The new “Dead Rising 3” demo is now available on Xbox One, and on Friday, Capcom lifted the lid on the game’s first downloadable episode.

“I’m sure the fact that today is Friday the 13th has nothing to do with it,” writes Jeff Rubenstein on Major Nelson’s blog. To learn more about Operation Broken Eagle, Rubenstein talked with the game’s executive producer, Josh Bridge.

“With all four of the Untold Stories of Los Perdidos experiences, you get to see the story of ‘Dead Rising 3’ unravel from a different point of view,” Bridge says. “You get to take on the role of a different character in each of the four and play through their story and how it ties into the overall plot and reveals how the outbreak unfolded in parallel to Nick Ramos attempting to escape.”

Plus, each of the episodes has new weapons and a custom vehicle, “along with side missions and other goodies to collect and ace achievements with,” he says. “The team had some fun with getting some pretty crazy weapons in there!”

For more of the interview with Bridge, including tips on how to tackle nightmare mode, head over to Xbox Wire. And for more on “Dead Rising 3,” be on zombie watch for Bridge’s interview with Major Nelson later Friday on MNR 497.

You might also be interested in:

· Set your TV free with the SlingPlayer app, new to Windows Store
· Get a preview of "Freedom Cry," first downloadable content for "Assassin’s Creed IV"
· Enjoy the extras that come with free FOX NOW app for Xbox One

Suzanne Choney
Microsoft News Center Staff

Windows Azure has some updates that are available for immediate use, including a preview of the Windows Azure Scheduler Service and the Read-Access Geo Redundant Storage Option (both new) and improvements to Monitoring and Diagnostics for Azure services.

ScottGu’s Blog reports on how the Windows Azure Scheduler service allows you to create jobs that reliably call services either inside or outside of Windows Azure and run those jobs immediately, on a regular schedule or at a future date you set.

To get started with Scheduler, you need to sign-up for the preview on the Windows Azure Preview page. Once you enroll in the preview, you can sign in to the Management Portal and start using it.

On his blog, Scott Guthrie (aka ScottGu) gives step-by-step instructions on how to create a schedule job.

The blog also gives more details about how you can now always have read-access to your secondary storage replica. This means you can have immediate access to your data if there’s a temporary failure in your primary storage location (and to build-in support within your applications to handle the read fail-over automatically). As for the last part of this update, you can now monitor metrics for the CPU and IO activity of Premium SQL databases, and the storage activity of both Premium and Standard databases.

Find out much more about this update on ScottGu’s Blog.

You might also be interested in:

• Get a preview of "Freedom Cry," first downloadable content for "Assassin’s Creed IV"
• Mark your calendars: Announcing Build 2014
• Office 365 Admin app now available on Android and iOS devices

Athima Chansanchai
Microsoft News Center Staff

While many small and medium size businesses are moving their IT infrastructure to Azure for hardware and operational cost savings, there are still times when technology solutions will need to stay on premise due to the sensitivity of data as the prevalent reason.  Microsoft provides excellent hybrid solutions with Windows Server 2012 R2 that allow your customers to address on premise requirements as well as take advantage of services in the cloud.  One such on premise solution provided with Windows Server 2012 R2 is Work Folders.

Work Folders is a new feature delivered with Windows 8.1 & Windows Server 2012 R2 providing users access to their work files from anywhere while keeping the data on premise in centralized local storage.  Work Folders provide the means to better control the organization’s data.

Users can be directed to store documents that must stay on premise to the Work Folder location on the user’s device.

These documents would get synced to the Sync Share Folder on the designated on premise file server. The file server can be set up to automatically classify the document based on content, if configured using File Server Resource Manager, and encrypt the document using Windows Rights Management Services before syncing the document back to all the user’s devices. This allows a seamless experience for the user while keeping the organization in compliance and preventing leakage of sensitive information.

Work Folders can utilize existing deployments of Folder Redirection, Offline Files, and home folders. You can specify a folder that already contains user data, which enables you to adopt Work Folders without migrating servers and data or immediately phasing out your existing solution.

Work Folders is part of the File and Storage Services role. Work Folders functionality is installed by using the Add Roles and Features Wizard which will add the Work Folders page to File and Storage Services in Server Manager.  The sync shares service will also be added (providing host sync shares functionality) as well as the SyncShare PowerShell module.

Work Folder sync can be accomplished to the organization’s server hosting Work Folders through the internet via  implementation of a publically registered domain name.  A public CA certificate would be required for the server hosting Work Folders as well for the reverse proxy server.  Publishing rules would be set up on the reverse proxy or network gateway.

For more information on Work Folders take a look at following resources:

• Introducing Work Folders on Windows Server 2012 R2 (blog post)
• Introduction to Work Folders (Channel 9 Video)
• Work Folders Test Lab Deployment (blog post)
• Designing a Work Folders Implementation
• Deploying Work Folders

Kathleen Molosky, PTS

If you’ve been wanting to get up to speed on Windows Phone enterprise mobile management, be sure to check out the video above with Rob Tiffany and Matthijs Hoekstra, who provide you with a handy overview.

In the video, they cover Mobile Device Management, Mobile Application Management, Mobile Information Management and Mobile Content Management.

There are also plenty of resources online to help, writes Larry Lieberman on the Windows Phone Developer Blog. Among them is a Microsoft Mobility Management (EMM) blog post from Tiffany.

For a complete list of helpful links, head over to the Windows Phone Developer Blog.

