#Microsoft Price changes for user CALs

As always, pricing is going up not down!

Microsoft have recently contacted their partners to inform them that the cost of purchasing user CALs will increase, device CALs will be unaffected.  This will cover user CALs for nearly all Microsoft products.

As you will see from the notifation below, there is no surprise that Microsoft are not making any public anouncment about this.

Price changes are taking effect on the 1st of December 2012

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Communication from Microsoft

Dear Partner,

I would like to share with you information about Microsoft’s new User CAL Differentiating Pricing that will take effect December 1, 2012. While there will not be a public announcement of this information, I wanted to make you aware of this update so that you can use it now in sales conversations with your customers who are considering renewing their agreements. 

This change primarily affects customers with Enterprise or Select agreements but most Volume Licensing and OEM programs are also affected.

The main highlights of the differentiated CAL pricing include the following, and additional details are included in the attached FAQ.

-          Customers can continue to choose to license CALs per User or per Device.  Customers may prefer device CALs if they have fewer devices than users and prefer to count devices.  Customers may prefer user CALs if they have fewer users than devices and prefer to count users.

-          User CALs will have a +15% price premium.  Device CAL pricing will see no price change. 

-          All Volume Licensing programs* will be affected.  Microsoft will apply the User CAL price premium across all User Based CAL products and programs in Volume Licensing and OEM programs.

·          Differentiated CAL pricing will take effect with the release of the December price list.  Subject to current approvals, customers my request early renewal to take advantage of lower User CAL pricing prior to December 1, 2012.

·          Affected User CALs include: 

o   Bing Maps Server CAL

o   Core CAL Suite

o   Enterprise CAL Suite

o   Exchange Server Std/Ent CALs

o   Lync Server Std/Ent/Plus CALs

o   Project Server CAL

o   SharePoint Server Std/Ent CALs

o   System Center 2012 Client Management Suite

o   System Center Configuration Manager

o   System Center Endpoint Protection

o   Visual Studio TFS CAL

o   Windows Mulipoint Server CAL

o   Windows Server CAL

o   Windows Server RDS, RMS, Terminal Services CAL

*Does not include Dynamics, SQL, SPLA or EES (Academic)

#Windows8 for free

If you are excited about Windows 8 and want to try it now, or want to test some of your existing application for compatibility, then this post will give you a simple a free way to trial this software.

This will be achieved by installing VMware Player onto your existing computer, which will allow you to install a totally segregated copy of Windows 8.  This will not impact on your existing operating system and can be simply deleted when you are done.

Please note, that you will need to assign some resources to the new virtual operating system, and this can affect the performance of the host computer, when both are running.  However, when the Virtual Operating System is switched off, these resources will be available to the host machine again.

The version of Windows 8 is a release preview, so is for test purposes only, we wouldn't recommend using this for a mission critical purpose.  As a release preview, the final release may differ from this version.

Step 1. Download a copy of the Microsoft Windows 8 release preview (.iso file)
http://windows.microsoft.com/en-US/windows-8/download

Save this to a location that you will be able to find later on such as the desktop.

Step 2. Install VMware Player
http://www.vmware.com/products/player/

Step 3. Point VMware player to the Windows 8 .iso file and then confirm the resources available to the new O/S.  Remember, any resources that you give to the virtual machine will be taken from the host machine, so give as much as you can, but not too much.  You can alter this later.

Step 4.  Set things running and enjoy Windows 8!

#VMware #GoPro

Simplifying Virtualization and IT for Small and Midsized Businesses

VMware Go Pro makes it disruptively simple to deploy and extend virtualization, and to manage and protect your infrastructure, and it is specifically designed to help small and midsize businesses begin or extend virtualization efforts.
VMware Go Pro is available with the VMware Essentials and Essentials Plus kits, through VMware partners

VMware Go Pro benefits:

• Deploy virtualization effortlessly with step-by-step wizards that guide you through every step of installing hypervisors, creating new virtual machines and migrating existing physical servers
• Secure your infrastructure with automated patch deployment across physical and virtual machines, for Microsoft and third party software
• Proactively enhance your physical and virtual systems with the IT Advisor – a unique tool that assesses your entire infrastructure, identifies risks to your network and makes recommendations on how best to deploy virtualization
• Streamline trouble ticket management with an easy help desk and user portal
• Maximize your hardware resources throughout their lifecycle with hardware asset management
• Maintain compliance with software license management solutions
• Enhance uptime and reliability with ongoing recommendations on opportunities to extend virtualization on your existing hardware
• User friendly management and monitoring of your virtual infrastructure

#Exchange2013 System Requirements

Microsoft Exchange 2013 System Requirements

 

Before you install Microsoft Exchange Server 2013 Preview, we recommend that you review this topic to ensure that your network, hardware, software, clients, and other elements meet the requirements for Exchange 2013 Preview. In addition, make sure you understand the coexistence scenarios that are supported for Exchange 2013 Preview and earlier versions of Exchange.

