The impact of virtualization on energy consumption is so significant that utility providers in Europe such as large Business Company are paying customers for server virtualization projects that remove server computing equipments.  These programs compare the energy use of your existing equipment inventory to the energy use of the remaining equipment that will be in service after virtualization. Incentives are paid following the completion of a qualifying server consolidation project and are based on the net reduction in kilowatt-hours that will result from the project at the rate of 8 cents per kilowatt-hour.  Direct energy savings (cooling costs are excluded) and can be as high as €300 per server per year.

At the moment I following a consolidation project for a large business company that will allow to save more than 300.000 € of energy in one year (I speaking about approx a consolidation of 600 servers)

Think about it….

All we need to save energy!

Hi all, the following KB Microsoft describe an error in MMC when you try to use Softgrid Management Console.
Personally I had this problem 5 month ago and this is a problem that was not solved whit a fix but could generate a crash of MGMT console, with the consequent wrong use of the Softgrid platform.

I know that this error could be strange but remember that could be blocking your envirinment, therefore read carefully this Microsoft KB.

When you try to open the Microsoft SoftGrid Management Console, or when you use the SoftGrid Management Console, you may experience one of the following symptoms:

•	The SoftGrid Management Console intermittently crashes after it is open for a minute or more.
•	The SoftGrid Management Console crashes, and then one of the following error codes appears: 0000C800 0000C81D
•	You see an event that resembles the following event in the Application event log: Event Type: Error Event Source: .NET Runtime 2.0 Error Reporting Event Category: None Event ID: 1000 Date: Time Time: Date User: N/A Computer: Computer_Name Description: Faulting application mmc.exe, version 5.2.3790.2617, stamp 43c70d1c, faulting module ntdll.dll, version 5.2.3790.1830, stamp 424377d2, debug? 0, fault address 0x0002fc3e.

 

CAUSE

This problem occurs when the pixel dimensions of icons in the content share are asymmetrical.

 

RESOLUTION

To resolve this problem, you must verify the dimensions of the icons in the content share. Then, you must replace the asymmetrical icons with icons that are symmetrical, or you must modify the dimensions of the asymmetrical icons. To do this, follow these steps:

1.	On the computer that stores the SoftGrid content share, start Windows Internet Explorer by using the "about:blank" Web page.
2.	Open the folder that contains the SoftGrid packages.
3.	Drag the icon from each package into the blank Web page in Internet Explorer. If the icon does not appear in the Internet Explorer window, it is asymmetrical. For example, when you right-click an asymmetrical icon, and then you click Properties, you see that the dimensions resemble the following values: Dimensions: 32 x 42 pixels Symmetrical icons have equal sides. For example, the dimensions of symmetrical icons resemble the following values: Dimensions: 16 x 16 pixels Dimensions: 32 x 32 pixels
4.	Replace the asymmetrical icon with a symmetrical icon. Or you can use a suitable utility to modify the icon to make it symmetrical. Note Many free utilities that you can use to modify an icon are available on the Internet.

 

APPLIES TO

•	Microsoft SoftGrid for Terminal Services
•	Microsoft SoftGrid for Windows Desktops

Microsoft KB

Post from Microsoft Softgrid Blog

Just wanted to ping this up to the community as this has been an interesting talking point to a number of our Terminal Server/Citrix customers. In the past Softricity SoftGrid never use to be able to virtualize fonts in terminal server environments. To add to this In SoftGrid 4.1 Service Pack 1 we released the following knowledge base article http://support.microsoft.com/kb/938497 we received a number general guidelines. One of these guidelines is around font in terminal services

This statement in the 4.1 SP1 Release Notes would appear to be incorrect.  We test virtualized fonts in a streamed app in a Terminal Server environment. This functionality is in the product and can be utilised. We now be virtualizing fonts properly on Terminal Server.

The great thing is that now you can now not need to have a dependency on adding fonts to your base Windows Terminal Server platform.

So just to restate this in big and bold words. SoftGrid 4.1 Service Pack 1 Client for Terminal Servers DOES virtualize fonts.

Hi all this post is from Veeam Site, and here I would to speak about a tool that simplify the files tranfert from ESX to ESX or from/to Windows to ESX

FastSCP allows a user to copy files from ESX to

Windows, Windows to ESX or ESX to ESX. This is the

most natural way to deliver an ISO file to ESX Server,

make a backup copy of an existing virtual machine

(VM) or copy VMs and templates between ESX

servers. FastSCP ensures security by using a one time

password feature and works over 6 times faster than

SCP.

