Recently,  I have been working with a customer who has a number of clusters in their VMM environment that appear with a Warning triangle next too the cluster icon in the console. The obvious question they initially put to me was "Why are my clusters over-committed?" to which I jokingly replied "Because VMM says so!".

Having finished rolling around laughing! I began to look into the calculations behind the feature. Trying to find good information on this feature, at the time, was extremely difficult and resulted in direct communications with the features Software Engineer.

In an attempt to publicize this feature further I would simply like to reiterate the information now available in a blog article by Hilton Lange: http://blogs.technet.com/b/scvmm/archive/2014/12/15/taking-a-closer-look-at-the-virtual-machine-manager-cluster-overcommit-algorithm.aspx

In Hilton's blog he talks about the 2 methods (Simple & Proof) and the 4 checks (Proof-simple, Slot-simple, Proof-full & Slot-full), VMM undertakes to attempt to prove that a cluster is not over-committed. If any 1 of the checks results in an "OK" (cluster not over-committed) VMM will mark the cluster as "OK".

So all of this information is great, but how do you know WHY or WHEN your cluster is likely to be Over-committed? The answer to both these questions would normally involve a lot of numbers and manual calculations. How every following on from a PowerShell script I discovered (http://www.miru.ch/unveiling-cluster-overcommit-in-scvmm-2012-hyper-v/) I have created a method of checking all clusters, within a single HostGroup, to confirm if they are or indeed when they are likely to become over-committed. The PowerShell script only performs the Proof-full check on HostsGroups with a Cluster Reserve set to 1. Using the output report you will have the data to manually check the remaining methods and indeed in some cases where the Cluster Reserve is set >1.

The output file details what would happen to the memory resources of each host if it were to fail. The output also details the remaining cluster capacity in the event of each host failure. When attempting to pin-point a time when a cluster may become over-committed, by simply increasing either the memory allocated or demand, on a VM, the increased value will be deducted from each of the "Remaining cluster capacity (GB)" calculated for each of the host failure scenario.

It is my intention to develop this and further PowerShell scripts, to aid everyone to check and understand the Cluster Reserve feature as well as the people that wrote it!

If you have previous experience with this setting and have developed your own method of calculating your Cluster Reserve, please share them...this is the only way everyone (who needs to) will learn.

(The attached script is intended to be a guide and a method of exposing the values used to calculate the Cluster Reserve result)

Olá Comunidade TechNet Wiki! Hoje é quarta-feira, dia de Wiki Life!

Hoje o tema é:

Para quem não conhece, os fóruns da Microsoft são os canais para apoiar a comunidade técnica, usuários e clientes nas dúvidas pertinentes aos produtos e soluções Microsoft. Os fóruns da Microsoft são divididos em:

Fórum MSDN

Fórum dedicado a dúvidas e incidentes relacionados as tecnologias de desenvolvimento de aplicativos em linguagens .NET, C++, C#, entre outras linguagens e suas respectivas ferramentas e plataformas de trabalho, como o Visual Studio, Team Foundation Server, Visual Studio Test Professional, bem como dúvidas relacionadas a DevOps, ALM, Processos de Desenvolvimento, Templates, e outros assuntos. 

Fórum TechNet

Fórum dedicado a dúvidas e incidentes relacionados as tecnologias de Operações da Microsoft, como o Windows Server, System Center, Office 365, Exchange Server, SQL Server, Lync Server, Sharepoint Server, entre outras tecnologias, seu funcionamento, integrações entre as tecnologias, processos, dicas e muito mais.

Microsoft Community

Fórum dedicado ao consumidor final, com dúvidas em relacionadas a OneDrive, Xbox, Windows 8, Windows RT, Dispositivos (Surface, Windows Phone), Outlook, Worms e Vírus e outros assuntos pertinentes.

Esse canais são excelentes, pois atende a todos os níveis e tecnologias, sendo gerenciados por Moderadores que são Funcionários da Microsoft, além da Comunidade Técnica altamente qualificada e certificada como MCT, MCP, MVP, escolhidos para fazer parte das moderações e apoio de respostas, inclusive o time de Wiki Ninjas do TechNet! 

Além disso, os Fóruns são abertos a todos para contribuírem respondendo a perguntas, marcando threads como possíveis respostas, e uma das práticas mais importantes, transformando essas respostas em Artigos do TechNet Wiki!!!

É muito comum diversas respostas, dicas, passo a passo que contribuíram nos Fóruns da Microsoft, virarem artigos para posteriores consultas no Portal do TechNet Wiki.

Inclusive, uma das práticas mais comuns é que uma resposta correta do Fórum torna-se um Artigo do Portal do TechNet Wiki, e amplamente usado para responder a outras perguntas nos Fóruns.

Eu particularmente me utilizo muito dos fóruns técnicos da Microsoft e não me lembro qual foi a última vez que solicitei um Suporte Premier da Microsoft, graças aos Fóruns, e você? ;)

Participe você também, ajudando nos Fóruns da Microsoft, respondendo a perguntas de tecnologias que você domina, transforme uma resposta ou dica em um Artigo e poste no Portal do TechNet Wiki para ajudar outros membros da comunidade!

Até a próxima!

Alan Carlos
TechNet Wiki Ninja

Pour faire reparaitre une partition disparue, nous avons besoin de peu de chose pour faire cette recuperation:

• Le NTFS Boot Sector de backup
• Savoir retrouver la MFT pour être certain de récupérer la bonne partition

Nous allons voir comment récupérer une partition qui a disparu suite à une opération manuelle malencontreuse.

