Dell Diversifies With Fixed Server Offerings

Dell on Wednesday said it would offer pre-configured systems for enterprise customers looking to get server environments up and running quickly.

The fixed configurations include servers, storage modules and software that are pretested and can be deployed in hours, Dell officials said. The offerings are a diversification from Dell's traditional built-to-order business model, in which customers typically specify configurations before ordering.

Dell is offering fixed systems as an option to custom-built systems that could take longer to configure and deploy, said Praveen Asthana, Dell's director of enterprise storage.

"The goal is speed," Asthana said. "Now we're saying you can be up and running in 30 minutes, not in a week."

The systems are targeted at customers like small- and- medium businesses who may lack expertise in server deployment, or to those who want to quickly deploy servers with applications like virtualization.

Dell is perhaps one of the first server vendors to offer server packages out of the box, said Charles King, principal analyst with Pund-IT. During the recession, the bundles are an inexpensive way for customers to upgrade hardware infrastructure and to quickly deploy applications, he said.

"Dell is recognizing that there are certain application areas where pre-configuration trumps custom systems, specifically in the server space," King said. For example, the systems are good for SMBs who want virtualization, but don't have the manpower or technical know-how to deploy the application over a range of servers. Virtualization is generally employed mostly larger server environments like data centers, but is now reaching smaller server environments, King said.

Source: pcworld

Types of Servers : Are they really have?

Servers do not really have ``types''. A server can be a primary for some zones and a secondary for others, or it can be only a primary, or only a secondary, or it can serve no zones and just answer queries via its ``cache''. Previous versions of this document referred to servers as ``master'' and ``slave'' but we now feel that those distinctions -- and the assignment of a ``type'' to a name server -- are not useful.

Caching Only Server

All servers are caching servers. This means that the server caches the information that it receives for use until the data expires. A Caching Only Server is a server that is not authoritative for any zone. This server services queries and asks other servers, who have the authority, for the information needed. All servers keep data in their cache until the data expires, based on a TTL (``Time To Live'') field which is maintained for all resource records.

Remote Server

A Remote Server is an option given to people who would like to use a name server from their workstation or on a machine that has a limited amount of memory and CPU cycles. With this option you can run all of the networking programs that use the name server without the name server running on the local machine. All of the queries are serviced by a name server that is running on another machine on the network. A host which has an /etc/resolv.conf file listing only remote hosts, and which does not run a name server of its own, is sometimes called a Remote Server (because the actual server is remote?) but more often it is called simply a DNS Client. This kind of host is technically not a ``server'', since it has no cache and does not answer queries.

Slave Server

A Slave Server is a server that always forwards queries it cannot satisfy from its cache, to a fixed list of forwarding servers instead of interacting with the name servers for the root and other domains. The queries to the forwarding servers are recursive queries. There may be one or more forwarding servers, and they are tried in turn until the list is exhausted. A Slave and forwarder configuration is typically used when you do not wish all the servers at a given site to interact with the rest of the Internet servers. A typical scenario would involve a number of workstations and a departmental timesharing machine with Internet access. The workstations might be administratively prohibited from having Internet access. To give the workstations the appearance of access to the Internet domain system, the workstations could be Slave servers to the timesharing machine which would forward the queries and interact with other name servers to resolve the query before returning the answer.

Source: http://www.dns.net/dnsrd/docs/bog/bog-sh-4.html

Thecus New N5500 NAS Server

First and foremost, the N5500 is engineered to store your data and keep it safe. The N5500 is equipped with five hot-swappable SATA 3.5” hard disk bays for a whopping 10TB of total storage capacity. To protect this data, the N5500 lets you choose from a wide selection of RAID modes, including RAID 0, 1, 5, 6, and JBOD. The N5500 also supports multiple RAID volumes, enabling you to choose the right combination of RAID volumes for your network, and if you ever change your mind, the N5500 also features online RAID expansion, online RAID migration, and auto rebuild for maximum flexibility. In fact, the N5500 is the only storage solution on the market that can be configured as a NAS, a DAS, or an iSCSI device! A powerful Intel® CPU and dual Gigabit Ethernet ports with load balancing, failover, and link aggregation with 802.3ad, the N5500 lets you access your data quickly and reliably.

