Vlad Mazek – Vladville Blog

Woohoo, the Exchange 2003 SP2 alpha is out. Yup, for those of you not up with the lingo the “Community Technology Preview” basically means alpha so if you install this on your production server.. well, I guess you won’t be able to email me and complain about it 🙂

Overview

The software included in this Exchange Server 2003 SP2 CTP download is intended for evaluation and deployment planning purposes only, and not for production use. CTP releases of any product will not display the stability of a shipped Microsoft product. You may encounter problems with Exchange Server 2003 SP2 that could possibly result in a loss or destruction of data. Some of the mobility features contained in this CTP download are not yet available for testing, pending availability of Windows Mobile 5.0 devices. This build is available only in English.

Important: This release is not intended for production environments and should only be used in a test lab environment.

Exchange Server 2003 SP2 CTP is unsupported pre-release software distributed for feedback and testing purposes only, and is not supported by Customer Services and Support (CSS). For questions about this technical preview, see the Exchange Server Newsgroups or the Exchange Team Blog.

Known Issue: The release notes contained in this download are out-of-date. For the most current version of the release notes, see the Exchange Server 2003 SP2 CTP Release Notes.

On a more serious note, the SP2 answers pains that have been experienced by too many for too long: 16GB store limitations and management of mobile devices. The SP2 will pump the store limitation to 75GB and introduce remote-wipe functionality for Windows Mobile.

This CTP is available here, but it is alpha and it is not intended for production purposes. Susan Bradley reminds you that it is not reversible so do not put this in production.

We were at the Microsoft Quarterly Partner Technight in Orlando last night (with Rene Alamo and James Cuomo) and it was a very informative event. We pressed them about the details of the new SA and they admitted they did not know anything about the licensing side of the house. Well, apparently there are some folks in Microsoft who do, and they managed to spill it to ENT News in this article by Scott Bekker.

Now mind you, these are just rumors so take them with a grain of salt. It does look pretty good, especially the enterprise part:

Desktop Deployment Planning Services. Designed to assist in planning deployment of desktop software such as Windows and Microsoft Office, the planning services will be delivered by Microsoft partners and measured in engagement days. The number of days will depend on how much a customer spends on desktop SA over three years. Customers spending $60,000 will get one day, $300,000 will get three days, $600,000 will get five days, and $1.25 million will get 10 days. Customers will be able to trade training vouchers for additional deployment planning service days. The benefit is scheduled for 2006. A smaller-scale version for Microsoft Open Value customers, called Information Worker Desktop Services, is also planned.

Enhanced support. Customers will now get one free base support incident per Software Assurance agreement, and incremental incidents for every $20,000 spent on servers and CALs and $200,000 spent on Information Worker and Client software. The 24×7 Web-based incident support currently available to SA customers for standard editions of servers will be extended to enterprise editions and desktop products. Customers with Premier Support contracts will also be able to convert incidents earned through SA into Premier Support incidents. The benefits, planned to be available in February, are apparently intended to cover 40 percent to 100 percent of a customer’s regular Microsoft support costs.

Virtual PC Express for SA. A previously unannounced version of Microsoft Virtual PC will become part of the Software Assurance package next year. Intended to reduce compatibility issues with legacy applications when users migrate to the next platform, customers will get one instance of Virtual PC Express with each Windows client Software Assurance license. The product will allow users to run two Windows client operating systems at the same time.

Extended training. Starting in February, customers with 30,000 or more licensed desktops will receive larger numbers of training vouchers. Those can be used for certain courses or traded in for additional desktop deployment planning assistance.

Windows Vista Enterprise Edition. Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer last month mentioned an Enterprise Edition of Windows Vista that would be a level above the Professional Edition. The special operating system appears to be part of Microsoft’s Software Assurance plans. With Vista deliverable late in 2006, it’s not immediately clear if Microsoft has finalized plans for the Windows Vista Enterprise Edition as a Software Assurance–only benefit, but it would make sense.

Not threatening systems with Office 2003. If you’re on OfficeXP or Visual Studio only, we kindly ask you not to browse the web for a little while. 😉

FrSIRT Advisory : FrSIRT/ADV-2005-1450
CVE Reference : GENERIC-MAP-NOMATCH
Rated as : Critical
Remotely Exploitable : Yes
Locally Exploitable : Yes
Release Date : 2005-08-17

* Technical Description *

A critical vulnerability was identified in Microsoft Internet Explorer, which could be exploited by remote attackers to execute arbitrary commands. This issue is due to a memory corruption error when instantiating the “Msdds.dll” (Microsoft Design Tools Diagram Surface) object as an ActiveX control, which could be exploited by an attacker to take complete control of an affected system via a specially crafted Web page.

Note : The affected library is installed with Microsoft Office and Microsoft Visual Studio. Only systems with the “Msdds.dll” library installed are vulnerable.

This vulnerability has been confirmed on Windows XP SP2 with Internet Explorer 6 and Office 2002 (msdds.dll version 7.0.9064.9112).

* Exploits *

http://www.frsirt.com/exploits/20050817.IE-Msddsdll-0day.php

* Affected Products *

Microsoft Internet Explorer 6 for Microsoft Windows XP SP2
Microsoft Internet Explorer 6 for Microsoft Windows XP SP1

Microsoft Office 2002
Microsoft Visual Studio .NET 2002

* Solution *

The FrSIRT is not aware of any official supplied patch for this issue.

