Convert VMDK VMware to VHD Virtual Server Files

I have always used VMware server to create and manage my virtual machines, but this time after cleaning up my computer, I decided to use Virtual Server to manage those machines. the problem with that is that VMware server create the virtual machines with the file extension VMDK and in order to migrate them to virtual server the format needs to be VHD. for that reason I hit Google to find out a way to convert my VMDK files to VHD, and that’s how I learned about Vmd2Vhd tool.

I have never seen such a freaking simple program do such a great job. once you download the file from the link above, unzip it, and run it.

When this small program pop-up, choose the Vmdk file on the Source Vmdk option. then choose the destination of the Vhd file that will be created.

Then press the convert button.

That should convert your VMDK files to VHD files. Then just install virtual server and start managing those VHD files.

Managing Hyper-V with System Center Virtual Machine Manager 2008

An important aspect of virtualization is the actual management: as an administrator, you want to have a single console for managing all your virtual machines and hosts. With software such as VMware’s VirtualCenter, you can manage a complete ESX environment and add a ton of extra features (such as DRS, HA, intelligent placement, templates, etc). Microsoft’s answer to the management question is System Center Virtual Machine Manager (also known as VMM).

This piece of software is your one-stop shop to all your Virtual Server 2005 R2 (and in the 2008 release) Hyper-V hosts and even your VI3 infrastructure. VMware’s Virtual Center can be added and so ESX hosts can be managed from within VMM. Virtual Machine Manager 2008 provides most Virtual Center Server functionality including VMotion. More complex tasks such as adding hosts to an ESX cluster must be done using Virtual Center itself.

It is also tightly integrated with other System Center products (such as integration with System Center Operations Manager 2007) and Power Shell. A very interesting feature is Performance and Resource Optimization (or PRO). PRO is a feature of VMM which can dynamically respond to failure scenarios or poorly configured components that are identified in hardware, operating systems or applications. VMM 2008 also integrates with the new clustering support in Windows Server 2008 to allow for fault-tolerant and cluster aware virtual machines to be created. It leverages the much talked about Quick Migration technique.

(Part 1) & (Part 2)

How to configure a SIP trunk between Cisco Call Manager 5.x or 6.x or 7.x and OCS 2007 R1 or R2

If you want to ring from MOC to Cisco IP phone and back, then simple we will deal with it as if OCS is an IP PBX with its extensions 3xxx and you need to connect it with Cisco PBX with extensions 7xxx.

To do that we need a SIP trunk and for the SIP trunk to work fine we need to have some specific configuration on that trunk , remember any of these settings if they not configured right then you will not be able to make a stable calling between Cisco and OCS.

First we do the SIP trunk:

Now the SIP trunk which is acting like the bridge between the Cisco and the OCS is created, ok then we need now to create a criteria where this trunk is going to be used in. This is where is Pattern comes in where we will say if a Cisco phone set tries to dial extensions starting with 3xxx then you use the trunk which we have just created .

And from the way back from the OCS to Cisco, when the number is sent in the E164 format with the +, the Cisco will simply ignore all that and will take only the last 4 Digits which are the 7xxx.

Now you are ready to make the call and for the complete configurations from OCS side see this Guide.

When you get The Web Server is busy. Please try again later when you try to open an item on Document Library with M0SS 2007

When users edit a document they are prompted for a certificate so that the file can be checked out when they try to check in their changes they encounter the error "There is a problem with the Web Server. Try again later, or contact the server administrator"

What is the Cause?
****************
The problem was NOT the server, although the fix was. The issue is when office 2003 sp3 or office 2007 attempts to communicate with Share Point 2003 or 2007 it uses what is called the office web communication protocol. This protocol gets a header added when you PKI enable your communication between the Share Point server and the Client Workstation. Still all would be well until the office document becomes “complicated”. In other words, when you add special things to the documents, like other objects from other documents, Pictures, Graphs, or any other kinds of things. When this happens Office 2003 SP3 or Office 2007 will change the way the office application communicates with the share point server. To speed the connection up, office changes this communication. The server is designed to handle this type of communication without PKI. With PKI the server has to stream this data in at a slower pace. The Client workstation is unable to understand this streaming so it returns the “Web server Busy” error. Because, the web server is busy and needs more time to save this file. The client won’t give it that time so it shuts the communication down and tells you to try again later.

