Category: General

Kemp LoadMaster for Free Awesome!! A Free Load Balancer for Any Workload

KEMP gives away the LoadMaster for free. Now the virtual appliance is available in a free edition too. Available for all supported hypervisors (VMware, Hyper-V, enz).

The free VLM has some limitations, for instance the HA setup with an active and hot stand-by unit is not supported. Another important limitation is that the free LoadMaster doesn’t come with the awesome support paying customers receive. Also there are some bandwidth and SSL TPS limitations, all in all not much special for most home, lab, testing and other non-production deployments.

    The Free LoadMaster Includes:

  • Layer 4/7 load balancing
  • Content switching
  • Caching, compression engine
  • MS Exchange 2010/2013 optimized Smile
  • Pre-configured virtual service templates Smile
  • IPS engine
  • High Availability
  • Edge Security Pack (ESP) – a Microsoft TMG replacement Smile
  • GSLB multi-site load balancing
  • RESTful API

Moved al mailboxen to Office 365 & Still using dirsync! Can you remove the last Exchange 2010/2013 Server. Yes It Can! Just don’t do it!! You will have a support issue when you have problems!!

After a customer migrated  to Exchange Online some time ago.
They wanted not a hybrid situation. but they are using still DirSync!

After reading: Decommissioning your Exchange 2010 servers in a Hybrid Deployment a I read its not a real problem.

Changed DirSync & After that Uninstalling Exchange 2013 was very easy.

I had only to disable the Arbitration mailboxes: I did that with the following powershell command:

Get-Mailbox -Arbitration | disable-Mailbox -arbitration -RemoveLastArbitrationMailboxAllowed

I did not publish this article because i has still some doubts!!

I had still a question: Do want to remove the last Exchange Server? Have you a supported Environment without a local Exchange Server and still using DirSync??

Yes & No!!

After reading Concerning Trends Discovered During Several Critical Escalations

Microsoft Says:
You may remove the last Exchange Server locale when you move totally to Office 365/Exchange Online, but change Exchange Attribuuts trough ADSI is not supported.

If you don’t have a third party tool for that. The only way is trough ADSI and that is not supported.

My Conclusion:

You have a support issue when you dropped a Call at Microsoft and they investigate your environment.
Don’t remove the last Exchange Server even when all mailboxen exist in Office 365/Exchange Online and keep them up to date!
You can always install a Exchange Server but most of the times it will be always to late!

Exchange & Patching!!!

Microsoft recommends adopting a software update strategy that ensures all software follows N to N-1 policy, where N is a service pack, update rollup, cumulative update, maintenance release, or whatever terminology is used by the software vendor. Microsoft strongly recommend that our customers also adopt a similar strategy with respect to hardware firmware and drivers ensuring that network cards, BIOS, and storage controllers/interfaces are kept up to date.

Software patching is not simply an issue for Microsoft software. You must also ensure that all inter-dependent solutions (e.g., Blackberry Enterprise Server, backup software, etc.) are kept up-to-date for a specific release as this ensures optimal reliability and compatibility.

Customers must also follow the software vendor’s Software Lifecycle and appropriately plan on upgrading to a supported version in the event that support for a specific version is about to expire or is already out of support.

For Exchange 2010, this means having all servers deployed with Service Pack 3 and either Rollup 7 or Rollup 8 (at the time of this writing). For Exchange 2013, this means having all servers deployed with Cumulative Update 6 or Cumulative Update 7 (at the time of this writing).

For environments that have a hybrid configuration with Office 365, the servers participating in the hybrid configuration must be running the latest version (e.g., Exchange 2010 SP3 RU8 or Exchange 2013 CU7) or the prior version (e.g., Exchange 2010 SP3 RU7 or Exchange 2013 CU6) in order to maintain and ensure compatibility with Office 365. There are some required dependencies for hybrid deployments, so it’s even more critical you keep your software up to date if you choose to go hybrid.

