Unbound Domain Name Server Updated to Run on Windows

NLnet Labs and Nominet today announces Unbound, an open source domain name server (DNS), is now available to all Windows operating systems including Windows XP and Vista. This Unbound update further supports the deployment of Domain Name System Security Extensions (DNSSEC), a technology designed to enhance the security of the Internet as a whole.

Windows Unbound is Ipv6 compatible recursive caching validating DNS server. It looks up the domain name in the global DNS system to get the address and stores it to allow ISPs, broadband suppliers, or cable companies, to quickly direct end-users to their desired websites. It also performs DNSSEC validation checks on the DNS data, verifying that the information it retrieves is both correct and authentic. Such checks help protect users of the Internet against a range of security exploits.

Unbound was already available on Unix varieties such as Linux, OS X, and FreeBSD" says Wouter Wijngaards, the project's leader at NLnet Labs; "But we are keen for as many users as possible to reap the benefits from Unbound, which is why we have made it available to Windows platforms. There are millions of Windows users and it is great that we can now offer our high performance, secure, alternative (to Berkeley Internet Name Domain (BIND)) domain name server, for more platforms."

Lesley Cowley, CEO at Nominet continues; "Domain name servers are an incredibly important but completely hidden part of the Internet. Continued development of Unbound is an important part of ensuring that the DNS infrastructure is kept up to date and protected against security threats."

Windows Unbound is available as a download from http://unbound.net/download.html, and runs in the same way as it would run on Unix systems. The code is open source and can be used in other products under the BSD license. It has been designed to be as accessible to developers as possible.

Source: http://newsblaze.com/story/2009061202595700001.bw/topstory.html

Stopping Active Directory Domain Services in Windows Server 2008

The Microsoft Windows Server 2008 systems. Active Directory Domain Services role installed have an extra element of feature if we see previous versions of Windows Server. in the “stoppable” services for the domain. Theese are all services and functionlity with the active directory. This works by Active Directory Domain Services being diclayered enumerated in the Services applet of the Control Panel. One of our pet peeves in Windows. These is services that do not permition the processing of a stop and start command. Terminal Services is the holdout, as Active Directory can now be explicitly stopped.

The Active Directory Domain Services is managed as NTDS. in the Services applet. Active direcotory data base file name is ntds.dit, we would use NTDS if we were using the sc command to manage Active Directory. You can also manage these services interactively.Active Directory being stopped on a Windows Server 2008 domain controller.

Although this Feature is good for Windows administrators, he can manage easily. we need to some exercise caution, because may be face some critical satuation. The first thing we should understand is what benifit of our end. when Active Directory is stopped. In environments with multiple domain controllers, the other systems would process logon requests.If there are any roles on the server with the stopped services, they will resume when Active Directory is resumed.

If the outage we will be for an extended some time, it should be a good mathode to transfer the role to another domain controller,like cdc we should be transfer all role adc to cdc. For normal maintenance, such as applying Windows updates or basic hardware maintenance, going without the role for a short amount of time is usually fine.Also consider this question: Just because you can stop Active Directory, should you? I’m going to wait until Windows Server 2008 R2 before fully upgrading Active Directory because of some of the new features, and it will fit my timeline better.

Source: http://blogs.techrepublic.com.com/datacenter/?p=966

Virtual Private Server by Pair Networks

Web hosting provider pair networks launched a fully managed virtual private server offering, pairVPS, providing an alternative to its dedicated hosting.

According to pair Networks, pairVPS - like any VPS - lets customers use a portion of a physical server to operate in the same manner as a dedicated server. Each pairVPS runs on its own, full-fledged, reliable FreeBSD operating system and can be independently rebooted. There are three different pairVPS packages that include varying amounts of resources such as RAM, disk space, and bandwidth.

"With the introduction of pairVPS, we are bridging the gap between our shared Web hosting services and dedicated hosting services, giving our clients independence from other customers in terms of software, but at less cost than a physical dedicated server," pair Networks chief executive officer Kevin Martin said in a statement. "pairVPS truly rounds out and completes our line of premium, fully managed hosting services."

Unlike many other competing VPS offers, pairVPS includes 24/7 real-time telephone and e-mail technical support, as well as 24/7 server monitoring and hardware replacement, on and off-site backups, and pre-installed software including Ruby on Rails, MySQL, Perl, PHP as a module, and mod_fastcgi. It also includes administrative access including Apache and MySQL reboots.

Source: thewhir.com/web-hosting-news/060909_Pair_Networks_Launches_New_VPS

Apple Announces Snow Leopard Server Developer Preview

Apple earlier announced a "Developer Preview" of Mac OS X Server Snow Leopard, a new version of its server software. now available based on the same under pinnings as its next-version Mac operating system release.

Mac OS X Server Snow Leopard runs up to twice as fast as the Leopard version of Mac OS X Server, according to Apple. It's a full 64-bit UNIX server that sports a number of new features, including Podcast Producer 2, which helps to automate the creation and publishing of podcasts in conjunction with the Podcast Composer application, and Mobile Access Server, which provides secure access to firewall-protected network services for the Mac and the iPhone.

And Other new features include windows Server 2, online collaboration tool that now we view windows content on the iPhone and preview attachments using "Quick Look" on any up-to-date browser. a new Address Book Server based on the Card DAV open standard -- a central location where users can store and access personal contact information. iCal Server 2, based on the CalDAV open standard, which provides Web-based calendar access, and the ability to view meeting invitations and details on an iPhone running iPhone OS 3.0; and a new Mail Server engine that supports push e-mail.


And Also new in this release is QuickTime X HTTP Live Streaming, which can adjust movie playback quality dynamically depending on available network speed; NetRestore, a new System Image Utility feature that helps administrators restore custom system images over a network, and iPhone Configuration Utility, which simplifies enterprise setup and communication of multiple iPhones with configuration information, security policies, mail settings and certificates.


