皆様、こんにちは。Windows プラットフォーム サポート担当の藤田です。

今回は、Windows Time サービスの警告イベント ID:36 についてご案内します。

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[1] ID 36 の警告についての説明

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システム
ログに以下のような イベントが記録されたことはありませんか？

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イベントの種類: 警告

イベント
ソース: W32Time

イベント ID: 36

説明:

使用可能なタイムスタンプがタイム サービス プロバイダーによって提供されなかったため、タイム サービスは 86400 秒間、システム時刻を同期していません。タイムサービスは、タイム ソースと同期できるようになるまで、ローカルのシステム時刻を更新しません。ローカル システムがクライアントの時刻サーバーとして機能するように構成されている場合は、タイムソースとしてクライアントにアドバタイズすることを止めます。タイム サービスは継続してタイム ソースとの同期を試みます。詳細については、他の W32time イベントのシステム イベント ログを確認してください。'w32tm /resync' を実行すると、時刻の同期を即座に強制実施できます。

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何か問題が発生しているのか、気になりますよね？

この警告イベントは、主にイベントの記録対象となったクライアントが、同期先の NTP サーバーと最後に同期を行ってから 24 時間、同期が行われなかった際に記録されます。

実は、これだけでは問題が発生しているかどうかの判断ができず、無視してもいい場合とそうではない場合があります。

この記事では、無視しても良いか否か判断する方法をお伝えします。

=======================================================

[2] 時刻同期の間隔について

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このイベントを無視しても良いか否かは、時刻同期間隔によって決まります。

時刻同期間隔が 24 時間以上に設定されている場合は、 ID:36 を無視しても問題ありません。

時刻同期間隔が 1 時間などの短い間隔で設定されているにもかかわらず、ID:36 が記録されるのであれば、問題が起きている可能性が高いと判断できます。

時刻同期間隔は以下のレジストリキーの値によって、SpecialPollInterval レジストリ値を時刻同期間隔とするのか、MaxPollInterval と MinPollInterval レジストリ値を時刻同期間隔とするのか、決定します。

時刻同期の方法を指定するレジストリキー

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レジストリキー：HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\W32Time\Parameters

値の名前：Type

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時刻同期先を指定するレジストリキー

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レジストリキー：HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\W32Time\Parameters

値の名前：NtpServer

値のデータ：時刻同期先の IP アドレス,フラグ

--------------------------

時刻同期の方法を指定するレジストリキーに「NTP」「AllSync」が指定されている場合は、時刻同期先を指定するレジストリキーの値のデータを参照します。

時刻同期先を指定するレジストリキーの値のデータに設定していただくフラグについて、ご説明させていただきます。

フラグの設定は任意です。設定しなかった場合は、いずれのフラグも設定されていないものとして扱われます。

フラグを設定する場合、下記のパラメータを指定します。

0x1 - SpecialPollInterval レジストリ値を同期間隔として使用して時刻同期を行います。設定されていない場合は、MaxPollInterval と MinPollInterval レジストリ値を同期間隔として使用して時刻同期を行います。

0x2 - UseAsFallbackOnly モードを使用します。優先的に同期を行うよう設定されている NTP サーバーが使用不可の場合に同期を取るサーバーとして設定されます。

0x4 - SymmetricActive モードとして要求を送信します。お互いが同期を取る時刻同期方法となります。

0x8 - Client モードとして要求を送信します。サーバー、クライアント、という区分を行い、クライアントからサーバーに対してのみの、一方通行の時刻同期を行います。

例えば、SpecialPollInterval で指定された時間の同期間隔かつ、Client モードとして動作させたい場合は、0x9 (0x1 + 0x8) を設定していただくなど、組み合わせて設定していただくことも可能です。

なお、ドメイン環境において、時刻同期の方法を指定するレジストリキーに「NT5DS」が設定されている場合は、時刻同期先を指定する NtpServer のレジストリキーの値は無視されます。

そして、MaxPollInterval と MinPollInterval レジストリ値を同期間隔として使用して時刻同期を行います。

--------------------------

SpecialPollInterval

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レジストリキー: HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\System\CurrentControlSet\Services\W32Time\TimeProviders\NtpClient

値の名前: SpecialPollInterval

ワークグループ環境の既定値 : 604800

ドメインメンバーの既定値 : 3600

ドメインコントローラーの既定値 : 3600

--------------------------

MaxPollInterval

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レジストリキー: HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\System\CurrentControlSet\Services\W32Time\Config

値の名前: MaxPollInterval

ワークグループ環境の既定値 : 15

ドメインメンバーの既定値 : 15

ドメインコントローラーの既定値 : 10

--------------------------

MinPollInterval

--------------------------

レジストリキー: HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\System\CurrentControlSet\Services\W32Time\Config

値の名前: MinPollInterval

ワークグループ環境の既定値 : 10

ドメインメンバーの既定値 : 10

ドメインコントローラーの既定値 : 6

--------------------------

※ MaxPollInterval と MinPollInterval を使用する場合は、実際には 2 のべき乗で時刻同期間隔が計算されます。

**********************************************

ワークグループ環境

**********************************************

既定の状態で、SpecialPollInterval の値を使用して時刻同期を実施した場合、 1 週間に 1 度時刻同期します。

よって、ID:36 が記録された場合、無視しても問題ありません。

既定の状態で、MaxPollInterval と MinPollInterval の値を使用して時刻同期を実施した場合、約 17 分から約 9 時間の範囲内で時刻同期が行われるようになります。

よって通常は ID:36 は記録されません。記録された場合は、何か問題が生じている可能性が高いので、正常に時刻同期が行えているかの確認を行うべき、ということになります。

**********************************************

ドメインメンバー

**********************************************

既定の状態で、SpecialPollInterval の値を使用して時刻同期を実施した場合、1 時間に 1 度時刻同期します。

MaxPollInterval と MinPollInterval の値を使用して時刻同期を実施した場合、約 17 分から約 9 時間の範囲内で時刻同期が行われるようになります。

よって通常は ID:36 は記録されません。記録された場合は、何か問題が生じている可能性が高いので、正常に時刻同期が行えているかの確認を行うべき、ということになります。

**********************************************

ドメインコントローラー

**********************************************

既定の状態で、SpecialPollInterval の値を使用して時刻同期を実施した場合、1 時間に 1 度時刻同期します。

MaxPollInterval と MinPollInterval の値を使用して時刻同期を実施した場合、約 1 分から約17 分の範囲内で時刻同期が行われるようになります。

よって通常は ID:36 は記録されません。記録された場合は、何か問題が生じている可能性が高いので、正常に時刻同期が行えているかの確認を行うべき、ということになります。

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[3] 他に注意すべき点

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警告 ID:36 については、上記に記述した内容に加えて、3 つの注意点があります。

