Windows Server 2008 R2 provides support for two additional clustered services; DFS-Replication and Remote Desktop/Terminal Services. DFS-Replication is an efficient, multiple-master replication engine that is used to keep folders synchronized between servers across limited bandwidth network connections. In Windows Server 2008 R2, you can configure member servers in a replication group to be highly available for uninterrupted and failure-resilient replication services. We are considering the following scenario built on two HP X3800 Network Storage Gateways fiber connected to a 7.

An important part of the time spent by IT technicians on Internet is used to research solutions to problems they face. That is why companies like Microsoft have huge knowledge databases where they can find solutions on a timely fashion manner when somebody calls its Customer Service. Microsoft through its engineering staff creates all this information based on multiple sources; and an important part of that knowledge comes directly from online communities, so non-Microsoft employees.

Microsoft Active Directory Topology Diagrammer is an excellent tool from Microsoft that lets you read your Active-Directory topology (Domains, OUs, Sites, Exchange servers, DFS-R, etc.) by simply querying all the information through LDAP and drawing a Microsoft Visio diagram for you. Although some people can consider this a handicap, it is not; simply download the 60-days trial of Microsoft Visio Premium 2010 and that’s it, you will be able to get you AD drawn in few clicks.

Bluestack is a free application that generates a virtualization environment on your Windows where to run Android applications. BlueStacks employs a lightweight, optimized, soft hypervisor with deep enhancements to support “embedded virtualization”. You can enjoy the full Android environment through BlueStacks, or just install Android app icons directly on the Windows desktop. Download it here.

First of all, let me say that this post only applies to HP servers compatible with HP Network Configuration Utility. That said, let’s setup a network team using the HP Network Configuration Utility on a Windows Server 2008 R2 core installation. Move to C:\Program Files\HP\NCU and execute the control panel applet hpteam.cpl (I’m assuming that you have used HP Smart Start media to install your server). The HP Network Configuration Utility will open to let you setup your team as done in a non-core installation.

As regards to security permissions, seems like Microsoft Office 2010 installation is so sensitive. I have confirmed in several forums that is so common to receive an installation rollback for that reason; and I’m not an exception. This morning while I was upgrading my Office installation from 2007 to 2010 it horribly failed with error 1402. If you face this situation, a very straight forward troubleshooting is to reset your computer’s security setting to a known good working state.

With a renewed style, different platform and its own domain name, The Blown Light Bulb (now theblownlightbulb.com) celebrates its first birthday. During this period it has received more than 15.000 visits from around the world, mainly from Spain, United States, United Kingdom and Canada. This probably is not very impressive, but for me it’s a big success. This is more than what I was expecting when I started it, so I hope you will continue enjoying like the first day.

A few months ago I got a server with enough storage to house a virtualization server and have finally decided to give it a try using Windows Server 2008 R2 Hyper-V. Initially I will setup the test environment to perform the 70-647 exam practices. Once achieved, I will make an active directory migration from Windows Server 2003 R2 to Windows Server 2008 R2, this will help me to detect and correct problems to prepare my production environment migration.

When it first appeared with Windows Server 2003 it resulted so annoying to me but quickly became one of my favorite features, it is a must. Shutdown Event Tracker is a Microsoft Windows Server 2003 and Microsoft Windows XP feature that you can use to consistently track the reason for system shutdowns. You can then use this information to analyze shutdowns and to develop a more comprehensive understanding of your system environment.

Just a quick post about how to setup your multi-language keyboard on a Windows Phone 7. If you (as me) use to type in English but also use other languages (Spanish and Catalan in my case) you may be thinking that predictive text is something weird that slow you when typing and you will disable it at the end. That was me since a few days ago when a friend shown me how to add languages to my Windows phone keyboard.