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Smooth ride on the bus again this morning. New driver though. The bus drivers went on strike, so managers are driving for now. I heard later in the day that there were some issues with strikers blocking a bus from entering the convention center. They had to bring the police in to get things moving again.

Five more sessions today:

• CLI317 Windows Vista: Remote Deployments
• MSG328 Microsoft Exchange Server 2007 Outlook Web Access
• MSG330 Beyond DirectPush: Mobile Device Access in Microsoft Exchange Server 2007
• SVR219R Ten Reasons to Prepare for Windows Server Code named “Longhorn”

• MSG335 Microsoft Exchange Server 2007 Calendar Concierge Services

  CLI317: Even though the title says the session is about Vista Remote Deployment, it is really about WDS. We find out right at the beginning that WDS will ship as a hotfix for Windows 2003, and we can run in a couple different modes. There will be legacy, mixed, and native modes. Running in mixed mode lets you keep using RIS while also being able to use WDS. Basically, everything has moved to use of WinPE. Big question I have is how we should transition from our custom OsChooser screens to a WinPE solution. We use the custom screens to collect information, such as the PC user’s name, department, whether they are faculty or staff, etc. This information is used to customize our generic unattend.txt file as well as drive certain scripts that run as part of the setup process. The speaker wasn’t sure off the top of his head, so he asked for my business card and said he would be back in touch.

  MSG328: Where do I even begin? There is so much new in OWA 2007, that I can’t even begin to summarize all the cool stuff we’re going to get, but I’ll try. I can’t wait for OWA 2007!

• Pop-up dialogs replaced with in-line content!
• Automatic screen refresh!
• UNC and Sharepoint shares even when connecting from the Internet!
• Light mode for non-IE browsers that people can actually use!
• Set preferred language! (Great for using kiosks overseas!)
• Autocomplete of addresses as you type them!
• Easy UI to open another mailbox! Nor more long URLs to type!
• Access to full message headers!

• And more!

  MSG330: Some nice improvements coming down the road. Some features will require new version of Windows Mobile. Will be interesting to see whether the current crop of Windows mobile 5 phones will be upgraded by the vendors. Some notable additions are:

• HTML message body
• Message flags
• OOF (set and retrieve)
• UNC and Sharepoint link access
• Full calendar capability for working with meetings
• Mailbox search (searching online mailbox, not just what is on device)

• easy setup. user just needs to know email address. (Since we use an alias at a domain level above our own, I expect users will have to enter their local address on our system rather than the email address they use.)_

  I’ve been happy with the Outlook experience on my WM5 phone, but now that I know what is coming, I’m starting to wish I had these features now.

  SVR219R: General overview of some of the more compelling features coming in Longhorn Server (LHS). I’m not going to repeat them here since I’ve had bullet lists for two sessions in this post and don’t really want anymore. Couple interesting notes though:

  LHS and Vista shared a common code base until beta 2. At that point, they forked with Vista starting down the road to RTM while LHS continues on to Beta 3. Any post-RTM hotfixes for Vista will be incorporated into the LHS code. The code will re-converge at Vista SP1 and LHS RTM.

  At one point we came close to finding out the probable release name. The speaker started off by saying “Windows Server…” and then caught himself saying he almost said something he shouldn’t. Then he joked, saying we can be assured the name will be the same format as they’ve used before. The joke being that Microsoft product names are changed around constantly.

  He also demonstrated Server Core, a stripped down server that runs only directory services (DS), file, DNS, and DHCP. No GUI, no nothing. When you login all you get are two command windows. The system can be managed remotely using the usual tools, but the server itself is very compact without any extra code. The OS is ~500 MB. Why two command windows? They found that if you only have one and the user closes the window, you have no way of opening another. I expect they’ll add some key combination to address this. But for know, you get two windows, don’t close both of them!

  MSG335: Last session of the day, sparse turnout, but we’re diehards! The new Calendar Concierge service is going to be welcomed by everyone in my organization who schedules meetings. The system actually works how people want to work with their calendar. You don’t have to conform your way of thinking to match the software. I’m especially glad to see that free/busy information is coming directly from user calendars. No more public folders and all the issues that came with that.