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1.ワークグループ環境のトリガー起動サービス

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ワークグループ環境にて、SpecialPollInterval の値を時刻同期間隔とする場合、ID:36 が記録されないようにする方法として、SpecialPollInterval の間隔を86400 秒 (1 日) より小さい値に設定する方法があります。

ここで、注意しなければならないのが、トリガー起動サービスです。

ワークグループ環境では既定で 時刻同期を行う Windows Time サービスが停止しています。

時刻同期するためにはこのサービスを起動しておく必要があります。

しかし、ワークグループ環境のWindows Server 2008 R2 の既定の設定では、Windows Time サービスを自動的に停止させる設定が有効になっております。

このため、時刻同期の間隔を色々と調整しても、実際には一週間に一度しか時刻同期が行われず、ID 36 の警告が記録されてしまいます。

これに対処するためには、以下のコマンドを実行して Windows Time サービスのトリガー起動サービスを削除し、Windows Time サービスを自動起動に設定する方法があります。

c triggerinfo w32time delete

トリガー起動サービスについては以下の公開ドキュメントがございます。

あわせてご確認ください。

Windows 7 および Windows Server 2008 R2 のスタンドアロン環境で Windows Time サービスが自動的に起動しない

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/2385818/ja

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2. KB2493006 の問題

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Windows Time サービスが起動していて、時刻同期間隔は 24 時間以内であるにも関わらず、ID:36が記録される場合、Windows Time サービスが　UDP123 番ポートを正しくバインドできていないという既知の不具合が発生している可能性が考えられます。

KB2493006 の問題の詳細については、以前の記事「Windows Time サービスを使用した時刻同期に必要なネットワーク通信について」をご確認いただければと存じます。

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3. NTP サーバーとして動作させる場合

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NTP サーバーとして動作しているマシンにおいて、ID:36 が記録される場合、上位のNTP サーバーからの時刻を正常に受信できていないと判断して、下位 NTP サーバーに正しい時刻同期情報が配信されない可能性があります。

また、NTP サーバーとして動作させるのであれば、既定の設定ではなく、もう少し短い間隔で上位のNTP サーバーと時刻同期を行うようにした方が、安定した時刻の配信を行う上では望ましいです。

今回は、以上です！！

Der jährlich stattfindende europaweite Eurovision Songcontest gilt für viele junge Musiker nach wie vor als Sprungbrett in den „Musikolymp“. Die ehemaligen Sieger Abba und Celine Dion starteten beide nach dem Urteil der Eurovision Jury ihre internationalen Karrieren und für alle, die es diesen gleichtun wollen, gilt: es braucht das gewisse Etwas, ein Quäntchen Glück, ausreichend Stil, bestmöglich einen „Mörder-Song“ und zu guter Letzt eine Prise Charme, um die Jury der rivalisierenden Länder für sich zu stimmen. Schenkt man Microsoft Glauben, soll das im Finale 2013 besonders den dänischen Wettbewerbern gelingen.

Der Microsoft Research Ökonom, David Rothschild, springt erneut mit seinem Projekt „PredictWise“ in die Prognose-Bresche und sagt wieder einmal die Zukunft voraus, mit Hilfe neuester Technologie, mit derer er und sein Team Abermillionen von Daten sammeln. Seine Vorhersagen sind die Ergebnisse differenzierter Analysen massiver Datenmengen, in dieser Form einzigartig und brillierten bereits bei vorangegangenen Großveranstaltungen. „PredictWise“ arbeitet mit einer Big Data- Aggregation, die im letzten Jahr die Ergebnisse der US-Präsidentschaftswahl aller Staaten, mit Ausnahme von Florida, korrekt vorhersagte als auch 19 der 24 Kategorien während der Academy Awards 2013.

Die Vorhersagen für den Eurovision Songcontest generiert Rothschild vor allem von Glücksspiel- Sites wie Betfair oder PaddyPower sowie von Youtube-Videos und Nennungen auf Social Media Kanälen, insbesondere Twitter.

Neu ist die Auswertung der Youtube-Kanäle. Spannend hierbei ist, dass momentan die Video-Views Rangliste von einem Wettbewerber mit besonders kleinen Gewinnchancen geführt wird. Montenegros Igranka Video wurde bereits über 1,3 Millionen Mal gesehen. Bei Dänemark (900.000 Aufrufe) und der Ukraine (1,2 Mio. Aufrufe) korrelieren die Prognosen jedoch mit den Views. Mit nur einer Ausnahme sind die Top 10 der wahrscheinlichsten Gewinner innerhalb der Top 15 der meist gesehen Videos.

Rothschild schrieb in seinem Blog, dass diese Methoden „besonders gut für die Vorhersage des Eurovision Songcontest geeignet sind, da die Märkte sehr robust sind und in Europa ein kollektives Wissen über die Jury und die Abstimmung der Eurovision Wahlblöcke herrschen. Für einen US-Amerikaner wie mich - mit fundierten Kenntnissen über die Märkte, aber wenig Hintergrundwissen über den Eurovision Songcontest - bedeutet das, dass selbst ich signifikante Vorhersagen machen kann.“

Zum aktuellen Zeitpunkt der Vorhersage macht Dänemarks Emmelie de Forest das Rennen mit Ihrem Song „Only Teardrops“, ihr wird eine knapp 50-prozentige Chance für den Sieg zugesprochen. Norwegen und die Ukraine folgen jeweils mit einer Wahrscheinlichkeit von 11 Prozent. Bis zur Abstimmung am Samstag in Malmö, wenn rund 125 Millionen Zuschauer gebannt das Finale mitverfolgen, wird die Vorhersage wohl noch einige Male variieren. 

Der Mehrwert der Untersuchung liegt nicht in dem tatsächlichen Ergebnis des Eurovision-Wettbewerbs, sondern vor allem in der Möglichkeit, mit Hilfe des Ereignisses skalierbaren Prognosen zu verbessern und somit zukünftig Ergebnisse genauer voraussagen zu können. Die eigentliche Kunst beziehungsweise Wissenschaft besteht darin, mit demselben Untersuchungsdesign, demselben Einsatz, denselben Fähigkeiten und vor allem denselben Technologien verschiedenste Bereiche und Themen, sei es die Politik, die Oscars oder auch der Eurovision, untersuchen zu können. Die zukünftige Forschung und Entwicklung wird Wegbereiter für neue Technologien sein, mit denen man mühelos verschiedenste Vorhersagen, sei es zu gesellschaftlichen oder wirtschaftlichen Fragestellungen, prognostizieren kann.

Auf dem Microsoft Research Blog erfahren Sie mehr über David Rotschilds Vorhersage Techniken und am Samstagabend, wenn der Sieger feststeht, wird sich zeigen, ob er wieder einmal Recht hatte mit seiner Prognose.