The following table lists the scenarios in which coexistence between Exchange 2013 Preview and earlier versions of Exchange are supported.

Coexistence of Exchange 2013 Preview and earlier versions of Exchange Server

Exchange version	Exchange organization coexistence
Exchange Server 2003 and earlier versions	Not supported
Exchange 2007	Not supported with Exchange 2013 Preview. Coexistence with Exchange 2007 will be supported in the release to manufacturing (RTM) version of Exchange 2013.
Exchange 2010	Not supported with Exchange 2013 Preview. Coexistence with Exchange 2010 will be supported with Exchange 2013 RTM.
Mixed Exchange 2010 and Exchange 2007 organization	Not supported with Exchange 2013 Preview. Coexistence with Exchange 2007 and Exchange 2010 will be supported with Exchange 2013 RTM.

 

Network and directory servers

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The following table lists the requirements for the network and the directory servers in your Exchange 2013 Preview organization.

Network and directory server requirements for Exchange 2013 Preview

Component	Requirement
Schema master	By default, the schema master runs on the first Windows Server 2012 or Windows Server 2008 R2 or Windows Server 2008 or Windows Server 2003 domain controller installed in a forest. The schema master must be running any of the following: Windows Server 2012 Windows Server 2008 R2 Standard or Enterprise Windows Server 2008 Standard or Enterprise (32-bit or 64-bit) Windows Server 2003 Standard Edition with Service Pack 2 (SP2) or later (32-bit or 64-bit) Windows Server 2003 Enterprise Edition with SP2 or later (32-bit or 64-bit)
Global catalog server	In each Active Directory site where you plan to install Exchange 2013 Preview, you must have at least one global catalog server running any of the following: Windows Server 2012 Windows Server 2008 R2 Standard or Enterprise Windows Server 2008 R2 Datacenter RTM or later Windows Server 2008 Standard or Enterprise (32-bit or 64-bit) Windows Server 2008 Datacenter RTM or later For more information about global catalog servers, see What is the Global Catalog.
Domain controller	In each Active Directory site where you plan to install Exchange 2013 Preview, you must have at least one writeable domain controller running any of the following: Windows Server 2012 Windows Server 2008 R2 Standard or Enterprise SP1 or later Windows Server 2008 R2 Datacenter RTM or later Windows Server 2008 Standard or Enterprise SP1 or later (32-bit or 64-bit) Windows Server 2008 Datacenter RTM or later
Active Directory forest	Active Directory must be at Windows Server 2003 forest functionality mode or higher.
IPv6 Support	IPv6 is supported only when IPv4 is also used; a pure IPv6 environment isn't supported. Using IPv6 addresses and IP address ranges is supported only when both IPv6 and IPv4 are enabled on that computer, and the network supports both IP address versions. If Exchange 2013 Preview is deployed in this configuration, all server roles can send data to and receive data from devices, servers, and clients that use IPv6 addresses. Exchange 2013 Preview support is similar to support for Exchange Server 2007.

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The use of 64-bit Active Directory domain controllers increases directory service performance for Exchange 2013 Preview.

Note:

In multi-domain environments, on Windows Server 2008 domain controllers that have the Active Directory language locale set to Japanese, your servers may not receive some attributes that are stored on an object during inbound replication. For more information, see Microsoft Knowledge Base article 949189, A Windows Server 2008 domain controller that is configured with the Japanese language locale may not apply updates to attributes on an object during inbound replication.

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For security and performance reasons, we recommend that you install Exchange 2013 Preview only on member servers and not on Active Directory directory servers. However, you can't run DCPromo on a computer running Exchange 2013 Preview. After Exchange 2013 Preview is installed, changing its role from a member server to a directory server, or vice versa, isn't supported.

Hardware

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The recommended hardware requirements for Exchange 2013 Preview servers vary depending on a number of factors including the server roles that are installed and the anticipated load that will be placed on the servers.

