RunAs Radio

Richard chats with Jeff Stokes about Microsoft's Windows Assessment Toolkit. Download the ADK here. Another amazing free tool from Microsoft, the Assessment Toolkit gives detailed evaluations on performance, reliability, compatibility and functionality across multiple operating systems, software, low level and application level behavior. Jeff talks about testing new hardware with existing software, with new versions of software, any combination you like. Also mentioned is Performance Analysis of Logs (PAL), which should be in your toolkit also. The Windows Assessment Toolkit is a tool you need to have sitting right beside Microsoft Deployment Toolkit - test every change, every time!

Richard talks to Steve Goodman about mobile mail solutions. Steve starts out talking about getting iPhone to work well with Exchange. Turns out that much of what makes iPhone work well applies to other smart phone devices like Android as well. The conversation also explores the role of the cloud, tablets and where the market is headed. Who knew so much innovation is still coming around email?

Mark Minasi is back! Mark and Richard get into a debate about the role of ARM-based and Intel-based tablets. Mark references a couple of articles he authored. The first discusses how ARM tablets cannot join domains. The second digs into the idea domain joining isn't that big a deal. From there, the conversation turns to the hardware differences, how Intel is making moves to be more competitive with ARM from a power and performance perspective, perhaps eliminating the need for ARM in the enterprise at all. Expect lots of history lessons along the way, these guys are getting old!

Richard chats with Steve Murawski about how Server 2012 affects file sharing. Server 2012 includes SMB3, which allows NIC teaming to allow commodity 1GB NICs to work together to create awesome file transfer rates. But how far can we go with that? Steve talks about how clustering and other services in Server 2012 create a world where you may never need a SAN at all - everything can be a file share!

Richard chats with Rhonda Layfield about the now shipping version of Microsoft Deployment Toolkit 2012. Rhonda describes the relationship between MDT 2012 and System Center 2012 Configuration Manager - what MDT does and what SCCM does. The conversation continues over to how Group Policy packs are deployed by default in MDT 2012, which might surprise some IT folks. Rhonda also talks about Security Compliance Manager and how it can help you understand where your Group Policy is at, as well as provide policy configuration for specific Windows, Office and Internet Explorer features. You can get MDT and SCM at the Solution Accelerators page on TechNet. Also, check out the Microsoft Security Compliance Manager library page on TechNet for a list of the security baseline settings for various operating systems, Internet Explorer, Exchange and Office.

Richard talks to Robert Bogue about his Nine Keys to SharePoint Success. The conversation starts off with an acknowledgement that a SharePoint implementation, like any business-related project, needs a shared vision that creates value for a business for there to be any chance of success. After all, if you don't define success, how can you know when you've achieved it? From there, Robert discusses the impact of culture change on SharePoint implementations, honestly evaluating how the project is going, the relationship that IT has with the business and how platitudes can keep us from digging deep into problems. Finally, there are some simple things, like the right defaults, that can help make a SharePoint solution successful.

Richard and Mark Minasi go off the RunAs Rails a bit to talk about geek health. At the beginning of 2011 Mark embarked on a diet and exercise regime that a year later reduced his weight by 30%. The conversation is geeky, but that's what we like - Mark has learned how to get his body recalibrated to burn fat rather than carbs, take the weight off and keep it off. Here's the list of links talked about in the show: Nutrition Made Clear, Tap and Track, MyFitnessPal, FitBit, Withings, Zeo and Polar.

Richard chats with Eric Shupps about the process of improving SharePoint performance. Starting with the single-server implementation of SharePoint, Eric walks through each point of tuning SharePoint including database tuning, separating web front ends from application servers, separating off services, etc. Microsoft has a great site on Best Practices for SharePoint Server 2010.

Richard chats with Steve Murawski about the new features in Powershell V3. V3 comes with Server 2012, but should also make an appearance in 2008 R2 and Windows 7. Steve talks about how V3 is utilizing .NET 4 and the DLR for improved performance and flexibility. The new Command Source Adapter uses CDXML to create Powershell proxy commands against WMI API calls, which has made it possible for Server 2012 to ship with 1200 cmdlets, up from the 400 in 2008 R2. Steve also talks about workflows in V3, coming from the .NET 4 workflow foundation engine to create long running powershell tasks that survive the shutdown of the powershell enginer, even reboots. Microsoft seems to get it right on version threes - and Powershell V3 is no exception.

Richard chats with Microsoft Premier Field Engineer Jeff Stokes about his tools and techniques for improving boot performance. Jeff points out that it doesn't matter what version of Windows you're using, all of them can suffer from bad boot performance for a variety of reasons, including third party tools, logon scripts and even group policy. The first tool on the list for diagnosing boot performance problems is xperf, specifically xbootmgr which is part of xperf. You can get xperf at the Windows Performance Analysis Development Center. xperf is great for all sorts of performance analysis beyond boot performance, and Jeff also points out the codeplex project xperf123 for making using xperf a whole bunch easier. Jeff also points to Troubleshooting Group Policy Using Event Logs, using Netsh Commands for Network Trace, Richard chats with Microsoft Premier Field Engineer Jeff Stokes about his tools and techniques for improving boot performance. Jeff points out that it doesn't matter what version of Windows you're using, all of them can suffer from bad boot performance for a variety of reasons, including third party tools, logon scripts and even group policy. The first tool on the list for diagnosing boot performance problems is xperf, specifically xbootmgr which is part of xperf. You can get xperf at the Windows Performance Analysis Development Center. xperf is great for all sorts of performance analysis beyond boot performance, and Jeff also points out the codeplex project xperf123 for making using xperf a whole bunch easier. Jeff also points to Troubleshooting Group Policy Using Event Logs, using Netsh Commands for Network Trace, Microsoft Network Monitor 3.4, Microsoft Exchange Server Error Code Look-up (which is good for all sorts of error codes, not just Exchange) and of course, Windows Sysinternals as all tools to help you diagnose your boot performance. Jeff mentions Justin Halls' article on Tools for Troubleshooting slow boots and slow logons. And don't forget to check out Jeff's blog Dude where's my PFE? and Yong Rhee's blog The troubleshooters and problem solvers for even more information!