What you can do to resolve?
***********************
Increase the value for the UploadReadAheadSize metabase property for Internet Information Services (IIS) using the Adsutil command-line utility.

For example, use the following command to set the value to 200 million bytes.

Adsutil set w3svc/uploadreadaheadsize "200000000"

BDD 2007 Deployment Guide & What’s New in MDT 2010?

Effectively, BDD is a framework that brings together a variety of deployment tools with business logic in order to implement best practices. In it’s simplest form, known as Lite Touch Installation (LTI), BDD allows administrators to create/capture operating system images, customise these and deploy them to other workstations. This requires very little infrastructure and as such is suitable for small and mid-size business; however there is also a Zero Touch Installation (ZTI) option that integrates with Microsoft Systems Management Server (SMS) 2003 or System Center Configuration Manager (SCCM) 2007 for enterprises that have the required infrastructure in place.

• BDD 2007 Deployment Guide
• What’s New in MDT 2010? 
• Episode 47: Introduction to BDD 2007  
• Episode 48: BDD Lite Touch of Vista / Office 2007

Microsoft Application Virtualization Deployment & Microsoft SoftGrid Application Virtualization Deployment

Microsoft Application Virtualization Deployment

When Microsoft acquired SoftGrid in January 2007, App-V 4.5 was the first version fully branded under the Microsoft umbrella. The most notable change that was made is, logically, the new name. After some other names like Microsoft Application Virtualization (you will find this name when researching the product) the final name became App-V (based on Microsoft hypervisor Hyper-V). You will also see the name System Centre Application Virtualization Management Server for this product.

Beside the name change, several new features introduced such as Dynamic Suite Composition and the Lightweight Streaming Server.

The installation of the App-V architecture is composed of three components:

• App-V Server
• App-V Client
• App-V Sequencer

(Part 1) & (Part 2)

Microsoft SoftGrid Application Virtualization Deployment

Click here

Integration between OCS 2007 R2 and Tandberg server

1. Start the OCS interface by going to Start > Administrative Tools > Office Communications Server 2007.

2. OCS uses TLS by default; therefore TCP needs to be enabled in addition:

i. Right-click on the fully-qualified domain name (e.g. ocs-server.codian.com), then select Properties > Front end properties.

ii. The Front End Server Properties dialog appears. Click Add.

iii. For IP Address, select All.

iv. For Port, enter 5060.

v. For Transport, select TCP.

vi. Click OK twice.

3. From software version 2.4(1) onwards, NTLM authentication is supported so the MCU can register to OCS by using a user account and password setup on the server. If you use that method, skip to step 5. To set the MCU as a trusted host, go to step 4.

4. Right-click on the server name (e.g. ocs-server) and select Properties > Front end properties. In the Host Authorisation tab click Add and enter the IP address of the MCU / IP VCR / IP GW that will register with OCS. Tick the Treat as Authenticated check box.

5. On the OCS server, set up a user for the MCU / IP VCR / IP GW:

i. Go to Start > Administrative Tools > Active Directory Users and Computers.

ii. Right-click on Users and select New > User.

iii. Enter a name for the MCU / IP VCR / IP GW (that will appear in people’s buddy lists) and give it a logon name of the form “examplename@example.com”.

iv. Click Next.

v. Enter a password for the MCU / IP VCR / IP GW. Note that if you added the MCU as an authenticated host this is unused. Untick the check box that will prompt the user to change their password next time they log in, and tick the check box that display the message that the password never expires.

vi. Click Next, then click Finish.

6. In the list of users, double click on the MCU / IP VCR / IP GW that you just created and select Communications.

7. Select Enable user for Office Communications Server.

8. Enter the login name, now prefixed with “sip:”. In our example this would be “sip:examplelogon@example.com”.

9. Select the server name from the Server or Pool drop-down list and click OK.

10. Repeat steps 5 to 9 for any conferences and auto attendants that you wish to register. In step 8 the login that you choose should be the numeric ID of the conference/recording or auto attendant. Then:

- For each conference, select it from the Conference list on the MCU and click Configuration, then select SIP registrar. Then go to Settings > SIP and for SIP registration setting, select Allow Conference Registration.

- For each recording, select it from the Recording list on the IP VCR and select the SIP registrar. Then go to Settings > SIP and for SIP registration setting, select Allow Recording Registration.

