it.” The Unifi ed Messaging role was one of those roles that didn’t get support until after Exchange Server 2010 SP1 and now Exchange Server 2010 SP2. There was a media component that apparently was cleared for vir-tualization. That doesn’t mean IT pros didn’t virtualize the role. (They did, and it worked fi ne with Hyper-V version 2.) It just means it wasn’t part of the support policy. This has been resolved by Microsoft, and now you certainly can virtualize the Unifi ed Messaging role—and have support if you follow the guidance (bit.ly/REEZHb). According to the guidelines, Microsoft wants you to have four virtual processors for the VM (with memory sized appropriately) and four physical pro-cessor cores available to the VM at all times (so no processor oversubscribing). Remember, a virtual CPU represents one core of a physical CPU, not an entire physical CPU.
How does virtualization affect Exchange performance? This really depends on what you do. Some folks purchase a monster system that would normally be underutilized if run-ning a single Exchange Server. Then they use virtualization and deploy multiple systems only to overutilize the hard-ware with VM sprawl. So rather than giving Exchange the required amount of CPU and memory allocation, they cheat the server and low-ball the memory, thinking they can add it at any time they need.
Can’t I just use dynamic memory or over-commit to fi x this problem? The Exchange Mailbox role is designed to use as much RAM as you give it for buffering and caching, and it will only give
up that RAM if there are other applica-tions battling with Exchange for it. Therefore, Microsoft recommends you turn off memory oversubscription or dynamic memory because Exchange is designed to work better with static memory sizes that conform to the support policy. This is especially the case when it comes to the Mailbox server role. Size your environment accordingly. Sizing is made easier by using the requirements calcu-lator (bit.ly/e9rcO7).
Are you saying there’s no performance hit with virtualization? Exchange MVP Clint Boessen explained it well in his blog post, “Pitfalls to Vir-tualizing Exchange 2010” (bit.ly/QxeFxp), when he wrote: “Exchange performs best when it can interact with the physical components of a server directly. If you disagree with this statement that’s usu-ally a symptom exhibited right after a VMware conference—hopefully it will go
away.” It’s a funny, but true, line. Obviously performance will be different (less than) what it would be if you ran Exchange on a physical box with the same allocated resources. And the impact will depend on so many different factors that nobody can give you a magic—“it should be a 5 percent impact”—promise that makes you sigh with relief.
What’s the best way to virtualize the Mailbox role in terms of storage? When you’re working with a lab and virtualizing Exchange, there’s nothing wrong with using fi xed virtual hard disks (VHDs) on the system. Even smaller environments can use fi xed VHDs. (Dynamically expanding disks or disks that use some kind of differencing or delta mechanisms are not sup-ported.) But fi xed VHDs aren’t considered the best method. Rather, you want to go with SCSI pass-through storage or iSCSI storage. This will give you the best disk I/O performance.
Any tips for Exchange database availability groups (DAGs) and virtualization?
More Resources• The full Microsoft support
document for virtualization of Exchange Server: bit.ly/VBXuxy
• More focused direction on Exchange Server 2010 virtualization: bit.ly/MwqjKd and bit.ly/nSNM8t
• The Microsoft Server Virtualization Validation Program, which reviews potential vendors and determines if they fi t the requirements for virtualizing Exchange: bit.ly/gu6IA
• Not sure which VM platform to use? Check out the “Agnostic Virtualization Comparison” cost and feature list: bit.ly/dTIjv1
• There’s also a calculator to size your environment: bit.ly/e9rcO7
© 2012 Quest Software Inc. Quest, the Quest Software logo, and Simplicity at Work are trademarks of Quest Software, Inc. For a complete list of Quest trademarks visit http://www.quest.com/legal/trademarks.aspx. PrintAd-Redmond-Nov12-RMADH2-US-KS
Quest Software is now a part of Dell
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Untitled-1 1 10/15/12 11:10 AM
F E A T U R E | Virtualizing Exchange
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Don’t put a whole DAG on a single server. Though this sounds ridiculous, I’ve seen it done. A person sets up a two- or three-server DAG with virtualized Mailbox servers and places them all on the same physical server. Talk about missing the single-point-of-failure purpose of a DAG. There are a lot of ways to use DAGs and virtualization. Maybe you aren’t comfortable yet with virtualizing your Mailbox server role. Fine—keep the active copy for your DAG on a physical server and place a vir-tualized Exchange Server in your environment to hold your passive copy or lagged copy. DAG design can be a subject unto itself, but the point is make sure you split up your virtualized servers on two or more separate physical machines.
