Microsoft

Microsoft release Microsoft Windows Server 2000/2003 Terminal Services Management Pack

Charles Aunger / www.eviglio.com — Wed, 02 May 2007 09:31:25 GMT

The Terminal Services Management Pack for Windows 2000 and Windows Server 2003 monitors the health and performance of Terminal Services components. It includes a rich set of views, tasks, and reports, and provides monitoring for Terminal Services, the Licensing Server, and the Session Directory.

This Management Pack detects and alerts problems with performance, health, and availability. It can automatically respond to critical events and performance indicators. In some cases it identifies issues before they become critical, enabling you to increase the overall availability and performance of your Windows operating systems.

Feature Summary:

• Independent discovery of Terminal Server Service (application mode), Licensing Server Service, and Session Directory Service (Windows 2003 only)
• Optional discovery of Terminal Server installations in Remote Desktop (Remote Application) mode
• Performance threshold monitoring on key Terminal Services Metrics using Self-Tuning Thresholds
• Comprehensive performance metric collection (optional collection rules)
• Comprehensive event rules with associated knowledge
• Availability and Event Reports

System Requirements

- Supported Operating Systems: Windows Server 2003

Applicable OS
Supported Operating Systems: Windows Server 2003, Windows Server 2003 x64
Other Software: System Center Operations Manager 2007, Windows 2000 (all releases), Windows 2003

download at source

Charles Aunger
charles aunger eknowlogy / eviglio / frameworkx / charles.aunger homepage

Terminal Services Easy Print explained by Microsoft Terminal Services Team.

Charles Aunger / www.eviglio.com — Thu, 26 Apr 2007 19:02:25 GMT

It doesn’t seem more than 2 minutes ago I was sitting watching the announcement of Terminal Services Easy Print and excellent demo from Nelly Porter of Microsoft.

Well now you can hear it from the team themselves at the Terminal Services Blog.. WELL DONE GUYS..

Introducing Terminal Services Easy Print: Part 1

Historically, printing redirection has been difficult for Terminal Services(TS) customers. To successfully redirect a given user's client printer to the terminal server, the proper drivers needed to be installed on both the TS client machine and TS server machine. Customers have discovered that the requirement of having the TS server host a matching printer driver can be problematic for a number of reasons (e.g. inability to find matching drivers, or the drivers the printer vendor supplied just don't work with TS). Simply put, we wanted to solve these issues and reduce administrator headaches. The solution is TS Easy Print: a "driver-less" solution for printer redirection over a TS session.

What is TS Easy Print:

TS Easy Print is a proxy for every print action that simply redirects all printing-related work to the user's local machine without the need to install any print drivers on the TS server. This system provides several benefits, such as being able to redirect any printer from the user's client machine without having to reconfigure the server while still allowing the user to configure the print job as though he were printing on his client machine.

On Longhorn Server, the user's local client printers installed in a TS session will be installed with the TS Easy Print system.

What is needed to use TS Easy Print:

On the TS server, Longhorn Server needs to be installed. That is all! No additional drivers need to be installed; no additional configuration needs to take place. On the TS client, the user must be running TS client 6.1 and have .NET Framework 3.0 SP1 installed (both will be released in the same timeframe as Longhorn Server). Both TS client 6.1 and .NET Framework 3.0 SP1 are intended to be available for XP, Windows Server 2003 and Vista machines. As a result, XP, Windows Server 2003, and Vista machines will be able to connect to Longhorn servers and use TS Easy Print just as Vista machines will.

How TS Easy Print works:

As mentioned above, the general idea behind the solution is to make a driver on the server that redirects all printing related work to the local machine. The implementation of this solution comes in two pieces.

The first piece is presenting the user with printing preferences through UI so that they may configure the print job on any printer they have. Instead of creating some server side UI that will show the bare minimum of preferences users need (such as number of copies, landscape v. portrait, etc...) and apply this UI to all printers, the TS Easy Print driver acts as a proxy and redirects all calls for UI to the actual driver on the client side. When the user edits preferences for a print job on a redirected printer, the TS client will launch this UI from the local machine on top of the remote session. As a result, the user sees the same detailed printer-specific UI and all printer options are available to him. He would see exactly the same options as if he were printing something locally. The user's selected preferences are then redirected to the server for use when printing. Below are screenshots that show an example of the above behaviour.

click to read at source

Charles Aunger
charles aunger eknowlogy / eviglio / frameworkx / charles.aunger homepage

Longhorn to introduce Terminal Services Session Broker (Load Balancing)

Charles Aunger / www.eknowlogy.com — Thu, 26 Apr 2007 10:10:04 GMT

Another Microsoft announcement at BriForum 2007: Longhorn Terminal Services will introduce session-based load balancing.

