Virtually ready to test Windows Storage Server 2008 R2

on April 6, 2011

My plans for reviewing/playing around in Windows Storage Server 2008 R2 have been quite up in the air lately, but may finally be coming to fruition, although differently than I originally planned.  Since I have installed an EMC Celerra as my organizations primary storage, I thought testing a WSS front end to that system might be appropriate.  In a previous post, I was planning to test this in my home lab, but given the considerations I am looking at for my organization, testing there makes loads more sense.

Initially, I was going to create CIFS shares on the EMC and push those out to the users, purely for the ease of use that comes with CIFS.  Then I got to thinking, in our previous/current environment the WSS 2003 server is providing much the same access to files and other tools allow for the monitoring of files and folders on the shares.

With this additional monitoring capability, which we already own, and more robust storage on the back end, maybe Windows Storage Server 2008 R2 is something to consider.  The only caveat here, at least for me, is that once the testing is over and the pony up phase begins, I will not reduce the footprint in the closet because there will need to be an appliance running Storage Server.

Since I am going to test things first using a virtual machine, I will leave the worrying about footprint and power and all of that until I get closer to knowing what makes the most sense.  In a decent sized virtual environment, with the right hosts I do think a virtual appliance version of WSS would be a nice thing to consider, but we’ll see how the testing goes.

Filed Under: Gestalt IT, Storage, Technet, Windows Server

Storage Migration Tools: ScriptLogic Secure Copy

on March 25, 2011

For the last in the Storage Migration Tools series I am going to link to an article I wrote for TechRepublic recently that reviews Secure Copy from ScriptLogic.  The application is a paid application that can aid in migrations or everyday copies.  You can read the entire thing by clicking the link below.

 

Filed Under: Gestalt IT, Technet Tagged With: , ,

Rethink Overage Charges – soon they’re possible

on March 19, 2011

About a month and a half ago, we got Uverse from AT&T because we had problems getting the local Fox affiliate and wanted to make sure we could get the Super Bowl.  The cost of their Internet service was also really affordable for the amount of bandwidth we could get.

The past month and a half has been great, the Internet screams and other services we use, like Netflix streaming and general downloads, were amazing.

So what’s the problem?

Apparently AT&T now wants to cap bandwidth usage at 250Gb per month for Uverse customers (and 150Gb per month for DSL customers).  Great move.  The service they seem to offer that works great must need to be crippled or made to cost far to much money for those of us who actually use a fair amount of bandwidth.

Being an IT Professional, I do indeed use the Internet, so having to pay extra for the bandwidth I use (or seriously curb my usage) is well, lame.

But what about bandwidth costs?

Given the cost of Internet connections charged to businesses and the lesser cost (in most cases) charged to residential customers the carriers certainly aren’t hurting for revenue.  Sure there are costs associated with bandwidth, but in many cases the larger carriers arent purchasing lines from other carriers, they own the lines themselves so there is no rental fee/leasing cost to them for the network.

My Internet connection is approximately $50/month ($600/year) for 12Mbps connection (which still rarely gets quite that good a connection). This cost is average for high speed Internet so I have no problem with that.

Typically I download things from Microsoft in my home office because the Internet here is volumes better than the connection at my office.  If I waited for the connection at my office to download files it would take far too long and I can pull them at home in less time.  However doing this will put me over the cap that AT&T thinks they should impose.

I wonder what AT&T pays for their bandwidth… likely nothing or very little because they buy in bulk.  I guess charging way more for data on Wireless phones was a good idea so they want to gouge customers on their other platforms too.

I guess we will see

If the overage charges are huge or consistent, Uverse will be gone and they will certainly lose me as a customer.  I do not agree with being charged additional fees because I use the Internet.  I have seen claims of studies that show most people dont get close to this proposed cap.  As the popularity of Netflix and other services (Hulu, Apple TV, etc) grows this cap will prevent their use.

I can only imagine that the “pay for video” on AT&T theory or maybe that they will provide some of their own content that will somehow not be included in the cap.  This will entice customers to watch their content instead of content on other services that may cause overages.  Isn’t that anti-competitive?

 

Filed Under: Gestalt IT, Technet Tagged With: , ,

Storage Migration Tools: RichCopy

on March 18, 2011

In this installment of the Storage Migration Tools series RichCopy is the tool of choice.  It is a free tool offered by Microsoft (without support of course) that uses a simple and easy to use GUI interface to copy files or aid in a storage migration.

The last installment of the Storage Migration Tools series covered RoboCopy, a command line copy utility and also its GUI add-on.  This one is for the GUI lovers.  Let’s get started.

What is Rich Copy?

Rich Copy is a utility that allows files to be copied via a GUI interface.  Some IT Professionals are command line guys, some are not.  If you are not, this tool might be your best free option.

This utility was featured in an Utility Spotlight in TechNet Magazine in the past but I thought it might be a good idea to get my hands on it and see just how it works.