You might also be interested in:

· Mark your calendars: Announcing Build 2014
· Office 365 Admin app now available on Android and iOS devices
· On sale now: 12 apps, indie games and Xbox titles in the Windows Phone Store

Suzanne Choney
Microsoft News Center Staff

The monthly Next Big Thing collection on the Windows Phone Store is one-stop shop for the best games from indie developers and the most recent batch includes new games such as “Dark Lands,” “Crumble Zone” and “Jack’s Mistake.”

There are 30 games in the collection, and here’s a sampling of seven of those next big things:

As you can see from the image above, “Dark Lands” is a lot of things -- an infinity running game, a fantasy horror game and a dynamic combat system that pits you against goblins, orcs, skeletons, trolls and ogres. “Sky Cups” takes a lighter touch with matching cups as they stack up under a hippo. (By the way, this was voted Best Casual Mobile Game of 2013.) In “Crumble Zone,” you help a little green alien fight for his planet by shooting down asteroids as you rotate around the planet in a wild orbit.

The battle card game “Lies Of Astaroth” defines epic, with more than 100 exquisitely drawn characters and a storyline that involves you meeting the God of Prophesy and traveling through a world of spies and thieves. In “Doodle Kingdom” you can rule a medieval fantasy world as a Necromancer, return the family castle to prosperity or breed and raise four types of dragons. In the modern world, destroy a dangerous virus unleashed through 40 levels of puzzles in “Jack’s Mistake.”

Finally, “9 Clues: The Secret of Serpent Creek” ups the creep factor in merging a mystery with classic horror and gritty, ‘40s-style noir in a game full of hidden object scenes (like the one below) and hours of gameplay.

Check out all of these games and the rest of The Next Big Thing collection in the Windows Phone Store.

You might also be interested in:

• Get a preview of "Freedom Cry," first downloadable content for "Assassin’s Creed IV"
• Mark your calendars: Announcing Build 2014
• Office 365 Admin app now available on Android and iOS devices

Athima Chansanchai
Microsoft News Center Staff

Pedcor, an affordable housing and commercial property management company with 500 employees in 77 locations around the U.S., has successfully turned to Surface 2 and Windows 8.1 to help in all aspects of its business.

The company, which has built more than 10,000 apartment units around the country, is involved in all of the steps it takes to bring a project to life, “from development and design all the way up to management, and they’re using Surface to do this,” writes Cyril Belikoff, director of Surface, on the Windows for your Business blog.

“Pedcor found Surface Pro 2 to be the one tablet device with the power to run all of the apps they need, including Visual Studio and the System Center tool set, while also offering the hardware capabilities that designers need,” he writes. “Designers are using the Surface Pen and full-HD display to create sketches in digital format that they can quickly and easily send through for approval.”

Sumeeth Evans, vice president of IT for Pedcor, says that “Surface is one device that can transform itself from being plugged into a dock and a desktop, or being a tablet without the keyboard, or being a laptop with the keyboard.”

Surface is so robust, says Yong Choe, senior vice president of IT for the company, that he has “actually replaced my desktop with the Surface and a docking station.” That makes it handy for him to take his new “desktop” with him when he needs to leave or go to a meeting offsite, he says.

Read Belikoff’s full post and learn more over at the Windows for your Business blog.

You might also be interested in:

· Delta to equip more than 11,000 pilots with Surface 2 devices
· Updates to Windows Azure include better scheduling, storage and monitoring
· Mark your calendars: Announcing Build 2014

Suzanne Choney
Microsoft News Center Staff

Summary: Use Windows PowerShell to find connections to remote servers.

 How can I use Windows PowerShell while I am troubleshooting my computer to find what
          connections are made to remote servers via port 80?

 Use the Get-NetTCPConnection command, specify the remote port of 80, and select the remote addresses:

Get-NetTCPConnection -RemotePort 80 | SELECT RemoteAddress

When Retention tag is applied to Deleted items folder.you would see a different behavior in which Retention tag procesess other folders and the Deleted Items folder.The retention age of mailbox items is calculated from the date of delivery,but when it comes to Deleted items folder,it works differently.

The retention age for items in the Deleted Items folder is calculated based on the date of delivery unless the item was moved or deleted from a folder that doesn't have an inherited or implicit retention tag.

The behaviour is explain in Technet article below;

How Retention Age is Calculated.
http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/bb430780(v=exchg.141).aspx

Example 1 :
• A user receives a message in the Inbox folder on 01/26/2011. The Inbox folder has a retention tag configured to delete items in 365 days.
1. The Managed Folder Assistant processes the message. It stamps the message with a start date of 01/26/2011 and an expiration date of 01/26/2012.

2. The user soft-deletes the item on 02/27/2011.The item is moved to the Deleted Items folder, which has a retention tag configured to delete the item in 30 days.

3. The Managed Folder Assistant processes the message. It recalculates the expiration date based on the start date (01/26/2011).

4. Because the item is older than 30 days, it is deleted immediately.

Example 2:
• A user receives an item in the Inbox folder on 01/26/2011. The Inbox folder doesn't have a retention tag applied, and the retention policy doesn't contain a default policy tag.
1. The user soft-deletes the item on 02/27/2011. The item is moved to the Deleted Items folder, which has a retention tag configured to delete items in 30 days.

2. The Managed Folder Assistant processes the mailbox on 03/27/2011, and determines that the item doesn't have a start date. It stamps the current date as the start date and 04/27/2011 as the expiration date.

