Now that the summer holidays are over, I’d like to organise a “virtual” user group meeting, over Live Meeting – and have had some conversations with Microsoft about a session on “Azure for IT Pros” (how can we integrate our on-premise infrastructure with Windows Azure, etc.).  Please leave a comment if you think this will be of interest.

In the meantime, I wanted to tell you about a Microsoft-hosted event that may be of interest, although it may also be a bit “developery” for some Windows Server admins.

In any case, Steve Ballmer will be the guest speaker at a special UK TechDays “Future of Cloud Development” event in London’s Docklands on 5 October.

The site has not gone live yet but you can registration on the event page or at 0870 166 6670, quoting event reference 9886 - you’ll also need the invitation code: 6D4723.

More details of the session content can be found below:

• A lap around Windows Phone 7 (Mike Ormond) – In this session Microsoft will take a look at Windows Phone 7 and the developer ecosystem, from the capabilities and unique features of the platform to the development frameworks and tools you have at your disposal. Along the way they’ll build a simple application or two and explore how people can purchase your finished masterpiece.
• A lap around the Windows Azure Platform (Eric Nelson) – Hear how the Windows Azure Platform provides a scalable compute and storage environment with Windows Azure, secure connectivity with Service Bus and Access Control Service, and a relational database with SQL Azure. Learn about these new services and see demos that show how to build applications that run in and take advantage of Microsoft’s new cloud platform.
• We’re Not on XP Any More – A Windows 7 Application in 60 Minutes. (Mike Taulty) – In this code-only session Microsoft will use Visual Studio 2010 and any .NET assembly that we can beg, borrow, steal or even build in order to put together a simple, modern Windows 7 application from scratch using the journey to provide pointers on how your applications can shine by using features that Windows XP only dreamt about ( when it wasn’t dreaming of electric sheep in its world limited by 2 processor cores, 4GB of RAM and GDI based graphics).
• Keynote: New opportunities and compelling experiences – Microsoft’s Chief Executive Officer, Steve Ballmer, will talk about new opportunities to deliver seamless experiences across many screens and a cloud, and why now is such an exciting time for developers
• IE9 The Best Browser for Windows (Martin Beeby) – In this session Microsoft will use IE9 and a sprinkling of JavaScript and HTML5 to show you how to create an integrated and immersive experience maximizing the full power of your visitors Windows 7 PC.

For those who were interested in the slide decks, you can find links to them below:

• Windows Server migration
• BranchCache deep dive
• Windows crash dump analysis
• Windows performance troubleshooting and analysis

The [WSUG] Windows Server User Group has the pleasure of hosting Dan Pearson, from David Solomon’s Expert Seminars, http://www.solsem.com/  Dan is in London teaching the week of TechDays UK and has kindly agreed to present on the evening of  Tuesday 13th April (18:30-21:00 at Microsoft, Cardinal Place, London) to the community.  There will be a social gathering afterwards.

Registration: Chick Here (NOTE even though the event says GMT it is BST).

Windows Crash Dump Analysis

While Windows crashes are rarer these days, when they do occur, you need to know how to isolate their root cause. This session explains why Windows crashes to protect the system, the types of crash dumps you can configure, and how to analyze them with the Microsoft Debugging Tools. Also covered are how to deal with hung systems and systems that crash without taking a dump. Several real-life case studies are presented.

Windows Performance Troubleshooting and Analysis

Performance is a fundamental metric representing system responsiveness and productivity and can be directly tied to customer satisfaction. This session details the use of several built-in performance monitoring tools, as well as those from Sysinternals and the Windows Performance Toolkit, to aid with the troubleshooting and diagnosis of performance-related issues. Also covered is the analysis and interpretation of the data collected by each of the tools and the presentation of several useful techniques that can be applied to troubleshooting. Several real-life case studies are presented

About Daniel Pearson

Formerly a Senior Escalation Lead at Microsoft, Daniel worked in the Windows Base OS team supporting Microsoft customers. He performed crash dump analysis and system level debugging, spending the majority of his time either in a debugger or reading through Windows source code. Daniel also worked in the Mobile Internet sustained engineering team that released hot fixes and service packs for Microsoft’s Mobile Information Server product. He has presented sessions on Windows internals at Microsoft sponsored conferences and user groups.

Prior to joining Microsoft, Daniel worked at Digital Equipment Corporation on both Intel and Alpha systems running Windows NT doing system software support for enterprise customers.

Dan Pearson is speaking in March at Microsoft’s Tech Days in Finland and Belgium.

We are pleased to announce that the Windows Server User Group has the honour
of hosting Redmond based Joey Snow,  Joey is a technical evangelist for the worldwide Developer and Platform Evangelism team at Microsoft focusing on Windows Server, IIS and SQL Server.

Please Register here.

Joey will be providing a talk on:

BranchCache (Deep Dive)

BranchCache is a new Feature in Windows Server 2008 R2 and Windows 7 that helps reduces the bandwidth consumed and improves end user experience while accessing intranet-based HTTP and SMB content. This session introduces challenges in network performance often faced by remote branch offices which accessing content stored in servers located in datacenters across trans-continental Wide Area Networks, and how BranchCache helps in addressing these challenges.

You will learn in depth how BranchCache works and see a demonstration of this new feature in Windows Server 2008R2 and Windows 7, as well as learn how to configure BranchCache.

Windows Server Migration (Deep Dive)

Presentations and live demonstrations on how the new Windows Server 2008 R2 migration tools can simplify the migration of Windows Server roles.

Joey will provide a detailed insight to the Windows Server 2008 R2 Server Migration Tools; The session will include migrating file services, DNS and DHCP to Windows Server 2008 R2.

Download

Download

Performance Tuning Guidelines for Windows Server 2008 R2

Performance Tuning Guidelines for Windows Server 2008

Microsoft has now released an update for Windows Server 2008 R2 and Windows 7 to enable the restoration of backups made on Windows XP and Windows Server 2003.

http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?displaylang=en&FamilyID=a71845fd-4496-439c-ab31-be73498ad3fe

This update complements a previous update from Microsoft for Windows Server 2008 and Windows Vista which also enabled the restoration of backups made on Windows XP and Windows Server 2003.

http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?displaylang=en&FamilyID=7da725e2-8b69-4c65-afa3-2a53107d54a7

If you fancy a drink or want to put a face to a name - see you there.