11. On the MCU / IP VCR / IP GW, go to Network > Services and enable Incoming SIP (TCP) and SIP (UDP) for port A (and for port B, if it is enabled).

12. Go to Settings > Conferences and for Incoming call to unknown E.164 number select Default auto attendant.

13. Go to Settings > SIP.

14. If you did not register conferences, recordings or auto attendants individually in step 10, then for SIP registration setting select Register MCU, Register IP VCR or Register IP GW. Otherwise choose Allow conference registration or Allow Reordering registration, as appropriate.

15. Enter the address or host name of the OCS server into the SIP registrar address field.

16. For SIP registrar type, select Microsoft LCS.

17. Enter the username, e.g. examplelogon@example.com. If you are using NTML authentication, enter the password for the account that you configured in step 5. v.

18. For Audio codec, select G.723.1. This gives a better frame rate for OCS than using G.711u. The remaining fields can be left as their defaults.

19. Click Apply changes. The screen will refresh, including an indication that the unit is registered. (This may take a second or two to process: you may need to refresh the page again to see it).

20. The MCU / IP VCR / IP GW can now be entered into buddy lists in Office Communicator and called into video and audio calls.

21. To call from the MCU / IP VCR :

i. Go to the Add Participant page (MCU) or either the Call out and record or Call out and play recording page (IP VCR).

ii. For Address/Host name or IP Address, type the user name without the domain (i.e. “example name” not “examplename@example.com”).

iii. For Call protocol, select SIP.

iv. Select Use SIP registrar.

v. Click Call endpoint.

22. To call from the IP GW, set up a dial plan rule whose action type is 'SIP Registrar' using the online help if necessary.

File Name, Length, Size and Invalid Character Restrictions and Large Size Recommendations

Starting simply with lengths:

• File and folder name lengths cannot be longer than 128 Characters in both WSS 2.0 and WSS 3.0.

• Link list items are restricted to 256 characters and will truncate links to SharePoint documents (or anything else) with lengths longer than this.

• When storing files the structure and files (entire path including sites, folders, and file name) cannot add up to more than 260 characters or they will see an error message or form validation error with the explanation around the URL length.

New Blocked File Types:

If you were familiar with the WSS 2.0 list, there are some new Blocked File Types: .asmx, .rem, .resx, .soap, or .ashx. If they existed before upgrade they are no longer visible or cannot be opened after upgrade. These file extensions have been added to the list of blocked file extensions.

You now have the ability to make differences between farm wide blocked file types and web application blocked file types. If you want to un block it, it needs to be removed at both farm and application levels, but you can add specific blocked files for a single web application. The farm level block list for example will override anything removed at the web application level.

Site Names:

• In WSS Site Names may not contain the following characters: \ / : * ? " < > # { } % & " ~ +

• You cannot start a site name, subsite name, or a site group name with an underscore (_) character or with the period character (I recommend avoiding the (_) underscore in site names)

• You cannot use the period character consecutively in the middle of a site name

• You cannot use the period character at the end of a site name

File Names:

• Invalid characters: " # % & * : < > ? \ / { } ~ 

• Cannot be longer than 128 characters

• You cannot use the period character consecutively in the middle of a file name

• You cannot use the period character at the end of a file name

• You cannot start a file name with the period character

Folder Names:

• You cannot use the following characters anywhere in a folder name or a server name: ~ # % & * { } \ : < > ? / "

• Cannot be longer than 128 characters

• You cannot use the period character consecutively in the middle of a folder name

• You cannot use the period character at the end of a folder name

• You cannot start a folder name with the period character

Max File Upload/Download Sizes:

The default max single file upload size is 50 MB by default for a web application. Microsoft IT limits their environment at 100 MB, and the maximum that the product itself can handle or support is 2GB which is essentially a SQL limit. By setting the limit to blank will essentially support what SQL will support. It's true that simply removing this, it doesn't mean that a user can upload a 2GB file. The server time out settings, browser and network speed play a large part in what is truly supportable. The 50MB is the best experience, but it's not uncommon for a large Excel file to be 60MB for example. I recommend using 50MB - 100MB for the best user experience, but for departmental solutions working with large AutoCAD files for example could support 200-500MB on a LAN.

