RunAs Radio

Another show from Tech Ed EMEA 2008 IT Pro in Barcelona, Richard and Greg talk to Baldwin Ng and Jay Sauls about the Microsoft Assessment and Planning Toolkit (MAP). MAP is a Solution Accelerator, combining guidance and tools to help IT pros understand the equipment in their network, virtualization opportunities as well as desktop upgrade challenges. You can download MAP for free at http://www.microsoft.com/map.

Richard and Greg talk to Iain McDonald, General Manager for Windows Server while at Tech Ed EMEA 2008 IT Pro in Barcelona. Iain gives us a look into what's coming up for Windows Server 2008 R2.

While at Tech Ed EMEA IT Pro 2008 in Barcelona, Richard and Greg talk to John Rodriguez, a Premier Field Engineer focused on Exchange Server. John walks through the strategies and tactics for troubleshooting problems with Microsoft Exchange Server.

Richard and Greg talk to Chris Stoneff of Lieberman Software about the challenges of passwords. The discussion ranges from password alternatives to complexity policy and privileged account password management.

Richard and Greg talk to Clint Huffman about the Performance Analysis of Logs (PAL) Tool. The tool can be downloaded at http://www.codeplex.com/PAL. PAL helps identify what performance counters to monitor and what are reasonable thresholds for Microsoft products like IIS, MOSS, SQL Server, Exchange and Active Directory. Clint has a blog at http://blogs.technet.com/clint_huffman/.

Richard and Greg dig deep into PerfMon with Shane Creamer. Shane works with Microsoft Premier Field Engineering and runs the Vital Signs workshop, a three day course teaching everything the administrator needs to know about performance monitor. Download the video Here. Also, a link to the 25 key perfmon counters is in Stephen Choy's article at http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/magazine/cc718984.aspx?pr=blog.

Richard and Greg talk to Itzik Ben-Gan about all things T-SQL in SQL Server 2008. Itzik doesn't just talk about what's new, he talks about what's missing (in his opinion). This is a must-listen for serious SQL geeks! Check out Itzik's web site at http://www.sql.co.il/

Michael Anderburg returns to talk to Richard and Greg about code security. Focused around the book The Security Development Lifecycle (http://www.microsoft.com/mspress/books/8753.aspx), Michael describes the role of IT in making code security work. While it sounds like a topic for developers, the book is equally applicable to IT Pros and what they can do to help development and even third-party applications be more secure.

Richard and Greg bring back Wes Miller to talk about Windows Rights Management Services (RMS). RMS secures email and other Office documents to have precise security options, limiting the ability to view, print, copy and so on.

Richard and Greg talk to Stephen Choy about measuring and managing server performance. Stephen digs into the intricacies of performance monitor and other tools for measuring server performance. One of the tools mentioned is Performance Analysis of Logs (PAL) Tool at http://www.codeplex.com/PAL.

Richard and Greg talk to the illustrious Kim Tripp, in a rare interview without her husband Paul Randal. The conversation delves deep into the wonders of indexes in SQL Server, including the value of clustered indexes, their impact on non-clustered indexes and a huge number of details on why some indexes rock and other suck. Check out Kim's blog at http://www.sqlskills.com/blogs/kimberly.

Richard and Greg talk to Michiel Wories about Powershell for SQL Server 2008. The latest version of SQL Server implements several object models through Powershell to let folks manage SQL Server without using the management tools. Michiel's blog is at http://blogs.msdn.com/mwories/

Richard and Greg talk to Paul Randal about the new file stream technology in SQL Server 2008. File streams provide a solution to very large files being connected with SQL Server transactionally while still storing the files themselves in the file system, rather than the database. Check out Paul's blog at http://www.sqlskills.com/blogs/paul

Richard and Greg talk to Jeff Goodwin about Microsoft Unified Communications. Jeff lays out the relationship between Exchange, Office Communicator and Unified Messaging Server to combine email, telephone and instant messaging. Check out Jeff's TechNet articles at http://www.shrinkster.com/11mj and http://www.shrinkster.com/11mk.

Richard and Greg talk to Paul Randal about the involuntary DBA - those folks that end up being the DBA without previous training or expectations. Kim Tripp (Paul's wife) pops in here and there to support her husband's ideas. Check out Paul's blog at http://www.sqlskills.com/blogs/paul/

Richard and Greg talk to Laura Hunter about all things Active Directory. Laura digs into the key aspects of Active Directory, breaking down the differences between simple single domain installations and complex environments. Laura also shares her favorite resources, including the Ask the Directory Services Team (blogs.technet.com/askds).

