Agramont.net

Delayed News… Conrad has joined Mural Consulting

agramont — Tue, 28 Oct 2008 00:20:46 GMT

Starting in early September 2008, I took another leap of faith and left Microsoft (again). I’m now Vice President, Product and Program Development for Mural Consulting. Mural Consulting has been around for 3+ years and works with Telco’s, Hoster’s, and ISV’s to transform their business (or at least add to it) to a Software as a Service (SaaS) model. I’ve been focused on the telecommunication and hosting space since 1999. Much of that time I worked for Microsoft on the Redmond campus. I still remember...(read more)

Webcasts: Windows Server 2008, SQL Server 2008, Forefront and more...

agramont — Fri, 04 Apr 2008 07:05:28 GMT

In order to help customers get a better understanding of the value of some of our newly release products, we have created a series of webcasts to help bring some introductions to those products. Below is a list of the sessions. Click on the link to find out more about the session and to register for the event. Microsoft Virtualization Strategy and Roadmap 4/10/2008 4:00 PM (EST) http://msevents.microsoft.com/CUI/WebCastEventDetails.aspx?EventID=1032375021&EventCategory=4&culture=en-US&CountryCode...(read more)

DemoCorp Update: Musical Virtual Servers

agramont — Wed, 12 Mar 2008 02:24:40 GMT

As noted in a previous post , I deployed a demo environment leveraging Windows Server 2008 Hyper-V. While this worked pretty good, I wasn't able to run all of the virtual machines at the same time due to insufficient memory (yes, even 8 GB wasn't enough), so I decided to leverage some additional laptops that I had lying about. And even use another machine that's pretty decent and currently used as my home Windows Home Server machine (it has plenty of extra power). So here is what the...(read more)

Weekly Update: March 3, 2008

agramont — Tue, 11 Mar 2008 06:21:29 GMT

Each week there are a number of interesting questions that I get from my own internal Microsoft team, our Microsoft Partners, and even our customers. Many of these responses I send through the tunnels of communication like Email, Instant Messaging, phone, and even (can you imagine) face-to-face conversations. While getting this time sensitive information out the people who are asking the questions is important to meet some end goal like closing a deal, kicking off a project, or just gathering data...(read more)

Webcast: Still undecided about Vista?

agramont — Tue, 04 Mar 2008 19:47:52 GMT

This looks like a great webcast to attend. I have it on my radar to attend! Microsoft Technical Fellow and desktop guru Mark Russinovich will be hosting an interactive virtual roundtable—broadcast LIVE over the Internet on Wednesday, March 5 th . The subject? Windows Vista adoption and deployment. On the panel with Mark will be independent industry experts and IT pros from organizations that have already deployed Windows Vista—all openly discussing known challenges, solutions and...(read more)

DemoCorp: Building a Lab/Demo Environment

agramont — Fri, 14 Dec 2007 22:50:00 GMT

One of the challenges of being a good technical sales resource for Microsoft is staying fresh with the technology. Many times we get some great resources (Hands On Labs, Demo VM's, and On Demand Live Meeting technical sessions) within Microsoft corporate by providing us in the sales field some pre-baked labs. But it doesn't always give you that "Getting your hands dirty" feeling. So I decided to bite the bullet and build my own lab. And not just a lab that focuses on a single group...(read more)

My first book: How to Cheat at IIS 7 Server Administration

agramont — Thu, 16 Aug 2007 15:04:45 GMT

I was fortunate enough to be asked to contribute to a new book focused on IIS 7.0. I thought this would be a great way to dive deep into the product which would in turn help me sell the platform as Windows Server 2008 comes out (although the book focuses on Windows Vista). The final name of the book is “ How to Cheat at IIS 7 Server Administration “. The target audience for this book is the IT generalist that is looking to quickly learn IIS 7 and perform the standard operational and support function...(read more)

Now Available: Microsoft System Center Essentials 2007

agramont — Thu, 10 May 2007 21:11:00 GMT

There has been much advertisement around the new System Center brand and all of the great things the suite of products will provide to customers, but one of those products has quietly shipped. System Center Essentials 2007 (SCE) is a new product focused on the small to mid-market customer who has 1-3 IT Generalists. Essentials 2007 is a new management solution in the System Center family of IT systems management products specifically designed for midsized businesses (up to 500 PCs and 30 Servers...(read more)