Hardware requirements for Exchange 2013 Preview

Component	Requirement	Notes
Processor	x64 architecture-based computer with Intel processor that supports Intel 64 architecture (formerly known as Intel EM64T) AMD processor that supports the AMD64 platform Intel Itanium IA64 processors not supported	See the "Operating system" section later in this topic for supported operating systems.
Memory	Varies depending on Exchange features that are installed	Detailed guidance is currently not available for Exchange 2013 Preview.
Paging file size	The page file size minimum and maximum must be set to physical RAM plus 10 MB	The recommended page file size also accounts for the memory that's needed to collect information if the operating system stops unexpectedly. On 64-bit operating systems, memory can be written as a dump file to the paging file. This file must reside on the boot volume of the server. For more information about the configuration options that are available for memory dump data, see Knowledge Base article 254649, Overview of memory dump file options for Windows Vista, Windows Server 2008 R2, Windows Server 2008, Windows Server 2003, Windows XP, and Windows 2000.
Disk space	At least 1.2 GB on the drive on which you install Exchange An additional 500 MB of available disk space for each Unified Messaging (UM) language pack that you plan to install 200 MB of available disk space on the system drive A hard disk that stores the message queue database on an Edge Transport server or Hub Transport server with at least 500 MB of free space	The minimum space requirements detailed here don't account for disk subsystem requirements for adequate performance.
Drive	DVD-ROM drive, local or network accessible	None.
Screen resolution	800 x 600 pixels or higher	None.
File format	Disk partitions formatted as NTFS file systems, which applies to the following partitions: System partition Partitions that store Exchange binary files Partitions containing transaction log files Partitions containing database files Partitions containing other Exchange files	None.

 

Operating system

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The following table lists the supported operating systems for Exchange 2013 Preview.

Supported operating systems for Exchange 2013 Preview

Component	Requirement
Mailbox and Client Access server roles	One of the following: Windows Server 2012 Windows Server 2008 R2 Standard with SP1 Windows Server 2008 R2 Enterprise with SP1 Windows Server 2008 R2 Datacenter RTM or later
Management tools	One of the following: Windows Server 2012 Windows Server 2008 R2 Standard with SP1 Windows Server 2008 R2 Enterprise with SP1 Windows Server 2008 R2 Datacenter RTM or later 64-bit edition of Windows 8 Release Preview 64-bit edition of Windows 7 with SP1

 

Important:

Exchange 2013 Preview doesn’t support being run on computers with the United States Federal Information Processing Standards (FIPS) compliant settings enabled. If you have FIPS enabled on computers running Windows Server 2008 R2 SP1, Exchange 2013 Preview will not function correctly. For more information, see Knowledge Base article 811833, The effects of enabling the "System cryptography: Use FIPS compliant algorithms for encryption, hashing, and signing" security setting in Windows XP and in later versions of Windows.

Supported clients

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Exchange 2013 Preview supports the following minimum versions of Microsoft Office Outlook and Microsoft Entourage for Mac:

• Outlook 2013 Preview
• Outlook 2010 SP1 with April 2012 Cumulative Update
• Outlook 2007 SP3 with July 2012 Cumulative Update
• Entourage 2008 for Mac, Web Services Edition
• Outlook for Mac 2011

Important:

The information above provides the minimum versions required for a client to connect to Exchange. We strongly recommend that you install the latest available service packs and updates available so that your users receive the best possible experience when connecting to Exchange.

Outlook clients earlier than Outlook 2007 are not supported. Email clients on Mac operating systems that require DAV, such as Entourage 2008 for Mac RTM and Entourage 2004, are not supported.

Outlook Web App supports several browsers on a variety of operating systems and devices. For detailed information, see Supported Browsers for Outlook Web App.

Hardware virtualization

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All Exchange 2013 Preview server roles are supported within a virtual machine, provided the virtual machine and hypervisor environment meet all of the system requirements for running Exchange 2013 Preview.

Microsoft supports Exchange 2013 Preview in production on hardware virtualization software only when all the following conditions are true:

·         The hardware virtualization software is running one of the following:

o    Windows Server 2012

o    Windows Server 2008 R2 with Hyper-V technology

o    Microsoft Hyper-V Server 2008 R2

o    Any third-party hypervisor that has been validated under the Windows Server Virtualization Validation Program.

