IT Knowledgebase Articles

Daniel Petri explains how to block Windows 7 and Windows Server 2008 R2 Service Pack 1 (SP1) automatic updates with the Windows Service Pack Blocker Tool Kit. Unlike the IE9 blocking tool, this tool does have an expiration date – the 22nd of February 2012.

Explanation by Bruce Mackenzie-Low of Windows disk storage architecture for troubleshooting disk storage issues. Includes detailed overview of the I/O request, storage drivers and the Windows storage stack.

Expanding upon VoIP Quality of Service (QoS) basics, Sean Wilkins discusses congestion management techniques and queue configuration. Includes popular queueing mechanisms like FIFO (First-In First-Out), WFQ (Weighted Fair Queueing), Priority and Custom Queueing to reduce the effect that network congestion has on the flow of traffic across the network.

This RAID levels comparison article provides an overview of RAID storage levels. Veronica Henry provides an explanation of the most common RAID levels, including requirements and benefits of each level.

Explanation of RemoteFX by Daniel Petri. Now, with Windows Server 2008 R2 with SP1, RemoteFX introduces a set of end-user experience enhancements for Remote Desktop Protocol (RDP) that enable a rich desktop environment within the corporate network. Article includes hardware and software requirements, functionality overview, and a rundown of required editions of Windows Server 2008 R2 with SP1.

Explanation of VoIP dial peer configuration options by Sean Wilkins, including different ways to utilize the dial peer functionality that is built into Cisco IOS.

How-to by Bruce Mackenzie-Low on using PAL (Performance Analysis of Logs) reports for highlighting which counters have exceeded predetermined thresholds. The lastest versions of PAL 2.0, now using PowerShell instead of VBScript, can simplify the troubleshooting of performance issues by identifying when counters have exceeded various thresholds, graphing their trends and identifying bottlenecks.

An overview by David Davis of I/O Virtualization (or IOV), a relatively new form of virtualization utilized in data centers allowing for a huge reduction in network and storage cabling. Video included of interview at VMware Partner Exchange (PEX) 2010 with Stephen Spellicy of Virtensys.

Daniel Petri covers some of the basic configuration options for RemoteFX – a set of RDP technologies, most prominently graphics virtualization and the use of advanced codes, that are being added to Windows Server 2008 R2 Service Pack 1.

Overview by Bruce Mackenzie-Low of Performance Analysis of Logs (PAL), a free tool developed by Microsoft and the open source community for analyzing storage performance issues. This powerful tool is used in conjunction with Perfmon data to automatically analyze the counters for various thresholds.