3. The item is deleted on 04/27/2011, which is 30 days after it was deleted or moved to the Deleted Items folder.

In above Example 2,when the message is soft-deleted on 02/26/2011,the message is moved to Deleted Items folder,in  above example we see that Folder assistant process the mailbox on 03/27/2011.The question can raise is why is assistant is processing the message after one month .
This is just an example to show the Deleted Items behaviour,Ideally the message in the Deleted Item folder or any message in that matter would be processed quite faster,this depends on the ManagedFolderWorkCycle and ManagedFolderWorkCycle checkpoint.

Because of the Deleted Items folder processing behaviours,commonly faced issues are;

1) Outlook in cache mode shows the message is already expired,but Retention policy is not deleting this expired message or moving it to archive. This is because Outlook in cached mode pulls the Policy Tag information for the folder and then does the calculation for expiration itself. But if you see the same message in OWA,you would find that the message is not
yet expired. This usually happens with items in Deleted Items folder,because the way the Deleted Items folder is processed.

2) Another common issue is, where Retention policy is implemented because users have lot of items in Deleted Items folder and administrator is implementing Retention policies on Deleted Items for the first time.Therefore when the Deleted Items folder is processed for the first time,items are stamped with a Start date which is date when message was first processed,thus messages in the Deleted Items are going to be deleted after a delay.

For example,users have 1 year old emails tag on the Deleted Items folder When MFA processes items in deleted Items folder for the first time,it would not see a start date on these items so it will stamp a start date as today
and expiry date would be the date when message was first processed plus 1 year.

-Vikas

This is a test blog post.

This is a Test Blog.

Microsoft Corporation is an American multinational corporation headquartered in Redmond, Washington, that develops, manufactures, licenses, supports and sells computer software, consumer electronics and personal computers and services. Its best known software products are the Microsoft Windows line of operating systems, Microsoft Officeoffice suite and Internet Explorer web browser. Its flagship hardware products are Xbox game console and the Microsoft Surface series of tablets. It is the world's largest software maker measured by revenues.^[4] It is also one of the world's most valuable companies.^[5]

Microsoft was founded by Bill Gates and Paul Allen on April 4, 1975 to develop and sell BASIC interpreters for Altair 8800. It rose to dominate the personal computer operating system market with MS-DOS in the mid-1980s, followed by the Microsoft Windows. The company's 1986 initial public offering, and subsequent rise in its share price, created an estimated three billionaires and 12,000 millionaires from Microsoft employees. Since the 1990s, it has increasingly diversified from the operating system market and has made a number of corporate acquisitions. In May 2011, Microsoft acquired Skype Technologies for $8.5 billion in its largest acquisition to date.^[6]

As of 2013, Microsoft is market dominant in both the IBM PC-compatible operating system and office software suite markets (the latter with Microsoft Office). The company also produces a wide range of other software for desktops and servers, and is active in areas including internet search (with Bing), the video game industry (with the Xbox, Xbox 360 andXbox One consoles), the digital services market (through MSN), and mobile phones (via the Windows Phone OS). In June 2012, Microsoft entered the personal computer production market for the first time, with the launch of the Microsoft Surface, a line of tablet computers.

Microsoft's current CEO is Steve Ballmer, who is set to retire within twelve months after August 2013.^[7]

(Please visit the site to view this video)

Paul Allen and Bill Gates, childhood friends with a passion in computer programming, were seeking to make a successful business utilizing their shared skills. In 1972 they founded their first company named Traf-O-Data, which offered a rudimentary computer that tracked and analyzed automobile traffic data. Allen went on to pursue a degree in computer science at the University of Washington, later dropping out of school to work at Honeywell. Gates began studies at Harvard.^[10] The January 1975 issue of Popular Electronicsfeatured Micro Instrumentation and Telemetry Systems's (MITS) Altair 8800 microcomputer. Allen noticed that they could program aBASIC interpreter for the device; after a call from Gates claiming to have a working interpreter, MITS requested a demonstration. Since they didn't actually have one, Allen worked on a simulator for the Altair while Gates developed the interpreter. Although they developed the interpreter on a simulator and not the actual device, the interpreter worked flawlessly when they demonstrated the interpreter to MITS in Albuquerque, New Mexico in March 1975; MITS agreed to distribute it, marketing it as Altair BASIC.^{[8]:108, 112–114} They officially established Microsoft on April 4, 1975, with Gates as the CEO.^[11] Allen came up with the original name of "Micro-Soft," the combination of the words microcomputer and software, as recounted in a 1995 Fortune magazine article. In August 1977 the company formed an agreement with ASCII Magazine in Japan, resulting in its first international office, "ASCII Microsoft".^[12] The company moved to a new home in Bellevue, Washington in January 1979.^[11]

Microsoft entered the OS business in 1980 with its own version of Unix, called Xenix.^[13] However, it was MS-DOS that solidified the company's dominance. After negotiations with Digital Research failed, IBM awarded a contract to Microsoft in November 1980 to provide a version of the CP/M OS, which was set to be used in the upcoming IBM Personal Computer (IBM PC).^[14]For this deal, Microsoft purchased a CP/M clone called 86-DOS from Seattle Computer Products, branding it as MS-DOS, which IBM rebranded to PC DOS. Following the release of the IBM PC in August 1981, Microsoft retained ownership of MS-DOS. Since IBM copyrighted the IBM PC BIOS, other companies had to reverse engineer it in order for non-IBM hardware to run as IBM PC compatibles, but no such restriction applied to the operating systems. Due to various factors, such as MS-DOS's available software selection, Microsoft eventually became the leading PC operating systems vendor.^[9][15]:210 The company expanded into new markets with the release of the Microsoft Mouse in 1983, as well as a publishing division named Microsoft Press.^[8]:232 Paul Allen resigned from Microsoft in February.

