If you’re not interested in technology or other geeky stuff, you can probably skip this entry as I’m going to be describing some of the technical endeavors I’ve been undertaking over the last couple of weeks.
SP1
You may or may not have noticed that the site is a bit faster. This is mainly due to the fact that I have installed Service Pack 1 for Windows Server 2008 R2 on both the host and the various guest OSs that I have running. The new Dynamic Memory feature allows me to just set initial memory settings and allow the system [guest] load to either request more memory or free up unused bits so that other guests can use them. I’ve given the email server and this web server [and the firewall server] priority so that their requests for resources are serviced first.
The performance is much better – you may not notice much, but on my end when I use my virtual desktop [which is where I do all my personal computing like Quicken and personal email] is much faster since it has the RAM it needs and the other guests aren’t being hogs.
It also makes accessing all my other guest machines easier and faster. The ones not used much can idle and give back RAM. It’s supposed to be “greener” too, allowing you to save money by throttling back CPU and resource usage on the server to only what is needed.
New Virtual Box: FAIL
I tried to utilize one of my old laptops, a Toshiba Techra M5, as a new virtual host for a couple of guest machines [like a new virtual SAN host I got at TechReady]. I installed the raw, bare-bones Windows Hyper-V Server 2008 R2 – which is NOT Windows Server, for those of you not in the know. The install went fine until I got to installing SP1 [see above] on the machine. The Blue Screen of Death made a command performance.
It seems that I remember why I stopped using the laptop: it’s prone to overheating and crashing, which is exactly what it did – several times. So, scratch having another host box for my virtual machines for now. I suppose I’ll have to wait until I get a new one and take one of the other old ones and repurpose it.
Smart Cards and Certificates
I’m also playing with certificates and smart cards. I’m about halfway there – I’ve gotten one to work via logging into a laptop, but not yet with OWA [which is the goal].
I’ll soon have to upgrade the CA to 2008 R2, but not just yet.
That’s all for now. 🙂
::: jeffphillips.org ::: 