Posted by Barbara Steiger
Communications Manager Entwicklungssoftware und Innovation

Following up from my post yesterday on how to take a screenshot in Windows Phone 8, here’s another quick tip. This one comes thanks to one of my friends who asked how to turn off SIM security.

Often when mobile phones are delivered they come with a SIM pin turned on. When integrating these in an enterprise mobility strategy, the phones often end up with a corporate-mandated password as well.

To some, entering both a SIM pin and a corporate password is an annoyance – and they would rather only enter their corporate password and turn off SIM security.

In publishing this “how to” guide, I certainly don’t want to suggest that SIM security is not important, I still have both SIM pin and corporate password turned on. I merely provide the instructions for those to who want to have this set up. To turn off the SIM password do the following.

1. Unlock your phone.

2. Swipe right and select Settings.

3. Swipe right to Applications tab, select Phone (shown in the following screen).

4. Scroll down to the bottom and turn off SIM Security (you can also change the SIM password here if you desire).

SIM Security is now turned off, and no SIM pin will be requested on boot. You can turn SIM security back on in the same manner as above as required.

Till next time.

UPDATE: At the end of this step-by-step article, I've also included a downloadable lab guide and a 130-line PowerShell script for initial provisioning.  The PowerShell script helps to reduce the initial configuration time by automating the provisioning of a new Windows Azure Storage account, Virtual Network and Virtual Machines - after running the script, you'll just need to Remote Desktop into each VM to finish the OS and application-level configuration tasks.  Hope you enjoy!

Now that SharePoint Server 2013 has been released, I frequently get asked about ways in which a SharePoint 2013 lab environment can be easily built for studying, testing, development, demos and/or performing a proof-of-concept.  You could certainly build this lab environment on your own hardware, but due to the level of SharePoint 2013 hardware requirements, a lot of us may not have sufficient spare hardware to implement an on-premise lab environment.

This makes a great scenario for leveraging our Windows Azure FREE 90-day Trial Offer to build a free lab environment for SharePoint 2013 in the cloud.  Using the process outlined in this article, you’ll be able to build a basic functional farm environment for SharePoint 2013 that will be accessible for approximately 105 hours of compute usage each month at no cost to you under the 90-day Trial Offer ...

Unsere Social Media Aktivitäten kommen offenbar gut an: Microsoft hat bei den Employer Branding Awards von Trendence in der Kategorie „Bester Social Media Impact“ den dritten Platz belegt! Katharina Martin, University Recruiting Manager bei Microsoft Deutschland, nahm den Preis kürzlich mit Mitarbeitern von Audi und BMW entgegen (siehe Foto). Die Automobilkonzerne waren unter anderem ebenfalls prämiert worden.

Wir freuen uns natürlich sehr über diese Auszeichnung und wir möchten an dieser Stelle auch ein großes Dankeschön an alle richten, die unsere Aktivitäten auf Facebook regelmäßig „liken“. Wer noch kein Fan ist, hier geht’s zu unserer Karriere-Fanpage auf Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/MicrosoftCareersDeutschland

Posted by Astrid Aupperle
Communications Manager Wettbewerbsstrategie, Public Sector & Employer Branding

Many of you know that used to do a lot of VMware training… primarily for a company called VMTraining.  So I was thrilled when they reached out to me recently and asked if I was willing to do a webinar on Hyper-V for their customers… and for anyone else who was interested.  While it is not in response to it, the webinar does follow a similar one done recently by one of their senior instructors that put forth that vSphere is the best hypervisor.  I have said many times over the past year that Hyper-V can go head to head with any competitive product, and I am happy to step up to that challenge.

Join me this afternoon at 1:00pm CST (2pm Eastern, 11am Pacific) for a one hour session on why Microsoft’s Hyper-V is truly the best hypervisor on the market today!  Register here and listen in… if you weren’t sure before then you will be after the hour!

http://www.vmtraining.net/technical-webinars/us-051713

…And to be ready to play with it, Download and install Windows Server 2012in your lab. You can download the full Windows Server 2012 with Hyper-V, or you can download and install the free Hyper-V Server 2012.

Yesterday we held a live chat event on our Facebook page featuring Kimberly Wagner, a Microsoft University Recruiter and Wilson To, an Imagine Cup and MSP alumnus who now works for Caradigm, a Microsoft and GE Healthcare Company. From landing a job or internship at Microsoft to top skills for tech industry professionals, we covered it all. See below for some of the top questions and answers from our one hour session. To learn more about Wilson and Kimberly, check out this interview blog post. 

My dream internship would be at Microsoft. I'm an economics student at a St. Louis area school. What's the best possible way for me to be able to even have a chance at getting an internship with the best company in the world? (Microsoft, but I think you already knew that :) )

Wilson To: Trust me, understanding Economics has its perks too! I have a background in the biological sciences, so I felt that same awkwardness when I applied for Microsoft. The cool thing is that Microsoft hires folks from all backgrounds because software is everywhere! It's more about developing your skills and showcasing your smarts through things like the MSP Program (https://www.facebook.com/MicrosoftStudentPartnersUS) or Microsoft Imagine Cup are ways that I decided to go through to get noticed!

Kimberly Wagner: Kris - Microsoft is an amazing place! The first step is to apply at www.microsoft.com/university. I also encourage you to see if there are any Microsoft events that are taking place at your university. This also can be found at www.microsoft.com/university or through your career center. Another important factor to consider is how you can make your resume stand out from your peers. Microsoft receives thousands of resumes a year, and it’s important to stand out. Have you developed any applications or worked on any projects outside of your class work? Are you involved with any student organizations? Are you in any type of leadership positions? These are some of the qualities that will help you stand out amongst your peers

What advice do you have for students to prepare for a job or internship?

Kimberly: This is a great question. My advice would be to make sure that you are always working on your technical skills, whether that be through class projects or development on your own. I also encourage students to contact their manager prior to starting their job or internship and see if there are any reading materials or skills that can build prior, so they can hit the ground running from day one.

I have a deep interest in coding, but I haven't tried any app development, how do I start my career?

Wilson: As a former Microsoft Student Partner, I shared your deep interest in coding and was a little confused where to get started. Fortunately, Microsoft makes it super easy: http://bit.ly/OthodP - it should help provide some guidance in how to become a student app developer!

What are the skills Microsoft is looking for, for people applying for the software engineering internships?

Wilson: Thanks for your question. Microsoft looks for many great qualities in their engineers. First we look for technical skills, great communication, ability to problem solve, as well as someone who can think creatively and outside of the box.

What is the ideal way to apply for an internship?

Kimberly: You can apply for an internship by visiting microsoft.com/university

Would it be possible to get more information on the Explore Microsoft summer program regarding deadlines or other important dates, or should I just apply, wait, and see?

Kimberly: I am happy to see that you mentioned the Explore Microsoft program. Explore Microsoft is a 12 week program designed to expose students to the software development industry. For additional information on the program please visit our website. Regarding the application process, you can apply at microsoft.com/university. At this time the deadline has already passed, but I welcome you to apply in September when we will reopen the positions.