This is a test post to edit.

this is a Comment Edited from Control panel.

Summary: Clear the client DNS cache by using Windows PowerShell.

 How can I use Windows PowerShell to clear the client DNS cache on my computer running Windows 8.1?

Use the Clear-DNSClientCache cmdlet.

Welcome back for another analysis of contributions to TechNet Wiki over the last week.

First up, the weekly leader board snapshot...

Nice to see so many TAT members showing in the charts at the moment, and congratulations to Ugur for leading contributions thsi week!

Also, an impressive performance from Sandro and Craig!

As always, here are the results of another weekly crawl over the updated articles feed.

Most Revisions Award   Who has made the most individual revisions

#1 Sandro Pereira with 262 revisions.

#2 Ugur Demir - TAT with 213 revisions.

#3 Craig Lussier with 190 revisions.

Just behind the winners but also worth a mention are:

#4 Mehmet PARLAKYIGIT-TAT with 111 revisions.

#5 Carsten Siemens with 97 revisions.

#6 Benoit Jester - MTFC with 81 revisions.

#7 Durval Ramos with 78 revisions.

#8 Richard Mueller with 64 revisions.

#9 Davut EREN - TAT with 62 revisions.

#10 Elguc Yusifbeyli-TAT with 56 revisions.

Most Articles Updated Award   Who has updated the most articles

#1 Sandro Pereira with 178 articles.

#2 Mehmet PARLAKYIGIT-TAT with 101 articles.

#3 Craig Lussier with 101 articles.

Just behind the winners but also worth a mention are:

#4 Carsten Siemens with 48 articles.

#5 Elguc Yusifbeyli-TAT with 48 articles.

#6 Durval Ramos with 38 articles.

#7 Davut EREN - TAT with 36 articles.

#8 Benoit Jester - MTFC with 27 articles.

#9 Mr X with 24 articles.

#10 Richard Mueller with 22 articles.

Most Updated Article Award   Largest amount of updated content in a single article

The article to have the most change this week was Windows Azure HDInsight FAQ, by Denny G Lee

This week's reviser was Jonathan Gao [MSFT],

Jonathan has fleshed out this article with some great questions and answers, making this document twioce as valuable. I highly recommend you take a look when you get a chance.

Longest Article Award   Biggest article updated this week

This week's largest document to get some attention is E-Book Gallery for Microsoft Technologies, by Monica Rush has had some more love this week, deservedly, and the Wiki Ninjas Blog Authoring Schedule , by Ed Price - MSFT has had a new section for 2014 added, and is filling up quick.

But this week, I'll highlighht this week's third largest document to get some attention - Developing Integration Solutions Using BizTalk Server 2009 and Team Foundation Server, by Trace Young

This week's reviser was Sandro Pereira,

I challenge you to scroll down through this one in less than ten seconds. Can't be done. Huge!

I highlighted it before ages ago, but always worth a mention, as it is still full of stuff that is relevant today, and has stood the test of time.

Most Revised Article Award   Article with the most revisions in a week

This week's most fiddled with article is once again, Turkish Council Center, by Gokan Ozcifci. It was revised 94 times last week. Wowsers!

This week's revisers were Ugur Demir - TAT, Bruno Lewin - MSFT, Baris Aydogmusoglu, Davut EREN - TAT, Nihat ALTINMAKAS, Mehmet PARLAKYIGIT-TAT, Carsten Siemens& Yavuz Tasci -TAT

As they always win (!), I'll mention this week's second most fiddled with article, Wiki: Glossary of Technology Acronyms, by Richard Mueller. It was revised 23 times last week.

This week's reviser was Richard Mueller,

Always worth knowing about, this article has been growing steadily for some time now. It is a true labor of love for Richard and an invaluable hook into and referenced by TechNet wiki content.

Although there are many ways to find an accronym, Richard's work curating these technical terms is an invaluable filter for a sea of potential meanings. Keep up the great work on this one Richard!

Most Popular Article Award   Collaboration is the name of the game!

The article to be updated by the most people this week is TechNet Guru Contributions for December, by XAML guy (me) Yey!

This week's revisers were Mohammad Nizamuddin, Christian Wade, Dotnet-Santhose, Kelly Bush, Uwe Ricken, Tomasso Groenendijk, Steef-Jan Wiggers, Matthew Yarlett, Colin Meade, Dan Christian, Prav4u, Mr X, Craig Lussier& Nonki Takahashi

December is looking like another great collection of amazing contributions from the technical community, thank you all so much for your time.

The Turkish Council Center, by Gokan Ozcifci comes second:

This week's revisers were Ugur Demir - TAT, Bruno Lewin - MSFT, Baris Aydogmusoglu, Davut EREN - TAT, Nihat ALTINMAKAS, Mehmet PARLAKYIGIT-TAT, Carsten Siemens& Yavuz Tasci -TAT

And the Wiki Ninjas Blog Authoring Schedule , by Ed Price - MSFT comes third

This week's revisers were Durval Ramos, Horizon_Net, Hezequias Vasconcelos - MTFC, Gokan Ozcifci, Ed Price - MSFT& Yagmoth555

So no surprises this week!

Ninja Edit Award   A ninja needs lightning fast reactions!