Richard and Greg bring Erin Welker back to talk about Performance Point Planning. Performance Point Planning is part of the Office Server suite that ties SQL Server, Analysis Services, Integration Services and Reporting Services together to provide budget and forecasting services. You can read Erin's blog at www.sqlblog.com/blogs/erin_welker.

Richard and Greg talk to Brian Randell about what the IT Pro needs to know around virtualization for developers. The topics range from automating (and limiting) the creation of virtual machines for developers, licensing issues, testing, using virtualization to control IP and work the remote developers.

Richard and Greg talk to Keith Mayer about Microsoft's Infrastructure Optimization initiative. The conversation ranges across the optimization of the data center, productivity applications and custom development. More information on Microsoft Infrastructure Optimization can be found at http://www.microsoftio.com/ and http://www.microsoft.com/optimization.

Richard and Greg bring back Simon Goldstein to tackle another challenging IT Management topic: IT Risk Management. Simon outlines a plan for getting started with Risk Management, including how to "manage up" to get budget for risk management solutions.

Richard and Greg talk to Daniel Nerenberg, the Lazy Admin (www.thelazyadmin.com)! Daniel talks about the great free tools Microsoft provides for facilitating the migration and updating of Windows XP, Vista, 2003 Server and 2008 Server. Tools include Microsoft Deployment Tools (www.shrinkster.com/zq8), USMT (www.shrinkster.com/zq6) and the Application Compatibility Toolkit (www.shrinkster.com/zq9).

Richard and Greg talk to Mark Minasi of the Mastering Windows Server series (and more)! While the conversation ranges around a lot, listen for a serious dig into the networking stack of Server 2008 (and Vista).

At Tech Ed IT Pro 2008 in Orlando Florida, Richard and Greg talk to Hal Rottenberg and Carter Shanklin about VMWare's support for Powershell. VMWare has added an extensive Powershell accessible interface to VMWare to simplify the automation of virtual machine related tasks.

Live from the floor at Tech Ed IT Week in Orlando Florida, Richard and Greg talk to Frank Simorjay and Dan Griffin about NAP and Forefront. Network Access Protection (NAP) is a technology for controlling access to the network for workstations, especially laptops that might fall behind in patches and upgrades. Forefront is the client protection technology from Microsoft. Together they make an effective solution for keeping mobile worker systems safe.

A year after his first show (number 10!) Isaac Roybal comes back to talk about the state of IIS7 and the new modules being released by Microsoft. Recorded on the main floor of Tech Ed 2008 IT Pro in Orlando, Florida. And check out the new modules at www.iis.net/downloads.

Richard and Greg run a panel discussion on the compliance features of SQL Server 2008 while at Tech Ed US IT Pro week in Orlando, Florida. The discussion focuses around the tools built into SQL Server to make it easier to support compliance requirements like SOX and PCI.

Richard and Greg talk to Allan Hirt about using virtualization with SQL Server. Allan digs into where virtualization makes sense for SQL Server and when it doesn't. And yes, its true, sometimes virtualizing SQL Server really does make sense!

Richard and Greg talk to Matthew Roche about SQL Server Integration Services (SSIS). SSIS comes with SQL Server 2005 and 2008, replacing Data Transformation Services (DTS) from SQL Server 2000. Matthew digs into the dramatic improvements SSIS has over DTS and some of the best practices for using SSIS. Check out Matthew's blog at bi-polar23.blogspot.com.

Richard and Greg talk to Erin Welker about Data Partitioning in SQL Server 2005 and 2008. Erin digs into the advantages of partitioning for OLTP and OLAP, as well as the changes between 2005 and 2008. Check out Erin's blog at www.sqlblog.com/blogs/erin_welker.

Richard and Greg talk to Susan Bradley, the SBS Diva herself, about Small Business Server (SBS). The discussion digs into the various features of SBS including the upcoming 2008 edition. Susan blogs at http://www.sbsdiva.com.

Richard and Greg talk to Mark Beckner about using BizTalk Server for Integration. The discussion explore understanding the integration needs of an organization as a whole, how BizTalk can be utilized without development and how Electronic Data Interchange (EDI) has improved in BizTalk Server 2006 R2.

