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Cover Story: Citrix Fixes the Provisioning Services / KMS Problem
Announcing MooseVault^TM Cloud Backup
The Poinsettia Got a Bad Rap!
Poinsettia Care Tips
Doing More by Doing Less
Holiday Hazards for Your Pets
Moose Logic Coming Events
December Recommended Reading

(Moose Views is a monthly newsletter prepared by Moose Logic to bring you information and tips on maintaining a trouble-free network)

This is big news for anyone who wants to use XenDesktop to facilitate a Windows 7 migration. Here’s why:

It only takes a moment’s thought to realize that if your desktop virtualization project simply trades inexpensive desktop SATA storage for expensive data center SAN storage, it’s not going to do good things for your ROI. So provisioning your virtual desktops from a shared Standard Image is a really good idea. And that’s what Provisioning Services (“PVS”) allows you to do. If your standard Windows 7 image is, say, 15 Gb, you only need one copy of it on your SAN regardless of how many virtual PCs you’re provisioning from it. Then, using the Citrix Profile Management tool in conjunction with standard Group Policy redirection techniques, you can merge user personalization at logon time.

Unfortunately, turning a Win7 vDisk into a Standard Image breaks the Microsoft license key. The only way around that was to use Key Management Services (KMS) to auto-activate systems as they were provisioned, but that introduced its own set of problems.

For reasons known only to Microsoft, KMS won’t start activating workstations until at least 25 unique systems have checked in to request activation. And it caches the “CMID” of the system drives of the workstations checking in to determine how many there are.

Prior to Server 2008 R2, virtual systems wouldn’t increment the KMS counter at all. That was changed in Server 2008 R2, so if you’re running your KMS service on R2, virtual systems will increment the KMS counter. Unfortunately, systems provisioned from a Citrix Standard Image all had the same CMID, so they looked like the same workstation checking in over and over again, and the counter did not increment.

This problem has been addressed in PVS v5.6, SP1, which is now available from the Citrix download site to anyone who has a “mycitrix” login. Not only that, but it also works with a Multiple Activation Key (MAK) for smaller environments or pilots where KMS is not justified.

Whereas KMS is a service that you run on a server within your own infrastructure, with an MAK, the activation server is hosted at Microsoft. The MAK is a reusable license key that’s good for a predefined number of activations. This latest release of PVS will cache the activation confirmation code for each virtual system, so they will automatically reactivate on subsequent reboots.

The configuration process is pretty straightforward. First of all, the vDisk Imaging Wizard prompts you to choose which activation method you’re going to use. Once you’ve chosen KMS or MAK, here are the next steps:

KMS Activation

1. Reset the activation status on the vDisk image. To do this, boot the master target device from vDisk in Private Image mode, then run slmgr.vbs –rearm from a command prompt on the master target device.
2. Shut down the master target device, put the vDisk back in Standard Image mode, and stream. Target devices will now register with the KMS service as unique systems, and once you exceed 25 systems, they will auto-activate.

MAK Activation

1. Put vDisk in Standard Image mode and stream.
2. Use “Manage MAK Activations” to remotely activate streamed target devices. This is done only one per group of devices.
3. PVS will cache the activation confirmation code for each device so devices will automatically reactivate on subsequent reboots.

Announcing MooseVault^TMCloud Backup

Everybody understands, at least intellectually, that it’s important to get a copy of your critical data off-site for disaster recovery protection. But what do you do if you have only a single business location?

You can have a process by which a designated person takes a set of backup tapes, or a removable hard disk, home periodically. Typically, that happens weekly — which means that, in a disaster, you could end up having to restore data that’s a week old, and while losing a week’s worth of data is better than losing it all, it may still be an expensive proposition. And what do you do when that person is sick, or on vacation, or simply forgets?

You can have a mechanism that automatically replicates data to an off-site repository. Those of you who have been reading this newsletter for a while know that we can do that with a primary / secondary pair of our MooseSentry^TM appliances, which are built around Microsoft’s System Center Data Protection Manager. But where are you going to put the secondary appliance?

