I’m quite a perfectionist when it comes to making sure that hardware runs with the latest firmware, quite often these software updates bring improved stability and features. In SSDs though it quite commonly brings about performance boosts. However when trying to update the Vertex 4s I recently received to build a Custom RDS Farm I would go to update the… Read more
Connect to a Particular RDS Server in Load Balanced Farm
Sometimes you will want to connect to a particular server in a RDS load balanced farm (maybe you want to perform a particular update on that server or something similar) however when you RDP onto it the load balancer kicks in and you may not get the server you were after. The simple solution is to start a remote desktop session to… Read more
Custom RemoteFX RDS Farm – Farm Architecture + Hardware Specs
Following on from my first post I am going to look at what will make up by RemoteFX RDS farm including the software and hardware architecture. First I’ve started out as you would with any small RDS farm; in this case with 4 session hosts and a single connection broker (which will also act as licence server). The 30 endpoints are pointed… Read more
Custom RemoteFX RDS Farm – The Intro
Sufficed to say budgets are still tight for schools and nothing chews through the budget more than replacing a computer room full of PCs. One alternative has always been to convert the PCs in the room to ‘fat thin clients’ with a small OS (say Windows Thin PC) and hook them up to a Terminal Server/Remote Desktop Services Farm. The biggest… Read more
Windows Update Error 800B0001
A few days ago some of our Windows 7 clients were having a Windows Update error, the specific message was Windows could not search for new updates An error occurred while checking for new updates for your computer. Error(s) found: Code 800B0001 Windows Update encountered an unknown error. The funny thing was the clients could still get updates from Microsoft Update however… Read more
Installing the product key into an evaluation version of System Centre 2012 Virtual Machine Manager
So you’ve got your shiny new System Centre 2012 Virtual Machine Manager install up and running, Virtual Hosts are running, you’ve done P2V migrations of a few old machines all during the while you are watching the ‘Evaluation Version – xyz days remaining’ ticker counting down. So where do I put this product key? You may think its in settings,… Read more
Axel M80 thin client – nice for the office not so sure about the classroom
A little while ago the guys at Axel let me borrow one of their M80 thin clients to try out with Citrix VDI-in-a-Box and also Microsoft RDS (Server 2008 R2) and I’m happy to say I can easily see this as a good thin client to use in the office although I have my reservations about use in classroom. This review… Read more
MMC could not create the snap in – Server 2008
After recently performing an in place upgrade from Server 2008 Standard to Server 2008 Enterprise (I was after using the DFS features on this particular server) I started receiving an odd error message when trying to load server manager. The full message is MMC could not create the snap-in. The snap-in might not have been installed correctly. Name: Server Manager… Read more
What does it take to run a Citrix VDI-in-a-Box Proof of Concept?
One of the wonderful things about Windows Server 2008 R2 Hyper-V is that any driver that was written for Windows 7 will also run in Server 2008 R2! As such its very easy to take any Window 7 compatible PC (with a processor that can do hardware assisted virtualization like the AMD A and FX series) and turn it into… Read more
Showcase your Server
One of the main aims of myworldofit.net is to share with other IT Admins simple solutions to problems they may encounter, in part of that goal I have posted up details of some of the bits of server hardware I use to keep things going (e.g. this post on my latest backup server). Through my new website showcaseyourserver.net I’m extending… Read more