Windows étant un petit paresseux, nous savons que quand on supprime une partition, seule l’entrée dans la table de partition est supprimée.

Vérification: 

Dans les architectures récentes, les partitions NTFS commencent le plus souvent au secteur 2048 (les anciennes démarraient au secteur 63).

Si ce n’est pas le cas, il faut chercher sur le disque. Certains éditeurs hexa permettent de le faire, dskprobe le permet.

Dans notre cas, le secteur 2048 est bien un secteur d’amorçage NTFS :

Nous pouvons identifier facilement :

• Le OEM ID String "NTFS"
• Bytes par secteurs : 512
• Secteurs par cluster : 8
• Partition Size en secteurs : FF E7 DF 0F 00 00 00 00 --> FDFE7FF = 266332159 secteurs (à peu près 127 GB : 266332159*512/1024/1024/1024)

Donc le NTFS Boot Sector de backup devrait se trouver au secteur 266334207 ( = 2048 + 266332159 )

Allons voir :

Vérifions que nous retrouvons bien la MFT

• Clusters to MFT : 00 00 0C 00 00 00 00 00 = 0xC0000 = 786432 clusters = 6291456 secteurs. En ajoutant 2048 ça fait:  6293504
• Clusters to MFTMirr : 02 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 = 0x2 = 2 clusters = 16 secteurs. En ajoutant 2048 ça fait:  2064

Le secteur 6293504 ressemble bien au premier metafichier de la MFT

Le metafichier $Volume nous fournit bien le bon nom de volume (à vérifier avec l’administrateur)

Donc en résumer, même si la partition a été supprimée, les données sont toujours présentes :

• La partition est encadrée par les NTFS Boot Sector de début et de fin
• Le NTFS Boot Sector pointe vers une MFT qui semble valide

Ce qui reste à faire est donc la chose suivante :

1. Enregistrer le contenu du secteur 2048 avec l’outil de votre choix (dskprobe permet de le faire)
2. Recréer une nouvelle partition dans le gestionnaire de disque ou diskpart : Ne pas la formater.

1. Si on formate la partition, on réécrit la MFT et toute les références au contenu de la partition. Gardons en tête que Windows est un petit paresseux : La MFT sera refaite, mais les données sur le disque seront toujours présentes jusqu’à ce qu’elles soient écrasées. Certains outils pourront encore vous aider mais il faudra y mettre le prix.
2. En créant cette nouvelle partition
   1. Une nouvelle entrée est créée dans la table de partition
   2. Le secteur 2048 a été vidé

• La dernière opération consiste en réécrire le secteur sauvegardé sur le 2048 et replacer le FileSystem à l’offset 01C2 : écrire 07

Un rescan devrait faire reparaitre le disque.

Ces étapes en image :

1. Sauvegarde du contenu du secteur 2048 avec dskprobe2.exe

2. Création de la partition sans la formater

Suivant … Suivant … Jusqu’à l’option de formatage : Choisir l’option "Do not format this volume"

Nous obtenons une partition RAW :

3. Ecraser le NTFS Boot sector par celui sauvegarder

Dans DskProbe se placer sur le secteur 2048 du disque, et ouvrir le fichier que nous venons de sauvegarder

Ecrire le fichier sur le secteur 2048

Vérifier qu’on écrit bien 1 secteur sur le secteur 2048 et cliquer sur "Write"

Retourner au secteur 0 et remplacer le "06" à l’offset 1C2 par "07" : bien presser la touche 0 et la touche 7.

Puis faire un Write

Un Rescan Disk dans le Disk Manager fait reparaitre le disque

Serge Gourraud
55 AA

This is part 2 of our series about security and compliance in Office 365. You can read part 1 here.

Data Loss Prevention in Exchange, Outlook, and OWA

In my introductory post for this series about security and compliance in Office 365, I shared resources to help you have the Microsoft cloud security conversation with your customers. I also introduced some protection controls and tools available in the service that keep customer data safe. In this post, I will take a closer look at the Data Loss Prevention (DLP) capabilities in Office 365, specifically in Exchange, Outlook, and OWA.

DLP in Office 365 helps identify, protect, and monitor sensitive information through deep content analysis. Each organization defines what it considers sensitive. A retailer, for example, wants to treat credit card information as sensitive, a healthcare organization must protect personally identifiable information, and a legal organization might be concerned with intellectual property and patents. Office 365 DLP controls help to configure sensitive information to prevent security breaches and accidental leakage. The controls are pivoted on the end user experience and engineered to educate employees to "do the right thing" to ensure compliance with corporate policies.

To enforce corporate policies in Office 365, you will need to create DLP policies. DLP policies are packages that contain sets of conditions, actions, and exceptions created in the Exchange Administration Center (EAC), that are activated to filter email messages and attachments. DLP policy conditions are built on transport rules, or the Exchange Transport Rule Engine (ETR). DLP policies can use the full power of existing transport rules, with over 50 rule predicates supported. Transport rule conditions can be very simple, such as detecting if the recipient is outside the organization or inside the organization. A relatively new feature of transport rules is the ability to classify sensitive information.

When creating a policy,you can look for what are known as sensitive information types, such as a credit card number, passport ID number, or bank account number. This DLP feature performs deep content analysis with its classification engine through keyword matches, dictionary matches, regular expression evaluation, and other content examination to detect content that violates organizational DLP policies. The analysis is sophisticated—it can detect contextual evidence, and analyze checksums for credit cards, for example, to decrease false positives. You can find a sensitive information types inventory here.

