Check out the IT Grand Prix to TechEd

Start Your Engines! The IT Grand Prix is coming!

Four teams of Microsoft Certified Professionals are revving their engines! From June 1 through June 4, 2010, they’ll race from Washington D.C. to TechEd 2010 in New Orleans, where the winning team will award a $10,000 check to the charity of their choice.

Along the way, they'll overcome challenges and help local non-profits. But they need your help: pick your favorite team, join their virtual Pit Crew, and help them meet the challenges they’ll face during the race by solving on-line challenges to earn points for your team. It’s your opportunity to help four great causes in a way that only MCPs can.

Register for an online Pit Crew today – I’m on the Red Team, but all four teams are racing for some great causes!

QuickBooks and Software Firewalls

I'll admit that I don't do much when it comes to tech support for small businesses, but I recently came across having to get a shared setup of Intuit Quickbooks 2010 working between two Windows 7 machines in a HomeGroup, using Trend Micro Internet Security 2010 protection for a small company.

First off, if you are using a third-party product for anti-virus/security/firewall, make sure to disable the Windows firewall. I expected Windows 7 to recognize that a firewall product was installed, but it didn't, thus the OS firewall was conflicting with the settings from the Trend Micro.

Once that hurdle had been crossed, it was time to configure the Trend Micro firewall to let QuickBooks through. I started out creating an exception for the main executiable application, but that didn't do the trick. A little research brought me to this knowledge base article from Intuit that lists out over a dozen file exceptions that need to be made. It was a little tedious to set up, but the multi-user mode of the application worked as expected once they were added.

Much safer than the work around the staff was using before - disabling the firewall whenever they wanted to work on the company finances!

Gearing Up for Vitualization Certification

There are several virtualizations exams available from Microsoft, some shiny and new and one that's been around for a bit of time now. There is indication that there will be an new MCITP certification that's not yet on the Microsoft certification list - MCITP: Windows Server 2008 R2, Virtualization Adminstrator.

At the moment, there are 3 exams that count toward this certification, though without final say from Microsoft website, I'm currently thinking that the full certification is not fully baked yet. However, no reason you can't get started. In the past, I've taken 70-652 (TS: Windows Server Virtualization, Configurating) which is a stand-alone Technology Specialist exam for virtualization with Hyper-V on Windows 2008. It does not cover Server 2008 R2 technologies.

The other 3 exams, are new and are specifically geared toward Windows Server 2008 R2.

• 70-669 TS: Windows Server 2008 R2, Desktop Virtualization
• 70-659 TS: Windows Server 2008 R2, Server Virtualization
• 70-693 Pro: Windows Server 2008 R2, Virtualization Administrator

There is very little study/prep materials available for these exams at the moment, however expect you'll need to know about configuring and managing Hyper-V and RDS, as well as VDI, MED-V and App-V technologies.

Don't forget, the Microsoft Second Shot offer is still available for exams taken through June 30th. Drop me an email if you need a voucher number for the second shot offer.

Managing Linked Pages in ImageRight

ImageRight has a nifty feature where you can “link” pages from a document in one file to another file. When annotations are made on those linked pages in either file, they show in both locations. You can link pages from one file to multiple files and the annotations will remain synced on all of the linked copies.

It’s important to know that “all linked copies are equal”, there is no master version of the a page once a linked copy is created. If File A has a link to File B and File C, annotations on any version will be synced to all other copies. If you delete the page from File A, the linked version in File B and File C will still continue to share annotation updates between them. However what happens when the original document was incorrect and needs to be swapped out? Or how do you figure out which other files are referencing a document?

Turns out, there isn’t an easy answer. In my particular scenario, it was discovered that File A (the original document) was determined to be inaccurate and needed to be replaced with updated pages. If those pages were deleted outright, there would be no way to determine which other files were linked or how to notify users of those files of the error.

My suggestion is to put an annotation on what was the source document stating that it had been superseded by a new version and where the updated version could be located. That annotation would sync to the other linked copies, wherever they may be. Finally, the pages could be replaced in the original file. The link with the original location would be gone, but whenever someone came across the notation on the older version in another file, they could reference the new file and re-link fresh copies if desired.

I've requested that ImageRight add the ability to determine which pages or documents are linked, so maybe we'll see that as an enhancement in a future version.

App-V vs. Terminal Services – Which one, when?

Both App-V and Terminal Services/Remote Desktop Services can reduce the amount of time an IT Professional spends installing, managing and troubleshooting applications on desktops. Both technologies allow you to install, upgrade and manage an application in one place (on a server) and allow multiple users access to those applications. And then the similarities start to end.

Terminal Services/RDS is based on session hosting. The users must establish a session with the host server to access the application. Depending on what version of Windows Server you are using, the applications can appear on the desktop seamlessly using either RemoteApp or other 3rd party technologies. While this is great for workers who are located locally in the office or are regularly connected via the Internet from another location, the applications are not accessible when the client machine is working offline.

App-V streams the packaged applications to the client machine, which are then cached locally for use while working on or offline. The applications can be managed and updated on the server side and the client machines receive updates when they reconnect. This allows for better control of the overall software lifecycle and ensures that every client is running the approved version of any given application.

When it comes to support for legacy applications, especially those that will not run on Windows 7, App-V isn’t necessarily going to be the solution. Any application streamed from App-V must be sequenced and packaged for the destination operating system, though I've heard of some success with XP-sequenced apps working on Windows 7, so your mileage may vary. App-V requires the applications to interact with the client operating system in order to take advantage the local system resources. This is also important for applications that must interact with each other and with the local drivers on the machine, to deliver an experience similar to having the application installed in the traditional fashion.

If you have an application that won’t run on Windows 7, you’ll have to turn to a solution other than App-V. If you already have a legacy Server 2003 Terminal Services infrastructure in place that can deliver the application, it might be easier and more cost effective to look at using that instead of deploying MED-V. (See my post on TS vs. MED-V in April.)

Legacy applications aside, what if all your applications are Windows 7 ready? Can RDS make more sense than App-V?

First, you have to consider your users. Do the work online or offline? Do you have the RDS infrastructure to support having EVERYONE access applications during the work day? Having everyone access hosted applications is resource intensive on the server. If you currently have an implementation that used for only a few remote workers or for little used applications you’ll have to look closely at how much those servers will be able to support. App-V might be a better fit if you want to take advantage the resources on the local machines instead.

You can also combine App-V with Remote Desktop Services to make better use of server farm resources. Ultimately, there are a lot of different ways to deliver software to your end users and it doesn’t have to involving managing applications on each desktop.