Hi everyone.
I want to share an epiphany i had this morning, I’m reading the posts on the iPhone been launched in Israel, I want to do Microsoft a service today by talking about it.. I don't want to technically review it because I have an iPhone 3G.. I use it and I like it.
The things I want to talk about it is how are we as consumers act.
I guess a lot of people have wrote about it, but in Israel someone wants to make a whole lot extra shekels on our lack of discipline as consumers (again..)
Yesterday I read in some famous iphone blog about leaked as a hear say, NOT something proven, iPhone 3Gs package one of the carrier in Israel will sell, again, the information came from a leak or hear-say or something like that but the numbers blow me away
we’re talking about this : iPhone 3Gs , 200 SMS, unlimited Internet access.. the air time and min is still UNKNOWN, all this for 350NIS a month for with a commitment for 18 months.
1st of all I want to say that the core payment to the cellular companies is min talking on the phone ! this is their main income, the SMS and the internet as an infrastructure is the network services that come with, they have their costs but its minimal.. the main business is how to get you and me talk more on the phone…and if we have a package that cost 350 nis a moth without the information on how much min included in the package we need to take know this and judge it carefully.
2nd 350 nis for 18 months is around 6300 NIS !!! WTF?!?!, check this out.. let say you want the phone badly and willing to pay top $ to get it, in the US it cost $200 with a waaaaay cheaper package, and if you want to go to Europe and pay the whole sum for a SIM FREE phone lets say in Czech republic or Italy. the 18GB model will cost around 600 Euro.. its ~3500 NIS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! in israel again we pay double!, than get an “expensive” Israeli carrier package for 100nis a month..with 5GB internet and min deal that match you as a costumer.
again we let the market control our life without us controlling the market
I wouldn't buy an iPhone in Israel!
Hi Everyone,
I’m writing this post in order to help a friend of mine (and because I dont know for sure),
he has sbs 2003 with exchange 2003 in the organization,
he wants to migrate to Exchange 2007… the thing is that I actually saw the licensing for this project so I know its legal, and I asked why doesn't he take an expert?
the replay is : I have 2 servers in my production office infrastructure.. one is the SBS and the other is Win2k8 standt edition that I want to install the exchange 2007 on
the question is, for the exchange experts ..
what does he need to do? (he prepared the AD for Exchange 2007) role wise?
just go to setup?
thanks
Ido
Hi Everyone,
I want to share a quick post with you all about my Windows 7 RC installation and usage.
I read in blogs and comments on Facebook that its very convenient and very fast installation so I wanted to use it myself.
I got an ISO of 64bit from a “trustworthy” source, this ISO image came from Microsoft’s Technet site so I had no way to know what is waiting for me.
when approaching to install on my Lenovo X61 I got a strange message that want me to load driver for my DVD, strangely enough.. I thought “you know what … its an RC , the x61 has no built in DVD drive so it might cause it”. after borrowing a docking station for it it kept on doing the same problem..
I did not despair I installed the BETA version 32 bit and then then upgraded to RC 32 bit.
of course this whole process took me 2 days with downloads and installation.
after I finished installing my whole environment with office and all on the RC x32 bit, the CEO of my company asked about it.. so I told him the story, I said “i love it, its great OS but the installation just killed me!” so he said: “what are you talking about ?!? it took me 7 min to install it on my home desktop with quad core and 12GB ram…” and then i started wondering !! I said how could it be… and asked the ISO he installed from.
day after he gave it to me, ISO he downloaded not from technet or something just from the regular Windows7 site and it worked smoothly, no problems and no worries, it took me another day to install the rest of my work environment.
my point is that for me to get a good Lenovo x61 running Windows 7 RC x64 it took 3 days. instead of 15-30 min. sucks
BUT ! I like it, now that I have it.
so someone sent me some Windows 7 Tips that I’d like to share with the public :)
you can go to my directory and download it from here
Hi All,
5 min ago I got on facebook a link of Lior Zoref,
its kind of funny because Lior posted it on he's blog in here so I thought why not and I read it.