We’ve had some customers place a secondary appliance at the owner’s home, which may be acceptable if (and that can be a big “if”) you have enough Internet bandwidth to support the replication traffic.

Of course, there are “cloud backup” options—you probably hear radio commercials for them all the time. They’re great for your home PC, because they offer consumer plans that include unlimited storage for a reasonable annual fee. They can afford to do that because most consumers simply don’t have that much data to back up.

But if you check out the commercial plans, you’ll find that they charge you per month per gigabyte of storage...and if you have multiple servers and hundreds of gigabytes of data, your bill can quickly mount to hundreds of dollars per month.

We’re happy to tell you that there’s a better way: the MooseVault “Cooperative Storage Cloud,” powered by Symform. Here’s how it works:

If you have 100 Gb of data that you want to back up to the cloud, you contribute 100 Gb of storage space to the cloud. The backup agent will encrypt your data using 256-bit AES encryption, break it up into lots of little pieces, add error-correction information to it, and store those little pieces in dozens of other places on storage that’s been contributed by other users. The error-correction insures that, even if several of those other places suddenly became unavailable, your data could still be reconstructed. Meanwhile, little pieces of encrypted data from lots of other users will be stored on the storage space you contributed.

The beauty of this approach is that the capacity of the cloud automatically scales up as new users are brought on board. And since you are contributing storage capacity that’s equal to what you’re consuming, we don’t have to charge you for that capacity — we can charge you a fixed monthly fee regardless of how much cloud storage you need!

This is also a great solution for laptop users who seldom, if ever, connect their laptops to your corporate network, but also are likely to have data on those laptops that you don’t want to lose. In that case, through something called “Flexible Contribution,” you can contribute storage from your data center to offset the consumption of your laptop users.

“But wait,” you say, “what if I don’t have enough free storage to contribute, or my Internet bandwidth won’t handle the traffic?” Not to worry—we can provide the storage contribution for you as part of the service. Of course, if it’s our storage, we’ve got to pay for it some way, so we are going to need to charge you for the space you consume...but you’ll find that it’s still more cost-effective than most cloud-based backup services.

It’s important to note that this is not intended to replace your existing data backup solution. It is intended to supplement your existing backup solution, by providing a way to continually, and automatically, get a copy of your most critical data out of the building.

For more information on this new offering from Moose Logic, contact your Moose Logic Solutions Consultant, or email us at info@mooselogic.com. We’ll be sharing more details in future issues of Moose Views as well.

The Poinsettia Got a Bad Rap!

Despite its popularity, the poinsettia plant has a reputation as being poisonous. A recent poll of 1,000 Americans found that 50 percent of those polled believed poinsettias are toxic if eaten. In actuality, the poinsettia is the most widely tested consumer plant on the market today, which has allowed experts to dispel common myths about the plant.

• Ohio State University conducted tests on all parts of the plant, including the leaves and sap. Researchers there concluded that the poinsettia is non-toxic to both humans and pets.
• POISINDEX, the national information center for poison control centers, has issued guidelines indicating that a child would have to ingest over 500 leaves, or 1.25 pounds, in order to exceed any previously measured toxic doses.
• Children's Hospital in Pittsburgh, in conjunction with Carnegie Mellon University, analyzed data from the American Association of Poison Control Centers. They concluded that out of 22,793 reported exposures to poinsettia plants of varying degrees, there were no reports of toxicity of any significance.
• In 1975, the Consumer Products Safety Commission was presented with a petition asking that warning labels be placed on all poinsettia plants sold. After investigating the medical research, the Commission denied the petition, citing lack of substantial evidence of the toxicity of poinsettia plants.

Of course, that doesn’t mean it’s OK to eat them. For some people, especially children, ingesting the leaves can cause discomfort. The milky white sap of this plant is also irritating to the skin, so be sure to wash your hands if there is any exposure to this liquid. Those allergic to latex may also find that their skin is irritated by contact with the plant, as poinsettias belong to the plant family that is associated with latex.