When the utility starts you are presented with a simple working interface, a box to enter the source path and destination path and a dropdown for the copy options as shown in figure A.

RichCopy Interface

Rich Copy

 

 

 

 

 


 

 

 

When you specify source and destination files, you can simply click the start button and the selected profile of options will copy the files.  The progress of the operation is shown in the bottom pane(s) of the interface.

Copy and Paste it ain’t

Here are two features of Rich Copy that are high on my list and they are not terribly fancy:

  • Simple Interface – the simple pane of glass and easy appearance of the software is really refreshing
  • Piles of options – because I can create copy profiles specifying options for different scenarios to use via a drop down box, the power of the application remains easy to use.

The options available are configured in an additional screen, shown in figure B, and can be saved in separate profiles.

Copy Options

Options available for Copy Jobs

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The table below outlines the options available for use in a copy profile.

[table id=2 /]

A quick note about source consolidation

The option to consolidate multiple sources is an interesting one.  If the option is not checked and multiple sources are specified, the source directories are copied into the destination.  Figure C shows a simple example of this scenario.  If the option is turned on, the directory structure from the source is created in the destination when files are copied.  Figure D shows an example of this scenario.

Note: Both images are provided from the Rich Copy help from Microsoft

Figure C

Consolidate Sources Off

Consolidation Off

 


 

 

 

Figure D

Consolidate Sources On

Consolidation On

 

 

 

 

After using the Rich Copy and looking into it for this post, the copy profiles feature is really great if you copy files using similar options frequently.  For example, you might configure and save a profile for a backup job for the My Documents folder on your PC which might schedule it to be off loaded to removable media.  Using a profile allows you to configure it and re-use it as needed.

What’s My Take?

I like the feature set and functionality that Rich Copy brings to the table.  If you are a GUI user it is definitely worth a look.  Support for this utility can certainly be found within its help documentation and on the Internet, even though it is not officially supported by Microsoft.  The utility is very full featured and a breeze to use, as with any software, I can merely suggest that you give it a try and see its features for yourself.  I am very pleased with Rich Copy where I have used it.

 

Filed Under: Gestalt IT, Technet Tagged With: , ,

Storage Migration Tools: RoboCopy

on March 11, 2011

Getting upgraded storage is usually like being a kid on Christmas morning.  Sure for most, disk isn’t the most exciting toy, but for me, its pretty cool and always presents new things to play with (and some headaches to be sure).  But the disk is still just the first part, once you have everything hooked up, you still need to move the data over and ensure everything works as closely to normal as possible.

In this post I am going to look at using RoboCopy to migrate inform

ation to new storage.

Featured Tool: RoboCopy

RoboCopy is a command line tool from Microsoft that allows for multi-threaded file copying.  It functions similarly to Copy.exe or XCopy.exe but has a few of its own nuances which will be look at here.

Using RoboCopy is quite straight forward, specifying the source, destination, files to be copied,and any options you wish, for example:

robocopy “c:\myfiles” “d:\newstorage” blogpost.docx

Note: Examples in this post will use simple paths on my local machine, but these can be changed to accommodate any storage.

In the above example, the utility will move the blogpost.docx file from the C drive to the D driv

e.  If the file exists in the destination, it will be skipped without prompt.

If a more robust feature set is needed to act on files during the copy operation, robocopy supports the following options:

[table id=1/]

With the amount of options available for use with RoboCopy, it is an extremely robust tool.  If you are comfortable with the command line it might be the best choice for a data migration.  With a little scripting knowledge you could schedule copies and use the Windows Task Scheduler and options in RoboCopy to move/migrate piles of data.

While researching and playing with RoboCopy, I also discovered a GUI add-on for the utility, details on that can be found here. I highly recommend testing it for data migration, you might be surprised with what you get that you don’t need to pay for.

Filed Under: Gestalt IT, Technet Tagged With: , ,

Service Pack 1 is here… for some

on March 9, 2011

I noticed today when completing the updates for the second Tuesday of March on my laptop that Service Pack 1 for Windows 7/2008R2 was included.  Since I am curious just to see what is noticably new here I was more than happy to load it and see what I got.  I realize that being a service pack early adopter could put me in the “Nuke and Pave” scenario of having to rebuild, but oh well…. that is a risk many geeks take with a grain of salt.

Checking for compatibility

One new thing I noticed is that the SP installer checks currently installed applications for compatability with the service pack.  This is definitely new (or at least newly advertised).  Because of this compatibility check, the installation failed.  It said that an application was not compatible and stopped before problems were caused.

The incompatible application was Security Essentials.  So following the instructions provided, mainly telling me to make sure the incompatible items were at their latest version, I tried to update Security Essentials.  The application is as up to date as I can get it which means I have to wait until a later version is released to move to SP1.

I realize that the Security Essentials team and the Windows / Service Pack teams are different and that getting the post SP1 release of Security Essentials will likely allow me to load the service pack, but allowing the update for the application that fails the service pack to be requested by the process would be a pretty sweet feature.

