If you’re planning on making the move to virtualization, whether it’s Hyper-V or VMware you need to first make sure that your hardware, and more specifically your processor, can handle virtualization. How do you do that?

Well, there’s actually a really easy way to check which Intel processors support virtualization and which don’t.

So if you’re looking to implement virtualization and you need to check your current hardware, or if you’re looking to buy new hardware — this is the best way to check which Intel processor you can use — before spending money on a new box or a new processor.

You can access this super easy to use too at ark.intel.com/vtlist.aspx

And in the video below I’ll show you exactly how it works and how you can use it to your advantage.

Related posts:

• Virtualization Interoperability with Windows Server and Red Hat Linux
• Hyper-V and VMware — Part 1: Usability
• Hyper-V Certification – MCTS: Windows Server Virtualization, Configuration (Exam 70-652)

Your friendly neighborhood instructor,
Coach Culbertson

Latte The Director of Fun and Recreation Examines Coach's Network - Click for 640x480

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• Video: Coach Culbertson on Server 2008 R2 Training — Free for a Limited Time

Mel and I recently did a bonus video on how to install SQL Server 2008 on Hyper-V for our SQL Server 2008 Administration and Hyper-V trainings and today we wanted to share a short clip from that video.

The complete video on how to install SQL Server on Hyper-V will be available as a bonus video in both the Hyper-V and SQL Server 2008 Administration courses.

So check out the short video clip and let us know what you think!

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• How to Use Hyper-V and WDS to Virtualize Windows Server 2003
• Video: Coach Culbertson on Server 2008 R2 Training — Free for a Limited Time
• How to Create a New Virtual Machine with Hyper-V

Not to mention the fact that most Open Source software is written for Linux and Apache, and while I’ve banged around on the Windows port of Apache, it’s just easier to use a LAMP (Linux, Apache, MySQL, and PHP) box along with one of those nifty cPanel interfaces to get stuff done.

Server 2008 & IIS 7

However, the world has been a-changin’ with Windows Server 2008 and IIS 7. IIS 7 can now support PHP, and since so many of the most popular scripts for content management systems and blogging software are written in PHP, my mind opens up a bit towards the possibility of using a Server 2008 box for web hosting. But even so, the tweaks and worksarounds to make the Open Source stuff work on Server 2008 have been kind of a pain.

The wizards over at Microsoft have even tried to make web life on a Server 2008 box a little easier with their Microsoft Web Platform Installer. . This little 1MB download will help you not only easily install PHP, IIS, Wordpress, Drupal (one of my absolute favorite web apps!) , and a whole mess of other stuff on your web server, but also keep your code up to date. (Note: Check out the 2.0 Beta version for easy installs of PHP support and the latest and greatest from the Open Source stuff. Skip the 1.0, it’s so yesterday.)

So go download it, check it out, and tell me your experience with it in the comments.

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• Install BIND DNS on Windows Web Server 2008 – Part 1
• How to Install Windows Server 2008
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Nowadays, it may not be as important to know exactly what to do right off the top of your head, but rather know where to go to find the answers to the issues and problems you might be facing. Of course you know that a solid foundation of knowledge is critical to doing IT work, but there are always going to be limits to what we can cram into our heads.

Some Quick IT Research Sites

One fantastic resource I go back to over and over is the Windows Server 2008 Technical Library. As IT folks, we forget that sometimes the information that we need is actually sitting right on Microsoft’s site. Granted, Microsoft’s web site is gargantuan in it’s scope, but taking a little time to become familiar with the primary areas of their site(s) can save massive time in the future.

For the web heads out there, you know that IIS 7 has been a huge upgrade in terms of modularity and capability of Microsoft’s web services. Get to know IIS.net. There is a massive amount of knowledge on that site.

And lastly, don’t forget about forums. A forum I visit a lot is the one hosted by my buddies over at petri.co.il. Chances are, whatever issue or question you’re facing, someone else has also dealt with the same thing. Finding a solution to an issue might be as easy as doing a search on Petri.

Always keep in mind that with as fast as everything changes in IT, it might be more important to know where to go to find the answer instead knowing what the answer is (at least initially-you do have to find the answer sometime). I’ve provided some resources here that I use time and time again, what knowledge bases, forums, and resources do you use to do research (besides the Best Computer Training on The Planet from Trainsignal.com) ? Post your links in the comments.

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• Video: Coach Culbertson on Server 2008 R2 Training — Free for a Limited Time

So I’ve been thinking about why I do what I do as an IT guy and instructor. And I recently heard a quote from a fellow by the name of David Neagle that summed up my why as to what I do, and I thought, “That’s it!” So here’s the quote:

“More life to all and less to none.”

Here’s my thoughts on it:

I’ve had the honor to launch a couple hundred careers in the last ten years or so, including the IT careers of inner-city high school students. Many of you know that I served a two-year tour of duty in one of the toughest high schools in Chicago, where I took a bunch of at-risk students and turned them into computer techs. Even today, I still get emails and text messages from my kids, keeping me updated with their new jobs and promotions. Because of what I was able to teach my kids (and I do claim them as mine, and am very proud of their accomplishments), they are able to have more life, and more ability to succeed.