Source: http://www.pcworld.com/businesscenter/article/166317/apple_announces_snow_leopard_server_developer_preview.html

Windows 2008 Server Brings Better Results with Less CPU Usage

Windows Server 2008 features a Server Core installation option. Server Core offers a minimal environment for hosting a select set of server roles, including Hyper-V. It features a smaller disk, memory profile, and attack surface. Therefore, we highly recommend that we use the Server Core installation option for Hyper-V servers.

Using Server Core in the root partition leaves additional memory for the VMs. shoul be in mind that additional server roles installed on the server can adversely affect the performance of the virtualization server, especially if they consume significant amounts of CPU, memory, or I/O resources. that means when we use this feature then this application use very low memory of computer. Minimizing the server roles in the root partition is advised, and this has offers additional benefits, such as reducing the attack surface and the frequency of updates.

Minimizing the background activity in idle VMs releases CPU cycles that can be used elsewhere by other VMs or saved to reduce power consumption. when run this application services then use only needed file that means. Windows guests typically use less than 1% of one CPU when they are idle. Here are some best practices for minimizing the background CPU usage of a VM:

1. Install the latest version of VM integration services.
2. Remove the emulated network adapter through the VM settings dialog box (use a synthetic adapter).
3. Remove unused devices such as the CD-ROM and COM port or disconnect their media.
4. Use Windows Server 2008 for the guest operating system.
5. Disable, throttle, or stagger periodic activity, such as backup and defragmentation when appropriate.
6. Review scheduled tasks and services enabled by default.

when we are looking for that last ounce of performance. There are not many performance knobs in Hyper-V which is by design. However if we are looking for that last bit of performance from our Virtual Machines (VM’s) and have already made a good selection for networking and storage you might consider setting the Non-Uniform Access (NUMA) node.


NUMA means each CPU has a different path to memory and those paths can have various lengths. For example CPU 0 on Node 0 when accessing CPU M’s memory on Node X might take 10ns where as CPU 0 on Node 0 accessing CPU N’s memory on Node Y will take 20ns. It’s this difference in memory access times that can impact overall VM performance. The worst case would be for a VM’s Virtual Processor (VP) to be running on a node furthest from where the memory for the VM is allocated.

http://www.palluxo.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=487:windows-2008-server-brings-better-results-with-less-cpu-usage&catid=90:blogs&Itemid=284

service packs 2 released for Vista and Server 2008

Windows 7 client and Windows 7 Server are joined they both are same but only some changes. And just like their older, Windows 7 and Windows Server 2008 R2 the same coding. And since both platforms were developed in parallel it only makes sense for Microsoft want to launch the operating systems together. microsoft announced that Windows Server 2008 R2 would have the same RTM and Availability deadlines as Windows 7. The software giant will release Windows Server 2008 R2 to manufacturing next month, and will make the successor for Windows Server 2008 available to customers in the second half of October 2009.

As Windows Server 2008 R2 is a joint development effort with Windows 7 microsoft aligned with the same RTM available in the market With Windows Server 2008 R2 RTM code is on track to be available to our partners sometime in the 2nd half of July. Windows Server 2008 R2 will also be broadly available about the same time as the Windows 7 GA date of Oct 22, both are very power full and looking figure as a vista. because windows 7 it is updated of vista.

microsoft anouced With the release of Windows Vista Service Pack 1 and Windows Server 2008 RTM/SP1, Microsoft discribe that client and server operating systems it make it easier for customers to install and manage and each and everything their deployments. it is very easier compare to previous clients and server. although this is microsoft politics was clearly visible with Windows 7 and Windows Server 2008 R2 since the two operating systems. both are very power full. windows 7 it is updated of windows vista.


At the bigning of January 2009 Microsoft was releasing Beta Build 7000 and Windows 7 and Windows Server 2008 R2. when customer installed these patches then his windows very secure. The same is valid for Build 7100, the Release bits for the two platforms. But the intimate connection between the two operating systems doesn't stop with the development process. Fact is that customers running Windows 7 and Windows Server 2008 R2 together will be able to take advantage of features otherwise unavailable for any other combination of Windows client and server platforms.

Windows Server 2008 R2 to be released information

Windows Server 2008 R2, will be broadly available on Oct. 22, the same day as Windows 7.The confirmation came from Steve Guggenheimer, Microsoft's original equipment manufacturer division corporate vice president, during a keynote speech at the Computex electronics exhibition in Taipei. Microsoft has said the server product was on schedule for release around the same time as Windows 7.The release candidate for Windows Service 2008 R2 has been available since last month, when Microsoft also announced several new features.Those included the ability for Hyper-V, Microsoft's server virtualization software, to support 64 logical processors where it could previously only scale up to 32.

Another feature is the processor capacity mode, which allows for virtual machines to be moved to another physical server with a different CPU version. Before Hyper-V could only move virtual machines to servers with the same CPUs, which required adminstrators to buy more hardware. The latest version also has a feature for classifying data in file servers by importance. The File Classification Infrastructure let adminstrators prioritize certain business data and back that data more often.

Microsoft said it had fixed a bug in Bing that had infuriated Internet Explorer 6 users when they discovered that the company's new search engine had hijacked their browsers. we corrected the issue with Bing on machines running IE6. when Microsoft took Bing live, IE6 users began complaining that although they had previously set other search engines as the default, searches typed into the browser were instead directed to Bing.

Bing seems to have hijacked many user-programmed search preferences away from Google," echoed "Jimpobg" on another help thread. "Since I didn't know what Bing was, I really thought my computer was infected with malicious software. Well, actually....it WAS. Sounds like classic Microsoft behavior