What failover options are provided for entire servers? Microsoft recommends you follow its directions with regard to high availability for the Mailbox server role through DAG, and non-Mailbox server roles through redundancy, load bal-ancers and so forth. However, this question really calls into play the issue of live migrations or quick migrations, which VMware folks refer to as vMotion, while others have different terms. Here’s what Microsoft says it supports, according to the Exchange Team Blog (bit.ly/nSNM8t):
“Exchange Server virtual machines (including Exchange Mailbox virtual machines that are part of a DAG) may be combined with host-based failover clustering and migration technology, as long as the virtual machines are confi gured such that they will not save and restore state on disk when moved, or taken offl ine. All failover activity must result in a
cold boot when the virtual machine is activated on the target node. All planned migration must either result in shutdown and cold boot, or an online migration that makes use of a technology like Hyper-V Live Migration.
“Hypervisor migration of virtual machines is supported by the hypervisor vendor; therefore, you must ensure that your hypervisor vendor has tested and supports migration of Exchange virtual machines. Microsoft supports Hyper-V live migration of these virtual machines.”
The Exchange Team is effectively saying it supports the Hyper-V quick migration feature (not live migration or VMware vMotion or others). And they aren’t saying this should be utilized as a failover move, but more as a planned move or possibly a load-balancing strategy for your servers (but not related to failures). With failure scenarios they want you to stick with the existing options mentioned earlier. So, as long as the VM is coming up from a cold boot on the new host and it isn’t coming up from a saved state persisted on disk, it should be fi ne. Especially with regard to DAG members, this is key to avoid having the system come up as “stale.”
J. Peter Bruzzese (Triple-MCSE, MCT, MCITP) is an Exchange MVP; co-founder and CIO of ClipTraining LLC; an Exchange, Lync and SharePoint instructor for TrainSignal Inc.; a well-known technical author for Que/Sams and others; a technical speaker for TechMentor, Connections, TechEd and the Microsoft Exchange Conference; and the Enterprise Windows columnist for InfoWorld. Follow him on Twitter at twitter.com/JPBruzzese.
Ask Alex Fontana about run-ning Microsoft Exchange on the VMware virtualization platform, and he all but calls
it a marriage made in heaven. Microsoft has expanded its support for virtualizing its mission-critical communications back-bone with VMware Inc. since it fi rst offered a nod to the idea with the release of Exchange Server 2007 SP2. With the release of Exchange Server 2010 SP1, Redmond expanded its support for fea-tures such as the vMotion live migration tool and the vSphere high availability (HA) solution to be used along with some Exchange features. But like any marriage, this one takes a little work to succeed.
Exchange architects need to under-stand the design considerations and options available to them when choosing VMware as their virtualization plat-form, Fontana says. The senior architect in the VMware Solutions and Service group knows what he’s talking about: He runs the team at VMware charged with virtualizing the company’s own Exchange environment for about 12,000 users.
“When we get involved in virtualizing an Exchange environment, we generally opt for the least amount of hardware and the least amount of VMs—the keep-it-simple approach,” Fontana told attendees at the recent VMworld 2012
conference in San Francisco in a session called “Virtualizing Exchange Best Practices.” But, he added, “there are a lot of ways to skin this cat.”
Fontana also outlined common methods for provisioning storage in the VMware vSphere virtualization platform. VMware Virtual Machine File System (VMFS) is a cluster fi le system used by the company’s fl agship ESX Server. Its VMFS-based virtual disk is a high-performance, clustered file system designed to allow concurrent access by multiple hosts to fi les on a shared volume. The company’s Raw Device Mapping (RDM) is a mapping fi le within a VMFS volume that acts as a proxy for a raw
How VMware Virtualizes Its Exchange Server EnvironmentThe leader in virtualization uses vMotion and vSphere to ensure availability and optimal performance from its Microsoft messaging system. By John K. Waters
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34 | November 2012 | Redmond | Redmondmag.com |
physical device. (RDMs are also known as “pass-through disks.”) The RDM fi le contains metadata used to manage and redirect disk access to the physical device, he said, and RDMs can be Fibre Channel- or iSCSI-attached.
