morganw

I think I went from 5.6 SP1 to 6 and then found I had it, so must have been in SP2. edit: ...or maybe it was FP1. It's a strange release naming convention they use.

XenServer 6 High Availability will let you choose the restart order of VMs with an optional time delay.

Do you have any issues with Ubuntu package updates? Personally I would feel happier using Debian because you know things aren't going to get changed other than fixing things and security for 2 or 3 years. I've heard a few people say that Ubuntu updates are a little more "dynamic".

Can you see live bandwidth values or is it nothing more than a fancy interface on top of SNMP polling?

Based on that I'd be more tempted to have a go with CentOS, or do they reserve some of this software for people that are paying them?

Do you actually get some kind of official Ubuntu documentation for KVM or Xen? When I've looked I've only ever found community based documentation that tends to be sparse and out-of-date.

For paid support of KVM do you need to buy into Redhat or are there any other options? Do you also get some vendor backed PV drivers for Windows rather than relying on the Virtio ones?

I think you may also need .mountcheck files in the images directory, the easiest way to check is to just what's present and the permissions on a default install with ls -al. I wouldn't have thought that having the storage on iSCSI is a good idea from a performance standpoint. I would virtualise the main sever (I imagine you have some kind of hypervisor if you have an iSCSI box?) and then setup one or two physical storage nodes that the clients will take the images from. If you don't have any old workstations or servers for the physical storage nodes then you could use additional VMs but use local storage instead of iSCSI.

Have you tried using the older kernel as well?

You can do it fairly easily with WDS + MDT: Deploying Windows 7 - Part 15: Configuring the MDT Database ...or FOG is pretty amazing.

Looks like a filescreen for desktop.ini files was the cause of my problem. http://www.edugeek.net/forums/windows-server-2008-r2/86860-slow-logons-applying-folder-redirection.html

Is this what can make the logon stick on "Applying folder redirection"?

You'll probably need to define permissions based on CREATOR / OWNER as well as giving staff write access.

I doubt you will find an equivalent product. It might run under WINE but you might find it more useful and flexible to provide Windows applications using a terminal server and use the old workstations as thin clients.

I used to install the driver manually or with the installer, then use the driver backup function on DriverMax to get just the required components.

If you want to do things the Microsoft way look at MDT2010. If you want something more similar to Ghost flat imaging look at FOG (new version should be out later this month). Both can do application installations. MDT has the fancy driver injection that makes image maintenance easier and you don't even have to start with a machine to capture, you can deploy the WIM file from the Windows install media and incorporate updates with WSUS as part of the task sequence.

If you want to monitor the array and have the system send you an email when a drive fails then software RAID would be the only choice. If you aren't confident with software RAID then the other way is easier to setup and replacing disks should be easier.

You could try taking the drive out and uploading the image from another PC that you know works. Then you'll know if the problem is with the PC (and kernel) or with what is on the disk. If you haven't already a tried using an older / newer kernel then that might be worth a look anyway.

I deployed it with WPKG, but a startup script would probably do it. I think you just use /S for a silent install. Then on your WSUS server get updates for it and set them to auto-approve. Because it updates through Windows Updates and can be configured with a GPO it's the closest you'll get to "set and forget" anti-virus.

Aren't most of the database transactions going to be reads though (e.g. running reports)? And most of the writes fairly small scale (e.g. taking a register)?

If the database can cache into RAM then the performance difference won't be that big to having the database on an SSD. I think for SQL Server Express you can only cache into 1GB though so if you database is bigger than this it will be constantly using the disk.

While I don't think the Microserver is ideal here I don't agree with the above. I see no problem in using one as a domain controller, that is probably the least intensive server role you will find. I see no problem in using one to host a database as long as you take into account the size and use of the database. If the database is small enough to be cached in the proposed 4GB of RAM, and the disks used are enterprise grade, the only limiting factor is the CPU. If the current server is 8 years old with 2GB of RAM and no one is complaining about speed, then obviously the load must be fairly light. Personally I wouldn't use one, and would get something more powerful but that isn't to say it wouldn't work.

If it's critical to keep SIMS going I would rule out a Microserver because you can't have a redundant power supply. I've not used Windows on one but I think it has a fake-raid style controller built in so you may as well do something like, Disk1+Disk2 RAID1 for OS Disk3+Disk4 RAID1 for database Then backup the database over the network.

Try another kernel, or try adding acpi=off as a kernel parameter. Are these computers all the same model?

You don't need SCCM to deploy Forefront Endpoint Protection 2010, it has a silent install switch and can be configured with a GPO. Officially, you do need SCCM for log collection from the clients as there isn't a separate FEP Management console. Unofficially, I'm sure I've read you can collect logs from the clients through other methods. e.g. a script