here is the link : http://blogs.microsoft.co.il/blogs/liorz/archive/2009/04/30/twitter-and-leadership.aspx
the thing is that I dont really like to hear stories about leadership in this industry, not that it is not exist or its is not welcome, both are welcome and exist BUT, I'd liked more stronger Dilemmas, lets face it. the Army world is much interesting when talking leadership, the basis of this comes from the fact that most noble stories comes from men and woman 21-24 years old that never got the chance to educate on that matter, or read some litrature about it, its comes from within.
having saying that I most say that the most educating stories I learned from a 1 "sgan-aluf" in the army when I was myself a young LT, and he was my CO. now days he is doing a major role, maybe the important one in the IDF computer units.
why do i tell you that ? because i've read the post by Lior Tzoref, agreed and wanted to tell you a story about a person i know who practice it. most of the people just put this information in the back of the head without giving it a 2nd thought.
but i guess the army like tweeter. or anything. they have the same principles of leadership.
thanks
Ido
Hi Everyone,
I decided to share with you some thoughts I had about something
a few days ago I wrote a post about “why not to install windows 7”, Windows 7 is in beta and for the common users sitting at home playing games its still not ready (at least I think so).
the funny thing is that i got a few angry responses about it, saying that the OS is great.. someone even got really mad by my post and wrote one as a comment, you can see it here, the post is in Hebrew.. so for my English speaking readers Ill summaries “in a nut shell”:
1. I don't know what I’m talking about
2. My recommendation is wrong because there is a lot uses for Beta processes and my post is not relevant.
again in a nut shell.
Now, I don't really know or recognize the name of the writer and I’m happy that people comment on my post, even if they don't agree with me, but if you read my post you clearly can see that I meant to approach by it to regular users at home or office and not those who have a job coding or make their code compatible.. those people wont read my post or follow it..they have to install Windows 7.
in he’s post is elaborate on the uses and important value that beta OS has on the actually RTM product and I totally agree with him, but Beta is not just for “smart users” that use it for their job, beta has a lot of purpose of testing the UX (User eXperience), and I know for a fact that MS is giving a lot of thinking about it and making their products as easy to use as they can.
I still don't think that it was wrong for me to say that Windows 7 is not ready, and to share with everyone another fact is that i use it my self for a while… and having a great time.
while saying that I still don't get why the author was mad about me :)… I didn't demolish Windows7 Beta process I just spoke my mind about home users.
after it, he also comment about my Vista knowledge while everyone who actually know me, know that I’m one of Vista greatest fan..sorry to say :).
Vista has its problems and failures, its a fact, and most of the public know it… Windows7 will be a GREAT Operation System, the beta is very encouraging and the User eXperience is great and seems that MS has learned some important lessons.
till now I really didn't understand the impact of bloggers have with their comments and if I’m writing this post to “clarify” my previous post it really got to me.
but the most strong feeling I have is that I want to sit down with Gad Meir for a cup of coffee.. really..I’m serious, this guy mis-judge me in 5 min without knowing a thing about me, and that's what “bake my noodle”.
next time I’ll be more clear about whom I’m writing too.. I learned something from this incident and Mr. Meir review and quick judgment, although he seems very professional and a “high quality” person, even he could not get the subtext that I thought was clear.
I will guess that I will get some response to this post and I want to apologize to Mr. Meir about this post. I will not reply to this incident any further… unless Mr. Meir will decide to have coffee with me and talk technology. :)
thanks
Ido
Hey Everyone,
As much as every one I too waited for this Beta, Windows 7 is some what of a salvation from Vista. BUT and there is a big BUT, I think that Microsoft is making a mistake by releasing the beta as before.
Almost every OS that Microsoft has ever build had this phase that we’re experiencing, I mean they publish a beta some users around the world actually install it and then they get out of those users a real good information about the OS and bug reports.
Its important to say that Win7 is some what similar to Vista, the UI is very familiar and if you got the chance to actually code for vista you wont have trouble with Win7. the point is that Microsoft had problems with Vista on an early stage, even after SP1, which significantly increased Vista productivity and stabilization, its still didn't catch very well with most users.
This will lead us to believe that Microsoft will not do the same mistakes of vista and the early public version of Win7 will give us GOOD user experience unlike we had with Vista and its wrong to assume it.
This Beta is nothing different then most Beta’s Microsoft publish but the Market expect something else, most ITPROs wont go and install it on their laptop the 1st chance they’ll have but most other users that downloading it will.