I'm about to start a degree in ethical hacking (computer security) in September. What kind of job roles are available at Microsoft with that kind of qualification?

Kimberly: Thanks for your interest in Microsoft. There are many awesome teams that work on security at Microsoft. For instance there are many groups in Windows, Office, Server and Tools and many more that all have positions in security.

Wilson: Like what Kim mentioned above ^ - I've had a chance to talk with a few folks from those teams. In terms of technical skills, much of it is similar to what was mentioned in other posts. I would probably emphasize the 'creative thinking' piece of it - that's what hacking is about, right?

When applying for a Software Engineering position, I read that those are always located in Redmond USA, When applying is there any disadvantage if you are applying from outside the United States?

Wilson: I've had the fortunate opportunity to meet folks from all over the world here on campus! Everyone, including those applying from outside the US, has an equal opportunity to start their career at Microsoft! I highly encourage you to apply, and looking forward to an opportunity to potentially work with you!

I am a graduate in IT and I have good coding skills but I am weak in the theoretical part, does it matter at any point in time if I look for a job or after gaining experience switch to another job?

Kimberly: With your IT and coding skills, I am sure that provides you will a strong foundation for many development positions. You will see many students who have experience in one area but are applying for a different position.

Wilson: I can vouch for what Kim mentioned above :)

I worked for Microsoft Mexico from Sept 2011 until August 2012. I left due to a budget decrease. I want to get back. Do I need to wait a year, can I still apply? Which are the recommendations?

Kimberly: You are more than welcome to apply via our careers website microsoft.com/careers or if you are a recent graduate you can apply at microsoft.com/university. You are welcome to apply now. You will be evaluated individually for each role and do not have to wait a year to reapply. We hope to see your application!

I am a .NET developer and in order to boost my career where should I concentrate? Mobile apps or the cloud? And what are the required qualifications to be part of Microsoft?

Wilson: The cool thing is, there are innovations in multiple fronts whether in mobile, cloud, big data, or (maybe I'm a little biased on this) healthcare. Concentrate in areas where you are passionate about, that way you'll have fun while doing great things.

Kimberly: That is great to hear that you are interested in an internship at Microsoft. I encourage you to check out microsoft.com/university. We will have all of our current positions listed as well as how to apply.

What is more important in a resume for an internship? Job experience or school projects?

Kimberly: Microsoft values both job experience and school projects equally. I always encourage students on resumes to include what the project was, what their responsibilities were, list any programing languages they used as well as the size of the project. This will really help recruiters get the full scope of your project when evaluating a student’s resume.

Wilson: I wouldn't really put one as more important than the other. Both jobs, internships, and school projects really provide a means to let you showcase your skills and ability to think outside the box. A lot of the interviews that I have been through are more focused on that aspect.

Kimberly: Microsoft looks for candidates that have great technical skills, problem solving skills, strong communication and ability to think creatively.

How can we apply to the Microsoft Student Partner program? And what is it like to be in the program?

Wilson: Feel free to explore and apply for the Microsoft Student Partner Program. Though everything is region-dependent, there are tons of awesome projects from launch parties, to Microsoft Imagine Cup events, to developer hackathons, and LAN parties to you can work on. You’ll be informed about the latest Microsoft technologies. You will acquire the tools and training to lead technology discussions on your campus. You’ll also get a chance to demonstrate your know-how by demonstrating the newest technologies, host tech events, etc.

Also be sure to check out this video:

(Please visit the site to view this video)

Do you have any last advice for students starting their careers?

Kimberly:  I have had a great time answering everyone's questions today! Thank you to everyone who participated. I believe that passion drives innovation and it is extremely important to be passionate in this industry. I also encourage students to continue to develop on their own and grow their technical skills.

Wilson: Always a fun blast hanging out with students from around the world! I recently started my career 8 months and 19 days ago, so it hasn't been too long ago. I've been offered a few jobs by many different companies and universities, and tempted to sign at the dotted line. But, don't settle. Find something that you are passionate about, and find something that aligns with what your ambitions, whether it is to create awesome technology or to change the world. :) Don't settle.

Hi Everyone,

Well, we are well and truly steamroller-ing through 2013, I cant believe it is nearly June!

Here is this week's compilation of annoucnements from Microsoft.

Have a good weekend y'all!

Rob York
Premier Field Engineer
Microsoft

Recent Releases:

• Introducing Message Analyzer, an SMTP header analysis tool in Microsoft Remote Connectivity Analyzer  - 01-May-2013
• WebMatrix 3 Now Available: Publish Cloud-Based Web Sites and Open Source Apps  - 03-May-2013

Important Announcements:

• Final Course in "MCSD using C#" Jump Start series May 23! Register Now!  - 02-May-2013
• Announcing a New SUSE-Microsoft Collaboration on Cloud Technologies  - 30-Apr-2013

Windows 8 and Server 2012:

• Installing WSUS on Windows Server 2012 with PowerShell   - 02-May-2013
• Upgrading or Migrating Active Directory to Windows Server 2012 – Build Your Roadmap Now  - 29-Apr-2013

How to:

• Data Loss Prevention (DLP) in Microsoft Exchange Server 2013 and Office 365  - 29-Apr-2013
• New Telemetry Dashboard article and video on custom reporting on TechNet  - 30-Apr-2013
• What killed my process?  - 01-May-2013
• Finally a Windows Task Manager Performance tab blog!  - 03-May-2013
• Monitor an AlwaysOn Availability Group with PowerShell  - 30-Apr-2013

Well, do you?

“Yes!  And I bet you’re going to tell me to use Windows Azure.”

You’re catching on!  In today’s article in our “20 Key Scenarios with Windows Azure Infrastructure Services”, my friend Keith Mayer shares some excellent tips, resources, and a step-by-step for building a SharePoint 2013 lab housed completely in Windows Azure.  All you need is a Windows Azure Free Trial subscription.

READ HIS EXCELLENT ARTICLE HERE

Muito bem lembrado pelo super brother Cleber Marques, no ultimo dia 14/05 foi disponibilizado o Managament Pack do Exchange 2013. Alguns destaques:

• Foco na monitoração, com um dashboard que foi simplificado para facilitar a monitoração em tempo real da saúde da Organização Exchange;
• O Management Pack trabalha usando o recurso Managed Availability do Exchange 2013. Sabemos que o Managed Availability do Exchange 2013 é orientado à enriquecer a experiencia do usuário, efetuando inicialmente a tentativa de restaurar automaticamente o recurso afetado. Com o uso do Management Pack, qualquer tentativa de recuperação sem sucesso é escalada para o Management Pack como um alerta;
• Basicamente, o dashboard exibirá alertas que indiquem que a saúde dos servidores não estão como esperado, exibindo alertas reportados pelos components do Managed Availabilty;
• O dashboard foi simplificado em três categorias principais:
• Active Alerts, exibindo os principais alertas;
• Organization Health, demonstrando um resumo da saúde de toda a Organização Exchange;
• Server Health, que indica a saúde de servidores individuais.