* References *

http://www.frsirt.com/english/advisories/2005/1450
http://www.frsirt.com/exploits/20050817.IE-Msddsdll-0day.php

* Credits *

Vulnerability reported by an anonymous person

* ChangeLog *

2005-08-17 : Original Advisory
2005-08-17 : Updated vulnerable products (Microsoft Visual Studio)
2005-08-18 : Updated vulnerable products (Microsoft Office)

For those of you that have been influenced by my use of PocketPC on many mailing lists (or business communication) will be happy to know that the new extended rom for SX66 has been released by Chris the SX66 ROM standardization project. The new rom features 1.40.125 Extended rom along with a number of fixes and tweaks (for example, GPRS not reconnecting). Additionally, the new rom is delivered in two flavors: Tmobile and Cingular, including network settings, logos, ringtones, etc. Chris has also included a number of other programs as well.

Extended rom cooking is what makes this device worth every penny and makes all other PocketPC devices seem like a worhthless brick. HTC Blue Angel is marketed as MDA 2K, Siemens SX66, Audiovox VX6600 and countless other names. Like most phones, major vendors are not the ones manufacturing or even supporting the phones. They license that stuff out. When a problem is discovered, more often than not, you are told to just get the new version in which “everything is fixed” — heard that one before? Well, with HTC devices, because of so much cross-branding, you can use the software released (and licensed) by one vendor on another vendors phone. I’ve upgraded my SX66 a number of times and it has solved a ton of problems that Siemens/Cingular have virtually ignored.

Slashdot is reporting news that CNN and a number of other media sites are getting owned through a pnp security hole for which a patch was released a few days ago. So not only do these companies have an incompetent IT staff that has no patch management system in place but they also lack adequate antivirus protection (or perhaps they have it but haven’t implemented it properly). I am not sure which is more embarassing. Have you learned nothing from SQL Slammer? Patching is important. If I was the CIO of any of those companies I’d be knee deep into monster.com resumes right about now.

The Zotob MS05-039 worm mentioned on Slashdot last Sunday may be the most recent virus that has gone global, hitting Windows 2000 desktops at CNN, ABC, the New York Times, and many others. The virus is spreading around the world rapidly as compromised systems become bots and propagate the worm, with reported outbreaks in Germany and China. InformationWeek has a decent article titled Zotob Proves Patching “Window” Non-Existent. Microsoft calls it a “low impact” threat and tells you What you should know about Zotob. Symantec has W32.Zotob.D removal instructions. Trend Micro thinks that this is a new, different worm altogether and says it is one of the fastest-spreading infections in history.

Webcasts for September have been announced and I’ve provided a list below as my selection of more interesting ones. Read through the titles first and find out which ones interest you, which ones would be suitable for your network admin, system admin, receptionist, accountant, potential client etc. Point them to the webcast. All webcasts do not appeal to all audiences, so if you know of someone that is looking for a new accounting package for example, let Microsoft try and sell it to them. Never miss an opportunity to make money.

These webcasts specifically address the most popular issues in Vladville: Exchange disaster recovery planning, SBA 2006 and Office integration.

Microsoft Executive Circle Webcast: Messaging and Collaboration Security: Meeting the Challenge
Thursday, September 08, 2005 – 11:00 AM – 12:00 PM Pacific Time
Joe Licari, Director, Product Management, Microsoft Corporation
Business systems are interconnected in order to get maximum value from the information technology (IT) infrastructure and to enable efficient employee collaboration. As a result, messaging and collaboration servers that enable e-mail, document sharing and instant messaging have become mission-critical infrastructure components in business environments around the world. Attend this webcast to understand the threats facing these servers and how you can protect them with Microsoft Internet Security and Acceleration Server and Sybari Antigen. This 100-level session is appropriate for business and IT managers who want to learn what solutions Microsoft offers to help them protect messaging and collaboration servers.
Register for this webcast

Microsoft Executive Circle Webcast: A Conversation with Avanade: Business Justifications for Modernizing Your Collaboration Platform
Wednesday, September 21, 2005 – 8:00 AM – 9:00 AM Pacific Time
Rita Seroski, Director of Infrastructure Solutions, Avenade
How are companies getting the most out of their IBM Lotus Notes investment? Find out by joining us for this webcast. We discuss the real-world experience of a partner that has helped companies migrate from Notes or coexist with a Notes and Microsoft Windows server environment. Learn how a partial or total migration that is virtually transparent to customers and partners is achieved while the value of information currently on Domino Servers is maintained.
Register for this webcast

TechNet Webcast: Exchange Performance Monitoring Analysis and Tuning (Level 300)
Thursday, September 15, 2005 – 8:00 AM – 9:30 AM Pacific Time
Paul Bowden, Program Manager, Exchange Server Development Team, Microsoft Corporation
Are you getting all the performance out of Exchange Server 2003 that you’d like? During this session, which was highly rated when presented at Tech•Ed 2005 in Orlando, Florida (TechEd ID: MSG368), we explore all aspects of performance tuning for Exchange server 2003, covering Windows, Exchange, and system resources. Understand and learn best practices, registry tweaks, and performance monitoring that can help your Exchange environment run more smoothly.
Register for this webcast

