Wednesday 30 January 2013

Security Compliance Manager (SCM) 3.0

Take advantage of the experience of Microsoft security professionals, and reduce the time and money required to harden your environment. This end-to-end Solution Accelerator will help you plan, deploy, operate, and manage your security baselines for Windows client and server operating systems, and Microsoft applications.

Access the complete database of Microsoft recommended security settings, customize your baselines, and then choose from multiple formats—including XLS, Group Policy objects (GPOs), Desired Configuration Management (DCM) packs, or Security Content Automation Protocol (SCAP)—to export the baselines to your environment to automate the security baseline deployment and compliance verification process.

Use the Security Compliance Manager to achieve a secure, reliable, and centralized IT environment that will help you better balance your organization’s needs for security and functionality.

Key Features & Benefits

  • Integration with the System Center 2012.
  • Import and take advantage of your existing Group Policy or create a snapshot of a reference machine to kick-start your project.
  • Configure stand-alone machines: Deploy your configurations to non-domain joined computers using the new GPO Pack feature.
  • Updated security guidance: Take advantage of the deep security expertise and best practices in the updated security guides and the attack surface reference workbooks to help reduce the security risks that you consider to be the most important.
    Centralized Management of Your Baseline Portfolio.
  • Multiple Export Capabilities: Export baselines in formats like XLS, Group Policy objects (GPOs).

More information can be found here;

Tuesday 29 January 2013

Windows Server 2012 Hyper-V and NEC SDN Virtual Switch

The ProgrammableFlow PF1000 virtual switch for Windows Server 2012 customers simplifies complex networks and integrating server and network virtualization with a single control plane for the Windows Server Hyper-V customer.  This integration enables advanced network automation, rapid delivery of network services, easy VM mobility, and consistent application of business policy across the network.

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Supported OS Windows Server 2012 Datacenter Edition
OpenFlow Ver OpenFlow ver 1.0
Maximum vSwitches     256 switches per server
Maximum vPorts 1280 ports per virtual switch

More information can be found here and here;

Don’t forget the Cisco Nexus 1000v for Hyper-V and 5nine Security for Hyper-V.

Friday 18 January 2013

Install Exchange Server 2010 Management Tools on Windows 8

*Please note that this is not supported and will “hopefully” be resolved in SP3.

On your Windows 8 PC /  Add Remove Windows Features and enable the following.
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Now we need to fool the Exchange 2010 Installer into installing on Windows 8; so modify the following setting to 6.1; once the tools have installed “change back to 6.2
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Download Exchange 2010 SP2 here and extract into a “temp” folder and run the setup program.

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Once the tools have installed “change the registry setting back to 6.2

Create a batch (.bat) file with the following;

set __COMPAT_LAYER=RUNASINVOKER
set COMPLUS_Version=v2.0.50727
"C:\Program Files\Microsoft\Exchange Server\V14\Bin\Exchange Management Console.msc"
exit

Run the .bat file with appropriate permissions to access the Exchange environment.

*Please note that this is not supported.*

Thursday 17 January 2013

Office 2013 Home Use now available

If your company has a Microsoft Agreement with Home Use rights then Office 2013 is now available to purchase here;

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Tuesday 15 January 2013

System Center 2012 SP1 General Availability

System Center 2012 SP1 is now available for download here;

SCCM, SCSM, SCVMM, SCOM, SCAC

System Center 2012 uniquely delivers unified infrastructure, application and cloud management capabilities in a single product offering and this blog post highlights new cloud and datacenter capabilities introduced in SP1. For information about Configuration Manager enhancements in SP1 and related Windows Intune capabilities, please read the client management blog post.


Windows Server 2012 and SQL Server 2012 Support
Windows Server 2012 and SQL Server 2012 were both groundbreaking releases and provide the infrastructure and application platform as the foundation for SP1. With the release of SP1, all System Center 2012 components are now enabled to run in a Windows Server 2012 environment and provide management capabilities for Windows Server 2012 Hyper-V, Windows Server 2012 Servers, guest operating systems and applications. With SP1, a single instance of Virtual Machine Manager now supports up to 8000 VMs on clusters of up to 64 hosts and customers can easily extend beyond these limits with multiple instances of VMM, enabling datacenter management at large scale. SP1 also now supports the use of SQL Server 2012 as a repository for use by System Center 2012 components.

Software Defined Networking (SDN)
Traditionally, networks have been defined by their physical topology – how the servers, switches, and routers were cabled together and configured. That meant that once you built out your network, changes were costly and complex.  SDN addresses these limitations by using software to configure end hosts and physical network elements, dynamically adjusting policies for how traffic flows through the network, and creating virtual network abstractions that support real-time VM placement and migration throughout the datacenter.
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More information can be found here and here;

Saturday 12 January 2013

Skype 6.1 for Windows Desktop with Outlook Integration

Skype 6.1 for Windows, now with Outlook integration and a visual update to the toolbar.  Now it's really convenient to send a Skype instant message, start a free Skype to Skype call, or make a call to any mobile or landline - all within Outlook.

More information can be found here;

Thursday 10 January 2013

Windows Server 2012 Failover Cluster Manager and KB2750149

There seems to be an issue with KB2750149 when you install this update in a Windows Server 2012 Cluster i.e. the Failover Cluster Manager causes an exception saying “a weak event was created and it lives on the wrong object there is a very high chance this will fail

The solution is to either not install or uninstall the update until a fix is found; more information can be found here and here.

UPDATE
Failover Cluster Management snap-in crashes after you install update 2750149 on a Windows Server 2012-based failover cluster; KB2803748.

All supported x86-based versions of Windows 8 DownloadDownload the update package now.

All supported x64-based versions of Windows 8 DownloadDownload the update package now.

All supported x64-based versions of Windows Server 2012 DownloadDownload the update package now.

Wednesday 9 January 2013

Update Rollup 1 for System Center 2012 Service Pack 1

Issues that are fixed in Update Rollup 1

App Controller (KB2790935)
Data Protection Manager (KB2791508)
Operations Manager - UNIX and Linux Monitoring (Management Pack Update)
Service Provider Foundation (KB2785476)
Virtual Machine Manager (KB2792925 - Console; KB2792926 - VMM Server)

More information can be found here;