Windows 8

Windows 8 is now available for download here.

http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/apps/br229516

I have downloaded and installed it on a Dell Latitude L13N. I tried the 32bit edition. The laptop has a Intel Celeron M 743. Which is 1.3 GHZ fast and 2GB of RAM. Windows 8 installed pretty quick.The best part is I didn't have to install any drivers on the laptop. The wireless card and the volume up and down buttons on the keyboard all worked. 

I have been playing with the new UI and I think it would work good on a tablet. Everything is bigger so it would work better with a touch screen including the control panel. I find the UI slightly cumbersome for use with a touchpad. Maybe because I am not use to it. I also need to learn the new gestures for Windows 8. 

I am tempted to install this on a Acer Windows 7 tablet and see how much more touch friendly Windows 8 is over Windows 7.

Some features that has me excited is Windows 8 support from booting on a USB key. I can see this being very handy once USB 3.0 becomes widespread, where you can take your "Computer" with you wherever you are. The other feature I like is the new task manager. It shows all processes running and how much disk, CPU, memory, and network usage it using. Microsoft has merged all the cool features of Resource Manager into the Task Manager. 

If you want to see pretty screen shots of the installation of Windows 8 go here:

http://mikefrobbins.com/2011/09/15/installation-of-the-windows-8-developer-preview/

How to install Windows 8 in VMware Workstation 8 go here:

http://vninja.net/virtualization/installing-windows-8-developer-preview-in-vmware-workstation-8/

A more in depth review can be found here:
http://www.zdnet.com/blog/bott/windows-8-unveiled/3953?tag=content;siu-container

Backup Academy

I am proud to announce I am now Backup Academy Certified. The website has 8 videos you watch then you can take a test and get Backup Academy Certified. The video are good refresher on some VMware and Hyper-V backup techniques. The website is put on by Veeam but the videos don't try to sell you Veeam products. Head over to Backup Academy and watch some videos.

The Videos are:

1. Why virtual machine backups are different
   David Davis (vExpert, CCIE, VCAP)
2. Core technologies used for virtual machine backup
   Eric Siebert (vExpert)
3. Disaster recovery of VMware workloads
   David Davis (vExpert, CCIE, VCAP)
4. Backing up enterprise applications: Transaction consistency is key
Elias Khnaser (vExpert)
5. Restore capabilities of VMware backups
   Eric Siebert (vExpert)
6. VMware backup integrity tools
   Eric Siebert (vExpert)
7. Best practices for VMware backups
   Rick Vanover (MCITP, vExpert, VCP)
8. Best practices for Hyper-V backups
   Greg Shields (MVP, vExpert)

Backup Academy

Mapping Outgoing Calls to a FXO Card on Cisco 2821

If you want to setup a 1 to 1 mapping from a analog line to a extension using FXO cards in a Cisco 2821 using Call Manager Express CME, you will need to use dial peers and translation profiles. The client had about 10 analog lines coming into their 2821 router. Each line has its own phone number and they wanted to make sure the caller id was showing the persons extension. They were originally using a pool of lines and they would get whatever line was free when they made a outgoing call. The problem is the caller id would show up as the number they were dialing out of from the pool and not their phone number. The solution was to setup 1 to 1 mapping for outgoing calls to their specific line.

I tried using this documentation from Cisco:
http://www.cisco.com/en/US/tech/tk652/tk90/technologies_configuration_example09186a00801bc341.shtml
But it didn't work because Call Manager Express was automatically creating dial-peers for a specific answer address and you can't change them.

I ended up assigning a translation profile and rule on the phone. So when you dial 9555124 it dials 195551234 and the dial peer sees the 19 in front of a number and drops the 19 and dials out the specific line the dial peer is assigned to. You can see an example of my commands below. Just make sure your dial peers don't end up dialing internal numbers.

This takes incoming calls from this port and routes them to the specific internal extension.

voice-port 0/0/0
 connection plar opx 1234
 description John Doe
 caller-id enable
!



You will need to assign a translation profile to the phone.

ephone-dn  12  dual-line
 number 1234
 label 1234
 description John Doe
 name John Doe
 call-forward busy 602
 call-forward noan 602 timeout 10
 translation-profile incoming Phone1
 hold-alert 30 originator
!



This assigns the translation profile from the phone to a outgoing translation rule.

voice translation-profile Phone1
 translate called 1
!




You will need to create a translation rule. This one takes an number that is dialed with a 9 in the beginning and replaces it with a 19.

voice translation-rule 1 
 rule 1 /^9/ /19/ 
!

This will take the 19T dial pattern and dial out on this specific port.

dial-peer voice 19 pots

 description 1234

 destination-pattern 19T

 port 0/0/0

!

I would like to add that using 1 to 1 mappings for users do have its disadvantages. You only get one analog line per use so they can't conference in multiple people unless their service provider supports it. Also you have to have a analog line for every person and a phone number for any extension that wants to make outgoing calls. You can setup a pool of outgoing analog lines and share that with people who don't need a caller ID to show up as their specific line. You can have your phone company make the caller id look the same for the pool of numbers. The real solution is to get a PRI or partial PRI. This way you can set your caller ID to the extension and it will show up when you dial out. Doesn't matter what port the call is using since you are providing the caller id on the outgoing call.