In a business environment, maintaining functional operation on storage device is critical. With the unique dual-DOM design, an extra DOM is installed to ensure continuous and flawless operation on N5500. Users do not need to worry about down-time due to unexpected system failure. The N5500 also shines in terms of flexibility with support for multiple file systems, including XFS, EXT3 and ZFS, and you can even select different file systems for each RAID volume. In addition to this, RAID volumes on the N5500 can also be encrypted for ultimate data protection and security. Those who require even greater performance will be happy to hear that the N5500 also supports iSCSI initiators, which means that you can enjoy blazing file transfer performance over Ethernet without the hassle and expense of fiber-channel.

With features like these, the N5500 represents the next level in NAS device flexibility and power.

“Powerful, flexible, and scalable, the N5500 is our most exciting five-bay NAS yet,” notes Thecus General Manager Florence Shih. “Offering best-in-class speed, a bevy of useful features, and complete ease-of-use, users will be hard-pressed to find a five-bay NAS that measures up to the N5500 in both home and business environments.”

For more: http://hothardware.com/News/Thecus-Introduces-N5500-NAS-Server/

Apple unveils Mac OS X Snow Leopard Server

Like Snow Leopard, the server version of the OS provides 64-bit support, and many of the Apple applications have been updated to take advantage of that. For example, SMB file server performance is 2.3x faster than Leopard Server, and AFP file server performance is now 1.3x faster.

New features include:

iCal Server 2 -- This upgrade to Leopard's iCal Server now provides push notification, wireless accessibility to your calendar from any iPhone, a new web-based calendaring interface, and updates to CalDAV that now allow you to invite colleagues to meetings via email.

Podcast Producer 2 -- Podcast Producer, which was added to the server mix in Leopard, is now improved with Podcast Composer. This new feature lets you create your own workflows for automating completion and publishing of podcasts. There's also a new Setup Assistant in Server Admin that can set up Podcast Producer 2 in a manner of minutes, even if you're setting up a cluster of servers.

Wiki Server 2 -- Workgroups wishing to collaborate now have a little bit more to love from Wiki Server. The only real new feature is iPhone support; users can securely log into confidential wikis and content, and even review content and comments from the iPhone.

Mobile Access Server -- The piece that I'm probably the most excited about as an Xserve admin is Mobile Access Server. This new feature is like a custom VPN for Mac and iPhone users. As long as they're set up in the server's directory service, users can get secure, encrypted access to the server and network with very little hassle.

Mail Server -- The engine running Mail Server has been totally redesigned for much faster service, and now provides push email, vacation messages and server-side rules, and improvements to mail server clustering.

Web Server -- The biggest change to Web Server is that it can now do HTTP live video streaming. Performance is about 1.3x faster than Leopard Server's web services as well.

Client Management -- Organizations that are deploying many iPhones will love the new client management piece of Snow Leopard Server. It has an iPhone configuration utility for creating profiles that can be emailed to corporate users, thus setting up secure services in a few seconds. Administrators can now also use NetRestore to rebuild Macs over networks, based on either a custom build disk image or a standard OS X install disk.

Best of all, Snow Leopard Server will cost $499 for unlimited users (a sharp reduction from Leopard Server's price of $999 unlimited, $499 for 10 users) and should be shipping at the same time OS X 10.6 is available to the rest of us. I'd just be happy if Apple has finally fixed a lot of the issues with backing up network users to Mac OS X Server using Time Machine

Source:tuaw.com

How to Implement Outlook Web Access for Exchange Server 2007

Implementing Outlook Web Access

Once the Client Access role is installed on your Exchange Server, the OWA is available to your remote users who want to access their mailboxes using their web browsers. Although none of the settings are mandatory for the implementation of OWA, it requires you to configure various features and settings in Exchange Server 2007 for customization and efficiency. You can use various tools to configure OWA. These tools are:

