Free Exam Voucher for Microsoft Virtualization Specialist Certification Exam 70-409

Sign up for the Microsoft Virtual Academy course: Server Virtualization w/ Windows Server Hyper-V & System Center Jump Start here AND once you've completed it, you get a voucher code for a free exam - 70-409: Microsoft Virtualization Specialist Certification Exam

Asus UX31A: Unable to pass BIOS screen on reboot after BIOS flash upgrade

I updated the BIOS to the latest version using WinFlash utility provided by Asus on my UX31A Touch notebook. I went from BIOS v218 to v219. The WinFlash utility stated my upgrade was successful and proceeded to ask me to reboot... which I did.

After reboot, the notebook immediately went into the BIOS config screen. I immediately tried to 'Quit and Exit'... and the notebook rebooted... and it went back to the BIOS screen. I tried doing 'Save Configuration and Exit'... same thing... rebooted into BIOS screen. No matter what I did... it wont go pass the BIOS screen.

oh crap...

Played around with the BIOS settings to try and figure out what was going on... To cut the long story short, I did the following...

• In Boot Menu --> Change FastStart to [Disable]
• In Security Menu --> Change Secure Boot to [Disable]
• .. then 'Save Configuration & Exit'
• When the BIOS screen appears again, go to the Boot Menu again --> Change Launch CSM to [Enable]

After doing the above... my PC booted into Windows 8.1 fine...

PHEW!!!!.....

Speaking at TechEd North America and TechEd Europe! 2013

My session "Key Metrics and Practices for Monitoring Virtualization Platforms" is approved for both TechEd North America and TechEd Europe 2013! sweet! Time to get cracking on the presso!

If you are going to be at Tech Ed, and would like to hear something specific during this session, do drop me a note! and I will do my best to put it in. Any ideas on the session is welcomed!

See you in June!

Channel 9 Interview at MMS2013

Had an interview with Rick Claus for Channel 9 during MMS2013. Spoke about my session on Benefits and reasons to Upgrade to Active Directory 2012.

http://channel9.msdn.com/Events/MMS/2013/MMS227

MMS2013 - Benefits and Reasons to Upgrade to Active Directory 2012

MMS2013 this year was a little bit more special as it was the first time I got accepted to speak! After trying for the last 4 years...

My session was done with Adam Hall and we got pretty good comments on our session so I was happy that we managed to help some people from our content.

Here is a link to the recording of our session: http://channel9.msdn.com/Events/MMS/2013/AI-B301

Red Hat 5.9 includes Hyper-V drivers

Just reading around articles and noticed that Red Hat 5.9 that was launched has also been certified and includes drivers for Hyper-V platforms. This is pretty good news for customers running Red Hat as their primary distro running on Hyper-V.

http://www.redhat.com/about/news/press-archive/2013/1/red-hat-announces-general-availability-of-red-hat-enterprise-linux-5-9

MMS 2013 Session Approved!

The Microsoft Management Summit is my annual pilgrimage where I go to hopefully learn more about System Center than the year before. I normally take the chance to catch up with good friends from all over the world. This year I will be speaking! Here is my session.

http://www.2013mms.com/topic/details/AI-B301

Please come by and listen to us and drop by and say Hi :)

Hyper-V 2012 known issues

Here are 2 known issues as advised by the Microsoft Product Group. I have not encountered it yet, but hope it helps someone that has...

• Virtual machine enters a paused state or a CSV volume goes offline when you try to create a backup of he virtual machine on a Windows Server 2012-based failover cluster. A hotfix is available for this condition at http://support.microsoft.com/kb/2799728
  
• Managing Hyper-V hosts using Virtual Machine Manager fails after installing WMF 3.0 (KB 2795043). The hotfix for this specific condition is documented in KB 2781512, available at the following location: http://support.microsoft.com/kb/2781512