Windows 7 features you'll miss in Windows 8

It's no big secret that Windows 8 is a lot different from Windows 7.
Although Windows 8 has sometimes been described as Windows 7 with a
new interface bolted on, there are actually a number of Windows 7
features missing from Microsoft's latest operating system.

Here are 10 Windows 7 features you won't find as Windows 8 features --
and, no, the Start menu is not on the list.

1. Being able to do everything through a single interface

The biggest thing that I miss about Windows 7 is being able to do
everything through a single interface. Unlike some people, I don't
have a problem with the Modern UI, nor does the missing Start button
bother me. Even so, constantly switching back and forth between the
Start screen and the desktop can be a pain.

2. A unified Control Panel

Another thing that you are likely to miss about Windows 7 is a unified
Control Panel. Yes, the Control Panel still exists in Windows 8, but
it isn't the only place to make configuration changes. The
configuration options are scattered across multiple locations in
Windows 8.

3. Windows XP Mode

One of the big selling points for Windows 7 was Windows XP Mode, which
allowed a fully licensed version of Windows XP to be run within a
virtual machine. Although Windows 8 includes Hyper-V, Windows XP mode
is not officially supported because of Windows XP's impending end of
support. Even so, there are plenty of websites that show how to make
Windows XP Mode work in Windows 8.

4. DVD playback

Windows 8 lacks the ability to play DVDs through Windows Media Center.
While the average corporate user probably doesn't need to play DVDs on
the job, there are plenty of situations in which this omission could
prove to be disruptive. For example, I produce IT training videos and
frequently use the DVD playback capabilities to review my work.

If you need DVD playback capabilities in Windows 8, you can purchase
the Windows Media Center Pack, which installs on top of Windows 8
Professional. Another option is to install a free media player such as
VLC Media Player.

5. Backup and recovery

The native backup tools in Windows have never been its best feature.
Even so, there are those who use it to back up the contents of their
desktops. Among the Windows 8 features, Microsoft has included the
Windows 7 backup tools, but it announced that those tools were being
deprecated in favor of the new Windows 8 File History tool.

In Windows 8.1, the ability to create a Windows 7 style backup has
been completely removed, although it is still possible to restore a
legacy backup. If you need backup capabilities beyond those offered by
the File History feature, you will need to use third-party tools.

6. Detailed blue-screen errors

In previous Windows versions, the dreaded "blue screen of death"
contained helpful diagnostic information. Sure, wading through the
information presented on a blue screen was not a task for amateurs,
but Microsoft was at least kind enough to provide diagnostic
information.

In Windows 8 the old-school blue screen of death has been replaced by
a new blue screen that simply shows a frown face and states, "Your PC
ran into a problem that it couldn't handle, and now it needs to
restart."

7. Recent document lists

One of the downsides to no longer having a traditional Start menu is
that the recent document lists are also gone. Thankfully, many
applications (such as Microsoft Office 2013) now maintain their own
application-level recent document lists.

8. Libraries

Windows has long used libraries such as Documents, Photos and
Downloads to help users organize file data. The libraries still exist
in Windows 8, but Microsoft has hidden them in Windows 8.1 as a way of
trying to get users to begin saving data onto SkyDrive.

You can still access the libraries in Windows 8.1, but to do so, you
have to open File Explorer's View tab, click on the Navigation Pane
option and select the Show Libraries option.

9. The Windows Experience Index

The Windows Experience Index has been removed from Windows 8.1.
Although some people have criticized the index as being a meaningless
score, I have always found it to be a helpful way of quickly
evaluating the effect of hardware upgrades without having to delve
into Performance Monitor. Fortunately, there are plenty of free,
third-party tools you can use to benchmark desktop performance.

10. Gadgets

In July 2012, Microsoft published a security advisory warning
customers that Windows gadgets contained a security vulnerability that
could allow malicious code to be run. Microsoft's "fix" for the
problem was to provide a patch that disables gadgets in Windows Vista
and Windows 7. It should therefore come as no surprise that desktop
gadgets have been removed from Windows 8.

Microsoft's stance is that gadgets are unnecessary in Windows 8 since
data can be conveyed through live tiles on the Start screen. Even so,
there is no denying that gadgets can do things that live tiles can't,
such as monitor running processes and CPU usage. Fortunately, several
third-party vendors offer software to re-enable gadget support.

Although there are a number of features that have been removed from
Windows 8 or Windows 8.1, the removal of features is not unique to
this operating system. Every version of Windows in recent memory has
had features that were either deprecated or removed.

Using MPLS In The Enterprise

In the data center, the MPLS/VPN architecture offers an attractive alternative to increasing the size of Layer 2 domains. Some players in the industry are promoting protocols such as Transparent Interconnection of Lots of Links (TRILL) to solve Spanning Tree Protocol (STP) scalability problems. Rather than making Layer 2 networks bigger to enable cloud and other services, why not move toward a Layer 3-centric data center network? MPLS/VPN has been deployed in large networks for a decade; the technology is proven, and you can adopt best practices on MPLS/VPN available on the Internet.