Recently, a fellow named Ali posted on our forums about how he just landed his MCITP certification and a new job after using our training. And damn if I don’t feel honored to have been part of his journey towards that. That’s what it’s all about– helping more people find more opportunity, more jobs, more success, and more life. It’s about helping folks provide for their families, putting food on the table, putting kids through school, and opening up new doors all around.

More Life: Compliments of your IT Administrators

And don’t even get me started on how IT folks open up doors for the people and organizations they work for. Maybe that’s a post for a different day, but stop and think about how much IT folks make possible. Try and send an email when your Exchange server is down, and you’ll know just how much life IT techs bring to any organization. The why for IT technicians and system administrators is to help bring more life to their organizations.

So that’s it, gang. More life to all, and less to none. When I teach Windows Server or anything else, it’s all about transmitting skills and knowledge so that more success can be had, more opportunity can be opened and created, and more life can flow. More life to all, and less to none.

So, now it’s your turn–tell me your why for doing IT work.

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If you can’t shell out the dollars for System Center Virtual Machine Manager, this might just be an option for your migration to the wonderful world of virtualization.

If you’re not familiar with Windows Deployment Services or Hyper-V in Server 2008, you might want to check out some in-depth training for it.

We’ve also got a few articles covering WDS in case you’re interested and an intro to WDS video.

Enjoy!

Related posts:

• Hyper-V Certification – MCTS: Windows Server Virtualization, Configuration (Exam 70-652)
• Installing Hyper-V Server Role in 7 Easy Steps
• How to Create a New Virtual Machine with Hyper-V

I’ll explain in detail what the MCTS and MCITP certifications are and which exams you need to pass to achieve each certification. I will also talk about how you can obtain the MCITP: Server Administrator and MCITP: Enterprise Administrator certifications if you’re just starting out and what the upgrade paths are for those of you with a current MCSA or MCSE.

Here’s what’s covered in this video:

• New Server Certifications for Network Admins — MCTS, MCITP: Server Administrator, MCITP: Enterprise Administrator
• Upgrade paths — MCSA to MCTS, MCSE to MCTS, MCSA to MCITP, MCSE to MCITP
• Cool new Server 2008 features — for those of you who are new to Server 2008 you’ll be able to get a taste of what’s new including virtualization, multicasting, failover clustering, next generation TCP/IP, and much more

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• Dust Off Your MCSE: The New MCTS & MCITP Certifications Are The Future
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• Lesson 8: Windows Server 2008 Terminal Services

Now let me start with a little warning; Microsoft does not have good documentation on WDS, and it even took me a while to gain a good understanding of how it functions. But what I’ve learned is that there is one key secret to making WDS work. And if you understand this one key element then Windows Deployment Services will be really easy for you and you’re going to really like it.

After covering a bit of theory and terminology, we’ll walk through the Initial WDS Server Configuration and then we’ll capture and deploy a Vista/Server 2008 image.

Here are all the details of what we’ll be working on today:

• Intro to WDS — how WDS works and how it can help you save money and time
• Installing the WDS Role — the step-by-step procedures and what you need to know (including the secret that you need to understand to make WDS work for you)
• Configuring WDS — using our Verde Petra scenario I’ll demonstrate how to configure WDS
• Boot Image Import — next we’ll add a Boot Image for deployment so you can get an idea of how this is done
• Create Capture Boot Image — then we’ll create and add a capture Boot Image from the Deployment Image we created in the previous step
• Create an Image Group — now we’re going to create an image group and then add the install image to the server
• Capture an Image — next I’ll demonstrate how to capture an image from a reference computer using the command line and we’ll also go through the BIOS setup for PXE
• Deploying WDS — we’ll finish off with a demonstration of how easy it is to deploy a particular image to a machine

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Related posts:

• Arthur Installs and Configures Windows Deployment Services
• Lesson 8: Windows Server 2008 Terminal Services
• Windows Deployment Services and the Real World

We’ll be taking a look at some of the great new tools, features and advantages of Terminal Services. I’m also going to show you how to setup Remote Applications.

I’m going to walk you through installing the Terminal Services role, adding an application, and actually creating a remote desktop shortcut to it.

Here are the details of what we will be working on today:

• New Features of Terminal Services — there are some great new features in Server 2008 Terminal Services and I’ll give you a good introduction to the new tools
• Remote Application — next we’ll talk about what you need on your machine before installing Terminal Services and the steps that are needed for the installation
• Installing a Terminal Server — going back to our original scenario, we’ll go through the installation steps and get the Terminal Server properly setup
• Configuring RemoteApp – we’ll end today’s video by configuring the RemoteApp in our Server Manager

Free Instant Download

Download this lesson in high-quality WMV video format

Or, download in iPod/iPhone format to watch on the go

Related posts:

• Lesson 6: Windows Server 2008 RODC – Read Only Domain Controllers
• Lesson 4: Windows Server Core and DHCP Servers in Server 2008
• Lesson 9: Windows Deployment Services