TechNet Webcast: Defining and Monitoring Desired Configuration Across a Messaging Service (Level 300)
Wednesday, September 21, 2005 – 11:30 AM – 12:30 PM Pacific Time
Edhi Sarwono, SYSTEMS DESIGN ENGINEER, Microsoft Corporation
Robbie McAlpine, SR PROGRAM MANAGER, Microsoft Corporation
Do you consider it a challenge to monitor a configuration across a messaging service? This webcast presents a new solution: the Desired Configuration Monitoring (DCM) Solution Accelerator, which will be released in September. Learn about the DCM Solution Accelerator, how configuration manifests are generated, how the configuration check is processed and about the resulting reports of non-compliant services. The Solution Accelerator provides tools to alert users of differences or non-compliance between their present configuration and baseline or desired configuration. It also provides environmental configuration data to aid configuration management.
Register for this webcast

TechNet Webcast: Securing Your Exchange Server with Antigen and ISA Server (Level 200)
Wednesday, September 21, 2005 – 11:00 AM – 12:30 PM Pacific Time
Peter Eicher, Senior Product Manager, Microsoft Corporation
Every enterprise needs inter-site communication, but it opens conduits for everything from bandwidth-gobbling spam to malicious attacks that can cripple your organization. This webcast shows how to use Sybari Antigen and Microsoft Internet Security and Acceleration (ISA) Server to protect Microsoft Exchange Server from viruses, worms, spam and external attacks. Product managers from the ISA Server and Antigen teams discuss best practices for common Exchange deployment types, emphasizing configuration and tuning Antigen and ISA Server. This session is appropriate for information technology professionals who have a surface-level understanding of ISA and Antigen, and are ready to take their knowledge to the next level.
Register for this webcast

TechNet Webcast: Exchange 2003 Disaster Recovery Solutions (Level 300)
Thursday, September 22, 2005 – 9:30 AM – 11:00 AM Pacific Time
Rand Morimoto, Author, President, Convergent Computing
Are you encountering problems with Microsoft Exchange Server failures, database corruption, site failures or LAN/WAN failures? To deal with these and similar problems, join Rand Morimoto as he presents best practices for Microsoft Exchange Server 2003 clustering, dial tone Exchange recovery strategies, non-Microsoft software replication utilities, snapshot Storage Area Network solutions and geo-clusters. Learn how to determine the best recovery solution for your needs. Gain tips, tricks, and best practices for these technical solutions, and see how other technical solutions improve Exchange Clustering for disaster recovery.
Register for this webcast

TechNet Webcast: Message Hygiene with Exchange Server 2003 (Level 300)
Tuesday, September 27, 2005 – 11:00 AM – 12:30 PM Pacific Time
Scott Schnoll, Technical Writer, Exchange User Education Team, Microsoft Corporation
Viruses, worms, spam and other unwanted email have become a destructive reality that many administrators of Microsoft Exchange routinely face. This session, one of the top-rated breakout sessions (MSG342) from Tech•Ed 2005 in Orlando, Florida, provides recommendations and guidance for slowing and stopping the unwanted messages entering your Exchange 2003 environment. Learn how the Exchange Intelligent Message Filter supplements existing anti-spam features in Exchange 2003, as well as how Virus Scanning API 2.5 provides greater protection and administrative flexibility against malicious and harmful messages.
Register for this webcast

TechNet Webcast: Exchange Best Practice Analyzer (Level 300)
Wednesday, September 28, 2005 – 9:30 AM – 11:00 AM Pacific Time
Kevin Remde, TechNet Presenter, Microsoft Corporation
The Microsoft Exchange Server Best Practices Analyzer Tool (ExBPA) is an automated health check and troubleshooting tool. ExBPA collects configuration settings and performs network and protocol tests in an Exchange topology. Join this webcast to learn about the new version of the tool that was released in March 2005. We discuss enhancements such as scheduling and baseline support. See how to use ExBPA with Microsoft Operations Manager 2005. At the end of the presentation, we talk about future enhancements to the ExBPA tool.
Register for this webcast

TechNet Webcast: Managing Exchange Service Levels with the SLA Scorecard Solution Accelerator (Level 300)
Wednesday, September 28, 2005 – 11:30 AM – 12:30 PM Pacific Time
Sanjiv Sharma, SYSTEMS DESIGN ENGINEER, Microsoft Corporation
Karri Alexion-Tiernan, PROGRAM MANAGER, Microsoft Corporation
Learn about the solution and architecture of the service-level agreement (SLA) Scorecard Solution Accelerator for a Microsoft Exchange Server 2003 and Microsoft Operations Manager (MOM) 2005 environment. The solution accelerator can set SLAs, administer outages, and analyze performance and trend reports across the messaging services. During this webcast we introduce a solution accelerator that leverages MOM 2005 data to create management-level availability reports and manage outages. We also look at long term trend analysis that compares predefined SLA levels to actual availability.
Register for this webcast

Microsoft Office System Webcast: Top 10 Tips to Save Time in Outlook (Level 100)
Tuesday, September 13, 2005 – 9:00 AM – 10:00 AM Pacific Time
Evan Archilla, Senior Training Specialist, Projectline Services
Improve the way you manage information, communicate with others and organize your work using a single resource. The new and improved features of Microsoft Office Outlook 2003 and Microsoft Exchange Server 2003 work together to help you effectively manage and organize your e-mail and share information. Join us for this informative webcast to learn some of our favorite tips and tricks for getting the most out of Outlook 2003.
Register for this webcast

