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Must-Read Post

Max your ROI on virtualization hosts with Hyper-V: Dynamic Memory

John Joyner explains how to enable the Dynamic Memory feature in Windows Server 2008 R2 SP1 to increase the number of guests that can run simultaneously on your host(s) at no extra cost.

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0

Audit and manage your network with Network Inventory Advisor

Derek Schauland tests the ClearApps Network Inventory Advisor, an application to help you manage and audit your network assets.

Posted by Derek Schauland | February 10, 2012, 9:26 AM PST
2

How SAS, Near Line (NL) SAS, and SATA disks compare

Scott Lowe breaks down the differences in reliability and performance between SAS, Near-Line SAS, and SATA drives.

Posted by Scott Lowe | February 7, 2012, 10:20 AM PST | Latest comment by Scott Lowe
37

Virtualize everything (except in these four scenarios)

Virtualization should be the de facto standard in deploying workloads today. However, there are valid exceptions. Rick Vanover lists four of them in this blog post.

Posted by Rick Vanover | February 6, 2012, 7:08 AM PST | Latest comment by Jeff Adams
10

Foxit Reader for PDFs in the enterprise

Derek Schauland discovered a PDF replacement program for Adobe Reader in his office. Here are his thoughts on the Foxit Enterprise Reader.

Posted by Derek Schauland | February 2, 2012, 6:00 AM PST | Latest comment by kvankerr@...

White Papers

Enterprise Resource Planning That Works

Enterprise resource planning tools can seem like more hassle than they're worth. Read this white paper to learn how to get an ERP solution that works, from picking a product to implementing and...

From: IBM
Read more
White Papers

Rethink Your Storage With IBM

Data storage is an interesting thing. While it's easy to add more storage with band-aid solutions, before long, you'll need to seriously rethink how you store. For some advice, turn to this white...

From: IBM
Read more

7

System Center 2012 licensing primer

Scott Lowe breaks down the changes in the licensing structure for Microsoft System Center 2012. Here are some of the basics.

Posted by Scott Lowe | January 31, 2012, 10:42 AM PST | Latest comment by marshallpaisley@...
0

Storage vMotion virtual disk format options with vSphere 5

New disk options make Storage vMotion tasks give vSphere administrators more control over virtual machine disk formats. Rickatron shows how in this blog post.

Posted by Rick Vanover | January 31, 2012, 6:00 AM PST
5

Eight steps to restore an individual Exchange 2010 mailbox with System Center Data Protection Manager

Exchange admins often have to restore an individual mailbox rather than an entire database. John Joyner shows you eight steps to do this using PowerShell commands and Microsoft System Center DPM.

Posted by John Joyner | January 30, 2012, 6:00 AM PST | Latest comment by John Joyner
0

Manage your Windows systems remotely with PowerShell Server

Derek Schauland shows you how to set up PowerShell Server, a tool that allows you to use SSH to remotely administer Windows systems through a command-line PowerShell interface.

Posted by Derek Schauland | January 26, 2012, 6:00 AM PST
30

Why the time is almost ripe for Solid State Disks in the data center

Scott Lowe considers Gartner's prediction that Solid State Disks (SSDs) will be popular in 2012. Prices are coming down and performance is good, but how reliable are they for the data center?

Posted by Scott Lowe | January 24, 2012, 9:00 AM PST | Latest comment by mudpuppy1
0

Using vSphere datastore view to see VMs inventoried on disk

vSphere VMs can move around at a moment's notice. In this blog post, Rick Vanover shows how to use a handy vSphere view to see where VMs live on datastores.

Posted by Rick Vanover | January 23, 2012, 6:00 AM PST
7

Microsoft's ECI may provide best options for virtualized environments

Virtualizing and deploying VMs is the easy part; scaling the solution in a simple matter becomes the hard part. Rickatron offers one easy way to scale modern infrastructure.

Posted by Rick Vanover | January 20, 2012, 11:51 AM PST | Latest comment by ReliableEnergy
18

Troubleshooting woes: Some tips all IT pros should remember

Donovan Colbert describes a recent frustrating issue on a project that reinforced some of the tips IT pros should remember when troubleshooting technical problems.

Posted by Donovan Colbert | January 17, 2012, 12:52 PM PST | Latest comment by RMSx32767
5

Are operational considerations overlooked in virtualization?

Virtualization is a melding of many technologies and the operational aspect of this new technology may not be given enough attention, as Rick Vanover explains in this blog post.