  The date picker is helpful as well. Instead of trying to find the perfect match for your meeting request as the feature works now, it actually presents different options and ranks them, letting you quickly zero in the right time. Meeting request and update will also have less clutter now. Every organization has someone who sends out three or four meeting change requests all in a row. Instead of seeing all of the requests and updates in their mailbox, people will only see the most recent.

  After the sessions I ended, I walked over to the Quincy Market area and wound up eating at a place by the Union Oyster House. The wait was way too long at the Oyster House, so this place was nearby and was uncrowded. Had a lobster roll. Wasn’t bad, but prefer more mayo, but any sandwich with lobster in it is good. Afterwards, caught the T back by my hotel, grabbed a shake at Cold Stone Creamery for dessert, and headed back to the room for the night.

Travel into the Convention Center was much better today on route 4. Bus arrived and left promptly. No problems at all. Breakfast and lunch were better today as well. I thought the tilapia at lunch was quite good.

My schedule included five sessions again today, most dealing with Exchange 2007:

• MSG313 “Microsoft Exchange Server 2007: Storage Changes”
• MSG316 “Microsoft Exchange Server 2007: Backup Availability and Disaster Recovery”
• CLI311 “Internet Explorer 7 for IT Professionals”
• MSG220 “Getting Started with Exchange Server 2007: Simple Installation, Setup and Administration Scenarios”

• SVR215 “Windows Server Code Named Longhorn Terminal Services: Introduction”

  MSG313: Many changes to the Exchange databases. STM and ExIFS are gone (good riddance!). Continuous replication has been added in two flavors, Local Continuous Replication and Cluster Continuous Replication. Clustering without shared storage… need to check that out more later. Page size changed from 4 KB to 8 KB. I/O coalescing increases form 64 KB to 1 MB, reducing disk I/O. Log file changed form 5 MB to 1 MB to help with replication and reduce delta between production and local copies. Overall a fairly dry topic, but an important one.

  MSG316: More detail here about Local Continuous Replication (LCR) and Cluster Continuous Replication (CCR). Now we have an easy and inexpensive (free) way to have replication without using shared storage. With LCR you need to manually activate the replica, but with CCR it will happen automatically. Once you have a replica, you switch from backing up your active server and instead backup the replica. Log file sizes have been reduced to 1 MB (from 5 MB) to help facilitate LCR/CCR. The presenter also reiterated the new best practice of using 1 database per storage group in Exchange Server 2007.

  The second half of the presentation dealt with disaster recovery issues in Exchange. Exchange 2007 will validate logs before replaying them for recovery purposes. Up to 50 databases can be mounted and backed up in parallel. VSS is now preferred for backup; streaming backups are legacy and will still be supported, but have been de-emphasized.

  CLI311: This session was right after lunch, and the presenter spoke in a bit of a monotone. Made it difficult to keep my eyes open. Nothing earth shattering here. Just a review of some of the new features in IE7. He showed some of the new malware and phishing protection, improvements in page rendering, etc. IE7 is layout complete, so now is the time to start checking web sites to make sure they render properly in IE7.

  MSG220: Late start for this session due to problems with the webcast. I’d rather they start sessions on time and skip the webcast if necessary. Exchange 2007 will only support new installs. You can’t upgrade to Windows Server x64 and since Exchange 2007 is only 64-bit, no upgrades. Setup uses PowerShell, so they showed some of what is going on behind the scenes. The setup log exposes all of the script commands that were executed so it should be beneficial for people trying to debug setup problems. At the end they showed how to script Exchange setups for use on multiple servers. We only have one Exchange box, so not applicable to us.

  SVR215: This was the best session of the day. A lot of great capabilities coming in Longhorn Server Terminal Services. I know you can do some of these things with Citrix today, but I’d rather get it for free in the OS. We’re just starting to expand our use of Terminal Services, hopefully bringing it to all of our students soon, so the new Remote Programs, TS Gateway, and TS Web Access capabilities will all be huge wins for us. Remote programs lets you run applications on the terminal server, but have them appear on the local desktop as if they were installed locally. TS Gateway brings the RPC over HTTP feature from Outlook/Exchange to Terminal Server. Having this will let us close ports on the firewall and route all of the TS traffic via 443. TS Web Access lets users access TS Remote Programs via a web browser.

  One welcome addition to TS is spanning across multiple displays and ability to show displays beyond 1600×1200. I can’t wait for that.