Não há a menor dúvida sobre a maneira mais integra e eficiente de monitorar a Organização Exchange....SCOM!!!

 ;)

Windows Phone und Nokia gewinnen bei Connect-Leserwahl

Bei der diesjährigen Connect-Leserwahl wurden Windows Phone und seine Devices gleich dreimal ausgezeichnet. Besonders gefreut hat uns der erste Platz für das Nokia Lumia 520  in der Kategorie Basic-Smartphones. Zwei dritte Plätze gab es in den Kategorien mobile Betriebssysteme für Windows Phone und Mitteklasse-Smartphones für das Nokia Lumia 620. Bei der connect-Leserwahl wurden in 25 Kategorien die besten Produkte, Netze und Dienste des Jahres 2013 von über 60.000 Lesern gewählt.

Aktuell sind insgesamt neun Windows Phone 8 Geräte auf dem deutschen Markt erhältlich. In dieser Woche hat Nokia mit dem Lumia 925 ein neues Mitglied seiner Windows Phone Familie vorgestellt, das ab heute bei Vodafone vorbestellt werden kann.

Communication Manager Consumer

Irene Nadler

These are nothing like your grandmother's knitting needles. 

Surface Pro will be available in Northern Ireland on May 23rd and in the Republic on May 30th

The Surface Pro goes on sale on May 30th in Ireland and will sell for €879 for the 64GB device, and €979 for the 128GB version.  No UK prices (yet).

The US partner newsletter contains the latest partner-related information and news to help you utilize your membership benefits, understand your opportunities and close business, and build your skills.

Role-based training recommendations for this issue will help you build your capabilities in Collaboration and Content: Microsoft SharePoint, Microsoft SQL Server, Microsoft Project, Microsoft Visio, and Visual Studio.

Visit and sign in to the US partner portal for the latest news about products and programs, and check out our blog series aligned to your membership and areas of interest.

• Action Pack blog series
• Competency blog series
• Cloud Partner blog series
• WPC 2013 blog series

Announcements

Join the U.S. Partner Community on Yammer
Engage with the Microsoft U.S. team and with other partners on our new Yammer network. It’s easy to join and use, allowing for private and public discussions and conversations. Our step-by-step instructions will get you going quickly.

We’d Like Your Feedback About Loyalty Programs
The Microsoft U.S. team is in the early stages of designing a partner appreciation program, and your input and feedback will help us determine what benefits you would value most. Our short, 14-question survey will take you from 5-15 minutes to complete, and your answers will be used to inform our planning and help align our program with your needs.

WPC 2013: Keynote and Sessions for Resellers Serving SMB Customers
Come to the Worldwide Partner Conference to hear firsthand about the revenue growth opportunity in this dynamic customer segment and how Microsoft can help you build a profitable practice around SMB customers. These sessions will be held throughout the week. Then, on Thursday, July 11, plan to join Cindy Bates, Vice President of US SMB and Distribution, and her team for a keynote and session.

WPC 2013: Sessions from the US Office Team
If the new Office and Microsoft Office 365 are integral to your Microsoft practice, you’ll want to be at WPC to hear the US Office Team present five sessions about your opportunities in the coming year. You’ll leave each session with a better understanding of the overall Office business and technology vision and be prepared to compete and close more deals.

July 7 at WPC 2013: Application Lifecycle Management Partner Briefing
Join members of the Microsoft Visual Studio Developer Tools team and Application Lifecycle Management partners from around the world in Houston, Texas, for a business event about industry trends, business opportunities, sales efforts, marketing campaigns, and technology growth for the coming year.

Promote Your Competency to Customers and Prospects
Integrate our materials—press release kit, web banners, microsite with video, and more—into your marketing campaigns to help explain the value that your competency brings to customers. Our campaign guide is your starting point to take best advantage of what’s available.

Microsoft Security Bulletin Summary for May 2013
As part of our usual cycle of security updates, we released our latest Security Bulletin Summary on Tuesday, May 14, with two critical and eight important bulletins. The next bulletin is scheduled for Tuesday, June 11. Register for the June 2013 security bulletin webcast.

Increase Your Margins with the Hyper-V Deployment Offer
Many small and midsized businesses today are turning to virtualization to help them do more with less. With Hyper-V built-in, Windows Server 2012 delivers a complete virtualization platform out-of-the-box, so your customers can quickly start taking advantage of the benefits of virtualization. You can get up to $500 cash back when you sell Windows Server by June 21 and deploy Hyper-V. Terms and conditions.

Microsoft Move to the Modern Office Sweepstakes
Register your company to enter our sweepstakes, and then sell eligible SKUs of the new Office to your customers. For each qualifying sale between February 1 and June 30, the registered company will receive an entry into our Move to the Modern Office sweepstakes. Official rules.

Cloud Easy Offer Ends May 31—Talk to Your Customers About the Cloud Today
The Cloud Easy offer lets your customers earn partner subsidy dollars on their Microsoft Online Services subscription purchases—dollars they can apply to additional software licenses, subscriptions, or services. Offer ends May 31. Terms and conditions.

Big Easy Offer 10 Ends May 31—Help Your Customers Update Their IT
It's the right time to talk to your customers about upgrading their IT to use new features and functionality in Microsoft products that help increase operational efficiency, data management, productivity, and collaboration. The Big Easy Offer 10 covers a wide variety of popular Microsoft on-premises software. Offer ends May 31. Offer terms and conditions.

Create Events that Meet Your Business Needs
Use the Ready-to-Go Marketing event tool to set up and manage in-person or online events. You can create events from campaigns that are in-market, custom events, or events that you cohost with another partner. The event tool even lets you create reminders and track leads.

The Get2Modern Campaign Helps Your SMB Customers Move to the Modern Desktop
On April 8, 2014, Microsoft will end support for the decade-old Windows XP and Office 2003. This means customers will no longer receive updates, including security updates, for Windows XP from Microsoft. You can help your customers stay up to date and save them up to 15 percent with a limited-time upgrade offer for the new Office and Windows 8. Offer ends June 20. Terms and conditions.

Create Your Digital Marketing Campaign with Microsoft Advertising
Enhance your marketing plans with Microsoft digital marketing products that help you expand your business, appeal to more customers, and differentiate your company in the marketplace.

Share Your Windows Intune Success with Us
Enter the Windows Intune Partner Gallery competition for a chance to win a Surface Pro. Create a short video demonstrating your success with Windows Intune, and enter your video in the contest by June 30. Terms and conditions.