Microsoft Office System Webcast: Scheduling Tips for Increased Productivity and Results with Outlook and Mission Control (Level 100)
Thursday, September 15, 2005 – 9:00 AM – 10:00 AM Pacific Time
Brian Stuhlmuller, Executive Vice President, Mission Control
Do you want to leave work earlier? Learn to use Mission Control’s principles and practices for scheduling with Microsoft Office Outlook. Schedule yourself in a whole new way that enables you to be more focused and productive. In this webcast, discover how your familiar and common habits for scheduling can actually become obstacles to productivity. Learn how to build new scheduling habits that enable you to accomplish what is most important to you and deal effectively with the demands of the current work environment.
Register for this webcast

Microsoft Office System Webcast: Tips for Improving Sales Productivity Results using Outlook with the Mission Control System (Level 100)
Thursday, September 29, 2005 – 9:00 AM – 10:00 AM Pacific Time
Brian Stuhlmuller, Executive Vice President, Mission Control
Are you ready to blow the lid off your quota? Discover the award-winning Mission Control approach to productivity that produces a dramatic increase in sales results. This webcast introduces you to an entirely new way of thinking about, organizing, and managing your sales activities in Microsoft Office System Outlook. Learn to build new work habits that give you more confidence with prospects, become more focused in your sales activities, and most importantly, be more effective at hitting and exceeding your sales targets.
Register for this webcast

Small Business Webcast: Small Business Accounting 2006 and the Tight Integration with Office 2003 (Level 100)
Friday, September 9, 2005 – 11:00 AM – 12:00 PM Pacific Time
Carl Preston, Business Development Manager, Microsoft Corporation
In this webcast, learn how Microsoft Small Business Accounting 2006 makes it easy for you to do financial tasks and care for customers. The integration between Small Business Accounting and Microsoft Office System 2003 is powerful and important. Find out just how beneficial this new office product can be for your small business.
Register for this webcast

Small Business Webcast: Integrating Small Business Accounting 2006 with Microsoft Office Programs (Level 200)
Wednesday, September 21, 2005 – 9:00 AM – 10:00 AM Pacific Time
Krim Stephenson, Product Manager, Microsoft Corporation
Learn how you can significantly increase productivity and produce more accurate and insightful financial data. You can integrate Microsoft Office Small Business Accounting 2006 with Microsoft Office programs such as Microsoft Office Word, Excel and Outlook 2003 with Microsoft Business Contact Manager Update. Such integration extends the value of the accounting features and services. This webcast is focused for accounting firm professionals. We show you how to share financial history, manage and track billable time, forecast and analyze financial scenarios and create professional-looking, customized documents.
Register for this webcast

Small Business Webcast: Integrating Small Business Accounting 2006 with Microsoft Office Programs (Level 100)
Friday, September 30, 2005 – 9:00 AM – 10:00 AM Pacific Time
Bob Lewis
Krim Stephenson, Senior Marketing Manager/Accountant Relations
PRODUCT MANAGER, Microsoft Corporation
Microsoft Corporation
Learn how you can significantly increase productivity and produce more accurate and insightful financial data. You can integrate Microsoft Office Small Business Accounting 2006 with Microsoft Office programs such as Microsoft Office Word, Excel and Outlook 2003 with Microsoft Business Contact Manager Update. Such integration extends the value of the accounting features and services. This webcast is focused for accounting firm professionals. We show you how to share financial history, manage and track billable time, forecast and analyze financial scenarios and create professional-looking, customized documents.
Register for this webcast

Momentum Webcast: Creating Business Value Through Collaboration (Level 100)
Tuesday, September 6, 2005 – 11:00 AM – 12:00 PM Pacific Time
Bill Malone, Technology Specialist, Microsoft Corporation
What is collaboration and how can it help your business? In this webcast, we look at collaboration as a means instead of an end. Collaboration tools, and more specifically a collaboration environment, can lead to dramatic increases in business value. Collaboration facilitates more effective business processes and decreases information technology support requirements and costs. Attend this webcast to learn more about the Microsoft approach to collaboration and the innovations Microsoft brings to the market to help organizations work together more effectively.
Register for this webcast

Momentum Webcast: Creating Business Value Through Collaboration (Level 100)
Monday, September 19, 2005 – 9:00 AM – 10:00 AM Pacific Time
Matt Berg, Solutions Specialist, Microsoft Corporation
What is collaboration and how can it help your business? In this webcast, we look at collaboration as a means instead of an end. Collaboration tools, and more specifically a collaboration environment, can lead to dramatic increases in business value. Using collaboration as a means facilitates more effective business processes and decreases information technology support requirements and costs. Attend this webcast to learn more about the Microsoft approach to collaboration and the innovations Microsoft brings to the market to help organizations work together more effectively.
Register for this webcast

Microsoft Executive Circle Webcast: Messaging and Collaboration Security: Meeting the Challenge (Level 100)
Thursday, September 08, 2005 – 11:00 AM – 12:00 PM Pacific Time
Joe Licari, Director, Product Management, Microsoft Corporation
Business systems are interconnected in order to get maximum value from the information technology (IT) infrastructure and to enable efficient employee collaboration. As a result, messaging and collaboration servers that enable e-mail, document sharing and instant messaging have become mission-critical infrastructure components in business environments around the world. Attend this webcast to understand the threats facing these servers and how you can protect them with Microsoft Internet Security and Acceleration Server and Sybari Antigen. This 100-level session is appropriate for business and IT managers who want to learn what solutions Microsoft offers to help them protect messaging and collaboration servers.
Register for this webcast