Below is a list of this week's fastest ninja edits. That's an edit to an article after another person

• Version 279 of Turkish Council Center was saved by Davut EREN - TAT just 1 minute after Ugur Demir - TAT
  
  Just behind the winner is Ugur with TWO winning edits!
• Version 280 of Turkish Council Center was saved by Ugur Demir - TAT just 2 minutes after Davut EREN - TAT
• Version 286 of Turkish Council Center was saved by Ugur Demir - TAT just 2 minutes after Davut EREN - TAT
  
  After Davut and Ugur, we see Ed, Yagmoth555, Suleiman, J.C and Durval all made it into the top ten:
• Version 284 of Turkish Council Center was saved by Ugur Demir - TAT just 3 minutes after Davut EREN - TAT
• Version 266 of Wiki Ninjas Blog Authoring Schedule was saved by Ed Price - MSFT just 4 minutes after Yagmoth555
• Version 285 of Turkish Council Center was saved by Davut EREN - TAT just 5 minutes after Ugur Demir - TAT
• Version 265 of Wiki Ninjas Blog Authoring Schedule was saved by Yagmoth555 just 9 minutes after Ed Price - MSFT
• Version 404 of BizTalk Server Resources on the TechNet Wiki was saved by Suleiman Shakhtour just 9 minutes after Sandro Pereira
• Version 4 of General Troubleshooting List for Windows Azure Pack (WAP) and SPF Integration was saved by J.C. Hornbeck [MSFT] just 11 minutes after Mark Stanfill [MSFT]
• Version 88 of Agenda de Publicações no Blog Wiki Ninjas Brasil was saved by Durval Ramos just 28 minutes after Hezequias Vasconcelos - MTFC

Congratulations to another amazing team of Wiki Ninjas, whittling away at the wiki and laying down knowledge that will probably still be read after we are all long gone!

Best regards,
Pete Laker

Introduction

SQL Server Migration is the process of stirring a previous implementation of SQL Server to a newer version, different location (or both) due to  a strategic decision (such as SQL Server Consolidation). In this post I’m trying to highlight some of the important aspects that we need to consider Before, During & After having an SQL Server Migration. This post is intended to be a general guidance to help you create a migration plan. Additional useful references are provided at the end of this post to give you more details.

Migration Paths

The first thing that we need to consider when having a migration is to define the Migration Path. To define a proper Migration Path we need to specify the following:

• Data Source: To understand the SQL Server Version and Capabilities of the current SQL Implementation (such SQL Server 2000, 2005 or Enterprise, Standard or 32bit, 64bit or SP1,SP2 … etc.)
• Data Destination: Is the intended SQL Server Version that you would like to reach (ex: SQL Server 2012 Enterprise)
• Supported Path: Are the steps and actions needed to your destination. The below example show the possible supported path to reach SQL Server 2012:

SQL Server 2005, 2008 & 2008 R2 can directly migrate to SQL 2012 after achieving the below Service Packs:

• SQL Server 2005: SP4.
• SQL Server 2008: SP2.
• SQL Server 2008 R2: SP1

However SQL Server 2000 needs to be upgraded to SQL 2005 (or later) before reaching SQL Server 2012, below Service Packs must be installed:

• SQL Server 2000: SP4 is required.

Migration Strategy

After defining the Migration Path you need to define the Migration Strategy. Below are some details of the Migration Strategies supported by Microsoft SQL Server:

• In-place: Using the SQL Server Setup program to directly upgrade an instance of SQL Server 2000, 2005, 2008 to SQL Server 2012. The older instance of SQL Server is replaced.

• Side-by-side: Using steps to move all or some data from an instance of SQL Server (2000,2005, 2008) to a separate instance of SQL Server 2012. There are two main variations of the side-by-side upgrade strategy:

• One Server: The new instance exists on the same server as the target instance.
• Two Servers: The new instance exists on a different server than the target instance.

Migration Methods

So after defining the Path & Strategy the next logical question that comes in mind is how to do the migration, and its exactly what we mean by Migration Methods. Below are some methods that we can used to Migration the SQL Server Database (for clarification purpose):

• Backup/Restore
• Detach/Attach
• Manual schema rebuild and data export/import
• Log shipping
• Copy Database Wizard

Note:

You also need to consider other SQL Server Components (such as SQL Server Reporting Services, SQL Server Analysis Service & SQL Server Integration Services) which falls outside the scope of this post.

Application Supportability & Reconfiguration

Most of the time SQL Server Database uses and Application that handles the database in the backend (such as SharePoint, Exchange, Custom Developed Application … etc.), so we need to answer the following questions before proceeding with the migration:

• Does the Application Supports the new SQL Server Version (such as SQL Server 2012)?
• What are the reconfiguration needed from the application vendor to reactivate the application (such as connection strings, custom code … etc.)?

Migration Backups

Before preceding with the migration we need to plan properly for database backups. We need to perform a full backup of each database in an instance (including system databases) at the following points in the upgrade process:

• Make a backup of the user databases and data after all users are out of the system and before the upgrade process has begun. Back up all system databases at this point. Make sure that the media is intact so that you can restore the backups if necessary.

• When the upgrade is complete, but before you do any configurations or changes, perform backups under SQL Server 2012. This lets you easily roll back to a point where the SQL Server 2005/2008/2008 R2 upgrade completed successfully but where an error was introduced after that point.

