Virtu-Al.Net » Microsoft

The VESI 1.2 – Get it now

Alan — Sun, 18 Oct 2009 10:39:16 +0000

People who read my blog know how much I like the Virtualisation EcoShell, I love the way it adds the power of PowerCLI back into the GUI to enable you to create customised GUI’s all of your own enhancing the true power of PowerShell and allowing people who do not know how to code in PowerCLI (yet) the chance to harness the power.

Version 1.2 of the VESI has now been released and it has some great new features:

Charts

Create your own fantastic Area/Column/Doughnut/Line/Scatter/Stacked Area and Stacked Column graphs to represent every area of the virtual infrastructure, the graphs are highly customisable and can be saved as images or printed.

Best Practice Queries

As a consultant these queries are highly useful, this section focuses on the most common problems and data you would want to see straight away, I have a feeling this is just a taster of things to come as I can think of several more that could be added, keep an eye on this area !

Custom Attribute Manager

This area allows users to view all custom attributes and quickly modify custom attribute values against multiple entities.

Hyper-V

A Hyper-V PowerPack has been added for those of you who manage Hyper-V servers, a great way to use some of the enhanced Hyper-V features through PowerShell.

Sorry I don’t have a Hyper-V installation so am unable to show you the full node set of management features.

Download

I think you can see there are some great enhancements here, if you have not yet downloaded the VESI then do it now, if you already have then make sure you update to the latest version to grab these great enhancements.

You may also want to check out the getting started videos as a quick and easy way to learn how to use the features of VESI:

The VESI 1.2 – Get it now is a post from: Virtu-Al.
Virtu-Al is one of the authors of VMware vSphere PowerCLI Reference: Automating vSphere Administration"

Buy it now from: Amazon USA Amazon UK Sybex

Exchange Audit

Alan — Thu, 07 May 2009 15:23:50 +0000

I received a comment the other day on my Server/Workstation audit script from someone saying they had modified my script to audit Exchange 2003.

As you can imagine, I was intrigued and asked to have a look, I cant tell you how much it pleases me that people are able to take the scripts I write and amend/improve them to suite there needs.

Jean has done a great job with this, I ran it against our test exchange cluster and it worked great, the end results are in the same nice format (which I have now improved to work with all browsers but that’s for another post)

On checking Jeans site I found a number of other cool powershell scripts including a nice script which allows you to analyze and defrag multiple machines hard disks from powershell, check the site out here: ‘Powershell Needfull Things’

Fantastic job Jean !

Exchange Audit is a post from: Virtu-Al.
Virtu-Al is one of the authors of VMware vSphere PowerCLI Reference: Automating vSphere Administration"

Buy it now from: Amazon USA Amazon UK Sybex

Should I virtualise Exchange ?

Alan — Fri, 23 Jan 2009 19:53:00 +0000

For a long time the answer was no, but developments in the VMware Products have lead to major improvements in disk/network/memory and CPU performance so now the question is…

Where do I start ?

If your looking for a good starting point I would listen to the recent podcast from the VMware community round table which was specifically on virtualising Exchange..

Exchange, new Security podcast, and more … Roundtable podcast #31

Also you may want to check out the VMware pages written especially for virtualising Exchange, make sure you check out the resources tab….

http://www.vmware.com/solutions/business-critical-apps/exchange/

It would seam that after years of advising against it even Microsoft are jumping on the band waggon:

With the release of Microsoft Windows Server 2008 with Hyper-V and Microsoft Hyper-V Server 2008, a virtualized Exchange 2007 SP1 server is no longer restricted to the realm of the lab; it can be deployed in a production environment and receive full support from Microsoft.

Check out the full article on the Microsoft Exchange Team Blog here

Should I virtualise Exchange ? is a post from: Virtu-Al.
Virtu-Al is one of the authors of VMware vSphere PowerCLI Reference: Automating vSphere Administration"

Buy it now from: Amazon USA Amazon UK Sybex

Windows 7 Public Beta

Alan — Thu, 08 Jan 2009 12:27:00 +0000

On January 9th, the Windows 7 Beta will be available for Windows enthusiasts to download via the Windows 7 page on Windows.com. The Windows 7 Beta is going to be available download-only (Microsoft are not sending out physical media) and available for a limited time to the first 2.5 million people who download the beta.

For an easy way to test this out follow this well written post over at ‘VM /ETC’ which will show you a step by step guide on installing Windows 7 in VMware Workstation

For more information check out the Windows Team Blog

Windows 7 Public Beta is a post from: Virtu-Al.
Virtu-Al is one of the authors of VMware vSphere PowerCLI Reference: Automating vSphere Administration"

Buy it now from: Amazon USA Amazon UK Sybex

Removing SCVMM from vCenter

Alan — Tue, 06 Jan 2009 08:29:00 +0000

An interesting article was bought to my attention which explains that if you ever use SCVMM to control your VMware environment (no comment) and then decide to remove it again (again no comment) there are a few things left behind.

