A few days ago VMware released an updated custom HP ISO image for ESXi 5.0 Update 1, which includes all of the HP specific drivers and agents. The big difference between this release and prior HP ESXi 5.0 releases is that you can download them directly from VMware and not...
Windows 8 and Windows Server 2012 have a number of brand new boot-time security features to help combat malware. While this article is not going to discuss them in depth, I will briefly describe them so you understand what they are and how to configure one feature, Secure Boot. Microsoft...
WARNING: This blog post has been superseded by my updated post here. Do not use the article below, as it is outdated. WARNING: This blog post has been superseded by my updated post here. Do not use the article below, as it is outdated. ---------- Based on my popular article (#1...
One of the new features added to Microsoft SQL Server 2008 and R2 is the ability to slipstream a service pack into the installation. This streamlines the installation, and reduces human error. Now that SQL Server 2008 R2 SP2 is officially out, here's how to slipstream SQL Server 2008 R2...
One of the common tasks that you may do on a regular basis is installing Windows Server 2012 and you want to automate it as much as possible. Using similar tools to those used with Windows Server 2008 R2, you can create an autounattend.xml file that you inject into the Windows Server 2012 installation...
Yes, it's that time of year for HP to release their updated HP Service Pack for ProLiant, which is now up to version 2012.06.0 (B). You can find the 514 page release notes (yes that is not a typo, 514 pages) here. This update includes a number of fixes to...
UPDATE 10/26/12: A new blog post with updated links is here.HP just released their June 2012 VMware ESXi 4.1 U2 and ESXi 5.0 U1 ISO installation media. Nearly every driver in this custom ISO has been updated from the previous release. You can find the entire driver set versions here....
For all of you HP Bladesystem customers, here's a heads up that HP released v3.60 of their Virtual Connect firmware package. You can download the full Release Notes here. Take note that this release fixes a couple of security issues, so even if the bug fixes don't apply to you,...
VMware released a security advisory on June 14, 2012 and patch for a variety of virtualization products. Details of the affected products and the vulnerabilities are below. You can download the ESX(i) patches from here. VMware Product Running Replace with/ Product Version on Apply Patch ============= ======= ======= ================= vCenter any Windows...
This is one of those sessions that you sit back and just don't know what to say at the end, it's so good and so profound. The message is if your company hasn't yet gotten compromised, it will. Once a workstation is compromised, it takes on average only 24-48 hours...
This was a REALLY great session on the significant advances Microsoft has made in Windows 8 to increase its security posture. They claim whole classes of attacks have been mitigated by a combination of Windows 8 and hardware features such as UEFI and TPM. There are other security features that...
Brent Ozar, Microsoft Certified Solutions Master (MSCM), www.brentozar.comThis was a REALLY great session that was both practical and filled with great technical details and good take away information. #1 takeway is "TempDB is like a public toilet: You never know what's in there." LOL Clearly Brent Ozar knows his stuff,...