VLDBs

Many SQL Server databases are in the hundreds of gigabytes or terabytes range. This presents special challenges in any upgrade process because you have to account for constraints in time and hard disk space when you deal with large amounts of data in a short window of maintenance time. Databases in the terabyte range can potentially take days to copy over a network—even the fastest networks. These VLDBs might be mission-critical databases powering the largest systems in your business and might tolerate very little downtime. When an upgrade has to occur over a weekend, you might have to use several techniques and put in many preparation hours to meet the required time frames for success. You might have to revise the upgrade window if the upgrade will not fit within it.

Pre-Migration Tasks

Below are some operational tasks that needs to be considered in your plan before starting the migration:

• Rollup All Needed Service Packs, Updates & Hotfixes.
• Run DBCC CHECKDB on all databases to make sure that they are in a consistent state.
• Verify Backup of  All System & User Databases
• Run the Upgrade Advisory Tool

Post-Migration Tasks

After the completion of the migration, the below steps are required:

• Integrate the new SQL Server Instances & DBs into the application and database server environment.
• Determine whether the upgrade was successful (Agree on a success criteria with the application original vendor).
• Decommission and Uninstall the unused servers

Additional References:

Below are some useful references that provides more information about the items mentioned in the above post:

• SQL Server 2012 Upgrade Technical Guide
• Maximum Capacity Specifications for SQL Server 2008 R2
• Maximum Capacity Specifications for SQL Server 2012
• Hardware and Software Requirements for Installing SQL Server 2008 R2
• Hardware and Software Requirements for Installing SQL Server 2012
• Microsoft® SQL Server® 2008 R2 Best Practices Analyzer
• Microsoft® SQL Server® 2012 Best Practices Analyzer
• Microsoft SQL Server 2008 R2 Upgrade Advisor (Feature Pack)
• Microsoft® SQL Server® 2012 Upgrade Advisor (Feature Pack)

Dagens udfordring i vores TechNet Julequiz er et besøg på Microsoft Virtual Academy

Microsoft Virtual Academy(MVA) er en gratis online-learning løsning med fokus på teknisk indhold for IT professionelle og udviklere. Det er blandt andet muligt at deltage i live events om den seneste Microsoft teknologi og stille spørgsmål direkte til specialister. De fleste kurser bliver også lagt op så man kan streame dem on-demand.

I dag skal vi kigge på MVA kurset: What’s New in Windows® 8.1 for IT Professionals

1. Hvor mange moduler består kurset af?
2. Skal man logge på for at kunne se optagelserne?
3. Hvad hedder værten i denne optagelse?

Send dit svar til TNDK@microsoft.com inden midnat i dag og du er med i konkurrencen.

Det rigtige svar og vinderen offentligøres her, hvor du også kan læse konkurrencebetingelser m.m.

Julehilsner fra,

TechNet Danmark

Summary: Guest blogger, Greg Lindsay, tells how to configure Hyper-V on a computer running Windows 8.1 or Windows 8.

Microsoft Scripting Guy, Ed Wilson, is here. Today we welcome a new guest blogger, Greg Lindsay. In Greg’s own words: I am a technical writer for Windows Server. I have written documentation for Network Access Protection (NAP), DNS, DHCP, and IP Address Management (IPAM).

You might already have experience using Windows Virtual PC in Windows 7, which enables you to run virtual machines on a client operating system. You can still install Windows Virtual PC in Windows 8, but be aware that with Windows 8 there is now a requirement that the host computer’s microprocessor support SLAT. For more information, see Hyper-V: List of SLAT-Capable CPUs for Hosts.

The good news is that if your processor supports SLAT, you don’t need to download and install Windows Virtual PC because Hyper-V Manager is already included in Windows 8.1 and Windows 8 under Programs and Features. Hyper-V manager has several advantages over Windows Virtual PC, including the ability to create virtual switches with VLAN tagging and virtual machine snapshots.

Note If you installed a 32-bit version of Windows 8, you won’t be able to create and manage local virtual machines. To fully manage virtual machines by using the host computer, you must install the 64-bit version of Windows 8.1 or Windows 8.

The Hyper-V feature is not installed by default in Windows 8. To get it, you can use the following Windows PowerShell command:

Enable-WindowsOptionalFeature -Online -FeatureName Microsoft-Hyper-V –All

You can also install it via the Control Panel in Windows under Turn Windows features on or off, as shown here:

Important  If you know that your processor supports SLAT, but you still get an error message that states Hyper-V cannot be installed, you might need to enable virtualization in the BIOS. The location of this setting will depend on the manufacturer and BIOS version. The following image shows an example of the required settings (under Security) in a Hewlett-Packard BIOS for an Intel processor:

After you have Hyper-V installed, check out Using PowerShell to Set Up Hyper-V.

Note  Hyper-V Manager running on Windows 8.1 or Windows Server 2012 R2 also supports enhanced session mode, which allows you to more easily share local resources among virtual machines. For example, enhanced session mode enables you to copy text from a Windows PowerShell session on one virtual machine and paste it into the Windows PowerShell session on another virtual machine. For more information, see Virtual Machine Connection - Enhanced Session Mode Overview.

Hyper-V Manager in Windows 8.1 and Windows 8 brings the power of Hyper-V to your client computer. If you’ve used Hyper-V Manager before, you will recognize it immediately:

If you haven’t tried Hyper-V yet, you should definitely check it out!

Also see these resources:

• Client Hyper-V Survival Guide
• Client Hyper-V
• Bringing Hyper-V to Windows 8
• Installing Hyper-V in Windows 8

~Greg

Thank you, Greg, for writing this and sharing.