I hope that Microsoft has thought about it and released a very good Beta OS …. OR ELSE .. the mistakes of the past will return.
If this beta will get bad reviews or criticism, its could burry it before it even launched.. and it would be a shame to see all this effort go to waste.
if you want to check the system out use VPC and install in virtually, if you are looking for a salvation from your Vista, please wait to final edition.. the Messiah is not in the form of Win7 Beta!
Thanks
Ido
Hi,
this will be a quick review about 2 approaches for Hypervisor implementation which is the basis to any part of an enterprise virtualization server both MS or other.. this is a high technical review and I’ll try not to dig really deep and yet explain the basics.
OK ! so there are 2 parts of virtualization platform before even getting in to Hypervisor and its important to understand both, you all know the products so I’ll be rapid.
VMM – Virtual machine monitor is the part of the product that actually simulate to the guest OS what it needs to be installed, like hardware, CPU and memory access .. there are 2 kinds of VMM’s:
- One is a hosted VMM that actually share hardware resources with host OS, examples are: Virtual PC, VMware Workstation and KVM.
- Another VMM approach is the Hypervisor VMM which runs alone on the hardware, the most common products are : Hyper-V, VMware ESX and Xen…
A few quick words on the name ‘Hypervisor’, the bad news is that MS didn’t invent this name :), Hypervisor is an IBM name. In the old age .. when mainframe was the most common computing systems it could run a few supervisor (IBM name for Operation System before the term OS has been created) and they wanted to run multiple supervisor on the same mainframe but they had to come up with a name for a UBER-supervisor that will monitor and control all those other supervisor.. so they sat down and came up with ‘Hypervisor’ as a name for this function.
A monolithic Hypervisor is an architecture that replace OS Kernel with its own, it is simpler then modern kernel but still a very complex one, holds its own Driver model and needs to be supported by HW Vendors, a good example for Monolithic Hypervisor will be VMware ESX.
A Micro-Hypervisor is relativity simpler way on doing it , its still very complex but with simple partitioning functionality, increased reliability while minimizing TCB. this implementation of hypervisor is well implemented in Microsoft Hyper-V and the most important thins is that you don't have to make HW vendor create 2 sets of drivers, we have them for Windows and therefore extremely minimize 3rd-party code usage.
now days the most common virtualization platform is VMware, the technological difference is already discussed by me on an earlier post but the “tax” HW vendors pay in order to be compatible with VMware products needs to be reviewed by both the vendors and VMware, now days its OK to vendor to pay this tax an invest on building drivers for ESX themselves because it means that they can sell more powerful machines is a higher amount of money,
now that Microsoft is in the game of building products that will compete with ESX, vendors needs to ask themselves “is this forth it?" ,VMware on her side needs to think about it… and make sure they wont loose this technological and HW vendors edge..
In the end we’re as IT PRO’s are the main benefiters of those dark battles between the light and dark forces (I’ll let everyone choose its own side) we have diversity in products motivated by 2 different approaches to the same subject …
That’s it for today
Thanks for reading.
Ido
Hi All,
in this post I want to write about SCVMM or how the “natives” call it “System Center Virtual Machine Manager” link to product in MS sites here.
a lot can be told about VMM (short for SCVMM 2008) , we can sit here and read about how it is a competitor to VMware Virtual Center and how VMM is better for you then Virtual Center.. I think the link I gave to VMM MS site will defiantly cover it.. so I don't really want to write to you about it, I do want to concentrate on several properties that VMM has regardless to VMware Virtual Center, I just want to let you know that Microsoft has something for you that can manage your VM’s and because you can download an actual evaluation of the product I wont show a lot of screen shots, this post is about getting the “1st taste” of what can be a great leverage to your virtualization environment.
first a few words on System Center, SC is a collection of products that we used to know in a different names in earlier version like SMS and MOM and a few more that always fit together, not to be confused , SC is NOT just a unified platform for all those products, its a whole concept by Microsoft to enable you manage your whole computing systems under 1 product, SC provides a lot of new features and abilities by itself and the work between dev teams about 1 bigger products has a lot of advantages to us as IT professionals.
