Celebrating 10 Years as a Microsoft MVP!

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Back from my vacation, I am thrilled to share that I have been awarded the Microsoft Most Valuable Professional (MVP) award for the 10th consecutive year. In addition to being recognized as an expert within Teams, I am have also been recognized as an expert with Microsoft Copilot. This means a lot to me.  Being an MVP has been an incredibly rewarding journey, both personally and professionally. It has provided me with countless opportunities to grow, learn, and connect with like-minded professionals who share a passion for technology and innovation.  The award is not just a title; it's a testament to the hard work, dedication, and contributions to the tech community. It's a privilege to be part of such an esteemed group of individuals who share the same love for technology, and sharing their knowledge about it.  As I reflect on the past decade, I am thankful for the experiences and knowledge I've gained. This recognition motivates me to continue sharing my expertise, mentor

A bit dissapointed? (Not really!)

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#UC #Exchange #Hyper-v #FTMG

Well, here I am. Going to build me a new lab. There are several reasons for this, and I might come back to those (reasons) later.

As a UC guy, I need to test and understand "everything" when I am working for a customer. And to be a bit more prepared at some of the "other" stuff, I thought I should build a mini site with a few essential components. At the same time, I'm curious to what new functions and obstacles new releases might bring.

The complete LAB will be installed in Hyper-V on a Win2008 R2 server. To save some time and space, I have installed Win2008 R2 on a master drive which has been write protected. All servers I install use differentiating disks. This setup (don't forget to sysprep the master disk, and don't activate windows on it if you're going for a similar setup) allows for a really fast setup of new machines. It leaves only a few minor steps to complete when activating a new server. I am not sure how well this setup works in a production environment, so I'would reccomend a different strategy there (maybe: Create a master drive and run sysprep, then copy and rename each new instance)

So far, I have Installed:
2 FTMG servers (and creating a "DMZ" in between). Yes, FTMG is a RC only, but it looks promising and I need to know whats coming.
1 Server to act as AD/DNS/DHCP/CA and File/Print (Not best practice, but this is LAB is about functionallity, not BP)
1 Server running Exchange 2010.
** to be continued**

Now to my so called disappointment:
When installing Exchange 2007 on Win2008 and 2008 R", there have been "obstacles" standing in the way for a quick and easy installation of Exchange. I was looking forward to meet these new obstacles I expected when I sat down to install Exchange 2010. ** Disappointed** I followed the "howto" information on the web, and found it to be running smoothly and without a hitch...... Hats off to whoever made the installation as easy as it should be :)

You should though, be aware of the prerequisites and requirements of the server before running "install exchange". These are found on the web, not on the CD. Which of course might cause you a headache if the exchange server does not have http/s internet connectivity at the time of installation. Why don't the include a "prepare my computer" script in the setup program?

Next task? Install OCS 2007 R2 in the environment. I'll let you know how this turns out.