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Shijaz Abdulla on 08.11.2007 at 09:03
The organization that I work for has decided thats it’s time to upgrade to Exchange Server 2007. With approximately 18,000 Exchange mailboxes scattered across one four-node active-active-active-passive cluster and five two-node active-passive clusters spanning six geographic locations, this is going to be a mammoth task, nevertheless exciting!
The project will religiously adhere to the Microsoft Solutions Framework (MSF). Preparation is key to success. One of the most crucial stages is the testing. I’m doing the testing on a virtualized environment. More specifically, System Center Virtual Machine Manager 2007. The virtualization software is Virtual Server 2005 R2. The host is machine is a Windows 2003 x64 box with 16 GB RAM.
The virtualized environment will consist of two domain controllers, two Exchange 2003 backends, two front ends, an Exchange 2007 CAS server, a mailbox server, a hub transport server, and an edge server.
More on my adventures with this massive implementation will follow.
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Shijaz Abdulla on 23.10.2007 at 14:38
It’s that time of the year again – the MSDN and TechNet roadshows are coming soon to your city!
The event will focus a first look on technologies like Windows Server 2008, System Center Configuration Manager (new version of SMS), System Center Data Protection Manager, System Center Virtual Machine Manager and SQL Server.
You will also be among the first to see us unveil the new Unified Communications technologies from Microsoft – a solution that will revolutionize the way people communicate and collaborate in the workplace.
If you’re an IT Professional or a Developer looking to gain insight and an edge over others, then you’ve got no excuse to miss out on this event! You may even walk away as the lucky winner of the new X-box 360 Elite!
Microsoft has announced that the event will be held on November 19th at The Sheraton in Bahrain, Dec 4th & 5th at Habtoor Grand Hotel, Dubai and the 9th of December at the Intercontinental Doha.
To register for the event, click here.
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Shijaz Abdulla on 19.07.2007 at 17:28
We had an awesome day today at Qicx – another action packed, highly interactive session. The venue was at the Qatar Red Crescent Society, Doha. Even though attendance was not as expected due to the holiday session, the excitement was unshaken.
I did the first session, and talked about System Center Virtual Machine Manager. I took the audience around Microsoft’s Dynamic Systems Initiative, Virtualization concepts, and discussed at length the Microsoft virtualization technologies – Virtual Server 2005 R2, Windows Virtualization Server, and System Center Virtual Machine Manager along with some live demos. The audience was great and the session was very interactive.
Boutros of ICT took the stage in the second session, continuing with his series of Exchange 2007 seminars. He took the audience around the Hub transport server role and MRM in Exchange 2007 with live demos. The session was very informative and resulted in productive discussions.
The two sessions went very well, and after a great meal, we had some group discussions. The event closed with a raffle draw, where people were asked to check under their seats to see if they had won. 
Two lucky winners got prizes. Everybody who attended walked away with Windows Server 2008 Beta 3 DVDs and Forefront evaluation software.
Ankur, from Microsoft Consulting Services, Qatar is the founding member of QicX. He did a great job as always in arranging the whole event, inviting and managing the audience and sharing his expertise during the discussions. We think he’s cool. (yeah, we mean it!)
Oh yeah, and afterwards, we did this:
We jump-started Ankur’s 10 year old Wrangler which, in his words, “is a great car with a dead battery”.
Downloads/Resources from my presentation:
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Shijaz Abdulla on 06.07.2007 at 20:08
Qatar Infrastructure Community eXperts (QicX) user group is conducting its third quarterly session on July 19th at Qatar Red Crescent Society, Doha.
The session is free to attend, but requires registration. There will also be other informative sessions by experts at this event. To register for this event or for more details, click here.
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