WOW! Second Shot is back

Great News !! Another chance from Microsoft to be more motivated to move forward in our goal of Certification and this benefit is available until 31 May 2014.

Microsoft provides this for the exams with 070 or 071 prefix but with some rules ;-)

To verify these rules, please visit the link below.
Link : http://www.microsoft.com/learning/en-us/second-shot.aspx?WT.mc_id=MSLS_secondshot 

 

Good luck everyone.

The Volume Shadow copy operation failed

When you try to make a Full Backup of your server using Windows Backup feature, you can get this error (See Figures below)

 

If your server runs Hyper-V with several VMs, these Virtual Machines could be the source of the problem. To check if this is the case, just open Event Viewer and go to :
Application and Services Logs -- Microsoft -- Windows -- Hyper-V-VMMS -- Admin,  then find the name of the VM or VMs which cause the problem.

After these steps, you have just to verify two things :
    - All Snapshots on this VM (or VMs) are merged.
    - There are enough free space on C:\ partition in each VM causing the problem.

How to get Hyper-V on Windows 8

Great New !! With Windows 8, you can use Hyper-V with all his features as they are on Windows Server 2012. So you can build your own test infrastructure on your Laptop or Desktop computer and why not, export and import your VMs from your computer to the server over Windows Server 2012.
There is no need to have a dual boot or a second machine built specialy for Hyper-V.

To install this feature, just go to : 
Control Panel -- Programs and Features -- Click "Turn Windows features on or off" -- Check "Hyper-V"

Installing the first Domain Controller (New Domain in new Forest)

Below the steps of how to install the first domain controller of a new Domain in a new Forest.
In this presentation, my domain and forest name is "ITProInforme.Local".
Before we launch the installation wizard, we have to verify that the network interface card is configured with a static IP address and the server is connected with a physical cable (RJ45) (If we have a physical server) or connected to a virtual network (if we have a virtual server).

1. Click Start -- Run, type dcpromo then press Enter. When the Installation Wizard is displayed, click Next twice
    
2. Check Create a new domain in a new forest then click Next                                                          
3. Type the name of the domain then click Next. My domain is ITProInforme.local
   
   
4. Choose the forest functional level you want to apply and click Next. In my case I chose Windows Server 2008 R2 to take advantage of all features of this level.
   Note: You must first understand the difference between these functional levels to make the right choice, a point that I will explain in another post.
   
5. Make sure the DNS Server box is checked and click Next. We let the wizard to handle the installation and configuration of DNS Service
   
   
6. Click Next
   
7. Click on Next.
   Note: You can change the location of the database, log files and Sysvol.
   
8. Type the password of Directory Service Restore Mode and confirme it then click Next
9. Click Next. Once the wizard completes the installation, restart the server. Congratulation, you just installed the first domain controller.