GPT, UEFI, MBR, oh my!

One of my first tasks in my new role is to get started building out my demo laptop. I was issued a nice workstation-grade Lenovo W530. It came preinstalled with the standard Microsoft Windows 8 Enterprise image. As my demo machine, I want a base OS of Server 2012 instead, so I set out wipe the machine and reinstall.

Since the preinstalled OS was Windows 8, the BIOS was configured for Secure Boot from UEFI Only devices. In addition, UEFI is required if you want to use GPT style disks instead of the legacy MBR style disks. So this Lenovo came out of the box configured with every modern bell and whistle.

First things first, I need the Lenovo to boot from USB. So to add that support, I jumped into the BIOS and went to the Boot menu under Startup. It shows the list of boot devices in the list, but it’s necessary to scroll down some to find the excluded items and add back in the appropriate USB HDD.

The next important decision is whether to install Windows Server 2012 on the GPT disk or use DISKPART to reconfigure it back to MBR. (The DISKPART commands to convert from GPT to MBR and vice-versa are readily available using your search engine of choice.) GPT supports larger disk sizes, but the solid-state disk in this machine isn’t that large, so I could go either way. However, you need to know which you are doing because it determines how you set up your bootable USB and your BIOS.

If you are converting your disk from either MBR or GPT, this will wipe all your data. Make sure starting with a clean slate is REALLY what you want to do. Also, while my goal is to install Server 2012, these settings and instructions would also apply if you are trying to install a different version of Windows 8.

For Lenovo, the BIOS settings need to go like this for GPT:

Secure Boot – Off
UEFI/Legacy Boot – UEFI Only

Also, your USB media NEEDS to be formatted FAT32. (This limits the size of a single file on the USB to 4GB, so watch the size of your image.wim file if you customize it.)

And like this for MBR:

Secure Boot – Off
UEFI/Legacy Boot – Both (with Legacy First)

Your USB media can be formatted NTFS, FAT32 isn’t a requirement.

Take note, if you boot from NTFS media and try to install the OS on a GPT disk, you won’t be able to select a partition to install to, you’ll warned that you can’t install to a GPT disk and have to cancel out of the installer. Even if you are doing everything correctly from FAT32 media, you’ll get a warning that the BIOS might not have the drivers to load the OS. This warning is safe to ignore – you can still continue through the install process and the setup will create all the necessary partitions to support GPT.

Once all my pre-reqs were sorted out, I reboot the machine and the Server 2012 install files start to load. After I clicked INSTALL to get things going, I received an error message that read:

The product key entered does not match any of the Windows images available for installation. Enter a different product key.

Well, huh? Now granted, it’s been a while since I’ve attempted to install a Server OS on a laptop, but I surely didn’t miss a place to enter a product key! After some research I found this KB article, where it details the logic for locating product keys when installing Windows 8 and Windows Server 2012.

1.Answer file (Unattended file, EI.cfg, or PID.txt)
2.OA 3.0 product key in the BIOS/Firmware
3.Product key entry screen

Turns out the Lenovo has a preinstalled OEM license for Windows 8 Pro in the firmware. Seems that this saves OEM from having to put stickers on the bottoms of machines with software keys and ensures that the OEM licenses stays with the machine it was sold with. Enterprises that deploy images with another licensing model usually are using some kind of deployment tool and image with an answer file, allowing them to bypass the check against the firmware key.

For my scenario, I wanted the quickest easiest way to provide my key. Turns out the PID.txt file is a no-brainer. You can reference this (http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/hh824952.aspx) for all the details, but all you need to do is create a text file called PID.txt with these two lines:

[PID]
Value=XXXXX-XXXXX-XXXXX-XXXXX-XXXXX

Put your product key in for the value and save it your \Sources folder of your install media. From there it was smooth sailing. After your OS is installed, feel free to turn back on the Secure Boot back in the BIOS.

