RunAs Radio

Richard chats with Aidan Finn about Windows 8 Hyper-V Client. With Windows 8, Microsoft brings Hyper-V support to the desktop. Aidan discusses a variety of use cases for Hyper-V on the client, including presentations, testing, security and that darn XP/IE6 app you just can't seem to get rid of. The conversation also digs into the licensing requirements for using Hyper-V on the desktop as well as the differences between Hyper-V on Windows 8 and Hyper-V on Server 2012.

Richard chats with Ed Horley about something other than IPv6 - building private cloud infrastructure. Ed talks about the innovations happening in the cloud space at the biggest level (large enterprise) and smallest (start ups)... but relatively little in between. The conversation digs into some of the standards emerging such as OpenStack to make utility computing even simpler. Also check out Microsoft's Private Cloud offering which explores the tooling and techniques for getting your own infrastructure more like the cloud.

Richard chats with Brent Ozar about his experiences deploying SQL Server 2012. The conversation digs into the challenges of running SQL 2012 on Windows 2008R2 - and why you'd want to upgrade to SQL 2012 in the first place. For Brent's projects, it came down to utilizing Always On technology, which depends on advanced clustering features that 2008R2 struggles with - so SQL 2012 is best on Server 2012! From there, Brent talks about the impact of the cloud on on-premise servers, the need for better instrumentation and understanding of your data when talking to business. It's a fun time to be a DBA!

Richard talks to PFE Jeff Stokes about the Microsoft Assessment and Deployment Kit (ADK). The ADK is a web installer that pulls together a bunch of free tools from Microsoft that can help you understand how PCs are performing. Jeff talks about the Assessment Toolkit, which is a small app that can run on a PC and determine problems with drivers such as memory leaks, as well as whether or not a better video card would improve browser performance. Also mentioned in the show is KB 2775511, which is a roll up for 90 hotfixes for Windows 7 SP1 and Server 2008 R2 SP1 that can significantly improve performance and reliability. It's recommended for everyone, but doesn't show up in Windows Update - you have to go get it from the Windows Update Catalog. Finally, the conversation also digs into risk assessments done by PFE, and Jeff brings up a video on the new Risk Assessment As a Service. Check it out!

Richard chat with PFE Nibin PM from Microsoft Gulf in Kuwait about his work deploying Active Directory domain controllers in virtualized environments. Nibin digs into the history of virtualized domain controllers first, with the biggest caution of all: don't do snapshots of domain controllers! At least, not until Server 2012. The conversation digs into the challenges of Active Directory maintaining synchronization between different domain controllers, how virtualization influences that and ultimately how Server 2012 solves some of these problems. Nibin also recommends checking out the Premier Field Engineering blog as well as the Directory Services blog.

Richard talks to Microsoft Premier Field Engineer Heath Graves about the Microsoft Operations Framework (MOF). MOF is Microsoft's guidance document for IT, covering every day practices and activities, as well as digging into governance, risk and compliance. Heath discusses how his experiences in the Air Force taught him to value clear documentation and procedure to not only get things working right, but to pass that information along to other reliably. Take a look at the Microsoft Operations Framework.

Richard talks to Robert Cain about getting started with business intelligence. The conversation starts out talking about the role of SQL Server, Analysis Service and various tools needed to get business intelligence up and running. Robert discusses using tools like Excel PowerPivot to do rapid prototyping for potential business intelligence solutions versus the big bang approach of building a data warehouse. Thinking about getting your company using business intelligence? Here's a place to start!

While at the MVP Summit, Richard chats with Tony Redmond about his experiences with Exchange 2013 so far. Exchange 2013 shipped in October of 2012, but as of mid-February, could only be deployed in greenfield scenarios - to get to co-existence with Exchange 2007 and 2010, you need current service packs as well as a yet-to-be-released cumulative update to Exchange 2013. Tony talks about how the interplay between Exchange 2013, Sharepoint 2013, Office 2013 and Lync offer awesome features, but at the expense of some additional deployment and configuration challenges. And don't forget about the cloud! Exchange 2013 is being rolled out to Office 365 as well, which has an impact on the on-premise features also. Awesome discussion about where Exchange is going!

Richard chats with Robert Smith about his experiences tuning Windows to operate with Virtualized Desktops. Robert starts out with dealing with boot times with Windows 7 - some customers were waiting up to ten minutes to boot! Careful boot log analysis finds answers. The conversation also digs into the whole cycle of patching, WSUS, service packs, hot fixes - every time a base image has to change, it impacts users. If you're even thinking about VDI, there's some great tips here!

Richard talks to Dana Epp about his on-going battles with password security. The conversation digs into various security issues, including public WiFi exploits, rainbow and hash tablets and more. Dana also talks about the rash of account hijacking in 2012 that made a mess of online identities - and the danger of single sign on when that happens. While he's still looking for the perfect solution to not having a password, Dana has a bunch of tips for doing a better job with yours, and your company's security.