Tune and optimize performance of your Office 365 connection

Microsoft has published a new course on Office 365 Performance Management at the Microsoft Virtual Academy, which contains 11 modules across planning and troubleshooting areas including:

  1. Office 365 Performance Management Course Introduction
  2. Office 365 Datacenters and Network
  3. Planning for Office 365 Internet Capacity – Exchange Online
  4. Planning for Office 365 Internet Capacity – Lync Online
  5. Planning for Office 365 Internet Capacity – SharePoint Online
  6. The Baselining Model for Internet Capacity Planning
  7. Best Practices & Real Customer Projects Planning Internet Capacity
  8. Planning for Office 365 Firewalls Whitelisting
  9. Performance Troubleshooting Process and Tools Used
  10. Performance Troubleshooting Tests
  11. Troubleshooting SharePoint Online Customizations

Microsoft Exchange 2013 Public Folder Directory Sync Support Scripts

Microsoft has recently updated the Microsoft Exchange 2013 Public Folders Directory Sync Support Scripts to version 15.00.1017.003.

Brief Description
Scripts to enable creation of public folder related objects in the O365 Active Directory and synchronization of public folder related Active Directory objects between on-premise and O365 directories.

Overview
Use this scripts if you need to do one of the following – – Initial creation of mail enabled public folder objects in the destination Active Directory for public folder migration from Exchange 2007 or 2010 to Exchange 2013 – Synchronization of mail enabled public folder objects from cloud to on-premise Active Directory – Synchronization of mail enabled public folder objects from on-premise to cloud Active Directory – Synchronization of public folder mailbox objects from cloud to on-premise Active Directory

Backup your Laptop using OneDrive

For my work i travel a lot with my laptop.
I do regular backups on intervals on my external drive’s. I hate continu thinking of making backups.
But i wanted a more regular backup. Everywhere where i come there is a internet connection. So why not backup in de cloud?

I looked at different online storage solutions.
OneDrive was the best for my.
I have now 200GB online backup storage.
Ik works reallly well. Syncing your data is freaking easy Smile. I love OneDrive Smileonedrive

KEMP Releases patch for Heartbleed Vulnerability

KEMP Releases patch for Heartbleed Vulnerability – CVE-2014-0160
Versions affected – v7.0-12a, v7.0-14a
Platforms affected – All LoadMasters
To confirm vulnerability you can visit  –  http://possible.lv/tools/hb/
Patches available at the locations below based on LoadMaster model. 

To patch to this version you must be running version 6.0-42 or later. If your firmware does not meet these requirements please contact support.

URLs:      
http://downloads.kemptechnologies.com/hotfixes/7.0-14b/7.0-Patch14b-LM2400-3600-5300-5400-5500-VLM200-2000-5000.bin

http://downloads.kemptechnologies.com/hotfixes/7.0-14b/7.0-Patch14b-LM2200-2600-EX-VLM100-1000.bin

http://downloads.kemptechnologies.com/hotfixes/7.0-14b/7.0-Patch14b-VLM-AZURE.bin
Username:    7.0-14b
Password:    8A5hR/5t0FVAI5+0

New release RVTools, version 3.6

Rob de Veij released today TVTools version 3.6, the release notes:

  • New tabpage with cluster information
  • New tabpage with multipath information
  • On vInfo tabpage new fields HA Isolation response and HA restart priority
  • On vInfo tabpage new fields Cluster affinity rule information
  • On vInfo tabpage new fields connection state and suspend time
  • On vInfo tabpage new field The vSphere HA protection state for a virtual machine (DAS Protection)
  • On vInfo tabpage new field quest state.
  • On vCPU tabpage new fields Hot Add and Hot Remove information
  • On vCPU tabpage cpu/socket/cores information adapted
  • On vHost tabpage new fields VMotion support and storage VMotion support
  • On vMemory tabpage new field Hot Add
  • On vNetwork tabpage new field VM folder.
  • On vSC_VMK tabpage new field MTU
  • RVToolsSendMail: you can now also set the mail subject
  • Fixed a datastore bug for ESX version 3.5
  • Fixed a vmFolder bug when started from the commandline
  • Improved documentation for the commandline options

Latest Version: 3.6 | February, 2014
Download | Documentation

Free eBook: Introducing Windows Azure for IT Pro’s

There is a new and free eBook on 0131_9780735682887x_thumb_19F1014EWindows Azure from Mitch Tulloch and the Windows Azure team designed specifically for the IT Professional.  If you haven’t had a chance to try Windows Azure or your just looking to learn more then this book is a good place to start.WinAzure_logo_Cyan_rgb_D

The book goes into detail on most Windows Azure services along with screenshots to demonstrate the capabilities of the platform.  If you have a bit more experience there are some under the hood insights and expert tips from insiders who develop, test and use the Windows Azure Platform.

You can download the PDF here and there is also companion content available here.

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