Configuring Large File Support:

The biggest change included in Windows SharePoint Services SP1 is the support for uploading large files. By default, the maximum size for uploading files is set to 50 MB. If you need to be able to upload larger files (such as when you use smigrate.exe to migrate a site between servers), you can change this setting to any value up to 2 GB (2047 MB).

To configure large file support you must increase the default upload size in SharePoint Central Administration. You may also need to perform the following additional actions (depending on your hardware configuration):

• Tune the Microsoft Internet Information Services (IIS) connection timeout setting.

The default timeout for connections in IIS is 120 seconds (2 minutes). Depending on your maximum file size and how long it takes for the file to be uploaded, you may not need to change this setting. If, however, IIS is timing out when you upload large files, you can change this property to ensure that larger files can be uploaded successfully.

• Increase the default chunk size for large files.

The large-file-chunk-size property sets the amount of data that can be read from server running SQL Server at one time. If you have a file that is greater than your chunk size (such as 70 MB when the chunk size is set to 5 MB), the file would be read in 14 chunks (70 / 5). The chunk size is not related to the maximum upload file size. The chunk size simply specifies the amount of data that can be read from a file at one time. By default, the large-file-chunk-size property is set to 5 MB. If you notice performance or scale problems on the client or server, then you may need to tune this setting to get the performance you are targeting. Note that if you raise the chunk size too high, the files might use up too much front-end memory and you may need to lower this setting.

• Increase the maximum size limit for Web Parts.

By default, the maximum size limit for a Web Part is 1 MB. If you need to accommodate large Web Parts, you can change this setting in the web.config file for your server or servers running Windows SharePoint Services.

Increase the maximum upload size:

1. Get into the SharePoint Central Administration Site

2. Select "Application Management"

3. Under the "SharePoint Web Application Management" section select "Web Application General Settings"

4. Change the "Maximum Upload Size"

If IIS is timing out when you upload large files, you can configure the Connection timeout setting in IIS to allow more than the default 120 seconds (2 minutes).

Tune the IIS connection timeout:

1. Click Start, point to All Programs, point to Administrative Tools, and then click Internet Information Services (IIS) Manager.

2. Right-click the virtual server you want to configure, and then click Properties.

3. Click the Web Site tab.

4. In the Connections section, in the Connection timeout box, type the number of seconds you want IIS to wait before timing out.

5. Click OK.

Increase the default chunk size for large files:

The large–file–chunk–size property must be set from the command line. This property is configured for a server or server farm, and cannot be configured for an individual virtual server. To set this property, use the following syntax:

stsadm.exe -o setproperty -propertyname large-file-chunk-size -propertyvalue 1073741824

After making a change to this property, you must restart IIS. You can restart IIS by typing iisreset on the command line.

Increase the maximum limit for Web Parts:

This change is required only when working with large Web Parts. The maximum limit for Web Parts is set to 1048576 bytes by default.

1. On your server computer running Windows SharePoint Services, open Notepad.

2. In Notepad, navigate to the %HomeDrive%\Inetpub\wwwroot folder and open the web.config file.

3. Locate the PropertySize attribute in the configuration\SharePoint\WebPartLimits element.

4. Change the PropertySize attribute to the maximum size you need.

5. Save and close the web.config file.

Add the executionTimeout value:

1. Use Notepad to open the Web.config file.

By default, this file is in the following location: Program Files\Common Files\Microsoft Shared\Web server extensions\12\TEMPLATE\LAYOUTS

2. Add the executionTimeout value that you want. For example, replace the value as follows:

Existing code:

{location path="upload.aspx"}
 {system.web}
  {httpRuntime maxRequestLength="2097151" /}
 {/system.web}
{/location}

Replacement code:

{location path="upload.aspx"}
 {system.web}
  {httpRuntime executionTimeout="999999" maxRequestLength="2097151" /}
 {/system.web}
{/location}

3. After you change the file, click Save on the File menu.

4. Use Notepad to open the Web application Web.config file. By default, this file is in the following folder: Inetpub\wwwroot\wss\VirtualDirectories\VirtualDirectoryFolder

5. Change the following line in the file.

Existing line:

{httpRuntime maxRequestLength="51200" /}

Replacement line:

{httpRuntime executionTimeout="999999" maxRequestLength="51200" /}

6. After you change the file, click Save on the File menu.

7. Exit Notepad.