Although it’s been available for a while now, Windows Server 2008′s storage changes aren’t widely reported. TechTarget’s Dave Raffo wrote a piece about it today, Windows Server 2008′s hidden storage features, including some quotes from me, but it’s still less than clear. So let me sum up: Server Message Block (SMB) 2.0 is probably the biggest [...]
QLogic and Emulex Deliver 8 Gb Fibre Channel For VMware ESX
July 30, 2008 By 1 Comment
As I mentioned on Monday, VMware’s Update 2 for ESX 3.5 includes support for 8 Gb Fibre Channel HBAs. This is an important development, so I went looking through the official ESX I/O Compatibility Guide to see which HBAs in particular were supported, but none were listed. This was pretty puzzling, but Rich from VM [...]
Yes, FireWire is Faster Than USB
July 30, 2008 By 1 Comment
This should not come as a shock to anyone, as it has been proven before, but let me take this moment to say that, yes, despite their rated speeds, 400-megabit FireWire S400 (aka IEEE 1394) is faster than 480-megabit USB 2.0. While swapping out disk drives (first to upgrade the internal drive in my MacBook [...]
Storage Fixes in VMware ESX Server 3.5 Update 2
July 28, 2008 By 5 Comments
VMware just released Update 2 for VMware ESX Server 3.5 (Virtual Infrastructure), and it includes some storage fixes of note: Support for Volume Shadow Copy Service (VSS) for filesystems Windows Server 2003 and Windows Server 2008 guests. This means VMware services like VCB and SRM can now signal Windows Server to quiesce filesystems before creating a [...]
How To Move OS X Time Machine Backups To A New Disk
July 26, 2008 By 31 Comments
It turns out that you can move Time Machine backups easily, with included OS X tools, and without breaking anything. My old backups are still visible, and I have another 40 GB to work with. Read on for the details!
Quick and Easy Bluetooth Sharing Between PC and Mac
July 25, 2008 By 7 Comments
As I transition to the Mac, I often find myself needing to transfer a file back and forth quickly. I could create SMB shares on both systems, but this requires both to be connected to a wired or wireless Ethernet LAN. Luckily, both Vista and OS X offer functional Bluetooth sharing technology for quick, easy [...]
Don’t Bother With Multiple Colored iPhone and Exchange Calendars
July 22, 2008 By 13 Comments
Update: Things have really changed regarding calendars in iPhone OS 3.0! They are much easier to understand, you can have multiple sources, including iTunes and over-the-air exchange, CalDAV, and ICS. Almost everything I complained about in this 2008 article has been fixed in OS 3.0! One of the things that surprised me about iPhone 2.0 [...]
My New All-Apple Feed
July 22, 2008 By Leave a Comment
With all the Apple-related content popping up on this blog, I decided to add an Apple-only feed to the mix. Now, if you’d like to follow my adventures with the Mac, iPhone, and other Apple junk, and don’t care about all the enterprise storage and general home computing stuff, you can subscribe to just the [...]
A Few iPhone Exchange ActiveSync Gotchas
July 21, 2008 By 62 Comments
I’ve been running OS 2.0 on my (first-generation) iPhone for a week and a half now, and as I mentioned before, Exchange ActiveSync push email, calendaring, and contacts was one of the main things Iwas looking for when I upgraded. That article on setting up ActiveSync has since become my top blog post by far, pulling in literally thousands of hits per day, so I must not be alone in wanting this functionality.
Which Storage Protocol For VMware?
July 18, 2008 By Leave a Comment
I had two great storage virtualization seminars this week, in New York and Philadelphia. As usual, audience participation was key, and interest in VMware and Hyper-V remains high. One of the main questions I always get is which protocol one should use for VMware storage. My recommendation remains that the answer is an organizational one [...]