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 

Microsoft’s BizSpark initiative strives to encourage entrepreneurship and reduce the time and money you need to start a company. Through this initiative, Microsoft will provide technology and support for your startup and connect you with other startup owners, investors and influencers absolutely free of cost.

Technology to grow

With the latest business software, you can stay on top of the day-to-day aspects of your startup. BizSpark gives you access to the Windows 8 operating system, Windows Azure and other Microsoft platforms and application development tools. Nabbesh.com is a great example of how these platforms can help your startup prosper. With BizSpark, they found it very easy to be in the Azure cloud which enabled them to scale and grow rapidly. 

Support to excel

Having the best technology will not be beneficial without competent support and guidance. BizSpark offers you an exclusive Support Centre for the MEA region with access to a huge community of peers across the globe. You will also receive technical support managed by Microsoft. What’s more, training programmes are offered to increase the operational awareness of the BizSpark programme.

Community to collaborate

BizSpark’s most important aspect is that it will connect you with other entrepreneurs and startup owners. Using this network, you can deal with the various challenges that you might face in the early stages of setting up your business.  You will also be connected with a huge network of investors and other influencers that could potentially invest in your startup.

If you require any local support, contact MEA Startups Support Center at mea-ssc@microsoft.com

Hace poco Microsoft hizo uno de los mayores avances introduciendo la experiencia de sus datacenters en el primer sistema operativo construido con la nube denominado “Cloud OS”. Hoy nos complace anunciar que un grupo internacional de 25 proveedores se han sumado a nuestra revolucionaria visión de “cloud” para construir y proporcionar servicio gracias a la plataforma de Microsoft construida con Windows Server, Hyper-V, System Center y el pack de Windows Azure.

Esto es una gran noticia para todos los clientes de entorno empresarial en todo el mundo. No es ningún secreto que el cloud computing ha revolucionado el mundo de TI. Empresas de todo el mundo, de todos los tamaños están buscando sacar el mayor provecho de esta nueva solución con el fin de aprovechar los beneficios de la nube gracias a soluciones de big data, gestión BYOD entre otras, todo esto buscando mejorar la productividad de los empleados y reducir los costes.

Desde Microsoft creemos que somos la mejor opción para clientes porque proporcionamos una plataforma consistente, hibrida y que proporciona más de 200 servicios en la nube a miles de millones de personas en todo el mundo.

Gracias a la flexibilidad, los clientes pueden hacer frente a grandes retos y oportunidades de la era de la nube utilizando tecnología Microsoft con sus nubes privadas o nube publica en Windows Azure.

Utilizando la nube hibrida los clientes pueden decidir donde alojar sus aplicaciones y datos según la necesidad de sus negocio evitando limitaciones tecnológicas. Esto permite a las organizaciones no perder tiempo en mantenimiento o soporte de aplicaciones.

La industria de TI es una de las que crece más rápido, por eso los proveedores de servicios en el Cloud juegan un papel fundamental en nuestra visión del “Cloud OS”. Nuestra comunidad de proveedores de servicios es de más de 16.500 socios y casi 10.000 hosters de aplicaciones a los que hemos añadido 5.000 más en el último año.

Los miembros de la red de socios de “Cloud OS” son proveedores lideres de servicios en que dan a los clientes flexibilidad. Gracias al compromiso de nuestros socios con la plataforma Microsoft, son capaces de ofrecer a nuestros clientes la posibilidad de personalizar, adaptarse a la legislación del país, seguridad, privacidad y servicio. Por ejemplo Reino Unido esta impulsando una iniciativa para proveer servicio en la nube a sus agencias gubernamentales.

Nuestros socios de Cloud OS están presentes en 90 países y atenderán a más de 3 millones de clientes cada día. Juntos administraran más de 2,4 millones de servidores en todo el mundo en sus 425 centros de datos. Cada uno de nuestros socios son lideres en su área geográfica y mercado, por lo que nos sentimos alagados por el compromiso de nuestros socios de apoyar nuestra visión de Cloud OS para facilitar soluciones hibridas a nuestros clientes.

Otro gran ejemplo es el de TeleComputing en Noruega y Suecia, ofrece servicio a más de 2400 aplicaciones alojadas en 800 empresas. Como parte de nuestra colaboración con ellos están realizando una migración masiva de VMware a Hyper-V. Tieto una de las compañías de TI más grandes de Finlandia que ofrece servicios a Spotify. T-Systems propiedad de Deutche Telekom una de las empresas más grandes Alemania. Todos estos están desplegando infraestructura como servicio a sus grandes clientes corporativos para mover los datos des nubes publicas a nuevas nubes privadas más seguras. Singtel uno de los grupos de telecomunicaciones y TI más importante de Asia, esta moviéndose a un entorno hibrido para evitar desastres y mejorar su productividad gracias Microsoft Lync y Exchange, por último en EEUU los servicios de la nube de CSC han recibido la mayor puntuación por la firma de analistas Gartner.

El compromiso con Azure como plataforma Cloud mundial es enorme. Por lo que intentamos adaptarnos y ofrecer la mejor solución a nuestros clientes gracias a nuestra promesa de las 3 nubes conectadas privada, pública y servicio.