Microsoft Office 365 Partner Support Update
The Microsoft Cloud Partner Support Team recently released information about technical support volumes and how partners can avoid delays when requesting support by following certain steps. In our blog post, they also offer links to the top support information for partners.

May 22: How to Sell Microsoft Office 365 on Open Licensing
Each Wednesday through the end of June, learn from Microsoft experts and our cloud distributor partners about the new licensing options for Microsoft Office 365. Next calls: May 29, June 5, June 12, June 19, and June 26.

June 7: Monthly SMB Compete Webcast for Resellers
Register for our June webcast, which will help you secure your SMB customer base and increase your market share with Microsoft-based solutions against competitors like Google and VMware. You can watch previous webcasts on demand.

June 3–7: Build Your Windows 8 Practice
The Practice Accelerator for Flexible Workstyle provides an overview of a persona-based approach to solutions for the Windows 8 operating system. You will receive training on using a comprehensive set of reusable tools and best practices that can help you identify customer requirements and project scope, analyze customer needs, and deploy solutions based on Windows 8.

On Demand: Highlights from Microsoft Certified Career Day
Catch highlights from Certified Career Day 2013 in these recorded webcasts. You’ll learn from an esteemed panel of IT industry experts about cloud technologies and the opportunities for advancing your IT career in the cloud through skills development, training, and certification.

Microsoft Office 365 and Windows Intune Accelerators
Download and review the Online Services Advisor incentives guide to understand what incentives you may be eligible for based on your Office 365 and Windows Intune sales. And on June 6, you can join a call with Marie Talley, the U.S. expert on these incentives, to learn more and ask questions.

Re-Enroll in Planning Services to Access Your Resources on the New Platform
The systems that support Software Assurance Planning Services enrollment are now available on the partner portal. You can now update your company information and check your enrollment status in real time. Sign into the partner portal and re-enroll in Planning Services in order to reserve or redeem Planning Services days.

Microsoft Office 365 Email Migration Offer from Quest Software Ends June 30
Migrate your first 25 mailboxes to Office 365 at no cost, using OnDemand Migration for Email from Quest Software. This offer from Quest is a great way to start using your internal-use software that is part of your Microsoft Cloud Essentials subscription. Offer ends June 30.

The Microsoft Office 365 Advantage: Competing Against Google
How does Office 365 stack up against Google around security, privacy, and compliance? Download and review our presentation, and use it with customers and prospects to discuss the advantages of Microsoft Office 365.

Port a Website to a Windows Store App
There are specific considerations and steps to follow when porting a basic website to a Windows Store app using JavaScript. When you visit App Builder you can learn about security and performance considerations for developing a Windows Store app using JavaScript with online connectivity and a specific server component.

Meet NoSQL Storage Needs with Windows Azure
Take advantage of Tables in Windows Azure and NoSQL for apps with large storage requirements for unstructured data. Access is assured from virtually any location via REST and managed APIs, while storage can scale to up to 100 terabytes. Check out the capabilities with a free 90-day trial of Windows Azure.

Content Marketing Solution for Microsoft Dynamics Partners—Free 30-Day Trial
The Butterfly Publisher tool makes it easy to define and implement your content strategy across blogs, email newsletters, and social media, and it can work with your existing marketing tools and popular programs like HubSpot and Click Dimensions. Try it free for 30 days, and then continue for $125 per month, with no contract and no extra charges.

Microsoft Dynamics Offers Expand Customer Solutions
There are several offers in place now that can help you close sales. Check out our Offer Council Summary Sheet to take advantage of the User Offer for ERP Customers and the A la Carte Module Offer for Microsoft Dynamics GP and NAV Customers. Details and terms and conditions for all available offers are provided in the summary sheet.

Lapsed Customer Re-Enrollment Promotion
Eligible customers who have lapsed on their Microsoft Dynamics Business Ready Enhancement Plan service plan can renew their plan with discounted lapsed fees. This offer is available to existing customers for all Microsoft Dynamics product lines who have lapsed on their service plan prior to October 1, 2011 (customers who have lapsed for greater than 18 months). Offer ends June 21. Terms and conditions.

Convergence 2013 Attendee Offer Ends May 30
Your Microsoft Dynamics GP, Microsoft Dynamics NAV, and Microsoft Dynamics SL customers who attended Convergence 2013 are eligible to receive a 20% discount on additional users and/or modules meeting a minimum System Price List value of $2,400. Terms and conditions.

Invite Your Customers to Microsoft Dynamics ERP Webcasts
On PartnerSource, you’ll find a schedule for Microsoft Dynamics ERP webcasts and templates you can use to invite your customers and prospects to these events.

May 22 Webcast: Microsoft Dynamics CRM Online Transition to Microsoft Online Portal
Microsoft is transitioning all subscriptions of Microsoft Dynamics CRM Online to the same platform used for Microsoft Office 365 and other Online Services. This will result in a unified experience and simplified account management for customers. In early 2014, the old billing platform of CTP will be retired and all customers will need to be transitioned onto the new billing platform.

Training resources

Register Today for Upcoming Sales and Technical Training
Training on new Microsoft products is a valuable benefit of being a partner. To help you find the webcasts, classroom-style courses and partner calls that are pertinent to your role, we’ve created the Hot Sheet. It contains a six-week outlook of training, so you can register early.

Training Sweepstakes Courses Include Windows 8, the New Office, and Microsoft Office 365
Take on-demand sales and technical training for Windows 8, Office, and Office 365 to increase your product knowledge and earn a chance to win an American Express gift card. Many of these courses can help you work toward earning a technical certification or a sales accreditation. Game ends June 30. Official rules.

Demonstrate Your Sales Expertise and Enter to Win a Trip to Hawaii
When you pass a Microsoft sales or pre-sales technical assessment, you receive an accreditation tile that showcases your knowledge and the solutions your company can deliver. We will automatically enter you into our drawing for a trip to Hawaii when you pass your next assessment by May 31. Contest ends May 31. Official rules.

Microsoft Certification Exam Offers End May 31
If you are preparing for Microsoft certification exams to update your skills for the latest products or to apply to the requirements for a competency, take advantage of our exam offers. Purchase a pack of exams for up to 40% off and, for a limited time, get a free second chance to pass the exams if needed. Offers end May 31, and you must take your exams by December 31.

May 20: Reimagine SharePoint Development - Migrate Solutions to Apps
Join Senior Product Marketing Manager, Keenan Newton, and special guest Partner Director of Apps Program Management, Robert Lefferts, as we kick off our new site centered around migrating SharePoint solutions to apps.

Free Cloud Certification Prep for Windows Server 2012 and Microsoft SQL Server 2012
The 90 Days to MCSA program provides you with a plan of action to complete your certification. It also includes tools such as free exam prep, a clear roadmap, and community support. Your certification in Windows Server 2012 or Microsoft SQL Server 2012 proves your expertise to your customers and your company.

