mcs.ireland.blog/infrastructure
Welcome to the blog of the Microsoft Consulting Services infrastructure team in Ireland
Manually Deploying Windows 2003 SP2 – Approach
We recently worked on a project with a customer to help deploy Windows 2003 SP2 to their server...
Author: mcsieinf Date: 11/09/2007
Exchange 2007 Powershell Answer –The PowerGUI
Just recently I worked on a project with a customer who migrated from Exchange 2003 to Exchange...
Author: mcsieinf Date: 11/09/2007
Assess the impact of deploying Office 2007
Every time a new office version is released, customers have the same reservations and concerns -...
Author: mcsieinf Date: 11/07/2007
Top 10 overlooked features of Windows Server 2008
Interesting stuff - https://www.adtmag.com/article.aspx?id=21402 lists their view of the first 50% of...
Author: mcsieinf Date: 10/08/2007
MCS Ireland Present at TechEd IT Forum 2007 - Barcelona
This year at TechEd 2007 in Barcelona, a consultant from MCS Ireland will be delivering the...
Author: mcsieinf Date: 10/02/2007
Windows Server 2008 RC0 now available for evaluation and testing
RC0 was released yesterday. You can get your hands on it at...
Author: mcsieinf Date: 09/25/2007
System Center Configuration Manager 2007 RTM!!!!
It's here, the wait is over, it has arrived, it's been RTM (Released to Manufacturing). SMS = SCCP...
Author: mcsieinf Date: 08/28/2007
Speaking of one-stop-shops...
We've mentioned Infrastructure Optimization (IO) quite a few times on this blog. It's not...
Author: mcsieinf Date: 08/14/2007
One-stop-shop for virtualisation
https://www.microsoft.com/windowsserversystem/virtualization/default.mspx has recently been created...
Author: mcsieinf Date: 08/14/2007
Virtualising Applications using SoftGrid? Check out best Practices and support policy on Technet
https://support.microsoft.com/kb/939897 is a good Technet article which summarises the support policy...
Author: mcsieinf Date: 08/14/2007
MOF Blog now online
The MOF guys are blogging at https://blogs.technet.com/mof/. For those of you familiar with MOF, this...
Author: mcsieinf Date: 08/14/2007
Access Hotfixes without picking up the phone
Steve's blog provides the exact details.
Author: mcsieinf Date: 07/26/2007
Infrastructure Optimisation - Implementation Guides
Infrastructure Optimization (IO) serves as a gauge for IT organizations and provides a logical...
Author: mcsieinf Date: 07/24/2007
Auto-generating Outlook signatures using Active Directory data
Whilst working on a user provisioning solution with a customer, an interesting question arose. Now...
Author: mcsieinf Date: 07/24/2007
Windows Server 2008 - Technet portal and free training
For a limited period, some free e-books and online training courses is available at...
Author: mcsieinf Date: 07/24/2007
World-class Exchange management
The "Managing Exchange Messaging Services by Using Metrics" whitepaper is an excellent read for...
Author: mcsieinf Date: 07/17/2007
Best Practices Analyzers
I know many of you are aware of the Exchange Best Practice Analyzer. It's a fantastic tool, that...
Author: mcsieinf Date: 07/17/2007
Office 2007 Compatibility Pack
If you haven't yet made the shift to Office 2007 (what's keeping you!!), your users may be...
Author: mcsieinf Date: 07/14/2007
Windows Server 2008 Roles, what are they?
A role is logical grouping of a set of components based on user scenarios, typical server workloads...
Author: mcsieinf Date: 06/22/2007
Windows Server 2008 New Features in Setup
One of the significant changes you will find in the new version of Windows Server is the new setup...
Author: mcsieinf Date: 06/22/2007
Windows Compute Cluster Server 2003
Microsoft has supported fault-tolerant and high-availability clustering for many years, but with...
Author: mcsieinf Date: 06/22/2007
System Center Service Manager Beta Available for Download
The new offering from the System Center line is already on the connect site for you to download and...
Author: mcsieinf Date: 06/22/2007
www.microsoft.com runs on Longhorn Beta 3
Microsoft.com is the world's 5th most heavily accessed website based on number of unique visits. And...
Author: mcsieinf Date: 06/19/2007
Operations Manager 2007 - Design Guide now released
It's available for download at...
Author: mcsieinf Date: 06/16/2007
Virtual Server 2005 R2 SP1, it's here, its free and it is packed with great stuff!
