Author Archives: John

System Center Data Protection Manager 2012 – Implementation

Posted on November 20, 2012 by John

This post is based upon personal experiences engineering the deployment and operation of an an Enterprise Backup solution using Microsoft System Center Data Protection Manager 2012 (DPM). This was a migration effort that took place from July, 2012 until November, … Continue reading →

Posted in General Information, Tips | Tagged , , , , | Leave a comment

Hyper-V cloning vhd

Posted on July 24, 2012 by John

Eliminate sid conflicts when cloning Hyper-V virtual disks. Continue reading →

Posted in General Information | Tagged | Leave a comment

Windows Product Activation – Administrivia

Posted on June 15, 2012 by John

I’m always fascinated by human systems of the kind that rely on other people to advance some process along a path as sequentail steps to its final objective. Sometimes, its very simple. Order a drip coffee at Starbucks, “Grande, no room”, give the … Continue reading →

Posted in General Information, Rants | Tagged | Leave a comment

Windows Activation using KMS – references

Posted on June 13, 2012 by John

This is a follow-up to a blog post in February about my KMS activation experience (Windows Activation using KMS). Windows Production Activation in the personal computer space is a little confusing but in the corporate world it get a bit … Continue reading →

Posted in Education, General Information | Tagged | Leave a comment

Windows Activation – the right answer

Posted on May 1, 2012 by John

This is a story aboout Windows Activation in the corporate world – the world of global giants with dedicated procurements spread over multiple divisions all resembling a feudal hierarchy out of the middle ages and Microsoft, guardian and protector of … Continue reading →

Posted in Education, General Information | Tagged , | Leave a comment

Blast from the past – Windows 2003 Failover Clustering

Posted on March 24, 2012 by John

Recently, I had the opportunity to work on a project involving a 2 node, clustered Windows File Share. No big thing you say. The interesting was that it was a Windows 2003 cluster. This was the time that Failover Clustering … Continue reading →

Posted in General Information, Lab Projects | Tagged , , , , | 10 Comments

Windows Update not working

Posted on March 9, 2012 by John

Recently, I started my Windows 2008 R2 Enterprise x64 Server and found that the Windows Update Service Control Panel applet in a “red” state. Imagine a day when there are Microsoft updates but Windows Update is broken. The service is … Continue reading →

Posted in General Information, Tips | Tagged , | Leave a comment

Windows Activation using KMS

Posted on February 11, 2012 by John

In a recent project, I found myself challenged to manage the Windows Server License activation for all servers in the Remote Support Network (RSN). In this environment, all newly minted servers are deployed as virtual machines (VMs) using vSphere in … Continue reading →

Posted in General Information | Tagged , , , , | 2 Comments

V2V Conversion with Starwind

Posted on January 18, 2012 by John

This blog is a continuation of the adventure started in the previous post VMware P2V Conversion. In that post, I used VMware tools to convert a physical web server running IIS on Windows 2003 Enterprise SP2 to a VMware virtual … Continue reading →

Posted in Lab Projects, Products | Tagged , , | 1 Comment

VMware P2V conversion

Posted on January 7, 2012 by John

I project that I’ve been working on recently offered an opportunity to work with VMware virtualization technology. The client has an EXSi installation with a number of hosts and a server running vSphere. The opportunity to work on a project involving … Continue reading →

Posted in Lab Projects, Products | Tagged , , | 1 Comment