New Microsoft Lync Sales Training
A new seven-module sales training session is now available on demand. These training modules will also be used as the basis for new Lync 2013 assessments for the Communications competency, to be available in June. The 2013 assessments will replace the 2010 assessments and become mandatory beginning in October.

May 29 at 8:00 AM and 5:00 PM Pacific Time: Windows Azure Partner Forum—Looking Ahead
On a special Windows Azure community call leading into the Worldwide Partner Conference, you will hear from several guest speakers articulating the momentum we have on Windows Azure and how Microsoft is enabling its partners to be successful. Register for the 8:00 AM PT call; register for the 5:00 PM PT call.

Free Jump Starts Help You Prepare for Certification Exams
Attend free, online Jump Start training classes by Microsoft Virtual Academy to prepare for certification exams. Each of these one-day events includes technical background, demos, exam preparation discussions, interactive chats with industry experts, and more. Register for upcoming live events or watch available recordings.

New Sales Training for the New Office
Recently released sales training for the new Office covers licensing, how to accelerate your sales, how to more effectively demo Office 365, and how to use the customer decision framework. Follow the Office Ignite Sales learning path to build your sales expertise.

May 23 Jump Start: Advanced Windows Store App Development Using C#
If you are a .NET developer and interested in building Windows 8 apps, register for this free, live online Jump Start. The course includes prep for Microsoft exam 70-485, a requirement to earn the Microsoft Certified Solution Developer certification.

May 28: Software Testing with Visual Studio 2012
Spend the day with Microsoft Virtual Academy and find out how to immediately improve software testing with Visual Studio 2012. This online course will help you prepare for Microsoft certification exam 70-497, which you can apply toward the Microsoft Certified Solution Developer certification for Application Lifecycle Management.

May 29: Administering Visual Studio Team Foundation Server 2012 (exam 70-496) Jump Start
If you are responsible for setting up and customizing Team Foundation Server, spend the day in this Jump Start. You’ll learn to define the types of work items available and their attributes to take full advantage of the TFS platform for application lifecycle management. This course will prep you for exam 70-496, required for earning the Microsoft Certified Solution Developer certification for Application Lifecycle Management.

TechNet Radio: Windows Server 2012 File Server and SMB 3.0—Simpler by Design
Just how easy is it to use SMB 3.0? That’s the topic for this episode of TechNet radio where Bob Hunt and Jose Barreto discuss Windows Server 2012 File Storage for Virtualization. Tune in as they chat about SMB transparent failover, scale-out, multichannel, SMB Direct, encryption, and much more!

TechNet Radio: Hybrid Windows Azure IaaS Scenarios—Migrating Microsoft SharePoint to Windows Azure
In part 3 of the TechNet Radio Windows Azure IaaS series, Matt Hester and Keith Mayer discuss common scenarios in which IT pros can use Windows Azure as a hybrid solution between their on-premises and cloud service needs. Tune in as they discuss disaster recovery and storage as well as how to migrate your SharePoint environment to a virtual machine running on Azure.

DevRadio: How the Smart Shopping App Was Built
David Chou welcomes Brian Satorius to DevRadio for a discussion on how Brian, founder and creator of the Smart Shopping app, developed his app for Windows 8 and Windows Phone using Windows Azure as its back-end cloud service platform.

TechNet Radio: Creating and Delegating Private Clouds in Virtual Machine Manager
In this episode of the Building a Private Cloud with System Center series, Keith Mayer and Yung Chou show how to create and delegate private clouds in Microsoft System Center Virtual Machine Manager. Tune in for their demos and learn how to create private clouds and assign host groups, logical networks, storage, and load balancers.

TechNet Radio: Updating the Private Cloud Fabric
In part 9 of the Building a Private Cloud with System Center series, Keith Mayer and Yung Chou tackle the process of servicing and updating private cloud applications and the underlying fabric. Tune in for a step-by-step discussion on how to update service templates as well as how to apply and manage critical updates to applications.

May 29-June 21 in Fargo, North Dakota: Microsoft Dynamics AX Fast TrAX
In this course for consultants, we’ll help you prepare for Microsoft Dynamics AX certification through an intensive, 18-day training. The program is augmented with an end-to-end case study to provide additional hands-on experience.

Microsoft Dynamics AX 2012 Enterprise Academy—Level 300 Workshops
The Step 3: Level 300 Workshops consist of up to 5 days of in-person training and interactive sessions focusing on how to implement Microsoft Dynamics AX 2012 in order to address specific customer business needs.

May 20–24 in Chicago, Illinois: Microsoft Dynamics CRM Enterprise Academy
This five-day instructor-led training provides a 200-level functional CRM foundation and 300-level Advanced Development and Advanced Infrastructure content for Microsoft Dynamics CRM to help you address the needs of your enterprise customers.

May 28–June 28: Microsoft Dynamics AX 2012 Summer Institute
These workshops include on-demand, virtual, and in-person training that targets recent college hires. They are designed as a deep dive overview of Microsoft Dynamics AX 2012 and will help these new hires at your company develop their knowledge and skills. Session 1: May 28–June 28; Session 2: June 28–August 2.

On Demand: Closing Sales Webcast Series for Microsoft Dynamics Partners
Three sessions are available on demand, designed to help with closing sales in this final quarter of the Microsoft fiscal year. Session I: Prioritizing Opportunities; Session II: Reversing a No Decision; Session III: Getting to Yes!

Featured training – Collaboration and Content Management
Build technical and sales capability in collaboration and content management solutions by following our training recommendations for Microsoft SharePoint, Microsoft SQL Server, Microsoft Project, Microsoft Visio, and Microsoft Visual Studio.

Training for Business Decision Makers

• Build Your Business as a Microsoft Project and Microsoft SharePoint Partner
• Overview of Microsoft SharePoint Online
• Silver Collaboration and Content Competency Requirements
• Gold Collaboration and Content Competency Requirements
• Collaboration and Content Learning Path

Training for Sales and Marketing Roles

• Earn the Collaboration and Content Sales Specialist Accreditation
• Grow Your Business as a Microsoft Project and SharePoint Partner
• Demonstrating Microsoft Project
• Best Practices Selling Microsoft Project
• Successfully Delivering a Microsoft Project Proof of Concept
• More Collaboration and Content Training

Training for IT Professionals

• Microsoft Project 2013 Ignite
• Overview of Microsoft SharePoint Online
• Microsoft SharePoint Overview: Creating a New Way to Work Together
• Microsoft SQL Server 2012 DB: Installing, Upgrading, and Migrating
• MCSE: SharePoint Certification
• MCSM: SharePoint Certification
• More Collaboration and Content Training

Training for Developers

• Microsoft SharePoint Dev Center
• Microsoft SharePoint 2013 Training for Developers
• Microsoft Project 2013 Developer Resources
• Microsoft SQL Server Dev Center
• Get Started with Visual Studio
• Microsoft Visio 2013 Developer Resources

Training for Training Roles

• Become a Microsoft Certified Trainer
• Collaboration and Content Learning Path
• Grow Your Business as a Microsoft Project and SharePoint Partner
• Microsoft SharePoint Overview: Creating a New Way to Work Together
• Silver Collaboration and Content Competency Requirements
• Gold Collaboration and Content Competency Requirements

It’s that time of year – caps are tossed in the air, marking a future of promise, opportunity and – job hunting. That’s why yesterday, students from around the world joined a live Facebook chat for a chance to get career advice from Microsoft University Recruiter Kimberly Wagner and Wilson To, an Imagine Cup and MSP alumnus who now works for Caradigm, a Microsoft and GE Healthcare Company.