Once you have defined your rule, you decide the appropriate action to take based on the organization’s compliance policy or legal requirements. The DLP feature set provides the flexibility for the enforcement of policy based upon the risk assessment level.

There are a wide variety of actions to take. Earlier, I mentioned user education, and you see that realized with policy notifications inside of email called Policy Tips. Similar to Mail Tips, like an Out of Office notification, Policy Tips provides the sender real-time information about possible policy violations when creating a message, before it is sent. Below is an example of an email in OWA that contains a Policy Tip and Mail Tips.

Another action you can take is to encrypt the message. Moreover, you can redirect the message based on the risk assessment level for approval, or simply block the message. It is also possible to configure exceptions where the sender can override the Policy Tip warning, but it will trigger an auditable action that’s discoverable in an incident report sent to a designated mailbox.

Document Fingerprinting

Now that you have a basic knowledge of transport rules and sensitive information types, it's easier to understand the recent Office 365 DLP capability called Document Fingerprinting. Document Fingerprinting adds to the classification engine by being able to identify forms used in an organization that typically contain sensitive information.

For example, a tax firm may want to fingerprint tax return forms such as a 1040 received by email from a client, as it would contain social security numbers and other personally identifiable, sensitive information. A law firm may want to fingerprint legal forms such as patents. The way it works is that it uses a containment algorithm where it inspects the attachments and finds anything that is derived from the form fingerprint. 

Setting up document fingerprinting is pretty straightforward:

• Upload a blank version of the form you would like to identify to create the document fingerprint
• Create a custom data classification out of it and use it in the DLP policy or transport rules to detect it in your operations and take appropriate actions
• Supported form types are same file types supported for transport rule content inspection (the list is published here)

The “Protect form data with document fingerprinting” article on TechNet includes a video demo that explains the steps for creating a document fingerprint.

DLP Reporting and Auditing

In the Office 365 Admin Center reporting section, you will find a comprehensive view of DLP policy application. With the out-of-the-box reports, you can drill into specific departures from policy to gain business insights. Detailed reporting data can be requested up to 90 days and you can export reports to Excel workbook and email incident reports.

Here is an example of the reporting for DLP policy matches by severity for email:

Partner opportunity

Any customer that needs to enforce organizational security policies or that has a legal department is a good prospect for you to deliver this service. The tools are there for you in the service to help enforce the policies, but defining what is sensitive and the policies that provide protection is unique by industry and organization. You can consult with your customer and configure the service so that the policies are being enforced appropriately. Custom DLP policies can be created, allowing you to establish conditions, rules, classifications, and actions that meet the specific needs of your customer, and which may not be covered in a pre-existing DLP templates.

• Other services you can provide around this include integrating incident reports with custom workflows or ticketing systems when there is a violation, or an approval or audit is required.
• Partners can create custom reporting solutions or provide remote PowerShell management. DLP policies can be managed by using the Exchange Management Shell cmdlets. More information about policy and compliance cmdlets.
• I will cover eDiscovery in my next post, but keep in mind that eDiscovery is only as good as the customer’s index, so there may be opportunities to ensure that it is tuned and all of the appropriate content sources are in scope.
• Testing and validation will be important in ensuring compliance and minimizing false positives. The tools provide a way for you to create a DLP policy, but choose to not activate it. This allows you to test your policies without affecting mail flow.

In my next post, I will explore the new DLP capabilities in SharePoint and the Office 365 eDiscovery Center, and wrap up the series with a screencast demo to show you show you the environments and scripts to help you sell these capabilities and your offerings. 

Register to join me on the January 8 community call for a discussion about the topics of security and compliance in Office 365.

• Watch previous US Office 365 Partner Community call presentations on demand
• Read the US Office 365 Partner Community blog posts
• Join the Office 365 Partners Group on Yammer
• Sign up for the US Office 365 Partner newsletter

I am going to finally get some new articles up here with a majority of them around being a Noob (that's "newbie") with some of our products. I'll cover how to get going on products, or help avoid common mistakes that can snowball into a failed configuration.  Additionally, I'll address specific areas of expertise within our products.

I'm looking forward to writing them, so I hope you look forward to reading them.

One of the biggest improvements in Outlook for Mac for Office 365 compared to Outlook for Mac 2011 is that the database has been completely replaced by SQLite.  If you’ve used Outlook for Mac 2011 previously, you may have ran into issues with database corruption and are familiar with having to manually rebuild the database.

With Outlook for Mac for Office 365, you will no longer need to manually perform database rebuilds.  This is due to several reasons:

1. The reliability and stability of the new database have been greatly improved, so the likelihood of database issues occurring is lower overall.
2. Outlook will perform a silent recovery in the background for small database issues, no longer requiring database rebuilds.
3. For larger database issues where a silent recovery is not possible and a database rebuild is necessary, Outlook will prompt the user to repair the database to fix the problem. 

Because of these changes, the ability to manually start a database rebuild is not available in Outlook for Mac for Office 365.  This will help reduce time spent on rebuilding the database for issues that truly are not caused by database problems, thus a database rebuild is not necessary.

 
The Rebuild button found at the lower right of the Outlook for Mac 2011 Database Utility window is no longer available on the Outlook for Mac for Office 365 Profile Manager window.

For small database issues, such as missing or corrupt data, Outlook performs a silent recovery in the background by syncing the necessary data from the server or by reconstructing the corrupt file from data in the index.  When this occurs, the user is not notified and likely won’t be aware this is occurring in the background at all.