VMware defi nes a “thick” virtual disk as one that occupies an entire fi xed amount of provisioned storage space. A “thin” virtual disk takes up only as much of the provisioned storage space as needed for its initial operations, growing into the rest of the space later.
Microsoft supports all of these technol-ogies in a VMware virtualized Exchange environment, Fontana noted. It supports virtualization of all roles, including the Lync Server, and combining Exchange Server 2010 database availability groups and hypervisor HA (vSphere HA).
But there are a few things Microsoft doesn’t support in this context, including NAS, VMware thin virtual disks and the use of VM snapshots for backups.
Fontana is frequently asked about VMware Data Recovery (VDR), or other tools that use a snapshot to back up the VM. His response? “VDR wouldn’t be supported because it’s not an Exchange-aware backup,” he said. “But there are
other vendor tools [supported tools include products from Veeam, and Quest Software vRanger] that take a VMware snapshot and employ agents within the guest to quiesce Exchange, truncate logs and do the verifi cations that are required when a VSS [Windows Volume Shadow Copy Service] backup is taken. Those are supported, because they’re Exchange-aware.”
Fontana shared a number of VMware-recommended best practices for virtualizing Exchange with vSphere. Topping his list: No over-commitment—at least during the design phase and the
project pilot, and even sometimes into production. Why?
“Although the Exchange storage cal-culator has a little dropdown that asks whether you’re going to virtualize or not, the calculation doesn’t take into account any level of consolidation of the physical
cores themselves,” he said. “It’s basing those numbers on dedicated cores—on the [expectation] that Exchange will be the only workload living on that core.”
It’s actually adding a fudge factor or buffer of about 10 percent for what’s called “hypervisor overhead,” he added. “At VMware, in our tests of Exchange 2007 and vSphere 4, we saw between 2 percent and 5 percent of that overhead,” he said. “If you want to build that over-head into your design, that’s OK, but we
typically don’t, and we see even less over-head now with vSphere.” Hence, when running these calculations, “we want to make sure that we’re not factoring in any over-commitment,” he explained.
Another best practice: Enable hyper-threading. This is a tough one for Exchange admins, Fontana said, because Microsoft advises against it. Redmond argues hyperthreading makes designing and sizing extra challenging, because it confuses people about the actual com-pute resources that are available.
“We don’t think this is the case—or it doesn’t have to be,” Fontana said. “As
long as you understand that you’re not deploying against 24 physical cores, that you really have the throughput of only 12 physical cores, you get a signifi -cant advantage.”
The advantage: Having those logical processors available will allow ESX (the
bare hypervisor) to make more-intelligent scheduling choices.
Also a highly recommended best practice: Enable non-uniform memory access (NUMA) and keep the VM to within the NUMA node size. Enabling NUMA and keeping the VM small can provide a performance increase of about 5 percent, Fontana said. “If I can create a VM that fi ts within a NUMA node, ESX will do its best to keep that VM scheduled on those processor cores, thereby keeping its memory access local.”
On the question of whether to use the VMware Paravirtualized SCSI (PVSCSI) or LSI Logic virtual adapters, Fontana came down fi rmly on the side of the latter. “It’s the default and it always passes [our tests] with fl ying colors,” he said. “We’ve seen scenarios where customers want to consolidate a large number of mailboxes on single VMs and they really need to drive some high I/O. But when sized properly, the LSI Logic adapter can do the work. I say base your decision on what you’re running today.”
Fontana pointed to a Web page (bit.ly/RgKdXC) where VMware has published material about virtualizing Exchange with its platform. The page includes links to blogs and a community portal.
John K. Waters is a freelance author and journalist based in Silicon Valley. He is editor at large for Redmond’s sister publication Application Development Trends, and author of “The Everything Guide to Social Media” (Adams Media, 2010). You can reach him at [email protected].
A highly recommended best practice: Enable non-uniform memory access (NUMA) and keep the VM to within the NUMA node size.
VMware defi nes a “thick” virtual disk as one that occupies an entire fi xed amount of provisioned storage space.
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36 | November 2012 | Redmond | Redmondmag.com |
to make the product more “social”—which is either exciting or terrifying, depending on how you feel about social networks. And there’s no question that Microsoft customers are shifting to SharePoint in droves.