The introduction of MPLS within the enterprise network means you can move away from VLANs for segmentation. Let's examine how segmentation works in an MPLS network. The MPLS/VPN architecture divides routers into three classes: provider (P), provider edge (PE) and customer edge (CE). The P routers are core routers. PE routers are edge routers that connect to CE routers. This terminology is based on service provider usage. In the enterprise, the PE routers might be the demarcation between a department or building and the enterprise backbone.

You may have heard of RFC2547bis VPNs in the context of MPLS. This document defines how multiple MPLS labels are used to provide virtual segmentation. On the PE routers, virtual routing and forwarding instances (VRFs) separate routing information such that each "customer" can use overlapping IP address space. The PE routers encapsulate IP packets using two labels. The P routers make forwarding decisions based on labels; destination IP addresses are effectively hidden in the core. The CE routers are unaware of labels and serve as generic IP routers.

The combination of the Border Gateway Protocol (BGP) and a label distribution protocol are used to communicate prefix and label information. These protocols permit a nearly automatic set-up of the Layer 3 VPN as any-to-any or hub-and-spoke topologies. Compare this with the messy techniques required to scale and manage VLANs in large Layer 2 networks.

While I see Layer 3 VPNs as the primary driver for the introduction of MPLS in the enterprise, MPLS has other uses. Network architects use MPLS to build Layer 2 VPNs in the form of point-to-point or any-to-any topologies. Point-to-point connections are commonly referred to as pseudowires or virtual leased lines. Frame relay and Ethernet are two examples of Layer 2 protocols that can be transported across the MPLS backbone. Virtual Private LAN Service (VPLS) is an any-to-any topology. The MPLS network emulates a switch that connects all sites in a single Layer 2 domain.

MPLS is one of many enabler technologies for the transition from IPv4 to IPv6. Recall that the core of MPLS does not make forwarding decisions based on the IP header. The use of labels hides the IP packet, creating tunnels between PE devices. The core routers are largely indifferent to IP version. A technology called 6PE encapsulates IPv6 packets at the CE with two labels. The remote PE strips the label before forwarding to the CE.

In 6PE networks, the PE routers must be IPv6-ready. The P routers in the core do not need to fully support IPv6. How is this relevant to IPv6 transition? The number of routers you must configure and potentially upgrade for IPv6 is limited to PE and CE routers. The addition of IPv6 functionality can be performed incrementally. You may have a few IPv6-enabled LANs that you want to communicate with IPv6 LANs in other regions. Only the PE and CE routers associated with those IPv6 LANs must be configured for IPv6. Your path to a fully enabled IPv6 network is simplified.

You are not operating in uncharted territory by deploying MPLS in your enterprise. Although most MPLS deployments are in service provider networks, enterprises are introducing MPLS into their networks. The use cases discussed in this article--Layer 3 VPN, Layer 2 VPN and IPv6 transition--are just a few of many ways in which MPLS is used. The next time your network team meets to discuss the roadmap for the network, consider how MPLS may meet the requirements of the today's network.

VMware Has To Step Up On NFS

VMware brought long-awaited storage improvements in the most recent version of vSphere, most significantly VSAN and the Flash Read Cache. However, several significant promises remain unfulfilled.

It's time for VMware to upgrade its support for file storage (as opposed to block storage) and embrace the pioneering vendors who are building storage systems specifically for the virtualization environment.

File-based storage makes sense for virtualization. The hypervisor presents virtual disks to the virtual machines it hosts. It stores those virtual disks, and the rest of the information it stores about the VM, as files. Because functions like vMotion rely on shared storage, VMware had to create a clustered file system, VMFS, to allow multiple hosts to access the same SAN volumes. Before VAAI, this lead to severe limitations on how many VMs could be stored in a single datastore/volume. It still results in some complexities for administrators.

As a result, managing vSphere with NFS storage is somewhat simpler than managing an equivalent system on block storage. Even better, a good NFS storage system, because it knows which blocks belong to which virtual machine, can perform storage management tasks such as snapshots, replication and storage quality of service per virtual machine, rather than per volume.

Recognizing that we have to make a transition to the virtual machine as the unit of storage management VMware has for years been talking about vVols, but there was no vVol news at VMWorld this year. A vVol is essentially a micro-LUN, where each virtual disk of each virtual machine is stored on the SAN array as a separate volume so the array can provide functions like snapshots or replication on a per-VM basis.

We can't do this today because the block I/O protocols require the initiator (host) to log into the target (array) for each volume they mount, and there are limits to the number of logins the array can support at any one time. So we build datastores that put multiple VMs in a single volume because the array, or more accurately the protocol used to access the array, can't support more than say 1024 connections.

Also, vVols require storage vendors to make some significant changes to their systems to support micro-LUNS and the demultiplexer function. My best guess is that vVols won't really hit the market in a form users can put in production for another two years or more.

Better NFS support will empower storage vendors to innovate and strengthen the vSphere ecosystem and fill the gap until vVols are ready. NFS support will also provide an alternative once vVols hit the market.