For larger database issues, Outlook will notify the user with steps on how to recover the database.  In this scenario Outlook will alert the user, force Outlook to restart, rebuild the database, and load the rebuilt database. 

The user will receive this prompt when an issue occurs that requires database repair.

Den andre onsdagen i hver måned fra kl 09:00 – 10:00 arrangerer vi Microsoft Partner Network Brief ved hjelp av Microsoft Lync Online Meeting.

Vi tar opp aktuelle temaer for våre norske partnere, både når det gjelder produkter, løsninger, kampanjer og medlemsskapet i Microsoft Partner Network.
Det vil naturligvis også være anledning til å stille spørsmål.

Neste MPN Brief: 14. januar fra kl. 09:00-10:00

Agenda for MPN brief:

Breakthrough data platform performance with SQL Server 2014 - Trond Amundsen

Solution specialist Trond Amundsen will familiarize you with SQL Server 2014, running through the three key areas Microsoft continue to invest in: mission critical performance; faster insights from any data; and an easy on-ramp to cloud.

Velkommen!

 Legg til i kalenderen

Hi, just a quick post to inform that I am now blogging in a different place: http://francescodiaz.azurewebsites.net

Thanks,

Francesco

@francedit

Introducing Mystery Skype, an educational game invented by teachers. It's played by two classrooms using Skype. The aim of the game is to guess the location of the other classroom by asking each other questions. Mystery Skype is a fun way to get students of all ages learning about different cultures and being engaged in subjects like geography, history and languages. It's super easy to register, just go here to find out more and get talking with classrooms all over the world!

(Please visit the site to view this video)

And now, it's becoming possible to speak with classes in different languages with Skype Translator! Skype Translator was recently previewed to two school classes - one in Washington, USA and one in Mexico City. Watch the video below to see how, with the help of Skype Translator, students were able to overcome the language barrier which previously would have stopped them communicating. This innovation will bring people together like never before, and will open up endless possibilities for people around the world to connect, communicate and collaborate.

The Skype Translator preview program is kicking-off with two spoken languages, Spanish and English, and 40+ instant messaging languages will be available to Skype customers who have signed-up via the Skype Translator sign-up page. Skype Translator relies on machine learning, which means that the more the technology is used, the smarter it gets. As more people use the Skype Translator preview, the quality will continually improve. Skype also needs your help to fast-track new language releases. So make sure you sign up, let your language preferences be known and get involved!

(Please visit the site to view this video)

Teachers in New Zealand and overseas are already using Skype in the Classroom to facilitate collaboration and serve as a resource for innovative lesson ideas. Talk with other classes no matter where they are, take your class on a virtual field trip or find guest speakers and invite them into your classroom. These are just a couple of ideas, the opportunities are endless! Click hereto join Skype and take your classroom experience to the next level!

Hello folks!

Hope everyone had a great holiday! Its been a while since I last blogged and so I thought I’d kick start the good habit again in the new year with an interesting blog series.

In this series, I am going to talk about a certain set of extensibilities we enabled for Azure pack to support different reseller-type functionalities. You can find an overall description of these features and their application in my TechEd Europe Session on Channel9 HERE. Simply put, these extensibilities enable a hosting company to support different DNS names for their tenant portal for each of their customers or multiple tenant portals altogether and be able to theme each one differently.

Problem statement

Contoso Hosting is a hosting company that has stood up a private cloud stack with Azure Pack. Contoso has two huge customers called Customer1 and Customer2 (innovative names… I know! but let’s call them these for simplicity ). Customer1 is a hosting company themselves who would like to offer the services provided by Contoso, to their own customers. Customer2 is an enterprise customer who would like to provide Contoso's services to their different departments.

Both of these customers would like Contoso to provide them their own personalized portals due to their business requirements. Customer1 would like to get the portal located at https://www.customer1.com and Customer2 at https://www.europe.customer2.com and would like the portals to be styled with their own respective themes.

Solution

Given the requirements of its customers, Contoso has two ways it can cater to them without having to stand up separate WAP instances for each of them. The WAP stack provides the flexibility for you to do one of two things:

1. Add multiple DNS names to a single Tenant Portal and configure the portal to display a different theme based on the domain name.
   
2. Have multiple Tenant portal websites talking to the same Service Management API layer which can be themed differently and given different domain names.
   

Each of these approaches has its own set of merits which I will discuss in this series and possibly give you an idea of which method would be suitable under what circumstances and walk you through setting each of these up.

If you have a similar scenario in mind aligning with this that you’d like me to consider while writing the remaining blogs, please let me know in the comments below!

[Coming Soon] Part 2: Setting up multiple domain names and themes on a single tenant portal

[Coming Soon] Part 3: Setting up multiple WAP tenant portals to talk to a single Service management API

[Coming Soon] Part 4: Setting these up to talk to different Identity Providers through AD FS.

Important things to Note:

1. These extensibilities will not provide the ability to create plans targeted to a single customer. All public plans will be visible to all customers regardless of the extensibility used
2. Once these extensibilities are in place, the Get/Set-MgmtSvcRelyingPartySettings Get/Set-MgmtSvcIdentityProviderSettings Powershell cmdlets can no longer be used as this extensibility will not use the keys modified by these cmdlets. On future modifications to the infrastructure, you will have to modify the values through standalone scripts or manually.

SCCM 2012 R2 offre de nombreux avantages dont celui de mettre à disposition des utilisateurs un portail applicatif.