That Sinking "TechEd" Feeling…

Turns out, even though I not at TechEd in New Orleans, I still am experiencing that sinking feeling in my stomach, reminding me that once again I probably have too many new things to learn and probably not enough time to learn them!

There have been a lot of great announcements coming out of the conference so far and it’s only half over. Here are some highlights I recommend you check out:

On the Springboard Series Blog – What’s New for the Enterprise with Windows 8.1 by Stephen Rose. Lots of new features to help make Windows 8 easier to support in your enterprise.
TechEd Keynote – Get a quick overview of everything on the horizon from Microsoft.
Transform the Datacenter – Jeffery Snover and Jeff Wollsey cover the 3 different ways you can use Microsoft technology to support datacenter operations in the cloud, on-premise or in hybrid forms.

And if you REALLY don’t know where to begin, click here and see a list of available presentations sorted by the most views.

Happy learning!

New Adventures at Microsoft

I love being a Sys Admin. For the last 15 years, I’ve learned so much about managing systems and working with the people that use those systems to accomplish their jobs. Plus, over the last several years, I’ve enjoyed being part of the IT Professional community, through the PacITPros User Group, from attending and staffing conferences like TechMentor, TechEd and TechDays and as a Microsoft MVP.

I’ve made so many great connections, learned many cool new things. Not sure I would consider having it any other way. But sometimes an opportunity opens up that takes you in a different (but related!) direction and that’s what has happened to me.

As of yesterday, I’ve joined Microsoft as an IT Pro Evangelist. I’m looking forward to getting to spend more time with the IT community and hopefully, learning a lot more things I can share! I’ll be primarily responsible for the Bay Area, so don’t worry, I won’t be going far. 🙂

Women in Tech Panel from TechDays SF Featured on RunAs Radio

For those of you who weren’t at TechDays SF in early May, we held a Women in Technology panel as one of our featured sessions. Richard Campbell from RunAs Radio was our host, and as an added bonus the session was recorded so it could be made available later.

You’ll find the whole hour as show #317. Join me, Jessica DeVita, Christa Anderson and CA Callahan as we talk about how we started out in technology, what we love, what is challenging and we hope more woman can see what’s great about the nuts and bolts that make our jobs rewarding.

Personally, I’ll never get over how different my voice sounds compared to the one in my head.

TechEd 2013 Is Just Around the Corner!

One of my most favorite IT Pro conferences is Microsoft TechEd. This year would have been my 10th TechEd to attend in a row, but alas, I have a conflict and won’t be there this year. Still, I wanted to mention a few things you might want to check out if YOU are going to be there.

If it’s your first time attending, you want to be sure to grab some sessions from some historically popular speakers. You can’t go wrong making sure that Jeffrey Snover, Greg Shields, Mark Russinovich, Mark Minasi, Stephen Rose, Paula Januszkiewicz, J. Peter Bruzzese, and Chris Henley are on your schedule. Or at least a few of them. 🙂
Don’t forget to check out the great TechEd Primer on the Springboard Series Blog
Sometimes it can get overwhelming to sit in breakout session after breakout session. Don’t overlook the smaller venue Birds-of-a-Feather topics where the conversations can be more intimate and detail oriented.
If you are in certification mode, exams are 50% off!
Are you a woman in technology? Do you know a woman in technology? Enjoy a sit-down lunch served while listening to a panel discussion at the Women in Technology Luncheon. Support your female colleagues and beat the lunch line – win, win!
If it’s not your first time attending and you think you have the “stuff” to present at a future TechEd, don’t hesitate to participate in Speaker Idol. Hosted by Richard Campbell from RunAs Radio, you can win an all expenses paid speaking slot at the next TechEd. The only rule is that you can’t have presented a TechEd breakout session in the past.
What to make connections that last longer than a week? Don’t forget about the Community Resource Zone where you learn about resources to expand your professional network beyond the reach of the conference or your office walls.