Un saludo

El equipo de Microsoft TechNet

Seit einigen Tagen wird im Netz darüber berichtet, dass eine Massenabwahnwelle durch Deutschland tobt. Im Visier der Abmahner sind vermeintliche Nutzer einer Porno-Streaming-Seite. Tausende Nutzer der Pornowebseite Redtube – und wahrscheinlich auch gänzlich unbeteiligte Websurfer – haben Post der Anwaltskanzlei Urmann + Collegen (U+C) bekommen. Nun stellen sich viele Experten und auch Betroffene die Frage, wie die Anwälte an die IP-Adressen der Nutzer gekommen sind.

Der Redtube-Betreiber erklärt, er halte “an seiner unerschütterlichen Überzeugung fest, dass diese Briefe vollkommen unbegründet sind und die Rechte der Empfänger in ernsthafter Weise verletzen.“ Man habe zu keinem Zeitpunkt Kundendaten an eine Kanzlei oder eine entsprechende Behörde weitergegeben. Es scheint also, dass dies auf unlautere Weise geschehen ist.

Die Schweizer Firma  “The Archive AG”, die die Rechte an den beanstandeten gestreamten Filmen anmeldet und damit die Urheberrechtsverletzung verfolgen lässt, soll den Berliner Anwalt Daniel Sebastian beauftragt haben, Adressen und Nutzer von IP-Adressen herauszubekommen, weil über diese urheberrechtlich geschützte Videos als Stream angesehen wurden. Hierzu ist ein Gerichtsbeschluss notwendig. Um diesen zu erlangen, wurde offenbar „Video-Streaming“ (kein Vergehen) mit „Download“ (Gesetzesverstoß) gleichgesetzt. Die Anwaltskanzlei U+C hat daraufhin tausende von Abmahnungen an die Adressen der User verschickt.

Der Internet-Fachmann Klemens Kowabit hat sich auf Spurensuche begeben und erklärt in seinem Blogbeitrag, wie eng Firma und Abmahnanwälte zusammenhängen: Die Webseite der Firma “The Archive AG” (the-achive.ch) werde vom selben Anbieter unter der selben IP-Adresse gehostet wie die Site des US-Unternehmens ITGuards Inc., dessen Software angeblich zum Ermitteln der IP-Adressen diente. Dem Landesgericht in Köln wurde mitgeteilt, dass die IP-Adressen  der Nutzer mit einem Programm namens “GLADII 1.1.3”  gesammelt wurden. Dieses sei von Gutachtern getestet worden und soll eine Reihe von Informationen über die Nutzer der urheberrechtlich geschützten  Videos auf Redtube geliefert haben, inklusive der Info, wann das Video gestoppt oder fortgesetzt wurde. Wie dies technisch möglich sein soll, wird nicht ausgeführt. Es bestehen berechtigte Zweifel, dass sich solche Informationen legal und ohne Man-in-the-Middle-Attacke oder Malware-Infektion der PCs der Abgemahnten beschaffen lassen.

Verschiedene Experten raten allen, die eine Abmahnung in dieser Sache erhalten haben, sich einen Rechtsbeistand zu suchen und nicht klaglos zu bezahlen. Unter anderem die Kanzlei Müller Müller Rößner Rechtsanwälte trägt auf ihrer Webseite aktuelle Informationen zum Fall zusammen und bietet auch Hilfe an.

Hello WikiNinjas!

First WikiNinjas eBook

The eBook written by the community for the community has been downloaded more than 500 times in only two weeks. I can confirm you that the milestone has been reached. This is a real success and without YOU we couldn’t never reach this.

IDTP

Our (My) intention is to create a new era on the WIKI with eBooks, videos and much more. So contributors from all around the world can have excellent articles, eBooks and videos from all kind of writers and/or authors (Microsoft employees, MVP, MCC…).

We, the SP-Brothers (SharePoint Brothers) decided to create a new eBook called:

The Wiki Ninjas Guide to SharePoint 2013 - IDTP

http://gallery.technet.microsoft.com/The-Ninjas-Guide-to-b68f4caf

You still don’t know what IDTP means? Haaaa, download the ebook to discover it.

SharePoint Brothers !?

Wait! We know the BizTalk brothers (magnificent article from Steen-Jan!) but who are these guys? Who wrote this eBook?

Most of them are WikiNinjas. All proud members of this wonderful community. All excellent workers and all proud to have a leader such Ed Price who gave them the possibility to create and publish this eBook!

We have; Philippe Levesque, Benoit Jester,Hezequias Vascelamos, Valentin Lecerf and Gokan Ozcifci!

Credits: http://www.hiilkubad.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/09/Barcelona-2013-14-kits-Thiago-Pique-Messi-Iniesta-Xavi-Puyol-1.jpg 

Call for a new SharePoint eBook!

In 3 weeks a new ebook is going to be released. This one is reserved for the Turkish Avengers Team. The name will be similar to the two other eBooks:  TheWikiNinjas Turkish Guide for Infrastructure Managing! I’m already excited about the idea and want to share this great ebook that will be more than 400 pages! The main authors are, Gokan Ozcifci, Mehmet Parlakyigit, Asil Mutlu , Yavuz Taşcı, Elguc Yusifbeyli, Uğur Demir and Baris Aydogmusoglu  

After the TAT eBook a new SharePoint eBook can/will be released. Therefore I need your help and all community members are welcome! Craig Lussier, Matthew Yarlett, Luigi Bruno or other SharePoint Lovers… I’d love to work with you. If interested please send me an email (ozcifci.gokan@live.be) or drop a comment so we can finish our trilogy! 
 

That’s all folks! Have a great read and please avoid jokes like “Oh Gokan you are from Turkey and we will eat a Turkey in a few days” =^)

Happy SharePointing!

-        Ninja Gokan