David Orlo

Add GUI’s to Windows Server Core and Hyper-V Core

Posted on October 16, 2014 by David Orlo

This guide covers adding easy to use GUI’s and functionality to Windows Server Core and Windows Server Hyper-V Core 2008-2012. First start by downloading the installation package, I have already bundled everything you will need into 1 easy to download package but if you would like to download everything separately the items you will need are listed below, note that some items are optional and up to the Admin. Core Quick Launch supports all of these applications so if you would like both Google Chrome and Mozilla Firefox for example CQL will open them both, if you only plan to

Hard Drive Bible Notes

Posted on October 6, 2014 by David Orlo

Never install 7,200 RPM drives as OS or Database Drives Never create a 3 Drive RAID 5 (Even with 15k Drives) Never create a 4 Drive RAID 5 with a host spare (This is a 3 Drive RAID 5) Never create a 4 Drive RAID 5 with 10k or 7.2k Drives Always opt for 3.5” drives over 2.5” drives (3.5” 15k drives cost the same as 10k) 15K Drives are 110% faster than desktop drives, 10K drives are only 40% faster Always add all Disks to your RAID then create LUNS to partition the data IOPs = ((RPM/1000)/(Latency*Seek))*SPINDLE COUNT

Microsoft Exchange 2007-2010 Anti-Spam Addon

Posted on August 1, 2014 by David Orlo

In Exchange 2007 and higher Microsoft added a set of new Anti-Spam features, however these features are not installed by default but lucky for us it’s not too hard to add them in. First locate your Exchange scripts folder, this is “C:\Program Files\Microsoft\Exchange Server\V14\Scripts” by default Inside of this folder you will see a lot of useful scripts but the one we are interested in is install-AntispamAgents.ps1 Now open a new PowerShell script window and type the following in order Set-ExecutionPolicy Unrestricted -Force Add-PSSnapin Microsoft.Exchange,Microsoft.Windows.AD cd “C:\Program Files\Microsoft\Exchange Server\V14\Scripts” .\install-AntispamAgents.ps1 That’s it, well almost. You do have to restart the

PC Power Supply Modification /Add SATA Connectors and Cable Wrap

Posted on May 23, 2014 by David Orlo

I had this power supply laying around and am currently building a PC that doesn’t require anything special so I decided I would mod it and add the missing SATA connectors and remove some of the old Molex cables and connectors. The power supply is a little older and didn’t include any SATA connectors but it had a ton of Molex style connectors. I had a few modular cables left from an Enermax power supply that I sold and forgot to include a few cables with it. I hung on to them since I sold it to a friend and

Complete Remote System Administration – IIS Exchange AD DHCP DNS SQL

Posted on May 22, 2014 by David Orlo

This guide shows how you can manage all of your major server roles remotely without ever logging into the servers themselves. To use these tools you will need Windows 7 Pro or higher, I prefer Windows 7 Pro 64bit. If you have a 32bit version of Windows you will be limited on which tools you can use. First lets cover Microsoft IIS Management Open your Control Panel and select Programs and Features, From here select Turn Windows Features On or Off Select Internet Information Services – Web Management Tools From here you can select IIS 6 Management Tools for management

Arduino – Temperature Sensors / Thermistor vs. Analog vs. Digital

Posted on May 20, 2014 by David Orlo

The beauty of choice, but with it brings complexity and confusion. There are several choices of temperature sensors available to the average consumer but which is right for your project and whats the difference between these sensors? Well that’s what I hope to explain in this article. Lets start with a very general overview of the different types of temperature sensors that will be discussed here. Thermistors – Available in NTC and PTC which will be discussed further in depth later in this article. These are very simplistic and fairly accurate sensors. They are cheap and very small which makes

What would you like to see more of? Comment in thread

Posted on May 19, 2014 by David Orlo

Would you like to see more VMWare? iSCSI? Citrix? Server Clustering or other Server Roles? Comment below and I will add more of those types of articles

VMWare ESXi vs. Citrix XenServer vs. Microsoft Hyper-V Performance Comparison

Posted on May 19, 2014 by David Orlo

I performed these tests about 2 years ago now but I would imagine the results would still be similar. I have attached several documents which show my findings for the performance of the 3 different Virtualization platforms running on the same hardware with the same guest OS. Passmark Test Main CPU 2D Graphics Memory Disk ESXi 654.3 864.3 830.3 568.9 294.1 XenServer 741.7 862.7 213.5 588.3 931.1 Hyper-V 753.9 862.2 361.9 596.8 275.7 IO Meter Summary – IOPS WFS 4KB DSS DB 1MB M STR 64KB SQL SL 64KB OS P 64KB WSL 8KB EXCH 4KB WS 8KB

Intel Atom Specification Comparison Spreadsheet

Posted on May 19, 2014 by David Orlo

I spent a lot of time making this spreadsheet which was used to determine the processor that would be used in a custom firewall appliance for one of my previous employers. I have decided to share this spreadsheet since it would be a shame to let it rot and go to waste. This spreadsheet includes Intel Atom processors, FSB (Front Side Bus), Core Count, Cache Size, TDP (Power Requirement) , Memory Type, Memory Speed, and much more. Enjoy Download Link Atom Comparison Sheet

Write Back vs. Write Through Disk Caching

Posted on May 19, 2014 by David Orlo

Write back vs.Write through? Common wisdom is WB always faster? Not always so! WT is usually faster for heavy loads If you cannot configure an optimal disk configuration: select WT RAID-5may be best with WB Only when performing sequential loads WB is usually faster for light loads If server is properly configured: Select WB