TechNet Webcast: Securing Collaboration Beyond E-Mail (Level 200)
Thursday, September 15, 2005 – 11:00 AM – 12:30 PM Pacific Time
Neha Sharma, Senior Product Manager, Microsoft Corporation
Is your implementation of Microsoft Windows SharePoint Services safe? SharePoint benefits your organization because you can share information and documentation, and can reduce messaging overhead. But SharePoint can also allow users to bypass traditional antivirus and content scanning, and could provide an exploitable network security vulnerability. To ensure comprehensive network protection, your organization must adopt a layered defense strategy that encompasses communication policy, user training, and consistent application of security technology. Attend this webcast to understand existing and potential threats to corporate networks, and how to deploy practical protection for Windows SharePoint Services and Microsoft Office SharePoint Portal Server.
Register for this webcast

Webcasts for September have been announced and I’ve provided a list below as my selection of more interesting ones. Read through the titles first and find out which ones interest you, which ones would be suitable for your network admin, system admin, receptionist, accountant, potential client etc. Point them to the webcast. All webcasts do not appeal to all audiences, so if you know of someone that is looking for a new accounting package for example, let Microsoft try and sell it to them. Never miss an opportunity to make money.

These webcasts specifically address the most popular issues in Vladville: Exchange disaster recovery planning, SBA 2006 and Office integration.

Microsoft Executive Circle Webcast: Messaging and Collaboration Security: Meeting the Challenge
Thursday, September 08, 2005 – 11:00 AM – 12:00 PM Pacific Time
Joe Licari, Director, Product Management, Microsoft Corporation
Business systems are interconnected in order to get maximum value from the information technology (IT) infrastructure and to enable efficient employee collaboration. As a result, messaging and collaboration servers that enable e-mail, document sharing and instant messaging have become mission-critical infrastructure components in business environments around the world. Attend this webcast to understand the threats facing these servers and how you can protect them with Microsoft Internet Security and Acceleration Server and Sybari Antigen. This 100-level session is appropriate for business and IT managers who want to learn what solutions Microsoft offers to help them protect messaging and collaboration servers.
Register for this webcast

Microsoft Executive Circle Webcast: A Conversation with Avanade: Business Justifications for Modernizing Your Collaboration Platform
Wednesday, September 21, 2005 – 8:00 AM – 9:00 AM Pacific Time
Rita Seroski, Director of Infrastructure Solutions, Avenade
How are companies getting the most out of their IBM Lotus Notes investment? Find out by joining us for this webcast. We discuss the real-world experience of a partner that has helped companies migrate from Notes or coexist with a Notes and Microsoft Windows server environment. Learn how a partial or total migration that is virtually transparent to customers and partners is achieved while the value of information currently on Domino Servers is maintained.
Register for this webcast

TechNet Webcast: Exchange Performance Monitoring Analysis and Tuning (Level 300)
Thursday, September 15, 2005 – 8:00 AM – 9:30 AM Pacific Time
Paul Bowden, Program Manager, Exchange Server Development Team, Microsoft Corporation
Are you getting all the performance out of Exchange Server 2003 that you’d like? During this session, which was highly rated when presented at Tech•Ed 2005 in Orlando, Florida (TechEd ID: MSG368), we explore all aspects of performance tuning for Exchange server 2003, covering Windows, Exchange, and system resources. Understand and learn best practices, registry tweaks, and performance monitoring that can help your Exchange environment run more smoothly.
Register for this webcast

TechNet Webcast: Defining and Monitoring Desired Configuration Across a Messaging Service (Level 300)
Wednesday, September 21, 2005 – 11:30 AM – 12:30 PM Pacific Time
Edhi Sarwono, SYSTEMS DESIGN ENGINEER, Microsoft Corporation
Robbie McAlpine, SR PROGRAM MANAGER, Microsoft Corporation
Do you consider it a challenge to monitor a configuration across a messaging service? This webcast presents a new solution: the Desired Configuration Monitoring (DCM) Solution Accelerator, which will be released in September. Learn about the DCM Solution Accelerator, how configuration manifests are generated, how the configuration check is processed and about the resulting reports of non-compliant services. The Solution Accelerator provides tools to alert users of differences or non-compliance between their present configuration and baseline or desired configuration. It also provides environmental configuration data to aid configuration management.
Register for this webcast

TechNet Webcast: Securing Your Exchange Server with Antigen and ISA Server (Level 200)
Wednesday, September 21, 2005 – 11:00 AM – 12:30 PM Pacific Time
Peter Eicher, Senior Product Manager, Microsoft Corporation
Every enterprise needs inter-site communication, but it opens conduits for everything from bandwidth-gobbling spam to malicious attacks that can cripple your organization. This webcast shows how to use Sybari Antigen and Microsoft Internet Security and Acceleration (ISA) Server to protect Microsoft Exchange Server from viruses, worms, spam and external attacks. Product managers from the ISA Server and Antigen teams discuss best practices for common Exchange deployment types, emphasizing configuration and tuning Antigen and ISA Server. This session is appropriate for information technology professionals who have a surface-level understanding of ISA and Antigen, and are ready to take their knowledge to the next level.
Register for this webcast