Speeding the process

Allowing the Service Pack installation or compatibility checker to get the latest (or newer than latest) version of a Microsoft application to rectify the problem and allow the service pack to complete would be yet another improvement to the service pack process. I think the compatibility check is a huge step in the right direction, but correcting the issues that hold up the process would be pretty amazing and innovative too.

Filed Under: Gestalt IT, Technet Tagged With: , , ,

Tinkering in the Home Lab

on March 5, 2011

I have been taking notes about general items over the course of the past week or so, things like Forefront Threat Management Gateway and Windows 2008 R2 File Servers, and thinking about getting these up and running in the home lab.

The area where I am not sure I want to go (at least outside of the realm of certification testing) is to configure Active Directory. While Id like to leverage TMG to act as a firewall for my home environment, surely other users in my house will not want to login to a domain for access to the Internet… and I cant say that I blame them, but part of me wants to control my home network and use the tools I am learning about.

Might anyone have suggestions here? I am just trying to get a feel for what others are doing in this space. Please let me know in the comments. Thanks

Filed Under: Gestalt IT, Home Lab, Technet Tagged With: , ,

Storage Migration Tools: A look at what’s around

on March 1, 2011

Recently my organization purchased an EMC Celerra Array in the interest of making our file storage more scalable and available for the users.  We are also going to start down the virtualization path, but I am going to try the one step at a time approach.

Now that I have the storage in place and turned on, the planning of just how to cut it up can begin.  Because we are an all Windows shop, CIFS will be the method of choice for file systems.  I will likely keep a small section of disk for iSCSI just for opportunities sake.

What now?

Next comes moving the existing data to the Celerra.  This is where I am currently planning and determining how to proceed.  The goal of this series is to look at a few of the tools available to help with data migration and some of the planning that might go with moving data.

As this moves forward I will discuss planning of a migration and what you might consider when looking to migrate data as well as a few of the tools available to accomplish a migration.

Because things are still coming together for these posts, if there are things you want to see or know about, please let me know.

Filed Under: Gestalt IT, Technet Tagged With: , ,

Storage for Genealogy, I wonder what’s required?

on February 19, 2011

This evening I was watching television, specifically the show about family reunions (who do you think you are?) and it got me thinking about storage. No it isn’t a stretch, bear with me.

The idea of the show is that a celebrity wants to find out more about the history of their family using tools from ancestry.com and other resources in genealogy. Its really quite interesting.

how does this relate to storage?
while watching the show, I thought about just how much information someone seeking family members would go through. This information is in many many formats.. From the Internet to the microfilm at the library. All of these volumes of information have to be stored and managed by someone.

Being he curator of all of this information and data would be a huge undertaking, surely the management of the online archives alone is more than a bit of work. What about the offline information? The stuff of the people who keep track of all this stuff, what they know and have seen?

Ok maybe the concept of LUNs and genealogy are not closely relatable, but the idea that all of this stuff, online and off, is kept by storage freaks (those who are far too interested in storage) and overly curious people anxious to find their heritage.

I for one find both topics quite fascinating and am hoping to begin learning about my family history… then all I need is some where to store it all, preferably with dedupe and cloud backup enabled.

I am curious about what kind of data storage it takes to manage a project like ancestry.com. If anyone knows or has contacts there please share.

Filed Under: Gestalt IT, Technet Tagged With: , ,

Windows Storage Server 2008 R2 and kicking tires

on February 13, 2011

Recently I setup a SAN at my office to handle file sharing and data storage and replace our current file server with a more scalable solution. Getting this configured wasn’t so bad, however getting migrated to the solution is still in the coming “soon” stage of planning.

I had been planning on configuring a couple different CIFS servers (one for general file sharing, departmental files and things and one for home directories). Because these seem to be the fastest to implement and certainly to get out to the users, this might get things up and running sooner than other options.

However, I have also been considering configuring a Windows Storage Server to attach some iSCSI LUNs to and share out to the users that way. I realize that the Storage Server will have some overhead with it, but I will be able to continue using some storage monitoring tools we already own, and have an opportunity to get my hands on the latest iteration of Storage Server. Since a previous release of the product launched me into new and exciting experiences, it might be a good experience to check out the new version.

Waiting for licensing
Because the licensing for the applications to test this at work might be costly and take time to bring the appropriate approvals, my home lab might get me the first taste of things.

My current setup consists of a Windows Server 2008 R2 VM, A Windows Storage Server 2008 VM and a Windows 7 Enterprise client VM.

The storage will be VHDs inside the host server for now (maybe eventually additional storage will make it into the home lab).

Depending on testing
If the initial tests in my lab work out alright I might look into the additional licensing costs for Storage Server. Either way I am hoping to review the product once I get my feet wet.

If any of you have had a chance to take a crack at Windows Storage Server 2008 R2, what are your initial thoughts?  I would love to hear them in the comments.

Filed Under: Gestalt IT, Technet Tagged With: , ,
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