TS Session Broker, a new feature in Windows Server “Longhorn” Beta 3, provides a simpler alternative than Microsoft Network Load Balancing for Terminal Services. While not limited to a specific number of servers, the feature provides significant value to farms of two to five servers. With TS Session Broker, new sessions are distributed to the least-loaded server within the farm—optimizing performance—and users can reconnect to an existing session without having to know specific information about the server where the session was established. IT managers can use the feature to map the Internet Protocol (IP) address of each terminal server to a single Domain Name System (DNS) entry. This configuration can also provide fault tolerance; if one of the farm servers is unavailable, the user will connect to the next least-loaded server in the farm.

This new load balancing mechanism is not built on NLB. Instead it is built on the TS Session Directory infrastructure.

The way it works in a bit more deail is that when an RDP client connects to a Terminal Server and that server is unable to service that client it queries the Terminal Services Session Broker on that user's behalf and then redirect that client to an alternate server. This redirection happens automatically and does not user interaction. This mechanism also supports server draining - the ability to prevent new sessions from being created on a Terminal Server so that it can be taken offline for maintenance.

So what is not provided? This mechanism is intended to simple scenarios and does not support:

Application Load Balancing
Complex/configurable balancing algorithms (built-in support only for session-based load balancing)

for more informaiton on Longhorn Server Features click here

Charles Aunger
charles aunger eknowlogy / eviglio / frameworkx / charles.aunger homepage

Terminal Services Easy Print Demo at Briforum 2007

Charles Aunger / www.eknowlogy.com — Thu, 26 Apr 2007 10:01:56 GMT

Way cool demo because at last Microsoft have taken it to heart that we would like printing fixed.

Nelly Porter of Microsoft gave an excellent presentation at Briforum 2007 in Chicago by showing of 2 new features of Longhorn Terminal Services

Plug and Play Device support. Connect a Camera to the client side and watch it connect to you Terminal server.

and then

Terminal Services Easy Print: TS Easy Print, a new feature in Windows Server “Longhorn” Beta 3 using XPS ( XML Paper Specification), enables users to reliably print from a TS RemoteApp program or full desktop session to a local or network printer installed on the client computer. Printers can now be supported without the need to install print drivers on the terminal server. When users want to print from a TS RemoteApp program or desktop session, they will see the full printer properties dialog box (printer user interface) from the local client and have access to all the printer functionality. IT administrators can use Group Policy to limit the number of printers redirected to just the default printer, thereby reducing overhead and improving scalability.

How does TS Easy Print work ? The way TS Easy Print works is that an XPS print driver running on the Terminal Server will spool the printer data down to the client over a Virtual Channel. On the client-side an Easy Print plugin intercepts this traffic and prints it out, even if the local printer does not have an XPS driver. Here are a few feature highlights:

The printer data is compressed on the wire and will be able to be controlled
Supports any printer settings including OEM
Full control over which printers are redirected
Printer preferences are preserved and honored in remote sessions, including default printer setting
Embedded XP, and Windows Clients will be suppor initially because .NET framework is required, CE will hopefully be available.

Nelly Porter also showed off the AERO / GLASS support now with in Longhorn Server, giving end users Vista look and feel..

for more information on Longhorn Server Features click here

Charles Aunger
charles aunger eknowlogy / eviglio / frameworkx / charles.aunger homepage

Great update from Michel Roth - Thincomputing.net Performance Pack. Tuning Citrix and Terminal Servers

Charles Aunger / www.eknowlogy.com — Sun, 15 Apr 2007 18:35:37 GMT

Great update from Michel Roth of ThinComputing.net..

What is the Thincomputing.net Performance Pack? Well, it's a bundle of the most well-known performance papers and articles in one download (zip). Since quite a few interesting papers have been released in the last year or so, he's added the following papers to the collection:

• Tim Mangan - Do you want 64 or 32 bit apps with that server?
• Thomas Koetzing - Optimizing Logon and Logoff whitepaper
• Doub Brown - MIAB Tweaks for Presentation Server 4.0
• VMware- VDI Server Sizing and Scaling
• VMware - Improving Scalability for Citrix Presentation Server (on ESX)
• Michel Roth - Lanmanserver and Lanmanworkstation Tuning
• VisionApp - Scalability of 64-bit Terminal Server Platforms
• Citrix - Optimizing Citrix technology for operation over wireless Wide Area Networks

These are the papers that were already in the download.