SCVMM is no different, the Virtual machine manager as you can see from he’s name, is not ONLY a Hyper-V servers manager, like VMware VC, it aspire to manage your whole virtualization environment as we know it (lets not include in this post products like App-V former SoftGrid or Med-v former Kidaro) and that means everything… from client guest OS’s to Server guest OSs , from Hyper-V servers to ESX VMware… it can even mange VMware Virtual Center servers… all good stuff in one place
now, as somewhat of an expert in virtualization field by now , a lot of email I get is who wins in the battle of virtualization is it VMware or Microsoft.. the answer is always trickier then question, since MS have a bigger range of products, VMware does what it knows and focus on very good.. the advantage between ESX and Hyper-V in Win2k8 is not in favor for VMware but not because of ESX or VC, the only meaningful advantage the VMware has on Microsoft is located in VMFS 3, Virtual Machine File System, its ability to be mounted to multiple servers plays the major advantage in building a large server farms that runs a lot more VMs and their migration from server to server , even though it is possible in Hyper-V using clustering its still not the same and less then convenient to setup and manage.
VMM might be the counter strike Microsoft has, since this product can manage all of the server environments and VC included that brings Microsoft to the front of the Virtual machines management stage. it has ( now in BETA ) most of VC capabilities, Templates creation and a great functional library, it has good and detailed job center and also a self-service portal,even thought VMM still needs to be fine tuned in some places its going to be a great products to manage your Windows 2008 Hyper-V server that you going to setup anyways.. your ESX servers that you may or may not have or plan to buy..
either way VMM is something that you might want to take a look into, its fairly easy to use and intuitive, as always the more complicated task you want to do with it , it will get harder to do and less intuitive.
here is a glance for my personal VMM beta, with 4 Hyper-V servers and 8 VM’s .. like everything its begging, small environment -
if this post will get some good replays to me I’ll explain more on how to do stuff with VMM.
Thanks
Ido.
Hi,
in this post I don't want to share any technological problem rather a problem will all face somehow in the next year to come, a lot of people, companies and financial establishments are going broke and the Hi-Tech industry sits on the sides and watch what is going on.
I would like to get you comments on my thoughts and I want to be clear that I'm sharing my personal feelings and assessments.
As we see major banks falling down like leman-brothers, an insurance company like AIG in dire need for US Government help i have the feeling that something large going to happen, a lot of my friends in the Hi-Tech community says that the major impact on the industry will suffer are the newly startup companies, since the crisis is not like in 2001 when the “bubble” busted its a different kind of financial crisis that means that since banking establishments are the only companies that fall, in this case recruiting money from investors are going to be hard since backs and investors companies will now guard their money close to the chest for a “rainy day” sort of speak.
The other people from the financial community says its going to have a major effect on all economies and jobs in the Hi-tech community is going to be lost..
To me its seems kind of strange this current crisis, because I always thought about startups and hi-tech companies as an opposite investment to real-estate, I mean isn't it so ? now that all those company lost money in those mortgage issue, wont they will look for another opportunities in the long run? and isn't hi-tech companies is the natural choice?
so sure, I think that there will be some impact on the industry, and to overcome the financial crisis in September 11 it took the the USA 8 months to come out of it, and now we’re in the middle of a crisis that last over a year and we still don't know when and how its going to end..
My final thoughts about it is that if your planning to get another job in hi-tech, do it in the next couple of months and don't try to recruit any money for your startup..
any thoughts will be appreciated
thanks
Ido
Hi Everyone,
this post will handle Hyper-V installation on a Windows 08 Enterprise Server and what you want to know if you haven’t installed one yet. it will show some print-screens of the installation process and BIOS settings, this article is very basic level article and if you feel the need to move to the next one its ok..
this article was based on a DL580 G5 Installation, so all the screens you’ll see is BIOS and HP screen.
Now to work ! :
the 1st thing you need to know is that Hyper-V will work on only x64bit processes, anything newer then dual core is 64bit with the Intel VT or AMD-V, formerly code-named "Pacifica" so please make sure you got appropriate Hardware. for older CPU’s please find out using your local vendor , for more information about pre-requisites check information here
the 2nd thing you need to do is turn on the Virtualization Technology settings of the processor’s in the BIOS, you can turn in on after server OS installation but it will need a restart, and dealing with those monster-servers I recommend to do it ASAP, in the next picture you can see where you can enable it on the DL580:
you go to Advance Settings > Processor Options..> Intel Virtualization Technology (in this case)> Enable.
save settings and go out of the BIOS utility.