Poinsettia Care Tips

Now that you know that your poinsettia isn’t poisonous, how about some tips for keeping it fresh long after the Holiday season? Begin by choosing a plant with small, tightly clustered buds in the center. The foliage should be crisp, bright, and undamaged. When bringing your poinsettia home, plan on going straight home, in order to prevent the plant from remaining in your car for a long period of time. To transport your poinsettia from the store to your car, wrap it carefully to protect from any wind and unwrap it as soon as you arrive home.

Poinsettia plants should be watered when the surface soil is dry to the touch. Water until water flows from the drain holes. Any excess water in the drainage saucer should be discarded. To maintain color in the leaves, your poinsettia should be kept close to 60 degrees at night and 70 degrees during the day. These plants also enjoy an environment of high humidity and daily bright, indirect light exposure. If your home is very dry, mist your poinsettia daily. Also remember to keep your plant out of drafts, especially cold winds coming from outdoors or hot air from heater vents.

Your poinsettia can be encouraged to rebloom next year by following some simple steps. Once the flowers have faded, cut the stems back to about eight inches above the soil line. Continue to water regularly and lightly fertilize once a month. As outdoor temperatures begin to rise, your plant can be placed outdoors. Gradually move your poinsettia from indirect to direct sunlight over several days. In the middle of the summer, you will need to cut back any new growth stems and repot your plant if it has grown substantially. During September, move your plant back indoors, but still provide for six or more hours of direct sunlight each day. Beginning in October, place your plant into complete darkness for fourteen hours each day, allowing it ten hours of natural light each day. This process, which takes about ten weeks to complete, will allow your plant to reflower and turn red again.

Doing More by Doing Less

It may sound counterintuitive, but you can often find more time in your day to get things done by doing less. Multitasking may seem to be the best way to get through your to-do list, but it can sabotage your efforts. Researchers from the University of Michigan have found that when people multitask, they are diminishing their brain productivity by 20 to 40 percent. This occurs because your brain needs to spend some of its computing power on the switching process itself. Refocusing from one task to another decreases the brain’s efficiency.

To combat this, try to establish some new habits for your workflow. Instead of checking email every few minutes, only check it every couple of hours. This lets you focus on answering emails all at once. You can also use a timer when working on an important task. Using a timer helps you regulate how much time you need to spend on a single task. While the timer is going, you should not work on any other project in order to devote enough concentrated time to the task at hand.

Finally, use a to-do list, but with a twist. Instead of simply making a list of things you need to get done, use it to write down things that are distracting you. By placing them on the list, you can give yourself permission to come back to it at a later time, instead of switching away from the job you are doing right now.

Here’s one last idea that should help you if you’re feeling too stressed about the stuff you didn’t get done: At the end of the day, instead of just rewriting your to-do list, which makes you focus on all the stuff you didn’t get done, try making a list of all the things you did accomplish. If you do that consistently, you’ll soon feel much better about yourself and your accomplishments.

Holiday Hazards for Your Pets

To insure a truly happy Holiday season this year, don’t forget your furry friends. Each year during the Holiday season, thousands of pets become ill or are injured. During the rush of activities and visits from family and friends, keep these tips in mind:

• Remember that human food is not good for pets. Rich gravies and stocks, along with the bones in meat, can be upsetting to your pet’s digestive system. Also keep sweets and especially chocolate away from your pet.
• Ornaments should be hung out of your pet’s reach. Chewing on glass, tinsel, and electrical cords is very dangerous for your cat or dog.
• You should also keep wrapped gifts away from your pet. Some holiday paper is treated with chemicals that are toxic if swallowed. The ribbons and bows on presents can also present a choking hazard if chewed or swallowed.
• The water in the base of a Christmas tree stand can contain secretions that can cause an upset stomach. Keep the water well covered or consider switching to an artificial tree this year.

On December 25...
...in 1642, Isaac Newton was born in Woolsthorpe, Lincolnshire, England.

...in 1776, George Washington let 5,400 troops across the Delaware River to launch a surprise attack on a Hessian force in Trenton, New Jersey.

...in 1899, Humphrey Bogart was born in New York City.

...in 1998, Christmas was celebrated in Cuba when Fidel Castro's government announced that it was once again a regular holiday in the Cuban calendar. (It had been abolished in 1969.)

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