• VisionApp - Big Iron Test
• Citrix - Citrix Presentation Server for Windows Server 2003 x64 Editions Performance and Scaling Capability
• Brian Madden - Comparing 32-bit and 64-bit Memory Architectures
• Citrix - CTX101705 - Troubleshooting Slow Logons
• Citrix - CTX105314 - Troubleshooting Application Performance Issues
• Citrix - CTX106463 - Troubleshooting ICA Session Performance
• Citrix How Hyper-Threading Affects the User Capacity of MetaFrame XP Servers
• Tim Mangan - Perceived Performance and Virtual Operating Systems
• Tim Mangan - Technologies'Perceived Performance Tuning a system for what really matters
• Rick Dehlinger - Installation and Tuning Tips
• Ron Oglesby - 2003 tuning spreadsheet
• Terminal Server and Citrix MetaFrame Server Sizing Techniques
• Brian Madden - Terminal Server Performance Tuning
• Microsoft - Terminal Services Scaling and Performance on x64-Based Versions of Windows Server 2003
• Microsoft - Windows Server 2003 Terminal Server Capacity and Scaling

The download is about 6.33 MB in size.

The Citrix Support articles contain a hyperlink to the online version of the article, so you can check for updates. Some of the papers and articles are somewhat old but still very valuable. This is just a collection of papers and articles which, I think are valuable. If you know of papers and articles that should be in here also, drop him a line.

Download the Thincomputing.net Performance Pack 1.1.

Charles Aunger
charles aunger eknowlogy / eviglio / frameworkx / charles.aunger homepage

Microsoft Windows Server 2003 Service Pack 2 Known Issues with Citrix Presentation Server 3.0, 4.0 and 4.5

Charles Aunger / www.eknowlogy.com — Wed, 11 Apr 2007 19:34:00 GMT

Citrix have released and KB article (CTX113035) about Microsoft Windows Server 2003 Service Pack 2 Known Issues with Citrix Presentation Server
extract of the article is below.. Seems that the main issues accur around Application Isolation when under heavy utilization.

Citrix Systems, Inc supports Microsoft Windows Server 2003 Service Pack 2. This article outlines some known issues and their workarounds that users of Windows Server 2003 Service Pack 2 must be aware of in conjunction with the following Citrix products:

• Citrix Presentation Server 4.5

• Presentation Server 4.0

• Presentation Server 3.0

Citrix has tested the pre-release builds of Windows Server 2003 Service Pack 2 and the results are listed below. Citrix is actively testing to determine how Citrix products and their components perform on the final release of Windows Server 2003 Service Pack 2 (English). This article will be updated accordingly with the results of our testing.

Issues

• Uninstalling Windows Server 2003 Service Pack 2 causes links to the Access Suite Console/Access Management Console to break.

Windows Server 2003 Service Pack 2 upgrades the Microsoft Management Console (MMC) to version 3.0. MMC 2.0 console files (.msc) with user preferences that are opened by MMC 3.0 are updated to the MMC 3.0 format. If MMC 3.0 is uninstalled, MMC 2.0 cannot open the console files that have these updated user preferences.

Workaround
See Microsoft Knowledge Base article 907265.

• Windows Server 2003 Service Pack 2 Integrated build (slipstreamed) version issues:

Web Interface, Program Neighborhood Agent: You might not be able to connect to the Web Interface or launch Program Neighborhood Agent shortcuts. [#148065]

Access Gateway 4.5: You cannot view logon points created in the server configuration tool after upgrading using a Windows Server 2003 Service Pack 2 Integrated build. [#148019]

Workaround
See Microsoft Knowledge Base article 933638.

Citrix recommends that you install Windows Server 2003 Service Pack 2 on a server running Presentation Server 4.5 64-bit Edition to resolve the following potential issues:

The following error messages might appear in the Event Log or while running discovery using the Access Management Console on servers running Presentation Server 4.5 64-bit Edition for Windows Server 2003 with Service Pack 1:

In the Event Log: "The COM+ System Application service failed to start due to the following error: The service did not respond to the start or control request in a timely fashion."

In the Access Management Console: "Errors occurred when using <server name> in the discovery process. Citrix MFCOM Service did not respond as expected. Make sure that your user account is a member of this computer’s Distributed COM Users group if you are connecting to a remote server. Check the version of Citrix Presentation Server on the computer and ensure that a compatible version of Citrix MFCOM Service is installed and running."