No matter how you schedule your week, you won’t leave New Orleans disappointed. You’ll have learned a few things, made a few new contacts and be geared up to start some new projects in the office. If nothing else, don’t forget to come back and tell me what I missed!

Your Tier 1 Support is in the Wrong Place

Lots of us started there. Depending on the size of the company you work for, you might still be doing some of it. Classic Tier 1 support calls are often things like password changes, mouse and keyboard issues, other things often resolved with the end user either rebooting their machine and logging out and back in.

And I’m almost certain that you have the wrong people handling that job, particularly if that person is you or someone one your team who is also responsible for other more technical projects. Stick with me on this for a minute.

I’ve always been a big advocate of the administration departments and the IT departments working closely together and I think that any administrative or executive assistant worth their salt can handle most Tier 1 Helpdesk tickets. Here’s why: they already have their hand on the pulse of pretty major areas of your company and often work directly with executives and managers.

They know what guests and visitors are coming to your location – relevant IT tasks include providing WiFi passwords to guests, explaining how to use the phones and A/V systems and alerting IT ahead of time to guest that need additional resources.

They know when Execs are grumbling about IT issues that can become emergencies (noisy hard drives, problems with applications) and can let IT know ahead of time of pending maintenance issues.

They can easily be cc’d on emails regarding upcoming password expiration for key executives or managers and make sure those people complete those tasks in a timely manner. Resetting passwords and unlocking accounts is a easy activity that can be delegated out to admin staff with a quick training session. With the proper permissions, you can only give them the abilities they need and nothing more.

Opening tickets, resetting voicemail passwords for phone systems, replacing batteries in wireless mice, swapping out broken keyboards, changing printer toners, basic troubleshooting of printer jams, updating job titles in Active Directory… That’s just off the top of my head.

So what good could come of this? First off, there is a big lack of women in systems admin roles. I was just on a WiT panel last week discussing how to get more women into this role. Turns out, 3 out of 4 women on the panel started in administrative roles. It’s a great way for someone to get a glimpse into the “plumbing” of how systems and network administration keep businesses running.

Second, most executive assistants are great managers of time and of people, and can often see and understand the big picture of how a company runs, all characteristics that make successful sysadmins. Letting them handle some of the front facing issues can also take away some of the “mystery” of the IT department.

Integrating these two functions can provide a great cost savings to your company, can provide a pipeline of future staff to pull from when you have an opening in the IT department and as a bonus, you’re doing something to help more women begin their technical careers.

So go ahead, steal the receptionist.

Don’t Miss Out on some Fun Stuff

Please tell me you’ve seen the tweets and gotten the emails!

I’m co-chairing PacITPros 2nd TechDays SF – two days jam packed with a crazy menu of sessions to choose from, brought to you by some great speakers – many of which you’d pay 6 times the amount to see at TechEd.

Not going to TechEd? Then this is the place for you to get the much of what you need to know about Cloud, Azure, PowerShell, plus some extra goodies on SharePoint 2013, Lync, Remote Desktop and Hyper-V!

The fine folks at Xantrion are sponsoring us and we’ve got our schedule available as a mobile app by EventBoard. So go register now. Otherwise, you are making me feel bad.

Speaking of Azure, if you haven’t done the 90 day free trial, it’s totally worth looking at. Microsoft is even running a Virutal Networking challenge where you can win some pretty decent prizes, like a Surface Pro.

Because 365 Days to XP EOS was SO YESTERDAY!

You probably saw it mentioned a million times yesterday. End of Support for Windows XP is April 8, 2014. Today, it’s probably old news. Or you’ve noted it and moved on.

Well, unless you’ve moved to Windows 7 or Windows 8, you still need to pay attention – yesterday’s news or not. Check out the Springboard Series Blog and Steven Rose’s post on the countdown to the end of XP Support.

And in case you missed them, here are a few other products with End of Support dates in the recent past or near future.