Ce dernier s'appuie sur deux rôles dans SCCM :

• Application Catalog website point
• Application Catalog web service point

Si un des prérequis n'est pas correctement installée, l'installation va échouer avec l'impossibilité d'accéder à la lise des applications.

On peut voir dans l'imprime écran ci-dessous que l'utilisateur accède bien au portail néanmoins la liste des applications n'est pas présente.

En regardant les logs sur le serveur SCCM on peut voir que l'installation d'un des rôles est en erreur.

Après vérification, il s'avère que certain composants au niveau de l'ASP.NET n'était pas correctement coché dans la console Gestionnaire de serveur.

Pour solutionner ce problème, il est nécessaire donc de s'assurer dans un premier temps que l'ensemble des prérequis sont correctement installés :

Fonctionnalités :

.NET Framework 3.5

• ◦HTTP Activation et les options sélectionnées automatiquement

.NET Framework 4.5

• ASP.NET 4.5

Configuration IIS

Common HTTP Features:

• Default Document
• IIS 6 Management Compatibility:
• IIS 6 Metabase Compatibility

Application Development:

• ASP.NET 3.5 (and automatically selected options)
• .NET Extensibility 3.5

Par la suite réinstaller les deux services de rôles (Application Catalog website point et Application Catalog web service point).

Lien vers Wiki : http://social.technet.microsoft.com/wiki/contents/articles/29315.sccm-2012-r2-erreur-lors-de-l-acces-au-portail-applicatif.aspx

YouthSpark Profiles highlight young people in Asia Pacific who are dedicated to changing the world through technology, and inspiring others along the way.

Name: Patraporn Leelaprachakul
Country: Thailand
Occupation: Information and Communication Engineering Student of Chulalongkorn University



Ever since the age of 14, Patraporn Leelaprachakul has been interested in computer programming. This passion was further fuelled by her participation in Microsoft’s Imagine Cup in 2012. She was later selected to become a Microsoft Student Partner and also participated in the Microsoft Academy for College Hires (MACH) programme, designed to help promising students accelerate their careers and become future leaders in the technology industry.

Through these engagement and learning experiences, Patraporn realised the many positive impacts that technology can provide people. This encouraged her to further contribute to society through her knowledge and passion of programming. One such example was her participation in developing an Augmented Reality (AR) application for wheelchair users called Wheel-Go-Round, which won a gold medal in the Mekong Business Challenge 2013/14.

What made you join YouthSpark?
I have always loved the idea of contributing to society, and I always do my best to work towards that goal. YouthSpark was an opportunity that allowed me to put my words into action by putting my skills and experience to use in helping others.

What was your YouthSpark project about and what was your role in it?
My YouthSpark project was called Wheel-Go-Round, and I was a developer on the team that made it. It guides wheelchair users to find places that are wheelchair-friendly and easily accessible. 

What was the most challenging problem for the project and how did you tackle it?
One of our concerns when developing Wheel-Go-Round was whether our users would be able to read complex maps. After all, it takes a while to orient yourself to even the most basic of maps, so our focus shifted to making it more convenient for our users. In developing the navigation app, we made use of augmented reality (AR) to provide wheelchair users with updated information on specific places or facilities that are easily accessible and wheelchair-friendly. The user simply has to select their destination and once activated, the app will suggest the most accessible path available. It’s simple and easy to use.

Can you tell us about your experience learning to code?
Since my father had always been interested in information technology, I was exposed to IT at a very young age. I started programming at the age of 14 with Q Basic at my school.

I also became proficient at programming languages such as HTML and PHP by the time I was 16. During that period, I had begun thinking about studying computer programming at university. So, for a start, I joined the computer club at my school to polish my skills further.

Subsequently, when I was a freshman in 2012, I took part in my first Microsoft Imagine Cup. However, at the time, I didn’t know anything about C# programming. In order to complete the project, I did a lot of self-studying and eventually finished the assignment properly.

That whole experience left quite an impression on me, and until now, I try to take part in any programme that Microsoft is hosting, including getting involved with the Microsoft Student Partner and Intern to MACH programmes.

What are your future plans after university?
Ever since I’ve joined the MACH programme, I was really impressed by what the Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) industry has to offer in terms of career opportunities. If given a chance, I would love to have the opportunity to work for Microsoft, for it has helped me become who I am today.

Eventually, I aim to pursue a master’s degree in the STEM field, be it software engineering or a related discipline. By improving my skills in programming, I hope to be able to manage an entire software project one day.

Patraporn Leelaprachakul (first from the right) at the launch of Wheel-Go-Round.

Are there any tips you would like to give people who are interested in programming?
There is no fixed method to start learning, so I recommend that they always go wherever their inspiration leads them. Most importantly, they should always continue to challenge themselves—to go on improving even after they have achieved their goals.

I aspire to ... use my knowledge, experience and passion to keep contributing to society.

Jan.

08

Script Download:  
The script is available for download from https://gallery.technet.microsoft.com//How-to-remove-a-user-from-5f1ece2a.  You can also use  Microsoft Script Browser for Windows PowerShell ISE to download the sample with one button click from within your scripting environment. 

This script sample is used to remove the specific mailbox from the distribution group membership.

You can find more All-In-One Script Framework script samples at http://aka.ms/onescriptingallery

For those of you looking to gain more insight into how to combine Microsoft's Cloud offerings with your existing solutions, and the different ways this impacts your business, I strongly recommend you jump into the ring with the Cloud Champions program.