Should you? Probably, yes.It’s hard to imagine an organization
that couldn’t benefi t, in some way, from using SharePoint. Obviously, its main claim to fame is its document library, where you can store, access and share documents in a secure, version-controlled fashion. What you can also do is design—without programming, in many cases—powerful workfl ows for document submission, modifi ca-tion, approval and publication. For any kind of formal document—brochures, process documentation, policy statements, press releases, you name it—this is pure gold.
The ability to create forms with SharePoint is also well known. It pro-vides a great way of collecting data to drive all kinds of processes. With rela-tively easy back-end connectivity into other database-driven applications, SharePoint can provide a way to deal with expense reports, collecting new employee information, kicking off requisitions and a lot more.
The integration of SharePoint into a Microsoft business intelligence (BI) strategy is often overlooked—but it shouldn’t be. The ability for Excel
jockeys to store and share secured PowerPivot workbooks right in SharePoint is just brilliant, making SharePoint an easy way to get some BI moving inside your organization without massive infrastructure investments.
But Not All the WayDon’t overdo it. The push in some organizations to replace all fi le servers with SharePoint might be a bit mis-guided. For one, SharePoint has a massively higher overhead per fi le than a fi le server, as SharePoint has to dump the data into a SQL Server data-base. Despite what some folks seem to
believe, SQL Server is not a fi le server and it doesn’t do a particularly great job of impersonating one. In fact, smart SharePoint admins don’t store fi les in SQL Server; they use a tech-nology called Remote BLOB Storage, or RBS, to pass fi les through SQL Server and right back onto a fi le server. SharePoint essentially keeps fi le metadata in the database, and leaves the fi le itself on a fi le server. So you’re still going to have fi le servers. You need to decide if the fi les on those servers can really benefi t from being
accessed via a SharePoint document library, rather than being accessed through a fi le share.
It’s Not CheapUnfortunately, SharePoint is one of Redmond’s more expensive proposi-tions. You’ve got to buy SharePoint Server licenses, but its Client Access Licenses (CALs) are often included in Enterprise Agreements (EAs) for larger organizations—that is, if you’re using SharePoint strictly internally. If you don’t have an EA, you’ll need the server license as well as CALs. Put your server on the Internet and you’ll see Internet Server licenses.
You’ll also need SQL Server licenses, which are incredibly pricey these days. Planning to use SharePoint to index your intranet and provide fast search results for non-SharePoint resources? Be sure you have more money. A business with 1,000 users could, for a relatively small installation, spend close to $200,000 pretty quickly—and that’s before Software Assurance.
So the bottom line is, if you aren’t using SharePoint to some extent, you probably should. But you might not need a full-scale deployment.
Use SharePoint where it makes sense. And, especially if you’re a smaller organization, perhaps begin with an outsourced SharePoint service to get started. Don Jones is a principal technologist for strategic consulting fi rm Concentrated Technology. You can contact him via ConcentratedTech.com.
To SharePoint or Not to SharePoint?
by Don Jones
DecisionMaker
I’ve watched the SharePoint saga since the very beginning, when the product was little more than a hacked-up version of Exchange Server with public folders and a
fancy search engine. Now that it’s a full-fl edged content management and collaboration system, everyone’s leaping aboard. The forthcoming release, SharePoint 2013, promises
It’s hard to imagine an organization that couldn’t benefi t, in some way, from using SharePoint.
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38 | November 2012 | Redmond | Redmondmag.com |
They were impressed by the new Software Center and Application Catalog features of Confi guration Manager, and that got me wondering. These two client-side components offer to fundamentally evolve the relationship between IT and its users. These features deliver the potential to grant users more control over their computing experiences, enabling each user to install (and remove) whatever applications the user needs, whenever he needs it.
But offering choice in applications is only the beginning for the new user-centric approach of Confi guration Manager 2012. Things get even more exciting when you realize these tools can also deliver a complete desktop refresh—all completely automated, and all without the need for IT supervision.
Troubleshooting never had it so easy.
Layer the OS, Manage the LayersThe notion of a self-service OS refresh might seem ludicrous until you con-sider deconstructing the layers in the average Windows desktop. I discussed those layers in a 2009 Geek of All Trades column written for TechNet Magazine titled, “A Case for a Layered Approach to Deploying Windows Desktops” (bit.ly/5ssNQO).
In that column I argued that desktop deployment can no longer be an all-or-nothing activity. The superior approach involves independently
managing the delivery of each layer’s content: the core OS, drivers, OS updates, applications, confi guration changes and user personality.