THATS it … this is how easy it is to prepare it for Hyper-V role, if you choose to enable the Virtualization Technology after OS installation or you forgot to do so, when installing the Hyper-V role it will send you an Error messages stating that the Hypervisor couldn't be loaded or initiate,
the next step is to install OS , I installed Windows 2008 Server Enterprise.
after Activating Windows :) and joining the server to the domain, we can now add the Hyper-V role.
please note that if you haven’t activated the Virtualization Technology of the processors please do so before adding the Hyper-V Role:
1. when server manager opens click on Roles menu at the left pane and then the “Add Roles” from the right pane
2. then click next on the screen and check the “Hyper-V” Check box and click next
3. Choose which network ports the Hyper-V will use , this will enable Virtual Switches for each NIC, that means that if you want to connect the server in to multiple networks you can do it by creating a virtual switch for each NIC installed on the server, this option can be configured later from Hyper–V Manager :
4. confirm the installation by pressing the Install button
5. let it install and restart the server, restart will be necessary to complete installation
6. Log in to the server and let it configure the Role
7. after server configuration, if you get a massege that it pre-release version of Hyper-V Download KB950050 (you can click on the KB), be sure to get the x64bit update, a restart will be required.
that's it .. after the restarts and the configuration you’ll have Hyper-V Manager Snap-in in the all programs menu and you can start managing the Hyper-V server and creating VMs
SCVMM 2008 screenshots are on the way ..
**Section added After reading Comments on this post **
Erik Rozman (the guru) is right, when updating Hyper-V to RTM version using KB950050, it will stuck unless you will remove the NCU (Network Configuration Utility) on an HP Server. the reason I didnt mention it :) because I usually don't install NCU unless I have real intention to team NICs.. to fix this issue “the guru” has supplied in he’s comment a link.
Thanks
Ido
Hi Everyone
I all ready made a installation manual for single Hyper-v Server but before I post it I would like to talk about the difference between the OLD Virtual Server platform when talking about the other parallel product of the Server virtualization on both old and new platform and maybe get some more questions and replays from all of you about it.
so this is a question i got from a user located in Brazil:
Q:so what is the difference between Microsoft’s Virtual Server and Windows 2008 Hyper-V ??
A: the answer is fairly simple, Microsoft’s Virtual Server products are similar to VMware’s Virtual Server (aka GSX) that means that the virtual server platform sits on the operation system for resources and not on the HAL.. and I know you love those drawings!!!, the following drawing describe (in generally and in schematic way) how there are 2 layers between your HW and your VMs:
I don’t need to convince anyone that this is a very wasteful way to run VM’s on a server, when you run 1-3 VM’s I can understand this product choice if I get the EASE of use in to the equation and the will not to solve simple matters in a complicated way.
But when you want to give an overall enterprise solution this is a very wasteful way even if you have enough money to get a really big machines.
in the Hyper-V architecture its very much different, the Hyper-V role on windows sits on a Hypervisor layer that located directly on the HW (as shown again in a very schematic view):
in this drawing you can see that the hypervisor is supplying a kernel to the VMs but they don’t share OS resources and can be share those resources between VMs in a much coast effective way.
another issue is that Windows 2008 Servers can be installed in a Core Installation mode, and one of the few roles that you can enable in that mode is Hyper-V, that means that after installation you will need to manage the server in a command line way and using powershell or scripts to manage it but the major advantage that it takes about ~250MB !!! of RAM , the entire OS …so if you can get a big Server as DL580 or equivalent HW you can run a lot of machines on it using this Server Core mode, but it require from the admin some higher understanding in core (how surprising) technologies and command line syntax.
if we’re talking about the competitor solution, their Enterprise-SX solution is similar to the hypervisor in architecture and they lean of a special Kernel that they have wrote for it… dont ask me what is better, because I cant really give a straight answer and I think each company have advantages that relate to different features in the products and its compatibility to Enterprise environment when addressing issues of Management and Storage,Backups and not in parameters that relate to the actual architecture, but this argument is for another post ..