TechNet Webcast: Exchange 2003 Disaster Recovery Solutions (Level 300)
Thursday, September 22, 2005 – 9:30 AM – 11:00 AM Pacific Time
Rand Morimoto, Author, President, Convergent Computing
Are you encountering problems with Microsoft Exchange Server failures, database corruption, site failures or LAN/WAN failures? To deal with these and similar problems, join Rand Morimoto as he presents best practices for Microsoft Exchange Server 2003 clustering, dial tone Exchange recovery strategies, non-Microsoft software replication utilities, snapshot Storage Area Network solutions and geo-clusters. Learn how to determine the best recovery solution for your needs. Gain tips, tricks, and best practices for these technical solutions, and see how other technical solutions improve Exchange Clustering for disaster recovery.
Register for this webcast

TechNet Webcast: Message Hygiene with Exchange Server 2003 (Level 300)
Tuesday, September 27, 2005 – 11:00 AM – 12:30 PM Pacific Time
Scott Schnoll, Technical Writer, Exchange User Education Team, Microsoft Corporation
Viruses, worms, spam and other unwanted email have become a destructive reality that many administrators of Microsoft Exchange routinely face. This session, one of the top-rated breakout sessions (MSG342) from Tech•Ed 2005 in Orlando, Florida, provides recommendations and guidance for slowing and stopping the unwanted messages entering your Exchange 2003 environment. Learn how the Exchange Intelligent Message Filter supplements existing anti-spam features in Exchange 2003, as well as how Virus Scanning API 2.5 provides greater protection and administrative flexibility against malicious and harmful messages.
Register for this webcast

TechNet Webcast: Exchange Best Practice Analyzer (Level 300)
Wednesday, September 28, 2005 – 9:30 AM – 11:00 AM Pacific Time
Kevin Remde, TechNet Presenter, Microsoft Corporation
The Microsoft Exchange Server Best Practices Analyzer Tool (ExBPA) is an automated health check and troubleshooting tool. ExBPA collects configuration settings and performs network and protocol tests in an Exchange topology. Join this webcast to learn about the new version of the tool that was released in March 2005. We discuss enhancements such as scheduling and baseline support. See how to use ExBPA with Microsoft Operations Manager 2005. At the end of the presentation, we talk about future enhancements to the ExBPA tool.
Register for this webcast

TechNet Webcast: Managing Exchange Service Levels with the SLA Scorecard Solution Accelerator (Level 300)
Wednesday, September 28, 2005 – 11:30 AM – 12:30 PM Pacific Time
Sanjiv Sharma, SYSTEMS DESIGN ENGINEER, Microsoft Corporation
Karri Alexion-Tiernan, PROGRAM MANAGER, Microsoft Corporation
Learn about the solution and architecture of the service-level agreement (SLA) Scorecard Solution Accelerator for a Microsoft Exchange Server 2003 and Microsoft Operations Manager (MOM) 2005 environment. The solution accelerator can set SLAs, administer outages, and analyze performance and trend reports across the messaging services. During this webcast we introduce a solution accelerator that leverages MOM 2005 data to create management-level availability reports and manage outages. We also look at long term trend analysis that compares predefined SLA levels to actual availability.
Register for this webcast

Microsoft Office System Webcast: Top 10 Tips to Save Time in Outlook (Level 100)
Tuesday, September 13, 2005 – 9:00 AM – 10:00 AM Pacific Time
Evan Archilla, Senior Training Specialist, Projectline Services
Improve the way you manage information, communicate with others and organize your work using a single resource. The new and improved features of Microsoft Office Outlook 2003 and Microsoft Exchange Server 2003 work together to help you effectively manage and organize your e-mail and share information. Join us for this informative webcast to learn some of our favorite tips and tricks for getting the most out of Outlook 2003.
Register for this webcast

Microsoft Office System Webcast: Scheduling Tips for Increased Productivity and Results with Outlook and Mission Control (Level 100)
Thursday, September 15, 2005 – 9:00 AM – 10:00 AM Pacific Time
Brian Stuhlmuller, Executive Vice President, Mission Control
Do you want to leave work earlier? Learn to use Mission Control’s principles and practices for scheduling with Microsoft Office Outlook. Schedule yourself in a whole new way that enables you to be more focused and productive. In this webcast, discover how your familiar and common habits for scheduling can actually become obstacles to productivity. Learn how to build new scheduling habits that enable you to accomplish what is most important to you and deal effectively with the demands of the current work environment.
Register for this webcast

Microsoft Office System Webcast: Tips for Improving Sales Productivity Results using Outlook with the Mission Control System (Level 100)
Thursday, September 29, 2005 – 9:00 AM – 10:00 AM Pacific Time
Brian Stuhlmuller, Executive Vice President, Mission Control
Are you ready to blow the lid off your quota? Discover the award-winning Mission Control approach to productivity that produces a dramatic increase in sales results. This webcast introduces you to an entirely new way of thinking about, organizing, and managing your sales activities in Microsoft Office System Outlook. Learn to build new work habits that give you more confidence with prospects, become more focused in your sales activities, and most importantly, be more effective at hitting and exceeding your sales targets.
Register for this webcast

