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Microsoft TechNet Subscription – 2012 Discount Code

January 5th, 2012

Simon Seagrave

Good news folks! 2012 has seen the release of a new Microsoft TechNet Subscription Discount code. This new code for 2012 will give you 15% (small print: this is based on the US currency so may vary slightly between countries) and is due to expire on the 29th February 2012.

Code: TNFLA12

To give you an idea of the type of savings you can find on a Microsoft TechNet subscription, here are the savings on a new TechNet Professional subscription in the US, UK and Europe (checked against France & Germany): TechNet Pro - US $349.00 -> $296.65 TechNet Pro – UK £234.21 -> £199.08 TechNet Pro – Europe €373.64 -> €317.59

If you run your own IT lab environment the Microsoft TechNet subscription is definitely a worthwhile investment as it gives you access to most Microsoft applications and MS operating systems, along with legitimate licence keys for non-production use.

Those of you like myself who are already signed up to the Microsoft TechNet subscription programme will no doubt agree that it offers great value for money, and avoids the headache of trying to ‘track down’ license keys. It also certainly beats having to install time limited trial versions which you end up having to reinstalling after a set period of days, which only wastes precious lab time. Along with access to the actual Microsoft software you the TechNet subscription also provides you with access to the Microsoft Knowledge Base and the moderated Microsoft TechNet Forums, which are also valuable resources.

Check out the TechHead ‘Hot Deals’ section at the top of this page for more decent product discounts and deals I have come across along with any new or updated Microsoft TechNet discount codes.

A big thanks goes out to Colin Westwater who pointed out this new 2012 Microsoft TechNet code to me.

Technorati Tags: Microsoft,TechNet,subscription,discount,code,2012

Posted in Microsoft

Tags: 2012, code, discount, Microsoft, Subscription, TechNet

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Microsoft’s Hyper V is Finally Released !

June 27th, 2008

Simon Seagrave

Well the much anticipated final release of Microsoft Hyper V has finally happened.

After much speculation about a release this week Microsoft finally officially shipped their virtualization offering yesterday.

This final release is being bundled in with Hyper V inclusive versions of Windows Server 2008. A non Hyper V inclusive version of the media is also available and is approximately US$29 cheaper.

There is no set date for the standalone version of Hyper V though it is expected to ship later this year.

Technorati Tags: Hyper,V,HyperV,Microsoft,virtualization,release,final

Posted in Microsoft

Tags: final, Hyper, HyperV, Microsoft, release, V, Virtualization

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Microsoft TechNet Plus (UK) Subscription 30% Discount

June 23rd, 2008

Simon Seagrave

** UPDATE 5th June 2009 – It has been a while since this discount code was released so there is no guarantee that it still works. If any one can confirm this I will update the site also if you know of any other codes let me know.

If I know of any TechNet subscription discounts I will post them in the HotDeals section of the site – this can be found in the menu at the top.

Thanks. Si

_______________________________________________________

ORIGINAL POST:

Head on over to Eileen Brown’s blog for the 30% off discount code on new Microsoft TechNet Plus subscriptions. Although the blog article is from April the code apparently is still valid.

I subscribe to TechNet Plus every year and it definitely pays for itself.

Technorati Tags: Microsoft,TechNet,Plus,Subscription,Discount,Code,Eileen Brown

Posted in Microsoft

Tags: discount, Microsoft, Plus, Subscription, TechNet, UK

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Emergency Management Services (EMS) Connection Detected

March 17th, 2008

Simon Seagrave

When installing Windows Server 2003 on an HP Blade BL460c I received the following prompt box during the installation process.

In this instance I just had to cancel this dialogue box.

This Microsoft article gives the following outline on EMS:

“Emergency Management Services (EMS) is a technology in Windows Server 2003 that supports remote management and system recovery for servers that are not accessible through an in-band connection.

An in-band connection is a connection between two computers that relies on a standard network, such as a local area network (LAN) or the Internet, and on standard remote administration tools, such as Remote Desktop or Telnet. You can use this type of connection to remotely manage computers only if both the local and remote computers are in a functional state and accessible on the network.