Richard and Greg talk to Greg Lamothe about Windows SteadyState. SteadyState allows administrators to configure PCs to roll back to a base configuration after every reboot. Combined with Group Policy for restricting access to resources you can create the perfect kiosk computer that cleans off all traces of the previous user, ready for the next.

Richard and Greg talk to Garth Jones about SMS 2003 and its new version, System Center Configuration Manager 2007. Configuration Manager takes over where SMS left off, handling software distribution, updates, asset management, even working with Windows Deployment Services to do bare metal installations!

Richard and Greg talk to Sean Siler from Microsoft about IPv6. Sean talks about what Microsoft is doing to make IPv6 work and how IPv4 and IPv6 will be living side-by-side for many years.

Richard and Greg dig into Hyper-V with guest Anil Desai. Hyper-V is the virtualization product that shipped as a beta with Windows Server 2008, the release version to be available 180 days later. This show was recorded while Hyper-V was still a release candidate. Anil digs into the strengths and weaknesses of Hyper-V and how it compares to products like VMWare's ESX Server.

Richard and Greg talk to Val Matison about Microsoft's Business Intelligence technologies. Val digs into the fundamentals of why you would want to use BI software and how the different products Microsoft makes work together.

Richard and Greg talk to Nelson and Danielle Ruest of Resolution Enterprises (www.reso-net.com) about implementing virtualization technologies in small businesses. Nelson and Danielle are the authors of the book Microsoft Windows Server 2008: The Complete Reference.

Richard and Greg talk to Michael Manos, Senior Director of Data Center Services at Microsoft about building efficient data centers. Michael talks about how Microsoft is doubling its data center capacity every year and sees no end in sight, putting a heavy requirement on building efficiently. The conversation explores making greener data centers as well as the process of measuring efficiency in the data center.

Richard and Greg talk to Chad Jones about Microsoft Application Virtualization - formerly known as SoftGrid. The conversation explores the differences in various kinds of virtualization and how application virtualization fits into the picture.

Richard and Greg talk to Noel Bruton about the challenges of help desks and tech support in general. The interview digs down into the real value of great tech support in your organization. Check out Noel's web site at www.noelbruton.com.

Richard and Greg talk to Marco Shaw about the growth of PowerShell in the Windows server community. Marco's blog at marcoshaw.blogspot.com provides info on PowerShell and his virtual user group meetings on PowerShell. We also dig into the role of WMI in PowerShell and Microsoft's focus on making PowerShell a key tool for managing all Microsoft products in the future.

Richard and Greg talk to Adam Cogan about extracting and reporting data from Exchange Server. Adam's consulting business, SSW, uses Exchange as the primary communication method to their customers - even phone calls are logged as emails. This has led Adam to discover some great KPIs from his Exchange data. You can learn more about ExchangeReporter at www.ssw.com.au.

Richard and Greg talk to Scott Kveton about OpenID. OpenID is a single sign-on solution that could very well make the classic username and password obsolete. This is a fast half hour - you'll find yourself wanting to listen again!

Richard and Greg talk to Bil Simser about the challenges of managing Sharepoint 2007. Bil points us to the SharePoint Capacity Tool (www.shrinkster.com/uhw) and comparisons between Windows SharePoint Services and Microsoft Office SharePoint Server (www.shrinkster.com/ui1). Check out Bil's blog at www.shrinkster.com/uhv.

Richard and Greg talk to Kirk Munro about PowerShell and PowerGUI. PowerGUI is a free utility created by Quest Software, you can download it at www.powergui.org.

Richard and Greg talk to Dominick Baier about what it takes to secure an ASP.NET 2.0 application. The conversation ranges across least-privlege programming, involving security at the design point and why SSL should be on by default!

Replacing a failed recording from Tech Ed Barcelona, Richard and Greg talk to George Morbargha about Microsoft's Distributed File System (DFS). George works with Brocade who develops a set of tools called StorageX for managing DFS.

While at Tech Ed Europe IT Forum in Barcelona, Richard and Greg talked to Joel Frauenheim and Martin Booth about Microsoft's new Windows System Center Mobile Device Manager.

Steve Riley sits down with Richard and Greg to share his thoughts on current security concerns. This show was recorded at Tech Ed Europe IT Forum in Barcelona.

While at Tech Ed Europe IT Forum in Barcelona, Richard and Greg talked to Michael Anderberg, an IT Pro Evangelist from Microsoft about ISA Server. Michael digs into the history of ISA Server and how it has evolved into the latest versions.