Small Business Webcast: Small Business Accounting 2006 and the Tight Integration with Office 2003 (Level 100)
Friday, September 9, 2005 – 11:00 AM – 12:00 PM Pacific Time
Carl Preston, Business Development Manager, Microsoft Corporation
In this webcast, learn how Microsoft Small Business Accounting 2006 makes it easy for you to do financial tasks and care for customers. The integration between Small Business Accounting and Microsoft Office System 2003 is powerful and important. Find out just how beneficial this new office product can be for your small business.
Register for this webcast

Small Business Webcast: Integrating Small Business Accounting 2006 with Microsoft Office Programs (Level 200)
Wednesday, September 21, 2005 – 9:00 AM – 10:00 AM Pacific Time
Krim Stephenson, Product Manager, Microsoft Corporation
Learn how you can significantly increase productivity and produce more accurate and insightful financial data. You can integrate Microsoft Office Small Business Accounting 2006 with Microsoft Office programs such as Microsoft Office Word, Excel and Outlook 2003 with Microsoft Business Contact Manager Update. Such integration extends the value of the accounting features and services. This webcast is focused for accounting firm professionals. We show you how to share financial history, manage and track billable time, forecast and analyze financial scenarios and create professional-looking, customized documents.
Register for this webcast

Small Business Webcast: Integrating Small Business Accounting 2006 with Microsoft Office Programs (Level 100)
Friday, September 30, 2005 – 9:00 AM – 10:00 AM Pacific Time
Bob Lewis
Krim Stephenson, Senior Marketing Manager/Accountant Relations
PRODUCT MANAGER, Microsoft Corporation
Microsoft Corporation
Learn how you can significantly increase productivity and produce more accurate and insightful financial data. You can integrate Microsoft Office Small Business Accounting 2006 with Microsoft Office programs such as Microsoft Office Word, Excel and Outlook 2003 with Microsoft Business Contact Manager Update. Such integration extends the value of the accounting features and services. This webcast is focused for accounting firm professionals. We show you how to share financial history, manage and track billable time, forecast and analyze financial scenarios and create professional-looking, customized documents.
Register for this webcast

Momentum Webcast: Creating Business Value Through Collaboration (Level 100)
Tuesday, September 6, 2005 – 11:00 AM – 12:00 PM Pacific Time
Bill Malone, Technology Specialist, Microsoft Corporation
What is collaboration and how can it help your business? In this webcast, we look at collaboration as a means instead of an end. Collaboration tools, and more specifically a collaboration environment, can lead to dramatic increases in business value. Collaboration facilitates more effective business processes and decreases information technology support requirements and costs. Attend this webcast to learn more about the Microsoft approach to collaboration and the innovations Microsoft brings to the market to help organizations work together more effectively.
Register for this webcast

Momentum Webcast: Creating Business Value Through Collaboration (Level 100)
Monday, September 19, 2005 – 9:00 AM – 10:00 AM Pacific Time
Matt Berg, Solutions Specialist, Microsoft Corporation
What is collaboration and how can it help your business? In this webcast, we look at collaboration as a means instead of an end. Collaboration tools, and more specifically a collaboration environment, can lead to dramatic increases in business value. Using collaboration as a means facilitates more effective business processes and decreases information technology support requirements and costs. Attend this webcast to learn more about the Microsoft approach to collaboration and the innovations Microsoft brings to the market to help organizations work together more effectively.
Register for this webcast

Microsoft Executive Circle Webcast: Messaging and Collaboration Security: Meeting the Challenge (Level 100)
Thursday, September 08, 2005 – 11:00 AM – 12:00 PM Pacific Time
Joe Licari, Director, Product Management, Microsoft Corporation
Business systems are interconnected in order to get maximum value from the information technology (IT) infrastructure and to enable efficient employee collaboration. As a result, messaging and collaboration servers that enable e-mail, document sharing and instant messaging have become mission-critical infrastructure components in business environments around the world. Attend this webcast to understand the threats facing these servers and how you can protect them with Microsoft Internet Security and Acceleration Server and Sybari Antigen. This 100-level session is appropriate for business and IT managers who want to learn what solutions Microsoft offers to help them protect messaging and collaboration servers.
Register for this webcast

TechNet Webcast: Securing Collaboration Beyond E-Mail (Level 200)
Thursday, September 15, 2005 – 11:00 AM – 12:30 PM Pacific Time
Neha Sharma, Senior Product Manager, Microsoft Corporation
Is your implementation of Microsoft Windows SharePoint Services safe? SharePoint benefits your organization because you can share information and documentation, and can reduce messaging overhead. But SharePoint can also allow users to bypass traditional antivirus and content scanning, and could provide an exploitable network security vulnerability. To ensure comprehensive network protection, your organization must adopt a layered defense strategy that encompasses communication policy, user training, and consistent application of security technology. Attend this webcast to understand existing and potential threats to corporate networks, and how to deploy practical protection for Windows SharePoint Services and Microsoft Office SharePoint Portal Server.
Register for this webcast

Software Assurance sales is the #1 non-technical question that I get from Microsoft Partners. What are the benefits, how do I get it, how do I purchase it and the most common: “Its just a free upgrade program, right?”

No, its not just the free upgrade there is a whole lot more to it:
– Spread your clients licensing payments over 3 years
– Home use rights (so you can install Office on employees home laptop and let them work remotely)
– Cold backups for disaster recovery
– Technet subscription/help (concierge)
– Preinstallation environment that lets you customize XP for rapid deployment

And a lot more. Well, ever since SA was born all people saw was “Free upgrade if they release it in under 3 years”… and when Longhorn failed to materialize there were more than a few angry folks everywhere.