This issue might be caused by an intermittent flaw in Microsoft’s COM+ subsystems that prevents the proper installation of Presentation Server components. For more information, see CTX112182 – The Access Management Console Fails During the Discovery Process After Installing the 64-bit Edition of Presentation Server 4.5.

• Application isolation might stop working after periods of heavy utilization.

Microsoft is working with Citrix on a hotfix to resolve this issue. It should be available shortly.

click for source

check out me homepage at http://charlesaunger.eknowlogy.com

Charles Aunger
charles aunger eknowlogy / eviglio / frameworkx / charles.aunger homepage

Instant Messaging Comes to Xbox 360 - Spring 2007 Update

Charles Aunger / www.eknowlogy.com — Tue, 10 Apr 2007 08:32:00 GMT

Microsoft Corp. announced the launch of Windows Live™ Messenger on Xbox 360™, connecting friends across Xbox 360 consoles, Microsoft® Windows®-based PCs and Windows Mobile®-powered devices.

"Bringing the largest IM community in the world, Windows Live Messenger, to Xbox 360 makes sense, as Xbox Live has really become the largest social network on television," said Jerry Johnson, product unit manager of Xbox Live at Microsoft. "For our growing community of six million on Xbox Live, using Xbox 360 is a very social, connected experience. They are using Xbox 360 to play games, music, and movies while simultaneously communicating with one another through video, voice, and text chat. With this announcement we are simultaneously expanding the access of Xbox Live users to existing friends and family while introducing Windows Live Messenger users to the benefits of Xbox 360."

Look for this new accessory this summer

Beginning the week of May 7, users of Windows Live Messenger on Xbox 360 can text chat using the virtual keyboard accessible on Xbox 360, or by connecting a USB keyboard to the console. This summer Microsoft will launch a QWERTY text-input device, a new accessory that will connect directly into the Xbox 360 controller to support text and instant messaging.

Other New Features
Beyond Windows Live Messenger, the Spring Update for Xbox 360 includes hundreds of new features and enhancements including:

A richer Achievement notification pop-up will showcase the name of the unlocked Achievement and the gamerscore value without needing to leave the game to check the Achievements list.
Enhanced family settings features for Xbox Live communications enable different defaults for video chat and voice chat.
A new Xbox Live Marketplace blade lets Xbox Live members access the content they seek—whether it is game content or TV shows and movies (available in the United States)—from one place on Xbox Live.
Updates to Xbox Live Arcade allow owners to quickly see which Xbox Live Arcade games their friends are playing and join in the fun. Xbox Live members can also compare progress of leaderboard scores and Achievements directly with all friends on their friends list. Expanded "Tell a Friend" capabilities make it easier than ever to boast about Achievements and high scores.
Expanded "Tell a Friend" capabilities make it easier than ever to boast about Achievements and high scores.
A new option in Auto Downloads provides faster access to the entire collection of free, trial-version Xbox Live Arcade games.
New progressive download controls provide easy access to optimal viewing options by letting people fast-forward, rewind, pause and resume as their video is downloaded from Xbox Live Marketplace.
Extension of the background download functionality will allow owners to set their Xbox 360 console to turn off automatically after downloads are complete.

click for source

Tools for Microsoft SoftGrid.

Charles Aunger / www.eknowlogy.com — Wed, 04 Apr 2007 14:00:00 GMT

Wilco van Bragt has posted an article about some of the free tools out there that you can use to make your life easier in regards to working with Microsoft Softgrid environments. All these tools are made by two of my talented colleagues: Rodney Medina and Dennis Damen. The tools that Wilco walks trough are:

SoftGrid System Tray Utility
The SoftGrid System Tray utility makes is very easy to perform the most used commands during testing of the SoftGrid sequences.

SoftGrid ADM Template
SoftGrid ADM Template allows you to manage all the relevant settings in a ADM template.

SoftGrid Migration Tool Express Edition
The purpose of the SoftGrid Migration Tool is to help you “convert” existing automated application setups to SoftGrid Virtualized Applications (aka streams or sequences) with the least possible amount of user intervention.

Read it all here.

click for source from Michel Roth

Charles Aunger
charles aunger eknowlogy / eviglio / frameworkx / charles.aunger homepage

Which editions of Windows Vista are 64bit..

Charles Aunger / www.eknowlogy.com — Wed, 04 Apr 2007 12:35:00 GMT

Which editions of Vista are 64bit..