Posted by Rick Vanover | January 16, 2012, 6:00 AM PST | Latest comment by zyzygy@...
3

Tidying up for the new year: Inventory, dispose, and clean

The beginning of a new year is the usual time to tie up loose ends from the past year and clean the slate for the coming year. Here are Jerry Smith's recommendations for tasks to consider.

Posted by Jerry Smith | January 13, 2012, 12:00 PM PST | Latest comment by mukababi@...
3

IT pro trip to Israel: Internet access and remote connections

IT pro Bob Eisenhardt took an unforgettable trip to Israel and dutifully reports on the state of Internet access and making remote connections from half-a-world away from home.

Posted by Bob Eisenhardt | January 11, 2012, 12:30 PM PST | Latest comment by michael@...
5

More suggestions for the sysadmin toolkit

Jerry Smith compiled some of the best reader suggestions on his popular post from last month, "The well-stocked sysadmin toolkit."

Posted by Jerry Smith | January 10, 2012, 10:54 AM PST | Latest comment by NickNielsen
2

ESXi installable vs. embedded decision points

When deploying vSphere hypervisors, there are a few choices to be made. In this post, Rickatron highlights benefits for each option of ESXi.

Posted by Rick Vanover | January 9, 2012, 6:00 AM PST | Latest comment by tmdelariva@...
3

Using the Network Dashboard Views in SCOM 2012

John Joyner introduces the four new dashboards that are part of the network monitoring engine for Microsoft System Center Operations Manager 2012.

Posted by John Joyner | January 6, 2012, 9:00 AM PST | Latest comment by John Joyner
2

Free tool tests connectivity to your Exchange environment

Scott Lowe demonstrates Microsoft's free tool that tests and helps you troubleshoot remote connections to Exchange.

Posted by Scott Lowe | January 3, 2012, 12:00 PM PST | Latest comment by shereef_elzayat@...
1

Windows Server 8 Virtual Fibre Channel with Hyper-V overview

Deploying virtual fibre channel disks is a frequent practice in virtualization. Rick Vanover highlights some of the many options that exist for Windows Server 8.

Posted by Rick Vanover | January 3, 2012, 9:00 AM PST

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37

Virtualize everything (except in these four scenarios)

Virtualization should be the de facto standard in deploying workloads today. However, there are valid exceptions. Rick Vanover lists four of them in this blog post.

Posted by Rick Vanover | February 6, 2012, 7:08 AM PST | Latest comment by Jeff Adams
18

Troubleshooting woes: Some tips all IT pros should remember

Donovan Colbert describes a recent frustrating issue on a project that reinforced some of the tips IT pros should remember when troubleshooting technical problems.

Posted by Donovan Colbert | January 17, 2012, 12:52 PM PST | Latest comment by RMSx32767
1

Modifying the Windows 7 boot loader with the Boot Configuration Data Editor tool

In Windows Vista and later versions of Windows, the bootloader was moved from boot.ini to a utility called BCDEdit. Derek Schauland shows you how to modify the boot config data with the new tool.

Posted by Derek Schauland | July 21, 2009, 6:00 AM PDT
2

How SAS, Near Line (NL) SAS, and SATA disks compare

Scott Lowe breaks down the differences in reliability and performance between SAS, Near-Line SAS, and SATA drives.

Posted by Scott Lowe | February 7, 2012, 10:20 AM PST | Latest comment by Scott Lowe

White Papers

Enterprise Resource Planning That Works

Enterprise resource planning tools can seem like more hassle than they're worth. Read this white paper to learn how to get an ERP solution that works, from picking a product to implementing and...

From: IBM
Read more
White Papers

Rethink Your Storage With IBM

Data storage is an interesting thing. While it's easy to add more storage with band-aid solutions, before long, you'll need to seriously rethink how you store. For some advice, turn to this white...

From: IBM
Read more

30

Why the time is almost ripe for Solid State Disks in the data center

Scott Lowe considers Gartner's prediction that Solid State Disks (SSDs) will be popular in 2012. Prices are coming down and performance is good, but how reliable are they for the data center?

Posted by Scott Lowe | January 24, 2012, 9:00 AM PST | Latest comment by mudpuppy1
36

Practice Cisco router configuration using a free emulator

With a simulator, there are always missing commands and programming errors, and it can never really be as complete as the real IOS. However, because an emulator runs the IOS, you get every feature...

Posted by David Davis | January 10, 2008, 11:47 AM PST | Latest comment by DavidParkerCCAI
3

Tidying up for the new year: Inventory, dispose, and clean

The beginning of a new year is the usual time to tie up loose ends from the past year and clean the slate for the coming year. Here are Jerry Smith's recommendations for tasks to consider.