With the increasing growth of cloud services in Australia it’s critical you are building a plan to take advantage of this opportunity now.

With a number of recent local announcements from Microsoft including the availability of Microsoft Azure in Australia, plus this week’s announcement of availability of Office 365 and Dynamics CRM Online from local datacentres by end of March 2015; plus the impending end of support for Windows Server 2003 in July 2015 the time is now to start, if not already taking advantage of the Partner opportunity that Microsoft Online Services offer.

Evolving your business requires changes but the rewards can be significant.  IDC research shows that cloud-oriented Partners have 1.5 times higher gross profit and are growing their recurring revenue streams 1.6 times faster than non-cloud-oriented partners. 

This shift involves changes across your business - thinking differently about the way you sell, market and importantly how you package offerings for your customers to create new recurring revenue streams for your business. 

With the number of options in the way you and your customers can consume Microsoft cloud services, the opportunities for delivering innovative solutions and to be the trusted advisor to your customers at the same time growing your business is limitless.   

Following Cloud Champions Round 1 which ran through 12 rounds of interactive online training delivered by subject matter experts and supported with rich content, enabling you to evolve your business to grow with Microsoft cloud services, we are excited to announce that we are launching Cloud Champions Round 2 in January.  Round 2 will deliver fortnightly webinars supported by content suited to roles across your business including business management, sales and marketing to help you plan and execute changes to grow your profitability with cloud services. 

Experts from both inside and outside Microsoft will share their knowledge and experience with you, spanning critical business areas such as:

• The cloud opportunity – where is it and what can Microsoft offer to help you go after the opportunity.
• Hear from a Partner who has made the transition to cloud services – their journey and learnings.
• Growing your profitability with cloud services – the change in revenue streams and what to expect in terms of profitability.
• Leading the change in your business - balancing your existing business whilst growing a cloud practice.
• Selling Microsoft cloud services – positioning cloud cervices to SMBs, the various channel models and shifting to an “ARPU” mindset to maximise your revenue.
• Evolving your marketing strategy to attract self-educated prospects and increase your pipeline.
• Enabling you to compete effectively.

Keep an eye out for your invitation in the coming week.

As many look at diversifying their offerings to their customers, there are multiple areas that need to be investigated to help the change in direction. While much of this content is outside of the scope of what we would deliver at OEM focused events, we still think it's essential that you gain an understanding of what else is happening in the marketplace.

This information is from http://cloudchamp.microsoft.com.au/cloudchampcalendar.html - please check there for any updates and registration is here.

Webinar 1, 27 January: What is the opportunity with the Cloud and Partnering with Microsoft?

Webinar 2, 3 February: Building a profitable business with the Cloud

Webinar 3, 17 February: Selling Office 365

Webinar 4, 3 March: Selling Microsoft Azure

Webinar 5, 17 March: The Cross Sell and Up Sell Opportunity

Webinar 6, 6 April: Evolving Your Marketing Strategy

Storage Service 於 2008 年首次推出，自此以後我們推出了 7 個更新版本，每一版都會對協定進行精煉並添加新功能。我們宣佈，即將刪除一些早期版本的 REST API 。本文將會介紹確保應用程式在刪除這些版本之後繼續良好運行需要瞭解的所有注意事項。

背景：Storage Service 版本控制

什麼是版本控制

Azure Storage 通過 REST API 進行訪問 。這些 API 於 2008 年首次問世。在不斷增添和調整內容改進服務的同時，我們還通過版本控制來避免破壞現有的應用程式。每當做出的調整可能會破壞現有應用程式時，我們都會推出新版本，並要求應用程式更新。現有的應用程式不會受到新版本的影響。存取儲存體通常通過以下方式之一指定要使用的版本：

1)     api-version 查詢參數：只要未指定 sv 和 x-ms-version ，或者即便指定但使用 2014 版或更高版本，即可為各項存取儲存體指定此參數。此 api-version 參數將指示使用的服務版本。

2)     x-ms-version request header ：需要對通過共用的金鑰身份驗證進行的調用使用。 x-ms-version header 用於指定版本，以便通知該服務如何對請求做出解釋，以及如何使用該版本的 REST API 對用戶端做出回應。

3)     SAS version header ：在 2012 版本和 2013 版本中，共享存取簽章簽名 ( SAS ) 權杖的 “ sv ” 參數中指定的版本將用於指定協定版本。在 2014 版本中，若未指定 api-version 查詢參數，“ sv ”  參數將僅指定協定版本。

4)     DefaultServiceVersion ：使用者可使用 Blob 服務的 SetServiceProperties 進行設定，以便設定未指定版本的情況下將要對請求使用的 API 版本（也就是公共 Blob 請求）。

5)     默認設定 ：如果提出公共 Blob 請求，但尚未設定 DefaultServiceVersion ，將會使用服務預設設定。這是我們的初始 2008 版本，除非已經設定 SetContainerACL ，否則在這種情況下使用 2009 版本（無論對 SetContainerACL 使用哪個版本均是如此）。 

用戶端函式庫和工具

我們的很多使用者使用微軟提供的 Storage 用戶端庫開發其應用程式。其中每個用戶端庫基本上都綁定到特定版本的 REST API 。這項規則也適用於 PowerShell cmdlets 和 AzCopy 。儲存體模擬器支援發佈對應版本的儲存體模擬器時發佈的各種版本的 REST API 。