The 64-bit editions of Windows Vista—available for all editions of Windows Vista except Vista Starter

The 64-bit editions of Windows Vista are not for everyone, and require a system with a 64-bit processor and 64-bit system drivers. Confirm you system, applications, and devices are compatible with a 64-bit edition of Windows Vista before installing.

Memory specifications

All editions of Windows Vista 64-bit provide increased memory support beyond the standard 4 gigabytes (GB) available with 32-bit editions. Refer to the specific edition of Windows Vista 64-bit to determine maximum memory capacity.

	Windows Vista Edition	64-bit memory support

	Home Basic	8 GB
	Home Premium	16 GB
	Ultimate	128+ GB
	Business	128+ GB
	Enterprise	128+ GB

What if I brough 32bit Vista and want 64bit Vista DVD

If you bought Windows Vista Home Basic, Home Premium, or Business as a RETAIL (sorry not OEM), packaged product, and you would like a DVD of 64-bit software media to install on your PC.

click here to go to the Microsoft Windows Vista Alternate Media Site.

Note: 64-bit media is included in the box with Windows Vista Ultimate.

Charles Aunger
charles aunger eknowlogy / eviglio / frameworkx / charles.aunger homepage

Microsoft Enables New Ways to Deploy Windows Vista

Charles Aunger / www.eknowlogy.com — Tue, 03 Apr 2007 13:20:00 GMT

Microsoft Enables New Ways to Deploy Windows Vista
Q&A: New options to license desktop virtualization and diskless PCs give Windows Vista Enterprise customers more choices, says the director of Microsoft's Windows Business Group.

For many IT professionals within large organizations, maintaining control over their desktop environments is becoming an increasingly tall order. The cost of deploying and administering PCs – sometimes tens of thousands of PCs – across an enterprise can be significant, especially without the proper infrastructure in place to aid in the automation of these tasks. Add to that the growing complexity created by more mobile and temporary workers as well as new data security and compliance requirements – such as Sarbanes-Oxley and HIPAA in the United States – in regulated industries, and it is little wonder that some large enterprises are exploring alternative approaches to traditional desktop management.

With the combination of Window Vista Enterprise Edition and the Microsoft Desktop Optimization Pack, customers can secure PCs, centralize applications and increase productivity while decreasing deployment costs. In addition, the advent of fast networking and virtualization has opened the door for large enterprises examining new architectures that centralize Windows. Last week, at the Microsoft Management Summit 2007 (MMS 2007), Microsoft detailed the upcoming availability of licensing for two new centralized architectures based on Windows Vista Enterprise Edition. For details on the new offerings and what they mean to customers, PressPass spoke with Microsoft’s Scott Woodgate, director in the Windows Business Group.

Scott Woodgate, Director, Microsoft Windows Business Group

PressPass: At MMS 2007, you disclosed additional deployment options for Windows Vista. What are these changes designed to address?

Woodgate: Some of our larger, more highly managed and heavily regulated customers have been asking us for more new Windows Vista deployment models and licensing so they can see how well nascent architectures based on virtualization and fast networking function within their environments. We are responding by adding two more options to the numerous ways customers can deploy and manage Windows Vista Enterprise. These two new options will enable our customers to begin testing centralized desktops and diskless PCs in their production environments alongside their existing deployment model and determine which combination provides the right mix of centralized IT control and end-user flexibility for their respective businesses.

PressPass: What exactly are the changes you announced?

Woodgate: For Software Assurance customers using Windows Vista Enterprise, we’re adding two new ways to license and deploy the operating system. They are:

1) The license right to use Windows Vista on diskless PCs

2) The availability of a subscription license called Windows Vista Enterprise Centralized Desktops (VECD) which allows customers to use Windows in virtual machines centralized on server hardware.

PressPass: What are diskless PCs? How do customers benefit from running Windows on a diskless PC, and how does it work?

Woodgate: We think of a diskless PC as simply a PC that runs Windows but does not store Windows or data locally because it does not have a hard drive. The customers that have been requesting diskless PCs tell us they want the ability to move their Windows data and applications to centralized storage hardware such as a Storage Area Network (SAN), while still maintaining the local computing characteristics and experience of a PC.

We are working with our partners so they can provide the software to enable diskless PCs and they will likely enable two different scenarios for customers. In the first scenario, each employee’s hard drive is stored individually on centralized storage hardware. In the second scenario, shared images are used by a group of users. Our licensing enables both of these scenarios so that customers can work with our partners to determine if these are valuable architectures within their desktop environment.

click here for source and the rest of the release

Charles Aunger
charles aunger eknowlogy / eviglio / frameworkx / charles.aunger homepage