Arizona State University
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Meeting Notes for March 3, 2005

 Announcements
  • Microsoft’s Jessica Friedman will be coming to April meeting to discuss campus agreement. Send specific questions to Karra (Karra.Lawrence@asu.edu) and she will forward to Jessica.

Feature Presentation
  • Microsoft Virtual PC and Virtual Server 2005
    By Tyler Farmer, MS Education Solutions (tylerf@microsoft.com)
    Presentation will be posted on WNUG web site http://www.asu.edu/it/ag/wnug

    • What is Virtual PC/Server
      • Run multiple virtualized systems concurrently on single physical server
      • Virtualized system functions as an independent, self-contained system
    • Why use Virtual PC/Server
      • Hardware consolidation
      • Development/testing
      • Legacy applications
      • Software demos
      • Training
      • Support for smaller departments
    • Dynamic Systems Initiative
      • Long term goal is to dynamically create any server/service on an as needed basis using Automated Deployment Services with the Virtual Server Migration toolkit.
    • Virtual Software Versions and their host system
      • Virtual Server = Windows 2003, XP in non-production
      • Virtual PC for Windows = XP, Server in non-production
      • Virtual PC for Mac = OS 10.2.8 and above
    • Guest or Virtual Machine (VM)
      • for the most part any Intel based OS
      • there is no Mac OS available as a guest
      • Virtual server encapsulates guest OS into a *.vhd file, which contains the data for a VM, single file on the hosts, portable virtual hard drive
    • Hardware emulation
      • Up to 4 IDE/ATA devices
      • Up to 4 SCSI adapters (emulates Adaptec 7870)
        • Virtual PC does not support SCSI
      • Supports SAN
      • MS Clustering
      • Up to 4 virtual NICs
      • Memory = RAM from all VMs cannot exceed physical RAM
      • USB = only keyboard & mouse
      • Each guest OS can only see 1 processor
    • Licensing
      • Virtual PC
        • Need operating system license for each virtual machine
        • Example: XP with Windows 98, 2000 and ME as guests requires XP, Virtual PC, Windows 98, 2000 and ME licenses.
          • If each VM runs Office you need license for each. If part of campus agreement you are covered.
        • Cost for Virtual PC (Windows or Mac) is $38; with three year software assurance the cost is $70.
        • Virtual PC with Mac includes Office 2004 for Mac
      • Virtual Server
        • One copy of Virtual Server per Server
          • Standard edition = 1- 4 processors
          • Enterprise edition = 1 – 32 processors
        • Must license each OS, application and CALS (if part of campus agreement CALS are covered)
        • Cost for Virtual Server Standard edition is $161; with three year software assurance the cost is $281

  • Firefox
    By Jeni Li, ASU at East Campus (jeni.li@asu.edu)
    Jeni discussed Firefox security, features, tools and extension. Presentation will be posted on WNUG web site http://www.asu.edu/it/ag/wnug

    • Security
      • No Active X support
      • Vendor responsiveness
      • Vulnerability workarounds
      • Automated updates
      • Low hacker appeal
    • Features
      • Tabbed browsing
      • Themes
      • Integrated search box
      • Control – ability to edit config file
      • Extensibility
    • Favorite tools/extensions
      • SpoofStick
      • ChromEdit
      • Adblock
      • Nuke Anything
      • Fangs
      • WebDeveloper


   
  Updated March 11th, 2005