While that article focused on free Microsoft tools such as Windows Deployment Services and Group Policy for managing each layer, an experienced IT pro should easily see Confi guration Manager capabilities that accomplish the same goals. The Confi guration Manager OS Deploy-ment feature in combination with the User State Migration Toolkit can archive user data and provision a fresh OS complete with the correct drivers. Confi guration Manager Software Updates ensure that each OS is fully patched at the point of provisioning. Confi gurations can be enforced with the help of Compliance Settings in Confi guration Manager.
And now, thanks to the new Software Center and Application Catalog, a refreshed computer’s user need only click to reinstall all of the applications his job requires. Suddenly, the old phrase “Have you tried rebooting?” becomes “Have you tried rebuilding?”
Complete Automation, Up-Front CostSoftware Center and the Application Catalog are only responsible for half of my class’s wide-eyed amazement. The other half is a realization of how much up-front work will be required to rec-ognize this vision. Confi guration
Manager might provide the tools, but it’s the IT pro who supplies the labor.
Notably, some activities in Confi gu-ration Manager are easier than they might look. Software Updates get streamlined with Automatic Deploy-ment Rules. Drivers get automatically deployed via the combination of Driver Packages and Plug-and-Play. Offl oading user data becomes a mostly set-it-and-forget-it activity thanks to Microsoft’s ongoing investments in its User State Migration Tool.
Applications, however, are where IT’s efforts will require the greatest amount of focus. Packaging those
applications for Confi guration Manager delivery still remains a bit of an art form, although the Microsoft App-V Sequencer along with the variety of third-party solutions is easing this pain. The challenge with applications most often lies in their sheer volume. Businesses today have a lot of apps, and each requires effort to prepare for Confi guration Manager delivery. That effort only increases when the Confi guration Manager Application Catalog gets involved. Greg Shields is a partner and principal technologist with Concentrated Technology, an IT analysis and strategic consulting fi rm. You can contact him at ConcentratedTech.com.
Do-It-Yourself OS Refresh with Confi guration Manager 2012
by Greg Shields
WindowsInsider
Are the days of the IT fi eld technician numbered? That’s the question I asked myself recently while teaching a System Center Confi guration Manager
2012 Master Class to a roomful of wide-eyed IT pros.
Businesses today have a lot of apps, and each requires effort to pre-pare for Confi guration Manager delivery.
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40 | November 2012 | Redmond | Redmondmag.com |
make-or-break products. But as the dust clears, what’s next for Microsoft?
Let’s put aside products predicted to arrive in two or three more years, such as Windows 9. There are a number of more immediate consumer- and business-centric products, services and devices coming in the next 12 months from the ’Softies. And I’m not talking just about toys such as the Xbox dash-board update and Halo 4.
Offi ce Next/Offi ce 2013—the client apps, the servers and the cloud services—were released to manufacturing in October, a month earlier than many expected. General availability won’t be until early 2013, but volume licensees and MSDN and TechNet subscribers will get the fi nal bits sooner.
To kick off the new year, the Intel-based version of the Microsoft Surface PC/tablet is expected to start shipping. But that’s not all that’s due in early 2013.
Microsoft is slated to release System Center 2012 SP1 and the fourth version of the Microsoft Windows Intune PC management and security service—both of which are key to the management of Windows RT-based devices—in early 2013. Also due in
that time frame is Windows Azure services for Windows Server 2012. Initially targeted at hosting companies, but later at large enterprises, the
product will enable persistent VM support for Linux and Windows Server on servers hosted by third parties, and not just by those using Windows Azure hosted by Microsoft.
Beyond the fi rst quarter of next year, incomplete roadmaps are fi lled with more potholes. But according to tipsters, the fi rst update to Windows 8, known by its code name “Blue,” could arrive by mid-2013. So far, there aren’t many details as to what Blue will include, but it’s likely some kind of combined service pack or feature pack—similar to Visual Studio 2012 Update 1, also on deck to arrive by next month.
Why is it so hard to get information on Microsoft products beyond the carefully controlled Windows 8 and Windows Phone 8 bits with which we’ve been graced? A little inside baseball will shed some light on that question.
