Thoughtsofanidlemind's Blog

  • Off to Spring Connections and an interesting video

    This video posted on the Seattle Pi site is an interesting walk down through memory lane as it wanders from the introduction of products such as Word to Exchange to SharePoint Portal Server to today’s fascination about all things to do with the cloud. Of course, it’s a marketing video, but…

  • The spectrum of technical writing

    I am often asked what is the difference between writing a blog post and an article that’s published in a magazine such as Windows IT Pro. In response, I think that a spectrum of technical writing exists that goes something like this: The most basic (and often very useful) contribution…

  • Exchange 2010, mailbox imports, and LocalSystem

    Anything posted on the Internet has a reasonably long half-life, a fact that I was reminded of when I researched some information about the Windows LocalSystem account and discovered an article that I wrote for Windows IT Pro magazine about Exchange 2000. In a nutshell, the article discussed a major…

  • Chariot derailed at Lansdowne Road

    Seeing English white shirts coming out for a rugby international creates a special feeling for both opposition and spectators. Unless the game is played at Twickenham, the feeling is not affection. It’s not hatred either, even in Scotland when centuries of repression and the Braveheart fever is at its height,…

  • Be careful with VM snapshots of Exchange 2010 servers

    Those who are considering virtualizing production Exchange 2010 servers should read the fine print contained in the TechNet article “Exchange 2010 System Requirements“. In particular, this text is crucial: “Some hypervisors include features for taking snapshots of virtual machines. Virtual machine snapshots capture the state of a virtual machine while…

  • Varying replication mode within a DAG

    Log shipping is a well-known method for data replication between Exchange servers (and other computers). It made its first appearance in Exchange in the Local Continuous Replication (LCR) and Cluster Continuous Replication (CCR) features of Exchange 2007, added to with Standby Cluster Replication (SCR) in Exchange 2007 SP1, and is…

  • Communications failure in Twickenham

    On March 13 I was back at Twickenham to be the TV Match Official (TMO) for the England v Scotland Six Nations game. This is the oldest international fixture and was first played in 1871, so there’s a bit of history and whenever the two teams come together you can…

  • Preparing for Spring Connections and first impressions of Office 365

    Earlier this week Brian K. Winstead, the author of the Exchange and Outlook blog on http://www.windowsitpro.com, contacted me to ask about the keynote that I’ll be giving at the Spring 2011 Exchange Connections event at the JW Marriott Resort hotel in Orlando from March 27 to 30. The resulting conversation…

  • Oooh… that’s some copy queue length!

    The Database Availability Group (DAG) is probably the best Exchange 2010 feature from both an impact and technology perspective. Microsoft took a really good decision by not limiting the DAG to enterprise editions of Exchange, even if you can only mount five databases on a server (counting both active and…

  • Facebook page for Exchange 2010 Maestro training

    The redoubtable Mr. Robichaux, showing a mastery of technology that marks him as a very special person, has created a Facebook page for our Exchange 2010 Maestro training events that we are planning for San Diego (May), London (UK – June), and Greenwich, CT (October). Not only does this demonstrate…