The following blog explains what is left behind and whats better it even gives you a nice powershell script to remove the leftovers, good job !

Microsoft System Center Virtual Machine Manager (SCVMM) 2008 makes several changes to your vCenter environment that you may like to know about, especially since they don’t seem to be mentioned in the product documentation. It’s also worth pointing out that none of these changes are reverted when you subsequently decide to discontinue managing vCenter with SCVMM.

Read the rest of the article here

Removing SCVMM from vCenter is a post from: Virtu-Al.
Virtu-Al is one of the authors of VMware vSphere PowerCLI Reference: Automating vSphere Administration"

Buy it now from: Amazon USA Amazon UK Sybex

Powershell V2 CTP3

Alan — Tue, 23 Dec 2008 08:37:00 +0000

They said it would be December and Microsoft actually kept a deadline… Only Just !

Powershell V2 CTP3 was released last night after several hints from @jsnover on twitter.

To download the latest Community Technology Preview here

Selected New and Updated Features in Windows PowerShell V2 CTP3

PowerShell Remoting

Windows PowerShell Integrated Scripting Environment (ISE)

63 New Cmdlets

Modules

Script Debugging

Advanced Functions

PowerShell Class API

Powershell V2 CTP3 is a post from: Virtu-Al.
Virtu-Al is one of the authors of VMware vSphere PowerCLI Reference: Automating vSphere Administration"

Buy it now from: Amazon USA Amazon UK Sybex

Last Call: UK PowerShell Use Group

Alan — Sun, 16 Nov 2008 20:25:00 +0000

UK Powershell User Group

Following on from the last great meeting the next UK Powershell User Group has been announced…

The November meeting of the User Group will be on Thursday 20th November

Time
6.30 – 9.30

Location
Memphis Room
Building 3
Microsoft campus
Thames Valley Park
Reading

Agenda

Powershell Introduction: Objects and get-member
PowerGUI SQL Server Reporting Services powerpack
PowerShell in SQL Server 2008
The usual refreshments break will occur

The PowerShell Introduction is a new feature for meetings where they will explain a particular feature of PowerShell that has caused someone a problem or maybe a slightly more difficult concept.

Please visit the following site to confirm your attendance, please do not just turn up as ou will need to be regiestered….

http://richardsiddaway.spaces.live.com/blog/cns!43CFA46A74CF3E96!1872.entry

Last Call: UK PowerShell Use Group is a post from: Virtu-Al.
Virtu-Al is one of the authors of VMware vSphere PowerCLI Reference: Automating vSphere Administration"

Buy it now from: Amazon USA Amazon UK Sybex

Powershell Panel

Alan — Mon, 10 Nov 2008 20:16:00 +0000

Ever wondered what Jonathan Medd from the get-scripting podcast looks like as well as sounds like ?

In an interview at TechEd in Barcelona Jonathan hosts a great Panel with some of the big names in Powershell, this is a must see, some great discussions in there….

Click here to see the video

Powershell Panel is a post from: Virtu-Al.
Virtu-Al is one of the authors of VMware vSphere PowerCLI Reference: Automating vSphere Administration"

Buy it now from: Amazon USA Amazon UK Sybex

System Center Virtual Machine Manager 2008 RTMs

Alan — Tue, 21 Oct 2008 18:42:00 +0000

Yes, the long awaited System Center Virtual Machine Manager 2008 (I’m sure they could have thought of a longer title) has just gone RTM.

See here for the full story

System Center Virtual Machine Manager 2008 RTMs is a post from: Virtu-Al.
Virtu-Al is one of the authors of VMware vSphere PowerCLI Reference: Automating vSphere Administration"

Buy it now from: Amazon USA Amazon UK Sybex

Hyper-V Resources

Alan — Fri, 03 Oct 2008 11:39:00 +0000

As Hyper-V is now available Microsoft have some on-line presentations taken from the virtualisation launch last month.

These are available on their website at :
http://www.microsoft.com/virtualization/getvirtualnow.mspx.
A good overview of Hyper-V is at http://www.microsoft.com/virtualization/assets/media/hdbp/local/msm.htm, which is one of the breakout sessions entitled “Hyper-V Deployment and Best Practises”.

Thanks to AP

Hyper-V Resources is a post from: Virtu-Al.
Virtu-Al is one of the authors of VMware vSphere PowerCLI Reference: Automating vSphere Administration"

Buy it now from: Amazon USA Amazon UK Sybex