發生了哪些變化？

我們的版本控制方法未做改變－－每當做出的調整可能會破壞現有應用程式時，都將繼續推出新版 REST API 。但現在，我們即將刪除 Storage Service 誕生早期發佈的一些初期服務版本。

刪除版本詳細資訊

將會刪除哪些版本？

我們將於 2015 年 8 月 1 日前刪除版本2012-02-12之前的全部版本。其中包括以下版本：

• 2008（在 GA 之前發佈）
• 版本 2009-04-14（在 GA 之前發佈）
• 版本 2009-07-17（在 GA 之前發佈）
• 版本2009-09-19（在 GA 之前發佈）
• 版本2011-08-18

以下版本不受影響並將繼續提供全面支持：

• 版本 2012-02-12
• 版本 2013-08-15
• 版本 2014-02-14

何時刪除這些版本？

我們將於 2015 年 8 月 1 日前刪除這 5 個受影響的版本。

刪除這些版本後將會產生怎樣的後果？

刪除生效後將會發生以下變化。

明確版本控制請求

使用 x-ms-version request header（設定為其中一個已刪除版本）進行明確版本控制的請求將發生失敗，並會收到 HTTP 400（ Bad Request ）狀態碼，與通過 invalid version header 提出的所有請求類似。

不含 “ sv ”參數的 SAS 請求

在 2012-02-12 版本之前，SAS 請求不會在 SAS 標記的 “ sv ” 參數中指定版本。這些請求的 SAS 權杖參數均使用 2009-07-17 REST 版本的規則進行解讀。刪除 2012-02-12 之前的版本後，這些請求將發生失敗，並會收到 HTTP 400（ Bad Request ）狀態碼（與是否指定 x-ms-version 作為受支持版本無關）。為使 SAS 請求持續正常運轉，必須指定“ sv ” 參數。建議至少使用 2014-02-14 版本。

預設服務版本與不帶明確版本的匿名請求

如果已經使用設定 Blob 服務屬性 ( REST API )將預設要求版本設定為版本 2012-02-12 或更高版本，將使用版本集。如果未設定預設要求版本，則其假設請求版本不可知，未來我們將開始回復版本 2014-02-14 。請注意，我們不保證未經版本控制的請求開始獲取新服務版本時是否會造成重大變化，因此提供版本始終是最好的選擇。

如果設定的預設服務版本現已刪除，該請求將被視為明確版本控制，請求將發生失敗並返回 “ 400（Bad Request）” 狀態碼。如果設定的預設服務版本仍受支援，則將繼續使用該版本。

SharedKey/SharedKeyLite 請求（不帶明確版本）

對於使用帳戶共用金鑰簽署的請求，如果未使用 x-ms-version request header 或 api-version 查詢參數（ 2014-02-14 及以上版本支持前述參數）指定任何明確版本，請求將發生失敗並返回 “ 400（ Bad Request ）” 狀態碼。

注意：最好確保向儲存要求發送的所有請求均經過明確的版本控制。自 2014-02-14 版本開始，使用 api-version 查詢字串參數對請求進行明確的版本控制，這樣即便無法指定客製化的用戶端，也可通過在查詢字串中包含此參數來指定版本。

最低支援版本 / 函式庫 / SDK

用戶應盡可能升級到最新版本。提供下表以便用戶快速確定是否使用了面向將要刪除的版本的任何元件。

該怎樣做？

為確保您的應用程式在刪除之後繼續正常工作，您應當執行以下操作。

檢查您的應用程式確定使用哪些版本

首先，確定您的應用程式目前使用哪些 REST 版本。如果您的應用程式在控制範圍內，並且確信自身瞭解調用 Azure Storage 的所有元件，那麼您可以對照上方的清單檢查所使用的元件或者檢查您的代碼（如果自行編寫代碼調用儲存）來進行驗證。

為檢查已經部署了哪些版本的元件，可以啟用日誌記錄，將記錄對儲存帳戶提出的請求。日誌包括使用的請求版本，可用於確定將要提出的請求是否包含使用計畫刪除的版本。以下是一個示例日誌條目，並且突出顯示使用的版本–在這種情況下，該請求為匿名 GetBlob 請求（隱式使用 2009-09-19 版本）：

1.0;2011-08-09T18:52:40.9241789Z;GetBlob;AnonymousSuccess;200;18;10;anonymous;;myaccount;blob;”https:// myaccount.blob.core.windows.net/thumbnails/lake.jpg?timeout=30000″;”/myaccount/thumbnails/lake.jpg”;a84aa705-8a85-48c5-b064-b43bd22979c3;0;123.100.2.10;2009-09-19;252;0;265;100;0;;;”0x8CE1B6EA95033D5″;Friday, 09-Aug-11 18:52:40 GMT;;;;”8/9/2011 6:52:40 PM ba98eb12-700b-4d53-9230-33a3330571fc”

需要做出的調整

如果發現任何日誌條目顯示將要刪除的版本，將需要確定是哪個元件，驗證其是否繼續正常運行（由於隱式版本只會不斷增加，未經版本控制的請求可能繼續正常運行－－參見前文），或者採取適當的步驟更改將要使用的版本。通常情況下，將會使用以下兩個步驟之一：

1)      更改請求中指定的版本，通常通過遷移到更高版本的函式庫 /工具來實現。如果可能，請遷移到最新版本以便獲取最新改進和修復。

2)      將預設服務版本設定為目前支援的版本之一，以便先驗證行為再刪除。這種做法僅適用於不含明確版本的匿名請求。

在將應用程式遷移到更新版本時，應查看上方連結的各服務版本的更改清單並進行全面測試，從而確保您的應用程式在更新後仍能正常運行。請注意，包含的服務版本更新包括語法中斷點（請求將收到回應，表明操作失敗或構成方式截然不同）和語義中斷點（請求將收到類似的回應，表明存在一定的差別）。