For the past year-plus, Microsoft top brass have been striving to create an image of a unifi ed “One Microsoft.” I’ll emphasize “image,” because in
reality Microsoft is still a bunch of mini-companies operating—to a somewhat lesser degree than in years past—independently and sometimes at odds with one another. The desired public perception is that One Microsoft is pointedly focused on Windows 8.
Redmond’s goal in 2012 was to have all eyes trained on its consumer wares. This explains the silence around SharePoint Server, Lync Server,
System Center 2012 SP1, Hadoop for Windows Server and other Microsoft goodies that are believed to be just around the corner.
The dearth of information isn’t just the result of Redmond’s increased desire to be more Apple-like in its ability to keep secrets. It’s also about the desire to make users believe Microsoft is a consumer device and services company like Apple, more than a business stalwart like IBM, Oracle or SAP.
Which Microsoft business-centric products and services do you want more information about? Send me a note and I’ll try my best to move some Microsoft mountains—or at least push aside some boulders. Mary Jo Foley is editor of the ZDNet All About Microsoft blog and has been covering Microsoft for more than two decades. She is author of the book, “Microsoft 2.0” (John Wiley & Sons, May 2008), which examines what’s next for Microsoft in the post-Gates era.
After Windows 8, What’s Next in thePipeline from Microsoft?
by Mary Jo Foley
FoleyOnMicrosoft
The Windows 8 and Windows Phone 8 launch parties are now behind us, though the marketing and promotion—the ads, giveaways and gimmicks—will
linger through the holidays for two of Redmond’s biggest
GetMoreOnlineFor more on what’s next for Microsoft, go to Redmondmag.com/Foley1112.
Beyond the fi rst quarter of next year, incomplete roadmaps are fi lled with more potholes.
Take the example of a database: IBM’s extensive research on topics like transaction processing, honed through thousands of engagements with clients and partners, has been turned into a pattern of
The good news is IT solutions are now more sophisticated. The bad news is they’re also more complicated. And all this complexity is taking its toll.
In fact, the typical IT department now spends up to 161 days just to specify, design and procure hardware for a new IT project (even longer for software).1
Recently, IBM unveiled a new class of systems that make all this complexity far less complicated. We call them IBM PureSystems™.
BEYOND CONVERGENCE.
Unlike today’s “converged” IT solutions, IBM PureSystems are more than just prepackaged bundles of hardware and software; these systems are integrated by design, using built-in expertise to balance and coordinate IT resources to create a radically simplified experience for the end user.
LET’S BUILD A
SMARTER PLANET.
HAVE BUILT-IN EXPERTISE.
expertise. An IBM PureSystem can follow this pattern to automatically set up a database infrastructure in minutes. The system then monitors how the database is being used, tuning it as conditions change.
A SMARTER APPROACH TO I.T.
IBM PureSystems have been able to achieve up to twice the business application performance and upto twice the application density as conventional approaches.3
With IBM PureSystems, computing is not just getting faster and simpler. It’s taking another important step toward making our companies, cities and planet smarter. ibm.com/integratedsystems
1. Based on a 2011 commissioned study conducted by Forrester Consulting on behalf of IBM. 2. Based upon testing of the IBM PureApplication System W1500-96 with time measured from powering on the system to when it is ready to support application deployments and based upon testing of the IBM PureFlex System Express & Standard models containing one chassis and one compute node with the time measured from powering on the system to when it is ready to support a virtual image deployment. 3. Up to 2X application density based upon simulations of virtualized applications on an IBM Flex System x240 Compute Node as compared to a previous generation IBM system. The IBM Flex System x240 Compute Node is available in IBM PureFlex System and IBM PureApplication System. Up to 2X performance of business applications based upon testing of IBM Storwize v7000 “Easy Tier” on previous generation IBM system. IBM Storwize v7000 is included in IBM PureFlex System and IBM PureApplication System. IBM, the IBM logo, ibm.com, PureSystems, Smarter Planet and the planet icon are trademarks of International Business Machines Corp., registered in many jurisdictions worldwide. A current list of IBM trademarks is available on the Web at www.ibm.com/legal/copytrade.shtml. © International Business Machines Corporation 2012.
What goes into a PureSystem?
Built-in expertise
Integration by design
Simplifi ed experience
SMARTER TECHNOLOGY FOR A SMARTER PLANET
IBM PureSystems can be up and running in under four hours.2
WHY TODAY’S SMARTEST SYSTEMS
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