·         The Exchange guest virtual machine:

o    Is running Microsoft Exchange 2013 Preview.

o    Is deployed on an operating system that is supported by Exchange 2013 Preview.

·         The storage used by an Exchange virtual machine for Exchange data (for example, mailbox databases or Hub transport queues) can be any of the following:

o    Virtual disks of a fixed size (for example, fixed virtual hard disks (VHDs) in a Hyper-V environment).

o    Virtual disks store on block-level, direct attached storage (DAS) that is locally connected to the hypervisor machine.

o    Block-level storage that is connected via storage area network (SAN) technology (could include fiber channel, fiber channel over Ethernet, or Internet SCSI (iSCSI)).

o    SCSI pass-through storage.

o    Internet SCSI (iSCSI) storage.

All storage used by an Exchange guest machine for storage of Exchange data must be block-level storage because Exchange 2013 Preview doesn't support the use of network attached storage (NAS) volumes. Also, NAS storage that's presented to the guest as block-level storage via the hypervisor isn't supported. The following virtual disk requirements apply for volumes used to store Exchange data:

o    Virtual disks that dynamically expand aren't supported by Exchange.

o    Virtual disks that use differencing or delta mechanisms (such as Hyper-V's differencing VHDs or snapshots) aren't supported.

·         Only management software (for example, antivirus software, backup software, or virtual machine management software) can be deployed on the physical root machine. No other server-based applications (for example, Exchange, SQL Server, Active Directory, or SAP) should be installed on the root machine. The root machine must be dedicated to running guest virtual machines.

·         Some hypervisors include features for taking snapshots of virtual machines. Virtual machine snapshots capture the state of a virtual machine while it's running. This feature enables you to take multiple snapshots of a virtual machine and then revert the virtual machine to any of the previous states by applying a snapshot to the virtual machine. However, virtual machine snapshots aren't application aware, and using them can have unintended and unexpected consequences for a server application that maintains state data, such as Exchange. As a result, making virtual machine snapshots of an Exchange guest virtual machine isn't supported.

·         Many hardware virtualization products allow you to specify the number of virtual processors that should be allocated to each guest virtual machine. The virtual processors located in the guest virtual machine share a fixed number of logical processors in the physical system. Exchange supports a virtual processor-to-logical processor ratio no greater than 2:1. For example, a dual processor system using quad core processors contains a total of 8 logical processors in the host system. On a system with this configuration, don't allocate more than a total of 16 virtual processors to all guest virtual machines combined.

·         When calculating the total number of virtual processors required by the root machine, you must also account for both I/O and operating system requirements. In most cases, the equivalent number of virtual processors required in the root operating system for a system hosting Exchange virtual machines is 2. This value should be used as a baseline for the root operating system virtual processor when calculating the overall ratio of physical cores to virtual processors. If performance monitoring of the root operating system indicates you're consuming more processor utilization than the equivalent of 2 processors, you should reduce the count of virtual processors assigned to guest virtual machines accordingly and verify that the overall virtual processor-to-physical core ratio is no greater than 2:1.

·         The operating system for an Exchange guest machine must use a disk that has a size equal to at least 15 GB plus the size of the virtual memory that's allocated to the guest machine. This requirement is necessary to account for the operating system and paging file disk requirements. For example, if the guest machine is allocated 16 GB of memory, the minimum disk space needed for the guest operating system disk is 31 GB.
In addition, it's possible that guest virtual machines may be prevented from directly communicating with fibre channel or SCSI host bus adapters (HBAs) installed in the root machine. In this event, you must configure the adapters in the root machine's operating system and present the LUNs to guest virtual machines as either a virtual disk or a pass-through disk.
All Exchange 2013 Preview server roles may be combined with host-based failover clustering and migration technology. Exchange 2013 Preview virtual machines must be configured such that they will not save point-in-time state to disk and restore from that state when moved or taken offline. All planned or scheduled migration must take advantage of an online migration technology like Hyper-V Live Migration or VMware vMotion. Migration technology is supported by the hypervisor vendor; therefore, you must ensure that your hypervisor vendor has tested and supports migration of Exchange 2013 Preview virtual machines. Microsoft supports Hyper-V Live Migration of these virtual machines.

Unsupported for production environments

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The following features and technologies are not supported for virtualized Exchange environment:

• Oversubscription or dynamic adjustment of memory allocated to Exchange 2013 Preview virtual machines.
• Virtual machine snapshots which capture the state of a running virtual machine and allow reverting to a previous state.