移轉後驗證的後續操作

完成移轉後驗證後，應驗證確認日誌中沒有任何早期版本。這是確信您的應用程式未使用任何將要刪除的版本的最可靠方式。請務必檢查足夠長時間的日誌，確保沒有任何運行中的任務 / 工作負載使用舊版本（例如，每日運行一次的計畫任務）。

小結

建議使用者立即開始進行應用程式升級，從而避免在 2015 年 8 月 1 日刪除早期服務版本時受到影響。

原文翻譯自 Microsoft Azure Storage Service Version Removal

Summary: Microsoft Scripting Guy Ed Wilson talks about using Windows PowerShell Desired State Configuration to create a system restore point.

Microsoft Scripting Guy, Ed Wilson, is here. It is cold outside again. I nearly froze this morning when I headed to the gym for an easy walk on the treadmill. But it is a good way to wake up early in the morning. The good thing is the gym is open 24 hours a day, so it makes an early morning workout pretty easy. The bad thing about early morning workouts is, well, they happen early in the morning.

One thing that happens easily and does not require me to get up before the chickens, is Desired State Configuration (DSC). I can easily schedule DSC to happen whenever I want. After I have created my MOF files, all I need to do to reapply a DSC configuration is run the Start-DSCConfiguration command. I can schedule that command in the task scheduler in less than 30 seconds, and I can set my schedule to repeat as often as I want it to.

But that is not what I want to talk about today. I want to talk about using DSC to create a system restore point. One thing to remember about restore points is that they only work on the client workstation. they do not work on the server operating system.

Use PowerShell DSC to create a restore point

After I call the Configurationkeyword to create a new configuration script, I create my parameters. I use a filter with the Get-ADComputer cmdlet so that I return only Windows 8.1 and Windows 8 workstations. I store the resulting names in the $NodeName variable. Here is this portion of the script:

#Requires -version 4.0

Configuration CreateSystemRestorePoint

{

    Param

    (

        [String[]]$NodeName = (

        (Get-ADComputer -Filter "OperatingSystem -like 'Windows 8*'").name)

    )

The next thing I do is import the DSC resource. I have to do this because the xWindowsRestore DSC module is not standard. Here is the command:

Import-DSCResource -ModuleName xWindowsRestore

Now I specify the nodes for which I want to create configuration MOF files. I do this by using the Nodekey word. I then call the xSystemRestorePoint DSC resource (from the xWindowsRestore module), and I specify the name for the action. This is shown here:

  Node $NodeName

    {

         xSystemRestorePoint SystemRestorePointExample

I need to specify a few parameter values. I set the name for the Description, specify the type of restore, and ensure that this resource will be present (which means create a new restore point). This section of the script is shown here:

{

            Description = "Modify system settings"

            RestorePointType = "MODIFY_SETTINGS"

            Ensure = "Present"

        }

I call the CreateSystemRestorePoint configuration and specify an output folder location. If I do not specify an output folder location, the MOF files will be created in the current working directory. Lastly, I call Start-DSCConfiguration and point to the location for the MOF files. This causes the configuration to take place. Here is that portion of the script:

CreateSystemRestorePoint -output C:\serverConfig

Start-DscConfiguration -Path C:\serverConfig  -Wait -Force -Verbose

Here is the complete script:

#Requires -version 4.0

Configuration CreateSystemRestorePoint

{

    Param

    (

        [String[]]$NodeName = (

        (Get-ADComputer -Filter "OperatingSystem -like 'Windows 8*'").name)

    )

    Import-DSCResource -ModuleName xWindowsRestore

    Node $NodeName

    {

         xSystemRestorePoint SystemRestorePointExample

        {

            Description = "Modify system settings"

            RestorePointType = "MODIFY_SETTINGS"

            Ensure = "Present"

        }

    }

}

CreateSystemRestorePoint -output C:\serverConfig

Start-DscConfiguration -Path C:\serverConfig  -Wait -Force -Verbose

When I run the script, I see that the MOF file is created for the Windows 8* type of workstation, and then each action DSC performs appears as a verbose statement. This is shown in the following image:

I check to ensure that the checkpoint was actually created. I use the Get-ComputerRestorePoint cmdlet to do this. Here is the command and results:

PS C:\> Get-ComputerRestorePoint 

CreationTime    Description       SequenceNumber    EventType   RestorePoint Type

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

12/8/2014 3:08:24 PM   Scheduled Checkpoint         22          BEGIN_SYSTEM_C... 7  

1/2/2015 1:31:39 PM    Scheduled Checkpoint          23          BEGIN_SYSTEM_C... 7  

1/6/2015 2:10:39 PM    Modify system settings          24          BEGIN_SYSTEM_C... M...

Cool. It worked.

That is all there is to using DSC to create a system restore point. Join me tomorrow when I will talk about more cool Windows PowerShell stuff.

I invite you to follow me on Twitter and Facebook. If you have any questions, send email to me at scripter@microsoft.com, or post your questions on the Official Scripting Guys Forum. See you tomorrow. Until then, peace.

Ed Wilson, Microsoft Scripting Guy 

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Liebe Grüße und guten Start ins Jahr 2015, Eva