technical solutions and commentary

Citrix Research Engineer, Jeff Muir, introduces PortICA on his blog in this post Introducing PortICA (ICA server on XP). In the post he states “…For the first time, it will be possible to host ICA on Windows XP. This makes it possible to use existing ICA clients and infrastructure to access Windows XP desktops.”

It sounds like PortICA is similar to users being able to remotely access an XP desktop using RDP. I work with several IT departments that use Presentation Server and also provide users remote access to their office desktops using VPN over the internet and an RDP client. In this regard PortICA could simplify this scenario since using the ICA client will work on about any platform/OS, including a web based version.

If users can use the Citrix Access Gateway or Web Interface w/ Secure Gateway and be provided the icon at login to a dedicated XP desktop (either a full PC fat client or a blade running XP) There would be value in PortICA. It would be easier than providing each user the name or dedicated IP address of their desktop for the RDP client.

Also interesting would be using PortICA along with Citrix EdgeSight for remote monitoring and control of users desktops. There are other solutions on the marketing for this inclusing built-in remote assistance RDP, VNC, SMS, LanDesk, etc. If a company is making the investment in EdgeSight, it may be a good add-on product to it. 

When using an SSL certificate to secure a web site, you can typically choose to “renew” an existing certificate with the original certificate authority. If you decide to switch SSL providers when the time comes to renew, you cannot simply choose to “renew the current certificate”. You need to generate a new CSR for the site, but do not have that option available if an SSL certificate is currently associated with the site. Removing the current certificate in order to generate a new CSR is typically not acceptable.

You can create a new virtual web site in IIS and use it to generate a CSR to use with the existing live site. TI created a document that walks you through that process. You can download it from the Technical guides Tab or directly from here at Install a SSL certificate on IIS when you cannot use the renew certificate option

I have a code from McDonald’s Monoply for a free game and ring tone from feedmyphone.com. The Windows Mobile 5 phones are not listed as an option to get a ringer or game for.

If anyone wants either of these, the first to e-mail me at jhartley2 {at} gmail.com and tell me which one you want (ring tone ot the game) and I’ll forward the code to you.

You can stream your own music collection over the internet. Heres the basic steps:

• Download free software from SlimDevices.com
• Install Slim Server on the PC the you have your music collection on
• Configure security to the web interface and stream
• Let the software index your music
• Open up port 9000 to the internet
• Open up the web console from you remote computer
• Build or open a play list for the IP address you are connecting from
• Point your media player to the URL of the stream

You can have mutliple playlists and music streams delivering music to multiple remote devices too. The playlist and stream is configured per remote ip address.

Another reason for Software Assurance… 

Optimization pack available in January 2007

Today, at the SoftSummit conference in Santa Clara, Calif., Microsoft announced it will offer a set of software tools designed to take the sting out today’s biggest pain points that enterprises deal with when deploying and managing applications and desktops. The Microsoft Desktop Optimization Pack for Software Assurance marries four different tools:

Beginning in January 2007, Microsoft plans to offer the optimization pack worldwide as an add-on subscription for companies with Software Assurance agreements. Customers with Open Value, Select, Enterprise Agreement (EA), EA Subscription and Campus and School agreements can subscribe through volume licensing, for an estimated retail price of US$10 a year per desktop.

“Our goal with the Microsoft Desktop Optimization Pack is to put companies back in control of their IT systems,” says Gavriella Schuster, senior director of the Windows Client Product Marketing Group at Microsoft. “This pack creates truly dynamic desktops, with applications that can be managed and maintained with much less effort than today, regardless of where employees access them, be it on desktop PCs in the home office or on a company laptop in a distant airport.”

http://www.microsoft.com/windowsvista/getready/optimizeddesktop.mspx

Entire press release is here:
http://www.microsoft.com/presspass/features/2006/oct06/10-17Desktop.mspx

Microsoft has a fix for issues encountered when running SQL 2000 on Windows 2003 x64. This affects non-clustered and clustered SQL servers.

The fix is found in Technet KB Article 904418, entitled ‘FIX: Event ID 20 “Volume Shadow Copy Service error” is logged when you back up the System State on a Windows Server 2003 x64 Edition-based computer that is running SQL Server 2000′

Here are some OpenSource NAS/SAN software pacakages that let you turn standard hardware into a NAS/SAN type device. These should work great in lab environments for testing software integration with NAS/SAN services. I have not used these in production, and do not recommend it.

• Openfiler allows you to build a NAS and/or SAN appliance, using standard hardware in less than 10 minutes. OpenFiler combines Apache, Samba, LVM2, ext3, Linux NFS and iSCSI Enterprise Target into a small, easy to manage with a web-based management interface.

• FreeNAS supports CIFS (samba), FTP, NFS, RSYNC protocols, local user authentication, software RAID (0,1,5) with a web based configuration interface.

Run the adprep.exe /forestprep command from the Windows Server 2003 R2 installation disk 2 on the schema master.

Use the Windows Server 2003 R2 installation disk 2, and then type the following command: Drive:\CMPNENTS\R2\ADPREP\adprep.exe /forestprep

More infomation can be found in Microsoft KB917385

There are several considerations when upgrading an existing Windows 2000 Active Directory to Windows 2003. The resources below should be consulted before before preparing the forest/domain and introducing a Windows 2003 DC into the Active Directory.

• Common Mistakes When Upgrading a Windows 2000 Domain To a Windows 2003 Domain
• Hotfixes to install before you run adprep /Forestprep on a Windows 2000 domain controller to prepare the Forest and domains for the addition of Windows Server 2003-based domain controllers
• Enhancements to Adprep.exe in Windows Server 2003 Service Pack 1 and in hotfix 324392
• Windows Server 2003 adprep /forestprep command causes mangled attributes in Windows 2000 forests that contain Exchange 2000 servers

Last week there was news that Microsoft was having problems after updating the WGA servers. We are still running into computers deployed using Volume License Keys in the field with Windows Geniune Advantage Validation errors. Microsoft has posted a workaround on the microsoft forums.

To correct the problem:

1. Logon the workstation as an Administrator
2. Delete the data.dat file from C:\Documents and Settings\All Users\Application Data\Windows Genuine Advantage\data
3. (The drive letter will depend on where the OS was installed)
4. Revisit http://www.microsoft.com/genuine/downloads/validate.aspx to confirm that the machine is now genuine.
5. Run wgatray.exe /b from the command line to ensure that the latest validation is updated for WGA Notifications.  If this command is not present on the machine you can continue on to the next step.
6. Reboot the computer to remove all non-genuine notifications.

If you have many computers affected on the network, you can also create a BAT file to run through the above steps. Details are located on the Microsoft Forums in this post.