Thanks
Ido
Hi Everyone,
I don’t know if there is a post on this issue, and I bet there is but I just wanted to drop a few lines about it.
IE8 is out, most of you must know it and the ones who still haven’t installed it on the excuse that its not recommended to install MS Beta products, I personally dare you.
I love FireFox, there is no question about it, but yesterday I installed IE8 Beta 2 and I absolutely LOVE IT ! I’m telling you this is bigger then Obama Vs. McCain, more lauder then Gustav.
when I install it and use it I cant miss that its faster then IE7 and FireFox 3 it has some cool features that I’m not going to elaborate on in this blog, but if you consider yourself an heavy Internet user you should check it out, hopefully MS dev team working on IE 8 wont mess things up going to RTM I think there is a good chance IE 8 will be a leap forward
more information in the link here : IE 8 Home Page
Hi Everyone,
a few weeks ago I promised all of you a full and informative blog on how to install Hyper-V server farm, I’m going to keep my promise, after few weeks break on purchasing storage (EMC) and 4 HP DL580 quad core for the project I’m starting to write all of you about it..
stay tuned !
Thanks for your patience
and Sorry !
Ido
Hi Everyone ,
Today I want to share a thought with you all, about the “virtualization” world ..
Do we really understand this word ? can we explain it to our clients, teams and managers?
What does it really means?
The answer is no, its not virtual .. its very much REAL , on the other hand thanks the marketing departments that came up with this cool name because what I have to offer is a lot worse :)
When you say virtual what do you mean ? well this is an interesting question , the answer is very much clear , go to any person in your organization and ask him what does it mean for him? most people will say something like that : “well .. its seeing or touching something that is not really there” or “having an illusion of something” .. and they are right when someone said Virtual server to me for the 1st time I was really confused , because for me the best example for virtualization is a Jedi Lighsaber … its a “real” sword … they cut hands and stuff .. but its a beam of light .. its not really there !!! wooozzeee wooozzzee
Yes I know .. geeky
But this is the biggest problem we have when pitching the idea for large scale Virtualization farm it coast money , and quite a few to have a 5-10 physical server connected to a huge storage..
And some IT manger came to me and asked, my boss joked about it and say “if its virtual, how come I need to pay for something that is not real?”
Others say “here’s a virtual check”
And I don’t wan to elaborate of the 1st dev/QA personal that absolutely insisted that installing products on a Virtual Machine (from here "VM”) is not the same as physical machine … its does not give the same resolute of behavior and the BEST “how do you want to explain the costumer that you gave me a VM for developing/testing”
OK so what is it exactly? well obvious answer is of course “Separation”
Much like Wireless technology separated computers from physical networking , like cellular technology allows us to move and walk around with our Telephone, the same thing happened here, we separated our Operation System from our Hardware, all the other stuff is still there by-the-way.. Hard Drives are now files instead of spreading on the whole partition/disk its still takes RAM …and this separation helped us to better utilize our equipments but nothing is virtual about it, its a real computer using real resources that cost money.
The justification for this is maximizing our utilization and resources that leads to less money spending in the future, the initial cost of medium to large scale VM environment is significant. and for the small businesses its smart move because there every dollar is thought through.
So instead of explaining the technology to people who don’t really have a reason to understand it, explain the ROI and the TCO.
Now , do you understand why Virtualization is much more cooler then Separation? would you go for server separation instead of server virtualization? I wouldn't :o)
in the next few days I’m going to publish in my blog posts that are not technical in origin,
that means that they will have some technical explanations and examples but they wont be dealing with any specific technology or subject.
most of them will be high level stuff like basic explanation for common phrases I’ll use in my posts and I think its important to understand when approaching my posts and articles, another planned post will confront the meaning of virtualization and how do we explain it to our non IT Managers .. Dev personal , testers ..
some of the articles will probably suggests nothing new but they’ll give us some common language and a wide base for our communications (email,replays,posts,comments..)
it will also give you (readers) a chance to comment on some management and philosophical aspect of the products and industry in a way that will better our understanding in why do we need to implement some solution and not another
I hope you’ll enjoy and benefit both from the technical posts and the non-technical ones
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