Emergency Management Services redirects text output to the out-of-band connection. An out-of-band connection is a nonstandard connection between two computers, such as a serial port connection, and is useful when a remote server cannot access the network or is not fully functional. Emergency Management Services provides a command-line environment for managing a server through the out-of-band port. The capability of redirecting text output is also known as console redirection.”

You can also perform an unattended EMS installation of Windows Server 2003 here is a Microsoft Knowledge Base article that outlines the steps.

Technorati Tags: emergency management services,ems,server 2003,microsoft,ems connection detected,hp,blade,bl460c

Posted in Microsoft

Tags: bl460c, blade, emergency management services, ems, ems connection detected, hp, Microsoft, server 2003

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Differences between the various Windows Server 2003 Versions

November 28th, 2006

Simon Seagrave

Here is a breakdown of the differences between the various Windows Server 2003 editions. This information is from the Parameg site – I decided to include it due to it’s nice clear explanations.

Windows Server 2003 Web Edition
Windows Server 2003, Web Edition is mainly for building and hosting Web applications, Web pages, and XML Web Services. It is designed to be used primarily as an IIS 6.0 Web server and provides a platform for rapidly developing and deploying XML Web services and applications that use ASP.NET technology, a key part of the .NET Framework. This edition does not require Client Access Licenses and Terminal Server mode is not included on Web Edition. However, Remote Desktop for Administration is available on Windows Server 2003, Web Edition. Only 10 concurrent file-sharing connections are allowed at any moment. It is not possible to install Microsoft SQL Server and Microsoft Exchange software on this version of Windows, although MSDE and SQL Server 2005 Express are fully supported after service pack 1 is installed. The most important limitation of Web edition is a maximum memory of 2 GB RAM. Additionally, Windows Server 2003, Web Edition cannot act as a domain controller. See Compare the Editions of Windows Server 2003.

Windows Server 2003 Standard Edition
Windows Server 2003, Standard Edition is aimed towards small to medium sized businesses. Flexible yet versatile, Standard Edition supports file and printer sharing, offers secure Internet connectivity, and allows centralized desktop application deployment. This edition of Windows will run on up to 4 processors with up to 4 GB RAM. 64-bit versions are also available for the AMD x86-64 architecture and the Intel clone of that same architecture, EM64T. The 64-bit version of Windows Server 2003, Standard Edition is capable of addressing up to 32 GB of RAM and it also supports Non-Uniform Memory Access (NUMA), something the 32-bit version does not.

Windows Server 2003 Enterprise Edition
Windows Server 2003, Enterprise Edition is aimed towards medium to large businesses. It is a full-function server operating system that supports up to eight processors and provides enterprise-class features such as eight-node clustering using Microsoft Cluster Server (MSCS) software and support for up to 32 GB of memory. Enterprise Edition also comes in a 64-bit edition for Intel. 64-bit versions are also available for the AMD x86-64 architecture and the Intel clone of that same architecture, EM64T. The 64-bit version of Windows Server 2003, Enterprise Edition is capable of addressing up to 1 TB of RAM. Both 32-bit and 64-bit versions support Non-Uniform Memory Access (NUMA).

Windows Server 2003 Datacenter Edition
Windows Server 2003, Datacenter Edition is the flagship of the Windows Server line and designed for immense infrastructures demanding high security and reliability. Datacenter supports up to 64 processors. It also supports Non-Uniform Memory Access (NUMA).

Windows Server 2003 Compute Cluster Edition
Windows Server 2003, Compute Cluster Edition is designed for working with the most difficult computing problems that would require high performance computing clusters. Compute Cluster edition deploys in clusters of multiple servers to form large supercomputers. Microsoft intends to release this edition in 2006.

Windows Server 2003 Storage Server
Windows Storage Server 2003 is optimised to provide dedicated file and print sharing services. It is only available through OEMs when purchased pre-configured with network attached storage devices, which are available in a wide variety of sizes from a couple hundred gigabytes to a few terabytes. One significant difference, when compared with the other Windows Server 2003 editions that provide file and print services, is that Storage Server does not require client access licenses.

Also, here is a good Microsoft TechNet library article that clearly outlines the differences between the versions of Windows Server 2003.

This Microsoft article also offers similar information.