The first step would be for VMware to acknowledge that NFS has advanced in the past decade. Today vSphere supports version 3.0 of NFS—which is seventeen years old. NFS 4.1 has much more sophisticated security, locking and network improvements than NFS 3.0. The optional pNFS extension can bring the performance and multipathing of SANs with centralized file system management.

VMware should also extend the NFS version of VAAI to support the per-VM snapshots now starting to appear on storage systems from vendors including Tintri, Simplivity, Sanbolic, Nutanix and even VMware's own Virsto. With VAAI integration, the storage system snapshots could completely replace VMware's log-based snapshots for vStorage API for Data Protection backups.

VMware wants the future of vSphere storage to be either VSAN on server-attached storage or vVols to EMC storage, I hope it can be a bit more liberal in its view and upgrade vSphere's NFS support. While I'm making requests, adding SMB 3 would make sense too, but that's probably a bridge too far.

Remote Procedure Call (RPC)

Remote Procedure Call (RPC) is a protocol that one program can use to request a service from a program located in another computer in a network without having to understand network details. (A procedure call is also sometimes known as a function call or a subroutine call.) RPC uses the client/server model. The requesting program is a client and the service-providing program is the server. Like a regular or local procedure call, an RPC is a synchronous operation requiring the requesting program to be suspended until the results of the remote procedure are returned. However, the use of lightweight processes or threads that share the same address space allows multiple RPCs to be performed concurrently.

When program statements that use RPC are compiled into an executable program, a stub is included in the compiled code that acts as the representative of the remote procedure code. When the program is run and the procedure call is issued, the stub receives the request and forwards it to a client runtime program in the local computer. The client runtime program has the knowledge of how to address the remote computer and server application and sends the message across the network that requests the remote procedure. Similarly, the server includes a runtime program and stub that interface with the remote procedure itself. Results are returned the same way.

There are several RPC models and implementations. A popular model and implementation is the Open Software Foundation's Distributed Computing Environment (DCE). The Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers defines RPC in its ISO Remote Procedure Call Specification, ISO/IEC CD 11578 N6561, ISO/IEC, November 1991.

RPC spans the Transport layer and the Application layer in the Open Systems Interconnection (OSI) model of network communication. RPC makes it easier to develop an application that includes multiple programs distributed in a network.

Upgrade ESXi Hosts from ESXi 5.0 to 5.1

There are many ways to upgrade your ESXi Hosts from ESXi 5.0 to 5.1 – eg. with a script, via commandline (esxcli) or using Auto Deploy. But did you know that you can use VMware Update Manager, too?

This How-to will help you to perform the necessary steps concerning the upgrade of the ESXi hosts. But please note that this article does not include the necessary steps for upgrading your vCenter Server, the installation of SSO,…

If you need information about this topic please read the following documents about the update:

    * Upgrading to ESXi 5.1 best practices (2032756)
    * vSphere Upgrade Guide
    * vSphere 5.1 Release Notes

Steps to upgrade the ESXi Hosts using Update Manager:

    * Download the binaries
    * Import the ESXi Image into Update Manager
    * Attach Baseline
    * Scan hosts and perform the upgrade

Step 1: Download the binaries

Download the binaries from VMware.com or from your hardware vendor if there is an customized VMware ESXi Image available.

HP for example has an own download site for their HP ProLiant Servers: Customized VMware ESXi Images for HP ProLiant Servers

Step 2: Import ESXi Image into Update Manager

Login to your vCenter and navigate to the Update Manager: "Home" – "Solutions and Applications" – "Update Manager"

Open the Tab "ESXi Images" and select "Import ESXi Image":


    * select the path to the ESXi image you have downloaded before and click "next"
    * the wizzard will start to upload the image – this can take some seconds
    * in the last step you can create a baseline using the new ESXi image, please change the name of the baseline and click "Finish"

You can now find the new baseline in the tab "Baselines and Groups":



Step 3: Attach Baseline

Now you have to attach the baseline to your cluster. Open "Home and Clusters" and select the Cluster with the ESXi Hosts you want to upgrade.

Navigate to the "Update Manager" tab and select "Attach":



In the "Attach Baseline or Group" Wizzard select the baseline created in the step before:



Step 4: Scan hosts and perform the upgrade

Now you can scan your ESXi hosts against the new defined baseline. Select an ESXi Host and click "Scan for Updates".

Do not forget to uncheck "Patches and Extensions" in the next window and select the "Upgrades" box:



The scan takes some minutes. When it is finished you can see if the host is compliant or non-compliant against the baseline.

To perform the upgrade, right-click the host and select "Remediate".

In the Remediation-Wizzard select the defined Upgrade-Baseline:



After clicking "Next"  accept the EULA

The next window enables you to remove installed third-party software that is incompatible with the update. If necessary select the check box:



Now you can specify a task name and schedule the remediation if necessary:



After clicking "Next" you can define some maintenance mode options:



An last but not least you can define some cluster remediation options:



Check the "Ready to complete" summary and click "Finish" to start the upgrade process and cross your fingers that the task complete successfully!