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From the KB: A computer is running Windows Server 2008 R2 and has the Hyper-V role installed. This computer has one or more Intel CPUs code-named Nehalem installed. For example, the Nehalem CPU for a server is from Intel Xeon processor 5500 series and for a client is from Intel Core-i processor series. In this scenario, you receive the following Stop error message: 0x00000101 (parameter1, 0000000000000000, parameter3, 000000000000000c) CLOCK_WATCHDOG_TIMEOUT   http://support.microsoft.com/kb/975530

I am a sucker for huge posters that have some technical drawings on them. It makes your office look more professional. I just bumped into a new one, that describes the different components of Hyper-V and their architecture. This is but a small snippet: To download the whole poster, click here.

If you have been wondering what’s new in Windows Server 2008 R2, there is a free e-book out that can help you. The eBook is short and to the point. Download it here.

  This Solution Accelerator provides instructions and recommendations to help strengthen the security of computers running the Hyper-V role on Windows Server® 2008. It covers three core topics: hardening Hyper-V, delegating virtual machine management, and protecting virtual machines.   Download

You really can’t avoid Windows 7. Doesn’t really matter where you look you simply can’t avoid it. Considering Vista and Windows 7 it looks like that the hype Windows 7 is creating is very positive. Since literally “everyone” has installed it, you might be interested in knowing that a version of Remotes Server Administration Tools (aka RSAT) has been released for it. Click Here, for the download page. Remote Server Administration Tools for Windows 7 enables IT administrators to manage roles and features that are installed on remote computers that are running Windows Server 2008 R2 (and, for some roles … Continue reading Windows 7 Remote Server Admin Tools Beta released

One of the main advantages in virtualization is having the ability to quickly recover failed systems. By turning a system into a virtual system you are actually turning it into a file that can be used on any system that has Hyper-V installed on it thus enabling quick recovery of a failed system. The main problem is that to be able to backup a VHD file you need to stop the virtual machine. Now obviously, on mission critical systems you can’t stop a system every time you want to back it up. To overcome this issues, you can us the … Continue reading Hyper-V or VHD Backup

Lately, we have been messing around with Hyper-V (by saying we,I actually mean mean myself and the person that won’t tell me his Kazakh name…). The technology itself is very cool, but as always it has it’s quirks. Oddly enough, after we ironed out most of the issues a blog post appeared on the ‘Ask the Core Team’ blog describing the top issues that they have encountered. The post is very useful (and would have been really great a couple of month ago… :)). Click here for the post.

<Rant> This one is kind of a gotcha that has caught me by surprise. If you use BitLocker with a TPM that is PIN protected you can’t log into Safe Mode unless you go into recovery mode. Personally I found this very surprising to say the least. I honestly can’t say that this sounds logical to me, if you can provide the PIN protecting the TPM I can’t see why you shouldn’t be able to access Safe Mode. You are not circumventing any of the protection mechanisms you simply choose an alternate boot method AFTER you have already gained access … Continue reading BitLocker and Safe Mode

Service Pack 2 beta(for TAP clients) has been announced for both Windows Vista and Windows 2008: http://blogs.technet.com/windowsserver/archive/2008/10/24/windows-server-2008-service-pack-2-beta.aspx http://windowsvistablog.com/blogs/windowsvista/archive/2008/10/24/windows-vista-service-pack-2-beta.aspx

You might remember that Address Resolution Protocol (ARP) has a local cache that prevents broadcasting for a system whose MAC address has been resolved. Older versions of Windows used to have a timeout of 2 minutes for ARP entries (up to 10 minutes), this has changed. Vista and 2008 has lowered this time to a random value between 15 seconds and 45 seconds: http://support.microsoft.com/kb/949589