  At this time, forms-based authentication is not planned for TS Web Access, but the audience indicated this is something they would like to have, so the presenter said he’d take that request back to Redmond. Someone asked whether the existing RDP client in XP would be updated to work with these features, and the answer is yes. XP SP2 will include the updated RDP client. NO work yet for Mac and Windows Mobile clients. That decision rests with the Mac and Mobile teams, so we were asked to send feedback to them if this is something we want. I understand that each team needs to be responsible for its area, but for something like TS, Microsoft should commit to making clients consistent across the board. Otherwise you wind up with a situation like we have in Office for the Mac with a program like Entourage instead of a real Outlook client.

  In the evening I headed over to a vendor event at a club in Quincy Market. I left pretty early. I was mainly looking for a free meal (I admit it), but the appetizers they had out when the event started were really horrible. They started walking around with some better items (bacon-wrapped scallops and fried shrimp… yum!), but mixed in were some other nasty things. I tasted one item that looked like a little quiche and nearly lost it. It was all I could do to keep it down. so I wound up grabbing soup and a half club sandwich near my hotel.

  At previous TechEds there were more evening events to go to, such as Influencer or IT Pro parties. Btu this year you have top be an MCP to go tot he Influencer party, and I’m not certified. I don’t have any need to do so for my job, so I’ve never bothered. I can understand that Microsoft has two goals here. One is to limit the number of people at the event and the second is to encourage people to get certified. Guess I’ll be eating out again tonight.

Here’s the loot from day one, in no particular order:

• T-shirts (9): Microsoft (4), AMD, Intel, VMWare, NetApp, Symantec
• Orange Clock Guy (NetIQ)
• Matchbox Semi (Sybase)
• Sport Umbrella (Altiris)
• Portable fan (Blackberry)
• Baseball Cap (Microsoft, Windows Mobile)
• $5 Starbucks Card (AMD)
• Red Stress Ball (Windows IT Pro)
• Rubber Head (Usa.net)
• Air Freshener (Citrix)
• Magic 8 Ball (Commvault)
• Mini USB Hub (EMC)
• Orange rubber bracelet (Microsoft, BI)
• Free Back Massage Coupon (Business Objects)
• Windows XP Network Security Book (Microsoft, E-learning)
• Keychain holder (not sure what the pockets in this thing are for): (Palm)
• Rubber Action Hero MSDN Webcasts (Microsoft)

• Pens (4)

  

Day one of TechEd started off with some logistical problems. Apparently there were difficulties with the buses. Some buses arrived late, others arrived full, others didn’t know the way to the convention center. I read on the attendee discussions page that the bus ride one of the hotels farther out took an hour! Hopefully things will be better tomorrow.

Meals were OK. Neither breakfast nor lunch were spectacular, but not bad for convention food. Amazingly enough the Dining Gestapo isn’t present this year. At previous TechEd shows, if you dared to sit down at any table other than the one to which they led you, watch out. Curious if this is due to feedback from attendees, or whether they have enough tables that they don’t care if people don’t fill up each one.

I attended five sessions today:

• MGT 401 “Monitoring Active Directory Security with Microsoft Operations Manager 2005
• OFC201 “The 2007 Microsoft Office System: Clients—Overview and What’s New”
• MSG205 “Microsoft Exchange Server 2007: The Next Generation of Exchange”
• MSG307 “Exchange Sizing and Performance: A Look Ahead to the 64-Bit World of Microsoft Exchange Server 2007”

• MGT204 “System Center Configuration Manager 2007: Sneak Peek”

  MGT401: We’ve deployed MOM on a few of our servers, but haven’t done much custom rule development. This session showed some ways you can use MOM and the Event Logs to provide alerts when things like group memberships change. A lot of useful information, including a reference to a third party management pack to do this kind of monitoring. I’ll have to check that out.

  OFC201: I haven’t tried out the Office 2007 Beta yet due to a lack of time to dedicate to putting it through its paces. So this session was the first time I’ve been able to see the interface live. Quite impressive. I’ve been concerned about the transition and end user disruption, but I’m feeling more comfortable about it now. Looks like Microsoft has put a lot of thought into the new Office interface along with millions of data points from real-life use. great job guys!