The chat, which was hosted by the Microsoft Student Experience team, fielded questions that ran the gamut, from resumes to internships to learning how to develop apps. There was something for just about everyone.

Whether you’re looking to kick start a career or advance an existing one, there are plenty of great tips and links in this event summary on the Microsoft Student blog.

Deborah Pisano
Microsoft News Center Staff

Today, Rep. Ted Deutch (D-Fla.) introduced the “End Anonymous Patents Act,” which would require disclosure of the real party in interest of a patent upon issuance or, in cases where patents are transferred, within a short time after acquisition.

The bill is a significant step forward in addressing one of the problems of the current U.S. patent system: recording ownership in the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office’s assignment database is at present voluntary. The result of this is that records of patent ownership are often inaccurate and incomplete.

“Some patent owners take advantage of this obscurity to try to hide what they own for tactical advantage in licensing negotiations or to avoid complying with patent licensing commitments,” writes Microsoft Deputy General Counsel Horacio Gutierrez in a blog post today over on Microsoft on the Issues.

To get the rest of this story, head on over to Microsoft on the Issues.

Jeff Meisner
Microsoft News Center Staff

This blog post marks the start of a new series on advanced features of Templates in Virtual Machine Manager. Most of the features I’ll be showing are lesser-known and scenario-specific, but I hope they will aid users in accomplishing tasks. In this first post, I’ll be discussing the use of Organization Units when deploying VMs to a domain.

OUs in VM Templates

A common best practice for simplification of VM deployments from VMM is to avoid the use of complicated GPOs. For an Active Directory environment that already has GPOs in place, it would be useful to have certain OU containers dedicated to VMs deployed by VMM. This way, the administrator can enforce the “no complicated GPOs” paradigm.

Within VMM, a VM can be configured to join a domain upon creation by using a VM template. In the OS portion of the VM Template, there is a section for domain configuration, as depicted on the right.

During deployment, the VM will join the specified domain using the credentials provided. Under the covers, VMM generates an Answer File that contains certain information and attaches it to the VM during completion of the Windows installation (since the disk image containing the OS should have had the Sysprep tool run).

If we need more advanced options like a specific OU, there are PowerShell cmdlets for performing these operations.

The cmdlet we’ll need is Set-SCVMTemplate. I’ll assume we already have a VM template we want to adjust called “Domain” as depicted in the figure:

Now, we’ll want an elevated console on which to run a few simple commands. First, we’ll import the module containing the necessary cmdlets:

Import-Module VirtualMachineManager;

Next, we’ll define the OU container which will contain the VM:

$ou = "OU=VMs,DC=contoso,DC=com";

Notice the formatting of the string. Although the string is not case-sensitive, ensure to use commas and not semi-colons to separate the fields. Next, we get the template object using the Get-SCVMTemplate cmdlet:

$template = Get-SCVMTemplate | where {$_.Name -eq "Domain"};

The string "Domain" is simply the name of the template. Now we set the OU:

Set-SCVMTemplate -VMTemplate $template -DomainJoinOrganizationalUnit $ou;

And that's it. Obviously, these commands could be combined rather than using the temporary variables but I’m aiming for readability.

UI Visibility

The problem now is the lack of visibility for this setting in the UI. To fix this, we’ll use custom properties. First, we’ll create a new Custom Property in VMM. First, we’ll bring up the properties of the VM template and choose to Manage Custom Properties.

In the next window, we see a drop-down selector:

The concept of managing custom properties can be a bit confusing. When managing these properties, we’re not changing our VM Template, we’re adjusting the global settings for custom properties. By selecting Virtual Machine Template as the object type, I’m adding a custom property that will be available to all VM Templates. Next, I’m going to add a property called OU. Now I choose to create a property and name it:
Now, I add this property to the VM Template object:

And we’ll see this property appear in the list:

We could type something in the box if we wanted, but we’ll do that later. Back to the main screen, we can now add this property to the view by right-clicking the columns:

Now, we can populate this field for all VM templates in PowerShell using the Set-SCCustomPropertyValue cmdlet:

Back in the UI, this value has now been populated:

To keep this info always in sync, you might consider adding this line of PowerShell to an scheduled task queue on the VMM server.

OUs in Service Templates

Now, if you’re using service templates, you might wonder how this can be applied to a tier and how to parameterize it. It’s important to realize that VM templates placed into service templates are copied by value and no reference is made to the original. So, if you set a domain OU in the VM template and add it to a service template, the value of the OU will be copied but changing it proves a little more difficult (changes in the original VM template will not propagate to the service).

It’s important to understand that a VM tier in a service template corresponds to a VM template, although this relationship is not exactly exposed to the UI. So, let’s say we have a service template with two tiers and both tiers have VMs that need to join a domain with a particular OU. It might look something like this:

I created an empty service template and added the VM template we created earlier twice. Because these VM tiers are linked to VM templates, viewing the Custom Properties section of the tier properties shows the OU we set earlier. This value is purely aesthetic; we can’t change the OU by adjusting this custom property.

If we added the earlier bit of PowerShell to the scheduled tasks, this custom property will be updated if we change the DomainJoinOrganizationUnit property for the VM template that’s linked by this tier. We’ll save this service template as “Demo” with a Release “V1” and we’ll adjust it in PowerShell:

$service_template = Get-SCServiceTemplate | where {$_.Name -eq "Demo" -and $_.Release –eq “V1”};

This service template will have a list of tiers and we’ll get the tier we want (although this could be done with a foreach clause):

$tier = $service_template.ComputerTierTemplates | where {$_.Name -like "*Tier 1"};

The VM template that is linked can now be retrieved:

$vm_template = $tier.VMTemplate;

Once you have the template object, the OU can be updated as before. You’ll have to rerun the script to propagate the custom property before you’ll see the change reflected in the UI. If you need even more flexibility (say, a service setting for the OU property), you’ll need to consider deploying service templates completely outside of the UI and setting this value at deployment time with a script as this property cannot be a service setting.

That’s all for now, stay tuned for upcoming posts in this series.