In response, Microsoft planned big changes to the SA program and today they are running a recorded webcast announcing whats new with SA. There are four of them running all day long so find out whats new. I’ll post my observations later.

Register for the Webcast

Update: Thanks for noticing, I do need a vacation. These webcasts are scheduled for September 15th, 2005 (not today as I implied).

From Tonny Soper’s blog:

“As we move into more complex and interdependent applications, it becomes increasingly difficult to track the capabilities of various IT services. Furthermore, it seems that there is no single formula or presentation mechanism to easily roll up the data and demonstrate that IT is in fact meeting the needs of the business and achieving its service level agreement (SLA) targets.

Microsoft IT has become a world-class IT organization, possessing much experience in managing a large enterprise and achieving great success in messaging service delivery. Microsoft IT is diligent in its operations management processes and metrics management. They track key components and derive measurements that truly show how IT services are performing against business needs. They measure service delivery based on IT scorecards and SLAs. These metrics and measures allow them to fine tune services and achieve high availability with the Microsoft® Exchange Server messaging platform. However, since there is no industry standard for measuring services, customers frequently ask, “How does Microsoft do it?” The SLA Scorecard Solution Accelerator for Exchange provides customers with best practices for measuring the service delivery of Exchange.”

The official name of the Beta is Microsoft Solutions for Infrastructure and Management Exchange SLA Scorecard.

Beta 2 of the scorecard is in use by a small group for customers in the Technology Adoption Program under NDA and other formal agreements. The TAP program is closed to new customers for getting official support from Microsoft. However, anyone can download the SLA materials, with BetaPlace registration, which includes signing a EULA. These “open beta” customers only get limited best-effort email support from the product team as time allows, but can still enter bugs and suggestions.

You can download the SLA Scorecard Beta 2 at http://www.beta.microsoft.com with the user name MSIMExchangeSLA (Case sensitive).

The beta includes the following components and features that are compatible with Exchange 2000/2003:

* SLA Reporting Engine – Creates the reports using SQL Reporting Services and renders the reports to the SLA Reporting UI
o SLA Business Logic –
o Exchange 2000/2003 availability metrics for :
o FrontEnd Server Role
o Mailbox Server Role
o Public Folder Server Role
o Gateway and Bridgehead server roles.
o Client Availability (Outlook 2003)

* For Exchange 2000/2003 measures for:
o# of internet messages received
o # of messages filtered by IMF
o # of connections blocked
o # of recipients blocked
o # of senders blocked
o # of Exchange messages delivered
o # of anti-virus attachments removed
o # of anti-virus attachments purged
o % messages filtered by IMF
o Client Performance
* SLA DTS – The DTS package automatically extracts only the information from the MOM DW that is required by the Scorecard which reduces the footprint of the SLA DB thus reducing the time required to calculate and display the reports.

Why?

The scorecard shows more than just service uptime. It roles up availability by Exchange server role for all Exchange servers in the enterprise. It allows you to configure your SLA target metrics and aggregates MOM event and performance data, displaying actual availability vs. SLA target.

In addition, there are about 11 measures that give you a picture of the “workload” the infrastructure is doing. You can use this to help tune performance to more effectively achieve the SLA target. For example, using a version of the scorecard accelerator to monitor outage maintenance, Microsoft IT is able to categorize each particular outage and export the entire outage table to Excel. This helps Service Managers and IT Managers demonstrate that from an end to end perspective an email outage is more than an application outage. By slicing and dicing the outage data in prep for Service Review Meetings they can present where the majority of outages are occurring and focus efforts in those areas as appropriate. This makes a nice tie-in to change/problem management.

More about Exchange SLA Scorecard
Download the SLA Scorecard Beta 2 at http://www.beta.microsoft.com with the user name MSIMExchangeSLA.

No, not the kind of monitoring you are already used to, but monitoring of security lists and sites for known exploits of software you already own. For example, if your security maintenance includes installing patches on the 2nd Tuesday of each month, you’ve now missed at least two critical patches for your infrastructure. The last of which is currently being exploited on Windows 2000 by the in-the-wild Zatob.a worm:

Several AV vendors have begun reporting a new worm which targets the Windows Plug and Play vulnerability addressed by Microsoft Security Bulletin MS05-039. The worm, labeled Zotob.A (F-Secure) and W32.Zotob.A (Symantec), scans for systems listening on TCP port 445 and then attempts to exploit the Windows Plug and Play vulnerability. According to an F-Secure Weblog posting, once the victim is found, the exploit code downloads the main virus file via ftp from the scanning machine, sets up ftp server on the infected machine and starts scanning for more targets. The worm also attempts to connect IRC channel at predefined address. Those of our customers who have not finished applying the latest Microsoft patches are strongly encouraged to do so immediately.

It’s not just the Microsoft bag either. Symantec Veritas BackupExec is also vulnerable, so upgrade that as well. While you’re there, sign up for a newsletter or better yet, RSS feed of security patches and look at it daily. The security situation is grim, I understand. Can you afford to sit on your hands though? Definately not. Get very intimate with your firewall and learn how to proactively lock-out even critical network services in case of a 0-day-exploit. Subscribe to vendors security alerts list.