  MSG205: This session was a quick intro to Exchange 2007. They showed a quick look at different features and provided info directing us to other sessions that cover them in more detail. there are so many sessions about Exchange, it seems just like the old days of MEC. A highlight of the demos was one for Unified Messaging where the presenter used the voice response system to have the system call his wife. She was a good sport about being used in a demo in front of hundreds of people as well as a webcast audience. Impressive features as well. The Unified Messaging looks useful, but in our environment the phone system is a central service, one over which we have no control. So there really isn’t a way to implement something like this, at least for now.

  MSG307: Best session so far. Steve from HP has given similar presentations on sizing Exchange systems and like the others, he did not disappoint. He takes material that is quite technical and somewhat dry at first glance and presents it in such a way that you’re entertained while you’re learning. And there was a lot to learn. Exchange 2007 really changes the rules for sizing servers due to major IO reductions in the new system coupled with the move to 64-bit.

  MGT204: This session was a bit dry. It is hard to get excited about SMS and its follow-on, SCCM, but it was a good overview of the major changes that coming. The software is only at beta 1 (with a refresh in the process of being finished now) so some features may still change, but it looks like some solid improvements in the way the system works. Some of it is just the integration of existing feature packs, but there’s more to it than that. The idea of task sequences are one new feature. Basically these are ways to script operations within SMS, I mean SCCM.

  After sessions ended for the day, it was down to the Expo floor for the Expo Reception. An evening of free drinks and free appetizer food. They were offering chicken skewers, reuben sandwiches (they skimped on sauerkraut), sausage skewers, caesar salad wraps, pasta, veggie calzones, mini shrimp cocktail (tasty, but you had to eat a dozen to get any quantity of the tiny shrimp that were drowning in cocktail sauce), and several desserts.

  I picked up a bunch of swag, stuffing my bag full as well as an additional vendor bag. First day is always the biggest. I’ll update my swag tally later. Unfortunately I lost the pen that came with our bag at registration. The pen was so-so, but one end could be used as a stylus and was pretty useful. At some point during the reception, I must have put it back and missed securing it to the pen holder on the badge. Oh well.

  Here are some photos from the reception:

  !http://images17.fotki.com/v13/photos/2/247084/914007/IMG_3969-vi.jpg (Microsoft Lego Superheros)!
  These were characters walking around that are some kind of Microsoft Lego-like Superhero. The Technet people are giving away a different foam toy of these characters each day.

  !http://images1.fotki.com/v320/photos/2/247084/914007/IMG_3970-vi.jpg (Wally the Green Monster)!
  Wally the Green Monster is the mascot for the Boston Red Sox.

Day 0

• Keychain with flashlight and compass (Keynote)

  Day 1

• T-shirts (9): Microsoft (4), AMD, Intel, VMWare, NetApp, Symantec
• Orange Clock Guy (NetIQ)
• Matchbox Semi (Sybase)
• Sport Umbrella (Altiris)
• Portable fan (Blackberry)
• Baseball Cap (Microsoft, Windows Mobile)
• $5 Starbucks Card (AMD)
• Red Stress Ball (Windows IT Pro)
• Rubber Head (Usa.net)
• Air Freshener (Citrix)
• Magic 8 Ball (Commvault)
• Mini USB Hub (EMC)
• Orange rubber bracelet (Microsoft, BI)
• Free Back Massage Coupon (Business Objects)
• Windows XP Network Security Book (Microsoft, E-learning)
• Keychain holder (not sure what the pockets in this thing are for): (Palm)
• Foam rubber Action Hero “MSDN Webcasts” (Microsoft)

• Pens (4)

  Day 2

• Sport Bag (APC)
• Foam rubber Action Hero “Visual Studio 2005” (Microsoft)

• USB Hub and Warmer (Avocent)

  Day 3

• Rubber yo-yo/octopus thing (?) (Microsoft System Center)
• Foam rubber action Hero “SQL Server 2005” (Microsoft)
• Flashlight keychain (Microsoft WinFX)
• T-shirt (MSD2D.com)
• Grey Stress Ball (SQL Server Magazine)

• Carabiner pen (Microsoft System Center)

  Day 4

• Foam rubber race car driver “Virtual Labs” (Microsoft)

  Day 5

• Mouse Pad (Microsoft, Windows Mobile)
• Staple-less Stapler (Microsoft, Exchange 2007)

• T-shirt (Microsoft, .Net Development Services)