Posted by Jerry Smith | January 13, 2012, 12:00 PM PST | Latest comment by mukababi@...
4

Two PowerShell scripts for retrieving user info from Active Directory

Obtaining user object information via Active Directory Users And Computers is fine for the one-time use, but it falls short for batch tasks. These two scripts make it easy to pull user information...

Posted by Rick Vanover | May 19, 2010, 12:00 AM PDT | Latest comment by volentib666
17

Create a Wi-Fi Access Point using Connectify

Blogger Paul Mah checks out Connectify, a free application for Windows 7 that allows you to take any Internet connection and share it via Wi-Fi.

Posted by Paul Mah | February 9, 2010, 6:00 AM PST | Latest comment by ambientNRG
37

How to determine what device is on what port on your Cisco switch

When your network is in crisis, it's important to know which device is connected to which switch port without having to run to the network room. David Davis discusses network analysis applications...

Posted by David Davis | November 8, 2007, 2:58 PM PST | Latest comment by paulroberts
7

System Center 2012 licensing primer

Scott Lowe breaks down the changes in the licensing structure for Microsoft System Center 2012. Here are some of the basics.

Posted by Scott Lowe | January 31, 2012, 10:42 AM PST | Latest comment by marshallpaisley@...
0

Manage your Windows systems remotely with PowerShell Server

Derek Schauland shows you how to set up PowerShell Server, a tool that allows you to use SSH to remotely administer Windows systems through a command-line PowerShell interface.

Posted by Derek Schauland | January 26, 2012, 6:00 AM PST
7

Exchange 2007: How to allow relay exceptions

Although allowing unfettered relaying of e-mail through your Exchange 2007 server should be avoided, there are situations in which allowing relaying is desirable. For example, suppose you have an...

Posted by Scott Lowe | October 26, 2007, 11:14 AM PDT | Latest comment by jcarroll@...
7

Using Magic Packet Utility to send wake on LAN commands

Using wake on LAN technologies is frequently reserved for systems management software, but it is handy to know how to do the command. IT pro Rick Vanover shows how to perform the magic packet boot.

Posted by Rick Vanover | November 10, 2009, 8:14 AM PST | Latest comment by robd@...
5

Eight steps to restore an individual Exchange 2010 mailbox with System Center Data Protection Manager

Exchange admins often have to restore an individual mailbox rather than an entire database. John Joyner shows you eight steps to do this using PowerShell commands and Microsoft System Center DPM.

Posted by John Joyner | January 30, 2012, 6:00 AM PST | Latest comment by John Joyner
11

Simplify admin tasks by exporting Active Directory data with CSVDE

Depending on how thoroughly you use it, Active Directory can hold some very valuable information on your company and its staff. Not only does the directory contain the basic credentials of each of...

Posted by Justin Fielding | January 22, 2008, 5:06 PM PST | Latest comment by fredtd@...
7

Microsoft's ECI may provide best options for virtualized environments

Virtualizing and deploying VMs is the easy part; scaling the solution in a simple matter becomes the hard part. Rickatron offers one easy way to scale modern infrastructure.

Posted by Rick Vanover | January 20, 2012, 11:51 AM PST | Latest comment by ReliableEnergy
10

Eight easy steps to Cisco ASA remote access setup

Lori Hyde shows you a simple eight-step process to setting up remote access for users with the Cisco ASA.

Posted by Lori Hyde | March 19, 2009, 12:28 PM PDT | Latest comment by rcharlesworth@...
22

How to install Windows Server 2008 R2 with Hyper-V and Windows 7 on the same partition

Blogger Colin Smith explains how to install Windows Server 2008 R2 with Hyper-V and Windows 7 on the same disk partition by booting from a VHD that contains the entire WS2K8R2 OS within a single,...

Posted by Colin Smith | September 20, 2010, 10:11 AM PDT | Latest comment by rux@...
11

Configure SNMP on a Cisco router or switch

The Simple Network Management Protocol (SNMP) is a necessary tool for every network administrator. You can easily configure it with just a few commands. SNMP is still the most popular way to...

Posted by David Davis | June 28, 2007, 9:49 AM PDT | Latest comment by aprudhol

White Papers

Enterprise Resource Planning That Works

Enterprise resource planning tools can seem like more hassle than they're worth. Read this white paper to learn how to get an ERP solution that works, from picking a product to implementing and...

From: IBM
Read more
White Papers

Rethink Your Storage With IBM

Data storage is an interesting thing. While it's easy to add more storage with band-aid solutions, before long, you'll need to seriously rethink how you store. For some advice, turn to this white...

From: IBM
Read more