Isn't it great when we get new features for free for our already implemented products? Well guess...
Author: mcsieinf Date: 06/13/2007
Windows Home Server Release Candidate, Be creative and win Some Cash
The release candidate of WHS is now available through the connect site. Be sure to download it and...
Author: mcsieinf Date: 06/13/2007
Getting Smart with Logon Scripts
I’m sure anyone who administers an Active Directory infrastructure will have had some experience...
Author: mcsieinf Date: 06/12/2007
Virtual labs now available for Windows Server 2008
Virtual labs for Windows Server 2008 are now available on the TechNet Site. These labs are a great...
Author: mcsieinf Date: 06/11/2007
Powershell hits the million mark
From the Powershell team blog: PowerShell Hits a Million Downloads in the First Six Months. = An...
Author: mcsieinf Date: 06/05/2007
Up comingTechNet Webcast: High Availability in Microsoft Exchange Server 2007 and Exchange Server 2007 Service Pack 1
If you are responsible for a highly available Exchange 2007 environment this is the one to watch to...
Author: mcsieinf Date: 06/04/2007
Security Management Tips for Aspiring IT Managers
In today's fast-changing and often risky business environment, it is critical for IT to effectively...
Author: mcsieinf Date: 06/04/2007
Microsoft Security Intelligence Report
The Microsoft Security Intelligence Report provides a comprehensive understanding of the types of...
Author: mcsieinf Date: 06/04/2007
Windows Server 2008 Beta Is Now Available for Download
The next generation of the Windows Server operating system gives you more control, greater...
Author: mcsieinf Date: 06/04/2007
Data Protection Manager (DPM) v2 - Beta 2 now released
Data Protection Manager 2007 Beta 2 is now available for download. DPM 2007 Beta 2 is designed to...
Author: mcsieinf Date: 06/03/2007
Using AD and Exchange as a routing and re-branding solution
Recently one of my customers came to me with a requirement that looked pretty daunting. Basically...
Author: mcsieinf Date: 06/01/2007
ADAM: A powerful and flexible directory solution
Many of you will no doubt be aware that Microsoft released Active Directory Application Mode,...
Author: mcsieinf Date: 06/01/2007
Powershell - videos and utilities
The Channel9 guys have posted an interesting video where the Powershell team discuss the goals of...
Author: mcsieinf Date: 06/01/2007
Windows PowerShell, What can you do with it and what can it do for you?
The new command line shell and scripting language helps you get greater control, automation and...
Author: mcsieinf Date: 05/28/2007
Operations Manager 2007 - Performance and Scalability guide now available for download
https://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyID=a1b7610d-3dbe-4e51-bcb3-446d50dadf14&Di...
Author: mcsieinf Date: 05/27/2007
Windows Server 2008 - NLB Enhancements
Over the past few weeks, a number of customers have asked me about where we are going with NLB in...
Author: mcsieinf Date: 05/25/2007
Are your Servers Compliant?
When doing a post mortem analysis of a system failure we usually find that it is not really the...
Author: mcsieinf Date: 05/23/2007
TechNet webcast on System Center Data Protection Manager 2007 Beta 2
For those of you with an interest in the next generation of System Center Data Protection Manager,...
Author: mcsieinf Date: 05/22/2007
SQL Server 2005 - new performance benchmark record
Summary of the press release and related links are below: SQL Server 2005 benchmark results have now...
Author: mcsieinf Date: 05/22/2007
Have MOM? Use Visio to do some cool stuff
This MSDN article (https://msdn2.microsoft.com/en-us/library/bb264455.aspx) shows you how to do some...
Author: mcsieinf Date: 05/18/2007
Managing shared computers
Whilst most companies nowadays have a locked down desktop environment, there are some unique...
Author: mcsieinf Date: 05/17/2007
It is Official!!! Announcing Windows Server 2008
It has now become official, the codename longhorn days are now over. The new server operating system...
Author: mcsieinf Date: 05/16/2007
HP Management Packs for System Center Operations Manager 2007
Hp has delivered 3 management packs that take advantage of System Center Operations Manager's new...
Author: mcsieinf Date: 05/16/2007
System Center Essentials 2007 has RTM'd
Those of you who read my post on RC1 for System Center Essentials,...
Author: mcsieinf Date: 05/15/2007
Your Data Any Place Any Time - SQL Server Code Name "Katmai"
Bold statement from the SQL Server Group announcing the next version of Microsoft's SQL Server 2005....
Author: mcsieinf Date: 05/11/2007