ESX 3 AND FILE TRANSFER

Managing files in ESX environment can be a major

challenge even for experienced users. When you need

to copy an ISO file to ESX Server or make a backup

copy of an existing VM, there is no easy way to do

that. The fastest transfer method would be ftp, but

ftp server is removed from ESX 3. What is more

important, installing ftp server on ESX (or all

administrators’ machines) to deliver a file would

present a major security risk because ftp transfers

passwords in clear text.

The only recommended way to perform file copy

from a Windows machine to ESX or visa versa, or

from ESX to ESX is to use SCP. This approach has a

serious drawback since SSH carries out numerous

encoding and decoding operations on data, thus

consuming precious CPU time and affecting server

performance. Besides, SSH is missing the compression

feature, which slows down file transfer.

Veeam FastSCP effectively solves the problem of data

transfer. It works over 6 times faster than SCP without

affecting ESX security.

Please read all information about this tool at Beeam Site

Overview

System Requirements

Instructions

Overview

Pre-requisites

 

 

 

 

To successfully complete the procedures mentioned in the article, you need the following:

 

 

• Your domain must be in running in mixed mode. Once you have converted it to Native mode, you can’t revert back, and you can’t rename your domain.

   

• Since the domain is running in mixed mode, it must have at least one Windows NT 4.0 Backup Domain Controller (BDC). If you are running in mixed mode, but do not have an NT 4 BDC, then you need to install one for the purpose of renaming.

   

 

 

A word of caution

 

 

 

 

Although you can rename a Windows 2000 domain running in mixed mode, it is recommended that you decide well on the FQDN/DNS name of the domain well ahead of installation. Renaming, although possible, involves considerable amount of work and it can be avoided if proper planning is done before migrating to Windows 2000.

 

 

 

 

Before you attempt the procedure mentioned in this article, be sure to take a backup of all domain controllers involved in the process.

 

 

 

 

Overview

 

 

 

 

Major steps involved will be reverting Windows 2000 domain back to Windows NT (since NT domain names don’t have an FQDN name, they have only the NETBIOS name) then, upgrade to Windows 2000 and specifying a new FQDN name.

 

 

 

 

The steps below are specific for a scenario where there are no child domains (downgrade domain to NT 4, and upgrade domain to 2000). If you have child domain(s), then you have to downgrade the child domains back to NT 4 first, then downgrade the parent domain, upgrade the parent domain to Windows 2000 with the new FQDN, then finally upgrade the child domain to Windows 2000.

 

 

 

 

About the NetBIOS name

 

 

 

 

This article explains how to change the FQDN name or DNS name of the domain. The NETBIOS name will remain the same when NT4 domains are upgraded. If you need to change the NetBIOS name, you will need to setup a fresh domain with the new NetBIOS name and perform a full-blown migration from the existing domain to the new one. You may need to consider a whole lot of things before you do this. For example, other running server products like Exchange, custom applications that have the NetBIOS name hard-coded, etc.

 

 

 

 

Step 1.      Inspect Windows NT 4.0 installation

 

 

 

 

1.    If there is no existing Windows NT 4.0 BDC, you need to create one.

 

 

2.    Make sure Service Pack 6 or 6a is installed.

 

 

3.    To be double-sure, you can put up another BDC box and take it offline so that you have a copy of all your domain user accounts and SAM database in case something goes wrong. In such a case allow sufficient time for the BDC to gather all domain & security information. You can force a replication by using the command.

 

 

 

 

net accounts /sync

 

 

 

 

Step 2.      Demote Windows 2000 domain controllers

 

 

 

 

1.    If you have only one Windows 2000 domain controller, isolate it from the network. (remove the cables)

 

 

 

 

2.    If you have more than one Windows 2000 domain controller, demote all except one Windows 2000 domain controllers by running DCPROMO. Isolate the last domain controller from the rest of the network (remove the cables).

 

 

 

 

3.    After isolating the last domain controller, run DCPROMO and demote it. Be sure to choose “This is the last domain controller” option. (Note: DCPROMO requires an active network connection to continue, simply plug the domain controller into an ISOLATED active hub, or choose a bizarre IP address. The idea is to prevent the DC from talking to any other DC while running the DCPROMO demote)

 

 

 

 

Step 3.      Promote Windows NT 4.0 BDC to a PDC

 

 

 

 

1.    Now you have only Windows NT domain controllers. On the Windows NT 4 BDC, go to Server Manager and promote it to a BDC. You might get a message stating that it cannot contact the PDC. Choose Yes to continue. After the server restarts, make sure that it has become a PDC.

 

 

 

 

Step 4.      Upgrade to Windows 2000

 

 

 

 

1.    Upgrade this Windows NT 4.0 PDC to Windows 2000. When the installation completes, you will be asked to provide the FQDN. Provide the correct name that you desire.

 

 

 

 

2.    Promote the other Windows 2000 DCs which you demoted earlier by using DCPROMO.