System Center Operations Manager 2007 Eval to RTM

agramont — Sun, 06 May 2007 16:30:00 GMT

System Center Operations Manager 2007 will NOT be available via MSDN or TechNet download. An evaluation version of OpsMgr 2007 is a currently available for immediate download. If you're interested in purchasing the product, you can upgrade from evaluation to RTM using a tool that comes with the RTM version (on the DVD). The RTM bits are available for download on MVLS now, and will be in the May VL media kits. Upgrading from Eval to RTM should not have any impact on the client machines. Note that...(read more)

Microsoft Windows Mobile 6.0 Upgrade for T-Mobile Dash

agramont — Sun, 06 May 2007 16:22:00 GMT

T-Mobile has now made Windows Mobile 6.0 available for upgrade for those of you who have a T-Mobile Dash device. http://www.t-mobile.com/wmupgrade/ Here is a great video on Channel 9 that shows off some of the new features of Windows Mobile 6 on the T-Mobile Dash! http://channel9.msdn.com/ShowPost.aspx?PostID=303900 So far I'm in love with searching throught your email via "type searching" and the new UI for the Calendar. Here is a blog post that shows some screenshots of the updated...(read more)

Windows Server code-named “Longhorn” Beta 3

agramont — Thu, 26 Apr 2007 03:52:00 GMT

Windows Server Longhorn Beta 3 is now publically available! You can download it directly via TechNet or MSDN . Both methods require you to logon within your Windows Live ID (formerly Passport) and register to download the beta. You can also request a DVD, but I think shipping charges may apply. You can also download Beta 3 via the online TechNet or MSDN Library subscription, but as of today (April 25, 2007) the final Beta 3 has yet to be published (right now only the Escrow build is available). Another...(read more)

Windows Vista Search and Preview Pane

agramont — Thu, 26 Apr 2007 02:19:00 GMT

One of my favorite features within Windows Vista is the new built-in Search. Sure there has been "Search" in previous versions of Windows AND there were even some indexing features, but Windows Vista provides a much richer experience to the user AND it searches more than just the local files. First off, Windows Vista Search is now a built in feature of the operating system. There is a version of the search engine that's available to Windows XP users, but you won't have the same...(read more)

Microsoft Partners: Using that magical hidden resource, "Demo Showcase"

agramont — Fri, 16 Mar 2007 06:00:00 GMT

For many Microsoft Certified and Gold Partners out there, they often overlook a very useful resource that is made available to them as part of their "Partner Box" which they should get each quarter. That resource is the " Demo Showcase ". The Demo Showcase is a collection of pre-created demos that could be used as part of a sales engagement. These demo's aren't just Flash or PowerPoint Demos, although those are available to partners as well, but are actual virtual machine...(read more)

Windows Server 2003 Service Pack 2 is now available

agramont — Tue, 13 Mar 2007 23:58:04 GMT

Microsoft has released Service Pack 2 for Windows Server 2003. This Service pack can be used for R2 and non-R2 versions of Windows Server 2003. Below are some items that I find quite interesting in this service pack: RIS out and WDS in – Remote Installation Services is now replaced by the Windows Deployment Service which was first found as part of the Windows Automated Installation Kit and used as part of the Business Desktop Deployment solution accelerator. WDS can still be used outside of SP2 and...(read more)

Microsoft Home Server

agramont — Mon, 05 Mar 2007 02:26:00 GMT

Recently Microsoft announced a new consumer product called "Home Server" which, as its name implies, is a server for the home. Home Server isn't the typical server as one would use at an office or school. Instead it's more of a data and management hub for the multi-computer home. For newer homes that have a central network patch panel in the basement, this may be the new home for your "Home Server". Here are some of the very cool features of Home Server (this is not the...(read more)

Windows Server Virtualization Video

agramont — Sat, 03 Mar 2007 20:22:00 GMT

There is some great innovation going on in Windows Server code-named Longhorn for Virtualization. There is now a video on MSN Soapbox that shows off some of the cool new features. In this demo you will see: Windows Server Virtualization running on a Server Core installation managed remotely from another Windows Server Longhorn box 64-bit and 32-bit virtual machines running concurrently SUSE Linux 10 running in a virtual machine An 8-core virtual machine System Center Virtual Machine Manager Interface...(read more)

BDD 2007 has launched and is now available!

agramont — Thu, 18 Jan 2007 16:17:55 GMT

Business Desktop Deployment 2007 has officially released and is available for immediate download! http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyId=13F05BE2-FD0E-4620-8CA6-1AAD6FC54741&displaylang=en Business Desktop Deployment (BDD) 2007 is THE best practice set of comprehensive guidance and tools to optimally deploy desktops running Windows Vista, Microsoft Windows XP, the 2007 Microsoft Office system, or Microsoft Office 2003. It helps IT professionals realize a quick return on investment...(read more)