Server 2003 – 7/14/2015
SQL Server 2000 – 4/9/2013
Office 2003 – 4/8/2014

Exchange 2010 SP 1 – 1/8/2013
Office 2007 SP 2 – 1/8/2013

TechDays SF is May 2nd/3rd – Check out our speaker list on Twitter!

This year, I’m a co-chair for the PacITPro’s TechDays SF. If you didn’t attend this event in 2012, you should take a close look at what we are offering this May. The event is two days and we are offering multiple tracks with a variety of sessions on Windows Server, Client, Cloud and PowerShell all for the bargin price of $300. Please visit www.techdays.org for more information or to register.

We are also using EventBoard Mobile for easy access to the most up to date information and schedule. I recommend downloading that app for your Windows Phone, iPhone or Android.

Our speakers include some very well-known, knowledgable folks who’ve spoken at other popular conferences like TechMentor and TechEd. Most of them have Twitter handles – if you aren’t following these people yet, I’m sure you’ll find some interesting enough to add to your list.

@VirtualChrista – From Microsoft, Christa Anderson will be presenting two sessions, “Delivering Applications with Remote Desktop Services in Windows Server 2012” and “The User Configuration Cage Match”.
@scevans – Steve Evans will be presenting “IIS: Choose Your Own Adventure” and “Designing Hyper-V for the Real World”.
@nhawkins – Nick Hawkins will be co-presenting “Designing Hyper-V for the Real World” with @scevans.
@grouppolicyguy – Darren Mar-Elia will be breaking out of his Group Policy shell to bring you “!0 Tips for Success with Private Cloud”.
@gblock – Glenn Block will be lighting up the room with “Managing the Cloud from the Command Line”.
@alexandair – Joining us from Serbia, Aleksandar Nikolic will be presenting “Remote Management of Windows Server 2012 with Windows PowerShell”.
@cacallahan – For those of you who support or dabble in SharePoint, CA Callahan will join us again to bring you two sessions on SharePoint 2013.
@ubergeekgirl – Our fearless leader of PacITPros in Southern California, Jessica DeVita will be part of the Women in Technology panel discussion. Joining her will be @adfskitteh, @VirtualChrista and me, @jkc137.
@KevinRemde – Also from Microsoft, Kevin Remde will bring us “Windows 8 Deployment” for those of you planning to move beyond Windows 7 and “Windows Server 2012 Hyper-V”.
@chrisavis – Often PacITPros’ host for our monthly meetings at Microsoft’s office, Chris Avis will be bringing us two session on Azure, including Azure IaaS (Infrastructure as a Service).
@mminasi – Mark Minasi, one of the household names for those of us reading technical books, will be presenting several sessions, so be sure to put one on your schedule: “Manage Server 2012 Like a Pro or, Better, Like an Evil Overlord!”, “Changes to Storage in Windows 2102: Storage Gets a Bit SANer”, “Understanding Dynamic Access Control: the File Share Recharged, Reimaged and Compliance-Enabled”.
@richardhicks – If you are looking for the latest in Remote Access, don’t miss Richard Hicks and his “Next Generation Remote Access with Windows Server 2012 DirectAccess” session.
@richcampbell – Richard Campbell will be presenting “People, Process, Tools – The Essence of DevOps” as well as host the Run As Radio: Women in Technology Panel
@adfskitteh – Part of the Idenity & Access Management team at Microsoft, Laura Hunter will be covering “Strong Authentication for BYOD” and “How Microsoft Has Adopted Office 365 and Azure”
@JeffHicks – Need more PowerShell? Choose from “Troubleshooting Active Directory with Windows PowerShell”, “10 PowerShell Mistakes, Trips and Traps and How to Avoid Them” and “File and Folder Provisioning with PowerShell and Windows Server 2012”. Want more Hyper-V? Learn how to “Build a Windows 8 Hyper-V Lab”