* Exchange Management Console: A GUI used to manage the most common settings of OWA including Organization Configuration.
* Exchange Management Shell: A command-line interface that allows you to manage futures that cannot be managed using Exchange Management Console. It also allows you to automate administrative tasks and manage the associated command-line plug-ins.
* IIS Manager: A MMC that allows you to manage virtual directories.
* Web.config: A configuration file that must be modified using notepad. It allows you to modify OWA settings that are specific to ASP.NET.
* Registry editor: A sensitive tool that can be used to directly configure OWA settings such as the PublicClientTimeout, SSLOffloaded, and TrustedClientTimeout

To configure OWA in your Exchange server you can perform the following configurations:

* Configure OWA Virtual Directories: When the Client Access role is installed on your exchange server the following default OWA virtual directories are created under the Default Web Site in IIS on the Exchange server to allow access to Exchange content, as shown in Figure 5:

/owa: Used to allow access to mailboxes on Exchange Server 2007
/Public: Used to allow access to public folders using OWA
/Exchweb: Used to allow access to mailboxes on Exchange Server 2003 or Exchange Server 2000
/Exchange: Used to allow access to mailboxes on Exchange Server 2007, Exchange Server 2003, or Exchange Server 2000
/Exadmin: Used to allow access to administrative settings and properties to administrators.

You can manage the default virtual directories or create new virtual directories by using IIS Manager, Exchange Management Console, or Exchange Management Shell.

Related: How To Disable The Shutdown Event Tracker On Microsoft Windows Server


More Details here

How do I install or remove Windows on Windows 64 (WoW64) on my Windows Server 2008 R2 server core installation?

The WoW64 component is named ServerCore-WOW64. To install it, use the standard ocsetup method: Start /w ocsetup ServerCore-WOW64

To uninstall, use Start /w ocsetup ServerCore-WOW64 /uninstall

Note that this installs/removes the core WoW64 environment, and you need to reboot after changing this. There are also additional WoW64 packages for the various Windows Server 2008 R2 roles to enable 32-bit application support in those roles: Failover Clustering—FailoverCluster-Core-WOW64 PowerShell—MicrosoftWindowsPowerShell-WOW64 .NET 2—NetFx2-ServerCore-WOW64 .NET 3—NetFx3-ServerCore-WOW64 Printing—Printing-ServerCore-Role-WOW64 Server Core IME—ServerCore-EA-IME-WOW64 SUA—SUACore-WOW64

Before installing these components, you must first install the native 64-bit role/feature that this augments with 32-bit compatibility. For example, before installing NetFX3-ServerCore-WOW64, you need to have installed NetFX3-ServerCore.

You won't be told by an application install or application execution that you are missing WoW64 if you need it. Instead, you'll see more generic errors such as "Error 1719: The Windows Installer Service could not be accessed" during a 32-bit application installation, or "The system cannot execute the specified program" id you're trying to run a 32-bit program. Related Reading: Q. Is Windows Server 2008 R2 built on Server 2008's kernel in the same way that Windows Server 2003 R2 was built on Server 2003's kernel?

From: WindowsITpro

Microsoft will support server virtualization for Office Communications Server 2007 R2

Microsoft Wednesday announced that it will support server virtualization for Office Communications Server 2007 R2, its first statement on what portions of its real-time platform will run in a virtual environment.

In a post on Microsoft's Office Communications Server (OCS) blog, Jerome Berniere, senior program manager in the Office Communications group, said the company would support both "fully distributed virtualized topology across several hypervisors and for a single server virtualized topology."

The topologies are supported on Windows Server 2008 Hyper-V and any Server Virtualization Validation Program (SVVP) certified partner solution.

The virtualization will support presence, group chat and instant messaging. The IM support includes remote access, federation and connection to public IM.

The company made the announcement in conjunction with its annual TechEd conference going on this week.

Berniere also said a number of server services would be supported, including: front-end, back-end SQL Server 2008 64-bit; group chat channel; group chat compliance; archiving; monitoring (CDR only); and edge access.

Microsoft said the virtual machines must be running on Windows Server 2008 64 bits. Berniere wrote on the blog, "archiving server and monitoring server can be connected to a virtualized enterprise pool, but they must run on a physical server."

Source: itworld