Using Groove 2007 as a “Roaming Folder” for mobile and multi-computer users

agramont — Wed, 10 Jan 2007 08:54:56 GMT

With the availability of Office 2007 comes a new version of Groove 2007. I must admit that I was never a big user of Groove, but I'm trying to look more into the product to see what I've been missing. A really cool feature of this product is something that all users of multiple machines should get to know. It's called "File Share Workspace". File Share Workspace allows me to select a folder that I have on a given machine and set it for synchronization. I like to personally think of it as a "Roaming...(read more)

Copy/Increase a VHD using VHDMount

agramont — Thu, 04 Jan 2007 06:00:00 GMT

So after my first post on the subject of "expanding a VHD" by actually copying the contents of a VHD image using WAIK ( Copy a Microsoft Virtual Machine VHD/Increase VHD size using Windows Automated Installation Kit ), I got some good feedback on my laziness of not going down the VHDMount method. So I took a bit of time tonight to work through that scenario. A key new feature in Service Pack 1 for Microsoft Virtual Server 2005 R2 is the availability of a new tool named, "Offline VHD...(read more)

Copy a Microsoft Virtual Machine VHD/Increase VHD size using Windows Automated Installation Kit

agramont — Wed, 03 Jan 2007 06:04:00 GMT

I have a standard set of Virtual Machines images that I do much of my development with. For the most part, I created the virtual machines and their associated virtual drives using the default settings. As I'm using Microsoft Virtual Server 2005 R2 (x86), the default size for a new virtual drive is 16 GB (this changes with Service Pack 1 to 126 GB). This has been plenty of space and all things have ran well, until I started to install the Microsoft .NET Framework 3.0, Visual Studio 2005 Extensions...(read more)

Outlook 2007: Outlook Mobile Services

agramont — Fri, 15 Dec 2006 21:13:00 GMT

I was poking around Outlook today and found a feature named “Outlook Mobile Services”. It’s interesting that this is a function of the Outlook client and supports mobile communication outside of Exchange. I guess it makes sense if you’re going to communicate with people who have a mobile phone, but perhaps not a SmartPhone/Blackberry or is outside of your organization. When I attempted to configure my Outlook 2007 client to use OMS, it appears that my mobile carrier (T-Mobile...(read more)

My Windows Mobile Devices

agramont — Wed, 13 Dec 2006 03:17:00 GMT

Over the past few years I’ve been using Windows Mobile as my phone platform. Since I just purchased a new device (T-Mobile Dash), I thought I’d share my previous devices and my general thoughts on them. I wouldn’t consider this a detailed product review, but I’ll at least give you my general thoughts and comments on each device. So here are my devices… The first one (starting on the left) is the Sprint PPC 6600. The device, as you can see, is quite larger than the others...(read more)

Being a Microsoft PTS and about Microsoft Infrastructure Optimization

agramont — Wed, 06 Dec 2006 17:03:00 GMT

This is my third week at being back with Microsoft and I thought it was time for an updated. Not sure if the first week should count as it was during Thanksgiving week, so needless to say not much got done. When starting a new job, regardless of it being at Microsoft of not, there is a lot of learning the corporate culture (I have a head start on this as I was with MS for 5 years already), learning your direct team, learning the processes associated with the job, and finally learning how to perform...(read more)

Conrad Leave's Planet and Goes Back to Microsoft

agramont — Mon, 20 Nov 2006 01:11:00 GMT

After two years of being the Senior Architect for Planet Technologies (formerly eQuest), I have accepted a position back with Microsoft. My first day on the job is this Monday and I’m very excited to join as a “Partner Technology Specialist” in the “Small, Mid-Market, Solutions, & Partners” team for the Mid-Atlantic district (DC area) ( http://www.microsoftmaa.com/ ). I’ll have a post in the upcoming weeks on the focus of my new job. After focusing on the hosting...(read more)

New MPS Downloads

agramont — Tue, 07 Nov 2006 06:17:00 GMT

This is a quick post, but it looks as if the Hosting team from Microsoft has quietly shipped some interesting Microsoft Provisioning System (MPS) related components: Microsoft Provisioning System SDK - http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyID=ce3fc537-86ae-4802-9a05-43e2a27a4b45&DisplayLang=en Hosting Solutions CSF Integration Kit 1.1 - http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyID=ca89cd8d-5ad6-4558-a0d0-99e46d7e59a5&DisplayLang=en...(read more)