SuperTekBoy

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Configure Kemp Virtual Load Balancer on VMware ESXi

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Load Balancer Produkte Familie Kemp Technologies

The Kemp Load Balancers are a fantastic series of products. Just this month, Kemp announced that it is offering a free virtual load balancer.

The free load balancer is great for a lab, proof of concept, or, small production environment. Be sure to check out our review here.

Given this fantastic offer–and the fact we were already huge Kemp fans–we decided to start a series on configuring Kemp load balancers for Exchange.

In part one, we look at how to deploy the free virtual load balancer from an OVF template. We will deploy this to our standalone ESXi 5.5 environment. In the second part of our series, we will configure the load balancer for Exchange 2013.

Disclaimer: I need to point out that I am not sponsored by Kemp in any way. However, this document does contain some affiliate links.

Deploy the OVF

To get your free virtual load balancer, visit, https://freeloadbalancer.com/. Once at Kemp’s site, you will need to register for a Kemp ID (if you don’t already have one). Also, be sure to confirm your email address from the activation message.

Once logged in, you will be asked to Select Your Platform. We are going to deploy to ESXi 5.5, so let’s pick VMware (OVF).

Kemp Virtual Load Balancer Download OVF

Download and extract the ZIP file to a convenient location. Inside this archive, you will find 4 files. The OVF and VMDK files are the ones we will import. To do this, connect with your VSphere Client, select the File menu and click Deploy OVF Template.

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Free Layer-7 Load Balancer from Kemp Technologies

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The Kemp Load Balancers are a fantastic series of products.

Just this month, Kemp announced that it is offering a free virtual load balancer.

Always free

This is a perpetually free license!

This is not a watered-down version of the paid product. Nor is it a watered-down version of the hardware appliance. This is a fully-featured Layer-7 load balancer. The main drawback – it is throttled to 20Mbps throughput.

Free Kemp Layer-7 Virtual Load Balancer

While this may seem restrictive, this is more than enough for any lab, proof of concept, or, for small production environment.

Why is Kemp doing this? Here is a quote from their website.

“The availability of a proven free load balancer from a well-established company will enable many start-ups and QA/Dev teams to focus on the task at hand. They will no longer have to worry about addressing the trade-off between cost, quality and upgradeability associated with some open source and application-embedded load balancing solutions.”

On Twitter, @KempTech stated, “We did it for our fans.”

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131 funny, geeky and creepy questions to ask Cortana

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Questions to ask Cortana

With the Windows 10 keynote announcing that Cortana will be coming to the PC, we thought it would be really awesome to figure out all the fun things you can ask her.

Many of these are well documented around the web. Although, we found a few ourselves. Such as asking Cortana the famous Monty Python line, “What is the airspeed velocity of an unladen swallow?” or “Rock, Paper, Scissors”. At least, we can’t find anyone else that has discovered those yet.

Some questions are funny. Some questions are geeky. And some, just outright creepy.

We didn’t want to show her responses. That’s for you to enjoy. Besides, who likes spoilers anyway? (Okay, just one then. Look up.)

Let us know if we missed any good ones. Our community recommended section is growing like crazy! We are up over 160 questions to ask Cortana now. Plus, which one is your favorite?

Found any good questions to ask Alexa? Let us know by dropping a comment on the sister blog post 131 funny, geeky and creepy questions to ask Alexa.

(Check out the credits at the bottom for a list of our sources.)

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Windows Process Activation Service – Error 13: The data is invalid

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I ran into a strange error recently on an Exchange 2013 server. The WWW Publishing Service was stopped. When I tried to start the service it failed on a dependency. A quick check revealed the Windows Process Activation Service (WAS) was stopped. When I tried to start WAS, I received the following error.

Windows could not start the Windows Process Activation Service service on Local Computer Error 13 The data is invalid

Windows could not start the Windows Process Activation Service service on Local Computer. Error 13: The data is invalid.

The Event Viewer was littered with equally cryptic Event IDs, such as WAS 5005 and WAS 5036.

Not the first time

I’ve actually encountered an error like this before. I am not sure what causes it. But evidently, something in Internet Information Services (IIS) becomes corrupt. Thankfully this blog from GrinGod jogged my memory. It all came flooding back.

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Windows 10: Science fiction now science fact

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If you missed the Windows 10 keynote then you missed more than you can possibly imagine.

Going into the Microsoft event I expected the content to be solely focused on Windows 10 for the PC. But I was wrong. It was so much more than that!

Microsoft truly wowed us. My mind was completely blown. At a nuclear level.

My good friend Bill Macy and I were madly lighting up Lync Chat like two giddy children on Christmas morning. It was toys galore! (There may have geek hyperventilating as well).

But enough of that. Let’s discuss the highlights.

Open Development Process

Previously, when a new operating system shipped the mentality of many was to wait for at least one service pack level before mass adoption. The idea was that by the first service pack most bugs would be worked out.

In the first few minutes of the keynote, Terry Myerson discussed the new Insider Program. Microsoft describes the program as an “Open Development Process”. This process puts technical previews into the hands of the end-users. As a result, Microsoft already has 3 million installs of Windows 10 on devices. A network of 1.7 million participants. A system that has already produced 800,000 pieces of feedback.

Windows 10 Insider Program

Microsoft Engineers describe the Insider Program as “co-creating the future of Windows with you” and “making sure the product matches your expectations”.

Is this early adoption and massive feedback the answer? Will Windows 10 be rock solid right out of the gate?

I think so!

Free Upgrade

Yep! You got it.

Windows 10 will be a free upgrade.

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Symantec announces Backup Exec 15

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Symantec Backup Exec 15

Symantec has announced Backup Exec 15. This product will go into beta in the first quarter of 2015. Although no date has been specified.

One of the biggest changes is that Symantec has dropped 32-bit support for its Media Server. This means that your media server can only run on a 64-bit operating system.

This won’t be a big shock for the Microsoft Exchange community. Exchange Server has required a 64-bit media server for some time.

Whether Symantec will support a media server on Windows 2003 is left to be seen. My guess, sometime between the beta and general release, Symantec will make 2008 a minimum requirement. Especially with Server 2003 going end-of-life in less than 8 months.

The other big news—Cumulative Update 6—this version will officially add support for the latest release of Exchange 2013. Although by the time this goes beta, I expect CU7 to be released.

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